GREGORY
793
GREGORY
clearer perception than lie), it cannot appear strange own position in Rome. For this purpose he made a
that even his intrepid spirit was for the moment over- journey into Southern Italy, a few iiioiitlis after his
whelmed. Kor at the time of Gregory's elevation to election, and concluded treaties with Laiidnlfo of
the papacy the Christian world was in a deploral)le Benevento, Richard of Capua, and (iisolfu of Salerno,
condition. Durinj; the desolating era of (r.-iusilion- by which tlicsc princes engaged thcniscl\cs to defend
thatterribleperiodofwarfareaiici rapine, viiilcTici', :uid ilu^ ]i('isiin nf llic pupc :iii(l Ihe jjniperly of the Holy
corruption in liigli phices, which I'nUowcd iiiuiiciii:ilcly
upon the dissolution of the t'ailovingian Empire, a
period when society in Evirope and all existing institu-
tions seemed doomed to utter destruction and ruin —
the Church had not been able to escape from the
c princes
rsnn or 11,,. p,,,M.
d nc\cr- 111 in\ csl aiiyipiie with a church benefice withiiul tlic p:ip;d .sanction. The Norman leader, Robert (luiscard, however, maintained a suspicious attitude towards the pope, and at the Lenten Synod (1075) tlregory solemnly excommunicated him for his
general debasement. The tenth century, the saddest sacrilegious invasion of the territory of the Holy See
perhaps, in Christian annals, is characterized by the (Capua and Benevento). During the year 1074 the
vivid remark of Baronius that Christ was as if asleep in pope's mind was also greatly occupied by the project
the vessel of the Church. At the time of liCo IX's of an expedition to the East for the deliverance of the
election in 1049, according to the testimony of St. Oriental Christians from the oppression of the Seljuk
Bruno, Bishop of Segni, "the whole world lay in Turks. To promote the cause of a crusade, and to
wickedness, holiness had dis
appeared, justice had perished
and truth had been buried;
Simon Magus lording it over
the Church, whose bishops and
priests were given to luxury
and fornication (Vita S.
Leonis PP. IX in Watterich,
Pont. Roman. Vitse, I, 96).
St. Peter Damian, the fiercest
censor of his age, unrolls a
frightful picture of the decay of
clerical morality in the lurid
pages of his " Liber Gomor-
rhianus" (Book of Gomorrha).
Though allowance must no
doubt be made for the writer's
exaggerated and rhetorical
style — a style common to all
moral censors — yet the evi-
dence derived from other
sources justifies us in believing
that the corruption was wide-
spread. In writing to his ven-
erated friend. Abbot Hugh of
Cluny (Jan., 1075), Gregory
himself laments the unhappy
state of the Church in the fol-
lowing terms: "The Eastern
Church has fallen away from
the Faith and is now assailed
on every side by infidels.
Wherever I turn my eyes — to
the west, to the north, or to
K iX-R^M A^rtM Cii' 'fl1\rbllj)li"Sum>Lic'>TAT<J;
Emperoh Henry IV Kneeling before Cuuntes;
Matilda at Canossa
" Rex rogat AbbalemI Mathildim supplicat .atque.'
From a MS. "Life of Matilda" (1114) by Donizo,
a monk of Canossa, Vatican Library, Rome
effect, if possible, a reunion be-
tween the Eastern and the
Western Church — hopes of
which had been held out by
the Emperor Michael VIII in
Ids letter to Gregory in 1073
— the pontiff sent the Patriarch
of Venice to Constantinople as
his envoy. He wrote to the
( hristian princes, urging them
to rally the hosts of Western
('liristentlom for the defence of
the Christian East; and in
March, 1074, addressed a cir-
cular letter to all the faithful,
exhorting them to come to the
rescue of their Eastern breth-
ren. But the project met with
much indifference and even op-
position ; and as Gregory him-
self soon became involved in
complications elsewhere, which
demanded all his energies, he
was prevented from giving ef-
fect to his intentions, and the
expedition came to naught.
With the youthful monarch of
Germany Gregory's relations
in the beginning of his pontifi-
cate were of a pacific nature.
Henry, who was at the time
hard pressed by the Saxons,
had written to the pope (Sept.,
1073) in a tone of humble
the south — I find everywhere bishops who have ob- deference, acknowledging his past misconduct, and
tained their office in an irregular way, whose lives and expressing regret for his numerous misdeeds — his
conversation are strangely at variance with their sacred invasion of the property of the Church, his simoniacal
calling; who go through their duties not for the love of promotions of unworthy persons, his negligence in
Christ but from motives of worldly gain . There are no punishing offenders ; he promised amendment for the
longer princes who set God's honour before their own future, professed submission to the Roman See in
selfish ends, or who allow justice to stand in the way of language more gentle and lowly than had ever been
their ambition .... And those among whom I live
— Romans, Lombards, and Normans — are, as I have
often told them, worse than Jews or Pagans" (Greg.
VII, Registr., 1. II, ep. xlix)
used by any of his predecessors to the pontiffs of
Rome, and expressed the hope that the royal power
and the sacerdotal, bound together by the necessity
of mutual assistance, might henceforth remain indis-
But whatever the personal feelings and anxieties of solubly united. But the passionate and headstrong
Gregory may have been in taking up the burden of the king did not long abide by these sentiments,
papacy at a time when scandals and abuses were With admirable discernment, Gregory began his
everywhere pressing into view, the fearless pontiff great work of purifying the Church by a reformation
felt not a moment's hesitation as to the performance of the clergy. At his First Lenten Synod (March,
of his duty in carrying out the work of reform already 1074) he enacted the following decrees:
begun by his predecessors. Once securely established (1) That clerics who had obtained any grade or
on the Apostolic throne, Gregory made every effort to office of sacred orders by payment should cease to
stamp out of the Church the two consuming evils of minister in the Church. (2) That no one who had
the age, simony and clerical incontinency, and, with purchased any church should retain it, and that no
characteristic energy and vigour, laboured unceas- one for the future should be permitted to buy or sell
ingly for the assertion of those lofty principles with ecclesiastical rights. (3) That all who were guilty of
■which he firmly believed the welfare of Christ's Church incontinence should cease to exercise their sacred
and the regeneration of society itself to be inseparably ministry. (4) That the people should reject the
bound up. His first care, naturally, was to secure his ministrations of clerics who failed to obey these in-
