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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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