Sources

FOOTNOTES:

[418:1] See [Chapter XVI.]

[418:2] The Pope's wife was still living at the time of his election. His daughter, a maiden of forty, was abducted by the son of Bishop Aresenius. When threatened with punishment, the abductor murdered the Pope's wife and daughter. See Schaff, iv., 277.

[419:1] Robinson, Readings, i., 245.

[419:2] Alzog, ii., § 187; Hefele, iv., 575; Gregorovius, iii., 282; Pertz, v., 297; Migne, vol. 136, 827, 852; Robinson, Readings, i., 251.

[419:3] See [Chapter XVII.]

[420:1] See [Chapter XVII.]

[420:2] Jaffé, 50; Hefele, iv., 707.

[420:3] Bömer, Regesta, v., 3. See Hauck, iii., 57-59. But it must be remembered that among these wicked Popes there appeared here and there a Pope distinguished for purity of life. Such were John IX. (898-900), Benedict IV. (900-903), Anastasius III. (911-913), Leo VI. (928-929).

[421:1] Gieseler, ii., 332.

[421:2] Mansi, xviii., 270.

[421:3] Alzog, ii., § 200.

[422:1] Alzog, ii., § 200.

[423:1] Greenwood, bk. ix., ch. 3.

[423:2] Ibid., bk. x., ch. 1.

[424:1] Read his address to the Council of Pavia in Fisher, Mediæval Empire, ii., 68. Cf. Greenwood, bk. ix., ch. 3, 4.

[424:2] Clement II., Damascus II., Leo IX., Victor II. Thatcher and McNeal, No. 57.

[425:1] Robinson, Readings, i., 259.

[425:2] Migne, vol. 139, p. 85; Olleris, Œuvres de Gerbert.

[425:3] Mon. Ger. Hist., ii., 561.

[426:1] Mon. Ger. Hist., iii., 658.

[426:2] Milman, ii., 491.

[426:3] Ibid.

[426:4] Milman, ii., 493; Schaff, iv., 290.

[426:5] Milman, ii., 496.

[426:6] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 56.

[427:1] Mansi, xix., 625.

[427:2] Migne, vol. 120, p. 9-166; Mon. Ger. Hist., iv., 616; Neander, iii., 420; Butler, Lives of the Saints.

[427:3] Hook, Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury; Green, Conquest of England; Dictionary of National Biography; Milman, bk. viii, ch. 1; Butler, Lives of the Saints; Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy.

[428:1] Henderson, 329; Ogg, § 42.

[428:2] Maitland, Dark Ages.

[429:1] Duckett, Charters and Records Illust. of the Eng. Foundations of the Ancient Abbey of Clugny (1077-1534).

[429:2] Migne, vol. 144, p. 953; Mabillon, iii., iv.

[431:1] Mabillon, Ann. Ord. Benedict., iii., iv., gives his life by Peter Damiani; Sachur, Die Cluniozenser bis zur Mitte des 11th Jahrh.; Heimbucher, Die Orden u. Kongregat. der Kath. Kirche.

[431:2] Mon. Ger. Hist., xii., 209.

[432:1] Giseke, Die Hirschauer während des Investiturstreites, 1883.

[433:1] Migne, vol. 144, p. 145; Vagler, Peter Damiani; Neukirch, Das Leben des Peter Damiani; Neander, iii., 382, 397; Hefele, iv.; Cooper, Flagellation and the Flagellants; Schaff, iv., 787.

[434:1] Cf. Greenwood, bk. ix., ch. 4.

[435:1] Bruno, Vita S. Leonis IX.

[435:2] Mansi, xix., 705.

[437:1] A large number of legends soon sprang up about Leo IX.

[437:2] Bonizo, ii., 804; Muratori, iv., 403.

[437:3] Harduin, vi., 1039.

[437:4] Ibid.; Bonizo, 806.

[438:1] Greenwood, bk. x., ch. 1, p. 156.

[439:1] Greenwood, bk. x., ch. 1, p. 160.

[439:2] Henderson, 361.

[439:3] Mansi, xix., 898.

[439:4] Bowden, i., 200; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 59; Henderson, 361; Alzog, § 190.

[440:1] Greenwood, bk. x., ch. 1, pp. 162, 163.

[440:2] Alzog, § 194.

[441:1] Bull Postquam, 1585.

[441:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 58.

CHAPTER XIX
GREGORY VII. AND HIS WORK

Outline: I.—Condition of the Church in 1073. II.—Election of Hildebrand as Pope. III.—Gregory VII.'s matured papal theory and reform ideas. IV.—His efforts to realise his ideals. V.—The investiture strife. VI.—Conclusions. VII.—Sources.

In 1073 the Church had been raised from the lowest condition to a comparatively high moral plane by the imperial reforms, the labours of earnest German Popes, the Clugniac reformation, and the Hildebrandine Popes. The papal crown was no longer the plaything of a Roman noble, nor the tool of the German Emperor, but had become largely independent of both and a mighty power in Europe. This change was due to the character of the Emperors and Popes, to the religious enthusiasm of the age, to the political confusion in Germany, and to the labours of Hildebrand, particularly in creating the College of Cardinals. A positive reform movement had also been started in the Church, but it remained to be continued and completed. The time, therefore, seemed ripe for the work of a great Pope like Hildebrand.

