Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/302

 218 General History oj Europe then the lord transferred to him the lands and rights attached to the office. No careful distinction appears to have been made between the property and the religious powers. The lord often conferred both by bestowing upon a bishop the ring and the crosier (the bishop's pastoral staff), the emblems of religious au- thority. It seemed shocking enough that the king or feudal lord, who was often a rough soldier, should dictate the selection of the bishops ; but it was still more shocking that he should assume to confer religious powers with religious emblems. 349. The Marriage of the Clergy. Still another danger threat- ened the wealth and resources of the Church. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the rule of the Church prohibiting the clergy from marrying appears to have been widely neglected in Italy, Germany, France, and England. It was obvious that the property of the Church would soon be dispersed if the clergy were allowed to marry, since they would wish to provide for their chil- dren. Just as the feudal lands had become hereditary ( 340), so the church lands would become hereditary unless the clergy were forced to remain unmarried. 350. Task of the Popes. A hundred years after the time of Otto the Great it seemed as if the Church would be dragged down by its property into the anarchy of feudalism. But the popes assumed the gigantic task of making the Church a great inter- national monarchy, like the former Roman Empire, with its capi- tal at Rome. The control of the feudal lords over the selection of the clergy must be reduced or abolished, the marriage of the clergy prohibited, and the corruption connected with Church of- fices checked. The first great move of the Pope was the decree of 1059 depriving the emperor of the right he claimed to control the election of the Pope and putting the choice in the hands of the cardinals. These were the representatives of the clergy of the city of Rome, and in their hands the election of the Pope has legally rested ever since. 351. Gregory VII and his Dictatus. In 1073 the most cele- brated of the medieval popes, Gregory VII (often called Hilde- brand), ascended the papal throne. Among his writings is a brief