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Lecture 8B: Excommunication and Crusades- Evidence of Powerful Popes

The Pope as King and The Papal Curia

Now, even though people were focused on making money, medieval Europe was still a very religious society. And as we talked about in my last lecture, the pope was and is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. And the pope was a very important person in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, and we know this because, as we’ll talk about in a few minutes, when the pope called for a crusade in 1095, hundreds of thousands of people answered his call.

Beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries, the pope and the papacy grew in power until the pope came to represent the most important leader of Western Europe. The papacy represents the hierarchy of religious officials who keep the Roman Catholic Church running. This includes the pope, archbishops, bishops, and priests. The pope at the top of this hierarchy, was responsible for deciding which practices and ideas were orthodox or heretical, how mass and religious rituals were performed, and how religious figures related to each other. In addition to these religious duties, the pope had political duties, as well. The pope met with political leaders and maintained diplomatic relationships. As the pope gained more power and more respect as a leader of the Roman Catholic Church, he began to designate certain officials to advise him in his many duties. These advisors are called Cardinals. And they also became the officials who elected a new pope when the current one died.

As the pope gained more officials and grew in power, he began to style himself as a sort of king over the Catholic Church and over Christianity. In fact, the pope and his cardinals together came to known as the Papal Curia. Papal Curia is Latin for the pope's court. So, in this sense, the pope had his own royal court with advisers to assist him. In the images on your screen, you can see some 13th century images of the papal curia. The popes are sitting on a throne and their advisors are sitting around them. And if you look at the picture on the top left, that is Pope Francis- the current pope- and his papal curia. As you can see, this arrangement hasn’t changed too much. But returning to the Middle Ages- in the late 11th century, popes reached the height of their power. And this encouraged them to take matters to a new level. The popes began to present their power as superior to all the rest of the kings of Europe. So not only did popes present themselves as the King of the Roman Catholic Church, but they emphasized that they held more authority than any regular king.

Excommunication as a Tool of the Pope’s Power

So, popes began to present themselves as the most powerful rulers of Europe, over and above even the kings and their earthly kingdoms. But the problem with this was the up to this point, the kings of Western Europe had connected their power and authority to rule with the power and authority of the Catholic Church. Remember- Charlemagne back in the 800s realized that the best way to prove his legitimacy as the Roman emperor was to have the pope crown him. This connection between the power of the kings and the power of the Catholic Church had, over time, resulted in the practice of lay investiture. Lay investiture was a practice in which kings could appoint people to the positions of bishop and archbishop. And kings really liked the practice of lay investiture because they could appoint people to the position of archbishop and bishop as a reward for their or their family's loyalty to the king. The result was that bishops and archbishops were more loyal to kings than they were to the pope, and they weren't very good religious leaders.

But if the pope was going to be the most powerful ruler of Europe, it wouldn’t do to have kings interfering with church officials, and it certainly wouldn’t do to have bishops and archbishops that were more loyal to kings than they were to the pope. So, the pope needed to free the Catholic Church from the influence of kings and lords and get rid of the practice of lay investiture. But as I mentioned, kings really like the practice of lay investiture, so it wouldn’t work for the pope to just demand that they stop doing it. They needed a powerful tool to enforce their demand, and they found it in the form of excommunication. With excommunication, the pope could forbid someone from participating in the rituals of the church. They couldn't take communion, or get married, or have their children baptized-- nothing in the church. No practices that were part of the church at this time. And they also couldn't have any social contact with other Christians. People caught talking, writing a letter, or even offering a drink of water to an excommunicated person, could themselves be excommunicated. So, excommunication was serious business and it could serve as a very powerful tool to enforce the pope’s demands.

