Digital Continent Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul 2016 | Page 86

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against the reform pope and forcing him into exile as he exited Rome with his protectors.167
Four years after he had initially deposed Henry, thirteen cardinals and various other prelates and
members of the papal administration abandoned him because he would not make any
concessions and the impatient Romans had opened the gates to his enemy. Exiled to Salerno, he
died under the protection of the Normans in May of 1085.168 On his deathbed he absolved all of
his enemies who believed in his ability to do so but some he named and excluded from this
grace, such as King Henry IV. He ordered on behalf of God and by the authority of the Apostles
Peter and Paul that none would be accepted as pontiff without a free and canonical election as
the Holy Fathers intended.169 “His last words, ‘I have loved justice, hated iniquity, that is why I
die in exile,’ found many commentators. P.E. Hubinger more recently connected the pontiff’s
words . . . with one of the clauses of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ [Matt. 5:10].”170
Despite all else he was secure in the knowledge that he never succumbed to what he knew to be
juxtaposed to the Christian Church.
In Defense of Pope Gregory VII
From his days as a monk until the end of his life as pope, Gregory VII was passionate and
zealous. As archdeacon, he had appealed to Peter Damian for assistance on reform because both
167

Carroll, 511-12.

168

Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy, 126.

169

Miller, 115.

170

Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy, 126.