32 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1073-1085.
the State is tlie product of robbery, murder, and all sorts of crimes, and a disturbance of the original equality, which must be restored by the priestly power. He combined the highest view of the Church and the papacy with the lowest view of the State and the empire.1
His theory of the papal power could not have been more explicitly stated than when, writing to Sancho, king of Aragon, he said that Jesus, the king of glory, had made Peter lord over the kingdoms of the world. This principle he consistently acted upon.2 Henry IV. of Germany he twice deposed and absolved his subjects from allegiance to him. He concluded his second excommunication of Henry IV., at the synod in Lent, March 7, 1080, with this startling perora tion : —
" And now, 0 ye princes and fathers, most holy Apostles Peter and Paul, deal ye with us in such wise that all the world may know and understand that, having the power to bind and to loose in heaven, you have the like power to take away empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, marquisates, earldoms, and all manner of human rights and properties. . . . Having such mighty power in spiritual things, what is there on earth that may transcend your authority in temporal things ? And if ye judge the angels, who are high above the proudest of princes, what may ye not do unto those beneath them ? Let the kings and princes of the earth know and feel how great ye are — how exalted your power ! Let them tremble to despise the commands of your Church !
"But upon the said Henry do judgment quickly, that all men may know that it is not by fortune or chance, but by your power, that he has fallen ! May he thus be confounded unto repentance, that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord ! ' '
1 In a letter to Bishop Hermann of Metz, March 15, 1081 (Reg., VIII. 21), " Quis nesciat reges et duces ab illis habuisse principium, qui, Deum ignorantes, superbia, rapinis, perfidia, homicidiis, postremo universis pene sceleribus, mundi principe Diabolo videlicet agitante, super pares scilicet homines, dominari cceca cupidine et intolerabili presumptione affectaverunt," St. Augustine likewise combines the two views of the origin of the State, and calls it both a divine ordinance and a " grande latrocinium," an enslavement of men in consequence of sin. See Renter, August, titudien, I.e., 135 sq. The letter to Hermann is also given in Mirbt, Quellen, 105-112.
2 Petrum dominus Jesus Christus, rex glorice, principem super regna rtiundi constituit, Iteg., I. 63; Migne, 148, 339.
§ 11. THE GREGORIAN THEOCRACY. 33
This is the extreme of hierarchical arrogance and severity. Gregory always assumed the air of supreme authority over kings and nobles as well as bishops and abbots, and expects from them absolute obedience.
Sardinia and Corsica he treated as fiefs.1 To the Spanish princes, in 1073, he wrote that from of old Spain had be longed to St. Peter, and that it belonged to no mortal man but to the Apostolic see. For had not the Holy See made a grant of Spanish territory to a certain Evulus on condition of his con quering it from pagan hands ? 2 Alfonso of Castile and Sancho of Aragon, he reminded that St. Paul had gone to Spain and that seven bishops, sent by Paul and Peter, had founded the Christian Church in Spain.3 Philip I., king of France, he coolly told, that every house in his kingdom owed Peter's Pence, and he threatened the king, in case he did not desist from simony, to place his realm under the interdict.4 A few months later in a letter to Manasses, archbishop of Rheims, he called the king a rapacious wolf, the enemy of God arid reli gion.5 He summoned the king of Denmark, Sueno, to recognize the dependence of his kingdom upon Rome and to send his son to Rome that he might draw the sword against the ene mies of God, promising the son a certain rich province in Italy for his services.6 Boleslav, duke of Poland, he admon ished to pay certain monies to the king of Russia, whose son, as we are informed in another letter, had come to Rome, to secure his throne from the pope.7 The Hungarian king, Solomon, was reminded that King Stephen had given his kingdom to St. Peter and that it belonged of right to Rome,8 and he was sharply rebuked for having received his crown from
1 Beg., I. 29, VII. 10 ; Migne, 148, 312, 584.
2 Reg., I. 7 ; Migne, 289. 6 Lupus rapax, etc.
3 Reg., I. 64 ; Migne, 339. 6 Reg., II. 51, 75 ; Migne, 403, 426. * Reg., II. 5, 18, 32. 7 Reg., II. 73, 74 ; Migne, 423 sq.
8 Regnum Hungarian sanctce Romance ecclesice proprium est a rege Stephano beato Petri olim cum omni jure et potestate sua oblatum et devote traditum, Reg., II. 13; Migne, 373.