Why Are The Popes Important In The Middle Ages

This was a result of the power and wealth (from tithes) that the Church had acquired. The Church had complete authority over the people. When the Church educated people, they directed their stories and superstitions on Hell which feared the people. Peasants and serfs were forced to maintain Church grounds and were often mistreated. People had many other reasons to fear the Church. Another reason that the medieval Church was so influential in Medieval times was because it made laws and set up courts to uphold them. The Catholic Church used torture and imprisonment to obtain confessions from people regardless of whether they were guilty. They would severely punish people if they fell asleep in Church or if they did not attend at all. They also used methods of torture to convert people from one religion to another, (such as Baptism/Christianity). The Church would also deal with the victims in court if held

The Catholic Church was by far the largest owner of land during the Middle Ages. While bishops and abbots occupied much the same place as counts and dukes in the feudal hierarchy, there was one important difference between the religious and secular lords. Dukes and counts might shift their loyalty from one overlord to another, depending on the circumstances and the balance of power involved, but the bishops and abbots always had (in principle at least) a primary loyalty to the church in Rome. This was also an age during which the religious teaching of the church had a very strong and pervasive influence throughout Western Europe. These factors combined to make the church the closest thing to a strong central government throughout this period.

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

The Church had a lot of power over the government(OI). For example the church had so much power that the Code of Chivalry has rules that talk about the church. In the Code of Chivalry it states “Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions”(Doc 5).The Code of Chivalry is important because that is the code the knights followed.That is how the politics of the Catholic Church influenced the Middle Ages of Rome.

These two kings were fighting over land in modern southwestern France. The men both prepared to go to war with each other, so they both wanted the churches in their kingdoms to pay taxes to help fund for the war. However, according to the canon law they church didn’t have to pay taxes to the lay ruler, unless the lay ruler got approval from the pope to tax the church. Despite, knowing the rulers both kings taxed the churches from their kingdoms without papal authorization, thus testing the Papacy’s power. The clergy had to choose between the kings or the Pope. Although, the pope had to power to excommunicate any clergy that disobeyed him, he didn’t win the conflict. The French king Philip IV cut off the wealth from France that was sent to the Pope. This cut off a major amount of Boniface income, causing the pope to back down. Meaning the kings of England and France had the power to tax their clergy, no matter what the canon law

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.

The church was a major political force during this point of time. Kings and Queens needed papal approval, especially when there was a lot of conflict going on. This allowed the church to to use political power as it could help them solve and determine which claimants to a throne would be accepted. There were a long history and a lot tension between the church and secular authority over this and other political issues.

More precisely, the disagreement appeared between the pope and emperor since Henry was electing bishops and had a say in priest marriage, in order to stabilize his royal status, which was not an advantage for the Pope. Consequently, the Dictatus Papae proposed the domination of the pope over political powers, which meant that Gregory applied the maxims of papal authority in order to succeed the monarch. The Pope had higher authority referring to his papal reforms, so the Dictatus Papae clearly introduced that papal power is the sole universal power and secular interference with church is rejected, in addition, pope is the only authority who has the right to appoint, depose or move churchmen. Furthermore, pope was allowed to invest clergy with the insignia of their office, additionally, clergy was not allowed to accept insignia from secular rulers.

These secular rulers were always seeking to broaden their authority over people living within their lands, including the clergy. The pope resisted such efforts from these powers, specifically King Phillip IV because the pope believed that he had exclusive jurisdiction over clerical matters (Boniface III). In regards to religion this contest of power had a big impact. The main reason Pope Boniface III and King Phillip had conflict was the taxation of church lands in France. The church lands had never been subject to taxes but with wars raging in the surrounding areas kings need money to support their armies. Pope Boniface viewed this taxation levy as a challenge to the church’s power. Boniface viewed the church as the supreme power on earth. The pope also threatened that any king, emperor, or anyone else who attempted to tax the church lands would be excommunicated from the church. This also affected government because of the pope’s refusal to pay taxes from the church lands would weaken the surround armies because of the loss of revenue. In regards to social classes these secular powers affected the different ranks differently. The higher ranking classes were not as affected by the conflicts between these powers because lower class people during this time were not able to pay the higher taxes. The lower classes faced very tough times during these

Throughout the Middle Ages, the relationship between the Church and the State was an unpredictable one in which each were was either supporting

If the pope felt anyone could be working against the church, he could punish them in any way. When there was an extreme offense against the Roman Catholic Church, the offender would be excommunicated, exiled from the church. In the mid-1000’s, any Bishop that did not recognize the pope as the head of Christianity would be excommunicated. Many of the

During the middles ages, church was more than just the place you went to worship, it was a place of power. It had a government, courts, a system of taxation, and laws. Teachings of the church influenced everyone in the society. The Christian Church molded the way the culture was during the middle ages. Christianity is the name given to the system of religious belief and practice which was taught by Jesus Christ in the country of Palestine during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Since Christianity was the dominant religion during the Middle Ages, attempts to purify the church and society led to many Christian campaigns against other religions. These campaigns were led by bishops, scholars and warriors who made efforts to make the Christian world free of all the non-Christians.

The catholic church played a massive part in the people's lives in medieval europe. The Pope was the head of the church and was entirely in control of the clerey. He also had a huge influence on the king as the king would run everything by the pope. He was seen as God’s representative on Earth.

This law, rooted in religious teachings, regulated many facets of daily life, including morals and marriages. During the later Middle Ages, the law of Europe was governed by the Church. An entire jurisdiction was exercised by the church which protected the widows, orphans and helpless and also dealt with offenses. Popes of the Middle Ages eventually had a power over all rulers, even kings and emperors. The pope was the leader of a bureaucratic structure of churchgoing men in charge of church-related business. Based in Rome, the pope was the medieval Church's leader. Church leaders such as bishops and archbishops sat on the king's council and played leading roles in government. Bishops, who were often wealthy and came from noble families, ruled over groups of parishes. The Roman Catholic Church was the supreme power during the Middle Ages. It was the stabilizing force in everyday life which kept the community framework together. The laws and rules of the land, public policies and governance of the people were all affected by religion during the Middle Ages. Any attempt at threatening Christianity by other religions was met with force and all measures were taken to spread the religion in other parts of the

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