Gregory VII (Medieval Studies)

Introduction

Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) was one of the most important and controversial popes of the Middle Ages. His elevation to the papacy came after a long and influential career in the papal court, and he may well have become pope earlier had he wished. So convinced have historians been of his importance that the term “Gregorian Reform” served for a century to describe the period in which Gregory lived. More recently, Gregory’s impact has been reassessed and most historians now refer to the “Reform Papacy,” but there is no doubt that he was a major figure both before and after his election to the papacy. As Archdeacon Hildebrand, he directed the affairs of the Roman Church at a crucial period of realignment, as a small group of international reformers removed the papacy from the grip of local aristocratic families, first in collaboration with the Emperor Henry III and later under the protection of the Norman princes who were carving out a territory for themselves in southern Italy. In pursuit of a purified Church, the reformers supported a group of radical protestors, the Patarenes, who sought to impose clerical celibacy on the clergy of Milan. The struggle for influence in Milan led to conflict between the newly elected Gregory and the young emperor Henry IV. The point at issue was investiture, that is, whether the emperor had the right to invest the archbishop of Milan (or any other bishop) with his office, or whether the election of a bishop by the local clergy should be confirmed by the pope. This iconic struggle saw Gregory excommunicate Henry IV and release his subjects from their oaths to him in 1076 only to absolve him at Canossa in 1077 and, after the outbreak of a civil war in Germany, to depose him again in 1080. In the meantime, Henry IV had convened a synod of German bishops that denounced Gregory as “Hildebrand, false monk” and called on him to abdicate and another that deposed him and elected a new pope. By 1084, Gregory had to be rescued from Rome by his Norman allies, leaving the city in the hands of the emperor and his antipope, to whom many of the cardinals defected. Gregory died in exile in 1085, apparently having failed in his mission to promote reform. However, Gregory’s successors managed to achieve much of his program, and his pontificate has been seen as the crucial preparation for the successful establishment of papal primacy over the Western Church. Note: Two resources are particularly useful for students of the papacy in general and Gregory VII in particular. The first is the series of bibliographies, arranged by theme and by pope, published annually in the Archivum Historiae Pontificiae. The second is the International Medieval Bibliography, published by Brepols and available electronically by institutional and individual subscription.

Introductory Works

The importance of Gregory VII has long been recognized. The quarrel between empire and papacy was the first such dispute since antiquity, and it resulted in a completely unprecedented war of words between the protagonists and their supporters. Its effects are still felt, not least in the idea that the separation of Church and State is desirable. Gregory VII continues to provoke lively debate, partly from a confessional standpoint, with Catholics tending to admire him and Protestants to denigrate him, or from a nationalistic perspective, with Germans seeing him as the destroyer of their nation and Italians regarding him as a hero of Italian autonomy. Even here, however, some Germans have not been able to restrain their admiration for Gregory, even while they deplore the effects of his policies; like Peter Damian, they see the pope as a “holy Satan.” A good starting point is the assessment of Capitani 2000, in which the main themes of the pontificate are conveniently set out and analyzed and readers are directed to an extensive bibliography. Pacaut 2002 provides an overview of Gregory’s age rather than a minute description of his pontificate. A succinct and very useful introduction to the pontificate is given in Cowdrey 1991, which stresses how unusual Gregory was in his approach and methods. Tellenbach 1991 is a fine volume that fundamentally altered the way the reform movement was viewed; it shows that rather than popes and bishops imposing reform from above, they were in fact responding, often hesitantly, to powerful forces in support of reform from the wider society in which they lived. Ullmann 2003 provides an overview of Gregory’s pontificate from what could be termed the “traditional” viewpoint, which saw Gregory as the pioneer of the vigorous assertion of papal primacy over the Church, sometimes rather incongruously referred to as “the papal monarchy.” Morris 1989 gives a well-judged assessment of Gregory, carefully explaining the wider reform movement and then presenting the pontificate largely in terms of the deterioration of relations with the Empire. Blumenthal 2004 gives a recent and up-to-date overview of the pontificate. The controversy over Gregory VII is concerned primarily with his relations with Germany, and Weinfurter 1999 provides a valuable survey of the Romano-German Empire.

Blumenthal, Uta-Renate. “The Papacy, 1024–1122.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 4, Part 2, c. 1024–c. 1198. Edited by David Luscombe and Jonathan Riley-Smith, 8–37. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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An up-to-date summary of the development of the papacy in this crucial period and a very good overview of the reform movement from the point of view both of the protagonists and of the broader body of institutions that made up the Western Church. Available online by subscription.
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Capitani, Ovidio. “Gregorio VII.” In Enciclopedia dei papi. Vol. 2, Niccolò I, Santo-Sisto IV. Edited by Manlio Simonetti, Girolamo Arnaldi, Mario Caravale, and Giuseppe Martina, 188–212. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 2000.
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A comprehensive summary of the pontificate and its main developments from a leading scholar in the field.
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Cowdrey, H. E. J. “Pope Gregory VII.” Medieval History 1.1 (1991): 23–38.
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Cowdrey is a leading expert on Gregory VII and demonstrates this expertise with a brief yet deft character sketch of the pope intended as an introduction for students. Cowdrey corrects a number of older misconceptions about Gregory, stressing that he was an appropriate age for the offices he held, and emphasizes the importance of Rome to Gregory and his deep personal identification with St. Peter.
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Morris, Colin. “Discord of Empire and Papacy.” In The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250. By Colin Morris, 109–133. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
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Morris draws on his wide knowledge of the changing attitudes of European scholars to Gregory VII and offers a convincing assessment of the significance of the pontificate. For an excellent introduction to the pontificate, also see “Papal Reform 1046–1073” (pp. 79–108).
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Pacaut, Marcel. “Gregory VII.” In The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. Edited by Philippe Levillain, 648–651. London: Routledge, 2002.
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A useful and up-to-date overview of the pontificate, particularly good at explaining the wider context and providing a basic bibliography. While Pacaut sets out a very useful summary of the reform movement, the author’s conclusions now appear rather dated, perhaps because of his insistence on the dichotomy of Church and State.
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Tellenbach, Gerd. Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest. Translated by R. F. Bennett. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
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English translation of Libertas: Kirche und Weltordnung im Zeitalter des Investiturstreites (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1936). The classic introduction to the age of reform, identifying the defining preoccupation of the age as the “freedom of the Church,” which resulted in a revolution as a distinction emerged between clergy and laity, sacred and secular.
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Ullmann, Walter. “The Gregorian Age.” In A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. 2d ed. By Walter Ullman, 92–111. London: Routledge, 2003.
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Ullmann’s assessment of Gregory in this very influential work is perhaps a little dated, but it remains important because it sets the pontificate into the context of an ideological battle between priesthood and kingship, traditionally described as “Church” and “State.” Ullmann’s work remains useful and explains the terms in which Gregory’s pontificate was viewed for much of the 20th century.
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Weinfurter, Stefan. The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Translated by Barbara Bowlus. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
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An assessment of the Romano-German Empire at a time of key changes. The controversy over Gregory VII and the fascination that he has held for German historians can be appreciated with the help of this volume, which shows that reform affected Germany at a crucial time in its development. A similar introduction is provided by Horst Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, c. 1050–1200, translated by Timothy Reuter (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
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Biographies

Surprisingly, Gregory VII has not attracted many biographers. Morghen 1974 is more of an attempt to set Gregory into the context of the time than a biography proper. Yet there has been no shortage of interest in Gregory, and some learned articles on the pope, such as Miccoli 1966, could indeed have been published as monographs. It is perhaps the sheer volume of material that has put off prospective biographers. Nevertheless, Cowdrey 1998, a detailed and nuanced biography with an intimate knowledge of Gregory’s writings, is driven by the author’s desire to present the pope as a more spiritual person and provides the fullest picture of the pope that is likely to be produced. Tellenbach 1993 is also the fruit of a lifetime of study on the pope and his significance and can stand alone as a full and balanced portrait. Haller 1923, a study of both Gregory VII and Innocent III, is an attempt to assess the legacy of Gregory VII in a somewhat negative light as the introduction of violence in support of the power of the Church; to modern eyes this appears rather unconvincing. However, Haller was a very influential scholar of the papacy, especially representative of the German view that Gregory VII destroyed the Romano-German empire and prevented the emergence of a unified German nation. A more recent biography, Blumenthal 2001, presents a thorough review of the career and pontificate of Hildebrand from the point of view of the surviving documentation.

Blumenthal, Uta-Renate. Gregor VII. Papst Zwischen Canossa und Kirchenreform. Darmstadt: WBG, 2001.
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A dense biography, based on the close investigation of original sources, that argues that interpretations that have previously convinced scholars that Hildebrand was a monk have been misinterpreted and that they can equally mark him out as a canon regular. A thorough overview of the life of Gregory VII from this new perspective, which is, even if contentious, an intriguing idea.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This splendid biography is highly recommended to specialists and nonspecialists alike. Cowdrey worked on Gregory VII for his entire academic career and was the translator and editor of the pope’s correspondence, and here every judgment is justified with a citation from sources. Shows Gregory as a rounded character and personality and a man of deep spiritual convictions, rather than an opportunist.
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Haller, Johannes. “Gregor VII. und Innocenz III.” In Meister der Politik. 2d ed. Edited by E. Marcks and K. A. von Müller. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1923.
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This comparison of Gregory and Innocent III, widely regarded, especially in Haller’s time, as the greatest pope of the Middle Ages, is inevitably unconvincing to a generation that knows more about both popes than Haller’s, but it exemplifies the negative German view of the pontificate.
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Miccoli, Giovanni. “Gregorio VII, Papa, Santo.” In Bibliotheca sanctorum. Vol.7. Edited by Filippo Caraffa, col. 294–379. Rome: Cittá Nuova, 1966.
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A large article that could stand as a monograph in its own right. As might be expected for an entry in the Library of the Saints, Miccoli dwells on the heroic virtues of Gregory VII, but this is a well-informed and competent study, which will repay careful reading.
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Morghen, Rafaello. Gregorio VII e la riforma della chiesa nel secolo XI. Palermo, Italy: Palumbo, 1974.
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A competent biography of Gregory VII, but more of a survey of the scope of reform in the 11th century than an attempt to uncover the personality of the pope.
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Tellenbach, Gerd. “Gregory VII (1073–1085).” In The Church in Western Europe from the Tenth to the Early Twelfth Century. Translated by Timothy Reuter, 185–252. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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Tellenbach reviews the pontificate and concludes that it had lost much of its vigor by 1077, seeing the later years as a decline with the defection even of Gregory’s supporters in Rome leaving him to die in exile still fixated on the origin and validity of papal authority.
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The Register of Pope Gregory VII and the Epistolae Vagantes

The register of Pope Gregory VII has survived. It is the only register to have survived in its original form between those of Gregory the Great (590–604) and Innocent III (1198–1216). Thus, it is of immense interest, but it presents numerous problems of interpretation. The text of the register was edited by Erich L. E. Caspar (Caspar 1920–1923), and he showed the potential of the letters as a source that could inform scholars about Gregory and his ideas in Caspar 1924. Murray 1966 also demonstrates the scope of the letters but has revised expectations of the register. Although not all letters were registered (or, indeed, all registered letters necessarily sent), it is likely that what remains represents a substantial part of the documentation of the pontificate. A detailed introduction to the letters is given by Caspar 1920–1923, but a more accessible and very useful discussion is given in the introduction to Cowdrey 2002, a translation of the letters. A collection of Gregory’s letters that were not registered is edited and translated by Cowdrey 1972, along with a very informative introduction. Cowdrey’s translation of both register and Epistolae Vagantes (letters sent to various places) is based on deep learning and is almost faultless, but some teachers prefer the more colloquial translations of Gregory’s letters given by Emerton 1990. Gregory’s letters have proved to be a rich mine of information for scholars, and a number of informative articles have been produced investigating one particular phrase or aspect of Gregory’s thought. Thus, Stickler 1948 investigates the symbolism of the “sword”; Zerbi 1948, the meaning of “fidelitas”; and Ladner 1956 explores Gregory’s concept of reform enlightened by two unpublished letters.

