The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The Summit of Papal Power Attained

I. Three Medieval Builders of Papal Destiny

In the previous chapter our attention was focused upon two of the most important factors molding medieval life- monasticism and scholasticism. At the same time we realized how, in spite of their divergencies and their internal struggles, both were utilized to strengthen the crystallizing structure of the papal church. We now turn specifically to ecclesiasticism and to the three great architects of the medieval papal edifice, and consequently of the growing power of the Roman Catholic Church. They are Gregory VII (1073-1085), Innocent III (1198-1216), and Boniface VIII (1294-1303). PFF1 664.1

Despite the turbulent times, these three popes, whose pontificates were spread over a period of more than two hundred years—with each separated about a hundred years from the other—succeeded in erecting the enduring structure of the Roman church as it stands to the present time. It is true that the Roman church existed before Gregory VII, but it had a materially different physiognomy. Through Gregory its face was altered, and it became the Roman church, the world power. Gregory left his indelible mark upon it. PFF1 664.2

1. TREMENDOUS TRANSITION HOUR IN EUROPE

The period of these two hundred years was filled with most momentous events. It was a time of deep religious fervor, the era of the crusades, and the establishment of the Latin kingdom in Constantinople. It was a period of mighty kings and emperors, as William the Conqueror and Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-hearted and Frederick II. It was the age of the first awakening of nationalism. Philip the Fair of France is one of its representatives, and it marks the rise of the cities and the decline of the knights and feudal barons. PFF1 664.3

It was a period when recourse was had to the notorious ecclesiastical forgeries, but also a time when, dissatisfied with the existing institutions, many started out in imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi) as mendicant friars. It was the time of a new spiritual awakening under Joachim, and of a very real end-of-the-world expectancy, around 1260, and of fearful apprehensions regarding the terrible times to be experienced by the coming of Antichrist and the loosing of Satan. It was a time of strange fanaticism, which flared up suddenly, when thousands of penitent sinners marched through the towns lacerating their naked backs with lashes and chains. Strong lay movements started, attempting the return to apostolic simplicity, oft inter mingled with erroneous notions-like that of the Albigenses. PFF1 665.1

It was a time also when the Inquisition-the first organized spy system and man hunt-started in the name of Christ. It was a time when the plague visited Europe several times, decimating its population, while hunger stalked the land. During these two centuries there climbed to the throne of Peter three men who proved entirely capable of facing the challenge of their times, of mastering the circumstances, and of shaping the destiny of the church and, indeed, of the whole Western world for centuries to come, for better or for worse. PFF1 665.2

2. GREGORY’S GRANDIOSE CONCEPT OF CHURCH

The first, as noted, was Gregory VII, known as Hildebrand, the monk of Cluny, pope-maker and power behind the throne long before he himself took the reins into his own hands. Born near Florence and said to be of humble parentage, he went for a time to Cluny, the monastery where gathered the restless spirits who longed for a reformation of the church. There in the solitude of the dark forests and in the seclusion of the cloister he dreamed his dream of the church as the bride of Christ the King, of the church as the executor of the divine will, the visible representative of God on earth. Therefore the church should be recognized as the highest social order in the world-higher than princes and dukes, higher than kings, higher even than the emperor. The church, in short, should rule the world. PFF1 665.3

3. CELIBACY FIRST OF THREE RADICAL “REFORMS.”

But Hildebrand was not only a daydreamer; he was a practical builder. He was stern and austere, frugal in his habits, with unbending energy, and having conceived his goal, no obstacle could cause him to swerve from his objective. If the church should ever fulfill this postion on earth, she must be reformed, he reasoned. She must become a unified body, with officers worthy of this high calling. She must become an ecclesia militans, a fighting church. She must become an army, and every soldier in it must be free from the encumbering burdens of ordinary life. PFF1 666.1

Therefore, as soon as Gregory was raised to the seat of Peter he began with his three great reforms. In March, 1074, at a synod in Rome, he opened the battle. He decreed strict celibacy for the priests, prohibited all future sacerdotal marriage, required married priests to dismiss their wives or cease to read mass, and ordered the laity not to attend their services. ¹ Enforced celibacy is, of course, anti-Biblical, but celibacy had from ancient times been considered higher and more praiseworthy than marriage. PFF1 666.2

Gregory aimed to separate the clergy more definitely from the world, to withdraw them from family squabbles and disputes, to disentangle bishops from the state of private warfare, and to detach every minister of the church from all earthly bonds, so that he could give his sole allegiance to that one great spiritual body, the church. When this decree became known throughout the Western world, a storm broke out all over Europe. In Germany, Gregory was called a heretic, and a mad-man. man. In France his legates were beaten and spit upon. In Spain he found very strong resistance, and even in Rome the decree could be enforced only with the greatest difficulty. ² But Gregory remained unperturbed. With an iron will he enforced his decree. When princes and bishops were unwilling to enforce it, he roused the laity against the married clergy until they were driven out from their parishes, often tortured and mutilated, and their legal wives branded as harlots and their children as bastards. ³ PFF1 666.3

Gregory’s will prevailed; celibacy became an established fact in the Roman Catholic Church, and the priest’s sole attachment thenceforth became God and His representative on earth, the church. The priest became a pliable, willing instrument in the hand of whoever wielded the power in the church. PFF1 667.1

4. SIMONY AND LAY INVESTITURE ATTACKED

His second reform was directed against the evil practice of simony; that is, selling church offices to the highest bidder-a practice against which many popes had fought in vain. Closely connected with this was Gregory’s third reform, the abolishment of lay investiture. In this way Gregory thought to eradicate simony forever, and at the same time to emancipate the church from the bond age of the secular powers. PFF1 667.2

According to the feudal system, which was built upon land tenure and mutual obligation of lord and vassal, the church, which often owned a considerable portion of the land, was bound to bear the burden which such land tenure entailed. Kings and secular lords considered themselves as patrons of the church, and claimed the right of appointing and investing its officers. Thus the bishop became the vassal of the lord, had to swear allegiance to him, had to serve at the court, and had to furnish troops for the defense of the country. PFF1 667.3

In those appointments the king was often influenced by political, financial, and family considerations. And often men not at all fit for the priestly office were made bishops and abbots. PFF1 667.4

Many churchmen before Gregory considered this state of affairs deplorable, but it was for Gregory to snap these fetters and free the church from the bondage of the state, to make bishops and clergy subservient to the popes alone, and to claim the property of the bishoprics as the property of the church. From this it was only one step to proclaiming that the land is God’s, and there fore the representative of God on earth should invest kings and emperors with their divine prerogatives. PFF1 668.1