Bishop Anselmo de Baggio of Lucca, born in Milan, has been an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand of Sovana in endeavoring to suppress simony and enforce the clerical celibacy.

The papal election of 1061, which Hildebrand has arranged in conformity with the papal decree of 1059, is not sanctioned by the imperial court of Germany.

Bishop Anselm, a non-cardinal and one of the founders of the Pataria, is elected Pope Alexander II and crowned at nightfall on October 1, 1061 in San Pietro in Vincoli Basilica because opposition to the election makes a coronation in St. Peter's Basilica impossible.

Anselmo has the support of his friend Cardinal Hildebrand, a driving force behind the promulgation of In Nomine Domini and the future Pope Gregory VII, Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and the Norman forces of Robert Guiscard, present at the election in fulfillment of a security guarantee Guiscard had made to Nicholas II when appointed Duke of Apulia and Calabria.

Although Anselmo is well-known and respected within the German court, the assent of the Holy Roman Emperor to the election is not sought.

Displeased with the new process, a group of Roman nobles and Lombard bishops, let by Guibert, the royal chancellor of Italy, beseeches Agnes de Poitou, empress-regent of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, to nominate Pietro Cadalo, Bishop of Parma, to succeed Nicholas II.

Cadalo is elected Antipope Honorius II at a synod convoked at Basle on October 28, 1061, at which no cardinals are present.