Upon Gregory VII’s decree of 1075, Henry IV began to send letters denouncing Gregory’s roll as Pope. The most brutal of these was written in 1076, was entitled The Deposition of Gregory VII. Though the letter is filled with accusations and insults about Gregory, by a length the harshest sentence is the opening of the letter which reads, “Henry, king not by usurpation, but by holy ordination of God, to Hildebrand, not pope, but false monk.” Henry IV, in this opening line, vehemently attacks Gregory when he says, “to Hildebrand.” By addressing Gregory as Hildebrand, his pre-papal name, Henry IV openly declared that the pope, leader of the Catholic Church, who's word was believed to be the word of God by most of Western Europe. was not worthy of his title. He even went to say, “Therefore we believe that St. Gregory, whose name you have presumed to take, had you in mind when he said: “The heart of the prelate is puffed up by the abundance of subjects, and he thinks himself more powerful than others.””
Gregory VII, in answer to this, sent his own letter creatively entitled, Deposition of Henry IV. Despite its sleighly less harsh vocabulary, Gregory’s deposition delivers the same message as Henry’s when he writes, “He who attempts to destroy the honor of the Church should be deprived of such honor as he may have held.”
The pyre was now lit ablaze and intensified in the year of 1080, when the political struggle broke into violence as various bishops, some anointed by Henry IV and others by Gregory VII, made war between the territories they controlled. This conflict, this war, would not be resolved until The Concordant of Worms in the year 1122.
