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COUNCILS

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 696 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COUNCILS  .)—[ED.J Cassino (See also:

Victor III., 1086-1087), whom he nominated as his successor, was well known for his moderation . It was no longer a question of continuing the policy of See also:Gregory VII., but of saving the See also:work of See also:Hildebrand . (L . D.*) II.—See also:Period from 1087 to 1305 . Gregory VII. had clearly revealed to the See also:world the broad lines of the religious and See also:political See also:programme of the See also:medieval papacy, and had begun to put it into See also:execution . The Work To reform the See also:Church in every grade and purge of Gregory the priesthood in See also:order to See also:shield it from feudal V/G influences and from the domination of See also:lay sovereignties; to convert the Church thus regenerated, spiritualized, and detached from the world, into an organism which would be submissive, to the See also:absolute authority of the papal see, and to concentrate, at See also:Rome all its energies and jurisdictions; to establish the supremacy of the See also:Roman see over all the See also:Christian Churches, and win over to the Roman Church the Churches of the See also:Byzantine See also:Empire, See also:Africa and See also:Asia; to establish the temporal domain of St See also:Peter, not only by taking See also:possession of Rome and See also:Italy, but also by placing all the crowns of See also:Europe under the supreme See also:sovereignty of the popes, or even in See also:direct vassalage to them; and, finally, to maintain unity of faith in Christendom and defend it against the attacks of unbelievers, Mussulmans, heretics and pagans—these were the See also:main features of his See also:scheme . The task, however, was so gigantic that after r5o years of strenuous effort, at the period which may be considered as the apogee of its See also:power, that is, in the first See also:half of the 13th See also:century, the papacy had attained only incomplete results . At several points the work remained unfinished, for decadence followed See also:close upon the moment of extreme greatness . It is more particularly in the See also:part of this programme that relates to the See also:internal policy of the papacy, to the subjection of the Church to the See also:Curia, and to the intensive concentration of the ecclesiastical forces in the hands of the See also:leader of Christendom, that Gregory went farthest in the execution of his See also:plan and approached nearest the See also:goal . For the See also:rest, so formidable were the See also:external obstacles that, without theoretically renouncing his claims, he was unable to realize them in practice in a manner satisfactory to himself . In order to give a clear See also:idea of the vicissitudes through which the papal institution passed between the years 1087 and 1305 and to show the measure of its success or failure at different stages in its course, it is convenient to See also:divide this See also:section into four periods . 1 .

Period from See also:

Urban II. to See also:Calixtus II . (1087-1124).-Gregory VII.'s immediate successors accomplished the most pressing work by liberating the Church from feudal subjection, either by force or by See also:diplomacy . This 1088Urba-1n n099, . was, indeed, the indispensable See also:condition of its internal and external progress . The See also:great figure of this period is unquestionably the See also:French Cluniac Urban II., who led the Hildebrandine See also:reformation with more vehemence than Gregory himself and was the originator of the See also:crusades . Never through-out the See also:middle ages was See also:pope more energetic, impetuous or uncompromising . His inflexible will informed the See also:movement directed against the enemy within, against the simoniacal See also:prelate and the princely usurper of the rights of the Church, and pre-scribed the movement against the enemy without, against the infidel who held the See also:Holy See also:Sepulchre . Urban set his See also:hand to reforms from which his predecessor Gregory had recoiled . He simultaneously excommunicated several sovereigns and mercilessly persecuted the archbishops and bishops who were hostile to reform . He took no pains to See also:temper the zeal of his legates, but incited them to the struggle, and, not content with prohibiting lay See also:investiture and See also:simony, expressly forbade prelates and even priests to pay See also:homage to the See also:civil power . Distrusting the See also:secular See also:clergy, who were wholly sunk in the See also:form of world, he looked to the See also:regular clergy for support, the church. and thus led the papacy into that course which it continued to pursue after his See also:death . Henceforth the See also:monk was to be the docile See also:instrument of the wishes of Rome, to be opposed to the See also:official priesthood according to Rome's needs .

