GREGORY VII. (Hildebrand) (Pope 1073-85). Preeminently the representative of the temporal claims of the medieval Papacy. He was born in Tuscany about 1020, perhaps at Soana, village of the southern border. His family be longed to the plebeian class. Although nothing of his remoter ancestry is known, his family name, Hildebrand, would imply a Teutonic de scent; but by birth and education at least he was Italian: His youth was passed in Rome, in the Monastery of Saint Mary, on the Aventine, of which his uncle was abbot, and he probably took monastic vows. The Emperor Henry III. took him to Germany, and he continued his studies in Co logne. Very likely ha also visited Aix-la-Chapelle and Cluny. He attended the council at Worms at which Bishop Bruno of Toul was chosen Pope (Leo IX.), and the latter took him to Rome (1049) and made him a cardinal subdeacon. He had great influence during the pontificate of Leo. On the latter's death (1054) the Roman people manifested a desire to have Hildebrand as suc cessor; but this honor he declined, preferring to gain more experience. Besides important do mestic employments which were assigned to him, he was sent as legate to the Council of Tours (1054), in which the cause of Berengarius was examined. (See BERENGARIUS OF TOURS.) He was likewise one of the three legates dispatched to Germany to consult about a successor to Leo IX. Under the four popes who followed. Leo—Victor II., Stephen IX., Benedict X., and Alexander II., known in history as the German popes—Hilde brand continued to he the predominant power, and inspired into their government of the Church the great principles to which his life was de voted. Three days after the death of Alexander IL he was unanimously elected at Rome; but he declined to be consecrated until the Emperor's sanction had been gained. The German bishops, who feared the reforms of which his name was a guaranty, endeavored to prevent the Emperor Henry IV. from assenting to the election; but Henry gave his approval, and the new Pope was crowned July 10. 1073. Regarding as the great evil of his time the thoroughly secularized condi tion of the Church in a great part of Europe. and especially in Germany and Northern Italy. Greg ory directed against this all his efforts. In his reforming crusade he first attacked the evil of clerical marriage and the probably much less frequent offense of clerical incontinence. These he combated by stirring up the people to refuse the sacraments from any other than a celibate and pure priest. Simony also was denounced in the most explicit and vigorous terms. But it was against the fundamental abuse of investiture (q.v.) that his main efforts were directed. In 1075 he prohibited this practice under the pain of excommunication both for the investor and the invested, and in the following year he actually issued that sentence against several bishops and councilors of the Empire. The Emperor Henry IV. (q.v.) disregarding these menaces and tak ing the offending bishops under his protection, Gregory cited him to Rome to answer for his conduct. Henry's sole reply was a haughty de
fiance, and in a Diet at Worms, in 1076, lie for mally declared Gregory deposed from the Pontifi cate. Gregory was not slow to retaliate by a sentence of excommunication; and in this sen tence, unless revoked or removed by absolution in twelve months, by the law of the Empire at the time, was involved the forfeiture of all civil rights and deposition from every civil and po litical office. When, at a Diet held at Tribur (September, 1076), the bishops actually began to discuss the election of a new Emperor, Henry deemed it necessary to appear to yield. Accord ingly he sought the Pope, who was then at the castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, at Canos sa (q.v.). He arrived there with his wife and son in the dead of a very severe winter. Gregory himself is authority for the statement that the Emperor, "having laid aside all belongings of royalty, wretchedly, with bare feet and clad in wool, continued for three days [January 25-27, 10771 to stand before the gates of the castle," and it was not till the pitiful state of the royal penitent moved all hearts that the Pope admitted him to and absolved him. Henry's submission, however, was but feigned: and on his subsequent triumph over his rival, Rudolf of Swabia, he resumed hostilities with the Pope, and in 1080 again declared him deposed. and caused to be appointed in his place the antipope Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna (see GUIRERT OF RAVENNA), under the name of Clement III. After a protracted siege of three years Henry, in the year 1084, took possession of Rome. Gregory shut himself up in the Castle of Saint Angelo. Just, however, as Gregory was on the point of falling into his enemy's hands, Robert Guiscard, the Norman Duke of Apulia, entered the city, set Gregory free, and compelled Henry to return to Germany; but the wretched condition to which Rome had been reduced obliged Gregory to with draw, first to Monte Cassino, and ultimately to Salerno. where he died, May 25, 1085. His dying words were: "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." Gregory's writings and literary remains are in Migne, Patrol. Let., cxviii. His Epistles were sepa rately edited at Paris (1877) ; a selection was translated (London. 1853). The literature upon him is abundant, but that written prior to 1850 is superseded by more critical work. Of chief value and interest may be mentioned: Cfrerer, I'apst Greporins VII. and srin Zeitalter (Schaff hausen. 1859-61; index vol. 1864) Villemain, Life of Grow!, VI!. (trans. London. 1874) ; Stephens, Hildebrand and His Times (London, 1886) ; Delarc, Saint Gregoire et la reforme de Veglise au Xleme siecle (Paris, 1889-90) ; Vincent, The Age of Hildebrand (New York, 1896). For the numerous special discussions, and in general, consult: Cerroti, Bibliografia de Rama medicevale e moderno, vol. i. (Rome, 1893) ; Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age (Paris, 1887; supplement, 1888).