Editing Pope Stephen IX (section)

===Church discipline===
As pope, Stephen enforced the policies of the [[Gregorian Reform]]. He held several synods in Rome from August to November 1057, focusing most vigorously on the importance of [[clerical celibacy]]. He held a synod at the Lateran Basilica in which he remarked that the Eastern Church tradition allowed priests, deacons, and subdeacons to marry, but the Western Church did not.<ref name="Jaffé, p. 554">Jaffé, p. 554.</ref>

Stephen visited the monastery at Montecassino from 30 November 1057 to 10 February 1058. He was still its abbot, and remained so until his death. There he immediately began a program of reform, by every means at his disposal, persuading, exhorting and haranguing the monks to rid themselves of the lax practices that had crept in over the years. He even banned the use of [[Ambrosian chant]], mandating the sole use of the [[Gregorian chant]].<ref>Mann VI, pp. 220–221. Leo Marsicanus, "Chronica Monasterii Cassinensis", Book II. 92: "Et quoniam vitium proprietatis paulatim in hoc loco a prioribus annis irrepserat, coepit omnimodis insistere oportune importune arguendo obsecrando increpando necnon et districtissime interminando, ut praedictum vitium hinc iuxta mandatum regulae radicitus amputaret; et hoc quidem ex parte maxima fecit. Tune etiam et Ambrosianum cantum in ecclesia ista cantari penitus interdixit."</ref> In December 1057, he was so ill with "the Roman fever" that he believed he was going to die.<ref>Watterich, p. 194. Jaffé, p. 554.</ref>

In regional politics, Stephen ordered the bishops of England not to seek [[episcopal consecration|consecration]] from Archbishop [[Stigand]] of Canterbury, who was [[excommunicated]] and usurping the archbishopric.<ref>Jaffé, p. 555, no. 4381.</ref>