After the demise of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman Church still kept its distance from the Italian ruler ostrogoths at that time and surrendered to the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople. However, because Rome was influenced by Germanic barbarians politically and militarily, and it was far away, it was practically impossible for Constantinople to effectively control the Pope. During the German invasion, or in the areas where Roman administration retreated or lost control, the Roman church, as the only political institution of the Roman Empire in Italy, represented the ancient traditions of Rome and Christianity at that time. It stands on the ruins caused by the Germanic invasion, as if it were an eternal city that the barbarians could not destroy. Therefore, at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries, the Roman Church gathered a large number of Roman believers around it. This greatly enhanced the prestige of the church. The Roman church began to become an independent political force.
In 536, Emperor Justinian I of the Eastern Roman Empire conquered the Eastern Gothic Kingdom and ruled Italy again, and the Roman Church returned to the control of the Roman emperor. From then until the middle of the 8th century, the Roman church was under the control of the Byzantine emperor (or nominally), during which most popes were Syrians or Greeks, and the popes at that time had to submit to the military rule of the Byzantine emperor. If the pope at that time did not obey, he would be imprisoned by the emperor. However, the Roman church finally got rid of the Byzantine emperor completely and formally split from the church of Constantinople, which came from the following three factors:
First, from the middle of the 6th century, the Germanic Lombards began to attack Italy and encroach on Byzantine territory in Italy. Byzantine power in Italy is declining. In about 75 1 year, Lombardy captured Lavaine, the capital of Byzantine Italy. Byzantine troops were driven out of central and northern Italy. Although this incident made the Pope greatly threatened by the Lombards, it also made them break away from the overall subordinate relationship to the Byzantine emperor.
Second, in 7 17, after defeating the Arab attack on Constantinople, the governor of Asia Minor in Byzantine Military Region forced the emperor Theodosius III to abdicate and become king himself, calling him Leo III (7 17-74 1). Established the rule of the Isurian dynasty (7 17-797). In order to protect the interests of the emerging military aristocrats and stabilize the life of the gentry, Leo needed a lot of land and property, which were subcontracted to officers at all levels. But at that time, most of the land in Byzantium was in the hands of churches and monasteries, and they also enjoyed the privilege of duty-free and corvee-free, which seriously affected the national tax revenue and the consolidation of the army. In order to attack the church, Leo announced his opposition to the worship of icons in 726, and set off a movement to destroy icons in the whole society. This is the famous "Icon Destruction Movement" in Byzantine history. In the month of 65438+730 10, Leo called a command meeting and asked monks and senior nobles of laity to sign his decree against icon worship. Those who refused to sign it were immediately dismissed. At this time, the Roman church resolutely opposed this decree and publicly broke with the Byzantine Empire. In 73 1 year, Pope Gregory III announced the expulsion of Leo III and all the icon destroyers. Leo retaliated by depriving the Pope of his right to tax in southern Italy and his jurisdiction over Illyria. Byzantine "Idol Destruction Movement" continued intermittently until 843, when the Byzantine emperor Tiodola announced the resumption of idolatry. 1 17' s "idol-breaking movement" completely broke the Vatican and Byzantine emperors, and also caused a complete split between the eastern and western churches.
Finally, it was the Franks who played a decisive role in the status of the Roman church. In 739 AD, Lombardy tried to conquer Rome under the leadership of King Telpland, and Pope Gregory III repelled the Lombardy's attack on Rome by turning to Charles Martel, the court minister of the Frankmolovi dynasty. In 754, in order to escape Lombardy, Pope Stephen III crossed the Alps and took refuge in Pippin, the son of Charles Martel. The two sides reached a win-win agreement: Pijian provided military protection for the Pope; The Pope officially admitted that Paiping replaced the puppet monarch of Mei Tam dynasty and won the legal title of king. In 754 and 756, Pippin sent troops to cross the Alps twice, defeated the Lombards and seized a large area of land in central Italy centered on Rome and lavina. In order to thank the Pope for his recognition of the throne, Pippin gave the land to the Pope, including all the jurisdictions of the Byzantine governor in Italy. This is the famous "pipeline land donation". The establishment of the papal state means the formal political separation of the Roman church from the Eastern Roman Empire.
In order to legalize the establishment of the papal state, the Franks (Pippin and his subordinates) forged some extremely important documents, such as The Gift of Constantine, and described it as an edict issued by Constantine the Great, to the effect that when he established the new Rome (Constantinople), he gave the old Rome and all its western territories to the Pope. As the basis of the secular power of the Pope, this gift was believed by people in the late Middle Ages. It was not until the Renaissance that the great Florentine historian and linguist Lorenzo Valla (1406- 1457) recognized this document and dismissed it as a fake (see the author's Random Talk on the European Renaissance). Strangely, Lorenzo Vara was appointed as the secretary of the Holy See by Pope Nicholas V at that time, because the Pope could not put it down, and he could not put it down for Lorenzo Vara, the Latin master of the Renaissance. This is beside the point.