Principles of western civilisation

vit THE GREAT ANTINOMY: FIRST STAGE 269

inevitable. The fiefs and jurisdictions of the bishoprics came, therefore, to be given by the head of the State to faithful followers; and not only as a reward for their past services, but also in consideration of those in the future."

It was against the subordination of the conception of the spiritual power, which all this essentially implied, and against the practice of lay investiture, which it immediately involved, that the genius and imagination of Pope Gregory VII. now rose in revolt.

In the resulting conflict, in which the political life of the whole of Western Europe becomes deeply involved, the steps follow each other with dramatic effect. In the opening act we have five of Henry IV.’s councillors excommunicated by Gregory for having attained ecclesiastical office by means of simony, and Henry is ordered to desist from exer-

1 Select Historical Documents, iy. Intro.

* Adams gives the following description of the charge of simony at this period :—Technically, it involved ‘‘ securing an ecclesiastical office by bribery, named from the incident recorded in the eighth chapter of the Acts concerning Simon Magus. But at this time the desire for the complete independence of the Church had given to it a new and wider meaning, which made it include all appointment to positions in the Church by laymen, including kings and the Emperor. It is the plainest of historical facts that such appointment had gone on, practically undisputed, from the earliest times. Under both the public and the private law of all the German States the king had such aright. According to the private law the founder was the patron, and as such enjoyed the right of appointment. According to the conception of the public law the bishop was an officer of the State. He had, in the great majority of cases, political duties to perform as important as his ecclesiastical duties. The lands which formed the endowment of his office had always been considered as being, still more directly than any other feudal land, the property of the State, and were treated as such when the occasion demanded, from times before Charles Martel to times after Gregory VII. At this period these lands had clearly defined feudal obligations to perform, which constituted a very considerable proportion of the resources of the State. It was a matter of vital importance whether officers exercising such important functions and controlling so large a part of its area—probably everywhere as much as one-third of