Saint Grégoire VII, pape
Le moine Hildebrand, devenu le pape Grégoire VI
(1073-1085), domine toute l'histoire du Moyen-Age. Alliant une claire vision
des besoins de son temps à un courage intrépide, il n'eut qu'un objectif :
arracher l'Église au pouvoir féodal et restaurer la discipline dans le clergé.
On vit alors un pape excommunier et déposer l'empereur romain germanique
(1077). Ayant aimé la justice et haï l'iniquité, il mourut en exil à Salerne.
Darstellung
Gregors VII. Beginn der Vita Gregorii VII. Pauls von Bernried, Heiligenkreuz,
Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 12, fol. 181v.
Saint Grégoire VII
Pape (155 ème) de 1073 à
1085 (+ 1085)
Hildebrand était moine
bénédictin à Rome et vint durant trois années à Cluny sous l'abbatiat de saint
Hugues. C'est le pape alsacien Léon IX qui le fit revenir à Rome et le
nomma abbé du grand monastère de Saint-Paul-hors- les-Murs. A l'image de Cluny,
il lança une grande réforme dans l'Eglise autant pour la libérer des abus
internes que des abus du pouvoir impérial. L'empereur fit mine de s'incliner en
venant à Canossa, mais riposta quelque temps plus tard en exilant le
Pape.
Mémoire de saint Grégoire
VII, pape. Sous le nom d’Hildebrand, il mena à Rome la vie monastique et,
chargé de diverses missions, il aida les pontifes de son temps dans la réforme
de l’Église. Élevé sur la chaire de Pierre, il revendiqua, face au pouvoir des
princes, la liberté de l’Église avec une grande autorité et un esprit résolu,
et défendit avec force la sainteté du clergé. Pour cela il fut contraint de
fuir Rome et mourut en exil à Salerne en Campanie, l’an 1085.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1215/Saint-Gregoire-VII.html
SAINT GRÉGOIRE VII
Pape
(1021-1085)
Saint Grégoire VII, l'un
des plus grands Papes que Jésus-Christ ait donnés à Son Église, fut au XIe
siècle, l'homme providentiel destiné à combattre tous les grands abus de cette
époque si troublée: les empiètements des empereurs d'Allemagne, la vente des dignités
ecclésiastiques, la contagion des mauvaises moeurs du clergé et dans le peuple.
Il fut un homme fort instruit, très vertueux, surtout un grand caractère.
Hildebrand (tel était le
nom de famille de Grégoire VII) eut pour père un charpentier de Toscane. Il
était encore enfant, sans aucune connaissance des lettres, lorsque, jouant dans
l'atelier de son père, il forma avec des débris de bois ces mots du Psalmiste,
présage de l'autorité que plus tard il devait exercer dans le monde:
Dominabitur a mare usque ad mare: "Sa domination s'étendra d'un océan à
l'autre."
Après une première
éducation chrétienne, le jeune Hildebrand acheva de se former et de se préparer
à la mission que Dieu lui réservait, dans le célèbre monastère de Cluny, foyer
de sainteté et de science qui fournit alors tant de grands hommes.
Le courage avec lequel,
simple moine, il osa dire au Pape Léon IX que son élection n'était pas
canonique fut l'occasion de son élévation aux plus hautes dignités de l'Église.
Ce saint Pape avait été élu par l'empereur d'Allemagne; mais son élection fut
ratifiée ensuite par le clergé et le peuple de Rome. Charmé de la franchise
d'Hildebrand, il le fit venir près de lui et le regarda comme son meilleur
conseiller. Après la mort de Léon IX, quatre Papes successifs lui conservèrent
une pleine confiance.
Lui-même, enfin, malgré
ses angoisses, dut plier devant la Volonté de Dieu et accepter le souverain
pontificat. C'est alors que brillèrent plus que jamais en lui les vertus qui
font les saints et le zèle qui fait tout céder devant les intérêts de Dieu et
de l'Église. Malgré d'innombrables occupations, il était toujours l'homme de la
prière, et ses larmes manifestaient les attendrissements de son coeur.
Grégoire VII fut atteint
d'une maladie qui le réduisit à la dernière extrémité. La Sainte Vierge lui
apparut et lui demanda s'il avait assez souffert: "Glorieuse Dame,
répondit-il, c'est à Vous d'en juger." La Vierge le toucha de la main et
disparut. Le Pontife était guéri et pu célébrer la Sainte Messe le lendemain en
présence de tout le peuple consolé.
Grégoire, un an avant sa
mort, dut fuir en exil à Salerne; il prédit le triomphe de son Église et rendit
son âme à Dieu, le 25 mai 1085, en prononçant ces mots: "J'ai aimé la
justice et j'ai haï l'iniquité; c'est pour cela que je meurs en exil."
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_gregoire_vii.html
Saint Grégoire VII, pape
et confesseur
Hildebrand, conseiller du
pape lorrain saint Léon IX, fut élu pape en 1073. Il mourut à Salerne le 25 mai
1085, mais il ne fut l’objet d’aucun culte avant que Baronius n’insérât son
éloge dans le martyrologe en 1584 : Ecclesiasticam libertatem a superbia principum
suo tempore vindicavit, et viriliter pontificia auctoritate defendit.
Le Pape Paul V autorisa
la célébration de sa fête à Salerne en 1609. Clément XI l’étendit aux
basiliques romaines et à l’ordre bénédictin en 1719. Benoît XIII l’inscrivit
comme double au calendrier en 1728.
Leçons des Matines avant
1960
Quatrième leçon. Le Pape
Grégoire VII, connu d’abord sous le nom d’Hildebrand, était né à Sovana en
Toscane. Se distinguant au plus haut degré par sa science, sa sainteté et par
tous les genres de vertus, il illustra merveilleusement l’Église de Dieu toute
entière. Dans sa petite enfance, alors qu’il ne connaissait pas encore ses
lettres, jouant un jour aux pieds d’un ouvrier qui travaillait le bois, il
forma, dit-on, comme par hasard, avec des copeaux, cette parole prophétique de
David : « Il dominera d’une mer à l’autre ». Dieu conduisait la main de
l’enfant et voulait montrer par là qu’il posséderait plus tard la plus haute
autorité qui soit au monde. S’étant rendu à Rome, il y fut élevé sous la
protection de saint Pierre. Dans sa jeunesse, s’affligeant profondément de voir
la liberté de l’Église gênée par l’oppression laïque, et les mœurs du clergé
tendre à la dépravation, il se retira à l’abbaye de Cluny, où l’observance et
l’austérité de la vie monastique étaient alors en pleine vigueur sous la règle
de saint Benoît. Une fois revêtu de l’habit monastique, il se consacra au
service de la majesté divine avec une piété si ardente, que bientôt les saints
religieux de ce monastère le choisirent comme prieur ; mais la divine
Providence le destinait au salut d’un plus grand nombre. Hildebrand fut enlevé
au monastère de Cluny, et d’abord élu Abbé du monastère de
Saint-Paul-hors-les-murs, puis créé Cardinal de l’Église romaine et chargé des
missions les plus importantes, sous les Pontifes Léon IX, Victor II, Etienne
IX, Nicolas II et Alexandre II. Saint Pierre Damien l’appelait l’homme du
conseil très saint et très pur. Envoyé en France, comme légat a latere, par le
pape Victor II, il amena miraculeusement l’Évêque de Lyon, coupable de simonie,
à reconnaître son crime ; et, dans le concile de Tours, contraignit Bérenger à
abjurer une seconde fois son hérésie ; son énergie arrêta l’essor du schisme de
Cadaloüs
Cinquième leçon.
Alexandre II étant mort, le moine Hildebrand fut élu souverain pontife à
l’unanimité, malgré sa résistance et ses larmes, le dix des calendes de mai de
l’an du Christ mil soixante-treize. Resplendissant alors comme un soleil dans
la maison de Dieu, puissant en œuvres et en paroles, il travailla avec tant de
zèle à affermir la discipline ecclésiastique, à répandre la foi, à reconquérir
la liberté pour l’Église, à extirper les erreurs et les vices, que, depuis le
temps des Apôtres, aucun Pontife, assure-t-on, ne soutint de plus grands
travaux pour l’Église de Dieu, ou ne lutta plus fortement pour son
indépendance, il délivra plusieurs provinces de la lèpre de la simonie.
S’opposant avec constance, comme un athlète intrépide, aux entreprises
sacrilèges de l’empereur Henri, Grégoire ne craignit pas de se placer comme un
mur de protection devant la maison d’Israël : et quand ce même Henri fut tombé
tout à fait dans le crime, il l’excommunia, le déclara privé de son royaume, et
releva ses peuples du serment de fidélité.
Sixième leçon. Pendant
qu’il célébrait le saint Sacrifice, de pieux personnages virent une colombe
descendre du ciel, se reposer sur son épaule droite et voiler sa tête de ses
ailes étendues : prodige signifiant que l’Esprit-Saint lui-même, et non la sagesse
humaine, le guidait dans le gouvernement de l’Église. Rome se trouvant serrée
de près par les troupes du criminel Henri, le Saint Pontife éteignit d’un signe
de croix un incendie allumé par l’ennemi. Quand Robert Guiscard, chef des
Normands, l’eut arraché aux mains de son persécuteur, il gagna le mont Cassin,
et de là se rendit à Salerne pour y dédier une église en l’honneur de saint
Matthieu. Épuisé par tant d’épreuves, il se vit, un jour que dans cette ville,
il parlait au peuple, saisi d’un mal qu’il sut d’avance être mortel. Les
dernières paroles de Grégoire expirant, furent : « J’ai aimé la justice et j’ai
haï l’iniquité : voilà pourquoi je meurs en exil ». Innombrables furent, et les
contradictions qu’eut à souffrir, et les sages décrets que porta, dans beaucoup
de conciles qu’il tint à Rome, cet homme véritablement saint, ce vengeur des
crimes et ce très vaillant défenseur de l’Église. Il avait passé douze années
dans le souverain pontificat, lorsqu’il partit pour le ciel, l’an du salut mil
quatre-vingt-cinq. Beaucoup de miracles illustrèrent sa vie et sa mort, et sa
sainte dépouille fut ensevelie avec honneur dans l’église principale de
Salerne.
Katholische
Kirche Saint-Mathieu in Morlaix im Département Finistère (Region
Bretagne/Frankreich), Bleiglasfenster mit der Signatur Deschamps 1934 St
Servan s/Mer
Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique
Après avoir salué sur le
cycle du Temps Pascal les deux noms illustres de Léon le Grand et de Pie V,
nous nous inclinons aujourd’hui devant celui de Grégoire VII. Ces trois noms
résument l’action de la Papauté dans la suite des siècles, après l’âge des
persécutions. Le maintien de la doctrine révélée, et la défense de la liberté
de l’Église : telle est la mission divinement imposée aux successeurs de Pierre
sur le Siège Apostolique. Saint Léon a soutenu avec courage et éloquence la foi
antique contre les novateurs ; saint Pie V a fait reculer l’invasion de la
prétendue réforme, et arraché la chrétienté au joug de l’islamisme ; placé
entre ces deux pontifes dans l’ordre des temps, saint Grégoire VII a sauvé la
société du plus grand péril qu’elle eût encore éprouvé, et fait refleurir dans
son sein les mœurs chrétiennes par la restauration de la liberté de l’Église.
Au moment où finissait le
Xe siècle et commençait le XIe, l’Église de Jésus-Christ était en proie à l’une
des plus terribles épreuves qu’elle ait rencontrées sur son passage en ce
monde. Après le fléau des persécutions, après le fléau des hérésies, était
arrivé le fléau de la barbarie. L’impulsion civilisatrice donnée par
Charlemagne s’était arrêtée de bonne heure au IXe siècle, et l’élément barbare,
plutôt comprimé que dompté, avait forcé ses digues. La foi demeurait encore
vive dans les masses ; mais elle ne pouvait à elle seule triompher de la
grossièreté des mœurs. Le désordre social provenant de l’anarchie que le
système féodal avait déchaînée dans toute l’Europe, enfantait mille violences,
et le droit succombait partout sous la force et la licence. Les princes ne
rencontraient plus un frein dans la puissance de l’Église ; car Rome elle-même
asservie aux factions voyait trop souvent s’asseoir sur la chaire apostolique
des hommes indignes ou incapables.
Cependant le XIe siècle
avançait dans son cours, et le désordre semblait incurable. Les évêchés étaient
devenus la proie de la puissance séculière qui les vendait, et les princes se
préoccupaient surtout de rencontrer dans les prélats des vassaux disposés à les
soutenir par les armes dans leurs querelles et leurs entreprises violentes.
Sous un épiscopat en majeure partie simoniaque, comme l’atteste saint Pierre
Damien, les mœurs du clergé du second ordre étaient tombées dans un
affaissement lamentable ; et pour comble de malheur, l’ignorance, comme un
nuage toujours plus sombre, s’en allait anéantissant de plus en plus la notion
même du devoir. C’en était fait de l’Église et de la société, si la promesse du
Christ de ne jamais abandonner son œuvre n’eût été inviolable.
Pour guérir tant de maux,
pour faire pénétrer la lumière dans un tel chaos, il fallait que Rome se
relevât de son abaissement, et qu’elle sauvât encore une fois la chrétienté.
Elle avait besoin d’un Pontife saint et énergique qui sentît en lui-même cette
force divine que les obstacles n’arrêtent jamais ; d’un Pontife dont l’action
pût être longue et non passagère, et dont l’impulsion fût assez énergique pour
entraîner ses successeurs dans la voie qu’il aurait ouverte. Telle fut la
mission de saint Grégoire VII.
Cette mission, comme chez
tous les hommes de la droite de Dieu, fut préparée dans la sainteté Grégoire se
nommait encore Hildebrand, lorsqu’il alla cacher sa vie dans le cloître de
Cluny. Là seulement, et dans les deux mille abbayes confédérées sous la crosse
de cet insigne monastère de France, on rencontrait le sentiment de la liberté
de l’Église et la pure tradition monastique ; là était préparée depuis plus
d’un siècle la régénération des mœurs chrétiennes, sous la succession des
quatre grands abbés, Odon, Maïeul, Odilon et Hugues. Mais Dieu gardait encore
son secret ; et nul n’eût découvert les auxiliaires de la plus sainte des
réformes dans ces monastères qu’un zèle fervent avait attirés d’un bout de
l’Europe à l’autre à cette alliance avec Cluny, par ce seul motif que Cluny
était le sanctuaire des vertus du cloître. Hildebrand chercha pour sa personne
ce pieux asile, au sein duquel il espérait du moins fuir le scandale.
L’illustre saint Hugues
ne tarda pas à démêler le mérite du jeune Italien qui fut admis dans la grande
abbaye française. Un évêque étranger se rencontra un jour avec le maître et le
disciple. C’était Brunon de Toul, désigné par l’empereur Henri III pour être le
Pontife de l’Église Romaine. Hildebrand s’émeut à la vue de ce nouveau candidat
à la chaire apostolique, de ce pape que l’Église Romaine, qui seule a le droit
d’élire son évêque, n’a pas élu, qu’elle ne connaît pas.
Il ose dire à Brunon
qu’il ne doit pas accepter les clefs du ciel de la main de César, que la
conscience l’oblige à se soumettre humblement à l’élection canonique de la
ville sainte. Brunon, qui fut saint Léon IX, accepte avec soumission l’avis du
jeune moine, et tous deux ayant franchi les Alpes s’acheminent vers Rome. L’élu
de César devint l’élu de l’Église Romaine ; mais Hildebrand n’eut plus la
liberté de se séparer du nouveau Pontife. Il dut bientôt accepter le titre et
les fonctions d’Archidiacre de l’Église Romaine.
Ce poste éminent l’eût
élevé promptement sur la chaire apostolique, si Hildebrand eût eu une autre
ambition que celle de briser les fers sous lesquels gémissait l’Église, et de
préparer la reforme de la chrétienté. Mais cet homme de Dieu préféra user de
son influence pour faire asseoir sur le siège de Pierre parla voie canonique et
en dehors de la faveur impériale, une suite de Pontifes intègres et disposés à
user de leur autorité pour l’extirpation des scandales. Après saint Léon IX, on
vit passer successivement Victor II, Etienne IX, Nicolas II, et Alexandre II,
tous dignes du suprême honneur. Mais il fallut enfin que celui qui avait été
l’âme du pontificat sous cinq papes consentît à ceindre lui-même la tiare. Son
grand cœur s’émut au pressentiment des luttes terribles qui l’attendaient ;
mais ses résistances, ses tentatives pour se soustraire au lourd fardeau de la
sollicitude de toutes les Églises, demeurèrent infructueuses ; et sous le nom
de Grégoire VII, le nouveau Vicaire du Christ fut révélé au monde. Il devait
remplir toute l’étendue de ce nom qui signifie la Vigilance.
La force brute se
dressait devant lui incarnée dans un prince audacieux et rusé, souillé de tous
les crimes, et, comme un aigle ravisseur, tenant dans ses serres l’Église
devenue sa proie. Dans les États de l’empire, nul évêque n’eût été souffert sur
son siège, s’il n’eût reçu, par l’anneau et la crosse, l’investiture de César.
Tel était Henri de Germanie, et à son exemple les autres princes anéantissaient
par le même procédé toute liberté dans les élections canoniques. La double
plaie de la simonie et de l’incontinence continuait à sévir sur le corps
ecclésiastique. Les pieux prédécesseurs de Grégoire avaient fait reculer le mal
par de généreux efforts ; mais aucun d’eux ne s’était senti la force de se
mesurer corps à corps avec César, dont l’action désastreuse fomentait toutes
ces corruptions. Un tel rôle, avec ses périls et ses angoisses, était réservé à
Grégoire, et il n’y faillit pas.
Les trois premières
années de son pontificat furent cependant assez pacifiques. Grégoire fit des
avances paternelles à Henri. Il chercha, dans sa correspondance avec ce jeune
prince, à le fortifier contre lui-même, en témoignant des espérances que les
faits vinrent trop tôt démentir, en comblant des marques de sa confiance et de
sa tendresse le fils d’un empereur qui avait bien mérité de l’Église. Henri
crut devoir se contenir quelque temps, en face d’un pape dont il connaissait la
droiture ; mais la digue céda enfin sous l’impétuosité du torrent, et
l’adversaire du pouvoir spirituel se révéla tout entier. La vente des évêchés
et des abbayes recommença au profit de César. Grégoire frappa d’excommunication
les simoniaques, et Henri, bravant avec audace les censures de l’Église,
persista à maintenir sur leurs sièges des hommes résolus à le suivre dans tous
ses excès. Grégoire adressa au prince un solennel avertissement, lui enjoignant
de rompre avec ces excommuniés, sous peine de voir arriver sur lui-même les
foudres de l’Église. Henri, qui avait jeté le masque, se promettait de ne tenir
aucun compte des menaces du Pontife, lorsque tout à coup la révolte de la Saxe,
dont plusieurs des électeurs de l’Empire embrassaient la cause, vient
l’inquiéter pour sa couronne. Il sent qu’une rupture avec l’Église peut, dans
un tel moment, lui devenir fatale. On le voit alors s’adresser en suppliant à
Grégoire^ solliciter l’absolution, et abjurer sa conduite passée entre les
mains de deux légats envoyés en Allemagne par le Pontife. Mais à peine ce
monarque félon a-t-il triomphé pour un moment de la révolte saxonne, qu’il
recommence la guerre contre l’Église. Il ose dans une assemblée d’évêques,
dignes de lui, proclamer la déposition de Grégoire. Bientôt l’Italie le voit
arriver à la tête de ses troupes, et sa venue donne à une foule de prélats le
signal de la révolte contre un pape disposé à ne pas souffrir l’ignominie de
leur vie.
C’est alors que Grégoire,
dépositaire de ces clefs puissantes qui signifient le pouvoir de lier et de
délier au ciel et sur la terre, prononce la terrible sentence qui déclare Henri
privé de la couronne et ses sujets dégagés du serment de fidélité à sa
personne. Le Pontife ajoute un anathème plus redoutable encore aux princes
infidèles : il le déclare exclu de la communion de l’Église. En s’opposant
ainsi comme un rempart pour la défense de la société chrétienne menacée de
toutes parts, Grégoire attirait sur lui l’effort de toutes les mauvaises
passions ; et l’Italie était loin de lui offrir les garanties de fidélité sur
lesquelles il eût eu droit de compter. César avait pour lui plus d’un prince
dans la Péninsule, et les prélats simoniaques le regardaient comme leur
défenseur contre le glaive de Pierre. Il était donc à prévoir que bientôt
Grégoire n’aurait plus où meure le pied dans toute l’Italie ; mais Dieu qui
n’abandonne point son Église avait suscité un vengeur pour sa cause. A ce
moment la Toscane et une partie de la Lombardie reconnaissaient pour souveraine
la jeune et vaillante comtesse Mathilde. Cette noble femme se leva pour la
défense du Vicaire de Dieu ; ses trésors, ses armées, elle les tint à la
disposition du Siège Apostolique tant qu’elle vécut ; et ses domaines, elle les
légua avant sa mort au Prince des Apôtres et à ses successeurs.
Au fort de ses succès,
Henri eut donc à compter avec Mathilde. Cette princesse, qui balançait son
influence en Italie, put soustraire à sa fureur le généreux Pontife. Par ses
soins, Grégoire arriva sain et sauf à Canossa, forteresse inexpugnable près de
Reggio. A ce moment même la fortune d’Henri sembla vaciller. La Saxe relevait
l’étendard de la révolte, et plus d’un feudataire de l’Empire se liguait avec
les rebelles pour anéantir le tyran que l’Église venait de mettre au ban de la
chrétienté. Henri eut peur pour la seconde fois, et son âme aussi perfide que
lâche ne recula pas devant le parjure. Le pouvoir spirituel entravait ses plans
sacrilèges : il osa penser qu’en lui offrant une satisfaction passagère, il
pourrait le lendemain relever la tête. On le vit se présenter nu-pieds et sans
escorte à Canossa, vêtu en pénitent et sollicitant avec de feintes larmes le
pardon de ses crimes. Grégoire eut compassion de son ennemi, pour lequel Hugues
de Cluny et Mathilde intercédaient à ses pieds. Il leva l’excommunication, et
réintégra Henri au sein de l’Église ; mais il ne jugea pas à propos de révoquer
encore la sentence par laquelle il l’avait privé des droits de souverain. Le
Pontife annonça seulement l’intention de se rendre à la diète qui devait se
tenir en Allemagne, de prendre connaissance des griefs que les princes de
l’Empire avançaient contre Henri, et de décider alors selon la justice.
Henri accepta tout, prêta
serment sur l’Évangile, et rejoignit son armée. L’espérance renaissait dans son
cœur, à mesure qu’il s’éloignait de la redoutable forteresse dans les murs de
laquelle il avait du sacrifier un instant son orgueil à son ambition. Il
comptait sur l’appui des mauvaises passions, et son calcul jusqu’à un certain
point ne fut pas trompé. Un tel homme devait finir misérablement ; mais Satan
était trop intéressé à son succès pour ne pas lui venir en aide.
