Medieval State System Dbq Essay

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In order to have a stable and prosperous society, the state system must be unified. Therefore, the church was obligated to respect the king’s government and be willing to cooperate. An anonymous person wrote, “Kings receive in their consecration the power to rule this church, that they may rule it and strengthen it in judgement and justice, and administer it in accordance with the discipline of the Christian law… in order that they may rule, protect, and defend it” (Tierney, Document 37). Since the king was responsible for administering and protecting the church, it was important that he had some say in the hierarchy and other important decisions, such as the choosing of Bishops. King Henry IV also dictated that, “[The Savior Himself] was teaching …show more content…
Peter, King Henry’s proclamation that he had a divine right to rule was just as valid. Henry stated, “God has called [me] to the kingship” (Tierney, Document 32), and to Pope Gregory upon the threat of being stripped of his imperial title, “You dared to threaten to take the kingship away from us--- as though we had received the kingship from you, as though kingship and empire were in your hand and not the hand of God” (Tierney, Document 30). Due to the importance of faith in medieval society, this was an extremely legitimate claim to power by Henry. He correctly pointed out that Pope Gregory was attempting to seize power as if he was in the highest position of power, instead of God. De Unitate Ecclesiae Conservanda also declares, “Since God himself has thus arranged things and instituted these two, the royal power and the sacred authority of priests… who can attempt to go against this except one who resists the ordinance of God?” (Tierney, Document 39). Through suggesting that that a rebellion against the Lay Investiture system would be dishonoring God’s will, the state had quite a compelling argument and sufficiently checked the church’s claims that God wished them to gain more
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