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of Italy, also gained back again for the Roman See some parts of the Papal States, which had become Imperial territory during the wars with the Hohenstaufens. There he replaced the Imperial authorities with Papal rectors. Whenever that was possible, he assumed the role of protector of the Italian communes and opposed the Empire, which he hated as much as Augustine had hated the ancient Empire, because it was built on force. But these communes became states within the state, and thus social entities in their own right. Science in the universities began to be autonomous, just as did politics in the chancellories of kings and princes, or poetry and aesthetic culture at the courts. All these things together hollowed out from within the Imperial idea, which had embraced within itself all aspects of earthly activity; and in the same way the times of Innocent and the Popes who immediately followed him confronted the Church with a trend away from Imperial to state authority, from a prophetic, creative atti- tude of mind to an intellectual, methodical attitude, and from divinely given inspiration to Church law.
The theocratic consciousness of Hildebrand, who felt as he wrote his epistles that Peter himself was looking over his shoulder, was not to be acquired in Bologna and Paris. More than ever before ques- tions of law were decided by a Papacy which studied the juridical and ethical implications of the corpus juris. Innocent, the "apostolic oracle," answered all questions magnanimously and without bias as wisely as if he were a second Solomon. A Geneva monk who was expert in surgery had operated on a peasant woman for goitre and had ordered her to stay in bed. But the woman went to work and died as a result. The question now arose: dare a man who has com- mitted a murder unwillingly, continue to exercise the priestly func- tion? Yes, said Innocent, it is true that the religious was at fault in practising such a craft, but since he acted in the spirit of human sympathy and not for money and was a conscientious medical practi- tioner he cannot be held responsible for the death of a woman who did not do his bidding. Therefore, after he has performed his pen- ance, he may say Mass again. May sick persons eat meat in Lent if they do not give alms? Yes, replied the Pope, necessity is here the law. May a bastard become a bishop? This was forbidden by the traditional law. Innocent sent the chapter of Lincoln this reply:
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