The Age of Constantine

The Age of Constantine

After the age of Constantine, the Catholic Church was faced with the problems of a failing Italian political system, Muslim invasion and German Emperors attempting to rule parts of Italy. This would lead to one of the major problems between the church and government. The Papal states were in danger in being overtaken by the German Emperors so the Papacy had to have a strong political involvement to keep control of their states. This would lead to the Church gaining much political power. Another problem the faced the church was the secularization of the clergy. Monasteries would often fall under the control of the local Lords and they would select the bishops and abbots at their discretion. These bishops and abbots were often selected simply to fulfill the job with little regard to monastic discipline (Speivogel 246). This secularization of the clergy would eventually lead to a decline in the standards of behavior amongst the clergy. Two of the most recognizable problems were the marriages of priests and the selling of church offices, or simony. The major problem being that there was little supervision from the higher church offices of the local priests and clergy allowing them to become lax in their rules for discipline. These problems would eventually lead to a reform that would renew the spiritualistic ideals. The first of these reforms took place in the abbot of Cluny where there was a renewed dedication to these spiritualistic ideals. After the Clunic reform, there was a widespread movement to reform the church that was lead by reforming popes.

Pope Gregory VII was a reforming pope that wanted to eliminate all lay investiture in the church. He wanted the appointments to the church to be made entirely by the church without input from the monarchs. This created a major conflict with King Henry IV of Germany because they monarchy had been appointing church leaders as a way of protecting their political interests. King Henry believed that this would empower the church over the monarchy and disputed this. There was a dispute over who would control the bishopric of Milan and the Pope Gregory would excommunicate King Henry and King Henry would have his bishops depose the pope. These conflicts of growing papal power over the state would be the issues of many conflicts throughout the middle ages.