SAINT OF THE DAY

Saint of the Day – 25 May – St Pope Gregory

VII (c 1015-1085)
Posted on May 25, 2018
Saint of the Day – 25 May – St Pope Gregory VII (1015-1085) Monk, Priest,
Reformer, Administrator, Adviser, born Hildebrand of Sovana (Italian: 
Ildebrando da Soana), was Pope from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. 
Patronage – Diocese of Sovana.   St Pope Gregory was born in c 1015 in
Soana (modern Sovana), Italy and died on 25 May 1085 at Salerno, Italy of
natural causes.   Pope Gregory “was probably the most energetic and
determined man ever to occupy the See of Peter and was driven by an almost
mystically exalted vision of the awesome responsibility and dignity of the
papal office” (Eamonn Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the
Popes.  
A disciple of Pope Gregory VI
Born at Sovana, a small town in southern Tuscany, the son of a blacksmith
and christened Hildebrand, he was educated in Rome by the archpriest John
Gratian, who in 1045 became Pope Gregory VI.   However, because of a
financial deal involved in getting rid of his corrupt predecessor, Gregory was
deposed in 1046 by the reforming German king and Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III and went into retirement in the Benedictine monastery of Cluny,
France.   Hildebrand went with his master into exile at Cluny and spent three
years there as a monk.

Ambassador of four popes

However, he returned to Rome in 1049 to serve the newly elected Pope St
Leo IX as papal treasurer.   Hildebrand became a deacon and then prior of the
monastery of St Paul’s Outside the Walls and was an assistant to a major
influence on the next four popes, all of whom were reformers.   He was also
successful in various ambassadorial roles.   On the death of Pope Alexander
II (1061-73, he was elected pope by popular acclaim by the clergy and people
of Rome.   He still had to be ordained priest and bishop before he could act as
pope.
Conflict with King Henry IV of Germany
Taking his name from his mentor Gregory VI, Gregory VII immediately set
about cleaning up the abuses of simony, clerical concubinage and lay
investiture.   He demanded that bishops take an oath of obedience to him and
threatened those who wouldn’t carry out papal decrees.   Over lay investiture
he faced opposition from King Philip I of France, William the Conqueror of
England and the young King Henry IV of Germany.   Henry, whose father had
appointed bishops and popes at will, resented the brusqueness of this new
pontiff and gathered “his” bishops at Worms and insisted Gregory be
deposed.   But Gregory then excommunicated Henry and all the bishops
collaborating with him and absolved his subjects from allegiance. 
Ecclesiastical support for Henry cracked and in 1077 he had to travel to the
house of Matilda of Canossa in Italy where Gregory was staying and there he
begged the Pope’s pardon and absolution. Gregory left Henry standing in
humiliation for three days in the snow before eventually granting him pardon.
Pyrrhic victory and death
But Gregory’s victory was short lived.   Henry rallied his forces and in 1080
invaded Italy, captured Rome, declared Gregory deposed.   He installed an
antipope Guibert of Ravenna as Clement III.   Gregory took refuge in Castel
Sant’Angelo, invited in the Normans under Robert Guiscard to rescue him. 
However, the Normans behaved so badly in Rome that the Romans turned on
Gregory and forced him to retire first to Monte Cassino and then to Salerno
south of Naples where he died.   His last words were famously an adaptation
of Psalm 44 (45) verse 7:  “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I
die in exile”.

Papal claims
Gregory’s pontificate represents a strong staking out of the papal claim of
power over the secular world and though he achieved little, the spirit of papal
reform continued and the papacy never receded from its claims to freedom
from secular and political control in spiritual matters.   From this time on also
the pope began to be presented not just as the vicar of St Peter, but as “the
vicar of Christ himself” (Innocent III 1198-1216).

His influence
Gregory’s beatification (1585) and canonisation (1605) took place at a time
when the papacy was in conflict with secular powers – Queen Elizabeth I and
James I in England. His feast was extended to the universal Church in 1728,
causing some fury among proponents of Gallicanism in France.
He was later seen as a precursor of Vatican I with its definition of the doctrine
of papal infallibility  . One could perhaps be forgiven for detecting a hint of spin
or ideology in his promotion but the tyrannies of the 20th century bear out the
value of his insistence on the freedom of the Church in speaking out on
spiritual matters.
Gregory VII under glass, Salerno cathedral