Humbert of Silva Candida

Humbert of Silva Candida

Humbertus Silvae Candidae Episcopus

1015–1061
Wikipedia

Humbert of Silva Candida (ca. 1015–1061) was a Benedictine monk from Lorraine who became one of the foremost intellectual architects of the eleventh-century Gregorian Reform. Appointed cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida by Pope Leo IX around 1050, he served as the papacy's most forceful polemicist against simony and lay investiture, arguing in his Libri tres adversus simoniacos (ca. 1058) that the simoniacal ordination of clergy was heretical and void — a position more radical than most of his contemporaries. He also played a central role in the 1054 schism between Rome and Constantinople, personally delivering the bull of excommunication against Patriarch Michael Cerularius. His writings exercised a lasting influence on the theory of papal authority and the separation of clerical and lay power.

Pamphlets on the Controversy Between Emperors and Popes in the 11th and 12th Centuries, Volume I

Pamphlets on the Controversy Between Emperors and Popes in the 11th and 12th Centuries, Volume I

Libelli de Lite Imperatorvm et Pontificvm Saecvlis XI. et XII. Conscripti, Tomus I

1891·690 pages

Three Books Against the Simoniacs

Libri III Adversus Simoniacos

Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida's Libri tres adversus simoniacos (ca. 1058) is the most radical and systematic of the eleventh-century treatises against simony. In three books, Humbert argues that simony is not merely a canonical irregularity but a formal heresy: simoniacal ordinations are utterly invalid, and those ordained by simoniacs must be reordained rather than simply reconciled. The first book surveys the canonical and patristic evidence against simony; the second argues that simoniacal bishops are not true bishops at all but heretics masquerading in ecclesiastical office; the third extends this logic to lay investiture, arguing that the entire system of royal appointment to episcopal and abbatial offices is itself simoniacal. This last argument made the Libri tres a foundational text of the Gregorian Reform's most aggressive wing and contributed to the theoretical framework of the Investiture Controversy. Edited by Friedrich Thaner for the MGH Libelli de Lite, vol. I (1891).

Humberti Cardinalis Libri III Adversus Simoniacos·fol. 95–253