Caspar, Erich L. E. Das Register Gregors VII. 2 vols. Berlin: Weidmann, 1920–1923.
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The definitive Latin text of Gregory’s letters that were entered into his official register. Discoveries and revisions since publication can be found in the introductions to Cowdrey 1972 and Cowdrey 2002. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available online.
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Caspar, Eric L. E. “Gregor VII in Seinen Briefen.” Historisches Zeitschrift 130 (1924): 1–30.
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The editor of Gregory’s register here gives a masterly overview of the pope’s character and ambitions based on his deep knowledge of his letters; an excellent overview of a complex character. Caspar regarded Gregory, for both good and ill, as the greatest of the popes.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J., ed. and trans. The Epistolae Vagantes of Pope Gregory VII. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972.
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Cowdrey presents in this volume the sixty-five extant letters of Gregory VII that were not entered into the pope’s register. Although most of these letters have been published elsewhere, Cowdrey’s revised versions are the most complete to date and are provided here with their Latin original facing an English translation, along with a useful and succinct introduction. Here students can meet Gregory face to face.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J., ed. and trans. The Register of Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085: An English Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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Cowdrey translates all of the letters in Gregory’s register and provides an excellent introduction and notes. No better tool exists for understanding Gregory’s thought than to work through his letters, arranged chronologically as they are, while bearing in mind the political problems that surrounded them. Something of the very engaging personality of Gregory, attested to by contemporaries, also emerges from the letters.
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Emerton, Ephraim, trans. The Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
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Originally published in 1932. Emerton’s illustrative selection of Gregory’s letters has found favor particularly with American students and teachers, attracted by the immediacy of the translation and its accessibility to undergraduates.
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Ladner, Gerhardt B. “Two Gregorian Letters: On the Sources and Nature of Gregory VII’s Reform Ideology.” Studi Gregoriani 5 (1956): 221–242.
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Ladner asserts that Gregory VII was staunchly traditional and would have rejected any inference that his idea of reform was revolutionary. Rather, the terms he used when speaking of reform, analyzed here with representative examples, from both Gregory and other reformers, emphasize that he was restoring earlier traditions and removing evil customs.
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Murray, Alexander. “Pope Gregory VII and His Letters.” Traditio 22 (1966): 149–202.
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A close investigation of Gregory’s extant register, which comes to the startling conclusion that his curia produced an average of only two letters per week. Murray argues convincingly that the papal bureaucracy was not adequate to deal with the growing authority of the papacy and that scholars have been misled by their anachronistic assumptions of the capacity of the curia.
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Stickler, Alfonso M. “Il ‘gladius’ nel registro di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 3 (1948): 89–103.
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The allegory of the “two swords,” representing the power of the Church and of the State, was often cited in Gregory’s letters. Stickler investigates the pope’s various references to the sword and argues that he used it only as a spiritual metaphor, challenging Arquillière 1947 (“Origines de la théorie des deux glaives,” Studi Gregoriani, 1:501–521), who asserted that Gregory had shaped this idea to pursue political power for the papacy.
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Zerbi, Piero. “Il termine ‘fidelitas’ nelle lettere di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 3 (1948): 129–148.
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Zerbi argues that Gregory sought to bind rulers to him in the feudal sense of fidelity, but that his motives were religious and not political. When he sought their military help it was to combat schism in the Church or to aid Christians in the Holy Land.
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The Dictatus Papae

The Dictatus Papae is an unusual source. Inserted between two letters of March 1075 in Gregory’s Register (see Caspar 1920–1923, cited under Register of Pope Gregory VII and the Epistolae Vagantes), a list of twenty-seven sentences sets out tersely the prerogatives of the pope and his agents. Some of the sentences deal with the authority of the pope, for example, DP 8, “That he [the pope] alone can use imperial insignia,” and DP 23, “That the Roman pontiff, if he shall have been canonically instituted, is indubitably made holy by the merits of blessed Peter. . . .” Some are concerned with the Roman Church and its agents, such as DP 4, “That his legate has precedence over all bishops in a council, even if he be of a lower grade of orders, and he can give sentence of deposition against them,” while some seem to be directed against other bishops, such as DP 21, “That the greater cases of whatever church should be referred to it [the Roman Church].” Some even seem to be directed against the Orthodox churches that were no longer in communion with Rome, such as DP 26, “That anyone is not accounted a catholic who is not in concord with the Roman Church.” The most controversial propositions were perhaps those that claimed that the pope could interfere in the business of kingdoms, such as DP 12, “That he is permitted to depose emperors,” and DP 27, “That he can absolve subjects from fealty to the wicked.” For Ullmann 1970 the Dictatus Papae proved that the sacred power of the priesthood was superior to the earthly power of secular rulers and would always seek to impose its authority over them. Borino 1944 claims that the document represented a series of headings for a compendium of legal texts. Cowdrey 1998 cites a letter of 1059 to Peter Damian in which Hildebrand himself called for such a compilation to assist papal legates. Morghen 1962 points out that some of the claims made never had any legal validity, suggesting that the statements were aspirations that Gregory aimed to present to his Lenten synod, whose approval would give them validity. Fuhrmann 1977 argues that the ambitious political clauses were invented and supplied with a spurious provenance in the early Church. Mordek 1972 provides a critical text and a new dating (to justify the author’s claim that they were also dictated by Gregory VII) for a similar set of precepts that has survived in a manuscript in Avranches and has hence been known as the “Dictatus of Avranches.” Matteis 1978 seeks to demonstrate that the Dictatus of Avranches can be used to show a softening of attitude of the pope as the crisis with the empire deepened. The final word, however, is left to Cowdrey 1998, who emphasizes again that only a very small number of people would ever have been aware of the Dictatus Papae and that historians should thus be cautious when making claims based on them.

Borino, G. B. “Un ipotesi sul ‘Dictatus Papae’ di Gregorio VII.” Archivio della Reale Società Romana di Storia Patria 67 (1944): 237–252.
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In this influential article, Borino revives the idea that Dictatus Papae were headings for a series of canons that would give legal validity to the powers claimed by Gregory VII for his office. This idea has become the most widely accepted explanation of the Dictatus Papae.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “The Dictatus Papae.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 502–507. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Cowdrey reviews the Dictatus Papae from the perspective of the author’s immense learning; emphasizing that they were not “published” and would have been seen by few people, he concludes that they were a combination of an aide-mémoire and an index of canonical precepts that Gregory would have liked to have imposed on the German bishops in 1075.
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Fuhrmann, Horst. “Quod Catholicus non Habeatur, qui Non Concordat Romanae Ecclesiae. Radnotizen zum Dictatus Papae.” In Festschrift für Helmut Beumann zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Kurt-Ulrich Jäschke and Reinhard Wenskus, 263–287. Sigmaringen, West Germany: Thorbecke, 1977.
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The author examines the Dictatus Papae in light of canonical tradition and shows that DP 26, cited in the title, was invented by the reformers but attributed to St. Ambrose. This discovery is taken as proof of the author’s thesis that the Dictatus Papae were not traditional texts but were invented to suit the political ambitions of the Roman circle of reformers around Gregory VII.
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Matteis, Maria C. de. “La riconciliazione di Canossa: Tra ‘Dictatus Papae’ e ‘Auctoritates Apostolicae Sedis.’” Studi Medievali III 19 (1978): 681–699.
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Matteis summarizes recent debate on the Dictatus Papae and the Dictatus of Avranches. The author presents her own theory, which is impossible to verify, that both documents represent Gregory’s opinions and that the latter represents a softening of his attitude toward Henry IV.
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Mordek, Hubert. “Proprie Auctoritates Apostolice Sedis: Ein Zweiter Dictatus Papae Gregors VII?” Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 28 (1972): 105–125.
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Mordek provides a scholarly text of the Proprie Auctoritates and suggests a new dating to prove that they were, like the Dictatus Papae, composed by Gregory VII himself.
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Morghen, Raffaelo. “Ricerche sulla formazione del registro di Gregorio VII.” Bolletino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano e dell’Archivio Muratoriano 73 (1962): 1–40.
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Morghen challenges Borino 1944, which argues that the Dictatus Papae were the titles of a series of canons legitimizing papal power, speculating instead that they represented aspirations of the pope, who perhaps wished to have them confirmed in his customary Lenten synod held at Rome. Morghen notes that some of the claims made had no traditional legal validity at all and hence could not represent a body of law already in existence.
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Ullmann, Walter. “Gregory VII.” In The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages: A Study in the Ideological Relation of Clerical to Lay Power. 3d ed. By Walter Ullmann, 262–309. London: Methuen, 1970.
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Walter Ullmann’s abiding interest was the ideological relationship between clerical and lay power. He saw the Dictatus Papae as the logical conclusion of the development of the Church since the 4th century and here set out a clear and persuasive analysis of the scope and meaning of the claims made by the pope. These controversial and contested views cannot be ignored.
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Contemporary Sources

Gregory VII was a controversial pope. Even before his election to the papacy he was a figure of importance, and there was no shortage of people who disliked and mistrusted him. The quarrel with the empire, which had begun with the conflicting interests of pope and emperor in Milan during the pontificate of Alexander II (elected pope in 1061; d. 1073) was to produce the first propaganda war of the Middle Ages, analyzed in the excellent book Robinson 1978 and summarized in Leyser 1965. The Latin texts of many of the polemical treatises that ensued have been published in the Libelli de Lite (see Gesellschaft für Ältere Deutsche Geschichtskunde 1891–1897), but there are several useful compendia of translated texts that are invaluable for students. Tierney 1964 has long been considered a classic exposition of the issues at stake, but it should be supplemented by Miller 2005, which provides a useful introduction explaining how historians’ approaches to the period have changed. A number of longer sources, representing both supporters and opponents of the reformers, are translated and superbly introduced in Robinson 2004, while the personality of Henry IV can be appreciated in a contemporary life and extracts from his letters translated by Theodor Mommsen and Karl F. Morrison (Benson 2000). Further perspective on the ideas circulating in the papal curia during the 1050s and 1060s can be found in the letters of Peter Damian (Damian 1989–1999), while the significance and political sensitivity of Gregory’s ideas even in distant lands can be seen in Van Wijnendaele 2007.

