Gregory VII Research Articles

The Miracle of the Bloody Foreskin at the Council of Charroux in 1082: Legatine Authority, Religious Spectacle, and Charismatic Strategies of Canonical Reform in the Era of Gregory VII

In 1082, at the council of Charroux convened by the papal legate Amatus of Oloron, astonished witnesses observed the Holy Prepuce, a rare body relic of Christ himself, to be miraculously spotted with fresh blood. This spectacular miracle holds implications for our understanding of charismatic strategies of religious reform in France in the era of Pope Gregory VII. Gregory’s use of standing legates with regional mandates, such as Amatus, was a novelty in papal administration, but the legates, though empowered as proxies of the pope, were often weak lieutenants. When they could not induce or coerce cooperation, they frequently confronted the impotence of their legal–canonical mandates. The miracle at Charroux, I will show, exemplifies an alternative charismatic strategy, harnessing liturgical art and spectacle to magnify the legate’s stature as an authority in the context of the Eucharistic controversy and religious reform.

GREGORY VII AND “DICTATUS PAPAE”

Pope Gregory VII was one of the most extraordinary and active popes who ever hold St. Peter’s throne. His reforms are well known. “Dictatus Papae” is a controversial document that enumerated basic principles and ideas of the Church, which determined future development of all Europe. Georgian text of the document is a translation from Latin original.

La Riforma protestante tra istanze di rinnovamento e movimenti ereticali

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Reformatio in capite et membris - 3. La riforma gregoriana - 4. Rinnovamento monastico e nuove forme di religiosità - 5. Erasmo da Rotterdam e l’Umanesimo cristiano - 6. Ecclesia semper reformanda - 7. Gli antecedenti della Riforma - 8. I poveri di Lione - 9. Il movimento dei Lollardi - 10. La rivoluzione boema - 11. Le guerre hussite.
 The Protestant Reformation between requests for renewal and heretical movements
 ABSTRACT: The Protestant Reformation represents an epochal event as it is widely considered the true moment of transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age. Without wishing in the least to diminish the innovative significance of the aforementioned phenomenon, it is however necessary to point out how the Catholic Church, during the course of its history, has been crossed by a yearning for regeneration that has involved both the constitutional and the devotional aspects of its being. To this end, it is enough to recall the reforming work of Gregory VII, the Cluniac monastic rigor, the contribution of some regular Orders (mendicants), as well as the spread of new forms of religiosity, from the modern Devotio to the Christian humanism of Desiderio Erasmus of Rotterdam. Similarly, the originality of the Reformation did not prevent modern Protestant historiography from considering it the natural result of an evangelical pluralism already present in the twelfth century. The direct reference is to the doctrines of Pietro Valdo, John Wycliff and Jan Hus, and in particular to their ecclesiology which in various ways will be proposed by Martin Luther, with his own peculiarity, and without ever reducing himself to it.

The Mystery of Merania: A New Solution to Old Problems (Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Croatia-Dalmatia during the Investiture Controversy)

This paper deals with issues concerning the historical background that engendered the imperial (titular) Duchy of Merania and the modality by which this mysterious territory became part of the Holy Roman Empire. The second part outlines interpretations regarding how this patch of land became part of the Holy Roman Empire. Since there is still no satisfying answer as to how, when precisely, and why this change of jurisdictions took place and who were the main protagonists of this takeover, the author proposes a new solution to this age-old mystery. The takeover of Merania is posited in the second half of the 1070s, that is in the period of Croatian king Zvonimir who fostered enmity with the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV by offi cially taking the side of the reform papacy and pope Gregory VII during the polarizing Investiture Controversy. It is in this context that the attacks from the direction of Istrian march and the Duchy of Carinthia ensued against Zvonimir’s kingdom, led by a noble knight Wezelin whose identity is discussed in detail; this marks the beginning of the imperial takeover of Merania.