For twenty-five years Hildebrand had been the power behind the papal throne. He had largely moulded the policy of eight successive Popes, he was the recognised champion of reformation in the Church, he had developed the constitution of the Papacy, he had managed the finances of Rome, he had become

the greatest statesman and the shrewdest churchman in Europe, and he had formed a powerful party to champion his ideas.

Alexander II. breathed his last April 21, 1073. Hildebrand directed that the next three days should be devoted to fasting, charity, and prayer, while the dead Pontiff was being interred, after which the regular election of a Pope would follow. The next day the funeral rites were being celebrated in the old church of St. John Lateran. The ancient structure was crowded to overflowing and Hildebrand, as archdeacon, was conducting the services, when suddenly a cry burst forth from the crowd, "Hildebrand, Hildebrand shall be our Pope. St. Peter chooses our Archdeacon Hildebrand." Rushing to the pulpit, Hildebrand implored silence, but his voice was drowned in the uproar.

Then Cardinal Hugo came forward, and said:

Well know ye, beloved brethren, that since the days of the blessed Leo, this tried and prudent archdeacon has exalted the Roman See and delivered this city from many perils. Wherefore, since we cannot find any one better qualified for the government of the Church, or the protection of the city, we, the bishops and archbishops, with one voice elect him as pastor and bishop of your souls.

The crowd approved by shouting, "It is the will of St. Peter. Hildebrand is Pope."[446:1] Then the cardinals led the popular favourite, protesting still and in tears, to the throne of St. Peter, and invested him with the scarlet robe and the tiara as Gregory VII. Like Charles the Great in 800, Gregory VII. pretended to be greatly surprised at this election, which certainly was irregular, if not uncanonical, because the customary three days

had not yet elapsed, the people had nominated and the cardinals had ratified—a complete reversal of the decree of 1059,—and the Emperor had not been consulted at all.

Hildebrand immediately assumed all the duties of his office, but at the same time wrote to Henry IV. stating all the circumstances attending his election and saying that he would refuse consecration until the Emperor should approve of his elevation.[447:1] The assertions that he asked Henry IV. not to confirm his election and that he threatened to punish the king if made Pope are very improbable.[447:2] Henry IV. was in a dilemma. He knew that Hildebrand had robbed him of the rights enjoyed by his father and predecessors; consequently the German nobles and simoniacal bishops urged him to annul the election and thus nip the violence of Hildebrand in the bud. He realised the strength of the Hildebrandine party, on the other hand, and feared the results of an open rupture with it in the unsettled condition of Germany. The diplomatic move of Hildebrand, however, seemed to offer a way for surrender under the garb of victory. Therefore Henry sent a trusted representative to Rome to demand an explanation of the illegal election of the Pope. Hildebrand simply stated that the office had been thrust upon him and that he had refused inauguration until the Emperor should consent to his election. Hence the Emperor was forced to confirm the action and forthwith sent his chancellor to witness the installation (June 30th) of Gregory VII.[447:3]

The papal philosophy of Gregory VII. was based upon the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. His conception of the Pope is summed up in the famous Dictatus Papæ in which he makes the successor of St. Peter God's representative on earth, the absolute sovereign of the Church, and the supreme feudal lord of the world.[448:1] This ideal he sought to realise in every particular. The clergy, according to his theory, were wholly dependent upon the Pope's will and must be absolutely free from every vice and worldly influence in order that they might labour only to save men's souls. Hence, he believed in the great need of reformation and in the correction of all abuses. The laity, from Emperor to slave, were entirely subjected to the Pope and his clergy in both temporal and spiritual matters, and therefore must render absolute obedience to the commands of the Church. In his reform policy as Pope, Gregory showed himself more hostile than ever against the crying evils of simony and the marriage or concubinage of the clergy. But twenty-five years of effort to cure these evils in the Church had taught him that the real cause of all the other evils was the subjection of the clergy to secular power. The solemn denunciations of simony by the Lateran councils were nil as long as kings and nobles offered each ecclesiastical office for sale to the highest bidder. It was useless to order the clergy to give up their luxurious habits and live in ascetic purity as long as they were tools of a licentious aristocracy. Therefore the papal ax must be laid at the very root of the evil,

namely, lay investiture and the secular control of the clergy.

In his first efforts to realise his lofty ideal, Gregory VII. desired to unite all Christendom under the suzerainty of the Pope and through this submission to conquer the world for God. On the very day of his consecration (April 30th) he sent Cardinal Hugo to Spain to replace the Gothic with the Roman ritual and thus to secure Spain as a papal fief.[449:1] A few days later he journeyed in person to southern Italy to secure renewal of the submission of the Normans. When Guiscard refused to comply with his demands, the Pope called on William of Burgundy for troops. Finally he had the Council of Rome excommunicate Guiscard and all his followers and thus forced their fealty.[449:2] He assumed feudal authority in Bohemia.[449:3] The Patriarch of Venice was sent to Constantinople to restore the friendly relations between the Greek and Roman churches.[449:4] He compelled the Italian nobles to swear to him the oath of allegiance.[449:5] He corrected the church of Carthage,[449:6] attempted to win over Swen, the King of Denmark, and forbade the King of Norway to interfere in Danish affairs.[449:7] He treated the King of Hungary as a vassal and rebuked him for recognising the King of Germany as his overlord.[449:8] Between the Duke of Poland and the King of Russia he

