More handpicked essays just for you.
International relations and diplomacy
International relations and diplomacy
International relations and diplomacy
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Appointed in 1294, Pope Boniface VIII began a heated dispute against King Philip the Fair after centuries of rivalry between church and state when King Philip began to heavily tax the clergy. Boniface would lose this conflict because of King Philip’s understanding of the Church’s weaknesses - money and military-, attacks on his authority by his enemies and most of all, because of the political development since the reign of Pope Innocent III in the late twelfth century, which signaled the end of serious papal challenges to monarchy.
Boniface’s conflict with King Philip was essentially inevitable as historically, the Church had always lead the charge against the monarchy, but this time, the Church had enough political power to seriously challenge
…show more content…
Only a few months after “Clericis laicos” was issued, King Philip forbade exportation of money from France to Rome, depriving the Church of the revenue it needed for operation which left Boniface “no choice but to come to terms quickly with Philip.” (Kagan 48) Already, the Church was in the same state of desperation for funds as before and was forced to rely further on the populace once again. The Church was crippled politically again to the joy of Philip. Philip would later proceed to arrest and convict Boniface’s Parisian legate, Bernard Saisset, demanding Boniface recognize the royal process which would “surrender his jurisdiction over the French episcopate.” (Kagan 48) Unable to ignore this challenge, Boniface would proceed to champion Saisset as a defender of clerical independence, demand his release, revoke all former taxation agreements and issued a bull titled “Ausculta fili” which declared Church superiority. In turn, after being put on the defensive, Boniface would later issue Unam Sanctum which put temporal authority under spiritual power which allowed France to deem him a heretic and use their military force against him which would eventually lead to his death. Challenging France would be Boniface’s downfall …show more content…
Traditional English consultation between kings and prominent and powerful members of English society would evolve during Henry III’s reign into formal parliaments and “these meetings helped create a unified kingdom.” (Kagan 47) This allowed for full utilization of the English ocean trade and navy. The effective utilization of these two things would also lead England to become a world power. The reign of King Philip the Fair, a ruthless and ambitious politician, would also lead France to become “an efficient, centralized monarchy.” (Kagan 47) He grew the population and military strength of France, preparing for the inevitable Hundred Years’ War that was to come. His efforts were rewarded as at the start of the war, France definitely had more pure military strength than England. Boniface found to his dismay that the Church could not (and would never from then on) be able to challenge the powerful monarchies of England and France because they had simply become too powerful after being united by powerful
Differently, England failed at absolutism as a result of unstable, unpowerful, and differently minded kings and their failure at overpowering the nobles. France was able to gain more royal power than England, leaving them with complete control over their country, and left Europe without complete control. Learning how countries gained an absolute monarchy is important in the modern world because from this, people learned how to develop modern governments. Afterwards, countries started to decide whether it would be in their best interest for sovereigns to be under the law, rather than above the law. The old need for an absolute monarchy turned into a need for a government that was right for the
Whilst Henry VI’s was in rule during the 1450’s, England had many issues and problems that cause such instability in the country. One of the largest factors arguably is the loss of the Hundred Years war between The French and English over France. This in turn caused many problems to occur with links to almost every feud the country faced. Yet some historians argue that Normandy wasn’t the main issue of instability in England instead of other reasons such as instability.
...tect his right to the throne. Ultimately, he stabilized the nation by settling the civil wars, the Wars of Roses, by marrying the apposing York family, to unite the two feuding families, the Yorks and the Lancasters. All together, King Henry VII is a new monarch for displaying all of the required traits.
Pope Urban II was sought by Alexius Comnenus, a Byzantine Emperor who wanted the papacy to help his army hold off the advancing Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. The reason for Alexius Comnenus contacting the pope rather than another emperor or monarch wasn’t just the fact they were secular, but because the pope would have more power to persuade the people. The Gregorian movement in 1050-80 was ultimately was responsible for the new instilled power of the papacy’s position over nonreligious rulers. The pope agreed to aid the Byzantine emperor, but he also had his own agenda when it came to the military advances and the new power of his position. The papacy did not intend to only help the Byzantine Empire but to further save all of Christendom from being overrun.
