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  CHURCH HISTORY - THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE PART 2 (312-1500)
  by David Guzik
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Summary: David Guzik's sermon explores the complexities of the Christian
Empire from 312 to 1500, focusing on the rise of monasticism, the
dilution of true Christianity, and the emergence of papal authority.

Duration: 45:53 Topics: "Church History", "Christian Discipline"
Scripture References: Matthew 7:13

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of following God's
commandments and the path of salvation. He emphasizes the need for
discipline and hard work in the service of the Lord. The speaker also
mentions the temptations faced by those who dedicate their lives to God,
highlighting a story of a hermit in the desert who was tempted by
jealousy. Additionally, the sermon touches on the role of Christ and his
association with believers, emphasizing the importance of fulfilling
one's duty and charge in him.

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CONTENT
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I'm talking about the period of the Christian Empire. Now, do you know
what an empire is? An empire is a... it's an organization or a
government that doesn't just deal with one country. It covers a
multitude of countries.

The United States is not an empire officially, but there's a sense in
which culturally we have an empire because our culture rules, so to
speak, over many different countries, not just our own. On the other
hand, if you were to take Bulgarian culture, it's pretty much confined
to Bulgaria, right? I mean, that's it. We're not influenced by Bulgarian
culture except in a few of the smallest kind of ways.

So, you know, the idea of an empire is something that goes beyond just
one country to cover a lot of different countries. Well, the Christian
Empire refers to this period in Christianity. Now, last week we talked a
lot about the whole relationship between the emperors and their coming
to Christ and this whole conversion to Christianity of Constantine.

One of the important things that we need to understand about this period
is that once Christianity became the preferred and the exclusive
religion of the Roman Empire, the church instantly became deluded. And I
don't mean deluded as in a lie, although you could say that was true. I
mean diluted as in watered down.

Instantly it was very discernible that the passion and the level of
Christianity dropped quickly. We all know that not everybody who attends
church is a true Christian, correct? You can attend church, attend
church faithfully and not be born again by the Spirit of God. And you
would have to say that within any congregation of any size there's a
proportion of people who attend that church who aren't born again.

You could just throw out a number, say 5%. Well, you could say at this
time, at this place, it's 5%. At another time, at another place, you
could say it's 60%.

What we're talking about is the delusion of the church to where the
number of true, genuine Christians among the churchgoers just keeps
shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. Part of this dynamic was when
people saw the corruption of the church and the corruption of society,
they thought that the real way to get right with God was to exit the
church. To go out of the church.

And to make yourself a monk. To join a monastery. In other words, the
idea was that the real Christianity was not being lived in the church.

Real Christianity. The people who were really on fire for the Lord, they
lived in the monastery. This was a very important development of thought
that came in roughly around the time when the church became officially
the preferred and exclusive religion of the Roman Empire.

So, as the church becomes more institutionalized, and less and less a
living and active organism, as the church sort of becomes a corporation,
another thing you have is that the Bible becomes less available to the
people. There's a lot of interesting reasons why that's the case. But
the Bible becomes less known.

I would say that in the year... Well, let me give a very safe estimate.
There was much more knowledge of the Bible by the common Christian in
the year 60 than in the year 600. Much more.

So, you have this trend where the Bible becomes more and more removed
from the people, where the church more and more adopts the attitude to
safeguard the Word of God that says, you're a common Christian, you
don't read the Bible. The priest will read the Bible and tell you what
it says. But you don't read it.

By the way, until just recently, that continued to be the official
policy of the Roman Catholic Church. It is not unusual for people, let's
say not so much of my generation, but for my parents' generation, to
remember the priest or the nun telling them, you don't read the Bible,
the priest will read the Bible. Because it's not safe.

You don't know what you're going to figure out reading the Bible, right?
So, in this time, true Christianity, and I want to put quotation marks
around true, true Christianity became more and more the domain of monks
and nuns. This monastic ideal, right? These are the people who live in a
monastery, monks or nuns. Monastic refers to something that's relevant
to an order of monks.

A monastery is another place for where they live. A cloister refers to a
group within a monastery. An order is a specific kind of division or
segment of monks.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that. The monastic ideal was
based on an even more ancient idea of the hermit. Someone who goes off
and lives by himself.

