Translated by Ernest F. Henderson

Downloaded from the Medieval Sourcebook
 

St. Peter, chief of the apostles, and thou St. Paul, teacher of the nations,
deign, I beg, to incline your ears to me and mercifully to hear me. Do ye
who are the disciples and lovers of truth aid me to tell the truth to ye
without any of the falsehood which we together detest: to the end that my
brothers may better acquiesce with me and may know and learn that, after God
and his mother the evervirgin Mary, it is in ye I trust when I resist the
wicked and unholy but lend aid to your faithful followers. For ye know that
I did not willingly take holy orders. And unwillingly I went with my master
Gregory beyond the mountains; but more unwillingly I returned with my master
pope Leo to your especial church, in which I served ye as always. Then,
greatly against my will, with much grieving and groaning and wailing I was
placed upon your throne, although thoroughly unworthy. I say these things
thus because I did not choose ye but ye chose me and did place upon me the
very heavy burden of your church. And because ye did order me to go up into
a high mountain and call out and proclaim to the people of God their crimes
and to the sons of the earth their sins, the members of the devil have
commenced to rise up against me and have presumed, even unto blood, to lay
their hands upon me. For the kings of the earth stood by, and the secular
and ecclesiastical princes; the men of the palace, also, and the common herd
came together against the Lord and against ye His anointed, saying: "Let us
break their chains and cast off their yoke from us." And they have in many
ways attempted to rise up against me in order to utterly confound me with
death or with exile.

Among them, especially, Henry whom they call king, son of Henry the emperor,
did raise his heel against your church and strive, by casting me down, to
subjugate it, having made a conspiracy with many ultramontane bishops. But
your authority resisted and your power destroyed their pride. He, confounded
and humbled, came to me in Lombardy and sought absolution from the bann. I
seeing him humiliated, having received many promises from him concerning the
bettering of his way of living, restored to him the communion. But only
that; I did not reinstate him in his kingdom from which I had deposed him in
a Roman synod, nor did I order that the fealty from which, in that synod, I
have absolved all those who had sworn it to him, or were about to swear it,
should be observed towards him. And my reason for not doing so was that I
might do justice in the matter or arrange peace-as Henry himself, by an oath
before two bishops, had promised me should be done-between him and the
ultramontane bishops or princes who, being commanded to do so y your church,
had resisted him. But the said ultramontane bishops and princes, hearing
that he had not kept his promise to me, and, as it were, despairing of him,
elected for themselves without my advice-ye are my witnesses-duke Rudolf as
king. This king Rudolf hastily sent an envoy to intimate to me that he had
been compelled to accept the helm of state but that he was ready to obey me
in every way. And to make this the more credible, he has continued from that
time to send me words to the same effect, adding also that he was ready to
confirm what he had promised by giving his own son and the son of his
faithful follower duke Bertald as hostages. Meanwhile Henry commenced to
implore my aid against the said Rudolf. I answered that I would willingly
grant it if I could hear the arguments on both sides so as to know whom
justice most favoured. But he, thinking to conquer by his own strength,
scorned my reply. But when he found that he could not do as he had hoped he
sent to Rome two of his partisans, the bishops, namely, of Verdun and of
Osnabruck, who asked me in a synod to do justice to him. This also the
envoys of Rudolf pressed me to do. At length, by God's inspiration as I
believe, I decreed in that synod that an assembly should take place beyond
the mountains, where either peace should be established or it should be made
known which side justice the most favoured. For I-as ye, my fathers and
masters, can testify-have taken care up to this time to aid no party save
the one on whose side justice should be found to be. And, thinking that the
weaker side would wish the assembly not to take place, whereas justice would
hold its own, I excommunicated and bound with the anathema the person of
one-whether king, duke, bishop or ordinary man-who should by any means
contrive to prevent the assembly from taking place. But the said Henry with
his partisans, not fearing the danger from disobedience, which is the crime
of idolatry, incurred the excommunication by impeding the assembly. And he
bound himself with the chain of the anathema, causing a great multitude of
Christians to be given over to death and of churches to be ruined, and
rendering desolate almost the whole realm of the Germans. Therefore,
trusting in the judgment and mercy of God and of his most holy mother the
ever-virgin Mary, armed with your authority, I lay under excommunication and
bind with the chains of the anathema the oft-mentioned Henry-the so-called
king-and all his followers. And again, on the part of God Almighty and of
yourselves, I deny to him the kingdom of the Germans and of Italy and I take
away from him all royal power and dignity. And I forbid any Christian to
obey him as king, and absolve from their oath all who have sworn or shall
swear to him as ruler of the land. May this same Henry, moreover, as well as
his partisans,-be powerless in any war-like encounter and obtain no victory
during his life. Whereas I grant and concede in your name that Rudolf, whom,
as a mark of fidelity to ye, the Germans have chosen to be their king, may
rule and defend the land of the Germans. To all of those who faithfully
adhere to him 1, trusting in your support, grant absolution of all their
sins and your benediction in this life and the life to come. For as Henry,
on account of his pride, disobedience and falseness, is justly cast down
from his royal dignity, so to Rudolf, for his humility, obedience and
truthfulness, the power and dignity of kingship are granted.

Proceed now, I beg, O fathers and most holy princes, in such way that all
the world may learn and know that, if ye can bind and loose in Heaven, so ye
can on earth take away empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies,
margravates, counties and all possessions of men, and grant them to any man
ye please according to his merits. For often have ye taken away
patriarchates, primateships, archbishoprics and bishoprics from the wicked
and unworthy and given them to devout men. And if ye judge spiritual offices
what are we to believe of your power in secular ones? An-J if ye shall judge
angels, who rule over all proud princes, how will it be with those subject
to them? Let kings and all secular princes now learn how great ye are and
what your power is; and let them dread to disregard the command of your 0
church. And, in the case of the said Henry, exercise such swift judgment
that all may know him to fall not by chance but by your power. Let him be
confounded;-would it were to repentance, that his soul may be safe at the
day of the Lord!

Given at Rome, on the Nones of March, in the third indiction.