of excommunication. Gregory died suddenly, and not without suspicion of foul play, on the 18th of February 999. His successor was Silvester II.
Gregory VI., pope from 1045 to 1046. As Johannes Gratianus he had earned a high reputation for learning and probity, and in 1045 he bought the Roman pontificate from his godson Benedict IX. At a council held by the emperor Henry III. at Sutri in 1046, he was accused of simony and deposed. He was banished into Germany, where he died in 1047. He was accompanied into exile by his young protégé Hildebrand (afterwards pope as Gregory VII.), and was succeeded by Clement II. (L. D.*)
Gregory VII., pope from 1073 to 1085. Hildebrand (the
future pope) would seem to have been born in Tuscany—perhaps
Raovacum—early in the third decade of the 11th century. The
son of a plain citizen, Bunicus or Bonizo, he came to Rome at an
early age for his education; an uncle of his being abbot of the
convent of St Mary on the Aventine. His instructors appear
to have included the archpriest Johannes Gratianus, who, by
disbursing a considerable sum to Benedict IX., smoothed his
way to the papal throne and actually ascended it as Gregory VI.
But when the emperor Henry III., on his expedition to Rome
(1046), terminated the scandalous impasse in which three popes
laid claim to the chair of Peter by deposing all three, Gregory VI.
was banished to Germany, and Hildebrand found himself
obliged to accompany him. As he himself afterwards admitted,
it was with extreme reluctance that he crossed the Alps. But
his residence in Germany was of great educative value, and full
of significance for his later official activity. In Cologne he was
enabled to pursue his studies; he came into touch with the circles
of Lorraine where interest in the elevation of the Church and her
life was highest, and gained acquaintance with the political
and ecclesiastical circumstances of that country which was
destined to figure so largely in his career. Whether, on the
death of Gregory VI. in the beginning of 1048, Hildebrand
proceeded to Cluny is doubtful. His brief residence there, if it
actually occurred, is to be regarded as no more than a visit; for
he was never a monk of Cluny. His contemporaries indeed
describe him as a monk; but his entry into the convent must be
assigned to the period preceding or following his German travels
and presumably took place in Rome. He returned to that city
with Bishop Bruno of Toul, who was nominated pope under the
title of Leo IX. (1048–1054). Under him Hildebrand found his
first employment in the ecclesiastical service, becoming a sub-deacon
and steward in the Roman Church. He acted, moreover,
as a legate in France, where he was occupied inter alia with the
question of Berengarius of Tours, whose views on the Lord’s
Supper had excited opposition. On the death of Leo IX. he
was commissioned by the Romans as their envoy to the German
court, to conduct the negotiations with regard to his successor.
The emperor pronounced in favour of Bishop Gebhard of Eichstädt,
who, in the course of his short reign as Victor II. (1055–1057),
again employed Hildebrand as his legate to France.
When Stephen IX. (Frederick of Lorraine) was raised to the
papacy, without previous consultation with the German court,
Hildebrand and Bishop Anselm of Lucca were despatched to
Germany to secure a belated recognition, and he succeeded in
gaining the consent of the empress Agnes. Stephen, however,
died before his return, and, by the hasty elevation of Bishop
Johannes of Velletri, the Roman aristocracy made a last attempt
to recover their lost influence on the appointment to the papal
throne—a proceeding which was charged with peril to the Church
as it implied a renewal of the disastrous patrician régime. That
the crisis was surmounted was essentially the work of Hildebrand.
To Benedict X., the aristocratic nominee, he opposed a rival
pope in the person of Bishop Gerhard of Florence, with whom
the victory rested. The reign of Nicholas II. (1059–1061) was
distinguished by events which exercised a potent influence on
the policy of the Curia during the next two decades—the
rapprochement with the Normans in the south of Italy, and the
alliance with the democratic and, subsequently, anti-German
movement of the Patarenes in the north. It was also under his
pontificate (1059) that the law was enacted which transferred the
papal election to the College of Cardinals, thus withdrawing it
from the nobility and populace of Rome and thrusting the
German influence on one side. It would be too much to maintain
that these measures were due to Hildebrand alone, but it is
obvious that he was already a dominant personality on the Curia,
through he still held no more exalted office than that of archdeacon,
which was indeed only conferred on him in 1059. Again,
when Nicholas II. died and a new schism broke out, the discomfiture
of Honorius II. (Bishop Cadalus of Parma) and the
success of his rival (Anselm of Lucca) must be ascribed principally,
if not entirely, to Hildebrand’s opposition to the former.
Under the sway of Alexander II. (1061–1073) this man loomed
larger and larger in the eye of his contemporaries as the soul of
the Curial policy. It must be confessed the general political
conditions, especially in Germany, were at that period exceptionally
favourable to the Curia, but to utilize them with the sagacity
actually shown was nevertheless no slight achievement, and the
position of Alexander at the end of his pontificate was a brilliant
justification of the Hildebrandine statecraft.
On the death of Alexander II. (April 21, 1073), Hildebrand became pope and took the style of Gregory VII. The mode of his election was bitterly assailed by his opponents. True, many of the charges preferred are obviously the emanations of scandal and personal dislike, liable to suspicion from the very fact that they were not raised to impugn his promotion till several years had elapsed (c. 1076); still it is plain from his own account of the circumstances of his elevation that it was conducted in extremely irregular fashion, and that the forms prescribed by the law of 1059 were not observed. But the sequel justified his election—of which the worst that can be said is that there was no general suffrage. And this sequel again owed none of its success to chance, but was the fruit of his own exertions. In his character were united wide experience and great energy tested in difficult situations. It is proof of the popular faith in his qualifications that, although the circumstances of his election invited assault in 1073, no sort of attempt was then made to set up a rival pontiff. When, however, the opposition which took head against him had gone so far as to produce a pretender to the chair, his long and undisputed possession tended to prove the original legality of his papacy; and the appeal to irregularities at its beginning not only lost all cogency but assumed the appearance of a mere biased attack. On the 22nd of May he received sacerdotal ordination, and on the 30th of June episcopal consecration; the empress Agnes and the duchess Beatrice of Tuscany being present at the ceremony, in addition to Bishop Gregory of Vercelli, the chancellor of the German king, to whom Gregory would thus seem to have communicated the result of the election.
The focus of the ecclesiastico-political projects of Gregory VII. is to be found in his relationship with Germany. Since the death of Henry III. the strength of the monarchy in that country had been seriously impaired, and his son Henry IV. had to contend with great internal difficulties. This state of affairs was of material assistance to the pope. His advantage was still further accentuated by the fact that in 1073 Henry was but twenty-three years of age and by temperament inclined to precipitate action. Many sharp lessons were needful before he learned to bridle his impetuosity, and he lacked the support and advice of a disinterested and experienced statesman. Such being the conditions, a conflict between Gregory VII. and Henry IV. could have only one issue—the victory of the former.
In the two following years Henry was compelled by the Saxon rebellion to come to amicable terms with the pope at any cost. Consequently in May 1074 he did penance at Nuremberg in presence of the legates to expiate his continued intimacy with the members of his council banned by Gregory, took an oath of obedience, and promised his support in the work of reforming the Church. This attitude, however, which at first won him the confidence of the pope, he abandoned so soon as he gained the upper hand of the Saxons: this he achieved by his victory at Hohenburg on the Unstrut (June 9, 1075). He now attempted to reassert his rights of suzerain in upper Italy without delay.
