Gregory VII.

Gregory VII, called Hildebrand, before he was raised to the papal see. Of all the popes, who went about to increase the pontifical power, none has been so bold and successful in it as he. He was without doubt a wicked man; but it cannot be denied that he had the qualities of a great man. A modern author gives us the following character of him. “He was a man of small stature, but he had a very great soul, a quick and penetrating wit, an undaunted courage, and never gave over his enterprizes, whatever difficulty he met with in the execution of them. He was fiery, imperious, hasty, bold, and daring, too forward in the execution of his designs, and carrying things to the last extremities, without being afraid of the ill consequences that might attend his vigorous, but too violent resolutions. He was, otherwise, a man of an unblamable life, notwithstanding all the calumnies of his enemies. He gave first the example of what he required from others; Forma gregis factus, quod verbo docuit, exemple demonstravit. Otto Frising. ¹¹³ and was very learned, especially in the divine sciences, Virum sacris literis eruditissimum, et omnium virtutum genere celeberimum. Lambert. Schafuab. ¹¹⁴ the laws, and the rules and customs of the church, as the historians, and even the Germans, who have no reason to favour him, acknowledge. Lastly, if his fiery and inflexible humour could have permitted him to temper his zeal with the noble moderation of his five predecessors, it is certain that he would have prevented many evils,

and the shedding of a great deal of christian blood, and the historians would have bestowed none but great encomiums upon him.” Maimbourg, Decadeuce de l’Empire, livr. iii. pag. 220. ¹¹⁵ If you consider well the following words of Naudé you will find in them the idea of a great man. Naudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes, pag. 577. ¹¹⁶ “He was one of the greatest pillars of the church, and, to speak of him sincerely and impartially, he was the first, who put her in possession of her franchises, and who freed the sovereign pontiffs from the slavery of the emperors.” Some may say, that purchasing liberty, shaking off the yoke, making one’s-self independant, and subduing one’s own masters, are wicked actions; but they cannot say, that such things can be performed without noble endowments, and a great courage. This pope resembled some conquerors, who are, otherwise, guilty of a great many crimes. I am the more willing to use this comparison, because I am persuaded, that the conquest of the church was a work that required no less courage and ability than the conquest of an empire.

Hildebrand was born at Soana, a small town of Tuscany, and rendered himself so considerable in the monastery of Clugny, that he was made prior of it. He negociated several affairs with and for the popes, and was at last raised to the pontificate in the year 1073. He resolved, without any loss of time, to deprive the emperors of their right of giving the investiture to the bishops; but, being afraid of meeting at first with insurmountable obstacles, if it could be objected to him that he had acted as a pope before his election bad been approved by the emperor, he wrote to that prince in very submissive terms, and declared to him, that he would not be consecrated or crowned till he knew his will about it. The German bishops advised the emperor to disapprove that election; but the only thing that they could obtain was,

that he would get himself informed of the manner how it was made; and he approved of it as soon as he heard the good answers his envoy received from Hildebrand. He had quickly occasion to repent of it; for the new pope, in the first council he held at Rome, renewed the ancient decrees against simonists, and such ecclesiastics as kept concubines; and made a new one, whereby he declared both those to be excommunicated who should receive the in vesture of any benefice from a layman, and those who should give it.

No pope had ever been so severe as Hildebrand against the priests who did not observe celibacy; and therefore he was very much hated. Here are the words of Lambertus Schaffnabergensis: “Pope Hildebrand, having called several synods of the bishops of Italy, ordered that, according to the ancient canons, priests should have no wives, and those who had, should part with them or be deposed, admitting none into the priesthood, but such as should promise to live in perpetual continency. This decree being published all over Italy, he wrote to the bishops of Gaul, enjoining them to do the same in their churches, and that the priests should leave their wives upon pain of excommunication. The whole faction of the clergy rose up immediately against that decree, saying that it was heretical, and contained senseless doctrine, contrary to the word of God, which says, ‘ all men cannot receive this saying; he that is able to receive it let him receive it and likewise contrary to the apostle, who commands that ‘ those who cannot contain themselves should marry, it being better to marry than to burn.’ They farther added, that this man, by a violent exaction, would have men live like angels, and would occasion all manner of irregularity by stopping the course of nature. These factious priests concluded that, if he obstinately persisted in his resolution, they had rather renounce the priesthood, than forsake their wives; and he might then see where he could find

angels to govern the churches, since he would not make use of men.” Coëffeteau adds, according to the testimony of Marianus Scotus, “that many clergymen chose rather to be excommunicated by the pope, than to part with their wives; but the pope ordered, in a synod, that no Christian should hear the mass of a married priest.”

