NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY KANO

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
HIS2202: ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN EXPANSION 1400-1648AD

ASSIGNMENT
PRESENTED BY
GROUP 14

QUESTION
EXAMINE THE FACT THAT CHURCH WAS THE STATE AND
STATE WAS THE CHURCH
GROUP MEMBERS
S/N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

NAMES
NURA YUSUF
ABDULMALIK ADAM IBRAHIM
UMAR ABDULHAMID TASIU
ZAHARADDEEN TIJJANI SHEHU
HARUNA ZUBAIRU SULE
SUMAIHA ABDULLAHI
YAHYA AUWAL NASIDI
ABDULLAHI TANKO BALA
KAMAL SANI BAWA
JAMIL ALHASSAN NASIR

REG. NO.
UG12INT13
UG12HIS17
UG12HIS25
UG12INT09
UG12INT22
UG12HIS05
UG12INT75
UG12ISL31
UG12ISL08
UG12ISL29

INTRODUCTION
Every power is animated by the wish to be the only power, because in the nature of
its being it deems itself absolute and consequently opposes any bar which reminds
it of the limits of its influence. Power is active consciousness of authority. This is
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the reason why a struggle for hegemony immediately breaks out as soon as
different power groups appear together or have to keep inside of territories adjacent
to one another. Once a state has attained the strength which permits it to make
decisive use of its power it will not rest satisfied until it has achieved dominance
over all neighbouring states and has subjected them to its will. While not yet strong
enough for this it is willing to compromise, but as soon as it feels itself powerful it
will not hesitate to use any means to extend its rule, for the will to power follows
its own laws, which it may mask but can never deny. Thus, it was for the struggle
of power that made church as the state and state as the church, which will be
discuss and analyzed here after.
Be that as it may, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church
became its natural successors, it maintained unity of all the Christian in Europe and
gave them hope and solace. Many who were disillusioned took shelter under the
Christian umbrella, even the new barbarian rulers came very much every much
under the total influence of the Church and were compelled to treat their subjects
with mercy and leniency. Under the inspiring leadership of the Pope, Christianity
spread among the whole European societies in about 5 th century, until all of the
Europeans became Christians by eleventh century. In the words of Hayes, For
four hundred years prior to 1500 Christendom had became Europe and Europe had
been Christendom. But the important thing to understand is how the church was
wielding supreme spiritual power and the empire its temporal power. Thus, in the
light of the above, this paper was aimed to have a synthesis analysis and also to
discuss the fact that How the Church was the State and the State was the Church
during Medieval Europe.

OVERVIEW
THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, there emerged no single
powerful secular government in the Europe, but there was a central ecclesiastical
power in Rome, the Catholic Church. In this power vacuum, the Church rose to
become the dominant power in Europe. As the Church expanded beginning from
Italy to other European societies, and as secular kingdoms gained power at the
same time, there naturally arose the conditions for a power struggle between
Church and Kingdom over ultimate authority.
In essence, the earliest vision of Christendom was a vision of a Christian
theocracy, a government founded upon and upholding Christian values, whose
institutions are spread through and over with Christian doctrine. In this period,
members of the Christian clergy wield political authority. The specific relationship
between the political leaders and the clergy varied but, in theory, the national and
political divisions were at times subsumed under the leadership of the Catholic
Church as an institution. This model of church-state relations was accepted by
various Church leaders and political leaders in European history.1
In this regards, the Roman Catholic Church in the medieval Europe was said to be
like political entity, this is because the Catholic Church straddled the world of
medieval Europe. Every king, queen, knight, serf and soldier lived and died within
the embrace of the Catholic faith. Roman Catholic Church was the first church that
was build and it has some branches or provinces, dioceses and parishes run by the
Pope who was the Chief Bishop Rome, also the church workers like cardinals, arch
bishop, bishop, parish priest, curates among others all these church hierarchy were
so influential in the medieval Europe. Thus, this shows how the church was the
state and state was the church.
1 Chisholm, Hugh (1911). The Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts,
Sciences, Literature and General Information. Encyclopedia Britannica Company.
Pp. 700
3

