Time is a very fair historical old man, and it will reveal everything truthfully. In the long history of 12 century, the relationship between religious power and monarchical power in medieval western Europe experienced a historical development process of ups and downs in the struggle, which also showed a saddle shape. At first, the religious power was subordinate to the kingship, then it was above the kingship, and then it declined and the autocratic kingship rose.
When the Germanic peoples established a series of barbarian kingdoms on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire, the history of western European society turned a new page, which lasted from ancient times to the Middle Ages, thus beginning a history of "Tell the Judge". During this history, religious power and monarchical power rose and fell in cooperation and struggle for 12 century.
At the beginning of barbarian occupation, Roman Christianity (later Roman Orthodox Church, also known as Catholicism) was conquered. Many savage kingdoms believe in Arianism or the primitive polytheism of their ancestors. They regarded Roman Christianity as the same enemy as the rulers of the Roman Empire, attacked it mercilessly and deprived it of its huge real estate. Clovis didn't accept the arius Doctrine before he converted to Rome, but the Franks plundered the Roman church like other barbarians in Gaul, and the famous Soyson bottle was stolen from the church.
The author of History of Franks, Bishop Gregory of Toure, clearly recorded in the book that after Clovis led 3000 soldiers to be baptized and converted to Rome, the polytheism belief remained strong, and the influence of the Roman church in Gaul was still in a subordinate position. Moreover, after Clovis established the Morovian dynasty, he began to form the church of garrick (the ancient name of the French church) under his jurisdiction. In 5 1 1 year, he ordered to hold a religious conference in Orleans, and the religious regulations formulated by the conference had the nature of national laws. This certainly reflects the formation of feudal theocracy, and Christianity serving slave owners has been transformed into Catholicism serving feudal owners, but it also shows how powerful the monarchy is in interfering and controlling the church. Churches and monasteries in the Frankish kingdom are under the jurisdiction of the king [1]. Although Clovis didn't appoint bishops directly, he always manipulated them behind the scenes, and his successors walked from behind the scenes to the front desk and intervened in the election of bishops naked.
In the middle of the 8th century, Pypin, a dwarf, replaced the Morovian dynasty with the Carolingian dynasty in order to usurp the throne, which required the political support of the Roman church and provided a theoretical basis for his usurpation. The Roman church, which has similar economic foundation and the same political interests as the feudal big class represented by the dwarf pipeline, needs to seek military help from the new secular monarch in order to get rid of the long-term control of the Byzantine emperor and eliminate the threat of Lombardy invasion. Their respective needs established the initial alliance between political power and religious power in western Europe. With the help of this alliance, the Catholic forces gradually rose and established a papal state through "pipeline sacrifice". The Pope is the spiritual leader and secular monarch of the pure Catholic world, and he eliminated the threat of Lombardy, got rid of the control of the Byzantine emperor and suppressed the rebellion of the Roman nobility. Pippin, a dwarf, and his successors also relied on this alliance not only to become the king of Franks, but also to expand their influence to Italy, to become the Roman emperor, to become the legal successor of the tradition of the Western Roman Empire, and to be on an equal footing with the Byzantine emperor.
However, we can't help but see that although this alliance is beneficial to both sides, the leader of the alliance is still monarchical power rather than religious power. No one can be elected bishop without the consent of the king, which is the custom of Caroline dynasty. During Charlemagne's reign, the appointment of bishops and abbots was entirely up to him. After Charlemagne, the appointment of bishops became the exclusive privilege of the king. In order to elect a bishop, parishioners must obtain a concession granted by the king. The right to elect the Pope was originally in the hands of Roman priests and parishioners, but it was controlled by secular regime during Charlemagne's rule. Although his successor's control was weakened, he never gave up the policy of controlling the Pope. In 824, the oath of the Rothel Charter promulgated by Italian King Rothel fully reflected this point. The oath said: "In addition to keeping my loyalty to the Pope, I will be loyal to my main emperors Louis and Rothel all my life and do my best to avoid the hypocrisy and illegal election of the Pope. The person I agree with, no matter who is elected, cannot be consecrated unless he swears allegiance to the emperor in front of the emperor's representatives and the people [2].
