THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE 10TH CENTURY.

BACKGROUND: 9TH CENTURY The dissolution of Charlemagne’s empire upon

his death in AD 814 impacted the relationship between Church and state.

Frequently, unscrupulous secular lords forged close alliances with local bishops, some of whom owed their positions to political rather than spiritual prerogatives.

In the midst of these realignments of mutual benefit, papal leadership declined, most notably after the reign of Pope Nicholas the Great, who managed to assert strong leadership and preserve the role of Pontiff as the Vicar of Christ.

Following the death of Pope Nicholas I, the Christian church was, a “squalid state of corruption” (Williston Walker, A history of the Christian Church).

Kings and emperors appointed bishops and abbots, often without regard to spiritual qualification.

Additionally, clerical marriage and concubinage, called Nicolaitanism, undermined priestly celibacy.

The rise and growth of Mendicant orders such as the Franciscans appeared during times of rampant corruption that began at the highest ecclesiastical tiers and filtered down to local diocesan parishes.

Such corruption was tied to many reasons and, in most cases, was only temporarily halted by the reformers.

Medieval parish priests at most times and places had a wife (or a concubine) and children of his own.

Local bishops made no attempts to curb such practices and frequently had concubines of their own.

Some dioceses even imposed a tax on priests with wives and children.

Simony was the practice of selling ecclesiastical offices. In essence, the practice involved the trafficking of benefices.

Unqualified men purchased church offices, enriching the coffers of the feudal lord or king, and recouped the investment from revenues obtained from the benefice.

Simony Contracts often detailed the specifications of such agreements with the newly appointed abbots of bishops promising to pay the lord a yearly percentage of collected revenues after the initial purchase.

The term “simony” referred to the New Testament Acts of the Apostles which relates the story of a man named Simon who practiced magic.

After witnessed the bestowing of the gifts of the Spirit by Peter, Simon, greatly impressed, offered to buy the authority to bestow God’s gifts.

Peter’s angry reply included the rebuke that, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.”

Medieval reformers seized on this statement to end simony.

Although the 451 AD Council of Chalcedon had ruled against the practice, it was continued throughout much of the Middle Ages.

The papacy itself was thrown into turmoil as a succession of popes were elected and controlled by prominent aristocratic families in Rome.

By AD 955, Pope John XII, a thoroughly immoral man, caused the intervention of Emperor Otto I who proceeded to depose John and redirect that leadership of the papacy by appointing his own choice for pope.

Otto, a sincerely religious leader, had done much to expand the Church in the Holy Roman Empire, establishing new bishoprics on the frontiers and appointing good men as bishops and abbots.

By deposing the pope, Otto began a movement among Emperors for which control of the papacy was a part of imperial prerogative.

The reform monastery at Cluny was founded in AD 910 as a self-governing entity directly under the authority of the pope.

Its abbots would be elected by the monks themselves and there would be no political alliances with secular lords.

Cluny represented a new direction for the Rule of St. Benedict, promoting a strict asceticism yet fostering more corporate liturgical worship.

Gifts to the monastery were only accepted as free-will alms; there would be no quid pro quo in terms of political or other favors.

According to Church Historian Williston Walker, “Its aim was a monastic reformation by example and influence.”

Cluny would not hold any lands in return for the tradition feudal obligations common at the time.

Cluny abbots were partially successful in implementing the “Truce of God,” an effort to stop wars during Holy Week.

Cluny was so successful that other monasteries either adopted similar patterns of governance and asceticism, such as at Monte Cassino – where Benedict had started his movement, or sought to ally themselves with Cluny.

Through the Cluniac reform movement, key church leaders would reassert papal primacy, fight the practice of simony, and in the 11th Century, attack lay investiture (secular rulers “investing” bishops with the symbols of Episcopal power).