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The Creation of Unity through Persecution

by

Carrie Koch and Carl Edwin Lindgren

Abstract

 The condemnation of Arianism at Nicaea marked the beginning of the church’s struggle for unity, power and the control of wealth. The Church claimed the title to all of Christendom as given to the pope in the donation of Constantine and argued that spiritual leadership should take precedence over temporal leadership. As secular rulers challenged the papacy for dominance, the church used the threat of excommunication to decide the issue. The church also placed economic restrictions on heads of state; tax exemption and the payment of tithes enabled the Church to extend its influence and grow in material wealth. To insure adherence to doctrine and to achieve unity of religious belief, a definition of heresy was established as doctrine contrary to orthodox belief. It brought with it the sentence of excommunication, the confiscation of personal property, and often, death by burning. Heresy rose throughout the Middle Ages as more and more people became dissatisfied with the church’s ability to provide for their spiritual well being. The clergy were seen as corrupt and their wealth showed that they were as steeped in the material world as the ordinary people were. Groups that disagreed with the excessive lifestyles of the clergy, as well as groups that lived on the fringe of society were often victims of persecution. Beguines and Albigensians were seen as threats to unity because they advocated an apostolic life that rejected the material world, denying the need for the priest as intermediary between them and God. Jews were protected by the church and secular rulers, and as such became victims of persecution because this protection afforded them special status within the community.  Secular rulers coveted the Templars’ wealth and influence and used the inquisition as a means to obtain Templar wealth. The Inquisition provided the means for suppression of heretical groups and the confiscation of the heretic’s property provided the church with much needed revenue. The Crusades enabled the popes to unite Christians and also created an avenue of expansion and the accumulation of wealth. The conquest of the Holy Land promised relics, riches, and land. Nobles often mortgaged their holdings to the church in order to participate in the crusades. The suppression of heresy enabled the church to establish its power, provided unity in faith, and allowed the church to grow in material wealth.             


Introduction

The decreased authority in the West and threats to boundaries caused the political instability that characterized the end of the Roman Empire. Barbarian invaders, weak emperors and internal struggles allowed the church to emerge as the dominant authority but the upheaval caused by the disintegration of the Roman Empire, barbarians, pagans, and disagreements over doctrine threatened the ambitions of Church leaders. Seeking not only salvation for the people but also unity and stability, the Church saw any doctrine that disagreed with established orthodoxy as an attempt to undermine its power and wealth. The persecution of heresy was a tool to ensure the unity of the state under the auspices of the Catholic Church. The Church, wielding the spiritual sword depended on the loyalty of good Christians for its wealth and survival and secular rulers that claimed divine right to rule depended upon their subjects to profess loyalty to their ruler as God’s vicar.  Through the persecution of heresy, both secular rulers and the Church insured the unity through the loyalty of Christians. The persecution of heresy beginning with the condemnation of Arianism at Nicaea in 325 was prompted by the need to achieve religious unity, political power, and the control of wealth.

The Church claimed the title to all of Christendom as given to the pope in the Donation of Constantine. Although discovered to be a forgery by Lorenzo Valla 1407-1457 and written in the eighth century, this document solidified the Church’s claim to supremacy in the West (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 341).  

And we command and decree that he should have primacy over the four principal Sees of Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, as well as over all the churches of God throughout the whole world; and the Pontiff who occupies at any given moment the See of that same most holy Roman Church shall rank as the highest and chief among all the priests of the whole world. . . For it is just that the holy law should have its center of government at the place where the institutor of the holy law, our Savior, commanded blessed Peter to set up the chair of his apostolate.. . behold, we give to the often-mentioned most holy Pontiff, our father Sylvester, the Universal Pope, not only the above mentioned palace, but also the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy and the Eastern regions, relinquishing them to the authority of himself and his successors as Pontiffs by a definite Imperial grant. We have decided that this should be laid down by this our divine, holy and lawfully framed decree and we grant it on a permanent legal basis to the holy Roman Church (The Donation of Constantine). 