Cependant un rival
s’élevait en Allemagne contre Henri : Rodolphe, duc de Souabe, appelé à la
couronne dans une diète des électeurs de l’Empire. Grégoire, Adèle à ses
principes de droiture, refusa d’abord de reconnaître cet élu, bien que son
attachement à l’Église et ses nobles qualités le rendissent particulièrement
recommandable. Le Pontife persistait dans son projet d’entendre dans
l’assemblée des princes et des villes de l’Allemagne les griefs reprochés à
Henri, de l’écouter lui-même, et de mettre fin aux troubles en prononçant un jugement
équitable. Rodolphe insistait auprès du Pontife pour en obtenir la
reconnaissance de ses droits ; Grégoire qui l’aimait eut le courage de résister
à ses instances, et de remettre l’examen de sa cause à cette diète qu’Henri
avait acceptée avec serment à Canossa, mais dont il craignait tant les
résultats. Trois années se passèrent durant lesquelles la patience et la
modération du Pontife furent constamment mises à l’épreuve par les délais de
Henri, et par son refus d’assurer la sécurité de l’Église. Enfin le Pontife,
dans l’impuissance de mettre un terme aux discussions armées qui
ensanglantaient l’Allemagne et l’Italie, ayant constaté le mauvais vouloir de
Henri et son parjure, lança de nouveau contre lui l’excommunication, et
renouvela dans un concile tenu à Rome la sentence par laquelle il l’avait
déclaré privé de la couronne. En même temps Grégoire reconnaissait l’élection
de Rodolphe et accordait la bénédiction apostolique à ses adhérents.
La colère de Henri monta
au comble, et sa vengeance ne garda plus de mesure. Parmi les prélats italiens
les plus dévoués à sa cause, Guibert, archevêque de Ravenne, était le plus
ambitieux et le plus compromis à l’égard du Siège Apostolique. Henri fit de ce
traître un anti-pape, sous le nom de Clément III. Ce faux pontife ne manqua pas
de partisans, et le schisme vint se joindre aux autres calamités qui pesaient
déjà sur l’Église. C’était un de ces moments terribles où, selon l’expression
de saint Jean, « il est donné à la bête de faire la guerre aux saints et de les
vaincre [1] ». Tout à coup la victoire se déclare en faveur de César. Rodolphe
est tué dans une bataille en Allemagne, et les troupes de Mathilde sont
défaites en Italie. Henri n’a plus qu’un vœu, celui d’entrer dans Rome, d’en
chasser Grégoire et d’introniser son anti-pape sur la chaire de saint Pierre.
Au milieu de ce
cataclysme effrayant d’où l’Église cependant devait sortir épurée et
affranchie, quels étaient les sentiments de notre saint Pontife ? Il les décrit
lui-même dans une lettre adressée à saint Hugues de Cluny. « Telles sont, lui
dit-il, les angoisses auxquelles nous sommes en proie, que ceux-là même qui
vivent avec nous, non seulement ne les peuvent plus souffrir, mais n’en
supportent pas même la vue. Le saint roi David disait : « En proportion de la
douleur immense qui oppressait mon cœur, vos consolations, Seigneur, sont
venues réjouir mon âme » : mais pour nous, bien souvent la vie est un ennui et
la mort un vœu ardent. S’il arrive que Jésus, le tendre consolateur, vrai Dieu
et vrai homme, daigne me tendre la main, sa bonté rend la joie à mon cœur
affligé ; mais pour peu qu’il se retire, mon trouble arrive à l’excès. En ce
qui est de moi je meurs sans cesse ; en ce qui est de lui je vis par moments.
Si mes forces défaillent tout à fait, je crie vers lui, je lui dis d’une voix
gémissante : « Si vous imposiez un fardeau aussi pesant à Moïse et à Pierre,
ils en seraient, ce me semble, accablés. Que peut-il advenir de moi qui ne suis
rien en comparaison d’eux ? Vous n’avez donc, Seigneur, qu’une chose à faire :
c’est de gouverner vous-même, avec votre Pierre, le pontificat qui m’est imposé
; autrement vous me verrez succomber, et le pontificat sera couvert de confusion
en ma personne [2]. »
Ce cri de détresse qui
s’échappe de l’âme du saint Pontife révèle son caractère tout entier. Le zèle
pour les mœurs chrétiennes qui ne peuvent se conserver que par la liberté de
l’Église, était le mobile de sa vie entière. Un tel zèle avait pu seul lui
faire affronter cette situation terrible, dans laquelle il n’avait à recueillir
en ce monde que les chagrins les plus cuisants. Et pourtant, Grégoire était ce
père de la chrétienté qui, devançant ses successeurs, avait conçu dès les
premières années de son pontificat la grande et courageuse pensée d’aller refouler
l’islamisme jusqu’en Orient, et de briser par une descente chez le Sarrasin le
joug des chrétiens opprimés. Il avait débuté dans ce projet par une lettre
adressée à tous les fidèles. Il y montre l’ennemi du nom chrétien déjà sous les
murs de Constantinople, et signalant sa férocité par d’horribles carnages.
« Si nous aimons Dieu,
dit-il dans cette épître, si nous nous reconnaissons chrétiens, il nous faut
gémir sur de tels désastres ; mais gémir ne suffit pas. L’exemple de notre
Rédempteur et le devoir de la charité fraternelle nous imposent l’obligation de
donner notre vie pour la délivrance de nos frères. Sachez donc que, rempli de
confiance dans la miséricorde de Dieu et dans la puissance de son bras, nous
faisons tout et nous préparons tout, afin de porter un prompt secours à
l’empire chrétien [3]. » Peu de temps après, il écrivait à Henri qui n’avait
pas encore démasqué ses projets hostiles à l’Église : « Mon avertissement aux
chrétiens d’Italie et d’au delà des monts a été reçu avec faveur. Déjà plus de
cinquante mille hommes se préparent, et s’ils peuvent compter sur moi comme
chef de l’expédition et comme Pontife, ils marcheront à main armée contre les
ennemis de Dieu, et avec le secours divin, ils iront jusqu’au sépulcre du
Seigneur. » Ainsi le sublime vieillard ne reculait pas devant la pensée de se
mettre lui-même à la tête de l’armée chrétienne. « Une chose, dit-il, m’engage
à exécuter ce projet : c’est l’état de l’Église de Constantinople qui s’écarte
de nous sur le dogme du Saint-Esprit, et qui a besoin de rentrer en accord avec
le Siège Apostolique. L’Arménie presque tout entière s’est éloignée de la foi
catholique ; en un mot, la grande majorité des Orientaux ressent le besoin de
connaître quelle est la foi de Pierre sur les diverses opinions qui ont cours
chez eux. Le moment est venu d’user de la grâce que le miséricordieux
Rédempteur a conférée à Pierre, en lui faisant ce commandement : J’ai prié pour
toi, Pierre, afin que ta foi ne défaille pas ; confirme tes frères. Nos pères,
dont notre désir est de suivre les traces, quoique indigne de leur succéder,
ont plus d’une fois visité ces contrées pour y confirmer la foi catholique :
nous donc aussi, nous nous sentons poussé, si le Christ nous ouvre la voie, à
entreprendre cette expédition dans l’intérêt de la foi et pour aller au secours
des chrétiens. »
Dans sa loyauté
accoutumée, Grégoire était allé jusqu’à compter sur le concours d’Henri pour
protéger l’Église durant son absence. « Un tel projet, écrit-il à ce prince,
demande un grand conseil et un secours puissant, si Dieu permet qu’il se
réalise ; je viens donc te demander ce conseil et aussi ce secours, s’il t’est
agréable. Si, par la faveur divine, je pars, après Dieu c’est à toi que je
laisserai l’Église Romaine, afin que tu la gardes comme une mère sainte, et que
tu protèges son honneur. Fais-moi savoir au plus tôt ce que tu auras décidé
dans ta prudence aidée du conseil divin. Si je n’espérais pas de toi plus que
d’autres ne croient, je t’aurais écrit ceci bien inutilement ; mais comme il
peut se faire que tu ne te laisses pas aller à une entière confiance en
l’affection que je te porte, je m’en remets à l’Esprit-Saint qui peut tout. Je
le prie de te faire comprendre à sa manière l’attachement que j’éprouve pour
toi, et de gouverner ton esprit, de façon à renverser les désirs des impies et
à fortifier l’espérance des bons [4]. »
Moins de trois ans après
avait lieu l’entrevue de Canossa ; mais au moment où Grégoire écrivait cette
lettre à Henri, sa confiance dans l’expédition qu’il projetait était assez
fondée, pour qu’il en fit part à la comtesse Mathilde. « L’objet de mes
pensées, écrit-il à la chevaleresque princesse, le désir que j’éprouve de
passer la mer, pour venir au secours des chrétiens que les païens immolent
comme un vil bétail, me cause de l’embarras vis-à-vis de plusieurs ; je crains
d’être taxé par eux d’une certaine légèreté. Mais je n’ai aucune peine à te le
confier, à toi, ma fille très chère, dont j’estime la prudence plus que tu ne
saurais t’en rendre compte. Après avoir lu les lettres que j’envoie au delà des
monts, si tu as un conseil à émettre, ou mieux encore à prêter un secours à la
cause de Dieu ton créateur, fais en sorte d’y apporter tous tes soins ; car
s’il est beau, comme on le dit, de mourir pour sa patrie, il est plus beau et
plus glorieux encore de sacrifier la chair mortelle pour le Christ qui est
l’éternelle vie. J’ai la confiance que beaucoup d’hommes de guerre nous
viendront en aide dans cette expédition ; j’ai des raisons de penser que notre
impératrice (la pieuse Agnès, mère de Henri) a l’intention de partir avec nous
; elle désire t’emmener avec elle. Ta mère (la comtesse Béatrix) demeurera dans
ce pays, pour veiller à la défense des intérêts communs ; et toutes choses
étant ainsi réglées, avec l’aide du Christ nous pourrions nous mettre en route.
En venant ici pour satisfaire sa dévotion, l’impératrice, aidée de ton secours,
pourra animer un grand nombre de personnes à cette sainte entreprise. Pour ce
qui est de moi, honoré de la compagnie de si nobles sœurs, je passerai
volontiers les mers, disposé à donner ma vie pour le Christ avec vous dont je
désire n’être pas séparé dans la patrie éternelle. Adresse-moi promptement une
réponse sur ce projet et sur ton arrivée à Rome, et daigne le Seigneur tout-puissant
te bénir et te faire marcher de vertu en vertu, afin que la Mère universelle
puisse se réjouir en toi durant de longues années [5] ! »
La pensée de Grégoire, à
laquelle il se livrait avec tant d’enthousiasme, n’était pas uniquement un rêve
généreux de sa grande âme ; c’était un pressentiment divin. Sa vie héroïque ne
devait pas laisser place à une lointaine expédition ; il allait avoir à
combattre un autre ennemi que le Sarrasin ; mais la croisade qu’il saluait avec
tant d’ardeur n’était pas loin. Urbain II, son second successeur, comme lui
moine de Cluny, devait sous peu d’années ébranler l’Europe chrétienne et la
lancer sur l’ennemi commun. Mais puisque nous avons rencontré le nom de
Mathilde, nous profiterons de cette occasion pour pénétrer plus intimement
encore dans l’âme de notre grand Pontife. On verra comment cet illustre athlète
de la liberté de l’Église savait unir à la hauteur et à la grandeur des vues la
touchante sollicitude du plus humble prêtre pour l’avancement spirituel d’une
âme. « Celui-là seul qui pénètre le secret des cœurs, écrit-il à la pieuse
princesse, peut connaître, et connaît mieux que moi encore, le zèle et la
sollicitude que je porte à ton salut. Je me flatte que tu sais comprendre que
je suis tenu à prendre soin de toi, en vue de tant de peuples pour l’intérêt
desquels la charité m’a contraint de te retenir, lorsque tu songeais à les
abandonner, afin de ne plus songer qu’au bien de ton âme. La charité, ainsi que
je te l’ai dit souvent et que je te le dirai encore, d’après celui qui est la
trompette du ciel, la charité ne cherche pas ce qui est de son intérêt. Mais
comme entre les armes de défense que je t’ai fournies contre le prince du
monde, la principale est de recevoir fréquemment le Corps du Seigneur, et de te
livrer avec une entière confiance à la protection de sa Mère, dans cette lettre
je veux te transcrire ce que le bienheureux Ambroise a pensé au sujet de la
communion. »
Le pieux Pontife insère
ici deux passages du saint Docteur, qu’il fait suivre d’autres citations empruntées
à saint Grégoire le Grand et à saint Jean Chrysostome sur le bienfait de la
divine Eucharistie. Il continue ainsi : « Nous devons donc, ô ma fille,
recourir à ce merveilleux sacrement, aspirer à ce puissant remède. Je t’ai
écrit cette lettre, ô fille du bienheureux Pierre, pour accroître encore ta foi
et ta confiance, lorsque tu reçois le Corps du Seigneur. Tel est le trésor, tel
est le bienfait, au-dessus de l’or et des pierres précieuses, que ton âme
attend de moi dans son amour pour le Roi des cieux qui est ton père ; bien
qu’il te fût possible d’obtenir par tes mérites quelque chose de meilleur en
t’adressant à un autre ministre de Dieu. Quant à la Mère du Seigneur, à
laquelle je t’ai confiée pour le passé, pour le présent et pour toujours, jusqu’à
ce que nous puissions la contempler au ciel selon notre désir, je ne t’en
entretiendrai pas aujourd’hui. Que pour-rais-je dire qui fût digne de celle que
le ciel et la terre ne cessent de combler de louanges, sans pouvoir atteindre à
ce qu’elle mérite ? mais tiens ceci pour assuré, qu’autant elle est plus
élevée, plus dévouée et plus sainte que toutes les autres mères, autant elle se
montre miséricordieuse et tendre envers ceux et celles qui ont pèche et qui
s’en repentent. Renonce donc à toute inclination au péché, et prosternée devant
elle, répands les larmes d’un cœur contrit et humilié. Tu la trouveras alors,
je te le promets en toute assurance, plus empressée et plus affectueuse dans sa
tendresse pour toi que ne saurait l’être une mère selon la chair [6]. »
L’œil du Pontife que tant
de sollicitudes ne pouvaient distraire de l’intérêt paternel qu’il portait à
l’avancement d’une âme, allait chercher, malgré les distances, à travers la
chrétienté, les hommes trop rares alors dont la sainteté et la doctrine
devaient faire plus tard l’ornement et la lumière de l’Église. C’est ainsi que
Grégoire avait découvert le grand Anselme, alors encore caché au fond de son
abbaye du Bec. Du milieu de ses tribulations inouïes (1079), le Pontife adresse
à l’Abbé cette lettre touchante : « La bonne odeur de tes fruits, lui dit-il,
s’est fait sentir jusqu’à nous. Nous en rendons à Dieu nos actions de grâces,
et nous t’embrassons de cœur dans l’amour du Christ, assuré que nous sommes du
succès que l’Église de Dieu retirera de tes études, et de l’aide que, par la
miséricorde du Seigneur, lui apporteront, dans ses périls, tes prières jointes
à celles qu’offrent au ciel ceux qui te ressemblent. Tu sais, mon frère, la
puissance qu’exerce auprès de Dieu la prière du juste ; celle de plusieurs
justes a plus de force encore ; il n’y a même pas lieu de douter qu’elle
n’obtienne ce qu’elle implore. C’est l’autorité de la Vérité même qui nous
oblige de le croire. C’est elle qui a dit : « Frappez, et l’on vous ouvrira. »
Frappez avec simplicité, demandez avec simplicité, dans les choses qui lui sont
agréables ; alors il vous sera ouvert, alors vous recevrez, et c’est en cette
manière que la prière des justes sera exaucée. C’est pourquoi nous voulons que
ta Fraternité et celle de tes moines s’adressent à Dieu par des prières
assidues, afin qu’il daigne soustraire à l’oppression des hérétiques son Église
et nous-même qui lui sommes préposé, quoique indigne, et que dissipant l’erreur
qui aveugle nos ennemis, il les ramène au sentier de la vérité [7]. »
Mais l’œil de Grégoire ne
s’arrêtait pas seulement sur des princesses comme Mathilde, sur des docteurs
comme Anselme. Il savait découvrir jusque dans la mêlée l’humble et courageux
blessé qui souffrait pour la cause de l’Église, et l’entourait d’une admiration
et d’une tendresse qu’il n’eût pas éprouvée pour ces chefs dont la fidélité est
au prix de la gloire. Qu’on lise cette lettre à un pauvre prêtre milanais que
les simoniaques avaient mutilé d’une façon barbare. « Si nous vénérons la mémoire
des Saints qui sont morts après que leurs membres ont été tranchés par le fer,
écrit-il à cet obscur soldat de l’Église, nommé Liprand, si nous célébrons les
souffrances de ceux que ni le glaive, ni les souffrances n’ont pu séparer de la
foi du Christ, toi à qui on a coupé le nez et les oreilles pour son nom, tu es
plus digne de louanges encore d’avoir mérité une grâce qui. si elle est jointe
à la persévérance, te donne une entière ressemblance avec les Saints.
L’intégrité de ton corps n’existe plus ; mais l’homme intérieur qui se
renouvelle de jour en jour, s’est développé en toi avec grandeur.
Extérieurement les mutilations déshonorent ton visage ; mais l’image de Dieu,
qui est le rayonnement de la justice, est devenue en toi plus gracieuse par ta
blessure même, plus attrayante par la difformité qu’on a imprimée à tes traits.
L’Église ne dit-elle pas elle-même dans le Cantique : « Je suis noire, ô filles
de Jérusalem » ? Si donc ta beauté intérieure n’a pas souffert de ces cruelles
mutilations, ton caractère sacerdotal qui est saint, et qu’il faut reconnaître
plutôt dans l’intégrité des vertus que dans celle des membres, n’en a pas été
atteint davantage. N’a-t-on pas vu l’empereur Constantin baiser
respectueusement au visage d’un évêque la cicatrice d’un œil qui avait été
arraché pour le nom du Christ ? L’exemple des Pères et les anciennes écritures
ne nous apprennent-ils pas qu’on maintenait les martyrs dans l’exercice du
ministère sacré, même après la mutilation qu’ils avaient soufferte dans leurs
membres ? Toi donc, martyr du Christ, sois plein d’assurance dans le Seigneur.
Regarde-toi comme ayant fait un pas de plus dans ton sacerdoce. Il te fut
conféré avec l’huile sainte ; aujourd’hui le voilà scellé de ton propre sang.
Plus on t’a réduit, plus il te faut prêcher ce qui est bien, et semer cette
parole qui produit cent pour un. Nous savons que les ennemis de la sainte
Église sont tes ennemis et tes persécuteurs ; ne les crains pas, et ne tremble
pas devant eux ; car nous gardons avec amour sous notre tutelle et sous celle
du Siège Apostolique ta personne et tout ce qui t’appartient ; et s’il te
devient nécessaire de recourir à nous, nous acceptons d’avance ton appel,
disposé à te recevoir avec allégresse et grand honneur, lorsque tu viendras
vers nous et vers ce saint Siège [8]. »
Tel était Grégoire,
unissant la simplicité du cloître aux plus graves sollicitudes de la papauté.
Et quelles sollicitudes, si nous oublions pour un moment l’affreuse crise au
milieu de laquelle il disparut ! Nous venons de parler du projet de la
croisade, qui plus tard a suffi à lui seul pour immortaliser Urbain II ; mais
que d’œuvres diverses, que d’interventions pastorales dans tout le monde
chrétien, qui font des douze années de ce pontificat si agité l’une des époques
où la papauté, présente partout, semble avoir déployé le plus d’activité et de
vigilance ! Dans sa vaste correspondance, Grégoire ne se borne pas à diriger
les affaires de l’Église dans l’Empire, en Italie, en France, en Angleterre, en
Espagne ; il soutient les jeunes chrétientés du Danemark, de la Suède, de la
Norvège ; la Hongrie, la Bohême, la Pologne, la Servie, la Russie elle-même,
reçoivent ses lettres remplies de sollicitude. Malgré la rupture du lien de
communion entre Rome et Byzance, le Pontife ne cesse pas ses interventions ; il
voudrait arrêter le schisme qui emporte l’Église grecque loin de son orbite.
Sur la côte d’Afrique, sa vigilance soutient encore trois évêchés qui ont
survécu a l’invasion sarrasine. Dans le but d’unifier la chrétienté latine, il
resserre le lien de la prière publique, abolissant en Espagne la liturgie
gothique, et faisant reculer au delà des frontières de la Bohême la liturgie de
Byzance qui allait l’envahir. Quelle carrière pour un seul homme ; mais aussi
quel martyre était réservé à ce grand cœur ! Il nous faut reprendre le récit,
un moment suspendu, des épreuves de notre Pontife. Par lui l’Église et la
société devaient être sauvées ; mais comme son Maître divin, « il devait boire
« l’eau du torrent pour relever ensuite la tête [9]. » Nous l’avons vu humilié
dans ses défenseurs, le sort des armes lui étant devenu contraire ; nous
l’avons vu menacé par son vainqueur, après l’avoir tenu sous ses pieds ; nous
l’avons vu en butte a un antipape dont la cause est soutenue par d’indignes
prélats ; mais « ce n’est là encore que le commencement des douleurs [10]. »
Henri marche sur la ville sainte en la compagnie du faux vicaire du Christ. Un
incendie allumé par sa main sacrilège menace de dévorer le quartier du Vatican
; Grégoire envoie sa bénédiction sur son peuple éperdu, et tout aussitôt la
flamme recule et s’éteint. Un moment l’enthousiasme gagne les Romains, si
souvent ingrats envers le Pontife qui est à lui seul la vie et la gloire de
Rome. Prêt à consommer le sacrilège, Henri hésite et tremble. Il laissera
tomber dans la poussière l’ignoble fantôme qu’il a voulu opposer au véritable
pape ; il ne demande plus qu’une chose aux Romains : que Grégoire consente à
lui donner l’onction sainte, et lui, Henri de Germanie, désormais empereur, se
montrera fils dévoué de l’Église. Cette prière est transmise à Grégoire par la
cité tout entière : « Je connais trop la fourberie du roi, répond le noble
Pontife. Qu’il satisfasse d’abord à Dieu et à l’Église qu’il a foulée aux pieds
: je pourrai alors absoudre son repentir, et placer sur sa tête convertie la
couronne impériale. » Les instances des Romains ne purent obtenir d’autre
réponse de l’inflexible gardien du droit de la chrétienté. Henri allait
s’éloigner, lorsque tout à coup cette population mobile, gagnée par d’infâmes
largesses venues de Byzance (car tous les schismes s’entendent contre la
papauté), se détache de celui qui est son roi et son père, et vient déposer les
clefs de la ville aux pieds du tyran qui apporte la servitude des âmes. Grégoire
se voit alors réduit à chercher un asile dans le fort Saint-Ange, et la liberté
de l’Église y est assiégée avec lui. C’est de là, ou peut-être quelques jours
avant de s’y enfermer, qu’il écrit, en l’année 1084, cette lettre sublime
adressée à tous les fidèles, et qui est comme le testament de sa grande âme :
« Les princes des nations
et les princes des prêtres se sont réunis contre le Christ, Fils du Dieu
tout-puissant, et contre son apôtre Pierre, pour éteindre la religion
chrétienne et propager partout l’hérétique perversité. Mais, par la miséricorde
de Dieu, ils n’ont pu, malgré leurs menaces, leurs cruautés et leurs promesses
de gloire mondaine, entraîner dans leur impiété ceux qui mettent leur confiance
dans le Seigneur. D’iniques conspirateurs ont levé la main contre nous,
uniquement parce que nous n’avons pas voulu couvrir du silence le péril de la
sainte Église, ni tolérer ceux qui ne rougissent pas de réduire en servitude
l’Épouse même de Dieu. En tout pays, la dernière des femmes peut se donner un
époux à son gré avec l’appui des lois ; et voici qu’il n’est plus permis à la
sainte Église, qui est l’Épouse de Dieu et notre mère, de demeurer unie à son
Époux, comme le demande la loi divine et comme elle le veut elle-même. Nous ne
devons pas souffrir que les fils de cette Église soient asservis à des
hérétiques, à des adultères, à des oppresseurs, comme si ceux-là étaient leurs
pères. De là des maux de toute nature, des périls divers, des actes de cruauté
inouïe, ainsi que vous pourrez l’apprendre de nos légats.
