22. Chapter 20: The Church Rises to the Greatest Height of Its Power, 1198-1216

CHAPTER 20 The Church Rises to the Greatest Height of Its Power, 1198-1216

1. Another Emperor Humbles Him­self

All the efforts of Gregory VII to establish the supremacy of the papacy over kings and emperors had failed. Even Gregory’s victory over Henry IV at Canossa was empty (ch. 18, sec. 12-14) . Yet the scene at Canossa was ever in the minds of succeeding popes. In their mind’s eye they saw Emperor Henry bowing in deep humiliation before Pope Gregory. This scene stimulated them to constant at­tempts to attain the ideal to which Gregory had devoted his life. The Church rose to great heights of power under Pope Alexander III. With this pope the mighty emperor Frederick Barbarossa, or Frederick Redbeard, carried on a bitter conflict. At last the emperor had to give in to the pope. When on the twenty-fourth of July, 1177, the emperor came into the presence of the pope under the porch of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice, he spread his cloak upon the pave­ment, kneeled upon it, and kissed the pope’s foot. Alexander made Frederick rise, and gave him the kiss of peace. On the seventh day of August the two met again, this time in Anagni, Italy. The emperor Fred­erick now solemnly renounced the anti-pope whom he had installed in Rome, and recognized Alexander as the lawful pope. When Alexan­der mounted his horse the emperor held the stirrup, and he walked alongside the horse for some dis­tance holding the bridle.

History does seem to repeat it­self. Exactly one hundred years after his great-grandfather, the emperor Henry IV, had humbled himself before Pope Gregory VII at Canossa, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa humbled himself before Pope Alexander HI in Venice and Anagni.

2. Innocent III Makes Great Claims for the Papacy The Church rose to her greatest height of power under Innocent III, who was pope from 1198 to 1216. This pope’s personal name was Lothario Conti. He belonged to a very outstanding Roman family. His education had been of the best. In Paris he had studied languages and in Bologna law. He was an eloquent speaker and an excellent musician and singer. At the youth­ful age of twenty-nine he was made a cardinal, and when only thirty-seven years old, in 1198, Lothario Conti was elected to the papacy.

He was installed as Pope Innocent III. When the tiara, the triple papel crown, was placed upon his head, the arch-deacon who per­formed the ceremony said: "Take the tiara, and know that thou art the father of princes and kings, the ruler of the world, the vicar on earth of our savior, Jesus Christ, whose honor and glory shall endure through all eternity."

Pope Innocent had a most ex­alted idea of the papacy. In a letter to the Patriarch of Jerusalem an­nouncing his ascension to the papal throne, he wrote: "God has caused me to obtain the most glorious pos­session to be found among men, the throne of Peter." In other letters he said: "The Lord gave Peter the rule not only over the universal Church, but also the rule over the whole world." "No king can rule rightly unless he devoutly serves Christ’s vicar." "The priesthood is the sun, the kingdom the moon. Kings rule over their respective kingdoms, but Peter rules over the whole earth."

These quotations give us some idea of the claims which Pope In­nocent III made for the papacy.

3. Five Things Favor Innocent’s Rise to Power

Innocent III came closer than any other pope before or after him to making good the claims of the papacy to universal rule. His term as pope marks the greatest height of temporal power ever reached by the Church.

There were five things that helped Innocent to realize so nearly the papal ideal: the example of Gregory VII (ch. 18, sec. 5-12); the "Donation of Constantine" (ch. 12, sec. 3); the Crusades (ch. 19); the principle of ratione peccati; and favorable political circum­stances in the Europe of his day. Let us look at each of these in turn.

Although the gigantic efforts of Gregory VII to establish the power of the Church over the State had ended in failure, he left his mighty example behind as an incentive to following popes.

Although the "Donation of Con­stantine" was a false document, it was for centuries accepted as gen­uine, and it thus furnished Inno­cent with a strong legal basis for his claims of papal power. The Crusades were a manifesta­tion of the unity of Christian Eu­rope against the Mohammedans. All the Crusades were inspired by the popes. The popes bade the kings and emperors to lead these Crusades, and they obeyed him. Thus the pope appeared in the eyes of the world as the head of all Christendom.

