Editing Gregorian Reform (section)

==Documents==

The reforms are encoded in two major documents: ''[[Dictatus papae]]'' and the [[Papal bull|bull]] ''[[Libertas ecclesiae]]''. The Gregorian reform depended in new ways and to a new degree on the collections of [[Canon law (Catholic Church)|canon law]] that were being assembled, in order to buttress the papal position, during the same period. Part of the legacy of the Gregorian Reform was the new figure of the ''papal legist'', exemplified a century later by [[Pope Innocent III]]. There is no explicit mention of Gregory's reforms against [[simony]] (the selling of church offices and sacred things) or [[nicolaism]] (which included ritual fornication) at his Lenten Councils of 1075 or 1076. Rather, the gravity of these reforms has to be inferred from his general correspondence. By contrast, Gregory's Register<ref>{{cite book|last=Cowdrey|first=H.E.J. |author-link=H. E. J. Cowdrey |title=The Register of Pope Gregory VII 1073-1085: An English Translation|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=USA|isbn=0199249806|pages=600}}</ref> entry for the Roman Council of November 1078 extensively records Gregory's legislation against 'abuses' such as simony<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gilchrist|first=John|title="Simoniaca haeresis" and the problem of orders from Leo IX to Gratian|journal=Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Medieval Canon Law|year=1965|volume=Monumenta Iuris Canonici|issue=1|pages=209–235}}</ref> as well as the first 'full' prohibition of lay investiture. This record has been interpreted as the essence of the Gregorian 'reform programme'.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gilchrist|first=John|title=Was there a Gregorian reform movement in the eleventh century?|journal=The Canadian Catholic Historical Association: Study Sessions|year=1970|volume=37|pages=1–10}}</ref>

The powers that the Gregorian papacy gathered to itself are summed up in a list called ''[[Dictatus papae]]'' around 1075 or shortly after. The major headings of Gregorian reform{{explain|date=April 2020}} can be seen as embodied in the Papal electoral decree (1059), and the temporary resolution of the [[Investiture Controversy]] (1075–1122) was an overwhelming papal victory. The resolution of this controversy acknowledged papal superiority over secular rulers by implication.