Thread by @jamespoulos

I think a lot about Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Nikephoras II Phokas, Eastern Roman Emperor.

While I can’t substantiate it, the story about Nikephoras is that he wanted to canonize fallen soldiers himself and the Patriarch said no. Henry, as is known, wanted to invest bishops with sacred authority himself and was also negged, ultimately renouncing claim to select popes.

The question of whether holy emperors could take secular control of religious appointments appears likely to have come to a general head around the turn of the millennium. In Christendom the outcome expressed for the answer a powerful no.

I think we will reopen this question soon. I pray it is answered the same way.