The reform and rise of the papacy, 1000-1215

The emergence of the Western Church as an organised and powerful institution is one of the defining features of the 12th Century. It all began with a move to reform the church from below and in this respect it was a monastery in Southern Burgundy, at Cluny, that can justly be described as the cradle of what eventually became known as the Gregorian Reform Movement. The Cluniacs became a huge force in the medieval world and produced both a remarkable new Order and a series of remarkable abbots. The course will begin with consideration of their achievement. As the name suggests, however, this Movement was in the end linked to one of the many popes who from 1046 set the papacy on the path to reform. The course will look at the build up to his pontificate, for Gregory VII (d.1085) was a reformer, not just of the clergy but, far more controversially, of the historic relationship between the Church and the Princes and Rulers of Christendom. His methods provoked immense hostility and a major dispute between himself and the German Emperor. The course will explore the nature of the relationship of these two great powers from the end of the 11th century. By his own admission, Gregory died in exile but, after nearly fifty years of reform, the Movement was so well established that despite a sense of failure hanging over his pontificate the papacy never reverted to the obscurity that had characterised it in the mid-11th century. So powerful and influential was it that in 1095 Pope Urban II – himself a Cluniac by training - was able to summon Western Christians to defend the Holy Land and give aid to the Eastern Church. Disputes between Rome and the Empire erupted at regular intervals through the coming decades, often against a background of heresy, a threat to which the papacy eventually responded with vigour. This is a fascinating development that has been rightly much studied. In Pope Innocent III, the greatest of the medieval popes, the period of Reform reached its apogee and the papacy was set on a new but also potentially dangerous course for the 13th century. We shall end by considering how well his successors managed the legacy that he left behind.