Some Church policies may have cause confusion to European society.
In the struggle between Pope Gregory and King Henry VI, Pope Gregory believed that “the pope’s authority extended over all the Christian world, including its rulers.” (page 237).
Because Christianity was the dominant religion at that time, most people living in that region were Christian. At the time no one really knew who was the main authority figure, which led to much confusion. Pope Gregory stepped up and said that the Pope had authority over all in the Christian world. He allowed many people to see who really was the authority figure in Europe.
The sacraments were kept away from unfit people.
When Pope Innocent III was in papacy he believed in the Church having a strong
Furthermore, in England, King Henry VIII considered himself a worthy Catholic king. He had “enthusiastically attacked the outbreak of Protestant heresy when it began, and the papacy gave him the title Defender of the Faith as a result”. This did not matter when Henry wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon. When the church would not grant the divorce he wanted, Henry’s resulting decision to create the Church of England set the standards for more than a century of religious conflict/isues in England. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 essentially “took power away from the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.” Henry VIII made an entirely new church which he made himself head of, because he was the king. This demonstrates the actions that politics affected Europe and that they were not always necessarily for religious purposes but for power and personal
At the beginning of the 11th century, the predominant faith in Western Europe is the Catholic one, and the Church in those territories follows, in theory, the same Canon Law and has the Pope at its head as the deciding voice in religious disputes. The Church was the main unifying factor between territories that had evolved in very different ways, had different power structures in place and spoke different languages.
If we travel back to the year 1500, the Church (what we now call the Roman Catholic Church) was very powerful both politically and spiritually in Western Europe. For some time the Church was seen as an institution weighed down by internal power struggles. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war.
religion. The Papal Authority on the other hand had a monumental task of keeping Catholicism
Throughout the time frame between 1450 and 1700 the Catholic Church had power over all European countries because the main religion everyone followed was Catholicism. One main priority
(http://www.thenagain.info) During the time there were two Popes who both claimed full authority over the Catholic Church and he people were divided they didn’t know whom to follow. King Philip did not like the pope elected after Pope Gregory XI died, Pope Gregory XII. (http://www.britannica.com) He was an Italian pope, King Philip decided to elect a Pope who ruled from Avignon, Pope Benedict XIII. (http://www.britannica.com)
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.
"In the later eleventh century, mystically enchanted war turned into a categorical and cozy concern of the ameliorated papacy, one which was to transmute Christian states of mind and practices for an immensely colossal portion of a thousand years." The vicissitude was gone for ecclesiastical reinforcing and decontamination of the ministry including another procedure for the decision of incipient popes and assaulting indecencies, for example, administrative espousement and the purchasing and offering of religious workplaces. Pope Gregory VII was the primary impact behind ecclesiastical change. "With nervy tenaciousness, he distinguished what he accepted to be the main driver of the Church's issues the dirtying impact of the people and afterward start assaulting it with close out of control tirelessness, in what has been termed the 'Instatement Controversy'." For every one of his prospects and objective in ecclesiastical change and endeavoring to coalesce the Latin Church, when he kicked the bucket and Pope Urban II took office, the Church was powerless and defenseless. In the terminus however, Urban did instaurate ecclesiastical power probably in light of the fact that he was a "much more aptitudinal ambassador then his forebear, in his dealings with the mainstream and clerical forces of Europe." He had a more adaptable way to deal with change than Gregory and that availed him win back backing for the ecclesiastical reason. In 1095, the year prior to the First Crusade, the papacy was incrementing a plethora of its glory back. When he was requested avail by the Byzantines against the Turks the pope's preparatory replication was "to enhearten 'numerous to ensure, by taking a vow, to avail the sovereign most reliably to the extent they were capable against the agnostics'." This did little to motivate the masses, yet it had planted the
Due to it’s incredible influence over Europe, everyone, regardless of wealth, rank, or social status, was affected by the church. This helped keep the people undivided and unified, because no matter who you were,
In the letter of Henry IV of Germany to Pope Gregory VII in 1076 tension can easily be seen between both men. As mentioned in the opening note of the letter Henry has vast dislike for Gregory seeing him holding his supposed divine power illegally. Henry even starts his letter by clearly stating that he sees himself as having been appointed by God, unlike this ‘false’ Pope Gregory VII. “Henry, king not through usurpation but through the holy ordination of God, to Hildebrand, at present not pope but false monk.” He continues on with this idea that it is almost ludicrous for this pope to assume that he has any real power over whom is king. Henry’s concept of his right to rule comes from the idea that he was indeed chosen by God. That Gregory should
It was felt to have a monopoly on the church and it basically meant that they could control of who went to heaven or hell. This made a huge impact on people’s lives and made more people go to the church. The catholic church played a lot of huge roles back in the day and still does to this
People faced the rise and the fall of the Catholic Church during the medieval time. The Popes used to hold the final authority for the church and over the state. Pope Gregory VII asserted the Pope had granted the divine power from God because Saint Peter was the first of getting this
The Lilliputians are fighting Blefusca over which side of the egg you should start with to crack an egg. Blefusca believes that you should start with the big end while the Lilliputians believe you should start on the little end. This altercation reminds me of something that happens more recently than we think. Girls fighting over boys. For example, if a boy cheat on their girlfriends 9 times out of 10 the girlfriends go after the girl that the boy cheated on them with. This is stupid to me because the boy is the one in the wrong. He knew that he was in a relationship and cheated anyway. Most of the time the other girls don't know that the boys in a relationship. Fighting can cause many consequences. You can go to jail, you can get seriously
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.
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.