« Il a été dit au
Prophète, comme le sait votre fraternité : « Du sommet de la montagne, fais
entendre des cris, et ne cesse pas. » Poussé irrésistiblement, sans aucun
respect humain, me mettant au-dessus de tout sentiment terrestre, j’évangélise
à mon tour, je crie et je crie encore, et je vous annonce que la religion
chrétienne, la vraie foi que le Fils de Dieu venu sur la terre nous a enseignée
par nos pères, est menacée de se corrompre par l’envahissement de la puissance
séculière, qu’elle tend à s’anéantir, à perdre sa couleur antique, exposée
ainsi à la dérision non seulement de Satan, mais des juifs, des sarrasins et
des païens. Ces derniers du moins gardent leurs lois qui ne peuvent être utiles
au salut des âmes, et qui n’ont point été garanties par des miracles comme la
nôtre que le Roi éternel a attestée lui-même : ils les gardent et ils v
croient. Nous chrétiens, enivrés de l’amour du siècle et trompés par une vainc
ambition, nous faisons céder toute religion et toute honnêteté à la cupidité et
à la superbe, nous semblons dépourvus de toute loi et comme insensés, n’ayant
plus le souci qu’avaient nos pères du salut et de l’honneur de la vie présente
et de la vie future, n’en faisant même pas l’objet de notre espérance. S’il
s’en rencontre qui craignent encore Dieu, c’est uniquement de leur salut qu’ils
s’occupent, et non de l’intérêt commun. Qui voit-on aujourd’hui se donner de la
peine, exposer sa vie dans les fatigues par le motif de la crainte ou de
l’amour du Dieu tout-puissant, tandis qu’on voit les soldats de la milice
séculière braver tous les dangers pour leurs maîtres, pour leurs amis et même
pour leurs sujets ? Des milliers d’hommes savent courir à la mort pour leurs
seigneurs ; mais s’agit-il du roi du ciel, de notre Rédempteur, loin de jouer
ainsi sa vie, on recule devant l’inimitié de quelques hommes. S’il en est (et
il en existe encore, par la miséricorde de Dieu, si peu que ce soit), s’il en
est, disons-nous, quelques-uns qui, pour l’amour de la loi chrétienne, osent résister
en face aux impies, non seulement ils ne trouvent pas d’appui chez leurs
frères, on les taxe d’imprudence et d’indiscrétion, on les traite de fous. «
Nous donc qui sommes obligé par notre charge de détruire les vices dans les
cœurs de nos frères et d’y implanter les vertus, nous vous prions et vous
supplions dans le Seigneur Jésus qui nous a rachetés, de réfléchir en
vous-mêmes, afin de bien comprendre pour quel motif nous avons à souffrir tant
d’angoisses et de tribulations de la part des ennemis de la religion
chrétienne. Du jour où, par la volonté divine, l’Église mère m’a établi, malgré
ma grande indignité, et malgré moi, Dieu le sait, sur le trône apostolique,
tous mes soins ont été pour que l’Épouse de Dieu, notre dame et mère, remontât
à la dignité qui lui appartient, pour qu’elle se maintînt libre, chaste et
catholique. Mais une telle conduite devait déplaire souverainement à l’antique
ennemi ; c’est pourquoi il a armé contre nous ceux qui sont ses membres, et
nous a suscité une opposition universelle. C’est alors que l’on a vu se diriger
contre nous et contre le Siège Apostolique plus d’efforts violents qu’il n’en
avait été tenté depuis les temps de Constantin le Grand. Mais que l’on ne s’en
étonne pas ; il est naturel que plus le temps de l’Antéchrist approche, plus il
mette d’acharnement à poursuivre l’anéantissement de la religion chrétienne
[11]. »
Telle était à ce moment
suprême l’indignation douloureuse du grand Pontife, presque seul contre tous,
abattu par les revers, mais non vaincu De la forteresse où il avait abrité la
majesté apostolique, il put entendre les impies vociférations du cortège qui
conduisait à la basilique vaticane Henri, que son faux pape attendait à la
Confession de saint Pierre. C’était le dimanche des Rameaux 1085. Le sacrilège
fut consommé. La veille, Guibert avait osé trôner dans la basilique de Latran ;
et sous les palmes triomphales portées en l’honneur du Christ dont Grégoire
était le vicaire, on vit l’intrus placer sur la tête du César excommunié la
couronne de l’Empire chrétien ; mais Dieu préparait un vengeur à son Église. Au
moment où le Pontife était serré dé plus près dans la forteresse qui lui
servait d’abri, et qu’il semblait avoir tout à craindre de la fureur de son
ennemi, Rome retentit tout à coup du bruit de l’arrivée du vaillant chef des
Normands, Robert Guiscard. Cet homme de guerre est accouru pour mettre ses
armes au service du Pontife assiégé, et pour délivrer Rome du joug des
Allemands. Une panique soudaine s’empare du faux César et du faux pape ; l’un
et l’autre prennent la fuite, et la cité parjure expie dans les horreurs d’un
saccagement effroyable le crime de son odieuse trahison.
Le cœur de Grégoire fut
accablé du désastre de son peuple. Impuissant à contenir la rage dévastatrice
de ces barbares qui ne surent pas se borner à délivrer le Pontife, mais
donnèrent carrière à toutes leurs cupidités au sein de celte ville qu’ils
auraient dû châtier et non écraser ; menacé du retour de Henri qui comptait sur
le ressentiment des Romains et se préparait à remplacer les Normands,
lorsqu’ils auraient assouvi leurs convoitises, Grégoire sortit de Rome avec
désolation, et, secouant la poussière de ses pieds, il alla demander asile au
Mont-Cassin, et passer quelques heures dans ce sanctuaire du grand patriarche
des moines. Le contraste des jours tranquilles de sa jeunesse abritée sous le
cloître, avec les orages dont sa carrière apostolique n’avait cessé d’être
agitée, dut se présenter à sa pensée. Errant, fugitif, abandonné, sauf d’une
élite d’âmes fidèles et dévouées, il poursuivait sa douloureuse passion ; mais
son calvaire n’était pas éloigné, et le Seigneur ne devait pas tarder à le
recevoir dans le repos de ses saints. Avant qu’il descendît de la sainte
montagne, un fait merveilleux arrivé déjà plusieurs fois se manifesta de
nouveau. Grégoire étant à l’autel et célébrant le saint Sacrifice, une blanche
colombe parut tout à coup posée sur son épaule, et parlant à son oreille. Il ne
fut pas difficile de reconnaître à ce symbole expressif l’action de l’Esprit-Saint
qui dirigeait et gouvernait les pensées et les actes du saint Pontife.
On était dans les
premiers mois de l’année 1085. Grégoire se rendit à Salerne, dernière station
de sa vie si agitée. Ses forces l’abandonnaient de plus en plus. Il voulut
cependant faire la dédicace de l’Église du saint évangéliste Matthieu dont le
corps reposait dans cette ville, et d’une voix défaillante il adressa encore la
parole au peuple. Avant pris ensuite le Corps et le Sang du Sauveur, fortifié
par ce puissant viatique, il reprit le chemin de sa demeure, et s’étendit sur
la couche d’où il ne devait plus se relever. Image saisissante du Fils de Dieu
sur la croix, comme lui dépouillé de tout et abandonné de la plupart des siens,
ses dernières pensées furent pour la sainte Église qu’il laissait dans le
veuvage. Il indiqua aux quelques cardinaux et évêques qui l’entouraient, les
noms de ceux entre les mains desquels il verrait avec contentement passer sa
laborieuse succession : Didier, Abbé du Mont-Cassin, qui fut après lui Victor
III ; Othon de Châtillon, moine de Cluny, qui fut après Victor Urbain II ; et
le fidèle légat Hugues de Die, que Grégoire avait fait archevêque de Lyon.
On interrogea le Pontife
agonisant sur ses intentions relativement aux nombreux coupables qu’il avait dû
frapper du glaive de l’excommunication. Là encore, comme le Christ sur la
croix, il exerça miséricorde et justice : « Sauf, dit-il, le roi Henri, et
Guibert, l’usurpateur du Siège Apostolique, ainsi que ceux qui favorisent leur
injustice et leur impiété, j’absous et bénis tous ceux qui ont foi en mon
pouvoir comme étant celui des saints apôtres Pierre et Paul. » Le souvenir de
la pieuse et invincible Mathilde s’étant présenté à sa pensée, il confia cette
fille dévouée de l’Église Romaine aux soins du courageux Anselme de Lucques,
rappelant ainsi, comme le remarque le biographe de ce saint évoque, le don que
Jésus expirant fit de Marie à Jean son disciple de prédilection. Trente années
de luttes et de victoires furent pour l’héroïque comtesse le prix de cette
bénédiction suprême.
La fin était imminente ;
mais la sollicitude du père de la chrétienté survivait encore en Grégoire. Il
appela l’un après l’autre ces hommes généreux qui entouraient sa couche, et
leur fit prêter serment entre ses mains glacées de ne jamais reconnaître les
droits du tyran, tant qu’il n’aurait pas donné satisfaction à l’Église. Il
résuma sa dernière énergie dans une défense solennelle intimée à tous de
reconnaître pour Pape celui qui n’aurait pas été élu canoniquement et selon les
règles des saints Pères. Se recueillant ensuite en lui-même, et acceptant la
divine volonté sur sa vie de pontife qui n’avait été qu’un sacrifice continuel,
il dit :»J’ai aimé la justice et j’ai haï l’iniquité ; c’est pour cela que je
meurs en exil. » Un des évêques qui l’entouraient répondit avec respect : «
Vous ne pouvez, seigneur, mourir en exil, vous qui, tenant la place du Christ
et des saints Apôtres, avez reçu les nations en héritage, et en possession
l’étendue de la terre. » Parole sublime que déjà Grégoire ne pouvait plus
entendre ; car son âme s’était élancée au ciel, et recevait dès ce moment l’immortelle
couronne des martyrs.
Grégoire était donc
vaincu, comme le Christ lui-même fut vaincu par la mort ; mais le triomphe sur
cette mort ne manqua pas plus au disciple qu’il n’avait manqué au Maître. La
chrétienté abaissée en tant de manières se releva dans toute sa dignité ; et
l’on peut même dire qu’un gage de cette résurrection fut donné par le ciel le
jour même où Grégoire rendait à Salerne son dernier soupir. Ce même jour,
vingt-cinq mai 1085, Alphonse VI entrait victorieux à Tolède, et arborait la
croix dans la cité reconquise des Eugène et des Julien, après quatre siècles
d’esclavage sous le joug sarrasin.
Mais il fallait à
l’Église opprimée un continuateur de Grégoire, et le Dieu dont il fut le
vicaire ne le lui refusa pas. Le martyre du grand Pontife fut comme une semence
de Pontifes dignes de lui. De même qu’il avait préparé ses prédécesseurs, on
peut dire que ses successeurs procédèrent de lui ; et les fastes de la papauté
ne présentent nulle part dans toute leur teneur une suite de noms plus
glorieuse que celle qui s’étend de Victor III, successeur immédiat de Grégoire,
à Boniface VIII, en qui recommença pour de longs siècles le martyre que notre
grand héros avait subi. Son âme était à peine affranchie des épreuves de cette
vallée de larmes, et déjà la victoire se déclarait. Les ennemis de l’Église
étaient abattus, la suppression des investitures éteignait la simonie et
assurait l’élection canonique des Pasteurs ; la loi sacrée de la continence des
clercs reprenait partout son empire.
Grégoire avait été
l’instrument de Dieu pour la réforme de la société chrétienne ; et si son nom
est demeuré béni des vrais enfants de l’Église, sa mission avait été trop belle
et trop courageusement remplie pour qu’elle n’attirât pas sur lui la haine de
l’enfer. Or, voici ce que le Prince de ce monde [12] imagina contre lui dans sa
rage. Non content d’avoir fait de Grégoire un objet d’exécration pour les hérétiques,
il vint à bout de le rendre odieux aux faux catholiques, embarrassant pour les
demi-chrétiens. Longtemps ces derniers, malgré le jugement de l’Église qui l’a
placé sur ses autels, affectèrent de l’appeler insolemment Grégoire VII. Son
culte fut proscrit par des gouvernements qui se disaient encore catholiques ;
il fut prohibé par des mandements épiscopaux. Son pontificat et ses actes
furent attaqués comme contraires à la religion chrétienne par le plus éloquent
de nos orateurs sacrés. Il fut un temps où les lignes que nous consacrons à ce
saint Pape, dans un livre destiné à nourrir chez les fidèles l’amour et
l’admiration pour les héros de la sainteté que l’Église offre à leur culte, eût
attiré sur nous la vindicte des lois. Les Leçons de l’Office d’aujourd’hui
furent supprimées par le Parlement de Paris en 1729, avec défense de s’en
servir, sous peine de saisie du temporel. Ces barrières sont tombées, ces
scandales ont cessé. Par suite du rétablissement de la Liturgie romaine en
France, chaque année le nom de saint Grégoire VII est proclamé dans nos
Églises, la louange qui honore les saints lui est publiquement décernée, et le
divin Sacrifice est offert à Dieu pour la gloire d’un si illustre Pontife.
Il était temps pour notre
honneur français qu’une telle justice fût rendue à qui la mérite. Lorsque
depuis plus de soixante ans on entendait les historiens et les publicistes
protestants de l’Allemagne combler d’éloges celui qui n’est pourtant à leurs
veux qu’un grand homme, mais en qui ils reconnaissent l’héroïque vengeur des
droits de la société humaine ; lorsque les gouvernements réduits aux abois par
l’envahissement toujours plus impérieux du principe démocratique, n’ont plus le
loisir de céder à leurs anciennes jalousies contre l’Église ; lorsque l’Épiscopat
se serre toujours plus étroitement autour de la Chaire de saint Pierre, centre
de vie, de lumière et de force : rien n’est plus naturel que de voir le nom
immortel de saint Grégoire VII resplendir d’une gloire nouvelle, après
l’éclipsé qui l’avait si longtemps dérobé aux regards d’un trop grand nombre de
fidèles. Qu’il demeure donc, ce glorieux nom, jusqu’à la fin des siècles, comme
l’un des astres les plus brillants du Cycle pascal, et qu’il verse sur l’Église
de nos jours l’influence salutaire qu’il répandit sur celle du moyen âge !
Nous lirons les pages que
la sainte Église a consacrées à la mémoire du saint Pontife, et nous les lirons
avec d’autant plus de respect qu’elles ont été plus outragées par ceux « qui ne
savaient ce qu’ils faisaient [13]. » [14]
[1] Apoc. XI, 7.
[2] Data Romae, nonis
maii, indictione I (1078).
[3] Data Romae, calendis martii, indictione 12(1074).
[4] Data Romae, 7 idus decembris, indictione 13 (1074).
[5] 16 décembre 1074. JAFFÉ, Monumenta Gregoriana, pag. 532.
[6] Datae Romae, 14 calendas martii (1074).
[7] Anselm. Epist. Lib. II, 31.
[8] 1075, Jaffé, pag. 533.
[9] Psalm. CIX.
[10] Matth. XXIV, 8.
[11] 1084. JAFFÉ, pag. 572.
[12] Johan. XII, 31.
[13] Luc XXIII, 31.
[14] Cf. Leçons de Matines, plus haut.
Portrait
of en:Pope Gregory VII on the en:Basilica of Saint Paul
Outside the Walls, Rome
Ritratto
di it:Papa Gregorio VII nella it:Basilica di San Paolo fuori
la Mura, Roma
Les Répons que nous
insérons ici font partie de l’Office du saint Pape ; ils retracent ses combats
et ses triomphes.
RÉPONS.
R/. Grégoire, nommé
d’abord Hildebrand, emprunta son nom du feu, non sans un éloquent présage de
l’avenir : * Car il devait repousser par les traits de la parole divine, les
ennemis prêts à envahir la maison de Dieu. V/. Son nom signifiait la flamme, et
il en remplit le sens par son ardente charité. * Car il devait repousser par
les traits de la parole divine, les ennemis prêts à envahir la maison de Dieu.
R/. Dès sa jeunesse il
vit que le monde était envieilli ans le péché ; ne trouvant pas où reposer son
cœur, quitta le sol de sa patrie : * Et ayant passé en France, il résolut
d’embrasser le service de Dieu seul sous discipline de Cluny. V/. Sous la
conduite de la foi, il sortit de son pays, se mettant à la recherche de la cité
dont Dieu est l’auteur et l’architecte. * Et ayant passé en France, il résolut
d’embrasser le service de Dieu seul sous discipline de Cluny.
R/. Le saint Pontife
Léon, dont Hildebrand avait enflammé le courage, l’appela à prendre part à ses
sollicitudes : * Et par leur concert à tous deux, le champ du Seigneur commença
à refleurir. V/. Hildebrand, homme de conseil très saint et très pur, se montra
fort dans l’adversité et maître de lui-même dans la prospérité. * Et par leur
concert à tous deux, le champ du Seigneur commença à refleurir.
R/. Spirituel
agriculteur, le Pontife Léon ayant admiré la fécondité d’un tel rejeton, accrut
encore en lui la présence du Christ par l’imposition de l’ordre lévitique : *
Par le commandement du Seigneur Apostolique, Hildebrand brilla comme
Archidiacre de l’Église romaine. V/. Veillant jour et nuit au salut de
l’Église, bien qu’il fût établi dans un degré inférieur, il servit successivement
cinq Pontifes, et les aida d’une manière admirable. * Par le commandement du
Seigneur Apostolique, Hildebrand brilla comme Archidiacre de l’Église romaine.
R/. L’Église romaine fit
enfin violence à Grégoire, en l’obligeant à la gouverner : * Lui qui eut mieux
aime finir sa vie sur une terre étrangère que de s’asseoir pour la gloire
mondaine sur le siège de Pierre. V/. Il ne porta pas la main sur un tel honneur
; mais il v fut appelé de Dieu comme l’avait été Aaron. * Lui qui eut mieux
aime finir sa vie sur une terre étrangère que de s’asseoir pour la gloire mondaine
sur le siège de Pierre.
R/. Le sanglier de la
forêt s’est rué sur la vigne qu’avait plantée la main du Seigneur des armées ;
cette bête féroce l’a ravagée tout entière : * Ceins ton glaive sur ta cuisse,
ô gardien fidèle ! V/. S’il t’appartient de juger jusqu’aux Anges même, combien
plus les puissances du siècle ? * Ceins ton glaive sur ta cuisse, ô gardien
fidèle !
R/. Le roi, étant entré
dans la forteresse, déposa les marques de sa dignité, restant à jeun du matin
jusqu’au soir, vêtu de laine et nu-pieds : * Il implorait le secours de la
miséricorde apostolique. V/. Lui qui avait dit dans son cœur : J’élèverai mon
trône sur l’autel même de Dieu, je m’assiérai sur la montagne du testament. *
Il implorait le secours de la miséricorde apostolique.
R/. Grégoire dit au roi
Henri : Voici le Corps du Seigneur ; que ce soit aujourd’hui l’épreuve de mon
innocence : * Fais donc, ô mon fils, ce que tu m’as vu faire. V/. Mais le roi
n’osa étendre la main pour recevoir le Saint des saints. * Fais donc, ô mon
fils, ce que tu m’as vu faire.
R/. Un jour que le
bienheureux Grégoire célébrait solennellement la Messe, une colombe blanche
comme la neige parut tout à coup descendre près du saint autel, d’où s’élevant
d’un vol léger : * Elle se reposa, les ailes étendues, sur l’épaule droite du
Pontife. V/. La colombe demeura ainsi immobile, jusqu’à ce que le mélange du
Mystère sacré eût lieu dans le calice. * Elle se reposa, les ailes étendues,
sur l’épaule droite du Pontife.
R/. Le bienheureux
Grégoire étant arrivé à ses derniers moments, luttait avec la souffrance ;
alors il dit aux assistants : Je ne fais aucun compte des labeurs que j’ai
soufferts : * Mon unique motif de confiance est d’avoir toujours aimé la
justice et l’iniquité. V/. Il éleva ensuite les yeux au ciel, et dit : C’est là
que je veux monter, et par mes instantes prières je vous recommanderai au Dieu
de bonté. * Mon unique motif de confiance est d’avoir toujours aimé la justice
et l’iniquité.
R/. Le saint Pontife
ayant témoigné du regret de mourir dans l’exil, un vénérable évêque lui dit :
Vous ne pouvez mourir en exil, puisque, tenant la place du Christ et de ses
Apôtres : * Vous avez reçu les nations en héritage, et les confins de la terre
comme la limite de vos possessions. V/. Il dominera de la mer jusqu’à la mer,
et du fleuve jusqu’aux confins de la terre. * Vous avez reçu les nations en
héritage, et les confins de la terre comme la limite de vos possessions.
Nous réunissons dans une
seule Ode trois Hymnes consacrées à célébrer les vertus et les services de
saint Grégoire VII.
HYMNE.
C’est toi-même, ô
Grégoire, que nous célébrons dans nos chants de triomphe ; toi l’honneur de
Rome, toi dont le grand cœur brava les tempêtes, après lesquelles tu touches
aujourd’hui le rivage.
Qu’elle soit dans la
joie, la race du père Benoît, qui a jusqu’ici enfanté tant de héros ; aucun n’a
brillé encore d’une gloire semblable.
Un jour, dans son
enfance, il assistait au travail d’un ouvrier : on le vit, de sa main conduite
par le ciel, tracer en se jouant des caractères qui annonçaient qu’un jour il
régirait un vaste empire.
Monte donc, ô Père !
Comme un soleil nouveau, lève-toi, et viens éclairer le monde de tes rayons.
Pontife, assieds-toi sur la chaire de Pierre, et sois-y l’arbitre de la terre.
