The Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope: Eschatological Figures As Representative of the Medieval Struggle of “Sacerdotium" and “Imperium”
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 8-1990 The Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope: Eschatological Figures as Representative of the Medieval Struggle of “Sacerdotium" and “Imperium” Christopher Joseph Beiting Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Medieval Studies Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Beiting, Christopher Joseph, "The Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope: Eschatological Figures as Representative of the Medieval Struggle of “Sacerdotium" and “Imperium”" (1990). Master's Theses. 1064. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1064 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE LAST WORLD EMPEROR AND THE ANGELIC POPE: ESCHATOLOGICAL FIGURES AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MEDIEVAL STRUGGLE OF "SACERDOTIUM" AND "IMPERIUM” by Christopher Joseph Beiting A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The Medieval Institute Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE LAST WORLD EMPEROR AND THE ANGELIC POPE: ESCHATOLOGICAL FIGURES AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MEDIEVAL STRUGGLE OF "SACERDOTIUM" AND "IMFERIUM" Christopher Joseph Beiting, M.A. Western Michigan University, 1990 In adopting the Christian faith, medieval people also obtained a tradition within Christianity, that of esehatology. Because of this tradition, there was a receptiveness among some for prophetic visions of the future, visions of widely varied nature. Two very popular themes running through this visionary tradition involved two eschatological figures, the Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope, whose advent would right all wrongs and transform medieval society. This thesis will examine elements of medieval political theory as they developed out of contemporary events. It will also trace the growth and development of the figures of the Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope, and attempt to demonstrate how the former influenced the latter. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements are extended: To Brian Tierney, whose work on political theory facilitated the first portion of this thesis, and to Bernard McGinn, without whose patient labors on apocalypticism this thesis would not even have been possible. To the other students at the Medieval Institute who were also working on theses at the same time I was: Robert Wojtowicz, Ulrike Strasser, Andrew Pearson, and Daniel La Corte Thank you all for tips, support, and for simply being fellow travellers in the same boat. I am proud to call you my peers. I also thank: William Wanbaugh, for help with the Latin. Daniel La Corte, for truly inestimable help with the computers. Russell Kirk, Jacques Barzun, and John Lucaks, people I encountered along the way, quite by accident, who helped me keep in mind what I’m doing all this for. And, most importantly, my beloved and long-suffering wife Sarah and my darling daughters Maggie and Lily; all never-ending sources of delight who assisted my labors in ways they cannot know. Christopher Beiting Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Order Number 1841861 The Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope: Eschatological figures as representative of the Medieval struggle of “sacerdotium” and “imperium” Beiting, Christopher Joseph, M.A. Western Michigan University, 1990 Copyright ©1090 by Beitiug, Christopher Joseph. All rightB reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Christopher Joseph Beiting 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................... ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 II. CESAROPAPISM......................................................................................... 7 III. THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY ................................................. 26 IV. THE CONFLICT WITH THE HOHENSTAUFEN.............................. 43 V. PHILIP IV AND BONIFACE VIII ......................................................... 86 VI. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................127 ENDNOTES ............................................................................................................................ 133 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 172 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Near the end of his six volume study of medieval political theory, A.J. Carlyle drew the following conclusion regarding the nature of medieval spiritual and temporal authority: To the Western Church it was in the main clear that there were two great authorities in the world, not one, that the Spiritual Power was in its own sphere independent of the temporal, while it did not doubt that the Temporal Power was also independent and supreme in its own sphere. ... This conception of the two autonomous authorities existing in human society, each supreme, each obedient, is the principle of society which the Fathers handed down to the Middle Ages, not any conception of a unity founded on the supremacy of one or the other of the powers.1 This theory of cooperating powers resulted in a view of society as a Christian Commonwealth. Such a view was not possible before the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine nor after the supplanting of the universal Empire by national kingdoms and the universal Church by national churches. Yet the time between these two events was anything but placid for the two respective powers. Although the theory of cooperation was generally accepted by both, practical definition of what that cooperation actually meant varied widely throughout the Middle Ages. The two powers, spiritual and temporal, were almost constantly in disagreement and conflict over these issues. Throughout this thesis I will use the terms sacerdotium and imnerium. I have purposefully left them without exact definition and will use them in preference to the inelegant "sacred power" and "secular power." Sacerdotium includes within its boundaries the notion of Church, papacy, or the individuals who supported both. Imnerium includes the notion of state, empire, kingdom, and the supporters of these entities. Medieval writers referred to this latter idea by a variety of words-basilia. regnum. and imnerium-often using these very different words interchangeably. But in the fourth chapter I shall supplant the term imnerium with the word regnum. representing the idea of "secular power" defined more precisely in a particular 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright