A high point of the Middle Ages: the Dictatus Papae of St. Gregory VII
The pontificate of St. Gregory VII (1073-1085), Ildebrando di Soana, constitutes one of the high points of the Christian Middle Ages. The culmination of the Gregorian pontificate is the Dictatus Papae, a collection of twenty-seven sentences defining the prerogatives of the Pope and his relations with temporal authority, proclaiming the superiority of the Pontiff over the Emperor in the religious and moral sphere and claiming for the Papacy the role of the highest and most eminent power on Earth. The work was probably written between 1075 and 1078, at the height of the conflict with the German sovereign Henry IV, not yet Emperor of Germany, who had initiated the so-called Investiture Controversy against the Church.
“The Roman Pontiff,” says St. Gregory VII, “is rightly called universal” (no. 2); “his title is unique in the world” (n. 11); “his judgment cannot be reformed by anyone; on the contrary, he can reform any judgment issued by others” (n. 18); “no one can judge him” (n. 19); “the Roman Church has never erred and will never err for eternity, according to the testimony of the Scriptures” (no. 22); moreover, the Pope “may depose emperors” (no. 12) and “he may release his subjects from their allegiance to the unjust” (no. 27).
On a theological level, appealing to his role as universal pastor, Gregory rejects the assertion that the Papal See cannot excommunicate kings and release their subjects from their bond of loyalty. The doctrine of St. Gregory VII is based on the words with which Our Lord invested St. Peter with the power to bind and loose both on earth and in Heaven, as well as on various passages from Gregory the Great and other writers, asking how it is possible to argue that he who has the power to open and close the gates of Heaven does not have the power to judge the things of this world. According to Gregory, Peter was made sovereign over the kingdoms of the world, and God subjected all principalities and powers on earth to him, giving him the power to bind and loose in heaven and on earth. Kings and emperors are not exempt from that divine and natural law to which all men are subject and of which the Church is the guardian.
In line with these statements, during the synod of February 1076, Gregory VII deposed and excommunicated the German king Henry IV, dispensing his subjects from their oath of allegiance. Henry's excommunication and deposition was renewed at the Roman Synod of 1080, where Gregory confirmed the imperial election of Rudolf of Swabia.
When, in 1119, in Cluny, he was elected Pope, with the name of Callixtus II (1119-1124), the archbishop of Vienne, Guido of Burgundy, he referred to the teachings of Gregory VII and on October 29 and 30 of the same year, at a large synod held in Reims in the presence of more than 400 bishops, he renewed the condemnation of Emperor Henry V, son of Henry IV. As the Pope pronounced the words of excommunication, the four hundred bishops broke the candles they were holding. The Concordat of Worms, which in 1122 put an end to the investiture controversy, recognized the Church's direct universal supremacy in spiritual matters and its indirect power in temporal matters. Callistus II was thus able to hold the Ninth Ecumenical Council in Lateran in March 1123, which was also the first assembly of all bishops held in the West. The new agreement between the Church and the Empire was solemnly confirmed at this council.
The eighth sentence of Dictatus Papae, according to which “Only the Pope can use imperial insignia,” has been the subject of debate. Yet this statement encapsulates the entire political theology of the Middle Ages. The Church is not only the supreme spiritual authority, but also the source of imperial authority, possessing a dual means of coercion: spiritual (ecclesiastical censorship) and material (the right to armed force), which would constitute the legal-canonical basis for the Crusades, proclaimed in the name of this authority by the Roman Pontiffs. This thesis was enunciated, among others, by St. Bernard of Clairvaux when, in his treatise De consideratione, he reminded Pope Eugene III that both swords, the spiritual and the material, belonged to the Pope and the Church. In the art of the time, the Pope is always depicted at the top: the Emperor stands to his left, one step below, and below the Emperor are all the kings and sovereigns of the temporal sphere, and then, gradually, all the members of the Catholic hierarchy that governs the spiritual sphere.