The Popes of Rome claimed that they should be free from secular authority and that they had jurisdiction over all of Christendom by rights of succession.  Pope Leo I (440-461), one of the earliest proponents of papal supremacy stated in “On the Authority of St. Peter,” that Jesus in his statement “Upon this rock I will build my Church” ordained Peter (the “rock”) as the first bishop (pope) of Rome. As Peter’s body lies beneath the Church, he is the foundation of that church and all that follow in his footsteps (popes) are then part of that foundation.

The claim of freedom from secular authority sparked a struggle for supremacy between secular heads and the papacy. Popes argued that spiritual leadership of Christendom should take precedence over earthly leadership as salvation can only be gained through the Church.  Pope Gelasius I (492-496) argued that the priests have more responsibility than kings or emperors, as it is they who must answer for the kings and emperors at the divine judgement; as the priests consecrate emperors and kings they are answerable to them (the priests) for spiritual salvation. Therefore, priests should be considered to have supremacy over kings and emperors. Gelasius’ statement was echoed in the Unam Sanctum, issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302 and states that “in this Church and in its power are two swords; namely, the spiritual and the temporal. Both are in the power of the Church, that is to say, the spiritual and the material sword, but the former is to be administered for the Church but the latter by the Church; the former in the hands of the priest; the latter by the hands of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.”

            The struggle between popes and secular rulers would result in the definition of papal authority by Gregory VII in the eleventh century. In his papal dictates, which consisted of 27 assertions, Gregory asserts that the position of the pope as “the rock” is superior to all other bishops and that the position has the right to depose emperors, he also disallowed lay investiture which gave him further authority over secular rulers. (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 247).

            The authority of the papacy was tested by Henry IV (1056-1106) when he appointed his own choice to the archbishopric of Milan. Gregory accused Henry of simony and summoned him to Rome to account for his actions. Henry responded by convening a synod in 1076 and there deposed the pope. Gregory in turn excommunicated Henry and freed his subjects of allegiance to him. Henry’s nobles seized the opportunity to rid themselves of a threat to their power and revolted. Henry was forced to concede to the pope. In January of 1077, he went to Canossa, garbed as a peasant and stood barefoot in the snow for three days to pay penance for this transgression against the most Holy Father. Gregory received him back into the church with the response; “We loosed the chain of anathema and at length received him into the favor of communion and into the lap of the Holy Mother Church” (Wallbank, 1967, p.228). This investiture controversy was to continue for another 50 years as kings and popes vied for power over the Christian community. It ended in 1122 at the Concordat of Worms with a compromise (Hollister & Bennett, 2002, pp. 208-209).

            Kings continued to challenge the papacy for dominance. Philip Augustus (1180-1223) of France angered the pope when he annulled his marriage to the Danish princess, Ingeborg after the wedding night and married again. The pope imposed an interdict on France and excommunicated Philip causing him to back down and go back to his first wife (Hollister & Bennett, 2002, p. 258).

King John of England (1199-1216) intended to usurp the pope’s authority in choosing his own candidate for the archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) imposed an interdict on England, threatened to depose John and even backed a French invasion. Under this pressure John submitted, installed the pope’s man, became the pope’s vassal receiving England back as a fief, and paid an annual monetary tribute to his lord, Innocent III (Hollister & Bennett, 2002, p.257).

             Interdict or excommunication generally decided the struggle between king and pope. Kings governing Christian communities found that their secular power over the earthly lives of their people was no match for the Pope’s spiritual power over his subjects’ hope for salvation.

            The church also placed economic restrictions on heads of state. Church lands were not to be taxed as Constantine had decreed. In 570, Gregory of Tours asserts this right of exemption to King Lothar. “If you wish to take God’s property the Lord will quickly take away your kingdom.”

            Emperor Louis the Pious, in 817 states that church tithes were to be paid in kind, in money, or in labor and threatened loss of benefice as punishment for non payment. Monarchs in need of revenue challenged the payment of the tithe and the exemption from taxes. The church responded by threatening excommunication of both the monarch who exacted the tax and the prelate who paid it. Boniface VIII, in Clericis Laicos, 1296 made this perfectly clear: 

likewise, emperors, kings, or princes,  . . .and any other persons, of whatever pre-eminence, condition or standing who shall impose, exact or receive such payments, or shall any where arrest, seize or presume to take possession of the belongings of churches or ecclesiastical persons which are deposited in the sacred buildings, or shall order them to be arrested, seized or taken possession of or shall receive them when taken possession of seized or arrested – also all who shall knowingly give aid, counsel of favour in the aforesaid things, whether publicly or secretly:-shall incur, by the act itself the sentence of excommunication. . . The prelates and above mentioned ecclesiastical persons we strictly command,. ..that they by no means acquiesce in such demands, without express permission of the aforesaid chair,. . .and if they shall-pay, or if the aforesaid persons shall receive, they shall be, by the act itself, under sentence of excommunication. 

