Pope Gregory VII

Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.

One of the great reforming popes, he initiated the Gregorian Reform, and is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Emperor Henry IV to establish the primacy of papal authority and the new canon law governing the election of the pope by the College of Cardinals. He was also at the forefront of developments in the relationship between the emperor and the papacy in the years preceding his election as pope. He was the first pope to introduce a policy of obligatory celibacy for the clergy, which had until then commonly married, and also attacked the practice of simony.

During the power struggles between the papacy and the Empire, Gregory excommunicated Henry IV three times, and Henry appointed Antipope Clement III to oppose him. Although Gregory was hailed as one of the greatest of the Roman pontiffs after his reforms proved successful, during his own reign, he was denounced by some for his autocratic exercise of papal power.

In later times, Gregory VII became an exemplar of papal supremacy to both supporters and opponents of the papacy. Beno of Santi Martino e Silvestro, who opposed Gregory VII in the Investiture Controversy, accused him of necromancy, cruelty, tyranny, and blasphemy. This was eagerly repeated by later opponents of the Catholic Church, such as the English Protestant John Foxe. In contrast, the modern historian and Anglican priest H. E. J. Cowdrey writes, "[Gregory VII] was surprisingly flexible, feeling his way and therefore perplexing both rigorous collaborators ... and cautious and steady-minded ones ... His zeal, moral force, and religious conviction, however, ensured that he should retain to a remarkable degree the loyalty and service of a wide variety of men and women."

Early life

Gregory was born Hildebrand () in the town of Sovana, in the County of Grosseto, now southern Tuscany, the son of a blacksmith. As a youth, he was sent to study in Rome at the monastery of St. Mary on the Aventine, where his uncle was reportedly abbot of a monastery on the Aventine Hill. Among his masters were the erudite Lawrence, archbishop of Amalfi, and Johannes Gratianus, the future Pope Gregory VI. When the latter was deposed at the Council of Sutri in December 1046, with approval of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III and exiled to Germany, Hildebrand followed him to Cologne. According to some chroniclers, Hildebrand moved to Cluny after Gregory VI died in 1048; though his declaration to have become a monk at Cluny is disputed. At Leo's death, the new pope, Victor II, confirmed him as legate, while Victor's successor Stephen IX sent him and Anselm of Lucca to Germany to obtain recognition from Empress Agnes. Hildebrand succeeded in his plea to Agnes, but Stephen died before being able to return to Rome, and Hildebrand was soon embroiled the crisis caused by the Roman aristocracy's election of an antipope, Benedict X. With Agnes's continued support, Benedict was formally replaced by Nicholas II, and with the help of 300 Norman knights sent by Richard of Aversa, Hildebrand personally led the conquest of the castle of Galeria Antica where Benedict had taken refuge. Between 1058 and 1059, he was made archdeacon of the Roman church, becoming the most important figure in the papal administration.

He was again the most powerful figure behind the election of Anselm of Lucca the Elder as Pope Alexander II in the papal election of October 1061. In his years as papal advisor, Hildebrand had an important role in the reconciliation with the Norman kingdom of southern Italy, in the anti-German alliance with the Pataria movement in northern Italy, and above all, in the new ecclesiastic law giving the cardinals exclusive rights to elect a new pope.

Election to the papacy

Pope Gregory VII was one of the few popes elected by acclamation. As funeral obsequies were being performed for Alexander II on 21 April 1073 in the Lateran Basilica, there arose an outcry from the clergy and people: "Let Hildebrand be pope!", "Blessed Peter has chosen Hildebrand the Archdeacon!" Hildebrand immediately fled and hid himself to make it clear that he refused this uncanonical election. He was finally found at the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, to which a famous monastery was attached, and elected pope by the assembled cardinals, with the due consent of the Roman clergy, amid the repeated acclamations of the people. Certainly, the mode of his election was highly criticized by his opponents. Many of the accusations against his election may have reflected personal dislike, as they were not raised until several years later. But it is clear from Gregory's own account of the circumstances in his Epistles 1 and 2 that it was conducted contrary to the Constitution of the Pope of 607, which forbade a papal election until the third day after a pope's burial. Cardinal Ugo's intervention was contrary to the Constitution of Nicholas II, which allowed only Cardinal Bishops to nominate candidates; and finally, it ignored the Constitution's requirement that the Holy Roman Emperor be consulted. However, Gregory was then confirmed by a second election at S. Pietro in Vincoli.

