1. Monks and Papal Authority

2. Church and Kings
Church
 Was granted favours by
Roman Emperors/Kings
 land
 exemption from taxes Kings
 immunity in courts  Got a supply of educated
 positions in courts administrators from
 In return church helped Church
kings secure control of  In return kings would
territory enforce laws that
 Most influential prohibited other religions
organization in Europe

3. Monasticism
 Most dynamic and significant institution in the Early
Middle Ages
 Impulse to withdraw from the world and devote one’s
self to God
 Regarded as the most perfect form of the Christian life
 “And every man that has forsaken home, or brothers, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or
lands for my name’s sake, shall receive his reward a
hundredfold, and obtain everlasting life.” Matt. 19:29

4. Monasticism
 Started with St. Anthony from Egypt
 Retired to the desert to live the ascetic life
of a good hermit
 A colony of would-be ascetics gathered
around him to draw inspiration from his
holiness
 The colony lived together but did not
communicate to one another
 Soon other colonies grew in Egypt and
other areas of the Roman Empire
 St. Simeon Stylites lived atop a 60 ft pillar
for 30 years!

5. Monasticism
 St. Benedict of Nurisa (c. 480-544)
added common sense
 Changed from severe fasting, hair
shirts, and lashings
 Benedict was born into a rich family
and had keen psychological insight
 Well organized and learned from
experiences
 Founded a number of monasteries
(Monte Cassino)
 Became a model monastery
 Focused on comprehensive, practical
and compassionate rule

6. Monasticism and Saints
 Monasteries grew 400 -700 CE
 centres of education, literacy and
learning
Saints
 performs miracles as evidence of a
special relationship with God
 Must be canonized after death
 St. Augustine
 wrote “Confessions”
 ideas of ethics, self knowledge, and the role
of free will
 Wrote treatise allowing violence
against heretics – the “just war”

7. The Church takes Charge
 Peace of God: 989 CE
 No stealing from church
 No assaulting clerics, women, peasants
 Excommunication
 Truce of God: 1027 CE
 No fighting Thursday to Monday, feast days, holy days
 No killing Christians
 Led to justification for Crusades
Truce created a paradox: Peace & Truce of God created to
bring order and civility to society, yet this peace
movement also contributed to idea of the righteousness
of holy war.

8. Church takes Charge, cont’d
 Church Schism: 1054 CE
 Pope and Patriarch excommunicate each other
 Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox split
 War of Investitures: 1075 CE
 Who gets to appoint bishops? Pope or King?
 50 years of bloodshed
 Concordat of Worms: 1112 CE
 King appoint bishops and abbots as vassal
of empire
 Pope then gives staff and ring
 Kings gave up religious influence

9. Church takes Charge, cont’d
 Pope Innocent III
 Believed in supreme power of the papacy
 Emperors and kings were servants of the
church
 Involved himself in disputes all over Europe
 Freely used his power of excommunication
 Placed kings in France and England were
placed under interdict (removing sacramental
and burial privileges).
 Other kings were overthrown and replaced by
rulers of his choice
 Innocent started the trend of using the faith
of various kings to their people to their
advantage