Gregory VII: Lay Investitures
Forbidden 1078
Gregory issued a decree in 1073 forbidding prelates to receive
their churches from lay rulers. The text of this decree against "lay
investiture" has been lost. The following text is a reenactment of the same
prohibition in 1078.
Inasmuch as we have learned that, contrary to the establishments of the holy
fathers, the investiture with churches is, in many places, performed by lay
persons; and that from this case many disturbances arise in the church by which
the Christian religion is trodden under foot: we decree that no one of the
clergy shall receive the investiture with a bishopric or abbey or church from
the hand of an emperor or king or of any lay person, male or female. But if he
shall presume to do so he shall clearly know that such investiture is bereft of
apostolic authority, and that he himself shall lie under excommunication until
fitting satisfaction shall have been rendered.
Translated in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle
Ages, (London: George Bell and Sons, 1910), p. 365
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a
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(c)Paul Halsall Jan 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu