THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE
45. Gregory VII.'s Conception of the Papal Authority
Hildebrand, who as pope was known as Gregory VII., was born about the
year 1025 in the vicinity of the little Tuscan town of Soana. His
education was received in the rich monastery of Saint Mary on the
Aventine, of which one of his uncles was abbot. At the age of
twenty-five he became chaplain to Pope Gregory VI., after whose fall
from power he sought seclusion in the monastery at Cluny. In 1049,
however, he again appeared in Italy, this time in the role of
companion to the new pontiff, Leo IX. In a few years he became
sub-deacon and cardinal and was intrusted with the municipal affairs
and financial interests of the Holy See. He served as papal legate in
France and in 1057 was sent to Germany to obtain the consent of
Empress Agnes to the hurried election of Stephen IX. While in these
countries he became convinced that the evil conditions--simony, lay
investiture, and non-celibacy of the clergy--which the Cluniacs were
seeking to reform would never be materially improved by the temporal
powers, and consequently that the only hope of betterment lay in the
establishing of an absolute papal supremacy before which kings, and
even emperors, should be compelled to bow in submission. In April,
1073, Hildebrand himself was made pope, nominally by the vote of the
College of Cardinals, but really by the enthusiastic choice of the
Roman populace. His whole training and experience had fitted him
admirably for the place and had equipped him with the capacity to make
of his office something more than had any of his predecessors. When he
became pope it was with a very lofty ideal of what the papacy should
be, and the surprising measure in which he was able to realize this
ideal entitles him without question to be regarded as the greatest of
all mediaeval popes.
In the document given below, the so-called _Dictatus Papae_, Pope
Gregory's conception of the nature of the papal power and its proper
place in the world is stated in the form of a clear and forcible
summary. Until recently the _Dictatus_ was supposed to have been
written by Gregory himself, but it has been fairly well demonstrated
that it was composed not earlier than 1087 and was therefore the work
of some one else (Gregory died in 1085). It conforms very closely to a
collection of the laws of the Church published in 1087 by a certain
cardinal by the name of Deusdedit. The document loses little or none
of its value by reason of this uncertainty as to its authorship, for
it represents Pope Gregory's views as accurately as if he were known
to have written it. In judging Gregory's theories it should be borne
in mind (1) that it was not personal ambition, but sincere conviction,
that lay beneath them; (2) that the temporal states which existed in
western Europe in Gregory's day were rife with feudal anarchy and
oppression and often too weak to be capable of rendering justice; and
(3) that Gregory claimed, not that the Church should actually assume
the management of the civil government throughout Europe, but only
that in cases of notorious failure of temporal sovereigns to live
right and govern well, the supreme authority of the papacy should be
brought to bear upon them, either to depose them or to compel them to
mend their ways. It is worthy of note, however, that Gregory was
careful to lay the foundations of a formidable political power in
Italy, chiefly by availing himself of the practices of feudalism, as
seen, for example, in the grant of southern Italy to the Norman Robert
Guiscard to be held as a fief of the Roman see.
Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., p. 17.
=1.= That the Roman Church was founded by God alone.
=2.= That the Roman bishop alone is properly called
universal.[375]
=3.= That he alone has the power to depose bishops and reinstate
them.
=4.= That his legate, though of inferior rank, takes precedence of
all bishops in council, and may give sentence of deposition against
them.
=5.= That the Pope has the power to depose [bishops] in their
absence.[376]
=6.= That we should not even stay in the same house with those who
are excommunicated by him.
=8.= That he alone may use the imperial insignia.[377]
=9.= That the Pope is the only person whose feet are kissed by all
princes.
=11.= That the name which he bears belongs to him alone.[378]
=12.= That he has the power to depose emperors.[379]
=13.= That he may, if necessity require, transfer bishops from one
see to another.
=16.= That no general synod may be called without his consent.
=17.= That no action of a synod, and no book, may be considered
canonical without his authority.[380]
=18.= That his decree can be annulled by no one, and that he alone
may annul the decrees of any one.
=19.= That he can be judged by no man.
=20.= That no one shall dare to condemn a person who appeals to the
apostolic see.
=22.= That the Roman Church has never erred, nor ever, by the
testimony of Scripture, shall err, to all eternity.[381]
=26.= That no one can be considered Catholic who does not agree
with the Roman Church.
=27.= That he [the Pope] has the power to absolve the subjects of
unjust rulers from their oath of fidelity.
