It is obvious that the strengthening of the royal power could hardly fail to alter the position of the mediæval Church. This was, as we have seen, not simply a religious institution but a sort of international state which performed a number of important governmental duties. We must, therefore, now turn back and review the history of the Church from the time of Edward I and Philip the Fair to the opening of the sixteenth century.
General Reading.—For the political history of this period, Lodge, Close of the Middle Ages (The Macmillan Company, $1.75), is the best work, although rather dry and cumbered with names which might have been omitted. For the general history of France, see in addition to Adams, Growth of the French Nation (The Macmillan Company, $1.25), Duruy, A History of France (T.Y. Crowell, $2.00). The economic history of England is to be found in the works mentioned at the end of Chapter XVIII. The following collections of documents furnish illustrative material in abundance: Lee, Source-book of English History (Holt, $2.00); Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History, (Longmans, Green & Co., $1.50); Adams & Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History (The Macmillan Company, $2.25); Kendall, Source Book of English History (The Macmillan Company, 80 cents).
CHAPTER XXI
THE POPES AND THE COUNCILS
The problem of the relation of church and state.
112. The influence which the Church and its head exercised over the civil government in the Middle Ages was due largely to the absence of strong, efficient rulers who could count upon the support of a large body of prosperous and loyal subjects. So long as the feudal anarchy continued, the Church endeavored to supply the deficiencies of the restless and ignorant princes by striving to maintain order, administer justice, protect the weak, and encourage learning. So soon, however, as the modern state began to develop, difficulties arose. The clergy naturally clung to the powers and privileges which they had long enjoyed, and which they believed to be rightly theirs. On the other hand, the state, so soon as it felt itself able to manage its own affairs, protect its subjects, and provide for their worldly interests, was less and less inclined to tolerate the interference of the clergy and their head, the pope. Educated laymen were becoming more and more common, and the king was no longer obliged to rely upon the assistance of the clergy in conducting his government. It was natural that he should look with disfavor upon their privileges, which put them upon a different footing from the great mass of his subjects, and upon their wealth, which he would deem excessive and dangerous to his power. This situation raised the fundamental problem of the proper relation of church and state, upon which Europe has been working ever since the fourteenth century and has not completely solved yet.
Edward I and Philip the Fair attempt to tax the clergy.