Gregory VII, Saint 313office at that moment and live a contemplative life, but he
finally accepted and ascended the papal throne on
September 3, 590.
PAPACY AND WRITINGGregory interpreted primacy of the papal office as first
one of service. He was the first to call himself the “slave
of the slaves of God.” An idealist, he wanted to eradicate
corruption and vice among the clergy and to mobilize
the resources of the church for the benefit of the poor.
The most pressing of Gregory I’s concerns from the
moment of his ascent were the physical well-being of
the people of Rome and the wider political situation in
Italy. The effects of the flooding of the river Tiber,
PLAGUE, and FAMINEmade the marshaling of resources
and the alleviation of suffering urgent but difficult mat-
ters. On receiving news that the LOMBARDduke Ariulf
(r. 590–615) was marching on Rome, Gregory, a very
competent manager, directed the defense of the city and
appointed military governors for other Italian cities as
well. In 593, with Rome under siege, Gregory negoti-
ated a truce between Ariulf and the city. In 598 he
assisted in the establishment of a formal peace between
the Lombards and all of Italy.
Besides being conscious of papal authority, Gregory
saw himself as a loyal citizen in the Roman tradition and
so a subject of the Roman emperor at Constantinople.
However, he saw clearly that the “barbarian” kingdoms
of western Europe had become permanent political
entities. So he entered into direct relations with the
MEROVINGIANrulers of Gaul. One of Gregory’s most sig-
nificant acts as pope was the sending in 596 of 40 monks
from his own monastery under the leadership of AUGUS-
TINEto attempt the conversion of the ANGLO-SAXONS.In
England his missionaries were successful and established
two bishoprics at CANTERBURYand YORK, both directly
under papal control.
Soon after he took office, there appeared his Book of
Pastoral Rule, an extended discussion of the pastoral
responsibilities of the office of bishop in the church. In
his Dialogues,Gregory, with a great credulity in the para-
normal, recorded for popular edification the lives and
miracles of the holy men and women of Italy and
included in Book II the first biography of BENEDICTof
Nursia, the father of Western MONASTICISM. In addition to
these works, there have survived more than 60 sermons
and 854 pastoral letters, all of then read for the rest of the
Middle Ages. After years of suffering prolonged attacks of
gout and gastritis, yet still an effective and model pastor,
Gregory died on March 12, 604.
See alsoMISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES; PAPACY; PURGATORY.
Further reading: Gregory the Great, Dialogues,
trans. Odo John Zimmerman (Washington, D.C.:
Catholic University of America Press, 1959); Gregory the
Great, Forty Gospel Homilies,trans. David Hurst (Kala-
mazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1990); Gregory
the Great, Pastoral Care,trans. Henry David (New York:
Newman Press, 1950); John C. Cavadini, ed., Gregory the
Great (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1996); R. A. Markus, Gregory the Great and His
World(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997);
Jeffrey Richards, Consul of God: The Life and Times of
Gregory the Great(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1980); Carole Straw, Gregory the Great: Perfection in
Imperfection (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1988).Gregory VII, Saint(Hildebrand)(ca. 1020–1085)
Italian pope
Gregory VII was born Hildebrand, perhaps at Soana in
Tuscany, between July 13 and 23, about 1020, the son of
Bonizo and Bertha. Reliable evidence about Gregory VII’s
origins and early career is rare. He spent his early years at
ROME, where he received an education and had contact
with the papal court, then still burdened with much cor-
ruption. About 1046 as an exile, he became associated in
Lorraine with a vigorous reforming group. He probably
became a monk then, not at the great reforming
monastery of CLUNY.
Returning to Rome in 1049 as a follower of the newly
elected pope, Leo IX (r. 1049–54), Hildebrand spent the
next 24 years in the service of that pope and his succes-
sors. During this period, he was involved in every aspect
of reform and the process by which the PAPACYsought to
liberate itself from lay control, German as well as Italian,
and to establish its rights of jurisdiction over local
churches. He was sent on legatine missions in ITA LY,
FRANCE, and GERMANY, and his influence over both the
formulation and the implementation of papal policy grew
steadily, so that by the 1060s he had become the most
eminent of papal advisers.
Though physically small and weak of voice, Hilde-
brand possessed a commanding personality. Some of his
contemporaries were impressed by his keen glance, his
vigorous enthusiasm, and his indomitable persistence
and fanaticism with which he denounced what he
believed to be wrong.ELECTION AS POPE
When Alexander II (r. 1061–73) died in April 1073,
Hildebrand was acclaimed pope during Alexander’s
funeral by a crowd on April 22/23, 1073. The cardinals
later accepted such popular choice. His enemies later
made much of these irregular and uncanonical proceed-
ings. Nevertheless the new pope, Gregory VII, began his
pontificate initially without the embarrassment of a con-
tested election.MAIN OBJECTIVES AND CONTROVERSY
Certain objectives dominated Gregory’s policies: the need
for reform, the assertion of his absolute primacy in