Preview

The Rise of the Papacy

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
948 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Rise of the Papacy
INTRODUCTION This paper will look into the primary reasons for the rise of the Roman papacy to power, and a few of the many things that aided the papacy in getting there. The fall of the Roman Empire is clearly a key factor in the rise of the papacy, so a look into the factors that caused the fall of the Roman Empire is essential. Secondly, a look into how the church positioned itself, to step into the vacuum of power left behind by the fall of the Roman Empire will prove to be needed. Lastly, there will be a brief look at the positive and negative ramifications that ensued from the churches rise to power. This paper will not be an exhaustive look into the rise of the papacy, but instead will provide a good place to start ones study into the subject.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE The fall of the Roman Empire is not a short discussion nor is it conclusive in nature, because no historians can seem to agree on the exact cause or causes of the fall. However, most historians do agree that the fall of the Roman Empire was the result of a combination of factors, such as social immorality, the concentration of power to Caesar, Christianity, and barbarian wars. Each of these four influences will be discussed in the upcoming pages, but the order in which each is discussed is not meant to add wait to one over another.
Social Immorality
-------------------------------------------------
When the discussion of moral decay is brought out, in reference to the fall of the Roman Empire, most people’s minds immediately gravitate toward the bath houses or the gladiator arena.1 Most people find these acts to be immoral at their face value, but there is a greater level 1 Keith Bradley, “Leisure and Ancient Rome,” Canadian Journal of History 31, no. 3 (December 1996): 425-26. of immorality involved in the bath houses and gladiator arenas. The obvious thoughts of these social issues are bad enough, but one must consider that the people in power used these methods to manipulate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Chhi 301 Paper 2

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after…

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Why Rome Fell

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Halsall, Paul (1998). Ancient History Sourcebook: Procopius of Caesarea: Alaric 's Sack of Rome, 410 CE. Retrieved from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/410alaric.html…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were many customs of Rome. Some of them were, slavery, family connections, and recreational fighting. The use of slaves was common in the upper and middle class Roman families. Slaves were used for farming, business and public buildings. Slaves were also uses for slave market. When slaves were first captured, they were brought to auction blocks stripped naked as the buyers examined and placed cards on the slaves that listed all the qualifications of the slave. Other ways in which masters degraded their slaves was by selling them into prostitution, especially, the females. Family connections and blood lines were very important in Roman culture, even taking priority over wealth. An example was Gauls Marius being forced to to marry Julius in spite of wealth, just to move up on the Roman political ladder. Another custom was the gladiator fights at the coliseum. Good gladiator fights…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Entertainment was essential to daily life in Ancient Rome. According to Juvenal1, it seemed that all Romans were interested in was "bread and circuses," and with theatres, amphitheatres, gambling, drama and public baths galore, the Romans never seemed to get bored.…

    • 3630 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout the central Middle Ages, Europe was characterized by the power struggle between the secular and the ecclesiastic. The question of rule by God or by man was one which arose with unwavering frequency among scholars, clergy, and nobility alike. The line which separated church and state was blurry at best, leading to the development of the Investiture Conflict in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the attempts to undermine the heir to the throne in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Four men stand out among dozens in this effort to define the powers of the lay versus that of the spiritual: Emperor/kings Henry IV and John of England, and the popes who aggressively challenged their exertions of authority, Pope Gregory VII and Pope Innocent III, respectively. The years and conditions through which the worldly battled the holy for the command of the people differed, but the themes and events which emerged amidst the strife bore striking similarities. Alteration of names and faces had no effect on the emotive, and at times bitter, struggle between the two poles of authority; even time could not change the tenuous relationships between the papacy and the secular powers.…

    • 1816 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medieval Kings and Popes

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Pope was the title give to the head of the church, to which he was changed with the religious care taking of the clergy and other believers. For military aid and expansion, early popes looked to medieval kings like Clovis of the Franks, but by the time of Charlemagne’s coronation by Pope Leo III, it became questionable whether the pope or the king was the higher authority. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was decentralized with the development of feudalism, and this allowed the only unifying establishment, the Church, to become more powerful. Though the Pope and medieval kings originally held separate roles, with the rise of feudalism the popes gained greater political power despite challenges from kings and lay investiture.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were several reasons for the fall of rome but internal problems such as military deficiency, political turmoil, and a weakened economy were the predominant forces leading up to the fall. Civil wars were a common occurrence in western Europe and often challenged the imperial throne. “It is worth once again emphasizing that from 217 down to the collapse of Western Empire there were only a handful of periods as long as ten years when a civil war did not break out” (Goldsworthy). Emperors constantly faced threats for the throne and often abandoned war against foreign enemy to deal with a Roman rival or Usurper.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Empire Flaws

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The ancient world was marked by many successful and great civilizations and their equally great falls from power. Perhaps the most grand of failures in this time was that of the Roman Empire. After the death of Marcus Aurelius, an empire that had stood strong for centuries began its long, painful decline which lasted almost three centuries. No one person could possibly be blamed for this progression of abasement in the empire, but rather the entire Roman population. There were multiple political, economic, military, and social causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through 21st Century eyes the idea of gladiators fighting to the death, and of an amphitheatre where such brutality could take place watched by an enthusiastic audience, represents the cruel face of Roman Society. Nonetheless, to the Romans it represented an important feature of their civilization. Opposition to the games was seldom seen.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Fustel de Coulanges, Numa D. The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome. Boston : Dover Publications Inc. , 2006. eBook.…

    • 3245 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    -University of Bern. "Pantheon in Rome." Karman Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. 8 July 2006. Philosophisch-historische Fakultät. 17 Apr. 2007 .…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    for, but the amount of spectacles the emperor is able to provide. This can be…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slaves played a crucial role in not only the construction of ancient Rome but also in the everyday lives of Rome’s citizens. Without slaves, everyday life and even government in ancient Rome would not have been the same (Brown, 2009, p. 1231). “Slavery has been used throughout history, but at no other time in history was an empire as dependent on slaves as the ancient Romans” (Bradley, 2008, p. 477). Slaves gave ancient Romans the lavish and lazy lifestyle that became stereotypical of the ancient Roman people (Temin, 2004, p. 514).…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Empire Problems

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Although the Roman Empire was the greatest at it’s time, it did come to a fall. When it fell, the architecture, the culture, the stories were all lost for thousands of years. There were many contributors to the fall of the empire, but these four were the most critical: Political problems, economic issues, disastrous diseases, and finally, foreign invaders.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Lady or the Tiger

    • 2737 Words
    • 11 Pages

    But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself. The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.…

    • 2737 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics