gods. Gratefully nearly ever state shared its lands and revenues with the
priests.
Some recusants have doubted that religion ever promoted morality, since
immorality has flourished even in ages of religious domination. Certainly
sensuality, drunkenness, coarseness, greed, dishonesty, robbery, and
violence existed in the Middle Ages; but probably the moral disorder born
of half a millennium of barbarian invasion, war, economic devastation, and
political disorganization would have been much worse without the
moderating effect of the Christian ethic, priestly exhortations, saintly
exemplars, and a calming, unifying ritual. The Roman Catholic Church
labored to reduce slavery, family feuds, and national strife, to extend the
intervals of truce and peace, and to replace trial by combat or ordeal with
the judgments of established courts. It softened the penalties exacted by
Roman or barbarian law, and vastly expanded the scope and organization of
charity.
Though the Church served the state, it claimed to stand above all states,
as morality should stand above power. It taught men that patriotism
unchecked by a higher loyalty can be a tool of greed and crime. Over all the
competing governments of Christendom it promulgated one moral law.
Claiming divine origin and spiritual hegemony, the Church offered itself as
an international court to which all rulers were to be morally responsible.
The Emperor Henry IV [Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1056-1106)]
recognized this claim by submitting to Pope Gregory VII [Gregory VII
(Hildebrand), Pope (r. 1073-85)] at Canossa (1077); and a century later
Innocent III [Innocent III (Giovanni Lotario de’ Conti), Pope (r. 1198-
1216)] raised the authority and prestige of the papacy to a height where it
seemed that Gregory’s ideal of a moral superstate had come to fulfillment.
The majestic dream broke under the attacks of nationalism, skepticism,
and human frailty. The Church was manned with men, who often proved
biased, venal, or extortionate. France grew in wealth and power, and made
the papacy her political tool. Kings became strong enough to compel a
