Christianity

The period from the eighth to the fourteenth century was one of vast reforms, some for the better and some for the worse. During this period in Europe, commonly known as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, and religious changes. One common theme throughout The Middle Ages consisted of the relationship between the Church and the State. The Catholic church during this era held a prominent role in society, and it had an abundant amount of power and authority during this time. The Catholic Church exercised its authority in many different stages, in which a response 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 political leader in Western Europe. His main goal was to promote the Roman Catholic religion throughout all of the world known to man, and to do this Charlemagne coordinated with the pope, which in turn the pope crowned him the holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne strived 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 Western and Central Europe (Charlemagne p.130-131). Charlemagne also made many reforms, mostly Church and educational ones. He first reformed the monasteries by making them Benedictine; he also made sure that the churches were abiding by the rules and not doing anything wrong. Charlemagne designed a system in which four archbishops were set up in four different regions with their headquarters in cities in that particular region. The archbishops appoint bishops authority in their territories. As the Catholic Church’s authority increases during this time, it also comes with consequences. This system of archbishops and bishops are great for the Church, but Charlemagne uses them as royal agents, which is part of royal policy. Furthermore, Charlemagne makes reforms in education in order to further improve the Church; he sets up a system which strengthens the priesthood by setting up bishop schools. These reforms indicate “a lack of division between religious and secular affairs” (Charlemagne p.131). Who really has authority, is it the pope or the king? King Charlemagne did make all of the reforms, but the pope also crowned him holy Roman Emperor. This will create problems in the near future between the Church and the State. The nature of the Catholic Church’s authority again changed during the High Middle Ages in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Basically, the papacy became more confident by claiming greater powers and actually challenging the monarchs themselves for total authority (Sherman p.166). Pope Gregory VII is a great example of the increased confidence and authority during these times. The papacy under this pope asserted its powers under the proposition derived from Pope Gregory VII. It indicates many of the powers that the Church claims to hold. Some of them include: “The pope is the only person whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may depose emperors. He may be judged by no one “ (Pope Gregory VII p.168). The pope is obviously claiming higher authority over the State, especially over the emperor. The Church also had the power to excommunicate members of the Catholic Church, which holds a sever punishment especially during the Middle Ages. Because an excommunicated person was forbidden from all social intercourse, this punishment would thus be terrible politically, socially, as well as economically (Noble p.204). In the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III continued to claim powers for the Church and even had some of his claims hold up. He claimed 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 European nations began to evolve and try to change the ways of the papacy, which, in turn, brought up problems for the Church (Noble p.205). This is especially true with the case of Pope Boniface VIII. He issued a letter which forbade the taxation of the clergy without explicit papal 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 Pope Boniface VIII unveils the extreme splits in the Christian community; it seemed apparent after these events that European governments had no intention of recognizing absolute papal authority (Noble p. 226). The nature of the Catholic Church was basically transformed during the Late Middle Ages in the fourteenth century, due mainly to the aftermath of the Great Schism, a split between rival popes in Rome and Avignon. Because of the problems between the Church and the State and the challenges that kings laid on the Church, popes had to deal much more carefully with the governments of Europe.