Urban was the first to proclaim with emphasis the See also:

necessity of a close association of the Curia with the religious orders, and this he made the essential basis of the theocratic See also:government . As the originator of the first crusade, Urban is entitled to the See also:honour of the idea and its execution . There is no doubt that he wished to satisfy the complaints that emanated The First from the Christians dwelling in See also:Jerusalem and Crusade. from the pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre, but it is no less certain that he was disturbed by the fears aroused throughout the Latin world by the recrudescence of Mussulman invasions, and particularly by the victory won by the See also:Almoravides over the Christian See also:army at Zalaca (ro86) . The progress of these See also:African Mussulmans. into See also:Spain and their incessant piracies in Italy were perhaps the occasional cause that determined Urban II. to work upon the See also:imagination of the infidels by an expedition into See also:Syria . The papacy of that See also:time believed in the political unity of See also:Islam, in a solidarity —which did not exist—among the Mussulmans of Asia See also:Minor, Syria, See also:Egypt and the See also:Barbary coasts; and if it waited until the See also:year 1095 to carry out this project, it was because the conflict with the Germanic Empire prevented the earlier realization of its See also:dream . The essential See also:reason of Urban II.'s See also:action, and consequently the true cause of the crusade, was the ambition of the pope to unite with Rome and the Roman Church the Churches of Jerusalem, See also:Antioch, See also:Alexandria and even See also:Constantinople, which the See also:Greek See also:schism had rendered See also:independent . This thought had already crossed the minds of See also:Leo IX. and Gregory VII., but circumstances had never allowed them to put it into execution . Armed by the reformation with a moral authority which made it possible to concentrate the forces of the See also:West under the supreme direction of the Church and its leaders, Urban II. addressed himself with his customary decision to the execution of this enormous enterprise . With him, as with all his successors, the idea of a collective expedition of Europe for the recovery of the Holy Places was always associated with the sanguine See also:hope of extinguishing the schism at Constantinople, its very centre, by the substitution of a Latin for a Byzantine domination . Of these two See also:objects, he was only to realize the former; but the crusade may well be said to have been his own work . He created it and preached it; he organized it, dominated it, and constantly supervised it . He was ever ready to See also:act, either personally or through his delegates, and never ceased to be the effective leader of all the feudal soldiers he enrolled under the banner of the Holy See .

He corresponded regularly with his legates and with the military leaders, who kept him accurately informed of the position of the troops and the progress of the operations . He acted as intermediary between the soldiers of See also:

Christ and their See also:brothers who remained in Europe, announcing successes, organizing fresh expeditions, and spurring the laggards to take the road to Jerusalem . The vast conflict aroused by the Hildebrandine reformation, and particularly the investiture See also:quarrel, continued under the See also:settlement three successors of Urban IL; but with them it of the assumed a different See also:character, and a tendency arose Investiture to terminate it by other means . The violence and Quarrel. disorders provoked by the struggle brought about a reaction, which was organized by certain prelates who advocated a policy of conciliation, such as the Frenchman Ivo, See also:bishop of See also:Chartres (c. ro4o-1116) . These conciliatory prelates were sincere supporters of the reformation, and combated simony, the See also:marriage or See also:concubinage of priests, and the immorality of sovereigns with the same conviction as the most ardent followers of Gregory VII. and Urban II.; but they held that the intimate See also:union of Church and See also:State was indispensable to the social order, and that the rights of See also:kings should be respected as well as the rights of priests . The See also:text they preached was See also:harmony between the priesthood and the state . Dividing what the irreconcilables of the Hildebrandine party considered as an indissoluble whole, they made a See also:sharp distinction between the See also:property of the Church and the Church itself, between the political and territorial power of the bishops and their religious authority,and between the feudal investiture which confers lands and See also:jurisdiction and the spiritual investiture which confers ecclesiastical rights . This See also:doctrine gradually rallied all moderate minds, and finally inspired the See also:directors of Christendom in Rome itself . It explains the new attitude of See also:Paschal II. and Calixtus II., who were both sincere reformers, but who sought in a policy of See also:compromise the See also:solution of the difficult problem of the relations of Church and State . See also:History has not done sufficient See also:justice to the See also:Italian monk Paschal II., who was the equal of Urban in private virtues, See also:personal disinterestedness, and religious conviction, but was surpassed by him in ardour and rigidity y /099-/t/8. of conduct . Altered circumstances and tendencies of See also:opinion called for a policy of conciliation . In See also:France, Paschal granted See also:absolution to See also:Philip I.—who had many times been anathematized by his predecessors—and reconciled him solemnly with the Church, on the See also:sole condition that he should swear to renounce his adulterous marriage .

