Gregory VII (Hildebrand)

    (c. 1023–85)

   Pope and Saint.

   Gregory was born in Saona, Tuscany, and his original name was Hildebrand. As a young man, he was in the service of Pope Gregory VI, who was exiled in Germany. He returned to Rome with Pope Leo IX and was himself elected Pope by acclamation in 1073.

   This was, in fact, in violation of the law of 1059. Gregory was a reformer. He reinforced the laws against simony and clerical marriage, but he came into conflict with the German Henry IV in 1075 over the question of lay investiture. After the Emperor was threatened with excommunication, he had a Diet at Worms declare Gregory deposed. Gregory retaliated by excommunicating Henry and releasing his subjects from their oath of allegiance. The Emperor was forced to make public penance at Canossa in 1077. During a subsequent civil war in Germany, Gregory supported Rudolf of Swabia and again excommunicated Henry. In response, at the Synod of Brixen in 1080, the Emperor negotiated the election of Antipope Clement III and in 1084 Gregory was taken into exile by the Norman prince Robert Guiscard. Despite these tempestuous events, Gregory is remembered for his reform of the Canon Law which was an important element in the regeneration of the mediaeval Church. He was canonised in the seventeenth century.

   A.J. Macdonald, Hildebrand: A Life of Gregory VII (1932);

   W. Ullman, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, 2^nd edn (1962).