Gregory VII, Saint

orig. Hildebrand

born 1020, near Soana, Papal States

died May 25, 1085, Salerno, Principality of Salerno; canonized 1606; feast day May 25

Pope (1073–85).

Educated in a monastery in Rome where his uncle was abbot, he rose to become a cardinal and archdeacon of Rome and was finally chosen pope in 1073. One of the great medieval reformers, Gregory attacked simony and clerical marriage and insisted that his papal legates had authority over local bishops. He is remembered chiefly for his conflict with Emperor Henry IV in the Investiture Controversy. Gregory's excommunication of the emperor gave rise to a bitter quarrel that ended when Henry begged for forgiveness in a memorable scene at Canossa, Italy, in 1077. A renewed quarrel led Gregory to excommunicate the emperor again in 1080, and Henry's forces took Rome in 1084. Gregory was rescued by Robert Guiscard, but the devastation of Rome forced the pope to withdraw to Salerno, where he died.

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▪ pope

Introduction

original name  Hildebrand , Italian  Ildebrando 

born c. 1025, near Sovana, Papal States

died May 25, 1085, Salerno, Principality of Salerno; canonized 1606; feast day, May 25

 one of the greatest popes of the medieval church, who lent his name to the 11th-century movement now known as the Gregorian Reform or Investiture Controversy. Gregory VII was the first pope to depose a crowned ruler, Emperor Henry IV (1056–1105/06). With this revolutionary act, Gregory translated his personal religious and mystical convictions regarding the role of the papacy into direct action in the world at large. He was canonized by Pope Paul V in 1606, but until 1728 his feast was limited to Sovana, his most likely place of birth, and Salerno, where the 900th anniversary of his death was celebrated in the presence of Pope John Paul II in 1985.

Early life

      He was born Hildebrand in about 1025, probably in southern Tuscany, to an upper-middle-class family with possible connections to Rome. In one of the few personal recollections in his papal letters—preserved in the original register in the Archivio Segreto (“Secret Archives”) of the Vatican—he recalled growing up in the Roman church under the special protection of St. Peter (Peter the Apostle, Saint), “Prince of the Apostles.” He attended the palace school at the Lateran with Roman nobles before continuing his education among the canons of San Giovanni a Porta Latina, a collegiate church next to the Lateran basilica and palace. One of his teachers there was Archbishop Lawrence (Laurentius) of Amalfi, who was famed for his knowledge of both Greek and Latin, and the head of the community was the archpriest John Gratian, the future Pope Gregory VI (1045–46). Hildebrand served as one of his chaplains (acolytes) and accompanied him into exile at Cologne (now in Germany) after the pope had been deposed for simony (paying money for ecclesiastical office) at the Council of Sutri in December 1046. (Gratian or, more likely, his supporters allegedly had used bribes to secure his election.) Hildebrand completed his studies at Cologne's famous cathedral school and among its canons (clergy and priests associated with an archbishop or bishop) before returning to Rome in early 1049 after the death of Gregory VI, in the company of Bruno of Toul, the future Pope Leo IX (Leo IX, Saint) (1049–54).

      Traditionally, historians have assumed that Hildebrand was a monk. The only question seemed to be whether he became a monk in Rome or later, during his exile on a possible visit to the famous abbey of Cluny in Burgundy (region of present-day France). The latter theory, based on the writings of a younger contemporary and enthusiastic supporter, Bonizo of Sutri, has been shown to be completely untenable, as has the notion that the young Hildebrand became a monk in Rome at the monastery of St. Mary on the Aventine, where an uncle was supposedly abbot. This theory also rests on a single source, the hagiographic vita by Paul of Bernried, a later admirer of Gregory. Writing in the 1120s, a generation after Gregory's death, Paul set out to edify his audience rather than to report facts, and the vita is riddled with very obvious errors. Gregory VII himself wrote that he was a canon at both the Lateran basilica and at Cologne. St. Mary's is never mentioned by him. It seems unlikely that Hildebrand was a monk, and the distinction between canon and monk is significant because the reform undertaken by the regular canons was in the vanguard of the ecclesiastical revival that sought to restore the glory and austerity of the early Christian church as pictured by churchmen in the 11th century. These ideas deeply influenced Gregory's worldview.