46. Letter of Gregory VII. to Henry IV. (December, 1075)
The high ideal of papal supremacy over temporal sovereigns which
Gregory cherished when he became pope in 1073, and which is set forth
so forcibly in the _Dictatus_, was one whose validity no king or
emperor could be brought to recognize. It involved an attitude of
inferiority and submissiveness which monarchs felt to be quite
inconsistent with the complete independence which they claimed in the
management of the affairs of their respective states. Perhaps one may
say that the theory in itself, as a mere expression of religious
sentiment, was not especially obnoxious; many an earlier pope had
proclaimed it in substance without doing the kings and emperors of
Europe material injury. It was the firm determination and the
aggressive effort of Gregory to reduce the theory to an actual working
system that precipitated a conflict.
The supreme test of Gregory's ability to make the papal power felt in
the measure that he thought it should be came early in the pontificate
in the famous breach with Henry IV. of Germany. Henry at the time was
not emperor in name, but only "king of the Romans," the imperial
coronation not yet having taken place.[382] For all practical
purposes, however, he may be regarded as occupying the emperor's
position, since all that was lacking was the performance of a more or
less perfunctory ceremony. Henry's specific grievances against the
Pope were that the latter had declared it a sin for an ecclesiastic to
be invested with his office by a layman, though this was almost the
universal practice in Germany, and that he had condemned five of the
king's councilors for simony,[383] suspended the archbishop of Bremen,
the bishops of Speyer and Strassburg, and two Lombard bishops, and
deposed the bishop of Florence. Half of the land and wealth of Germany
was in the hands of bishops and abbots who, if the Pope were to have
his way, would be released from all practical dependence upon the king
and so would be free to encourage and take part in the feudal revolts
which Henry was exerting himself so vigorously to crush. June 8, 1075,
on the banks of the Unstrutt, the king won a signal victory over the
rebellious feudal lords, after which he felt strong enough to defy the
authority of Gregory with impunity. He therefore continued to
associate with the five condemned councilors and, in contempt of
recent papal declarations against lay investiture, took it upon
himself to appoint and invest a number of bishops and abbots, though
always with extreme care that the right kind of men be selected. Pope
Gregory was, of course, not the man to overlook such conduct and at
once made vigorous protest. The letter given below was written in
December, 1075, and is one of a considerable series which passed back
and forth across the Alps prior to the breaking of the storm in
1076-1077. At this stage matters had not yet got beyond the
possibility of compromise and reconciliation; in fact Gregory writes
as much as anything else to get the king's own statement regarding the
reports of his conduct which had come to Rome. The tone of the letter
is firm, it is true, but conciliatory. The thunder of subsequent
epistles to the recreant Henry had not yet been brought into play.
Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 18-22. Adapted from
translation in Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, _Source
Book for Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 147-150.
Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Henry, the
king, greeting and apostolic benediction,--that is, if he be
obedient to the apostolic see as is becoming in a Christian king:
[Sidenote: Henry exhorted to confess his sins]
It is with some hesitation that we have sent you our apostolic
benediction, knowing that for all our acts as pope we must render
an account to God, the severe judge. It is reported that you have
willingly associated with men who have been excommunicated by
decree of the Pope and sentence of a synod.[384] If this be true,
you are very well aware that you can receive the blessing neither
of God nor of the Pope until you have driven them from you and have
compelled them to do penance, and have also yourself sought
absolution and forgiveness for your transgressions with due
repentance and good works. Therefore we advise you that, if you
realize your guilt in this matter, you immediately confess to some
pious bishop, who shall absolve you with our permission,
prescribing for you penance in proportion to the fault, and who
shall faithfully report to us by letter, with your permission, the
nature of the penance required.
[Sidenote: The Pope's claim to authority over temporal princes]
We wonder, moreover, that you should continue to assure us by
letter and messengers of your devotion and humility; that you
should call yourself our son and the son of the holy mother Church,
obedient in the faith, sincere in love, diligent in devotion; and
that you should commend yourself to us with all zeal of love and
reverence--whereas in fact you are constantly disobeying the
canonical and apostolic decrees in important matters of the
faith.... Since you confess yourself a son of the Church, you
should treat with more honor the head of the Church, that is, St.
