Green Angel notes

The Green Angel book - Chapter 11

The Church in Bondage to the State 885-1049:

In 843, the Empire of Charlemagne was divided into three parts to be ruled by his three grandsons. However, the Slavs, Hungarians, and wild Norsemen came from the East and North and brutally attacked the cities. Utter chaos reigned for three hundred years. Out of that chaos came feudalism. Because of that invasion, there were no large cities. Instead, most people lived out in the country and land was their wealth. Because of the continual invaders, the rulers that followed Charlemagne found they had to divide their kingdom among the chief warriors. This went on down the line...people dividing what they had charge over into smaller parts that other people ruled over. The people who received land because of military service were called vassals. If he turned around and gave rule to others for the same service, those people were called fiefs. In this way, it became the fact that the entirety of Europe was in a feudal system. Lords were obligated to protect their vassals and in turn the vassals were obligated to render their services to tend the land given to them. The political side to all of this was decentralization. Since everything was broken up into smaller parts, there was no one big ruling center. The king was ruler among many others. The Norsemen didn't go back, but rather some stayed and set up homes to live there. They adopted the language, customs, and religions of the land. In Italy, since it was also broken up, whoever was the biggest and most powerful lord got to say who the pope was in Rome. Because of this, often times many wicked men led the Church. The Pope John XII looked to Otto I for help and he did help them. In return for this, the pope crowned Otto emperor. Otto was a strong king and as such, his rule flourished. It also changed the fact that there had always been Italian popes. Now, there was a French pope. Benedict IX was made pope in 1033 at the age of twelve and he turned out to be the worst person to ever occupy the papal seat. He was eventually driven out. Sylvester III was then made pope. But Benedict soon resumed his seat but soon tiring of it, sold it off. This brought immense shame upon the church because of this action.