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GREGORY VII
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See also:GREGORY VII ., See also:pope from 1073 to 1085. See also:Hildebrand (the future pope) would seem to have been See also:born in See also:Tuscany—perhaps Raovacum—See also:early in the third.See also:decade of the 11th See also:century. The son of a See also:plain See also:citizen, Bunicus or Bonizo, he came to See also:Rome at an early See also:age for his See also:education; an See also:uncle of his being See also: (1048–1054). Under him Hildebrand found his first employment in the ecclesiastical service, becoming a sub-See also:deacon and steward in the See also:Roman Church. He acted, moreover, as a See also:legate in See also:France, where he was occupied inter See also:cilia with the question of See also:Berengarius of See also:Tours, whose views on the See also:Lord's Supper had excited opposition. On the death of Leo IX. he was commissioned by the See also:Romans as their See also:envoy to the German See also:court, to conduct the negotiations with regard to his successor. The emperor pronounced in favour of Bishop Gebhard of Eichstadt, who, in *the course of his See also:short reign as See also:Victor II. (1055–1057), again employed Hildebrand as his legate to France. When See also:Stephen IX. (See also:Frederick of Lorraine) was raised to the papacy, without previous consultation with the German court, Hildebrand and Bishop See also:Anselm of See also:Lucca were despatched to Germany to secure a belated recognition, and he succeeded in gaining the consent of the empress See also:Agnes. Stephen, however, died before his return, and, by the hasty elevation of Bishop Johannes of See also:Velletri, the Roman See also:aristocracy made a last See also:attempt to recover their lost See also:influence on the See also:appointment to the papal throne—a proceeding which was charged with peril to the Church as it implied a renewal of the disastrous patrician regime. That the crisis was surmounted was essentially the See also:work of Hildebrand. To Benedict X., the aristocratic nominee, he opposed a See also:rival pope in the See also:person of Bishop See also:Gerhard of See also:Florence, with whom the victory rested. The reign of See also:Nicholas II. (1059–1061) was distinguished by events which exercised a potent influence on the policy of the See also:Curia during the next two decades--the rapprochement with the See also:Normans in the See also:south of See also:Italy, and the See also:alliance with the democratic and, subsequently, See also:anti-German See also:movement of the See also:Patarenes in the See also:north. It was also under his pontificate(1059) that the See also:law was enacted which transferred thepapal See also:election to the See also:College of Cardinals, thus withdrawing it from the See also:nobility and populace of Rome and thrusting the German influence on one See also:side. It would be too much to maintain that these See also:measures were due to Hildebrand alone, but it is obvious that he was already a dominant See also:personality on the Curia, through he still held no more exalted See also:office than that of See also:arch-deacon, which was indeed only conferred on him in 1059. Again, when Nicholas II. died and a new See also:schism See also:broke out, the discomfiture of See also:Honorius II. (Bishop Cadalus of See also:Parma) and the success of his rival (Anselm of Lucca) must be ascribed principally, if not entirely, to Hildebrand's opposition to the former. Under the sway of See also: 1076); still it is plain from his own See also:account of the circumstances of his elevation that it was conducted in extremely irregular See also:fashion, and that the forms prescribed by the law of 1059 were not observed. But the sequel justified his election—of which the worst that can be said is that there was no general See also:suffrage. And this sequel again owed none of its success to See also:chance, but was the See also:fruit of his own exertions. In his See also:character were See also:united wide experience and great See also:energy tested in difficult situations. It is See also:proof of the popular faith in his qualifications that, although the circumstances of his election invited See also:assault in 1073, no sort of attempt was then made to set up a rival pontiff. When, however, the opposition which took See also:head against him had gone so far as to produce a pretender to the chair, his See also:long and undisputed See also:possession tended to prove the See also:original legality of his papacy; and the See also:appeal to irregularities at its beginning not only lost all cogency but assumed the See also:appearance of a See also:mere biased attack. On the 22nd of May he received sacerdotal ordination, and on the 3oth of See also:June episcopal See also:consecration; the empress Agnes and the duchess See also:Beatrice of Tuscany being See also:present at the ceremony, in addition to