Peter, the prince of the apostles. If you are one of the sheep of
the Lord, you have been entrusted to him by divine authority, for
Christ said to him: "Peter, feed my sheep" [John, xxi. 16]; and
again: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of
Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven" [Matt., xvi. 19]. And since we, although an unworthy
sinner, exercise his authority by divine will, the words which you
address to us are in reality addressed directly to him. And
although we read or hear only the words, he sees the heart from
which the words proceed. Therefore your highness should be very
careful that no insincerity be found in your words and messages to
us; and that you show due reverence, not to us, indeed, but to
omnipotent God, in those things which especially make for the
advance of the Christian faith and the well-being of the Church.
For our Lord said to the apostles and to their successors: "He that
heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me"
[Luke, x. 16]. For no one will disregard our admonitions if he
believes that the decrees of the Pope have the same authority as
the words of the apostle himself....[385]
[Sidenote: Abuses in the Church to be corrected]
Now in the synod held at the apostolic seat to which the divine
will has called us (at which some of your subjects also were
present) we, seeing that the Christian religion had been weakened
by many attacks and that the chief and proper motive, that of
saving souls, had for a long time been neglected and slighted, were
alarmed at the evident danger of the destruction of the flock of
the Lord, and had recourse to the decrees and the doctrine of the
holy fathers. We decreed nothing new, nothing of our invention; but
we decided that the error should be abandoned and the single
primitive rule of ecclesiastical discipline and the familiar way of
the saints should be again sought out and followed.[386] For we
know that no other door to salvation and eternal life lies open to
the sheep of Christ than that which was pointed out by Him who
said: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved,
and find pasture" [John, x. 9]; and this, we learn from the gospels
and from the sacred writings, was preached by the apostles and
observed by the holy fathers. And we have decided that this
decree--which some, placing human above divine honor, have called
an unendurable weight and an immense burden, but which we call by
its proper name, that is, the truth and light necessary to
salvation--is to be received and observed not only by you and your
subjects, but also by all princes and peoples of the earth who
confess and worship Christ; for it is greatly desired by us, and
would be most fitting to you, that as you are greater than others
in glory, in honor, and in virtue, so you should be more
distinguished in devotion to Christ.
[Sidenote: Gregory disposed to treat Henry fairly]
Nevertheless, that this decree may not seem to you beyond measure
grievous and unjust, we have commanded you by your faithful
ambassadors to send to us the wisest and most pious men whom you
can find in your kingdom, so that if they can show or instruct us
in any way how we can temper the sentence promulgated by the holy
fathers without offense to the eternal King or danger to our souls,
we may consider their advice. But, even if we had not warned you in
so friendly a manner, it would have been only right on your part,
before you violated the apostolic decrees, to ask justice of us in
a reasonable manner in any matter in which we had injured or
affected your honor. But from what you have since done and decreed
it is evident how little you care for our warnings, or for the
observance of justice.
[Sidenote: Henry's obligation to serve and obey the papacy]
But since we hope that, while the long-suffering patience of God
still invites you to repent, you may become wiser and your heart
may be turned to obey the commands of God, we warn you with
fatherly love that, knowing the rule of Christ to be over you, you
should consider how dangerous it is to place your honor above His,
and that you should not interfere with the liberty of the Church
which He has deigned to join to Himself by heavenly union, but
rather with faithful devotion you should offer your assistance to
the increasing of this liberty to omnipotent God and St. Peter,
through whom also your glory may be enhanced. You ought to
recognize what you undoubtedly owe to them for giving you victory
over your enemies,[387] that as they have gladdened you with great
prosperity, so they should see that you are thereby rendered more
devout. And in order that the fear of God, in whose hands is all
power and all rule, may affect your heart more than these our
warnings, you should recall what happened to Saul, when, after
winning the victory which he gained by the will of the prophet, he
glorified himself in his triumph and did not obey the warnings of
the prophet, and how God reproved him; and, on the other hand, what
grace King David acquired by reason of his humility, as well as his
other virtues.
47. Henry IV.'s Reply to Gregory's Letter (January, 1076)
In 1059, when Nicholas II. was pope and Hildebrand was yet only a
cardinal, a council assembled at the Lateran decreed that henceforth
the right of electing the sovereign pontiff should be vested
exclusively in the college of cardinals, or in other words, in seven
cardinal bishops in the vicinity of Rome and a certain number of
cardinal priests and deacons attached to the parishes of the city. The
people and clergy generally were deprived of participation in the
election, except so far as merely to give their consent. Hildebrand
seems to have been the real author of the decree. Nevertheless, in
1073, when he was elevated to the papal chair, the decree of 1059 was
in a measure ignored, for he was elected by popular vote and his
choice was only passively sanctioned by the cardinals. When,
therefore, the quarrel between him and Henry IV. came on, the latter
was not slow to make use of the weapon which Hildebrand's (or
Gregory's) uncanonical election placed in his hands. In replying,
January 24, 1076, to the papal letter of December, 1075, he bluntly
addresses himself to "Hildebrand, not pope, but false monk," and
writes a stinging epistle in the tone thus assumed in his salutation.
