The Rise of the Papacy

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:

In this period, the Roman empire was a big influence on the medieval society of Europe and was important. The Roman catholic church also was a huge role in the upcoming of Europe and the church then had more power than churches today have. In Medieval Europe, the church was leading their peoples lives, and ruled over ninety percent of the land. The Church also was a big impact in Medieval Europe’s religion and society. The church was so powerful and sometimes wrong, Saint Augustine states in his book, “Even during this period at Rome I was associated with those false and deceiving saints” (Confessions, 84). The Church was so great that it ran medieval Europe and forced their power onto the society, even when all their uses of power were sometimes wrong. The church held most the wealth in this period, they had this because they demanded ten percent of their people’s income. One reason why the church was so

For most civilizations, religious figures have had a large influence over the lives of the common people. The Roman Catholic Church was a very influential figure in many civilizations. It can trace its origins to over 2000 years ago. One of the Church’s most influential periods of this time was the Middle Ages. The Roman Catholic Church played a very big role in the lives of the people during that period. For many, it was the center of their life. The three most important impacts of the Church on medieval life were their secular roles concerning laws and their position over the state, the way that the Church unified Europe, and their power over the common people.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

Roles of the Catholic Church in Western civilization has been scrambled with the times past and development of Western society. Regardless of the fact that the West is no longer entirely Catholic, the Catholic tradition is still strong in Western countries. The church has been a very important foundation of public facilities like schooling, Western art, culture and philosophy; and influential player in religion. In many ways it has wanted to have an impact on Western approaches to pros and cons in numerous areas. It has over many periods of time, spread the teachings of Jesus within the Western World and remains a foundation of continuousness connecting recent Western culture to old Western culture.-

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.

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church was the only powerful authority not complete disrupted by the attack by barbarians. In fact, the work of great Popes is what helped their power increase even more. The newly christened barbarians, done by the Pope Gregory the Great, inaugurated a new age in Jesus Christ called Christendom. All culture in Christendom conformed to that of the Church’s, and, with its headquarters in Rome, the powerful “papal monarchs”, as they were called, controlled the machine that was the Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church was the only church during the middle ages. It had very large funds and its own set of laws. The Church, as some even considered very wealthy, had many sources of income and it accounted for one-third of the land in England. Breaking away from this entity that dominated most of the western world and once bound everyone together for thousands of years seemed inconceivable. It controlled religion, art, music, morals and even politics. There was truly no alternative and anyone who went against or defied the church was known as a heretic or pagan and was burned at the stake. Catholics began losing faith over time with the expanding influence of Humanism and corruption in the church. This sparked the Protestant Reformation,

The fall of the Roman Empire was started because of many things. In A.D 90 there were many religions such as: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, the worship of pagan gods, worship of many, many things. There was not just one religion set and stone. The fall of the Roman Empire kick started the spread of Christianity. A lot of people and a lot of historians have argued that the “new found faith” was a major part in the empire’s downfall. In 313 A.D. Christianity was legalized in Rome, later in 380 A.D. it became the main religion in Rome. Millions of Christians were murdered from the Coliseum “games”. The Coliseum was used for many different things such as: circus’s, plays, “Olympics”, and eating and killing of Christians.

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.

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.

Waring factions between and within countries resulted in empire-loss-of-power leaving the Church unprotected, the Church hired strong men paid in land resulting in the domination of the bishops and control of church lands and influential appointment of local church

The papacy of Roman Catholic Church reached its zenith in the thirteenth century. But there was a decline of the papacy in the fourteenth century due to disaster like the Black Death, The Great Schism, and many other evolutions in Europe. Many new ideas and advanced technologies were developed after series of changes. These ideas influenced the lives of many normal people in the Medieval Ages.

Warren, what a great essay very well written. I agree that the invasion from the barbarians greatly led to the rapid decline of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, that due to this decline it left a power vacuum that the Catholic Church was able to fill. I also came to the conclusion when doing my research paper that the papacy was not considered supreme in the early church and that the emperors played a role in the selection of the papacy. It was very interesting to read that the mere fact of being a Bishop of an important city alone cared lots of political and social prestige within the western civilization. Also, the way that your essay goes through the chronological order of the papacy was fascinating to read and discover. I also concluded the

It is important to note on the specific conversation about the church that there are two different views of the influence of the Christian Church that exist. One in which the people wander aimlessly without it and another where it comes in as a destructive and ugly dictator to control the society. This is where Rodoifo Lanciani, Vern L. Bullough, and Thomas A.J. McGinn argue against Peter Brown. In Lanciani’s book Pagan and Christian Rome, he analyzes the changeover from paganism to Christianity and how it took 300 years of fighting to fully gain acceptance under Constantine in 323 and even then the people fought back. He also takes a look at how Christianity moved through the society and it is not as one would think. On page two Lanciani states, “It has been contended and many still believe that in ancient Rome the