Gregory VII

“ And since he has scorned to obey as a Christian, and has not returned to God whom he had deserted—holding intercourse with the excommunicated; practising manifold iniquities; spurning my commands which, as thou dost bear witness, I issued to him for his own salvation; separating himself from thy church and striving to rend it—I bind him in thy stead with the chain of the anathema. And, leaning on thee, I so bind him that the people may know and have proof that thou art Peter, and above thy rock the Son of the living God hath built His church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. ”

“ We refer to kings and emperors who, too much swollen by worldly glory, rule not for God but for themselves. But, since it belongs to our office to distribute exhortation to each person according to the rank or dignity which he adorns, we take care, God impelling us, to provide weapons of humility just for emperors and kings and other princes, that they may be able to subdue the risings of the sea and the waves of pride. For we know that mundane glory and worldly cares usually do induce to pride, especially those who are in authority. ”

“ Concerning whom the blessed Augustine says in the first book on the Christian teaching: "For, indeed, whoever strives to gain dominion even over those who are by nature his equals—that is, over men: his pride is altogether intolerable." Exorcists, then, have, as we have said, dominion from God over demons: how much more, therefore, over those who are subject to demons and members of demons? If, moreover, exorcists are so pre-eminent over these, how much the more so are priests! ”

“ Is not a dignity like this, founded by laymen—even by those who do not know God,—subject to that dignity which the providence of God Almighty has, in His own honour, founded and given to the world? For His Son, even as He is undoubtingly believed to be God and man, so is He considered the highest priest, the head of all priests, sitting on the right hand of the Father and always interceding for us. ”

“ For as Henry, on account of his pride, disobedience and falseness, is justly cast down from his royal dignity, so to Rudolf, for his humility, obedience and truthfulness, the power and dignity of kingship are granted.
Proceed now, I beg, O fathers and most holy princes, in such way that all the world may learn and know that, if ye can bind and loose in Heaven, so ye can on earth take away empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, margravates, counties and all possessions of men, and grant them to any man ye please according to his merits. ”

“ But do ye, beloved, who have not been willing because of the royal indignation or of any danger to desert the justice of God, paying little heed to those who at the last shall be announced as cursers and liars, stand boldly and be comforted in the Lord; knowing that ye defend the part of Him who, as an unconquerable King and glorious Victor, is about to judge the quick and the dead, rendering unto each man according to his works. ”

“ For in the matter of ecclesiastical grades a greater power is needed to depose than to ordain. For bishops may ordain other bishops, but by no means depose them without the authority of the apostolic see. Who, therefore, that is even moderately intelligent can doubt that priests are to be preferred to kings? But if kings are to be judged by priests for their sins, by whom should they be judged with more right than by the Roman pontiff? ”

“ Finally, any good Christians ever have much more right to he considered kings than have bad princes. For the former, seeking the glory of God, strenuously rule themselves; but the latter, enemies unto themselves, seeking the things which are their own and not the things which are God's, are tyrannical oppressors of others. The former are the body of the true king, Christ; the latter, of the devil. The former restrain themselves to the end that they may eternally reign with the supreme emperor ”

“ Second Banning and Dethronement of Henry IV. through Gregory VII, March 7th, 1080.
St. Peter, chief of the apostles, and thou St. Paul, teacher of the nations, deign, I beg, to incline your ears to me and mercifully to hear me. Do ye who are the disciples and lovers of truth aid me to tell the truth to ye without any of the falsehood which we altogether detest: to the end that my brothers may better acquiesce with me and may know and learn that, after God and his mother the ever virgin Mary, it is in ye I trust when I resist the wicked and unholy but lend aid to your faithful followers. ”

“ Nor, indeed, is it much to be wondered at that wicked bishops are of one mind with a bad king whom—having wrongfully obtained honours from him—they love and fear. For they, simoniacally ordaining whom they please, sell God even for a paltry price. And as the good are indivisibly united with their head, so also the bad are pertinaciously banded together—chiefly against the good with him who is the head of evil. ”

“ Thou, brother, should' st also remember that more power is granted to an exorcist, when he is made a spiritual emperor for the casting out of demons, than can be granted to any layman in the matter of secular dominion. Over all kings and princes of the earth who do not live religiously and do not, in their actions, fear God as they should, demons—alas, alas—hold sway, confounding them with a wretched servitude. For such men desire to rule, not, induced by divine love, to the honour of God and for the saving of souls—like the priests of the church ”

“ Let kings and other princes fear lest the more they rejoice at being placed over other men in this life, the more they will be subjected to eternal fires. For of them it is written "The powerful shall powerfully suffer torments." And they are about to render account to God for as many men as they have had subjects under their dominion. But if it be no little task for any private religious man to guard his own soul: how much labour will there be for those who are rulers over many thousands of souls? ”

“ Who does not know that kings and leaders are sprung from those who—ignorant of God—by pride, plunder, perfidy, murders—in a word by almost every crime, the devil, who is the prince of this world, urging them on as it were—have striven with blind cupidity and intolerable presumption to dominate over their equals ”

“ Peter the apostle are counted among the most holy. Why, then, is this—except that the kings and princes of the earth, enticed by vain glory, prefer, as has been said, the things that are their own to the things that are spiritual; but the pontiffs of the church, despising vain glory, prefer to carnal things the things that are of God? The former readily punish those who sin against themselves and are indifferent to those who sin against God; the latter quickly pardon those who sin against themselves and do not lightly spare those who sin against God. ”

