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199 Detlev Jasper 13   The Deposition and Excommunication of Emperors and Kings A Collection of Historical Examples from the Investiture Conflict January of the year 1076 began and ended dramatically. On New Year’s Day, the envoys of King Henry IV returning from Rome handed over to the ruler in Goslar a missive from Gregory VII, in which the pope demanded from Henry strict obedience towards the church in all things.1 The letter, written in the most reproachful and irritated tone, was complemented by the orally transmitted demands of the pope: the king must renounce continued relations with the excommunicated councilors, as well as further intervention in the episcopal nominations at Milan, Fermo, and Spoleto. Gregory threatened him with excommunication and deposition as king if he did not comply.2 Henry IV, who, after his victory over the rebellious Saxons, considered himself at the high point of his power, responded to the papal ultimatum with his own attack. With all haste, an imperial diet was summoned to Worms for January 24, Septuagesima Sunday; with two archbishops and twenty-four bishops, it brought together a large part of the imperial episcopate. As a result of the assembly, the bishops renounced obedience to Gregory VII and affirmed their resolve to no longer regard him as their pope in the future.3 The decision of the 1. Register Gregory VII 3.10 (MGH Epp.sel. 2.263–67). 2. Cf. Gregory VII, Epistolae Vagantes, ed. H. E. J. Cowdrey, The Epistolae Vagantes of Pope Gregory VII (Oxford 1972) no. 14, p. 38. The Lenten Synod should be taken as the terminus ante for binding promises, as results from a combination of the letters in the register of Gregory VII: 3.5; 3.10 and Epistolae vagantes 14 regarding the dispatch and stay of the envoys of Henry IV. 3. Letter of renunciation of the German bishops to Gregory VII, ed. Carl Erdmann, Die Briefe Heinrichs IV. (MGH Deutsches Mittelalter 1; Stuttgart 1937) Anhang A, 65–68; on the reproaches raised against Gregory VII, see Werner Goez, ‘Zur Erhebung und ersten Absetzung Papst Gregors VII’ , RQ 63 (1968) 122–44. 200  Detlev Jasper bishops was complemented by letters of Henry IV to Gregory VII and to the Romans, in which Henry commanded the pope to renounce his office and called upon the clergy and people of Rome to chase Gregory VII from his office, if necessary by force, and to accept a new pope.4 The emissaries would have to bring these documents to Rome within three weeks if they were to be presented to the Roman Lenten synod called for February 14, 1076, for discussion. On their way, the royal envoys assured themselves of the support of many northern Italian bishops, who, on about February 5, assembled at a synod in Piacenza on account of the consecration of Tedald of Milan: they too committed themselves by an oath not to recognize Gregory VII as pope henceforth.5 Gregory had not anticipated this defection of large parts of the German and Italian episcopate, but his reaction to it was prompt and hard. Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, as initiator of the Worms assembly, and the bishops who had freely signed its decision, were excommunicated, that is, suspended from their offices and excluded from the Eucharist. Those bishops who had taken this step only under pressure had until August 1, 1076, to justify their action in Rome. The Lombard bishops also met with excommunications. After that, Henry IV was deposed as king, his subjects were absolved of their oaths of fidelity, and the king was excluded from the church community as a disobedient Christian. This final act took the form of a solemn prayer to the prince of the apostles in order to dramatize its special gravity.6 The measures announced in Rome reached the German court at Easter 1076 in Utrecht. They led to a public condemnation of Gregory VII during the Easter mass on March 27, 1076, and to the preparation of the further steps against Pope Gregory VII 4. Briefe Heinrichs IV., nos. 10 and 11, 12–15; a version of the letter of Gregory VII altered for purposes of propaganda, which appeared in the course of 1076 and was widely circulated in Germany , is found in Ep. 12, pp. 15–17; see the fundamental works of Carl Erdmann, ‘Die Anfänge der staatlichen Propaganda im Investiturstreit’ , Historische Zeitschrift 154 (1936) 491–512 and Ian S. Robinson, Authority and Resistance in the...

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