The first half of the 10th century is known as the period of '• pornocracy," during which the papal chair was filled by a succession of reprobates, for which the history of few, if any, episcopal sees of the Chris- tian world furnishes a parallel. Two Roman fami- lies strove to obtain permanent control of the papal chair, and to convert it into a family benefice; and even some of the unworthy occupants of the chair appear to have familiarized themselves with this idea, which was thwarted by the revolt of the public sen- timent against the papal scandals. The vigorous in- terference of emperor Otho I, who had the last papal representative of "pornocracy," John XII, cited before a synod at Rome (9C3), which convicted him of mur- der, blasphemy, and all kinds of lewdness, and deposed him from his office, actually arrested the total decay of the papal dignity. The influence of the following em- perors, especially of Henry III, secured the election of a number of popes (among them several Germans) who were of unimpeachable morality, and sincerely anxious to deliver the Church from the almost universal simony and licentiousness of the clergy. Their reformatory efforts were seconded by several new organizations which had arisen in the Church. The congregation of Clugny endeavored to find for the higher claims which the papal writers derived from the Isidorian decretals a new religious basis, and congregations of hermits in Middle and Upper Italy developed a new taste for the most rigid kind of asceticism, the prin- cipal representative of which is Petrus Damiani. About the middle of the 11th century a Roman monk, Ililde- brand, who was a pupil of Clugny and a friend of Da- miani, succeeded in effecting a complete change in the internal and external relations of the papacy. In order to emancipate the papal chair from the influence of the German emperors, he prevailed upon pope Leo IX (1048-1054), who owed his election to his cousin, em- peror Henry III, to go to Rome in the character of a pilgrim, and to be there once more elected by the Roman clergy and people. One of tlie following popes, Nicho- las II (1058-1061), committed the power of choosing the pope almost entirely to the College of Cardinals. In 1073 Hildebrand, after being for about twenty-five years the guide of the papal policy, ascended himself the papal chair under the name of Gregory YII. He is common- ly regarded as the greatest pope of all times. He clear- ly and boldly set forth the theory of a theocratic rule of the pope over all nations of the world. The priesthood was regarded by liim as the only power directly insti- tuted by God, the power of secular rulers as the product of human agencies. The pope, as vicar of God, was to stand in times of violence between princes and their people, enforcing the law of divine right by his spirit- ual power, and able either to humble the people or to depose princes. Tlie ]iapacy he represented as the sun from -whom all secular authority, also the empire, de- rived their light like the moon. He sternly enforced the law of priestly celibacy, in order that all priests, by renouncing the delights and cares of domestic life, might devote their exclusive labors to promoting the cause of the Church. To the claims which his predecessors had based upon the Isidorian decretals, Gregory added the doctrine of the infallibility and sanctity of the pope, and his right to depose princes and absolve sulijects from the oath of loyalty. The period from Gregory VII to Innocent III and Innocent IV is an almost con- tinuous conflict between the popes and the secidar gov- ernments, during which the former, with an iron firm- ness, endeavored at first to destro_v the direct influence of princes upon the government and offices of the Church, and secondly to subject all secular governments to the pope and the Church. Only two years after his eleva- tion to the papal see (1095) (Jregory held a synod in Rome, which condemned all simony, and laid every one under excommunication who should confer or receive an
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ecclesiastical office from the hands of a layman. After lasting about fifty years, the controversy regarding the investiture of bishops was ended by the Concordat of Worms (1122), by which emperor Henry Y, after the precedence of the governments of England and France, surrendered "to God, to St. Peter and Paul, and to the Catholic Church, all right of investiture by ring and crosier," and granted that elections and ordinations in all churches should take place freely in accordance with ecclesiastical laws. These provisions were confirmed as valid for the entire Church by tlie first General Coun- cil of Lateran, and completed the emancipation of the Church from secular governments. The struggle now following for the supremacy of the popes over secular governments was chiefly carried on by the popes Alex- ander III, Innocent III, and Innocent IV against the emperors of the house of Hohenstaufen. In the progress of this conflict the papacy obtained grand triumphs — the extinction of the house of Hohenstaufen, the pen- ance of Henry II of England at the tomb of Becket, the oath of homage taken by John Lackland and a num- ber of petty princes, the foundation of the Latin empire at Constantinople. Boniface VIII (129-1-1303), in his struggle against Philip IV of France, meant to crown this edifice of papal absolutism by the bull Unam sanctam (Nov. 18, 1302), which declared that "for every human creature it is a condition of salvation to submit to the Roman pontiff" {suhesse Romano pontifici omni humance creaturm declaramus esse ch necessitate salutis).