PENGUIN STUDY GUIDE CH. 5

Chapter 5: Empire and Papacy-the Beginning of the Struggle

• Henry III had power in Europe; he was “head of the church in Europe.”
• The church was publicly deflowered and polluted
o Before 1046 the Roman aristocracy had used control of the bishopric of Rome as a pawn in their family feuds.
o 1046 Henry III went into Italy and freed the church of corruption.
o New religious popes under Henry III’s rule used contemporary instincts in coming up with Canon Law: the antique rules governing the lives of clerks and their relations with the laity.
• Dedication to the church
Canon Law
• Bishops and the church turned to the emperor for assistance to impose higher standards on their clergy and to protect independence from aristocrats.
• Objective of Leo IX and his associates establishing this idea was to use this primacy to establish throughout the Western Church the standards of clerical life and independence to which they themselves had been trained.
• By the time (1054) Leo died the Christians in the east acknowledged his primacy equal with those of the west.
• When Henry III died in 1056, the pope and his advisors were left to defend their new system and claims alone.

Henry IV took rule as a 6 year old boy.
• 1059 members of the clergy, during crisis concerning the political confusion of a minority, took two great steps in order to protect themselves:
o Alliance with the leaders of the Norman adventurers
• To turn to the Normans was an evolutionary step
o New rules for the election of a pope which gave decisive voice to the cardinals.
• Decree concerning election was more important still, constituting for the papacy a kind of declaration of independence.
• Emperor was a layman: in principle the same objections could be raised against his choosing a pope, as to the choice of some local family.

Simony: the sin by which ecclesiastical office is obtained for money
• Cardinal Humbert of Moyenmoutier wrote “three books against simonials”
• Essence of Simony-“lay not in the fact that money had changed hands, but in that spiritual office was conferred as a result of wholly material considerations”
• Whenever lay influence dictated preferment, there was a suspicion of simony

Casus Belli: the proud and ancient archbishopric of Milan; key archbishopric in political terms, controlling the passes which connected imperial Germany and Lombardy

Gregory VII became Pope
• Henry in weakness submitted matter to the “apostolic judgment” of the pope
• One year later went back on his submission
• Gregory must either give way to the emperor or uphold principles of freedom in the church
o If he gave way:
• Papacy’s dependence on the empire would be made known
• Whole endeavor of last 20 years would be endangered
o If stood ground:
• Alliance with the empire, the traditional ally would be broken
• Claims of revolutionary tenor
o Meant decisions of the Bishop of Rome would override any secular authority
o Gregory drawn between spiritual and secular matters
• Would have to claim that ultimate decisions lay with himself as Peter’s vicar and not the emperor
• Went with the spiritual office by laymen
o Henry replied by charging him with usurpation of the papacy
o Gregory in return excommunicated Henry
• Put Henry outside of the church which had made him king
• Could no longer claim any right “by the Grace of God”
• Both reconciled eventually and three years later Gregory excommunicated Henry again
o Gregory asserted superiority of the monarchy of the papacy over the monarchy of the empire
o The pope’s position was well founded in Canon Law
• Dictatus Papae: a kind of aide-memoir on the canonical authority of the papacy
o “no council (or decree) is to be held general without the pope’s approval”
o came up with articles from documents that were forged
o Gregory was weak in law
• Henry insisted on ruling as his ancestors did
o After second excommunication Gregory deposed Henry formally and recognized Rudolph as King and emperor
o 1084 Henry and his soldiers stormed into Rome and at his orders Guibert of Ravenna was set up as Pope Clement III
• Gregory was declared deposed
• Gregory’s successors
o Whole empire in civil war
• Henry’s son decided to break from his father and find agreement with Roman pope
• But estates of the church were scattered too widely and closely tied with the lay mobility for any kingdom to survive settlement.
• 1122 compromise was extended to the empire
• end of the civil war
• established principle of fundamental importance:
o there was a difference between the allegiance men owed to spiritual and to secular authorities
• Henry gained rule but only because pope approved of it
• Church gained most by struggle and settlement
• Henry died with no blood related successor
• Popes capitalized on the same universal ideals
o Had not gained complete freedom of the church under the monarchy of the Romans