Caesaropapism

Caesaropapism is the concept of combining the power of secular government with, or making it supreme to, the spiritual authority of the Christian Church; most especially, the inter-penetration of the theological authority of the Christian Church with the legal/juridical authority of the government; in its extreme form, it is a political theory in which the head of state, notably the Emperor ('Caesar', by extension an 'equal' King), is also the supreme head of the church ('papa' or pope, by analogy an Orthodox Patriarch).

Literal use

The first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, showed some inclination towards Caesaropapism. It is recorded that, having had before the Battle of Milvian Bridge a vision of a labarum (ensign) with the message "by this sign you shall conquer", once victorious Constantine presented himself to the Bishop of Rome, and offered gifts of thanksgiving in the form of clemency and tolerance, although later claims of land based upon a "Donation of Constantine" were proved to be a forgery in the 15th century. Yet Emperor Constantine declined baptism until he was on his death bed. He also viewed himself as the overseer/bishop (the word "bishop" comes from the Greek episkopos "overseer") of external relations of the Christian Church. He decreed that the bishops gather at the First Ecumenical Council. The assertion of imperial power over the fathers (papa) of the church by the rulers/emperors (Caesars) was opposed by Ambrose of Milan and by many bishops, especially those of Rome, and some others.

While in the West the collapse of the secular Roman institutions during the flood of mainly Germanic invasions allowed the church to rise to a higher socio-political power, even transferring formal political power to princes of the church, and the papacy aspired an emperor-like supremacy over the secular princes, in the Byzantine empire the church (which ended up separated from the Roma papacy and theologically distinct of its Catholic teachings under the name of Orthodoxy) the church was practically made a branch of the Emperor's totalitarian control of society at large, bishops were even ordered to collect taxes for the state. When Peter the Great, the last nominal Tsar of all Russia, transformed his vast empire along more western lines against all opposition (as from conservative clergy), he decided that in the 'third Rome' (Russia was seen as heir to Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest) the Moscow patriarchate could no longer remain a potential rival (at other times it had been the crown's ally) and thus first suspended it by over twenty years of vacancy, then replaced it with a Holy Synod entirely under his control. making the Russian church a tool of the state.

Extended use

The term is just as applicable to similar reports between secular and religious power when the titles of one or both office holders are different, and even at a smaller scale than the universal church, and is even used when the control is less than total. Thus the French kings are a good example of a non-imperial Catholic monarchy that was rather successful in getting a great say in the French church (such as commendatory prelatures) and getting access to significant income from church property; during and around the 'Babylonian Exile' of the papacy in Avignon they even had a heavy hand in the papacy as such; and aspects of Gallicanism reflect the desire to give even the liturgy (even when Latin was the only language for church rites) a distinctive French flavour.

After the introduction of Protestantism, the immense fermentation caused by the introduction of socially subversive principles into the life of a people would exhausts its revolutionary beginnings, and result in a new form of social and religious order- the residue of the great Protestant upheaval in Europe was territorial or State Religion, based on the religious supremacy of the temporal ruler, in contradistinction to the old order in which the temporal ruler took an oath of obedience to the Catholic Church. Martin Luther's first reformatory attempts were radically democratic. He sought to benefit the people at large by curtailing the powers of both Church and State. The German princes, to him, were "usually the biggest fools or the worst scoundrels on earth". In 1523 he wrote: "The people will not, cannot, shall not endure your tyranny and oppression any longer. The world is not now what it was formerly, when you could chase and drive the people like game". This manifesto, addressed to the poorer masses, was taken up by Franz von Sickingen, a Knight of the Empire, who entered the field in execution of its threats. His object was two-fold: to strengthen the political power of the knights — the inferior nobility — against the princes, and to open the road to the new Gospel by overthrowing the bishops, but his enterprise had the opposite result: the knights were beaten, lost what influence they had possessed, and the princes were proportionately strengthened. The rising of the peasants likewise turned to the advantage of the princes: the fearful slaughter of Frankenhausen (1525) left the princes without an enemy and the new Gospel without its natural defenders. The victorious princes used their augmented power entirely for their own advantage in opposition to the authority of the emperor and the freedom of the nation.

The new Gospel was also to be made subservient to this end by the help of Luther himself. After the failure of the revolution, Luther and Melanchthon began to proclaim the doctrine of the rulers' unlimited power over their subjects. Their dissolving principles had, within less than ten years, destroyed the existing order, but were unable to knit together its debris into a new system. So the secular powers were called on for help; the Church was placed at the service of the State, its authority, its wealth, its institutions all passed into the hands of kings, princes, and town magistrates. The one discarded Pope of Rome was replaced by scores of secular 'popes' at home. These, "to strengthen themselves by alliances for the promulgation of the Gospel", banded together within the limits of the Holy Roman Empire and made common cause against the emperor. From this time on the rulers find their advantage in being supreme bishops, and by force, or cunning, or both impose the new Gospel on their subjects. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England and all the small principalities and imperial towns in Germany are examples in point. The supreme heads and governors were well aware that the principles which had brought down the authority of Rome would equally bring down their own; hence the penal laws everywhere enacted against dissenters from the state religion decreed by the temporal ruler. England under Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and the Puritans elaborated ferocious penal codes against Catholics and all others unwilling to conform to the established religion.

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Protestantism

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Literal use

Extended use

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See also