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The Medieval Church · c. 1057–1058

Three Books Against the Simoniacs

Humbert of Silva Candida · c. 1000–1061

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What it is

An argument that ordinations bought with money are not merely illicit but void, and that lay rulers have no business investing bishops with ring and staff.

Why it lasted

The intellectual charter of the Gregorian reform and the opening shot of the investiture contest.

Where to read it

Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.

These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.

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