Exemption from taxes coupled with the payment of tithes through work or money enabled the Church to extend its influence and grow in material wealth.

Kings continued to challenge the Pope’s authority but continued to enforce Christian doctrine. The Law Licet Juris of the Frankfort Diet of 1338 declares the divine authority of the monarch as given by God through the electors without the confirmation of the pope; “and he shall have full power of administering the laws of the empire and of doing the other things that pertain to a true emperor; nor does he need the approbation, confirmation, authority or consent of the apostolic see or of any one else.” The monarchy saw their obligations to protect Christianity, even from their own officers. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, 1438 declares “according to the oath taken at their coronation, kings are bound to defend and protect the holy church, its ministers and its sacred offices, and zealously to guard in their kingdoms the decrees of the holy fathers.” The Sanction states the excesses of the church and the need to reform the church as well as to place restrictions on the appointment of church officials

To insure adherence to doctrine and to achieve unity of religious belief, Christian leaders held church councils, built churches and developed an administrative hierarchy (the papal curia) with the pope as its head. With a well-established bureaucracy, the Church sought to unify its people within the framework of the Christian Church. In order to do this; the Church demanded absolute allegiance to a single doctrine labeling all others as heresy and a threat to the stability of the Christian world. The Council at Nicaea in 325 established the distinctive Christian doctrine of the trinity, issued a statement of belief that defined the essential beliefs of Christians, and gave legal status to the persecution of heresy. (Canons from Nicea 1, 325). The Nicene Creed declared that Jesus was the same substance as God: “We believe in one God the Father All-sovereign, maker of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father” (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 179).

                Christian doctrine came to include the following: the Trinity, Creation, the Fall (man rebuked by God fell into sin), Incarnation (of God in Christ to restore man to grace), the Church (provides grace), and the Last Judgement (Kries, 2001). Doctrine was further clarified in The Codex Theodosianus: On Religion and in the writings of the church fathers. “We desire that all the people under the rule of our clemency should… believe in the one deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with equal majesty and in the Holy Trinity according to the apostolic teaching and the authority of the gospel.

Heresy, from the Greek hairesis, means choice or as the church fathers defined it, wrong choice. Heresy was defined as contrary to the Canon, that is, contrary to orthodox doctrine. The apostle Paul saw wrong choice as a threat to the supremacy of the church, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them” (Holy Bible, Romans 16:17). Paul believed that it was impossible for man to achieve salvation alone, “it followed that only by union with Christ through faith can any man be saved” (Gehman, 1970, p. 722). Therefore, only through the Church can salvation be achieved. Those who do not believe should be avoided lest they infect others with their heresies. “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth being condemned of himself” (Holy Bible, Titus 3:10-11).

The definition of heresy was established to protect Christian doctrine and therefore, the unity of the faith. The Theodosian Code XVI.i.2 states “ . . . we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of divine condemnation and the second the punishment of our authority, in accordance with the will of heaven shall decide to inflict.” As adherence to doctrine was the only path to salvation, the Church emerged as the only institution through which salvation could be achieved.

This belief was clarified in the Decretum (1140) written by Gratian, a Bolognese lawyer who defined heresy as the rejection of Orthodox doctrine after correction was offered (Kries, 2001). Gratian believed that heretics could be brought to salvation through the return to the church but if they returned to heretical belief they should be excommunicated. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) believed that heresy should not be tolerated: “As for heretics their sin deserves banishment, not only from the Church by excommunication, but also from this world by death” (Novak, 1995).