mediated and had the latter go to Rome to be crowned.[450:1] He forced the French King to promise obedience.[450:2] He voluntarily sought to act as arbiter between the German King and the Saxons.[450:3] He demanded Peter's pence from William the Conqueror. The pence was paid, but the oath of loyalty was refused. "I have not nor will I," said William, "swear fealty which was never sworn by any of my predecessors to yours."[450:4] He wrote an open letter to Christendom advocating a general crusade against the Mohammedans.[450:5] He asserted his right to end war and to dictate the terms of peace.[450:6] He declared it to be his duty to compel all rulers to govern their people in righteousness on pain of deposition.[450:7] In short, no region was too remote or too barbarous not to come within his idea of ecclesiastical unity and of papal suzerainty.[450:8]

As soon as elected Gregory VII. began to purify the Church by urging the bishops to enforce the laws against simony and celibacy which had been practically dead letters.[450:9] The King of France was called to account for his simoniacal practices and under threat of excommunication forced to promise reformation.[450:10] Early in 1074 a great reform council was summoned to meet in Rome.[450:11] Four famous reform decrees were enacted: (1) Churchmen guilty of simony were forbidden

to officiate in religious services. (2) Buyers of church properties were ordered to restore them and the traffic was prohibited for the future. (3) Priests guilty of marriage or concubinage were debarred from exercising clerical functions. Their blessings would be curses and their prayers sins. This was opposed to "once a priest always a priest." Later Wycliffe, Luther, and other reformers used this same idea with telling effect. (4) Laymen were commanded not to receive ministrations from clergymen guilty of violating these ordinances. Altogether these reform measures were the most radical yet passed. These revolutionary edicts were sent to the archbishops of the various countries with instructions to put them into immediate execution. A special delegation was sent to Henry IV. to inform him of the results of the council. It was headed by the Empress Agnes, Henry's mother, now a nun.[451:1] A solemn pledge was secured from the German King to execute the reform measures and to dismiss the five councillors, who had been put under the ban by Alexander II.

It will now be necessary to see how these reforms were received in the various countries. Celibacy will be considered first.[451:2] Historically this institution runs back through the Christian era to the Jewish period. Jewish priests married, but were forbidden to marry harlots, profane women, or widows.[451:3] The New Testament contains no absolute prohibition of marriage. The Apostles married[451:4]—even Peter—and the leaders of churches were advised to take unto

themselves wives,[452:1] but many passages were soon interpreted to favour celibacy.[452:2] The renunciation of all worldly enjoyments and the exaltation of the ascetic life above the social led to voluntary vows of celibacy as early as the second century. It was not long until the Church came to believe that the unmarried condition was the better for the clergy.[452:3] This belief soon developed a contempt for marriage; and the Popes Calixtus I. (221) and Lucius I. (255) are said to have forbidden the marriage of priests. In 385 the Bishop of Rome enjoined celibacy on all the clergy, and Innocent I., Leo the Great, and succeeding Popes followed the same policy. In the fourth century Church councils took up the question, and the East and the West began to diverge on the subject. All over western Europe councils and synods approved celibacy and sought to force it upon the Church over and over again. Civil law stepped in to confirm these papal and synodical decrees.

In 1073, although celibacy had been the law of the Church for a thousand years, it had never been universally enforced. The Hildebrandine Popes and the Clugniac reformers had made strenuous efforts to execute the reform edicts but had largely failed. In Italy, nearly all the clergy were married in Naples, while Lombardy, Florence, and Ravenna championed the institution; even in Rome itself the clergy were largely married. The sixty wardens in St. Peter's had wives. In Germany a majority of the clergy were opposed to celibacy and, consequently, they were ready to join the Emperor against the Pope. In France the

Norman bishops lived openly with their wives and families and the common priests of course followed their leaders. This was the situation which the new Pontiff was called upon to face.

Gregory VII. saw that to realise his theocracy the Church must have an open, democratic, priestly caste. Marriage would make that caste exclusive and hereditary, hence corrupt and worldly, and would thus cripple the Church from priest to Pope.[453:1] He believed that the enforcement of celibacy would cut the clergy free from the state and wed them to the Church. They would live with the Church as her protectors and not with the world. The Church would be both their bride and their heir. Hence he had the severe measure of 1074 passed and was resolved to enforce it all over Christendom. But the endeavour to execute this radical canon—to destroy an institution which many justified on both moral and natural grounds—to rend asunder ties of the tenderest nature on earth—"to make wives prostitutes and children bastards"—to break up families—was strongly resisted all over Europe.