As mentioned above, the new feudal rulers' great intervention and control over the Catholic church is by no means a whim, and the Catholic church and its priests can play an irreplaceable role in the process of realizing feudalism and perfecting feudalism. For example, the Carolingian dynasty implemented the administrative system under the jurisdiction of the earl, while the local governor earl, who represented the kingship, was mostly a local feudal Lord, arrogant and self-governing. In order to strictly control them, Charlemagne, with the help of the church, implemented the earl's jurisdiction system, and at the same time set up a bishop's district, giving the bishop jurisdiction to limit and weaken the earl's authority. Not only that, he also sent court priests and officials as "patrol envoys" to supervise and stop local officials' greed for land on behalf of kingship. Dobert said in his "patrol envoys": Only patrol envoys can resist this trend [3].
The church and priests were endowed with such important functions in the process of feudalism, which enabled them to obtain corresponding social status and a lot of gifts and rights from the king. In 779, Charlie incorporated the tithe paid by the people to the church into the national tax law, which expanded the tax source of the church. Prior to this, tithes were paid by Christians voluntarily. Charlie regarded bishops and abbots as his vassals and gave them gifts similar to secular enfeoffment. As Charlemagne said: "With that income and property, with that monastery and that church, I can make a vassal loyal." [4] And these bishops and abbots also need to provide the king with military service, corvee and things needed by the court. The secular big landlord class and the church are the two pillars of the Frankish country. This ruling mode had a very important influence on the development of feudal sovereignty in western Europe.
The function of the church as a national organization will inevitably strengthen the royal control over the church. First of all, Charlemagne replaced the right to vote in the church with the appointment and dismissal of church clergy by the royal power, and dismissed bishops he considered incompetent and inconsistent with the interests of the royal power at any time. Secondly, kingship also controls the internal and external legislation of the church. During the reign of Charles the Great, he personally presided over 16 religious meetings, specified the contents of the meetings, and promulgated the resolutions of the religious meetings in the form of royal decrees. The creed of the church is also a political creed. Thirdly, in order to prevent the bishop from endangering the kingship because of the growth of real estate and power, Charlie used church regulations to restrain the life of priests. In 802, in the imperial edict on visiting mission, a decree was issued to restrict the power of the church and the life of the temple. And through the establishment of religious schools to step up the cultivation of religious awareness of priests. Charles's court priest Algood clearly expressed Charlie's intentions when he was running a church school. "I am actively engaged in a lot of work in order to train many people to serve the holy God of the church and decorate your imperial regime" [5]. Obviously, the Frankish monarch regarded Roman Catholicism as a force to strengthen the monarchy and maintain its rule. Although Charlie disapprovingly accepted the coronation of Leo III on Christmas Day in 800, and even disliked the title of Roman Emperor at first, he soon saw the benefits brought by the title of emperor to his rule. First of all, the title of emperor improved Charlie's dominant position in western Europe. His prestige transcended the borders of Franks and was comparable to that of Byzantine emperors in the East. In 802, Charlie issued a decree at the imperial conference in Aachen, ordering all people, whether priests or secular people, to swear allegiance to him again. In 8 13, Charlie personally crowned his only son Louis as emperor to show the absolute power of the emperor.
The church reform movement, represented by Clooney Movement, achieved extremely important results in the second half of the 20th century. In the struggle for the authority of bishops, the church forces won a hard-won victory from the monarchical power and had the right to speak on the appointment of clergy, thus separating the clergy (bishops, archbishops and abbots) from the secular nobility and putting an end to the disadvantages of the sale of clergy. Through the victory of the struggle, the power of the church has been strengthened day by day, reaching an unprecedented height in history. The theory of the supremacy of church power has changed from theological theory to social and political practice, and the Pope has become the master above the kings of Western Europe. /kloc-At the beginning of the third century, Pope Innocent III mobilized church jurists from various European countries to help establish "the supremacy of religious power". He said, "The Pope and the king are like the sun and the moon. The moon gets light from the sun and the king gets power from the pope. " He also said: the power of the prince to elect the emperor is given by the Pope. The Pope has the right to decide the choice of the emperor, which makes the power of the Pope mandatory. Because of this, he didn't want to be the heir of the Apostle Peter, thinking that this statement belittled the dignity of the Pope, because Peter was a great man after all. He publicly declared: "The Pope is actually not the agent of ordinary people, but the agent of the real God, ... the agent of Christ himself." [9] Therefore, all rights belong to the Pope, who is the "king of kings". Innocent III's complacency about religious rights is beyond words. He instigated the fourth Crusade, captured Constantinople, and organized the Crusaders to suppress the Acacia in southern France. Within the church, he monopolized the power and exercised autocratic rule. When there is a dispute over the election of bishops, the Pope has the right to decide to change the parish mainly, and only the Pope has the right to approve it. In dealing with the relationship with western European monarchs, he was arrogant and rude, and he was in power for a while. He used political skills and the chaotic political situation in Germany to influence the election of the Holy Roman Empire. In France, he issued an order to deprive religious rights, forced the powerful French king Philip II to submit, and forced him to remarry the deposed ingeborg. Peter of Aragon, Alfonso IX of Leon, King Sancho of Portugal and King Radislav of Poland were all forced to fall at his feet. He also used various contradictions to force King John of England to obey his authority and admit that he was a vassal of the Pope, and Britain was a vassal of the Pope, paying tribute to the Pope 1000 mark every year. At this time, the right to teach is like the sun, the moon and rivers.
