Folia Theologica 18. (2007)

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi: Peculiarities of the conception of 'sacred power' and its exercise between 1073 and 1303

FOLIA THEOLOGICA 18 (2007)

261

Szabolcs Anzelm SZUROMI

PECULIARITIES OF THE CONCEPTION OF SACRED POWER' AND ITS EXERCISE BETWEEN 1073 AND 1303*

The Medieval Church intended to guard her internal independence in explicit form, which had been recognized in the Roman Age. As is well known, the ruler's person received sacerdotal character through the anointing by some bishop or the Pope in the Early Middle Ages, firstly in 751. But this character did not give governing authority and jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical hierarchy.* 1 The anointed ruler's authority served his particular obligations and rights which were gifted by God to him to be fulfilled in the earthly aspect of the Church. Researchers have usually dated the coalition of the "throne" and "altar" in the West from this very time.

1. The church-politic of the Carolingian Age weakened the independence of the Church in the West, and this marked how close the confrontation was between the secular and ecclesiastical authority. The anointed ruler considered as his own sacred obligation to do everything for the earthly realization of the Kingdom of Christ, even the promotion of spreading the Christian Faith and supporting the Church. These goals certainly provided the foundation for the claim of the ruler to define the ecclesiastical activity in his territory. Conflicts arose especially concerning the personal independence of bishops, the freedom of the ecclesiastical legislation and the competence of the ecclesiastical tribunals. Similar conflicts developed among the hierarchical levels of the Church, for example, between the metropolitan and the bishop. The concept of the anointed ruler, which appeared in the West with Pepin the Short in

* This article was presented in the Congress of International Medieval History, Leeds (12t]l July, 2007). This publication is supported by OTKA T 048584/2004 research program.

1 ULLMANN, W., Law and politics in the Middle Ages. An introduction to the sources of Medieval political idea, London 1975. 233-237. ERDŐ, P ,,A szent istván-i egyházszervezés európai háttere, in ERDŐ, P., Egyházjog a középkori Magyarországon, Budapest 2001. 173-181, especially 174.