driving force.24 Canon law of the twelfth century was primarily devoted to the management of ecclesiastical affairs and organisation but also into almost all aspects of marriage. Why? The answer ties the question of legitimacy to the Gregorian reform to such an extent that the effects were still noticeable years later. Let us briefly return to the situation before the start of the Gregorian reform. The Gregorian reform made combating clerical marriage a matter of first-hand significance. By clerical marriage was more the rule than the exception, especially in the Germano-Roman Empire. Married clergy, among them many bishops, mixed ecclesiastical and private interests by transferring property to their offspring, quite apart from the nature of the property, ecclesiastical or private. Sons of priests frequently succeeded their fathers in ecclesiastical office. Such a vast confusion between Church and family interests was a deplorable misuse in the eyes of the Gregorian reformers, who could not avoid launching repeated attacks on clerical marriage. The policy of Popes Leo IX and Gregory VII promoting clerical chastity was its start.25 However, the married priests party was not defeated by the new papal policy. A civil war almost broke out in the Church with the two 125 24 H. J. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition. (Cambridge, Mass. 1983: Harvard Univ. Press.) 25 L. F. J. Meulenberg, Der Primat der römischen Kirche im Denken und Handeln Gregors VII. ('sGravenhage 1965.) - Barstow (1982), 47-104. - H. Fuhrmann, “Papst Gregor VII. und das Kirchenrecht: Zum Problem des Dictatus Papae.” Miscellanea Domenico Maffei dicata, ed. P. Weimar, A. García y García, vol. 1, 1-27. (Goldbach 1995: Keip.) - I. Engelberger, Gregor VII. und die Investiturfrage: Quellenkritische Studien zum angeblichen Investiturverbot von1075. (Köln 1996: Böhlau.) The cultural context of legitimacy
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