Reformatio or restauratio? The rehabilitation of Pope Gregory VII in Catholic historiography after Trent

AbstractThis essay highlights the role played by Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–85) in the confessional historiography of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A pivotal figure in ecclesiastical history, this medieval pope was the subject of lively historical debate. The Lutheran Magdeburg Centuries assessed Gregory as the best example of the increasing dominion of the Antichrist’s spirit in the Latin Church, and this view was generally shared by all Protestant scholars. The eleventh volume of the Annales ecclesiastici (Ecclesiastical Annals, 1605) by Caesar Baronio was the major attempt to rehabilitate Gregory’s status, in particular broadening the richness of contemporary sources. Baronio succeeded in creating a new critical account of Gregory. Contrary to the Protestant apocalyptic view, Gregory was not the symbol of the end of the first Christian millennium; instead, he safeguarded the apostolic purity of the Church. Baronio became a spokesman for the Doctrina Hildebrandina, a doctrine sanctioned by the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545–63) and reinforced by subsequent Catholic theologians. What emerges is, above all, a certain uniformity of historical method in all confessional parties. In addition, the pontificate of Gregory VII represented a crucial turning point in the Catholic interpretation of history as well as in the Protestant one.

Papal Bulls as Instruments of Reform: The Reception of the Protection Bulls of Gregory VII in the Dioceses of Liège and Thérouanne (1074–1077)

In research concerning the spread of eleventh-century ecclesiastical reform ideas, papal protection bulls have been somewhat overlooked as scholarship has privileged more obvious instruments of papal politics, such as legates, councils, canon law, papal letters, and friendship networks. This is not surprising considering the fact that the only documents preserved are very often the bulls themselves, making it virtually impossible to reconstruct the impact that they had on the local churches. Therefore, the availability of several narrative sources discussing the reception of the bulls Gregory VII issued in favor of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Hubert in the diocese of Liège in 1074 and of the priory of regular canons in Watten in the diocese of Thérouanne in 1077 is truly unique. While these accounts are heavily biased, they permit us to catch a rare glimpse of how bulls were received at the grassroots level. As becomes clear from their stormy reception, the charters prompted discussion in the episcopal entourage about questions of ecclesiastical hierarchy, procedure, papal obedience, and episcopal authority. They cleverly rooted the papal reform program in the midst of far-off but politically important dioceses and forced bishop and clergy to take a stance in the reform debate.

Pope Gregory VII and Count Eblous II of Roucy’s Proto-Crusade in Iberia c. 1073

This article surveys the surviving material regarding Gregory VII and Eblous of Roucy’s expedition to Iberia c. 1073. This is an expedition that usually has been overlooked which provides a glimpse in to Gregory VII’s mindset with regard to the Iberian wars against the Muslims. This article assesses how Gregory attempted to use the current arguments for ‘Holy War’ to encourage Eblous and his followers to fight in the Christian–Muslim frontier. It also compares the papal plans with Eblous’ probable motives as they can be discerned from sources and the circumstantial evidence. Furthermore, it addresses whether Eblous went to Iberia to fight the Muslims since some of the accounts seem to contradict each other. It will also explore the significance of this episode in the development of Holy War as a preamble to the First Crusade, especially in comparison with the better-known siege of Barbastro of 1064. Lastly, it will also analyse how Eblous’ filial relations with the Aragonese rulers would help create family networks between the Burgundian and Norman nobility and the ruling houses of the Iberian Peninsula in the following decades, and the effect of these on the later involvement of Frankish contingents in the Iberian wars against the Muslims.

Nihil Terrenum, Nihilque Carnale in Ea: Matilda of Tuscany and Anselm of Lucca during the Investiture Controversy

This article investigates the relationship between Matilda of Tuscany and her spiritual advisor Anselm of Lucca during the tumultuous period of the Investiture Controversy. The contemporary sources – two Vitae of Anselm of Lucca and Donizo’s Vita Matildis – highlight both the spiritual and the secular dimension of this friendship. Furthermore, the bishop of Lucca’s five Prayers written for the countess uncover a novel aspect of Anselm and Matilda’s relationship. In these texts Anselm, while expressing a new devotion to Christ and to the Virgin Mary, shows the origin and goal of his fatherly direction for Matilda. Anselm’s novel devotion seems to have been triggered by the life and mission of Countess Matilda, generated by their common obedience to Gregory VII, and influenced by the Eucharistic Controversy, with which Anselm was associated.