      After Hildebrand's return to Rome in 1049, although he had not yet reached the age of 30 required for the priesthood, he became a collaborator of Pope Leo IX, who ordained him subdeacon and named him rector (administrator) of the Benedictine abbey of San Paolo Fuori le Mura in 1050. Hildebrand revered Leo like a father, and Leo later distinguished his protégé by awarding him the unusual title of cardinal subdeacon, signifying Hildebrand's closeness to the Holy See. Hildebrand served the papacy as legate in France (in 1054 at Tours and in 1056 at Chalon-sur-Saône), at the imperial court in Germany (1054/55 and 1057/58), and briefly in Italy at Milan (1057). Emperor Henry III held him in high esteem, and under Leo's successor, Pope Victor II (1055–57), Hildebrand served in the papal chancery, as his signatures under papal privileges (grants of special favour) show. During the pontificates of Stephen IX (Stephen IX (or X)) (1057–58), Nicholas II (1059–61), and Alexander II (1061–73), Hildebrand developed into a leading figure at the papal court.

      In the fall of 1058, Hildebrand was made archdeacon of the Roman church and was characterized by Peter Damian (Peter Damian, Saint) as an “unmovable column [support] of the apostolic see.” As archdeacon, he was a chief participant in the first papal coronation with a crown-mitre, which symbolized the papal claim to sovereignty over the church and the secular monarchies. The theory undergirding this aspect of the ceremony was that of the forged Donation of Constantine, an 8th-century document that figured prominently in the new canonical collections that were compiled at that time in Rome and elsewhere. The document claimed that Constantine granted to the pope spiritual authority over the church and temporal dominion over the Western Roman Empire. In his new position Hildebrand also actively furthered the papal alliance with the Normans of southern Italy and their principal leaders, including Robert Guiscard (Robert), who became a papal vassal. Hildebrand supported William the Conqueror (William I)'s invasion of England in 1066, and, because his obligations as archdeacon also included judicial and financial duties, he began to build up armed groups of papal supporters known as the militia of St. Peter (Latin: milites Petri). At the same time, he was most sympathetic toward the reform efforts of the Patarines (Patarine), as one of the factions among the citizens of Milan was known. This group fought against simony and clerical marriage, two vices that reformers believed occurred frequently among the higher clergy of the city of Milan. Because the higher clergy of the city were closely related to the leading noble families governing Milan, the Patarines' uprising took on social-revolutionary overtones as well. Hildebrand also took the side of the hermit-monks of Vallombrosa who had rioted against the bishop of Florence, whom they accused of simony.

      Important information concerning Hildebrand's time as archdeacon is provided by a manuscript fragment that records, at least partially, some of the discussions in Rome at the time of the great Lateran Council of April/May 1059. Much of the text comprises an address to the assembly in which Hildebrand harshly criticized the Aachen Rule for Canons ratified under Emperor Louis the Pious (Louis I) (814–840) at the Aachen council of 816. He pointed out in particular that this rule permitted canons to own private property and was thus in conflict with the declarations of the ancient Church Fathers and popes. Hildebrand asserted that canons should lead strictly regulated lives in common, imitating Christ's Apostles (vita apostolica), and renounce all personal property when admitted to a community of regular canons. In short, the living arrangements of canons were to be scarcely distinguishable from those of monks. Contemporary manuscripts of the Aachen Rule, primarily from Rome and the vicinity, are evidence of Hildebrand's success at the council, for they omit the objectionable passages concerning private property and add texts from the Benedictine Rule for monks.

Pontificate

The pope and the church

      A tumultuous crowd of Roman citizens and clergy raised Hildebrand to the papacy during the funeral solemnities for Pope Alexander II on April 22, 1073. He was enthroned immediately in the basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli even though he was not ordained a priest until June 29, the feast day of the apostles Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the Apostolic See and the city of Rome. Hildebrand's elevation by the combination of citizens and clergy was a hostile reaction to the reordering of the papal election ordo at the 1059 Lateran Council, which had given the cardinal-bishops the leading voice in papal elections. The Roman people and clergy had been disenfranchised by the ordo, which thus ended the domination of the papacy by various Roman factions. Hildebrand's election, however, followed the ancient rules that had been prominently upheld in the canonical collection of Deusdedit, cardinal-priest of San Pietro in Vincoli.