Quiz Question #5

The Investiture Controversy

The investiture controversy is a good example of how the pope could use excommunication to get rid of lay investiture and show off the superiority of their power. When the pope stopped allowing kings to use lay investiture, some kings refused to obey. One of these kings was Henry the IV. Henry was the Holy Roman Emperor- a ruler over the region of what is today Germany-, and Henry insisted on being able to appoint the bishops in his kingdom because it was an important political tool for him. But when Henry insisted, the pope at the time-- Gregory the VII-- excommunicated him. Pope Gregory knew that excommunicating wouldn't just impact the king spiritually, it would also influence his political authority. Gregory announced that because Henry was no longer in good standing with the Catholic Church, he was no longer a king or emperor, and his subjects had a sacred duty to rebel. This put Henry in a very dangerous position. So, Henry was forced to go before Pope Gregory and asked for forgiveness. The fact that a king had to ask forgiveness from the pope very clearly demonstrated who had the most power.

The Cluniac Reform: One Cause of the Crusades

Another important event that reflects the growing power of the popes was the Crusades. Generally, when we think of a Crusade, we think of a mission in which someone intends to achieve something that they feel strongly about. This concept of crusade comes out of the Middle Ages when Christians soldiers from Western Europe tried to retake the Jerusalem and the surrounding region from Muslim rulers. The First Crusade took place in 1095. But the elements that resulted in the First Crusade had actually been developing for some time before that. Let's look at the elements that contributed to the initiation of the Crusades. The first cause is the Cluniac Reform. In the early 900s, many Christian leaders were pretty corrupt. Religious leaders were supposed to focus their attention on cure for their Christian flock. They were supposed to oversee the spiritual health of the Christians under their care. But most bishops and archbishops in the early 900s were from wealthy families. And consequently, they tended to have lots of land and money in their possession. Most bishops and archbishops were more concerned about their wealth than they were about the salvation of the Christians under their care. Even the papacy was corrupt at this time. For example, in 1032 CE, Pope Benedict the ninth was elected as pope. He was only 12 years old. And he was elected because he was the nephew of the two previous popes. Pope Benedict sold the office of Pope to his godfather when he got bored with it, then changed his mind and demanded it back. Obviously, the Roman Catholic Church had hit a low point.

Recognizing the immorality of religious leaders, a group of monks in the town of Cluny in France began an effort to purify the Church of its corruption. They began to demand that bad religious leaders be removed from their positions. They demanded that religious leaders actually serve the Christian population. And they demanded that these religious leaders return to a life of simplicity, a life in imitation of Christ. This call for the purification of the Catholic Church represents what is known as the Cluniac reform, due to the fact that the movement started in the town of Cluny. The Cluniac reform spread throughout Europe, and many priests, bishops, and popes got on board. Soon, the desire to live a life in imitation of Christ, spread beyond religious leaders to regular people. People believed that they could spiritually better their lives by living piously, and in accordance to God's will. This idea of living according to God's will gained strength throughout the years in the 900s and 1,000s. Furthermore, the fact that popes and their officials could now claim to live a life of purity, this reinforced their legitimacy as Church leaders, and it contributed to their growing power.

Quiz Question #6

Conflict with Muslims in the East: One Cause of the Crusades

During this time, the Muslims still had control over most of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. They were trying to gain more territory, and in 1071, Muslim forces succeeded in taking a large chunk of territory from the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines were afraid that eventually the Muslims would take everything, so the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Komnenos, asked the pope over in Rome for assistance. The Byzantine emperor of course belonged to the Orthodox Church, but when he wrote to the pope he appealed to the fact that both of them were Christians. He asked the pope to send an army to help the Byzantines fight the Muslims. This appeal was supported by the fact that the pope had also recently received word that Muslims were preventing Christian pilgrims from visiting Jerusalem and other holy sites in the region. Again, as you can imagine, having a ruler from a different, competing Christian faith ask you for help was seen by many at the time as evidence of the pope’s power and legitimacy.

The New Concept of Holy War: One Cause of the Crusades

Another connected development that contributed to the Crusades was the development of the concept of holy war. Religious scholars began to argue that violence was not inherently wrong but was instead morally neutral. Whether violence was good or bad, depended on the motives of the participants. They argued that if a war was used to carry out God's will, then it was just and good. It was a holy war.

