GREGORY VII, Saint, Pope (1073-1085) : b. Soana, a little village in Tuscany, between 1020 and 1025; d. Salerno, 25 May 1085. Little is known of his family or early life except that he was of humble origin, but his name, Hilde brand or Hellebrand, seems to point to a Ger manic origin. At an early age he went to Rome to be educated at a monastery, where he prob ably first imbibed the lofty principles of Church reform he afterward advocated. It was here that he made his religious profession as a Bene dictine monk. When John Gratian became Pope as Gregory VI, Hildebrand became his chaplain, though but in minor orders, and fol lowed him into exile across the Alps when his title to the papacy was questioned as simoniacal. Hildebrand remained with him at Cologne until his death in 1047, when he withdrew to Cluny, where he resided for more than a year. When Bruno, bishop of Toul, was nominated Pope by the emperor and diet in 1048, Hildebrand ac companied him to Rome, having persuaded him to lay aside the insignia of his office until he should be canonically elected by the clergy and people of Rome. This was Hildebrand's first step toward the emancipation of the Church from secular control. Leo IX (Bruno) created him a cardinal subdeacon and also appointed him administrator of the Patrimony of Saint Peter. In this position he gave prompt evidence of his extraordinary administrative ability. In 1054 Hildebrand was sent to France as papal legate to examine the cause of Berengarius and while he was still at Tours Leo IX died. He was suggested as Leo's successor, but, hasten ing to Germany and interceding with the em peror, he managed to have Gebhard, bishop of Eichstadt, nominated, and the latter was con secrated Pope as Victor II in 1055. Hildebrand's influence continued to increase under the pontifi cates of Victor II (1055-57), Stephen X (1057 58), Nicholas II (1059-61) and Alexander II (1061-73). The two most important transac tions of Nicholas' pontificate — the celebrated election decree, by which the power of choosing the Pope was vested in the college of cardinals (a decree which with but few modifications re mains in force to-day), and the alliance with the Normans — were in large measure the achievement of Hildebrand. Nicholas raised Hildebrand to the archdiaconate of the Holy Roman Church and his successor, Alexander, made him chancellor of the Apostolic See. Alexander died 21 April 1073 and on the fol lowing day Hildebrand was unanimously elect ed Pope by the cardinals, with the due consent of the Roman clergy and people, which at that time was necessary. However, he deferred his consecration until the emperor had approved the election and, after having been ordained to the priesthood, he was consecrated as Gregory VII, 29 June 1073. It was with great reluctance he undertook the great burden, a task whose difficulties no one understood better than he after his close connection with'the papacy for 24 years. At the time of his accession,-the whole world was given up to wickedness which had even invaded the Church in the form of simony and clerical incontinence. Gregory was prompt in making every effort to stamp out these vices, which were the natural result of the right of investiture exercised by temporal princes. Gregory's relations with the young Henry IV were at first very harmonious, the latter even writing to the Pope acknowledging his past misdeeds, especially in violation of the rights of the Church. In 1074 Gregory started his reform of the clergy by passing decrees against simony and incontinence, a measure which called forth violent opposition through out Italy, Germany and France. In Germany particularly indignation was aroused and the greater number of bishops received their in structions with manifest indifference; some openly. defied the Pope. In France the storm was scarcely less vehement. Gregory, how ever, did not hesitate to follow up his decrees by sending legates into all quarters, fully em powered to depose 'immoral and simoniacal clerics. In 1075 another decree was passed for bidding the clergy, under penalty of forfeiting their offices, from receiving investiture of any ecclesiastical dignity from the hands of a lay man, and at the same time forbidding the laity, under penalty of excommunication, to attempt the exercise of investiture of the clergy. In keeping with this decree, Gregory deposed the simoniacal prelates appointed by Henry. The
