Popes vs. Monarchs
Storyboard Text
- It's my church! I get the power!
- I want the power!
- Only I can choose bishops.
- But I want to choose them.
- I have supreme authority over leaders. I can remove anyone from their office.
- In 1037 an Italian monk became Pope Gregory VII. He believed that the emperor should not be able to have power over the church. This led to conflict between the emperor and the pope.
- How dare he.
- I will serve and support you.
- Gregory said that only the pope had the right to choose bishops. This became a major political issue in the middle ages. Bishops controlled much land and wealth. Both the kings and the bishops wanted to appoint bishops who would support them.
- You can't be pope anymore!
- You're excommunicated!
- Pope Gregory issued a set of rules declaring his supreme authority over the church and the non-church leaders. He also claimed that because the church was founded only by god that he had the right to remove any official from their office. This shocked Henry. Pope was claiming to be able to remove emperors from the throne.
- Fine, I forgive you.
- The conflict got worse when Henry decided to ignore Pope Gregory's rules and appointed his own bishop on Milan, Italy. The pope was very upset when he heard what happened. Pope Gregory appointed his own rival bishop after that.
- Eventually Henry got fed up and tried to remove Gregory from his position as pope. When he failed to do so pope Gregory excommunicated him. He also freed Henry's subjects from their oaths of loyalty to him.
- Since he didn't have subjects to support him, Henry had no power. To end his excommunication he went to the pope in an Italian castle. The pope made him wait outside in the snow for 3 days. The pope forgave him but the conflict between them continued.
- Please forgive me.
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