Papacy Crisis

Pope Clement VII was also the cousin of the French king, which insured that the church would be under French influence. The cardinals insisted that they had to elect a new pope, Pope Clement VII, because the election of Pope Urban VI was not valid. They were coerced into electing the Roman pope for fear of their lives; a mob of Italians outside of the conclave that elected Pope Urban VI had threatened to massacre the cardinals if a foreigner was chosen as the replacement for Gregory XI.

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

He proclaimed a jubilee year, in which thousands of pilgrims came to Rome, leaving massive amounts of money behind. Then the papacy began to unravel; Pope Boniface VIII excommunicated Philip IV, King of France, who in turn kidnapped the Pope and held him hostage. As a result of his captivity, Pope Boniface VIII died miserably. His successor, Benedict XI, lived for only a short while, and after his death the papal election was deadlocked. The College of the Cardinals finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as pope. He then moved to Avignon, which was essentially in France. Seven successive popes ruled out of Avignon; their reigns lasting almost 70 years. Pope Gregory XI then moved to Rome, ending the Avignon papacy. The College of Cardinals then selected Pope Urban VI as pope, but then they regretted it and elected another pope, Pope Clement VII, who moved back to Avignon. The rival popes and their successors continued to rule separately until Pope Martin V was elected by an ecunemiel council. The events of the 14th century weakened the papacy, and some started to see its hypocrisy. The stage was set for an attack on papal power, but not merely its temporal power, as before. The spiritual authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, was about to be under

How did the kings attack the church in this period? Contrast these events with ones in earlier ones in which the pope dominated rulers.

Louis XI and the Valois line formed a royal army, overpowered unruly nobles and bandits, and increased the monarch’s power over both parliament and the clergy. Louis XI was able to raise taxes without the approval of parliament and eventually parliament asked for him to rule without their input. The monarch’s power over the clergy increased due to the Concordat of Bologna. In the Concordat of Bologna, King Francis I and Pope Leo X signed an agreement that stated that the pope was to be paid by French ecclesiastics, religious figures such as priests or the clergy, and the king would appoint bishops and abbots.

Boniface and Philip were interlocked in a battle over power during the middle ages. Boniface believed that the church should have more power than the state; therefore he sent decrees to Philip in order to maintain dominance. The bulls Boniface created gave him power over not only King Philip, but over all secular rulers. Philip attempted to keep the church below the state, but Boniface continued to send these bulls effectively limiting Philip’s power.

Throughout the central Middle Ages, Europe was characterized by the power struggle between the secular and the ecclesiastic. The question of rule by God or by man was one which arose with unwavering frequency among scholars, clergy, and nobility alike. The line which separated church and state was blurry at best, leading to the development of the Investiture Conflict in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the attempts to undermine the heir to the throne in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Four men stand out among dozens in this effort to define the powers of the lay versus that of the spiritual: Emperor/kings Henry IV and John of England, and the popes who aggressively challenged their exertions of authority, Pope Gregory VII

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

Pope Innocent III began a sequence of changes that influenced the face of secular and ecclesiastical Europe through careful use of law and political manipulation. It has been remarked that the papacy acquired and retained the most power under the leadership of Pope Innocent III during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. I plan to examine sources primarily pertaining to the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and secondly to a collection of Innocent III’s papal letters. In my analysis, I hope to draw a correlation between Innocent III's actions and these actions influence on medieval society and why this period is considered to be the height of papal power since its inception.

Pope Boniface VIII wrote the bulls, ‘Clericis Laicos’ in 1296 and ‘Unam Sanctam’ in 1302, to affirm and perform the papal supremacy over his ecclesiastical persons and the kings, Philip IV of France and Edward I of England. Both bulls consist of the decrees that restrain the rulers from enforcing their derogatory authority over Christians: one forbids prelates and churchmen to pay the tax that laymen heavily imposed on them: the latter one demands suspected clergies under the papal jurisdiction, furthermore insisting the pope’s total authority over his churchmen in France. Philip had knocked off ‘Clericis Laicos’ by depriving Boniface of a major revenue source, yet the pope again threw down the gauntlet against the rulers with the new threat of excommunication. Although both bulls indicate the similar

This series of incident started when King Philip VI wanted to tax the French clergy but the pope disagreed with him. King Philip VI replaced the pope and moved the location of the church to Avignon instead of Rome. This outlandish action put many faithful believers into outrage and disappointment. The new church officials were almost entirely French because King Philip VI wanted to secure his power. People questioned if the popes at Avignon were captives of the French monarchy. The Avignon church had a reputation of being corrupted and abusing its power which led to the decrease of Christian

During the 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 was 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. The Catholic Church exercised its authority in many different stages, and the people responded to the way that the Church exercised her power. Bernard Guenee in The Lives of Four French Prelates In the Late Middle Ages reflects on this controversy between church and state power throughout the Middle Ages by focusing on the lives of four distinguished French church authorities: Bernard Gui (1261-1331), Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353), Pierre D 'Ailly (1351-1420), and Thomas Basin (1412-1490), all of whom rose from modest circumstances to the dignity of office. Guenee argues that the ambition these men displayed may be considered honorable to some, but he sees their advancement in the Church and their participation in the state as counteractive. He fails to distinguish between the good and immoral sides of ambition as a virtue and claims the cause of the separation between the church and the state comes down to an inevitable fight for the acquisition of higher power. His position only deals with the practicalities of the situation, and is

During the Middle ages countless disputes over power occur. From corrupted government officials, to establishing a proper structure for Roman Catholicism. However, one can argue whether it’s good or bad intentions with great powers comes great responsibility. The Medieval period began from the 5th century when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, to 15th century. During the Medieval Period the Roman Church was the dominated church. The church controlled religion, philosophy, morals, politics, art and education. In addition, many practices from the Middle Ages laid the foundations to today’s modern world.

One of the largest defining features of Medieval Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. The far-reaching and penetrating influence it had over most of the Western world far exceeded that of any secular rulers of the time. It influenced the personal lives of ordinary people through its religious laws, and it affected the political climate having “divine authority” over even kings. Because people feared the pope and ultimately the divine authority he represented, there was little rebellion against the church itself, even if there were revolts against local political leaders. That being said, we cannot neglect the instances in which the authority of the papal office was challenged. On occasions where the pope did not have the approval of secular rulers (i.e. the Holy Roman Emperor), the church’s power was slightly limited. But as long as those in authority throughout Christendom honored the authority of the pope, the Catholic Church had “unlimited power” (McCallum et. al.).

During the High Middle Ages, feudal monarchs began to exercise royal authority. Some succeeded in centralizing power and built the framework for nation-states, for example, Britain and France. Monarchs play the highest economic role or social hierarchy under the priest. King John, for example, was a clever, cruel and untrustworthy ruler. He caused challenges for his economy by creating enemies with other rulers such as King Philip II, and Pope Innocent III. He even turned away his own English nobles. John suffered his first setback when he lost a war with King Philip II. He had to give up his land in both Anjou and Normandy. John then battled with Pope Innocent III over selecting a new archbishop of Canterbury. He rejected the pope’s nominee. This led to the pope excluding and preventing him and his entire kingdom from participating in church services. John had to accept England as a fief of the papacy and pay a yearly fee to Rome. On the other hand, a potential benefit was the Magna Carta. It was a document John was forced to sign. It affirmed a long list of feudal rights that gave rights to the towns people. It would also shape political and legal traditions in England. Furthermore, it made it clear that the monarch must obey the law.