Gregorian Reform - Clerical Celibacy Policy Confirmed

Clerical Celibacy Policy Confirmed

This battle for the foundation of papal supremacy is connected with his championship of compulsory celibacy among the clergy and his attack on simony. Gregory VII did not introduce the celibacy of the priesthood into the Church, but he took up the struggle with greater energy than his predecessors. In 1074 he published an encyclical, absolving the people from their obedience to bishops who allowed married priests. The next year he enjoined them to take action against married priests, and deprived these clerics of their revenues. Both the campaign against priestly marriage and that against simony provoked widespread resistance. The Pope was to be the absolute head of the church, and the Dictatus papae also declared the Pope's authority to depose emperors.

The Gregorian calendar, decreed on 24 February 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, has no connection to these Gregorian reforms.

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