How tight of a hold did papal authority have on Europe? Mostly

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Emperor Frederick II; "Stupor mundi" , the Wonder of the world.

Frederick was the son of the Emperor Henry VI and his mother was
the daughter of Roger I, the Norman King of Sicily. He inherited
this kingdom in 1198 when he was a child of four years.

When the opportunity came for Frederick to succeed as Emperor, the Pope intervened with conditions.

Frederick must promise to put down heresy in Germany with a strong hand. Moreover he must relinquish his crown in Sicily and South Italy, And the German clergy were to be freed from all taxation.

Having secured the imperial crown Frederick II stayed in Sicily,which he greatly preferred to Germany as a residence, and did nothing to redeem any of his promises to Innocent III, who died baffled in 1216.

Honorius III, who succeeded Innocent, could do no better with
Frederick, and Gregory IX (1227) came to the papal throne evidently resolved to settle accounts with this young man

the Pope addressed a public letter to the Emperor reciting his vices (which were indisputable), his heresies,his general misconduct and excommunicated him

To this Frederick replied in a document of diabolical ability.

It was addressed to all the princes of Europe, He made a shattering attack upon the manifest ambition of the Pope to become the absolute ruler of all Europe. He directed the attention of the princes specifically to the wealth of the church. He denounced the pride and irreligion of the clergy, and ascribed all the corruptions of the time to their pride and wealth.

He proposed to his fellow princes a general confiscation of church property--for the good of the church. It was a suggestion that never left the imagination of the European princes.