MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANTY
The Papacy
In the Middle Ages there was a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope that was known as the Investiture Struggle. What was the nature of this conflict between church and state? It concentrates on the papacy and the papal claims to universal authority.
Investiture is defined as the ceremony or act of investing or installing someone in high office. Having that understanding it is easy to see why the question would be asked by the emperor, on what basis and by what authority, did the Bishop of Rome claim power over all other bishops and indeed over all Christians ? Some of the claim was based on biblical passages, but some of it derived from political and cultural realities.
Until Constantine moved the seat of power in the 4the century Rome was the most important city in the western world, suffice it to say being the bishop of an important city such as Rome would certainly gave increased stature to the holder of that office. It certainly gave the Roman bishop automatic prestige in the western Mediterranean, where there were no other cities to rival it. In the east in the east it was another story altogether, rivals included Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople and the bishop of Constantinople would never did bow to Roman claims.
Tradition conferred upon Rome a certain amount of special prestige. After all Rome was the city of martyrs. The first persecutions, instigated by Nero, took place in Rome and the list of martyrs reads as a veritable hall of fame in Christendom. Ignatius, Ploycarp, Justin, Perpetua, Falicitas and Peter just to name a few. (Gonzalez 43, 46 & 84) In addition the claim could be made that heresy never took root in Rome whi...
... middle of paper ...
... government and the emperor could not trust such a vital choice to the petty rivalries of cathedral canons.
Until the mid-eleventh century, both sides had gone their way, largely because it was rare that both emperor and pope were strong at the same time. But in the 1070s there emerged a pope (Gregory VI) who was determined to eliminate the influence of lay rulers in the business of the Church, and an emperor (Henry IV) who was equally determined to prevent that very thing.
Bibliography
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story Of Christianity Volume, 1 San Francisco. Harper Collinsl Publications. 1984
Placher, William C. Readings In The History Of Christian Theology, Volume 1 Louisville. Westminister John Knox Press. 1988
http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic.htm December 21, 2006
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-67618/Christianity December 21, 2006
The city of Rome was and is one of the most well-known cities of the world. It has always lured in huge visitors for its attraction for the elaborate Pagan temples or for the eloquent Cathedrals of the Rome. Now the city is known for being the center of the catholic faith. The city is interesting in a way that, it has not always been a Catholic hotspot. The city was originally under the control of the Romans who worshiped Pagan Gods. The Romans believed that Rome was a holy city chosen by their Gods (Cowling). The switch from being a Pagan centered place to a Christian centered place was not as easy transition for the city. It took time and perseverance. As the Christian influence started to build up, the face of the Roman city started to change; the structure of the city was changed, the major public places changed, and along with that major monuments in the city changed. The city changed so much that now if you don’t look closely enough, you might think the city was always under the Christian influence.
· Lewis, CS. Mere Christianity. New York: Doubleday, 1982. · McBride, David. The Story of the Church.
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 rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
Pullen, H. W. Modern Christianity, a Civilized Heathenism. Boston: William F. Gill and, 1875. Print.
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
...e, vague topics. The disunity made the Church too unstable to continue possessing political power and so the State became the head of politics, and now we have separation of Church and State, which is renders this time “a secular Western culture” (Powell 6).
Between 1197 and 1218 the Holy Roman Empire became a medieval soap opera. The main characters were Pope Innocent III, Fredrick II, Phillip of Swabbia, and Otto IV. King Phillip of France would also play a major role along with Constance, mother of Fredrick II. The background from this period of 21 years was riveting. In 1197 Henry VI, king of Sicily, and the Holy Roman Empire died leaving his two year old son Fredrick II as king of Sicily. However Phillip of Swabbia and Otto IV would vie for the throne in the Holy Roman Empire. A double election concurred and both Otto and Phillip were elected. The two had a war which was ended in 1204 by the Pope, naming Otto the king. Yet in 1207, the kingship would change again and Phillip of Swabbia would become king. However just over a year after becoming king Phillip would be booted from the throne in 1208. Otto would take over as king of the Empire. However in 1211 Otto IV, would no longer be king of the Holy Roman Empire as he would be replaced by the young Fredrick II. Interestingly enough Fredrick II was raised by Pope Innocent III giving the pope some major power inside the Holy Roman Empire. During this time during the rule of Otto and Otto (after Phillip died in Otto’s second reign), two crusades were going on in which Otto participated in. During 1204 a crusade was brought forth by Innocent during the same time as a war over the throne was being fought. My essay is on the Holy Roman Empire between the death of Henry and the return of Fredrick II back to Germany in 1220. We will start in 1197 after Henry VI has died.
The Roman Empire is known as one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever seen. At it’s height, this Empire had peace, economic prosperity and was expanding. Roman cities contributed to a fair amount of this success because they contributed to many advances during Pax Romana and united the empire. After the fall of the Empire, Christianity survived because although the empire separated into many kingdoms they were still being influenced by the religion.
McManners, John. "The Oxford History of Christianity." The Oxford History of Christianity. New York: New York Oxford Press, 2002. 28.
The Emperor personally invited bishops of the church to spend time with him. He treated them favorably by showering them with gifts. This was usual for a Roman to do this, because most Romans were not Christians. The Christians received ill treatment from the Romans for many years. It was then that Constantine began to send letters around the empire of Rome telling them to allow certain privileges to the Christians.
In the Medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church of today does. In Medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone whether it is knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval England and played a large role in education and religion. The Church's power was so great that they could order and control knights and sends them to battle whenever they wished to. The Church also had the power to influence the decision of Kings and could stop or pass laws which benefited them in the long run, adding to this, the Church had most of the wealth in Europe as the Church demanded a Tithe from all the common life which meant that they had to pay 10 percent of their income to the Church. The Church controlled all the of the beliefs and religion of the Church as they were the only ones who could read or write Latin and as such could decipher the Bible and scriptures which gave them all the power to be the mouth of God. The Legacy of the power and the influence of the Church can still be found, even today in modern times.
The Holy Roman Empire was an empire in central Europe consisting of many territories and ethnicities. Once very powerful, the empire’s authority slowly decreased over centuries and by the Middle Ages the emperor was little more than a figurehead, allowing princes to govern smaller sections of the empire. Though the various ruling princes owed loyalty to the emperor, they were also granted a degree of independence and privileges. The emperor, an elected monarch, needed the allegiance of the princes and other aristocracy to support him, in turn giving them power or money. This tenuous allegiance between powers was greatly strained in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as religious reform dominated Europe and religious tensions divided the empire. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the empire’s power significantly declined because of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation split the empire’s states into Protestant and Catholic divisions, straining the peace between territories. Though the relationship between the princes and the emperor had already been tenuous, the princes, seeing the religious divisions, sensed weakness in the empire and further challenged imperial authority. The Holy Roman emperors battled Protestant princes in Germany into the seventeenth century, where tensions were still high from the Reformation and wars of religion – initially contained to the German territories – began to include other territories and states. As more European states joined the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire continued to deteriorate. From the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century, the Holy Roman Empire’s power declined greatly because of its internal religious rifts, conflicts (in particular the Thirty Years War, whic...
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...
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: HarperOne, 2010.