The Papacy and the Establishment of the Kingdoms of Jerusalem, Sicily and Portugal: Twelfth-Century Papal Political Thought on Incipient Kingship

This article examines the political thought of the twelfth-century papacy, considering how popes of this era responded to the establishment of the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Sicily and Portugal. It compares the intellectual strategies used by popes to justify why these three polities were kingdoms rather than any other type of political unit. It is suggested that, to make their cases, popes advanced a range of arguments, many of which echoed the political ideas of Gregory VII. The article concludes by linking its findings to the wider question of how the twelfth-century papacy responded to the expansion of Latin Christendom.

Fourth Crusade on Constantinople in 1204 AD and its effects on relations between the Church of Constantinople and Rome

Relations between Rome and Constantinople started since the mid of the 2nd century AD to take a dangerous direction. The researcher can draw a curve of enmity rising between both peoples; the Latin and the Greek. This enmity between peoples started during campaigns, then, aggravated with the increase of these campaigns and when Christian peoples in the east and west realized their results. The Latin never gave up thinking that Byzantines were responsible for difficulties the first crusade in 1095 AD suffered from and that the Byzantine emperor was responsible for disaster of the crusade in 1101 AD. On the other hand, Byzantines never forgot that Rome asked Robert Guiscard to invade the Byzantine Empire and never forgot that Gregory VII deprived Alexius I Comnenus from the church. Also, Byzantines never forgot that Paschal II supported promised of campaign of Bohemond son of Guiscard against the Byzantine Empire in 1107 AD, besides, they did not forget that the Latin invaded Antioch dismissed the orthodox patriarch out of it. On the other side, the Latin did not forget the threat of John IV Comnenus to Antioch and humiliating its French, originally, prince, Raymond De Poitiers in 1137 AD. Moreover, Byzantines did not forget the pope's, Innocent II, decision to in which he asked the Latin to come out of John Comnenus army if as he threatened Antioch And the Latin properties in the east. In addition, Byzantines never forgot humiliation that happened to them at the hands of Arnot in 1185 AD. However, the Latin never gave up thinking that the disaster that happened to the 2nd campaign (1147-1188 AD) was because of the Byzantine Empire. While Byzantines never forgot that a European ally was formed against them due to the pope's sympathy and the western religion men in 1150 AD.

Religious Culture and Customary Legal Tradition: Historical Foundations of European Market Development

Abstract This paper traces back the sources of our present legal system and of market economy to Medieval Europe which itself benefited from Hellenistic and Roman legal culture and commercial practices. Roman provinces placed Rome in the wider Greek cultural and commercial world. If Aristotle was already transcending the narrow polis-based conceptions of his predecessors, after him Hellenistic Civilization saw the emergence of a new school of philosophy: Stoicism. The legal thought in the Latin West will hence be characterized by Cicero’s writings and its Stoic sources. The Roman legal system was similar to the later northern European customary law and the English common law; Roman law was evolutionary and customary. The rise of Western individualism, whether it dates back to St. Augustine in the fifth century, or to the two Papal Revolutions of Gregory I (establishing the nuclear family as the core of individualism) and of Gregory VII, also played a crucial role in shaping the western legal tradition. The paper describes the main forces that led to this second (Gregorian) revolution. Monasticism is one of them. Benedictine monasticism plaid a leading role in the Peace of God Movement. Hence collective oath-taking by groups in the name of peace was essential in the founding of cities and in the formation of guilds. Europe’s economic resurgence in the Eleventh Century was on the basis of the creation of the rule of law by the Peace of God movement. This movement also allowed for Europe’s agricultural economy to progress. Indeed, the European Middle Ages is one of the major periods of technological innovation in the history of the world. The Gregorian Revolution itself was supported and financed by the Commercial Revolution: Italian bankers sustained Papal reformers against the Emperors. The independence of the Italian cities and provinces reveals one of the most important consequences of the Gregorian Revolution: the polycentricism of Western Europe. This Revolution also witnessed the first large number of political pamphlets in European history; the Gregorian clergy emphasizing a compact theory of government. Soon after, the order of Cistercians was founded (1098) and underwent spectacular growth during the next two centuries. The Cistercians accepted no rents or labor services from feudal donors but would take only full possession of land to do with it as they wished.These monasteries were the most economically effective units that had ever existed in Europe, and perhaps in the world, before that time. Finally, the Magna Carta (1215) that will be so influential on modern political thought can be seen as a direct consequence of the Gregorian Revolution.

