Pope Gregory VII biography

Dromo's Den

Gregory VII Biography

GREGORY VII (Hildebrand) (Pope, 1073-85). Preeminently the representative of the temporal claims of the mediaeval papacy. He was born in Tuscany about 1020, perhaps at Soana, a village of the southern border. His family belonged to the plebeian class. Although nothing of his remoter ancestry is known, his family name, Hildebrand, would imply a Teutonic descent; but by birth and education at least he was Italian. His youth was passed in Rome, in the monastery of St. Mary, on the Aventine, of which his uncle was abbot, and he probably took monastic vows. The Emperor Henry III took him to Germany, and he continued his studies in Cologne. Very likely he also visited Aix-la-Chapelle and Cluny. He attended the council at Worms at which Bishop Bruno of Toul was chosen Pope (Leo IX), and the latter took him to Rome (1049) and made him a cardinal subdeacon. He had great influence during the pontificate of Leo. On the latter's death (1054) the Roman people manifested a desire to have Hildebrand as successor; but this honor he declined, preferring to gain more experience. Besides important domestic employments which were assigned to him, he was sent as legate to the Council of Tours (1054), in which the cause of Berengarius was examined. (See BERFEGARIUS of TOURS.) He was likewise one of the three legates dispatched to Germany to consult about a successor to Leo IX. Under the four popes who followed Leo--Victor II, Stephen IX, Benedict X, and Alexander II, known in history as the German popes--Hildebrand continued to be the predominant. power and inspired into their government of the Church the great principles to which his life was devoted. Three days after the death of Alexander II he was unanimously elected at Rome; but he declined to be consecrated until the Emperor's sanction had been gained. The German bishops, who feared the reforms of which his name was a guaranty, endeavored to prevent the Emperor Henry IV from assenting to the election; but Henry gave his approval, and the new Pope was crowned July 10, 1073. Regarding as the great evil of his time the thoroughly secularized condition of the Church in a great part of Europe, and especially in Germany and northern Italy, Gregory directed against this all his efforts. In his reforming crusade he first attacked the evil of clerical marriage and the probably much less frequent offense of clerical incontinence. These he combated by stirring up the people to refuse the sacraments from any other than a celibate and pure priest. Simony also was denounced in the most explicit and vigorous terms. But it was against the fundamental abuse of investiture (q.v.) that his main efforts were directed. In 1075 he prohibited this practice under the pain of excommunication both for the investor and the invested, and in the following year he actually issued that sentence against several bishops and councilors of the Empire. The Emperor Henry IV (q.v.) disregarding these menaces and taking the offending bishops under his protection, Gregory cited him to Rome to answer for his conduct. Henry's sole reply was a haughty defiance, and in a Diet at Worms, in 1076, he formally declared Gregory deposed from the pontificate. Gregory was not slow to retaliate by a sentence of excommunication; and in this sentence, unless revoked or removed by absolution in 12 months, by the law of the Empire at the tune, was involved the forfeiture of all civil rights and deposition from every civil and political office. When, at a Diet held at Tribur (September, 1076), the bishops actually began to discuss the election of a new Emperor, Henry deemed it necessary to appear to yield. Accordingly he sought the Pope, who was then at the castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, at Canossa (q.v.). He arrived there with his wife and son in the dead of a very severe winter. Gregory himself is authority for the statement that the Emperor, "having laid aside all belongings of royalty, wretchedly, with bare feet and clad in wool, continued for three days [Jan. 25-27, 1077] to stand before the gates of the castle," and it was not till the pitiful state of the royal penitent moved all hearts that the Pope admitted him to his presence and absolved him. Henry's submission, however, was but feigned; and on his subsequent triumph over his rival, Rudolf of Swabia, he resumed hostilities with the Pope, and in 1080 again declared him deposed and caused to be appointed in his place the antipope Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna (see GUIBERT OF RAVENNA), under the name of Clement III. After a protracted siege of three years Henry, in the year 1084, took possession of Rome. Gregory shut himself up in the castle of Sant’ Angelo. Just, however, as Gregory was on the point of falling into his enemy's hands. Robert Guiscard, the Norman Duke of Apulia, entered the city, set Gregory free, and compelled Henry to return to Germany; but the wretched condition to which Rome had been reduced obliged Gregory to withdraw, first to Monte Cassino, and ultimately to Salerno, where he died, May 25, 1085. His dying words were: "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." He was canonized in 1728. Gregory's writings, dealing mostly with Church government, are in Migne, Patrol. Lat., xcviii. His Epistles were separately edited at Paris (1877); a selection was translated (London, 1853). The literature upon him is abundant, but that written prior to 1850 is superseded by more critical work. Of chief value and interest may be mentioned: Gfrörer, Papst Gregorius VII und sein Zeitalter (Schaffhausen, 1859-61; index vol., 1864) ; Villemain, Life of Gregory VII (trans., London, 1874); Stephens, Hildebrand and his Times (ib., 1886); Delare, Saint Grégoire VII et la réforms de l'église au XIème siècle (Paris, 1889-90 ; Vincent, The Age of Hildebrand (New York, 1896); Barry, The Papal Monarchy (ib., 1902); Mathew, Life and Times of Hildebrand (London, 1910); Martens, Gregor VII, sein Leben and Werken (Leipzig, 1904).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. X (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 354-355.