ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the organization, beliefs and methods of the papacy which gave it so vast an influence. The changes in church government revolutionized the position of the clergy. A federal aristocratic government by bishops was replaced by the absolute monarchy of the pope, common to all Catholic countries, and regarding itself as superior to the lay sovereigns of the independent states. For the Church often found it politically advisable or financially profitable to approve dynastic alliances within the prohibited degrees, or to separate politically influential persons, as in the cases of Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor, by 'nullification' of the bond. As we cannot understand the Middle Ages without understanding the implicit confidence men had in the spiritual authority of the Church, however they might rebel or sin against it, so we can only understand the power of the weapons of the Churchexcommunication and the interdict.
