What Was The Relationship Between Christianity And Sacerdotium

From its creation centuries ago to now being the world’s largest religion, Christianity has undergone countless changes, seen numerous branches created, and has generally had a complex and convoluted history. One of the most prevalent relationships in Christianity’s history is the relationship between regnum and sacerdotium, otherwise known as secular authority and spiritual authority. As common throughout history, situations like this are never simple, especially regarding religion. The complexity of this relationship is especially visible around the time of the early church, the eleventh-century reform movement, and the crusades. This relationship was a strained one and, put simply, was a sort of debate on who held more power: the religious

Its legality was brought about by the Edict of Milan in 313, issued by Constantine and Licinius, which gave Christianity a platform in the empire. Religious decisions were not free of influence by royal authorities, as seen in the Council of Nicaea in 325. This meeting of religious authorities, overseen by Emperor Constantine, was called together to give Christianity some consistency which was important for its survivability. Christianity finally became the official religion in 380, gaining even more power. Churches started to become wealthy and their officials began exercising their civic powers. The highest religious authority in the west, the Pope, was expected to carry out his own civic duties as

Until this point, emperors could choose who to appoint as pope. Some pope’s sympathized with the reformers’ efforts however leading Pope Leo IX to deny any further emperors from electing a new pope. Once the new emperor, Emperor Henry IV, came to power, he believed he should have retained that ability. Pope Leo IX was soon replaced with Pope Gregory VII who held even stronger reformist ideas. The emperor thought it was his duty to appoint and protect the church while the pope thought the church should be free from any outside influence. These opposing ideas led to Henry being severely humiliated and Gregory being exiled. The push for reform and Investiture Controversy as a whole are perfect representations of the clash between regnum and sacerdotium during the eleventh-century reform