Fliche, Augustin. La réforme grégorienne et la reconquéte chrétienne (1057–1123). Paris: Bloud
and Gay, 1946.
La preparazione della riforma gregoriana e del pontificato di Gregorio VII: atti del IX Convegno
del Centro di Studi Avellaniti. Fonte Avellana: II Centro, 1985.
Tierney, Brian. The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1964.
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GREGORY VII
(ca. 1020–1085). Pope. Born of a humble Tuscan family, Hildebrand, the future Gregory
VII, came to Rome at an early age and received his education at the monastery of St.
Mary’s on the Aventine, where it appears he made his monastic profession. He served as
chaplain to the reform-minded Pope Gregory VI and accompanied Gregory into exile in
Germany when he agreed to step down to end the gridlock of three claimants to the papal
throne. After Gregory VI’s death in 1047, Hildebrand was at the monastery of Cluny. In
1049, he met bishop Bruno of Toul, now Pope Leo IX, and returned to Rome in his
company. Hildebrand served Leo IX and four succeeding reforming popes in various
capacities. In 1073, upon the death of Alexander II, Hildebrand was enthroned pope by
popular acclamation and took the name Gregory VII.
Like his predecessors, Gregory first wished to reform the clergy in line with the
monastic ideal, eliminating the buying of ecclesiastical offices (simony) and enforcing of
clerical celibacy. But Gregory broadened the scope of reform to encompass iustitia, that
is, justice and the proper governance of all of Christian society. For Gregory, this meant
that just as spiritual realities took precedence over temporal realities, so, too, spiritual
authority preceded temporal authority; not only the clergy but princes, kings, and
emperors were to be obedient to the pope. Gregory sketched out the implications of this
conviction in the Dictatus papae of 1075.
In France, Gregory largely had his way with the higher clergy through his legate,
Hugues de Die, who vigorously pursued the reform between 1076 and 1080. In England,
William the Conqueror respected the papal decrees regarding clerical celibacy, although
he retained the practice of lay investiture without incurring excommunication. But in
Germany, where ecclesiastical office and feudal obliga tion were closely intertwined in
the administration of the realm, and indeed, where Emperor Henry III had not only
appointed archbishops but even popes, almost immediately a conflict arose between
Gregory and Henry III’s son and successor, Henry IV. Henry regularly intervened in
ecclesiastical affairs; he considered the upper clergy his vassals and invested them with
the insignia of their offices. In the wake of papal criticism of his practices, Henry
declared Gregory deposed; Gregory proclaimed Henry excommunicated and suspended
German bishops. When Henry sought and received absolution from Gregory in the snows
of Canossa in January 1077, Gregory’s German allies elected Rudolf of Swabia as
antiking without Gregory’s consent and initiated a civil war in Germany that lasted until
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