I shall observe a thing which seems to deserve attention, namely, That the popes have found it incomparably more difficult to bring the clergy of the northern countries under the law of celibacy, than those of the southern. When those of Italy and Spain had been for a long time subjected to that yoke, those of Germany and other cold countries held out still, and disputed the ground for marriage, “tanquam pro aris et focis:” nay, I do not know but it may be said, that in Luther’s time, the concubinage of priests was more apparent and scandalous in Germany than in Italy. It ought not to be thence inferred that the inhabitants of the southern counties are more chaste; on the contrary it seems that the northern priests chose rather to keep certain concubines, than to disguise their incontinence by a vague lewdness. They acted therefore with greater fairness, and perhaps they believed it was less a crime.

“Hildebrand excepting no one in his excommunication of those who gave benefices being a layman, his legates declared to the emperor, who went to meet them as far as Nuremberg, that they had express orders to treat him as an excommunicated person, until he had received absolution for the crime of simony, of which he had been accused by the late pope. He did what they desired of him, received the absolution, and wrote to the pope that he would always remain submissive to him. Nevertheless he did not permit the legates to call a council; and he kept with him those ministers of his who had been excommunicated. For these reasons and several others, the pope

summoned him to appear at the next synod of Rome; in default of which he threatened to excommunicate him. The emperor slighted his threatenings, and offered all sorts of indignities to the legates, who had been so bold as to threaten him; and he convoked a council at Worms, where he was charged with so many crimes, that the assembly declared the election of that pope to be void, and wrote to him letters full of injurious words, to acquaint him with their determination. Those who presented the letters did it with great brutality; and yet that pontiff who, notwithstanding his hasty and fiery temper, had a great command of himself, took them unconcernedly and without saying any thing. But the very next day, having imparted them to his synod, he pronounced in a solemn manner an anathema against the emperor, and declared I know not how many prelates of Germany and Lombardy excommunicated. The latter were so little concerned at it, that they quickly assembled at Pavia, and excommunicated him. As he had foreseen that his conduct would draw upon him very potent enemies, he omitted nothing to strengthen his party; and in the first place he brought over three princesses to his interest; the empress Agnes the emperor’s mother, the duchess Beatrix his aunt, and the countess Matilda, his cousin-german. Beatrix and Matilda being very powerful in Italy, where they had vast estates, were able to assist him more effectually than the empress Agnes by her remonstrances, which Henry made no great account of. These two princesses, who were very devout, had a great opinion of Gregory’s virtue, who was looked upon as a holy man, and very austere; nay, he was said to have revelations and extacies, with the gift of prophecy and miracles, which are powerful motives to make a ghostly father. Afterwards they resolved to be governed by him; and he, on his part, answering the confidence they reposed in him, took a particular care to direct them by his letters in the way to virtue, and expressed a great affection for them, and a mutual confidence: so that when this great rupture between the pope and the emperor divided the empire into two parties, they did not in the least waver, but openly declared for Gregory, and resolved to assist him with all their power, especially the countess Matilda.” I use the words of Maimbourg, lest the readers should suspect that I design to impose upon them by artificial translations. It must be confessed that this pope was a very cunning man, and that notwithstanding his fiery and violent temper, he knew very well how to make use of the most effectual devices: he made sure of the female sex, and pitched upon the ladies who had the greatest power.