Benson, Robert L., ed. Imperial Lives and Letters of the Eleventh Century. Translated by Theodor Mommsen and Karl F. Morrison. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
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Translations of The Deeds of Conrad II by Wipo, objecting to Conrad’s abuse of the imperial church without questioning the system that allowed him to exploit it. Also an anonymous biography of Henry IV, an imperial vindication of his actions with respect to Gregory VII, and many pertinent letters are included. Morrison’s informative introduction reflects his conviction of the revolutionary nature of the reformers. Originally published in 1962.
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Damian, Peter. The Letters of Peter Damian. 4 vols. Edited and translated by Owen J. Blum. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1989–1999.
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Peter Damian famously described Hildebrand as a “holy Satan” and his place at the center of reform endeavors in the 1050s is clearly illustrated in these volumes, which also provide an appreciation of the wider preoccupations of the reformers.
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Gesellschaft für Ältere Deutsche Geschichtskunde. Libelli de Lite Imperatorum et Pontificum Saeculis XI et XII Conscripta. Edited by E. Dümmler. 3 vols. Hanover, Germany: Hahn, 1891–1897.
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The Latin texts of a large number of treatises written during the controversy that began with the quarrel between Gregory VII and Henry IV and that continued well into the 12th century. Full text of Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 is available online.
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Leyser, Karl. “The Polemics of the Papal Revolution.” In Trends in Medieval Political Thought. Edited by Beryl Smalley, 42–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
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Leyser analyzes the first great war of propaganda in western Europe. In response to the claims of the reformers, rudimentary political theories of the secular state and its autonomy began to appear, perhaps only in embryo, but they would eventually come to challenge the Church, which, for the moment, had developed the more sophisticated arguments.
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Miller, Maureen C. Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2005.
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A wide-ranging source book intended to complement Tierney 1964, covering cultural as well as political factors. Miller gives a useful introduction explaining that modern historians prefer to analyze the conflict in terms of “power and the holy,” rather than Church and State, which now appears rather dated. Key ideas that are no longer familiar to undergraduates are explained.
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Robinson, Ian S. Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1978.
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Robinson reviews and analyzes a large number of texts, showing how the arguments of the period were interpreted by contemporaries, torn between loyalty and rebellion, and the actions, often perilous, that they took as a result. Also useful in stressing that many of the texts reflecting the ongoing struggle were not widely circulated, although full of interest.
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Robinson, Ian S., ed. The Papal Reform of the Eleventh Century: Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII. Translated by Ian S. Robinson. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2004.
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Robinson prefaces these substantial translations with probably the best brief introduction to the reform period. On the whole the texts are favorable to the reform popes, but an extract from Benzo of Alba, an implacable opponent of Gregory VII, is included for balance. An extract from Bruno of Segni is also included to illustrate the local memory of Pope Leo IX.
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Tierney, Brian. The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964.
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A classic text for undergraduates, combining introductory essays and translated original sources to show how the conflict between Church and State developed from the late Roman Empire and persisted until the early 14th century. For the Investiture Contest, the author provides a thought-provoking introduction and then illustrates his arguments with key texts from prominent reformers, concluding with the Concordat of Worms of 1122.
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Van Wijnendaele, Jacques. “Une curieuse vie de saint: La vie de Grégoire VII de Paul de Bernried.” Révue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 85.3–4 (2007): 639–662.
DOI: 10.3406/rbph.2007.5097Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of the Life of Gregory VII and the context in which it was compiled by Paul of Bernried. An interesting discussion, showing the influence of Gregory and the later perceptions of his significance in a politically sensitive area of the empire.
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Family and Education

After his death, Gregory was interred in a tomb in the cathedral at Salerno. His skeleton remains in that tomb and was inspected and analyzed in preparation for the 9th centenary of his death. The results of the analysis in Fornaciari and Mallegni 1989 show that he was a healthy and strong individual, with Mediterranean characteristics, confirming what would have been suspected from his character as it emerges from the written sources. Cowdrey 1998 is the fullest and most up-to-date biography of Gregory VII, and it has a brief but informative section on the pope’s early life and education. Holtzmann 1947 suggests that Gregory was probably professed as a monk in Rome, perhaps at St. Mary on the Aventine, a monastery influenced by the Cluniac tradition, where his uncle was abbot. He may have been taught by Lawrence of Amalfi, a southern Italian monk learned in Latin and Greek and also by John Gratian, the future Pope Gregory VI. The sources provide ample references to Gregory having been a monk and to his having been professed at Cluny, but such links with the great Burgundian house have proved to be unsustainable, just as Borino 1958 dismisses ideas that Gregory was of peasant stock. Gregory may well have visited and stayed at Cluny (most papal diplomats did, as it was on the crossroads of northern and southern Europe), but Borino 1946, Schmitt 1956, and Schieffer 2005 show that he could not have been professed there. Hildebrand was probably a chaplain of Pope Gregory VI, who was deposed by the Emperor Henry III at the Synod of Sutri in 1046. He went with the pope into exile in Germany and Hoffmann 1963 speculates that the shock of this deposition led to his radicalization among the reform protagonists of the Rhineland, whose brand of reform emphasized canon law as the mechanism by which reform could be furthered within both church and society.

Borino, Giovanni B. “Quando e dove si fece Monaco Ildebrando.” In Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati. Vol. 5, Storia Ecclesiastica, Diritto. Edited by Giovanni Mercati, 218–262. Vatican City: Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, 1946.
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Hildebrand was certainly a monk, but the tradition linking him to a profession at Cluny is suspect: Gregory did not mention any profession at Cluny in his letters to Abbot Hugh and he does not appear in the Cluny necrologies, although he may well have stayed in the monastery during his career.
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Borino, Giovanni B. “La lettera di Walone Abate di S. Arnolfo di Metz e di S. Remigio di Reims a Gregorio VII (1073).” La Bibliofilia 60 (1958): 28–33.
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On his election as pope, Abbot Walo congratulated Gregory and referred to him as virum de plebe. However, rather than an accurate reading of Gregory’s origins, this was probably meant as a comparison with the biblical King David.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “The Young Hildebrand.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By H. E. J. Cowdrey, 27–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.003.0002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Cowdrey sifts what little evidence there is for Gregory’s early life, showing his modest but not unrespectable origins, his early study in Rome, his profession as a Benedictine monk, his adherence to Pope Gregory VI, his missions to Germany, and growing influence in the Roman Church.
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Fornaciari, Gino, and Francesco Mallegni. “La ricognizione dei resti scheletrici di S. Gregorio VII: Risultati antropologici, paleopatologici e paleonutrizionali.” Studi Gregoriani 13 (1989): 399–416.
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A fascinating study, replete with photographs, detailing the inspection of the skeletal remains of Gregory VII; he was 163 cm in height, had been well nourished in his youth, was a healthy and solid adult, and probably of Mediterranean, rather than Germanic, descent.
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Hoffmann, Hartmut. “Von Cluny zum Investiturstreit.” Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 45 (1963): 165–209.
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A useful article that traces the exile of the young Hildebrand with Pope Gregory VI, speculating that the shock of the deposition of that pope by the Emperor Henry III led Hildebrand to adopt the ideas of the reformers in the Lower Rhineland, ideas that were especially reliant on the study of canon law.
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Holtzmann, Walther. “Laurentius von Amalfi: Ein Lehrer Hildebrands.” Studi Gregoriani 1 (1947): 207–236.
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A hostile bishop, Benzo of Alba, reported that Gregory had studied in Rome under Lawrence of Amalfi. Holtzmann investigates the claim and details the likely educational milieu in which Gregory was raised.
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Schieffer, R. “War Gregor VII. Mönch?” Historishces Jahrbuch 125 (2005): 351–362.
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A further investigation of the wealth of evidence for the monastic profession of Hildebrand and an analysis of whether, in fact, Gregory had been a monk at all. The references to monasticism are vague and can equally be applied to the adoption of a canonical rule by Hildebrand. Similar arguments are put forward in Blumenthal 2001 (cited under Biographies).
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Schmitt, Franciscus S. “Neue und Alte Hildebrand—Anekdoten aus den ‘Dicta Anselmi.’” Studi Gregoriani 5 (1956): 1–18.
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A survey of some of the reports that caused scholars to think that Gregory had been professed as a monk at Cluny. Ultimately, such stories are unlikely to be true, but it may have suited later Cluniacs to claim that such a profession had taken place.
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The Struggle for Reform

The 11th-century reform movement is generally referred to in preference to the older and less accurate term “Gregorian Reform,” but both terms apply to the same movement. Its origins remain obscure, but its objectives were fairly consistent. A number of new religious corporations, typified by the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, appeared in the 10th century, living a more austere life in conformity with ancient examples and stressing moral purity and autonomy. Perhaps as a reaction to the chaos that followed the collapse of the Carolingian hegemony in western Europe, such communities set great store on freedom from lay control. This shift led to laymen being seen as unworthy of exercising authority over Church property or discipline, which were understood to be sacred, as shown in Tellenbach 1993 (cited under the Minority of Henry IV), Lynch 1992, and Toubert 1973. As the reform impetus developed, especially in the old “middle kingdom” of Lotharingia, it became a movement that sought to ensure the purification of the clergy through the restoration of earlier models of clerical discipline that were enshrined in collections of canons from earlier councils and synods. At this point there was little hostility to kings, who were seen as natural allies of the reformers and who were able through their control of the appointment of bishops to promote reformers to positions of influence. When the Emperor Henry III approached Rome for his imperial coronation in 1046 he discovered that three men were claiming to be pope. At Sutri he deposed all three and appointed one of his own bishops as pope. He was to appoint three further popes before his death in 1056; see Tellenbach 1993 (cited under the Minority of Henry IV) Lynch 1992, and Sennis 2000. The classic exposition of the period is given in the three volumes of Fliche 1924–1937, corrected by the less pious approach of Arquillière 1934, although both concentrate on Gregory VII himself and see reform essentially as something imposed from above. Brooke 1958 provides a succinct exposition of the traditional view of the struggle. A younger generation of historians was unconvinced by this model: Robinson 2004 (cited under Contemporary Sources) and Cowdrey 2004 provide a sure guide to the social and cultural implications of the reform movement, while Cushing 2005 goes further in investigating cultural factors. The fullest and most stimulating treatment is given by Toubert 1973, who demonstrates how reform cannot be separated from developments in society and, indeed, that it can itself alter a society in which it takes hold. A thorough overview of the period and its concerns is provided in Cowdrey 2004.