In his arraignment of Gregory the king doubtless went far beyond the
truth; but the fact remains that Gregory's dominating purposes in the
interest of the papal authority threatened to cut deeply into the
independence of all temporal sovereigns, and therefore rendered such
resistance as Henry offered quite inevitable. In the interim between
receiving the Pope's letter and dispatching his reply Henry had
convened at Worms a council of the German clergy, and this body had
decreed that Gregory, having wrongfully ascended the papal throne,
should be compelled forthwith to abdicate it.
Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 24-25. Translated in
Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, _Source Book for
Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 151-152.
Henry, king not by usurpation, but by the holy ordination of God,
to Hildebrand, not pope, but false monk.
[Sidenote: Gregory declared to be only a demagogue]
[Sidenote: The papal claim to temporal supremacy rejected]
[Sidenote: Henry also cites Scripture]
This is the salutation which you deserve, for you have never held
any office in the Church without making it a source of confusion
and a curse to Christian men, instead of an honor and a blessing.
To mention only the most obvious cases out of many, you have not
only dared to lay hands on the Lord's anointed, the archbishops,
bishops, and priests, but you have scorned them and abused them, as
if they were ignorant servants not fit to know what their master
was doing. This you have done to gain favor with the vulgar crowd.
You have declared that the bishops know nothing and that you know
everything; but if you have such great wisdom you have used it not
to build but to destroy. Therefore we believe that St. Gregory,
whose name you have presumed to take, had you in mind when he said:
"The heart of the prelate is puffed up by the abundance of
subjects, and he thinks himself more powerful than all others." All
this we have endured because of our respect for the papal office,
but you have mistaken our humility for fear, and have dared to make
an attack upon the royal and imperial authority which we received
from God. You have even threatened to take it away, as if we had
received it from you, and as if the Empire and kingdom were in your
disposal and not in the disposal of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has
called us to the government of the Empire, but He never called you
to the rule of the Church. This is the way you have gained
advancement in the Church: through craft you have obtained wealth;
through wealth you have obtained favor; through favor, the power of
the sword; and through the power of the sword, the papal seat,
which is the seat of peace; and then from the seat of peace you
have expelled peace. For you have incited subjects to rebel against
their prelates by teaching them to despise the bishops, their
rightful rulers. You have given to laymen the authority over
priests, whereby they condemn and depose those whom the bishops
have put over them to teach them. You have attacked me, who,
unworthy as I am, have yet been anointed to rule among the anointed
of God, and who, according to the teaching of the fathers, can be
judged by no one save God alone, and can be deposed for no crime
except infidelity. For the holy fathers in the time of the apostate
Julian[388] did not presume to pronounce sentence of deposition
against him, but left him to be judged and condemned by God. St.
Peter himself said, "Fear God, honor the king" [1 Pet., ii. 17].
But you, who fear not God, have dishonored me, whom He hath
established. St. Paul, who said that even an angel from heaven
should be accursed who taught any other than the true doctrine, did
not make an exception in your favor, to permit you to teach false
doctrines. For he says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed" [Gal., i. 8]. Come down, then, from
that apostolic seat which you have obtained by violence; for you
have been declared accursed by St. Paul for your false doctrines,
and have been condemned by us and our bishops for your evil rule.
Let another ascend the throne of St. Peter, one who will not use
religion as a cloak of violence, but will teach the life-giving
doctrine of that prince of the apostles. I, Henry, king by the
grace of God, with all my bishops, say unto you: "Come down, come
down, and be accursed through all the ages."
48. Henry IV. Deposed by Pope Gregory (1076)
The foregoing letter of Henry IV. was received at Rome with a storm of
disapproval and the envoys who bore it barely escaped with their
lives. A council of French and Italian bishops was convened in the
Lateran (Feb. 24, 1076), and the king's haughty epistle, together with
the decree of the council at Worms deposing Gregory, were read and
allowed to have their effect. With the assent of the bishops, the Pope
pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Henry and formally
released all the latter's Christian subjects from their oath of
allegiance. Naturally the action of Gregory aroused intense interest
throughout Europe. In Germany it had the intended effect of detaching
many influential bishops and abbots from the imperial cause and
stirring the political enemies of the king to renewed activity. The
papal ban became a pretext for the renewal of the hostility on part of
his dissatisfied subjects which Henry had but just succeeded in
suppressing.
