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Universal Power
In the Middle Ages, the term universal power referred to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope. Both were struggling for the so-called '' dominium mundi'', or world dominion, in terms of political and spiritual supremacy. The universal powers continued into the early 19th century until the Napoleonic Wars. The reshaping of Europe meant the effective end of the Empire. Although the Papacy had its territorial limits confined to the Vatican, it retained its soft power in the contemporary world. Origins Given the Caesaropapism of the Byzantine Empire, the situation in the Western World after the decline of the Roman Empire assumed an exceptionally powerful position of the Bishop of Rome. As the only patriarch in the Western World, his status was soon converted into that of a primate (bishop). In addition to this spiritual power, the Bishop of Rome sought to gain temporal power over a territory held by various Germanic Kingdoms in order to make it a true theocracy. The Bishop of ...
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Nuremberg Chronicles - Aeneas, Pope And Frederick 3rd, Emperor (CCLXVIIv)
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. Nuremberg sits on the Pegnitz, which carries the name Regnitz from its confluence with the Rednitz in Fürth onwards (), and on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, that connects the North Sea to the Black Sea. Lying in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, it is the largest city and unofficial capital of the entire cultural region of Franconia. The city is surrounded on three sides by the , a large forest, and in the north lies (''garlic land''), an extensive vegetable growing area and cultural landscape. The city forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach, which is the heart of an urban area region with around 1.4 million inhabitants, while the larger Nuremberg Metrop ...
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Temporal Power (Papal)
The Holy See exercised temporal power, as distinguished from its spiritual and pastoral activity, while the pope ruled the Papal States in central Italy. The Papal States ceased to exist following the capture of Rome in 1870 by the Royal Italian Army, after which its remaining territories were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 later established the Vatican City, a small city-state where the Holy See currently exercises temporal powers. Origins Patrimony of Saint Peter The Lateran Palace was the first significant acquisition of the Holy See, most probably a gift from Constantine the Great. The example of Constantine was followed by wealthy families of the Roman nobility, and the residences and estates that were acquired in turn were designated the '' Patrimonium Sancti Petri.'' After the deposition of the last Roman emperor in the West in 476, the popes were subjects, first of Odoacer, then Arian Ostrogothic kings, then of the Byzantine em ...
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Civil Authority
Civil authority or civil government is the practical implementation of a state on behalf of its citizens, other than through military units (martial law), that enforces law and order and that is distinguished from religious authority (for example, canon law) and secular authority. The enforcement of law and order is typically the role of the police in modern states. History Among the first modern experiments in civil government took place in 1636 when Roger Williams, a Christian minister, founded the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He sought to create a " wall of separation" between church and state to prevent corruption of the church and maintain civil order as expounded upon in his 1644 book, '' Bloudy Tenent of Persecution''.James Emanuel Ernst, Roger Williams, ''New England Firebrand'' (Macmillan Co., Rhode Island, 1932), pg. 24/ref> Types of authority Thus four forms of authority may be seen: *Civil authority * Military government, Military authority *Rel ...
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Nicolaism
Nicolaism (also called Nicholairufus, Nicolaitism, Nicolationism or Nicolaitanism) was an early Christian sect mentioned twice in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. The adherents were called Nicolaitans, Nicolaitanes, or Nicolaites. They were considered heretical by the mainstream early Christian Church. According to Revelation 2:6 and 15, they were known in the cities of Ephesus and Pergamum. In this chapter, the church at Ephesus is endorsed for " atingthe works of the Nicolaites, which I also hate"; and the church in Pergamos is rebuked: "So thou hast also some orshiping in their midstwho hold the teaching of the Nicolaites". In the original Greek, they are called, in genitive, (''Nikolaïtōn''). Several of the early Church Fathers mentioned this group, including Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, and Theodoret, stating that Nicolas the Deacon, one of the Seven Deacons, was the author of the heresy and the sect. Other schola ...