Ils n’ont qu’à fuir
maintenant dans leurs sombres cavernes, tous ceux qui exercent leurs hostilités
contre L’Église, et ne cessent de lancer leurs traits sacrilèges sur le
troupeau du Christ.
Voici le Pasteur vigilant
et plein de l’Esprit d’en haut : le glaive de la parole est dans sa main ; et
plus fort que Satan, il saura briser ses résistances et déjouer ses noirs
complots.
C’est en vain qu’Henri,
l’audacieux prince des Germains, sourd a ses avertissements paternels, suscite
un incendie qui rappelle les premières fureurs des princes contre l’Église.
Tu le domptes, ô
Grégoire, malgré ses résistances ; et dédaignant les orgueilleuses prétentions
d’une puissance caduque, tu lances sur elle la foudre, du haut des remparts
sacrés.
Bientôt tu arraches le
sceptre à ses indignes mains, et tu transmets le pouvoir à un plus digne,
déliant ainsi les peuples de la foi jurée à celui qui n’est plus qu’un tyran.
Tel est notre grand
Pontife, dirigé dans ses conseils par l’Esprit-Saint lui-même, dont il ne fait
que remplir les ordres ; le peuple saisi d’un saint respect a vu la divine
colombe apparaître et parler à son oreille.
Mathilde, la femme forte,
vient au secours du Pontife ; elle apporte son aide efficace au souverain Père,
et soutient par sa fidélité les droits menacés du plus auguste des sièges.
Grégoire a vu de toutes
parts l’ivraie disputer la place au bon grain, et la moisson sur le point de
passer tout entière en des mains profanes ; nouvel Elie, le zèle le transporte,
et il sévit contre les sacrilèges.
Afin d’assurer aux
peuples fidèles la liberté démarcher d’un pas rapide dans le chemin de la
patrie céleste, il s’avance à leur tète, prêt à donner sa vie, comme il est du
devoir du pasteur.
Tu as été, ô Grégoire, le
ferme rempart de la maison d’Israël, le vengeur des crimes, le soutien de Rome
; mais une mort tranquille t’était réservée après tant d’épreuves.
Presque martyr ici-bas,
ton front est ceint de la couronne ; la fermeté, la constance et la fidélité ne
t’abandonnèrent jamais : goûte maintenant l’allégresse du triomphe.
Daigne avoir souvenir du
troupeau qui te fut si cher, sois son protecteur auprès de l’éternelle Trinité,
à qui les siècles tour à tour envoient de toutes les parties de la terre
l’hommage qui lui est dû.
Amen.
Nos joies pascales se
sont accrues de votre triomphe, ô Grégoire ; car nous reconnaissons en vous
l’image de celui qui, par sa résurrection glorieuse annoncée à tout l’univers,
a relevé le monde qui s’affaissait sur lui-même. Votre pontificat avait été
préparé dans les desseins de la divine sagesse comme une ère de régénération
pour la société succombant sous l’effort de la barbarie. Votre courage fondé
sur la confiance dans la parole de Jésus ne recula devant aucun sacrifice.
Votre vie sur le Siège Apostolique ne fut qu’un long combat ; et pour avoir
aimé la justice et haï l’iniquité, il vous fallut mourir dans l’exil. Mais en
vous s’accomplissait l’oracle du Prophète sur votre Maître divin : « Parce
qu’il a donné sa vie à cause « du péché, il jouira d’une postérité nombreuse
[15]. » Une suite glorieuse de trente-six papes s’avança dans la voie que votre
sacrifice avait ouverte ; par vous l’Église fut libre, et la force s’inclina
devant le droit. Après cette période triomphante, la guerre a été déclarée de
nouveau, et elle dure encore. Les princes se sont insurgés contre la puissance
spirituelle ; ils ont secoué le joug du vicaire de Dieu, et ils ont décliné le
contrôle de toute autorité ici-bas. A leur tour les peuples se sont levés
contre un pouvoir qui ne se rattache plus au ciel par un lien visible et sacré,
et cette double insurrection met aujourd’hui la société aux abois.
Ce monde est à
Jésus-Christ, « le Roi des rois, le Seigneur des seigneurs [16] » ; à lui, à
l’Homme-Dieu, « toute puissance a été donnée au ciel et sur la terre [17] ».
Quiconque s’insurge contre lui, roi ou peuple, sera brisé comme l’a été le
peuple juif qui s’écriait dans son orgueil : « Nous ne voulons pas que celui-là
règne sur nous [18] ». Grégoire, priez pour ce monde que vous avez sauvé de la
barbarie, et qui est au moment d’y retomber. Les hommes de ce temps ne parlent
que de liberté ; c’est au nom de cette prétendue liberté qu’ils ont dissous la
société chrétienne ; et le seul moyen qui leur reste de maintenir quelque ordre
au sein de tant d’éléments ennemis, le seul moyen, c’est la force. Vous aviez
triomphé de la force, vous aviez rétabli les droits de l’esprit ; par vous la
liberté des enfants de Dieu, la liberté du bien, était reconnue, et elle régna
durant plusieurs siècles. Généreux Pontife, venez en aide à cette Europe que
votre main ferme préserva autrefois d’une ruine imminente. Fléchissez le Christ
que les hommes blasphèment, après l’avoir expulsé de son domaine, comme s’il ne
devait pas y rentrer triomphant au jour de ses justices. Implorez sa clémence
pour tant de chrétiens séduits, et entraînés par d’absurdes sophismes, par
d’aveugles préjugés, par une éducation perfide, par des mots sonores et mal
définis, et qui appellent voie du progrès celle qui les éloigne toujours plus
de l’unique but que Dieu s’est proposé en créant l’homme et l’humanité.
De ce séjour tranquille
où vous vous reposez après tant de combats, jetez, ô Grégoire, un regard sur la
sainte Église qui poursuit sa marche pénible à travers mille entraves. Tout est
contre elle : les débris d’anciennes lois inspirées par la réaction de la force
contre l’esprit, les entraînements de l’orgueil populaire qui poursuit avec
acharnement tout ce qui lui semble contraire à l’égalité des droits, la
recrudescence de l’impiété qui a compris qu’il faut marcher sur l’Église pour
monter jusqu’à Dieu. Au milieu de cette tempête, le rocher qui porte le siège
immortel sur lequel vous avez tenu, ô Grégoire, la place de Pierre, est battu
par les flots en furie. Priez pour le vicaire de Dieu. Comme vous, il a aimé la
justice, il a détesté l’iniquité ; et nous craignons de le voir partir aussi
pour l’exil. Détournez, ô saint Pontife, le fléau qui pèse sur Rome. « Les
sectateurs de Satan, ainsi que l’a annoncé Jean, Évangéliste et Prophète, sont
montés de leurs antres ténébreux à la surface de la terre ; ils ont fait le
siège du camp des saints et de la cité bien-aimée [19]. » Veillez, ô Grégoire,
sur cette ville sainte qui fut votre épouse sur la terre. Déjouez des plans
perfides, ranimez le zèle des enfants de l’Église, afin que, par leur courage
et par leurs largesses, ils continuent de venir en aide à la plus sacrée des
causes.
Priez, ô Pontife, pour
l’ordre épiscopal dont le Siège Apostolique est la source. Fortifiez les oints
du Seigneur dans la lutte qu’ils ont à soutenir contre les tendances d’une
société qui a expulsé le Christ de ses lois et de ses institutions. Qu’ils
soient revêtus de la force d’en haut, fidèles dans la confession de l’antique
doctrine, empressés à prémunir les fidèles exposés à tant de séductions dans ce
fatal naufrage des vérités et des devoirs. Dans un temps comme le nôtre, la
force de l’Église n’est plus que dans les âmes ; ses appuis extérieurs ont
disparu presque partout. Le divin Esprit, dont la mission est de soutenir
ici-bas l’œuvre du Fils de Dieu, l’assistera jusqu’au dernier jour ; mais il
veut pour instruments des hommes dégagés des préoccupations de la vie présente,
résignés, s’il le faut, à l’impopularité, résolus à braver tout pour proclamer
l’immuable enseignement de la Chaire suprême. Par la miséricorde divine, ils
sont nombreux aujourd’hui dans la sainte Église, ô Grégoire, les pasteurs
conformes à l’intention de celui que saint Pierre appelle « le Prince des
pasteurs [20] ». Priez, afin que tous, à votre exemple, aiment la justice et
haïssent l’iniquité, aiment la vérité et haïssent l’erreur ; qu’ils ne
craignent ni l’exil, ni la persécution, ni la mort ; car « le disciple n’est
pas au-dessus du maître [21] ».
[15] Isai. LIII, 10.
[16] I Tim. VI, 15.
[17] Matth. XXVIII, 18.
[18] Luc. XIX, 14.
[19] Apoc. XX, 8.
[20] I Petr. V, 4.
[21] Matth. X, 24.
Federico Zuccari, Enrico
IV penitente ottiene
l'annullamento della scomunica da papa Gregorio
VII (1564-1580),
affresco; Città del Vaticano, Palazzi Vaticani, sala Regia
Bhx Cardinal
Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
L’histoire de ce Pape
très courageux, jadis abbé très zélé du monastère de Saint-Paul à Rome, offre
de nombreux points de ressemblance avec celle du grand saint Athanase ; car, si
celui-ci fut, au IVe siècle, l’invincible champion de la divinité du Verbe, au
XIe siècle, quand l’Église gisait, avilie, au pied du trône germanique, auquel
l’avaient asservie l’incapacité, l’incontinence et la vénalité d’un grand
nombre de ses ministres, Grégoire se leva hardiment et, mettant sa confiance en
Dieu, seul contre tous, il combattit avec vaillance pour la liberté de l’épouse
mystique du Sauveur. Athanase avait erré sur la terre, sans trouver un lieu sûr
où il pût se soustraire aux embûches du monde entier conjuré contre lui ;
Grégoire, de son côté, détesté par ses ennemis, incompris de ses amis
eux-mêmes, dépourvu de ressources et sans aucun secours humain, s’abandonne
complètement à Dieu, porté sur les ailes de sa foi, et supporte avec courage
l’incendie de la métropole pontificale, les colères populaires et jusqu’à la
mort en exil.
Les dernières paroles de
l’intrépide Pontife montrent bien la trempe énergique de son âme : « J’ai aimé
la justice et j’ai eu en haine l’iniquité : pour cela je meurs en exil. » II ne
se repent point de son passé ; au seuil de l’éternité, son jugement sur les
hommes et sur les temps ne diffère pas de celui qu’il formait durant sa vie ;
Grégoire bénit celui qui se prosterne devant son autorité pontificale, mais, au
moment même de pénétrer dans le ciel, il en ferme résolument les portes à
l’empereur Henri IV, à ses ministres et à ceux qui refusaient de se soumettre à
son autorité apostolique (+ 1085).
Rome chrétienne conserve
encore plusieurs souvenirs de ce Pape énergique et courageux. Il naquit au pied
du Capitole, près de la diaconie de Sainte-Marie in Porticu qu’il fit restaurer
quand il fut pontife, et dont il consacra l’autel majeur. Tout jeune,
Hildebrand professa la Règle du patriarche du Mont-Cassin dans le petit
monastère de Sainte-Marie-Aventine, là où s’élève aujourd’hui le prieuré des
Chevaliers de Malte. Son maître bien-aimé, Gratien, étant devenu pape sous le
nom de Grégoire VI, Hildebrand l’accompagna d’abord au Latran, puis, après son
abdication, il le suivit sur le chemin de l’exil en Allemagne. Revenu à Rome
avec saint Léon IX, Hildebrand fut élu par lui abbé de Saint-Paul, où il restaura
la discipline monastique déchue, et fit s’élever les moines à une telle hauteur
de vertu que, dans ses luttes postérieures pour la liberté de l’Église, il
mettait une immense confiance en leurs saintes prières. Pour honorer la
basilique de l’apôtre, Hildebrand, aidé du consul Pantaléon d’Amalfi, fit
fondre à Constantinople deux grandes portes de bronze incrustées d’argent, qui
existent encore ; sur les deux battants, en autant de compartiments, sont
représentées les différentes scènes de la vie du Sauveur, des Actes des Apôtres
et de leur martyre. Ce précieux travail fut exécuté, comme le dit l’épigraphe
dédicatoire :
ANNO • MILLESIMO •
SBPTVAGESIMO • AB • INCARNATIONS • DNI • TEMPORIBVS
DNI • ALEXANDRI •
SANCTISSIMI • QVARTI • ET • DNI • ILDEPRAN
DI • VENERABILI • MONACHI
• ET • ARCHIDIACONI
CONSTRVCTE • SVNT • PORTE
• ISTE • IN • REGIA • VRBE • CONP
ADIVVANTE • DNO
PANTALEONE • CONSVLI •
QVI
ILLE • FIERI • IVSSIT
L’abbaye de Saint-Paul
conserve une autre précieuse relique de Grégoire VII : la merveilleuse bible de
Charles le Chauve, magnifiquement enluminée, et que Grégoire avait reçue en don
de Robert Guiscard, à titre d’hommage de fidélité à la chaire de saint Pierre.
En effet, à la première page, on lit le serment du Normand au Pontife ; celui-ci
voulut que la garde de ce très important et précieux manuscrit fût confiée à
ses chers moines de l’abbaye de Saint-Paul.
A l’intérieur de ce
monastère se trouve un gracieux oratoire solennellement consacré, riche
d’indulgences et de saintes reliques, et dédié au saint Pontife. C’est
peut-être le seul sanctuaire au monde qui soit érigé à la mémoire de saint
Grégoire VII.
Dans l’ecclesia
Pudentiana se trouve une inscription qui nous atteste que cette église fut
restaurée sous le pontificat de saint Grégoire VII :
TEMPORE • GREGORII •
SEPTENI • PRAESVLIS • ALMI
Dans la crypte de la
basilique de Sainte-Cécile au Transtévère, on conserve l’inscription
commémorative de la dédicace d’un autel qui le mentionne également. Le cippe de
marbre placé sous l’autel majeur de la vieille diaconie in Porticu Gallatorum,
est encore plus important ; on y lit une longue inscription qui commence par les
vers suivants :
SEPTIMVS • HOC • PRAESVL
• ROMANO • CVLMINE • FRETVS
GREGORIVS • TEMPLVM •
CHRISTO • SACRAVIT • IN • AEVVM
Suit une longue liste de
reliques déposées en cette circonstance dans l’autel par le grand Pontife.
Dans le recueil de Pierre
Sabinus, se trouve une épigraphe copiée in domo cuiusdam marmorarii ad radiées
caballi et qui mentionne aussi Grégoire VII :
TEMPORE • QVO • GREGORIVS
• ROMANAE • VRBIS • SEPTIMVS AD • LAVDEM • MATRIS • VIRGINIS • SIMVLQVE • ALMI
• BLASII
II est difficile
d’identifier cette église de Saint-Blaise, puisque plusieurs étaient dédiées à
Rome, en ce temps-là, à ce célèbre martyr arménien. Ce qu’écrit Gregorovius
dans son histoire de la Ville éternelle est donc inexact, quand il condamne
presque notre Pontife à la damnatio memoriae et prétend que Rome ne conserve
plus rien de lui. Non, elle garde encore de Grégoire des souvenirs précieux,
des reliques, une partie de son Registrum epistolarum, et quelques monuments
épigraphiques ; de plus, si son corps gît en exil à Salerne, l’esprit du grand
Pape plane encore autour des basiliques des apôtres Pierre et Paul, puisque le
pontificat romain continue toujours, inébranlable, la grande mission
d’Hildebrand, mission de liberté et de sainteté, pour le salut des rachetés.
L’office de saint
Grégoire VII fut étendu en 1728 par Benoît XIII à l’Église universelle ; il
rencontra cependant une forte opposition dans le nord de l’Italie, en France,
dans les Pays-Bas et en Autriche, opposition qui dura près d’un siècle. Haï
durant sa vie par les partisans de la suprématie du pouvoir civil et par les
ennemis de la liberté et de la sainteté de l’Église, Grégoire, plus de six
cents ans après sa mort, retrouva en face de lui des passions, des rancunes et
des haines qui ne s’étaient point apaisées durant ce temps. Mais cette haine
acharnée des ennemis de l’Église contre le grand Pontife constitue précisément
la plus glorieuse auréole autour de son front, car son nom lui-même est le
programme et le symbole de la sainteté et de la liberté de l’Épouse du Christ.
Celle-ci vénère Grégoire parmi les saints, tandis que les impies maudissent son
souvenir.
La dépouille mortelle de
l’héroïque Pontife repose maintenant encore en exil dans la cathédrale de
Salerne, car personne n’a jamais osé l’enlever de ce lieu où Grégoire succomba
aux labeurs et aux épreuves de son pontificat. De fait, l’exil est sa place
historique ; c’est le fond du tableau d’où émerge et sur lequel se détache
admirablement sa noble figure d’athlète de la liberté de l’Église et de la
sainteté du sacerdoce.
La messe est du Commun
des Pontifes : Statuit, avec la lecture évangélique tirée de saint Matthieu,
XXIV, 42-47. Le Seigneur a établi les évêques comme surveillants de sa maison,
pendant qu’il est absent. C’est leur office de veiller, afin de pourvoir aux
besoins spirituels de leurs compagnons de service, et de dissiper les embûches
de Satan qui rôde sans cesse autour du troupeau pour le massacrer. Le Seigneur
reviendra la nuit, à l’improviste. Bienheureux celui que la mort trouvera actif
à son poste.
La collecte est propre,
et fait remarquer le secret de tant de ténacité et d’intrépidité de la part
d’Hildebrand. Il se confiait en Dieu, et Dieu est plus fort qu’Henri IV et ses
auxiliaires.
Prière. — « Seigneur,
force de ceux qui se confient en vous, et qui, pour défendre la liberté de
l’Église, avez donné une constance indomptable à votre bienheureux confesseur
et pontife Grégoire, faites que nous aussi, à son exemple et par ses mérites,
nous puissions surmonter énergiquement tout obstacle spirituel. Par notre
Seigneur, etc. »
Comme l’observe l’apôtre
saint Pierre, le Seigneur accorde une grâce insigne à une âme quand il la fait
souffrir beaucoup pour la cause de Dieu. En effet, puisque toute notre
perfection consiste dans l’imitation de Jésus-Christ, rien ne nous fait
participer aussi intimement à son esprit que la croix et la souffrance.
Tombe
du pape Grégoire VII dans la cathédrale de Salerne en Italie.
Sous
la tombe, les derniers mots du pape :
« Dilexi
iustitiam, odivi iniquitatem, propterea morior in esilio
(J'ai
aimé la justice, j'ai haï l'iniquité, je meurs donc en exil) ».
Tomba
di Papa Gregorio VII, Salerno, Cattedrale
di Santa Maria degli Angeli e San Matteo Apostolo
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide
dans l’année liturgique
J’ai aimé la justice et
haï l’injustice, c’est pourquoi je meurs en exil.
Saint Grégoire Jour de mort : 25 mars 1085. Tombeau : à Salerne, dans l’église principale. Image : On le représente en pape, avec une colombe sur l’épaule. Vie : saint Grégoire VII (Hildebrand) naquit vers 1020. Il fut d’abord moine bénédictin à Cluny (1047-1049), puis cardinal et enfin pape (1073-1085). C’est incontestablement l’un des plus grands papes de tous les temps. C’était une personnalité et un caractère. Tous les efforts de sa vie tendirent à maintenir la pureté et l’unité de l’Église ainsi que sa liberté et son indépendance à l’égard des puissances séculières. Ces longs combats lui valurent des peines sans nombre et, pour finir, l’exil et la mort, mais ils procurèrent à l’Église une véritable renaissance. Il mourut en exil en prononçant ces paroles : « J’ai aimé la justice et haï l’injustice, c’est pourquoi je meurs en exil Il. L’historien protestant Gregorovius écrit au sujet de saint Grégoire : « Dans l’histoire de la papauté, deux étoiles brilleront à jamais et manifesteront la grandeur spirituelle des papes : Léon qui fit reculer le terrible et sanguinaire Attila et Grégoire devant qui s’agenouilla, en chemise de pénitent, l’empereur Henri IV. Mais l’impression que l’on éprouve en méditant ces deux scènes historiques n’est pas la même dans les deux cas. La première scène nous remplit de respect pour une grandeur purement morale ; la seconde nous impose seulement de l’admiration en face d’un caractère presque surhumain ! En tout cas, la victoire remportée sans armes par le moine mérite plus l’admiration du monde que les victoires d’un César ou d’un Napoléon. Les batailles que livrèrent les papes du Moyen Age ne le furent pas avec le fer et le plomb, mais avec des armes morales. L’emploi ou l’efficacité de moyens si subtils et si spirituels, voilà ce qui élève parfois le Moyen Age au-dessus de notre temps. Un Napoléon, comparé à un Grégoire, n’est, à nos yeux, qu’un barbare sanguinaire... L’apparition de Grégoire est un véritable phénomène du Moyen Age. Ce sera toujours un charme de contempler cette apparition et l’histoire du monde chrétien perdrait une de ses pages les plus rares si elle était privée de ce caractère d’une force élémentaire, de ce fils d’artisan couronné de la tiare ».
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/25-05-St-Gregoire-VII-pape-et
Saint Grégoire VII
Pape - (1021-1085)
Saint Grégoire VII, l’un
des plus grands Papes que Jésus-Christ ait donnés à Son Église, fut au XIe
siècle, l’homme providentiel destiné à combattre tous les grands abus de cette
époque si troublée : les empiètements des empereurs d’Allemagne, la vente des dignités
ecclésiastiques, la contagion des mauvaises moeurs du clergé et dans le peuple.
Il fut un homme fort instruit, très vertueux, surtout un grand caractère.
Hildebrand (tel était le
nom de famille de Grégoire VII) eut pour père un charpentier de Toscane. Il
était encore enfant, sans aucune connaissance des lettres, lorsque, jouant dans
l’atelier de son père, il forma avec des débris de bois ces mots du Psalmiste,
présage de l’autorité que plus tard il devait exercer dans le monde :
Dominabitur a mare usque ad mare : "Sa domination s’étendra d’un océan à
l’autre."
Après une première
éducation chrétienne, le jeune Hildebrand acheva de se former et de se préparer
à la mission que Dieu lui réservait, dans le célèbre monastère de Cluny, foyer
de sainteté et de science qui fournit alors tant de grands hommes.
Le courage avec lequel,
simple moine, il osa dire au Pape Léon IX que son élection n’était pas
canonique fut l’occasion de son élévation aux plus hautes dignités de l’Église.
Ce saint Pape avait été élu par l’empereur d’Allemagne ; mais son élection fut
ratifiée ensuite par le clergé et le peuple de Rome. Charmé de la franchise
d’Hildebrand, il le fit venir près de lui et le regarda comme son meilleur
conseiller. Après la mort de Léon IX, quatre Papes successifs lui conservèrent
une pleine confiance.
