Promulgation of the Dictatus Papae

Timeline

1. 1073–1075Rome · LazioAfter accession, Gregory VII advanced Cluniac reforms, strictly forbidding simony and clerical marriage, and at the Lenten synod of 1075 condemned secular rulers' granting of bishops' croziers and rings. The conflict between papal authority and the Empire's investiture right thus became public.
2. 1075Rome · LazioThe Curia's register for 1075 included twenty-seven brief propositions, later called the Dictatus Papae. Key points included: only the Roman pope is head of the universal Church, he can depose emperors, princes must kiss the pope's foot, and the Roman Church is never in error. The text reads more like an internal outline of claims and was probably never issued across Europe as a papal bull.
3. 1075–1076Germany · Holy Roman EmpireThe Dictatus's claims to depose monarchs and forbid lay investiture directly challenged Henry IV's control over the investiture of German and Italian bishops. Exchanges of documents intensified, and the following year both sides excommunicated each other, pushing the Investiture Controversy into an irreversible phase.