Gregory VII (c. 1020-1085)

Pope from 1073 and Catholic saint. He was chief minister to several popes before his election to the papacy, and was one of the great ecclesiastical reformers. He aroused the imperial wrath by prohibiting the abuse of investiture, and was declared deposed by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in 1076. His feast day is 25 May. He was canonized in 1606.

He claimed power to depose kings, denied lay rights to make clerical appointments, and attempted to suppress simony (the buying and selling of church preferments) and to enforce clerical celibacy, making enemies of both rulers and the church.

He was born at Soana in Tuscany, Italy, educated in the monastery of St Maria on the Aventine, and afterwards at Cluny. He accompanied Leo IX to Rome in 1049, and entered holy orders. After being deposed by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV Gregory made him submit to a humiliating penance at Canossa in 1077. In 1080 Henry again pretended to depose Gregory, proclaimed in his place the antipope Clement III, and laid siege to Rome in the years 1081-84. Gregory was relieved by Robert Guiscard, and withdrew to Salerno, where he died.