However, the church was not simply a religion and an institution; it was a category
of thinking and a way of life. According to the Catholic faith, Jesus founded the
church to administer the sacraments, rituals that contain the mystery of grace and
the promise of salvation. Salvation comes only through the church; individuals
cannot find salvation outside the institution, that is to say man was only to believe
but he is not free to think.
It is important to note that during medieval Europe the church and the state were
closely linked. It was the duty of every political authority king, queen, and prince
or city councilman to support, sustain and nurture the church, with notable
exceptions, the church reinforced the political authority of the states, and the states
reinforced the authority of the church. This however, shows the extent in which
state or authority was under the influence of the church.
WHY THE CHURCH WAS THE STATE AND THE STATE WAS THE
CHURCH, AND WHY THE CHURCH WAS SO POWERFUL?
The Roman Catholic Church during medieval period played a far greater role in
Europe than the Church does today. In Medieval time, the Church dominated
everybody's life. All Medieval people be they village peasants or towns people
believed that God, Heaven and Hell all existed. From the very earliest of ages, the
people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman
Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the
people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the
weekly services they attended.
The church at must lower/higher levels was more powerful than the kings of the
day. King Henry XIII started his own church because the pope wouldn't allow
Henry to marry the woman of his choosing. Charlemagne even went so far as to
get papal authority to rule back in the 700's, and was named the first Holy Roman
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Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire would last for almost 1,000 years after that, and
would become the most powerful force in Europe during the period of time.
The relationship between the church and the state was the reason for the
Reformation. Martin Luther was fed up by the church duping the poor out of
money through the sale of indulgences, or payments saying that they could now get
onto the good side of God. The church had property, and therefore had a lot of
power. They had property, and were the moral and legal authority of the day. No
one questioned the church, and the church approved changes in society, not the
other way around. The church was the end all-be all of society during the Middle
Ages. The time period saw a lot of domination by the church, and was the main
aspect of society. Nobody questioned it, and everyone was just hoping that
whatever the church leaders said to follow would be the right path into the
everlasting paradise of heaven.
Hence, conflict was said to be inevitable among European societies, It was in this
period of eight century a French ruler Charlemagne emerge with his power and
uniting the entire European societies and he established peace and stability among
them various states, this earn him recognition from the Pope Leo III who crown
him as Holy Roman Emperor. Unlike the Arthur of Germany when he takes some
part of Western Christendom around tenth century, he also crown by the Pope as
Holy Roman Emperor. Therefore, this explains how the church was the state and
state was the church.2 And also at this point in time Christendom had been Europe
and Europe had been Christendom.
HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE CHURCH?

2 The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D. 170, Part 170 By Sir William Mitchell Ramsay
Pg 88-92

The Church was the single, largest, most important unifying structure in all of
Medieval Europe. It touched the heart of all of the Medieval European society,
from the richest, most powerful King, down to the poorest peasant. Almost
everyone was a Christian in the Middle Ages. Every child in Medieval Europe was
baptized, as everyone was a supporter of the Christian beliefs, people went to
Church, either healthy or sick, and they all put their life, hope and trust into the
Roman Catholic Church of Medieval Europe. The Church was any good persons
path to Heaven. Every person in society would keep to the laws and be shown the
path to everlasting life and happiness. They would often take certain offerings,
gifts or sacrifices to the Church to be placed in a certain part of heaven. These gifts
would include crops and fiefs, sometimes even serfs. This helped and allowed the
church to become immensely important and even gave it the power to rule over the
Kings of Medieval Europe. This really shows how important religion was to the
people, and the Church was the only path to religion.
The head of the Church was known as the Pope. The Pope was regarded as being
Gods representative. This gave him a huge amount of power and importance.
Anyone who turned against the Pope would be banned from the Church and go
straight to hell when they died. As this was a time when everyone believed in
Heaven and Hell, and everyone attended the Church this was considered even
worse a punishment than being sentenced to death.
Something that really strongly helped the Church was its astounding number of
supporters and followers .Over ninety percent of those people who lived in
Medieval Europe were supporters of the Roman Catholic Church. Because religion
was so important during these times, many people devoted their entire life to being
closer to God. They spent their days preying or working for the Church in silence.
They even lived in the Church. The Church was their life.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
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This period was characterized by the growing of feudalism. There was the
emergence of clergymen, noble, merchant, knights and peasant as distinct class
during that particular period. However, this period was symbolized two important
systems like the influence of the church and manorial system. These systems was
bring very hardship situation to European societies during medieval period. Also
the feudal law and courts existed and some feudal lords eventually became more
powerful than the king himself at times. Feudal structure existed in the church also
because it was one of the largest landholders. In the place of lords, the bishops and
abbots performed the functions of the lord.
Similarly, the question here of how the church was the state and state was the
church, shows how the control of the Church had over the people was total. That is
to say the power of the church was dominated all the affairs of people. Example,
the peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as
the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working
on their own plots of land producing food for their families.
They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called
tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods produced by the peasant
farmers. As peasants had little money, they almost always had to pay in seeds,
harvested grain, animals etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as
seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year. What the
Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns; a lot of the stored grain would
have been eaten by rats or poisoned by their urine. A failure to pay tithes, so the
peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they
had died.

