The Fall Of The Roman Empire

There are various reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire; Edward Gibbon argues Christianity is the central reason for the Roman Empires destruction whilst Rostovtzeff argues Christianity theology helped the Roman Empire. The contrast in the perspectives of theses historians is evident in their works. Gibbon’s “The History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire” illustrates Gibbons strong argument for the fall of the Roman Empire:

The Roman Catholic Church had the most powerful religion in Europe. The Pope was the head of the Church, and its

In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after

One of the first major problems that the church faced was the Great Schism. From 1387 to 1417, three men were considered to be the pope, which had never happened in Catholic history before. In 1305, the papacy was moved to Avignon, France and began taxing bishops and cardinals, and the bishops and cardinals taxed the priests, who in turn demanded money from churchgoers. The reason why they were being taxed was because the papacy was no longer center in Rome. The Avignon papacy developed a reputation for corruption and greed, which caused for there to be a need for the Pope

The rise of papacy in the Western Catholic Church is debatably the most corrupt and darkest time in Christianity. The collapse of the greatest and longest running empire in human history created an immense void in society which the church attempted to fill. The bishops of the roman churches who had previously been politicians were now in a position to usurp even more power. The power of the pope continued to rise even to the point of deposing and appointing the kings of Europe. The ramifications of the papacy on history are many.

Within the Middle Ages, the church became the most influential and important force for the European society. As the central governments of Europe grew weak, the church rose in strength. In result came an ever lasting battle between the two. Popes were in control of spiritual matters, and the emperor or king were in charge of political affairs. During the Middle Ages, the line in between spiritual and political was clearly not bold enough.

In Medieval Europe, the church played a critical role in shaping government and society. Most of the contemporary leaders were drawn from the church and contributed in championing the ideals of the church, leading to the papacy (Cook 33). During the papacy, the Pope of the Catholic Church assumed the position of the world leader, administering over the church flock and the non-Christian subjects. However, before the church rose to this eminent posit, its relationship with the government was tumultuous. Often, the people who professed the Christian faith were publicly persecuted. The ancient societies viewed the church with suspicion and suspected the church leaders incitement and sedition (Rublack 37). Based on the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the emotions the event evoked, the Roman rulers were wary of another public incident that may sway the loyalty of the subjects. The history of the church and the Eastern and Western factions of Rome shaped modern day Europe political landscape. The interaction between the Empire and the Papacy in Medieval Europe shaped modern day governments by influencing the rise to power or decline of some.

Because the people stopped worshipping the emperor, the political importance started to fail. No one really cared if they were the emperor; they were not being praised or worshipped any more so what was the point? Since no one cared to be the Emperor the government started to fail. Popes, Pastors, and other church leaders actually got more into the political affairs, making the government a little bit more complicated than it was before. Before Christianity was even a question, the Roman Empire was becoming bankrupt all because of the Roman politicians. They used all of their money creating huge, amazing, unnecessary empires consisting of roads and extraordinary safe traveling conditions so the people using the roads would have safe and easy travels. Christianity was not blamed for all of this doing and the bankruptcy because the Christians and the Christian religion had nothing to do with the bankruptcy. How could the people put all their faith in someone who was failing to keep their empire going? He was the reason they had no more money. It was hard for them to their trust in a pagan god when their “god” (the leader) was failing them. All the people tried to find a new “religion”, they wanted someone or something to put their

All throughout western civilization, the Roman Empire was a powerful governing build. Political, economic and social entities advocated for the success of the empire. However, the question still remains, how was it possible that the very things that once made the empire great could be the sole reasons for its decline? There are substantial reasons as to why the empire fell. Constant occurrences in succession from another—whether internal or external—led to the fall rather than one single event. The fall of the Roman Empire was a combination of both internal and external pressures, however, the purpose of this paper is to identify the internal factories that resulted in the fall of the Roman Empire.

Second, the church was a major political force. Therefore kings and queens wanted/needed papal approval like when they were somewhat weak, as in times of conflict. This allowed the Church to exercise political power as it could help to determine which claimants to a throne would be deemed acceptable.

After the division of the Roman Empire, the growth of Christianity in the Western Empire thrived. The division of the empires caused the churches to grow and prosper, instead of disintegrating with the rest of the Roman Empire. Churches were some of the most significant establishments in Europe. Over time the churches began to develop their own set of beliefs. Leaders of the church were elected by the people. Bishops were a very important part of the Roman churches in the Western Empire. One in particular, named Bishop Ambrose, was a very skilled lawyer and governor. He made many of the new advances for the early Christian churches, and also set high standards for the administrators. In the fourth century, the Christian community began to divide,

Religion is often a driving force behind civilizations, and Christianity is no different. During the Middle Ages in Europe when chaos and instability ruled, Christianity was a guiding light in the darkness. Shaping the European continent, Christianity affected it in ways that paved the road to the modern-day Western civilizations. After the fall of Rome in 476 CE, anarchy erupted in Western Europe. Christianity rose to power as the single dominating and unifying central authority, acting as a government in many aspects, helping preserve history and progressing Western Europe into a more developed age. On the other side of the continent, the Byzantine Empire was continuing on in relative peace. Yet during the reign of Justinian, a deadly plague, known as the bubonic plague swept through the empire. The plague killed half of the empire’s population and without the manpower to run the empire, left the infrastructure in ruins. Politically and economically weakened, the Byzantine Empire was on its knees. Christianity helped support the Byzantine Empire forward in many regards, but because of the hierarchy of the Eastern Orthodox Church compared to the singular Pope in the Roman Catholic Church, Christianity left a more lasting effect in the West than in the Byzantine Empire. Especially in the West, having combined the forces of emperors and the church working together, which benefited politically and economically, influencing art and culture, and increased the domain of the

In the void left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome grew even more in both power and prestige beginning in the sixth century and continuing to the reformation in the ninth century. It is the aim of this paper to explain how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power of the medieval world, the factors contributing to this dominance over Western Europe, and the positive and negative ramifications of the position becoming so powerful. Through this paper you will discover how papacy was able to fill the vacuum of power left by the fall of an empire.

According to Strayer and Nelson, “The roman catholic church had more power than many empires during the 15th century.” This power was generated from the morality it introduced to its people bringing many together. This brought many people together for a similar belief making the church even more powerful socially and politically. As stated by Strayer and Nelson, “the empires often selected church officials for the catholic church.” This gave the kings a perception of power that would keep them at peace with the power that the church actually had. It also kept the empires from fighting for the power keeping the number of followers strong. Which kept the social and political cohesion between the empires strong. The roman catholic church generated social and political power that was hard to destroy

One of the ruling classes was the Church. the Church became one of Europe's dominant powers when Rome fell in the year 476. The power of the Church grew with the weakening of Rome's secular influences. The ensuing regional isolation in turn led to a dividing trend in which the various reaches of the Empire, particularly the distant regions increasingly had to resort to provincial self-reliance. Secondly, as the Roman state's abilities to govern and administer the Empire's vast stretches declined, several administrative and government occupations were given to local bishops,