There's always been this idea, or I shouldn't say always, but it arose
pretty early within the church. The idea that this was the way to really
draw close with God. You really want to draw close with God? Get away
from everybody, live out in the middle of the barren, desolate
wilderness, live in complete seclusion, and that's how you can have the
closest walk with God.

You know, can I say, that's not a biblical idea at all. I'm not saying
that there shouldn't be times of solitary reflection with the Lord and
such like that. But this idea that this life, this solitary hermit life
is really the way to draw close with God, that's not biblical at all.

That's something that people just think in their own minds. Pretty early
on, late in the 3rd century or the middle of the 3rd century, the first
monk of note was a hermit named Anthony. Anthony lived in the desert of
Egypt.

And Anthony was just a normal Christian who one day was reading his
Bible and he came across the story of the rich young ruler. What Anthony
did was he read that and he said, Jesus is saying this to me. I need to
sell everything I have and go and just be alone with Jesus.

And that's exactly what he did. He sold everything he had and he went
off to live all alone with God. First of all, he lived alone in a place
not very far out of town, kind of near his house.

But that wasn't good enough. So you know where he lived after that? In a
tomb. You know, like in a mausoleum he lived in.

After the tomb, he lived in a fortress. And in this abandoned fortress,
it had high walls, so he would never see anybody. People would bring him
supplies and just throw it over the wall.

And he lived in that fortress so he never would have to see anybody.
Finally, he ended up living 20, 30 years out on a lonely, desolate
mountain. Twice a year, his friends brought him food.

And basically his food, all he lived on, was bread and water and a
little bit of salt. That was it. He decided that he would never comb or
cut his hair except at Easter.

Then he'd live it up. What was very typical for Anthony, as it was
typical for many of these hermits, they described strange visitations of
demons and temptations in the wilderness. All intended to distract him
from his relationship with God.

I mean, are you kind of familiar? It's coming back in a strong way in
our Christian culture today. This kind of idea of the spiritual warrior.
Boy, he could duke it out with the demons.

And they came after him really hard. Of course, these guys had to deal
with temptations in a different way than a lot of people. You're not
tempted to go out and go gambling or to watch too much TV or whatever
when you're all out in the middle of the desert.

But you have different temptations. There's one story of a hermit who
was out in the middle of the desert and there he was trying to be all
holy, all this. And the devil came and he tried to tempt him.

First he tries to entice him with all these sensual pleasures and all
these lusts of the flesh. It just bounces off the hermit. He's like a
rock.

And then finally the devil comes along and he whispers in his ear, Your
brother has just been promoted to bishop. When he heard that, he got
jealous. And he gave in to that temptation.

There's all sorts of inner things. I'll be very straight with you. I
think that this whole business of the monastic ideal was very misguided
in the church.

Now, another notable group of hermits, and I just mentioned this almost
as a humorous aside, were known as the stylites. It comes from the Greek
word stylos, which equals pillar. It means a pillar.

These were the guys of the pillar. And what that basically mean was they
took their name from a certain guy named Simeon who died about the year
459. Simeon imagined that by living on top of a pillar, his soul would
be closer to God.

Remember seeing pictures from back in the 20s and 30s, these flagpole
sitters? That was these guys. They thought by living on top of a pillar,
he'd be closer to God. So he built a pillar six feet high, and he lived
on top of that pillar.

And he thought that he would be closer to God from it. Well, you know
how that works, right? Pretty soon six feet ain't big enough, is it? If
you really want to be... There you are, you're at six feet. Another guy
comes along and builds his pillar ten feet.

Well, who's closer to God, right? Eventually, Simeon got up to 60 feet
off the ground. He was living on this pillar 60 feet tall. And he lived
for 30 years on top of a pillar 60 feet tall.

You know, and people would throw him up food, and he would be down
there, and he would preach to people. Because, you know, this was a
sight to see, right? It was a big tourist attraction. And there he was,
Mr. Holy, Mr. Simeon.

Well, the stylites were a group who followed in his footsteps. You know,
they all had their own little pillars that they would go around and live
on top of. As it developed, it went from this thing of just having a
hermit to having a guy with followers.

This guy, Simeon, was a perfect example. And the stylites wanted to be
his followers. Well, you would get this man who would say, I'm going to
be this great, devoted man to God.

I'm going to do this. And people would be attracted to him. People would
want to follow him.

