Part 82 (1/2)

The lords, on the other hand, believed that as long as bishops and abbots held vast estates on feudal tenure they should continue to perform the obligations of va.s.salage. To forbid lay invest.i.ture was to deprive the lords of all control over Church dignitaries. The real difficulty of the situation existed, of course, in the fact that the bishops and abbots were both spiritual officers and temporal rulers, were servants of both the Church and the State. They found it very difficult to serve two masters.

PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY VII, 1073-1085 A.D.

In 1073 A.D. there came to the throne of St. Peter one of the most remarkable of the popes. This was Hildebrand, who, on becoming pope, took the name of Gregory VII. Of obscure Italian birth, he received his education in a Benedictine monastery at Rome and rose rapidly to a position of great influence in papal affairs. He is described as a small man, ungainly in appearance and with a weak voice, but energetic, forceful, and of imperious will.

GREGORY'S AIMS

Gregory devoted all his talents to the advancement of the Papacy. A contemporary doc.u.ment, [36] which may have been of Gregory's own composition and at any rate expresses his ideas, contains the following statements: ”The Roman pontiff alone is properly called universal. He alone may depose bishops and restore them to office. He is the only person whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may depose emperors. He may be judged by no one. He may absolve from their allegiance the subjects of the wicked. The Roman Church never has erred, and never can err, as the Scriptures testify.” Gregory did not originate these doctrines, but he was the first pope who ventured to make a practical application of them.

DECREE AGAINST LAY INVESt.i.tURE, 1075 A.D.

Two years after Gregory became pope he issued a decree against lay invest.i.ture. It declared that no emperor, king, duke, marquis, count, or any other lay person should presume to grant invest.i.ture, under pain of excommunication. This decree was a general one, applying to all states of western Europe, but circ.u.mstances were such that it mainly affected Germany.

HENRY IV AND GREGORY VII

Henry IV, the ruler of Germany at this time, did not refuse the papal challenge. He wrote a famous letter to Gregory, calling him ”no pope but false monk,” telling him Christ had never called him to the priesthood, and bidding him ”come down;” ”come down” from St. Peter's throne. Gregory, in reply, deposed Henry as emperor, excommunicated him, and freed his subjects from their allegiance.

CANOSSA, 1077 A.D.

This severe sentence made a profound impression in Germany. Henry's adherents fell away, and it seemed probable that the German n.o.bles would elect another ruler in his stead. Henry then decided on abject submission.

He hastened across the Alps and found the pope at the castle of Canossa, on the northern slopes of the Apennines. It was January, and the snow lay deep on the ground. For three days the emperor stood s.h.i.+vering outside the castle gate, barefoot and clad in a coa.r.s.e woolen s.h.i.+rt, the garb of a penitent. At last, upon the entreaties of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, Gregory admitted Henry and granted absolution. It was a strange and moving spectacle, one which well expressed the tremendous power which the Church in the Middle Ages exercised over the minds of men.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY IV, COUNTESS MATILDA, AND GREGORY VII From a ma.n.u.script of the twelfth century now in the Vatican Library at Rome.]

CONCORDAT OF WORMS, 1122 A.D.

The dramatic scene at Canossa did not end the invest.i.ture conflict. It dragged on for half a century, being continued after Gregory's death by the popes who succeeded him. At last in 1122 A.D. the opposing parties agreed to what is known as the Concordat of Worms, from the old German city where it was signed.

TERMS OF THE CONCORDAT

The concordat drew a distinction between spiritual and lay invest.i.ture.

The emperor renounced invest.i.ture by the ring and crosier--the emblems of spiritual authority--and permitted bishops and abbots to be elected by the clergy and confirmed in office by the pope. On the other hand the pope recognized the emperor's right to be present at all elections and to invest bishops and abbots by the scepter for whatever lands they held within his domains. This reasonable compromise worked well for a time. But it was a truce, not a peace. It did not settle the more fundamental issue, whether the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire should be supreme.

167. POPES AND EMPERORS, 1122-1273 A.D.

FREDERICK I, EMPEROR, 1152-1190

Thirty years after the signing of the Concordat of Worms the emperor Frederick I, called Barbarossa from his red beard, succeeded to the throne. Frederick, the second emperor, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty [37]

was capable, imaginative, and ambitious. He took Charlemagne and Otto the Great as his models and aspired like them to rule Christian Europe and the Church. His reign is the story of many attempts, ending at length in failure, to unite all Italy into a single state under German sway.

FREDERICK AND THE PAPACY

Frederick's Italian policy brought him at once into conflict with two powerful enemies. The popes, who feared that his success would imperil the independence of the Papacy, opposed him at every step. The great cities of northern Italy, which were also threatened by Frederick's soaring schemes, united in the Lombard League to defend their freedom. The popes gave the league their support, and in 1176 A.D. Frederick was badly beaten at the battle of Legnano. The haughty emperor confessed himself conquered, and sought reconciliation with the pope, Alexander III. In the presence of a vast throng a.s.sembled before St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Frederick knelt before the pope and humbly kissed his feet. Just a century had pa.s.sed since the humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa.

PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III, 1198-1216 A.D.

The Papacy reached the height of its power under Innocent III. The eighteen years of his pontificate were one long effort, for the most part successful, to make the pope the arbiter of Europe. Innocent announced the claims of the Papacy in the most uncompromising manner. ”As the moon,” he declared, ”receives its light from the sun, and is inferior to the sun, so do kings receive all their glory and dignity from the Holy See.” This meant, according to Innocent, that the pope has the right to interfere in all secular matters and in the quarrels of rulers. ”G.o.d,” he continued, ”has set the Prince of the Apostles over kings and kingdoms, with a mission to tear up, plant, destroy, scatter, and rebuild.”

INNOCENT AND KING PHILIP OF FRANCE