HIST-308 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Polytheism, Papal Primacy, Investiture Controversy
6 Mar 2020
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While figures like gerson stopped short of the polytheism accusation, later reformers would deepen their criticism. Martin luther saw the roman pantheon re-emerging in the saints: the question of superstition. A related accusation here would be that of superstition, some kind of illicit observation falling short of religion. Some forms of worship might be more licit than others: popular practices. Despite the intellectual criticisms levied at such high practices, they retained a high level of popularity. Any reform movement would thus have an appeal to the popular sentiments satisfied by the saints" cults: popular and elite. All of these practices did not emerge entirely organically. The church as an institution played a meaningful role. In latin western europe, that meant the papacy, the cardinals, and the bishops. The line from peter"s apparent mission to rome and the medieval papacy is a long and crooked one. By the high middle ages, the papacy held real ecclesiastical power: church and kingdom.