Gregory VII's earliest pontifical letters clearly acknowledged these events, and thus helped defuse doubts about his election and popularity. On 22 May 1073, the Feast of Pentecost, he received ordination as a priest, and he was consecrated a bishop and enthroned as pope on 29 June, the Feast of St. Peter's Chair.

In the decree of election, his electors proclaimed Gregory VII:<blockquote>"a devout man, a man mighty in human and divine knowledge, a distinguished lover of equity and justice, a man firm in adversity and temperate in prosperity, a man, according to the saying of the Apostle, of good behavior, blameless, modest, sober, chaste, given to hospitality, and one that ruleth well his own house; a man from his childhood generously brought up in the bosom of this Mother Church, and for the merit of his life already raised to the archidiaconal dignity. [...] We choose then our Archdeacon Hildebrand to be pope and successor to the Apostle, and to bear henceforward and forever the name of Gregory" (22 April 1073). and after obtaining the support of other Norman princes such as Landulf VI of Benevento and Richard I of Capua, Gregory VII was able to excommunicate Robert in 1074.

In the same year, Gregory VII summoned a council in the Lateran palace, which condemned simony and confirmed celibacy for the Church's clergy. These decrees were further stressed, under threat of excommunication, the next year (24–28 February). However, as soon as Henry defeated the Saxons at the First Battle of Langensalza on 9 June 1075 (Battle of Homburg or Hohenburg), the young emperor tried to reassert his sovereign rights in northern Italy. Henry sent Count Eberhard to Lombardy to combat the Patarenes; nominated the cleric Tedald to the archbishopric of Milan, settling a prolonged and contentious question; and made overtures to the Norman duke Robert Guiscard.

The council sent two bishops to Italy; who then procured a similar act of deposition from the Lombard bishops at the synod of Piacenza. Roland of Parma presented these decisions to the pope before the synod that had just assembled in the Lateran Basilica. Rejecting the threat, there soon arose such a storm of indignation that only the calming words of Gregory saved the envoy's life. If the pope granted absolution, the diet of princes in Augsburg, which had called on him as arbitrator, would be rendered impotent. It was impossible, however, to deny the penitent re-entrance into the Church, and Gregory VII's Christian duty overrode his political interests. However, the pope, under pressure from the Saxons, was misinformed as to the significance of this battle.

The papal censure now received a very different reception from that four years earlier. It was widely regarded as unjustly pronounced on frivolous grounds, and its authority was called into question. The emperor, now more experienced, vigorously denounced the ban as illegal. Gregory countered on 15 October, ordering the clergy and laity to elect a new archbishop in place of the "mad" and "tyrannical" schismatic Wibert. In 1081, Henry opened the conflict against Gregory in Italy. as thirteen cardinals had deserted the pope, and the rival emperor Rudolf of Swabia died on 16 October. A new imperial claimant, Hermann of Luxembourg, was put forward in August 1081, but he was unable to rally the papal party in Germany, and the power of Henry IV rose to its peak. blocked Henry's armies from the western passages over the Apennines, so he had to approach Rome from Ravenna. Rome surrendered to the German king in 1084; Gregory thereupon retired into the exile of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Gregory refused to entertain Henry's overtures. However, the latter promised to hand over the antipope Guibert as a prisoner if the sovereign pontiff would consent to crown Henry emperor. Gregory, however, insisted that Henry appear before a council and do penance. The emperor, while pretending to submit to these terms, sought to prevent the council's meeting. A small number of bishops assembled nonetheless, and Gregory again excommunicated Henry. and later to the castle of Salerno by the sea, where he died on 25 May 1085, probably as a prisoner of the Normans. Three days before his death, he withdrew all the censures of excommunication that he had pronounced, except those against the two chief offenders—Henry and Guibert. Gregory also bestowed on Dol Euen the pallium of a metropolitan archbishop, on the condition that he would submit to the judgment of the Holy See when the long-standing case of the right of Dol to be a metropolitan and use the pallium was finally decided.