They'd say, I want to be like you. I want to join up with you. This
developed in what we call monastic orders.

And this is just an association of like-minded monks. So you have
monastic orders. And the order was usually named after the founder.

Anybody here ever hear of the Benedictine monks? Well, they come from
Benedict. The Franciscan monks, they come from Francis. What do we think
about the monastic movement? Well, it was bad in the sense that it
cultivated a false sense of spirituality.

The idea was that if you were really committed to God, you'd shut
yourself off from society and live in the cloister. And this led to a
two-level system of Christianity, where the real Christians lived as
monks, and the low-level Christians lived in the outside world. And you
know, that's a very, very dangerous thing.

One thing you need to understand, though, is that not every monastic
order lived inside the monastery and just stayed within the walls of the
monastery. Some monastic orders were very evangelistic. And these were
the missionaries of this period of time.

During this period, monks were at the forefront of spreading the gospel
to unreached regions. The gospel continued to spread, especially among
the barbarian tribes of Europe. The Goths were converted by 720, the
Picts by 400, the Irish by 435, the Franks by 496, the Scots by 563, and
the Angles and the Saxons by 600.

And most of this evangelistic work was done by monks, because these were
the real leaders of Christianity at that time. At their best,
monasteries were places like intense discipleship schools, where their
graduates were discipled and then sent out to do ministry. But it
oftentimes didn't work out like that.

Another good thing about monasticism was it was good because it provided
a place where some semblance of learning and culture could survive the
general breakup of society after the fall of Rome. We're going to talk
more about the fall of Rome next week and all that it entailed for the
history of Europe. But when Rome fell and culture collapsed, society and
schools collapsed, the monastery became an island of learning and
literacy and culture in the midst of a society that didn't know
anything.

Another aspect of monasticism was that monasticism was bad in some ways,
it was good in some ways, but it was useful. Because what monasticism
did was it absorbed, monasticism absorbed reform movements within the
church. Now, this is a very important idea, because the Reformation that
happens later on in the 16th century, that was not the first time
somebody thought something was wrong with the church.

There were lots of people who came along before and thought something
was wrong with the church. Let me give you an example. Saint Francis of
Assisi.

Francis of Assisi. He thought that the church was corrupt. He thought
that the church was on the wrong track.

He thought that the church had gotten away from the simple following of
God and the preaching of the gospel. So you know what he did? He did it
himself. He said, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to go out and I'm going to live the Christian life the way it
should be lived. Even though the church isn't doing it, I'm going to do
it. And you know what the church did? They said, great! We'll make a
monastic order after you.

And the church absorbed the movement of Francis by making a monastic
order out of it instead of saying, well, then you don't like us. Get out
of here and kicking him out. You see how monasticism was helpful for
absorbing reform movements within the church and making them a part of
the Roman Catholic Church.

What's interesting was, before the Reformation, the church said, you
know what? There's too many monastic orders. We're not going to have any
new ones. That shut the door to absorbing new reform movements within
the church.

And that was one of the small contributing factors to the Reformation in
the time of Martin Luther. Listen to these selections from Benedict's
Rule. These are rules for Benedictine monks used today, written
originally in 529.

It says, in every aspect also follow the rule as their guide and let no
one depart from it without good reason. Let no one in the monastery
follow his own inclinations or brazenly argue with his abbot. You know
what an abbot is? He's the head of the monastery.

It comes from the word Abba, which is father. He's the father of the
monastery. The abbot, for his part, should do everything in the fear of
the Lord and in obedience to the rule, knowing that he will have to
account to God for all his decisions.

If a brother is insubordinate or disobedient, proud or a grumbler, or in
any way acting contrary to the holy rule and despising the orders of his
seniors, let him, according to the Lord's commandment, be privately
warned twice by his seniors. If he does not improve, let him be publicly
rebuked before them all. But if even then he does not correct himself,
he should be excommunicated, if he understands how severe this penalty
is.

If, however, he is beyond conviction, he should be physically punished.
Put him out in a whipping post. The brothers shall take turns to wait on
each other so that no one is excused from the kitchen work unless
prevented by sickness or taken up with some vital business.

