How did the Catholic Church impact the politics of the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

As the Church and State were closely tied during the Middle Ages, all authority figures such as kings and queens were duty bound to nurture, promote and reinforce the authority of the church. The belief that kings were sacred because of their office came from and was continuously upheld by the church, encouraging people to blindly obey the dictates of their sovereigns. Rulers understood that it was essential they had the approval of the Church for most of their political moves since disfavor or excommunication could be the kiss of death for a monarchy.

Answer 2

It is difficult for us, in this day and age, to imagine what it was like back in the Middle Ages, but it is important to at least make the stretch of imagination, however, you will completely fail to grasp what was so different back them.

We have been raised to believe that the Church and the state are not only separate but should be separate. We have been raised to believe that the Church's role in our life (if it still has one) is confined to Sunday.

This is 180 degrees different from the life of a person in the Middle Ages. Back then, people realized full well that they were born as immortal beings, and that the life they lived here was only a brief time of decision as to where they were to spend eternity.

Politics, the activities associated with governing, thus was subsumed under the Church to a large degree - NOT directly, the Church has never had authority in the temporal sphere (other than the Papal states) - but in governing the lives of the rulers. Remember back at this time, in Europe, not only were most of the people of the same religion (excepting only the Jews and the odd nonconformist), but the rulers were as well.

The Church's role has always been to direct individuals to heaven, but when all the people and all the rulers were of the same religion, the Church had quite a lot to do with politics. Also, other than its indirect effect on politics through the lives of the leaders (an excellent example of this would be The Baptism of Clovis which gave birth to France - see Dr. Moczar's book Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know) but also leaders turned to the Church to settle disputes between them.