Bishop Gregory of See also:Vercelli, the See also:chancellor of the German See also: Such being the conditions, a conflict between Gregory VII. and Henry IV. could have only one issue—the victory of the former. In the two following years Henry was compelled by the Saxon See also:rebellion to come to amicable terms with the pope at any cost. ,.Consequently in May 1074 he did See also:penance at See also:Nuremberg in presence of the legates to expiate his continued intimacy with the members of his See also:council banned by Gregory, took an See also:oath of obedience, and promised his support in the work of reforming the Church. This attitude, however, which at first won him the confidence of the pope, he abandoned so soon as he gained the upper See also:hand of the See also:Saxons: this he achieved by his victory at Hohenburg on the Unstrut (June 9, 1075). He now attempted to reassert his rights of suzerain in upper Italy without delay. He sent See also:Count See also:Eberhard to See also:Lombardy to combat the Patarenes; nominated the cleric Tedaldo to the archbishopric of See also:Milan, thus settling a prolonged and contentious question; and finally endeavoured to establish relations with the See also:Norman See also:duke, See also:Robert Guiscard. Gregory VII. answered with a rough See also:letter, dated See also:December 8, in which—among other charges—he reproached the German king with See also:breach of his word and with his further countenance of the excommunicated councillors; while at the same See also:time he sent by word of mouth a brusque See also:message intimating that the enormous crimes which would be laid to his account rendered him liable, not only to the See also:ban of the church, but to the deprivation of his See also:crown. Gregory ventured on these audacious measures at a time when he himself was confronted by a reckless opponent in the person of Cencius, who on See also:Christmas-See also:night did not See also:scruple to surprise him in church and carry him off as a prisoner, though on the following See also:day he was obliged to surrender his See also:captive. The reprimands of the pope, couched as they were in such an unprecedented See also:form, infuriated Henry and his court, and their See also:answer was the hastily convened See also:national council in See also:Worms, which met on the 24th of See also:January 1076. In the higher ranks of the German See also:clergy Gregory had many enemies, and a Roman See also:cardinal, See also:Hugo Candidus, once on intimate terms with him but now at variance, had made a hurried expedition to Germany for the occasion and appeared at Worms with the See also:rest. All the See also:gross scandals with regard to the pontiff that this See also:prelate could utter were greedily received by the See also:assembly, which committed itself to the See also:ill-considered and disastrous See also:resolution that Gregory had forfeited his papal dignity. In a document full of accusations the bishops renounced their See also:allegiance. In another King Henry pronounced him deposed, and the Romans were required to choose a new occupant for the vacant chair of St Peter. With the utmost haste two bishops were despatched to Italy in See also:company with Count Eberhard under See also:commission of the council, and they succeeded in procuring a similar See also:act of deposition from the Lombard bishops in the See also:synod of See also:Piacenza. The communication of these decisions to the pope was undertaker. by the See also:priest See also:Roland of Parma, and he was fortunate enough to gain an opportunity for speech in the synod, which had barely assembled in the Lateran church, and there to deliver his message announcing the dethronement of the pontiff. For the moment the members were petrified with horror, but soon such a See also:storm of indignation was aroused that it was only due to the moderation of Gregory himself that the envoy was not cut down on the spot. On the following day the pope pronounced the See also:sentence of See also:excommunication against the German king with all formal solemnity, divested him of his royal dignity and absolved his subjects from the oaths they had sworn to him. This sentence purported to eject the king from the church and to See also:strip him of his crown. Whether it would produce this effect, or whether it would remain an idle See also:threat, depended not on the author of the See also:verdict, but on the subjects of Henry—before all, on the German princes. We know from contemporary See also:evidence that the excommunication of the king made a profound impression both in Germany and Italy. See also:Thirty years before, Henry III. had deposed three popes, and thereby rendered a great and acknowledged service to the church. When Henry IV. attempted to copy this See also:summary See also:procedure he came to grief, for he lacked the support of the See also:people. In Germany there was a speedy and general revulsion of sentiment in favour of