Pope Gregory The Great Essay

The Pope is the head of the Church: he represents the ultimate religious authority. However, as a Bishop of Rome, the Pope is also in command of certain secular affairs, including some military aspects. Certainly, the Pope is a link between the earthly and the divine realms. Problems arise when the imperfect world the Pope physically lives in interferes with his heavenly objectives. Taking Pope Gregory I as an example, I am going to look at his letters to analyze how he reconciled his political and spiritual goals, whether he valued one category over the other, and how he justified it.

Francis of Assisi was a poor man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a mite of self-importance. Francis was famous for his love of all creation. He called for simplicity of life, poverty, and humility before God. He worked to care for the poor. Thousands were drawn to his sincerity, piety, and joy. In all his actions, Francis sought to follow fully and literally the way of life demonstrated by Christ in the Gospels. My report is going to discuss the life and contributions of St. Francis of Assisi.

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

On May 18, 1920, in a small Polish town just outside of Wadowice, a child was born to Karol Wojtyla (1879-1941, and Emilia Kaczorosks (1884-1929). His name was Karol Jozef Wojtyla. Little did his parents know that one day their child was destined not only to become a priest and a bishop, but the 264th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and only the second non-Italian pope.

For over a period of seven hundred plus years, from Gregory the Great’s papacy to Boniface VIII’s papacy, the world experienced many influential popes, whose accomplishments changed the course of history. Many of these popes become known for both their positive accomplishments, which brought prosperity to their people, and for their failures, which in many cases led to their own death. Throughout the given time period, Pope Nicholas II, Pope Gregory VII, Pope Innocent III, and Pope Gregory IX, were all influential popes whose accomplishments are what they are most remembered for. First, Pope Nicholas II decreed that the College of Cardinals would obtain authority to choose the pope. The College of Cardinals was made up of a group of Roman Church officials who were in charge of electing the pope, which was put in place to prevent kings from selecting popes.

The age leading up to the first crusade is detailed by many current historians, as well as Pope Urban II, as a time period where inhabitants "rage[d] against [their own] brothers and cut each other [to] pieces" (Peters, Baldric of Dol, 31) for economic and social advancement. In spite of these references, many people today believe that the Pope instigated the crusades for the sole reason of reclaiming Jerusalem. However, other motivations such as supplementary religious factors and the chance for economic, social, and political gain also played major roles. These motivations were not experienced supremely by the Pope; in fact he needed to instill these inspirations in all Christians to evoke their will to fight. The holy land had long

     Changes occurred in various categories throughout the whole council. One of the more dramatic changes that occurred in the church, is the vernacular used during mass. Until Vatican II, the mass had been traditionally spoken in Latin, but afterwards was allowed to be spoken in the

Pope Gregory was a rare type of pope, he was one of seven popes to be elected acclamation which no longer occurs today. Although he was popular in Rome for a period of time, he was despised in parts of Europe. When Emperor Henry III passed away the strength of Germany had been weakened tremendously. Emperor Henry IV took over and had to contend with internal difficulties at only age twenty-three. Due to the difficulty, Henry IV had to come to terms of Gregory on political matters. Self-punishment was to be done on Henry to continue the friendship, and even took an oath of obedience, and promised support in the reforming church. This won the confidence of the pope, but was quickly betrayed when Henry defeated the Saxons. Henry attempted to reestablish his rights. Gregory replied to this with a letter which accused him of breaching his word and excommunicated Henry from power. Henry was not pleased to read this and replied to Gregory

St. Francis of Assisi was born in Umbria in the year 1182. He was a child every father hoped for, he was filled with life, a determined and courageous individual. He was gifted with rather good looks, qualities that attracted friends and a gift of leadership. His father was an extremely wealthy merchant in Assisi. But this son, his favourite, was the one who broke Peter Bernardone’s heart. The boy turned on his father, and in a vicious event that eventually resulted into a public scene. St. Francis of Assisi stepped away from his father, his business and left his father in a state of immense emotional suffering.

Gregory was born during politically turbulent times in Europe. Economies suffered, agriculture waned, and a plague ravaged rural areas amidst Justinian’s reconquest of Italy (535–554). The bridges, aqueducts, and infrastructure of Rome degraded with age too. The Lombards held North Italy and less than a generation later, they seized Milan, and were threatening Rome. Even still, the Byzantine emperors, who were too far to protect Rome, demanded loyalty and taxes from the people of Italy from its imperial post at Ravenna. Gregory witnessed all of that turmoil which certainly would inspire his career and outlooks. Gregory came from a wealthy Roman family and as a young man he served as prefect of Rome (from 573). The Roman aristocracy which he would have known was losing faith in the power of Rome. Many looked instead to the Church’s message during times that many, including Gregory, viewed as apocalyptic. Gregory gave his property Italy and Sicily to the Church, converted his family mansion in Rome into a monastery, and lived there as a devoted and highly contemplative monk. These early experiences influenced Gregory and his subsequent development of the role of the papacy: “when I rose in contemplation above all changeable and decaying things, and thought of nothing but the things of heaven.” Gregory’s aristocratic background, preference for monasticism, and deep interest in eschatology pervaded his greatest contributions to role of the bishop of Rome by influencing his

In Homily 33, delivered in 591, Pope Gregory took the step of identifying Luke's unnamed sinner with Mary Magdalen:

At the time, the monastic society was very disorganized. Seeing this, St Anthony took action and organized the system, making them name their cause and purpose. Because of this, St Anthony is often called the Father of Monasticism (“St Anthony of Egypt”, Crawley). St Anthony successfully avoided the temptation of the Devil. When St Anthony was tempted throughout his life, St Anthony stayed faithful to God and avoided the temptations. St Anthony was victorious over the devil, “From these psychic struggles Anthony emerged as the sane and sensible father of Christian monasticism” (Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). Finally, St Anthony was a great saint. I like St Anthony because his devotion to God and prayer. For a majority of his life, St Anthony remained a hermit in solitude, praying to God (Orthodox Church in America). St Anthony was a great saint due to all of his accomplishments and devotion to

The first factor that led to the papacy’s increase in authority is the spread of Christianity throughout the region. Coinciding with the collapse of the Roman Empire, missionaries were reaching areas of Europe not under the empire’s control. Missionaries such as Saint Patrick, Saint Columba, and Saint Columbanus spread Christianity throughout the celtic regions of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Meanwhile other missionaries including Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus, and Boniface concentrated their efforts in the Germania, bringing an increase to the population of Christian Saxons. In what is now France, king Clovis I converted to the faith in the late 5th century. On his insistence many of his court and peers followed suit. This strengthened the church by uniting multiple kingdoms under its control. These examples of Christianity spreading throughout Europe demonstrate the growth in power of the church. As new regions became more and more predominately Christian the number of people professing allegiance to the church also increased. The papacy had no shortage of subjects to rule over and an increasing amount of resources at its disposal. This increase in subjects and research, and the land under control of the office increasing led to a dominance over Western Europe.

Pope John Paul the Second It was recently this year that the Catholic world had lost its leader,

The Papacy is the office of the Pope. The word pope comes from the Latin form of the word “Papa” which means father. The office of the Pope or rather the papacy is responsible for a wide variety of things. Specifically the Papacy’s main responsibility is the spiritual well being of the members of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church rose to power in the 6th century and lasted throughout the 9th century. There were several different circumstantial and also coincidental factors that contributed to the high regard of the church by the 6th century. The beginning was the church’s unsolicited popularity. This could be linked to its relationship with the early apostles. The Roman Church was the first in the empire