Image 3.2

PIETRO PERUGINO, CHRIST HANDING THE KEYS TO (1481– 82)1

The Christian message proclaimed that worldly power and wealth meant nothing; heavenly riches and God’s favor—everything. Christ’s entreaty to care for the poor became a central focus of the church, along with praying for Christian souls. In Roman times, the elites had shown generous civic-mindedness. As Christianity became the established faith of Western Europe, in the later fourth century, they gave lavishly to the church. In fact, everyone with the means gave. In exchange, priests and monks interceded with God. “Even the smallest gift to the poor or to the church,” in the mind of contemporaries, “brought about a miraculous joining of heaven and earth. In such gifts, time and eternity were joined.” The “poor” included the clergy, and the gifts often involved building churches. As secular institutions declined, therefore, religious authority increased. Those who gave demanded that the recipients—the mediators between them and heaven—be spiritually worthy. This meant that priests and monks should not marry and should not indulge in sexual relations. As lay people pressed for clerical chastity, the clergy gained moral superiority in their eyes. Real wealth, secular influence, and moral authority all combined to make the church the equal of—if not superior to—secular rulers and lords. The image below reproduces a massive painted in the in the Vatican by Pietro Perugino (1446–1523) with assistance by other major Renaissance painters. It depicts Christ bestowing the “Keys of Heaven” on the first bishop of , Peter. For the image’s original Internet location, click here.

1 Image provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.