Source: Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., Source
Book for Mediæval History (New York: Scribners, 1905; reprint
AMS Press, 1971), 146-151. Transcribed by John Beale
Gregory, bishop, servant
of the servants of God, to Henry, the king, greeting and apostolic benediction
– that is, if he shall prove obedient to the apostolic see as a Christian
king should.
We have sent you our
apostolic benediction with some hesitation, knowing that we must render
account to God, the severe judge, for all our acts as pope. Now it
is reported that you have knowingly associated with men who have been excommunicated
by the pope and the synod. If this is true, you know that you cannot
receive the blessing either of God or of the pope until you have driven
them from you and have compelled them to do penance, and have yourself
sought absolution and forgiveness for your transgression with due penance
and reparation. Therefore, if you realize your guilt in this matter,
we counsel you to confess straightway to some pious bishop, who shall absolve
you with our permission, enjoining upon you suitable penance for this fault,
and who shall faithfully report to us by letter, with your permission,
the character of the penance prescribed.
We wonder, moreover,
that you should continue to assure us by letter and messengers of your
devotion and humility; that you should call yourself our son and the son
of the holy mother church, obedient in the faith, sincere in love, diligent
in devotion, and that you should commend yourself to us with all zeal of
love and reverence – whereas in fact you are constantly disobeying the
canonical and apostolic decrees in important matters of the faith.
For, to say nothing of the rest, in the case of Milan, concerning which
you gave us your promise through your mother and through our fellow-bishops
whom we sent to you, the event has shown how far you intended to carry
out your promise [that is, not at all] and with what purpose you made it.
And now, to inflict wound upon wound, contrary to the apostolic decrees
you have bestowed the churches of Fermo and Spoleto – if indeed a church
can be bestowed by a layman – upon certain persons quite unknown to us;
for it is not lawful to ordain men before they have been known and proved.
Since you confess
yourself a son of the church, you should treat with more honor the head
of the church, that is, St. Peter, the prince of the apostles. If
you are one of the sheep of the Lord, you have been intrusted to him by
divine authority, for Christ said to him: “Peter, feed my sheep” [John
21:16]; and again: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of
Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” [Matthew
16:19]. And since we, although an unworthy sinner, exercise his authority
by divine will, the words which you address to us are in reality addressed
directly to him. And although we only read or hear the words, he
sees the hearts from which the words proceed. Therefore your highness
should be very careful that no insincerity be found in your words and messages
to us; and that you show due reverence, not to us indeed, but to omnipotent
God, in those things which especially make for the advance of the Christian
faith and the well-being of the church. For our Lord said to the
apostles and to their successors: “He that heareth you heareth me; and
he that despiseth you despiseth me” [Luke 10:16]. For no one will
disregard our admonitions if he believes that the decrees of the pope have
the same authority as the words of the apostle himself. For if our
Lord commanded the apostles out of reverence for the seat of Moses to observe
the sayings of the scribes and Pharisees who occupied that seat, then surely
the faithful ought to receive with all reverence the apostolic and evangelical
doctrine through those who are chosen to the ministry of preaching.
Now in the synod held
at the apostolic seat to which the divine will has called us (at which
some of your subjects also were present) we, seeing that the Christian
religion had been weakened by many attacks and that the chief and proper
motive, that of saving souls, had for a long time been neglected and slighted,
were alarmed at the evident danger of the destruction of the flock of the
Lord, and had recourse to the decrees and the doctrine of the holy fathers;
we decreed nothing new, nothing of our invention [that is, against simony
and the marriage of the clergy]; but we decided that the error should be
abandoned and the single primitive rule of ecclesiastical discipline and
the familiar way of the saints should be again sought out and followed.
For we know that no other door to salvation and eternal life lies open
to the sheep of Christ than that which was pointed out by him who said:
“I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and find pasture”
[John 10:9]; and this, we learn from the gospels and from the sacred writings,
was preached by the apostles and observed by the holy fathers. And
we have decided that this decree – which some, placing human above divine
honor, have called an unendurable weight and an immense burden, but which
we call by its proper name, that is, the truth and light necessary to salvation
– is to be received and observed not only by you and your subjects, but
also by all princes and people of the earth who confess and worship Christ;
for it is greatly desired by us, and would be most fitting for you, that,
as you are greater than others in glory, in honor, and in virtue, so you
should be more distinguished in devotion to Christ.
Nevertheless, that
this decree may not seem to you beyond measure grievous and unjust, we
have commanded you by your faithful ambassadors to send to us the wisest
and most pious men whom you can find in your kingdom, so that if they can
show or instruct us in any way how we can temper the sentence promulgated
by the holy fathers without offence to the eternal King or danger to our
souls, we may consider their advice. But, even if we had not warned
you in so friendly a manner, it would have been only right on your part,
before you violated the apostolic decrees, to have asked justice of us
in a reasonable manner in any matter in which we had injured or affected
your honor. But it is evident in what you have since done and decreed
how little you care for our warnings or for the observance of justice.
But since we hope
that, while the long-suffering patience of God still invites you to repent,
you may become wiser and your heart may be turned to obey the commands
of God, we warn you with fatherly love that, knowing the rule of Christ
to be over you, you should consider how dangerous it is to place your honor
above his, and that you should not interfere with the liberty of the church
which he has deigned to join to himself by heavenly union, but rather with
faithful devotion you should offer your assistance to the increasing of
this liberty to omnipotent God and St. Peter, through whom also your glory
may be amplified. You ought to recognize what you undoubtedly owe
to them for giving you victory over your enemies, that as they have gladdened
to you with great prosperity, so they should see that you are thereby rendered
more devout. And in order that the fear of God, in whose hands is
all power and all rule, may affect your heart more than these our warnings,
you should recall what happened to Saul when, after winning the victory
which he gained by the will of the prophet, he glorified himself in his
triumph and did not obey the warnings of the prophet, and how God reproved
him; and, on the other hand, what grace king David acquired by reason of
his humility, as well as his other virtues.
Finally, in regard
to those matters in your letter which we have not yet touched upon, we
will not give a definite answer until your ambassadors, Rapoto, Adelbert,
and Wodescalc, and those whom we have sent with them, shall return to us
and shall make known more fully your intention in regard to the matters
which we committed them to be discussed with you. Given at Rome,
the 6th of the Ides of January, the 14th indiction.