Yet heresy continued to exist, the Church saw disagreements concerning doctrine as a challenge to unity and power. The earliest challenges to Christian doctrine came from the Gnostics. Gnosticism denied the church as an institution through which salvation could be reached, as salvation could be achieved only through the apprehension of gnosis (special knowledge of spiritual truth). This belief threatened the church as it denied its spiritual power over the conduct of man. If man could achieve salvation on his own, he had no need of the church or its doctrine. Arius, an Alexandrian priest taught that Jesus was not co-equaled with God; he was created by Him at a moment in time and was not coeternal with Him (Wallbank, 1967, p.126).  The church opposed Arianism because it denied the concept of the Trinity. Arian Christianity eventually disappeared but its proponents and missionaries spread the belief through Europe; when barbarians converted to Christianity, it was to the Arian belief.

Other challenges to Orthodox Christianity involved the concept of dualism. Dualism involves the belief that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles of good and evil and that man consists of two independent elements of spirit and matter. Since man possesses this duality, he may live his life in any way for it will not influence his spirit. In the third century, Mani (215-276) taught that the universe consisted of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil and rejected earthly materialism as evil. Priscillian, Bishop of Avila (340-385) practiced asceticism combined with astrology and dualism. He was suspected of being Manichean but the official reason for condemning him to be burnt at the stake as a heretic was witchcraft. The Paulicans came from Armenia in the sixth century. They were dualists who rejected the Old Testament and much of the New, practiced iconoclasm and repudiated the sacraments. (Moore, 1990; Kries; 1967)

The Bogomils, a tenth century Bulgarian sect believed that only the New Testament revealed the word of God. They rejected the sacraments and ritual and renounced the world as the only solution to the problem of evil in a world created by God. They fasted ruthlessly and forbade the eating of anything that was the product of coition such as eggs, milk, cheese, and meat. The Bogomils saw the material world as evil and those who partook of things in that world as evil as well; this included monks and bishops (Lambert, 2002, p. 63-64; Kries, 1967).

Common to heretical thought was the problem of reconciling worldly desires with spiritual needs. Many of the heretical sects rejected the material world in favor of the spiritual, denying the need for help from the clergy to achieve salvation. The common people of Medieval Europe believed in salvation through Christianity but knew very little of doctrine as sacraments were given in Latin, a language mostly unknown by the common people. Their lives revolved around their work, their families, and their duty to pay tithes to the church and their dues to their lords, (sometimes one and the same). The heretical rejection of the church as a worldly institution allowed the common people to administer to themselves; to find God without an intercessor (that they couldn’t understand anyway). It also allowed them to abandon their way of life and freed them from the payment of tithes to the Church.

Social and economic changes played a role in developing heresies. The expanding trade and economic opportunities as well as the growth of towns and cities aided the dissemination of heretical ideas; “growing groups of lay people took to gathering together for spiritual comfort and social support by means of private worship and gospel study" (Moore, 1990, p. 21). That groups like this existed implies that the Church was not adequately administering to its people. The groups supplied spiritual guidance as well as intellectual stimulation: “A nexus of thought and action was created, revolving round a number of sentiments or quotations, written or unwritten, with a transforming power, leading an association’s members into resistance to authority, even willing death. Sporadic doubts about aspects of the Church’s teaching or the conduct of its priests which touched individuals in earlier epochs could be taken up and incorporated in the teaching of a group, which thus gave them durability” (Lambert, 2002, p.34).

Heresy surfaced also as a result of lost confidence in the church. Often living in wealth and splendor, the clergy were seen as corrupt and unreachable. Heretics preached to the poor against the avarice and lechery of priests as well as their claim over the lives and purses of the people (Moore, 1990, p. 72).

The entanglement of the church in secular authority created rivalries for power between emperors, kings and the church. The threat of excommunication allowed the papacy to exert its authority over secular rulers. Heresy could also be used as a means to attack and weaken secular authority and therefore could be seen as a threat to the political and religious unity of Europe as it created dissent and dissatisfaction with the administrative structure.

