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Development of the Church from the Germanization of the Empire to the Great Schism
Milton V. Backman, Jr., American Religions & the Rise of Mormonism
(SLC: Deseret Book Co., 1965), pp. 17–26.
V. The Unhealthy Secular Influence …
The Church and the Germanization of the Empire
The close alliance of church and state continued during the
Germanization of the Roman Empire. With few exceptions, the
German invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries infiltrated the empire
without creating catastrophic changes. Before the migrations, most
barbarians had learned to admire Roman culture, including the Roman
religion; and, therefore, after changing their residency, the uprooted
were readily assimilated into a higher civilization.
Early in the fifth century, the first Germanic kingdom was
established by the Visigoths in Spain. Although Germans replaced
Roman masters, the Roman element remained strong in that section of
Western Europe. After an era of toleration, Christianity became the
only legal religion in Spain; and, in the middle of the seventh century,
Jews were told to discontinue celebrating religious festivals. By the end
of the seventh century, Spanish Jews who failed to seek asylum in
Africa were legally reduced to a state of slavery.
Another Roman-Germanic society emerged in Gaul. As in Spain,
the Frankish conquerors submitted to the ascendancy of a highly
organized church whose clergy were among the most intelligent and
competent statesmen of that age. During the sixth century, Clovis, a
barbarian who joined the Catholic Church, conquered much of Gaul,
establishing one family and one church as the ruling power of that
domain. The Franks ruthlessly enforced conformity on the recalcitrant
minorities. In all departments of administration the royal power was
omnipresent and supreme. The absolutism of the monarchy prevailed
over the church. Clovis summoned bishops to meet in councils and
presented to them canons for their adoption. Among the provisions
forced upon the clergy was the sole right of the king to permit laymen
to enter the ranks of the clergy. Decisions of councils were not
published nor effective without the king’s approval. Clovis and other
Merovingian kings also claimed the right of appointing, or, as in some
cases, approving the appointment of bishops.
This sixth century Gallic church was not controlled nor directed by
Rome nor did the pope (with few exceptions) attempt to exercise
control over the Frankish church. The power of the archbishops also
declined so that the local bishops, with royal sanction, had almost
absolute power in their dioceses.
While the Germans were conquering lands in the West, the
Romans in the East, under the leadership of Justinian, were regaining
lands from the Germans. Yet, the relationship of the church and state
was not altered appreciably during changes of administrators.
Justinian’s ecclesiastical policy was influenced by his insistence of
royal absolutism, asserting that the ruler of the state was to be both
Caesar and pope. This “Caesaropapistic” tendency is characterized by
the motto “one state, one law, one church.” Recognizing the powerful
influence of the church in the hands of the state, Justinian claimed the
right of appointing clergy and dictating church dogma. Whatever
religious tendency Justinian endorsed his subjects were required to
follow.
Meanwhile, after Constantine transferred the capital of the Roman
Empire to Constantinople, a political vacuum was created in Italy; and
the pope emerged as a temporal leader. The pope became the biggest
single proprietor in Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, obtaining
enormous acreage in these lands. His dominions were vast, his church
became wealthy, and his political power became absolute. As
governor, the pope and his chief priests maintained civil and criminal
courts, executed the laws, commanded the militia, and erected schools,
hospitals, and aqueducts.
The Proprietary Church
The unhealthy secular influence in the Medieval church is also
evident by the rise of the “Eigenkirchentum” or Proprietary church, an
institution arising from the assimilation of Roman and German cultures.
Before the barbarian invasions, the independent Christian churches
maintained legal organizations. Under Roman law, a community,
church, or corporation possessed the right of owning property so that all
the wealth of the local congregations was the property of the church.
As a representative of the church, not as an individual or head of a
family, the bishops acted as the proprietors of the church assets.
Following the infiltration of the barbarians, Roman law was substituted,
in some cases, with Germanic law. Germanic law and custom dictated
that churches could and should be owned by individuals, and this policy
was imposed upon the Christians. In the seventh century, the Frankish
church succumbed to the innovation; and by the end of the eighth
century, the “Eigenkirchentum” was almost universally established in
England.
The proprietors of the churches emerged from the lay and
ecclesiastical aristocracy. Many bishops became owners in a private
capacity of churches which they built or received as inheritances.
Abbots gained title to many monasteries and churches. In England, the
majority of the owners were lay lords; and kings were the most active
preemptors, gaining possession of more church property than any other
individual. The income derived by the church — whether it be from
tithes, offerings, or fees levied by priests for administering the
sacraments — became the personal income of the proprietor.
Moreover, the proprietors exchanged, sold, deeded, bequeathed, and
divided their ecclesiastical property as they did other possessions.
Although the Middle Ages is often referred to as an Age of Faith, kings,
nobles, bishops, and abbots were as interested in economic gain as the
businessmen of today. The foundation of churches became one of, if
not, the most profitable investment of the early Middle Ages, and
“innumerable churches were built as much from motives of speculation
as of piety.” [Ulrich Stutz, “The Proprietary Church as an Element of
Mediaeval Germanic Ecclesiastical Law,” Mediaeval Germany,
Geoffry Barraclough, ed. (2 vols. Oxford, 1938), II, 38–46, 68; Dom
David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1950), 562–64; James Westfall Thompson,
The Dissolution of the Carolingian Fisc in the Ninth Century (Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1935), 15–16.]
