Pope Gregory VII and His Attempts to Reform the Church

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Pope Gregory VII lived in times of great upheaval when there were great struggles among the clergy, between the church and King Henry IV, and between different aristocratic classes. During the 11th century, the Church was losing its hold on the masses because of the misdeeds of the clergy. Not only had the clergy taken to immoral habits but they had resorted to the practice of Simony where members of the clergy attempted to buy higher positions such as those of Bishops and Cardinals. Even with the fall in standards, the Church still held sway over the masses and Kings attempted to gain control of different dioceses by attempting to place their priests in power. Pope Gregory VII was appalled at the fall in morals and the despicable acts that the clergy practiced, all shaded under the cloak of the Church. Consequently, he initiated some very bold actions to reform the church and society by putting a stop to the practice of Simony (Gregory and Cluny, p, 122-130).

The practice of Simony was not done publicly but was carried out furtively and aristocrats along with devious priests attempted to gain important positions such as those of cardinals and even the position of the pope. These people were very powerful and commanded vast armies and had ample funds that they used to effectively buy power. Clearly, faith, piety, absolution, penance and prayer were forgotten and in its place, corruption, nepotism and illicit practices had taken root. Therefore, when Pope Gregory VII attempted to bring in reforms, he faced fierce resistance from the aristocracy and the corrupt clergy (Gregory and Cluny, p, 122-130).

There were indeed some issues regarding Simony that were not clear. The clergy in those times had education and were scholars while many Kings were illiterate. Consequently, the Kings employed the clergy for administrative tasks and the affinity extended beyond the temporal duties to exerting influence over the masses, using the clergy as a tool. The pope was against such practices and believed that the main and only duty of the clergy was to instill piety among the masses and prevent them from committing sins. Pope Gregory VII needed some royal support for the reforms he planned so he exchanged letters with King Henry IV. The wily king initially appeared to agree with the reforms against Simony and initiated actions against some errant members of the clergy. They realized that making an ally of the holy pope was a much better option than attempting to fight with him. The Pope came from a humble background and enjoyed immense support among the clergy and the people.

Among the notable fights that the Pope wages against Simony are the incident of the Bishop Hermann of the Church of Bamberg. The Bishop stood accused of the worst forms of Simony and other unspeakable sins such as fornication. The Bishop was summoned to Rome for a hearing but instead of appearing before the tribunal, the Bishop waited outside the walls of the city and sent expensive gifts to the tribunal in an attempt to buy them over. The incensed Pope commanded strict action against the Bishop who was forced out of the church by the Apostolic See. The King used his royal powers to subdue the Bishop. In a thankful letter, the pope commends the King for his bold actions against simony.

An extract from the letter says “Among other praiseworthy actions, my beloved son to which you are reported to have risen in your efforts at self-improvement, there are two that have specially commended you to your holy mother, the Roman Church: first that you have valiantly withstood those guilty of Simony and second that you freely approve and strenuously desire to enforce the chastity of the clergy as servants of God” (Letters of Gregory, p. 80).

The letter speaks of a positive relationship between the Pope and the King and while the pope appreciates the actions taken by the king, there are hopes that this line of positive approach would continue. The action against the Bishop had a very telling effect on the Church and many errant clergies attempted to mend their ways.

Other than the King, the pope was relentless against the practice of Simony and the misdeeds of Bishop of Strasbourg came to his notice. The pope has written a very strong and persuasive letter to Siegfried, the archbishop of Maiz and he urges strong action against the Bishop. The pope suspected collusion of the Archbishop and the Bishop of Strasbourg and the pope feared that nothing would be done to punish the Bishop.

An extract from the letter says “Since we are aware that you are being dissuaded by many carnally minded persons from working diligently and faithfully…lest you suffer a loss of fortune and incur the enmity of the Almighty…that you venture no to turn aside front the straight way through ear or favor or through any loss of earthly goods…” (Letters of Gregory, p. 82-84).

The power of the Pope seems to have worked and the errant Bishop was divested of his powers.

It seems that matters between the King and the Pope were cordial. The problem with King Henry IV arose when the King returned after defeating the Saxons. Unfortunately, the King attempted to gain a high ecclesiastical office by practicing simony. The king was attempting to gain a high office of the Church by buying support from other crooked members of the clergy. The pope hearing about this issued a stern warning asking the king to desist.

The pop writes “…we forbid you in the name of Almighty…to accept any grade of holy orders remembering that if you do not now consider yourself to be within our obedience, you will repent it when you shall find yourself so deeply involved through your own rashness that you cannot extricate yourself when you wish to do” (Letters of Gregory, p. 86).

The king, fresh from his victory felt emboldened enough to disregard a direct order from the Pope. What further incensed the Pope was when the king gave shelter to some priests who were excommunicated due to serious charges of simony and other crimes. The obdurate priests were not ready to serve penance and the king had taken upon himself to confer the Sees of Fermo and Spoleto to the discredited priests. After soundly castigating the errant king over this desecration, the pope reminds the king that at a recent Synod in Rome, the congregation observed that the order of Christianity had been severely disturbed and people no longer accepted the power of the Church. The pope strongly urges the King to desist in the name of God (Letters of Gregory, p. 86-90).

King Henry IV, perhaps under the ill advice of the discredited priests still chose to ignore the warnings and order from the pope. In a bold decision, the Pope called a special meeting of the College of Cardinals and succeeded in excommunicating the errant Siegfried, the archbishop of Maiz and the Bishop of Lombardy. The obstinate King still refused to relent and atone for his sins. After due inquiry, the pope took the extreme step of ex-communicating King Henry IV himself (Letters of Gregory, p. 90-91). When a King is ex-communicated, he no longer is regarded as a Christian and worse, loses the right to be the king and this was the worst punishment that could be meted out.

To reassure the public that order had been restored in the Church, the Pope has written a general letter to all the people explaining as to why ex-communication had been taken and how the King had erred. He also wrote several letters to Hermann of Metz, The German Clergy, to the rulers of Spain and many other people to draw support for the actions. While the Pope did have a number of enemies, the majority of the aristocracy and the masses supported his actions.

The king did try to muster support and get the ex-communication turned down but he was not successful. He even attempted to get the pope killed but realized that the repercussions for such a deed would get him killed. A thoroughly chastise King showed his repentance and did penance to atone for his sins. The pope then had to accept him back into the Christian religion as according to the holy book, if a repentant sinner atones for his sins and does penance, he has to be admitted back into the fold (Letters of Gregory, p. 122, 123, 166 – 175). The lesson that spread across the lands was that even the King is not above the church and he would be punished if he sinned.

Pope Gregory has realized that something drastic was required to reform the church and the main problem was the corrupt clergy. Waging a general battle with all members would have only resulted in failure and deep resentment among even good priests. The issue of Simony was a good opportunity to tackle corruption and by targeting high profile targets rather than low-level priests, the pope ensured that the fight against ill practices in the church would percolate to the lowest levels. Once Simony was rooted out at the highest level, the lower levels of the priests and pastors would realize that they had to mend their ways and follow the true path of their faith. With the corruption rooted out from the church, the practices were reformed and people regained their faith in the church.

References

Letters of Gregory VII, The first book and the fourth book.

Gregory and Cluny, The Spiritual concerns of the eleventh century.

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Pope Gregory VII and His Attempts to Reform the Church

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