battle to that of diplomacy, the masterly hand of Hildebrand soon made itself felt. Events of a surprising character suddenly occurred in Germany. The regency of the Empress Agnes was abolished. In association with Otto, Duke of Bavaria, and Egbert, Count of Brunswick, Anno, Archbishop of Köln, formed a plot to obtain possession of the young king, Henry IV, then twelve years of age. On a visit to the palace of St. Suidbert, situated on an island in the Rhine not far from Düsseldorf, the Archbishop invited the young prince to enter a beautifully decorated barge for a pleasure ride. When the boatman showed no signs of returning, the indignant boy threw himself into the water; but Count Egbert rescued him, and he was borne off by his captors. The nobles having consented to the proposition that the regency should be in the hands of the bishop where the King made his abode, Henry was flattered into docility, and Anno thus became the virtual head of the government. By a secret understanding with Godfrey, he recognized the rights of Alexander II, and called a council at Augsburg, on October 28, 1062, which repudiated Honorius II, confirmed the election of Alexander II, and gave the party of Hildebrand a complete victory. In January, 1063, Godfrey having been appointed to conduct Alexander safely to Rome, the Pope was installed in the Lateran palace, while the united forces of Tuscany and the Normans subdued the opposing aristocracy. The conflict was afterward reopened, but in May, 1064, a council at Mantua condemned Honorius and recognized Alexander. The adherents of the antipope did not, however, entirely abandon his cause until his death, in 1072. CHAP. V A. D. 1002-1125 becomes pope as Greg The death of Alexander, on April 21, 1073, rendered, Hildebrand inevitable the elevation of Hildebrand to the papal throne, for under five of his predecessors it was his hand which ory VII had directed the policy of the Papacy and rendered it triumphant. If his election was, in form, irregular, a fact which cannot be disputed, it was sustained by the Church as a CHAP. V A. D. 1002-1125 Theory of the Holy Roman Empire choice so general and so spontaneous as to seem like an inspiration. "St. Peter has chosen Hildebrand to be Pope!" was the joyful cry at Rome which followed the precipitate act of the cardinals. Even his enemies have not represented that Hildebrand sought the honor. On the contrary, he seems to have been dragged into it by popular importunity almost bordering upon violence. In view of the great interests at stake and the conflicts in which he was soon to be engaged, greater deliberation would have strengthened his cause. In Germany and in Lombardy opposition arose to his election; but Hildebrand, with great sagacity, calmly postponed his consecration until he had obtained the assent of the King. Once firmly seated on the papal throne, Gregory VII, as he chose to be called, resolved upon the realization of the entire programme of Cluny. With a zeal and boldness which had rarely been equalled in the history of the Church, the new pope began his task of elevating the Papacy to a place of supreme power over the temporal rulers of the world. III. THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY The Holy Roman Empire was, in theory, a double sovereignty founded upon the idea that the Empire and the Papacy were co-ordinate instruments of the divine will for the government of mankind. As man is possessed of two natures, soul and body, he needs two guides and rulers, the one spiritual the other temporal. The Pope is the supreme authority in matters spiritual, holding the keys of another world, and armed with power to cut off the perverse and disobedient from eternal blessedness. The Emperor, on the other hand, is an absolute authority in matters temporal, in whose hand has been placed the sword, in order to enforce justice among men. Each of these two powers, the spiritual and the temporal, has need of the other: the Emperor, as a man, needs the spiritual guidance of the Pope; the Pope, as an apostolic teacher and judge, needs the temporal protection of the Emperor. To these two powers, each absolute in its own sphere, all mankind is rightfully subject; for they are the divinely appointed governors of the world. Rarely, if ever, had this splendid theory been completely 1 realized. The Pope had too often felt the strong hand of his protector; the Emperor had too often treated the Church as the mere servant of the civil state. The Papacy, which, in order to bear its great responsibility, should be free from human dictation, had been too long subservient to the accidents and despotism of temporal power. Intrinsically, the right to command was in itself; for the body should be directed by the soul, not the soul by the body. Such was the enlargement of the earlier theory which the reformers of Cluny and their disciple, Gregory VII, wished to carry into practice. CHAP. V A. D. 1002-1125 A multitude of cogent reasons gave strength to the cause The attitude of of reform. That the hereditary character which the imperial Gregory VII office had assumed should place a mere child in supreme authority; that Italy should be subjected to the will of Germany; that an institution like the Church, as universal as humanity, should be under the control of a single nation; that spiritual offices should be given or bartered by