Vie et miracles de Bérard, évêque de Marses (1080–1130) by Jacques Dalarun (review)

Reviewed by: Vie et miracles de Bérard, évêque de Marses (1080–1130) by Jacques Dalarun Ruth Harwood Cline Vie et miracles de Bérard, évêque de Marses (1080–1130). Introduction, critical edition of the Latin text, and French translation by Jacques Dalarun. [Subsidia hagiographica 93] (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes. 2013. €65,00. ISBN 978-2-87365-028-5.) Bishop Bérard was of the ruling family of Marche, a region in central Italy north of Abruzzo and east of Rome. Nominally within the Papal States, Marche was controlled by strong local rulers who accrued landed wealth and power by alliances [End Page 612] created by kinship, clientage, and patronage. Bérard’s career was part of the reform movement initiated by Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–85). Gregory VII endeavored to expand the authority and autonomy of the Church by imposing clerical celibacy, abolishing lay investiture and simony, and prohibiting “incestuous” marriage. Over a century of struggle was required to achieve its objectives, and the papacy frequently compromised with annulments, dispensations, and settlements. The Church’s weapon of excommunication dissolved oaths of fealty and precipitated leadership struggles. King Henry IV of Germany (r. 1070–1108) retaliated for his humiliation at Canossa by exiling Gregory VII in 1085. Later reformers like Bernard, abbot of Tiron (c. 1050–1116), and Peter II, bishop of Poitiers (r. 1087–1115), fell victim to violence and imprisonment. The hagiography of Bérard sheds further light on the difficult process of imposing the reform on religious and secular leaders. Writing in the 1130s, John, bishop of Segni, shares his reminisces at Bérard’s tomb with his colleague John Furatus, prior of the chapter of the cathedral of Santa Sabina in modern San Benedetto dei Marsi. Bérard was a member of the comital family of Marche, educated at the cathedral of Saint-Sabina and at Monte-Cassino, and was made subdeacon and count of the province of Campania or southern Latium by Paschal II (r. 1109–18). Bérard was captured, thrown into a cistern, and rescued. He became deacon of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria and cardinal priest of San Crisogono in Rome before becoming bishop of Marche. His posthumous healing miracles reflect devotion to the poor and afflicted. Perhaps because of Bérard’s closeness to the papacy, he fought simony with exceptional rigor and suffered severe reprisals. He survived attempted poisoning and was repeatedly expelled from and recalled to his see. Dalarun’s work is based on manuscripts of Vita beati Berardi episcopi Marsorium et miracles by John, bishop of Segni (Jean de Segni), and his continuators, which can be found in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the Biblioteca nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, and the Biblioteca apostolica Vaticana in Vatican City. They are the basis for the F. Ughelli editions in Italia sacra, published in Rome in 1644 and in Venice in 1717, and the J. De Backer edition published in Acta Sanctorum Novembris, II/1, in Brussels in 1894. In the comprehensive introduction Dalarun establishes a meticulous stemma of manuscripts, skillfully resolves their variants, and presents the life and miracles of Bérard of Marche, introduced by a letter of dedication and concluded by a hymn. Dalarun has prepared a well-annotated and faithful French translation of John of Segni’s rough and unbridled Latin text, with its exceptionally lengthy sentences with numerous subordinate clauses disrupted by parenthetical discourse. This life of Bérard of Marche is an important contribution to a corpus of contemporary saints’ lives that deepens our understanding of the turbulent process of the twelfth-century reform. [End Page 613] Ruth Harwood Cline Georgetown University Copyright © 2015 The Catholic University of America Press

