On the chess board, on both sides of the core position "king" and "back", there is a pair of pieces named "bishop", which we Chinese generally apply to the Chinese chess model and translate it as "elephant". However, this image is not another image, bishop is not a stupid "elephant" in Chinese chess that cannot cross the river and can only fly, its original meaning is "bishop", which can be shifted diagonally, eats the diagonal line, and has unlimited steps, and has great power.
Bishop compared to the priest's crown
A cleric actually approaching the "king" and "queen" is still so lethal, which seems to be difficult to understand in the concept of Chinese, and it is not the work of the prosperous weather and the Ming Emperor who believes in the gods, monks, and demons? But this is a historical fact in the European Middle Ages. In terms of political influence alone, it can even be said that the Middle Ages for a long time was the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" of France, the Holy See, and the Holy Roman Empire.
However, unlike China's "three points to the Jin", under the shroud of Christian civilization, neither the European monarchy nor the clerical power can annex anyone, but a relationship of symbiosis, confrontation and cooperation. Roughly speaking, before the 11th century, secular monarchs and popes cooperated a little more with each other, which can be called a "honeymoon period", and occasional confrontations were relatively restrained.
In 753 AD, Pope Stephen II, threatened by the Lombards, sought refuge in the Frankish kingdom and crowned the Frankish king Pepin the "dwarf" for the second time, giving him the title of "Roman Nobleman". In return, two years later, Pepin dedicated 22 cities in the newly conquered northern and central regions of Italy, including Ravenna, to the Holy See, known in history as the "Pepin Sacrifice". The Holy See used this as a territory to form a papal state independent of the secular regime.
In 799, because of the dispute with the Italian nobility, the Pope came to Pipin's son Charles for support, and the following year, in gratitude, he took the initiative to crown him "Roman Emperor", which was the famous Charlemagne. This set a precedent for "divine right of kings", after which the kings of the feudal states of Europe could only become supreme "emperors" after being crowned by the pope through ceremonies, until 1804, when strong as Napoleon also received the crown from the pope.
In 961, King Otto I of East Francia helped the Pope quell the rebellion in Italy, and the following year, Pope John XII crowned him "Roman Emperor", and East Francia became the "Roman Empire". By 1155, Frederick the "Red Beard" had the word "sacred", which is the origin of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany (although it is customary to start the Holy Roman Empire in 962).
The scheming Otto also reached the Otto Privilege Agreement with the Pope, which granted the right to decide the election of the pope and the right to appoint bishops within the empire. In other words, the emperor needs the coronation of the pope, but the pope wants to be loyal to the emperor, and the election of the pope must be decided by the emperor, which is interesting, in the future, if the husband and wife quarrel, who will listen to it?
It should be said that the "Otto Privilege Agreement" reflects the strength of the royal power over the clerical power at that time, but just like a family, if there is a strong husband or a fierce wife, there will be no quarrel, only when the strength of the two sides is close, the contradiction and conflict will come.
Due to the traditional feudal system in Western Europe, the territories are divided into layers, and the resources are increasingly dispersed, and the royal power is easily emptied. In the case of the Capetian Dynasty of France in the 10th century, the king nominally owned 450,000 square kilometers of france, but the actual control, that is, the periphery of Paris, where the royal family is located, was less than 30,000 square kilometers, about the area of Beijing + Tianjin, and was jokingly called "Île-de-France".
Christianity has a strict organization, the ecclesiastical administrative district is called the diocese, the leader is called the bishop, that is, the "bishop" in chess, as mentioned in the opening chapter; the large diocese is called the province, and the leader is called the archbishop. From the Papal States of Rome to the local parishes, they occupied large and small territories, did not pay taxes, did not perform military service, had independent laws and regulations, administrative systems, and a large number of believers. Such strength, or the spokesperson of the divine power in the human world, is it willing to live under the people for a long time?