Extreme things must be reversed, which is the iron law of dialectics. In the 50 years after Innocent III, although the popes continued to strive to defend the religious power, due to the changes of current events and the failure of the popes, the religious power had to slide to a low point in the contest with the monarchy. Although the ambitious Boniface VIII tried to follow in the footsteps of Innocent III and rebuild the gradually lost papal supremacy. However, due to the formation of the central nation state, he failed in the successful position of his predecessors. The most representative and dramatic event in this period was the struggle between Buniface VIII and French King Philip IV. In order to cope with the huge expenses of the Anglo-French War, Philip IV ordered a tax on the church territory, which undoubtedly harmed the interests of the Vatican and caused contradictions with the Pope. In order to defend the traditional power, Bunifas VIII threatened to expel the church in 1296, prohibiting emperors, kings and nobles of any class from collecting taxes and tributes from the church in any name. Philip IV, on the other hand, banned the export of money, cutting off the Pope's due financial income from France. Philip IV gained wide support in his struggle with the Pope. At the first three-level meeting in French history held in 1302, clergy, nobles and civilian representatives all supported the king. Church representatives supported the king and opposed the Pope, because the bishops wanted to maintain the independence of the Gaul church and not make themselves more dependent on the Pope than the French king, so they supported Philip IV. The Pope retaliated by publishing the "Holy Encyclopedia" and threatened to excommunicate Philip IV. The French king resorted to force, imprisoned the Pope's representative, United with the Roman nobles who were dissatisfied with the Pope's rule, and tried to overthrow Buniface VIII. They also sent people to sneak into anany Castle where the Pope was stationed, arrested him, threatened him with violence and insulted him personally, and forced him to abdicate. Bunifas VIII was angry and annoyed, and soon died. This incident seriously weakened the religious power and was very beneficial to the rising monarchy. Shortly after the death of Benifas VIII, the French king chose the French Bishop as Pope and moved his official residence to avignon, an Italian border city near France. From the Prisoner of Avignon, which lasted for more than half a century, the religious right wing was ravaged even more, until the religious reform that swept across Europe completely broke the Roman Catholic rule over Western Europe. The above shows that the relationship between religious power and monarchical power in medieval western Europe does not exist the eternal phenomenon that religious power is above monarchical power. The objective reality is that religious power and monarchical power rise and fall due to the changes of the world in their mutual union and struggle. At first, the monarchy subdued the religious power, then the religious power was above the monarchy, and finally the religious power was subordinate to the monarchy, even in Spain, a purely Catholic country.
In medieval western Europe, the relationship between religious power and monarchical power not only observed each other's ups and downs in the struggle in time, but also was not monolithic and completely consistent in space.
In the early days of feudal society, all newly-established Germanic nations believed in primitive polytheism or Arioux's doctrine, except the Roman Gauls, the aborigines of the Western Roman Empire. Roman Christianity not only failed to exert influence on these barbarian new kingdoms, but as a fellow traveler of the Roman Empire, it was constantly hit by new owners. In the face of this new situation, although a group of Catholics, represented by Gregory I, spared no effort to strengthen and expand the power of the church, and achieved remarkable results, eventually making the whole of Western Europe Catholic, this process was not only full of hardships and repetitions, but also extremely uneven development in various places.