Gregory, and the particularism of the princes utilized the auspicious moment for prosecuting their anti-See also:regal policy under the cloak of respect for the papal decision. When at Whitsuntide the king proposed to. discuss the measures to be taken against Gregory in a council of his nobles at See also:Mainz; only a few made their appearance; the Saxons snatched at the See also:golden opportunity for renewing their insurrection and the anti-royalist party See also:grew in strength from See also:month to month. The situation now became extremely See also:critical for Henry. As a result of the agitation, which was zealously fostered by the papal legate Bishop Altmann of See also:Passau, the princes met in See also:October at Tribur to elect a new German king, and Henry, who was stationed at See also:Oppenheim on the See also:left See also:bank of the See also:Rhine, was only saved from
the loss of his See also:sceptre by the failure of the assembled princes to agree on the question of his successor. Their dissension, however, merely induced them to postpone the verdict. Henry, they declared, must make reparation to the pope and See also:pledge himself to obedience; and they settled that, if, on the anniversary of his excommunication, he still See also:lay under the ban, the throne should be considered vacant. At the same time they determined to invite Gregory to See also:Augsburg, there to decide the conflict. These arrangements showed Henry the course to be pursued. It was imperative, under any circumstances and at any See also:price, to secure his See also:absolution from Gregory before the period named, otherwise he could scarcely See also:foil his opponents in their intention to pursue their attack against himself and justify their measures by an appeal to his excommunication. At first he attempted to attain his ends by an See also:embassy, but when Gregory rejected his overtures he took the celebrated step of going to Italy in person. The pope had already left Rome, and had intimated to the German princes that he would expect their escort for his See also:journey on January 8 in See also:Mantua. But this escort had not appeared when he received the See also:news of the king's arrival. Henry, who travelled through See also:Burgundy, had been greeted with See also:wild See also:enthusiasm by the See also:Lombards, but resisted the temptation to employ force against Gregory. He See also:chose instead the unexpected and unusual, but, as events proved, the safest course, and determined to compel the pope to See also: This occurrence was quickly embellished and inwoven by See also:legend, and great uncertainty still prevails with regard to several important points. The reconciliation was only effected after prolonged negotiations and definite pledges on the See also:part of the king, and it was with reluctance that Gregory at length gave way, for, if he conferred his absolution, the See also:diet of princes in Augsburg, in which he might reasonably See also:hope to act as arbitrator, would either be rendered purposeless, or, if it met at all, would See also:wear an entirely different character. It was impossible, however, to deny the penitent re-entrance into the church, and the politician had in this See also:case to be subordinated to the priest. Still the removal of the ban did not imply a genuine reconciliation, and no basis was gained for a See also:settlement of the great questions at issue—notably that of See also:investiture, A new conflict was indeed inevitable from the very fact that Henry IV. naturally considered the sentence of deposition repealed with that of excommunication; while Gregory on the other hand, See also:intent on reserving his freedom of action, gave no hint on the subject at Canossa.
That the excommunication of Henry IV. was simply a pretext —not a See also:motive—for the opposition of the rebellious German nobles is See also:manifest. For not only did they persist in their policy after his absolution, but they took the more decided step of setting up a rival king in the person of Duke See also:Rudolph of See also:Swabia (See also:Forchheim, See also: In wide circles it was See also:felt to be an in-See also:justice, and men began to put the question—so dangerous to the See also:prestige of the pope—whether an excommunication pronounced on frivolous grounds was entitled to respect. To make matters worse, Rudolph of Swabia died on the 16th of October of the same See also:year. True, a new claimant—See also:Hermann of See also:Luxemburg—was put forward in See also:August ro8r, but his personality was ill adapted for a See also:leader of the Gregorian party in Germany, and the See also:power of Henry IV. was in the ascendant. The king, who had now been schooled by experience, took up the struggle thus forced upon him with great vigour. He refused to acknowledge the ban on the ground of illegality. A council had been summoned at See also:Brixen, and on the 2.sth of June ro8o it pronounced Gregory deposed and nominated