In the first part of the papal decree Gregory seeks to defend himself
against the charges brought by Henry and the German clergy to the
effect that he had mounted the papal throne through personal ambition
and the employment of unbecoming means. It was indisputable that his
election had not been strictly in accord with the decree of 1059, but
it seems equally true that, as Gregory declares, he was placed at the
helm of the Church contrary to his personal desires.
Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., p. 26. Translated in
Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, _Source Book for
Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 155-156.
[Sidenote: Gregory denies that he ever sought the papal
office]
[Sidenote: Henry deposed by papal decree]
St. Peter, prince of the apostles, incline thine ear unto me, I
beseech thee, and hear me, thy servant, whom thou hast nourished
from mine infancy and hast delivered from mine enemies that hate me
for my fidelity to thee. Thou art my witness, as are also my
mistress, the mother of God, and St. Paul thy brother, and all the
other saints, that the Holy Roman Church called me to its
government against my own will, and that I did not gain thy throne
by violence; that I would rather have ended my days in exile than
have obtained thy place by fraud or for worldly ambition. It is not
by my efforts, but by thy grace, that I am set to rule over the
Christian world which was especially intrusted to thee by Christ.
It is by thy grace, and as thy representative that God has given to
me the power to bind and to loose in heaven and in earth. Confident
of my integrity and authority, I now declare in the name of the
omnipotent God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Henry, son
of the Emperor Henry,[389] is deprived of his kingdom of Germany
and Italy. I do this by thy authority and in defense of the honor
of thy Church, because he has rebelled against it. He who attempts
to destroy the honor of the Church should be deprived of such honor
as he may have held. He has refused to obey as a Christian should;
he has not returned to God from whom he had wandered; he has had
dealings with excommunicated persons; he has done many iniquities;
he has despised the warnings which, as thou art witness, I sent to
him for his salvation; he has cut himself off from thy Church, and
has attempted to rend it asunder; therefore, by thy authority, I
place him under the curse. It is in thy name that I curse him, that
all people may know that thou art Peter, and upon thy rock the Son
of the living God has built his Church, and the gates of Hell shall
not prevail against it.
49. The Penance of Henry IV. at Canossa (1077)
In his contest with the Pope, Henry's chances of winning were from the
outset diminished by the readiness of his subjects to take advantage
of his misfortunes to recover political privileges they had lost under
his vigorous rule. In October, 1076, the leading German nobles, lay
and clerical, encouraged by the papal decree of the preceding
February, assembled at Tribur, near Mainz, and proceeded to formulate
a plan of action. Henry, with the few followers who remained faithful,
awaited the result at Oppenheim, just across the Rhine. The magnates
at last agreed that unless Henry could secure the removal of the papal
ban within a year he should be deposed from the throne. By the
Oppenheim Convention he was forced to promise to revoke his sentence
of deposition against Gregory and to offer him his allegiance. The
promise was executed in a royal edict of the same month. Seeing that
there remained no hope in further resistance, and hearing that Gregory
was about to present himself in Germany to compel a final adjustment
of the affair, Henry fled from Speyer, where he had been instructed by
the nobles to remain, and by a most arduous winter journey over the
Alps arrived at last at the castle of Canossa, in Tuscany,[390] where
the Pope, on his way to Germany, was being entertained by one of his
allies, the Countess Matilda. Gregory might indeed already have been
on the Rhine but that he had heard of the move Henry was making and
feared that he was proposing to stir up revolt in the papal dominions.
The king was submissive, apparently conquered; yet Gregory was loath
to end the conflict at this point. He had hoped to establish a
precedent by entering German territory and there disposing of the
crown according to his own will. But it was a cardinal rule of the
Church that a penitent sincerely seeking absolution could not be
denied, and in his request Henry was certainly importunate enough to
give every appearance of sincerity. Accordingly, the result of the
meeting of king [Emperor] and Pope at Canossa was that the ban of
excommunication was revoked by the latter, while the former took an
oath fully acknowledging the papal claims.
