GREGORY VII., Hildebrand of Soano, in Tuscany, was of low parentage, and became a mouk in the convent of Cluny. Having Required a reputation for theologioal and canonical learning, and for strict regularity of conduct, ho afterwards went to Rome with Bruno, bishop of Tout, a relative of the emperor Henry IlL, who was elected rpo in 1019, under the name of Leo IX., chiefly through Ilildebraud's influence. From that time the monk Hildebrand became the main spring of the Roman hierarchy, and the intimate councillor of Leo, and his successors, Victor IL, Stephen IX., Nicholas II., and Alexander II. He was sent to Germany on a mission to the Imperial court by Stephen IX., and on his return he defeated the faction which had raised to the papal throne Benedict X., and secured the election of Nicholas IL After the death of Alexander IL, in 1073, Hildebrand was unanimously elected his successor by the clergy and people of Rome, but he did not assume his title until lie had received the approbation of the emperor Henry IV., to whom Le despatched messengers for the purpose. The emperor, pleased with this act of deference, readily aonfirmed his election, and Hildebrand assumed the name of Gregory VII. Tho great object of Gregory's ambition was, as ho expressed himself in a letter to Hughes, abbot of Cluny, to effect a total reform of the Church, which certainly stood in great need of it. Simony prevailed throughout the Christian world, and sees wero openly sold or given by sovereigns to their favourites. The bishops raised by such means, caring little for their duties or their flocks, but much for their worldly advantage and pleasures, sold the benefices at their disposal. Gregory determined to remove the evil by taking away from the secular princes the right which they assumed of disposing of the sees within their dominions. The emperor Henry IV., licentious, ambitious, and at war with his revolted vassals, and therefore coutinually in want of money, was one of the most culpable in respect of elinouy. He disposed of sees and benefices in favour of vicious or incapable men, and the bishops of Germany readily entered into his views of making the Church a sort of feudal dependant on the Imperial will. Gregory began by admonishing Henry; he sent legates to Germany, but to little purpose. His next step was to assemble a council at Rome in 1074, which anathematised persons guilty of simony, and ordered the deposition of those priests who lived in concubinage, under which name however were also included those who lived in a state of matrimony, and it was decreed also that no one should be admitted to holy orders unless he made a vow of celibacy. This last regulation created great excitement, espo• cially at Milan, where the custom of priests being married was still prevalent, as in the Eastern Church. Gregory summoned another council at Rome in 1075, in which for the first time kings and other lay princes were forbidden, under pain of excommunication, from giving the investiture of sees and abbeys by conferring the ring and the crosier. This was the beginning of the quarrel about the investi
ture which distracted Europe for many years after, and which may here require some explanation. In the early ages of the Christian Church, it would appear that the body of the clergy, or presbyters, of a town or district, together with the municipal council, or notables, elected their bishop, or chief pastor, and the Christian emperors did not interfere with the choice, except in the case of the great patriarchal sees, such as Rome and Constantinople, the candidate to which, after being elected by the clergy and people, was required to wait for the Imperial confirmation. The Gothic, kings of Italy followed the same system, as well as tho exerehs of Revenua after them, iu the name of the Byzantine emperors. At Remo, and probably in the rest of Italy also, the laity participated in the election of their bishops till the 10th century ; in the east they appear to have been excluded from it sooner. Charlemagne is said by some to have introduced the custom of putting the ring and crosier into the hands of new-elected bishops, while he required from them the oath of fealty to himself. There seems no doubt at least that the custom was prevalent under his successors of the Carlovingian dynasty. The reason of this was, that the churches having been richly endowed by various eovcreigus with lauds and other temporalities, the incumbents were considered in the light of feudal tenants. By thus keeping at their own disposal the tempo ralities of the sees, the sovereigns came gradually to appoint the bishops, either by direct nomination, or by recommending a candidate to the electors. Gregory making no distinction between spiritualities and temporalities, considered the investiture as a spiritual act, insist ing that the crosier was emblematic of the spiritual authority of bishops over their flocks, and the riug was the symbol of their mystical marriage with the Church; although, Serpi observes, in his Treatise upon Benefices,' thero was another ceremony, namely, the consecration of the bishop elect by imposition of hands by the metro politan, which was the real spiritual investiture. But Gregory's object was to take away from laymen all ecclesiastical patronage, and to make the Church, with all its temporalities, independent of the state. lio would not admit of any symbols of al]egiauce to the state, and he contended that the estates of sees had become inseparably connected with the spiritual office, and could no longer be distinguished; and yet he himself had waited for the confirmation of the emperor before he was consecrated.