Inventando Gregório VII: Os Ad Heinricum IV Imperatorem libri VII e a busca pela medida do passado

Neste trabalho, procuramos fundamentar uma resposta para um antigo problema: quando e como Hildebrando de Soana (1020?-1085) se tornou o protagonista do poder papal? Um persistente consenso tem levado os historiadores a mirarem a mesma certeza: o homem coroado como Gregório VII dominou a cena eclesiástica ocidental desde seu ingresso na corte papal, em 1049, por meio de uma liderança inabalável. Sua ascensão, supostamente contínua e irrefreável, teria dotado a política pontifícia de unidade e caráter programático. Mas, para muitos contemporâneos, isto não era evidente. Um texto contém elementos para a formulação de outra perspectiva: Ad Heinricum IV Imperatorem libri VII. Escrita por Benzo (?-1089), bispo de Alba, a narrativa é um valioso documento sobre a ascensão política de Hildebrando e oferece indícios de que o bispo de Alba estabeleceu a medida com a qual o controverso papa seria lembrado, tanto pela Igreja, quanto pela historiografia. Talvez, Benzo de Alba tenha inventado Gregório VII.

Remembering Pope Gregory VII: Cardinal Boso and Alexander III

In the conclusion to his masterly biography of Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), H. E. John Cowdrey notes the paradox that the pope so lionized by modern historians, to the extent that the age of reform bears his name, was largely forgotten in the twelfth century and made little impact on Christian thought, spirituality or canon law. Cowdrey is not alone in his observation that Gregory ‘receded from memory with remarkable speed and completeness’; when he was remembered, it was as a failure and as one who brought decline upon the church. For Cowdrey, the answer to this conundrum lay in the fact that Gregory VII was in fact far closer to the ideals of the sixth century than of the twelfth; he was a Benedictine monk and shared the worldview and oudook of Gregory the Great (590–604) rather than those of the so-called lawyer popes Alexander III (1159–81) and Innocent III (1198–1216). Yet within a century of Gregory’s death he was presented by Cardinal Boso as a model pope, who had overcome a schismatic emperor and the problems which his interference had precipitated in Rome. For Boso, writing for the instruction of the officials of the papal chamber, the very policies set out by Gregory VII were to be pursued and emulated. Far from being a peripheral and contradictory figure, with more in common with the distant past than the near future, Gregory was the perfect guide to the beleaguered Pope Alexander III, who was also struggling against a hostile emperor and his antipope.

The Sermon of Urban II in Clermont and the Tradition of Papal Oratory

Scholars have dealt extensively with the sermon held by Urban II at the Council of Clermont to launch the First Crusade. There is indeed much room for speculation, since the original text has been lost and we have to rely on the reports of it in chronicles. But the scholarly discussion is mostly based on the same sort of sources: the chronicles and their references to letters and charters. Not much attention has been paid so far to the genre of papal synodal sermons in the Middle Ages. In this article, I focus on the tradition of papal oratory, using this background to look at the call for crusade from a new perspective. Firstly, I analyse the versions of the Clermont sermon in the crusading chronicles and compare them with the only address held by Urban II known from a non-narrative source. Secondly, I discuss the sermons of Gregory VII as they are recorded in synodal protocols and in historiography. The results support the view that only the version reported by Fulcher of Chartres corresponds to a sort of oratory common to papal speeches in the eleventh century.

Weapons of Reform: Gregory VII, Armenia, and the Liturgy

This paper examines Gregory VII's (1073–85) evolutionary efforts to unite the Armenian Church with Rome in the 1070s and 1080s. The pope's changing attitude towards Armenian liturgical practices, it is argued, illustrates a broader and visionary papal outlook, revealing in turn many social, cultural, political, and doctrinal dynamics at work during his pontificate. As a consequence of this interplay, Gregory's vested interest in the world beyond Latin Christendom becomes manifest, contributing ultimately to a more nuanced portrait of this pope and a broader historical understanding of his papacy and its governance.

