^ 'T.HE ^ -LlfE ANS^: 'TIMES: f OPE <3REGDRY TO il.H.MATHEW iiskMi<4i&tt, i«MrmTilminliiMhiBmMiilm«ii«iMai[iitiTiaiiiiiiiirii»Tiiir^ President White Libr Cornell University Cornell University Library BX1187 .M42 3 1924 029 389 743 olin Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029389743 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HILDEBRAND POPE GREGORY VII POPE GREGORY VII, FROM THE PORTRAIT IN THE LATERAN ^^Frontispiece THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HILDEBRAND POPE GREGORY VII BY THE RIGHT REV. ARNOLD HARRIS MATHEW, D.D. " Si je n'itais Napolion je voudrais Stre Grigoire VII." (Nafoleon, after AuiUrlitx.) LONDON FRANCIS GRIFFITHS 1910 INTRODUCTION The Pontificate of Gregory VII is important as having occurred at a very critical period in the history of the Papacy, and as having left an indelible impression upon its later aims and policy. A great revival of the Empire had slowly taken place (a.d. 950-1046). "The German peoples within the empire of Charles the Great were united by the urgent necessity of protecting themselves against barbarous foes. They formed a strong elective monarchy, and shook themselves free from their Romanized brethren, the Western Franks, amongst whom the power of the Vassals was still to maintain disunion for centuries. The German kingdom was the inheritor of the ideas and policy of Charles the Great, and the restoration of the Imperial power was a natural and worthy object of the Saxon line of kings." ^ The restoration of the Empire involved a restoration of the status of the Papacy. The great monastery of Cluny and the monastic reformers there became a centre of the revival of Christian feeling, and aimed at uniting Christendom under the headship of the Pope. The reformers aimed at a strict enforcement of the celibacy of the clergy and the suppression of simony—to check, in fact, the secularization of the clerical office, to which many causes, especially the growing wealth of the Church, had contributed. The first desideratum was a reform of the Papacy, and the Emperor Henry III was called upon to effect this. The great Emperor, in whom the mediaeval empire touched its highest point, was not unnaturally hailed as a second David when, at the Synod of Sutri, he superintended the 1 The History oj the Papacy, by Mandell Creighton. — vi INTRODUCTION deposition of three Popes who simultaneously occupied the chair of St. Peter. With Henry III the Empire attained its maximum of power, its maximum of influence upon the Roman See. In Rome no German sovereign had ever been so absolute. He became hereditary Patrician, and wore constantly the circlet of gold and the green mantle which were the badges of that ofiice, seeming, as one might think, to find in it some further authority than that which the Imperial name conferred. To Henry was granted the nomination of the Pope, and by his instrumentality German after German succeeded to the Papacy, at the bidding of a ruler so powerful, so severe, and so pious. A mere chance checked the course of Imperial patronage. The great Emperor died suddenly in 1056, leaving as his successor his son, a mere child, the unfortunate Henry IV. Under the line of German popes the Papacy learned to borrow the strength of the Imperial system under which it had grown to power. So strengthened, the Papacy aimed at independence. A critical step was taken by entrusting the Papal election to the cardinal-bishops, priests and deacons, which aimed a blow at Imperial interference. Politically, an alliance with the Norman settlers in Southern Italy enabled the popes to count upon a counter-balance to the Imperial power. The Papacy slowly prepared to assert its independence. Under Gregory VII, the struggle between the Empire and the Papacy took an acute form. Not content with claiming for the Church an entire Independence from the temporal power, he declared that the independence of the Church was to be found solely in the assertion of its supremacy over the State. " Gregory VII did not aim at securing the Papal monarchy over the Church—that had been established since the days of Nicholas I. He aimed at asserting the freedom of the Church from worldly influences which benumbed it, by setting up the Papacy as a power strong enough to restrain Church and State alike. In ecclesiastical matters Gregory enunciated the infallibility of the INTRODUCTION vii Pope, his power of deposing bishops and restoring them at his own will, the necessity of his consent to give universal validity to synodal decrees, his supreme and irresponsible jurisdiction, the precedence of his legates over all bishops." ^ In political matters, he asserted that the name of Pope was incomparable with any other, that to him alone belonged the right to use " the insignia of Empire ; that he could depose emperors, all and princes