Christian History Course

Master of Christian History ~ Lesson #19

(Holy Roman Empire)

by Bro. Jim DeManche

1. What factors contributed to the collapse of the Carolingian Empire?

the Vikings caused havoc in Western Europe from the late 8th century A.D. to the 10 th century. Any town or monastery along the coast or navigable river would get a visit from the Vikings. The Vikings, many of them, finally settled in England and after much fighting joined their kinsmen the Anglo-Saxons who had come earlier. As a result the Christian culture that had been established in Ireland and England during the Dark Ages was destroyed or at least set back. Other Vikings settled in Normandy from whence they came to conquer England under William of Normandy in 1066. Others journeyed across Eastern Europe and gave the foundations for Russia. Still others settled in Sicily and Southern Italy where occasionally they threatened the earthly power of the Roman pontiff. The Slavs and Magyars settled in South-Central Europe.

2. What is feudalism? How was the church influenced by feudalism? How did the church attempt to lessen the excesses of the feudal lords?

Feudalism heavily influenced the church. The church held an enormous amount of land in Western Europe by the late Middle Ages. The church got these lands from people who wanted to gain forgiveness of sins by doing some act of charity as penance. By being a great landowner, the church could not avoid being influenced by feudalism. These gifts were held in feudal tenure by abbots and bishops. As God's servants the clergy could not do military service for their feudal lord. They either had to give part of their lands to vassal knights who could do the military service for them or come up with other services. This made the church more secular, and it took attention away from spiritual things. The ecclesiastical vassal had the dilemma of divided loyalties.

3. What was involved in the investiture controversy? How did this plague church-state relations in the Middle Ages?

The row over whether the feudal lord or the Roman pontiff can invest an ecclesiastical feudal vassal with the symbols of his authority [investiture controversy] plagued the relationships between church and state in the 11 th and 12 th centuries. The ring, staff, and pallium were the symbols of spiritual authority whilst the sword and scepter were the symbols of feudal authority. Occasionally the feudal lord and the Roman pontiff at the same time claimed the right to give all these symbols. This row caused a loss in spiritual life on the part of church leaders. They neglected their spiritual responsibilities. They thought more about worldly affairs than church affairs. The Western church had to fight the influence of feudalism whilst the Eastern church failed to withstand imperial control.

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