It’s unclear whether Hildebrand of Tuscany started as a monk at the Monastery of Santa Maria in Aventino (Rome) or in Cluny; however, he is counted among the Benedictines. He accompanied Gregory VI into exile in Germany. He returned to Rome during the pontificate of Leo IX, who entrusted him with the Abbey of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. He was sent as a legate to France.
He became an archdeacon, with increasing influence in the Roman Curia. On the same day of Alexander II’s funeral, he was elected pope by popular acclamation, and the cardinals confirmed the election in 1073. The new pope took the name of the first Benedictine pope, Saint Gregory I.
The extensive papal register, preserved in its originals, allows us to follow Gregory VII’s work step by step. He stood out in the great reform known as the «Gregorian Reform,» mainly consisting of the implementation of energetic measures against simony and in favor of clerical celibacy.
The adoption of a decidedly centralist system of government led Gregory to attitudes and actions that are not always judged entirely correct today; one of them was replacing the Hispano liturgy with the Roman one. However, it was primarily his will to exercise papal power in absolute forms that created the most difficulties for the pope, who, despite everything, was not always lacking in diplomatic sense. He faced resistance from kings and prelates.
The strongest opposition came from King Henry IV of Germany. The immediate occasion of this opposition was the investiture of the Milanese episcopal see. Gregory excommunicated the king and released his subjects from their oath of fidelity; he even dared to go to Germany to have a new king elected at the Reichstag of Augsburg. Tactically, Henry IV submitted to the pope at Canossa, but this did not prevent the Empire’s princes from electing Rudolf of Swabia as king; then, Henry had Guibert of Ravenna elected as antipope.
Gregory felt abandoned even by his cardinals. Henry took part of Rome, the so-called Leonine City, and was crowned emperor by Guibert. Gregory took refuge in the Castel Sant’Angelo, from where he was freed by the Norman Duke Robert Guiscard. He then fled to Salerno, where he died a year later on May 25, 1085.
His body is buried in Salerno Cathedral. Even if we judge the pope harshly for the excessive way he exercised his power, we must recognize that Gregory VII is one of the great figures of the reform of the Middle Ages; it is significant that he was not canonized until 1606.