This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. One of the reasons Henry VIII
wanted to reform the Church was get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People
were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.
People also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to
Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in
Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to
be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you
looked, the Church received money.
The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a vast sum of money
and made it far wealthier than any king of England at this time. The sheer wealth
of the Church is best shown in its buildings: cathedrals, churches and monasteries.
In Medieval Europe , peasants lived in cruck houses. These were filthy, usually no
more than two rooms, with a wooden frame covered with wattle and daub (a
mixture of mud, straw and manure). No cruck houses exist now - most simply
collapsed after a while as they were so poorly built. However, there are many
Medieval churches around. The way they were built and have lasted for centuries,
is an indication of how well they were built and the money the Church had to
invest in these building.
Important cities would have cathedrals in them. The most famous cathedrals were
at Canterbury and York. After the death of Thomas Becket, Canterbury Cathedral
became a center for pilgrimage and the city grew more and more wealthy. So did
the Church. Cathedrals were vast. They are big by our standards today, but in
Medieval England they were bigger than all buildings including royal palaces.
Their sheer size meant that people would see them from miles around, and remind
them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England. To work on
the building of a cathedral was a great honour. Those who did the skilled work had
to belong to a guild. They would have used just the most basic of tools and less
than strong scaffolding to do the ceilings. However, if you were killed in an
accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in
Heaven - or so the workers were told.
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THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH POWER

The church more or less was the state back in those days. The pope was the most
influential man in the world, and what he said was the law of the land. The church
was the social order, it was the legal order, it was the order of Europe, and it was
the unquestioned leader of the day. Anyone who dared to ask a question of the
church, or its policies were burned alive, or punished with excommunication,
which basically meant that this person couldn't go to heaven.
Whatever takes into rise must come into decline. The Khaldunian cyclical
conception of history was very applicable and interpretability into the Roman
Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian Church in
the world, and for much of its history it was the only organized Christian church.
The growth of Christianity throughout Europe gave the Church considerable
political power, and many early leaders of the Church abused that power. In fact
the early Popes were often more politically powerful and wealthy than the
monarchs of Europe. Due to a combination of factors, the political clout of the
Roman Catholic Church has decreased over time. Therefore, the decline of
political power of the Roman Catholic Church can best be attributed to the
Reformation, and the rise of renaissance ideas in Europe, which resulted in
independent secular nations around fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, and by the
fifteenth century was marked by the beginning of modern European history and the
revival of ancient Greco/Roman civilization which was termed as renaissance.
Renaissance scholars who strongly opposed the total influence and domination of
church include Dente and Boccaccio. A severe blow to the political power of the
Roman Catholic Church occurred in the form of internal strife, which ultimately
resulted in the Reformation.3 At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Church
was rife with corrupt practices and heavy-handed rule by the Pope. The most
3 Ibid Pp 99
9

prominent of the questionable practices by the Church was the sale of indulgences,
which was essentially the exchange of money for the pardon of a sin by the church.
This practice was generating backlash among both Church members and the
priesthood, particularly those in the far-flung regions of the Church's sphere of
influence. Parishioners were tired of seeing their money flowing away from their
home regions, directly into Rome and the Pope's coffers.
Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who eschewed the medieval beliefs that
the only salvation available for the common man was through the priesthood and
the Church hierarchy. He reasoned that all baptized Christians were priests of the
faith. Luther also railed against the hypocrisies and corrupt practices of the church,
particularly the sale of pardons and indulgences. In 1517, Luther challenged
Church leadership with his Ninety Nine Thesis, in which he states, "Why does not
the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of
the wealthy, build the Basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than that of
his poor followers?"
Luther went a step further than questioning the Pope's finances. He denounced the
claim of the Church that the Pope was chosen by God, and refuted their assertion
that the papacy was the spiritual lineage of Saint Peter. Questioning the Pope's
authority in Martin Luther's day was a dangerous proposition. Luther soon found
himself excommunicated by Pope Leo X, and summoned to appear before the
German Parliament on charges of heresy. This was not a surprising turn of events
considering the Pope controlled most of Germany at the time.4
In his Address to German Nobility, prior to the Diet of Worms, Luther lashes out at
the Church Hierarchy. "They assume authority saying that the Pope cannot err in
4 Holmes, J. Derek (2010). A Short History of the Catholic Church. Burns & Oates Ltd. ISBN 086012-308-1. Pp 96-97