Lui-même, enfin, malgré
ses angoisses, dut plier devant la Volonté de Dieu et accepter le souverain
pontificat. C’est alors que brillèrent plus que jamais en lui les vertus qui
font les saints et le zèle qui fait tout céder devant les intérêts de Dieu et
de l’Église. Malgré d’innombrables occupations, il était toujours l’homme de la
prière, et ses larmes manifestaient les attendrissements de son coeur.
Grégoire VII fut atteint
d’une maladie qui le réduisit à la dernière extrémité. La Sainte Vierge lui
apparut et lui demanda s’il avait assez souffert : "Glorieuse Dame,
répondit-il, c’est à Vous d’en juger." La Vierge le toucha de la main et
disparut. Le Pontife était guéri et pu célébrer la Sainte Messe le lendemain en
présence de tout le peuple consolé.
Grégoire, un an avant sa
mort, dut fuir en exil à Salerne ; il prédit le triomphe de son Église et
rendit son âme à Dieu, le 25 mai 1085, en prononçant ces mots : "J’ai aimé
la justice et j’ai haï l’iniquité ; c’est pour cela que je meurs en exil."
SOURCE : http://viechretienne.catholique.org/saints/1580-saint-gregoire-vii
Sovana
(Toscana), chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore - Statua di san Gregorio VII
Sovana
(Tuscany, Italy), Santa Maria Maggiore church - Statue of saint Gregory VII
Also
known as
Hildebrand of Soana
Ildebrando di Soana
Profile
Educated in Rome, Italy. Benedictine monk.
Chaplain to Pope Gregory
VI. In charge of the Patrimony
of Saint Peter. Reformer and excellent administrator. Chosen the
152nd pope,
but he declined the crown. Chief counselor to Pope Victor
II, Pope Stephen
IX, Pope Benedict
X, and Pope Nicholas
II. 157th pope.
At the time of his
ascension, simony and
a corrupt clergy threatened
to destroy faith in the Church.
Gregory took the throne as a reformer, and Emperor Henry IV promised to support
him. Gregory suspended all clerics who
had purchased their position, and ordered the return of all purchased church
property. The corrupt clergy rebelled;
Henry IV broke his promise, and promoted the rebels. Gregory responded by excommunicating anyone
involved in lay investiture.
He summoned Henry to Rome,
but the emperor’s supporters drove Gregory into exile.
Henry installed the anti-pope Guibert
of Ravenna, who was driven from Rome by
Normans who supported Gregory; the Normans were, themselves, so out of control
that the people of Rome drove
out them and Gegory. The Pope then
retreated to Salerno, Italy where
he spent the remainder of his papacy.
Born
c.1020 in Soana (modern Sovana), Italy as Hildebrand
of Soana
Papal Ascension
25 May 1085 at Salerno, Italy of
natural causes
1584 by Pope Gregory
XIII
1728 by Pope Benedict
XIII (equipollent
canonization)
Pitigliano-Sovana-Orbetello, Italy, diocese of
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Readings
Now, my dearest brothers,
listen carefully to what I tell you. All those throughout the world who are
numbered as Christian and who truly acknowledge the Christian faith know and
believe that the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, is the father of
all Christians and, after Christ, the first shepherd, and that the holy Roman
Church is the mother and teacher of all the churches. Therefore, if you believe
this and hold to it without hesitation, I ask you and enjoin upon you by
Almighty God – I your brother and unworthy teacher as I am – to support and assist
your father and
your mother if you wish to have, through them, the remission of all your sins,
along with blessings and grace in this world and in the life to come. May
almighty God, from whom all good things come, continually enlighten your minds
and fill them with love for him and for your neighbor, so that by your devotion
you may deserve to make this father and
mother of whom I have spoken your debtors and enter without shame into their
company. Amen. – from a letter by Pope Saint Gregory
VII
MLA
Citation
“Pope Saint Gregory
VII“. CatholicSaints.Info. 5 April 2024. Web. 24 May 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-gregory-vii/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-gregory-vii/
Illustration
from The Lives and Times of the Popes by Chevalier Artaud de Montor,
New York: The Catholic Publication Society of America, 1911. It was originally
published in 1842.
Pope St. Gregory VII
(HILDEBRAND).
One of the greatest of
the Roman
pontiffs and one of the most remarkable men of
all times; born between the years 1020 and 1025, at Soana, or Ravacum, in Tuscany;
died 25 May, 1085, at Salerno.
The early years of his
life are involved in considerable obscurity. His name, Hildebrand
(Hellebrand)--signifying to those of his contemporaries that loved him
"a bright flame", to those that hated him
"a brand of hell"--would
indicate some Lombard connection of his family,
though at a later time, it probably also suggested the fabled descent from
the noble family of
the Aldobrandini. That he was of humble origin--vir
de plebe, as he is styled in the letter of a contemporary abbot--can
scarcely be doubted.
His father Bonizo is said by some chroniclers to have been a
carpenter, by others a peasant, the evidence in either case being very slender;
the name of his mother is unrecorded. At a tender age he came to Rome to
be educated in
the monastery of Santa
Maria on the Aventine Hill, over which his maternal uncle Laurentius
presided as abbot.
The austere spirit ofCluny pervaded this Roman cloister,
and it is not unlikely that here the youthful Hildebrand
first imbibed those lofty principles of Church reform of
which he was afterwards to become the most fearless exponent. Early
inlife he made his religious
profession as a Benedictine monk at Rome (not
in Cluny); the house of his profession, however, and the year of his
entrance into the order, both remain undetermined. As a cleric inminor
orders he entered the service of John
Gratian, Archpriest of San Giovanni by
the Latin Gate, and onGratian's elevation to the papacy as Gregory
VI, became his chaplain.
In 1046 he followed his papal patronacross
the Alps into exile, remaining with Gregory at Cologne until
the death of the deposed pontiff in 1047, when he withdrew
to Cluny. Here he resided for more than a year.
At Besançon,
in January, 1049, he met Bruno, Bishop of
Toul, the pontiff-elect recently chosen at Worms under the title of Leo
IX, and returned with him to Rome,
though not before Bruno, who had been nominated merely by the
emperor, had expressed the intention of submitting to the formal
choice of the Roman clergy and
people. Created a cardinal-subdeacon,
shortly after Leo's accession, and
appointed administrator of thePatrimony
of St. Peter's, Hildebrand at once gave evidence of that extraordinary
faculty for administration which later characterized his government of
the Church Universal.
Under his energetic and capable direction the property
of the Church, which latterly had been diverted into the hands of
the Roman nobility and theNormans, was largely recovered, and the revenues of
the Holy
See, whose treasury had been depleted, speedily augmented. By Leo
IX he was also
appointed propositus or promisor (not abbot)
of the monastery
of St. Paul extra Muros. The unchecked violence of
the lawless bands of the Champagne had brought greatdestitution upon this
venerable establishment. Monastic discipline was so impaired
that the monks were
attended in their refectory by women;
and the sacred edifices were so neglected that the sheep and cattle
freely roamed in and out through the broken doors. By
rigorous reforms and a wise administration Hildebrand succeeded in
restoring the ancient rule of the abbey with
the austere observance of earlier times; and he continued
throughout life to manifest the deepest attachment for the famous
house which his energy had reclaimed from ruin and decay. In 1054 he was sent
to France as papal
legate to examine the cause of Berengarius.
While still in Tours he learned of the death of Leo
IX, and on hastening back to Rome he
found that the clergy and
people were eager to elect him, the most trusted friend and
counsellor of Leo, as thesuccessor. This proposal of
the Romans was, however, resisted by Hildebrand, who set out
for Germany at
the head of an embassy to implore a nomination from
the emperor. The negotiations, which lasted about eleven months, ultimately
resulted in the selection of Hildebrand's candidate, Gebhard, Bishop of Eichstadt,
who was consecrated at Rome,
13 April, 1055, under the name of Victor II. During the reign of
this pontiff, the cardinal-subdeacon steadily
maintained, and even increased the ascendancy which by his commanding genius he
had acquired during the pontificate of Leo
IX. Near the close of the year 1057 he went once more to Germany to
reconcile the Empress-regent Agnes and her court to the
(merely) canonical election of Pope
Stephen X (1057-1058). His mission was not yet accomplished when Stephen died
at Florence,
and although the dying pope had
forbidden the people to appoint a successor before Hildebrand
returned, the Tusculan faction seized the opportunity to set up a
member of the Crescentian
family, John Mincius, Bishop of Velletri,
under the title of Benedict
X. With masterly skill Hildebrand succeeded in defeating the schemes of the
hostile party, and secured the election of Gerard, Bishop of Florence,
a Burgundian by
birth, who assumed the name of Nicholas
II (1059-1061).
The two most important
transactions of this pontificate--the celebrated decree of election,
by which the power of choosing the pope was
vested in the college
of cardinals, and the alliance with the Normans, secured by the Treaty
of Meifi, 1059--were in large measure the achievement of Hildebrand, whose
power and influence had now become supreme in Rome.
It was perhaps inevitable that the issues raised by the new decree of election should
not be decided without a conflict, and with the passing away of Nicholas
II in 1061, that conflict came. But when it was ended, after a schism enduring
for some years, the imperial party with its antipope Cadalous had
been discomfited, and Anselm of Baggio, the candidate of
Hildebrand and the reform party, successfully enthroned in
the Lateran Palace as Alexander
II. By Nicholas
II, in 1059, Hildebrand had been raised to the dignity and office of Archdeacon of
the Holy
Roman Church, and Alexander
II now made him Chancellor of the Apostolic
See. On 21 April, 1073, Alexander
II died. The time at length had come when Hildebrand, who
for more than twenty years had been the most prominent figure in the Church,
who had been chiefly instrumental in the selection of her rulers, who
had inspired and given purpose to her policy, and who had been
steadily developing and realizing, by successive acts, her sovereignty and
purity, should assume in his own person the
majesty and responsibility of that exalted power which his genius had so long
directed.
On the day following the
death of Alexander
II, as the obsequies of the deceased pontiff were being performed
in the Lateran
basilica, there arose, of a sudden, a loud outcry from the whole multitude
of clergyand
people: "Let Hildebrand be pope!"
"Blessed Peter has chosen Hildebrand the Archdeacon!"
All remonstrances on the part of the archdeacon were
vain, his protestations fruitless. Later, on the same day, Hildebrand was
conducted to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, and
there elected in legal form by the assembled cardinals,
with the due consent of the Roman clergy and
amid the repeated acclamations of the people. That this extraordinary
outburst on the part of the clergy and
people in favour of Hildebrand could have been the result of some preconcerted
arrangements, as is sometimes alleged, does not appear likely. Hildebrand was
clearly the man of the hour, his austere virtue commanded
respect, his genius admiration; and the prompitude and unanimity with
which he was chosen would indicate, rather, a general recognition of his
fitness for the high office. In the decree of election those
who had chosen him as pontiff proclaimed him "a devout man,
a man mighty in human and divine knowledge,
a distinguished lover of equity and justice,
a man firm in adversity and temperate in prosperity, a man, according
to the saying of the Apostle, of goodbehaviour,
blameless, modest, sober, chaste, given to hospitality, and one
that ruleth well his own house; a man from his childhood generously brought up
in the bosom of this Mother Church, and for
the merit of his life already raised to the archidiaconal dignity".
"We choose then", they said to the people,
"our ArchdeaconHildebrand to be pope and successor to
the Apostle, and to bear henceforward and forever the name of
Gregory" (22 April, 1073), Mansi,
"Conciliorum Collectio", XX, 60.
The decree of Nicholas
II having expressly, if vaguely acknowledged the right of
the emperor to have some voice in papal elections, Hildebrand deferred
the ceremony of
his consecration until
he had received the royalsanction. In sending the formal announcement of his
elevation to Henry IV of Germany,
he took occasion to indicate frankly the attitude, which, as sovereign
pontiff, he was prepared to assume in dealing with the Christian princes,
and, with a note of grave personal warning besought the king not to bestow his
approval. The German bishops,
apprehensive of the severity with which such a man as Hildebrand would carry
out thedecrees of reform, endeavoured to prevent the king from assenting
to the election; but upon the favourable report of
Count Eberhard of Nettenburg, who had been dispatched to Rome to
assert the rights of
the crown,Henry gave his approval (it proved to be the last
instance in history of a papal election being ratified by
an emperor), and the new pope,
in the meanwhile ordained to
the priesthood,
was solemnly consecrated on
theFeast of Sts. Peter and Paul, 29 June, 1073. In assuming
the name of Gregory VII, Hildebrand not only honoured the memory and character of
his earliest patron, Gregory
VI, but also proclaimed to the world thelegitimacy of
that pontiff's title.
From the letters
which Gregory addressed to his friends shortly after
his election, imploring their intercessionwith heaven in
his behalf, and begging their sympathy and support, it is abundantly evident that
he assumedthe burden of the pontificate, which had been thrust on him,
only with the strongest reluctance, and not without a great struggle
of mind. To Desiderius, Abbot of Monte
Cassino, he speaks of his elevation in terms of terror, giving utterance to
the words of the Psalmist: "I am come into deep waters, so that the
floods run over me"; "Fearlessness and trembling are come upon me,
and darkness hath covered me." And in view of the
appalling nature of the task that lay before him (of its difficulties
no one indeed had a clearer perception than he), it cannot appear strange that
even his intrepid spirit was for the moment overwhelmed. For at the
time ofGregory's elevation to the papacy the Christian
world was in a deplorable condition. During the desolating era of
transition--that terrible period of warfare and
rapine, violence,
and corruption in high places, which followed immediately upon the dissolution
of the Carlovingian Empire,
a period when society in Europe and
all existing institutions seemed doomed to utter destruction and
ruin--the Church had
not been able to escape from the general debasement. The tenth century, the
saddest, perhaps, in Christian annals,
is characterized by the vivid remark of Baronius that Christ was
as if asleep in the vessel of the Church.
At the time of Leo
IX' selection in 1049, according to the testimony of St.
Bruno, Bishop of
Sengi, the whole world lay in wickedness, holiness had
disappeared, justice had
perished and truth had
been buried; Simon
Magus lording it over theChurch,
whose bishops and priests were
given to luxury and fornication" (Vita S. Leonis PP. IX
in Watterich, Pont. Roman, Vitae, I, 96). St.
Peter Damian, the fiercest censor of his age, unrolls a frightful
picture of the decay of clerical morality in
the lurid pages of his "Liber Gomorrhianus" (Book of Gomorrha).
Though allowance must no doubt be
made for the writer's exaggerated and rhetorical style--a style common to
all moral censors-- yet the evidence derived from other
sources justifies us in believing that
the corruption was widespread. In writing to his venerated friend, Abbot Hugh of Cluny (Jan.,
1075), Gregory himself laments the unhappy state of the Church in
the following terms: "The Eastern
Church has fallen away from the Faith and is now assailed on
every side by infidels. Wherever I turn my eyes--to the west, to the
north, or to the south--I find everywhere bishops who
have obtained their office in an irregular way, whose lives and
conversation are strangely at variance with their sacred calling; who
go through their duties not
for the love of Christ but
from motives of worldly gain. There are no longer princes who set God's honour before
their own selfish ends, or who allow justice to
stand in the way of their ambition.
. . .And those among whom I live--Romans, Lombards,
and Normans--are, as I have often told them, worse than Jews or Pagans"
(Greg. VII, Registr., 1.II, ep. xlix).
But whatever the personal
feelings and anxieties of Gregory may have been in taking up the
burden of thepapacy at
a time when scandals and
abuses were everywhere pressing into view, the fearless pontiff felt
not a moment's hesitation as to the performance of his duty in
carrying out the work of reform already begun by his predecessors. Once
securely established on the Apostolic throne, Gregory made
every effort to stamp out of the Church the
two consuming evils of the age, simony and clerical incontinency,
and, with characteristic energy and vigor, laboured unceasingly for the
assertion of those lofty principles with which he firmly believedthe
welfare of Christ's
Church and the regeneration of society itself
to be inseparably bound up. His first care,naturally, was to secure his own
position in Rome.
For this purpose he made a journey into Southern Italy,
a few months after his election, and concluded treaties with Landolfo
of Benevento,
Richard of Capun, and Gisolfo of Salerno, by which these princes engaged
themselves to defend the person of
the pope and
theproperty of
the Holy
See, and never to invest anyone with a church
benefice without the papal sanction.
TheNorman leader, Robert
Guiscard, however, maintained a suspicious attitude towards the pope,
and at theLenten Synod (1075) Gregory solemnly excommunicated him
for his sacrilegious invasion of the territory
of the Holy See (Capun and Benevento).
During the year 1074 the pope's mind was
also greatly occupied by the project of an expedition to the East for
the deliverance of the Oriental
Christians from the oppression of the Seljuk Turks.
To promote the cause of a crusade,
and to effect, if possible, a reunion between the Eastern and
the Western
Church--hopes of which had been held out by
the Emperor Michael VIII in his letter to Gregory in
1073--the pontiff sent the Patriarch of Venice to Constantinople as
his envoy. He wrote to the Christianprinces,
urging them to rally the hosts of Western
Christendom for the defense of the Christian
East; and in March, 1074, addressed a circular letter to all the faithful,
exhorting them to come to the rescue of theirEastern brethren. But the
project met with much indifference and even opposition; and
as Gregory himself soon became involved in complications elsewhere,
which demanded all his energies, he was prevented from giving effect to
his intentions, and the expedition came to naught. With the youthful
monarch of GermanyGregory's relations in
the beginning of his pontificate were of a pacific nature. Henry, who
was at the time hard pressed by the Saxons, had written to the pope (Sept.,
1073) in a tone of humble deference,
acknowledging his past misconduct, and expressing regret for his numerous misdeeds--his
invasion of theproperty
of the Church, his simoniacal promotions
of unworthy persons,
his negligence in punishing offenders; he promised amendment for the
future, professed submission to the Roman
See in language more gentle and lowly than had ever been used by any
of his predecessors to the pontiffs of Rome,
and expressed the hopethat the royal power and the sacerdotal,
bound together by the necessity of mutual assistance, might
henceforth remain indissolubly united. But the passionate and headstrong king
did not long abide by these sentiments.
With admirable
discernment, Gregory began his great work of purifying the Church by
a reformation of theclergy.
At his first Lenten Synod (March,
1074) he enacted the following decrees:
That clerics who
had obtained any grade or office of sacred
orders by payment should cease to minister in the Church.
That no one who had
purchased any church should retain it, and that no one for the future
should be permitted to buy or sell ecclesiastical rights.
That all who were guilty
of incontinence should cease to exercise their sacred ministry.
That the people should
reject the ministrations of clerics who
failed to obey these injunctions.
Similar decrees had
indeed been passed by previous popes and councils. Clement
II, Leo
IX, Nicholas
II, and Alexander
II had renewed the ancient laws of discipline,
and made determined efforts to have them enforced. But they met with vigorous
resistance, and were but partially successful. The promulgation of Gregory'smeasures
now, however, called forth a most violent storm of opposition throughout Italy, Germany,
and France.
And the reason for this opposition on the part of the vast throng of immoral
and simoniacal clerics is
not far to seek. Much of the reform thus far accomplished had been brought
about mainly through the efforts of Gregory; all countries had felt the
force of his will, the power of his dominant personality.
His character, therefore, was a sufficient guarantee that his legislation would
not be suffered to remain a dead letter. InGermany,
particularly, the enactments of Gregory aroused a feeling of intense
indignation. The whole body of the married clergy offered the
most resolute resistance, and declared that the canon enjoining celibacy was
wholly unwarranted in Scripture. In support of their position
they appealed to the words of the Apostle
Paul, 1
Corinthians 7:2 and 7:9:
"It is better to marry than to be burnt"; and 1
Timothy 3:2: "It behooveth therefore abishop to
be blameless, the husband of one wife." They cited the words of Christ, Matthew
19:11: "All mentake not this word, but they to whom it is
given"; and, recurred to the address of the Egyptian BishopPaphnutius at
the Council
of Nice. At Nuremberg they
informed the papal
legate that they would rather renounce their priesthood than
their wives, and that he for whom men were not good enough
might go seekangels to
preside over the Churches. Siegfried, Archbishop of Mainz and Primate of Germany,
when forced topromulgate the decrees,
attempted to temporize, and allowed his clergy six
months of delay for consideration. The order, of course, remained ineffectual
after the lapse of that period, and at a synod held
at Erfurt in October, 1074, he could accomplish nothing. Altmann, the
energetic Bishop of Passau,
nearly lost his life in publishing the measures, but adhered firmly to the
instructions of the pontiff. The greater number of bishopsreceived
their instructions with manifest indifference, and some openly defied
the pope. Otto of Constance,
who had before tolerated the marriage of his clergy,
now formally sanctioned it. In France the
excitement was scarcely less vehement than in Germany.
A council at Paris,
in 1074, condemned the Roman decrees, as implying that the validity
of the sacraments depended
on the sanctity of
the minister, and declared them intolerable and
irrational. John, Archbishop of Rouen,
while endeavouring to enforce the canon of celibacy at
aprovincial synod, was stoned and had to flee for his life.
Walter, Abbot of
Pontoise, who attempted to defend the papal enactments,
was imprisoned and
threatened with death. At the Council of Burgos,
in Spain,
thepapal
legate was insulted and his dignity outraged. But the zeal of Gregory knew no
abatement. He followed up his decrees by sending legates into
all quarters, fully empowered to depose immoral and simoniacalecclesiastics.
It was clear that
the causes of the simony and
of the incontinence amongst the clergy were
closely allied, and that the spread of the latter could be effectually checked
only by the eradication of the former. Henry IV had failed to
translate into action the promises made in his penitent letter to the
new pontiff. On the subjugation of
the Saxons and Thuringians,
he deposed the Saxon bishops,
and replaced them by his own creatures. In 1075 a synod held
at Rome excommunicated "any person,
even if he were emperor or king, who should confer an investiture in
connection with any ecclesiastical office",
and Gregory recognizing the futility of milder
measures, deposed the simoniacal prelates appointed
by Henry, anathematized several
of the imperial counsellors, and cited the emperor himself to appear at Rome in
1076 to answer for his conduct before acouncil. To
this Henry retorted by convening a meeting of his supporters at Worms
on 23 January 1076. This
diet naturally defended Henry against all the papal charges,
accused the pontiff of most heinous crimes, and declared
him deposed. Theses decisions were approved a few weeks later by
two synods of Lombard bishopsat Piacenza and Pavia respectively,
and a messenger, bearing a most offensive personal letter
from Henry, was dispatched with this reply to the pope. Gregory hesitated
no longer: recognizing that the Christian
Faith must be preserved and the flood of immorality stemmed
at all costs, and seeing that the conflict was forced upon him by the
emperor's schism and
the violation of his solemn promises, he excommunicated Henry and
all his ecclesiastical supporters,
and released his subjects from their oath of
allegiance in accordance with the usual political procedures of the age.