In 1073, the ambitious Gregory VII was elected pope, and in that year he issued a papal decree declaring that the papal power was above all else, with the right to appoint and remove kings and diocese bishops. In 1075, Gregory VII issued Article 27 of the Papal Edict, which again clarified this principle and announced the abolition of the "appointment of secular people", that is, the pope could not be elected by the emperor, and the Otto Privilege Agreement was overturned.
The conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII
At this time, the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire was Henry IV, who naturally wanted to defend the "ancestral family law", insisted on the right to appoint bishops in the empire, and refused the appointment of the archbishop appointed by the pope. As the conflict escalated, in January 1076, the 25-year-old henry IV convened a meeting of bishops in the country and exercised the powers conferred by the Agreement of Otto Privileges, declaring Gregory VII deposed. In response, a month later, Gregory VII executed Henry IV in Rome.
Simply put, excommunication is expulsion. This may seem like nothing in modern society, but in medieval Europe, where Christianity ruled, the excommunicated were heretics, the social credit index was zero, and the rats on the street were shouted and beaten. Not to mention the factions within the Holy Roman Empire, and the aristocratic clique led by The Duke of Rudolf rebelled on the news, declaring that it would not recognize Henry IV's monarchy.
Fortunately, there are many kinds of exonerations, Pope Gregory just wants to boil the eagle for my use, and does not want to kill the eagle, and the extermination given is a one-year "death reprieve". By January 1077, with the limit approaching, Gregory was invited to a meeting with various princes at the Castle of Canossa in northern Italy. Henry IV's side was still uncertain about the domestic situation, and his position was precarious, so he had no choice but to cross the Alps from Germany to Italy to meet the Pope.
Remains of Canossa Castle
Canossa is a barren mountain castle, and in the middle of winter it is ice and snow, henry IV, in order to show repentance, wrapped only in a felt blanket, bare head and barefoot climbed the mountain, frozen outside the castle for three days and three nights, weeping bitterly, asking for forgiveness. The king's condescension to this point is unprecedented in history, and in the future, the "humiliation of Canossa", like the "humiliation of the crotch" in China, has become a famous allusion in the Western world and is synonymous with humiliation and surrender.
Gregory, on his side, actually had no choice, because Christianity originally advocated forgiveness, and canon law also allowed repentance to atone for sins, and three days later henry IV was received, and after a wonderful performance of stern reprimand and confession and repentance, Henry IV was given a kiss of forgiveness.
Is it over? Of course not. The story has only just begun.
After Henry IV returned to China, he immediately organized a force to fight the rebellion, and fought with the Duke of Rudolf and other nobles. By 1080, Henry IV's victory had been decided, and he returned the favor in the other way, and severely ordered Pope Gregory VII to execute the Duke of Rudolf. Seeing that the king's power was about to rise again, Gregory did not show weakness, and once again imposed excommunication on Henry, and declared Rudolf the king of Germany. On the other hand, Henry IV went head-for-tat, declaring Gregory VII deposed and Clement III pope.
The situation of the two kings and the two emperors standing side by side
So a dazzling scene appeared, the Holy Roman Empire in the same world, there were actually two kings, next to the pestle of two popes, a European version of the "True and False Monkey King" posture.
From today's point of view, the so-called "Canossa's humiliation" is a vicious struggle between Henry and Gregory personally, but from the perspective of kingship and ecclesiastical power, it is actually a husband and wife cold war, and the husband is punished with a washboard. Afterwards, the king also wanted to establish another pope, the pope also had to canonize another king, the ecclesiastical power needed the hard power of the royal power of "carrots and sticks", the royal power needed the cleric power to give legitimacy to the "divine right of the monarchy", after all, no one could leave anyone.
What are the whereabouts of the parties to the "Humiliation of Canossa"?
Painting of The Humiliation of Canossa
Shortly after the two kings were annexed, Rudolf died of his wounds, and Henry IV cleared the gates and prepared to march on Rome. In 1084, the Roman nobles abandoned Gregory to avoid war and opened the city gates to welcome Henry IV in. On Easter of that year, Pope Clement III was crowned "Roman Emperor" by Henry IV.
