Transcript The Church: Leaders and Followers

The Church and State:
Leaders and Followers
Who were important people within the
Church?
What authority did the Church have over the
people?
How did the Church and the small European
nations get along?
What is lay investiture and why was it
controversial?
Religious devotees
• Monks
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live in monasteries
perform manual labor
no property
had to live a strict life
(Benedictine rules)
– Daily tasks in silence
• Nuns
– lived in convents
– life of charity
• Monasteries and
nunneries were safe
havens for pilgrims and
other travelers
• Between prayers, the
monks read or copied
religious texts and music
– often well educated
– devoted to writing and
learning
Pilgrims
• Pilgrimages were an
important part of religious
life
• Pilgrim= person who
travels for a religious
purpose
• visit holy shrines:
Canterbury Cathedral
(England) and sites in
Jerusalem and Rome
• The Crusades (10001500) were at first
considered pilgrimages,
then holy war
• Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales
– Fictional stories told by 30
pilgrims as they traveled to
Canterbury
The Church’s Influence
• The Church had a structure of power, from the
pope down to the laity.
– Those not in the laity=clergy
– Gave sacraments, or important religious
ceremonies/rites (baptism, Eucharist…)
• Feudalism and manor system split people apart;
religion a unifying force
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Sense of security
Idea that suffering would end in afterlife
Village church religious and social center of life
Holidays & “feast days”
• Church had religious and political authority
• Canon law=Church law guiding people’s actions
(marriage, religious practice)
• Established courts to try people that broke
canon law
– Excommunication: banishment from the Church
– Interdict: sacraments, services could not be held in a
king’s lands
• Many believed they would not be saved without
The Holy Roman Empire
• Otto I (the Great) formed
alliance with Church 936
• Supported by bishops,
abbots against nobles’
strength
• Invaded Italy on pope’s
behalf, crowned Holy
Roman Emperor 962
– Became Holy Roman
Empire
– Causes conflict with other
kings, nobles over land
Lay investiture
• The Church didn’t like that kings had power over clergy
– Practice of lay investiture was a ceremony in which
kings/nobles appointed church officials
• 1075: Gregory VII bans it; Henry IV orders him to step
down
– Henry excommunicated
– Canossa meeting winter 1077
• Concordat of Worms 1122 ends fight
– Only Church could appoint bishops, but emperor could veto
– Separation of church and state?
Disorder in the HRE
• The Holy Roman Empire realized
it needed strong leadership to keep peace
• Frederick “Barbarossa” I
– Control only when within HRE
– Repeated invasion of Italy for riches; Italy and the
Pope create Lombard League against him
– 1176: LL defeats Frederick at Legnano
• First time feudal knights had lost (use of crossbows)
• Continue to fight wars with Italian city states
– Germany did not unify as result
– This system of princes electing king also weakened
authority
– England and France have more land, power