Arquillière, Henri-Xavier. Saint Grégoire VII: Essai sur sa conception du pouvoir pontifical. Paris: Vrin, 1934.
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Arquillière sought to correct what he saw as the bias in favor of Gregory VII in the works of Fliche 1924–1937. However, although less willing to believe in the sanctity of Gregory VII, he was clearly impressed by his character and presented him as an astute politician, aware of and able to use the enthusiasm for reform that characterized his age.
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Brooke, Christopher N. L. The Investiture Disputes. London: Historical Association, 1958.
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Despite its age, this book is an excellent introduction to the key events of the quarrel between empire and papacy, compiled by an expert in the field and aimed particularly at preparing a class on the subject for undergraduates.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “The Structure of the Church, 1024–1073.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 4, Part 1, 1024–1198. Edited by David Luscombe and Jonathan S. C. Riley-Smith, 229–266. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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Provides a thorough and up-to-date overview of the origins and development of the 11th-century reform movement. Available online by subscription. Also see Ian S. Robinson, “Reform and the Church, 1073–1122” (pp. 268–333), an equally good overview and also available online by subscription.
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Cushing, Kathleen G. Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century: Spirituality and Social Change. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005.
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A thought-provoking study, born of the author’s expertise in the canon law texts of the 11th century, that investigates the societal changes that gave rise to the reform movement. A sure guide to both the political and cultural manifestations of the movement.
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Fliche, Augustin. La réforme Grégorienne. 3 vols. Louvain, Belgium: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1924–1937.
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A huge and impressive survey of the whole reform period, written by a historian with a vast knowledge of the Western Church and its history. Fliche’s work has been seen as idealistic by a more skeptical generation of historians, but the scope of his survey is impressive and his appreciation of Gregory VII, which so irritated German scholars, has to some extent been vindicated recently by Cowdrey.
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Lynch, Joseph H. The Medieval Church. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1992.
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A short but well-written and extremely informative history of the medieval Church. The author begins his explanation of the medieval Church in Late Antiquity; without an appreciation of the history of the early Church, such medieval ideas as the “two swords” are likely to be incomprehensible. Indeed, the reform movement aimed to restore the Church to the pristine purity of Late Antiquity. Also see Attack on Lay Investiture and the Investiture Contest.
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Sennis, Antonio. “Gregorio VI.” In Enciclopedia dei papi. Vol. 2. Edited by Manlio Simonetti, Girolamo Arnaldi, Mario Caravale, and Giuseppe Martina, 148–150. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 2000.
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John Gratian bought the papacy to prevent its degradation. He was deposed and exiled along with his chaplain, Hildebrand, who thus developed the radical ideas and connections, which led to his own election as pope thirty years later, when his assumption of the name Gregory VII indicated that he considered Gregory VI to have been a legitimate pope.
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Toubert, Pierre. Les structures du Latium médiéval: Le Latium méridional et la Sabine du IXe â la fin du XIIe siècle. 2 vols. Rome: Écoles Française de Rome, 1973.
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Toubert’s impressive two-volume work reviews the development in central Italy of new types of settlement, reflecting wide social changes, and champions the idea that reform was not imposed from above but was demanded from below. It was laypeople who began to demand purity and discipline from their priests, and this in turn created a new type of bishop.
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The Minority of Henry IV

Tellenbach 1993 notes the paradox that Henry III had appeared to the early reformers as an ideal emperor, zealous for the good of the Church and a promoter of reformers as bishops, not least in the city of Rome itself. Gregory VII, perhaps surprisingly, always saw Henry III as a model emperor, as Cowdrey 1998 points out. Reuter 1982 notes the extent to which the Salian emperors had always been closely involved in the affairs of the imperial church and gained stability for their empire as a result. However, the death of Henry III in 1056, leaving as his heir his five-year-old son Henry IV, was a blow to the reform party in Rome, which had relied on the emperor for protection and that would face a prolonged period of minority rule, during which little help could be expected. Moreover, as Robinson 1999 demonstrates, any minority would inevitably lead to a diminution of imperial power in Germany and Italy as lesser magnates sought to increase their power at Henry’s expense, and Henry would inevitably seek to reverse any diminution of imperial power once he attained his majority. Cowdrey 1983 thus explains the decision of the reformers in Rome to turn for protection to the Normans of southern Italy, until then regarded as dangerous usurpers; the price of this protection was recognition by the pope of the legitimacy of Norman rule in the south. The result was that the interests of the reformers and the imperial court gradually diverged. This was to have unfortunate consequences, as both were to clash over their conflicting interests in the affairs of the Church of Milan. Schneider 1972 posits that both Henry and Gregory saw themselves as fulfilling prophetic but mutually incompatible roles based in the traditions of their rival offices. Thus, Gregory attempted to pursue reform in the footsteps of the Old Testament prophets, while Henry was determined to fulfill his function as the vicar of Christ in the governing of the imperial Church.

Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. The Age of Abbot Desiderius: Montecassino, the Papacy, and the Normans in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
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Cowdrey views the progress of the reform movement at Rome from the perspective of the great imperialist abbey of Monte Cassino, which was caught in the middle of the struggle for power among popes, emperors, and Normans, and whose abbot, Desiderius, was later to succeed Gregory VII as Victor III.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “King Henry IV’s Minority and Early Years.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 80–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Cowdrey shows how the regency of the Empress Agnes (who from 1062 was a “widow and pilgrim” at Rome) led to a series of appointments that left her son without natural allies once he had assumed power. Henry’s support for the unsuccessful antipope Honorius II, in an attempt to reclaim imperial prerogatives in the papal election, earned him the hostility of the reform party at Rome.
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Reuter, Timothy. “The ‘Imperial Church System’ of the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: A Reconsideration.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 33.3 (1982): 347–374.
DOI: 10.1017/S0022046900026245Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reuter investigates the control exercised by the Ottonian and Salian rulers over the Church in their dominions. Although he is skeptical of the idea of a “system,” he nevertheless shows that the Church was a major force in the stability of their rule. Any challenge to that influence was likely to be met with fierce opposition. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Robinson, Ian S. “The Minority, 1056–1065.” In Henry IV of Germany, 1056–1106. By Ian S. Robinson, 19–62. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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Robinson’s fine biography of Henry IV is essential for any student wishing to understand the resistance of the imperial court to the reformers at Rome. The problems of the minority are clearly explained here, as the unfortunate child king was the victim of groups and individuals with conflicting interests and unbounded ambition. Ironically, many of the problems that Henry later had to confront were caused by bishops whose powers had grown during the minority.
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Schneider, Christian. Prophetisches Sacerdotium und Heilsgeschichtliches Regnum im Dialog 1073–1077: Zur Geschichte Gregors VII und Heinrichs IV. Munich: Fink, 1972.
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An interesting investigation of the rivalry between Gregory and Henry, who are cast as victims of circumstance, each wedded to his own conception of his office and locked into protecting his prophetic legacy.
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Tellenbach, Gerd. The Church in Western Europe from the Tenth to the Early Twelfth Century. Translated by Timothy Reuter. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139170420Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A thorough guide to the origins and progress of the reform party in Rome and its early reliance on and later veneration for Henry III.
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Milan and the Patarenes

Violante 1955 and Cowdrey 1968 show that the church in northern Italy was increasingly divided in the 1060s between reform groups, often led by monks and attracting the enthusiasm of the common people and the secular clergy and their bishops. Cowdrey 1998 and Schmidt 1977 demonstrate that these groups, supported by the reformers at Rome, wanted an end to clerical marriage and the removal of any bishops who had bought their offices. The opposition to Peter Mezzabarba, the bishop of Florence denounced as a simoniac by the monks of Vallombrosa, was encouraged by the friendship between their abbot, John Gualbert, and Hildebrand. The bishop was eventually banished after the monks staged an ordeal by fire, while the monk who undertook the ordeal, Peter Igneus, was rewarded by his promotion as cardinal bishop of Albano and became one of Gregory’s staunchest supporters. At Milan, where, as Cowdrey 1966 shows, volatile social tensions could be exploited by an astute bishop, a fanatical group, known as the Patarenes, undertook a violent campaign against clerical incontinence and later the simony that they believed had tainted the civic clergy. Milan’s autonomous traditions were ignored by the Patarenes, who invoked papal authority against the proud and recalcitrant clergy, determined to protect their position. With charismatic lay leaders and a simple program of reform, the Patarenes were attractive to Hildebrand, and he gave his support at the papal curia to them, leading to the presentation of a papal banner to the knight Erlembald in 1065. Cushing 2001 charts the growth of tensions after the murder of Erlembald, who was regarded as a martyr by his followers and by Hildebrand. These tensions produced a disputed election in Milan, with the clergy’s candidate appealing to the emperor, while the reform candidate appealed to the pope. The reformers sought to free the Church from lay interference but had traditionally relied on the emperor to advance their agenda through the appointment of reforming candidates. The minority of Henry IV removed any chance of help from this source, and the reformers were forced to rely on canonical election of reformers as bishops. Imperceptibly, the question of investiture became the focus of the battle for reform. When Henry IV attained his majority and sought to intervene in Milan, the reformers rejected his right to invest bishops, yet the investiture of bishops was one of the key strategies that Henry aimed to employ in restoring imperial authority in northern Italy. By the time Gregory VII was elected, this strategically important see had produced a “perfect storm,” which would dominate his pontificate.

Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Archbishop Aribert of Milan.” History 51.1 (1966): 1–15.
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A contribution to the origins of the Patarene movement. Cowdrey explains the deep divisions within the city of Milan and its hinterlands and the powerful leadership of Aribert, an archbishop who knew how to exploit the enthusiasm of the common people for the advancement of the autonomy of the city in both ecclesiastical and secular terms. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “The Papacy, the Patarenes and the Church of Milan.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 18 (1968): 25–48.
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An overview and explanation of the rapid change in Milan, which went from being a proud and autonomous church to being not only dependent on but also a staunch support for the rights of St. Peter and his vicar, the pope. The alliance thus forged would endure throughout the struggles of the popes not only with Henry IV but also with Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Hildebrand and North Italian Reform Movements.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 65–71. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Cowdrey emphasizes that there was no rift between Alexander II and his archdeacon Hildebrand; both supported the more radical reforming groups of Lombardy for their own reasons.
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Cushing, Kathleen G. “Events that Led to Sainthood: Sanctity and the Reformers in the Eleventh Century.” In Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies Presented to Henry Mayr-Harting. Edited by Richard Gameson and Henrietta Leyser, 187–196. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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Shows how Gregory VII regarded the leader of the Patarenes, Erlembald, as a saint. In a deeply conservative society, the Patarenes were seen as a violent menace, and Erlembald’s murder in 1075 unleashed a persecution against them in Milan. Gregory scandalized his opponents by treating those who were killed or maimed as martyrs because they had suffered in the cause of justice.
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Schmidt, Tilmann. Alexander II. (1061–1073) und die Römische Reformgruppe seiner Zeit. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1977.
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Schmidt shows that the reform party at Rome was essentially a coalition of smaller groups and individuals with similar but not identical aims. For the most part, such groups were content to work together for mutual benefit, but tensions could be exploited.
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Violante, Cinzio. La pataria Milanese e la riforma ecclesiastica. Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1955.
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A thorough account of the origins and development of the Patarene movement in Milan and its relationship with the reformers at Rome. Violante places the movement within the context of the dramatic social upheavals in northern Italy, which also contributed to the emergence of independent communes.
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Election

Lynch 1992 (cited under the Struggle for Reform) provides a succinct introduction to the advent of reform in Rome: in 1046, John Gratian, a Roman priest, had bought the papacy, determined as “Gregory VI” to introduce reform into the Roman Church. However, he was deposed by the emperor Henry III and taken into exile. Henry appointed the following four popes, all supporters of reform, but on the death of Victor II in 1058, with no hope of protection from the empire and with the likelihood that the Roman nobility would once again interfere in the election of the pope, as shown in Ambrosioni 2000, the cardinals gathered in Florence and elected Stephen IX (1058–1059). Under the protection of Stephen’s brother, Duke Godfrey of Lorraine, Nicholas II (1059–1061) returned to Rome and with the Treaty of Melfi (1059) secured Norman protection for the reformers. Jasper 1986 provides the most thorough review of the famous papal election decree, issued by Nicholas at the Lent synod of 1059, which limited the election of the pope to the cardinals of the Roman Church, especially the cardinal bishops. However, Krause 1960 shows that while the election decree provided security and continuity for reform, it was not adhered to in future elections; it is clear that other customs within the Roman Church were held also to have validity. Thus, as Schmid 1926 argues, the accusations of Gregory’s opponents that his election had been uncanonical were without foundation. As Fliche 1924 and Cowdrey 1998 demonstrate, he was, quite properly, elected by popular acclamation; indeed, he was congratulated on thus reviving the harmony of the early Church. Furthermore, his election adhered to earlier prescriptions that had been overridden by the reformers, such as the stipulation that the bishop of Rome should be chosen from among the clergy of that church. Nevertheless, as Fliche 1924 shows, the uncertainty of the times is attested to by the production of a formal protocol of the election, inserted at the start of Gregory’s register, which appears designed to enhance his legitimacy. Accrocca 1990 shows that the role of the people in episcopal elections was not uncommon and was on occasion upheld as canonical by Gregory himself. Fuhrmann 1958 demonstrates the wide variety of practice in papal elections throughout the Middle Ages, enabling Gregory’s election to be seen in its proper context. Goez 1968 shows that Gregory’s repeated claim that he was elected by the Roman clergy and people against his will was genuine and suggests that the name “Gregory” that was imposed on him was a reference to Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), whose own unwillingness to accept election by the Romans was well known.

