Exercises on Gregorian Reform

(FGV – SP) “On one side, the Church. On the other hand, lay powers, namely that of the Germanic Roman Empire, partial heir of Charlemagne. These two powers are distinct, but they face each other vividly to ensure the pre-eminence of the one over the other. The aspiration to reform the Church therefore corresponds to an age-old demand:to free the Church from its enslavement to the temporal. This movement assumes exceptional importance with the Gregorian reform, which Gregory VII, pope from 1073 to 1085, symbolizes. Reform that took place throughout the twelfth century.” (LE GOFF, Jacques. In search of the Middle Ages. Trans., Lisbon, Theorem, 2003, p. 61.)

Concerning the Gregorian Reformation, it is correct to say:

a) It meant the break of ecclesiastical powers with feudal structures and a defense of the economic and political transformations that would lead to capitalism.

b) It was characterized by the attempt to demarcate the boundaries between clergy and laity with the energetic recommendation of clerical celibacy and the affirmation of the superiority of spiritual powers over temporal ones.

c) It was marked by a profound religious reorientation that condemned the worship of saints, devotion to relics, pilgrimage practices and upheld the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures.

d) It allowed a rapprochement with the Church of Constantinople based on the prohibition of devotion to images and a more tolerant coexistence with Jews and Muslims.

e) It represented the recognition of the temporal authorities, especially the Germanic Roman Empire, as the only institution of universal character within Christendom.

(FUVEST/SP) A few centuries before the great Reformation of the 16th century, medieval Catholicism underwent a series of reforms aimed at restoring the Church's Institutions, in order to make them return to previous state of purity. The first of these reform movements was launched by the religious of the Monastery of Cluny, founded in 910, and originally aimed at:

a) to the reform of monasticism, with the consequent purification of conventual life and the liberation from the domination of the Dominican order;

b) the establishment of more ascetic customs among the religious and the liberation from the domination of the Carthusian order;

c) the reform of monasticism, with the consequent purification of conventual life and the liberation from feudal domination;

d) the establishment of more ascetic customs among the religious and the liberation from bourgeois domination;

e) the reform of monasticism, with the consequent attacks on simony and the liberation of the Franciscan order.

The main document that established the foundations of the Gregorian Reform, making it effective, was:

a) Rerum Novarum

b) Pascendi Dominici Gregis

c) Dictatus Papae

d) Ratio et Fidei

e) Quo Primum Tempore

The so-called Investiture Quarrel began at the time when Pope Gregory VII sought to institute his reformist directives in the Church. King Henry IV's pretensions rivaled the Pope's project in terms of:

a) to the fact that the king also wanted to exercise the title of pope, as was the case in the Byzantine Empire.

b) to the question of assigning ecclesiastical offices to church members.

c) the fact that one of the agendas of the pope's reform abolished clerical celibacy.

d) to the directive suggested by the king that clerics should refuse to obey the pope.

e) to the great military power that the pope would have when the reform was applied.

Letter B

The main objective of the Gregorian Reformation was to establish a clear difference between temporal power (of the State) and spiritual power (of the Church). For that, decisive changes in the behavior of both clergy and lay Catholics were necessary. The institution of the seven sacraments (which are still in force today) was one of these measures; the question of investitures (clergy ordination) was also at the center of these transformations, given that Pope Gregory was against the idea of ​​the king assigning positions to members of the clergy.

Letter D

The reformers of Cluny, together with Pope Gregory VII, promoted a real transformation in the behavior of the clerics. Asceticism (contentious measures applied to the body, with the aim of enhancing spirituality), the effective cultivation of celibacy, systematic meditations and prayers, all contributed to the reform operated from the 10th and 11th centuries.

Letter C

In the document Dictatus Papae the main measures for the reform undertaken by Gregory VII were written. It was in this set of norms that the guidelines for the exercise of the sacraments, liturgical rites and the behavior of clergy and lay people were seen.

Letter B

The Investiture Quarrel began because of King Henry IV's intention to invest, that is, to assign clergy positions within the Church's hierarchical spheres; a fact that was rejected by the pope, who recognized in the gesture of investiture an exclusive function of ecclesiastical domains.