Quiz Question #7

The First Crusade

These three elements, the widespread desire among people to live according to God's will, the Muslim invasion of the Byzantine Empire and pilgrims’ inability to visit holy sites, and the development of the concept of holy war, these led to the First Crusade in 1095. That year, in 1095, Pope Urban the second delivered a speech in the town of Clermont in France. In his speech, he told his audience about the awful things that Muslims are doing to Christians in the east. And he called on the people to take up the cross, to go on crusade, and defend their fellow Christians who were distressed and retake the Holy Land. In his speech, Pope Urban made a special offer. He promised that all who went on crusade in defense of Christians in the east, would receive forgiveness for their sins. And if they died, they would go to heaven. I want to emphasize here that only a very powerful person could promise something like this and have people believe him. The popes were clearly very powerful at this point.

And the response to Pope Urban's speech was overwhelming. Although he only gave the speech once in 1095, others wrote it down and it was read throughout Europe over the next year. Hundreds of thousands of people immediately expressed an interest in going to fight the Muslims. These were people from all walks of life. Nobles, merchants, peasants, and even religious leaders signed up. Three bands of crusaders set out and reached Constantinople by 1097. The emperor Alexius was not pleased by their arrival. He had hoped for an orderly, disciplined army to defend the Byzantine Empire from the Muslims. Instead, he got a ragtag army of people, many of whom had never fought the battle of their lives. He also knew that many of these crusaders had motives other than just religion. They were also hoping to get treasures and loot from the battles they fought. But even though the Crusaders were badly organized, and often wanted to do their own thing, they were ultimately successful.

Quiz Question #8

Results of the First Crusade

The crusading army went on to capture all of the Holy Land by 1109 CE. They set up kingdoms and built European style castles. The map on your screen shows the layout of these crusader kingdoms in the Holy Land beginning in the early 12th century. Once these kingdoms were established, military orders formed to protect them. The members of these military orders combine two ideals of the Middle Ages-- the monk and the warrior-- into a single person. The Knights of the temple, also known as templars, came into existence when a group of French knights took a religious oath and began to serve as escorts for pilgrims to Jerusalem. Remember, The Crusades were supposed to free up the pilgrimage routes to the holy land. A similar group, called the hospitallers, also emerged. The monks of this order vowed to help sick and injured pilgrims in the holy land. But these orders were also military in nature and were often used to maintain conquered territory and subjugate conquered populations.

The Other Goals of Crusaders

The First Crusade was an incredible success. But it was the only really successful crusade. Between 1099 and 1291, eight more Crusades took place, all of which failed. By 1187, most of the Holy Land was back in the hands of Muslim leaders. In addition, some crusaders were not as focused on the holy land. During the Fourth Crusade, crusaders attacked Constantinople because they wanted its wealth. Constantinople was a Christian city. It was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. In addition, during the first and second Crusades, some crusaders turned their hostility towards their Jewish neighbors. There were significant populations of Jews living in cities throughout Western Europe. For the most part, Christian leaders and kings allowed the Jews to worship as they please and practice their own costumes. But during the Crusades, the focus on attacked Muslims caused some Christians to see everyone who wasn't Christian as an enemy. During the First Crusade, one crusader is reported as saying, why should we concern ourselves with going to war against the infidels dwelling in Jerusalem, when in our midst is a people who disrespect our God? As crusaders made their way east, they occasionally stopped to attack Jewish communities, forcing local Jews to choose between conversion to Christianity or death.

Dr. Carol Symes Video: Political, Economic, Social, Religious, and Cultural Effects of the Crusades

I have been telling you some pretty negative things about the crusades. So, I want to now show you a brief video by Dr. Symes who discusses some more positive consequences of these events.

