GREGORY II 



3693 



GREGORY VII 



him one of the 7 deacons of the 

 city, and the following year dis- 

 patched him on a special mission to 

 Constantinople with the object of 

 obtaining help from the emperor 

 against the Lombards now ac- 

 tively threatening Rome. 



On his return to Rome after six 

 years' absence, he devoted himself 

 to teaching and literary work ; this 

 period is also marked by the inci- 

 dent,related by Bede, of his meeting 

 the English youths in the Forum 

 which fired him with the project 

 for the conversion of England.' His 

 original idea was to go himself, 

 and he had actually started when 

 the pope, to whom Gregory acted 

 as confidential secretary, prompted 

 by the Romans, sent urgent mes- 

 sages desiring his return. In 590 he 

 became pope, and in 596 he sent 

 Augustine to Britain. Gregory's 

 remarkable gifts of management 

 and organization were displayed in 

 his scheme of relief for the needs of 

 the refugees thronging Rome, no 

 less than by the reorganization of 

 the vast estates constituting the 

 patrimony of the Church. He 

 gave his name to that mode of 

 plain chant (Gregorian) which, 

 supplanting previous modes, be- 

 came pre-eminently the music of 

 the Church. 



Gregory's Letters (collected in 14 

 volumes) are a witness to his un- 

 ceasing labours in the supervision 

 of the whole Church, not merely as 

 a firm upholder of the supremacy 

 of the papacy over East and West, 

 but as overseer of local ecclesias- 

 tical affairs, the election to vacant 

 sees, and the holding of local synods. 



The first monk to become pope, 

 Gregory's influence tended natur- 

 ally to enhance the importance of 

 the monastic system and to bring 

 it into closer relationship with the 

 Church. The action which placed 

 Gregory at variance with the By- 

 zantine emperor when the former 

 took upon himself to arrange 

 terms of peace with the Lombard 

 chiefs, marks a distinct stage in 

 that process by which the papacy 

 arrived at temporal sovereignty. 



The weight and influence lent to 

 the papacy by Gregory's pontificate 

 gained Gregory his title of Great. 

 He was canonised by popular ac- 

 clamation immediately after his 

 death, March 10, 604, and ranks as 

 a doctor of the Church. His festival 

 is kept March 10, throughout the 

 Roman Catholic Church. Gregory's 

 special emblem in art is a dove 

 which, according to the story, was 

 seen sitting on his head as he dic- 

 tated his Homilies. '*See Augus- 

 tine ; Papacy ; consult also Pope 

 Gregory the Great and his Relations 

 with Gaul, F. W. Kellett, 1889 ; 

 Gregory the Great, J. Barmby, 



1892; Gregory the Great, His 

 Place in History and Thought, F. H. 

 Dudden, 1905. 



Gregory II (d. 731). Pope 7 15- 

 731. A Roman, of the Savelli family, 

 he started his ecclesiastical career as 

 a pupil in the 

 papal Schola 

 Canto-rum. Un- 

 der Sergius 1 

 (687-701) he 

 was made sub- 

 deacon and 

 papal almoner 

 (sacellar ius) 

 and later papal 

 Gregory II, librarian. After 



Pope, 715-731 becoming pope 

 he was visited by the Englishman 

 Winfrid or Boniface, whom the pope 

 authorised to preach to the heathen 

 " on the right bank of the Rhine." 

 Gregory II died Feb. 11, 731. 



Gregory VII (c. 1025-85). Popo 

 1073-85. His name was Hilde- 

 brand, and he was born in Tuscany 

 of obscure and, 

 probably, hum - 

 ble origin. 

 Educated a t 

 the C 1 u n i a c 

 monastery on 

 the Aventine 

 Hill, Rome, 

 where his uncle 



was abbot, he Gregory VII, 

 was created Pope, 1073-85 

 cardinal - d e a- After Raphael 



con by Pope Leo IX, and adminis- 

 trator of the papal estates, where 

 he proved the possession of those 

 gifts of administration which dis- 

 tinguished his later rule. 



Resisting the attempts of the 

 Romans to make him pope on the 

 death of Leo IX, he managed to 

 secure the nomination of his can- 

 didate who became pope as Victor 

 II in 1054. The latter was suc- 

 ceeded in 1057 by Stephen IX, who 

 died while Hildebrand was engaged 

 on an embassy to Germany. It had 

 been the pope's wish that Hilde- 

 brand should succeed him, and he 

 forbade an election to take place 

 until after Hildebrand's return, but 

 a faction seized the opportunity to 

 set up a pretender, who assumed 

 the title of Benedict X. The 

 pseudo-pope was, however, dis- 

 posed of by the prompt action of 

 Hildebrand, whose own candidate 

 again ascended the papal throne as 

 Nicholas II. 



A succession of German popes 

 had tended to increase the imperial 

 influence, particularly in the 

 matter of elections to the papal 

 throne, to a dangerous extent. A 

 decree now promulgated vested the 

 right of electing a pope in the col- 

 lege of cardinals, thus placing the 

 appointment alike out of the 

 power of the emperor no less than 



out of that of the Roman pa- 

 tricians with their factions. On 

 the death of Pope Nicholas in 1061, 

 the malcontents among the Italian 

 factions set up an anti-pope who. 

 under the title of Honorius II, 

 created a schism which lasted three 

 years. Eventually Hildebrand's 

 candidate prevailed and was en- 

 throned as Alexander II. 



The reform movement, mean- 

 while, continued to gain ground 

 under Hildebrand, who, made arch- 

 deacon in 1059, was now created 

 papal chancellor. At last on the 

 death of Alexander, Hildebrand, 

 who had guided the policy of no 

 less than six popes, was chosen by 

 popular acclamation, subsequently 

 was canonically elected, and as- 

 cended the papal throne as Gregory 

 VII. In accordance with some 

 vague reference to the emperor's 

 voice in papal elections, embodied 

 in the decree of Nicholas II, he de- 

 ferred consecration until notice of 

 his election had received imperial 

 acknowledgment ; it was the last 

 time that a papal election ever re- 

 ceived imperial sanction. 



Gregory's first care was thus to 

 secure peace with secular authority 

 in order to further the aims which 

 he put forward at his first Lenten 

 Synod held in Rome, March 1074. 

 The reforms there promulgated, the 

 abolition of simony, and the moral 

 discipline of the clergy set forth in 

 decrees involving clerical celibacy 

 and continence, were intended as 

 means only to an end, of which the 

 uplifting and purifying of the clergy 

 were necessary conditions. 



The uproar created throughout 

 Europe by the promulgation of 

 these decrees did not deter Gre- 

 gory, who followed them up by 

 sending his legates over the coun- 

 try with authority to depose such 

 of the clergy as should refuse to 

 submit, and he enforced them still 

 further by attacking the real root 

 of the evil, i.e. lay investiture or 

 the appointment to ecclesiastical 

 offices by secular persons, an old 

 abuse against which the reforming 

 body in the Church had protested 

 in vain. The decree of the synod 

 which excommunicated any lay 

 person, emperor or king, who 

 should confer an investiture in con- 

 nexion with any ecclesiastical 

 office, brought the pope into col- 

 lision with the whole secular force 

 of Europe, while the interests in- 

 volved and the personal character 

 of the combatants embittered the 

 struggle. . 



The emperor, Henry IV, who 

 previously had confessed his mis- 

 deeds against the Church and pro- 

 mised amendment, was now sum- 

 moned to appear before a council 

 at Rome to answer for his conduct. 