In Germany the Pope was called a heretic and a madman for setting up such an insane dogma against the teaching of St. Paul. To make men live like angels was childish, it was declared, and would plunge the clergy into worse habits. The churchmen declared that they would be men and give up their priestly offices sooner than desert their families. Several of the bishops headed the anti-celibacy party and openly defied the Pope to enforce his law. The Archbishop of Mainz, as primate, called a council at Erfurt. When he read the decree he was greeted with howls and threats, and nearly lost his life. Other bishops who tried to

promulgate the act were treated in a similar manner. The threats of Gregory availed nothing.[454:1] The laity, however, probably incited by the Pope, made several outbreaks against the married priests, but without any decisive results, and the evil went on. In France the opposition exceeded that in Germany. A Paris synod repudiated the decree and an abbot who defended the Pope was beaten, spit upon, and dragged to prison.[454:2] The Archbishop of Rouen attempted to enforce celibacy but was stoned and compelled to flee.[454:3] The Pope fairly foamed with anger in letters to the French prelates,[454:4] but the hated edict was not enforced. In England the Pope made no special effort to enforce this reform measure.[454:5] Lanfranc held a council to reform the Church, but nothing further was done.[454:6] In Spain the papal legate was menaced and outraged by the clergy, when he tried to enforce celibacy.[454:7] In Hungary there was shown the same refusal to conform to the new order of things.[454:8] In Italy, Guiscard, the Norman ruler, led the anti-celibacy party in the south and prevented the execution of the order. In Lombardy, Florence, and Ravenna the hostility was very fierce. Milan defiantly quoted St. Ambrose as authority for a married priesthood.[454:9] Even in Rome itself the decree was executed only with the greatest difficulty. But in the face of all this opposition Gregory did not waver. Many of the reform party likewise

laboured incessantly with him to cure the evil. Ultimately, but not in his life time, the principle he fought for was to dominate.

Simony, one of the most wide-spread evils of the Middle Ages, originated with Simon Magnus who wished to buy the power of the Holy Spirit with money.[455:1] The term was gradually extended in its meaning from the buying or selling of the power of ordination to the purchase or sale of any ecclesiastical office or privilege. As early as the third century a rich matron bought the bishopric of Carthage for her servant.[455:2] This evil practice slowly grew in the Church, until Charles the Great made Church offices objects of eager desire to the worldly, then the crime spread to a fearful extent. The feudalisation of the Church made the evil very common from the Pope to priest and even gave it the appearance of legality.[455:3] Conrad II. openly offered bishoprics and abbeys for sale to the highest bidders.[455:4] In the time of Hildebrand the papal office itself was openly bought and sold. His own teacher, Gregory VI., had purchased the empty honour for one thousand pounds of silver. Archbishops purchased their sinecures and in turn compensated themselves by selling minor benefices to their subordinates. Bishoprics and abbacies were commonly sold to the highest bidders by the kings and nobles. The most ordinary ecclesiastical positions and even consecrations to the priesthood were sold. So wide-spread indeed was the practice that it was generally viewed as normal and legitimate.[455:5]

Opposition to the evil early appeared and, from the fourth century, councils and synods denounced it. In 829 the Council of Paris asked the King to destroy "this heresy so detestable, this pest so hateful to God."[456:1] All of the good Popes from Gregory I. to Gregory VII. attacked the abuse. Even the Emperor Henry III. attempted to root it out.[456:2] The corpus juris canonicis supplemented by the civil law made it a crime and designated the penalties. Priests were to be deprived of their benefices and deposed from orders; monks were to be confined in stricter monasteries; and laymen were to be subjected to penance. Every reformer and reform movement began by making an attack on simony. But simony was too deeply rooted as a part of the social, political, and religious world to be materially affected before the time of Gregory VII., who knew that it would be impossible to realise his earthly theocracy so long as this sin demoralised and secularised the clergy, and subjected them to worldly control. The edict of 1074, therefore, threw down the gauntlet and declared war.[456:3] This had often been done before, but Gregory now attacked the chief sinners in selling Church offices, namely, the King of France, who gave excuses and promised amendment,[456:4] and the King of Germany, who confessed his sin and declared his intention to repair the evil.[456:5] But this edict like that prohibiting celibacy was not enforced simply because the secular rulers and the clergy alike were infected with the disease. The Pope resolved, therefore, to

wage the war in person and to strike at the very source of all simony. For success he relied upon the thunderbolts of his office.

The investiture strife next engaged the attention of Gregory VII. and tested his power and ability to the utmost. Lay investiture, like so many other practices in the Church, had its origin back in the formative period of the ecclesiastical organisation. Under the Roman Empire the Emperor exercised much power in the appointment of Popes and bishops.[457:1] The Merovingians and the Carolingians, following the earlier precedents, both exercised the right of nominating bishops in the Frankish kingdom.[457:2] Under Charles the Great and his descendants, prelates became identified with barons—the hierarchical governors of the Church with the feudal dignitaries of the Empire,—hence arose the universal custom of ratifying the episcopal elections by regal investiture. The bishop, or abbot, when elected, gave pledges of fidelity and devotion and later paid the feudal fee. The king then invested him with the emblems of the office, namely, the sacerdotal ring signifying his marriage to the Church, and the pastoral staff indicating his protection of his flock. Then he was consecrated by the metropolitan. When the bishop died, the ring and staff were returned to the king, or to the local secular authority. In Germany the bishoprics and abbacies almost ceased being ecclesiastical and became little more than political divisions of the kingdom. They bore the same relation to the sovereign as did the secular feudal fiefs. The holders had the rights of coinage, toll, market, and jurisdiction; they attended court and exercised military

powers like nobles. By the time of Hildebrand the vast ecclesiastical states all over Europe were feudalised and kings and nobles controlled the appointment of all bishops and abbots. The higher clergy were recruited mostly from the worldly nobility, who united their religious with their civil duties. This lay investiture was the cause of the wide-spread, brutalising sin of simony and must be annihilated if the Church was to be purified, and to fulfil her high mission on earth.[458:1] The French king and the favourites of Henry IV. had filled their pockets through the most notorious simoniacal dealings.[458:2]