Gregory fled to Salerno in southern Italy and asked the Normans to send troops to help him get his revenge, ironically, the Arabs actually joined in the way, and the coalition drove out Henry IV, but set fire to and plundered the city of Rome. After a war, the character of the initiator Gregory was shattered, and he never saw His father in Jiangdong again, and died in Salerno in 1085.
Henry IV defeated Gregory, but was unable to defeat the powerful clerical forces. In 1090, with the support of the new Pope Urban II, the anti-Henry aristocracy in southern Germany rebelled again. Henry IV had to go south south to Italy again to put down the rebellion.
Under the stalemate, the nobles supported Henry IV's eldest son and heir Conrad as King of Italy against Henry IV. This kind of thing is in Europe, it is really not an inexplicable surprise, anyway, everyone is equal before God, as long as it is in the name of God, the son creates the rebellion of Lao Tzu, and the wife changes the life of the husband, it is really not uncommon.
Finally, in 1097, the rebellious Henry IV fled back to Germany, and the following year announced the right to depose Conrad and install his younger son Henry the Younger (no way, father and son have the same name, it is so tough) as his heir. Who knows, this little Henry actually stabbed in the back, launched a rebellion and imprisoned his father, and in 1106, he was crowned emperor by the Archbishop of Mainz.
To say that the old Henry's life, is really ups and downs, since the age of 6 to the throne, once abducted, executed, suffered great shame, revenge and hatred, not only by his lifelong faith, but also twice betrayed by his own son. However, the martyr was in his twilight years, and the old man escaped from prison and organized an army in the border town of Liège, preparing to make a comeback, but soon died of illness.
It is said that the ass decides the head, it seems that it is not false at all, little Henry overthrew the old Henry, became Henry V, but completely followed the political line of the old father, invaded Italy twice, and continued the dispute between the royal power and the clerical power. However, under the constraints of the domestic nobility, in 1120 Henry V reconciled with the Pope and signed the Worms Religious Agreement. The core content is that the emperor no longer has the right to appoint and dismiss bishops, and that where bishops and abbots in Germany are elected by the Council of Priests, the emperor has only the right to adjudicate in case of dispute; where bishops and abbots in Italy are appointed and dismissed, the power of appointment and removal is vested in the pope, and the emperor is not allowed to interfere.
It is like a dispute between husband and wife, and finally reversed the family decision-making power, but life has also changed.
Since then, the Holy Roman Empire has become increasingly embroiled in internal strife, and the Germans have been increasingly exploited by the Church, eventually becoming "the pope's cows". Ecclesiastical power rose all the way up, reaching its peak in the 13th century, when the Pope became the supreme ruler of the Catholic world. Pope Innocent III of the time roamed Europe, calling himself "Emperor of Kings, Lord of Lords", openly declaring that "everything in this world cannot escape the pope's attention and control", and repeatedly appointing or deposing monarchs of various countries.
Innosson III relief from the United States House of Representatives
At the same time, the Kingdom of France on one side quietly rose and gradually developed into a centralized power thanks to the efforts of successive kings. By 1303, the situation had suddenly turned upside down, and King Philip IV of France had convened the first "Three Councils" in history, forced the Church to pledge allegiance to the king with the support of the emerging civic class, and sent troops to capture the then Pope Boniface IV. For more than 70 years, the successive popes no longer resided in the Holy See, but lived in the small French city of Avignon and became a puppet of the French king, known in history as the "Prisoner of Avignon".
This time, the era when the clerical power had plummeted and the Holy See had provoked and exploited internal strife among nations to override the secular monarchy was gone. Since then, with the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, wave after wave of impact, the European nation-states have gradually risen, the clerical power is no longer beautiful, and the royal power is first revived, and later under the impact of the bourgeois revolution, with the decline of the ecclesiastical power.
By the way, the husband and wife quarreled at the head of the bed and the end of the bed, and then embraced each other, and went down together.