Accrocca, Felice. “‘Pastorem Secundum Deum Eligite’: La partecipazione del popolo all’elezione dei vescovi nell’epistolario di Gregorio VII.” Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 28 (1990): 343–355.
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Accrocca notes that numerous studies on Gregory VII have overlooked some intriguing references in his register to cases of election by the unanimous verdict of the people that were drawn to his attention. Unsurprisingly, because they reflected ancient traditions and his own election, Gregory upheld their validity and canonical propriety.
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Ambrosioni, Annamaria. “Niccolò II.” In Enciclopedia dei papi. Vol. 2. Edited by Manlio Simonetti, Girolamo Arnaldi, Mario Caravale, and Giuseppe Martina, 172–178. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 2000.
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Ambrosioni gives a brief overview of the key developments of the pontificate, explaining the difficulties of the reformers, the scope of the election decree, and the subsequent altercations with the imperial court, and the Treaty of Melfi, including Hildebrand’s personal role.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Hildebrand’s Election to the Papacy.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 71–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Cowdrey gives a full account of the election of Gregory VII, clearly explaining the author’s own interpretation of the sources and showing definitively that there was no doubt that it was a valid and canonical election.
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Fliche, Augustin. “L’élection de Grégoire VII.” Le Moyen Âge, 2d ser., 26 (1924): 71–90.
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Fliche sets out the sources for Gregory’s election and notes its divergence from the provisions of the 1059 election decree, although arguing that there was no scandal involved.
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Fuhrmann, Horst. “Die Wahl des Papstes—Ein historischer Überblick.” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 9 (1958): 762–780.
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Fuhrmann examines the evidence for the election of popes in the Middle Ages; a useful study that provides much relevant information for a full analysis of the election of Gregory VII.
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Goez, Werner. “Zur Erhebung und ersten Absetzung Papst Gregors VII.” Römische Quartalschrift für christliche und Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 63 (1968): 117–144.
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An informative article that seeks to disprove the claim (made by Schmid 1926 and many others) that Gregory VII engineered his own election. Goez investigates the claim that Gregory broke an oath he had taken years before at the German court not to accept election to the papacy but concludes that Gregory’s election by popular acclamation was as unplanned as it was unsought.
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Jasper, Detlev. Das Papstwahldekret von 1059: Überlieferung und Textgestalt. Sigmaringen, West Germany: Thorbecke, 1986.
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Jasper provides the texts of the various versions of the 1059 decree and analyzes its genesis and significance. In particular, he offers important new insights, based on an assessment of the primary sources, into the vexed question of the extent to which the rights of the emperor to confirm the papal election were respected.
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Krause, Hans-Georg. Das Papstwahldekret von 1059 und seine Rolle im Investiturstreit. Rome: Abbazia di San Paolo, 1960.
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Krause explains the importance of the 1059 election decree for the reformers, its practical value, and the conflict that ensued as the imperial court objected to its traditional prerogatives being undermined. Also deals with the polemics unleashed by the election of Gregory VII. Also appears as Volume 7 of Studi Gregoriani, published in 1960.
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Schmid, Paul. Der Begriff der Kanonischen Wahl in den Anfängen des Investiturstreits. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1926.
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An interesting study that analyzes Gregory’s election in light of the canonical tradition, explaining that the unanimous election by the people was not only canonical but was also seen as an act of God.
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The Attack on Lay Investiture and the Investiture Contest

The popularity of the term “Investiture Contest” has led to the perception that what was at stake in the struggle was the right of kings to appoint bishops and to “invest” them with the symbols of their office. Yet there was far more to the reform movement than this narrow question. It had begun as a means of ensuring the purity of the clergy and their conformity to the ancient discipline of the Church set forth in the canons. However, the hostility to lay interference in matters of ecclesiastical property had led to an intolerance of any lay involvement in Church decisions. Blumenthal 1988 and Lynch 1992 explain that the early reformers had a horror of simony, technically the buying and selling of Church appointments, but more widely interpreted as the involvement of the laity in the affairs of the Church. Brooke 1939 sees the basis of the problem in the development of the Western Church essentially as a series of institutions owned by their original founders and their heirs; this applied to lords of the manor as well as to kings, but kings at least had been considered to be sacred because of their anointment during elaborate coronation rituals. Borino 1956 sees the celebrated decree of Pope Nicholas II against lay investiture as less striking than it appeared in the past; it was probably no more than a conventional attack on lay interference in ecclesiastical appointments. The precise point at which the reformers changed their opinion of the status of kings is unclear, but Borino 1959–1961 and Schieffer 1981 link it to the minority of the emperor Henry IV when the Roman reformers had to seek protection from others and to the crisis in Milan, which was initially blamed on evil counsellors of Henry IV but ultimately on the monarch himself. Moreover, Borino 1956 argues that only under Gregory VII was this prohibition applied to major churches and the appointment of bishops and abbots. Schieffer 1981 is more insistent on this theory, dating the prohibition to 1080 and arguing that it was an element of the reaction of Gregory to the behavior of Henry IV. Blumenthal 1988 shows that the ultimate outcome of the attack on lay investiture was the attempt to limit the control of the monarch over the appointment of bishops, enshrined in the Concordat of Worms, 1122, which was itself based on earlier agreements with the kings of France and England.

Blumenthal, Uta-Renate. The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
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This volume is translated from the German edition of 1982 and its chief value is that it sets out clearly the complicated historiography of the question, which has been developed mainly by German scholars. The result is a sound guide to the origins and development of reform ideas and the process by which lay investiture became the central issue at stake, although this was after the deaths of Gregory and Henry IV.
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Borino, Giovanni B. “L’investitura laica dal decreto di Nicolò II al decreto di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 5 (1956): 345–359.
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Gregory pursued the prohibition of lay investiture because of his fervent belief in the need for the Church to be free from corruption. This pursuit was a decisive break with the reform program of Leo IX and Nicholas II, whose prohibition applied only to minor churches.
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Borino, Giovanni B. “Il decreto di Gregorio VII contro le investiture fu ‘Promulgato’ nel 1075.” Studi Gregoriani 6 (1959–1961): 329–348.
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Using all of the available evidence, Borino attempts to show that Gregory’s decree against lay investiture was issued in the Lenten synod of 1075. However, Schieffer 1981 makes a strong case for dating the decree to 1080, thus seeing it as a reaction to the policies of Henry IV.
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Brooke, Zachary N. “Lay Investiture and Its Relation to the Conflict of Empire and Papacy.” Proceedings of the British Academy 25 (1939): 217–247.
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Although inevitably dated in some of its arguments, Brooke’s analysis was remarkably cogent; he cautioned against taking too seriously some of the polemic about the importance of lay investiture to the reformers and their opponents, and he has been shown to have been correct.
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Lynch, Joseph H. The Medieval Church. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1992.
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A useful and informative survey of the medieval Church. Lynch sets the developments of the 11th century in the context of the development of the Church out of the Roman Empire and through the Carolingian age. Complex questions are discussed and explained; especially useful for students who are new to the study of the Church. Also see the Struggle for Reform.
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Schieffer, Rudolf. Die Entstehung des Päpstlichen Investiturverbots für den Deutshchen König. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1981.
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Schieffer examines the vexed question of the precise nature of the papal prohibition of lay investiture during the reign of Henry IV. He concludes that Nicholas II’s supposed prohibition has been misinterpreted and that few reformers were offended by the practice of investiture. What changed this situation was the rivalry between pope and emperor in northern Italy, which increased during the 1070s.
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Canossa

Morrison 1962 is a useful starting point for English students in this most complex of affairs, the submission of the penitent Henry before Gregory at Canossa. Weinfurter 2006 gives a thorough account of the events, from both the imperial and papal viewpoints. The rival candidates at Milan represented the desire of the reform party to extend its influence in northern Italy and that of the imperial party to regain control of this crucial area of the Romano-German Empire. Vogel 1983 explores the events of the 1070s from the perspective of the self-perception of Henry and Gregory and their respective roles, and the election of Gregory VII certainly ensured continuity in the papal approach, which was to force Henry to abandon his candidate. His refusal ultimately led to his deposition by Gregory. Fliche 1947 and Arquillière 1952 conduct a celebrated debate over the significance of Canossa, with the former ascribing the most pious motives to Gregory while the latter insists that he was a political opportunist bent on Henry’s destruction. As Robinson 1978 (cited under the Election of Wibert of Ravenna) shows, by the time Gregory carried out his threat Henry had summoned the German bishops and princes, who, under severe pressure, had called on Gregory (“Hildebrand, no longer pope but a false monk”) to accept that his election had been illegal and to abdicate, perhaps recognizing that in canon law the pope could be judged by no man. Many bishops soon did penance and were forgiven by the pope. In the confusion that ensued the defeated Saxons rebelled again and formed a plot to depose Henry at an assembly at Tribur in October 1076. Henry ordered his subjects to return their obedience to Gregory VII and used the “Promise of Oppenheim” to placate the moderates by agreeing to submit himself to the arbitration of the pope (see Morrison 1962). By meeting the pope in Italy before he had a chance to reach Germany, Henry was able to secure absolution. Fliche 1947 details how Gregory, under immense moral pressure from the king’s friends, absolved him and appeared to restore him to his kingship, a claim he later denied. The result was that Henry once again gained the upper hand, and his maneuver is now generally seen as a clever political tactic. Schieffer 1972 investigates the circumstances in which rulers did penance from the 4th century onward, while Hack 1999 analyzes the meeting at Canossa in the context of the traditional rituals for the reception of a sovereign. Canossa has always had great symbolic importance in German historiography, as the publication of a collection of key essays by Kämpfe 1963 and the two volumes edited by Stiegemann and Wemhoff 2006 demonstrates.

Arquillière, H. X. “Grégoire VII, à Canossa, a-t-il réintégré Henri IV dans sa fonction royale?” Studi Gregoriani 4 (1952): 1–26.
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Arquillière makes a determined effort to refute the arguments put forward by Fliche 1947; most scholars now agree that his interpretation is correct.
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Fliche, Augustin. “Grégoire VII, à Canossa, a-t-il réintégré Henri IV dans sa fonction royale?” Studi Gregoriani 1 (1947): 373–386.
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Fliche rehearses the events of 1076 and suggests that Gregory, as he later claimed, had not restored Henry to his royal functions.
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Hack, Achim Thomas. Das Empfangszeremoniell bei Mittelalterlichen Papst-Kaiser-Treffen. Cologne: Böhlau, 1999.
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Hack investigates the ritual of adventus as it developed from Late Antiquity and through the Middle Ages. Although the book is a much wider study, the author’s observations on the reception of Henry IV at Canossa (pp. 493–504) are of great interest. He shows that the descriptions do not easily fit into the usual expressions of penance and suggests that traditional interpretations of the events at Canossa must be mistaken.
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Kämpfe, Hellmut, ed. Canossa als Wende: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Neueren Forschung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1963.
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A collection of articles published from the 1920s to the 1950s, along with the briefest of forewords by Kämpfe, which sets out the variety of opinions on the significance of Canossa reflected in this selection from French, German, and Italian scholars (all translated into German).
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Morrison, Karl. “Canossa: A Revision.” Traditio 18 (1962): 121–148.
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Reviews the dispute between Fliche 1947 and Arquillière 1952 and concludes that Gregory never claimed the authority to appoint or depose kings but only to judge them spiritually as Christians. Gregory absolved Henry at Canossa but still regarded his kingship as suspended pending his own judgment, which had been requested by both Henry and Rudolf.
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Schieffer, Rudolf. “Von Mailand nach Canossa: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Christlichen Herrscherbuβe von Theodosius der Groβe bis Heinrich IV.” Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 28 (1972): 333–370.
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Schieffer examines the whole question of rulers performing penitential rituals under pressure from the Christian Church. He analyzes an array of examples and concludes that Henry’s penance at Canossa was extraordinary and ambiguous, which explains the king’s behavior afterward.
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Stiegemann, Christoph, and Matthias Wemhoff, eds. Canossa 1077: Erschütterung der Welt: Geschichte, Kunst und Kultur am Aufgang der Romanik. 2 vols. Munich: Hirmer, 2006.
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A large collection of essays reflecting a broad variety of opinions of some fifty scholars, important mainly as an indication of the enduring significance of Canossa in German historiography.
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Vogel, Jörgen. Gregor VII. und Heinrich IV. Nach Canossa: Zeugnisse Ihres Selbstverständnisses. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1983.
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An interesting study that attempts to explain the events of the struggle between Henry IV and Gregory VII from the perspective of how the protagonists perceived themselves and their respective roles. Not always convincing but immensely interesting.
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Weinfurter, Stefan. Canossa: Die Entzauberung der Welt. Munich: Beck, 2006.
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A thorough and comprehensive overview of the context of Henry IV’s penance at Canossa, comparing the young king unfavorably to his father and ascribing his later difficulties and Gregory’s ability to attract allies within the empire to his heavy-handed suppression of the revolt of the Saxons.
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The Election of Wibert of Ravenna

Whatever the precise intentions of Gregory VII, the attack on Henry IV could not have been the only factor in the declining fortunes of the pope. Robinson 1978 shows the extent to which his interference in the imperial church was resented by the bishops, more especially after it appeared that the pope had meddled in local politics of which he had little understanding. At Forchheim in March 1077 the Saxon rebels proceeded in Gregory’s absence and elected Rudolf of Swabia as king in place of Henry IV. Civil war ensued in Germany, which, coupled with the vacillation of the pope, made him appear duplicitous and irresponsible. The context of these events is set out clearly in both Cowdrey 1998 and Robinson 1999. Henry exploited Gregory’s weakness with insistent propaganda and was excommunicated again by the pope at his Lenten synod in March 1080. This behavior convinced many that he was a dangerous innovator, and Henry proceeded to appoint a new pope. Gatherings of bishops at Mainz and Bamberg produced declarations against Hildebrand and called on him to resign from the papacy. In June 1080 at Brixen, in the presence of many German and Italian bishops, Henry declared that Gregory, or rather the “false monk, Hildebrand,” had been deposed from the papacy and Wibert of Ravenna elected in his place. Dolcini 2000 shows that the choice of Wibert of Ravenna, who took the name Clement III, was popular especially in northern Italy, as Wibert was a genuine reformer who had already quarrelled with the high-handed Gregory and struck a chord with many disgruntled bishops (see Jordan 1953 and Ziese 1982). Gibson 1971 shows that Gregory was vulnerable; one of the claims made against him was that he was a heretic because he was sympathetic to the heterodox eucharistic theology of Berengar of Tours. Both before and after his elevation to the papacy Gregory had failed to condemn Berengar. However, at the Lenten synod at Rome in 1079 Gregory acted decisively against Berengar, perhaps reflecting his realization that his orthodoxy was in question. This insight is confirmed in Radding and Newton 2003, where the theological conflict is given the broader context of the rivalry between cathedral and monastic schools.

Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Gregory VII and Henry IV, 1080–5.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 199–241. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A clear and detailed assessment of the later stages of the pontificate, which includes an assessment of the Synod of Brixen and the appointment of Wibert of Ravenna as a rival pope to Gregory.
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Dolcini, Carlo. “Clemente III, Antipapa.” In Enciclopedia dei papi. Vol. 2. Edited by Manlio Simonetti, Girolamo Arnaldi, Mario Caravale, and Giuseppe Martina, 212–217. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 2000.
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An account of the career of Wibert of Ravenna, introducing the main events and themes of the pontificate and providing a very useful introductory bibliography.
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Gibson, Margaret. “The Case of Berengar of Tours.” In Councils and Assemblies. Edited by G. J. Cuming and Derek Baker, 61–68. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
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Gibson argues that the condemnation of Berengar of Tours in 1079, coming as it did after many years in which Gregory was viewed as having shielded him from censure, was to avoid being condemned as a heretic himself, about which he had been warned by Abbot Hugh of Cluny.
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Jordan, Karl. “Ravenna und Rom im Zeitalter Gregors VII.” In Atti del 2. Congresso internazionale di studi sull’alto medioevo: Grado, Aquileia, Gorizia, Cividale, Udine, 7–11 settembre 1952, 193–198. Spoleto, Italy: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1953.
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Jordan shows that the choice of Wibert of Ravenna as pope in opposition to Gregory VII was the result of longstanding grievances in northern Italy against the heavy-handed interference of Roman legates, particularly from churches (not least Wibert’s own Ravenna) with a long history of autonomy and with impressive imperial connections.
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Radding, Charles M., and Francis Newton. Theology, Rhetoric and Politics in the Eucharistic Controversy, 1078–1079: Alberic of Monte Cassino against Berengar of Tours. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
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A thorough examination of the controversy over the eucharistic doctrine of Berengar of Tours, based on a rediscovered treatise of Alberic of Monte Cassino, reproduced here in Latin with an English translation. An intriguing reinterpretation of Berengar’s condemnation and of Gregory VII’s part in it, especially the pope’s angry reaction to Berengar’s assertion of earlier papal encouragement.
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Robinson, I. S. “‘Periculosus Homo’: Pope Gregory VII and Episcopal Authority.” Viator 9 (1978): 103–131.
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Robinson analyzes the opposition of the imperial bishops as a conflict between their traditional ecclesiology, in which bishops were regulated by their brother-bishops within their own provinces, and the new ecclesiology of the radical reformers, which saw the pope as a central authority who might enact new laws to bring recalcitrant bishops to heel. The issue at stake was not reform but order.
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Robinson, Ian S. “Civil War in Germany, 1077–1081.” In Henry IV of Germany, 1056–1106. By Ian S. Robinson, 171–210. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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Robinson sets the mutual depositions in the context of the civil war in Germany, which had been encouraged but not caused by Gregory’s earlier deposition of Henry. The complex mix of grievances against Henry that fuelled the rebellion against him is explained, and the irritation of the bishops at the behavior of Gregory VII is also emphasized.
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Ziese, Jürgen. Wibert von Ravenna, der Gegenpapst Clemens III. (1084–1100). Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1982.
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A sizeable monograph dedicated to the life and career of Wibert of Ravenna. Interesting because it shows that he was a respected reformer who won considerable support at Rome, such that to an observer in the 1090s he would have appeared to be the legitimate pope, fully in control of Rome and its environs.
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Rome

Brezzi 1947 is the best starting point for an appreciation of the importance of Rome in this period. The interference of Roman noble families in elections to the papacy had provided the spur to the arrival of reform in Rome, but it was not simply imposed from outside. Cowdrey 1998 evaluates the importance of John Gratian, the deposed Gregory VI, a Roman who had taken the lead in pursuing reforming objectives. Hildebrand was also a Roman, perhaps not by birth but certainly by adoption, and he stressed that he had been nurtured from his youth in the Roman Church. Maccarrone 1989 emphasizes that no other pope has identified himself so closely with St. Peter and it is surely correct to call Gregory a Roman through and through. The reformers needed to seek external protection from Roman factions, but, as Zema 1947 shows, their success in securing this protection led to a period of stability and financial reform under the auspices of Hildebrand as archdeacon. Whitton 1980 demonstrates the importance of new families, such as the Pierleoni and Frangipani, who were provided with papal patronage to build up a city aristocracy that could assist the popes in the face of the older nobility. Gregory VII’s election was the result of his personal popularity in Rome, which, as Borino 1952 shows, was demonstrated by the failure of Cencius Stephani to keep him prisoner after seizing him during midnight mass in 1075; Gregory was rescued by the Roman people and the perpetrator driven into exile. However, Gregory made no secret of the fact that he ignored advice at Rome and his failure to acknowledge the cardinals as his advisers led eventually to a loss of support from the clergy. Indeed, Zafarana 1966 recounts an extraordinary meeting of the Roman clergy, including an impressive list of cardinal bishops and priests and the archpriests and abbots of Roman churches, in which they decided, having consulted the precedents in canon law, that there was no justification for using the revenues of Roman churches to pay for soldiers to fight against the antipope Clement III. This decision coincided with the annual besieging of the city by Henry IV each summer from 1080 and the surrender of the city in 1084. Cecchelli 1947 shows how important the possession of the crucial fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo was in enabling Gregory to remain in Rome until his rescue by the Normans.