Popes and secular rulers agreed that heresy threatened unity and in 1184, the church responded with the papal bull Ad abolendam. Pope Lucius III and Frederick Barbarossa authored the bull, which condemned the Cathars, Patarines, Humiliati, the Poor Men of Lyons, and other sects. It also established a procedure for inquisition and penalties for heretical clergy and laymen. The bull placed bishops and clergy in charge of rooting out heresies. Pope Innocent III in his vergentis in senium (1199) decreed that heretics should be treated much the same as those condemned for treason (Moore, 1990, p.9). The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) condemned all heretics as well as all those who should “receive, defend, or support heretics.” If found guilty of heresy, punishment took the form of expulsion or banishment, excommunication, and the confiscation of personal property. It forbade preaching without the authority of the apostolic See and placed punishment of heresy in the hands of secular authorities.  Secular authorities “ought publicly to take an oath that they will strive in good faith and to the best of their ability to exterminate in the territories subject to their jurisdiction all heretics pointed out by the Church.” Punishment was also outlined for those who ignored heresy: “But if a temporal ruler, after having been requested and admonished by the Church, should neglect to cleanse his territory of this heretical foulness, let him be excommunicated” (Kries, 2001, Fourth Lateran Council). In 1231, Pope Gregory IX published a decree that called for life imprisonment for confessed heretics and capital punishment for heretics who persisted in their belief. The decree also relieved the clergy from their obligations and placed the Dominican order in charge (Helden, 1995).

Inquisition ideology consisted of the belief that heresy acted as a disease which if not eradicated completely would return to infect again. Belief in heretical doctrine was seen as a threat to the existing social and political order. It was defiance of the law as set down by both church and state.  “The reason why preachers of heresy were denounced, pursued and extinguished by whatever means availed was precisely the fear that they would undermine the faith of the simplices, and with it the social order.” (Moore 1991, p. 114) The Inquisitor could bring suit against anyone suspect of living a non-orthodox life. The accused was expected to testify against themselves, had no rights to face their accuser or to counsel. Testimony could come from anyone including criminals, the excommunicated, blood relatives, and persons of bad reputations. The examination would take place before two witnesses where a summary of charges was read to the accused. The accused also had to swear an oath to tell the truth. Many sects believed that oaths were sinful and refused to swear. Bernard Gui, an inquisitor wrote in The Inquisitor’s Manual that heretics would often try to undermine the investigation into heresy by avoiding the oath through word-play and that “a vigorous inquisitor must not allow himself to be worked upon in this way, but proceed firmly till he make these people confess their error, or at least publicly abjure heresy, so that if they are subsequently found to have sworn falsely, he can without further hearing, abandon them to the secular arm”. The results of the investigation were read before a large audience and penalties ranged from visits to churches and the wearing of the cross of infamy (yellow cross), to imprisonment for life, death by burning, and excommunication. But in all cases, property was confiscated.

Although canon law did not specify that torture was to be used to extract confessions, Innocent IV in 1252 allowed the use of torture in the bull Ad extirpanda (Barber, 2000, p. 21). This allowed over zealous inquisitors sometimes to resort to this form of examination. Many accused heretics refused to confess to crimes against the church because they felt that they were practicing the teachings of the gospel, albeit their own interpretation. Frustration and the importance of obtaining a confession may have prompted the use of torture. Inquisitions continued to be held, with and without torture, throughout the middle ages. To safeguard the inquisition as a Christian institution, in 1542, Pope Paul II created the Congregation of the Holy Office, “to maintain and defend the integrity of the faith and to examine and proscribe errors and false doctrine” (Helden, 1995). This became the supervisory body of local inquisitions, headed by the Pope and consisted of ten cardinals, a prelate, and two assistants all chosen from the Dominican order. 

The Beguines, Albigensians, Jews, and Templars all felt the power of the inquisition. Albigensians also known as the Cathari practiced a doctrine that pre-dated Christianity. They resembled the Manichees in their belief in duality. There were two worlds; a spirit world created by god, which was good and an evil world of flesh, created by Satan. The human soul was trapped in the evil world of flesh, as was Christ, as was the Catholic Church. They lived a life of asceticism rejecting the material world as evil. They avoided physical contact of any kind (as indulgence in the flesh was a crime). They rejected sex (the conception of children only trapped more souls in bodies), any food that was the product of procreation, the existing political authority of kings and princes, the death penalty, the taking of oaths, and war. The Albigensians also repudiated the sacraments; the Eucharist made no sense as Christ would have to have a body as big as the universe to feed all the people, water is material and corruptible, it cannot cleanse the soul, therefore baptism is evil, confession is useless because the clergy is sinful, and the cross should not be venerated or adorned as it was the instrument of Christ’s death (Gui, On the Albigensians). The Cathari established at least sixteen churches in Italy, Constantinople, and France between 1150 and 1250. The sect attracted ordinary people and nobles, as there were two levels of believers. The priests practiced the strict asceticism as outlined above but the ordinary practitioners could marry and work outside the church. Pope Innocent III saw the Cathari as a threat to the faithful and ordered a crusade in 1209. The crusaders in their zeal to protect the church slew not only Cathari, but also innocent people who got in the way. The confiscated property amounted to much as they also confiscated the holdings and personal property of the Count of Toulouse (Gui, Inquisitorial Technique; Spielvogel, 2000, pp. 254-255).