the See also:archbishop See also:Guibert of See also:Ravenna as his successor—a policy of anti-king, anti-pope. In ro8r Henry opened the conflict against Gregory in Italy. The latter had now fallen on evil days, and he lived to see thirteen cardinals See also:desert him, Rome surrendered by the Romans to the German king, Guibert of Ravenna enthroned as See also:Clement III. (March 24, 1084), and Henry crowned emperor by his rival, while he himself was constrained to flee from Rome. "The relations of Gregory to the remaining See also:European states were powerfully influenced by his German policy; for Germany, by See also:engrossing the bulk of his See also:powers, not infrequently compelled him to show to other rulers that moderation and forbearance which he withheld from the German king. The attitude of the Normans brought him a See also:rude awakening. The great concessions made to them under Nicholas II. were not only powerless to See also:stem their advance into central Italy but failed to secure even the expected See also:protection for the papacy. When Gregory was hard pressed by Henry IV., Robert Guiscard left him to his See also:fate, and only interfered when he himself was menaced with the German arms. Then, on the See also:capture of Rome, he abandoned the city to the See also:tender mercies of his warriors, and by the popular indignation evoked by his act brought about the banishment of Gregory.
In the case of several countries, Gregory attempted to establish a claim of See also:suzerainty on the part of the see of St Peter, and to secure the recognition of its self-asserted rights of possession. On the ground of immemorial usage " See also:Corsica and See also:Sardinia were assumed to belong to the Roman Church. See also:Spain and See also:Hungary were also claimed as her See also:property, and an attempt was made to induce the king of See also:Denmark to hold his See also:realm as a See also:fief from the pope. See also: He wrote in friendly terms to the Saracen king of See also:Mauretania in north See also:Africa, and attempted, though without success, to bring the Armenians into closer contact with Rome. The See also:East, especially, claimed his interest. The ecclesiastical rupture between the bishops of Rome and See also:Byzantium was a severe See also:blow to him, and he laboured hard to restore the former amicable relationship. At that period it was impossible to suspect that the schism implied a definite separation, for See also:pro-longed schisms had existed in past centuries, but had always been surmounted in the end. Both sides, moreover, had aninterest in repairing the breach between the churches. Thus, immediately on his accession to the pontificate, Gregory sought to come into touch with the emperor See also:Michael VII. and succeeded. When the news of the Saracenic outrages on the Christians in the East filtered to Rome, and the political embarrassments of the See also:Byzantine emperor increased, he conceived the project of a great military expedition and exhorted the faithful to participation in the task of recovering the See also:sepulchre of the Lord (1074). Thus the See also:idea of a crusade to the See also:Holy Land already floated before Gregory's See also:vision, and his intention was to place himself at the head. But the See also:hour for such a gigantic enterprise was not yet come, and the impending struggle with Henry IV. turned his energies into another channel. In his treatment of ecclesiastical policy and ecclesiastical reform, Gregory did not stand alone, but on the contrary found powerful support.. Since the See also:middle of the rrth century the tendency—mainly represented by Cluny—towards a stricter morality and a more See also:earnest attitude to life, especially on the part of the clergy, had converted the papacy; and, from Leo IX. onward, the popes had taken the See also:lead in the movement. Even before his election, Gregory had gained the confidence of these circles, and, when he assumed the guidance of the church, they laboured for him with extreme devotion. From his letters we see how he fostered his connexion with them and stimulated their zeal, how he strove to awake the consciousness that his cause was the cause of See also:God and that to further it was to render service to God. By this means he created a personal party, unconditionally attached to himself, and he had his confidants in every country. In Italy Bishop Anselm of Lucca, to take an example, belonged to their number. Again, the duchess Beatrice of Tuscany and her daughter the Margravine See also:Matilda, who put her great See also:wealth at his disposal, were of inestimable service. The empress Agnes also adhered to his cause. In upper Italy the Patarenes had worked for him in many ways, and all who stood for their See also:objects stood for the pope. In Germany at the beginning of his reign the higher ranks of the clergy stood aloof from him and were confirmed in their attitude by some of his regulations. But