Inasmuch as he had saved his crown and frustrated the design of
Gregory to cross the mountains into Germany, Henry may be said to have
won a temporary advantage; and this was followed within a few years,
when the struggle broke out again, by the practical expulsion of
Gregory from Rome and his death in broken-hearted exile (1085).
Nevertheless the moral effect of the Canossa episode, and of the
events which followed, in the long run operated decidedly against the
king's position and the whole imperial theory. The document below is a
letter of Gregory to the German magnates giving an account of the
submission of the king at Canossa, and including the text of the oath
which he there took.
Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 33-34. Adapted from
translation in Ernest F. Henderson, _Select Historical
Documents of the Middle Ages_ (London, 1896), pp. 385-388.
Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the
archbishops, bishops, dukes, counts, and other princes of the realm of
the Germans who defend the Christian faith, greeting and apostolic
benediction.
Inasmuch as for love of justice you assumed common cause and danger
with us in the struggle of Christian warfare, we have taken care to
inform you, beloved, with sincere affection, how the king, humbled to
penance, obtained the pardon of absolution and how the whole affair
has progressed from his entrance into Italy to the present time.
[Sidenote: Gregory's advance into Tuscany]
As had been agreed with the legates who had been sent to us on your
part,[391] we came into Lombardy about twenty days before the date on
which one of the commanders was to come over the pass to meet us,
awaiting his advent that we might cross over to the other side. But
when the period fixed upon had already passed, and we were told that
at this time on account of many difficulties--as we can readily
believe--an escort could not be sent to meet us, we were involved in
no little perplexity as to what would be best for us to do, having no
other means of coming to you.
[Sidenote: Henry at Canossa]
Meanwhile, however, we learned that the king was approaching. He also,
before entering Italy, sent to us suppliant legates, offering in all
things to render satisfaction to God, to St. Peter, and to us. And he
renewed his promise that, besides amending his way of living, he would
observe all obedience if only he might deserve to obtain from us the
favor of absolution and the apostolic benediction. When, after long
postponing a decision and holding frequent consultations, we, through
all the envoys who passed, had severely taken him to task for his
excesses, he came at length of his own accord, with a few followers,
showing nothing of hostility or boldness, to the town of Canossa where
we were tarrying. And there, having laid aside all the belongings of
royalty, wretchedly, with bare feet and clad in wool, he continued for
three days to stand before the gate of the castle. Nor did he desist
from imploring with many tears, the aid and consolation of the
apostolic mercy until he had moved all of those who were present
there, and whom the report of it reached, to such pity and depth of
compassion that, interceding for him with many prayers and tears, all
wondered indeed at the unaccustomed hardness of our heart, while some
actually cried out that we were exercising, not the dignity of
apostolic severity, but the cruelty, as it were, of a tyrannical
madness.
Finally, won by the persistency of his suit and by the constant
supplications of all who were present, we loosed the chain of the
anathema[392] and at length received him into the favor of communion
and into the lap of the holy mother Church, those being accepted as
sponsors for him whose names are written below.
[Sidenote: Gregory's purpose to visit Germany]
Having thus accomplished these matters, we desire at the first
opportunity to cross over to your country in order that, by God's aid,
we may more fully arrange all things for the peace of the Church and
the concord of the kingdom, as has long been our wish. For we desire,
beloved, that you should know beyond a doubt that the whole question
at issue is as yet so little cleared up--as you can learn from the
sponsors mentioned--that both our coming and the concurrence of your
counsels are extremely necessary. Wherefore strive ye all to continue
in the faith in which you have begun and in the love of justice; and
know that we are not otherwise committed to the king save that, by
word alone, as is our custom, we have said that he might have hopes
from us in those matters in which, without danger to his soul or to
our own, we might be able to help him to his salvation and honor,
either through justice or through mercy.
OATH OF KING HENRY
I, King Henry, on account of the murmuring and enmity which the
archbishops and bishops, dukes, counts and other princes of the realm
of the Germans, and others who follow them in the same matter of
dissension, bring to bear against me, will, within the term which our
master Pope Gregory has constituted, either do justice according to
his judgment or conclude peace according to his counsels--unless an
absolute impediment should stand in his way or in mine. And on the
removal of this impediment I shall be ready to continue in the same
course. Likewise, if that same lord Pope Gregory shall wish to go
beyond the mountains [i.e., into Germany], or to any other part of the
world, he himself, as well as those who shall be in his escort or
following, or who are sent by him, or come to him from any parts of
the world whatever, shall be secure while going, remaining, or
returning, on my part, and on the part of those whom I can constrain,
from every injury to life or limb, or from capture. Nor shall he, by
my consent, meet any other hindrance that is contrary to his dignity;
and if any such be placed in his way I will aid him according to my
ability. So help me God and this holy gospel.