Matilda, in particular, adhered to him in such a manner as was very much talked of. A pope, though never so peaceable and well beloved, could not have avoided the satirical strokes of ill tongues, had he been so intimate with a lady as Hildebrand with Matilda. You may therefore judge whether a pope, so violent as he was, and who had many enemies, could avoid being defamed on account of the mutual affection between him and that countess. I shall set down another passage of a Jesuit, who cannot be suspected upon this occasion. “The countess Matilda finding herself alone, and being absolute mistress of her states, because the duchess Beatrix, her mother, died much about the same time that the death of Godfrey came to be known, resolved to be directed by Gregory more than ever, and made him entirely master of her mind, her conduct, and estate; and therefore, according to the usual custom of those devout women, who would think themselves undone if they were far from their directors, for whom they have sometimes too great a fondness, she did whatever she could, not to lose sight of him. She constantly followed him, and did him a thousand services with an incredible affection. She acted only by his orders, which she

executed with a wonderful exactness; and though she was the greatest princess of Italy, she preferred the title of that of his most humble servant and dear daughter, looking upon him as her father and master, for whom she expressed a great deal of respect, zeal, and devotion; though perhaps she did it with less prudence and discretion than she should have done, if I may say so, without pretending to lessen the honour that is due to the memory of so illustrious a princess. For, in short, the partisans of the emperor, and the enemies of Gregory, especially the clergy of Germany, whom he absolutely resolved to deprive of their wives, whom they had imprudently married against the most holy laws of the church, thence took occasion to inveigh against him in a strange manner, to accuse him of too great a privacy with that countess, and to tell many scandalous stories of him, and such as cannot be credited in the least, as being contrary to truth, and the known virtue of both. And therefore the German historian, who lived at that time, and who relates this, adds that all judicious persons, and such as were not blinded and prejudiced by an unjust passion, were fully sensible that they were mere impudent calumnies, which like thin clouds so vanished away, by the apostolical life the pope led in the sight of all the Roman court, and those who knew him did not entertain the least suspicion of him.”

Gregory also made a league with the duke of Suabia, and dispersed several circular letters, which had a good effect; for he declared all those to be excommunicated who should correspond with the emperor; he forbad all bishops to absolve him; and enjoined all princes to force him to submit to the holy see, or to proceed to the election of another emperor. What is very remarkable is, that he durst maintain that, in in deposing him, he had only conformed to the practice of the court of Rome. The league that was formed in his favour in Germany was so powerful

that, after a long deliberation, it was declared, that “they ought to elect another king by the pope’s authority, who should give him the imperial crown.” The emperor, notwithstanding his mean condescension to the confederate princes, could obtain but very hard conditions; which obliged him to go and beg the pope’s absolution; and, in order to obtain it, he was forced to submit to the most unheard of indignities. He set out, in the beginning of the winter, with his wife, one of his children, and a very small retinue, and passed the Alps in the worst time of the year, being exposed to great inconveniences, which might raise compassion for a mere traveller, and much more for so great a prince, reduced to so miserable a condition. Nevertheless, his arrival in Italy gave some uneasiness to the pope; and therefore Matilda carried him to her castle of Canossa, that he might be safe whatever should happen. Many princes intreated him to absolve the emperor, but he continued a long time inexorable; and then, being rather overcome by importunities, than moved with the continual and earnest solicitations of those princes, he told them at last, that he would absolve him, according to their desires; but upon condition that, in order to make it appear to all the world that he truly repented of his revolt, he should first send him his crown, and all his other royal ornaments, to dispose of them at his pleasure; and that he should publicly confess that, after what he had done in his infamous conventicle at Worms, he was unworthy of being a king or an emperor. The princes threw themselves at the pope’s feet, beseeching him for God’s sake to be contented with something more tolerable: and they obtained, with great difficulty, that he might come then, in God’s name, if he had a mind to be absolved; but that, in order to obtain that favour, he must resolve to do whatever should be enjoined him for a penance. The emperor submitted to those terms. He went to the first gate of the castle, expecting with great submission what should be required of him. First, he was obliged to go alone, and to leave all his attendants out of doors to wait for him, and go back with him at his coming out; which was certainly a very nice point, and no sovereign prince but he would have submitted to it. In short, he delivered himself, as it were bound hand and foot, into the hands of those who might have absolutely disposed of him as they pleased, and kept him prisoner in a place that was thought to be impregnable, and out of which his attendants had never been able to rescue him. Besides, when he got out of the first inclosure, they stopped him in the second; where he was obliged to lay down all the ensigns of the royal majesty, to pull off his clothes, and put on a woollen tunic, like a hair-cloth, and to stay there bare-footed in the coldest time of the winter; (for it was about the latter end of January) and fasting from morning till night, imploring with deep sighs God’s and the pope’s mercy. And what is most strange is, that this poor prince was forced to continue in this sad and pitiful condition three days together, whilst the pope could not be moved by tears and intreaties to admit him sooner into his presence, in order to comfort him: and the thing went so far that, as he himself confesses, boasting of his extreme severity in his letter to the princes of Germany, all those that were with him murmured at it, being amazed at his hard-heartedness; nay, some made no scruple to say, that such a behaviour was more like the barbarous cruelty of a tyrant, than the just severity of an apostolic judge. They are the very words of Gregory, mentioned by cardinal Baronius. That prince was like to lose his patience about the end of the third day of so severe a penance, when the Countess Matilda undertook this business with more earnestness than before; and then pope Gregory, who could not deny any thing to so great a princess, to whom he was so much indebted, resolved at last to receive Henry on the fourth day in the morning, and to reconcile him to the church upon these terms: “That he should submit to the judgment which the pope, in the time and place appointed for it, should give upon the accusations brought against him; and that, in the mean time, he should not exercise any act of sovereignty.” I omit the other conditions, which were all very severe.