In 496, when Clovis led 3,000 recruits to be baptized and converted to Catholicism for his own political plot, most other Germanic peoples who conquered Western Europe accepted the Christian Arioux doctrine regarded as heresy. As early as the middle of the 4th century before the Great Migration Movement, the Goths became followers of arius in Crimea, while the East and West Goths remained followers of arius for two centuries when they attacked Italy, Gaul and Spain. Other Germanic peoples, such as Su Weihui, Vandal, Burgundy and Lombardy, either belonged to Arioux Doctrine from the beginning or later converted to Arioux Doctrine [10]. Even the Anglo-Saxons who invaded Great Britain suppressed Christianity in England, which belongs to the Roman Christian system, in the 5th and 6th centuries. Although with the evolution of feudalism, after the kings and nobles of the barbarian kingdom became big landlords, their interests gradually coincided with those of the remaining Roman landlords and the Catholic Church, and they needed the support of the Catholic Church to safeguard and rule their interests. However, because they accept Catholicism, they should not only "oppose the national tradition", but also give up their reverence for their ancestors. Psychological cultural accumulation and traditional habits undoubtedly bring many obstacles and difficulties to Catholic missionary work, making it full of difficulties and twists.
For example, Britain's acceptance of Catholicism was not smooth sailing, but it was repeated with the change of kings before it finally came to fruition. Before King Edwin of Northumbria converted to Catholicism, England had accepted Catholicism, but it was only a flash in the pan. In 633 AD, when Peng Da, the pagan king of Mercia, defeated and killed Edwin, Northumbria resumed its pagan faith. After many twists and turns, Catholicism did not gain a foothold in England until Auschwitz, the new king of Northumbria, established hegemony in England in 64 1 year. England did not recognize the authority of Rome until 7 18, while Wales did not establish the dominance of Catholicism until 12 century.
Utrecht and Fries in northwest Europe did not become Catholics until the 8th century. As for the Saxons, they opposed the Frankish conquest, so they were also hostile to their religion. Until 772-803, Charlemagne launched a series of wars, which finally forced Saxons to submit, Saxony converted to Catholicism, and Scandinavian countries, Moravia and Bohemia gradually became Catholics in the 10 to1century.
Obviously, in these countries and regions, when the journey of Catholicism has not been completed, the power of religion cannot override the monarchy. On the contrary, the establishment of church authority depends entirely on the support of the monarchy. Moreover, due to the different process of Catholicism, the authority of the Catholic church in different regions in the same period is naturally different.
If the independent power of the church is only for self-protection, then when the power of the church develops enough to compete with the secular kingship, the desire to control and dominate the whole country becomes the purpose of the church power. By the middle of 1 1 century, with the further strengthening of kingship and the infiltration of church forces into secular countries, the confrontation between the Pope and secular emperors reached its peak. On the one hand, the Pope thinks he has supreme authority; On the other hand, the king considers himself the supreme ruler of the country.
In the Middle Ages of Western Europe, in the struggle between church power and kingship for the highest leadership and as the world hegemon. The right wing of the church began to get rid of its disadvantage in the second half of the century. The deep-seated reason for this change is, of course, the result of Catholicism expanding its rule under the shadow of imperial power and Catholicism in western Europe and gradually gaining the management right of the Catholic world; The direct reason is the result of the in-depth development of Clooney Movement, the church reform movement. Clooney Movement began in Clooney Monastery in 10 century, and gradually became a prairie fire in the second half of10/0 century. Its core figures were Gregory VII, Leo IX and others. After Leo IX came to the world, he had to rely on the power of the Pope to consolidate his unstable position in the Vatican. First of all, he had to bring the national church system into the Vatican. During the reign of Henry III, under the centralized rule of kingship, the contradiction between princes and kingship intensified, and gradually formed a potential local force against kingship. 1056, Henry III died suddenly. His son Henry IV was only 6 years old, and Queen Gonis was regent and weak. With the support of Henry III, the dukes carved up the royal domain and began the top-down church reform. The national church system was fully developed and the feudal lords of the church were trained. Feudal lords carved up the territory and political rights of the German royal family, which greatly weakened the centralized rule of imperial power. Gregory VII expanded the authority of the Pope and Henry IV rebuilt the centralization of the German emperor, which are two irreconcilable contradictions. The national church system is a pillar of the German imperial power, and it is also the national church system that has trained a group of church nobles with strong economic strength, who carved up the power of the royal family and shook the foundation of the centralization of imperial power. Gregory VII's expansion of papal authority and Henry IV's reconstruction of German emperor's centralization are irreconcilable contradictions. In the open struggle between politics and religion, the secular nobles in Germany supported the Pope for their own interests. The German emperor was deposed by the Pope and forced to repent, which theoretically weakened the authority of the monarchy.
