Gregory VII

Gregory VII

GREGORY VII (Hildebrand, c. 1020–1085), pope of the Roman Catholic Church (1073–1085). The facts of Hildebrand's youth and education are hazy. He was born in Tuscany, perhaps at Soana, at an undetermined date: c.1015 according to Cowdrey; Blumenthal says 1020/1025. He went to Rome early in his life and became a professed religious. The tradition that Hildebrand was a monk, perhaps at the Benedictine house of Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine, is strong, although recently Blumenthal suggested that he was instead a regular canon. For a time he was a student of the learned and exiled Bishop Laurentius of Amalfi, and also was active in the service of Pope Gregory VI (1045–1046), with whom he had a familial connection. In January 1047, Hildebrand accompanied this pontiff into exile in Germany, after Gregory's deposition by Emperor Henry III and the Synod of Sutri (December 1046). That exile is the first precisely datable event in the future pope's life. A later tradition that Hildebrand became a monk at Cluny almost certainly is erroneous, although he may well have stayed in that house for a time before his return south. That return occurred in the company of Bishop Bruno of Toul, who in 1049 journeyed to Rome to become Pope Leo IX (1049–1054).

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