The pope could be under no delusion as to the value of this See also:

oath, which indeed was not kept; he merely regularized formally a state of affairs which the intractable Urban II. himself had never been able to prevent, As for the French question of the investitures, it was settled apparently without any treaty being expressly See also:drawn up between the parties . The kings of France contemporary with Paschal II. ceased to practice spiritual investiture, or even to receive feudal homage from the bishops . They did not, however, renounce all intervention or all profit in the nominations to prelacies, but their intervention was no longer exhibited under the forms which the Hildebrandine party held to be illegal . In See also:England, Paschal II. put an end to the See also:long quarrel between the royal government and See also:Anselm of See also:Canterbury by accepting the See also:Concordat of See also:London (1107) . The See also:crown in England also abandoned investiture by the See also:pastoral See also:staff and See also:ring, but, more fortunate than in France, retained the right of receiving feudal homage from the episcopate . As for See also:Germany, the See also:Emperor See also:Henry V. wrung from the pope, by a display of force at Rome, concessions which provoked the indignant clamours of the most ardent reformers in France ands Italy . It must not, however, be forgotten that, in the negotiations at See also:Sutri, Paschal had See also:pride and See also:independence enough to propose to the emperor the only solution of the conflict that was entirely logical and essentially Christian, namely, the renunciation by the Church of its temporal power and the renunciation by the lay lords of all intervention in elections and investitures—in other words, the absolute separation of the priesthood and the state . The idea was contrary to the whole See also:evolution of medieval Catholicism, and the See also:German bishops were the first to repudiate it . At all events, it is certain that Paschal II. prepared the way for the Concordat of See also:Worms . On the other hand, with more acuteness than his predecessors, he realized that the papacy could not sustain the struggle against Germany unless it could rely upon the support of another Christian See also:kingdom of the West; and he concluded with Philip I. of France and See also:Louis the See also:Fat, at the See also:Council of See also:Troyes (1107), an See also:alliance which was for more than a century the salvation of the See also:court of Rome . It is from this time that we find the popes in moments of crisis transporting them-selves to Capetian territory, installing their governments and convening their councils there, and from that See also:place of See also:refuge fulminating with impunity against the internal and external foe . Without sacrificing the essential principles of the reformation, Paschal II. practised a policy of See also:peace and reaction in every way contrary to that of the two preceding popes, and it was through him that the struggle was once more placed upon the religious basis .

He refused to retain See also:

Hugo, bishop of See also:Die (d . 1106), as See also:legate; like Urban and Gregory, he gave or confirmed monastic privileges without the See also:protection he granted to the monks assuming a character of hostility towards the episcopate; and, finally, he gave an impulse to the reformation of the chapters, and, unlike Urban II., maintained the rights of the canons against the claims of the abbots . See also:Guy, the See also:archbishop of See also:Vienne, who had been one of the Alliance with France . keenest to disavow the policy of Paschal II., was obliged to continue it when he assumed the See also:tiara under the name of Calixtus II . By the Concordat of Worms, which he Calla-Ns 71., signed with the Emperor Henry V. in 1122, the 1119-1124 . investiture was divided between the ecclesiastical and the lay See also:powers, the emperor investing with the See also:sceptre, the pope with the pastoral staff and ring . The work did honour to the' perseverance and ability of Calixtus, but it was merely the application of the ideas of Paschal II. and No of Chartres . The understanding, however, between the two contracting parties was very far from being clear and See also:complete, as each party still sought to attain its own aim by spreading in the Christian world divergent interpretations of the concordat and widely-differing plans for reducing it to its final form . And, again, if this transaction settled the investiture question, it did not solve the problem of the reconciliation of the universal power of the popes with the claims of the emperors to the government of Europe; and the conflict subsisted—slumbering, it is true, but ever ready to awake under other forms . Nevertheless, the two great Christian agitations directed by the papacy at the end of the 1th century and the beginning of the 12th—the reformation and the crusade—were of See also:capital importance for the See also:foundation of the immense religious See also:monarchy that had its centre in Rome; and it is from this period that the papal monarchy actually See also:dates . The entry of the Christians into Jerusalem produced an extraordinary effect upon the faithful of the West . In it they Effect of the saw the most See also:manifest .

