eforms,some for the better and some for the worse.
During this period in Europe, commonlyknown as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, andreligious changes. One common theme throughout The Middle Ages consisted of therelationship between the Church and the State. The Catholic church during this era held aprominent role in society, and it had an abundant amount of power and authority duringthis time. The Catholic Church exercised its authority in many different stages, in which aresponse from the people occurred because of the way the Church showed its power. The nature of the Catholic Church began its reform around the time Charlemagne,from 768 to 814, took control.
He became a Christian emperor and the first great politicalleader in Western Europe. His main goal was to promote the Roman Catholic religionthroughout all of the world known to man, and to do this Charlemagne coordinated withthe pope, which in turn the pope crowned him the holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagnestrived to reestablish central authority and revive the culture of the Early Middle Ages,and he succeeded by gaining authority over a large area, including almost all of Westernand Central Europe (Charlemagne p. 130-131). Charlemagne also made many reforms,mostly Church and educational ones. He first reformed the monasteries by making themBenedictine; he also made sure that the churches were abiding by the rules and not doinganything wrong.
Charlemagne designed a system in which four archbishops were set up infour different regions with their headquarters in cities in that particular region. Thearchbishops appoint bishops authority in their territories. As the Catholic Church’sauthority increases during this time, it also comes with consequences. This system ofarchbishops and bishops are great for the Church, but Charlemagne uses them as royalagents, which is part of royal policy. Furthermore, Charlemagne makes reforms ineducation in order to further improve the Church; he sets up a system which strengthensthe priesthood by setting up bishop schools. These reforms indicate “a lack of divisionbetween religious and secular affairs” (Charlemagne p.
131). Who really has authority, is itthe pope or the king? King Charlemagne did make all of the reforms, but the pope alsocrowned him holy Roman Emperor. This will create problems in the near future betweenthe Church and the State. The nature of the Catholic Church’s authority again changed during the HighMiddle Ages in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Basically, the papacy became moreconfident by claiming greater powers and actually challenging the monarchs themselves fortotal authority (Sherman p. 166).
Pope Gregory VII is a great example of the increasedconfidence and authority during these times. The papacy under this pope asserted itspowers under the proposition derived from Pope Gregory VII. It indicates many of thepowers that the Church claims to hold. Some of them include: “The pope is the onlyperson whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may depose emperors. He may bejudged by no one ” (Pope Gregory VII p.
168). The pope is obviously claiming higherauthority over the State, especially over the emperor. The Church also had the power toexcommunicate members of the Catholic Church, which holds a sever punishmentespecially during the Middle Ages. Because an excommunicated person was forbiddenfrom all social intercourse, this punishment would thus be terrible politically, socially, aswell as economically (Noble p. 204). In the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent IIIcontinued to claim powers for the Church and even had some of his claims hold up.
Heclaimed that the royal power derived the brilliance of dignity from the pontifical authority,which includes the pope (Pope Innocent III p. 197). Central governments in the Europeannations began to evolve and try to change the ways of the papacy, which, in turn, broughtup problems for the Church (Noble p. 205). This is especially true with the case of PopeBoniface VIII. He issued a letter which forbade the taxation of the clergy without explicitpapal permission, and King Philip IV responded by campaigning against the pope.
This,in turn, rallied support for the monarchy in France (Noble p. 222). This attack on PopeBoniface VIII unveils the extreme splits in the Christian community; it seemed apparentafter these events that European governments had no intention of recognizing absolutepapal authority (Noble p. 226). The nature of the Catholic Church was basically transformed during the LateMiddle Ages in the fourteenth century, due mainly to the aftermath of the Great Schism, asplit between rival popes in Rome and Avignon.
Because of the problems between theChurch and the State and the challenges that kings laid on the Church, popes had to dealmuch more carefully with the governments of Europe. During the Late Middle Ages, thekings of France and England along with the rulers in Germany, Italy, and the papacy allovercame the political and cultural crises that arose during the schism. The nature of the Catholic Church’s authority during the Middle Ages is apparent,but how does the Church use the power they hold and beset to discharge its religiousmission? During the Early Middle Ages, Charlemagne mostly spread Christianity throughconquering new lands and basically forcing the new peoples to abide by the rules of theCatholic Church. He was often on the move with his troops and missionaries going tonew lands preaching Christianity. Charlemagne became involved in numerous wars withthe Saxons.
Soon, the Saxons were forced to accept the terms of Charlemagne; they hadto leave their pagan religion, accept Christianity, and be united with the Franks (Einhardp. 133). During the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the High Middle Ages, the Churchdischarged its religious mission through the crusades, initiated by the Church in order tospread Christianity at the cost of the Islamic religion (Sherman p. 183). The first crusadeswere very successful because the Christian forces reestablished control of Spain andestablished control in the Holy Land for most of the twelfth century (Sherman p. 183).
Pope Urban II justified his call for a crusade in a plea that he stated. He justified his callfor a crusade because the Persians, a race of people which he states are alienated fromGod, have destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of their ownreligion (Pope Urban II p. 185). Basically, he seeks change in the areas where the Persianslive, and he demands a change; therefore, he called for a crusade. Furthermore, PopeEugenius III’s inducements for crusades further exemplified the power of the papacyduring the twelfth century.
He states that the Church can grant full remission of sins, andthe men’s wives, children, and other possessions are under protection of the Holy Church(Pope Eugenius III p. 187). In the fourteenth century of the Late Middle Ages, the church’s authority wasbeing questioned by powerful European monarchs, so the Church had to fight for the rightdischarge its religious mission; the powers it used to hold were being questioned, so theChurch was more worried about keeping those rights than anything else. Furthermore, theConciliar Movement was brought up in discussion and placed ultimate power to a Churchcouncil, which would diminish the powers of the pope.
This movement was extremelypopular and also revealed the problems facing the Church; no spread of Christianity wastaking place. The Decree Sacrosancta declares that the Church council had powers overanyone in the areas of things that pertain to the Church of God (Sherman p. 218). TheDecree Frequens states that a council will always be in session (Sherman p.
219). Thesetwo decrees would definitely limit the powers of the pope, but this never happened due tothe election of a single pope, Martin V. Moreover, heresy was a major problem facing theChurch. Groups like the Waldensians posed a major threat to the Church.
They wereexcommunicated because they did not abide by the Church, they preach that they are in noway under the power of the pope, and they claim that they hold the power of hearingconfessions without even being a member of the Church (Gui p. 219-220). Heresy posed ahuge threat to the Church; they were more worried about losing authority during thesetimes instead of promoting Christianity. Christianity throughout the Middle Ages, from the eighth century until thefourteenth, has been impacted several times by the monarchies of Europe and by thepapacy. Considering everything the Catholic Church has gone through , was it successfulin the religious mission it set out for.
The answer to this question is very opinionated tohistorians, but I believe the answer is no. Notably during the High Middle Ages in whichthe crusades occurred, many popes set out into various lands including Byzantium andIslam in order to spread Christianity and stop the popularity of the Islamic religion. Manyhistorians believe that the Crusades contributed to the economic and intellectualdevelopment of Europe by reopening Mediterranean east-west trade, but these people arewrong (Cantor p. 192). All the Crusades did was stir up religious prejudice and theintolerance of Muslims (Cantor p.
193). Although the Christian world learned a great dealfrom the Muslims, the Crusades were not a part of this occurrence. In addition, the factthat heresy occurred from such groups as the Hussites and the Waldensians further provesthat the papacy had problems with people actually turning away from the Catholic Church.How could the Church be successful in its religious mission if groups of people arebreaking away from it?
