ABSTRACT
The period of the Babylonian Captivity marked the decay of the feudal and hierarchical institutions of the Middle Ages. Both the Papacy and the Empire—creations of the Latin idea of the organization of human society—appeared in entirely altered relations, languishing and threatened with dissolution. The Empire fell into vassalage to the Pope and was banished from Italy. The Papacy exiled from Italy for seventy years under French influence lost, not only its claim to universal rule, for that was asserted more boldly than ever, but its grip and its recognition among the European powers. The Popes turned the absolute dominion which they had acquired in the thirteenth century upon the Church itself and mercilessly despoiled it by a thousand tyrannical abuses and corruptions. That shortsighted policy aroused the reforming and even revolutionary spirit of the west. The bravest thinkers disputed not only the secular, but also the spiritual jurisdiction of the Papacy. Germany pronounced its Empire independent of the Roman Pontiff and the genius of Germany gave indications of its declaration of separation from Rome in matters of faith. 1
