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was finally excommunicated by the
Pope and was now about to be
deposed.
To save his throne, Henry jour–
neyed to a castle at Canossa in
northern Italy where Pope Gregory
was temporarily staying. For three
days, Henry humiliated himself by
standing barefoot in the snow out–
sirle the castle, imploring Gregory
for forgive ness. Absolution was
finally granted.
The imperial capitulation at
Canossa carne to symbolize the
submission of the State to the
Church, though conflicts still
flared periodically.
At times of their greatest power,
Popes could literally topple king–
doms by excommunicating delin–
quent monarchs. In another inci–
dent , Pope lnnocent
111
brought
proud King John of England to his
knees by imposing an interdict on his
entire country. (An interdict in–
volves the withholding of certain
sacraments of the Church.) Faced
with a potential revolt of his sub–
jects, John submitted to the Pope,
giving Innocent his entire kingdom,
though getting it back as a fief.
In his papal bull
Unam Sanctam
( 1302), Boniface VIII clearly
spelled out the papal prerogative.
He wrote that "both swords, the
spiritual and the material, are in
the power of the Church; the one to
be wielded for the Church, the
other by the Church; the one by
the hand of the priest, the other by
the hand of kings and knights, but
at the will and sufferance of the
priest. One sword, moreover, ought
to be under the other, and the tem–
poral authority to be subjected to
the spiritual."
Papal Peacemaking
Despite their not infrequent quar–
rels, Empire and Papacy remained
closely associated throughout the
Middle Ages. Though restricted in
theory to spiritual concerns, the
Vatican-by the very nature of its
asserted supremacy over the tem–
poral power-was a powerful force
in the political realm.
Popes had entered the temporal
arena at an early date. As the
power of the Roman emperors had
declined in the fourth and fifth
centuries A.D., the author ity and
January
1983
prestige of the Roman pontiffs had
increased. Pope Leo the Great
(440-461 ), whose pontificate saw
the disintegration of the Roman
Empire in the West, had greatly
enhanced the prestige of the papacy
by dealing effectively with invading
barbarían tribes. Through negotia–
tion, Leo had saved Rome from
Atti la the Hun in 452. Later, he
persuaded the Vandals under Gen–
serie not to sack Rome when they
occupied it in 455.
erupted between the two major sea–
going powers- Spain and Portu–
gal-over newly explored lands in
Africa and the New World. Sorne
sort of arrangement over their
respective geographical spheres
would have to be worked out if war
was to be averted.
With war imminent, Pope Alex–
ander VI issued a papal bull in
1493 drawing a line of demarcation
in the Atlantic from one pole to the
other. Spain was to have exclusive
rights to lands discovered west of
the meridian. New discoveries
made to the east were to become
the rightful property of Portugal.
War was thus averted.
A year later the line was
adjusted by Spanish and Portu–
guese ambassadors in the Treaty of
Tordesillas. Again papal influence
aided the settlement.
Peace Sometimes Through War
Not always, however, could dis-
... i
pules be settled so peacefully. At
&1
times, the Vatican found it neces–
a:
sary to wield a
literal
sword in an
~
attempt to reestablish disrupted
. ~
peace. When circumstances re–
~
quired it, Popes were not averse to
~
assuming the role of power-broker
among men, playing the game of
power politics to the full, even to
the extent of engaging in war.
"Church and State
are like
soul and body and
both must be united m
order
to live and
function rightly."
Pope Leo XIIT {1878-1903)
Similarly, as invading Lombards
entered ltaly and threatened Rome
in 754, Pope Stephen 11 had
crossed the Alps to appeal directly
to the Frankish ruler Pepin. Pepin
agreed to protect ltaly and deliv–
ered a crushing defeat to the Lom–
bards.
Medieval examples of the secular
side of papal power are legion. Per–
haps one of the best illustrations of
the use of this power for peacemak–
ing purposes is found at the close of
the 15th century.
A seething verbal conflict had
One of the best-known examples
of such involvement is the Cru–
sades. The Crusades· were a series
of European military expeditions,
under papal sponsorship, against
Moslem powers that had conquered
the Holy Land. Pope Urban
II
ini–
tiated the First Crusade in 1095 by
urging Christians to take up arms
to free Jerusalem "from the wicked
race" and reestablish peace in the
"land of our Savior." Such a war,
Urban declared, was a work pleas–
ing to God, a holy cause.
The use of war as a means of
achieving ultimate peace presented
no theological contradictions to the
Church. lts position is, and has
always been, that a nation has the
right, in a just war, to protect itself
and repel by force those seeking to
destroy it. Nations may also assist
other nations unjustly attacked or
whose rights are encroached on.
In this century, the question of
securing peace by means of war
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