The Pope 's Official Register

The Pope’s role in the church and the Vatican have not changed in a significant manner other than that his power has declined. The Vatican was built during the 4th century and then rebuilt again during the 16th century. The Vatican is the world’s second largest religious building and is above the tomb of St. Peter. Vatican city is the world’s smallest fully independent state. The name of the government in Vatican city is Holy See. The city itself is responsible for the safety of the Pope since 1506. All supplies go through a screening process and must be imported in. The Pope had absolute executive, judicial and legislative power. There is no way to pinpoint exactly when the Pope's power began to decline, but it was around the time when the

However, soon enough Gregory became involved in leading the Church, serving as chaplain to Pope Gregory VI. Gregory VI was removed from power with charges of simony, and was sent to Germany. Hildebrand followed and crossed the alps. His stay in Germany was of amazing educative value, and helped his ruling as pope in the future. In Cologne he pursued his studies and became aware of the circles of Lorraine where interest of the church and its life was at the top. Soon he returned to Rome and served as advisor to Pope Leo IX. With the death of Alexander II, Hildebrand became pope and took the name Gregory VII. His election was bitterly berated by his enemies. From the beginning Gregory tried to assert his authority over political leaders, and thus issued an order against lay investiture. This brought the controversy of the struggle between church authority and secular authority. It was questioned whether the king had final authority. A common belief was that was that kings were choosing bishops and abbots to benefit themselves and not the churches.This might not be entirely true; kings have been the origin of funds for churches. It only seems correct they should appoint who runs them. Kings wanted to show how if they didn`t provide the funds of the churches they wouldn't exist. So kings electing who is runs the

The investiture controversy, also known as the investiture conflict, was the most significant conflict between Church and State during medieval Europe, being centrally a political struggle. This conflict would result in changes to the political world in Europe that would last even to the present day. The two sides of the investiture controversy consisted of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and Pope Gregory VII. Henry IV and his supporters held a “royalist” state view, while Gregory VII and his supporters were on the “papalist” church side of the conflict. Both sides had strong visions of the right order of the world, with the largest difference being that Gregory believed that the church should be free from state rule and any monarch authority. Gregory and his followers also believed that the church should be the only authority able to appoint church officials. Lastly, Gregory’s vison for the world included the believe that church policies on celibacy and the

In 1054 centuries of attempts by the Latin Church to assert supremacy over the Patriarchs of the Eastern Empire led to a permanent division in the Christian church called the East–West Schism.[21] Following the Gregorian Reform, an assertive, reformist papacy attempted to increase its power and influence. Beginning around 1075 and continuing during the First Crusade, the Investiture Controversy was a power struggle between Church and state in medieval Europe over whether the Catholic Church or the Holy Roman Empire held the right to appoint church officials and other clerics.[22][23] Antipope Clement III was an alternative pope for most of this period, and Pope Urban spent much of his early pontificate in exile from Rome. The result was intense piety and an increased interest in religious affairs amongst the general population in Catholic Europe and religious propaganda by the Papacy advocating a just war to reclaim Palestine from the Muslims. The majority ecumenical view was that non-Christians could not be forced to accept Christian baptism or be physically assaulted for having a different faith; a minority believed that vengeance and forcible conversion were justified responses to the denial of Christian faith and government.[24] Participation in a crusade was seen as a form of penance that could counterbalance

Gregory writes to the Duke Rudolf of Swabia in 1073, “…the empire and the priesthood should be bound in harmonious union…and… ought to be pure and free from all deceit…”# Despite or even because of Gregory VII willingness to forgive Henry IV, Henry IV continued to do as he saw fit for his country. Henry IV went so far as to deprive “the pope of all authority, both legal and moral, to pass judgment.”# This breach in Concordia put Gregory VII and Henry IV in direct conflict with one another.

The driving force behind medieval civilization’s transition from one of stability to one of change was the collapse of the papacy’s integrity. A faithful and honourable pope and curia is easy to follow. However, religious leadership that refuses to remain true to its own rules does not inspire confidence in those that abide by them. In and around the fifteenth century, one would have difficulty finding a pope who did not indulge in all of the seven sins. Pope Alexander VI, one of the worst, had a son through incest, and this was anything but a secret throughout Rome and Italy. Two men, one of intellect and one of charisma, looked upon this in disgust. Their reactions, followed by the translations of the Bible, lifted the whole of Europe from

The II Vatican council was held in rome from 1962-1965. Vatican Council II was an ecomunal or global council that is the meeting of all the Catholic bishops from all around the world which dealt with certain issues facing the Catholic Church. Major issues that took place during the era of the Vatican Council II was that the church was powerful and was taking to much money from people. Because of changes in culture due to modernism it was decided that the church needed to update its procedures to become more relevant and accessible to modern people. As Pope John XXIII said, the church needed to “open the windows and let in some fresh air.”