The rise of the Proprietary church had numerous debilitating
effects on Christianity. An increased secular influence was exerted
upon the church. Bishops of necessity turned for support and direction
to their immediate temporal rulers rather than to councils, archbishops,
or the pope. The founders of churches helped create canon law and
assisted in the determination of ritual. Proprietors secured through
canon and civl law the right of nominating clergy (including bishops)
and appointed clergy for their churches. The bishop’s power of
examination, rejection, and substitution was reduced to a mere
formality, disappearing and being explicitly renounced in some districts.
[Knowles, 564–65.] The bond between bishop and priest tended to
dissipate, while the bond between priest and lord became stronger. The
quality of the clergy in some communities also declined, for the
proprietors sometimes appointed their friends and relatives, regardless
of their spiritual qualifications, to positions of ecclesiastical
responsibility.
The “Eigenkirchentum” further impeded the development of
central leadership in the church. In the early Middle Ages, the bishops
became sovereign in their dioceses. Since the church was a federation
of more or less sovereign episcopal congregations, there was
practically no legal check on bishops’ rights and powers. Some unifying
direction emerged as councils were convoked and absolute emperors
began dictating ecclesiastical policies in their kingdoms. But that
direction waned as the power and privileges of the Medieval
proprietors of the churches increased.
The Church During the Age of Feudalism
The unhealthy influence exerted by the secular authorities upon the
church and the lack of central leadership within the church continued
during the Age of Feudalism. In the ninth century, the power of the
monarchs disintegrated; and at the same time, Western Europe suffered
by the destructive Norsemen invasions. Out of the chaos and into a
political vacuum emerged a new political and social structure. In
Western Europe, the centralized governments were replaced by a
system based on the power exercised by large land holders. During the
political transformation, the churches became the fiefs or feudal estates
of the lords of the manors. At the same time, because of increased
warfare, defenseless subjects, including the clergy, sought alliances
with military figures. Commendation was followed by homage, a public
declaration of loyalty till death. The clergy then were required to take
an oath of fidelity to feudal lords. In principle, the clergy and people
reserved the right to elect bishops, but in practice the kings or lords
sometimes refused to sanction the clergy’s choice and appointed the
incumbent. Since the church hierarchy maintained benefices as
spiritual fiefs (a feudal estate) in return for military service, the higher
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clergy tended to become a military caste. Revenues from the churches
flowed into the treasuries of the feudal aristocracy, many of whom
dissipated their strength and wealth by constant fighting and
maintenance of harems. Consequently, church lands, offices, tithes, and
other assets became feudalized. The darkest era of the “Dark Ages”
plagued mankind. Culture, education, and morals retrogressed.
Monasteries gained a reputation as centers of vice where the rule of
chastity was no longer strictly observed. Secular clergy married or
lived with mistresses. The church could not seek direction from Rome
for the papacy was also a victim of the nadir of public morals. The
Holy See became the “puppet of a demoralized and truculent
oligarchy,” being reduced to its lowest depths of degradation during
these centuries of spiritual darkness. [Ibid., 565; Christopher Dawson,
The Making of Europe (NY: Meridian Books, 1956), p.229–30.]
The Alliance of Church and State in the Holy Roman Empire
The secular influence upon the Medieval church is further evident
by the alliance of the church and state which occurred in the Holy
Roman Empire. In the tenth century, an ambitious German, Otto I,
known as “Otto the Great,” forced most of the dukes of Germany to
recognize his leadership, defeated the Hungarians, and extended his
authority to the Rhone. Then after crossing the Alps and subduing the
Italians, Otto I was crowned emperor by the pope, creating what
historians have illogically called the Holy Roman Empire. In 963, one
year after Otto’s coronation, the pope renounced the emperor.
Infuriated, Otto returned to Italy, deposed the pope and procured the
election of his secretary to the highest position in the Roman church. In
addition to controlling partially the papacy, Otto’s influence extended to
the dioceses and monasteries. By his insisting that the right of
nominating higher clergy was a prerogative of the emperor, Otto I
selected most of the bishops and abbots who were ordained within his
kingdom, thereby assuring that these influential leaders were his allies.
Moreover, the emperor regarded the church as a department of state,
and church leaders were considered royal agents, who, like other state
officials, were to perform submissively their assigned responsibilities.
The bishops, who became influential administrators over large
territories, not only took an oath of loyalty to the emperor, but provided
the ruler with effective military assistance. Some Ottonian bishops lead
their armies in the field of battle; and some of these ecclesiastical
leaders, instead of being revered for their piety, gained a reputation
based upon their military prowess. Although Otto secured the
nomination of many competent individuals to the office of bishop and
was responsible for a temporary improvement in the quality of church
leaders, he usurped a power claimed by the church and established
precedents which resulted in a degrading secularization of the
Medieval church in the regions controlled by the Ottoman emperors.