      Hildebrand took the name Gregory in memory of Gregory I (Gregory I, Saint), whose writings greatly influenced him. Gregory VII interpreted his election as a special call by God to continue unhesitatingly the fight for what he described as iustitia (“justice”), meaning the restoration of the church to what Gregory and his collaborators saw as its proper place in the world order. Indeed, they intended to revive the church's ancient splendour and unquestioned leadership as instituted by Christ when he founded the church on the rock that was St. Peter (Matthew 16:18). Gregory was convinced that the pope was the living successor and representative of St. Peter. Because of this link, the pope, and he alone, would always remain a true Christian, never deviating from the faith and always cognizant of the will of God. Therefore, all Christians owed him absolute and unquestioned obedience. Disobedience was regarded as heresy, and obedience to God became obedience to the papacy.

      Gregory linked the battle against simony and for clerical celibacy—chief characteristics of 11th-century ecclesiastical reform—with a marked emphasis on the papal primacy, a concept based on the primacy of the Roman church, which at the time of Leo IX in 1054 led to the break in diplomatic relations between Rome and Constantinople. Papal primacy included the subordination of all secular governments to papal authority as long as they were Christian, but it applied first of all to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Gregory's chancery revived and strengthened an oath of obedience that was required of all archbishops and bishops. Outranking every local authority, his legates intervened freely in internal diocesan affairs throughout Latin Christendom. Bishops had traditionally governed their dioceses more or less independently, and the changes introduced and systematized by Gregory VII were most unwelcome among all ranks of the clergy, including the highborn bishops, especially in Germany. The lower clergy in France and Germany also rebelled, but in this case against draconian decrees designed to enforce priestly celibacy.

      On the basis of decisions by Leo IX and the Lateran synod of 1059, Gregory did not hesitate to call for popular rebellions against disobedient bishops that flew in the face of ancient canon law prohibiting inferiors (especially laymen but also clergy of a lower rank) from judging or accusing their superiors. Gregory created havoc in the French church when he established a new dignity, the primacy of Lyons, subjecting the prominent archbishops of Sens, Rouen, and Tours to its authority. Only the archbishop of Tours, a close friend of Gregory VII, willingly recognized the new “primate,” Hugh of Die. In general, Gregory insisted that canon law should be upheld, but he also ascribed to the pope alone the right to issue new laws if required by contemporary needs.

      In the case of the primate of Lyons, Gregory was misled by a collection of canon law (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals (False Decretals)) that, unknown to him, had been forged in the 9th century. This forgery had introduced the concept of primate, with poorly defined functions designed to protect bishops from interference by their superiors, the archbishops. Gregory VII used it in an attempt to supervise the French bishops constantly and more closely, for the primate of Lyons also served as his standing legate. Not surprisingly, Gregory's regimen aroused opposition and hostility among bishops in northern Italy and Germany especially, but also in France. On the other hand, a large extent of the English church was left to the government of William I and Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury.

      Fortunately, Gregory's pontificate can be evaluated not only on the basis of the often-polemical writings of his contemporaries but also in the light of a precious official source, his original register. It contains numerous letters and general notes as well as numerous excerpts from the councils that Gregory held regularly in Rome. In addition, there are charters for monasteries and bishoprics as well as his letters and conciliar decrees, which survived outside the register in the hands of their recipients or in canonical collections. Nonetheless, it is not easy to interpret this documentation because only a small percentage of his correspondence was included in the register and the selection criteria are unknown. Moreover, it was customary to supplement the most important points of a letter with oral messages.

      The famous Dictatus papae (“Dictates of the Pope”), however, is part of the register. It consists of 27 brief and pointed declarations that extol papal primacy and even includes the radical claim that the pope had the right to depose emperors. Scholars agree that Gregory was the author of these assertions and that the Dictatus strikingly reveals his unflinching vision of papal primacy, even though the sources and purpose of the Dictatus are still in dispute.

Politics

      Gregory VII had an astute grasp of political realities and was always willing to take them into account, provided they fit in with his own reform efforts. Papal territorial claims intensified markedly. He was the first pope to try to contact every ruler of his time, asserting the overlordship of the apostle Peter—that is, of the papacy—in several regions of Europe. The most successful example of the use of feudal arrangements by the papacy—Norman greed notwithstanding—was the alliance with the Norman leaders of southern Italy, concluded with Richard of Capua in 1073 and Robert Guiscard in 1059. Their obligations included fealty to the pope and his legitimate successors as well as military and financial aid. In return, the pope became their overlord and invested them with the imperial and Byzantine-Muslim territories that they had conquered or would conquer. In Spain, Croatia-Dalmatia, Denmark, Hungary, the kingdom of Kiev, Brittany, Poland, and Bohemia, as well as in England, Gregory tried to assert overlordship, mostly unsuccessfully. William I of England, whose invasion of 1066 Hildebrand had supported, refused outright the oath Gregory requested, although he resumed the Anglo-Saxon payment of Peter's Pence (annual contribution to the pope). Except in southern Italy, areas of northern Spain, and the islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, Gregory's attempts to expand the role of the papacy met with little success.