For this reason, the Catholic hierarchy believes that state and non-state advocates of population development (POPDEV), RH, and reproductive rights to be harboring of anti-Catholic and anti-democratic tendencies. For this reason, it can be contested that it is difficult for the country to broaden the government’s role in FP as well as implement a comprehensive RH care and education program.

Occurring throughout the middle ages, conflict between the Christian church and nations led by kings were high and tense, leading to the bitter feud between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV in the early 11th century. Coming into power at a very young age, King Henry moved to increase his power over clergy in the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Gregory VII, being one of the great leaders of the medieval church, sought to increase power and authority of Popes, and believed the churches were the supreme authority on Earth, leading him to excommunicate many individuals, and believe that rulers and civilians alike were subject to the power of the church. Henry believed in his own right to the power of appointing bishops to the German church, but was then

Pope Saint John XXIII was born as Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli on the 25th November 1881. He was the eighth child in his family and his parents were poor sharecroppers that lived in a small Italian town. He was ordained as a priest in 1904. Pope Pius IX, who was pope up until 1903, had made a command that all Catholic priests were to be entirely separated from the political world. His successor, Pope Pius X, the pope during Roncalli’s ordination, took this a step further and attempted to remove all forms of modernism from the church.

I argue that the papal coronations of Pippin and Charlemagne begin the papacy’s relationship with political rulers and how it transitions from a weak structure to a bureaucracy that envisions a transnational state that can motivate an entire continent to embark on a crusade. I include the Cluniac Reforms and Gregorian Reforms as examples of how the Catholic Church grows into a more powerful entity and no longer depends on rulers like Pippin to defend them.

Pope John XXIII’s real name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. He was born on November 25, 1881 at Sotto il Monte, Italy. His feast day is October 11. During 1921, Pope John XXIII was called to Rome to help improve the society of the Propagation of Faith. He was then nominated to be the archbishop of Areopolis. Immediately after this event he chose to focus his work to help fix any of the problems in the Eastern Churches. Then during 1953, he became the cardinal patriarch of Venice. Because of his works, in 1958 he was called to Rome to participate in the conclave that would elect him as Pope.

Blessed Pope Paul VI was born September 26, 1897 as Giovanni Battista Montini in Concesio, a small town north of Brescia, Italy. Giovanni’s father was a middle class lawyer and journalist and local politician. His mother was of similar social background. Due to poor health, Giovanni studied mainly at home in his early life. Later, he studied in Brescia and was ordained a priest on May 29, 1920, at the age of twenty two. He was then sent to Rome for higher studies by his Bishop. Giovanni was eventually recruited for the Vatican diplomatic service. His first assignment would have been in Warsaw, but his frail health prevented him from going. Giovanni worked as the Vatican Secretariat of State for more than thirty years. Later on in 1954, Pope

In the presence of a mass exodus from the church which took place due to opposition toward ecclesiastical misconduct and false doctrines, the Catholic Church chose to reaffirm its authority in a manner that failed to focus on the problematic concepts which caused adherents to seek salvation in the new church orders. Created by priests with the same grievances, these new protestant churches sought to directly address the problematic concepts such as the unethical sale of indulgences and simony which became commonplace within the Catholic Church. In a blatantly apparent act of papal hubris, Pope Julius II in 1506, petitioned nobility and clergy to secure funding with the intended act of demolishing a 1,200 year old church and construct St. Peter’s Basilica which was to become the most lavish in all Christendom (Dandelet 191). Although initially created to support the construction of this specific building, the implementation of this indulgence, in addition to another decreed by his successor Pope Leo X, provided the means for fiscal

Many religions came about during the Christian Reformation 16th and 17th century. Martin Luther opposed the Roman Catholic Church, Huldrych Zwingli led the protestant reformation in Switzerland, and this led to more radical reform in Switzerland led by Conrad Grebel with Anabaptists. One of the main causes of the reformation was individuals looking at the church and scriptures and seeing where things did not line up biblically. There was a distinct difference between the views of the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches. Anabaptist however did not see themselves as Protestant or Catholic but rather a completely separate entity with their own set of beliefs and views. They felt that the church had strayed too far way form the scriptures and wanted to return to the early church. They held the Sermon on the Mount is such high regards which in itself went against the Church and State being together in their beliefs. The Anabaptist felt that the State should grant religious liberty and in doing so they were willing to suffer and die rather than go against their beliefs imposed by the state. This lead to several Anabaptist leaders and followers to be martyred because of their strong belief in Doctrine and their beliefs to return to the Early Church where the State and Church were separate. The reason the Anabaptist held doctrine is such high accord was because they felt they should be able to make the choice as to what they can believe and not be