Mediaeval Church History # 2
THE
LOVE AND HATE RELATIONSHIP
Colorful
Interaction between the Papacy and the
A) Introduction: The Context and the New Challenge:
In love relationship,
there are always the ups and downs. Even your parents, before becoming a real couple
must experience the joys and sadness of living. "Mag-away muna sila bago masabi
ng iba na
sila'y tunay na mag-asawa".
Conflict either forms or destroys relationships. But most of the time, it
destroys it. But for any friendship or relationship to grow, it must experience
the hard times of life. Problems and conflicts strengthen us. With healthy
conflict around, we are assured that something good will happen to our 'pagsasamahan'. Pagkatapos ng bagyo, may araw na
sisikat sa likod nito.
The Papacy (the office
of the pope) and the Empire were once happily married before (not ever after).
And yet, by the passing of time, both have their own interests and political
motives. The result is conflict in forms of deposition and excommunication. One
became the master of the other; then the other became the lord of another one.
Later in history, the Papacy became powerless at the onslaught of the temporal
power. Was this event formative to the Church or did it shatter her real
identity and mission as shepherd of Jesus Christ for his flock?
B) Content: The Happy Days of the Church and the
State together
B. 1 - Pippin the Short and
Pope Zacharias (741-752):
We will again mention here one of
the tribes being Christianized by Gregory the Great. They were the Germanic
tribes who moved into the North of Italy in the middle of the sixth century.
They were the Lombards who established their kingdom
in that area. Although at this time (8th Century), they were won to
the Catholic faith, they still posed as a political threat to none other else
than the pope himself. Why? It was because they dreamt of going south of
We have to remember that before this time came and for almost three hundred years, the pope was the real leader of the Roman people. He was not just a spiritual leader. He was also a political head due to the barbaric occupation and the sentiments that the people had on to him rather than to their barbarian conqueror.
What is now the connection between
Pippin the Short and Pope Zachary with this political issue of the time? The
connection is rather very evident. The pope would later ask the help of these
Frankish kings to prevent the
First, there was Pope Gregory III
(731-741) asking Charles Martel, Pippin's father, to help him drive away the
political threat by the
Among the Franks, as among the Germanic tribes, there was a strong sacral and religious component in royal office. The king was considered a representative of God and his assumption of office could be secured and be legitimated only by a person who is sacred to Him and is closely related to Him. This person was no other than the pope, in the person of Zacharias who reigned from 741 to 752.
In short, Pippin needed the Pope's blessings for his kingly office. The pope, in response, deposed the Merovingian kings and anointed Pippin the king of the Franks in 751. This event marked the definitive turning of the papacy from the Emperors of the East to the royal family of the Frankish monarchy.
Pippin, in turn, helped the Pope in
driving out the
B.
2 - Charlemagne (742 - 814) and Pope Leo III (795-816)
Charlemagne, aside from being a gifted military leader, was a great reformer of the Frankish Liturgy and in the monastic life. He was considered also a great patron of science and art, although he himself was illiterate for the greater part of his life. He ruled from 768 to 814.
A certain conflict arose between Desiderius, the
The pope bestowed on him the title 'Patricius Romanorum',
and Charles in turn assumed the military protection of
Charlemagne had contributed so much
for the Papacy and for the social development of
1) Order is restored in the kingdom - the Carolingian sovereigns ('Carolingian' from the German name 'Karl' meaning 'Charles') considered it their duties to restore order in the Church and regain some of its prestige. This has given rise to the term 'the Carolingian Renaissance'. Charlemagne issued capitularies (legislative texts), often inspired by monks such as Alcuin, his great teacher. He undertook a vigorous reform of the Frankish church and chose his bishops with extreme care. He considered them high-ranking officials.
2) Reform in Liturgy and in monasteries- Charlemagne is known for his effort to introduce the Roman liturgy into his kingdom. He ordered the copying of the Gregorian Sacramentary and stipulated that Latin must be the liturgical language in his German kingdom.
3) Intellectual renewal - Charles the Great (Charlemagne) was known for gathering him intellectual people who were mostly monks and upgraded the intellectual life of the kingdom. Alcuin, a monk, had so much influence in his intellectual and spiritual life. But amidst all these effort, Charlemagne was known in history as an illiterate man. He just came learned how to write some years before he died.
4) Conversion into Christianity and
the political unity of
Even still on earth, his grandiose
contribution was already politically recognized by Pope Leo III. It was
Christmas day of 800, when Charlemagne was in a cathedral in
The hinge
of the Crisis: Lay Investiture
The gradual development of the
crisis between the Papacy and the Emperor was not yet evident during the
powerful time of
But as the empire was handed on to its successors, the state of relationship between the two escalated to its downward movement. During this time, the emperors were not strong enough so as to prevent the competing Roman families from making the Papacy an object of their ambition. "Without the strong king, the Papacy became the plaything of the Roman nobles". Result: the men in the Episcopacy and in the Papacy were people who have no interest and vocation to serve the Church and lead her according to the law of Jesus Christ. Such situation would bring the Church into so much trouble; that of corruption and immorality of conduct.
With this event, the Church realized
that she must be completely independent from the clutches of the secular rulers
in order to single-mindedly fulfill her real mission in the world. The Church 'cannot serve both God and mammon".
Lay Investiture is the act of the king or the emperor in bestowing the cross, the ring and the scepter on his candidate-bishop. This means that the king was the one appointing bishops, (the emperor the one appointing the Pope) and all the pope did is to approve it and the metropolitan bishop to ordain the candidate. As a consequence, loyalty of the bishops was towards his benefactor-king rather than to the Bishop of Rome. And in doing so, the bishop became a vassal of the king, with his ecclesiastical and temporal power controlled by the ruler. The bishop then had no enough freedom to exercise his role as the shepherd of the sheep entrusted him by Christ.