Ratione peccati is Latin, and means "by reason of sin." The popes admitted that kings and emperors are supreme in the purely political sphere. But they main­tained that they, the popes, are supreme in the religious and moral sphere. Now the popes claimed that if temporal rulers engaged in political actions which were mor­ally wrong, the popes had not only the right but also the duty to in­terfere and call these temporal rulers to account. But since every political action has a moral side, the principle of ratione peccati gave the popes supreme power also in the political field. It made them dictators over kings and emperors. As to the political circumstances of the time, they, too, were favor­able to Innocent. They made it possible for him to enforce his claims to universal power.

4. The Papacy Reaches Its Great­est Height of Temporal Power When Innocent became pope the temporal power of the papacy had been almost completely destroyed. Innocent was not one to allow this state of affairs to continue.

First of all he restored to the papacy the patrimony of St. Peter, as the Papal States were called. He has been called "the founder of the Papal States." For the next six hundred years the boundaries of the Papal States or States of the Church (ch. 11, sec. 4) remained what Pope Innocent III made them. The pope lost no time in pro­claiming to the world that he would tolerate no opposition from tempo­ral powers. John Lackland, king of England, dared to oppose Innocent. In 1208 the pope placed England under an interdict. That meant that in all England no church serv­ice could be held. The next year King John was excommunicated. His subjects were no longer rerequired to obey him. He was de­prived of his throne. In 1213 he submitted to the pope. He had a legal document drawn up, which in a solemn ceremony he handed over to Rudolph, the legate or rep­resentative of the pope. The docu­ment read: "We grant to God, to his holy apostles Peter and Paul, to our mother the Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord Innocent and to his Catholic successors . . . our kingdoms of England and Ire­land, with all their rights and de­pendencies, in order to receive them anew, as a vassal of God and of the Roman Church. In testimony whereof we take the oath of vas­salage before Rudolph . . . and our heirs will always be obliged to take the same oath. And as a sign of our being vassals, we and our suc­cessors will pay annually to the Holy See, besides the denarius of St. Peter (Peter’s pence), seven hundred marks for England and three hundred marks for Ireland, derived from the royal revenues." Thereupon King John committed his crown and scepter to Rudolph. After keeping them for five days as a sign of sovereignty Rudolph returned them to the king. Eng­land was now a self-acknowledged vassal of the pope.

One after another the emperor and all the kings, lords, and princes of Europe acknowledged the pope as spiritual lord. And all but the King of France acknowledged him also as feudal and temporal lord. They declared themselves to be his vassals and held their kingdoms as fiefs of the Church (ch. 13, sec. 2). For a time even the Eastern Em­pire became a fief of the Roman Church. The object of the Cru­sades was to take the Holy Land away from the Mohammedan Turks. But the fourth Crusade was deflected from this purpose. In­stead of taking Jerusalem, the cru­saders on their way to the Holy Land captured Constantinople, and set up what is known as the Latin Kingdom. The rulers of this Latin Kingdom acknowledged themselves to be vassals of the pope. The majority of the princes of Christendom became vassals of the Church. Thus it was that during the rule of Innocent III, from 1198 to 1216, the Church rose to its greatest height of temporal power.

5. The Lateran Council Declarei for Church Reform But the ideals of Pope Innocent III went beyond the desire for tem­poral power. In 1215 he held an ecumenical council in the Lateran Church in Rome. In summoning this council Innocent declared: "Two things I have especially at heart, the re-conquest of the Holy Land, and the reform of the Church universal."

More than four hundred bishops, eight hundred abbots and priors, and a great host both of the clergy and of the laity were present at the meeting. Seventy-one primates, the highest ranking clergy, were also present. They included the patri­archs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, envoys from Emperor Fred­erick and from the kings of France, England, Aragon, Hungary, Jeru­salem, and Cyprus, and represent­atives of Italian cities. "The whole world seemed to be there." The Council determined on a new crusade, which the pope offered to lead in person. The Waldensian and Albigensian heresies, of which we shall hear more a little later (ch. 22, sec. 3 and 4) , were con­demned. Punishment of all unre­pentant heretics was prescribed (ch. 22, sec. 5) . It was decreed that the granting of indulgences (ch. 23, sec. 3) should be restricted. Bishops were instructed to appoint competent men to preach, and to provide free instruction in gram­mar and theology for poor schol­ars. It was ordered that Jews and Saracens should wear a distinctive costume. No Jews were to hold public office which would give them authority over Christians. This Lateran Council of the year 1215 marked the high point in the rule of the most powerful of the popes, Innocent III. The following year he died.