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Simony
Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit in Christianity, Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would Laying on of hands, place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things". Origin The earliest church legislation against simony may be that of the forty-eighth canon of the Synod of Elvira (), against the practice of making a donation following a baptism. Following the Edict of Milan (313), the increased power and wealth of the church hierarchy attracted simony. There are several accusations of simony (not by that name) against Arianism, Arians, from Athanasius of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, Pope Liberius and Gregory of Nazianzus. Many Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, spoke out against the selling of mini ...
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Dictatus Papae
''Dictatus papae'' is a compilation of 27 statements of authority claimed by the pope that was included in Pope Gregory VII's register under the year 1075. Principles The principles expressed in ''Dictatus Papae'' are mostly those expressed by the Gregorian Reform, which had been initiated by Gregory decades before he became pope. It does not mention key aspects of the reform movement such as the abolishing of the triple abuse of clerical marriage, lay investiture and simony. The axioms of the ''Dictatus'' advance the strongest case for papal supremacy and infallibility. The axiom "That it may be permitted to him to depose emperors" qualified the early medieval balance of power embodied in the letter ''Famuli vestrae pietatis'' of Pope Gelasius I to the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius (494), which outlined the separation and complementarity of spiritual and temporal powers - ''auctoritas'' (spiritual) ''and potestas'' or ''imperium'' (temporal), the former being ultimately supe ...
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Theory Of The Two Swords
In Catholicism, the doctrine (or theory) of the two swords is an exegesis of Luke 22:38 elaborated in the Middle Ages. It can be understood as a particular justification for the Gelasian doctrine of "the sacred authority of the priesthood and the royal power".Patrick Stephen Healy"Two Swords, Doctrine of the" in Robert E. Bjork (ed.), ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' (Oxford University Press, 2010). This particular exegesis of "here are two swords ... it is enough" was first put forward by Peter Damian in the 1060s. It was later taken up by Gottschalk of Aachen on behalf of the Emperor Henry IV (1056–1105) against the claims of Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) during the Investiture Contest. In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux, in his ''De consideratione'', argued that both the "material sword" (''gladius materialis'') and the "spiritual sword" (''gladius spiritualis'') belonged ultimately to the Papacy. By the early 13th century, the two swords were the su ...
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Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest (, , ) was a conflict between church and state in medieval Europe, the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture), abbots of monasteries, and the Pope himself. A series of popes in the Christianity in the 11th century, 11th and Christianity in the 12th century, 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict. It began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) in 1076. The conflict ended in 1122, when Pope Callixtus II and Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Henry V agreed on the Concordat of Worms. The agreement required bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the secular monarch, who held authority "by the lance" but left selection to the church. It affirmed the right of the church to invest ...
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Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman emperor in return for political protection, disregarding the universalist claims of the weakened Byzantine Empire. The Carolingian Empire is sometimes considered the first phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. After a Carolingian civil war, civil war from 840 to 843 following the death of Emperor Louis the Pious, the empire was divided into autonomous kingdoms, with one king still recognised as emperor, but with little authority outside his own kingdom. The unity of the empire and the hereditary right of the Carolingians continued to be acknowledged. In 884, Charles the Fat reunited all the Carolingian kingdoms f ...
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Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire from 800, holding these titles until his death in 814. He united most of Western Europe, Western and Central Europe, and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout the Middle Ages. A member of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty, Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. With his brother, Carloman I, he became king of the Franks in 768 following Pepin's death and became the sole ruler three years later. Charlemagne continued his father's policy of protecting the papacy and became its chief defender, remo ...
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Donation Of Constantine
The Donation of Constantine () is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy.Vauchez, Andre (2001)''Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages'' Routledge. p. 445. . In many of the existing manuscripts, including the oldest, the document bears the title ''Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris''. The Donation of Constantine was included in the 9th-century Pseudo-Isidorean decretals. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440, although the document's authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001. Content An alleged decree from Roman Emperor Constantine I, dated March 30 and ...
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Western Roman Empire
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from AD 395 to 476, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct Line of hereditary succession, imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were ''de facto'' independent; contemporary Ancient Rome, Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Ju ...
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