Protocol of the Roman Lent Synod of 1076
Protocollum synodi Romanae anni MLXXVI
Gregory VIIProtocollum synodi Romanae anni MLXXVI
Anno ab incarnatione Domini millesimo LXXV, Indictione XIIII. Celebravit ipse domnus GREGORIUS papa Rome synodum in ecclesia domini Salvatoris, que Constantiniana dicitur. Ubi interfuit episcoporum et abbatum atque diversi ordinis clericorum et laicorum copia. In qua inter cetera decreta que ibi gesta sunt excommunicavit Sigefredum Mogontinum archiepiscopum in hunc modum: "Sigefredum Mogontinum archiepiscopum, qui conatus est episcopos atque abbates regni Teutonicorum a sancta Romana ecclesia, videlicet spirituali matre sua, scindere, iudicio sancti Spiritus et auctoritate beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli ab omni episcopali officio suspendimus et a communione corporis et sanguinis Domini separamus, nisi forte mortis periculum superveniat, ita tamen, ut penitentia ductus resipiscat. Ceteros vero, qui sua sponte eius scismati consentiendo subscripserunt et in ea iniquitate perdurare volunt, similiter ab omni episcopali officio suspendimus. Illos vero, qui non sponte consenserunt, usque ad festivitatem sancti Petri sufferimus, eo quidem respectu, ut, si infra istum terminum idoneam aut
per se aut per nuntios suos satisfactionem presentie nostre non obtulerint, episcopali deinceps officio priventur."
"Episcopos Longobardie, qui spreta canonica et apostolica auctoritate contra beatum Petrum apostolorum principem sacramento conspiraverunt, auctoritate eiusdem beati Petri ab omni episcopali officio suspendimus et a communione sancte ecclesie separamus."
"Agathensem episcopum Berengarium, quia Nerbonensi episcopo excommunicato communicavit et vices episcopales pro illo fecit, excommunicamus. Viennensem episcopum Herimannum iuste depositum pro simonia periuriis sacrilegiis et apostasia, quia Viennensem ecclesiam infestare non desistit, excommunicamus. Et ecclesiis Romanensi et sancti Herenei Lugdunensi, quousque eas occupaverit, divinum interdicimus officium. Desiderium et clericos Romanensis ecclesie, qui regulares nostros ab ea expulerunt et excommunicatis communicaverunt, inde donec satisfaciant excommunicamus. Abbatem sancti Egidii similiter. Et comitem sancti Egidii propter consanguineam. Et comitem Forensem. Et Umbertum de Belloioco propter infestationes Lugdunensis ecclesie. Podiensem symoniacum homicidam Stephanum, scilicet a legatis nostris excommunicatum, et Pontium Gratianopolitanum, quousque resipiscat, excommunicamus. Et ea, que Diensis episcopus in episcopatu Diensi de decimis et primitiis et ecclesiis fecit, et cetera, que in legatione nostra statuit, nos quoque confirmamus."
Beate Petre apostolorum princeps, inclina, quesumus, pias aures tuas nobis et audi me servum tuum, quem ab infantia nutristi et usque ad hunc diem de manu iniquorum liberasti, qui me pro tua fidelitate oderunt et odiunt. Tu michi testis es et domina mea mater Dei et beatus Paulus frater tuus inter omnes sanctos, quod tua sancta Romana ecclesia me invitum ad sua gubernacula traxit et ego non rapina arbitratus sum ad sedem tuam ascendere potiusque volui vitam meam in peregrinatione finire quam locum tuum pro gloria mundi seculari ingenio arripere. Et ideo ex tua gratia, non ex meis operibus credo, quod tibi placuit et placet, ut populus christianus tibi specialiter commissus mihi oboediat specialiter pro vice tua michi commissa. Et michi tua gratia est potestas a Deo data ligandi atque solvendi in celo et in terra. Hac itaque fiducia fretus pro ecclesie tue honore et defensione ex parte omnipotentis Dei Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti per tuam potestatem et auctoritatem Heinrico regi, filio Heinrici imperatoris, qui contra tuam ecclesiam inaudita superbia insurrexit, totius regni Teutonicorum et Italie gubernacula contradico et omnes christianos a vinculo iuramenti, quod sibi fecerunt vel facient, absolvo et, ut nullus ei sicut regi serviat, interdico. Dignum est enim, ut, qui studet honorem ecclesie tue imminuere, ipse honorem amittat, quem videtur habere. Et quia sicut christianus contempsit oboedire nec ad Deum
rediit, quem dimisit participando excommunicatis meaque monita, que pro sua salute misi, te teste, spernendo seque ab ecclesia tua temptans eam scindere separando, vinculo eum anathematis vice tua alligo et sic eum ex fiducia tua alligo, ut sciant gentes et comprobent, quia tu es Petrus et super tuam petram filius Dei vivi edificavit ecclesiam suam et porte inferi non prevalebunt adversus eam.