Bishop Altmann of Passau, who has already been mentioned, and Archbishop Gebhard of See also:Salzburg, were among his most zealous followers. That the convent of Hirschau in Swabia was held by Gregory was a fact of much significance, for its monks spread over the land as itinerant See also:agitators and accomplished much for him in See also:southern Germany. In England Archbishop See also:Lanfranc of See also:Canterbury probably stood closest to him; in France his See also:champion was Bishop Hugo of See also:Die, who afterwards ascended the archiepiscopal chair of See also:Lyons. The whole life-work of Gregory VII. was based on his conviction that the church has been founded by God and entrusted with the task of embracing all mankind in a single society in which His will is the only law; that, in her capacity as a divine institution, she outtops all human structures; and that the pope, qua head of the church, is the See also:vice-See also:regent of God on See also:earth, so that disobedience to him implies disobedience to God—or, in other words, a defection from See also:Christianity. Elaborating an idea discoverable in St See also:Augustine, he looked on the worldly state—a purely human creation—as an unhallowed edifice whose character is sufficiently manifest from the fact that it abolishes the equality of man, and that it is built up by violence and injustice. He See also:developed these views in a famous See also:series of letters to Bishop Hermann of See also:Metz. But it is clear from the outset that we are only dealing with reflections of strictly theoretical importance; for any attempt to interpret them in terms of action would have See also:bound the church to annihilate not merely a single definite state, but all states. Thus Gregory, as a politician desirous of achieving some result, was driven in practice to adopt a different standpoint. He acknowledged the existence of the state as a See also:dispensation of See also:Providence, described the coexistence of church and state as a divine See also:ordinance, and emphasized the See also:necessity of See also:union between the sacerdotium and the imperium. But at no period would he have dreamed of putting the two powers on an equality; the superiority of church to state was to him a fact which admitted of no discussion and which he had never doubted. Again, this very superiority of the church implied in his eyes a superiority of the papacy, and he did not shrink from See also:drawing the extreme conclusions from these premises. In other words, he claimed the right of excommunicating and deposing incapable monarchs, and of confirming the choice of their successors. This See also:habit of thought needs to be appreciated in See also:order to understand his efforts to bring individual states into feudal subjection to the chair of St Peter. It was no mere question of formality, but the first step to the realization of his ideal See also:theocracy comprising each and every state. Since this papal conception of the state involved the exclusion of See also:independence and See also:autonomy, the See also:history of the relationship between church and state is the history of one continued struggle. In the time of Gregory it was the question of appointment to spiritual offices—the so-called investiture-which brought the theoretical controversy to a head. The preparatory steps had already been taken by Leo IX., and the subsequent popes had advanced still further on the path he indicated; but it was reserved for Gregory and his enactments to provoke the outbreak of the great conflict which dominated the following decades. By the first law (1075) the right of investiture for churches was in general terms denied to the laity. In 1078 neglect of this See also:prohibition was made punishable by excommunication, and, by a further See also:decree of the same year, every investiture conferred by a layman was declared invalid and its See also:acceptance pronounced liable to See also:penalty. It was, moreover, enacted that every layman should restore, under See also:pain of excommunication, all lands of the church, held by him as fiefs from princes or clerics; and that, henceforward, the assent of the pope, the archbishop, &c., was requisite for any investiture of ecclesiastical property. Finally in ro8o the forms regulating the canonical appointment to a bishopric were promulgated. In case of a vacancy the election was to be conducted by the people and clergy under the auspices of a bishop nominated by the pope or See also:metropolitan; after which the consent of the pope or archbishop was to be procured; if ahy violation of these injunctions occurred, the election should be null and void and the right of choice pass to the pope or metropolitan. In so legislating, Gregory had two objects: in the first place, to withdraw the appointment to episcopal offices from the influence of the king; in the second, to replace that influence by his own. The intention was not to increase the power of the