Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

But what really drew the world’s attention was the publication, immediately after his election as pope in 1073, of Dictatus papae. This was by any measure a trenchant assertion of papal power, ‘a sensational and extremely radical document’.33 As was mentioned above, the bull insisted that the Roman pontiff was sanctified by St Peter, that the papacy had never erred and, according to the scriptures, never would err. Only the papal office was universal in authority, said the bull, only the pope could appoint bishops, nothing was canonical without papal assent, no one could be a true believer unless he agreed with the pope, and the pope himself was beyond the judgement of any human being. The pope had the power to depose emperors, and people with grievances against their rulers could lawfully bring those grievances to the Holy See.