The Waldensians came into conflict with authorities through their acts of preaching. Peter Waldo (Valdes) a rich businessman rejected the material world for the apostolic life. He became head of the “poor men of Lyons” a religious sect opposed to relics, prayer for the dead, and the need to build and worship in churches (he was known to hold services in barns). Waldo also advocated the individual reading of the Bible and commissioned his own in the vernacular. In 1179, Waldo petitioned the Third Lateran Council for permission to preach. Pole Alexander III approved his vow of poverty but explained that preaching was only for the clergy but he would be allowed to preach if the local clergy would agree. “Scripture was to be mediated, as it were, to the faithful through authorized preachers; the bare text was not to be put into the hands of anyone who might misuse and misunderstand it” (Lambert 2002, p. 82).  Waldo naturally rejected this viewpoint and stressed the need to interpret scripture individually in order to seek fulfillment through Christ’s words. Waldo continued to hope that he would be reconciled to the church but also continued to preach resulting in his expulsion from Lyons. The Waldensians moved to Lombardy, became more radical in their preaching and spread their doctrine into the Languedoc and the Rhine. Despite attempts at suppression, the Waldensian religion lasted into the Reformation. Lacking strong leadership, it eventually disappeared or was absorbed by Protestantism.

The Beguines called themselves the poor brothers of the Third Order of St. Francis and adhered to his teachings. They believed in evangelic poverty, holding no individual possessions and nothing in common. They attacked the pope for his wealth and for his failure to defend the doctrine of St. Francis that called for poverty. Prelates and members of religious orders who wear too many or costly clothes “violate gospel perfection and Christ’s precept, according instead with the precept of Antichrist”.  The church has become drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ and with the “wine of its fornication with all the kings of the earth, that is, the kings, princes, and great ecclesiastical leaders who seek the pomp of this world” (Gui, Inquisitor’s Manual). The Beguines believed also that anyone who condemns them for heresy is a heretic himself, stating that the world will be destroyed by a double Antichrist. The first is the pope; he prepares the way for the second who will destroy all religious orders except theirs. Pope John XXII suppressed the movement after the issue of the bull Quorundam exigit in 1318 (Lambert, 2002, p. 230).

The Jews were the only religious minority allowed to practice a non-Christian religion, however they were kept separate from the Christian populace. ”The motive may have been directly fiscal, to bring the resources of the Jews into the hands of the crown, or political, to prevent them from providing a base for opposition.” (Moore, 1990, p. 39) Jews served in occupations forbidden to Christians, such as banking, and were also used as intermediaries between Muslims and Christians. The Fourth Lateran Council 1215, required Jews to wear distinguishing clothing to separate them from Christians and urged the development of walled enclosures to keep them away from the Christian community. They were viewed as the King’s serfs and were protected by the King as well as the Pope. Pope Innocent III in a bull dated 1205 condemned the Jews to perpetual servitude for the punishment for the crime of crucifixion (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 255). Royal and Ecclesiastical policies favoring Jews aroused Christian anxieties and resentment. In a letter to Louis the Pious, Agobard of Lyon voices his resentment against what he saw as the impious favoring of the Jewish community by the imperial missi. Agobard saw the Jews as dangerous to the Christian community, as their way of life may seem more attractive and favorable over the Christian way of life. He claims that they were cursing Christians and Christ, selling Christians into slavery, and forcing their domestic servants to adhere to the Jewish regulations of life. “In particular, it was because the Jews’ opinion received such confirmation that they irreverently began to preach to the Christians what they ought to believe and hold, openly blaspheming the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ. This perversity was strengthened by the words of your agents who whispered in the ears of certain people that the Jews were not abominable, as many think, but are held dear in your eyes and because some of their people were saying that they are considered better than Christians” (Agobard, On the Insolence of the Jews).