metropolitan: he simply desired that the nomination of bishops by the pope should be substituted for the prevalent nomination of bishops by the king. But in this course of action Gregory had a still more ambitious See also:goal before his eyes. If he could once succeed in abolishing the lay investiture the king would, ipso facto, be deprived of his See also:control over the great possessions assigned to the church by himself and his predecessors, and he could have no See also:security that the duties and services attached to those possessions would continue to be discharged for the benefit of the See also:Empire. The bishops in fact were to retain their position as princes of the Empire, with all the lands and rights of supremacy pertaining to them in that capacity, but the See also:bond between them and the Empire was to be dissolved: they were to owe allegiance not to the king, but to the pope—a non-German See also:sovereign who, in consequence of the See also:Italian policy of the German monarchy, found himself in perpetual opposition to Germany. Thus, by his ecclesiastical legislation, Gregory attempted to shake the very See also:foundations on which the constitution of the German empire rested, while completely ignoring the See also:historical development of that constitution (see INVESTITURE). That energy which Gregory threw into the expansion of the papal authority, and which brought him into collision with the See also:secular powers, was manifested no less in the internal See also:government of the church. He wished to see all important matters of dispute referred to Rome ; appeals were to be addressed to himself, and he arrogated the right of legislation. The fact that his See also:laws were usually promulgated by Roman synods which he convened during See also:Lent does not imply that these possessed an See also:independent position; on the contrary, they were entirely dominated by his influence,and were no more than the See also:instruments of his will. The centralization of ecclesiastical government in Rome naturally involved a curtailment of the powers of the bishops and metropolitans. Since these in part refused to submit voluntarily and attempted to assert their traditional independence, the pontificate of Gregory is crowded with struggles against the higher ranks of the prelacy. Among the methods he employed to break their power of resistance, the despatch of legates proved peculiarly effective. The regulation, again, that the metropolitans should apply at Rome in person for the See also:pallium—pronounced essential to their qualifications for office—served to school them in humility. This battle for the See also:foundation of papal omnipotence within the church is connected with his championship of compulsory See also:celibacy among the clergy and his attack on simony. Gregory VII. did not introduce the celibacy of the priesthood into the church, for even in antiquity it was enjoined by numerous laws. He was not even the first pope to renew the See also:injunction in the r rth century, for legislation on the question begins as early as in the reign of Leo IX. But he took up the struggle with greater energy and persistence than his predecessors. In 1074 he published an encyclical, requiring all to renounce their obedience to those bishops who showed See also:indulgence to their clergy in the See also:matter of celibacy. In the following year he commanded the laity to accept no official ministrations from married priests and to rise against all such. He further deprived these clerics of their revenues. Wherever these enactments were proclaimed they encountered tenacious opposition, and violent scenes were not infrequent, as the See also:custom of See also:marriage was widely diffused throughout the contemporary priesthood. Other decrees were issued by Gregory in subsequent years, but were now couched in milder terms, since it was no part of his interest to increase the See also:numbers of the German See also:faction. As to the objectionable nature of simony—the transference or acquisition of a spiritual office for monetary considerations—no doubt could exist in the mind of an earnest See also:Christian, and no theoretical justification was ever attempted. The practice, however, had attained great dimensions both among the clergy and the laity, and the sharp See also:campaign, which had been waged since the days of Leo IX., had done little to limit its See also:scope. The See also:reason was that in many cases it had assumed an extremely subtle form, and detection was difficult when the simony took the character of a tax or an honorarium. The fact, again, that lay investiture was described as simony, inevitably brought with it an See also:element of confusion, and, in the case of a See also:charge of simoniacal practices, enormously accentuates the difficulty of determining the actual state of affairs. The See also:war against simony in its original form was undoubtedly necessary, but it led to highly complicated and