Compare And Contrast Pope Gregory III And Pope Hardy III

Both historians and Catholics believe that Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory VII as some of the greatest figures in history because they thought of everything in religious terms. More importantly, using their powers, they were able to achieve their goals of saving the welfare of the Church and Christian civilization. The Middle Ages was known as a period of European history, from the 5th to the 15th century, that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and preceded the Early Modern Era. By the turn of the 4th century, the Roman Empire legalized Christianity leading to its widespread across Europe. It did not take long for the Church to become a powerful force over Medieval Europe as the Pope acquired a vast amount of power becoming …show more content…
The death of Henry VI in 1197 led the Pope to concede the right of the imperial electors to select a candidate. Otto of Brunswick promised to recognize enlarged Papal States and renounce claims to the assets of deceased church officials. However, after invading Italy, Pope Innocent excommunicated him and installed his own ward, Frederic II, as Holy Roman emperor. Innocent said that by virtue of the "grace of God and of the pope” that kings would hold power and the crown. People sometimes refer to his use of power over European monarchs like a chess game in that the European monarchs are pawns in that they were considered worthless, except when they were giving the Pope gifts. By first taking down heresy and corruption in the Church, he was able to deprive Roan clerics of their property if they did not amend any heretical opinions they …show more content…
Henry's letter to Gregory and Gregory's orders to depose Henry are proven to be based upon spiritual authority by the fact that they refer to the Bible to support their claims. One of the main disputes involved the power’s held by the Pope vs Kings. Henry believed that he had complete authority because in the New Testament, both Jesus and the Apostle Paul believed people should submit to the authority of lawfully chosen kings; however, he also notes that a number of Church leaders had said that Christians were not required to follow ungodly leaders. The problem being was that Henry was attempting to claimed that he was not one of these ungodly leaders and that since he was anointed that he is an appointed leader of God. In his letter which condemns Henry, Gregory said that Henry was misunderstood, and is breaking the unbroken line of authority, because he did not know that since Apostle Peter was the Pope and God gave authority to Peter and his followers, that Gregory and the Church has the power. Based upon the statement of Christ in the New Testament Book of Matthew, Chapter 16: speaking to Peter, whose name means "rock" in Greek, Jesus said that "upon this rock I will build my church”, Gregory believed that all power and authority of command is given to peter and whoever followed him. This is also based upon the same letter which states