Borino, Giovanni B. “Cencio del prefetto Stefano l’attentore di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 4 (1952): 373–440.
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An examination of the extant source materials for Cencius, Gregory’s abductor at Christmas 1075, showing his kinship with the counts of Tusculum, his constant support for Henry IV, and the divisions within Rome between the established aristocracy in the environs of the city and the new, civic nobility allied to the reformers and protected by the detested Norman alliance.
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Brezzi, Paolo. Roma e l’impero Medioevale (774–1252). Bologna, Italy: Cappelli, 1947.
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Despite its age this study has proved very durable, and it is still the best introduction to the city at the time of the reform. Brezzi explains the election of Gregory VI, the intervention of Henry III, the minority of Henry IV, the rise of Hildebrand, the pontificate of Gregory VII, and the eventual abandonment of the pope from the perspective of the city of Rome.
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Cecchelli, Carlo. “Castel S. Angelo al tempo di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 2 (1947): 103–123.
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An interesting assessment of the role of Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome’s invincible fortress, during Gregory’s pontificate and a compendium of texts in which it is mentioned. Very useful for local politics and factions within the city during Gregory’s pontificate, especially as Henry IV closed in on the city in 1084.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Background.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.003.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
See also “Hildebrand and Rome” (pp. 54–58), and “The Church and City of Rome” (pp. 314–329). An overview of conditions in the city of Rome and its environs. Assesses the importance of the Roman nobility, both in promoting and opposing reform, and the advantage given to the reformers, particularly to Hildebrand by the Norman alliance. There is no doubt that the close identification of Gregory VII with St. Peter was inspired and nurtured by his experiences in Rome.
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Maccarrone, Michele. “I fondamenti ‘Petrini’ del primato Romano in Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 13 (1989): 55–122.
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Maccarrone shows how important the identification with St. Peter was to Gregory VII, nurtured from his youth in the city of Rome and fully conscious of his position as successor to the apostle, especially in the context of doctrinal rectitude, feudal ties with individuals, and rights of overlordship over territories that belonged to St. Peter and his vicar.
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Whitton, David. “Papal Policy in Rome, 1012–1124.” DPhil diss., University of Oxford, 1980.
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Whitton examines papal policy with regard to long-established and newer noble families in and around the city, the Roman people, and the Normans of Southern Italy, observing the factors that must be assessed in analyzing the extent to which the pope can be regarded as the ruler of Rome. A work full of profound and useful insights that deserves to be better known.
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Zafarana, Zelina. “Sul ‘conventus’ del clero romano nel maggio 1082.” Studi Medievali ser. 3, 7 (1966): 399–403.
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Zafarana edits and analyzes a source that documents a meeting of the Roman clergy in protest at Gregory VII’s misuse of the properties of their churches. Shows the strain that Gregory’s opposition to the empire had placed on the Roman clergy, and it is no surprise to find that many of them, although by no means all, abandoned Gregory two years later.
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Zema, Demetrius B. “Economic Reorganization of the Roman See during the Gregorian Reform.” Studi Gregoriani 1 (1947): 137–168.
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An introductory overview of the efforts of the reformers, chiefly of Hildebrand/Gregory, to restore the revenues of the papacy accruing from lands, customary payments, and other sources and the opposition encountered from the local nobility. Also details the attempt to secure revenue from further afield, such as the extension of the English customary payment, “Peter’s pence.”
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Exile and Death

By 1084 the Romans pleaded with Gregory to renounce the papacy for the sake of peace. Abandoned by the people and many of his own cardinals, he was rescued by his Norman allies, but there was no option for him but to go into exile with them after they exacted a punishing revenge on the city. Hamilton 2003 shows that reports of the destruction wrought in Rome have been exaggerated from the start for polemical purposes and that Gregory was indeed rescued by the Normans, with Robert Guiscard doing his duty as a vassal of the Holy See. The circumstances surrounding Gregory’s death in exile in 1085 in Salerno are thoroughly investigated in Cowdrey 1988. The idea that he was a broken man, as some have suggested, is not accurate. His “last words,” “I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile,” were rejected by many earlier scholars, but their objections to the accuracy of the account of Gregory’s last words are challenged by Borino 1956, Hübinger 1973, and Cowdrey 1998, which adduce convincing evidence both that they should be regarded as genuine and that, far from representing the resignation of a broken and disappointed failure, they are the words of an undaunted spirit welcoming its perceived martyrdom.

Borino, Giovanni B. “Note Gregoriane 7: Storicità delle ultime parole di Gregorio VII.” Studi Gregoriani 5 (1956): 403–411.
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Borino investigates the last words of Gregory, as transmitted by Anselm of Lucca on receipt of reports from Gregory’s chaplains; Anselm, unlike Paul of Bernried, did not make any errors in reporting what happened as Gregory lay dying. Borino concludes that the report is authentic and shows how it corroborates other accounts of the pope’s words.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Death-Bed Testaments.” Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften 33.4 (1988): 703–724.
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Cowdrey examines and accepts the supposed last words of Gregory VII along with other examples of those of popes, bishops, and kings. As he lay dying, Gregory gave advice on the choice of his successor, admonitions that he should be canonically elected, instructions on the conditional forgiveness to be granted to his enemies, and a rather cryptic allusion to his suffering and death in exile.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Death in Exile.” In Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. By Herbert E. J. Cowdrey, 677–682. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206460.003.0012Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Recounts the circumstances of the flight from Rome and details Gregory’s reaction to his exile in Salerno.
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Hamilton, Louis I. “Memory, Symbol, and Arson: Was Rome ‘Sacked’ in 1084?” Speculum 78.2 (2003): 378–399.
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Hamilton reviews the evidence for the supposed catastrophic sack of Rome in 1085 and concludes that the generally accepted account is the result of the deliberate exaggeration of contemporary chroniclers and the enduring influence of Gregorovius’s History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages (London: Bell, 1894–1902). In reality, “the evidence suggests that the battle for Rome was well directed and restrained” (p. 398), and Gregory left with the Normans in triumph. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Hübinger, Paul Ego. Die Letzten Worte Papst Gregors VII. Opladen, West Germany: WestdeutscherVerlag, 1973.
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Hübinger undertakes a detailed analysis of the objections of earlier scholars to the veracity of the account of Gregory’s last words and makes a convincing case by appealing to contemporary sources for the accuracy of the account and for its overall consistency with Gregory’s personality.
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“Gregorian” Reform

The tendency in the historiography of the earlier 20th century was to overemphasize the role of Gregory VII himself in the reform movement. However, there was little consensus on the origins of reform, with French historians emphasizing the role of the great Burgundian abbey of Cluny and Germans insisting on the importance of Lorraine (Lotharingia) in the genesis of reform, which was then transplanted to Rome by the German popes appointed by Henry III. A good overview of the debate and the problems it raises is given by Howe 1997, which is itself a plea for the Italian role in the movement to be taken seriously. The prominence of Gregory is reflected in the idea of “Gregorian reform,” as demonstrated in Williams 1964. A similar investigation is undertaken in Tellenbach 1985. However, as Gilchrist 1970, Gilchrist 1973, and Gilchrist 1980 show, just as the idea that reform could be conceived and imposed by one man has come to be seen as unrealistic, so too, the search for the origins of reform has revealed a complex movement with influences combining from many areas. The concentration on ancient law and the purity of the clergy may have been reactions to the breakdown of society in the wake of the collapse of the Carolingian hegemony in the 8th century, as Toubert 1973 (cited under the Struggle for Reform) speculates, while Capitani 1965 stresses the complex and varied expressions of reform that were present across western Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries. Yet there is no doubt that Gregory was a dominant force in the development of reforming ideas. He represented in his own person the marriage of Italian and Lotharingian ideas of reform, and his position in the Roman Church even before his election as pope gave him a platform and influence that few people could match. In this sense, then, perhaps “Gregorian reform” is not such an exaggeration as it sounds. Furthermore, more recent historiography has demonstrated that Gregory was more than willing to compromise when he saw advantages for the Church in doing so. The various contributors to Stickler, et al. 1989 and Stickler 1991 demonstrate how reform was applied differently in areas as diverse as the Holy Roman Empire, France, England, Spain, Hungary, and Poland. Special Issue: La réforme Grégorienne explores a number of avenues in the wider dispersion of reform, such as its influence on the laity and its spirituality.

Capitani, Ovidio. “Esiste un ‘età Gregoriana’? Considerazioni sulle tendenze di una storiagrafia Medievistica.” Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 1 (1965): 454–481.
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Capitani cautions against an oversimplistic view of reform, noting the complex variety of opinions that were present both before the 11th century and among the key reformers of the mid-11th century. Above all, Capitani is critical of the emphasis given to Gregory VII and stresses the pope’s broad continuity with his predecessors.
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Gilchrist, John. “Was There a Gregorian Reform Movement in the Eleventh Century?” Canadian Catholic Historical Association Study Sessions 37 (1970): 1–10.
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Gilchrist notes that the association of reform with Gregory VII was the result of historians such as Fliche using him as a paragon of his age, partly because of the availability of his register and partly because of the controversy aroused by the deposition of Henry IV. Many canonical sources are witnesses to the enthusiasm for reform but do not mention Gregory at all.
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Gilchrist, John. “The Reception of Pope Gregory VII into the Canon Law (1073–1141).” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 59 (1973): 35–82.
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Gilchrist examines a variety of sources to ascertain what influence Gregory VII had on his successors and other reformers. The conclusion is that Gregory’s chief contribution was that the decrees of the Lent and autumn synods of 1078 and the Lent synod of 1080, all three held at Rome, constitute by far the majority of appearances of Gregory in the canonical sources.
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Gilchrist, John. “The Reception of Pope Gregory VII into the Canon Law (1073–1141), Part Two.” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 66 (1980): 192–229.
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An examination of a further body of canonical sources, which confirms the findings of Gilchrist 1973 that Gregory’s influence was confined to the legislation of a few synods; the lasting contribution of the pope in canonical sources represented the less controversial aspects of Gregory’s program, as his successors compromised and quietly dropped more contentious legislation.
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Howe, John. Church Reform and Social Change in Eleventh-Century Italy: Dominic of Sora and His Patrons. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
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Howe’s “Introduction: A Case-Study Approach to Eleventh-Century Reform” (pp. xiii–xxiii) is an excellent historiographical investigation into the genesis of reform and the nationalistic and confessional bias displayed by earlier historians. His own volume is an attempt to reassert the importance of local factors in Italian reforming circles.
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Special Issue: La réforme Grégorienne. Revue d’Histoire de l’Église de France 96.1 (2010).
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A special volume of this journal in which the reform is analyzed from a variety of perspectives: an overview of the Gregorian Reform by Sot, Grosse on the Ottonian and Salian Church, Lobrichon on the invention of the laity, Depreux on symbols of investiture, Henriet on spirituality, Krönert on the Church of Trèves, and Doulon on reform in the Val de Loire. Articles available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Stickler, Alfons, ed. Special Issue: Gregorio VII e l’Europa, II, communicazioni. Studi Gregoriani per la Storia della “Libertas Ecclesiae” 14 (1991).
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Useful as an indication of the development of scholarship on the institutions of the Roman Church under Gregory VII and papal relations with some outlying territories, such as Croatia and Hungary.
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Stickler, Alfons M., Ovidio Capitani, Horst Fuhrmann, Michele Maccorrone, Rudolf Schieffer, and Raffaello Volpini, eds. Special Issue: Gregory VII and Europe. Studi Gregoriani per la Storia della “Libertas Ecclesiae” 13 (1989).
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A series of articles that pays particular attention to the influence of Gregory VII and the reform movement on areas outside the pope’s traditional sphere of activity in central Italy, such as France, Spain, Germany, northern Italy, England, Scandinavia, and Byzantium and southern Italy.
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Tellenbach, Gerd. “‘Gregorianische Reform.’ Kritische Besinnungen.” In Reich und Kirche vor dem Investiturstreit: Vorträge beim Wissenschaftlichen Kolloquium aus Anlass des Achtzigsten Geburtstags von Gerd Tellenbach. Edited by Karl Schmid, 99–113. Sigmaringen, West Germany: Thorbecke, 1985.
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Tellenbach acknowledges the importance of Gregory VII in the reform movement but emphasizes the wider currents of reform that were already in existence long before the crisis of 1046 in Rome. Can be taken as a reaffirmation of the German tendency to see Lotharingia as the source and origin of reform.
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Williams, Schafer, ed. The Gregorian Epoch: Reformation, Revolution, Reaction? Boston: Heath, 1964.
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A useful introduction to the older historiography of the reform movement, citing works from the 19th century and especially studies from the 1950s and 1960s. As the title suggests, the emphasis is very much on Gregory VII.
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“Gregorian” Reformers