Henry's position was now
precarious. At first he was encouraged by his creatures to resist, but his
friends, including his abettors among the episcopate, began to abandon him,
and the Saxons revolted once more, demanding a new king. At a meeting
of the German lords, spiritual and temporal, held at Tibur in
October, 1076, the election of a new emperor was canvassed. On
learning through the papal
legate of Gregory's desire that the crown should be reserved
for Henry if possible, the assembly contented itself with calling
upon the emperor to abstain for the time being from all
administration of public affairs and avoid the company of those who had
been excommunicated,
but declared his crown forfeited if he were not reconciled with the pope within
a year. It was further agreed to invite Gregory to a council at Augsburg in
the following February, at whichHenry was summoned to present
himself. Abandoned by his own partisans and fearing for
his throne, Henryfled secretly with his wife and child and a single
servant to Gregory to tender his submission. He crossed the Alps in
the depth of one of the severest winters on record. On reaching Italy,
the Italians flocked
around him promising aid and assistance in his quarrel with the pope,
but Henry spurned their offers. Gregory was already on
his way to Augsburg,
and, fearing treachery, retired to the castle of Canossa.
Thither Henry followed him, but the pontiff, mindful of his
former faithlessness, treated him with extreme severity. Stripped of his royal
robes, and clad as a penitent, Henry had to come barefooted mid ice
and snow, and crave for admission to the presence of the pope.
All day he remained at the door of the citadel, fasting and
exposed to the inclemency of the wintry weather, but was refused admission. A
second and a third day he thus humiliated and disciplinedhimself, and
finally on 28 January, 1077, he was received by
the pontiff and absolved from censure, but only on
condition that he would appear at the proposed council and submit
himself to its decision.
Henry then returned
to Germany,
but his severe lesson failed to effect any radical improvement in his
conduct.Disgusted by his inconsistencies and dishonesty,
the German princes on 15 March, 1077, elected Rudolph of
Swabia to succeed him. Gregory wished to remain neutral,
and even strove to effect a compromise between the opposing parties. Both,
however, were dissatisfied, and prevented the proposed council from
being held.Henry's conduct toward the pope was
meanwhile characterized by the greatest duplicity, and, when he went so far as
to threaten to set up an antipope, Gregory renewed
in 1080 the sentence of excommunication against
him. At Brixen in June, 1080, the king and his feudatory bishops,
supported by the Lombards, carried their threat into effect, and
selected Gilbert,
the excommunicated simoniacal Archbishop of Ravenna,
as pope under
the title of Clement
III. Rudolph of Swabia having fallen mortally wounded at the battle
of Mersburg in 1080.Henry could concentrate all his forces
against Gregory. In 1081 he marched on Rome,
but failed to force his way into the city, which he finally accomplished only
in 1084. Gregory thereupon retired into the exile of Sant' Angelo,
and refused to entertain Henry's overtures, although the latter
promised to hand over Guibert as
aprisoner,
if the sovereign
pontiff would only consent to crown him
emperor. Gregory, however, insisted as anecessary preliminary
that Henry should appear before a council and
do penance. The emperor, while pretending to submit to these terms, tried
hard to prevent the meeting of the bishops.
A small number however assembled, and, in accordance with their
wishes, Gregory again excommunicated Henry.
The latter on receipt of this news again entered Rome on
21 March, 1084. Guibert was consecrated pope,
and then crownedHenry emperor.
However, Robert
Guiscard, Duke of Normandy, with whom Gregory had
formed an alliance, was already marching on the city, and Henry, learning
of his advance, fled towards Citta Castellana. The pontiffwas
liberated, but, the people becoming incensed by the excesses of
his Norman allies, he was compelled to leave Rome. Disappointed and
sorrowing he withdrew to Monte
Cassino, and later to the castle of Salerno by
the sea, where he died in the following year. Three days before his death he
withdrew all the censures of excommunication that
he had pronounced, except those against the two chief offenders--Henry
and Guibert.
His last words were: "I have loved justice and hated iniquity,
therefore I die in exile." His body was interred in
the church of Saint Matthew at Salerno.
He was beatified by Gregory
XIII in 1584, and canonized in
1728 byBenedict
XIII. His writings treat mainly of the principles and practice of Church government.
They may be found under the title "Gregorii VII registri sive epistolarum
libri" in Mansi,
"Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio" (Florence, 1759)
and "S. Gregorii VII epistolae et diplomata"
by Horoy (Paris, 1877).
Sources
ALZOG, Universal
Church History, tr., II (Dublin, 1900), 321, 343-67; HASS, History of the
Popes (Tübingen, 1792); IDEM, Vindication of Gregory
VII (Pressburg, 1786); BARRY, The Papal Monarchy (New York,
1902), 190-232; BOWDEN, Life and Pontificate of Gregory VII (London,
1840); VOIGT, Hildebrand, als Papst Gregorius VII., und sein Zeitalter,
aus den Quellen bearbeitet (Weimar, 1846), French tr. (Paris, 1854);
LILLY, Work of Gregory VII, the turning-point of the Middle Ages
in Contemporary Review (1882), XLII, 46,237; MONTALEMBERT, St.
Gregoire VII, moine et pape in Le Correspondant (1874), B, LXIII,
641, 861, 1081, tr. in The Month (1875), C, V, 370, 502 sqq., VI,
104, 235, 379 sqq.; ROCQUAIN, La puissance pontificale sous Gregoire VII
in Cpte. rendu acad. scien. mor.-polit. (1881), F, XV, 315-50; DE
VIDAILLON, Vie de Gregoire VII (Paris, 1837); DAVIN, St.
Gregoire VII (Tournai, 1861); DULARC, Gregoire VII et la reforme de
l'Église au XIe siecle (Paris, 1889); A. F. GFRÖRER, Papst Gregorius VII,
und sein Zeitalter (Schaffhausen, 1859-61); Acta SS., May, VI,
102-13, VII, 850; MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B. (1701), VI, ii, 403-6;
MANSI, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Florence,
1759-1798), XX, 60-391; BRISCHAR in Kirchenlexicon, s.v. Gregor VII.;
CASOLI, La vita di papa San Gregorio VII (Bologna, 1885); Anal.
Boll. (1892), XI, 324-6; WATTERICH, Pontificum Roman, vitoe exeunte
soeculo IX ad finem soeculi XIII. ab oequalibus conscriptoe (Braunsberg,
1864); HEFELE, Gregor VII. und Heinrich IV. zu Canossa in Theolog.
Quartalschr. (Tübingen, 1861)., XLIII, 3- 36; IDEM, Hist.
concil., V, 1-166; JAFFE, Bibl. rer. German., II (1865), 1-9, 520;
IDEM, Reg. pont. Roman, (1851), 379, 384, 389, 402-43, 949; Centenario di
papa S. Gregorio VII in Civilta cattolica (1873), H, X,
428-45; Centenary of Gregory VII at Canossa in Dublin Review, LXXXIII
(London, 1878), 107; GIRAUD, Gregoire VII et son temps in Revue des deux
mondes, CIV, 437-57, 613-45; CV, 141-74; Gregory VII and Sylvester II
in Dublin Review, VI (London, 1839), 289. See also
HERGENROTHER-KIRSCH, Kirchengeschichte ; and GORINI, Défense de
l'Église contre les erreurs historiques de MM. Guizot, Aug. et Am. Thierry, Michelet,
Ampere, etc., III (Lyons, 1872), 177-307.
Oestereich,
Thomas. "Pope St. Gregory VII." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1909. 30
May 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06791c.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Janet van Heyst.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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Pope
Saint Gregory VII saying Mass (inspired by the Holy Spirit). Scanned by uploader from page 292 of Little
Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1878, Benzinger Brothers
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Gregory VII
Article
Gregory VII, by name
Hildebrand, was born in Tuscany, about the year 1013. He was educated in Rome.
From thence he went to France, and became a monk at Cluny. Afterwards he
returned to Rome, and for many years filled high trusts of the Holy See. Three
great evils then afflicted the Church: simony, concubinage, and the custom of
receiving investiture from lay hands. Against these three corruptions Gregory
never ceased to contend. As legate of Victor II he held a Council at Lyons,
where simony was condemned. He was elected Pope in 1073, and at once called
upon the pastors of the Catholic world to lay down their lives rather than
betray the laws of God to the will of princes. Rome was in rebellion through
the ambition of the Cenci. Gregory excommunicated them. They laid hands on him
at Christmas during the midnight Mass, wounded him, and cast him into prison.
The following day he was rescued by the people. Next arose his conflict with
Henry IV., Emperor of Germany. This monarch, after openly relapsing into
simony, pretended to depose the Pope. Gregory excommunicated the emperor. His
subjects turned against him, and at last he sought absolution of Gregory at
Canossa. But he did not persevere. He set up an anti-pope, and besieged Gregory
in the castle of Saint Angelo. The aged pontiff was obliged to flee, and on May
25th, 1085, about the seventy-second year of his life, and the twelfth year of
his pontificate, Gregory entered into his rest. His last words were full of a
divine wisdom and patience. As he was dying, he said, “I have loved justice and
hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.” His faithful attendant answered,
“Vicar of Christ, an exile thou canst never be, for to thee God has given the
Gentiles for an inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for thy
possession.”
Reflection – Eight
hundred years are passed since Saint Gregory died, and we see the same conflict
renewed before our eyes. Let us learn from him to suffer any persecution from
the world or the State, rather than betray the rights of the Holy See.
MLA
Citation
John Dawson Gilmary Shea.
“Saint Gregory VII”. Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1889. CatholicSaints.Info.
30 March 2014. Web. 25 May 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-gregory-vii/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-gregory-vii/
Fortunato Galli, Gregorius VII, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence, Facciata, portale centrale
Fortunato Galli, Gregorius VII, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence, Facciata, portale centrale
%2C_Florence_(26582521812).jpg)
Fortunato
Galli, Gregorius VII, Cattedrale di
Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence, Facciata, portale centrale
Gregory
VII (Hildebrand), OSB Pope (RM)
Saint Gregory has been
criticized in past generations as an ambitious tyrant, even being called 'Holy
Satan.' He is now generally recognized as having pursued an uncompromising
policy that was driven by a desire for justice.
The son of a poor
carpenter, Gregory was baptized Hildebrand. His modest beginnings made him
indifferent to the materialism of most ecclesiastics of the period. As a young
man, he was placed in the care of an uncle who was the superior of the
monastery of Saint Mary on the Aventine in Rome, was professed a Benedictine,
and educated at the Lateran school.
Squat and insignificant
in appearance, Hildebrand had great force and ability. One of his teachers,
John Gratian, was so impressed with him that when he became pope (or antipope,
depending on how you view history) in May 1045 as Gregory VI, he appointed
Hildebrand as his secretary. He accompanied Gregory VI into Germany when he was
deposed in December 1046.
According to tradition,
after the Gratian's death in 1047, Hildebrand became a monk at Cluny, then run
by Saint Odilo and Saint Bruno of Toul, who was to become Pope Saint Leo IX in
1049. Hildebrand became abbot of Saint Paul- outside-the-Walls and acted as
economus to the pope, restoring financial order to the treasury, order to the
city, and acting as a support to the pope's efforts at reform.
He was recognized, in
fact, as "the power behind the throne" during the reign of the next
four popes. Hildebrand, as papal legate to France, mediated between Lanfranc
and Berengarius of Tours during the controversy over the Eucharist. He also
presided over the Council of Sens in 1054, which condemned Berengarius.
Hildebrand was
influential in securing the election of Bishop Gebhard of Eichstaett as Pope
Victor II in 1055, was papel legate to Empress-Regent Agnes of Germany's court
in 1057 to get her to accept the election of Pope Stephen, and helped secure
the election of Bishop Gerhard of Florence as Pope Nicholas II in 1059. During
the Nicholas's pontificate, Hildebrand was instrumental in the publication of
the papal decree mandating that the election of popes was to be vested in the
college of cardinals and was responsible for negotiating a treaty of alliance
with the Normans in the Treaty of Melfi in 1059. By now he was the best-known
and most powerful prelate in the Church. He was appointed chancellor of the
Apostolic See by Pope Alexander II.
After the death of
Alexander II in 1073, Hildebrand, by then a cardinal and archdeacon, was
elected pope by an overwhelming vote, and took the name Gregory VII upon his
consecration on June 30. He immediately set to work to reform a very corrupt
and decadent Church--a huge and thankless task. The secular and ecclesial
rulers of the time would work against him. Bishoprics and abbeys were sold,
simony was accepted, clerical celibacy was flamboyantly disregarded, tithes and
offerings were misused and even bequeathed to the children of incontinent priests.
He deposed Archbishop
Godfrey of Milan for simony, enacted decrees against simony and married clergy
at his first synod in Rome, in 1074, and ordered an end to lay investiture at
his second synod in 1075--decrees that aroused opposition. This was the
investing of bishops and abbots elect with the symbols of their offices by lay
princes, a practice that led to serious abuses and harm to religion.
A council assembled in
Paris claimed that the new decrees were intolerable. Gregory held fast and went
further in the abolition of the system of lay investiture, excommunicating
anyone--even a king--who should confer an investiture in connection with an
ecclesiastical office.
Gregory was generally
successful with his reforms in England except in the matter of lay investiture,
which right William the Conqueror refused to surrender; gradually Gregory
succeeded in France by replacing practically the whole episcopate; but in
Germany and northern Italy he met continued resistance. Unable to trust his own
bishops, he used legates to announce and enforce his decrees. His most cunning
enemy was Henry IV of Germany, who raised the clergy of Germany and northern
Italy and antipapal nobles against Gregory. In the midst of celebrating
Christmas midnight Mass in Saint Mary Major's, Gregory was kidnapped by Roman
nobles and held captive for several hours until the people rescued him.
Henry called a meeting of
German bishops at Worms to denounce him in 1076, the Lombardy bishops refused
to obey him, and Henry sent an envoy to Rome to inform the cardinals that
Gregory was a usurper and would be replaced by the emperor [letter]. Gregory
excommunicated Henry the following day, releasing his subjects from allegiance
to him, a hallmark in the history of the papacy. German nobles who felt no
loyalty to Henry seized this opportunity to decide that Henry should forfeit
his crown unless he received absolution from the pope within a year and
appeared before a council over which Gregory should preside at Augsburg the
following February.
Henry confronted with
mutiny in Germany and unable to raise an army to march on Italy, was obliged to
capitulate. After frantic appeals by letter to the pope, Henry swallowed his
pride and decided to appear to comply. Accompanied by his wife, baby, and one
attendant, the humiliated Henry crossed the Alps in the bitter winter of 1077
and approached the pope at the castle of Canossa. He was refused admission and
spent three days, barefoot and dressed as a penitent, in the snow at the gate
of the castle. While there might have been suspicion of Henry's motives,
nothing could be proven, and Henry was admitted, whereupon he accused himself
and was absolved.
Gregory's handling of the
situation greatly changed the relation between church and state. In fact, Henry
was merely biding his time. Nobles elected Henry's brother-in-law, Rudolph of
Swabia, in his place, despite the lifting of the excommunication. Gregory
wished to remain uninvolved but, in 1080, was forced to reinstate the
excommunication and support Rudolph, who was killed in battle in October that
year, when Henry violated all his agreements with him.
Henry worked for the
election of Guibert, the archbishop of Ravenna, as antipope Clement III, and
upon Rudolph's death, invaded Italy. He attacked Rome for two years and finally
took it in 1084. Gregory sought harbor in the Castle Sant'Angelo. When Gregory
refused Henry's demand that he crown him emperor, Henry had Guibert consecrated
pope, and then Guibert crowned Henry emperor. Gregory remained at Sant'Angelo
until he was eventually rescued by an army under Robert Guiscard, the Norman
duke of Calabria. The sacked the city, which, of course, distressed the Romans,
who vented their anger on Gregory because he had summoned Norman aid.
Gregory fled to Monte
Cassino for a time and then to Salerno, out of favor and in broken health,
having been abandoned by 13 of his cardinals. Gregory made one last appeal to
the people but died the following year. He forgave his enemies as he lay dying
and lifted all excommunications he had declared with the exceptions of Henry IV
and Guibert. "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity and that is
why I die in exile," were among his last words. We can take it as his own
judgement of his life. He had great and imperial aims and a noble courage. He
believed that the unity of the Church stands far above the strife and clash of
men, and that politics must be subordinate to moral and spiritual power.
In large measure, Gregory
was successful in rejuvenating the Church, and the reforms of his pontificate
marked a turning point in the history of the Church. It is now generally agreed
by historians that his struggles with the monarchs of Europe were not a bid for
personal power, as some used to think, but a titanic defense of the freedom of
the Church against secular domination.
He had indeed fought
single-heartedly and without personal ambition to free the Church from
dependence on secular powers. But he pushed the claims of the papacy in respect
of civil governors to unheard of lengths with unexampled vigor, and appeared to
put too much reliance on secular and legal means to attain religious ends.
Though he did not clearly
and unequivocally win the struggle, he did delineate the issues, particularly
that of lay investiture, which 37 years after his death was won by the
Concordat of Worms in 1122, when Emperor Henry V guaranteed the free election
of bishops and abbots and renounced the right to invest them with the ring and
staff--the symbols of their spiritual authority.
Gregory was unsuccessful
in his efforts to reunite the Eastern churches to Rome, and his struggle with
Henry prevented him from launching a crusade against the Turks and to drive the
Saracens from Spain. Gregory's personal integrity and his strength in adversity
cannot be questioned, and his name is deservedly given to a whole era of
ecclesiastical reform and development; but he was never the object of a
widespread cultus. He was canonized in 1606 by Pope Paul V, and despite the
French and Austrian objections, Pope Benedict XIII made his feat day universal
in the Church (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Gill, MacDonald, White).
In art, Saint Gregory is
dressed as pope and holds a book and ring. Otherwise, the Virgin and Child may
appear on the altar, from whom a ray of light pieces Gregory's heart. A dove
rests on his shoulder. He might also be shown being driven from Rome by
soldiers (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0525.shtml
Castello
di Canossa
May 25
St. Gregory VII., Pope
and Confessor
BEFORE his exaltation to
the popedom, he was called Hildebrand. He was born, in Tuscany, and educated at
Rome under his uncle the abbot of our Lady’s, upon the Aventin hill. He went
afterwards into France, and embraced the monastic state at Cluni. Being called
back to Rome he signalized himself by his zeal, sanctity, and learning, and
preached with great reputation and fruit in the court of the pious emperor
Henry III. surnamed the Black. The holy Pope St. Leo IX. had the highest esteem
for him, often followed his counsels, ordained him subdeacon, and made him
abbot of St. Paul’s, which church then belonged to a very small community of
monks, and lay at that time almost in ruins, the greater part of its revenues
being usurped by powerful laymen. Hildebrand recovered its lands and restored
the monastery to its ancient splendour. In 1054 he was sent by Pope Victor II.
legate into France in order to abolish the practice of simony in the collation
of ecclesiastical benefices. He held for this purpose a council at Lyons, in
which a certain bishop who was accused of simony, denied the crime with which
he was charged. The legate bade him recite the Glory be to the
Father, which the bishop readily endeavoured to do. But he was never able
to pronounce the name of the Holy Ghost. At this miraculous conviction he was
struck with remorse and confusion, and casting himself at the legate’s feet,
humbly confessed his crime. This is related by Pope Calixtus II., St. Hugh of
Cluni, William of Malmesbury, and St. Peter Damian, 1 and
the last mentioned author assures us that he had the account from Hildebrand’s
own mouth. The legate presided also in the council of Tours, in which
Berengarius retracted and condemned the heresy which he had broached relating
to the holy eucharist. 2 Pope
Stephen IX. sent him on an embassy to the empress, and dying, ordered his
return to be waited for, and his advice to be followed in the election of a new
pope. By his direction Nicholas II., and after his death in 1061, Alexander II.
were placed in St. Peter’s chair. This latter dying in 1073, Hildebrand, then
archdeacon, was by compulsion exalted to the papacy. He left nothing
unattempted to keep off that heavy burden from his shoulders, and among other
expedients wrote to Henry IV. king of Germany, who was then in Bavaria,
entreating him to interpose his authority in order to prevail that the project
of his election might be set aside, declaring at the same time that if he were
pope he could never tolerate his enormous and scandalous crimes.
Notwithstanding this, Henry gave his assent to the saint’s election, and he was
consecrated pope on St. Peter’s day. In his letters he was not able to forbear
expressing his most sensible grief, and he with tears implored the succour of
the prayers of the whole Church for grace and fortitude that he might be
enabled worthily to discharge his functions. Before his ordination he wrote to
the pious countesses Beatrice and Mathilda, advising them not to communicate
with those bishops of Lombardy who had been convicted of simony, though king
Henry espoused their interest, and he intimated to them a design of sending to
that prince some pious persons who should give him wholesome advice, and exhort
him to return to his duty. 3 The
scandals which simony caused in the Church called for an apostolic zeal in the
chief pastor to stem the torrent which was breaking into the sanctuary itself.
The pope deposed Godfrey, archbishop of Milan, who had obtained that dignity by
simony, and in a council which he held at Rome enacted a law by which all
persons who should be guilty of that sin were declared incapable of receiving
any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and disqualified for holding any benefice
whatever. This decree raised great murmurs in Germany, and the archbishop of
Mentz was in danger of being murdered for labouring to put it in execution.
Notwithstanding this opposition the pope judged that the more obstinate the
evil was the greater was the necessity of a severe remedy, and he stirred up
all zealous pastors rather to lay down their lives than to be remiss in
maintaining the laws of God and his Church. He excommunicated Cencius a rich
and powerful nobleman of Rome, and some other persons for certain notorious
crimes. These sinners being incorrigible, grew desperate, and laid violent
hands on the pope on Christmas night in 1075. In committing this outrage one of
them attempting to strike off his head, gave him a deep wound, and the
mutineers carried him to Cencius’s castle. But the people rescued him the next
day, and banished the conspirators. The pope himself recalled and pardoned
them, by which mildness he overcame their malice. This storm was not over when
he was overtaken by another far more boisterous from a different quarter. Henry
IV. king of Germany, who succeeded his pious father Henry III. surnamed the
Black, in 1056, when he was only ten years old, governed well so long as he
followed the counsels of his mother Agnes, and became a good soldier. But
having taken the reins into his own hands, he by several acts of tyranny
alienated first the princes of the empire, and afterwards began grievously to
oppress the Church. He crushed a powerful rebellion of the Saxons in 1063; but
in 1064 the dukes of Suabia, Carinthia, and Bavaria taking up arms gave him
great disturbance, alleging that he had usurped several provinces to which he
had no right, and that he had oppressed the liberty of the empire. When Gregory
VII. was raised to the papacy, Henry wrote first to his holiness in the style
of an humble penitent, condemning himself for having simoniacally sold the
benefices of the Church, usurped a pretended right of giving the investitures
of bishoprics, and grievously abused it in often promoting to ecclesiastical
dignities persons most unworthy and unfit. The pope on his side had shown an
extreme concern for his salvation, had caressed him, and sent him many obliging
and tender letters, though always breathing an apostolic zeal. Henry showed by
his actions that his pretended repentance was mere hypocrisy, for he continued
to repeat the same crimes; and perceiving the inflexible disposition of his
holiness, assembled at Worms on the 23rd of January, 1076, a conventicle of simoniacal
time-serving bishops, who presumed to depose him from the pontificate, on
pretence of an imaginary nullity in his election. The king sent this mock
sentence to the pope at Rome, together with a contumelious letter. Gregory in a
council at Rome declared the king and his schismatical adherents
excommunicated, and took upon himself to pronounce that for his tyranny he had
forfeited his crown, which he again confirmed in 1080. Many princes of the
empire chose Rodolph duke of Suabia emperor in 1077; but that prince proved
unfortunate in several battles, and died of the wounds which he received in one
of them. Henry on his side set up Guibert, the excommunicated archbishop of
Ravenna, for antipope; and 1084 entered Rome with an army, and besieged St.
