Continued
from previous post -
Many,
more ambitious, men from European communities came to join the
missionaries of Christian Church to work as priests in Churches and
them by using 'the fear for the unknown', and giving (false) promises
to attract them, strategy continued to convert more people to papal
Christianity. Even the most powerful lords of those places were
converted to papal Christianity by this method. This was important
since the development of Protestant cult of Christianity. Now there
are two Christianities in Europe, papal and Protestant called
Lutheran Christianity. In East we see Orthodox Church prospering
without any particular divisions, may be because that Church did not
indulge in too much politicking.
As
confession was added as a more effective tool to control powerful
people; Church used the secret knowledge of individuals to black mail
them and get them do what Church wants. Particularly nobles were
controlled by this tool so that they do not do anything against the
Church. Proving to the people that Church is more reliable than the
temporal power, they so long trusted to protect them. Church used its
power over rulers to get accomplished many small needs of small
people and by that favor it earned special goodwill from that section
of the society, this section was always in majority. This helped
Church in consolidating its hold on the society. The method worked
well. Willibrord from Yorkshire monastery is one to be mentioned in
this regards. More followed and the power of Papal authority kept on
growing mostly by not any spiritual achievement but mostly due to its
political and diplomatic skills. The business of religion kept on
growing at speeds unbelievable. Jesus was always used as a mere tool
to propagate their authority over people. To Jesus they had added
Mary as one more tool to hold on Roman people, as they believed in
authority of Rhea Silvia, Vestal
priestess, mother of
foundere of Rome city. Mary conveniently replaced her and Jesus in
place of Remulus as a baby in her arms served well to catch on masses
that are more gullible. Now Church had two figures to project to its
followers, Jesus and Mary, to hold on people of different mindsets.
Business of Catholic Church flourished extensively. Even so the royal
authority continued to function but under effective control of Bishop
of Rome, The Pope. Let us see what other activities Pope was busy
with on political fronts.
In
751, Aistulf took Ravenna and threatened Rome. In response to this
threat, Pope Stephen II made an unusual journey north of the Alps to
visit the Frankish king, Pepin III, to seek his help against the
invading Lombards. The pope anointed Pepin at the abbey of St Denis,
near Paris, together with Pepin's two young sons Charles and
Carloman. Pepin duly invaded northern Italy in 754, and again in 756.
Pepin was able to drive the Lombards from the territory belonging to
Ravenna but he did not restore it to its rightful owner, the
Byzantine emperor. Instead, perhaps accepting the validity of the
Donation of Constantine, he handed over large areas of central Italy
to the pope and his successors. The land given to Pope Stephen in
756, in the so-called Donation of Pepin, made the papacy a temporal
power and for the first time created an incentive for secular leaders
to interfere with papal succession. This territory would become the
basis for the Papal States, over which the popes ruled until the
Papal States were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy in 1870.
For the next eleven centuries, the story of Rome would be almost
synonymous with the story of the papacy. The Lombard kingdom reached
its height in the 7th and 8th century. Paganism and Arianism were at
first prevalent among the Lombards but were gradually supplanted by
Catholicism. Defeat of a tribe was interpreted as defeat of their
faith and voctory of the winning party was treated as winning of
their faith. This interpretation helped pope in converting Lombards
to Catholic religion. Roman culture and Latin speech were gradually
adopted and the Catholic bishops emerged as chief magistrates in the
cities. Lombard law combined Germanic and Roman traditions. After
Aistulf's death, King Desiderius renewed the attack on Rome. In 772,
Pope Adrian I enlisted the support of Charlemagne, Pepin's successor,
who intervened, and, after defeating the Lombards, added their
kingdom to his own.
Continues
in the next post -
You
may contact me on my Email ID given below,
You are invited to
visit my other blogs
Ashok
Kothare, http://ashokkotharesblog.blogspot.com/
for stories
I
reckon,
http://kotharesviews.blogspot.com/
for philosophy
You
may visit blog, Freedom of Expression,
http://blogs.siliconindia.com/kothare/
for intelligent discussions.
Freedom
of Expression, http://kothare-thinks.blogspot.in/
Marathi
blog, http://kothare-marathi.blogspot.in/
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