the temporal power, all seemed to the mind of Gregory unnatural and wrong. On the other hand, the successor of St. Peter, weighted with the duty of directing the inner life of Christendom, must be not only free and independent, but supreme over all kings and princes, and even over the Emperor himself. In short, sharp sentences, which fall like the strokes of a sword, Gregory's views of the papal office are thus presented: "The Roman Pontiff alone can be called ecumenical. His name is unique in the world. He alone can depose or reconcile bishops. He alone can establish new laws, or unite and divide dioceses. No synod can be called general without his orders. No one can condemn a person who appeals to the Apostolic See. The important affairs of every church should be submitted to the Pope. The Roman Church never has made, and never will make, mistakes. The Roman Pontiff CHAP. V A. D. 1002-1125 Significance of the im perial office has the right to depose emperors. He may absolve subjects from fidelity to unjust princes." Such are the principles which Gregory had derived from his study of the history and legislation of the Church, and with fearless sincerity he determined to apply them in practice. Without hesitation, Gregory VII rose to the height of his conception in the policy which he adopted. Soon after his consecration, he took the bold step of excommunicating and anathematizing Robert Guiscard for his rebellion. the same time, aiming at the reunion of Christendom by a compact with the Eastern Emperor, Michael VII, who was seeking for aid against the Saracens, he sent the Patriarch of Venice to negotiate at Byzantium. By means of a Christian army, the necessary adjunct of the papal monarchy, he hoped to expel the Normans from Italy and defend the East from the Saracens. To this end, he addressed a personal letter to Henry IV and other princes, laying great stress on this expedition and imploring aid. Without doubt, it was a part of Gregory's plan, by making himself the organizer of a great campaign in the name of a united Christendom, to raise the Papacy above all earthly sovereigns and to maintain the supremacy of the Holy See by directing the affairs of both empires. The struggle which soon arose with the German king rendered impossible this great enterprise, but he adhered with firmness to his lofty aim to execute the Cluny programme and subordinate the imperial office to the papal authority. The general conviction of the Church was, without doubt, in favor of the views held by the Cluny brotherhood and so tersely formulated by Gregory. Not only was the imperial crown bestowed by the Pope, but the very nature of the coronation by which the Emperor was invested with his authority, at least in all that pertained to spiritual matters, to that age implied the subordination of the Empire to the Papacy. While the German nation, in the election of its king, represented the purely temporal source of his au A. D. 1002-1125 thority, namely, the free choice of the people, the imperial CHAP. V office had come to be, in reality, a sacred ministry conferred by a delegation of divine right received through the Pope as the spiritual head of Christendom. Such was the conception entertained by many of the emperors themselves, and the ceremony of consecration was the clearest exposition of this view. This ceremony was, in effect, an ecclesiastical ordination. On the day of the coronation, the King, offering himself as a candidate, was received by the clergy and corporation of Rome near the Porta Castelli, where he took an oath to maintain the laws and customs of the city. The cortége then proceeded to the steps of St. Peter's Church, preceded by the prefect of the city bearing a drawn sword, while chamberlains scattered coins along the crowded streets. Descending from his horse at the foot of the steps in front of the church, the King ascended with his retinue to a platform where the Pope, surrounded by the higher clergy, waited to receive him. Here he took a second oath, swearing to be a loyal defender of the Church, after which he received from the Holy Father the kiss of peace. Marching to sacred music, the Pope and the King then entered the Chapel of Santa Maria in Turri,2 where the King was made Canon of the Cathedral. Thence, led by the Count Palatine of the 1 The form of this oath was as follows: "Ego N. futurus Imperator juro, me servaturum Romanis bonas consuetudines, et firmo chartas tertii generis, et libelli sine fraude et malo ingenio." 2 Of this ancient chapel little appears to be known, but the following paragraph from an Italian authority on the churches of Rome throws some light upon its history: "Leone IX, in una bolla dell' anno 1053 che incomincia: Convenit apostolico moderamini, concede al capitolo e ai canonici de S. Pietro in Vaticano ecclesiam S. Mariae quae vocatur in turri. Il Muratori, narrando il fatto d' arme avvenuto fra i tedeschi del Barbarossa ed i Romani, dice che riusci loro di potere attaccare con fuoco alla chiesa di S. Maria in laborario ossia della torre; ed essendo questa contigua a S. Pietro, poco mancò che le fiamme non penetrassero anche nella basilica." The chapel had come down from the days of Charles the Great. "Fu chiamata in torre, perchè contigua alla torre della basilica" (di S. P.). Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX, 2 ed., Rome, 1891, p. 746. |