What power did the medieval church have?

Answer 1

There were many times when kings or emperors tried to take power away from the Church. One way they did this was to insist that they had the right to appoint bishops or even popes, and the question of whether the kings could do this was called the Investiture Controversy. When they tried to appoint bishops, they got away with it, sometimes, for a while. They even succeeded in appointing their own popes, though doing so split the Church in what was called the Great Schism of the West.

There were many kings and emperors who ran antagonized popes and found it was a big mistake. The problem they had was that the whole fabric of society was regulated by oaths, which were effectively binding contracts, and which could only be nullified by permission from the Church. Everything, from the support the nobility gave to the kings, to treaties the kings had with each other, could be rendered invalid, if a king was excommunicated. Since every king had his enemies, having this happened could cause rebellions and invasions. Great kings like Henry II of England, King John of England, and Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire both suffered from this sort of problem. In the case of King John, the result was sufficiently difficult that he allowed himself to become a vassal of the pope to get out of it.

On the other hand, the Church had little secular power. It usually had no military to command, and was at the mercy of the kings to some degree. When Pope Leo III was attacked by a mob that was enraged at his election, because his father was an ordinary farmer, Charlemagne had to send a military force to come to his rescue.

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Answer 2

The popes had enormous moral authority, and they could excommunicate kings, but they controlled armies of any size, and were often at the mercy of monarchs. At one time a dispute over political power divided the Roman Catholic Church and there were rival popes in Rome and Avignon. On the other hand, monarchs who tried to exert too much power over the Church sometimes lost.

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Answer 3

The Church, because back then it was called the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope had all the control. Kings and Queens claimed that they had their power from God, and the Pope is obviously the closest to God and if he wanted to he could excommunicate the rulers from the church almost guaranteeing them going to hell and their rule over. So there was no question about the Pope's absolute authority in political matters.

Answer 4

The Church only had temporal power in the Vatican States in central Italy. But it had a great deal of spiritual power, because at that time, all of Europe, excepting a minority of Jews, were Catholics. Also, the people of that time realized full well, that God created them for eternity, and that this short life on earth was just a testing period as to where they wanted to spend eternity. People back then had their priorities straight. See links below.

Answer 5

The Church was more powerful because he had reach to all Christian nations and could literally do whatever it wanted in whatever time.

Answer 6

Simply put, historically, Kings have been so powerful that some started their own sections of Christianity.

Answer 7

The Pope. They also told kings what to do as well as the general population.

Answer 8

pope, they had the choice of whether the king should have throne or not. in general the Church was in charge then came the king.