Gregory in the castle St. Angelo, but was obliged by Robert Guiscard the
Norman, duke of Calabria, to retire, and the Tuscans gave his army a great
overthrow in Lombardy. 4 Three
devout princesses were at that time the most strenuous protectresses of the
Holy See, namely, Agnes the empress dowager, who after being removed from the
regency during her son’s minority by a faction of the princes, retired to Rome
1062, and there died a nun in 1077. The other two were Maud or Mathilda, the
most pious countess of Tuscany, 5 and
Beatrice, her mother. They were admirers and faithful imitatrices of the
virtues of the pope, and were directed by his counsels in the paths of
perfection. Amidst these storms St. Gregory enjoyed a perfect tranquillity of
soul, having his heart strongly fixed on God, and adoring in all things his
ever-holy will. He received all afflictions cheerfully, knowing them to be the
greatest remedy and advancement in the interior man, if the exterior be humbled
and beaten by many strokes. The author of the life of St. Anselm of Lucca
assures us that his heart seemed perfectly disengaged from all earthly things,
and that he attained to so eminent a gift of contemplation, that in the midst
of the most distracting affairs, he appeared always recollected, and often fell
into raptures. Duke Robert having rescued him from his enemies, conducted him
for greater safety from Rome to Monte Cassino, and thence to Salerno, where God
was pleased to put an end to his labours; for the saint falling sick in that
city, he recommended for his successor cardinal Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino;
and having received the last sacraments in perfect dispositions of resignation
and piety, happily exchanged this mortal life for immortality, on the 25th of
May, 1085, in the twelfth year of his pontificate. Several contemporary writers
bear testimony to many miracles performed by him, or through his intercession
after his death. 6 See
St. Gregory’s epistles, and his exact life in the Bolland. t. 17. p. 113. and
Mabillon, sec. 6. Ben. Also Lambert of Aschafnaburg, William of Malmesbury,
Platina, Bzovius, &c. See Janning the Bollandist, Junij, t. 6. p. 167.
Papebroke, t. 6. Maij, p. 70. and Benedict XIV.’s Apology for St. Gregory VII.
l. 1. de Canoniz. Sanctor. c. 41. t. 1. Nat. Alex. sæc. xi. art. 11. and
dissert. 2. art. 6. 7. Muratori, Annali d’Italia, t. 12 and 13. The life of St.
Gregory VII. by Pandulphus of Piso, in Muratori, Scriptor. Ital. t. 3. p. 304:
also by Paulus Bernriedensis of the same age, with the remarks of Muratori, ib.
p. 314.
It may not be amiss to
add what Du Pin, a most partial adversary, writes concerning him, when he draws
his character: “It must be acknowledged,” says he, “that Pope Gregory VII. was
an extraordinary genius, capable of great things; constant and undaunted in the
execution; well versed in the constitution of his predecessors; zealous for the
interests of the Holy See; an enemy to simony and libertinism; (vices which he
vigorously opposed;) full of Christian thoughts and of zeal for the reformation
of the manners of the clergy; and there is not the least colour to think that
he was not unblemished in his own morals. This is the judgment which we suppose
every one will pass upon him who shall read over his letters with a disinterested
and unprejudiced mind. They are penned with a great deal of eloquence, full of
good matter, and embellished with noble and pious thoughts; and we boldly say
that no pope since Gregory I. wrote such strong and fine letters as this
Gregory did.” Du Pin, Cent. 11, ch. 1, pp. 67, 68.
Note 1. Opusc. 19,
c. 6. [back]
Note 2. Anonym.
Chifflet. de multiplici damnat. Berengarius, et Pagi ad ann. 1055, n.
5. [back]
Note 3. St. Greg. c.
10, ep. 11. [back]
Note 4. Henry, after
the death of St. Gregory VII. carried on his contests with the Popes Victor
III., Urban II., and Paschal II. His own sons, Conrad and Henry joined the
malecontents against him. The first died in a short time; but the latter was so
successful, that Henry IV., after suffering the severest checks of fortune,
died at Liege, in the year 1106, in the forty-sixth year of his reign, and
fifty-sixth of his age. His son Henry V. continued his quarrels about the
investitures with Paschal II., Galasius II., and Calixtus II., but made his
peace with the last. His repeated perfidies to the princes of the empire and
others rendered him odious and despicable, and his reign unhappy. He died in
1125, leaving no issue by his wife the empress Maud, daughter of our Henry I.,
and granddaughter of St. Margaret. She afterwards married Geoffrey Plantagenet,
earl of Anjou, to whom she bore our Henry II. in whom, through her, the blood
of our Norman kings was united with that of the English-Saxons from Edmund
Ironside. [back]
Note 5. The Countess
Maud or Mathilda was daughter of Boniface, lord of Lucca, and Beatrice, sister
to the Emperor Henry III. Her only brother survived her father a very short
time; and by his death she became heiress of all his dominions, and sovereign
of Lucca, Parma, Reggio, Mantua, good part of Tuscany, &c. She was married
to Guelpho, the younger duke of Bavaria, but never had any children. She
employed her revenues and forces all her life in charities, and in the service
of the church, and gained great reputation by her eminent virtue, conduct, and
valour. She often commanded her armies in person, and continued the protectress
of St. Gregory VII. till her happy death in 1115, in the seventy-sixth year of
her age. She bequeathed good part of her dominions to the holy see; they are
since called the patrimony of St. Peter, comprising Viterbo, Acqua Pendente,
Civita Vecchia, &c. See her life by Donizo the monk, with the remarks of
Leibnitz and Muratori’s Scriptores Ital. t. 5, p. 337. Several additional
pieces relating to her, ib. t. 6, p. 94; also Lambert of Aschafnab. Muratori’s
Annals, t. 12 and 13. Rome with the territory beyond the Tiber called Campagna
de Roma, and Ravenna, were conferred on the holy see by King Pepin, who had
rescued it from the tyranny of the Lombards. This donation was confirmed by
Charlemagne and several succeeding emperors. See the Dissertation of Orsi Delia
Origine del Dominio de Rom. Pontefici, and that of Cenni, On the Diplomas of
Lewis Debonnaire, Otho I. and St. Henry II. [back]
Note 6. An account
of several miracles of this saint, is given by Lambert of Aschafnaburg, a monk
of Hirsfield, whom the great Scaliger prefers to all other German historians,
both for diligence and exactness, and for the elegance and purity of his style,
and who wrote his history the same year in which this holy pope died. (Lambert
ad an. 1077.) Mention is also made of his miracles by Ordericus Vitalis, an
Englishman, though a monk in Normandy, who wrote his ecclesiastical history in
thirteen books, soon after the death of this pope. Likewise by Paulus
Bernriedensis, &c.
Baron Holberg, in
his late abridged Universal History, (a work, notwithstanding the praises which
some have very unjustly bestowed on it, equally superficial, and full of
rancour, slanders, and mistakes,) most falsely advances that during this
contest about investitures, Gregory VII. exposed ecclesiastical benefices, and
everything that is sacred to sale, no less than the emperors did. Whereas it is
most notorious, from the councils, epistles, and whole conduct of this pope,
that the vice of simony never had a more zealous or a more implacable enemy.
When avarice and
incontinence threatened to invade even the altars, he stood in the breach, and
by his vigilance and fortitude maintained their sanctity, dying with these
words in his mouth: “I have loved justice, and have hated iniquity; therefore I
die in a strange land.” As to the unhappy Emperor Henry IV., that prince during
his minority, especially after the removal of his mother, fell into the hands
of ambitious men, who found it their interest to flatter and indulge him in his
passions. By which means he first by his tyranny provoked his subjects to
revolt, and afterwards, by oppressing the church, endeavouring to fill it with
simoniacal and unworthy pastors, and raising a most outrageous schism, rendered
himself most notoriously obnoxious to the severest ecclesiastical censures.
The works of St. Gregory
VII. consist of ten books of epistles, (extant t. 10, Conc.) with two
appendixes, published by Dom Martenne. (Collect. Nova Veter. Scriptor. t. 1, p.
57.) The Exposition of the Seven Penitential Psalms, which has been sometimes
ascribed to St. Gregory the Great, is more absurdly given by Du Pin and some
others to Gregory VII. For this work is quoted by Paterius the disciple of St.
Gregory the Great, by Nicholas I., &c. None of his sermons have reached us,
though it was in them that he chiefly exerted his zeal and eloquence. The
Emperor Henry III. and the greatest prelates and preachers of that age, admired
his talent that way, and were in raptures as often as they heard him preach.
The slanders which Spanheim, Turretin, and others have collected from Benno the
schismatic, and other writers of the same cast, are confuted by their
inconsistency, and by the writings of St. Gregory, &c. Moreover, the charge
is overset by its own weight, and by Benno’s forgeries concerning the pretended
magic of the learned Pope Sylvester II. and others. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/254.html
_Paus_Gregoarius_VII.jpg)
Ljouwert,
Sint-Bonifatiustsjerke, kommunybank, Paus Gregoarius VII
GREGORY VII., pope from
1073 to 1085. Hildebrand (the future pope) would seem to have been born in
Tuscany—perhaps Raovacum—early in the third decade of the 11th century. The son
of a plain citizen, Bunicus or Bonizo, he came to Rome at an early age for his
education; an uncle of his being abbot of the convent of St Mary on the
Aventine. His instructors appear to have included the archpriest Johannes
Gratianus, who, by disbursing a considerable sum to Benedict IX., smoothed his
way to the papal throne and actually ascended it as Gregory VI. But when the
emperor Henry III., on his expedition to Rome (1046), terminated the scandalous
impasse in which three popes laid claim to the chair of Peter by deposing all
three, Gregory VI. was banished to Germany, and Hildebrand found himself
obliged to accompany him. As he himself afterwards admitted, it was with
extreme reluctance that he crossed the Alps. But his residence in Germany was
of great educative value, and full of significance for his later official
activity. In Cologne he was enabled to pursue his studies; he came into touch
with the circles of Lorraine where interest in the elevation of the Church and
her life was highest, and gained acquaintance with the political and
ecclesiastical circumstances of that country which was destined to figure so
largely in his career. Whether, on the death of Gregory VI. in the beginning of
1048, Hildebrand proceeded to Cluny is doubtful. His brief residence there, if
it actually occurred, is to be regarded as no more than a visit; for he was
never a monk of Cluny. His contemporaries indeed describe him as a monk; but
his entry into the convent must be assigned to the period preceding or
following his German travels and presumably took place in Rome. He returned to
that city with Bishop Bruno of Toul, who was nominated pope under the title of Leo
IX. (1048–1054). Under him Hildebrand found his first employment in the
ecclesiastical service, becoming a subdeacon arid steward in the Roman Church.
He acted, moreover, as a legate in France, where he was occupied inter alia
with the question of Berengarius of Tours, whose views on the Lord's Supper had
excited opposition. On the death of Leo IX. he was commissioned by the Romans
as their envoy to the German court, to conduct the negotiations with regard to
his successor. The emperor pronounced in favour of Bishop Gebhard of Eichstädt,
who, in the course of his short reign as Victor II. (1055–1057), again employed
Hildebrand as his legate to France. When Stephen IX. (Frederick of Lorraine)
was raised to the papacy, without previous consultation with the German court,
Hildebrand and Bishop Anselm of Lucca were despatched to Germany to secure a
belated recognition, and he succeeded in gaining the consent of the empress
Agnes. Stephen, however, died before his return, and, by the hasty elevation of
Bishop Johannes of Velletri, the Roman aristocracy made a last attempt to
recover their lost influence on the 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 work of Hildebrand. To Benedict X., the aristocratic nominee,
he opposed a rival pope in the person of Bishop Gerhard of Florence, with whom
the victory rested. The reign of Nicholas II. (1059–1061) was distinguished by
events which exercised a potent influence on the policy of the Curia during the
next two decades—the rapprochement with the Normans in the south of Italy, and
the alliance with the democratic and, subsequently, anti-German movement of the
Patarenes in the north. It was also under his pontificate (1059) that the law
was enacted which transferred the papal election to the College of Cardinals,
thus withdrawing it from the nobility and populace of Rome and thrusting the
German influence on one side. It would be too much to maintain that these
measures were due to Hildebrand alone, but it is obvious that he was already a
dominant personality on the Curia, through he still held no more exalted office
than that of arch-deacon, which was indeed only conferred on him in 1059.
Again, when Nicholas II. died and a new schism broke out, the discomfiture of
Honorius II. (Bishop Cadalus of 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 Alexander II. (1061–1073) this man loomed
larger and larger in the eye of his contemporaries as the soul of the Curial
policy. It must be confessed the general political conditions, especially in
Germany, were at that period exceptionally favourable to the Curia, but to
utilize them with the sagacity actually shown was nevertheless no slight
achievement, and the position of Alexander at the end of his pontificate was a
brilliant justification of the Hildebrandine statecraft.
On the death of Alexander
II. (April 21, 1073), Hildebrand became pope and took the style of Gregory VII.
The mode of his election was bitterly assailed by his opponents. True, many of
the charges preferred are obviously the emanations of scandal and personal
dislike, liable to suspicion from the very fact that they were not raised to
impugn his promotion till several years had elapsed (c. 1076); still it is
plain from his own account of the circumstances of his elevation that it was
conducted in extremely irregular 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 suffrage. And this
sequel again owed none of its success to chance, but was the fruit of his own
exertions. In his character were united wide experience and great energy tested
in difficult situations. It is proof of the popular faith in his qualifications
that, although the circumstances of his election invited assault in 1073, no
sort of attempt was then made to set up a rival pontiff. When, however, the
opposition which took head against him had gone so far as to produce a
pretender to the chair, his long and undisputed possession tended to prove the
original legality of his papacy; and the appeal to irregularities at its
beginning not only lost all cogency but assumed the appearance of a mere biased
attack. On the 22nd of May he received sacerdotal ordination, and on the 30th
of June episcopal consecration; the empress Agnes and the duchess Beatrice of
Tuscany being present at the ceremony, in addition to Bishop Gregory of
Vercelli, the chancellor of the German king, to whom Gregory would thus seem to
have communicated the result of the election.
The focus of the ecclesiastico-political
projects of Gregory VII. is to be found in his relationship with Germany. Since
the death of Henry III. the strength of the monarchy in that country had been
seriously impaired, and his son Henry IV. had to contend with great internal
difficulties. This state of affairs was of material assistance to the pope. His
advantage was still further accentuated by the fact that in 1073 Henry was but
twenty-three years of age and by temperament inclined to precipitate action.
Many sharp lessons were needful before he learned to bridle his impetuosity,
and he lacked the support and advice of a disinterested and experienced
statesman. 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 rebellion to come to amicable terms with
the pope at any cost. Consequently in May 1074 he did penance at Nuremberg in
presence of the legates to expiate his continued intimacy with the members of
his council banned by Gregory, took an 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 hand of the 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 Count Eberhard to
Lombardy to combat the Patarenes; nominated the cleric Tedaldo to the
archbishopric of Milan, thus settling a prolonged and contentious question; and
finally endeavoured to establish relations with the Norman duke, Robert
Guiscard. Gregory VII. answered with a rough letter, dated December 8, in
which—among other charges—he reproached the German king with breach of his word
and with his further countenance of the excommunicated councillors; while at
the same time he sent by word of mouth a brusque message intimating that the
enormous crimes which would be laid to his account rendered him liable, not
only to the ban of the church, but to the deprivation of his 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 Christmas-night did not
scruple to surprise him in church and carry him off as a prisoner, though on
the following day he was obliged to surrender his captive. The reprimands of
the pope, couched as they were in such an unprecedented form, infuriated Henry
and his court, and their answer was the hastily convened national council in
Worms, which met on the 24th of January 1076. In the higher ranks of the German
clergy Gregory had many enemies, and a Roman cardinal, 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 rest. All the gross
scandals with regard to the pontiff that this prelate could utter were greedily
received by the assembly, which committed itself to the ill-considered and
disastrous resolution that Gregory had forfeited his papal dignity. In a
document full of accusations the bishops renounced their 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 company with Count Eberhard under commission of the
council, and they succeeded in procuring a similar act of deposition from the
Lombard bishops in the synod of Piacenza. The communication of these decisions
to the pope was undertaken by the priest 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 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 sentence of 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 purpofted to eject the king from the church and to strip him of his
crown. Whether it would produce this effect, or whether it would remain an idle
threat, depended not on the author of the verdict, but on the subjects of
Henry—before all, on the German princes. We know from contemporary evidence
that the excommunication of the king made a profound impression both in Germany
and Italy. 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 summary procedure he came to grief, for he lacked the
support of the 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-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
Mainz, only a few made their appearance; the Saxons snatched at the golden
opportunity for renewing their insurrection and the anti-royalist party grew in
strength from month to month. The situation now became extremely critical for
Henry. As a result of the agitation, which was zealously fostered by the papal
legate Bishop Altmann of Passau, the princes met in October at Tribur to elect
a new German king, and Henry, who was stationed at Oppenheim on the left bank
of the Rhine, was only saved from the loss of his 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 pledge himself to obedience; and they
settled that, if, on the anniversary of his excommunication, he still lay under
the ban, the throne should be considered vacant. At the same time they
determined to invite Gregory to Augsburg, there to decide the conflict. These
arrangements showed Henry the course to be pursued. It was imperative, under
any circumstances and at any price, to secure his absolution from Gregory
before the period named, otherwise he could scarcely 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 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
journey on January 8 in Mantua. But this escort had not appeared when he
received the news of the king's arrival. Henry, who travelled through Burgundy,
had been greeted with wild enthusiasm by the Lombards, but resisted the
temptation to employ force against Gregory. He chose instead the unexpected and
unusual, but, as events proved, the safest course, and determined to compel the
pope to grant him absolution by doing penance before him at Canossa, where he
had taken refuge. This occurrence was quickly embellished and inwoven by
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 part of the king, and it was with reluctance that
Gregory at length gave way, for, if he conferred his absolution, the diet of
princes in Augsburg, in which he might reasonably hope to act as arbitrator,
would either be rendered purposeless, or, if it met at all, would wear an
entirely different character. It was impossible, however, to deny the penitent
re-entrance into the church, and the politician had in this 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 settlement of the great questions
at issue—notably that of 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, 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 motive—for the opposition of the
rebellious German nobles is 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 Rudolph of Swabia (Forchheim, March 1077).
At the election the papal legates present observed the appearance of
neutrality, and Gregory himself sought to maintain this attitude during the
following years. His task was the easier in that the two parties were of fairly
equal strength, each endeavouring to gain the upper hand by the accession of
the pope to their side. But his hopes and labours, with the object of receiving
an appeal to act as arbitrator in the dynastic strife, were fruitless, and the
result of his noncommittal policy was that he forfeited in large measure the
confidence of both parties. Finally he decided for Rudolph of Swabia in
consequence of his victory at Flarchheim (January 27, 1080). Under pressure
from the Saxons, and misinformed as to the significance of this battle, Gregory
abandoned his waiting policy and again pronounced the excommunication and
deposition of King Henry (March 7, 1080), unloosing at the same time all oaths
sworn to him in the past or the future. But the papal censure now proved a very
different thing from the papal censure four years previously. In wide circles
it was felt to be an injustice, and men began to put the question—so dangerous
to the 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 year. True, a new claimant—Hermann of
Luxemburg—was put forward in August 1081, but his personality was ill adapted
for a leader of the Gregorian party in Germany, and the 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 Brixen, and
on the 25th of June 1080 it pronounced Gregory deposed and nominated the
archbishop Guibert of Ravenna as his successor—a policy of anti-king,
anti-pope. In 1081 Henry opened the conflict against Gregory in Italy. The
latter had now fallen on evil days, and he lived to see thirteen cardinals
desert him, Rome surrendered by the Romans to the German king, Guibert of
Ravenna enthroned as 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 European states ere powerfully influenced by his German
policy; for Germany, by engrossing the bulk of his 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 rude
awakening. The great concessions made to them under Nicholas II. were not only
powerless to stem their advance into central Italy but failed to secure even
the expected protection for the papacy. When Gregory was hard pressed by Henry
IV., Robert Guiscard left him to his fate, and only interfered when he himself
was menaced with the German arms. Then, on the capture of Rome, he abandoned
the city to the 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 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" Corsica and
Sardinia were assumed to belong to the Roman Church. Spain and Hungary were
also claimed as her property, and an attempt was made to induce the king of
Denmark to hold his realm as a fief from the pope. Philip I. of France, by his
simony and the violence of his proceedings against the church, provoked a
threat of summary measures; and excommunication, deposition and the interdict,
appeared to be imminent in 1074. Gregory, however, refrained from translating
his menaces into actions, although the attitude of the king showed no change,
for he wished to avoid a dispersion of his strength in the conflict soon to
break out in Germany. In England, again, William the Conqueror derived no less
benefit from this state of affairs. He felt himself so safe that he interfered
autocratically with the management of the church, forbade the bishops to visit
Rome, filled bishoprics and abbeys, and evinced little anxiety when the pope
expatiated to him on the different principles which he entertained as to the
relationship of church and state, or when he prohibited him from commerce or
commanded him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the apostolic chair. Gregory
had no power to compel the English king to an alteration in his ecclesiastical
policy, so chose to ignore what he could not approve, and even considered it
advisable to assure him of his particular affection.
Gregory, in fact,
established relations—if no more—with every land in Christendom; though these
relations did not invariably realize the ecclesiastico-political hopes
connected with them. His correspondence extended to Poland, Russia and Bohemia.
He wrote in friendly terms to the Saracen king of Mauretania in north Africa,
and attempted, though without success, to bring the Armenians into closer
contact with Rome. The East, especially, claimed his interest. The
ecclesiastical rupture between the bishops of Rome and Byzantium was a severe
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 prolonged schisms had existed in past centuries, but had always
been surmounted in the end. Both sides, moreover, had an interest in repairing
the breach between the churches. Thus, immediately on his accession to the
pontificate, Gregory sought to come into touch with the emperor 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 Byzantine
emperor increased, he conceived the project of a great military expedition and
exhorted the faithful to participation in the task of recovering the sepulchre
of the Lord (1074). Thus the idea of a crusade to the Holy Land already floated
before Gregory's vision, and his intention was to place himself at the head.
But the 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 middle of the 11th
century the tendency—mainly represented by Cluny—towards a stricter morality
and a more 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 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 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
Matilda, who put her great 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 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 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 agitators and
accomplished much for him in southern Germany. In England Archbishop Lanfranc
of Canterbury probably stood closest to him; in France his champion was Bishop
Hugo of Dié, who afterwards ascended the archiepiscopal chair of 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 vice-regent of God on earth, so that disobedience to him implies
disobedience to God—or, in other words, a defection from Christianity.