Solution
for the crisis: Need for Reform!
The reform in connection with this
issue was more political than religious. It is a reaction to the issue at hand.
Little by little, the Church desired for a 'libertas ecclesiae' (Church liberty), by way of
overturning the Imperial system of Otto I. There were two main reforms that
answered this problem: a) the Monastic reform of
a) The Reform in the Monastery of Cluny -
the abbey of
§ The free election of the abbot, independent from princes and bishops.
§ Direct allegiance to the pope.
§ Monastic and liturgical reforms - discipline is severe, long prayers and
less manual work, contribution to Romanesque arts and architecture.
With no lay attachments, the Order championed the role of the papacy and provided bishops and popes of outstanding character and who were instrumental in combating the Lay Investiture controversy. One of these popes was Hildebrand who would later become Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085).
b) Gregorian Reform - Papal reforms were in the form of decrees, acts, and strong-willed decisions made by the popes. Prior and subsequent to him, there were some popes who expressed this same sentiment in this matter:
§ Leo IX (1049-1054) - he defended the rights of Papal primacy
§ Nicholas II (1059-1061) - in 1059, he defined the rules for papal
election; the pope would be appointed by the cardinals.
Gregory VII planned an enormous moral reform. It did not only affect the Emperor, but also the moral lives of priests.
§ In 1074 he banned concubinage and marriage of priests and the practice
of simony (buying of Church offices).
§ And in 1075, he spoke against the lay investiture issue.
Gregory VII also made his famous 'Dictatus Papae' (Dictates of the Pope) which states:
1) The pope is the
supreme head of Christianity
2) As a spiritual
leader, the pope is above emperors and only he can depose emperors, kings and bishops.
3) The pope is the only
person from whom all princes bend their knees.
4) The pope must not be judged by anyone, not even the emperor. Only God could judge him.
With all these assertions from the Papacy, the civil authority was expected to react and assert its authority over the Church. It is very clear that both had conflict of interests. And when these interests collided with each other, a significant ripple of battles would surely erupt.
C) Content: The Conflict between the Church and the State
and the decline of Papal power
C.
1 - Henry IV and Gregory VII (1073-1085)-
The
impact of G VII's 'Dictatus Papae' was very much
tested in the conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII. This event signaled
the long struggles between the pope and the emperor. This would serve as a
great example of conflicts between two powers. The Emperor (Henry IV -
successor to the
Given this political pressure, the
Emperor was forced to submit to the pope. Henry humbled himself and made a
pilgrimage of penance in 1077 to
C.21
- Frederick I of
Again, another example of conflict was shown between Emperor Frederick I of Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III. The emperor wanted to go back to the old system of the Empire wherein the Papacy is subjected to the Emperor. The bitter conflict brought four imperial anti-popes. An anti-pope was a person chosen by the considered enemy of the Church as pope in order to contest the authority of the real reigning pope who ran against the Emperor. It caused bloodshed and much suffering on Christianity. At the end, the Emperor was excommunicated. Later, he asked forgiveness from the Bishop of Rome and reconciled with him.
These patterned conflicts arose many times during this period. And it was interesting to note that the papacy would have the last say. What these popes were fighting for gradually came into reality. With the papacy of Innocent III, he succeeded in erecting a kind of papal world domination. Papacy became most powerful in the reign of Innocent III.
However, papal power did not stay long. As worldly power corrupts, so was the temporal power of the pope. After Innocent III, papal domination plummeted down faster.
C.31
- Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII (1294-130):
The
German Empire again went down while the
Following
this event, a number of French Cardinals increased rapidly. And with the
pressure from the king, they elected nine succeeding Frenchmen Popes after
Boniface. In this way, the popes now were again under the clutches of the king,
and his seat now would not be in
After
the death of Boniface VIII, the universal preeminence of the Papacy over the
temporal leaders came to an end.
C: CONCLUSION:
1) Too much dependence upon the protection of the Imperial leaders is not beneficial for the Church. To secure her temporal dominion, the Church had a habit of turning to the civil leaders for help. The initial result is beneficial. But many times, the Church forgot that world powers cannot assure her of total protection.
2) The Church was powerful not because of her army and the sword but because of her spiritual and moral ascendancy. She did not realize that Emperors obeyed her because of the dictate of conscience and fear of spiritual loss of their souls. Excommunication had so much impact on everyone. Unfortunately, the Church manipulated their qualms of conscience mostly for her political motives.
3) Amidst of all the abuses in the Church, she was not completely lost. From time to time, Christians with moral and religious underpinnings revive her holiness and vigor, in order to become a significant minister of Christ for all people.
D: Guides for
Reflections:
1) The passage in Lk. 22: 38 mentioned about two swords - the secular power and the papal power. Theologians claimed that these two swords were owned solely by the Church. in your own opinion, is this the most correct interpretation of the text? Why?
2) What do you think are the similarities of our times today with the mediaeval times of the state and the church?
3) What do you mean by this saying: 'conscience conquers the emperor; the sword conquers the pope'?
E: Sources
Comby, Jean. How to Read Church History, vol 1, trans. John Bowden and Margaret Lydamore. New Yor: Crossroad, 1992.
Dwyer, John C. Church History.
Franzen, August and John P. Dolan.
A History of the
Church, trans. Peter Becker.
Notes on the