284 Readings in European History VI. THE POPE FULLY EXPLAINS THE NATURAL SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL OVER THE CIVIL POWER 115. Letter The following is one of the fullest and most instructive ory'vn'to general justifications of the papal supremacy that has the bishop come down to us. of Metz (March, 1081). j s / w p Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved brother in Christ, Hermann, Bishop of Metz, greeting and the apostolic benediction : It is doubtless through God's grace that thou art ready, as we hear, to endure trials and dangers in the defense of the truth. . . . However, thy request to be supported and fortified by a letter from us directed against those persons who are constantly asserting, with perverse tongues, that the holy and apostolic see had no authority to excommuni- cate Henry the scorner of Christian law, the destroyer of churches and of the empire, the patron and companion of heretics nor to absolve any one from the oath of fidel- ity to him, hardly seems necessary to us when so many and such absolutely decisive warrants are to be found in the pages of Holy Scriptures. . . . Shall not an office instituted by laymen by those even who did not know God be subject to that office which the providence of God Almighty has instituted for his own honor, and in compassion given to the world ? For his Son, even as he is unquestioningly believed to be God and man, so is he considered the chief of priests, sitting on the right hand of the Father and always interceding for us. Yet he despised a secular kingdom, over which the men of this world swell with pride, and came of his own will to the priesthood of the cross. Whereas all know that kings and princes are descendants of men who were ignorant of God, and who, by arrogance, robbery, perfidy, murder, in a word by almost every crime, at the prompting of the prince of this world, the devil, strove with blind avarice and intol- erable presumption to gain the mastery over their equals, that is, over mankind.
