Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/877

 GREGORY

791

GREGORY

Grande Grcce. I, 341 sqq.; Schldmberger, L' Epopee Byzantine, II; Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Earlu Middle Ages, IV.

Horace K. Mann.

Gregory VI, Pope (John Gratian), date of birth unknown; elected 1 May, 1045; abdicated at Sutri, 20 Dec, 1046 ; d. probably at Cologne, in the beginning of 1048. In 104.5 the youthful libertine Benedict IX occupied the chair of Peter. Anxious, in order, so it is said, tliat he might marry, to vacate a position into which, though wholly unfit, he had been thrust by his family, he consulted his godfather, John Gratian, the Archpriest of St. John "ail portam Latinam", a man of great reputation for uprightness of character, as to whether he could resign the s\ipreme pontificate. When he w-as convinced that he might do so, he offered to give up the papacy into the hands of his god- father for a large sum of money. Desirous of ridding the See of Rome of such an unworthy pontiff, John tiratian in all good faith and simplicitj^ paitl him the money and was recognized as pope in his stead. Un- fortunately the accession of Gratian, who took the name of Gregory VI, though it was hailed with joy even by such a strict upholder of the right as St. Peter Damian, did not bring peace to the Church. When Benedict left the city after selling the papacy, there was already another aspirant to the See of Peter in the field. John, Bisliop of Saliina, had been saluted as Pope Sylvester III by that faction of the nobility which had driven lienedict IX from Rome in 1044, and had then installed him in his stead. Though the expelled pontilf (Benedict IX) soon returned, and forced John to retire to his See of Sabina, that pretender never gave up his claims, and through his party contrived apparently to keep some hold on a portion of Rome. Benetlict, also unable, it seems, to obtain the bride on whom he had set his heart, soon repented of his resignation, again claimed the papacy, and in his turn is thought to have succeeded in ac- quiring dominion over a part of the city.

With an empty exchequer and a clergy that had largely lost the savour of righteousness, Gregory was confronted by an almost hopeless task. Nevertheless, with the aid of his "capellanus" or chaplain, Hilde- brand, destined to be the great Pope Gregory VII, he essayed to bring about civil and religious order. He strove to effect the latter byletters and by councils, and the former by force of arms. But the factions of the antipopes were too strong to be put down by him, and the confusion only increased. Convinced that nothing would meet the case but German intervention, a num- ber of influential clergy and laity separated them- selves from communion with Gregory or either of the two would-be popes and implored the warlike King Henry III to cross che .41ps and restore order. Noth- ing loath, Henry descended into Italy in the autumn of 1046. Strong in the conviction of his innocence, Gregory went north to meet him. He was received by the king with all the honour due to a pope, and in accordance with the royal request, summoned a coun- cil to meet at Sutri. Of the antipopes, Sylvester alone presented himself at the synod, which was opened 20 l)ec., 1046. Both his claim to the papacy and that of Benedict were soon disposed of. Deprived of all clerical rank and considered a usurper from the begin- ning, Sylvester was condemned to be confined in a monastery for tlie rest of his life. Benedict's case also presented no difficulty. He had now no claim to the papacy, as he had voluntarily resigned it. But it was different with Gregorj'. However, when the bishops of the sjTiod had convinced him that the act by which he had become supreme pontiff was in itself simon- iacal, and had called upon him to resign, Gregory, seeing that little choice was left him, of his own ac- cord laid down his office. A German, Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg (Clement II), was then elected to re- place him. Accompanied by Hildebrand, Gregorj'

was taken by Henry to Germany (May, 1047), where he soon died.

Liber Pontitlcalis, ed. Duchesne, II, 270 sqq. ; a few Bulls of Gregory in P. L., CXLII; Desiderius, uialogi in P. L., CXlLlX; BoNizo, Ad amicum: Glaber, Historia; Hermannub Contractus and other chroniclers and annalists. See Mitt- ler, De schismate in eccles, Rom. sub Bened. IX (1835): Jafek, De Greg. VI abdicalione in his Bibliolheca rer. Germ. (1865), II, 594-600; Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London and St. Louis, 1909), V.

Horace K. Mann.

Gregory VI, Antipope. — On the death of Sergius IV in June, 1012, "a certain Gregory", opposed the election of Benedict VIII, and got himself made pope, seemingly by a small faction. Promptly expelled from Rome, he made his way to Germany, and craved the support of King Henry II (25 Dec, 1012). That monarch, however, after promising him that his case should be carefully examined in accordance with canon law ami Roman custom, took away from him the papal insignia which he was wearing, and bade him cease to act as pope in the meanwhile. After this, history knows the " certain CJregory " no more.

Chronicle of Thiclmar, IV. Ixi, in P. L.. CXXXIX.

Horace K. Mann.

Gregory VII (Hildebrand), Saint, Pope, one of the greatest of the Roman pontiffs and one of the most remarkable men of all times; b. between the years 1020 and 1025, at Soana, or Ravacum, in Tus- cany; d. 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 connexion of his family, though at a later time, it probabh' also sug- gested the fabled descent from the noble family of the Aldobrandini. That he was of humble origin — nr 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 of Ciuny pervaded this Roman cloister, and it is not unlikely that here the youthful Hildebrand first imbibed those lofty princi- ples of Church reform of which he was afterwards to become the most fearless exponent. Early in hfe 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 in minor orders he entered the service of John Gratian, Arch- priest of San Giovanni by the Latin Gate, and on Gratian's elevation to the papacy as Gregory VI, be- came his chaplain. In 104(5 he followed his papal patron across 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.

.\t Besanron, in January, 1049. he met Bruno, Bishop of Toul, the pontiff-elect recently chosen at Worms imder the title of l>eo 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-sub- dcacon. shortly after Leo's accession, and appointed administrator of the Patrimony of St. Peter, Hilde- brand at once gave evidence of that extraordinary faculty for administration which later characterized his government of the Church I'niversal. I'nder his energetic and capable direction the property of the Church, which latterly had been diverted into the