Everybody's got to work in the kitchen. An hour before each meal, the
week's servers are to receive a cup of drink and a piece of bread over
and above their ration so they can wait on their brothers without
grumbling or undue fatigue. At the brothers' mealtimes there should
always be a reading.

There shall be complete silence at table and no whispering or any voice
except the reader should be heard. The brethren should pass to each
other in turn whatever food is needed so that no one needs to ask for
anything. If anything should be wanted, ask for it by sign language
rather than speech.

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, at fixed times, the
brothers should be busy with manual work and at other times in holy
reading. A mattress, a woolen blanket, a woolen underblanket, and a
pillow shall be enough bedding.

Beds are to be searched frequently by the abbot for private belongings.
And if anyone is found to possess anything he did not receive from the
abbot, he shall be severely disciplined. To abolish private property,
everything necessary shall be given by the abbot.

A hood, tunic, shoes, long socks, belt, knife, pen, needle,
handkerchief, tablets, so they can have no excuses about needing things.
In other words, you're not allowed to have anything. No books of your
own, no Game Boy, no, you know, anything like that.

You got it. It's out. We intend to found a school to train men and the
servants of the Lord, but where we shall not make the rules too strict
and heavy.

If we seem to be too severe, do not get frightened and run away. The
entrance to the path to salvation must be narrow, but as you progress
along the life of the faith, the heart expands and speeds with love
sweetness along the pathway of God's commandments. I mean, those are
just some selections.

There's more to it than that. But you get the feeling of this, right?
You come to the monastery, this is how you're going to live. So that's
monastic movement.

All right. Next up, I want to talk about the emergence of what we would
call today the Roman Catholic Church and what we would also call the
battle or the struggle, let's say, between kings and popes. In the days
when the church was persecuted, there wasn't much of a struggle with
political power with the church, right? The church was just trying to
hang on.

But there was, no doubt, politics among Christians in the early church.
And we talked about it before how there established four patriarchal
cities. The patriarch of Rome emerged as the leader among all of these,
top dog among all, at least in the West.

And we'll talk about the division of the church between East and West
more next time. This developed in some ways slowly, in some ways, but
there were some important landmarks along the way. Pope Innocent I, in
the year 402, made a decree that no important decision could be made by
a church without the knowledge and approval of the Bishop of Rome.

That's pretty significant, isn't it? That's basically saying you can't
make a rule with that. Now, a lot of times these rules were made because
churches were making bad decisions. Churches were going off and becoming
heretical.

And so, a lot of times, these things emerged in times of problems. So
they made this rule. Following here, the next Bishop of Rome, a guy
named Zosimus, declared that no one had the right to question a decision
made by the Bishop of Rome.

Not only could he decide on it, but his decision was final. And as the
years went on, these things just continued to get solidified. Let me
read you a couple of selections.

Emperor Valentinian III. Okay, this is a Roman emperor. These are
selections from an edict in support of papal authority.

Look at the year. They're 445. He says, Certain it is that for us and
our empire the only defense is in the favor of the God of heaven.

And to deserve it, our first care is to support the Christian faith and
its venerable religion. If you're a biblical Christian, that should
chafe at you right then. Certain it is for us that for us and our empire
that the only defense is in the favor of God.

Right? That's reasonable to say, right? God needs to show us his favor.
What does he say next? And to deserve it, our first care. You don't get
God's favor by deserving it.

That's a total works concept. Anyway, I'll go on. Inasmuch then as the
primacy of the apostolic see.

Alright, here's a good term. Apostolic see. The papal office.

Think of it in that terms. Okay? The office of the pope. He goes on to
say here, Inasmuch then as the primacy.

Primacy. Okay, what's primacy mean? The first. Primary nature.

The first place regard that we have for the papal office is assured by
the merit of St. Peter. Prince of the Episcopate. And by the rank of the
city of Rome.

And also by the authority of a sacred synod. Do you know what a synod
is? A synod is a gathering of bishops. In other words, this is
interesting.

I mean, this gives you insight into how they thought. Why was Rome
number one? Why was the bishop of Rome more important than the bishop of
Alexandria? Why is he on top? Well, they'd say, well, we'll give you
three reasons. First of all, because of the merit of St. Peter.

And supposedly, not factually, but supposedly, Peter founded the church
at Rome. And Peter was the first bishop of Rome. Which has no historical
justification whatsoever.

None. Zero. Zip.

