From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy: Pope Leo IX and the Gregorian Reform

After a summer hiatus, we are finally back with a new episode, the third in our series on the medieval papacy, “From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy.” The previous covered the tenth-century nadir of the papacy, when it was dominated by powerful Roman families and used to enhance their power and control over the city and the papal states. In this episode, my favorite co-host Ellen Harrison Abels and I explain how the foundations of the papal monarchy were laid in the mid eleventh century by a super pious German king, Henry III, in his capacity as Holy Roman Emperor working hand in glove with his hand-picked German pope (and cousin) Pope Leo IX. The engine of change was the so-called Gregorian Reform (after Pope Gregory VII, whom we will discuss in the next episode). This was the eleventh- and twelfth-century papacy's attack on the clerical abuses of simony, the practice of purchasing spiritual offices/church positions and clerical unchastity. By 1050 both were regarded by monastic reformers as serious abuses among the secular clergy (i.e. the priesthood). Reformers, influenced by the rise of a commercial economy, interpreted as simony the traditional practice of bishops thanking with gifts the kings and princes who had appointed them to their sees. The older view was that it was simply good manners (the reciprocity of gift-giving). 

 With the backing of Emperor Henry III, Pope Leo IX not only claimed but exerted papal authority over the other bishops of western Christendom in his zeal to cleanse the Church of simony and clerical unchastity. But the death of Henry III and the succession of a child to the throne of Germany, threatened to return the papacy into the hands of the Roman nobility. This led to Pope Nicholas II issuing a papal election decree in 1059, the papacy's declaration of independence, not only from the Roman nobility but (in less certain terms) from the Holy Roman Emperor himself. In this episode Ellen and I also discuss the origins of the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church, and how that explains why Roman Catholic priests are required to be celibate but Greek Orthodox priests can marry.

This episode includes snippets from Gregorian chants sung by 

the Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvT2siwqZCI); 

the Schola du Séminaire Saint-Curé-d'Ars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7I7vXcZR0A); and the Schola of the Vienna Hofburgkapelle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrsqJaLDOg). 

Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com

Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com