6. There Is Indeed Need for Re­form

Innocent had declared that one of the purposes for which he had called the Lateran Council was to reform the Church. There was in­deed great need of reform. To the Christian mind of that time reform of the Church meant chiefly reform of the clergy and the monks. The religious and spiritual condition of a very large proportion of the clergy was deplorable. To many of the clergy a church office was nothing but an easy and pleasant way of making a living. Bishops enjoyed fat incomes. A bishopric was a rich plum. Many utterly worldly men managed to become bishops, and after having become bishops they lived wicked lives. A clerk at Paris said: "I can believe everything, but I cannot believe that any German bishop can be saved." A monk said: "The state of the Church has come to this, that it is not worthy to be ruled except by reprobate bishops." Pope Innocent wrote: "The prelates in southern France are the laughing stock of the laity." The Church in the course of time had accumulated enormous wealth. This provoked very severe criti­cism from the side of the lay mem­bers. For it must not be thought that there were no good and sin­cere Christians in these dark days of the Church. The many hymns that were written during the Mid­dle Ages testify to a deep spiritual life. One of these hymns, familiar to most of us, is the beautiful "0 Sacred Head, Now Wounded," written by the monk Bernard of Clairvaux. To the pope Bernard wrote: "Who will permit me to see before I die the Church of God so ordered as it was in the old days, when the apostles cast their nets to fish for souls and not for gold and silver ?" Some of the things he wrote were later of great help to Martin Luther in finding peace for his heart. The feeling that the Church was in need of a general reformation was shared by all the more earnest Christians. It was this feeling that gave rise to many new monastic orders. These new monastic orders were a condemnation of the laxity that had gradually crept into the old orders. Some of the new orders were the Camaldoli, the Carthusians, the Cistercians, and the Pre­monstratensians. The number of monks and nuns increased rapidly. Peter the Ven­erable, abbot of Cluny, said: "The innumerable multitude of monks covers almost all the lands. It fills the cities, castles, and fortified places. What a variety of garbs and customs in this army of the Lord which has taken an oath to live according to the rule, in the name of faith and charity !" The Templars and the Hospitalers were two military monastic orders established in Palestine. Their purpose was to protect the pilgrims traveling to the sacred shrines in the Holy Land, and to care for them when sick. The two most important new re­ligious orders were those of the Franciscans and the Dominicans.

7. The Dominican Order Is Founded

Dominic was a monk who had been born and educated in Spain. Accompanying his bishop to south­ern France, he began to preach in order to bring back into the Roman Catholic Church those who had withdrawn and were teaching other doctrines. It is claimed that he performed several miracles. With the aid of the Bishop of Toulouse he established a nunnery at Prouille, where converts to the Roman Church could find a shelter, end poor girls of noble blood could re­ceive an education. At the Lateran Council of 1215 he sought from Pope Innocent III recognition of a fraternity which he had established. At that time the fraternity counted only sixteen members. But these were picked men from different countries. Six were Spaniards. The others came from Toulouse, Provence, Navarre, England, Normandy, northern France, and Lorraine. Pope Inno­cent readily granted the recogni­tion. The Dominicans adopted the name of "Preaching Friars." This was the name Innocent had used in speaking of them. This name denoted their ideals. They were to preach. In order to be able to do this they were to be friars, a name derived from the word (rater, or brother. They were not to be monks. They were to live not se­cluded in a cloister, but in the midst of the bustle and hustle of men. The world was to be their cloister. When in 1217 Dominic sent these preaching Friars forth upon their mission, he told them: "You are still a little flock, but already I have formed in my heart the project of dispersing you abroad. You will no longer abide in the sanctu­ary of Prouille. The world hence­forth is your home, and the work God has created for you is teaching and preaching. Go you, therefore, into the whole world, and teach all nations. Preach to them the glad tidings of their redemption. Have confidence in God, for the field of your labors will one day widen to the uttermost ends of the earth." The success of the Dominican Friars was very rapid. Dominic died four years after he had sent them out. By that time the Order was already organized in eight provinces: Spain, Provence, France, England, Germany, Hun­gary, Lombardy, and Romagnuola, and it had established sixty con­vents. The Dominicans adopted the vow of poverty. They became a mendi­cant order, which means that they were an order of begging Friars. In course of time the Dominicans acquired a great reputation for learning. The university towns were the special fields of their ac­tivity. Soon Dominicans were teaching as professors in all the leading universities of western Eu­rope. Their most illustrious schol­ars were Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Vincent of Beau­vais, likewise a Dominican, wrote an encyclopedia. Because of their learning the Dominicans came into control of the Inquisition, a court established to root out heresy. We shall hear more about the Inquisi­tion in a later chapter (ch. 22, sec. 5).

