Book of Acts, the vita apostolica, both for the clergy and the laity. The spirit of the
Gregorian Reform in fact arose in the decades preceding 1059 as Cluniac abbots like
Odilo and Hugues de Cluny extended monastic reform, and bishops like Bruno of Toul
(later Pope Leo IX) undertook the reform of the secular clergy. With Gregory VII, the
spirit of reform came explicitly to include the responsibility for justice throughout
Christian society, particularly the subservience of secular matters and temporal rulers to
spiritual matters and ecclesiastical overlords. The implications of these convictions led by
the end of the century to the calling of western Christendom to crusade by Urban II and
to the expectation that diocesan clergy would live the common life (regular canons) in
keeping with the monastic vita apostolica; in the 12th century, at the Diet of Worms and
First Lateran Council, they led to a workable solution to the role of the laity in episcopal
elections and to the rise of cathedral schools and subsequently universities for the training
of the clergy (Bologna, Paris, Oxford); and in the 13th century, they led to Innocent III
bestowing kingdoms as fiefs (England, Hungary, Portugal, Aragon), to the provision of
adequate support for local parish clergy and pastoral care (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215),
and to the new mendicant orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, obedient directly to
the Holy See, that gave shape and expression to a vita apostolica suited to the new urban
scene.
The importance of the monastic reform at Cluny in the first half of the 11th century
lay particularly in the manner by which a network of monasteries, all looking to Cluny as
their head, had come to enjoy the libertas ecclesiae, an independence from local lay and
even episcopal interference. Over the years, this status was reinforced by papal privileges
and protections, forging a natural allegiance between the papacy and the Cluniac
movement.
At the same time, there was a serious effort in many places at the local level to
introduce something of the monastic ideal into the life of the secular clergy: the buying of
church offices, simony, and clerical unchastity (nicolaitism), were effectively condemned
in places like Toul under Bruno and Milan under the impact of the Patarenes. But these
reforms could only be temporary without a fundamental change in the relationship of the
church to the institutions of feudalism, in which ecclesiastical appointments at all levels
were considered the prerogatives of emperors, kings, and feudal lords and often
distributed to relatives or vassals without due consideration for the worthiness of the
candidates. Moreover, the goods and properties of churches and monasteries often
became the objects of feudal transactions, alienated from their primary purpose of
providing stability and sustenance for monks and clergy. This state of affairs, symbolized
by lay investiture of clerical office, became the focus of the contest between Pope
Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV.
The impulse for reform gave rise to major developments in the institutions of the
papacy. In essence, the papacy had to circumvent the vested interests of the higher clergy
and find ways to support and promote reforming impulses from below, requiring strong
and centralized institutions that could respond quickly and decisively. Under Leo IX, the
college of cardinals became an important extension of papal bureaucracy, as many were
deputized to serve as legates throughout Europe from time to time to promote the papal
cause. With Nicholas II, the election of the pope was to be made by the cardinal bishops,
excluding the direct influence of either the Tuscan nobility or the German emperor.
Under Gregory VII, legates became permanent and certain archbishops were appointed as
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