His excommunicated friends were treated much in the same manner. He did not use much more gently the German bishops and others, both ecclesiastics and laymen, who came a little before to throw themselves at his feet, in order to be absolved from the excommunication they had incurred. For, before he absolved them, he caused each of them to fast a considerable time, against the custom of the country, where, by reason of the cold, fasting is with more difficulty observed than in Italy. Fasting is without doubt one of the greatest mortifications that can be laid upon the northern nations, especially upon rich people, who are used from their younger years to feed well, and to make long meals, where, if they eat a great deal, they drink still more. If the Christian religion had been first planted in that country, I do not think they would have sent into the east the same canons about abstinence and vigils, which came from the east to the northern nations.

The pusillanimity of the emperor made the Lombards less zealous for him; and he could not recover their esteem but by expressing a desire of revenging himself. The wars he had upon his hands in Germany, where Rodolphus, duke of Suabia, had been made king, prevented his attacking the pope; but, having obtained great advantages over his rival, he showed himself but little disposed to perform what Gregory required of him. Wherefore this pope, in a council held at Rome in the year 1080, excommunicated and deposed him anew. “By this thundering

decree, he deprived him of the empire, and of the kingdoms of Germany and Italy, absolves all his subjects from their oath of allegiance; and what he would not do till then, confirms Rodolphus’s election, to whom he sent a rich crown of gold, about which there was an inscription, contained in one verse, importing that Christ, who is the mystical stone, gave the diadem to Peter, and in the person of Gregory to Rodolphus.” These are father Maimbourg’s words. If it be true that Gregory’s father was a carpenter, we have here an instance, that men of the most lofty courage may be born among the dregs of the people. Can any body be more haughty than our Hildebrand was? did not he make it bis business to humble kings; “because,” said he, that “they carried it too high, and he was resolved to bring down their pride by his severe usage. —“Imperatoribus et regibus, cæterisque principibus ut elationes maris, et superbiæ fluctus comprimere valeant, arma humilitatis, Deo auctore, providere curamus: proinde videtur utile, maximè Imperatoribus, ut cùm mens illorum se ad alta erigere, et pro singulari vult gloriâ oblectare, inveniat quibus se modis humiliet, atque unde gaudebat, sentiat plus timendum. —To humble the pride of kings and princes, we take care, by God’s assistance, to provide the arms of humility: esteeming it useful to show monarchs the way to humble themselves amidst their greatness, and discover to them the danger of the situation they so much pride themselves in.” Observe that the Jesuit Maimbourg rejects what has been said of Gregory’s father.

This final stroke brought things to the last extremities. The emperor called an assembly first at Mentz, and then at Brixen, wherein Gregory was declared to have forfeited the pontificate, and Guibert of Parma, archbishop of Ravenna, was elected in his room, and took the name of Clement III. The emperor, having gained two battles, one in Germany over Rodolphus,