:sign of the divine protection Latin and of the supernatural power of the pope, the See also:

conquest of supreme director of the expedition . At its inception Jerusalem. the Latin kingdom of the Holy See also:Land was within a little of becoming an ecclesiastical principality, ruled by a See also:patriarch under the authority of the pope . Daimbert, the first patriarch of Jerusalem, was convinced that the Roman Church alone could be See also:sovereign of the new state, and attempted to compel See also:Godfrey of See also:Bouillon to hand over to him by a See also:solemn agreement the See also:town and citadel of Jerusalem, and also Jaffa . The clergy, indeed, received a large See also:share; but the government of the Latin principality remained lay and military, the only form of government possible for a See also:colony surrounded by perils and camped in a hostile See also:country . Not only was the result of the crusade extremely favourable to the See also:extension of the Roman power, but throughout the middle ages the papacy never ceased to derive almost incalculable political and See also:financial advantages from the agitation produced by the preachers and the crusading expeditions . The See also:mere fact of the crusaders being placed under the See also:special protection of the Church and the pope, and loaded with privileges, freed them from the jurisdiction, and even, up to a certain point, from the lordship of their natural masters, to become the almost direct subjects of the papacy; and the See also:common See also:law was then practically suspended for the benefit of the Church and the leader who represented it . As for the reformation, which under Urban II. and his immediate successors was aimed not only at the episcopate suhordma. but also at the See also:capitulary bodies and monastic tlon of the clergy, it, too, could but tend to a consider-Episcopate able extension of the authority of the successors of to the Papal St Peter, for it struck an irremediable See also:blow at Monarchy. the See also:ancient Christian See also:hierarchy . The first manifest result of the See also:change was the weakening of the metropolitans . The visible symptom of this decadence of the archiepiscopal power was the growing frequency during the Hildebrandine conflict of episcopal confirmations and consecrations made by the popes themselves or their legates . From an active instrument of the religious society, the archiepiscopate degenerated into a purely formal power; while the episcopate itself, which the sincere reformers wished to liberate and purge in order to strengthen it, emerged from the crisis sensibly weakened as well as ameliorated . The episcopate, while it gained in intelligence and morality, lost a part of its independence . It was raised above, See also:feudalism only to be abased before the two directing forces of the reformation, the papacy and the religious orders .

To place itself in a better posture for combating the simoniacal and concubinary prelates, the court of Rome had had to multiply exemptions and accelerate the movement which impelled the monks to make themselves independent of the bishops . Even in the cities, the seats of the episcopal power, the reformation encouraged the attempts at revolt or See also:

autonomy which tended everywhere to diminish that power . The See also:cathedral chapters took See also:advantage of this situation to oppose their jurisdiction to that of the bishops, and to encroach on their prerogatives . When See also:war was declared on the schismatic prelates, the reforming popes supported the canons, and, unconsciously or not, helped them to form themselves into privileged bodies living their own lives and affecting to recognize the court of Rome as their only See also:superior authority . Other adversaries of the episcopate, the burgesses and the See also:petty nobles dwelling in the See also:city, also profited by these frequent changes of bishops, and the disorders that ensued . It was the monarchy of the bishops of Rome that naturally benefited by these attacks on the aristocratic principle represented by the high prelacies in the Church . By See also:drawing to their See also:side all the forces of the ecclesiastical See also:body to combat feudalism, Urban II. and his successors, with their monks and legates, changed the constitution of that body, and changed it to their own advantage . The new situation of these popes and the growth of their authority were also manifested in the material organization of their See also:administration and See also:chancery . Under Urban II. the formulary of the papal bulls began to crystallize, and the letters amassed in the papal offices were differentiated clearly into great and little bulls, according to their See also:style, arrangement and signs of validation . Under Paschal II. the type of the leaden See also:seal affixed to the bulls (representing the heads of the apostles Peter and See also:Paul) was fixed, and the use of Roman minuscule finally substituted for that of the Lombard script . 2 . Period from See also:Honorius II. to See also:Celestine III .

