The concluding section of Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time is about the medieval conflict between Emperors and Popes.
John Carter, former Captain in the Army of the Confederate States, a chieftain of Thark and a Prince of Helium, son-in-law of the Jed of Lesser Helium and grandson-in-law of the Jeddak of Greater Helium, was tried because he broke Barsoomian religious law by returning alive from the Valley Dor.
An excellent church-state conflict comes to the boil in Anderson's Vault Of The Ages. More on this later.
Addendum: After publishing this post, I returned to it to add Carter's various military and/or political ranks in order to bring out the church-state conflict idea. (On Barsoom, there is no difference between military and political.)
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Broadly speaking, I would side with St. Thomas a'Becket on this quarrel between Church and State. TOO often the state has gone too far and tried to meddle with issues such as doctrinal disputes, the election/choosing of bishops, or who should be pope.
One recent example of interference by the state in the US which was totally unjustified was former President Barack Obama's so called "reform" of health insurance attempting to force Catholic religious to pay for abortion and contraceptives in health insurance. It caused a good deal of bitterness and anger, as you can imagine!
Sean
Sean,
I think that, in Henry II's time, many clerks were in minor orders. ("Clerk" and "cleric" have the same root.) A layman who stole a sheep might be hanged by the king's men whereas a clerk who committed the same offense might just get a light penance from a priest. (I am not sure of these exact examples but I think that it was something like that.) The king saw that a lot of his subjects were out of his control.
Paul.
Sean,
Also, in the Middle Ages, a bishop was a feudal lord so the Emperor wanted some say in his appointment.
Remember doctrinal disputes started in the Roman Empire and the then Emperor, Constantine, felt obliged to convene a Council to stop the arguments!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And many LAY people preferred to be tried in the ecclesiastical courts, because the standards of proof for conviction was stricter and the penalties lighter than in the secular courts.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, the Investiture Controversy was what you had in mind. Precisely because bishops also held fiefs from the Emperor. By the time of the Concordat of Constance, both sides backed down somewhat. The Emperor was allowed a say in the election of bishops, but the pope had to APPROVE that election.
Councils of Bishops were being held before First Nicaea, it was not all Constantine's idea. And it was generally accepted that the decisions of an Ecumenical Council had to be ratified by the pope before they became binding.
Sean
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