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Saint Gregory has been criticized in past generations as an ambitious tyrant, even being called 'Holy Satan.' He is now generally recognized as having pursued an uncompromising policy that was driven by a desire for justice. In this paper, I am going to show how Gregory VII tried to lead the corrupting Catholic church back to the way he thought was just. It is said that Pope Gregory VII began his life in Ravaco, Tuscany, Italy, in the year 1021. The son of a poor carpenter, Gregory was baptized with the name Hildebrand. His modest beginnings made him indifferent to the materialism of most clergy of the period. As a young man, he was placed in the care of an uncle who was the superior of the monastery of Saint Mary on the Aventine in Rome, was professed a Benedictine, and educated at the Lateran school. Squat and insignificant in appearance, Hildebrand had great force and ability. One of his teachers, John Gratian, was so impressed with him that when he became pope in May 1045 as Gregory VI, he appointed Hildebrand as his secretary. He accompanied Gregory VI into Germany when he was deposed in December 1046. According to tradition, after Gratian's death in 1047, Hildebrand became a monk at Cluny.
He forgave his enemies as he lay dying and lifted all excommunications he had declared with the exceptions of Henry IV and Guibert. We can take it as his own judgement of his life. He had great and imperial aims and a noble courage. Gregory was generally successful with his reforms in England except in the matter of lay investiture, which William the Conqueror refused to surrender; gradually Gregory succeeded in France by replacing practically the whole episcopate; but in Germany and northern Italy he met continued resistance. I forbid all Christians to obey him as king, and I release all who have made or shall make oath to him as king from the obligation of their oath. As a Lutheran, I do not agree with Gregory VII for playing "vicar for Christ" and following the Petrine Doctrine. Gregory was the first pope who didn't let the intimidation of powerful kings stop him from doing what was right for the church. Though he did not clearly win the struggle, he did delineate the issues, particularly that of lay investiture, which 37 years after his death was won by the Concordat of Worms in 1122, when Emperor Henry V guaranteed the free election of bishops and abbots and renounced the right to invest them with the ring and staff--the symbols of their spiritual authority. He was refused admission and spent three days, barefoot and dressed as a penitent, in the snow at the gate of the castle.
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