GREGORY VII, SAINT

born c. 1020, , near Soana, Papal States died May 25, 1085, Salerno, Principality of Salerno; canonized 1606; feast day May 25 original name Hildebrand, Italian Ildebrando one of the great reform popes of the Middle Ages (reigned 1073-85). Mainly a spiritual rather than a political leader, he attacked various abuses in the church. From 1075 onward he was engrossed in a contest with Emperor Henry IV over lay investiture (the right of lay rulers to grant church officials the symbols of their authority). Additional reading A primary source is the correspondence of Gregory. His registrum and other letters may be found in Erich Caspar, Das Register Gregors VII (1955); J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 148 (1888); and selections from the registrum in Ephraim Emerton, The Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII (1932). Augustin Fliche, La Rforme Grgorienne, vol. 2 (1924), is devoted entirely to Gregory and has an excellent critical study of the sources. Brian Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050-1300 (1964), is a perceptive account containing some of the key documents. See also Walter Ullman, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages (1955); and Schafer Williams, The Gregorian Epoch (1964), an interesting and provocative selection of extracts from historians who disagree on Gregory.