Side by side with the general movement towards reform, he had
set before himself the object of freeing the papacy, not only
from its temporal oppressors but also from its protectors. He
was successful at the council of 1059, the pontifical election
was placed out of reach of the schemes of the local feudal lords
and restored to the heads of the clergy; certain reservations
were made with regard to those rights which the Holy See was
considered to have conceded personally to Henry of Germany
(the young king Henry IV., son of the emperor Henry III.), but
nothing more. At the election of Alexander II. (1061–1073)—a
rival to whom was for a long time supported by the German
king—and even at the election of Hildebrand, this rule had its
effect. Henceforth the elections remained entirely free from
those secular influences which had hitherto been so oppressive.
In 1073 Hildebrand was raised to the pontifical throne by
the acclamation of the people of Rome, under the name of
Gregory VII.
The work of reform was now in a good way; the freedom of the pontifical elections had been assured, which gave some promise that the struggle against abuses would be conducted successfully. All that now remained was to go on following wisely and firmly the way that had already been opened. But this attitude was not likelyGregory VII., 1053–1085. to appeal to the exuberant energy of the new pope. Hitherto he had had to reckon with obstacles more powerful than those which were now left for him to conquer, and, what was more, with the fact that his authority depended upon the will of others. But now that his hands were no longer tied, he could act freely. The choice of the pope had been almost entirely removed from the sphere of secular influence, and especially from that of the German king. Gregory claimed that the same condition should apply to bishops, and these were the grounds of the dispute about investitures—a dispute which could find no solution, for it was impossible for the Teutonic sovereigns to renounce all interest in a matter of such importance in the workings of their state. Since the time of Clovis the German sovereigns had never ceased to intervene in such matters. But this question soon fell into the background. Gregory’s contention was that the secular sovereigns should be entirely in the power of the head of the Church, and that he, should be able to advance them or dispossess them at will, according to the estimate which he formed of their conduct. A terrible struggle arose between these obviously exorbitant demands and the resistance which they provoked. Its details cannot be described in this place (see Investitures); we need only say that this ill-fated quarrel was not calculated to advance the reform movement, but rather to impede it, and, further, that it ended in failure. Gregory died far away from Rome, upon which he had brought incalculable evils; and not only Rome, but the papacy itself had to pay the penalty for the want of moderation of the pope. Great indeed was the difference between the state in which he received it and that in which he left it. We must not, however, let this mislead us. This struggle between spiritual and secular powers, owing to the tremendous sensation which it created throughout Christendom, showed the nations that at the head of the Church there was a great force for justice, always able to combat iniquity and oppression, and sometimes to defeat them, however powerful the evil and the tyrants might seem. The scene at Canossa, which had at the moment a merely relative importance, remained in the memories of men as a symbol which was hateful or comforting, according to the point of view from which it was considered. As to Gregory’s political pretensions, zealous theorists were quick to transform them into legal principles; and though his immediate successors, somewhat deafened by the disturbance which they had aroused, seem to have neglected them at first, they were handed on to more distant heirs and reappeared in future struggles.
Gregory himself, in his last moments, seems to have felt that it was impossible to maintain them, for Didier, abbot of Monte-Cassino (Victor III., 1086–1087), whom he nominated as his successor, was well known for his moderation. It was no longer a question of continuing the policy of Gregory VII., but of, saving the work of Hildebrand. (L. D.*)
II.—Period from 1087 to 1305.
Gregory VII. had clearly revealed to the world the broad lines of the religious and political programme of the medieval papacy, and had begun to put it into execution. To reform the Church in every grade and purge the priesthood in order to shield it from feudal influences and from the domination of lay sovereign ties; toThe Work of Gregory VII. convert the Church thus regenerated, spiritualized, and detached from the world, into an organism which would be submissive to the absolute authority of the papal see, and to concentrate at Rome all its energies and jurisdictions; to establish the supremacy of the Roman see over all the Christian Churches, and win over to the Roman Church the Churches of the Byzantine Empire, Africa and Asia; to establish the temporal domain of St Peter, not only by taking possession of Rome and Italy, but also by placing all the crowns of Europe under the supreme sovereignty of the popes, or even in direct vassalage to them; and, finally, to maintain unity of faith in Christendom and defend it against the attacks of unbelievers, Mussulmans, heretics and pagans—these were the main features of his scheme. The task, however, was so gigantic that after 150 years of strenuous effort, at the period which may be considered as the apogee of its power, that is, in the first half of the 13th century, the papacy had attained only incomplete results. At several points the work remained unfinished, for decadence followed close upon the moment of extreme greatness. It is more particularly in the part of this programme that relates to the internal policy of the papacy, to the subjection of the Church to the Curia, and to the intensive concentration of the ecclesiastical forces in the hands of the leader of Christendom, that Gregory went farthest in the execution of his plan and approached nearest the goal. For the rest, so formidable were the external obstacles that, without theoretically renouncing his claims, he was unable to realize them in practice in a manner satisfactory to himself.
In order to give a clear idea of the vicissitudes through which the papal institution passed between the years 1087 and 1305 and to show the measure of its success or failure at different stages in its course, it is convenient to divide this section into four periods.
1. Period from Urban II. to Callixtus II. (1087–1124).—Gregory
VII.’s immediate successors accomplished the most
pressing work by liberating the Church from feudal
subjection, either by force or by diplomacy. This
was, indeed, the indispensable condition of its internal
and external progress. The great figure of this period isUrban II., 1088–1099.
unquestionably the French Cluniac Urban II., who led the
Hildebrandine reformation with more vehemence than Gregory
himself and was the originator of the crusades. Never throughout
the middle ages was pope more energetic, impetuous or
uncompromising. His inflexible will informed the movement
directed against the enemy within, against the simoniacal prelate
and the princely usurper of the rights of the Church, and prescribed
the movement against the enemy without, against the
infidel who held the Holy Sepulchre. Urban set his hand to
reforms from which his predecessor Gregory had recoiled. He
simultaneously excommunicated several sovereigns and mercilessly
persecuted the archbishops and bishops who were hostile
to reform. He took no pains to temper the zeal of his legates,
but incited them to the struggle, and, not content with prohibiting
lay investiture and simony, expressly forbade prelates
and even priests to pay homage to the civil power. DistrustingReform of
the Church.
the secular clergy, who were wholly sunk in the
world, he looked to the regular clergy for support,
and thus led the papacy into that course which it
continued to pursue after his death. Henceforth the monk
was to be the docile instrument of the wishes of Rome, to be
