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034 - 3 Church and State under the Later Carolingian Rulers · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter three of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain, Chapter three. Church and State under the
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  Speaker 1: later Carolingian rulers, the example of Charlemagne was on the
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  Speaker 1: side of imperial predominance. He never meant the least surrender
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  Speaker 1: to the pope of absolute control over the church. He
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  Speaker 1: knew the ancient power of the Roman emperors over the
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  Speaker 1: religious affairs of the state, and adhered to his notions
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  Speaker 1: of theocratic responsibility. It was convenient to have a pope
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  Speaker 1: crown him, but the August ceremony produced no restraints. He
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  Speaker 1: regarded himself the full suzerin of Rome and of Rome's pope.
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  Speaker 1: How little importance Charlemagne attached to the papal coronation may
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  Speaker 1: be seen in the fact that in eight thirteen, when
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to associate his son Lewis with him in
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  Speaker 1: the government of the empire, he with his own hands,
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  Speaker 1: placed the crown upon the young man's head. The Carolingian
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  Speaker 1: successors to Charlemagne were a group of steadily dissolving lights.
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  Speaker 1: The family intellect diminished to a lamentable degree, but there
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  Speaker 1: was no relaxing of imperial claims. Each ruler asserted his
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  Speaker 1: sovereignty over the religious functions of Europe. All the Carolingians
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  Speaker 1: adhered to the appointment of bishops, as their father and
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  Speaker 1: his predecessors had done. The civil rulers frequently sold the
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  Speaker 1: episcopal office to the highest bidder. The Council of Orlean
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  Speaker 1: in five forty nine and that of Paris in five Pint.
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  Speaker 1: Fifty seven had protested against such methods, but the evil continued.
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  Speaker 1: Dagobert the First in six thirty one appointed his treasurer
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  Speaker 1: a layman, to the see of Cahors. All the barbaric
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  Speaker 1: rulers ignored them the authority of the Roman bishop. Even
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  Speaker 1: Boniface was made Archbishop of Mainz by royal hands. Charles
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  Speaker 1: Martel rewarded his soldiers with the best seas in his realm.
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  Speaker 1: The brightest dream of many a bronzed warrior was to
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  Speaker 1: spend his last years with the peaceful Crozier in his
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  Speaker 1: scarred hand. As the Carolingian line continued, there was a
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  Speaker 1: rise of papal prerogative. No exception was taken to Charlemagne's appointments,
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  Speaker 1: because of his prestige and of his service to the church,
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  Speaker 1: but his weaker descendants had no such claims and were
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  Speaker 1: regarded with no such ahe The result of the imperial
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  Speaker 1: appointment of church officers was that the incumbents should feel
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  Speaker 1: that their authority coming from the civil ruler. They were
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  Speaker 1: not directly subject to papal mandate. The trend was to
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  Speaker 1: create an independent episcopacy. This was of the greatest concern
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  Speaker 1: to the popes. The bishops would not obey orders they
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  Speaker 1: had direct contact with the people, and the matter must
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  Speaker 1: be changed. The popes during the later Carolingian rulers succeeded
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  Speaker 1: in good measure in getting the episcopal appointments dependent on
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  Speaker 1: Rome rather than on the civil ruler. The effect was
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  Speaker 1: to strengthen the papacy at the expense of the empire.
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  Speaker 1: Why not no Charlemagne now wore the crown. The government
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  Speaker 1: of the church was under the Carolingians a part of
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  Speaker 1: the general machinery of the state. Under both Pepin and Charlemagne,
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  Speaker 1: the body which legislated for the state did the same
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  Speaker 1: for the church. The clergy were represented, but they only
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  Speaker 1: served ornamental purposes, just as the bishops now do in
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  Speaker 1: the British parliament. Charlemagne divided his general legislative assembly into
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  Speaker 1: three bodies, bishops, abbots and counts. The first two attended
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  Speaker 1: to ecclese psiastical matters, while the last regulated political affairs.
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  Speaker 1: The showing was fair. There was the appearance of political liberty.
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  Speaker 1: The fact was the emperor controlled all three orders. Charlemagne
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  Speaker 1: required the bishops and abbots to furnish a contingent of
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  Speaker 1: soldiers for his armies in proportion to the amount of
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  Speaker 1: property which they held. Officially, in eight oh one he
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  Speaker 1: forbade the clergy all direct participation in military life. The
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  Speaker 1: extinction of the Carolingians was simultaneous with the complete ascendancy
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  Speaker 1: of the papacy. For about a century there had been
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  Speaker 1: pleasant understandings which were of great mutual advantage. Charles the
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  Speaker 1: Fat was a slender shadow of the Great Pepin and
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  Speaker 1: the greater Charlemagne. In eight fifty five we find the
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  Speaker 1: Nustrian bishops declaring to Lewis the German that they were
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  Speaker 1: not obliged to do homage or swear fitne to their
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  Speaker 1: sovereign synods. Councils, and popes were now growing clamorous for
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  Speaker 1: the primitive mode of electing bishops. By the time the
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  Speaker 1: last descendants of the Great Charles were spending their closing
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  Speaker 1: days as mere weak functionaries in the Palace of Leon.
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  Speaker 1: The Church found herself proprietor of more than all her
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  Speaker 1: old prerogatives, and holding her new territory with a grasp
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  Speaker 1: which only relaxed when she reached farther for a larger slice.
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  Speaker 1: She paid back the princely gift of land from Peppin
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  Speaker 1: and Charlemagne by an independence and haughtiness quite new even
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  Speaker 1: on the bank of the Tiber end of Chapter three