Matter of fact, you can historically demonstrate otherwise. There was a
live, functioning church in Rome before Peter ever left Jerusalem. He
did die there.

He did go to Rome. Paul was also crucified there. And that gave it
length.

Okay, so first of all, the merit of St. Peter. That's the first reason.
Second reason, the rank of the... Oh, Prince of the Episcopate.

Episcopate means bishops. In other words, they're saying, Peter was the
head of all the bishops. And this was Peter's bishop seat.

Peter was the bishop of Rome. And when he was the bishop of Rome, he was
in charge over everybody. So the bishop of Rome's always in charge over
everybody.

That's how they thought. Next, the rank of the city of Rome. What does
that mean? Hey, Rome's number one.

We're number one. Our bishop's number one. Pretty simple there.

And then finally, by the authority of a sacred synod. What does that
mean? The bishops all got together and said, Rome's number one. So
therefore, the bishop of Rome's in charge.

Okay, he goes on. He goes, let not presumption endeavor to attempt
anything contrary to that seat. For then at length will the peace of the
churches be everywhere maintained, if the whole body acknowledges its
ruler.

Hitherto, these customs have been involubly or absolutely observed. But
Hillary, Bishop of Arles, as we are informed by the trustworthy report
of that venerable man, Leo, Pope of Rome, has with conticmatious daring
ventured upon certain unlawful proceedings. And therefore, the churches
beyond the Alps have been invaded by abominable disorders.

He goes on just to say, and to reinforce the, well, look at it here. I'm
going to pick it up with the line that says, we decree there. We decree
by this perpetual edict that it shall not be lawful for the bishops of
Gaul or any of the other provinces, contrary to the ancient customs, to
do aught without the authority of the venerable Pope of the eternal
city.

And whatever the authority of the apostolic see has enacted, or may
hereafter enact, shall be the law for all. Do you get the sense of that?
Now, think just a minute. Come back from this.

Who is issuing this edict? An emperor. Is that a spiritual office or a
political office? A political ruler is declaring spiritual authority
here and saying, we're going to back it up. And that's significant,
isn't it? I mean, that is akin, in some ways, to it coming down from,
you know, Washington, the president declaring Presbyterianism is going
to be the official religion of the United States of America.

Period. And the head of the Presbyterian church is the head of the whole
Christian movement in the United States. Period.

That's it. No more dispute about it. This is significant, isn't it? And
this was not a revolution.

This didn't surprise us. Nobody went around saying, oh, the emperor did
this. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, this is what emperors do. Now, go on and take a look at what Leo,
the pope during this time, said. He said, nor yet I feel sure is the
fostering condescension of true love of the most blessed apostle Peter
absent from this congregation.

He has not deserted your devotion in whose honor you are met together.
And so he too rejoices over your good feeling and welcomes your respect
for the Lord's own institution as shown towards the partners of his
honor, commending the well-ordered love of the whole church. In other
words, Peter looks down from heaven and he's happy at how things are
going here.

And then he goes on. The dispensation of the truth, therefore, abides in
the blessed Peter, persevering in the strength of the rock which he has
received, and not abandon the helm of the church which he undertook. For
he was ordained before the rest in such a way that from his being called
the rock, from his being pronounced the foundation, from his being
constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, and from his being
seated as the umpire to bind and loose, whose judgments shall retain
their validity in heaven, from all these mystical titles we might know
the nature of his association with Christ.

And still today, he more fully and effectually performs what is
entrusted to him, and carries out every part of his duty in charge of
him and with him, through whom he has been glorified. Do you understand
what he's saying here? Let me explain this to you. He's saying, Peter
still rules the church from heaven.

When Jesus said that he gave Peter the keys, that I give you power to
bind on heaven and earth, he said, fine, he did it on earth, now he's
doing it from heaven. So you know what this Pope Leo is saying? Peter's
still in charge, I'm just his messenger boy. You get that idea? Peter is
still in charge of the church from heaven.

But we are his messengers. The bishop of Rome is the messenger, is the
representative of Peter. Now, I'm going to throw out a word here that is
important for you to understand.

You may have heard this word, but I bet there's not many people in this
room who know what it means. Vicar. Vicar means representative.

Vicarious? To live through somebody else or to do something through
somebody else? It's the same idea. Vicar is a representative. One of the
titles for the Pope was the Vicar of Peter.

