had belonged to Peter from ancient times. Some princes
of Poland and Bohemia had asked Gregory for support
of their claims, and it is not surprising that he expected
special links to the papacy in return. He saw the re-
lationship with England similarly. In 1080, he wrote
to William the Conqueror, reminding William of his
assistance in 1066. As we can gather from William’s
negative reply, the messengers who delivered the letter
had asked him to do homage for England to the pope.
The legal premises for the largely unsuccessful papal
claims are still disputed, but evidently the Donation
of Constantine played only a subordinate role. These
feudal relationships—which were an innovation as far
as the papacy was concerned—were intended to further
church reform and to gain fi nancial and military support
for papal policies. Episcopal oaths also included the
promise of troops. Since Gregory also planned to lead
an army to assist Constantinople against the Muslims,
it is not surprising that he has the reputation of being a
particularly warlike pope.
Gregory never had occasion to intervene in England;
and Spain largely accommodated the claims of the pa-
pacy. In France and Germany, however, direct interven-
tion by the papacy in the appointment of bishops and
the prohibition of their investiture with ring and staff
(possibly 1077–1078) created severe tension. Especially
serious were Gregory’s clashes with Germany, although,
despite some initial problems, there was no hint of this
at the outset of Gregory’s pontifi cate. Gregory, who
saw in Henry the future emperor, suggested in a letter
of December 1074 that Henry was to protect Rome and
the Roman church during the papal crusade. It was the
German episcopacy rather than the king that appeared to
hinder church reform in Germany. Gregory counted on
Henry’s support. But events taught him otherwise, and in
a letter of December 1075 to Henry, Gregory can barely
contain his anger. It is possible that the oral message
accompanying the missive was a threat of excommuni-
cation. In harsh language, Gregory blamed Henry espe-
cially on account of the customary royal appointments
to the Italian bishoprics of Milan, Fermo, and Spoleto.
A second issue was Henry’s continued contact with his
excommunicated advisers. On 24 January 1076, at the
Diet of Worms, Henry IV and the vast majority of the
German bishops replied in even harsher terms. In a let-
ter addressed to “Brother Hildebrand,” they renounced
their obedience to Gregory. The king asked Gregory to
abdicate and the Romans to elect a new pope. Northern
Italian bishops immediately joined in this renunciation
of obedience. The letters reached Gregory during the
Lenten synod (14–20 February 1076), and he replied
at once, declaring Henry deposed and absolving
all of Henry’s Christian subjects from their oath of
fealty. Henceforth no one was to serve Henry as king,
and Henry was anathematized.
The effect of the excommunication was tremendous.
Gregory assumed that he had historical precedents on his
side, but never before had a pope deposed a king. Greg-
ory’s deposition of Henry was then, and has remained,
his most hotly debated action. Gregory had pursued to
its logical conclusion his conviction that papal primacy
was secular as well as spiritual. Church reform now be-
came a struggle over dominance between priestly power
and royal power. To save his crown, Henry submitted
to Gregory at Canossa (28 January 1077), implicitly
recognizing the papal claim to universal lordship.
The encounter at Canossa interrupted Gregory’s
journey to Augsburg, where the German princes had
intended to elect a new king. After the reconciliation
of Henry with the church, Gregory returned to Rome,
but the German princes nevertheless proceeded to elect
Rudolf of Swabia (15 March 1077). Gregory waited
until the Lenten synod of 1080 to grant Rudolf full
recognition as king; at that time he repeated the excom-
munication and deposition of Henry IV. However, Henry
had reasserted himself after his absolution at Canossa;
the new excommunication had little effect; and the king
was victorious in a civil war. A royal synod at Brixen
formally deposed Gregory (25 June 1080) and elected
Wibert (Guibert, Guiberto) of Ravenna pope, or anti-
pope; he was eventually enthroned in 1084 as Clement
III. Henry’s Italian campaign of 1081 was successfully
concluded when he entered Rome on 21 March 1084; the
gates of the city were opened to him by many members
of the Roman clergy who condemned Gregory’s infl ex-
ible attitude, and by the Roman populace. Clement III
crowned Henry emperor on 31 March 1084. Gregory
VII had fl ed to Castel Sant’Angelo. He was freed by his
Norman vassal Robert Guiscard in May and accompa-
nied Robert to Salerno; there, in exile, Gregory died on
25 May 1085. Pope Paul V canonized Gregory in 1606,
and his feast day (25 May) was expanded from Salerno
to the entire church in 1728.
Gregory VII was certainly one of the great medi-
eval popes. The history of papal primacy—especially
but not only with regard to secular power—cannot be
imagined without him. Gregory attempted to translate
his own religious experience, with its mystical core, into
historical reality. Concepts that he grasped intuitively
were legally and theoretically elaborated in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, resulting in what is known as
the papal monarchy.
See also Henry IV, Emperor; Robert Guiscard;
William IFurther Reading
Sources
Cowdrey, H. E. J. The Epistolae vagantes of Pope Gregory VII.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1972.GREGORY VII, POPE