St. Gregory VII

Gregory VII is one of the hardest and greatest reforming popes, a man whose whole pontificate was consumed by the effort to free the Church from corruption and servitude. Born Hildebrand and long trained in Roman reform circles before becoming pope, he came to office with a fierce sense that simony, clerical disorder, and lay domination of spiritual offices could not be tolerated any longer. The struggle with emperors, especially Henry IV, was not a personal duel floating above principle. It belonged to a much larger effort to restore the freedom and holiness of the Church. Canossa appears here, but only as one episode in a much longer war of principle, excommunication, reconciliation, renewed betrayal, exile, and endurance.

Gregory was severe, and he was feared, but that severity is not treated as naked willfulness. It was joined to prayer, conviction, and a willingness to suffer for reform. He died far from peace, but the work he fought for outlived him. The whole life leaves the picture of a pope whose sanctity took the form of relentless public duty.