Political Tensions and the Power of the Pope

Political Tensions and the Power of the Pope

Around 600, the pope’s position was ambiguous: he was both a ruler—successor of St. Peter and head of the church—and a subordinate, subject to the Byzantine emperor. Pope Gregory the Great in many ways laid the foundations for the papacy’s spiritual and temporal ascendancy. During Gregory’s reign, the papacy became the greatest landowner in Italy. Gregory organized the defenses of Rome and paid for its army; he heard court cases, made treaties, and provided welfare services. The missionary expedition Gregory sent to England was only a small part of his involvement in the rest of Europe.

A prolific author of spiritual works and biblical commentaries, Gregory digested and simplified the ideas of church fathers like St. Augustine of Hippo, making them accessible to a wider audience. His book Pastoral Rule was used as a guide for bishops throughout Europe.

Yet even Gregory was not independent, for he was subordinate to the emperor. For a long time the Byzantine views on dogma, discipline, and church administration prevailed at Rome. This authority began to unravel in the seventh century. Sheer distance, as well as diminishing imperial power in Italy, meant that the popes became, in effect, the leaders of the parts of Italy not controlled by the Lombards.

The gap between Byzantium and Rome widened in the early eighth century as Emperor Leo III tried to increase the taxes on papal property to pay for his war against the Arab invaders. The pope responded by leading a general tax revolt. Meanwhile, Leo’s fierce policy of iconoclasm collided with the pope’s tolerance of images. In Italy, as in other European regions, Christian piety focused more on relics than on icons. Nevertheless, the papacy would not allow sacred images and icons to be destroyed. The pope argued that holy images should be respected, though not worshipped.

REVIEW QUESTION What were the similarities and differences among the kingdoms that emerged in western Europe, and how did their histories combine and diverge?

These disputes with the emperor were matched by increasing friction between the pope and the Lombards. The Lombard kings had gradually managed to bring under their control the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento as well as part of the Exarchate of Ravenna. By the mid-eighth century, the popes feared that Rome would fall to the Lombards, and Pope Zachary (r. 741–752) looked northward for friends. He created an ally by giving his approval to the removal of the last Merovingian king and his replacement by the first Carolingian king, Pippin III (r. 751–768). In 753, Pope Stephen II (r. 752–757) called on Pippin to march to Italy with an army to fight the Lombards.