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The Medieval Church · c. 1085
To Gebhard
Liber ad Gebehardum
Manegold of Lautenbach · c. 1030–c. 1103
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What it is
A defence of the pope against Henry IV, arguing that a king holds office under something like a contract with his people, and forfeits it if he becomes a tyrant.
Why it lasted
The famous comparison of a king to a hired swineherd who may be dismissed — an early European statement of conditional political authority.
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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