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The Germanic Monarchy of the Middle Ages and Its Power Over the Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2024

Heinrich Fichtenau
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Extract

“We have chosen our teacher, Lord Sylvester, as Pope, and ordained and created him by the grace of God.” The Emperor Otto III wrote these words in the year 1001 in a document for Pope Sylvester II, the famous Gerbert von Aurillac. It is not known that Gerbert protested against this remarkable formulation, and he accepted harsh words of reproof, also contained in this document, for the “carelessness and ignorance” of his predecessors. The latest of these predecessors on the chair of St. Peter had been Gregory V, a cousin of the emperor; and it had already become clear in his day what conclusions Otto drew from his views. When a Spanish bishop was to be removed, the emperor headed the synod which handled the matter together with the pope, and signed the document that Gregory released on this occasion. He ruled the church together with the popes, or through the popes, and was not the only one to do this.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 9 , Issue 34 , June 1961 , pp. 66 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © 1961 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Monumenta Germaniae, Othonis III diplomata, Nr. 389.

2 Getica, XIII, 78.

3 Ausonius, Ordo urbium nobilium, v. 74.

4 Fredegar, Chronica, III, c. 9.

5 Gesta Chuonradi, c. 7.

6 Cf. Heinrich Fichtenau, "Naissance de l'Empire médiéval." Diogène, 2, 1953, p. 43 ff.

7 Ermoldus Nigellus, In honorem Hludovici IV, v. 245 ff.

8 Ph. Jaffé, Monumenta Moguntina, (Berlin 1866) 347, Nr. 18.

9 Vita Burchardi episcopi, Monumenta Germaniae, Scriptores, IV, 834.

10 Lantbert, Vita Heriberti Coloniensis, c. 5, Monumenta Germaniae, Scrip tores, IV, 743.

11 Monumenta Germaniae, Constitutiones, iv/1, 139, Nr. 173.

12 Discours au Xème Congrès International des Sciences Historiques, 7 September 1955.

13 Liber ad Heinricum IV, Monumenta Germaniae, Scriptores, XI, S. 609, 669. Walter Ullmann, Die Machtstellung des Papsttums im Mittelalter, (1960) 566.

14 A. Kleinclausz, Charlemagne, (1934) 394.