Before the time of Hildebrand, simony, but not lay investiture, had been attacked. In 1063 a Roman synod forbade the clergy receiving churches from the laymen. Milan and the German court in 1068 came into collision about the appointment of a bishop. Hildebrand, immediately upon his election, found occasion to praise Anself for refusing installation from Henry IV. In 1075 he called a council at Rome and had this famous revolutionary decree passed:

If any one shall from henceforth receive any bishopric or abbey from any layman, let him not be received among the bishops or abbots, nor let the privilege of audience be granted him as to a bishop or abbot. We, moreover, deny to such person the favour of St. Peter and an entrance into the Church, until he shall have resigned the dignity which he has obtained both by the crime of ambition and disobedience which is idolatry. And similarly do we decree concerning the lesser dignities of the Church. Also if any Emperor, Duke, Marquis, Count, secular person or power, shall presume to give investiture of any bishopric

or ecclesiastical dignity let him know himself to be bound by the same sentence.[459:1]

This edict was immediately sent to all the bishops of the Empire and no doubt all over Christendom. It began the struggle which rent both the Empire and the Church into two hostile parties and continued long after Gregory VII. died in exile. It was unquestionably revolutionary, because Pope after Pope had recognised the right of investiture by laymen and the matter was generally treated as authorised by public law.[459:2]

The Pope opened the skirmish through the council by citing many bishops from Germany, England, France, and Italy to answer to him for ecclesiastical offences, chiefly simoniacal; by continuing the curse laid on Robert of Apulia; by threatening the King of France with interdict, unless he repented and made reparation; by deposing the bishops of Pavia, Turin, and Piacenza; by treating the German prelates with unusual severity; in repeating the excommunication of the German King's ministers; and in putting under the ban the bishops of Speyer and Strassburg and the Archbishop of Bremen.

The conflict centred about Henry IV., who entirely disregarded the law of lay investiture.[459:3] He looked upon investiture as a royal prerogative, hence he invested the Bishop of Liege (July, 1075), appointed his chaplain Archbishop of Milan against the Pope's nominee (Sept., 1075), named a Bishop of Bomberg without consulting Gregory VII.,[459:4] chose the Abbot of Fulda (Dec.,

1075) and also for Lorsch,[460:1] disposed of the churches of Fermo and Spolita in the same way, and reached the climax when he attempted to force his own candidate into the archiepiscopal seat of Cologne.[460:2] Gregory viewed these acts as an infraction of the King's promises and as showing contempt for the law of the Holy See and its prerogatives. Hence he summoned the Archbishop of Milan to Rome to answer for his intrusion.[460:3] After the next appointments were made by the King (Dec., 1075), he wrote a stern letter of admonition to the king.[460:4] Finally, after the Cologne affair, the Pope cited the king to answer for his sins at Rome before a certain date or "Be cut off from the body of the Lord and be smitten with the curse of the anathema." The legates who carried this information to the king were insultingly dismissed.[460:5]

Henry IV., backed up by the German clergy and nobility and joined by the anti-sacerdotal and anti-reform parties in Italy, felt powerful enough to defy the command of the Pope.[460:6] To offset the summons to Rome Henry called the Diet of Worms (Jan. 25, 1076), at which twenty-four bishops and two archbishops were present. Cardinal Hugo, who had helped to make Hildebrand Pope but who was now under the ecclesiastical ban, brought forged complaints from Italy and read a false life of Gregory VII. The Emperor and

the bishops renounced their allegiance to the Pope and formally impeached him on seven grave charges ranging from the grossest licentiousness to the assumption of the functions of God Himself.[461:1] The king immediately sent letters announcing this action to the prelates and cities of Lombardy, where the news was received with joy; to the Romans calling upon them to expel "The enemy of the Empire," "The false Monk Hildebrand," the "Usurper of the Holy See"; and to the Pope himself to whom the letter was delivered in the very Lateran Council to which the king had been summoned.

The royal herald addressed the Pope in these words: "My lord, the King, and the bishops of the Empire, do by mouth command you, Hildebrand, without delay to resign the Chair of Peter, for it is unlawful for you to aspire to so lofty a place without the royal consent and investiture." Incensed by this insolent address, the lay attendants of the Pope would have drawn their swords upon the herald had the Pope not covered him with his mantle.[461:2] When the tumult had subsided Gregory spoke to the council in these words:

Let us not, brethren, disturb the Church of God by noise and tumult. Doth not the holy scripture teach us to expect perilous times—seasons in which men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to fathers, unthankful, unholy, not rendering obedience to their teachers? . . . The word of God calleth to us, "It must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." And unto us it is said, in order to instruct us how we ought to demean ourselves in the sight of our enemies: "Behold,