Quiz Question #9

Uniformity and Heresy: The Cathars and Waldensians

So far, we have looked at the growing power of the popes in the 11th and 12th centuries by examining how they used excommunication to free the Catholic Church from the influence of kings and get rid of the practice of lay investiture. We’ve looked at how the popes’ power continues to grow through the Cluniac Reform so that they could call for a Crusade to which hundreds of thousands responded. And I want to look at one more way that the popes gained power. And that was through creating uniformity. They wanted to make sure that everyone was worshipping in the same way, according to the popes’ directions. Popes first took steps to enforce uniformity by sending out officials throughout Europe to tell archbishops and bishops directly how things should be done. And in the major cities they established free primary schools for boys, they required bishops to recruit and dispatch educated preachers, and they outlawed all kinds of misbehavior performed by church officials. But one of the biggest steps they took to enforce religious uniformity was to get rid of some groups of heretics that had recently popped up in Europe. These were the Cathars and the Waldensians.

And the pope who did this the most to get rid of the Cathars and Waldensians was Pope Innocent III. The Cathars were primarily located in southern France. They are identified as Christians, but they believed in a dualist system in which good and evil were separate and distinct. Things of the spirit were good because they were created by God-- the source of light. Things of the world were evil because they were created or influenced by Satan-- the prince of darkness. And they saw people within this dualist system. The souls of people were good but were trapped in material bodies that were inherently evil. This sort of dualist thinking probably wouldn't have gotten them in trouble, if that was all there was to Catharism. But since Cathars believed that material things and particularly, things humans had created, were evil, they also believed that the papacy was evil. With this in mind, the Cathars didn't believe they had to follow the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church or recognize the authority of the pope. This is what got them into trouble and caused them to be labeled a heresy.

The Waldensians were followers of a man named Peter Waldo. Waldo had been a wealthy merchant, who sold all his possessions and took a vow of poverty to live an imitation of Christ. Remember, this desire to imitate Christ had developed in the lead up to the First Crusade and it continued for a couple of centuries. Desiring to imitate the life of Jesus, Peter Waldo's followers-- called Waldensians-- began preaching to people and translating the gospel from Latin into the languages that people actually spoke, like French and Italian. At this time, people were supposed to get permission from the pope before they started preaching to the public, and this was because the pope wanted to make sure that they were preaching correct information and ideas. But the Waldensians refused to get permission, which meant that they were refusing to acknowledge the authority of the pope. Furthermore, the pope didn't like that they were translating the gospels into common languages because there was always the possibility that they could be translated incorrectly and lead people astray. This got the Waldensians labeled as heretics.

The Inquisition

When Innocent the III became pope in 1198, the spread and growth of the Cathars and Waldensians really concerned him. So, Innocent developed the idea of crusading from just being a holy war against Muslims, to including heretics. Pope Innocent called for a crusade against the Cathars and Waldensians in 1209, which lasted almost 20 years. He offered the same rewards to crusader's that Pope Urban II did when he called for the First Crusade. Pope Innocent offered crusader's forgiveness for their sins, if they fought against the heretics, and promised them immediate entrance into heaven, if they die. The crusade against the Cathars and Waldensians resulted in the deaths of thousands of heretics. In some cases, entire populations of towns. But it didn't get rid of all the Cathars and Waldensians. Consequently, Pope Innocent followed the crusade with another tool for rooting out heresy, the inquisition.

The inquisition was a judicial procedure in which representatives of the pope-- called inquisitors-- went out and interviewed people to find out if they were practicing heresy or not. The name inquisition comes from the word inquiry. Inquisitors were often called to a particular village or town if they heard rumors of heresy or if someone accused someone else of heresy. If this happened, they would interview people to try to find out who is guilty and who is innocent. If the accused heretic confessed, he or she was physically punished in public. And the heretic's property was confiscated and divided between the Catholic Church and the local government. Accused heretics who did not confess voluntarily, were tortured through the use of devices like thumbscrews, stretching, and chairs of nails. And if a heretic relapsed-- if they went back to their heretical views after being convicted and punished-- then they were executed by burning.

This system was pretty effective at getting rid of heretics, but as you can imagine, the system of inquisition could be abused. Local people could accuse their neighbors of heresy as personal revenge. And inquisitors and government officials often pursued accusations against obviously innocent people because if they could get the person to confess, then they could take their property.

Quiz Question #10

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