Just as the term “Gregorian reform” has been challenged as anachronistic by scholars, so too has the idea that Gregory VII had a body of supporters who were dedicated to his reform principles. Gregory certainly had prominent supporters and friends, such as the bishops Altmann of Passau, Adalbero of Würzburg, and Hermann of Metz, but Bruns 1939 shows that it is rarely possible to identify the religious interests of such figures, and their adherence to Gregory is probably better explained by other factors. In a small number of cases it is possible to be more precise, as Autenrieth 1956 demonstrates by an examination of the writings in support of Gregory that emanated from the cathedral at Constance, where the cleric Bernold and two collaborators compiled letters from the pope and other materials with the intention of bolstering support for Gregory’s position. Indeed, as Autenrieth 1958 shows, Bernold was responsible for an appendix on excommunication that was clearly intended to vindicate the pope and his policies in the face of opposition from supporters of Henry IV. Robinson 1978 shows that Gregory actively propagated “friendship networks,” consisting of those amenable to the pope’s charismatic personality, such as the abbots William of Hirsau and Hugh of Cluny; the bishops Hugh of Die and Hermann of Metz; the noblemen Rudolf of Swabia, Berthold of Carinthia, Welf of Bavaria, and William VI of Aquitaine; and the Patarene Erlembald and his followers. Robinson 1983 further shows the important role of such groups as propagandists for the papal cause. Healy 2006 traces the initial support for the reformers of one religious house and its network but shows that the struggle for reform could be abandoned as a result of disillusionment and imperial persecution. The support of women was important to Gregory, especially regarding the dowager empress Agnes and the mother and daughter Beatrice and Matilda of Tuscany, whose protection enabled the reformers to survive the immediate crisis caused by the death of Henry III. Hay 2010 traces Matilda’s policies with respect to the reformers and analyzes her role as a military commander, while McNamara 1995 draws wide-ranging and radical conclusions from the absence of Matilda from the historical record of the events at Canossa in 1077.

Autenrieth, Johanne. Die Domschule von Konstanz zur Zeit des Investiturstreits: Die Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsweise Bernolds von Konstanz und Zweier Kleriker Dargestellt auf Grund von Handschrift-Studien. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1956.
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Autenrieth traces the family of manuscripts that emanated from the scriptorium of the cathedral of Constance in the late 11th century and the work of Bernold of Constance and two others, and shows that this was a group of genuine reformers in the mold of Gregory VII who worked to disseminate the pope’s teaching and propaganda.
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Autenrieth, Johanne. “Bernold von Konstanz und die Erweiterte 74 Titelsammlung.” Deutsches Archiv 14 (1958): 375–394.
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Autenrieth shows that Bernold of Constance was in all probability the author of an appendix to the canonical compendium called the Collection in 74 Titles, which deals with the question of excommunication; this was intended to bolster the armory of Gregory’s defenders against those who supported Henry IV and maintained that his excommunication was unjust.
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Bruns, Heinz. Das Gegenkönigtum Rudolfs von Rheinfelden und seine Zeitpolitischen Voraussetzungen. Berlin: Nieft, 1939.
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Bruns examines the bishops who supported the Saxon rebellion and notes that to most of them it was impossible to ascribe “Gregorian” motives and that they had joined the rebellion because they were Saxons and shared the grievances of their flocks.
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Hay, David J. The Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, 1046–1115. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2010.
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A useful survey of the career of Matilda that covers far more than her military leadership, although she was responsible for the destruction of Henry IV’s military reputation in Italy. Analyzes Matilda’s role in the patronage and diffusion of reform polemic and asserts that the autonomy of the Italian communes had its origin in the opposition to the empire that she championed.
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Healy, Patrick. The Chronicle of Hugh of Flavigny: Reform and the Investiture Contest in the Late Eleventh Century. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
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Healy provides an excellent introduction to the progress of reform under the influence of Gregory VII in the Abbey of St-Vanne, Verdun. Hugh became an enthusiastic supporter of the pope’s memory and policies until his disillusionment after suffering persecution made him skeptical of the radical reform program and saw him enter the imperial camp.
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McNamara, Jo Ann. “Canossa and the Ungendering of the Public Man.” In Render unto Caesar: The Religious Sphere in World Politics. Edited by Sabrina Petra Ramet and Donald W. Treadgold, 131–150. Washington, DC: American University Press, 1995.
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McNamara takes the absence of Matilda of Canossa in the sources discussing Henry IV’s penance as a symbol of the entire reform movement, which she characterizes as an attempt by prelates to “ungender” themselves through the enforcement of clerical celibacy as a means of driving women from the prominent positions, which they had hitherto held in secular and religious society. Rather unconvincing. Also appears in Medieval Religion: New Approaches, edited by Constance H. Berman (New York: Routledge, 2005) pp. 92–110.
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Robinson, Ian S. “The Friendship Network of Gregory VII.” History 43.207 (1978): 1–22.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1978.tb02353.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Robinson shows that many of those who had personal contact with Hildebrand/Gregory VII became devoted followers of his reform ideas and important disseminators of his teaching in their localities. Gregory was aware of his charismatic leadership and sought to strengthen his followers through personal meetings and constant reassurance of his love and devotion. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Robinson, Ian S. “The Dissemination of the Letters of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Contest.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 34.2 (1983): 175–193.
DOI: 10.1017/S002204690003699XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Robinson shows how groups of Gregory’s supporters, organized in “friendship circles,” were responsible for disseminating the pope’s letters for propaganda purposes and for gathering texts together in treatises to which they appended apologetic tracts in support of the pope. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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The Origins of Crusading

Erdmann 1935 was the harshest critic of Gregory VII, seeing him as an opportunist and a warmonger, who exploited tensions within western Europe in the 11th century to achieve the political dominance of the Church through military force. Inevitably, Erdmann’s thesis has been taken as an explanation of the development of crusading under Gregory’s successor, Urban II (1089–1099). Robinson 1973 largely accepts Erdmann’s thesis and argues that Gregory took earlier metaphors of spiritual combat and transposed them into appeals for authentic warfare in pursuit of earthly political power for the Church. Bull 1993 is critical of the idea that such appeals from Gregory or any high ecclesiastic can explain the outpouring of enthusiasm from ordinary people that greeted the preaching of the First Crusade in the 1090s and thus rejects the theories of Erdmann and Robinson. Gilchrist 1988 attempts to put the appeals of Gregory and Urban into context by examining the long involvement of the papacy in wars against Muslims from the 8th century onward and finds little difference in the pronouncements of Gregory and his predecessors and successors. More recently, Cowdrey 1997a, Cowdrey 1997b, and Cowdrey 2001 show that Gregory’s appeals to laymen to take up arms in defense of the Church were consistent with his overall approach to reform and do not present an aberration in relation to earlier practice; moreover, there is no reason why they should be seen as cynical political maneuvering by the pope but a valid expression of the traditional spiritual approach to battling evil, metaphorically or otherwise.

Bull, Marcus. “The Roots of Lay Enthusiasm for the First Crusade.” History 78.254 (1993): 353–372.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1993.tb02249.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although acknowledging that Gregory may have had some influence on the development of meritorious violence, Bull is critical of the idea that any individual could have inspired the great enthusiasm witnessed by the large numbers who volunteered to take part in the First Crusade, which instead reflected profound social changes among the mass of the population. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Pope Gregory VII and the Bearing of Arms.” In Montjoie: Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer. Edited by Benjamin Z. Kedar, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Rudolf Hiestand, 21–35. Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1997a.
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Cowdrey sets out Gregory’s policy of the imposition of penance on those who bore arms and sees in it the vestiges of a separation between worldly warfare and meritorious warfare under the direction of the Church. Although noting the pope’s proposed journeys to fight the Seljuk Turks, Cowdrey sees the important development taking place in opposition to Henry IV and his antipope in the 1080s.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “The Reform Papacy and the Origin of the Crusades.” In Le concile de Clermont de 1095 et l’appel à la Croisade: Actes du Colloque universitaire international de Clermont-Ferrand, 23–25 juin 1995. Edited by Conseil Régional d’Auvergne, 65–83. Rome: École Française de Rome, 1997b.
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Cowdrey identifies four concerns of the reform popes and especially of Gregory VII as having contributed to the crusade preached by Urban II in 1095: the maternal care of the Roman Church for its daughter church of Constantinople, the Constantinian traditions of the Lateran complex in Rome, the papal role of bringing peace, and the necessity for conversion to perform true penance.
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Cowdrey, Herbert E. J. “Pope Gregory VII and Martyrdom.” In Dei gesta per Francos: Études sur les Croisades dédiées à Jean Richard. Edited by Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar, and Jonathan Riley-Smith, 3–11. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001.
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Assesses the theme of martyrdom as it was developed throughout Gregory’s pontificate, from the proposed expedition to aid the Christians in the east, to the martyrdoms of Erlembald and the prefect Cencius and on to the appeals to his followers to stand firm against Henry IV, accepting a righteous death in the cause of justice. Gregory’s letters were a powerful source of martyrdom propaganda.
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Erdmann, Karl. Die Entstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1935.
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The classic exposition of the thesis that saw Gregory VII as having subverted centuries of aversion to violence by the Church in pursuit of political aggrandizement. The author was firmly within the camp of those who saw Gregory as the destroyer of the empire and, with it, of Germany’s political development. For an English translation, see The Origin of the Idea of Crusade, translated by Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).
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Gilchrist, John. “The Papacy and War against the ‘Saracens,’ 795–1216.” International History Review 10.2 (1988): 174–197.
DOI: 10.1080/07075332.1988.9640473Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Using surviving canonical collections Gilchrist argues that the popes were not averse to the profession of arms before the reform period but rather that in pursuit of political power earlier popes had employed mercenaries, led armies, and conferred spiritual privileges on those who fought for them, whether against Saracens or other enemies. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Robinson, Ian S. “Pope Gregory VII and the Soldiers of Christ.” History 58.193 (1973): 169–192.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1973.tb01281.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Analyzes the various groups of laymen who were encouraged by Gregory VII to become protectors of the liberty of the Church under such titles as militia Christi (army of Christ), milites Christi (knights of Christ), and milites sancti Petri (knights of St. Peter) and who were exhorted to fight under the vexillum sancti Petri (banner of St. Peter). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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