Gregory VII

Life

Born Hildebrand, he is believed to have come from Sovana in the Tuscany region of Italy. His year of birth is uncertain; it is estimated at around 1015–1020. He was educated in Rome, and when Pope Gregory VI was deposed and left for Germany, Hildebrand accompanied him. He returned to Rome under Leo IX and, serving in the administration of the papal curia under several popes, became a central figure in the church reform movement.

Elected pope in 1073, he took the name Gregory VII. Throughout his pontificate he was in conflict with Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire. When Henry captured Rome in 1084, Gregory escaped with the help of the Norman leader Robert Guiscard. The Norman army, however, sacked Rome, which turned the Roman populace against him. He withdrew to Salerno in southern Italy, where he died in 1085.

Ministry and Achievements

The Gregorian Reform, named after him, was a movement to correct the secularization of the clergy. Its principal elements were as follows:

• Prohibition of simony: He strictly forbade the buying and selling of church offices for money or other consideration.
• Enforcement of clerical celibacy: He vigorously enforced regulations forbidding priests to marry or to live with women.
• Prohibition of lay investiture: Investiture is the act of appointing someone to church office. He forbade the practice of secular rulers, such as kings and lords, appointing bishops.

The conflict over the prohibition of lay investiture is known as the Investiture Controversy. His collected documents include the Dictatus Papae (c. 1075). This text sets out the powers of the pope, including the claim that the pope may depose an emperor.

When Henry IV declared the pope deposed in 1076, Gregory excommunicated the emperor (expelled him from the communion of the church). In January 1077, Henry stood for three days before the castle of Canossa in northern Italy seeking forgiveness, an episode widely known as the "Humiliation of Canossa" (or the "Walk to Canossa"). The conflict, however, flared up again. Gregory excommunicated the emperor a second time in 1080, and Henry set up the antipope Clement III. The investiture question was settled, at least for a time, after Gregory's death by the Concordat of Worms in 1122.

Influence on the Korean Church

Gregory VII has no direct connection to Korean Protestantism. In seminary church history courses he is treated as an example of the medieval papacy at its height, and the Humiliation of Canossa also appears in world history textbooks.

The term "simony," which he fought against, is still used in the Korean church today. It appears in critiques of problems in which money and church office become entangled, such as ordination and installation services or the practice of demanding offerings in return for conferring a church office. Clerical celibacy continues in the Catholic Church, whereas Protestantism has permitted clergy to marry since the Reformation.

Assessment

The Catholic Church regards him as a reforming pope who restored the freedom of the church and the moral integrity of the clergy, and venerates him as a saint. His feast day is May 25. On his deathbed he is reported to have said, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile."

Protestant scholars in the Reformation tradition view him differently. In their view, his reforms were an attempt to place papal authority above secular power and laid the foundation for the subsequent growth of medieval papal power. Some historians also hold that he influenced the course of Western political history toward distinguishing ecclesiastical authority from state authority. This question is also connected to discussions of the relationship between the church and politics.