The church reform movement, represented by Clooney Movement, achieved extremely important results in the second half of the 20th century. In the struggle for the authority of bishops, the right of the church won a hard-won victory from the royal power, and it had the right to speak in the appointment of clergy, thus separating clergy (bishops, archbishops, abbots) from secular aristocrats and putting an end to the disadvantages of buying and selling clergy. Through the victory of the struggle, the rights of the church have been strengthened day by day, reaching an unprecedented height in history. The supremacy of the church has changed from theological theory to social and political practice, and the Pope has become the master above the kings of Western Europe. /kloc-At the beginning of the third century, Pope Innocent III mobilized church jurists from various European countries to help establish "the supremacy of religious power". He instigated the fourth Crusade, captured Constantinople, and organized the Crusaders to suppress the Acacia in southern France. Within the church, he practiced dictatorship. He used political skills and the chaotic political situation in Germany to influence the election of the Holy Roman Empire. In France, he forced the powerful French king Philip II to submit and was forced to remarry the deposed ingeborg. Peter of Aragon, Alfonso IX of Leon, King Sancho of Portugal and King Radislav of Poland were all forced to fall at his feet. At this time, religious forces are in full swing. However, in the 50 years after Innocent III, although the popes continued to strive to defend the religious right, due to the changes of current events, the religious right had no choice but to slide to a low point in the contest with the royal power. Although Buniface VIII tried to follow in the footsteps of Innocent III and rebuild the gradually lost papal supremacy. However, dying in the struggle with Philip IV, the French king, seriously weakened the rights of the church and was very beneficial to the rise of kingship. More than half a century after Avignon's imprisonment, the rights of the church were even worse, until the Reformation sweeping across Europe completely broke the Roman Catholic rule in Western Europe.
The above shows that the relationship between church power and kingship in medieval western Europe does not exist the eternal phenomenon that church power is above kingship. The objective reality is that church power and kingship rise and fall in mutual union and struggle because of the changes in the world.
In medieval western Europe, the relationship between church power and kingship was not only examined in time, but also in space, which was not monolithic in all countries and regions. In the early days of feudal society, among the newly established Germanic kingdoms, only the Roman Gauls, the original inhabitants of the Western Roman Empire, believed in Roman Christianity, and all the newly entered Germanic peoples believed in primitive polytheism or arius. Roman Christianity not only failed to exert influence on these barbarian new kingdoms, but as a fellow traveler of the Roman Empire, it was constantly hit by new owners. In the face of this new situation, although a group of Catholics, represented by Gregory I, spared no effort to strengthen and expand the power of the church, and achieved remarkable results, eventually making the whole of Western Europe Catholic, this process was not only full of hardships and repetitions, but also extremely uneven development in various places.
Britain's acceptance of Catholicism was not smooth sailing, but repeated with the change of kings, and finally came to fruition. Utrecht and Fries in northwest Europe did not become Catholics until the 8th century. As for the Saxons, they opposed the Frankish conquest, so they were also hostile to their religion. Until 772-803, Charlemagne launched a series of wars, which finally forced Saxons to submit, Saxony converted to Catholicism, and Scandinavian countries, Moravia and Bohemia gradually became Catholics in the 10 to1century.
In these countries and regions, when the journey of Catholicism has not been completed, the power of the church cannot override the royal power. On the contrary, the establishment of church authority depends entirely on the support of kingship. Moreover, due to the different process of Catholicism, the authority of the Catholic church in different regions in the same period is naturally different.
The intricate relationship between church power and kingship is not only manifested in the ups and downs of each other in time and the exchange of status, but also in the space as mentioned above. There are many differences among western European countries due to different situations. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively and dialectically analyze the relationship and influence between church power and kingship in medieval western Europe.