Note: While Henry denounced Pope Gregory, the German bishops did likewise. The bishops objected to Gregory's claims of overlordship. They viewed him more as first among equals. They were angry that Gregory had questioned their legitimacy as bishops, since they had been invested by Henry rather than the pope. The bishops naturally viewed Henry as their ally against the new claims to power made by the Pope.
Siegried, archbishop of Mainz, Udo, bishop of Tier, William, bishop of Utrecht, etc. etc. (a list of names of 26 bishops in all), to brother Hildebrand [Pope Gregory]
At first when you made yourself pope we thought it better to ignore the illegality of your action and to submit to your rule, in the hope that you would redeem your bad beginning by a just and righteous government of the church, although we realized even then the enormity of the sin which you had committed. But now the lamentable condition of the whole church shows us only too well how we were deceived in you; your violent entrance into office was but the first in a series of wicked deeds and unjust decrees. Our Lord and Redeemer has said, in more places than we can well enumerate here, that love and gentleness are the marks of his disciples, but you are known for your pride, your ambition, and your love of strife. You have introduced worldliness into the church; you have desired a great name rather than a reputation for holiness; you have made a schism in the church and offended its members, who before your time were living together in peace and charity. Our mad acts have kindled the flame of discord which now rages in the churches of Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. The bishops have been deprived of their divine authority, which rests upon the grace of the Holy Spirit received through ordination, and the whole administration of ecclesiastical matters you have given to rash and ignorant laymen. There is nowhere in the church today a bishop or a priest who does not hold his office through abject acquiescence in your ambitious schemes.
The order of bishops, to whom the government of the church was entrusted by the Lord, you have thrown into confusion, and you have disturbed that excellent coordination of the members of Christ which Paul in so many places commends and inculcates, while the name of Christ has almost disappeared from the earth; and all this through those decrees in which you glory. Who among men is not filled with astonishment and indignation at your claims to sole authority, by which you would deprive your fellow-bishops of their coordinate rights and powers? For you assert that you have the authority to try any one of our parishioners for any sin which may have reached your ears even by chance report, and that no one of us has the power to loose or to bind such a sinner, but that it belongs to you alone or to your legate. Who that knows the scriptures does not perceive the madness of this claim?
Since, therefore, it is now apparent that the church of God is in danger of destruction through your presumption, we have come to the conclusion tha this state of things can no longer be endured, and we have determined to break our silence and to make public the reasons why you are unfit and have always been unfit to rule the church as pope. These are the reasons:
In the first place, in the Reign of Emperor Henry III of blessed memory, you bound yourself by oath never to accept the papacy or to permit anyone else to accept it during the life of that emperor or his son without the consent of the emperor. There are many bishops still living who can bear witness to that oath. On another occasion, when certain cardinals were aiming to secure the office, you took an oath never to accept the papacy, on condition that they should all take the same oath. You know yourself how faithfully you have kept those oaths!
In the second place, it was agreed in a synod held in the time of Pope Nicholas II and attended by 125 bishops, that no one, under penalty of excommunication, should ever accept the papacy who had not received the election of the cardinals, the approbation of the people, and the consent of the emperor. You yourself proposed and promoted that decree and signed it with your own hand.
In the third place, you have filled the whole church with the stench of scandal, by association on too intimate terms with a woman who was not a member of your family. We do not wish to base any serious charge on this last accusation; we refer to it because it outrages our sense of propriety. And yet the complaint is very generally made tha tall the judgments and acts of the papacy are passed on by the women about the pope, and that the whole church is governed by this new female conclave.
And finally, no amount of complaint is adequate to express the insults and outrages you have heaped upon the bishops, calling them sons of harlots and other vile names.
Therefore, since your pontificate was begun in perjury and crime, since your innovations have place the church of God in the gravest peril, since your live and conduct are stained with infamy; we now renounce our obedience, which indeed was never legally promised to you. You have declared publicly that you do not consider us to be bishops; we reply that no one of us shall ever hold you to be the pope.