Phoenix-squares

(1124–1198).--After the reformation and the crusade the papal monarchy existed, and the next step was to consolidate and extend it . This task See also:

fell to the popes of the 12th century . Two of them in particular—the two who had the longest reigns—viz . See also:Innocent II. and See also:Alexander III., achieved the widest extension of the power entrusted to them, and in many respects their pontificates may be regarded as a preparation for and adumbration of the pontificate of Innocent III . This period, however, is characterized not only by the thoroughgoing development of the authority of the Holy See, but also by the severe struggle the popes had to sustain against the hostile forces that were opposed to their conquests or to the mere exercise of what they regarded as their right . In the secular contest, Germany and the imperialist pretensions of its leaders were invariably the See also:principal The papacy obstacle . Until the See also:accession of See also:Adrian IV., how- and the ever, there had been considerable periods of tran- German quillity, years even of unbroken peace and alliance Emperors. with the Germanic power . Under Honorius II. the empire, represented by See also:Lothair III. of Supplinburg, yielded to the papacy, and Lothair, who was elected by the clergy and protected by the legates, begged the pope to Ronoriu . 1/24-1130 . confirm his See also:election . Before his See also:coronation he had renounced the right, so jealously guarded by Henry V., of assisting in the election of bishops and abbots, and he even undertook to refrain from exacting homage from the prelates and to content himself with fealty . This undertaking, however, did not prevent him from bringing all his See also:influence to See also:bear upon the ecclesiastical nominations .

When the schism of 1130 See also:

broke out he endeavoured to procure the cancellation of the clauses of the Concordat of Worms and to recover lay investiture by way of See also:compensation for the support he had given to Innocent II., one of the competing popes . This scheme, however, was frustrated by the firmness of Innocent and St See also:Bernard, and Lothair had to resign himself to the zealous conservation of the privileges granted to the Empire by the terms of the concordat . The ardour he had displayed in securing the recognition of Innocent and defending him against his enemies, particularly the See also:anti-pope Adrian Iv., lutely sustained the struggle, the latter for nearly 1154-1159 . twenty years . Victims of the communal claims at Rome, they constituted themselves the champions of similar claims in See also:northern Italy, and their alliance with the Lombard communes ultimately led to success . In his See also:duel with Barba-Alexan- rossa, Alexander III., one of the greatest of medieval der III., popes, displayed extraordinary courage, address and 11594181. perseverance . Although it must be admitted that the tenacity of the Lombard republics contributed powerfully to the pope's victory, and that the See also:triumph of the Milanese at See also:Legnano (1176) was the determining cause of See also:Frederick's submission at See also:Venice, yet we must not exaggerate the importance of the solemn act by which See also:Barbarossa, kneeling before his conqueror, recognized the spiritual supremacy of the Holy See, and swore fidelity and respect to it . In its final form, the truce of Venice was not only not unfavourable secularly to the Empire, but even granted it very extensive advantages . Nor must it be forgotten that,' in the eyes of contemporaries, the See also:scene at Venice had none of that humiliating character which later historians have attributed to it . This was not the only success gained by Alexander III. over lay sovereigns . The conflict of the priesthood with the kingdoms Alexander and nations that were tending to aggrandize them-/11. and selves by transcending the religious limits of the Henry H. medieval See also:theocracy took place on another See also:theatre. of England . The affair of See also:Thomas See also:Becket (q.v.) involved the papacy in a quarrel with the powerful monarchy of the Angevins, whose representative, Henry II., was See also:master of England. and of the half of France .