The purpose of this question is to quench the personal interest that I have in Church history. As we began more dive more and more into Church history, my interest skyrocketed. I hope to learn more about the struggles that were overcome in Catholicism. The turmoil that stood as a result of the “church vs state” tension also gave me a purpose to learn more about how the present separation of Church and State began. Making the right decisions has not always been my best quality, and knowing that I am not alone, I evaluated Pope Clement X...
When the Hundred Years’ War began in 1337, the strength of the French empire declined and the English possessed most of France. Although the war began in 1337, tensions between France and England started centuries earlier. In 1066, William of Normandy, duke of France, defeated the English and became king of England. A century later, conflict arose when Henry II, a great grandson of William, came into power in 1154 and wanted to add to his empire, known as the Angevin Empire, by taking over French territories. Friction mounted as the fighting between Angevin and French territories continued. Finally, King Edward III of England claimed the throne of France in 1328 but was refused, causing war to break out in 1337. The French suffered huge losses in the first period of the Hundred Years’ War. The French cavalry was decimated at Crecy in 1347, the fortress of Calais was lost in 1347, the French army was crushed at Poitiers in 1356, and King John II handed over ⅓ of the French kingdom to the English by the Treaty of Bretigny. Although the French drove out the English b...
Boniface was born around 675 in Devonshire to a very noble family, and his given name was Winfrid (Duckett 340). He was sent to school to be taught by the monks. His parents wanted him to pursue monetary gains, but Winfrid felt called to do religious work thanks, in part, to the monks who often visited him. He fought with his father over his future, but obtained his father's permission and went to the monastery of Adescancastre. Here, he studied under Abbot Wolfhard, "and about seven years later he went to the Abbey of Nhutscelle between Winchester and Southampton" ("Catholic"). There, he studied under Abbot Winbert. Under the guidance of these men, Winfrid became very knowledgeable in numerous subjects including rhetoric and poetry. "At the age of thirty he was ordained priest. Through his abbot the fame of Winfrid's learning soon reached high civil and ecclesiastical circles ("Catholic"). But he did not want to have high civil standing and notoriety. He only wanted to share the gospel with his kinsmen in Germany. He pleaded on numerous occasions to his Abbot, and he finally gave his consent (Duckett 355).
The aim of absolute monarchy was to provide ‘stability, prosperity, and order’ for our territories (458). The way Louis XIV set forth to accomplish this was to claim complete sovereignty, to make laws, sanction justice, declare wars, and implement taxes on its subjects. This was all done without the approval of any government or Parliament, as monarchs were to govern ‘by divine right, just as fathers ruled their households’ (458). In Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet’s Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture, he described that absolution was one of the four characteristics imperative to royal authority, “Without this absolute authority, he can do neither good nor suppress evil; his power must be such that no one can hope to escape him” (460). This was epitomized when Louis XIV sought to control the legal system as well as the funding of the financial resources through a centralized bureaucracy for the monarchy.