Elaborating an idea discoverable in St 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 developed these views in a
famous series of letters to Bishop Hermann of 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
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 dispensation of Providence, described the
coexistence of church and state as a divine ordinance, and emphasized the
necessity of union between the sacerdolium 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 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 habit of thought needs to be appreciated in
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 theocracy comprising each and
every state.
Since this papal
conception of the state involved the exclusion of independence and autonomy,
the 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 prohibition was made punishable by
excommunication, and, by a further decree of the same year, every investiture
conferred by a layman was declared invalid and its acceptance pronounced liable
to penalty. It was, moreover, enacted that every layman should restore, under
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 1080 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
metropolitan; after which the consent of the pope or archbishop was to be
procured; if any 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 goal before his
eyes. If he could once succeed in abolishing the lay investiture the king
would, ipso facto, be deprived of his control over the great possessions
assigned to the church by himself and his predecessors, and he could have no
security that the duties and services attached to those possessions would
continue to be discharged for the benefit of the 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 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 sovereign who, in consequence of the Italian
policy of the German monarchy, found himself in perpetual opposition to
Germany. Thus, by his ecclesiastical legislation, Gregory attempted to shake
the very foundations on which the constitution of the German empire rested,
while completely ignoring the 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 secular powers, was manifested no less in the internal
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 laws were usually promulgated by Roman
synods which he convened during Lent does not imply that these possessed an
independent position; on the contrary, they were entirely dominated by his
influence, and were no more than the 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 pallium—pronounced essential to their qualifications for office—served to
school them in humility.
This battle for the
foundation of papal omnipotence within the church is connected with his
championship of compulsory 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 injunction in the 11th 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 indulgence to their clergy in the 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 custom of
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 numbers of
the German 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 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 campaign, which had been waged since
the days of Leo IX., had done little to limit its scope. The 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
element of confusion, and, in the case of a charge of simoniacal practices,
enormously accentuates the difficulty of determining the actual state of
affairs. The 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 Ghost; if in the negative, then obviously
all the official acts of the respective priest or bishop—which, according to
the 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 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 1078 declared
consecration by a simoniac null and void.
The pontificate of
Gregory VII. came to a melancholy close, for he died an exile in Salerno; the
Romans and a number of his most trusted coadjutors had renounced him, and the
faithful 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 friends. He was of
course a master of statecraft; he had pursued political ends with consummate
skill, causing them to masquerade as requirements of religion; but he forgot
that incitement to civil war, the preaching of rebellion, and the 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 his contemporaries to the belief that any and every
measure—so long as it opened up some prospect of success—was good in his sight,
no matter how dangerous the fruits it might mature, the fainter grew their
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 star of hisopponent was in the
ascendant. He had given the rein to his splendid gifts as a ruler, and in his
capacity of pope he omitted to provide an 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 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 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 world in obedience to Rome ; and, finally, it was due to
his efforts that the duty of the priest with regard to sexual abstinence was
never afterwards a matter of doubt in the Catholic Christianity of the West.
On the 25th of May 1085
he died, unbroken by the misfortunes of his last years, and unshaken in his
self-certainty. Dilexi justitiam et odivi iniquitatem: propterea morior in
exilio—are said to have been his last words. In 1584 Gregory XIII. received him
into the Martyrologium Romanum; in 1606 he was canonized by Paul V. The words
dedicated to him in the Breviarium Romanum, for May 25, contain such an
apotheosis of his pontificate that in the 18th and 19th centuries they were
prohibited by the governments of several countries with Roman Catholic populations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—A
comprehensive survey of the sources and literature for the history of Gregory
VII. is given by C. Mirbt, s.v. “Gregor VII.” in Herzog-Hauck,
Realencyklopädie, 3rd ed. vol. vii. pp. 96 sqq. The main source for the reign
of Gregory consists of his letters and decrees, the greater part of which are
collected in the Registrum (ed. P. Jaffé, Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum, ii.,
Berlin, 1865). The letters preserved in addition to this official collection
are also reprinted by Jaffé under the title of Epistolae colleclae. The
Dictatus Papae — a list of twenty-seven short sentences on the rights of the
pope,—which is given in the Registrum, is not the work of Gregory VII., but
should probably be ascribed to Cardinal Deusdedit. Further: A. Potthast,
Bibliotheca historica medii aevi, i. (2nd ed., Berlin, 1896), pp. 541 sq., ii.
1351 ; P. Jaffe, Regesta pontificum (2nd ed., 1865), tome i. pp. 594-649. Nr.
4771-5313. tome ii. p. 751. The most important letters and decrees of Gregory
VII. are reprinted by C. Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums (2nd ed.,
Tubingen, 1901), Nr. 183 sqq., pp. loo sqq. The oldest life of Gregory is that
by Paul von Bermried, reprinted, e.g. by Watterich, Vitae pontificum, i.
474-546. Among the historians the following are of especial importance:
Berthold, Bernold, Lambert von Hersfeld, Bruno, Marianus Scotus, Leo of Ostia,
Peter of Marte Cassino, Sigebert of Gembloux, Hugo of Flavigny, Arnulph and
Landulf of Milan, Donizo—their works being reprinted in the section
“Scriptores” in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, vols. v., vi., vii., viii.,
xii. The struggles which broke out under Gregory VII. and were partially
continued in the subsequent decades gave rise to a pamphlet literature which is
of extreme importance for their internal history. The extant materials vary
greatly in extent, and display much diversity from the literary-historical
point of view. Most of them are printed in the Monumenta Germaniae, under the
title, Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum saeculis XI. et XII.
conscripti, tome I. (Hanover, 1891), tome II. (1892), tome III. (1897). The
scientific investigation of the Gregorian age has received enormous benefit
from the critical editions of the sources in the Monumenta Germaniae, so that
the old literature is for the most part antiquated. This is true even of the
great monograph on this pope—A. F. Gfrörer, Papst Gregorius VII. und sein
Zeitalter (7 vols., Schaffhausen, 1859–1861), which must be used with extreme
caution. The present state of criticism is represented by the following works:
G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichsunter Heinrich IV. und
Heinrich V., vol. i. (Leipzig, 1890), ii. (1894), iii. (1900), iv. (1903) ; W.
Martens, Gregor VII., sein Leben und Werken (2 vols., Leipzig, 1904) ; C.
Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII. (Leipzig, 1894) ; A. Hauck,
Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (3 vols., Leipzig, 1894). The special literature
on individual events during the Gregorian pontificate is so extensive that no
list can be given here. On Gregory's elevation to the chair, cf. C. Mirbt, Die
Wahl Gregors VII. (Marburg, 1892). See also A. H. Mathew, D.D., Life and Times
of Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII. (1910). (C. M.)
1911 Encyclopædia
Britannica/Gregory (Popes)/Gregory VII
SOURCE : http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Gregory_(Popes)/Gregory_VII
Giovanni di Paolo (–1482), La
Procession de saint Grégoire au château saint Ange (Rome), circa 1465, oil on poplar
panel, 40 x 42, Louvre Museum
San Gregorio VII Papa
- Memoria Facoltativa
Soana, Grosseto, ca. 1020
- Salerno, 25 maggio 1085
(Papa dal 30/06/1073 al 25/05/1085)
La riforma detta “gregoriana” non è solo opera di Ildebrando di Soana, poi papa Gregorio VII. Ma lui la soffre più di tutti, dopo aver aiutato pontefici riformatori per trent’anni. Di origine toscana, forse monaco, studia al Laterano, diventa cardinale con Alessandro II e nel 1073 gli succede. Riformare significa espellere tutti quelli – vescovi, abati, preti – che hanno mercificato la fede comprando cariche e facendo negozio dei sacramenti. Contro di essi si sono sviluppati dal basso movimenti di riforma (non sempre esenti da violenza). Con Gregorio, è il vertice che compie il massimo sforzo per cacciare gli indegni. E si scontra con i loro famelici parentadi, con gli interessi coalizzati, e con molte casate aristocratiche, da tempo abituate a scegliersi vescovi e preti. Papa Niccolò II (1059-61) ha già tolto ai sovrani e alla nobiltà romana l’ingerenza nelle elezioni papali. Ora Gregorio vieta su tutta la linea al potere laico di conferire i poteri spirituali (Sinodo del 1075). E poco dopo, con un documento detto Dictatus papae, codifica la sua visione di una Chiesa fortemente accentrata sul pontefice, come capo assoluto e diretto di ciascun vescovo, e col potere anche di destituire l’imperatore, esonerando i sudditi dall’obbedienza.
L’imperatore è il tedesco Enrico IV, 25 anni, re in Germania e in Italia, che si scontra col papa facendo eleggere a Milano un vescovo di sua fiducia. Alta protesta di Gregorio; ma Enrico replica, sostenuto da 30 vescovi tedeschi riuniti a Worms, dichiarando deposto il papa ("il falso monaco Ildebrando", dice il documento). Gregorio VII scomunica Enrico, che ora rischia il trono; vescovi e principi tedeschi gli impongono infatti di riconciliarsi col papa, in un incontro a Worms previsto nel febbraio 1077. Ma Enrico già in gennaio è a Canossa davanti al papa, in saio da penitente. E ottiene il perdono di Gregorio VII promettendogli di "sottostare al suo parere". Salva così il regno senza prendere impegni precisi. Poi continua come prima a nominare vescovi e abati. Nuovamente scomunicato, nel 1080 fa eleggere a Bressanone un antipapa (Clemente III). E fa occupare dalle sue truppe Roma.
Chiuso in Castel Sant’Angelo, il papa è poi liberato dal normanno Roberto il
Guiscardo che viene dal Sud. Ma viene con mercenari predatori e assassini, che
si fanno odiare dai romani per le loro atrocità. E l’odio ricade anche su
Gregorio VII, che gli stessi romani nel 1073 avevano acclamato papa, prima
ancora dell’elezione. Finisce i suoi giorni a Salerno, in una desolazione
ben espressa dalle famose parole che gli sono attribuite: "Ho amato la
giustizia e detesto l’iniquità: perciò muoio in esilio". Dice di lui lo storico
Muratori: "Pontefice onorato da Dio in vita e dopo morto da vari miracoli,
e perciò registrato nel catalogo de’ santi". Papa Paolo V ne autorizzerà
il culto nel 1606.
Etimologia: Gregorio =
colui che risveglia, dal greco
Martirologio Romano: San
Gregorio VII, papa, che, portando il nome di Ildebrando, condusse dapprima la
vita monastica e con la sua attività diplomatica aiutò molto i pontefici del
suo tempo nella riforma della Chiesa; salito alla cattedra di Pietro, rivendicò
con grande autorità e forza d’animo la libertà della Chiesa dal potere secolare
e difese strenuamente la santità del sacerdozio; per tutto questo, costretto ad
abbandonare Roma, morì in esilio a Salerno.
Gregorio VII è uno dei più grandi papi della storia. Secondo la tradizione egli nacque a Sovana presso Grosseto, verso il 1020, dal fabbro Bonizone il quale al fonte battesimale volle che fosse chiamato Ildebrando.
Ricevette la prima formazione a Roma dallo zio, abate di S. Maria in Aventino. Fu quindi educato nel palazzo lateranense da due celebri precettori: Lorenzo, ex-arci vescovo di Amalfi, e l'arciprete Giovanni Graziano. Costui fu eletto dai romani papa col nome di Gregorio VI dopo che aveva indotto l'indegno adolescente Benedetto IX, suo figlioccio, ad abdicare, versandogli una somma di denaro. Nel sinodo di Sutri (1046), tenuto alla presenza di Enrico III, imperatore di Germania, Gregorio depose spontaneamente la sua dignità protestando di aver agito in buona fede, non per simonia.
Ildebrando, riluttante, lo seguì in esilio a Colonia, in qualità di suo cappellano. In quel tempo vestì l'abito benedettino. Quando però Bruno di Toul fu eletto papa, nella dieta di Worms, col nome di Leone IX, il giovane monaco fu invitato a ritornare a Roma suo malgrado. Per trent'anni Ildebrando fiancheggerà come consigliere, teologo, canonista, diplomatico e legato, l'opera di riforma di cinque pontefici, impegnati a combattere il concubinato del clero e la simonia. Leone IX lo ordinò suddiacono e lo fece priore ed economo del monastero di San Paolo fuori le mura perché riformasse la disciplina monastica e restaurasse la basilica. Stefano IX lo ordinò diacono e lo costituì arcidiacono della Chiesa romana, Alessandro II lo creò cardinale e cancelliere della medesima. Quando costui morì, tutto il popolo acclamò Ildebrando papa appena terminarono i funerali nella basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. L'elezione fu fatta subito dopo dai cardinali nella chiesa di San Pietro in Vincoli. L'austero monaco si chiamò Gregorio. Aveva compiuto cinquant'anni, era pallido e piccolissimo di statura. Si fece ordinare prete, vescovo e quindi intronizzare con il beneplacito di Enrico IV il 30-6-1073.
Conscio della somma potestà che gli derivava dall'essere il successore di S. Pietro, si pose subito ad attuare il programma di riforma già vigorosamente iniziato dai suoi predecessori con l'aiuto di due intrepidi e focosi monaci: Umberto da Selva Candida (+1061) e S. Pier Damiani (+1072). Vera tempra di lottatore, estremamente volitivo, perspicace e di carattere impetuoso - non per nulla il Damiani lo aveva chiamato "santo satana" - Gregorio VII era l'uomo più indicato per rivendicare alla Chiesa le sue libertà, e far trionfare la giustizia e la pace nella sottomissione al Vicario di Cristo delle potenze secolari in tutto ciò che riguardava la salvezza del mondo cristiano.
Lo stesso anno in cui fu eletto papa, Enrico IV, intelligente ma superbo, falso e vizioso, nel tentativo di restaurare la sua autorità all'interno della Germania, aveva dichiarato guerra alla Sassonia, il più potente feudo dell'impero, ed era stato sconfitto e umiliato. Si rivolse allora al papa per averne l'appoggio, mostrandosi favorevole ai piani di riforma e promettendo di emendarsi da traffici simoniaci. Confidando nell'indispensabile unione tra il sacerdozio e l'autorità civile per il risanamento della società, Gregorio VII, nel sinodo quaresimale del 1074, rinnovò i decreti di scomunica contro la simonia e il concubinato del clero, omessi dai suoi predecessori, proibì l'esercizio delle funzioni religiose ai preti sposati e incitò il popolo a tenersene lontano. Nonostante le agitazioni e le ribellioni suscitate, il papa sostenne i suoi principi che davano esecuzione ad una antica legge ecclesiastica, convinto che lo stato matrimoniale fosse inconciliabile col sacerdozio.
Tuttavia, le cause principali degli scandali della chiesa erano l'eccessiva implicazione del clero negli interessi terreni, e il dominio dei laici negli affari ecclesiastici. Per tagliare i mali alla radice, nel sinodo del 1075 l'intrepido pontefice proibì anche ogni conferimento di uffici ecclesiastici da parte di laici e, in particolare, l'investitura dei vescovi per mano del re di Germania mediante la consegna simbolica del pastorale e dell'anello.
Contro simile decreto, sovvertitore della secolare consuetudine e della potenza imperiale, insorsero i signori feudali. Enrico IV scese decisamente in lotta aperta . Inebriato della vittoria conseguita sui Sassoni lo stesso anno, riprese i rapporti con i consiglieri scomunicati e nominò i titolari di parecchie diocesi, tra cui quella di Milano, che non era neppure vacante. Alla sua corte accolse persino un Cencio, capo dei malcontenti di Roma, il quale era riuscito a catturare il papa la notte di Natale mentre celebrava la Messa e rinchiuderlo grondante sangue in una torre. Il papa fece allo sconsiderato imperatore nuove rimostranze, gli rimproverò l'intrusione a Milano di Tedaldo, antiriformista, si dichiarò pronto ad un accordo, ma oralmente lo fece minacciare di scomunica e di deposizione qualora si fosse ostinato nella disubbidienza. Per tutta risposta Enrico IV convocò una dieta a Worms, nel gennaio del 1076, in cui ventisei vescovi condannarono e deposero Gregorio VII. Il re stesso, nella sua veste di patrizio romano, diresse a Ildebrando "falso monaco e non più papa" una lettera per ordinargli di scendere dalla cattedra "usurpata". Un mese dopo il papa lanciò la scomunica contro Enrico, gl'interdisse il governo della Germania e dell'Italia e sciolse i sudditi dal giuramento di fedeltà.
L'Europa rimase sbalordita dì fronte a quella punizione fino allora inaudita. Attorno all'imperatore si fece il vuoto. I Sassoni si risollevarono e i principi nella dieta di Tribur, presso Magonza, decisero di abbandonare definitivamente Enrico se fosse rimasto nella scomunica per più di un anno. Una dieta da tenersi ad Augusta il 2-2-1077 avrebbe deciso in proposito alla presenza del papa, invitato a intervenirvi in funzione di arbitro. Enrico comprese che la sua situazione era drammatica. Piuttosto di umiliarsi dinanzi ai propri vassalli, preferì scendere con poca scorta in Italia, attraverso il Moncenisio, per umiliarsi dinanzi al papa. Gregorio VII, già in viaggio verso Augusta, alla notizia del suo arrivo si era chiuso nella rocca di Canossa (Emilia) della marchesa Matilde, seguace fedele e incondizionata del papato. Enrico si presentò per tre giorni successivi alle porte del castello "scalzo e vestito di saio come un penitente" (Reg. 4, 12) sollecitando l'ammissione e implorante l'assoluzione dalla scomunica. Dopo prolungate trattative, per i buoni uffici della suocera Adelaide di Susa, della cugina Matilde di Canossa e del padrino S. Ugo di Cluny, al quarto giorno ottenne di essere assolto e comunicato dal papa. Enrico riusciva così a spezzare il cerchio dei suoi avversari, mentre il papa, in quell'occasione più sacerdote che statista, si lasciava sfuggire di mano importanti vantaggi politici.
L'atto generoso di Gregorio non aveva soddisfatto appieno Enrico il quale avrebbe voluto, con l'assoluzione, anche la restituzione del trono, e aveva intiepidito i principi germanici i quali dessero nuovo re Rodolfo di Svezia, ambizioso cognato di Enrico. Nella guerra civile che ne seguì il papa tentò di porsi arbitro tra i due contendenti, ma Enrico, superiore di forze, con la minaccia di far eleggere un antipapa, chiese il riconoscimento per sé e la scomunica per suo cognato. Gregorio, invece, nel sinodo quaresimale del 1080, rinnovò la scomunica e la deposizione di Enrico, confermò Rodolfo e rinnovò il decreto dell'investitura con l'aggravante della scomunica. Nel sinodo tenuto a Bressanone poco dopo, Enrico fece di nuovo dichiarare dai vescovi Gregorio VII deposto. Al suo posto fu eletto Viberto, arcivescovo di Ravenna, con il nome di Clemente III.
Dopo la morte di Rodolfo in battaglia, Enrico sì trasferì in Italia con il suo esercito. Solo dopo quattro anni riuscì a entrare in Roma e occuparla (1084), fatta eccezione di Castel S. Angelo, in cui il papa ancora resisteva.
Tredici cardinali passarono dalla parte di Clemente il quale, a Pasqua, incontrò Enrico imperatore. Gregorio sarebbe caduto in mano del suo avversario se, al suo grido di aiuto, non fosse giunto Roberto il Guiscardo, vassallo della Chiesa, che costrinse i tedeschi alla ritirata. Ma il saccheggio e l'atroce devastazione compiuti dalle sue soldatesche mercenarie provocarono tale inasprimento dei cittadini contro Gregorio, che gli resero impossibile la permanenza in città. Si ritirò quindi a Salerno, capitale dei normanni, dove morì il 25-5-1085 esclamando con il salmista: "Ho amato la giustizia e odiato l'iniquità, perciò muoio in esilio". (SI. 44, 8). Fu sepolto nel duomo. Non fu canonizzato formalmente, però Benedetto XIII ne estese la memoria a tutta la Chiesa nel 1728.
Con la sua morte sembrava sancita la sconfitta del papato per sempre. Era vero invece il contrario. I successori di Gregorio VII raccoglieranno il frutto del suo apparente insuccesso: il consolidamento dell'autorità giuridica, morale e politica della Chiesa che avrà il suo apogeo con Innocenzo III. Neppure egli era conscio del grande bene che operava per la santità e l'unione della Chiesa. Alla fine della sua esistenza terrena scriveva scoraggiato: "Da molto tempo chiedo all'onnipotente Signore di togliermi da questa vita o di rendermi utile alla nostra santa Madre Chiesa, e tuttavia né Egli mi ha tolto dalle mie afflizioni, né mi ha permesso di rendere alla Chiesa i servizi che vorrei" (Reg. 2, 49).
Nonostante che l'idea dominante di questo pontefice, quale appare dal tanto discusso documento detto Dictatus papae, fosse quella della supremazia del papato sull'impero, tuttavia non si può mettere in dubbio la rettitudine del suo operato in difesa dei diritti della Chiesa. Nel 1076 scrisse infatti ai principi e ai vescovi della Germania: "In questi giorni di pericolo, in cui l'anticristo si agita in tutte le sue membra, si troverebbe invano un uomo che preferisca sinceramente l'interesse di Dio ai suoi propri comodi... Voi mi siete testimoni che nessuna idea di secolare potenza mi ha spinto contro i principi cattivi e i sacerdoti empi, ma la comprensione del mio dovere e della missione della Sede Apostolica. Meglio per noi subire la morte da parte dei tiranni che, col nostro silenzio, renderci complici dell'empietà".
Questo "acerrimo difensore della Chiesa" fu pure il primo a concepire l'idea di una crociata. Egli progettò nel 1074 di recarsi personalmente alla testa di un grande esercito in Oriente, per liberare il Santo Sepolcro caduto nel 1070 in mano ai Turchi, e rinnovare l'unione con la Chiesa greca.
Prima della sua elevazione al pontificato romano, egli aveva favorito l'occupazione dell'Inghilterra nel 1066 da parte di Guglielmo I, duca di Normandia. In quella spedizione egli aveva visto una crociata e nel suo capo un campione della Chiesa contro la simonia. E noto pure quanto si sia adoperato per l'estinzione dell'eresia di Berengario, che insegnava a Tours, il quale sosteneva che l'Eucarestia è soltanto segno o simbolo del corpo di Cristo. Il Concilio tenuto nel 1054 in quella città sotto la presidenza del legato pontificio Ildebrando, si era accontentato della sua dichiarazione che il pane e il vino sull'altare dopo la consacrazione sono corpo e sangue di Cristo. Essendo in seguito ricaduto nel medesimo errore, Gregorio VII lo fece venire a Roma e nel sinodo quaresimale del 1079 l'obbligò ad accettare la dottrina ecclesiastica della "transostanziazione".
La Chiesa lo venera come santo dal 1728.
Autore: Guido Pettinati
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/27400
