Early European History Part 82

The lords, on the other hand, believed that as long as bishops and abbots held vast estates on feudal tenure they should continue to perform the obligations of va.s.salage. To forbid lay invest.i.ture was to deprive the lords of all control over Church dignitaries. The real difficulty of the situation existed, of course, in the fact that the bishops and abbots were both spiritual officers and temporal rulers, were servants of both the Church and the State. They found it very difficult to serve two masters.

PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY VII, 1073-1085 A.D.

In 1073 A.D. there came to the throne of St. Peter one of the most remarkable of the popes. This was Hildebrand, who, on becoming pope, took the name of Gregory VII. Of obscure Italian birth, he received his education in a Benedictine monastery at Rome and rose rapidly to a position of great influence in papal affairs. He is described as a small man, ungainly in appearance and with a weak voice, but energetic, forceful, and of imperious will.

GREGORY'S AIMS

Gregory devoted all his talents to the advancement of the Papacy. A contemporary doc.u.ment, [36] which may have been of Gregory's own composition and at any rate expresses his ideas, contains the following statements: "The Roman pontiff alone is properly called universal. He alone may depose bishops and restore them to office. He is the only person whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may depose emperors. He may be judged by no one. He may absolve from their allegiance the subjects of the wicked. The Roman Church never has erred, and never can err, as the Scriptures testify." Gregory did not originate these doctrines, but he was the first pope who ventured to make a practical application of them.

DECREE AGAINST LAY INVESt.i.tURE, 1075 A.D.

Two years after Gregory became pope he issued a decree against lay invest.i.ture. It declared that no emperor, king, duke, marquis, count, or any other lay person should presume to grant invest.i.ture, under pain of excommunication. This decree was a general one, applying to all states of western Europe, but circ.u.mstances were such that it mainly affected Germany.

HENRY IV AND GREGORY VII

Henry IV, the ruler of Germany at this time, did not refuse the papal challenge. He wrote a famous letter to Gregory, calling him "no pope but false monk," telling him Christ had never called him to the priesthood, and bidding him "come down;" "come down" from St. Peter's throne. Gregory, in reply, deposed Henry as emperor, excommunicated him, and freed his subjects from their allegiance.

CANOSSA, 1077 A.D.

This severe sentence made a profound impression in Germany. Henry's adherents fell away, and it seemed probable that the German n.o.bles would elect another ruler in his stead. Henry then decided on abject submission.

He hastened across the Alps and found the pope at the castle of Canossa, on the northern slopes of the Apennines. It was January, and the snow lay deep on the ground. For three days the emperor stood s.h.i.+vering outside the castle gate, barefoot and clad in a coa.r.s.e woolen s.h.i.+rt, the garb of a penitent. At last, upon the entreaties of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, Gregory admitted Henry and granted absolution. It was a strange and moving spectacle, one which well expressed the tremendous power which the Church in the Middle Ages exercised over the minds of men.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY IV, COUNTESS MATILDA, AND GREGORY VII From a ma.n.u.script of the twelfth century now in the Vatican Library at Rome.]

CONCORDAT OF WORMS, 1122 A.D.

The dramatic scene at Canossa did not end the invest.i.ture conflict. It dragged on for half a century, being continued after Gregory's death by the popes who succeeded him. At last in 1122 A.D. the opposing parties agreed to what is known as the Concordat of Worms, from the old German city where it was signed.

TERMS OF THE CONCORDAT

The concordat drew a distinction between spiritual and lay invest.i.ture.

The emperor renounced invest.i.ture by the ring and crosier--the emblems of spiritual authority--and permitted bishops and abbots to be elected by the clergy and confirmed in office by the pope. On the other hand the pope recognized the emperor's right to be present at all elections and to invest bishops and abbots by the scepter for whatever lands they held within his domains. This reasonable compromise worked well for a time. But it was a truce, not a peace. It did not settle the more fundamental issue, whether the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire should be supreme.

167. POPES AND EMPERORS, 1122-1273 A.D.

FREDERICK I, EMPEROR, 1152-1190

Thirty years after the signing of the Concordat of Worms the emperor Frederick I, called Barbarossa from his red beard, succeeded to the throne. Frederick, the second emperor, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty [37]

was capable, imaginative, and ambitious. He took Charlemagne and Otto the Great as his models and aspired like them to rule Christian Europe and the Church. His reign is the story of many attempts, ending at length in failure, to unite all Italy into a single state under German sway.

FREDERICK AND THE PAPACY

Frederick's Italian policy brought him at once into conflict with two powerful enemies. The popes, who feared that his success would imperil the independence of the Papacy, opposed him at every step. The great cities of northern Italy, which were also threatened by Frederick's soaring schemes, united in the Lombard League to defend their freedom. The popes gave the league their support, and in 1176 A.D. Frederick was badly beaten at the battle of Legnano. The haughty emperor confessed himself conquered, and sought reconciliation with the pope, Alexander III. In the presence of a vast throng a.s.sembled before St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Frederick knelt before the pope and humbly kissed his feet. Just a century had pa.s.sed since the humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa.

PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III, 1198-1216 A.D.

The Papacy reached the height of its power under Innocent III. The eighteen years of his pontificate were one long effort, for the most part successful, to make the pope the arbiter of Europe. Innocent announced the claims of the Papacy in the most uncompromising manner. "As the moon," he declared, "receives its light from the sun, and is inferior to the sun, so do kings receive all their glory and dignity from the Holy See." This meant, according to Innocent, that the pope has the right to interfere in all secular matters and in the quarrels of rulers. "G.o.d," he continued, "has set the Prince of the Apostles over kings and kingdoms, with a mission to tear up, plant, destroy, scatter, and rebuild."