      Direct papal intervention in the appointment of bishops created severe tensions in France and even more so in Germany, which, with Burgundy and much of Italy, constituted what would later be called the Holy Roman Empire (see Researcher's Note). As early as December 1073, Gregory called King Philip I of France (reigned 1059/60–1108) the worst of all princely tyrants oppressing the church because the king refused to invest a canonically elected bishop with the secular properties and rights of the bishopric. This controversy was inspired by Gregory's vision of proper canonical elections, which meant election by the clergy and populace of a diocese without any interference from secular rulers of any rank. Election was then a flexible term and should not be confused with the modern concept of democratic election. It was accepted as self-evident that the Holy Spirit should speak through the most influential members of a community, be it a diocese or abbey. This was a strong contrast to traditions that had prevailed for many centuries. Royal nominations to bishoprics and abbeys agreed to by representatives of the respective diocese had constituted an important part of royal authority at the time, and Gregory's insistence on the elimination of secular influence threatened the very existence of the kingdoms. This, at least, was the conviction of Emperor Henry IV. Philip of France also turned a deaf ear to papal commands, even when the pope threatened excommunication and interdict in December 1073 and a year later announced that he would do everything in his power to depose Philip. But the French bishops refused to make common cause with Gregory, and Philip's reign continued. His quarrels with the pope were smoothed over, and both parties were able to compromise without loss of face.

      This was not the case with regard to Henry IV and the empire, even though there were no signs of the coming conflict at the outset of Gregory's pontificate. Gregory recognized that Henry IV would soon be emperor and always thought very highly of Henry's parents, Henry III and Agnes (Agnes of Poitou). The pope suggested in a letter of December 1074 that Henry protect Rome and the Roman church during a papal expedition to the Holy Land that he wished to lead in the company of Empress Agnes and Countess Matilda of Tuscany. He relied on Henry's cooperation as well when he tried to bend the German bishops to his wishes and asked the king to order them to appear at his Roman synods. By December 1075, however, Gregory's attitude had changed. By letter and messenger (who may have threatened excommunication orally), the pope harshly blamed Henry IV for not negotiating in good faith and for having made royal appointments to the Italian bishoprics of Milan, Fermo, and Spoleto in accordance with old customs, which Gregory abhorred and ordered abolished. He also reproached Henry for continued contact with five of his advisers who had been excommunicated earlier by the pope. Contact with excommunicated persons automatically entailed excommunication for the offender.

      On January 24, 1076, at the imperial assembly of Worms, Henry IV and the vast majority of the German bishops replied in even harsher terms to Gregory's letter and oral message. The bishops renounced their obedience to “Frater Hildebrand,” and the king called on Gregory to abdicate and on the Romans to elect a new pope. Northern Italian bishops immediately joined the action and renounced their support for Gregory. The letters reached Gregory during the customary Lenten synod (February 14–20, 1076), and the outraged pope reacted immediately, using a prayer to Peter to depose and excommunicate Henry. In the same prayer, Gregory also absolved all of Henry's subjects of their oath of fealty to the king. The effect of the excommunication was tremendous. Never before had a pope deposed a king, even though Gregory, according to a later letter, believed that he had historical precedents on his side, an assumption that even contemporaries considered untenable and a distortion of historical truth. Then as now, the deposition of Henry IV was the most hotly debated action taken by Gregory VII, who pursued to its logical conclusion his conviction that papal primacy pertained not only to the spiritual sphere but to the secular sphere as well. Church reform now became a contest for dominance between the priestly and the royal powers as they struggled to replace the Carolingian (Carolingian dynasty) vision of mutual collaboration in which the church was entrusted to the monarchy for safekeeping.