Peter still rules the church in heaven. The Pope is his vicar. He's his
representative.

That's exactly the idea he's expressing here. And so he goes on, if you
take a look at the very end here, he says, And so if anything is rightly
done and rightly decreed by us, if anything is won by the mercy of God
by our daily supplications, it is of his work and merits whose power
lives and authority prevails in his sea. In other words, it's Peter's
power.

It's Peter's authority. It's Peter. We are just Peter's representatives.

This is how they thought back then. Later on, a very important Pope
emerged named Gregory I, also known as Gregory the Great, and this is
like in the end of the 6th century, say about the year 590. He led Rome
not only spiritually but also politically because when Rome was being
attacked by some barbarian groups, he organized the defense.

He arranged the peace treaty. He was like the president of the city of
Rome, not just its spiritual leader. As a matter of fact, Gregory had a
huge impact, so much to the point where he really introduced and
popularized doctrines such as the worship of the saints in purgatory and
the celebration of masses for the dead in purgatory.

As a matter of fact, what do we call middle-aged church music? The
chants, they call them Gregorian. It's after Gregory the Great. He had
such an influence on the life and the worship of the church.

Each of these things, plus hundreds of smaller events, consolidated the
power of the Bishop of Rome, making him the Pope. Now, the leadership
role of Gregory I was just the beginning because when the Roman Empire
fell, the church was the most significant institution after the fall of
the Roman Empire. People look to an institution to lead them.

If the government falls, they'll look to the strongest institution
that's around, and in this case, it's the church. So the church assumed
even more of a leadership role in society when the Roman Empire fell.
One interesting development in this happened in the year 800.

In the year 800, there is a very significant political and military
leader in Europe known as Charles the Great. Charles the Great was a
descendant of Charles Martel, who turned back the Turks. But Charles the
Great was the king of the Franks, what we'd call France today.

But he really expanded his kingdom both to the north and to the south
and to the east. I mean, he did an amazing work. And he also had the
title, which you may know him by, Charlemagne.

And Charlemagne was the king. He was the king of this vast area of
Europe. Nobody had ruled as much of Europe as Charles the Great did
since the time of the Roman Empire.

This was in the Middle Ages. Now, on Christmas Day in the year 800,
Charlemagne was visiting the Pope, Pope Leo II. And the Pope crowned
Charlemagne, not king, but emperor.

Where were the previous emperors? From the Roman Empire. But the Roman
Empire had been dead for 400 years. It had been broken up for 400 years.

Now, the Pope comes along and he says, Charles, you are the new Roman
emperor. You're the emperor of Rome. And this was a very significant
political development.

Matter of fact, Charles went on by then to call himself by this title,
Charles, by the will of God, Roman emperor. And this is the foundation
of what became known as the Holy Roman Empire, which thought of itself
as the successor of the old Roman Empire, except now it was holy, right?
Now it's not the Roman Empire anymore. Now it's the Holy Roman Empire,
which, as more than one historian has said, was neither holy, nor Roman,
nor an empire.

But that's what they called it. As things developed, there became a
constant tension again between the emperor and the Pope. Who would
really rule? Who claimed authority over who? You know the Pope claimed
authority over the emperor, right? If the Pope crowns Charles, who has
the authority over Charles, right? If he puts the crown on his head, who
can take it off? He's the man, right? The Pope's the man.

And so the Pope would always go around and say, well, I'm in charge, I'm
the leader, I'm the one. You know, sure, you've got the emperor and
you've got the Pope, but everybody knows who's really in charge, it's
the Pope. How do you think the emperors felt about that? Do you become
emperor without having a lot of pride and ambition? No way.

The emperors did not dig that business. And they did not like it when
the Popes got what they believed was uppity on them, and it was a
constant struggle. In the midst of this kind of political struggle, it
doesn't surprise us that the papacy became a highly political office.

And it was often fulfilled by very corrupt men. One of these was Pope
John XII. He was charged by a council of bishops on almost every
imaginable crime.

He was said to have toasted the health of the devil and was said to have
invoked the help of pagan gods to help him in his gambling. The whole
council agreed that Pope John XII was a very corrupt man and should be
deposed. But do you know what John XII said in reply? All these bishops
got together and said, dude, you're out of line.