The Relationship of Church and State in the Middle Ages
During the first half of the Middle Ages, the concept of the
freedom of the church did not mean separation of church and state.
Both the church and state regarded itself as the supreme body in
society. The state supported religious uniformity by removing heretics.
It disapproved any attempt on the part of the church to restrict its
activities, claiming leadership of the church and a prerogative to fix
dogma. Meanwhile, the church reminded the rulers that their
sovereignty was an office, that they were servants of the church.
Rulers were obliged to obey the moral codes and endorse the doctrines
of the church. Heresy of even the most absolute kings was a ground for
excommunication. Actually, there were periods when more powerful
clergy exerted great influence over the state, and there were other
times in which rulers dictated arbitrarily to the church.
In summary, the Medieval church was governed and it governed.
Temporal leaders in the Middle Ages summoned, presided over
councils, and dictated the agenda, thereby partially assisting in
determining church dogma, ritual, and administration. Men who did not
claim any divine guidance approved the appointment of clergy,
including bishops, and founded churches, monasteries, and bishoprics.
At the same time, religious leaders served as influential advisors of the
kings, sometimes controlled local governing bodies, and exerted a
strong influence on the central government. The state aided the church
in Christianizing the population, and the church assisted the state in
administering the law.
Christ with the philosophies of men produced various Christian sects in
the Roman Empire, the Medieval church emerged from a
heterogeneous foundation. After the central leadership of apostles and
prophets was replaced by the control of numerous bishops, local
religious diversity multiplied. Although the disciples taught “One Lord,
one faith, one baptism,” the content and expression of men’s faith
continued to vary from community to community. “The history of
Catholic Christianity during the first centuries,” observed church
historian Burnett H. Streeter, “is the history of a progressive
standardization of a diversity which had its origin in the Apostolic age.”
[Burnett Hillman Streeter, The Primitive Church (New York, 1929),
50.] Moreover, the direction given by emperors, councils, and higher
clergy was replaced by the influence of countless proprietors of
churches and feudal lords who were unable to advance uniformity. The
decay of the Roman empire and the consolidation of the Germanic
states in Europe truly loosened a growing cohesion of the Medieval
church. Then when feudalism was replaced by the rise of national
states, a strong feeling of the independence of the national churches
and their close connection with the state developed in each country.
[Gerd Tellenbach, Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of
the Investiture Contest, R. F. Bennett, trans. (Oxford: Shakespeare
Head Press, 1940), 62.] Medieval Christianity, therefore, consisted of
divergent aspects of religion, including various theological systems,
conflicting practices in administering the sacraments, and local
variations of belief in the number of practices that should be classified
as sacraments.
The Schism Between the Eastern and Western Church
While religious diversity prevailed for centuries in the Medieval
church without a major rupture, in 1054 the church split into two
communities. The background for this schism had been laid by the
growing cultural and political differences that divided the East and the
West. Conflicting religious beliefs and practices widened the breech.
The Greek church permitted the lower clergy to marry; offered both
emblems of the Lord’s Supper, the bread and wine, to laymen; and
rejected the increasing papal claims of universal authority and
supervision. The doctrinal dispute that eventually provided the occasion
for the final rupture was the conflict over the dogma of the procession
of the Holy Ghost. Most Catholics living in the West held that the Holy
Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son. The patriarch of
Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, concluded that the addition of the
words “and the Son” [filioque] to the Nicene Creed was heresy.
Eventually, the pope of Rome, Leo IX, insisted that easterners endorse
the western interpretation of this doctrine. When Leo IX recognized
that Michael Cerularius would not submit to his demands and claim of
authority, the pope anathematized the patriarch. The patriarch
responded by excommunicating the pope. After the communion had
been broken, the eastern church adopted the name Orthodox, meaning
“true belief,” and the Roman church replied with the word Catholic,
meaning “universal.”
Forces of Unification
Another striking feature of the Medieval church is that a
semblance of unity in organization, creeds, and ritual emerged in the
western church amidst the theological and ritualistic pluralism.
[Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity
(NY: Harper & Bros., 1937), I, 298–99.] There were four main
unifying factors which, although failing to create explicit unity, acted as
cohesive elements and served as the sources for Roman Catholic
doctrine — the scriptures, the writings of church fathers, the decision
of general councils, and the decrees of the popes. [Backman footnote:
Since the Roman Catholics hold that all Christian dogma was unfolded
to the apostles, revelation ceasing with the death of these leaders, they
conclude that their church has issued no new revelations or beliefs.
However, the church has found it necessary at times to define and
explain the teachings of the apostles, to sanction ritual and to condemn
concepts and practices which it claims are not in accordance with the
revelations given to the apostles. The four major sources employed to
inform the Catholics of the “truths contained in the revealed deposit”
are in reality the sources of Catholic dogma.]
VI. From Diversity to a Standardized Theology
In addition to the lack of inspired, authoritarian leadership in the
church and the unhealthy secular influence exerted upon the church,
another characteristic of Medieval Christianity indicating the reality
and nature of the apostasy, was the striking diversity of belief and
practice which persisted. Since the assimilation of the doctrines of
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