Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII, 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 during the years before he became 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. Though 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 use of papal powers.
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, " 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 of 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's death in 1048; though his declaration to have become a monk at Cluny is disputed.He then accompanied Cluny's Abbot Bruno of Toul to Rome; there, Bruno was elected pope, choosing the name Leo IX, and named Hildebrand as deacon and papal administrator. In 1054 Leo sent Hildebrand as his legate to Tours in France in the wake of the controversy created by Berengar of Tours. 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. The new pope put forward the reform program devised by Hildebrand and his followers. 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.It was debated, at the time and since, whether this extraordinary outburst in favour of Hildebrand by clergy and people was wholly spontaneous or premeditated. According to Benizo, Bishop of Sutri, a supporter of Hildebrand, the outcry was begun by Cardinal Ugo Candidus, Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente, who rushed into a pulpit and began to declaim to the people. Certainly, the mode of his election was highly criticized by his opponents. Many of the accusations against his election may have been expressions of 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:
"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".Gregory VII's first attempts in foreign policy were towards a reconciliation with the Normans of Robert Guiscard; in the end the two parties did not meet. After a failed call for a crusade to the princes of northern Europe, 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. In particular, Gregory decreed that only the Pope could appoint or depose bishops or move them from see to see, an act which was later to cause the Investiture Controversy.
Start of conflict with the Emperor
Gregory VII's main political project was his relationship with the Holy Roman Empire. After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, his untried son Henry IV had to contend with turbulent internal opposition to the German monarchy, presenting an opportunity for Gregory to strengthen the Church.In the two years following Gregory's election, the Saxon rebellion fully occupied Henry and forced him to appease the pope at any cost. In May 1074 Henry did penance at Nuremberg—in the presence of the papal legates—to atone for his continued friendship with his councillors who had been banned by Gregory; he took an oath of obedience, and promised the pope his support in reforming the Church. However, as soon as Henry defeated the Saxons at the First Battle of Langensalza on 9 June 1075, 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.
Gregory VII replied with a harsh letter of 8 December 1075, accusing Henry of breaching his word and of continuing to support excommunicated councillors. The pope also sent a verbal message threatening to excommunicate and even depose the emperor. At the same time, Gregory was menaced by Cencio I Frangipane, who on Christmas night surprised him in church and kidnapped him, though he was released the following day.
Pope and emperor depose each other
The high-handed demands and threats of the pope infuriated Henry and his court, and their answer was the hastily convened national synod of Worms on 24 January 1076. Gregory had many enemies among the German prelates, and the Roman cardinal Hugo Candidus, once on intimate terms with Gregory but now his opponent, hurried to Germany for the occasion. Candidus declaimed a list of accusations against the pope before the assembly, which resolved that Gregory had forfeited the papacy. In one document full of accusations, the bishops renounced their allegiance to Gregory. In another, Henry pronounced him deposed, and required the Romans to choose a new pope.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 faced the pope with these decisions before the synod which 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.
On the following day, 22 February 1076, Gregory solemnly pronounced a sentence of excommunication against Henry IV, divested him of his royal dignity, and absolved his subjects of their sworn allegiance. The effectiveness of this sentence depended entirely on Henry's subjects, above all on the German princes. Contemporary evidence suggests that the excommunication of Henry made a profound impression both in Germany and Italy.
Thirty years before, Henry III had deposed three unworthy claimants to the papacy, a service acknowledged by the Church and public opinion. When Henry IV again attempted this procedure he lacked support. In Germany there was a rapid and general feeling in favor of Gregory, strengthening the princes against their feudal lord Henry. When at Whitsun the emperor summoned a council of nobles to oppose the pope, only a few responded. Meanwhile, the Saxons seized the opportunity for a new rebellion, and the anti-royalist party grew in strength from month to month.