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Gregory VII issues the Dictatus Papae

1075 · Rome (Rome, Italy)

In 1075 a list of twenty seven propositions, the Dictatus Papae, is entered in Pope Gregory VII's register. It claims that the Roman pontiff alone can depose emperors, that the Roman church has never erred and never will, and that the pope may absolve subjects from allegiance to unjust rulers. The claims frame the Investiture Contest and the high medieval papacy's doctrine of its own primacy.

Tagged: Catholic

The Event

Date
1075 (exact)
Era
The Medieval Papacy; Standard periodization of Catholic history
Location
Rome; today Rome, Italy
Traditions
Catholicism
Streams
Catholic
Key figures
Gregory VII
Key texts
Dictatus Papae

How the Tradition Tells It

Whether the Dictatus was Gregory's own program or a set of headings for a canonical collection is debated among historians; its propositions are quoted here as they stand in his register.

Connections

Illustration for Great Schism History Event Great Schism 1054 stands in the same contest over authority between Rome and the other centers of the church

Primary Sources

  • Gregory VII, Dictatus Papae, entered in the papal Register, 1075.

Secondary Sources

  • Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
  • Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. London: Penguin, 2009.
  • O'Malley, John W. Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Provenance: HIST-1327; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.

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