I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." And what though at this very time the forerunner of anti-Christ hath risen up in the Church, yet we, under the instructions of the Lord and of the holy fathers, have long since learned how duly to combine both these virtues.[462:1]

The council now amidst the greatest indignation urged the Pope to depose the insolent king and to put him and his accomplices under the ban. The king was formally excommunicated and his subjects absolved from all allegiance to him.[462:2] The churchmen who acted as the king's tools were likewise outlawed and a letter to "all defenders of the Christian faith" announced the curse laid on Germany.[462:3] This was the first instance of the deposition of a king by a Pope and was based on the false decretals and the assumption that this power was an undoubted prerogative of the Chair of St. Peter.[462:4] As a result of this action both Germany and Italy were divided into two great parties, the papal and the imperial. Hoping to save himself by a counter blow,[462:5] Henry had one of his bishops pronounce an excommunication and anathema upon Gregory and induced a servile synod at Pavia to reiterate the curse. Civil and ecclesiastical discord broke out throughout the Empire. Disaffected nobles took this occasion to conspire against the king, and to plot with the papal party. Prelates fell over each other in their eagerness

to desert the outlawed ruler and to seek reconciliation with the Pope. The German papal party held a great convention (Oct. 14, 1076) at Tribur on the Rhine. The king was in camp just across the river at Oppenheim with his army. The Pope sent his representatives to purify the convention and to guide the proceedings. All the sins of the age were charged against the king and all allegiance to him was renounced, while it was declared that the crown would be forfeited within a year unless the king obtained absolution. He was ordered to retire to Speyer as a private gentleman until the question was settled and the Pope was urged to hasten to Germany to pass sentence on the royal head.

Henry saw that the tide was against him and resolved to follow the one course open to him, namely, to throw himself at the feet of the Pope and beg forgiveness. He dismissed his court and his ministers, publicly repudiated every act against the Holy See, promised satisfaction to the Pope and reformation,[463:1] begged a permit to visit Rome to sue for pardon, and started for Italy in 1077 to meet the Pope. His accomplices, probably at his suggestion, took the same course but by another route. Meanwhile the Pope was hastening northward to Germany. With excellent tact and courage Henry made his way over the Alps in the midst of a very severe winter into northern Italy, where he was given a hearty welcome, and then hastened on to Canossa, a strong castle belonging to the Countess Matilda where the Pope had broken his journey. Meanwhile the companions and ministers of Henry who had fallen under the papal displeasure outstripped the king and, with naked feet and clothed in sackcloth, presented themselves to the

Pope, humbly imploring pardon and absolution from the terrible anathema. With some hesitation, the Pope granted their petition. After a brief penance, the penitents were dismissed with an injunction not to hold any communication with the king, until he should in like manner have been released from the bonds of the Church.

With his natural impetuosity Henry resolved to have the humiliating scene over with as soon as possible. To plead his case he had secured the good offices of his mother-in-law, several powerful noblemen, the Abbot of Clugny, and a few other influential orthodox members of the papal party. He had even persuaded the Countess Matilda to induce the Pope to give his case a merciful consideration. The Pope's severity was softened by the entreaties coming from so many persons, and it was finally agreed that the king should appear before the Pope on a certain day; that he should fully admit his guilt; that he should express sincere repentance for the insults he had heaped upon this successor of St. Peter; that he should profess full contrition for all his sins and crimes; and that he should promise to atone for all former vices by obeying papal commands in the future and by submitting to such conditions as the Pope should impose. Henry accepted these terms and prepared for the act of shame and humiliation.

On the stated day he appeared before the outer gate of the castle of Canossa, was admitted into the outer court and told to divest himself of every vestige of royalty. He was then dressed in a garment of sackcloth and stood in the outer court barefooted and fasting from morn till night.

And thus [says the biographer of Hildebrand] for three

entire days, he ceased not, with much weeping and many supplications, to implore the apostolic commiseration, until the bowels of all the spectators yearned with compassion, so that with tears in their eyes they earnestly besought the pontiff to have mercy—nay, even so that they exclaimed against the stern severity of the man of God as smacking of cruelty: then at length, overborne by the solicitations of all around him, he resolved to admit the penitent into the bosom of the Church; but only upon terms which should either crush him effectually, or for the remainder of his days convert him into the passive instrument of the papal policy.[465:1]

The stipulations of absolution accepted by Henry were: (1) That he should appear for trial before an imperial synod to answer all charges, and that if proven innocent should retain his crown; but if by the laws of the Church he should be proved guilty he would surrender all claims to the throne. (2) That until the trial, he should lay aside royalty and perform no active government. (3) That until acquitted he should collect no more taxes than was absolutely necessary for the sustenance of his family. (4) That all contracts with his subjects should be invalid until after the trial. (5) That he should dismiss from his service all councillors designated by the Pope. (6) That if freed of guilt, he should promise obedience and aid in reforming the Church. (7) That the violation of any of these terms would ipso facto invalidate the absolution.[465:2] Then followed the solemn act of absolution and the sacerdotal purgation which was taken by the Pope but declined by the king. The

king was then admitted to communion and sumptuously feasted by the Pope, after which he was dismissed to rejoin his followers awaiting him at the castle gate. The trying ordeal of Canossa was over. The mighty Pope of small, wiry stature and physically weak had compelled, by the sheer force of the spiritual weapons in his hands, the powerful German ruler to humbly bow before him and beg forgiveness and absolution. Apparently it was a great victory for the Pope, but the sequel makes the result look like a defeat.[466:1]

