Power Struggles

"Power Corrupts"

The decline of Mediaeval Catholicism was, in part, connected with corruption in the Church and a struggle for power. Baron Acton said:

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

and the Pope, by this time, had almost absolute power. The ability to refuse the sacraments to whole nations was the ability to manipulate the leaders of those nations. Gregory VII used this power to bring Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire into line, Innocent III used it against Philip Augustus of France and King John of England. With power, not only over the Church but also over nations - both spiritual and political power - it was inevitable that the Popes throne was an object of desire and of corruption.

Rising Nationalism

Along with the increase in the power of the Pope - and perhaps even because of it - came a developing sense of national identity. The people began to see their loyalty to be due to the King rather than to the Church. Kings, in their turn, saw the untold wealth of the Church and desired it for themselves and for their own nations from which it had been derived. The Church was seen as oppressive in its taxation of nations and in its means of ensuring payment. The Inquisition as a method of ensuring doctrinal uniformity was resented and stirred up opposition to the Church. Priests, monks and friars were increasingly seen as morally lax.

The Babylonian Captivity

Pope Boniface VIII, in 1302, issued a statement that it was necessary for salvation for every person, including Kings, to be subject to the Pope. Philip IV of France, who was already in the middle of a dispute with the Pope, sent soldiers to Italy to arrest him. Boniface was rescued but died a month later. Benedict XI who followed him died suddenly and suspiciously soon after. The next Pope, Clement V was a Frenchman who was chosen by King Philip and who lived, not in Rome, but in Avignon. The popes ruled from Avignon for the next 70 years. Later, this period was likened to the 70 years in which the Hebrews lived in exile in Babylon.

The Papal Schism

In 1378 the cardinals attempted to end the Babylonian Captivity but the French and Italian cardinals could not agree about this. The French and Italians each elected a Pope - one to continue at Avignon and the other at Rome. The nations took sides and supported whichever Pope seemed most likely to support them. In 1409 the Council of Pisa, in an effort to solve the stand-off, deposed the two popes and replaced them with a single one. The only result of this was that there were now three popes busily excommunicating each other. While all this was going on the Church was utterly confused and reforming parties began to spring up. Wycliffe's Lollards in England and Scotland and Hus' followers in Bohemia began to preach a Biblical Christianity far removed from the corruption of the Roman Church. In 1417 the Council of Constance finally deposed all three popes and elected a new one.