412 



GREGORY 



of the Lombards becoming every year more 

 formidable, the imperial authority in the West 

 sank into little more than a name ; and the tyran- 

 nical and barbarous measures by which the Em- 

 peror Leo the Isaurian attempted to enforce his 

 decrees against image-worship weakened still more 

 the tie which bound Italy to the eastern emperors. 

 The natural result of the diminution of the imperial 

 authority in Italy was the growth of that of the 

 pope, to whom the deserted Italian provinces 

 looked, partly as their spiritual counsellor and' 

 head, partly as their mediator with the barbarous 

 enemy, partly as the centre of the political federa- 

 tion for self-defence which their very isolation 

 necessitated. Gregory convened a council in Rome 

 on the subject of the honour due to images, and 

 addressed a very energetic letter to the emperor, 

 protesting against the sacrilegious outrages of 

 which he had been guilty, explaining and defending 

 the Catholic doctrine on image-worship, and warn- 

 ing the emperor that the feelings of his subjects 

 were so completely alienated by his conduct that 

 it was only the pope's influence which prevented 

 them from throwing off all allegiance. Gregory 

 has been accused of himself fomenting this dis- 

 affection. The contrary, however, is attested, not 

 only by his own letters, but also by Paul the 

 Deacon, in his History of the Lombards ( book vi. 

 chap. 39); and it is quite certain that the circum- 

 stances themselves, and the well-known character 

 of the emperor, would sufficiently explain any 

 degree of discontent in Italy. At all events, the 

 result of the contest was a most notable aggrand- 

 isement of the political authority and influence of 

 the popes in Italy. Gregory II. was distinguished 

 by his zeal for the evangelisation of heathen 

 lands ; it was under his auspices that the famous 

 Winfried or Boniface entered on his missionary 

 work in Germany. He died in 731. 



GREGORY III., a native of Syria, succeeded 

 Gregory II. in 731. In the same year he hr.rled 

 the anathema of excommunication against the 

 Iconoclasts, and the retaliations of Leo the Isaur- 

 ian did much to weaken the ancient tie between 

 the popedom and the empire. The encroachments 

 of the Lombai-ds in Italy during his pontificate 

 became so formidable that, as the eastern em- 

 perors still remained powerless or indifferent to 

 the protection of the Italian provinces, the Romans 

 charged Gregory to send a deputation to Charles 

 Martel, soliciting his succour against the enemy, 

 and proposing upon that condition to recognise 

 him as their protector, and to confer on him the 

 title of consul and patrician of Rome. This offer 

 was made by the pope ' in virtue of a decree of the 

 Roman primus,' and is of great historical im- 

 portance in the consideration of the nature and 

 origin of the papal power in Italy. The embassy 

 failed, owing to the pressure of his war with the 

 Saracens, to enlist the aid of Charles ; but it was 

 a step towards the consummation of the independ- 

 ence of the West. Gregory III. died in 741. 



GREGORY VII., pre-eminently the historical 

 representative of the temporal claims of the 

 medieval papacy, was born, about 1020, at Soana, 

 a village in the southern border of Tuscany. 

 Whether his family belonged to the bui'gher or 

 the noble class is disputed by his biographers. 

 His family name, Hildebrand, would imply a 

 Teutonic descent ; but by birth and education at 

 least he was Italian. His youth was passed at 

 Rome, in the monastery of St Maria, on the Aven- 

 tine, of which his uncle, Laurentius (afterwards 

 Bishop of Amalfi), was abbot. From Rome he 



Eassed into France, where he entered the cele- 

 rated monastery at Clugny, in the schools of 

 which he completed his education ; and from the 

 strict ascetic observances there practised by him 



he acquired those habits of austerity which dis- 

 tinguished his whole life. He visited the court 

 of Henry III., and obtained by his preaching the 

 reputation of great eloquence. On his return to 

 Rome he became the chaplain of Gregory VI. ; 

 but after the death of that pontiff he again with- 

 drew to his former retreat at Clugny, from which 

 he was only recalled by the earnest appeal of the 

 new and zealous pope, Leo IX., whom he accom- 

 panied to Rome in 1049. Under this active and 

 devoted pontiff Hildebrand exercised great influ- 

 ence. He now for the first time received holy 

 orders, and was eventually created cardinal. Be- 

 sides the responsible domestic employments which 

 were assigned to him, he was sent as legate to the 

 important Council of Tours, in which the cause of 

 Berengarius was examined; Under all the short 

 but important pontificates of the successors of Leo 

 IX., who are known in history as the German 

 popes Victor II., Stephen IX., Benedict X., and 

 Alexander II. Hildebrand continued to exercise 

 the same influence, and by inspiring into their 

 government of the church the great principles to 

 which his life was devoted he prepared the way for 

 the full development of his theory of the papacy. 



He was unanimously elected at Rome, with- 

 out awaiting the imperial authorisation, three 

 days after the death of Alexander II. The 

 German bishops, who feared the effect of those 

 reforms of which his name was a guarantee, 

 endeavoured 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. From the date of his election the pontifi- 

 cate of Gregory was one life-long struggle for the 

 assertion of the principles with which lie believed 

 the welfare of the church and the regeneration of 

 society itself to be inseparably bound up. Regard- 

 ing as the great evil of his time the thoroughly 

 secularised condition of the church in a great part 

 of Europe, and especially in Germany and northern 

 Italy, he directed against this all his efforts. The 

 position occupied by the higher clergy as feudal 

 proprietors, the right claimed by the crown of 

 investiture with the temporalities of benefices, 

 the consequent dependence of the clergy upon the 

 sovereign, and the temptation to simony which 

 it involved were, in the mind of Gregoiy, the 

 cause of all the evils under which Europe was 

 groaning ; and of all these he regarded Investiture 

 (q.v.) as the fountain and the source. While, 

 therefore, he laboured by every species of enact- 

 ment, by visitations, by encyclical letters, and 

 by personal exhortations, precepts, and censures, 

 to enforce the observance of all the details of dis- 

 cipline celibacy, the residence of the clergy, the 

 instruction of the people and to repress simony 

 and pluralism, it was against the fundamental 

 abuse of investiture that his main efforts were 

 directed. In the year after his election he pro- 

 hibited this practice, under pain of excommuni- 

 cation both for the investor and the invested, and 

 in the following year he actually issued that 

 sentence against several bishops and councillors 

 of the empire. The Emperor Henry IV. dis- 

 regarding these menaces and taking the offend- 

 ing bishops under his protection, Gregory cited 

 him to Rome to answer for his conduct. Henry's 

 sole reply was a haughty defiance ; and in a diet 

 at Worms in 1076 he formally declared Gregory 

 deposed from the pontificate. The pontiff was 

 not slow to retaliate by a sentence of excommuni- 

 cation ; and in this sentence, 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 dept'^ition from 

 every civil and political office. Henry's Saxon 

 subjects appealing to this law against him, he 