      In Germany Gregory's action strengthened princely as well as episcopal opposition to Henry in a civil war that raged intermittently throughout his reign. In order to save his crown, Henry IV submitted to the pope at the castle of Canossa on January 28, 1077. Countess Matilda (Matilda of Canossa) of Tuscany and Abbot Hugh of Cluny (Hugh of Cluny, Saint), Henry's godfather, had interceded for him. Gregory acted as a pastor of souls when he reconciled the king with the church, but Henry's footfall nonetheless was an implicit recognition of papal claims. The encounter at Canossa had interrupted Gregory's journey to Augsburg (now in Germany), where he was to meet German princes who had planned to elect a new ruler in opposition to Henry IV. Despite Gregory's absolution of Henry and return to Rome, the princes proceeded with their plan. Their nominee, Rudolf of Rheinfelden (Rudolf), was elected (anti-)king on March 15, 1077.

      The quarrel between Henry and Gregory intensified after the pope formally prohibited lay investiture (Investiture Controversy) at the council of November 1078. Investiture was the customary ceremony in which the emperor or king bestowed upon the bishops the ring and staff, the symbols of their office as well as of royal authority in and protection of the church. Nevertheless, Gregory at first tried to arbitrate between Henry and Rudolf, but he excommunicated Henry for a second time at the Lenten synod of 1080 and formally recognized Rudolf as king. However, after the absolution of Canossa, Henry had reasserted himself. The new excommunication had little effect, and the king was victorious in the civil war. Following the formal deposition of Gregory VII under the aegis of Henry IV by the synod of Brixen in June 1080 and the nomination of Archbishop Wibert of Ravenna as pope, Henry marched on Rome, supported by German and, especially, Italian troops. The Eternal City was finally captured in March 1084, when the Romans, including many cardinals and other clergy, opened the gates to Henry and his army. They had deserted the papal cause in response to Gregory's inflexibility. Wibert was enthroned as antipope Clement III (Clement (III)), and Henry IV was crowned emperor. Gregory VII had at first sought refuge in the Castel Sant'Angelo but in July fled with his Norman liberators to Salerno, where he died on May 25, 1085. According to tradition, his last words were a paraphrase of a passage from Psalm 44, “I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.”

Assessment

      It might appear that Gregory was less successful as pope than he had been as a papal adviser, for, in the course of his bitter conflict with Emperor Henry IV, he was defeated. Apart from the court of Matilda of Tuscany, where his legend lived on, Gregory was soon forgotten, and he was not canonized until 1606. The history of the papacy and of the church, however, was profoundly influenced by him. His staunch advocacy of clerical celibacy and repudiation of simony reshaped the church and helped establish the ideals of the reformers as the standard for the church. Moreover, papal primacy cannot be imagined without Gregory. In his lifetime he attempted to translate his own religious experience with its mystical core into historical reality. Concepts that he grasped intuitively were elaborated on legally and theoretically in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in what is known as the papal monarchy.

Uta-Renate Blumenthal

Additional Reading

Much of the correspondence of Gregory VII is contained in the official register, Erich Caspar (ed.), Das Register Gregors VII, 2 vol. (1920–23, reissued 1990); selections in English are provided by Ephraim Emerton (trans.), The Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII (1932, reissued 1990). H.E.J. Cowdrey, Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085 (1998), is a narrative account of the pontificate with frequent excerpts from primary sources concerning the reign and references to the historiography. Uta-Renate Blumenthal, Gregor VII: Papst zwischen Canossa und Kirchenreform (2001), is a thorough and more analytically oriented evaluation of the youth and character of the pope and of his politics as expressed in his councils and privileges for canons, monks, and others.The best introduction to the Gregorian Reform and Investiture Controversy is Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century (1988, reissued 1991; originally published in German, 1982). The classic study of several key ideas related to the Investiture Controversy is Gerd Tellenbach, Church, State, and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest, trans. by R.F. Bennett (1970, reissued 1991; originally published in German, 1936). Of great interest still is Walter Ulmann, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages: A Study in the Ideological Relation of Clerical to Lay Power, 3rd ed. (1970). I.S. Robinson, Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century (1978), is an excellent study, and The Papacy, 1073–1198: Continuity and Innovation (1990), systematizes the results of the Investiture Controversy in the church. Schafer Williams (ed.), The Gregorian Epoch: Reformation, Revolution, Reaction? (1964), is a survey of scholarly opinions on the period. The notion that the Investiture Controversy must be described as a revolution is best represented by Harold J. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (1983); and Norman F. Cantor, Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England, 1089–1135 (1958, reissued 1969). Also particularly relevant are Guiseppe Fornasari, Medioevo riformato del secolo XI: Pier Damiani e Gregorio VII (1996); Robert L. Benson, The Bishop-Elect: A Study in Medieval Ecclesiastical Office (1968); and I.S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056–1106 (1999).

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