latter refused to obey this decree, and Gregory, in 1076, issued a new decree summoning the emperor before a council at Rome, to defend himself. Henry then caused a sentence of dep osition to be passed against the Pope by a Ger man council assembled at Worms. The Pope, in return, excommunicated the emperor and all his ecclesiastical supporters, and released all his subjects from their oath of allegiance. Aban doned by his own partisans and to escape being deposed by the Pope, Henry fled across the Alps in the dead of winter to Italy, where he sub mitted at Canossa (1077) to a humiliating pen ance. Mindful of Henry's former faithlessness, Gregory compelled him to wait three days at the gate to the castle in the garb of a penitent be fore he received and absolved him. All this did not change Henry's conduct, so that the Ger man princes elected Rudolph of Suabia to suc ceed him and in 1080 Gregory renewed the sen tence of excommunication against him, because of a threat to create an antipope. Henry car ried his threat into effect by causing the Pope to be deposed by the Council of Brixen and by selecting Guibert, the excommunicated simonia cal archbishop of Ravenna, as Pope under the name of Clement III. After Rudolph's death, Henry marched on Rome and after three years finally forced his way into the city in 1084. Gregory had retired to the castle of Saint An gelo, where he refused Henry's overtures and remained a virtual prisoner. Guibert was con secrated Pope and thereupon crowned Henry emperor. Gregory was liberated by Robert Guiscard, Duke of Normandy, but was com gelled to flee Rome because of the excesses of his Norman allies. He withdrew to Monte Cas sino and later to Salerno, where he died in the following year. Gregory's character was ar dent and unyielding. In the pursuit of his ends in guarding the liberties of the Church he spared neither friend nor foe. He carried out his ecclesiastical reforms with unbending rigor. He vigorously prosecuted those of the clergy who broke the law of celebacy, and in his re lations wth the emperors vindicated the spiritual authority of the Church as independent of the secular power. He was the first Pope to at tempt to depose a temporal prince. This and his rigorous zeal for reform may account for the fact that few men have been more differ ently judged by their contemporaries and by posterity than he. By his enemies he has been represented as an ambitious man, who aimed at universal dominion, both civil and ecclesiastical, reckless of the means of attaining his object. His great idea was to purify the Church and through its agency to reform and civilize soci ety, and his acts were just such as the condi tion of the times required for the attainment of these two great purposes. The chief fault of his critics is that they have judged his conduct by the ideas of the present day instead of by the conditions of the times in which he lived. One need only read his correspondence to learn that it all breathes far higher motives than that of worldly ambition. The key to his entire character may be found in the last words at tributed to him: "I have loved justice, I hate iniquity, therefore I die in exile? Gregory VII was beatified by Gregory XIII in 1584 and can onized by Benedict XIII in 1728. The anni versary of his death is a duplex feast in the Roman calendar. Gregory's letters, which treat of the principles and practice of Church govern ment are to be found in Mansi and Horoy (see list below).
Bibliography.— Barry, The Papal Mon archy' (New York 1902) ; Bowden, 'The Life and Pontificate of Gregory VII' (2 vols., Lon don 1840) ; Dularc, 'Gregoire VII et la re forme de l'Eglise au XI" siecle) (Paris 1889) ; Horoy, Gregorii VII epistolm et diplomata; accedunt vita ejusdem pontificis et appendices amplissimai veterum et recentium monumenta, perplutima Gregorii apologetics, (2 vols., Paris 1877) ; Mann, 'The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages' (Vol. V, Lon don and Saint Louis 1909) ; Mansi, 'Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima (Florence 1759) ; Voigt, 'Hildebrand, als Papst Gregorious VII, and rein Zeitalter, aus den Quellen bearbeitet) (2d ed„ 2 vols., Weimar 1846; French trans., with introd. and notes, by Jager, 4th cd., Paris 1854); Watterich, 'Pon tificum Romanorum vita ab exeunte =ado IX ad finem saculi XIII, ab asqualibus conscripts' (2 vols., Braunsberg 1864); Chevalier, 'Bio bibliographic' (Paris 1905).