The Rise of the Mediaeval Church / And Its Influence on the Civilization of Western Europe from the First to the Thirteenth Century

by Alexander Clarence Flick

the most enlightened rulers of the thirteenth century passed against heretics and their abettors.[573:1]

The Church was not slow to utilise this power. A determination to extirpate these dangerous heretics with the sword produced the crusade against the Albigensians. The Inquisition was also organised to ferret out secret heretics and to bring them before inquisitorial tribunals for punishment. The unfairness of the trials and the heartless treatment of suspects have rendered the name of the Inquisition infamous.[573:2]

From an early day the Church exercised a censorship over all books.[573:3] The first specific instance was that of a synod of bishops in Asia Minor about 150 A.D. which prohibited the Acta pauli. After that the condemnation of books was not at all uncommon.[573:4] The first papal Index was issued in 494 by Pope Gelasius I., who made a definite catalogue of works prohibited. Councils condemned books as heretical, while Popes prohibited their use, destroyed them, and punished those who violated the law. This policy was continued throughout the Middle Ages. Naturally the Church was just as desirous of getting rid of heretical books as of suppressing the obnoxious authors.[573:5]

In territorial extent the Roman Church of the thirteenth century included Italy and Sicily, Spain except the southern part, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, England, Ireland, and Scotland, Scandinavia and Iceland, the Eastern Empire, though but temporarily, and Palestine for a short period. In size, therefore,

it surpassed the old Roman Empire at its greatest height. The boundary lines of this great papal Empire were widened still further by the zealous missionary work encouraged by the Supreme Pontiff in Europe among the Slavs, Prussians, Finns, and Mohammedans in Sicily and Spain; in Asia among the Tartars, Mongols, and Moslems; in Africa among the Mohammedans[574:1]; in America among the inhabitants of Iceland, Greenland, and "Vineland"—possibly even on the New England coast. These fruitful labours were conducted chiefly by the Franciscans and the Dominicans.

The wealth of the Church at this time consisted of lands and buildings; Church furniture, utensils, and ornaments; and money derived from Church lands, the sale of privileges, the gifts of the pious, tithes, and the fees for various kinds of religious service. In the United States churches must rely wholly upon voluntary support. It was not so with the mediæval Church. The tithes were regular taxes and those persons upon whom they were levied had to pay them just as taxes imposed by governments must be paid to-day. Wide-spread complaint came from both clergy and laity that these taxes were unjust. The Church actually owned about one third of Germany, nearly one fifth of France, the greater part of Italy, a large section of Christian Spain, a big portion of England, perhaps one third, and important regions in Scandinavia, Poland, and Hungary. The papal states in Italy, running diagonally across the peninsula, were ruled by the Pope as a temporal prince. These extensive territorial possessions together with the great wealth made the Church the mightiest secular power

in the world and put into the hands of the Church thousands of lucrative sinecures, coveted and too often secured by persons wholly unfitted for the spiritual functions of the office. Through these extensive possessions the Church was beyond all question the greatest economic and industrial power in Europe. The Church was led to adopt feudalism and thus the Pope became the most powerful feudal overlord in Europe. Furthermore, the Church, because of its vast domains and enormous income, was enabled to support itself by its own perpetual wealth. In consequence many evils and abuses sprang up,[575:1] or were introduced, which led to the decline of the Church and the numerous demands for reformation. It must be said, however, to the credit of the Church that these resources were used to excellent advantage in furthering charity of all sorts and in caring for the poor and unfortunate.

During this period the organisation of the papal hierarchy was perfected. At the head stood the all-powerful and absolute Pope as God's agent on earth; hence, at least in theory and claim, he was the ruler of the whole world in temporal and spiritual affairs. He was the defender of Christianity, the Church, and the clergy in all respects. He was the supreme censor of morals in Christendom and the head of a great spiritual despotism. He was the source of all earthly justice and the final court of appeal in all cases. Any person, whether priest or layman, could appeal to him at any stage in the trial of a great many important cases. He was the supreme lawgiver on earth, hence he called all councils and confirmed or rejected their decrees.

He might, if he so wished, set aside any law of the Church, no matter how ancient, so long as it was not directly ordained by the Bible or by nature. He could also make exceptions to purely human laws and these exceptions were known as dispensations.[576:1] He had the sole authority to transfer or depose bishops and other Church officers. He was the creator of cardinals and ecclesiastical honours of all kinds. He was the exclusive possessor of the universal right of absolution, dispensation, and canonisation. He was the grantor of all Church benefices. He was the superintendent of the whole financial system of the Church and of all taxes. He had control over the whole force of the clergy in Christendom, because he conferred the pallium,[576:2] the archbishop's badge of office. In his hands were kept the terrible thunders of the Church to enforce obedience to papal law, namely, excommunication and the interdict.

Excommunication meant for a private person that he was a social outcast, excluded from all legal protection and deprived of the sacraments which were "the life blood of the man of the Middle Ages." His property might be confiscated without the possibility of recovery. Death and hell were sure to be his doom if repentance and absolution did not occur. And these same terrible results might even be extended to his descendants. Excommunication for a king meant, in addition to the same treatment as a private individual, the deprivation of all authority and the absolution of subjects from all obedience.