This resentment of Jews by Christians may have helped to create the eleventh century ‘tradition’ of striking Jews in the face on Easter Sunday. The tradition was changed to include a tax on the Jewish community and “prompts the suspicion that like other ‘customs’ of this period it was developed specifically for the purpose of raising revenue, in this case levied by the Church in a region where its resources were under particularly severe pressure” (Moore, 1990, p. 32-33).

The rise of heresy and the crusades intensified reaction against Jews. In 1096, the first crusade saw violent reactions against Jews in Rouen, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Metz, and many other towns. “Though it has been questioned whether the events associated with the first crusade left a lasting impact on French Jewry there is no doubt that the savagery and ruthlessness of the killings, which disturbed many Christian commentators, left the Jews of Germany and the Rhineland not only shocked and despairing but exposed as the objects of cruelty, insults and exploitation – and therefore also, of course, of the secret fear that they might, by one means or another, seek their revenge” Moore, 1990, p. 30-31).

Jews were seen as enemies of Christ “I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan” (Holy Bible, Revelations 2.9). They were accused of holding secret meetings, sexual libertinism and the murder of children. “It has been estimated that the allegation of child murder was the basis of some one hundred and fifty known trials during the high middle ages” (Moore, 1990, p. 37). The belief that the Jews murdered children prompted the development of the Blood Libel cults, the belief that children who were murdered by Jews would perform miracles on those visiting their tombs. Popes Innocent III, Innocent IV, and Gregory X all opposed the belief in the blood libel:

And most falsely do these Christians claim that the Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifice from the heart and blood of these children, since their law in this matter precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws. . . We decree that no Christian shall stir up anything new against them, but that they should be maintained in that status and position in which they were in the time of our predecessors, from antiquity till now. (Gregory X) 

Gregory’s letter did not stop accusations against the Jews.

The accumulation of wealth also prompted inquisitions and crusades. Philip IV’s crusade against the Templar Order allowed the royal treasury to amass a great fortune through the confiscation of Templar wealth although not during his reign. The arrest of the Templar knights and the confiscation of their property sparked a struggle between Philip and Pope Clement V; Clement challenged Philip’s authority to arrest knights under papal authority as well as his confiscation of property that rightfully belonged to the church.

Philip IV in his war against Edward I’s Angevin Empire was faced with the need to raise revenue. Philip taxed his subjects mercilessly, and when this didn’t raise enough revenue, he taxed the clergy, prompting sanctions and the wrath of Boniface VIII (Barber, 2000, pp. 33-35). The struggle between Boniface VIII and Philip ended with the bull Esti de statu in July 1297, granting kings the right to tax the clergy when the kingdom was in danger without consulting the Pope. Philip then resorted to seizing the money and property of Lombards and Jews. “There was a general arrest of Lombards in 1291, and throughout the 1290s individuals were subject to seizures, heavy fines and expulsions… On about 22 July 1306 all the Jews were arrested and their property seized, and they were expelled from the kingdom” (Barber, 2000, p. 40). The Templars were both unpopular and rich, and as such became a target of Philip’s avarice. The Templars were arrested on Oct. 13, 1307 and accused of heresy. This was a unilateral decision on the part of Philip, however he did claim that he was acting on the request of Guillaume de Paris, the Inquisitor in France. 

Evidently the king had become impatient with papal prevarications. His financial needs were acute and the tide of rumour was running strongly. The leaders of the Order were fortuitously in the kingdom of France, but could at any time have decided to return to Cyprus. It must have seemed that the pope intended to do nothing and that the government would be cheated of its spoils; so Philip acted, perhaps urged on by the more intemperate members of his government such as Guillaume de Nogaret. The action was justified on the familiar ground that ‘vehement suspicion’ had arisen against the Order, a phrase used both in the secret orders to the royal officials and in later self-justificatory documents and speeches emanating from the French government. (Barber, 2000, p. 49-50).