Alexander's See also:

diplomatic skill and moral authority, reinforced by the Capetian alliance and the revulsion of feeling caused by the See also:murder of Becket, enabled him to force the despotic Henry to yield, and even to do See also:penance at the See also:tomb of the See also:martyr . The See also:Plantagenet abjured the Constitutions of See also:Clarendon, recognized the rights of the pope over the Church of England, and augmented the privileges and domains of the archbishopric of Canterbury . Although Becket was a See also:man of narrow sympathies and by no means of liberal views, he had died for the liberties of his See also:caste, and the aureolethat surrounded him enhanced the See also:prestige and ascendancy of the papacy . Unfortunately for the papacy, the successors of Alexander III. lacked vigour, and their pontificates were too brief to allow them to pursue a strong policy against the Germanic The papacy imperialism . Never were the leaders of the Church and the in such See also:jeopardy as during the reign of Barbarossa's Emperor son, Henry VI . This vigorous See also:despot, whose ambi- Henry vf. tions were not all chimerical, had succeeded where his predecessors, including Frederick, had failed . His marriage with the heiress of the old See also:Norman kings had made him master of See also:Sicily and the duchy of See also:Apulia and See also:Calabria, and he succeeded in conquering and retaining almost all the See also:remainder of the See also:peninsula . Under Celestine III. the papal state was surrounded on every side by German soldiers, and but for the premature death of the emperor, whom See also:Abbot See also:Joachim of See also:Floris called the " See also:hammer of the world," the temporal power of the popes might perhaps have been annihilated . The Norman kingdom, which had conquered Sicily and See also:southern Italy at the end of the•rrth century, was almost as See also:grave a source of anxiety to the popes of this period . The Pap Not only was its very existence an obstacle to the snad the atcy d the spread of their temporal power in the peninsula, Norman but it frequently acted in See also:concert with the pope's Kingdom enemies and thwarted the papal policy . The /nItaly . See also:south attempts of Honorius II .

(1128) and Innocent II . (1130) to wrest Apulia and Calabria from See also:

King See also:Roger II., and Adrian IV.'s war with See also:William I . (1156), were one and all unsuccessful; and the papacy had to content itself with the vassalage and See also:tribute of the See also:Normans, and allowed them to organize the ecclesiastical government of their domains in their own See also:fashion, to limit the right of See also:appeal to Rome, and to curtail the power of the Roman legates . At this period, moreover, the " Norman Question " was intimately connected with the " Eastern Question." The Norman adventurers in possession of See also:Palermo and See also:Naples perpetually tended to look for their aggrandizement to the Byzantine Empire . In the interests of their temporal dominion, the 12th-century popes could not suffer an Italian power to dominate on the other side of the Adriatic and instal itself at Constantinople . This contingency explains the vacillating and illogical character of the papal diplomacy with regard to the Byzantine problem, and, inter ¢li¢, the opposition of See also:Eugenius III. in ' s o to Roger H.'s projected crusade, which was directed towards the conquest of the Greek state . The popes were under the See also:constant sway of two contrary influences—on the one hand, the seducing prospect of subduing the Eastern Church and triumphing over the schism, and, on the other, the See also:apprehension of seeing the Normans of Sicily, their competitors in Italy, increasing their already formidable power by successful expeditions into the See also:Balkan Peninsula . Dread of the Normans, too, explains the singular attitude of the Curia towards the Comneni, of whom it was alternately the enemy and the See also:protector or ally . But, as regards its temporal aims on Italy, the most inconvenient and tenacious, if not the most dangerous, adversary of the 12th-century papacy was the Roman See also:commune . Since the middle of the 12th century the party of The Papacy municipal autonomy and, indeed, the whole of the and the c See also:European middle classes, who wished to shake off of Rome. the feudal yoke and secure independence, had been ranged against the successor of St Peter . The first symptoms of resistance were exhibited under Innocent II . (1142), who was unable to See also:stem the growing revolution or prevent the See also:establishment of a Roman See also:senate sitting in the Capitol .

The strength of classical See also:

reminiscence and the See also:instinct of See also:liberty were See also:rein-forced by the support given to communal aspirations by the popular agitator and dangerous