notwithstanding the pope’s prophecies, the other near Mantua, over the troops of the countess Matilda, resolved to go and settle his antipope at Rome. Hildebrand, in order to encourage Rodolphus and the Saxons, assured them that he knew by revelation, “That a false king was to die that very year,” which he understood of the emperor Henry IV; “and if it be not true,” added he, “I desire to be no longer pope; nay, if it do not happen before St Peter’s day.” Du Plessis Mornai, who had this from Sigebert, observes, “that Rodolphus, depending on that oracle, renewed the battle four times, others say six times; and not only lost it, but also his right hand, wherewith he had sworn to the emperor, and also his life.” Coëffeteau answers, “that cardinal Baronius had prevented that calumny, and showed that Gregory never pretended to the revelations his enemies lathered upon him, but only that he affirmed in general, trusting to God’s mercy, and the justice of his cause, that God would destroy his enemies, and that his friends would shortly be uppermost; but without fixing any day, as he had been falsely charged by the schismatics.” It was replied to Coëffeteau that Baronius says this, upon occasion of a letter Gregor. Regist. lib. viii, Ep. vii. ¹¹⁷ written by Gregory to his fellow bishops and other faithful: and it is true that the words of that letter may bear such an interpretation; but this does not prove that the pope did not speak otherwise elsewhere. And indeed the charge laid upon him concerns quite another thing, not contained in a letter, but spoken in a public sermon, which he preached in his pontifical habit. The words run thus: “Do not look upon me hereafter as a pope, but turn me out from the altar, if this prophecy be not fulfilled on St Peter’s day.” It fell out that the assassins, who had been bribed, could not strike the intended blow, in order to fulfil the prophecy; so that, to justify himself, he pretended that his words were only to be understood of the death of the emperor’s soul, because he had not been able to destroy his body. Rivet, Remarques sur la Réponse au Mystere d’iniquité, Part II, pag. 182. ¹¹⁸

Hildebrand’s craft proves that those who pretend to foretel things to come, take care to have a brazen face, and an inexhaustible source of equivocations, in order to explain events in their favour, though they be never so contrary to them. If the enemies meet with worldly prosperity, they say they grow more obdurate, and that it is the true misery which was foretold by them. See how Hildebrand applies to the death of the soul, what he ventured to foretel concerning the emperor’s death. Of what use could it be to Rodolphus that the emperor Henry IV should be damned, after a certain number of years, if, before that Rodolphus was to be killed in a battle gained by the emperor?

The emperor effected the humiliation of his enemy after many difficulties, and had the satisfaction of forcing him to fly from Rome, and retire to Salerno, where pope Gregory VII died, the 24th of May 1085. It is no easy thing to give a particular account of his actions with any certainty; for, besides that the writers who speak of him, confute one another, it cannot be denied that his enemies appear too passionate, and that what they say of his being a magician is mere fiction. However this be, I can affirm, that no pope was ever so well or so ill spoken of as our Gregory VII. Many miracles are ascribed to him, and he has been inscribed in the catalogue of Saints.

He was buried at Salerno, in St. Matthew’s church, which he consecrated not long before he died. His body was searched for, in the year 1573, and it was found clothed with the pontifical ornaments. The following epitaph was added to it. “Gregorio VII.

Soanensi Pont. Opt. Max. Ecclesiasticæ libertatis vindici acerrimo, assertori constantissimo, qui dum Rom. Pontificis auctoritatem adversus Henrici perfidiam strenuè tuetur, Salerni sancte decubeit, Anno Dom. 1085. 8 Kal. Junii. Marcus Antonius Columns, Marsilius Bononiensis Archiepiscopus Salernitanus, cum illius corpus, quingentos circiter annos, sacris amictum, ac ferè integrum reperissit, ne tanti pontificis sepulcrum diutius memoria careret. Gregorio Kill. Bononiense sedente, anno dom. 1578. pridie kalendas Quintilis.—To perpetuate the memory of Gregory VII, of Soana, Pope, the most inflexible assertor of the immunities of the church, who, whilst he strenuously asserted the papal authority against the perfidiousness of the emperor Henry, died holily at Salerno, A. D. 1085, May 25. This epitaph was inscribed by Mark Anthony Colonna, archbishop of Salerno, having found his body after about 500 years interment, clothed in his pontifical habit, and almost entire: A. D. 1578, June 30, in the reign of Gregory XIII.” He was placed in the Roman Martyrology in the year 1584, and his festival was celebrated in 1595. We may very well wonder at the uncertainty of history, when we read the apologies published by his favourers. Art. Gregory VII.