Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Cauldron of God's Wrath
- Chapter 2 Bishops of Rome
- Chapter 3 Conversion of the Wild Men
- Chapter 4 Feudalism emerges
- Chapter 5 Land and Folk
- Chapter 6 The Village (1)
- Chapter 7 The Village (2)
- Chapter 8 Village Dance and Song
- Chapter 9 Nature and Superstition
- Chapter 10 Popes and Prelates
- Chapter 11 Rector and Vicar
- Chapter 12 The Making of a Priest
- Chapter 13 Church statistics
- Chapter 14 The Shepherd
- Chapter 15 The Flock (1)
- Chapter 16 The Flock (2)
- Chapter 17 The Silver Lining
- Chapter 18 Dante's Commedia
- Chapter 19 The Royal Court
- Chapter 20 Chivalry
- Chapter 21 Chaucer and Malory
- Chapter 22 The Monastery
- Chapter 23 Cloister Life
- Chapter 24 The Town
- Chapter 25 Home Life
- Chapter 26 Trade and Travel
- Chapter 27 Just Price and Usury
- Chapter 28 The Ghetto (1)
- Chapter 29 The Ghetto (2)
- Chapter 30 Justice and Police
- Chapter 31 From School to University
- Chapter 32 Scholastics and Bible
- Chapter 33 Science
- Chapter 34 Medicine
- Chapter 35 Freethought and Inquisition
- Chapter 36 The Papal Schism
- Chapter 37 The Lollards
- Chapter 38 The Black Death
- Chapter 39 The Hundred Years' War
- Chapter 40 The Mystics
- Chapter 41 The Peasant Saint
- Chapter 42 Artist Life
- Chapter 43 Literary Life
- Chapter 44 Sports and Theatre
- Chapter 45 Women's Life
- Chapter 46 Marriage and Divorce
- Chapter 47 The Old and the New
- Chapter 48 More and Utopia
- Chapter 49 The Fight for the Bible
- Chapter 50 The Open Bible
- Chapter 51 Peasant and Highbrow
- Chapter 52 The Bursting of the Dykes
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
Chapter 2 - Bishops of Rome
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Cauldron of God's Wrath
- Chapter 2 Bishops of Rome
- Chapter 3 Conversion of the Wild Men
- Chapter 4 Feudalism emerges
- Chapter 5 Land and Folk
- Chapter 6 The Village (1)
- Chapter 7 The Village (2)
- Chapter 8 Village Dance and Song
- Chapter 9 Nature and Superstition
- Chapter 10 Popes and Prelates
- Chapter 11 Rector and Vicar
- Chapter 12 The Making of a Priest
- Chapter 13 Church statistics
- Chapter 14 The Shepherd
- Chapter 15 The Flock (1)
- Chapter 16 The Flock (2)
- Chapter 17 The Silver Lining
- Chapter 18 Dante's Commedia
- Chapter 19 The Royal Court
- Chapter 20 Chivalry
- Chapter 21 Chaucer and Malory
- Chapter 22 The Monastery
- Chapter 23 Cloister Life
- Chapter 24 The Town
- Chapter 25 Home Life
- Chapter 26 Trade and Travel
- Chapter 27 Just Price and Usury
- Chapter 28 The Ghetto (1)
- Chapter 29 The Ghetto (2)
- Chapter 30 Justice and Police
- Chapter 31 From School to University
- Chapter 32 Scholastics and Bible
- Chapter 33 Science
- Chapter 34 Medicine
- Chapter 35 Freethought and Inquisition
- Chapter 36 The Papal Schism
- Chapter 37 The Lollards
- Chapter 38 The Black Death
- Chapter 39 The Hundred Years' War
- Chapter 40 The Mystics
- Chapter 41 The Peasant Saint
- Chapter 42 Artist Life
- Chapter 43 Literary Life
- Chapter 44 Sports and Theatre
- Chapter 45 Women's Life
- Chapter 46 Marriage and Divorce
- Chapter 47 The Old and the New
- Chapter 48 More and Utopia
- Chapter 49 The Fight for the Bible
- Chapter 50 The Open Bible
- Chapter 51 Peasant and Highbrow
- Chapter 52 The Bursting of the Dykes
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
While this Christian Church, little by little, was emerging from the general dissolution of the Roman Empire, there also emerged gradually at its head a new figure, the Pope.
We must face this fully; for it is at the very foundation of our subject. Beyond all questions of our agreement or disagreement with the Papacy lies the fact that this is one of the most remarkable phenomena in social history. The Papacy, even to-day, is one of the strongest forces in European society; it illustrates the value of a positive and definite programme, however imperfect, as against any programme of mere negation. This is a point which needs to be emphasized most strongly by those of us who feel bound most uncompromisingly to combat whatever we judge to be hollow or excessive in the claims of the Roman Church. Whatever may be said of the line of Japanese Emperors, at least in this West of ours there is no succession of sovereigns comparable in length to that of the Popes; and that is all the more remarkable because, even at the most worldly times of the Papacy, the armies which any Pope could directly command have been so insignificant in number. Lamentably as Roman Catholicism (like many other Churches) has often employed physical coercion, it has never relied preponderantly upon brute force. The Pope's dominion has always been, in the main, what it has professed to be—a power exercised rather over men's minds than over their bodies.
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- Medieval PanoramaThe English Scene from Conquest to Reformation, pp. 20 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1938