St Gregory VII (1028-85) reforming pope
Pope
from 1073 to 1085, Gregory "was probably the most energetic and
determined man ever to occupy the See of Peter and was driven by an
almost mystically exalted vision of the awesome responsibility and
dignity of the papal office" (Eamonn Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, p. 121).
A disciple of Pope Gregory VI
Born at Sovana, a
small town in southern Tuscany, the son of a blacksmith, and christened
Hildebrand, he was educated in Rome by the archpriest John Gratian, who
in 1045 became Pope Gregory VI.
However, because of a financial deal
involved in getting rid of his corrupt predecessor, Gregory was deposed
in 1046 by the reforming German king and Holy Roman Emperor Henry III
and went into retirement in the Benedictine monastery of Cluny, France.
Hildebrand went with his master into exile at Cluny and spent three
years there as a monk.
Ambassador of four popes
However, he returned to
Rome in 1049 to serve the newly elected Pope St Leo IX as papal
treasurer.
Hildebrand became a deacon and then prior of the monastery of
St Paul's Outside the Walls and was an assistant to a major influence
on the next four popes, all of whom were reformers.
He was also
successful in various ambassadorial roles. On the death of Pope
Alexander II (1061-73, he was elected pope after popular acclaim by the
clergy and people of Rome. He still had to be ordained priest and bishop
before he could act as pope.
Conflict with King Henry IV of Germany
Gregory
VII immediately set about cleaning up the abuses of simony, clerical
concubinage and lay investiture. He demanded that bishops take an oath
of obedience to him and threatened those who wouldn't carry out papal
decrees.
Over lay investiture he faced opposition from King Philip I of
France, William the Conqueror of England and the young King Henry IV of
Germany.
Henry, whose father had appointed bishops and popes at will,
resented the brusqueness of this new pontiff and gathered "his" bishops
at Worms and insisted Gregory be deposed.
But Gregory then
excommunicated Henry and all the bishops collaborating with him and
absolved his subjects from allegiance. Ecclesiastical support for Henry
cracked and in 1077 he had to travel to the house of Matilda of Canossa
in Italy where Gregory was staying to beg the Pope's pardon and
absolution. Gregory left Henry standing in humiliation for three days in
the snow before eventually pardoning him.
Pyrrhic victory and death
But Gregory's victory
was short lived. Henry rallied his forces and in 1080 invaded Italy,
captured Rome, declared Gregory deposed.
He installed an antipope
Guibert of Ravenna as Clement III. Gregory took refuge in Castel
Sant'Angelo, invited in the Normans under Robert Guiscard to rescue him.
However, the Normans behaved so badly in Rome that the Romans turned on
Gregory and forced him to retire first to Monte Cassino and then to
Salerno south of Naples where he died.
His last words were famously an
adaptation of Psalm 44 (45) verse 7: "I have loved justice and hated
iniquity; therefore I die in exile".
Papal claims
Gregory's pontificate represents a
strong staking out of the papal claim of power over the secular world
and though he achieved little, the spirit of papal reform continued and
the papacy never receded from its claims to freedom from secular and
political control in spiritual matters.
From this time on also the pope
was presented not just as the vicar of St Peter, but as "the vicar of
Christ himself" (Innocent III 1198-1216).
His influence
Gregory's beatification (1585) and
canonisation (1605) took place at a time when the papacy was in conflict
with secular powers - Queen Elizabeth I and James I in England. His
feast was extended to the universal Church in 1728, causing some fury
among proponents of Gallicanism in France.
He was later seen as a
precursor of Vatican I with its definition of papal infallibility as a
doctrine.
One could perhaps be forgiven for detecting a hint of spin or
ideology in his promotion, but the tyrannies of the 20th century bear
out the value of his insistence on the freedom of the Church in speaking
out on spiritual matters.