Protocol of the Roman Synod of 1076
In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1075, in the fourteenth indiction, lord Gregory the pope himself celebrated a synod at Rome in the church of the Lord Savior, called the Constantinian. There was present a great number of bishops, abbots, and clerics and laymen of various orders. There, among the other decrees enacted, he excommunicated Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz, in the following terms: “Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz, who has attempted to tear the bishops and abbots of the kingdom of the Germans away from the holy Roman Church, that is, from their spiritual mother, we suspend from all episcopal office by the judgment of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and we cut off from the communion of the body and blood of the Lord — unless perchance the peril of death should intervene — yet on this condition: that he be led by penitence to come to his senses. As for the others, who of their own accord subscribed to his schism by consenting to it and wish to persist in that iniquity, we likewise suspend from all episcopal office. But those who did not consent willingly, we bear with until the feast of Saint Peter, with this proviso: that if within that term they have not offered suitable satisfaction in our presence, either in person or through their messengers, they shall thereafter be
shall not, either in person or through their envoys, present satisfaction to our presence, they shall henceforth be deprived of the episcopal office.”
“The bishops of Lombardy, who in contempt of canonical and apostolic authority conspired by oath against blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, we suspend by the authority of the same blessed Peter from every episcopal office and separate from the communion of the holy Church.”
“Berengar, bishop of Agde, because he communicated with the excommunicated bishop of Narbonne and performed episcopal functions in his place, we excommunicate. Hermann, bishop of Vienne, justly deposed for simony, perjuries, sacrileges, and apostasy, because he does not cease to harass the church of Vienne, we excommunicate. And upon the churches of Romans and Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, for as long as he shall occupy them, we lay an interdict on the divine office. Desiderius and the clerics of the church of Romans, who expelled our canons regular from it and communicated with excommunicates, we excommunicate from it until they make satisfaction. The abbot of Saint-Gilles likewise. And the count of Saint-Gilles on account of his blood-relation [i.e., consanguineous marriage]. And the count of Forez. And Humbert of Beaujeu, on account of his harassment of the church of Lyon. Stephen of Le Puy, simoniac and homicide, already excommunicated by our legates, and Pons of Grenoble, until he comes to his senses, we excommunicate. And those things which the bishop of Die, in the diocese of Die, has done concerning tithes and first-fruits and churches, and the other things which he established on our legation, we also confirm.”
Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, incline, we beseech, your kindly ears to us and hear me your servant, whom you have nourished from infancy and, to this day, have delivered from the hand of the wicked, who have hated and still hate me for my fidelity to you. You are my witness, and my lady the mother of God, and your brother blessed Paul among all the saints, that your holy Roman Church drew me, unwilling, to its governance, and that I did not consider it robbery to ascend to your throne; rather, I would have preferred to end my life in pilgrimage than to seize your place by worldly cunning for the glory of the world. And therefore I believe that it is by your grace, not by my own works, that it has pleased you and still pleases you that the Christian people specially committed to you should obey me, as one specially entrusted with your office. And to me by your grace is given the power, bestowed by God, of binding and loosing in heaven and on earth. Trusting therefore in this confidence, for the honor and defense of your Church, on behalf of almighty God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, through your power and authority I deny Henry the king, son of Henry the emperor, who has risen up against your Church with unheard-of pride, the governance of the whole kingdom of the Germans and of Italy; and I absolve all Christians from the bond of the oath they have sworn or shall swear to him; and I forbid anyone to serve him as king. For it is fitting that he who strives to diminish the honor of your Church should himself lose the honor he seems to possess. And because as a Christian he has disdained to obey, and to God
he has not returned, whom he abandoned by sharing in communion with the excommunicated and spurning, with you as witness, the warnings I sent for his salvation, and separating himself from your Church and attempting to rend it, I bind him with the bond of anathema in your stead, and so bind him with confidence drawn from you, so that the nations may know and acknowledge that you are Peter, and upon your rock the Son of the living God built his Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.