Hildebrand’s Papal Triumph

This series has four easy 5 minute installments. This first installment: Hildebrand Becomes Pope Gregory VII.

Introduction
The separation of church ad state is a modern concept. Before that the norm was the world powers treated their religions as part of their domains.

During its first centuries the Christian religion was marked by its independence from the states where it existed. Then the Roman Empire established it as the official state religion. The popes and the other patriarchs were effectively subordinated to the imperial rule. Then the Dark Age shattered the established government of western Europe and the church regained its independence under the power of the papacy. But then the age ended, new powers established themselves, and the age-old norm established itself.

When a monk named Hildebrand first came to Rome in 1044 the Catholic Church (which is to say much of Christianity) was in a sad state. His legacy was a milestone in the relations of church and state.

The selections are from:

• The Church in Italy by Arthur Robert Pennington published in 1893.
• Histoire des Souverains Pontifes Romains by Artaud De Montor published in 1842.

For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

There’s 2 installments by Arthur Robert Pennington and 1 installments by Artaud De Montor.

We begin with Arthur Robert Pennington (1814-1899). He was an Anglican clergyman and church historian.

Place: The Vatican

The time had come when Hildebrand was to receive the reward of the important services which he had rendered to the holy see. He had been the ruling spirit under five popes — Leo, Victor, Stephen, Nicholas, and Alexander — four of whom were indebted to him for their election. But now he must himself be raised to the papal throne.

The clergy were assembled in the Lateran Church to celebrate the obsequies of Alexander. Hildebrand, as archdeacon, was performing the service. Suddenly, in the midst of the requiem for the departed, a shout was heard which seemed to come as if by inspiration from the assembled multitude: “Hildebrand is Pope! St. Peter chooses the archdeacon Hildebrand!”

From the funeral procession Hildebrand flew to the pulpit, and with impassioned gestures seemed to be imploring silence. The storm, however, did not cease till one of the cardinals, in the name of the sacred college, declared that they had unanimously elected him whom the people had chosen. Arrayed in scarlet robes, crowned with the papal tiara, Gregory VII ascended the chair of St. Peter.

The Pope very soon made known the course which he should pursue. He issued a prohibition against the marriage of the clergy, and in a council at Rome abolished the right of investiture.* He was determined to redress the wrongs of society. He had seen oppression laying waste the fairest provinces of Europe, he had seen many princes, goaded on by the revengeful passions of their nature, flinging wide their standard to the winds, and dipping their hands in the blood of those who, if Christianity be not a fable, were their very brothers. A magnificent vision rose up before him. He would rule the world by religion; he would be the caesar of the spiritual monarchy. He and a council of prelates, annually assembled at Rome, would constitute a tribunal from whose judgment there should be no appeal, empowered to hold the supreme mediation in matters relating to the interests of the body politic, to settle contested successions to kingdoms; and to compel men to cease from their dissensions.

[* That is, the right of the civil power to grant church offices at will, and to invest ecclesiastics with symbols of their offices and receive their oaths of fealty.]

The civil power was to pledge itself to be prompt in the execution of their decrees against those who despised their authority. But if the decisions of those judges were to carry weight, they must be men of unblemished integrity. The purity of their ermine must be altogether unsullied. The sale of the highest spiritual offices by the prince, who had deprived the clergy and people of their right to elect them, which had stained the hands of the Church and undermined its power, must be altogether forbidden. Elections must be free. The custom of investiture by sovereigns with the ring and crozier, which had rendered the hierarchy and clergy the creatures of their will, must be forbidden.

The clergy must possess an absolute exemption from the criminal justice of the state. They must recognize but one ruler, the pope, who disposed of them indirectly through the bishops or directly in cases of exemption, and used them as tools for the execution of his behests. In fact, they were to constitute a vast army, exclusively devoted to the service of an ecclesiastical monarch.

They must be unconnected by marriage with the world around them, that they might be bound more closely to one another and to their head; that they might be saved from the temptation of restless projects for the advancement of their families, which have caused so much scandal in the world; and that they might give an exalted idea of their sanctity, inasmuch as, in order that they might give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, they would forego that connubial bliss, the portion of those,

The happiest of their kind,
Whom gentler stars unite and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes,
and their beings blend.”

The marriage of the clergy was everywhere more or less repugnant to the general feeling of Christendom. The rise and progress of asceticism in the Church had their source in human nature, and its growth was quickened by a reaction from the immorality of paganism. The general effect on the position of the clergy was to compel them to keep progress with the prevailing movement. Men consecrated to the service of Jehovah must rise superior to the common herd of their fellow-creatures.

By a decree of Pope Siricius at the end of the fourth century marriage was interdicted to all priests and deacons. This decree was, however, very imperfectly observed during the following centuries. The general feeling was, however, at this time very strongly against the married clergy. But throughout the spiritual realm of Hildebrand in Italy, from Calabria to the Alps, the clergy had risen up in rebellion against him and the popes his predecessors when they attempted to coerce them into celibacy. We believe that this opposition, much more than the strife as to investitures, was the cause of the strong feeling, almost unprecedented, which existed against Gregory VII.

Artaud De Montor begins here.

More information here and here and below.

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