INNOCENT AND KING PHILIP OF FRANCE

That Innocent's claims were not idle boasts is shown by what he accomplished. When Philip Augustus, king of France, divorced his wife and made another marriage, Innocent declared the divorce void and ordered him to take back his discarded queen. Philip refused, and Innocent, through his legate, put France under an interdict. From that hour all religious rites ceased. The church doors were barred; the church bells were silent, the sick died unshriven, the dead lay unburied. Philip, deserted by his retainers, was compelled to submit.

INNOCENT AND KING JOHN OF ENGLAND

On another occasion Innocent ordered John, the English king, to accept as archbishop of Canterbury a man of his own choosing. When John declared that he would never allow the pope's appointee to set foot on English soil, Innocent replied by excommunicating him and laying his kingdom under an interdict. John also had to yield and went so far as to surrender England and Ireland to the pope, receiving them back again as fiefs, for which he promised to pay a yearly rent. This tribute money was actually paid, though irregularly, for about a century and a half.

FREDERICK II, EMPEROR, 1212-1250 A.D.

Innocent further exhibited his power by elevating to the imperial throne Frederick II, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa. The young man, after Innocent's death, proved to be a most determined opponent of the Papacy.

He pa.s.sed much of his long reign in Italy, warring vainly against the popes and the Lombard cities. Frederick died in 1250 A.D., and with him the Holy Roman Empire really ceased to exist. [38] None of the succeeding holders of the imperial t.i.tle exercised any authority outside of Germany.

INTERREGNUM, 1254-1273 A.D.

The death of Frederick II's son in 1254 A.D. ended the Hohenstaufen dynasty. There now ensued what is called the Interregnum, a period of nineteen years, during which Germany was without a ruler. At length the pope sent word to the German electors that if they did not choose an emperor, he would himself do so. The electors then chose Rudolf of Hapsburg [39] (1273 A.D.). Rudolf gained papal support by resigning all claims on Italy, but recompensed himself through the conquest of Austria.

[40] Ever since this time the Hapsburg dynasty has filled the Austrian throne.

OUTCOME OF THE CONFLICT

The conflict between popes and emperors was now ended. Its results were momentous. Germany, so long neglected by its rightful rulers, who pursued the will-o'-the-wisp in Italy, broke up into a ma.s.s of duchies, counties, archbishoprics, and free cities. The map of the country at this time shows how numerous were these small feudal states. They did not combine into a strong government till the nineteenth century. [41] Italy likewise remained disunited and lacked even a common monarch. The real victor was the Papacy, which had crushed the Empire and had prevented the union of Italy and Germany.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, GERMANY AND ITALY During the Interregnum 1254-1273 A.D.]

168. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

THE CHURCH AND WARFARE

Medieval society, we have now learned, owed much to the Church, both as a teacher of religion and morals and as an agency of government. It remains to ask what was the att.i.tude of the Church toward the great social problems of the Middle Ages. In regard to warfare, the prevalence of which formed one of the worst evils of the time, the Church, in general, cast its influence on the side of peace. It deserves credit for establis.h.i.+ng the Peace and the Truce of G.o.d and for many efforts to heal strife between princes and n.o.bles. Yet, as will be shown, the Church did not carry the advocacy of peace so far as to condemn warfare against heretics and infidels. Christians believed that it was a religious duty to exterminate these enemies of G.o.d.

THE CHURCH AND CHARITY

The Church was distinguished for charitable work. The clergy received large sums for distribution to the needy. From the doors of the monasteries, the poor, the sick, and the infirm of every sort were never turned away. Medieval charity, however, was very often injudicious. The problem of removing the causes of poverty seems never to have been raised; and the indiscriminate giving multiplied, rather than reduced, the number of beggars.

THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY AND SERFDOM

Neither slavery nor serfdom, into which slavery gradually pa.s.sed, [42] was ever p.r.o.nounced unlawful by pope or Church council. The Church condemned slavery only when it was the servitude of a Christian in bondage to a Jew or an infidel. Abbots, bishops, and popes possessed slaves and serfs. The serfs of some wealthy monasteries were counted by thousands. The Church, however, encouraged the freeing of bondmen as a meritorious act and always preached the duty of kindness and forbearance toward them.

DEMOCRACY OF THE CHURCH

The Church also helped to promote the cause of human freedom by insisting on the natural equality of all men in the sight of G.o.d. "The Creator,"

wrote one of the popes, "distributes his gifts without regard to social cla.s.ses. In his eyes there are neither n.o.bles nor serfs." It was not necessary to be of n.o.ble birth to become a bishop, a cardinal, or a pope.

Even serfs succeeded to the chair of St. Peter. Naturally enough, the Church attracted the keenest minds of the age, a fact which largely explains the influence exerted by the clergy.

THE CLERGY AS THE ONLY EDUCATED CLa.s.s

The influence of the clergy in medieval Europe was also due to the fact that they were almost the only persons of education. Few except churchmen were able to read or write. So generally was this the case that an offender could prove himself a clergyman, thus securing "benefit of clergy," [43] if he showed his ability to read a single line. It is interesting, also, to note that the word "clerk," which comes from the Latin _clericus_, was originally limited to churchmen, since they alone could keep accounts, write letters, and perform other secretarial duties.