How Did Leo The Great Influence Rome's Papacy

Believing that he was the ultimate authority of the Church and state, Charlemagne created a set of rules that focused on morals and religious concepts that would be enforced upon the Church. Charlemagne would further expound upon his concept of control over spiritual and secular power in his letter to Pope Leo III in which he is told the Pope’s power is nothing more than that of a feudal lord. However, Charlemagne still recognized Pope Leo III’s religious authority by requesting that the Pope pray for him in return for Charlemagne’s protection. Charlemagne recognizes that the Pope has some religious authority but ultimately, the power of the Pope was limited to Charlemagne’s

This resulted in wars, persecutions, and the counter reformation. However, this was just the popular opinions of the people. In reality, the inquisition was the Catholic Church searching for heretics, belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine, and giving them a fair trial and was then judged. The reformation was the split between the monarchy and the Catholic Church. The cause of the inquisition was to maintain the Catholic ideals and replace the medieval inquisition.

The thought and work of Martin Luther was part of this religious movement called the Protestant Reformation, which ended with ecclesiastical, religious and political supremacy of the Church of Rome creating European Protestant churches of different denominations. The main difference between the Catholic Church was that Luther was convincing that salvation is trough justification by faith. Although the Reformation was not essentially a religious movement, it resulted in significant changes in almost all aspects of social, economic and political life, with a major impact on the history of the Western world. Luther's ideology caused several differences. The 95 Theses and his criticism of the church generated conflicts in the church world.

Although a nation 's king or queen appeared to impose the most unchallenged form of authority within societies of that time, the highest reign of mass supremacy truly lied within the sacred hands of the Pope. However, before the start of Protestantism, there were still many areas where the Pope had much less of a voice in affairs. Take for instance Greece, Byzantium, Russia, Moorish Spain, the Baltic and other such regions. The latter of those places were either non-Christian or non-Catholic. The Pope held the most influence over the masses like a shepherd to a flock of sheep because of numerous reasons.

Martin Luther was a savior to us all. He opened our lives to the realities of the church’s corruption. Born in Eisleben, Martin Luther became an Augustinian monk by the age of 22. In 1510 Martin traveled to Rome on behalf of the Augustinian order. Martin later said that it was here that he was first exposed to the horrendous behaviors of the Catholic church, but he did not interfere yet.

Two of these pious storytellers are St. Denis and Gregory of Tours. However, in this paper, the focus is the conversion of Clovis according to St. Denis. The conversion of Clovis was not just a turning point for the Franks, it happened in strange circumstances. Chronicle of St, Denis St. Denis captures the conversion of Clovis in his chronicles entitled “Chlodovocar, King of the Franks”. According to this story, prior to his conversion, the king was idolatrous and went to war with his neighbors including Alemanni.

Despite harsh treatments of Rome such as persecution of Emperor Nero, Christianity spreads all over the Rome and other countries and became an official religion of Rome based on road systems with Pax Romana, and its attractive ideas: salvation, missionary, and universal aspect. Then Rome could not resist the great trend of it anymore, they turned into the positive attitude towards Christianity in 4th centuries. From the 1st century to the 3rd centuries, Rome had a hatred for Christianity and treated it very harshly to oppress its spread. At that time, Christianity was a minor religion. Roman emperors thought that it would threaten their power since Christians had a strong solidarity and only adored God.

The Carolingians further ingratiated themselves with the Church by becoming the protectors of Rome, and specifically, the Pope. The Pope did not believe that his protector, the Emperor of Constantinople, would be able to protect him from the invading Lombard armies, so he turned to another Germanic kingdom, who he hoped, could stop the Lombards. Both Pippin and his son Charlemagne warred against the Lombards for significant portions of their reigns, however, Charlemagne finally defeated them in 774. War and the Church went hand-in-hand for the Carolingians with many of their wars having a religious undertone. For instance, the wars in Saxony and Bavaria started as a missionary war, the war against the Lombards, for the Pope, and later wars in Germany because of sacrilegious events.

The human species have always had a history of wanting to change the world. Those of the Christian faith (and it branches) believed it was their purpose to seek others and convert them before they are damned for eternity. The Nazi regime sought to have the ‘impurities’ of the world eliminated. The British Empire believed that it was their duty to bring civilization to barbarians. On one hand, this desire to change others into themselves implies a sort of recognition of their identity with another’s; but on the other hand, however, the desire to transform someone’s perception of the world can easily be corrupted into a mission of conquest.

Martin Luther was a German monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. He is one of Western history’s most significant figures as his actions began the Reformation, a movement for religious reform. He lead a religious revolution that challenged the Church’s power. Martin Luther did more good than harm to the Church and European society as a whole because he sought truth about the Church, recognized that the selling of indulgences was unacceptable, and inspired the people of Europe. Luther recognized that the selling of indulgences was unacceptable and inspired others to speak up in what they believe in.