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Week 4 |
LECTURE THE PAPACY |
A.
Why study the Papacy?
Empire and Papacy one of the longest standing themes of
university medieval history.
A
seemingly obscure and technically complex issue of fundamental - even defining
- importance in the history of Western culture and identity.
Nation-States. The papal-imperial conflict lead to a weakening of the
Western (Holy Roman) Empire, the first strong state with staying power after
the collapse of the Roman Empire in western Europe in the fifth century. Instead a series of proto->nation= states [France, England,
Spain, Portugal] achieved great power and eventually established the >nation-state= rather than the >imperial= model as the cultural
political standard or ideal for all European states.
·
ascending and descending theories of government
Separation
of Church and State. The conflict between church and state firmly established that church
and state were indeed distinct entities. This is in contrast with the Byzantine model in eastern
Europe where the powers and bureaucracies of church and state were never so
clearly separated nor separate ideologies of ecclesiastical and secular power
developed. Also in even more direct and dramatic contrast with Islam where a
comparable separation between religion and politics was never made.
·
questioning of the relative authority of priest and
people - what is religion for - for God or for people?
Intellectual
Life: Law and Education. Both the popes and the emperors had a real basis for their power - so
the conflict was long-lasting and hard to resolve. Each side therefore tried to
justify and assert their claims theoretically by resort to law, and by
consulting earlier >authoritative= written sources. In the
short term this led to the revival of old knowledge and old disciplines - such
as rhetoric, the study of history and in particular the study of Roman law
- which had diverse intellectual consequences.
·
reinforcement of belief in the importance of the
classical past as a bench mark for future improvement
·
Roman Law - became the basis for most modern legal
systems - development of ways of legal thinking - involving fundamental
concepts such equity and contract
·
the belief and practice that truth is discovered
through a process of argument and debate. Higher education in the west
increasingly eschewed methods of learning based on memorising and instead
insisted that students learn to collect, organise and interpret
materials, and then defend their conclusions in argument.
B.
Role and Powers of the Papacy at the start of the period.
Already
contested before 1250
1)
Spiritual authority
- theocracy - words of Christ to S. Peter
- divine grace
- the church as the body of christ
- the role of the sacraments
- power to appoint to ecclesiastical vacancies
- authority of papal/church courts in matters of spiritual
jurisdiction.....
- authority to defend Christendom against the infidel
2)
Temporal Authority
- papal states
- papal taxation
3)
Papal administration ... see above
- cardinals
- general council
C. Critical Events
Boniface
VIII v. Philip the Fair - right of the king to tax clergy and hear clerical
legal cases.
Constance
- the ending of the schism, clerical reform and the threat of heresy
D.
Spiritual, temporal authority and papal administration after these events.
Questions
raised and left unanswered after Constance
·
Was the pope to be the reforming organ or was it to be
the general council?
·
Was papal monarchy or the representative council to be
the future authority in whose hands lay the destiny and repair of torn
Christendom?
·
Was the government of the Church to be built on the
descending theme of government - the traditional and until schismatic times
hardly questioned axiom - or upon its ascending counterpart, the battle-cry of
the conciliarists and virtually everyone concerned with bringing the schism to
an end?
·
Was the via antiqua or the via moderna
to be the path which European Christendom was to take?
E.
Post Constance.
If
none of these questions answered - what happened
·
extreme conciliarist ideas too radical to retain
support even of most conciliarists once the main compromises had been achieved.
·
reunion with East and its ultimate failure
·
temporal power of the papacy reduced - combined with
the collapse of the Empire, the return to Rome and involvement in Italian
politics - increasingly focussed on local affairs - an Italian prince.
·
modernising ideas didn’t go away - continued to be the stuff of intellectual
debate - intellectual response of the papacy inadequate.
THE LATE MEDIEVAL PAPACY
Roman Popes Avignon popes
John XXII (1316-34)
Benedict XII (1334-42)
Clement VI (1342-52)
Innocent VI (1352-62)
Urban V (1362-70)
Gregory XI (1370-78)
Urban VI
(1378-89)
Clement VII (1378-94)
Boniface IX
(1389-1404)
Benedict XIII (1394-1417)
Innocent VII (1404-6)
Gregory XII (1406-15)
[Pisa]
Alexander V (1409-10)
John XXIII (1410-5)
Martin V (1417-31)
Eugenius IV (1431-47)
Nicholas V (1447-55)
Calixtus III (1455-8)
Pius II (1458-64)
Paul II (1464-71)
Sixtus IV (1471-84)
Innocent VIII (1484-92)
CHRONOLOGY
1302 Papal bull, Unam Sanctam
1303 The French seized
Pope Boniface VIII at Anagni, with the intention of forcing him to call a
council to accept his resignation.
1308 Clement V transferred the papacy to
Avignon.
1351 The English Statute of Provisors forbade
petitioning for, or acceptance of, papal appointment to ecclesiastical
benefices although this was ignored by the crown when papal initiative was to
the advantage of royal servants.
1353 The English Statute of Praemunire
prohibited appeals to the papal court in any matter which might be interpreted
as pertaining to royal jurisdiction.
1376 13 September, Gregory XI left for Rome and
arrived in January 1377.
1378 In May Urban VI (1378-89) was elected as
pope, but the cardinals left for Anagni in the summer and in September elected
Clement VII (1378-94), thus beginning the Great Schism.
1408 In June, nine Roman and six Avignonese
cardinals met at Pisa under the cynical aegis of the neutral republic of
Florence and called for a General Council.
1409 The Council of
Pisa met between March and August. They deposed Gregory XII and Benedict
XIII in June; Alexander V was elected as a third pope by the council of Pisa
and died the next year, when John XXIII was elected.
1414 The Council of
Constance met (it closed in 1418) [list of abuses
identified as needing to be addressed]
1417 Martin V was elected as pope, thus ending
the Schism.
1418 In January, Martin issued his own moderate
reform programme. The English were rewarded for their support of Martin by a
Concordat, formally conceding to the kings the power over the church which they
had in fact exercised throughout the past century.
1438 Charles VII of France issued the Pragmatic
Sanction of Bourges in 1438
1439 Eugenius excommunicated all those
involved with Basle and the remains of the council elected their own pope,
Felix V. Eugenius convened his own council at Ferrara.
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