In Laudem Hierosolymitani: Studies in Crusades and Medieval Culture in Honour of Benjamin Z. Kedar

This collection of thirty-one essays reflects the variety and importance of the honorand's contributions to medieval and other historical studies which have embraced archaeology, canon law, the crusades, Italian commercial cities, settlement patterns, personal names, social history, intellectual history, institutional history, military history, even aerial photography and contemporary history, and, perhaps most prominently, inter-faith relations from shared cults to conversion and the plight of religious minorities. Benjamin Kedar peels away unfounded assumptions and unwarranted traditions of historical orthodoxy, frequently through the discovery or meticulous re-examination of primary sources in order to shed new critical light on familiar events and discussions, whether to understand the conceptual and actual relation of crusading and conversion or to clarify the details of one day of war by clambering around the arid Galilean battlefield of Hattin. In a brief review it is impossible to do justice to all the contributions to this Festschrift that manage to touch on almost all of Professor Kedar's interests: textual analysis and discovery (Linder, Edbury, Riley-Smith); personal by-names (Shagrir); settlement and administration in Syria and Palestine (Boas, Ellenblum, Amitai); inter-faith and intercultural dialogue and conflict (Friedman, Folda, Limor, Debby, Talmon-Heller); Mediterranean commerce (Richard, Jacoby, Balard); crusading warfare (Bachrach, Hamilton, Harari, Murray, Pryor); archaeology (Kool, Pringle); intellectual history (Airaldi, Epstein); the Military Orders (Nicholson, Mencahe); language (Cohen); law (Reynolds); Jewish experience of persecution (Toch); and historiography (Mayer, Olstein). Inevitably, some essays will command wider appeal than others. Daniella Talmon-Heller neatly analyses the relations of Muslim preachers of the jihad with local Syrian rulers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, just as Reuven Amitai's discussion of Mongol administration in the area in 1260 opens a vista on an intriguing counter-factual image of what might have been if the battle of Ain Jalut had gone the other way. On the crusades, Bernard Hamilton resurrects a footnote of pre-crusading warfare in his account of the papal-Byzantine war against the Muslim bases in central Italy in 915 led by John X. Alan Murray's account of the money and moveable wealth taken and acquired on Frederick Barbarossa's campaign of 1189–90 posits the arresting—and in this case convincing—idea that crusaders who lasted the course could expect to make money out of the expedition itself, even if they had made a loss in setting out. The power of the ordinary soldier to influence strategy and tactics by virtue of the shared immediacy of military command and service is well expounded by Yuval Noah Harari. Students raking over the bones of Urban II's intentions in 1095 will be drawn to Bernard S. Bachrach's substantial piece which, divertingly but ultimately unconvincingly, argues for the pope's overt duplicity in using the lure of Jerusalem to conceal his real purpose, which was to use the large armies sent to Constantinople to force Alexius Comnenus to resolve the church schism in favour of the papal supremacy. This constitutes a sort of neo-Erdmann thesis, dependent on highly speculative assertions that a sea-borne invasion of Palestine was both logistically possible and within the conceptual horizons of Urban II and his advisers—the pope's rejection of this route indicating his true anti-Greek motives. Among other things, Bachrach is misleading over crucial aspects of the political context, such as the 1074 eastern plan of Gregory VII, hardly simply a united Byzantine invitation; wildly overestimates the degree of papal control over western arms-bearers, making Urban II seem more like Innocent III; and ignores the alien nature of sea-travel for significant numbers of crusade recruits, let alone its cost. However, like so much of Kedar's own work, Bachrach's argument will enliven debate even on such well-combed subjects. While scrupulously avoiding slanting his work to reflect his personal or political predilections, Professor Kedar has also represented an example of the best sort of historian as a public figure in the community, ‘an important part of the historical and cultural heritage’ of his country—as the cover blurb has it. Even this finds an echo, possibly discordant, in Hans Eberhard Meyer's acute and elegant description of the context and reputation of one of the grandest crusade scholars, Reinhold Rohricht. However, as this volume attests, few historians could serve as a greater, livelier contrast to the nineteenth-century Prussian antiquarian than Benjamin Kedar.