ought to kiss his feet ; that he could release subjects from their allegiance to wicked rulers." Such were Gregory's tremendous claims for the Papacy, and such claims naturally came, into conflict with the temporal power of other great rulers. Gregory VII died in exile, after a comparatively brief pontificate of not much more than ten years, but the theory of his ofiice and the prerogatives which he asserted were brought by his successors to a marvellous realization. Without Gregory VII there would have been no Innocent III —that Pope who succeeded in effectively impressing the theory of hierarchic government upon Europe, and became in effect " the king of kings, lord of lords, the only ruler " of princes : for the influence of Gregory VII, like that of many another politician, was greater upon succeeding generations than upon his own. WORKS CONSULTED Gregor VII, sein Leben und Wirken, by Wilhelm Martens, 2 Vols. St. Gregoire VII, et la Reforme de I'Eglise au XI Sieck, by the Abbd O. D^arc, 3 Vols. Gregoire VII et les Origines de la Doctrine Ultramontaine, by Edouard Lang^ron. The Life of Gregory VII, by Abel F. Villemain. English translation, 2 Vols., London 1874. Storia di Papa Gregorio VII, by Johann Voigt. 'The Papal Monarchy, by William Barry, D.D. Storia d'ltalia, by Francisco Bertolini. ^ The History of the Papacy, by Mandell Creighton. viii WORKS CONSULTED Vie de St. Hugues, by Dom A. L'Huillier, O.S.B. Registrum Papae. Life and Pontificate of Gregory VII, by J. W. Bowden. The Beginnings of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes,' by L. Duchesne, D.D. English translation, London 1908. Les Saints, St. L^on IX, by Abb6 E. Martin. L'Histoire du Breviaire Remain, by Dom Swilbert Baumer, O.S.B. Life and Pontificate of Gregory VII, by Sir Roger Greisley, Bt. Revue Benedictine, 1893. Civil ta Cattolica, 1895. Le Conclave, by Lucius Lector. A History of Sacerdotal Celibacy, by Henry Charles Lea, LL.D., 2 Vols. La Primaute du Pape, by P^re Pinel, pritre de I'Oratoire (Edition of 1770, reprinted at Paris 1908, by M. le Cure G. Volet, 68 rue de la Colonic). The See of St. Peter, and St. Peter, his Name and his Office, by T. W. Allies, 2 Vols. Etc., etc., etc. Arnold Harris Mathew. Chelsfield, Kent. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ...... V EARLY LIFE OF HILDEBRAND TO THE DEATH OF NICHOLAS II, 1025 (?)—^JULY 27, IO61 ..... I II THE PONTIFICATE OF ALEXANDER II, I061 — IO73 . 26 III THE ACCESSION OF GREGORY VII HIS FIRST ACTS, APRIL 22, 1073 MARCH 9, 1074 . -53 IV THE FIRST STRUGGLES, MARCH 9, IO74 FEBRUARY 24, IO75 . 7I V THE BREACH BETWEEN HENRY IV OF GERMANY AND GREGORY VII, FEBRUARY 24, IO75 FEBRUARY 24, IO76 . 85 VI THE ROAD TO CANOSSA, FEBRUARY I4, IO76—JANUARY 28, 1077 . .108 VII THE INTRUSION OF RUDOLPH OF SUABIA, JANUARY 29, IO77 FEBRUARY 27, IO78 ..... I34 VIII CIVIL M^AR IN GERMANY, FEBRUARY 27, IO78 MARCH 7, I080 I53 IX HENRY IV AGAIN EXCOMMUNICATED—THE ANTI-POPE GUIBERT. MARCH I, 1080 FEBRUARY I081 . • ^75 X THE LAST STRUGGLES OF GREGORY VII— HIS DEATH. FEBRU- ARY 1081 MAY 25, 1085 .... 207 XI THE CANONIZATION OF GREGORY VII HIS CHARACTER . 242 XII GREGORY VII AS POPE ; AND AS THE FOUNDER OF THE HIERO- CRATIC SYSTEM ...... 254 XIII THE AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE HIEROCRATIC SYSTEM . 277 APPENDIX ...... 292 INDEX ....... 306 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE I POPE GREGORY VII, FROM THE PORTRAIT IN THE LATERAN [Frontispiece) II SOVANA ....... I i6 IV CLOISTERS AT ST, PAUL's - WITHOUT - THE - WALLS, SHOWING THIRTEENTH-CENTURY BYZANTINE WORK . 97 V THE GREAT BENEDICTINE BASILICA OF ST. PAUL-WITHOUT- THE-WALLS, ROME . .112 VI STATUE OF GREGORY VII, OVER THE ALTAR IN HIS CHAPEL IN ST. Matthew's cathedral at salerno . .177 VII BYZANTINE PULPIT IN ST. MATTHEW's CATHEDRAL, SALERNO 1 92 VIII THE CRYPT OF ST. MATTHEw's CATHEDRAL, WHICH IS AN ANCIENT CHURCH UNDER THE PRESENT EDIFICE . 257 — THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HILDEBRAND, POPE GREGORY VII CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE OF HILDEBRAND TO THE DEATH OF NICHOLAS II, 1025 (?) JULY 27, 106 I Sovana—Birth of Hildebrand (1025 ?) —His personal appearance and origin—The state of the Papacy in the early eleventh century—The Popes of the House of Tusculum—Benedict IX, John Gratidn (Gregory VI) and John, Bishop of Sabina (Silvester III), rival Popes—The Emperor Henry III called in to decide their claims—The Synod of Sutri (1046)—The abdication of Benedict IX and deposition of Gregory VI—Hildebrand follows Gregory VI into Germany—Clement II (Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg) chosen Pope—Simony prohibited at a synod in Rome, January 104.7—Death of Clement II, Pope, as 1047—Damasus II, August 9, 1048—Bruno, Bishop of Toul, chosen October Leo IX—Hildebrand_£i«'(22fgOTa/_of