After Gregory excommunicated him, or removed him from the Church, Henry lost the support of his nobles. Therefore in January 1077, in a symbolic act of humility and submission, he appeared at the castle of Canossa (kuh-NAH-suh) in northern Italy, where the pope was staying, and waited barefoot outside in the snow for hours until the pope forgave him. By then Henry was caught up in a war with the Duke of Swabia, a region in Germany, and Gregory tried to help the
Pope Gregory VII. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc.
Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII (c. 1020-1085) was born with the name Hildebrand, and thus he was sometimes referred to as Gregory VII Hildebrand. He spent his early career as a monk, a figure within the Church who forsakes the world in order to pursue a life of prayer and meditation. Soon, however, he became involved in Church leadership, serving first as chaplain to Pope Gregory VI from 1045 to 1047.
When Gregory VI was removed from power on charges of simony (accepting money to appoint people to offices within the Church) and sent away to Germany, Hildebrand went with him. In 1049, however, he returned to Rome to serve as advisor to Pope Leo IX, and during the next quarter-century he served in a number of important functions. Finally, in 1075 he was elected pope himself.
Seeking to assert the authority of the popes over political leaders, Gregory quickly issued an order against lay investiture (appointment of Church officials by laymen, or people who were not priests or Church leaders themselves). This aroused the anger of Emperor Henry IV, and the next decade was marked by an on-again, off-again struggle with Henry. Finally, in 1084, Henry removed Gregory from power. Gregory died a year later, but because the man who replaced him was judged an antipope (a false claimant to the title of pope), official Church history holds that Gregory remained rightful pope until his death.
Two settle the dispute; but in 1080, the same year that the Duke of Swabia defeated Henry, Gregory again excommunicated the emperor.
Four years later, in 1084, Henry marched his troops into Rome and removed Gregory from power, replacing him with Clement III (c. 1025-1100), who was later judged by Church authorities as an antipope, or unlawful claimant on
Henry IV kneels before Matilda of Tuscany. Matilda was a powerful supporter of Henry's opponent, Pope Gregory VII. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.
The title of pope. Gregory died a year later, in exile under the protection of the Guiscard (gee-SKARD) family who controlled Sicily. Henry lived another twenty years, but he suffered a sad fate similar to that of Gregory: in 1105, one of his sons had him dethroned and imprisoned, and though he escaped, he died soon afterward.
Meanwhile the world moved on. A new pope, Urban II (ruled 1088-99), had inherited Gregory's enthusiasm for papal authority. He would launch the First Crusade (1095-99), a war to recapture the Holy Land, or Palestine, from the Muslims who controlled it. In so doing, he would greatly build up the power of the popes. For the next three centuries, the papacy would be the center of political authority in Western Europe.
Did you know...
• When Henry went to visit Gregory in the castle at Canos-sa and beg his forgiveness, he was dressed in a plain woolen shirt with bare feet as a symbol of his submission to the pope. Gregory made him wait outside in the snow—it was January—for three days. Later, the expression "going to Canossa" came to symbolize an act of humility before a leader.
•One of Gregory's most powerful supporters, and indeed one of the most significant female leaders of medieval Western Europe, was the princess Matilda of Tuscany (1046-1115), owner of the castle at Canossa. She waged a number of wars against Henry between 1080 and 1106.
• England had its own version of the Investiture Controversy, involving King William II (ruled 1087-1100) and Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1034-1109), one of the most important thinkers in medieval Europe. Later Anselm set-
Tied his differences with William's younger brother Henry I (ruled 1100-1135).
World History