The Templars were arrested and made to confess to the charges. Some were tortured and others were simply fed on bread and water and not allowed to sleep. 134 of 138 Templars questioned at Paris confessed to the charges as read. Their property was confiscated. Clement reacted, on Oct 27, 1307, admonishing Philip for not allowing the inquisition to proceed through the church and for seizing property and persons directly subject to the church. Clement ordered that the persons and property of the Templars were to be given over to his Cardinals on behalf of the Church.  Yet another struggle between the King of France and the Pope ensued. A compromise was reached and it was agreed that the property of the Templars was to be given over for the defense of the Holy Land. “The property should become forever that of the order of the Hospital of saint John of Jerusalem, of the Hospital itself and of our beloved sons the master and brothers of the Hospital, in the name of the Hospital and order of these same men, who as athletes of the Lord expose themselves to the danger of death for the defense of the faith, bearing heavy and perilous losses in lands overseas.” (Council of Vienne). The French monarchy managed to exact payment for their expenses incurred throughout the trials from the Hospitallers to the extent that they actually paid out more than they had received from the settlement.

The Church not only sought to unify Christians against heretics within Europe they also sought opportunities outside Europe to exert Christian influence. At the Council of Clermont, in 1095, Pope Urban II challenged Christians to take arms against the infidel and to participate in a holy war to recover the Holy Land from the Muslim. In his speech he told his audience of the atrocities committed against Christians by the Turks and urged them to “take the land from that wicked people, and make it your own”, and promised the absolution of those who fought for him, “set out on this journey and you will obtain the remission of your sins and be sure of the incorruptible glory of the kingdom of heaven” (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 258). The motives for the crusades were religious, political, and economic. The crusades offered the pope an opportunity to provide papal leadership as well as to rally Christians to the faith. The incursions of the Muslim on Christian lands threatened Christian dominance and Muslim raids on Christian ships in the Mediterranean interfered with trade. Urban saw also the possibility of reunification of the Empire through the efforts of the Crusaders.

“From the perspective of the popes and European monarchs, the crusades offered a way to rid Europe of contentious young nobles who disturbed the peace and wasted lives and energy fighting each other” (Spielvogel, 2000, p. 259). The Crusaders, in turn, saw the crusades as an opportunity to vest their chivalric energy in adventure and fighting. They also saw the possibility of gains in territory, riches, status, and title.

The prime motive was a genuine desire to serve God, and the average Crusader really believed that he was marching under God’s orders. The famous cry of “God wills it!” was more than simply a catch phrase. It is a fact that the warlike nobility was constantly at odds with the Church. The knights had their own values and ideals, which were quite different from those of the Church. But here, for once, the Church was speaking to them in language that reconciled their conscience as Christians with their deepest aspirations (Oldenbourg, 1966, p. 45-46). 

Crusading nobles often mortgaged their holdings, abandoned their lands and risked their fortunes in order to participate. They often lost all of their holdings to the church (as it was the church that often advanced the money needed to equip the crusader) which allowed the concentration of power in the church and monarchy. The Crusades, although not responsible for trade itself, did bring about an increase in trade that helped the economic growth of the Italian port cities. The effects of the Crusades were most notable in the creation of Western nationalism. The people of Europe participated under one flag (the cross) for one champion (God). The church had rallied its followers behind one banner creating unity through the creation of a common enemy.

The persecution of heretical groups as well as the crusades assured the unity of faith, and although the Church ultimately lost the power struggle with secular heads, this unity insured that the Church would always survive. As long as secular rulers adhered to the Catholic faith, it was necessary to see to the support of the Church.

            The fall of the Roman Empire signaled the rise of Papal authority as the church filled the power gap left behind by the Roman Emperors. Invasion and disagreements in doctrine threatened stability and the church reacted first by establishing orthodox belief and then by suppressing all whom did not live by that belief. Orthodoxy not only established doctrine but also secured the power of the papacy over secular rulers through the power of excommunication. Suppression of various heretical groups and participation in the crusades guaranteed unity of the social order as the people banded together under the flag of Christianity. The confiscation of the personal property of heretics also provided much needed revenue for both secular rulers and the church. 

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