Gregory’s Great Monastery
In his exchanges with King Henry IV during the later eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII proclaimed that he held the authority to remove the mighty King from the throne of the Roman Empire. Pope Gregory VII, having already excommunicated the King from the Church for various crimes against it, believed it was his religious duty to instill a Christian ruler who was loyal to the Church to govern the predominately Christian society. Pope Gregory VII argued that it was the power Christ gave to St. Peter that allowed him to possess such impressive authority, as he was a successor to St. Peter. St. Benedict of Nursia wrote his Rule for Monasteries nearly 600 years before the conflict between King Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII erupted. Within Benedict’s Rule is his ideal structure for people living in Christian communities known as monasteries. When St. Benedict wrote his Rule for Monasteries the Christian Church had nowhere near the unity it possessed during the reign of Pope Gregory VII. It was the unity experienced by Pope Gregory VII that allows us to examine the entire Roman Empire as a “monastery.” St. Benedict would have been pleased to see such a unified church, operating under the decree of a single man, which still held th . . .
Just as the Abbot was chosen to be the leader of the monastery, the Pope was chosen by his brethren to be the leader of the Church throughout the world. [Here follows a list of excommunicated of prelates and laymen beyond the Alps, ending with the proclamation against King Henry IV] (Pope Gregory VII 583). Peter the leader of all Christian men, giving him the responsibility of formulating good Christians. Pope Gregory VII removed King Henry IV from power with the same intentions, keeping the Church unified, which would keep the Church strong. Pope Gregory VII gave King Henry IV sufficient warnings to make the necessary changes to his life before excommunicating him from the Church. It would have made for an awkward situation if Christian followers were forced to obey, and thus be in communication with, a King that was excommunicated from the Church. The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. The King failed to humble himself, and give way to the word of the Pope, forcing Pope Gregory VII to excommunicate King Henry IV from the Church. If the brother at fault still did not correct his behavior Saint Benedict felt it was the Abbot’s duty to excommunicate the brother from the monastery. Peter, to whom God had given great power. It was the responsibility of the Abbot to correct men when they were wrong so they did not develop poor habits. In another letter addressed to King Henry IV written on December 8, 1075, Pope Gregory wrote, “to King Henry, with greetings and the apostolic benediction – but with the understanding that he obeys the Apostolic See as becomes a Christian King” (Pope Gregory VII 581). The Abbot was not to treat one man living in the monastery with more or less respect than another. Benedict’s ideals for an Abbot and the Pope, it is apparent that each of the positions requires the respective man to look at all his followers equally. [F]irst, that he refused to give up his relations with those who had been excommunicated for sacrilege and the heresy of Simony; second, because he was not willing, I will not say to perform, but even to promise repentance for his crimes, for the penance which he had sworn to in the hands of our legates was a fraudulent one; finally because he had dared to divide the body of Christ, that is the unity of the Church – for all these crimes, I say, we excommunicated him (Pope Gregory VII 585).
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