cardinals and legates, and sometimes gave that authority to local bishops, much to the chagrin of their colleagues.

These practices they undertook because they and those around them became increasingly convinced that all was very far from being well with the Church. It seemed to them to have been tainted by worldly values, so much so that its divine message had been obscured. From the beginning two abuses particularly drew their fire; the propensity of the clergy to marry and the obtaining of holy orders or of a benefice by the gift or promise of money and land (termed simony). There were strong material considerations here; married priests were prone to use church goods to provide for their wives and children, and might bequeath their churches too, while the simoniac was likely to commit his offence at the expense of his church. Reforming propaganda did not stress this, however; instead it emphasized the sacramental role of the priest. Hands dedicated to the re-creation of Christ in the Eucharist should not be tainted by impure activities. It proved difficult to enforce these ideals. In some regions the clergy claimed the privilege of marriage and threatened to murder bishops such as Siegfried of Mainz who attempted to enforce the papal prohibition. Almost everywhere it proved impossible to bar the sons of priests from becoming priests themselves. The co-operation of bishops was essential for the prosecution of reform, but when the charge of simony was allowed against bishops as well as their inferiors that support was often lost. Bishops complained, often with justice, that malign rivalries between the canons of their churches, and between the noble families from which they came, were all too liable to lie behind such charges, and that their authority was undermined if such appeals were heard.

This discontent reached a head during the pontificate of Gregory VII ( 1073-85), particularly among German bishops, whose appointments during the troubled minority of Henry IV had often incurred suspicion of simony. Henry himself came under suspicion of assenting to these practices and shielding the offenders, and rashly offended the pope by appointing bishops to three sees in Italy which the pope claimed as his own, or where there was already a papal appointee. At this

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