GREGORY
792
GREGORY
hands of the Roman nobility and the Normans, was
largely recovered, and the revenues of the Holy See,
whose treasury had been depleted, speedily augmented.
By Leo IX he was also appointed prwpositus or pro-
visor (not abbot) of the monastery of St. Paul extra
Muros. The unchecked violence of the lawless bands
of the Campagna had brought great destitution upon
this venerable establishment. Monastic discipline
was so impaired that the monks were attended in their
refectory by women; and the sacred edifices were so
neglected that the sheep and cattle freely roamed in
and out through the broken doors. By rigorous re-
forms and a wise administration Hildebrand succeeded
in restoring the ancient rule of the abbey with the
austere observance of earlier times; and he continued
throughout life to manifest the deepest attachment for
the famous house which his energy had reclaimed
from ruin and decay. In 1054 he was sent to France
as papal legate to examine the cause of Berengarius.
While still in Tours he learned of the death of Leo IX,
and on hastening back to Rome found that the
clergy and people were eager to elect him, the most
trusted friend and counsellor of Leo, as the successor.
This proposal of the Romans was, however, resisted by
Hildebrand, who set out for Germany at the head of an
embassy to implore a nomination from the emperor.
The negotiations, which lasted eleven months, ulti-
mately resulted in the selection of Hildebrand's
candidate, Gebhard, Bishop of Eichstadt, who was
consecrated at Rome, 13 April, 1055, under the name
of Victor II. During the reign of this pontiff, the
cardinal-subdeacon steadily maintained, and even
increased the ascendancy which by his commanding
genius he had acquired during the pontificate of Leo
IX. Near the close of the year 1057 he went once
more to Germany to reconcile the Empress-regent
Agnes and her court to the (merely) canonical election
of Pope Stephen X (1057-1058). His mission was not
yet accomplished when Stephen died at Florence, and
although the d3ang pope had forbidden the people to
appoint a successor before Hildebrand returned, the
Tusoulan faction seized the opportunity to set up a
member of the Crescentian family, John Mincius,
Bishop of Velletri, imder the title of Benedict X. With
masterly skill Hildebrand succeeded in defeating the
schemes of the hostile party, and secured the election
of Gerard, Bishop of Florence, a Burgundian by birth,
who assumed the name of Nicholas II (1059-1061).
The two most important transactions of this ponti- ficate — the celebrated decree of election, by which the power of choosing the pope was vested in the college of cardinals, and the alliance with the Normans, se- cured by the Treaty of Melfi, 1059 — were in large measure the achievement of Hildebrand, whose power and influence had now become supreme in Rome. It was perhaps inevitable that the issues raised by the new decree of election should not be decided without a conflict, and with the passing away of Nicholas II in 1061, that conflict came. But when it was ended, after a schism enduring for some years, the imperial party with its Antipope C'adalous had been discom- fited, and Anselm of Baggio, the candidate of Hilde- brand and the reform party, successfully enthroned in the Lateran Palace as .Alexander II. By Nicholas II, in 1059, Hildebrand had been raised to the dignity and office of Archdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, and Alexander II now made him Chancellor of the Apos- tolic See. On 21 April, 107.S, Alexander II died. The time at length had come when Hildebrand, who for more than twenty years had been the most prominent figure in the Church, who had been chiefly instru- mental in the .selection of her rulers, who had inspired and given purpose to her policy, and who had been steadily developing and realizing, by successive acts, her sovereignly and puril y, should assume in his own person the in;ijcsfy and responsibility of that exalted power which his genius had so long directed.
On the day following the death of Alexander II, as
the obsequies of the deceased pontiff were being per-
formed in the Lateran basilica, there arose, of a sud-
den, a loud outcry from the whole multitude of clergy
and people: "Let Hildebrand be pope!" "Blessed
Peter has chosen Hildebrand the Archdeacon!" All
remonstrances on the part of the archdeacon were
vain, his protestations fruitless. Later, on the same
day, Hildebrand was conducted to the church of San
Pietro in Vincoli, and there elected in legal form
by the assembled cardinals, with the due consent of
the Roman clergy and amid the repeated acclama-
tions of the people. That this extraordinary out-
burst on the part of the clergy and people in favour of
Hildebrand could have been the result of some pre-
concerted arrangement, as is sometimes alleged, does
not appear likely. Hildebrand was clearly the man of
the hour, his austere virtue commanded respect, his
genius admiration; and the promptitude and unanim-
ity with which he was chosen would indicate, rather,
a general recognition of his fitness for the high office.
In the decree of election those who had chosen him as
pontiff proclaimed him "a devout man, a man mighty
in human and divine knowledge, a distinguished lover
of equity and justice, a man firm in adversity and
temperate in prosperity, a man, according to the say-
ing of the Apostle, of good behaviour, blameless,
modest, sober, chaste, given to hospitality, and one
that ruleth well his own house ; a man from his child-
hood generously brought up in the bosom of this
Mother Church, and for the merit of his life already
raised to the archidiaconal dignity". "We choose
then", they said to the people, "our Archdeacon
Hildebrand to be pope and successor to the Apostle,
and to bear henceforward and forever the name of
Gregory" (22 April, 1073), Mansi, "Conciliorum Col-
lectio", XX, 60.
The decree of Nicholas II having expressly, if vaguely acknowledged the right of the emperor to have some voice in papal elections, Hildebrand de- ferred the ceremony of his consecration imtil he had received the royal sanction. In sending the formal annoimceraent of his elevation to Henry IV of Ger- many, he took occasion to indicate frankly the atti- tude, which, as sovereign pontiff, he was prepared to assume in dealing with the Christian princes, and, with a note of grave personal warning besought the king not to bestow his approval. The Cierman bish- ops, apprehensive of the severity with which such a man as Hildebrand would carry out 'the decrees of reform, endeavoured to prevent the king from assent^ ing to the election; but upon the favourable report of Count Eberhard of Nellenburg, who had been de- spatched to Rome to assert the rights of the crown, Henry gave his approval (it proved to be the last instance in history of a papal election being ratified by an emperor), and the new pope, in the meanwhile ordained to the priesthood, was solemnly consecrated on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, 29 June, 1073. In assuming the name of Gregory VII, Hildebrand not only honoured the memory and character of his earliest patron, (iregory VI, but also proclaimed to the world the legitimacy of that pontiff's title.
From the letters which Gregory addressed to his friends shortly after his election, imploring their in- tercession with heaven in his behalf, and begging their sympathy and support, it is abundantly evident that he assimied the burden of the pontificate, which had been thrust on him, only with the strongest reluctance, and not wilhout a great struggle of mind. To Desid- erius. Abbot of Monte Cassino, he speaks of his eleva- tion in terms of terror, gi\'ing utterance to the words of the Psalmist: " I am come into deej) waters, so that the floods run over me"; "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and darkness hath covered me." And in view of the appalling nature of the task that lay before him (of its difficulties no one indeed had a