10

matters of faith, whether he is evil or good, albeit they cannot prove it by a single
letter. That is why the Canon Law contains so many heretical and unchristian, nay
unnatural laws" Ultimately, Luther's ideas took root in Europe, and aided by the
advent of the printing press, spread throughout the continent.
The commercial and economic factors that affected the Church's power can be
traced back to the Black Death. The plague killed thousands of people in Europe,
affecting every aspect of European life. Beyond the destruction it caused, the
plague also affected a change in the commercial and economic systems of Europe.
The major cities were experienced the most deaths due to plague and the workforce
in the metropolitan areas was severely depleted. This drew peasants from the
countryside who had formerly toiled under the feudal system, and were eager for
better economic opportunities. In effect, this shift of workforce to the metropolitan
areas effectively broke the back of the feudal system, under which the Church had
enjoyed great power. This change was also an early step towards the secular,
representative governments that effectively hamstrung the political power of the
Church.5
Another economic factor that contributed towards the move towards secularism,
and away from the involvement of the Church in government, was the economic
rise of the Italian city-states. Using trade routes into the Byzantine Empire and the
East, which were bolstered by the activity generated in the Crusades, these states
were commercially successful at unprecedented levels. The making of profit was
considered much more worthy than medieval values such as feudalism or nobility.
As feudalism faded across Europe, this importance of successful trade spread to
other European nations, and served to severely hamper the political power of the
Roman Catholic Church.6
5 Ibid Pp 96
6 Ibid Pp 77
11

The political landscape, as well as the economic face of Europe was in the process
of change. The peasant revolts that took place in Europe began the questioning of
the absolute power of the monarchs. This was the initial step towards constitutional
monarchies, and what would eventually become representative governments. The
Magna Carta, signed in 1215 by King John of England, provided for such rights as
trial by jury, and effectively established the power of law over the individual will
of the monarch. This would severely hamper the political power of the Church,
which had previously counted on individual relationships with the Kings of Europe
as the source of much of their political influence.
The establishment of the Anglican Church effectively marked the end of the
Roman Catholic Church's power in England. Henry VIII established himself as the
head of the Church, although his motivation for this was somewhat questionable.
He broke with the Roman Catholic Church because the pope refused to grant him a
divorce to Catherine of Aragon. The transition of the western world out of the
medieval period brought many changes to European life, not the least of which was
the decline of the political power of the Roman Catholic Church. In retrospect, this
was a healthy change, not only for the Church, but for the nations of the Western
world as well. The use of political power by the Church really goes against the
tenets upon which the Church was founded. There is no denying that the Roman
Catholic Church is capable of positive contributions too the world on a grand scale.
This can be seen in their charitable works, their missionary efforts in Third World
areas, and perhaps most importantly, the work they do in the communities they
serve around the world. This is the legacy of the modern Church, and rightfully so.

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CONCLUSION
To sum up at this juncture that, the Church in medieval times was Catholic and it
took control to give salvation to the people. The Church also started many crusades
to gain back the Holy Land. Most failed but one a success. Today, Christians are
able to enter due to these crusades. The Church also was supreme. The greatest
reason the Church was important during the Middle Ages, was because the Middle
Ages were a time in which people believed their souls were the most important
things they had, and the true Religion was the only way to save them. In terms of
the day to day lives of ordinary people, the Church guided them through their lives
with baptism, confession and absolution, confirmation, Eucharist, unction, and,
when they died, it buried them and conducted prayers for their souls. The Church
provided services beyond those that were purely spiritual. This was partly because
it was important for Christians to be charitable.
Finally, the Church was a counter to kings who wanted absolute power; because
the Church had one power the kings could not take away: it could excommunicate
a king. Today this does not sound like much, but at the time, excommunication was
a disaster. The Middle Ages were a time in which everything was controlled by
oaths, from oaths of allegiance to treaties. When a pope excommunicated a king,
everyone, from the king's subjects to his enemies, could be freed from those oaths,
and all treaties could be cancelled. This church power was remain unchallenged
since from 5th 15th centuries, and anything that goes contrary to the church belief
was termed unacceptable. Thus, the entire powers mentioned above were vested on
the church. Therefore the church most be regarded as the state and the state was the
church. More so, during this period, Europe had been Christendom and
Christendom had been Europe.

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REFERENCE
- Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church.
Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50584-1. Pp 567-571
- Boyd, William Kenneth (1905). The ecclesiastical edicts of the Theodosian
code, Columbia University Press.
- B.V. Rao (ed) The History of Europe 3rd edition, 1987. Pp 1-3
- Chadwick, Owen (1995). A History of Christianity. Barnes & Noble.
ISBN 0-7607-7332-7.
- Dussel, Enrique (1981). A History of the Church in Latin America. Wm. B.
Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-2131-6.
- Froehle, Bryan; Mary Gautier (2003). Global Catholicism, Portrait of a
World Church. Orbis books; Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate,
Georgetown University. ISBN 1-57075-375-X. 1987, Pg 166-169
- Holmes, J. Derek (2010). A Short History of the Catholic Church. Burns &
Oates Ltd. ISBN 0-86012-308-1.
-

Koschorke, Klaus; Ludwig, Frieder; Delgado, Mariano (2007). A History of

Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 14501990. Wm B
Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-8028-2889-7.

- The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D. 170, Part 170 By Sir William
Mitchell Ramsay

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