Western History unit 1 q 9

The Emergence of the System of Duality in Medieval Europe

Voltaire once said that Holy Roman Empire ' was a misnomer . The Byzantines to the East were the true successors to the fallen Roman Empire the constant quarrel between the German Kings and the Popes made them anything but Holy Defenders , and the Empire was really a loose confederation of German duchies and principalities , pledging nominal loyalty to their elected Emperor . The Holy Roman Empire , however , was more than a political entity - it was an ideology , going back to the days of Emperor

Constantine . It was a dream of unifying all of Europe under the banner of Christendom , with a reconstituted Rome as the Church 's militant arm

At the beginning of the Middle Ages , however , Constantine 's Rome seemed far from reality . Successive waves of barbarian migrations and invasions destroyed the old political unity of the western half of the Roman Empire , until the deposition of the central authority in Rome was made official by the Ostrogothic King Odovakar (Hayes et . al , 1962 ,

.69 There was , in those turbulent years , a real political vacuum , and the temporal leadership of the cities and settlements passed to those the populace could trust : the Christian bishops . This was to be the seed that would later be at the heart of the dispute of Emperor and Pope In time , newly reconverted ' Europe would accede to the Pope as its spiritual (and at many times temporal ) head

In the meantime , however , the barbarian kings sought legitimacy with their rule , and imagined a new Rome under their leadership . The Ostrogothic Kings Odovakar and Theodoric , as well as successive barbarian leaders sought , at the very least , their appointment ' to their respective kingdoms by the Eastern Roman Emperors in to maintain a semblance of Roman continuity ' in the western half (Hayes et . al , 1962 , pp .69-70 . It was not , however , until the Pope crowned the Frankish King , Pepin the Short , that this dream became reality Under him and his successor , Charlemagne , the Franks forced the subjugation of the other pagan tribes and their conversion to Christianity (Hayes , et . al , 1962 , pp .118-120 . When this Carolingian Empire fractured , the eastern half continued this Roman dream ' as the Holy Roman Empire

There were therefore , two visions of Europe : one was united in Christ under the spiritual guidance of the Bishop of Rome , and the other was united in ideology under the successors of Constantine and Charlemagne - the Holy Roman Emperor . These two visions ideally was actually one - that of a single unified Christian Europe . In due course , however , the two visions would prove irreconcilable

A Question of Leadership : The Road to Hildebrand

The center of the disputes between Popes and their subject temporal rulers - from the Lombards to the Franks and finally to the German Emperors - was the practice of the latter in interfering with Church affairs , particularly the appointment and dismissal of bishops , and their being utilized in State affairs . To the Holy Roman Emperors , this had...