You've got to step down. You know what he said? If you wish to set up
another Pope, by Almighty God, I excommunicate you. So that you will not
have power to perform Mass or ordain anyone.

That kind of settled it right there. Pope Boniface VII. He came to
office by strangling his predecessor in the year 974.

He was described by a council of bishops as a papal monster who in his
abject depravity exceeds all mortals. Doesn't surprise us. Because when
the papacy becomes such a political office, this is the kind of men who
take political office, or at least aspire to it.

Gregory VII, also known as Hildebrand. He reigned as Pope from 1073 to
1085. He shows us both the height and the beginning of the decline of
papal power.

He issued a famous document titled Plenitido Potentas, which basically
means in Latin, the fullness of power. Do you know what he said in that
document? What did I say before about the Pope being the vicar? Whose
representative was the Pope? Hildebrand, Gregory VII, said no. You know
what? We're changing that.

He's not the vicar of Peter. Now he must regard the Pope as the vicar of
Christ. Big difference, isn't it? Now he's not just representing Peter's
power on the earth.

Now he's the vicar of Christ. I don't know, maybe Peter lost his job
ruling the church from heaven, right? Now it's just straight from Jesus
to the Pope. And there was a very interesting and significant battle
between Gregory VII.

You've got Gregory VII, he's the Pope. Here in this corner, Pope Gregory
VII. Here in this corner, Emperor Henry IV.

These guys were born to buttheads. Now it was based on the important
issue of appointments to church offices. The Emperor and the Pope both
claimed the right to appointment to these politically important and
financially important offices.

If being a bishop is important politically and financially, then the
Emperor has an interest in naming who the bishop is, right? But so does
the Pope. And so who has the right to name a bishop? Well, this was the
source of the battle between Henry IV and Gregory VII. Basically,
Gregory VII said that the Emperor had no right to appoint anybody to a
church office.

Henry ignored the Pope's decrees and Gregory summoned the Emperor to
Rome. Henry refused to come to the Pope. And Henry declared that Gregory
deposed.

Gregory responded by excommunicating Henry and declaring him deposed.
Now, this is interesting. Read this.

This is great. Selections of a letter from Gregory VII to Henry IV.
December 1075.

Bishop Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to King Henry, greeting
an apostolic benediction. That is, if he be obedient to the apostolic
chair as is fitting to a Christian king. For you are said knowingly to
be in fellowship with those excommunicated by a judgment of the
apostolic chair and by the sentence of a synod.

Therefore we counsel thy highness that if you do feel yourself guilty in
this matter, you do seek the advice of canonical bishop with speedy
confession. In other words, greetings to you from the Pope. If you get
right.

If not, no greetings to you. We're coming with power. He goes on to say,
since you do confess yourself to be a son of the church, it would have
been fitting for your royal dignity to look more respectfully upon the
master of the church, that is, Saint Peter, the chief of the apostles.

Huh? Pretty heavy, right? Now, I love Henry's reply. Henry, king, not
through ursipation, in other words, a false pretense, but through the
holy ordination of God to Hildebrand, at present, not Pope, but false
monk. Such greetings as this you have deserved through your disturbances
inasmuch as there is no area of the church in which you fail to make
yourself a partaker of not honor, but confusion.

Not of blessing, but of curses. And this is how he ends his letter. I
love the ending.

There's a lot in between there, but I love the ending. You, or thou,
therefore, damned by this curse and by the judgment of all our bishops
and by our own, descend and relinquish the apostolic chair which you
have usurped. Let another ascend the throne of Saint Peter, who shall
not practice violence under the cover of religion, but shall teach the
sound doctrine of Saint Peter.

I, Henry, king, by the grace of God, do say unto thee, together with all
our bishops, descend, descend to be damned throughout the ages.
Sincerely, Henry. In light of all this, at the end, Pope Gregory VII
forced Henry IV to humbly submit in light of his disobedience to the
papal power.

And submit, Henry did. You know what Henry did? He took his wife and his
child, and he crossed the Alps in the winter, came to the Pope's
residence, knocked on the door. This is winter, there's snow outside,
it's desperately cold.

He knocked on the door. Who is it? It's King Henry IV. I've come to
apologize to the Pope.

