19. Chapter 17: The Church Faces a Great Struggle, 1073

CHAPTER 17 The Church Faces a Great Struggle, 1073

1. A Review of Four Important Turning Points At the time when Christ’s very small and weak army fled from Jerusalem (ch. 2, sec. 4), the whole of the almost two thousand mile long road of the Church’s history lay ahead of us. The conversion of Constantine and the victory of the Church in 313 (ch. 5) was then still far in the future.

Now in the year 1073 the con­version of Constantine lies far be­hind us.

We have covered a little more than half of the road of the Church’s history. In the part of the road that now lies behind us there were four im­portant turning points:

There was also a fork in that road: the separation in 1054 of the Eastern Greek and the Western Latin part of the Church (ch. 10, sec. 4 and ch. 15, sec. 4).

We are now following almost ex­clusively the Western Latin-Ger­manic branch of the road. That is the main highway.

2. The Conversion of Constantine Has Three Significant Results The conversion of Constantine was one of the most outstanding events in the history of the Church.

Two of its results have already been discussed: (1) the radical change in the position of the Church from its being a persecuted to its having become a favored in­stitution; and (2) the flow of worldliness into the Church (ch. 5). We have also indicated a third result. That was the rising of the problem of the proper relation be­tween Church and State (ch. 5, sec. 6). The time has now come that we must pay special attention to that very important problem. It is a problem with which people have struggled ever since the conversion of Constantine.

3. The Problem Arises of the Prop­er Relation between Church and State Up to the time of the conversion of Constantine there was no such problem as that of the relation of Church and State.

There have always been a Church and a State. Among heathen na­tions the relation between kings and priests was not a problem. In practice the kings usually domi­nated the priests; sometimes the priests dominated the kings. Among Israel the Church was not a separate institution; Church and State were intertwined. The Church came into existence as a separate institution on the day of Pentecost. But from that day un­til the conversion of Constantine the Church was a persecuted insti­tution. Constantine’s conversion completely changed the situation. The Church became recognized by the State as a separate institution. At the time when the entire Roman Empire became at least in name Christian. Church and State were really two parallel institutions. Then there arose in course of time the problem of the proper relation between the two.

4. There Are Three Possible Solu­tions

There are three possible solu­tions to the problem of the proper relation between Church and State: (1) Church and State should be on the same level, (2) the State should be above the Church. or (3) the Church should be above the State. In the East the second solution came to be adopted. The emperors of the Eastern Empire obtained complete control over the patri­archs of Constantinople and the Eastern Greek Church. That sort of relation is known as Caesaro­papacy. It is the system under which the emperor or "Caesar" of the State is actually also head or pope of the Church.

Whereas in the East the second solution was adopted without much opposition, in the West the problem caused the most violent clashes of opinion between those who wished the State to be above the Church, and those who wanted the Church to be above the State. Only a few wanted the two institutions to be on the same level.

Here we observe one of the out­standing differences between the Eastern and the Western Church. Here lies also partly the reason why the history of the Eastern Church is comparatively dull, while the history of the Western Church is lively and exciting.

5. The Stage Is Set for a Terrific Struggle In the West also the Church for a time came under the control of secular rulers: Italian nobles and German emperors (ch. 13, sec. 4-6). Control over the Church by the emperors in fact goes back to Charlemagne and the very first Christian emperor, Constantine himself. However, as we have seen, the Cluny reform party put forth strong efforts to free the Church and the papacy from their bondage to the State, and scored consider­able success (ch. 15 and 16). But the popes were not satisfied with freeing the Church from its bondage to the State. They wanted to go still further — to put the State into bondage to the Church (ch. 12, sec. 4). The next chapter will show how this situation developed into a ter­rific struggle between Pope Greg­ory VII and Emperor Henry IV. This struggle is going to be in the highest degree epic and dramatic.