Henry's humiliation alienated his Lombard adherents. By opposing Rome he had lost one kingdom; by submitting to Rome he was about to lose another. No sooner was he beyond the castle walls of Canossa with the heavy curse removed from his head than he began to plot to remove the effects of his apparently disgraceful defeat. From now on the king becomes the aggressive champion of secular supremacy, while the Pope assumes the defensive. A trap was laid to catch the Pope at the Council of Mantua and he was practically held as a prisoner at Canossa. Meanwhile Henry openly violated his agreement, by assuming the rule of Lombardy, and denounced the Pope in strong terms. The rebellious princes in Germany, urged on by the papal party and taking advantage of this situation, called the convention of Forscheim, and there elected Rudolph of Swabia as King of Germany. He promised to abolish simony, to renounce the right of investing bishops, and to recognise the law of heredity, so was crowned March 26, 1077. Under these circumstances Henry IV., supported by the Lombard party and the strong imperial party in Germany, returned to his kingdom to regain his crown through civil war.

Gregory VII., hoping to profit by the situation, demanded that both kings refer their cause to him as arbiter and, finally, when Henry proved obstinate, in a council held at Rome in 1080 the Pope renewed the excommunication of Henry, and again deposed him.[467:1] The German crown was bestowed by apostolic authority upon Rudolph. In the same council the edict against lay investiture was renewed in a harsher spirit than ever. War to the knife was now inevitable. Rigid party lines were again formed. Henry gradually recovered his mastery of Germany. The German clergy in June, 1080, blaming Gregory VII. for the ruinous civil war, once more retaliated by deposing the Pope.[467:2] A council held at Brescia the same year elected Clement III. as anti-Pope. Gregory's efforts to raise up allies were all in vain. Henry IV. laid siege to Rome with a big army and at last after a long struggle was master of it. Clement III. was installed as Pope and on Easter Day, 1084, Henry IV. received as his reward the imperial crown. Gregory VII., defeated by the German warrior and rescued from the Eternal City with difficulty by the trusty Normans, withdrew to Salerno to die with the curse of the Emperor on his lips, saying: "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile" (May 25, 1085).

Gregory VII. was a man of unquestionable ascetic purity. The charges made against him by his enemies are probably untrue. His relations with Matilda, Beatrice, and Empress Agnes were of the purest character. In his efforts and ideas he was undoubtedly sincere and firmly believed that he really was the representative of God on earth. It must be

remembered, however, that his conceptions of veracity, justice, honour, and charity were those of a mediæval despot. He was one of the greatest politicians of the Middle Ages, but a policy man controlled by the loftiest purpose. To attain his ecclesiastical ideal, policy and principle were one and he almost acted as though the end justified the means. After Charles the Great and Otto the Great before him and Innocent III. after him he had the greatest organising mind of the Middle Ages. Few other men can compare with him. He comprehended the grand Civitas Dei of Augustine and through the false decretals he attempted to create the great universal papal theocracy in which the state should be subject to the Church, the Church purified and subjected to the Pope, and the whole Church ruled by Lex Christi. Nature endowed him with an indomitable will, a restless energy, a clear perception, a dauntless courage, an imperious temper, an instinct for leadership, a stern inflexible disposition, a haughty insolent bearing, and a power to draw and to repulse. These native talents were intensified by monastic education which taught him both the virtue and necessity of obedience, trained him to subordinate all affections, opinions, and interest to the one great object, and made him a true child of the mediæval Church with the highest ideas of her prerogatives and mission on earth. The churchman completely swallowed up the man.

Hildebrand was a wily religious autocrat and not a theologian or a moralist. His ideas came from Augustine and Pseudo-Isidore. His Christianity was based on tradition and historical evolution rather than on the Bible. He denounced simony and advocated celibacy, but not on moral grounds so much as because of his sincere conviction about their effect on his

great ecclesiastical machine. The Church to him was a grand secular power, resting on spiritual foundations, which had to employ worldly means against the other secular powers. Europe was a chessboard and with the hand of a skilled master he moved kings, queens, knights, and bishops. His schemes were worthy of the plotter—his courage became defiance in danger—his forces were handled with consummate skill—his fatal thrusts were driven home with his teeth clenched—if he seemed to yield it was only to gain a greater advantage. As Pope he was over all, the source of all law, judged by none, and responsible to God alone. Under this conviction, intensified as the years passed, he lived in perpetual conflict, and died a refugee from the capital of his great ecclesiastical Empire.

Napoleon once said: "Si je n'etais Napoleon, je voudrais être Gregoire VII." There were many points of resemblance between these two great characters. Both were of obscure birth and low origin. Both possessed the same indomitable character and threatening ambition. Both were reformers. Gregory established a hierarchy which still lives; Napoleon created an administration which still survives. Gregory wanted to make the Church the master of the world; Napoleon, France. Gregory made the Lex Christi the basis of all; Napoleon, the revolution. Both wanted to make feudal vassals of the world's rulers. Both had an indomitable enemy—Henry IV. and England. Both used the power of excommunication. Gregory had his Canossa; Napoleon his Moscow. Italy was invaded and Rome sacked; France was invaded and Paris taken. Salerno and St. Helena in each case closed the drama.

