"It is certain that about the middle of the [ninth] century a great and silent revolution in the relations between the church and state commenced, and it may fairly be assumed that these new canons were the instrument with which the ecclesiastical party worked upon the general popular readiness to submit to such a change of masters.1"
Henry Charles Lea, Studies in Church History: The Rise of the Temporal Power, Benefit of Clergy, Excommunication, The Early Church and Slavery (first edition 1869) [Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Sons & Co., 1883] p. 53
Life in the Middle Ages
In the late Roman empire period, the state was sovereign over the clergy and the peasants. Under the system of feudalism which was developing, each man had an overlord from whom he received his fief and to whom, in return, he owed loyalty and service. Emperors, kings, and local nobility appointed (or sold) bishops and other clergymen to their church offices. The Emperor, whose word was law in all secular and religious matters, had the final say over the decrees of church councils.
The church, once reluctant to involve itself in a matter as spiritually polluting as marriage, began to oversee both marriage and divorce. In the process the church gained enormous power over all men from the most exalted to the most humble. No longer would king or noble be able to put aside his wife at his whim. Henceforth, the church could trade its power to declare a marriage null and void for more temporal advantages, greatly increasing the church's power. Marriages were prohibited at first between fourth, then fifth, then sixth, and finally seventh degree of kindred2. With each change in the law, marriages, once thought valid, were declared void. New restrictions to prohibit marriages were instituted.3 For example, the church declared that a person who served as a godparent to a child should be regarded in the same manner as a blood relative. For a marriage to be valid, a man had to know not only his own blood relatives and the blood relatives of his intended, but the godparents, and all of their relatives, of all of his and his intended's relatives. It didn't take long for everyone in Europe to become confused as to who was and who was not married and who could and who could not be married. If, by chance, a couple overlooked some remote connection which came to light 20 or 30 years later, their marriage could be declared null and void because it was incestuous.
The Roman empire had been slowly deteriorating for centuries. During the Carolingian Renaissance about the year 800, the decay was briefly halted. But upon the death of Charlemagne's children, his grandchildren argued over his kingdom and western Europe was plunged into war. The ninth and tenth centuries were a time of almost complete anarchy in civil government and the church was the only source of stability and order. By virtue of their relative morality and impartiality, local priests were asked by local peoples to oversee trials, involving themselves in very secular matters, such as the use of honest weights and measures.
By the middle of the ninth century, the church-state relationship was undergoing a revolutionary change, and, by the end of the century, the church was sovereign over the state. The forged False Decretals along with the forged Donation of Constantine and the political conflicts of the time enabled the church, previously always subservient to the state in all matters4, to assume mastery over the state5. The benefit of clergy exempted clergy from trial by secular authorities in secular courts, greatly increasing the power of the church vis-a-vis the state. Becoming the court of last resort, the court from which there was no appeal, made ecclesiastical courts vastly superior to secular courts, greatly increasing the power of the church. But perhaps the greatest source of power for the church came from the Donation of Constantine whereby the people came to believe that secular rulers held their crowns and lands as fiefdoms from the church and that the Pope was the feudal overlord of all Christian rulers. For the next 800 years or so, kings and emperors would owe their crown to God who is represented on earth by the Pope
The pope, as the direct successor to St. Peter through an unbroken succession, was considered God's Vicar on earth. The pope spoke for God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because the pope was God's personal representative on earth, the pope was infallible. Unrestrained by either man or God, the church became completely autocratic.6 The church strove ceaselessly to increase its power with a unity of purpose that made all members work together. By playing divide and conquer, by supporting first one side then the other, the church slowly created a theocracy which the world had never before witnessed.7
The Pope and his ministers on down to the most humble parish priest had the "power of the keys [to heaven]," the power to decide who would and who would not go to heaven, and exercised this power through the dreaded anathema, excommunication. To be excommunicated was to be an outlaw, a man who could not claim the protection of the law. Regardless of the grounds for the excommunication and whether the excommunication was legal or illegal, justifiable or unjustifiable, an excommunicate's possessions and life, even to a king's kingdom and the life of the monarch, were forfeit to the first comer. If an excommunicate remained in that state for a year, he was declared a heretic and subject to the penalties of all other heretics8. To die excommunicated was to seriously risk spending eternity in hell.
With the power of excommunication, even the highest born, mightiest sovereign held this throne and his crown only at the leisure of the Pope. If a sovereign was excommunicated, his lands and his life were forfeit to the first comer who was strong enough to take them from him. If a sovereign's lands were place under interdict, his subjects trembled in fear of the very wrath of God himself.
Auricular confession to a priest had been instituted, giving the church a spy in every family on even the most intimate of matters. From the highest born king to the meanest villain, Pope and parish priest kept a close eye on the flock.
The heretic was greatly feared by laity and clergy alike as some one who would capture the souls of the unwary for the eternal benefit of Satan. "No faith was to be kept with a man who did not keep faith with God."
Yet, in a barbarous age, when Europe degenerated into almost complete anarchy, the church courts were relative bastions of sanity and stability. The power of the church continued to grow and as it grew, the church attracted to itself those who lusted after wealth and power, eventually corrupting the church to its very core. Simony was rife, priestly celibacy was an oxymoron, and clergy were often portrayed as little more than gluttonous, licentious, drunkards who, at best, ignored their flocks, and at worst, were a pestilence to the believers. All of the vices which eventually lead to the Protestant Reformation, already a scandal to the church, only deepened. Priests used the confessional to extort sex from unwilling victims. The church, increasingly worldly, was concerned only with money, was willing to grant absolution for every sin, for a price. Every petty offense to an ecclesiastic generated a demand for a penance which could be redeemed for the right amount of gold. Shysters, under papal protection, sold indulgences to raise funds for the construction of the great cathedrals. The church's constant demand for money grew almost to the point of strangling the faithful. Eventually, the flock, besieged on one side by the constant warfare of the nobles and on the other by the worldly demands of the priests, hungering after spiritual solace and something to believe in, turned to itinerant preachers of heretical religions; an action from which the Inquisition grew.
End Notes
References
Henry Charles Lea, Studies in Church History: The Rise of the Temporal Power, Benefit of Clergy, Excommunication, The Early Church and Slavery (1869) [Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Sons & Co., 1883].
Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church, Doubleday 1990