King William felt himself so safe that he interfered autocratically with the management of the church, forbade the bishops to visit Rome, made appointments to bishoprics and abbeys, and showed little anxiety when the pope lectured him on the different principles which he had as to the relationship of spiritual and temporal powers, or when he prohibited him from commerce or commanded him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the apostolic chair. He sought as well to compel the episcopacy to look to Rome for validation and direction, demanding the regular attendance of prelates in Rome. Gregory had no power to compel the English king to an alteration in his ecclesiastical policy, so he was compelled to ignore what he could not approve, and even considered it advisable to assure King William of his particular affection.

Normans in the Kingdom of Sicily

The relationship of Gregory VII to other European states was strongly influenced by his German policy, since the Holy Roman Empire, by absorbing most of his energies, often forced him to show other rulers the very moderation he withheld from the German king. The Normans' attitude brought him a rude awakening. The great concessions made to them under Nicholas II were not only powerless to stem their advance into central Italy. Still, they failed to secure even the expected protection for the papacy. When Gregory VII was hard-pressed by Henry IV, Robert Guiscard left him to his fate and intervened only when German arms threatened him himself. Then, upon the capture of Rome, he abandoned the city to his troops, and the popular indignation evoked by his act led to Gregory's exile.

France

Philip I of France, by his practice of simony and the violence of his proceedings against the Church, provoked a threat of summary measures. Excommunication, deposition, and the interdict appeared to be imminent in 1074. Gregory, however, refrained from translating his threats into actions, although the attitude of the king showed no change, for he wished to avoid a dispersion of his strength in the conflict soon to break out in Germany.

Distant Christian countries

Gregory, in fact, established some relations with every country in Christendom; though these relations did not invariably realize the ecclesiastico-political hopes connected with them. His correspondence extended to Poland, Kyivan Rus', and Bohemia. He unsuccessfully tried to bring Armenia into closer contact with Rome.

Byzantine Empire

Gregory was particularly concerned with the East. The schism between Rome and the Byzantine Empire was a severe blow to him, and he worked hard to restore the former amicable relationship. Gregory attempted to contact the emperor Michael VII. When the news of the Muslim attacks on the Christians in the East filtered through to Rome, and the political embarrassments of the Byzantine emperor increased, he conceived the project of a great military expedition and exhorted the faithful to participate in recovering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Internal policy and reforms

His lifework was based on his conviction that the Church was founded by God and entrusted with the task of embracing all humanity in a single society in which divine will is the basis of all law; that, in its capacity as a divine institution, it is supreme over all human structures, especially the secular state; and that the pope, in his role as head of the Church, is the vice-regent of God on earth, so that disobedience to him implies disobedience to God and a defection from Christianity. However, a political realization of this ideal would have required the abolition of all secular monarchs and authorities. Most of his surviving letters are preserved in his Register, which is now stored in the Vatican Archives.

Gregory VII's reforms to curb lay control of the Catholic Church have been characterized as a key factor in the rise of urban self-government in Europe.

Gregory VII was critical in the birth of modern universities, as his 1079 decree ordered the regulated establishment of the cathedral schools, which transformed into the first European universities.

Doctrine of the Eucharist

Pope Paul VI regarded Gregory VII as instrumental in affirming the dogma of Christ's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Gregory's confession of this belief, imposed on Berengarius, was quoted in Pope Paul VI's 1965 encyclical Mysterium fidei:

This profession of faith initiated a "Eucharistic Renaissance" in European churches, beginning in the 12th century.

Legacy

Gregory VII was beatified by Pope Gregory XIII in 1584 and canonized on 24 May 1728 by Pope Benedict XIII.

References

External links

Women's Biography: Matilda of Tuscany, countess of Tuscany, duchess of Lorraine, contains several of his letters to his supporter, Matilda of Tuscany.
Database of the Letters of Pope Gregory VII: Which letter is in which collection?