L’Église impériale dans la tradition franque. Le temps des Ottoniens et des premiers Saliens

The image of an «imperial church system» of the Ottonians and Salians, created by Otto the Great after the failed rebolt by his son Liudolf (953-954) in order to serve as a counterweight to the lay nobility, is now judged out of date. Contemporary historians prefer to talk of the ‘policy’ rather than of the ‘system’ of the imperial church of the Ottonians and Salians. From the 10th century, the church of the German kingdom obtained more and more secular rights; even counties were conferred on it. The monarch expected the church to use and manage them more effectively than the lay nobility did. In doing this, the Ottonians did not create a new system, but followed a development which had begun in the western Frankish kingdom, where church prelates had succeeded much earlier in securing secular rights. Given that in Germany, bishops were mainly recruted from the high aristocracy, they were never an effective counterweight to the lay nobility. Even when the king could influence the nomination of bishops and abbots, and had the right to invest them, he often had to take local power configurations into account. It was only Henry II, crowned king in 1002, who placed the entire church under his control. Subsequently, the church obtained ever more secular rights, and in return had to render more services to the Empire. Consequently, during the first half of the 11th century, the structure of the Empire was based on a close community of interests between the king and the church. Since it was contrary to the principles of the Gregorian reform, this relationship ultimately made the conflict between Gregory VII and Henry IV inevitable.

A Posição de Anselmo Face ao Uso do Poder Civil

The present paper investigates Anselm’s position regarding the use of the civil power (secular authority), especially in the period between his nomination for Archbishop of Canterbury (1093) and the reconciliation with Henry I (1105) based on some of his Letters. Three points are articulated: 1. The configuration of the historical and juridical, the Cluniac Reform (as a model of translocal, hierarchical, corporate govemment) and the Papal Revolution (as a fundamental break in the historical continuity of the church). 2. The apprehension of Anselm conceming issue the justification of the power: insistently reaffirms his fidelity to the apostolic authority, but it also recognises certain legitimacy out of the ecclesiastical domain. In the continuity of Gregory VII, it would be impossible to ignore the distinction between the two powers («Investiture Struggle»). However, the polarisation of the spiritual power above all demands the reason (sola ratione), not the fideism. That is why Anselm could not have a negative or secular view of the constituted real determination and source of meaning which he gave to the civil power. 3. Relationship between theology and politics: the separation, concurrence, and interaction of the spiritual and secular jurisdictions were the true source of Anselm’s conception of power. The essay concludes with the positive implications of Anselm’s notion of the power.

Extending Gregory VII's ‘Friendship Network’: Social Contacts in Late Eleventh‐Century France

AbstractIn the last quarter of the eleventh century, the Roman Church had a capable ruler and defender in Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). Despite his otherwise charismatic authority, however, Gregory's ability to extend his influence beyond the papacy's more immediate control of Rome and the Campagna was limited. Filling this administrative and legal gap was the emerging office of legation, developing ad hoc under Gregory VII in matters of reform and law. Papal legates such as the French representative, Bishop Hugh of Die (later archbishop of Lyons), became crucial figures in the machinery of papal government. They assumed a vital role in the transmission of reforming legislation north of the Alps while effectively widening Gregory VII's ‘friendship network’ to encompass influential members of the local and regional clerical and lay elite. With the assistance of this ecclesiastical office, moreover, the papacy significantly enhanced its opportunity for social contacts, thereby strengthening its hold on the more distant provinces of Western Christendom. By focusing on existing and growing social networks in late eleventh‐century France, this article examines Hugh of Die's role as an instrument of church reform, and assesses this legate's impact on the larger papal reform initiative in France.