Boniface claimed that the Catholic Church is a requirement to achieve salvation, and that the pope must be the head of the Church. However, all people must submit to the Church to reach salvation, even monarchs. I find these claims unreasonable, because they seem to be an attempt to force the monarchs of Europe to realize the Church’s power by weakening their own. Naturally, King Philip, who already disliked the pope from their feuds, would be justified to ignore the bull, because it would have forced him to weaken his power and submit to the pope, exactly what he had tried to avoid during the entire feud. King Philip IV’s rebuttal to Unam Sanctam earned him a excommunication from Boniface. Instead, King Philip brought up twenty-nine accusations against Pope Boniface, which would eventually led to his untimely death. The issues between France and Rome also caused problems in England, where King Henry II struggled against Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to avoid having to submit to the pope’s authority. Becket claimed that the clergy could not be tried by the laws of England, only through the
She examines 6 popes between 1470-1530 who she claims lead in a way similar to politicians. They lost touch with the common people both emotionally and intellectually. A little known cleric led the revolution challenging papacy that culminated in the reformation of the church. In that context, Barbara outlines that the popes were venal, immoral, and their power politics was calamitous. The faithful were distressed by their leadership, which ignored all the protests and the signs that a revolt was coming. In the end, the papal constituency lost almost half of its followers to Protestants. Barbara says that these people were driven by the greed and the urge to create a family empire that would outlive them. This chapter sums up the essence of folly in these major failures, lack of a fixed policy, over extravagance, and the illusion that their rule was
For people in England , there was always the real problem - do you obey the king or the pope ? In fact, this was rarely a problem as both kings and popes tended to act together as both wanted to remain powerful. On two occasions they fell out - one involved the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, and the other Henry VIII.
From the Middle ages, the church faced many problems such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism that hurt the prestige of the church. Most of the clergy lived in great luxury while most people were poor and they set an immoral example. The clergy had low education and many of them didn’t attend their offices. Martin Luther had witnessed this himself, “In 1510 he visited Rome and was shocked to find corruption on high ecclesiastical places”
The role of the king to the public during the reigns of Louis XIV of France and Philip II of Spain were not predetermined, so each king created for himself what he thought monarchy ought to be. Louis XIV and Philip II were both absolutists, and believed that they should be the supreme rulers of France and Spain, respectively. However, Louis XIV did not want to be a national symbol serving no legitimate purpose. He wished to control the military, economy, foreign affairs, and the administration of the kingdom and of justice. He believed that the king of France should be the best that France has to offer- being served by even the most powerful lords of France. Conversely, Philip II thought of himself as Catholic first, and king of Spain second. Opposite to Louis XIV, Philip II preferred to sit in the Escorial and pray, pour over records, and live more as a monk than as Louis XIV’s conception of a king. Philip II never wanted to take much of an active part in the administration of his kingdom, except for the times when he wanted to use some of his various powers. However, after he had used it for a while (waging war, raising taxes, etceteras) he would let it lay dormant and return to his documents. Nor did Philip II ever wish to control most of the Spanish economy. The parts that he did control were ones that directly affected himself or his revenues, so vital in order to keep his army of immense proportions.
The Church was organised into a hierarchical system that sustained the Church’s stability and control over the people and lower clergy, by organising them into different groups. First there were the ordinary believers, the citizens of the kingdom who followed the Christian faith. Then there was the clergy, the members who devoted their lives to the church. Each group of the clergy was assigned specific functions by the clergy nobles to help run the Church competently. Amongst all the clergy associates, the Pope was at the top, he had the equivalent if not more power than the ruling monarch and was in charge of all political affairs and administered the clergy. He was able to dictate political laws and even comment on the Monarch’s decisions. Under the Pope, there were the bishops. The bishops directed church courts and managed cases correlated to the public such as marriage, wills and other public predicaments. Priests held religious services that consisted of sacraments, baptisms and the usual Sabbath services. The monks and nuns received manual labour that required helping clean the monasteries and assist the needy. Educated monks copied manuscripts of medieval and ancient knowledge in the Scriptorium. Finally...
Perhaps no other event was as influential to the rise of papacy in Rome as the decline of the Roman empire. With the decline of the empire, the church became the last refuge of stability. Without the protection of the empire, Rome was subject to poverty, disrepair, and attack from enemies.1 The rise of the papacy was a response to this situation. It was further cemented by the leadership of such men as Leo I and Gregory I, the latter sometimes referred to as the father of the medieval papacy.2 Finally, the granting of lands and authority to the bishop of Rome greatly increased the power of the Roman church.3