In January 1077, Pope Gregory VII—the infamous Hildebrand, who is enrolled among the saints although no one ever refers to him as one—could celebrate from his papal throne the first anniversary of his deposition. The previous year, at a synod convened in Worms, the Emperor Henry IV, together with the ever-difficult German bishops, had declared Gregory was no longer pope; he was deposed, and they called on the Romans to choose a new bishop. Gregory remained pope nonetheless, bidding utter defiance to any attempt to unseat him. He excommunicated Henry and declared all imperial vassals freed of their oaths to the impious emperor. Shortly thereafter the ever-difficult German princes of Saxony were in open revolt. Anxious for the opportunity to name one of their own the next emperor, they named a date for the selection of Henry’s successor. Just after New Year’s in 1077, Gregory received word, while in Bologna, that Henry had crossed the Alps. He was coming to settle accounts with the defiant pontiff.
Gregory could not meet an imperial attack in the field. He fled. The closest safe house was the hilltop fortress of Matilda of Tuscany, the redoubtable “Gran Contessa” of medieval Italy and a reliable defender of the pope. The fortress was at Canossa. There the pope waited for the better part of a month.
It was not unusual, in the eleventh century, for individuals hearing of the near presence of a pope to travel on foot to seek absolution from him. So there was nothing immediately peculiar on January 25th, when the pope was informed that a penitent family—a husband, wife, and suckling child—had arrived at the gate of the castle to see him. They wore sackcloth. They had come barefoot through the snow of the worst winter in decades. This too was not entirely unheard of, though even then being barefoot in the snow hurt. What was unusual—memorable to this day, in fact—was that this was the Holy Roman Emperor himself, Henry IV, King of Italy, King of Germany, King of Bavaria. With him was his wife the queen and the crown prince. The Emperor laid his diadem upon the ground and knelt in the snow, awaiting the pope.
The pope refused to see him for three days. Still the young family waited, until, as Gregory wrote…
