Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/321

 Con Conflict between Gregory VII and Henry IV 285 To whom, indeed, can we better compare them, when they seek to make the priests of God bend to their feet, than to him who is chief of all the sons of pride and who tempted the highest Pontiff himself, the chief of priests, the Son of the Most High, and promised to him all the kingdoms of the world, saying, "All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me " ? Who doubts that the priests of Christ should be regarded as the fathers and masters of kings and princes, and of all the faithful ? Is it not evidently hopeless folly for a son to attempt to domineer over his father, a pupil over his master, or for any one, by iniquitous exactions, to claim power over him by whom he himself, as he acknowledges, can be bound and loosed both on earth and in heaven ? Constantine, the great lord of all kings and princes throughout nearly the whole world, plainly understood this, as the blessed Gregory observes in a letter to the emperor Mauritius, for Constan- tine took his seat after all the bishops in the holy Council of Nicaea; he presumed to issue no decisions superior to theirs, but addressed them as gods, and declared that they should not be subject to his judgment, but that he was dependent upon their will. 1, . . Armed accordingly with such decrees and authority, many Cases of bishops have excommunicated, in some cases kings, in others churchmen _-, - , . i i r excommuni- emperors. If the names of such princes are asked for, it may be said that the blessed pope Innocent excommunicated the emperor Arcadius for consenting to the expulsion of St. John Chrysostom from his see. Likewise another Roman pontiff, Zacharias, deposed a king of the Franks, not so much for his iniquities, as for the reason that he was not fitted to exercise his great power. And he substituted Pippin, father of the emperor Charles the Great, in his place, releasing all the Franks from the oath of fealty which they had sworn to him, as, indeed, the holy Church frequently does, by its abundant authority, when it absolves 1 Gregory adds here some extracts from the letter of Pope Gelasius, which is given above, pp. 72-73.