Why the Catholic Church Lost Control Over Europe

Hey everyone! Back in the Middle Ages, people mostly agreed on something important. There should be one leader for the church and one leader for the government. But the big question was, who should be more powerful, the Pope or the Emperor? Some people thought the Pope was like the soul of a person and the Emperor was like the body. Since the soul is more important than the body, they believed the Pope should be more powerful. Others pointed to a Bible verse where the Apostles said to Jesus, look, here are two swords. And Jesus replied, it is enough. People who supported the Pope said this meant both types of power, religious and political, should belong to the Pope, because Peter, who represents the papacy, was holding both swords. Another idea was that the Pope was like the sun and the Emperor was like the moon. Since the moon gets its light from the sun, they said the Emperor got his power from the Pope. Of course, people who supported the Emperor didn't agree with that at all. Things got really intense when Frederick Barbarossa became Emperor. One of the Pope's helpers claimed that Frederick only ruled because the Pope allowed it, like a lord letting a knight borrow land. That made the Germans really angry and the Pope had to take back what was said. But the biggest fight came later with Frederick II, who was Frederick Barbarossa's grandson. He ruled not just Germany and Northern Italy, but also Southern Italy. His mom had inherited Southern Italy, and that made him king of the two Sicilies. The Pope got worried. If Frederick controlled that much land, maybe he'd try to take Rome too. So the conflict began. Frederick had promised to go on a crusade, but he kept delaying. The Pope got mad and excommunicated him, which means he was kicked out of the church. Then when Frederick finally went on the crusade, he got excommunicated again, for going without the Pope's permission. Even in the Holy Land, he had trouble because many people there supported the Pope. But Frederick still made a deal and got Jerusalem back. You'd think the Pope would be happy, but no, he excommunicated Frederick a third time. It seemed like nothing Frederick did was good enough. There was a short peace, but it didn't last. The real issue was still Southern Italy. The Pope didn't want the Emperor to control it. The fight dragged on for years, even after Frederick died in 1250. In the end, the Pope won. Frederick's sons and grandson were all killed, and Southern Italy got a new king who wasn't also ruling Germany. With the Emperor out of the picture, the Pope had all the power. For about 25 years, Germany didn't even have a true Emperor. When they finally picked one, he didn't want to mess with Italy. He even said, Italy is the den of the lion. I see many tracks going in, but none coming out. After that, the title of Holy Roman Emperor didn't mean as much. It was mostly just about ruling Germany. Meanwhile, the Popes were acting more powerful than ever. One Pope, Boniface VIII, dressed up in royal clothes, held a scepter and wore a crown, and shouted, I am Pope, I am Emperor! But that kind of thinking didn't last. The old empire was gone, and new strong countries like France and England were rising. They weren't going to let the Pope control them anymore. And in the early Middle Ages, most people lived in tribes. These were like huge families where everyone was related by blood. But as people started settling down and forming towns and villages, the old tribal system started to disappear. In place of tribes, a new system called feudalism took over. This meant that people promised to serve a lord in exchange for protection and land to live on. Loyalty to a lord became more important than being part of a family tribe. Still, people didn't think of themselves as being part of a country yet. There was no real sense of patriotism or national pride. After the Crusades, kings began to take more power. They didn't want local lords to have their own armies or make their own rules anymore. Kings in countries like France and England got stronger and began to build true national governments. This made the Popes nervous, and more fights broke out. France became one of the most powerful kingdoms. Pope Boniface VIII, who once claimed to be both Pope and Emperor, ended up in a serious argument with King Philip IV of France. It started over money but quickly got out of hand. One day, the Pope was staying in a small town in Italy when the king's men came and attacked him. One of them even hit him in the face. They held him prisoner for a few days. He was let go, but people say he died soon after from the shock and embarrassment. Things got even more confusing after that. The next popes moved out of Rome and set up in a French city called Avignon. They stayed there for almost 70 years and were mostly under the control of the French kings. People called this time the Babylonian captivity of the church, like the story in the Bible when the Jews were taken from their homeland. Eventually, a pope moved the papacy back to Rome. But instead of solving the problems, it made them worse. Now there were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon, and both claimed to be the real leader of the church. People had to choose who to follow. Some countries supported one pope, others supported the other, and this caused a lot of drama. An English writer named Wycliffe talked about how people were totally divided. Supporters of one pope hated the other and vice versa. The church tried to fix it by having a big meeting, but they ended up picking a third pope. So now there were three popes at the same time, which made everything even messier. Finally, after almost 40 years of confusion, another big meeting was held. This time, all three popes were kicked out, and a new one was chosen that everyone agreed on. The church was finally back together. But even though the church was united again, it wasn't as powerful as before. The papacy never really bounced back from all the fights and confusion. It had once been stronger than the emperor, but now powerful kings in countries like France and England weren't willing to take orders from the pope anymore. One writer in the 1400s, who later became pope himself, said that people now thought of popes and emperors as just names in old stories or pictures. Their time of ruling all of Europe was over. The Middle Ages were ending, and a new era was beginning. One where each country followed its own king and focused on its own future.