Sat, Apr 26, 2008
Arguably the most eventful conflict of the Middle Ages was the battle for supremacy on earth -notably feudal Catholic Europe- between the temporal emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the in principle spiritual papacy, vicarage of God entrusted with the keys to heaven. Henry IV, king of Germany eager to be crowned emperor, went too far in Caesaropapism -usurping ecclesiastical, notably papal, privileges- by investing (appointing) bishops, is excommunicated and must make a penitential pilgrimage to Canossa, where pope Gregory VII has to publicly absolve him, knowing there is no sincere remorse. Later excommunications fail to force the emperor's hand, imperial troops prove able to remove a pope from the Roman throne, yet even a puppet pope performing the coronation maintains the almost theocratic principle of a papal seal of approval. Later popes establish a more temporal power base by hording financial means, both cash income and land, not just privately but also a claim to sovereignty over half of Europe based on a false donation by Byzantinian emperor Constantine the Great. When France rises to worldly prominence in Europe, its kings become the popes' main rivals, using secular power to dispose of the papacy itself, and establishing a rival papacy in the French city of Avignon, where however the trappings of court life, centralism and unseen wealth are developed further. Soon after terrible pest, the papacy returns to Rome, only to suffer an even deeper crisis: disputed elections result in up to three rival 'universal popes', ironically the German king Sigismund convokes the Council of Konstanz to settle the schism and restore Catholic unity under the Roman papacy.
Sat, May 3, 2008
During the Renaissance, the papacy, back in Rome, becomes a leading temporal power, wielding fortune and a mighty Papal state in rich, fragmented Italy, rivaling especially the mercantile city state Firenze's Medici dynasty. Nepotism in the literal sense -nominating relatives as cardinals and temporal officials, culminating in the Borgia dynasty-, deals with condottieri (mercenary generals), as recently researched even political murder become essential parts of the papal power game, unsurpassed grand art in the Eternal City -especially the Sixtine chapel, later the St. Peter basilica- its prestige showcase, orgiastic hedonism is the stuff of major scandals but well documented. A French attack on Napels includes a siege of its ally Rome, papal son Cesare Borgia conquers a duchy for the 'dynasty' in Romagna, succeeding rival Julius II even leads battles in person.
Sat, May 10, 2008
Pope Leo X, of the wealthy Italian Medici banker family, held a luxurious profane Renaissance ruler court, inspired by Classical Antiquity, making his painter Rafael dig remains such as Christianity-persecuting emperor Nero's Golden palace. In 1511 the German Augustinian theologian Martin Luther visited his Rome, a stage on his journey to analyze and criticize the Catholic church's way to send money raised by such disputable ways as the sale of absolutions Leo introduced; failing to answer his popularly acclaimed call for reforms the church set Luther on the path to protestantism, a challenge which would lead to the Great Western Schism. Meanwhile Leo's successor, nepote Clement VII, literally bought his fellow cardinals' votes and played a power game between European hegemony rivals France and Habsburg, till emperor Charles V had enough and raised a mixed protestant-Catholic international, mainly German army to invade the Papal states and chase Clement, covered by his elite Swiss Guard, who could only return from golden cage exile, first on his Roman citadel, later in Orvieto, after politically submitting. His successor Paul III would take charge of the Counterreformation, in which the new Jesuit order would play a major part, and have St.Peter's finished by Michelangelo as the Baroque showpiece of the Vatican's last era of Macchiavellian representation as a way to wield political power.