problematic issues. Was the priest or bishop, whose ordination was due to simony, actually in the possession of the sacerdotal or episcopal power or not? If the answer was in the affirmative, it would seem possible to buy the Holy See also:Ghost; if in the negative, then obviously all the official acts of the respective priest or bishop—which, according to the See also:doctrine of the church, pre-supposed the possession of a spiritual quality—were invalid. And, since the number of simoniacal bishops was at that period extremely large, incalculable consequences resulted. The difficulty of the problem accounts for the diversity of solutions propounded. The perplexity of the situation was aggravated by the fact that, if the stricter view was adopted, it followed that the See also:sacrament of ordination must be pronounced invalid, even in the cases where it had been unconsciously sought at the hands of a simoniac, for the dispenser was in point of fact no bishop, although he exercised the episcopal functions and his transgressions were unknown, and consequently it was impossible for him to ordain others. In the time of Gregory the conflict was still swaying to and fro, and he himself in ro78 declared consecration by a simoniac null and void. The pontificate of Gregory VII. came to a See also:melancholy See also:close, for he died an See also:exile in See also:Salerno; the Romans and a number of his most trusted coadjutors had renounced him, and the faithful See also:band in Germany had shrunk to scant proportions. Too much the politician, too rough in his methods, too exclusively the representative of the Roman see and its interests, he had gained more enemies than See also:friends. He was of course a See also:master of state-See also:craft; he had pursued political ends with consummate skill, causing them to masquerade as requirements of See also:religion; but he forgot that incitement to See also:civil war, the See also:preaching of rebellion, and the See also:release of subjects from their oaths, were methods which must infallibly lead to moral anarchy, and tend, with justice, to stifle the confidence once felt in him. The more he accustomed Hs contemporaries to the belief that any and every measure—so long as it opened up some prospect of success—was See also:good in his sight, no matter how dangerous the fruits it might mature, the fainter grew their See also:perception of the fact that he was not only a statesman but primarily the head of the Christian Church. That the frail bonds of piety,and religious veneration for the chair of St Peter had given way in the struggle for power was obvious to all, when he himself lost that power and the See also:star of his opponent was in the ascendant. He had given the See also:rein to his splendid gifts as a ruler, and in his capacity of pope he omitted to provide an See also:equivalent counterpoise. We are told that he was once an impressive preacher, and he could write to his faithful countesses in terms which prove that he was not wanting in religious feeling; but in the whirlpool of secular politics this phase of his character was never sufficiently developed to allow the vice-gerent of See also:Christ to be heard instead of the hierarch in his official acts. But to estimate the pontificate of Gregory by the disasters of its closing years would be to misconceive its significance for the history of the papacy entirely. On the contrary, his reign forms an important See also:chapter in the history of the popedom as an institution; it contains the germs of far-reaching modifications of the church, and it gave new impulses to both theory and practice, the value of which may indeed be differently estimated, but of which the effects are indubitable. It was he who conceived and formulated the ideal of the papacy as a structure embracing all peoples and lands. He took the first step towards the codification of ecclesiastical law and the definite ratification of the claims of the apostolic chair as corner-stones in the church's foundation. He educated the clergy and the lay See also:world in obedience to Rome; and, finally, it was due to his efforts that the See also:duty of the priest with regard to sexual See also:abstinence was never. afterwards a matter of doubt in the See also:Catholic Christianity of the See also:West. On the 25th of May io8s he died, unbroken by the misfortunes of his last years, and unshaken in his self-certainty. Dilexi justitiam et odivi iniquitatem: pro pterea morior in exilio—are said to have been his last words. In 1 584 Gregory XIII. received him into the Marlyrologium Romanum; in 16o6 he was canonized by See also:Paul V. The words dedicated to him in the Breviarium Romanum, for May 25, contain such an See also:apotheosis of his pontificate that in the 18th and 19th centuries they were prohibited by the governments of several countries with Roman Catholic populations. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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