50. The Concordat of Worms (1122)
The veteran Emperor Henry IV. died at Liege in 1106 and was succeeded
by his son, Henry V. The younger Henry had some months before been
prompted by Pope Paschal II. to rebel against his father and,
succeeding in this, had practically established himself on the throne
before his legitimate time. Pope Paschal expected the son to be more
submissive than the father had been and in 1106 issued a decree
renewing the prohibition of lay investiture. Outside of Germany this
evil had been brought almost to an end and, now that the vigorous
Henry IV. was out of the way, the Pope felt that the time had come to
make the reform complete throughout Christendom. But in this he was
mistaken, for Henry V. proved almost as able and fully as determined a
power to contend with as had been his father. In fact, the new monarch
could command a much stronger army, and he was in no wise loath to use
it. In 1110 he led a host of thirty thousand men across the Alps,
compelled the submission of the north Italian towns, and marched on
Rome. The outcome was a secret compact (February 4, 1111) by which the
king, on the one hand, was to abandon all claim to the right of
investiture and the Pope, on the other, was to see that the
ecclesiastical princes of the Empire (bishops and abbots holding large
tracts of land) should give up all the lands which they had received
by royal grant since the days of Charlemagne. The abandonment of
investiture looked like a surrender on the part of Henry, but in
reality all that he wanted was direct control over all the lands of
the Empire, and if the ecclesiastical princes were to be dispossessed
of these he cared little or nothing about having a part in the mere
religious ceremony. This settlement was rendered impossible, however,
by the attitude of the princes themselves, who naturally refused to be
thus deprived of their landed property and chief source of income. The
Pope was then forced to make a second compact surrendering the full
right of investiture to the imperial authority, and Henry also got the
coveted imperial coronation. But his triumph was short-lived.
Rebellions among the German nobles robbed him of his strength and
after years of wearisome bickerings and petty conflicts he again came
to the point where he was willing to compromise. Calixtus II., who
became pope in 1119, was similarly inclined.
Accordingly, in a diet at Worms, in 1122, the whole problem was taken
up for settlement, and happily this time with success. The documents
translated below contain the concessions made mutually by the two
parties. Calixtus, in brief, grants that the elections of bishops and
abbots may take place in the presence of the Emperor, or of his
agents, and that the Emperor should have the right to invest them with
the scepter, i.e., with their dignity as princes of the Empire. Henry,
on his side, agrees to give up investiture with the ring and staff,
i.e., with spiritual functions, to allow free elections, and to aid in
the restoration of church property which had been confiscated during
the long struggle now drawing to a close. The settlement was in the
nature of a compromise; but on the whole the papacy came off the
better. In its largest aspects the great fifty-year struggle over the
question of investiture was ended, though minor features of it
remained to trouble all parties concerned for a long time to come.
Sources--(a) Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges_
(Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 75-76.
(b) Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Selecta_, Vol. III., p. 60.
[Sidenote: The provision for elections]
(a)
I, Bishop Calixtus, servant of the servants of God, do grant to
thee, by the grace of God august Emperor of the Romans, the right
to hold the elections of the bishops and abbots of the German realm
who belong to the kingdom, in thy presence, without simony, and
without any resort to violence; it being agreed that, if any
dispute arise among those concerned, thou, by the counsel and
judgment of the metropolitan [i.e., the archbishop] and the
suffragan bishops, shalt extend favor and support to the party
which shall seem to you to have the better case. Moreover, the
person elected may receive from thee the _regalia_ through the
scepter, without any exaction being levied;[393] and he shall
discharge his rightful obligations to thee for them.[394]
[Sidenote: Investiture with the scepter]
He who is consecrated in other parts of the Empire[395] shall
receive the _regalia_ from thee through the scepter, within six
months, and without any exaction, and shall discharge his rightful
obligations to thee for them; those rights being excepted, however,
which are known to belong to the Roman Church. In whatever cases
thou shalt make complaint to me and ask my aid I will support thee
according as my office requires. To thee, and to all those who are
on thy side, or have been, in this period of strife, I grant a true
peace.