“ For, indeed, august emperor, there are two things by which this world is chiefly ruled—the sacred authority of the pontiffs and the royal power; whereby the burden of the priests is by so much the heavier according as they, at the divine judgment of men, are about to render account for the kings themselves. ”

“ And I absolve all Christians from the bonds of the oath which they have made or shall make to him; and I forbid any one to serve him as king. For it is fitting that he who strives to lessen the honour of thy church should himself lose the honour which belongs to him. ”

“ If any one, therefore, thinks that this sentence has been unjustly or unreasonably imposed—if he be such a one as is able to apply his intellect to the sacred canons—let him treat with us in the matter and let him acquiesce after hearing patiently, not what we, but what the divine authority teaches, what it decrees, what the unanimous voice of the holy fathers declares. ”

“ Inasmuch as we have learned that, contrary to the establishments of the holy fathers, the investiture with churches is, in many places, performed by lay persons; and that from this cause many disturbances arise in the church by which the Christian religion is trodden under foot: we decree that no one of the clergy shall receive the investiture with a bishopric or abbey or church from the hand of an emperor or king or of any lay person, male or female. ”

“ Wherefore strive ye all to continue in the faith in which ye have begun and in the love of justice; and know that we are not otherwise bound 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 honour either through justice or through mercy. ”

“ Moreover, if the judgment of the holy church severely punishes a sinner for the slaying of one man, what will become of those who, for the sake of worldly glory, hand over many thousands to death? And such persons, although after having slain many they often say with their lips "I have sinned," nevertheless rejoice in their hearts at having extended their fame as it were. ”

“ For we know that he who does not refuse to show faithful obedience to God, does not scorn to observe our commands—even as if he had heard them from the lips of the apostle himself— and the things which, following the decrees of the holy fathers, we may have said. ”

“ Nevertheless, lest these things should seem beyond measure burdensome or wrong to thee, we did send word to thee through thy faithful servants that the changing of an evil custom should not alarm thee; that thou should'st send to us wise and religious men from thy land, who, if they could, by any reasoning, demonstrate or prove in what, saving the honour of the Eternal King and without danger to our souls, we might moderate the decree as passed by the holy fathers, we would yield to their counsels. ”

“ They, in consequence, neglecting humility and seeking their own glory, always desire to dominate over their brothers. Wherefore to kings and emperors especially it is of advantage, when their mind tends to exalt itself and to delight in its own particular glory, to find out a means of humbling themselves and to be brought to realize that what they have been reioicing in is the thing most to be feared. Let them, therefore, diligently consider how dangerous and how much to be feared the royal or imperial dignity is. ”

“ But if he should be willing to receive our warnings and to correct his life, we called and do call God to witness how greatly we should rejoice concerning his safety and honour, and with what love we would fold him in the lap of the holy church as one who, having been made prince of a people and holding the reins of a most extended kingdom, ought to be a defender of catholic peace and justice. ”

“ But if those who fear God come, when urged, with great fear to the apostolic chair, in which those who are duly ordained are made better by the merits of the apostle St. Peter,—with how much fear and trembling is the throne of the kingdom to be approached, where even the good and humble—as is shown in the case of Saul and David—become worse? ”

“ Is it not considered miserable madness for a son to attempt to subject to himself his father, a pupil his master; and for one to bring into his power and bind with iniquitous bonds him by whom he believes that he himself can be bound and loosed not only on earth but also in Heaven? ”

“ But when we learned that they had scorned the terms appointed for carrying out these things and were obstinately continuing in their accustomed iniquity, we justly separated them, as sacrilegious persons and ministers and members of the devil, from the communion and body of the whole church. And we warned the king to expel them, as excommunicate, from his palace and his counsels and from all intercourse with himself. ”

“ We did decree, however, that, error being abandoned, the first and only rule of ecclesiastical discipline was again to be followed, and the well-worn way of the aaints to be re-sought. Nor indeed do we know of any other entrance to salvation and eternal life which lies open to the sheep of Christ and their shepherds, save the one which, as we have learned in the gospel and in every page of the divine Scriptures, was shown by Him who said: "I am the door, he who entereth through me shall be saved and shall find pasture," was preached by the apostles and followed by the holy fathers. ”

“ From which thy prudence clearly sees that, with him whom the voice of Christ placed over all, and whom a venerable church has always professed and devoutly holds as its primate, no one can, by any human device whatever, gain an equal privilege and be equally acknowledged. ”

“ Moreover, his age and his depravity keeping pace with each other,—after we, though unworthy, came to be supreme pontiff, the more diligently did we urge him in every way, by arguing, exhorting, rebuking, to amend his life; knowing that God Almighty would the more strictly demand his soul at our hands the more we, above all others, had been given permission and authority to rebuke him. ”

“ But since, inasmuch as the still long-suffering patience of God invites thee to amend thy ways, we have hopes that, thy perception being increased, thy heart and mind can be bent to the obedience of the mandates of God: we warn thee with paternal love, that, recognizing over thee the dominion of Christ, thou do reflect how dangerous it is to prefer thine own honour to His ”

“ Wherefore we also incessantly pray to God for ye that He may cause ye to be strengthened in His name through the Holy Spirit, and that He may so turn the heart of the king to repentance that he also at some time may know that we and ye more truly love him than those who now pander to and favour his iniquities. ”