Dictatus Papae

As Dictatus Papae refers to a document which (Reg. Vat 2) appears in a letter of Pope Gregory VII register under the letters of March 1075. The heading Dictatus Papae suggests that this is a self- dictation Gregory. The text was probably not intended for publication outside the Curia. Nevertheless, he had a great influence on the approach of Pope Gregory VII

Each of the 27 short and concise sentences beginning with " quod (Latin that ) " and there - apparently without any particular order - Gregory's ideas about the position of the Pope in the Church and in relation to the Emperor again. With the guiding principles 8, 9 and 12, he even turns on the - set up by former conception of God - Kaiser and makes his claim to power via the secular state law.

These guiding principles " are characterized by a breathtaking boldness that is not always covered by the legal tradition " as Horst Fuhrmann formulated; actually based most of theses on the then canonical tradition, including the Pseudo- Decretals.

Despite all objections (see Episcopalian ), Gregory and his successors were able to impose their religious demands. The First Vatican Council (1870 ) raised the teaching and primacy of jurisdiction of the Pope to dogma. The political claim to power of Dictatus (sets 8, 9, 12) has completed the course of history.

Text of Dictatus Papae

The original is in the Vatican Archives.

Exhibition

The document is one of a hundred selected by a commission in the exhibition Lux in Arcana - the Vatican Secret Archives have been issued unveiled in February 2012 in the Capitoline Museums.