[Sidenote: Investiture with ring and staff]
(b)
In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, I, Henry, by the
grace of God august Emperor of the Romans, for the love of God and
of the holy Roman Church and of our lord Pope Calixtus, and for the
saving of my soul, do give over to God, and to the holy apostles of
God, Peter and Paul, and the holy Catholic Church, all investiture
through ring and staff; and do concede that in all the churches
that are in my kingdom or empire there shall be canonical election
and free consecration.
[Sidenote: Restoration of confiscated property]
All the property and _regalia_ of St. Peter which, from the
beginning of this conflict until the present time, whether in the
days of my father or in my own, have been confiscated, and which I
now hold, I restore to the holy Roman Church. And as for those
things which I do not now hold, I will faithfully aid in their
restoration. The property also of all other churches and princes
and of every one, whether lay or ecclesiastical, which has been
lost in the struggle, I will restore as far as I hold it, according
to the counsel of the princes, or according to considerations of
justice. I will also faithfully aid in the restoration of those
things which I do not hold.
And I grant a true peace to our lord Pope Calixtus, and to the holy
Roman Church, and to all those who are, or have been, on its side.
In matters where the holy Roman Church shall seek assistance, I
will faithfully render it, and when it shall make complaint to me I
will see that justice is done.
FOOTNOTES:
[375] The incumbent of the papal office was at the same time bishop of
Rome, temporal sovereign of the papal lands, and head of the church
universal. In earlier times there was always danger that the third of
these functions be lost and that the papacy revert to a purely local
institution, but by Gregory VII.'s day the universal headship was
clearly recognized throughout the West as inherent in the office. It
was only when there arose the question as to how far this headship
justified the Pope in attempting to control the affairs of the world
that serious disagreement manifested itself.
[376] That is, without giving them a hearing at a later date.
[377] On the basis of the forged Donation of Constantine the Pope
claimed the right here mentioned. There was no proper warrant for it.
[378] "This is the first distinct assertion of the exclusive right of
the bishop of Rome to the title of pope, once applied to all bishops."
Robinson, _Readings in European History_, Vol. I., p. 274. The word
pope is derived from _papa_ (father). It is still used as the common
title of all priests in the Greek Church.
[379] This, with the letter given on page 265, sets forth succinctly
the papacy's absolute claim of authority as against the highest
temporal power in Europe.
[380] That is, pronounced by the canons of the Church to be divinely
inspired.
[381] This is, of course, not a claim of _papal_ infallibility. The
assertion is merely that in the domain of faith and morals the Roman
church, judged by Scriptural principles, has never pursued a course
either improper or unwarranted.
[382] It did not occur until 1084. Henry had inherited the office at
the death of his father, Henry III., in 1056.
[383] The sin of simony comprised the employment of any corrupt means
to obtain appointment or election to an ecclesiastical office. For the
origin of the term see the incident recorded in Acts, viii. 18-24. The
five councilors had been condemned by a synod at Rome in February,
1075.
[384] The five condemned councillors.
[385] This portion of the letter comprises a clear assertion of the
"Petrine Supremacy," i.e., the theory that Peter, as the first bishop
of Rome, transmitted his superiority over all other bishops to his
successors in the Roman see, who in due time came to constitute the
line of popes [see p. 78].
[386] This refers to a decree of a Roman synod in 1074 against simony
and the marriage of the clergy.
[387] In the battle on the Unstrutt, June 8, 1075.
[388] Julian succeeded Constantine's son Constantius as head of the
Roman Empire in 361. He was known as "the Apostate" because of his
efforts to displace the Christian religion and to restore the old
pagan worship. He died in battle with the Persians in 363.
[389] Henry III., emperor from 1039 to 1056.
[390] The castle of Canossa stood on one of the northern spurs of the
Apennines, about ten miles southwest of Reggio. Some remains of it may
yet be seen.
[391] The German princes who were hostile to Henry had kept in close
touch with the Pope. In the Council of Tribur a legate of Gregory took
the most prominent part, and the members of that body had invited the
Pope to come to Augsburg and aid in the settling of Henry's crown upon
a successor.
[392] Revoked the ban of excommunication. The anathema was a solemn
curse by an ecclesiastical authority.
[393] That is, the Emperor was to be allowed to invest the new bishop
or abbot with the fiefs and secular powers by a touch of the scepter,
but his old claim to the right of investment with the spiritual
emblems of ring and crozier was denied.
[394] This means that the ecclesiastical prince--the bishop or
abbot--in the capacity of a landholder was to render the ordinary
feudal obligations to the Emperor.
[395] Burgundy and Italy.