The Life and Times of Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII

by Arnold Harris Mathew

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Genres: History

354 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kevin de Ataíde · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critical history of the life and times of one of the greatest of the Popes, Gregory VII, also known as Hildebrand. At a difficult time in history, Gregory sought both to reform the clergy and to fight for the freedom of the Church against the power of primarily the kings of Germany, dominant in the north, and secondarily the rising Norman power in the south. Gregory's main projects with regard to the reform of the clergy were the enforcement of the celibacy of the clergy, an apostolic concept long forgotten, particularly in the German territories and in the north of Italy; and also the end of simony in the appointment of bishops in Europe. In both respects, the Pope faced enormous opposition and never completely succeeded, despite his courage and persistence. With regard to the freedom of the Church, Gregory fought to eliminate the investiture of the clergy by powerful lay-men, a work that would only be completed by his successors. The book describes in graphic detail Gregory's growing battles with the young German king Henry IV, who wished to retain the his hereditary control of the papacy and the German episcopate and who had the great ambition of being anointed Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. It was inevitable that the Pope should lose the fight and Rome pay for his fortitude, but his understanding of a papacy that stood at a level above the kings of Europe in both the spiritual and the temporal domains (what the author calls a hierocratic system) was to last for several centuries and be advanced by later popes. Despite the author's attempt to paint the Pope as unnecessarily harsh and a warmongerer, and so not very Saintly, his virtue and his love for the Church and for his position as the Successor of Peter are compelling. May he always pray for the Church as she continues to grapple with similar problems even today.