Gregory VII. was the creator of the political Papacy of the Middle Ages because he was the first who dared to completely enforce the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. He found the Pope elected by the Emperor, the Roman clergy, and the people; he left the election in the hands of an ecclesiastical College of Cardinals. He found the Papacy dependent upon the Empire; he made it independent of the Empire and above it. He declared the states of Europe to be fiefs of St. Peter and demanded the oath of fealty from their rulers. He found the clergy, high and low, dependent allies of secular princes and kings; he emancipated them and subjected them to his own will. He reorganised the Church from top to bottom by remodelling the papal curia, by establishing the College of Cardinals, by employing papal legates, by thwarting national churches, by controlling synods and councils, and by managing all Church property directly. He was the first to enforce the theory that the Pope could depose and confirm or reject kings and Emperors. He attempted to reform the abuses in the Church and to purify the clergy. Only partial success attended these efforts, but triumph was to come later on as a result of his labours. His endeavour to realise his theocracy was grand but impracticable as proved by its failure. It was like forcing a dream to be true; yet Innocent III. almost succeeded in western Europe a little more than a century later. The impress of Gregory VII.'s gigantic ability was left upon his own age and upon all succeeding ages.

The strife over lay investiture was carried on by the successors of Gregory VII. Victor III. (1086-1087) renewed the investiture decrees but died too soon to accomplish anything. Urban II. (1088-1099), imbued

with the zeal and ability of Hildebrand, drove Henry IV. out of Italy and had his son, Conrad, crowned King of Italy (1093). Pope Urban gave all his strength to the crusading mania and made little progress with the Hildebrandine reform. Paschal II. (1099-1118), a Clugniac monk and cardinal under Gregory VII., renewed the excommunication of Henry IV., and plotted with Henry V. to induce him to revolt against his father (1104) and thus to force him to surrender his crown. The aged Henry IV. died under the awful curse of the Church and at war with this traitorous son. Paschal II. took up the question of lay investiture, likewise, and had the practice condemned in the Council of Troyes (1107) and promulgated the prohibition all over Christendom. Henry V. was forced to abjure investiture before he could again receive his imperial crown from papal hands. At length in 1111 Paschal II. entered into an arrangement with Henry V., who had appeared before Rome with a large army, by which the Pope promised that clerical princes in the Empire should give up all temporal rights and possessions received since the time of Charles the Great. The Church and its clergy were to live on the tithes and the gifts of pious persons. The Emperor, for his part, agreed to surrender all claim to nomination, election, and investiture, and to guarantee to the Papacy the full enjoyment of all its possessions and rights. This agreement was fair and just, though the German clergy objected to such a wholesale change without their consent. The compact was publicly proclaimed in St. Peter's before the imperial coronation of Henry V. (Feb. 12, 1111)[471:1] and aroused a great tumult.

Therefore Henry V. repudiated the treaty, captured the Pope, carried him together with the cardinals off as prisoners, and wrung from him ignoble terms of peace (Apr. 12th) which stated that the clerical princes in Germany were to retain all their possessions, that the Emperor was to have the full right of investiture, but without simony, and that the higher clergy were to consecrate the nominees after their investiture.[472:1] At the same time Paschal crowned Henry and promised never to excommunicate him. After the Pope's release, he had a Roman synod repudiate the treaty and of course the excommunication of the Emperor followed (1112) and civil war was continued.

Calixtus II. (1119-1124), a Clugniac monk of the royal Burgundian house, settled the perplexing question of lay investiture in 1122 by the Concordat of Worms.[472:2] The Pope agreed (1) that the election of bishops and abbots in Germany should occur in the Emperor's presence and without simony or violence; (2) that the Emperor should decide all disputed elections and enforce his decisions; (3) that the Emperor should invest with the lance and receive homage; (4) that bishops or abbots consecrated in Italy or Burgundy should also be invested by the Emperor and render homage within six months; (5) and that papal aid should be given to the Emperor whenever requested. The Emperor for his part promised (1) to surrender all investiture through the ring and the staff to the Church; (2) to grant "canonical elections and free consecration" in all churches in the Empire; (3) to restore "all the possessions and regalia of St. Peter" to the Holy

Roman Church; (4) to secure the return of property held by others; (5) and to give the Pope all needed aid and justice.[473:1] The concordat was in character, therefore, a compromise. It spared both the Emperor and the Pope the humiliation of defeat because now both made the appointment—one politically, the other spiritually. The Emperor retained but half of his former rights, yet could control the elections. The Pope gained "the ring and staff," yet fell far short of what Gregory VII. had demanded. The document was full of ambiguity and who was victor—Pope or Emperor—has been a much disputed question. The concordat lasted down through the centuries as the basis for settling all these appointments until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. It was frequently violated by both Emperor and Pope, but on the whole gave general satisfaction and determined many menacing disputes. It was modified by Lothair in 1183 so as to permit the Emperor to send a delegate to the election.