He won't see you. So you know what Henry does? He says, fine, I'll wait
here. And he waited outside the door of Hildebrand's home, Gregory VII,
waited outside the Pope's home for three days in the snow.

I don't know, if he knocked every hour or a couple times a day. Hi,
Henry, still here. Can I come in? I want to apologize to the Pope.

He won't see you. Three days. Finally, the Pope said, you know what,
I've got to give in here.

I've got to let him come in. Henry comes in, makes his apologies,
humbled himself at the Pope's feet, and then the Pope repealed his
excommunication and brought Henry back into the church. But you know
what? It was really all for show on both sides.

Seven years later, Henry's armies marched into Rome and forcibly deposed
Gregory. You know, I mean, who has the real power? Well, the Pope says,
I have the real power because I have the spiritual power. You can kill
me, the Pope says, but I can damn your soul to hell.

And people back then believed that the Pope had the power to save you or
damn you. All he had to do was decree it. He'd save you or damn you.

That's it. So the Pope said, I've got the real power. And you know what
the Emperor says? Well, Pope, that's fine.

But as, wasn't one of Hitler's henchmen who said, how many divisions
does the Pope have? Where's your armies, Mr. Pope? And believe me, the
Pope had armies, but he had to depend on kings for them. And so, you
know, who had the power? It was a constant struggle. This is the decree
of Gregory VII after Henry IV's repentance.

And this is what we all agree upon, right? These are my decrees. That
the Roman church was founded by God alone. That the Roman pontiff can
alone rightly be called universal.

That he alone can depose or reinstate bishops. That among other things,
we ought not to remain in the same house as with those excommunicated by
him. That he alone may use the imperial insignia.

That of the Pope alone, all princes shall kiss the feet. That his name
alone shall be spoken in the churches. In other words, you can't go to
the church and say, we're gathered here under the permission of King
Henry.

No, can't say that. We're gathered here under the permission of the
Pope. That this is the only name in the world.

That it may be permitted to him to depose emperors. That no chapter and
no book shall be considered canonical without his authority. That he
himself may be judged by no one.

That the Roman church has never erred. Nor will it err to all eternity.
The scripture bearing witness.

That the Roman pontiff, if he has been canonically ordained, is
undoubtedly made a saint by the merits of St. Peter. Oh, don't you love
that one? The Pope is automatically a saint. Period.

Alright? As long as he was rightfully elected, he's automatically a
saint. Because of his own merits? No, because of the merits of St.
Peter. That he may depose and reinstate bishops without assembling a
synod.

In other words, he doesn't gather others with their opinions. Okay,
check this out. That he who is not at peace with the Roman church shall
not be considered Catholic.

And that he may absolve subjects from their fealty to wicked men. In
other words, this was a huge power that the Popes had. If Gregory
declares Henry excommunicated, then Gregory tells all the people,
because everybody in Henry's domain is a Christian, right? Why are they
Christians? Because they live in Henry's domain.

Not because they made a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Gregory
says to all of Henry's subjects, you don't have to obey him anymore. You
don't have a Christian king anymore.

I excommunicated him. You don't have to obey him. Pay your taxes? Don't
have to.

March in his armies? Don't have to. You know, the people loved that,
didn't they? The kings hated it. Let's just wrap up with this.

Pope Boniface VIII, 1302. His papal bull. Therefore, if the earthly
power err, it shall be judged by the spiritual power.

This authority, moreover, even though it is given to man and exercised
through man, is not human. He's talking about the Pope's authority. But
rather divine.

Being given by divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him and
his successors through Christ himself, who he has confessed. Indeed, we
declare, announce, and define that it is altogether necessary to
salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.
If you believe that, it changes everything, doesn't it? This introduces
a concept that I suppose, we'll just end with this.

So important. You need to get this in your mind about the medieval
church. Salvation was not by Jesus Christ.

Salvation was by Jesus Christ. You were saved by being a member of the
true church. You know what? It's not God at all.

Church membership never saved a single person. Personal relationship of
trust and faith with Jesus Christ. Of reliance on and clinging to the
truth.

That's what saves us. But salvation came by the church, granted by the
pleasure of the Pope. And when you have that power over a whole
continent, you've got a lot of power, don't you? That was the Pope's
power.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/6/SID6810.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-guzik/church-history-the-christian-empire-part-2-312-1500/
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