8. The Franciscan Order Is Establish

Francis of Assisi was born in Italy in the year 1182. His father was a rich merchant, and Francis gave himself over to a life of pleas­ure. When he was about twenty years old he fell dangerously ill, and was converted. From that time on he devoted himself to poverty and charity. Other men of like mind joined with him. When they were twelve in all they, too, as Dominic had done, applied to Pope Innocent III at the Lateran Council of 1215 for approval of their or­ganization. The pope granted their request, and the Minorites or Friars Minor (lesser), as they called themselves in their humility, began their work.

Francis insisted upon absolute poverty. The brethren were to la­bor with their hands, but were not allowed to receive wages in money. They were not to take thought for the morrow, and they were to give to the poor all that was not abso­lutely necessary for the day. Their rule said: "The brethren shall ap­propriate to themselves nothing, neither house, nor place, nor other things, but shall live in the world as strangers and pilgrims, and shall go confidently after alms. In this they shall feel no shame, since the Lord for our sake made himself poor in the world. It is this perfec­tion of poverty which has made you, dearest brethren, heirs and kings of the Kingdom of heaven. Having this, you should wish to have nought else under heaven."

Francis of Assisi tried to follow the precepts of Christ and to imi­tate his life. He delighted in sacri­fice for the poor and especially for the lepers, who were the outcasts of society.

He loved all created things, and would preach to the birds. He was always cheerful and at times even playful. He was patient and hum­ble; he possessed an original and well-balanced mind, extraordinary common sense, an iron will, and unyielding courage. He adopted "My Lady Poverty" as his mis­tress, and sang her praises. He was very eloquent, and by his preaching swayed the minds and hearts of men. The Order of the Franciscans, or Minorites, grew with astonishing rapidity. It soon spread through­out the civilized world and num­bered its members by the thou­sands.

9. The Mendicant Orders Go About Doing Good In many ways the two mendicant orders of Dominican and Francis­can. Friars were similar, and they were both very popular. The Friars wandered all over Europe under the burning sun or in chilling blasts. They rejected alms in money, but received thank­fully whatever coarse food might be offered them or endured hunger uncomplainingly. They took no thought for the morrow, but busied themselves untiringly in the work of snatching souls from Satan and lifting men up from the sordid cares of daily life. They ministered to their infirmities, and showed to their darkened souls a glimpse of heavenly light. The Dominican and Franciscan Friars also engaged in missionary work among the heathen, schisma­tic Christians in the East, heretics, and Mohammedans.

They emphasized the dignity of manual labor, the duty of Chris­tians to care for those who are in want, and the need of reform in the lives of the clergy. Both these orders exist today. They are strong and active.

10. A Revival of Culture Begins

During the period of the Cru­sades thousands of people of west­ern Europe traveled to many distant lands. The people of the Eastern Empire and the Mohammedans of Spain and of the eastern countries were far more civilized than the people of western Europe. Contact with the Orient through the Crusades immensely stimulated the mental life of the people in the various countries of western Europe cn, sec. 2). From the twelfth century on the medieval arkness of western Europe was gradually being dispelled. Many universities sprang up in Italy, Germany, France, and England. These universities could boast of teachers of great learning and mental acumen, such as Anselm, Abelard, Peter the Lombard, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus.

Medieval men also built many wonderful cathedrals. Some of the most illustrious are those of Milan, Rheims, and Cologne. This cultural revival did also affect the Church. The Church is in the world, and any major change in the world is sooner or later felt in the Church.

A SERMON BY ABELARD
Pierre Abelard, French philosopher and teacher who became a monk, was widely known for his brilliance and learning. At the monastery which he built after his retirement in Champagne, he often lectured in theology to very attentive audiences. He lived from 1079 to 1142.