The Church as a Bulwark Against the Disintegration of Public Power
The consolidation of the hereditary character of vassals’ prerogatives, dealt a harsh blow to kings and their power, and to social stability, as it generated an almost continuous state of war between subjects, who jockeyed to increase their wealth and power through the acquisition of fiefdoms by force of arms.
When the kings were unable to restore order, the Church stood as the only institution seeking to rectify this feudal anarchy, sustaining some ideas inherited from Roman public law (Reynolds 1996, 20).7.3.1 The Defense of Royal Authority
In the first place, the bishops did their best to maintain the kings’ supremacy over the feudal lords, at least in terms of formal recognition. Thus, in France, for example, the Church refused to consecrate or crown the great lords. According to the accord reached with Pepin the Short in 752, only kings were to be anointed by the Church.[272] In this regard, it is important to mention that another important contribution made by Pope Gregory I, was his interpretation of royal unction, included in the Old Testament, which he viewed as a Divine sanctioning of the
king’s legitimacy. By virtue of unction, Gregory believed that the king held, thus, a ministerial office, and was called upon to serve in accord with his “divine inheritance”. His interpretation includes many elements of successive conceptions of kingship, based on what Ullmann (2010, 71) calls the “rebirth of the ruler”. In the Iberian Peninsula, meanwhile, to shore up their power, the kings relied upon papal authorization, as was clearly the case in Aragon and Portugal.[273]
The favoring of royal authority was also evident in the privilege the popes assigned the kings of France, who were permitted to create abbeys wherever they wished—even in territories belonging to feudal lords.
These abbeys fell under royal patronage, thereby bolstering the kings’ preeminence.Given these conditions, it is not surprising that the kings’ chief advisers belonged to the clergy.
7.3.2 The Armed Church
With the purpose of restoring order and eradicating the state of permanent warfare, bishops and even parish priests, did not hesitate to organize armed forces (episcopal and parochial militias), to fight the feudal lords.[274] The image of the warrior bishop is a quintessential icon of the medieval era (Reuter 1992, 79).[275] The emergence of military orders, made up of monk soldiers, was to be an important stabilizing factor, following the example of the Order of the Temple (The Knights Templar), founded to protect the pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. This example would be of particular importance in Reconquest-era Spain where, after invasion by the Almoravids and Almohads, there appeared different orders (Santiago, Calatrava) which played an essential role in driving the Moors from the south of the Peninsula between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.[276]
Similarly, the Crusades were another of the Church’s contributions which had the effect of quelling the state of constant war in Europe, and restoring order to feudal societies by channeling the lords’ aggression and warmongering towards the conquest of Jerusalem and other holy sites.
7.3.3 Moral vs. Political Commitment
The area in which the Church had the greatest influence on reducing feudal anarchy would come in the spiritual realm. Thus, for example, the practice of oath-taking upon the Holy Scriptures was fomented by the Church, compensating for the waning of state authority by establishing believers’ personal, formal and overt commitment to God. This commitment, in addition, was legally binding in so far as the Church was authorized to try cases of perjury—not to mention that in some cases, the testimony of several people claiming the accused’s innocence in a solemn oath taken upon the Scriptures, known as an act of compurgation, or wager law, was legally admitted and served to exonerate him.[277]
The Church employed its spiritual authority to impose Christian obligations upon the feudal lords, through the creation of a specific ceremony to declare them knights, including a retreat of 48 h during which they were to fast and pray before receiving the Church’s backing.
Knights were obligated, moreover, to pledge to defend widows and orphans, and assume the moral commitment which their status entailed. Thanks to this, as Stephenson (2007, 75-76) points out, the strong personal bonds inherent to vassalage made it possible, in some cases, for feudalism to be reconciled with efficient government.7.3.4 The Ecclesiastical Imposition of Peace: The Peace and Truce of God Movement
In this context, we must mention the oaths of peace (conjuratio) promoted by ecclesiastical authorities, usually bishops, through which the people of particular places plagued by war were convened and forced to swear that henceforth they would live in peace. This trend would give rise to institutions such as the King’s Peace and the Peace and Truce Councils. As Poly and Bournazel (1991, 151) indicate, the Peace and Truce of God movement (Pax Dei) began at the end of the tenth century in southern France, the first council of peace held in Charroux in 989, and the second in Narbonne in 990.
In Catalonia, an essentially feudal territory, the Peace and Truce of God movement was very significant. The spread of the feudal system considerably undermined Catalonia’s political organization, not only because of the absence of a potent superior power[278] (as the prince was only a primum inter pares, or “first among equals”) but because the appearance of a multitude of powerful lords sparked constant private wars, in large measure because of the custom of private revenge, typical of the Early Middle Ages. To suppress this climate of permanent confrontation, beginning in the second half of the eleventh century, the counts of Barcelona, in their capacity as “princes”, convened Peace and Truce of God Councils (Tregua Domini or Pax Dei).[279]
The institution arose in the ecclesiastical sphere when councils and synods convened by the provincial churches began to issue “Peace of God” decrees for particular regions.[280] In territories declared “at peace”, any offenders were excommunicated.
The next step was “Truce of God” declarations, which prohibited any acts of violence in certain places or for a certain period of time.The first evidence we have of such prohibitions dates back to the early decades of the eleventh century (Cowdrey 1970, 47-62). Specifically, in 1027, a synod met in the Pyrenean village of Tuluyas (Tuluges) at which a “Peace and Truce of God” was declared throughout the region of Roussillon (in what is today southeastern France), prohibiting anyone from attacking his enemy between 3:00 in the afternoon[281] on Saturday and the same time on Monday. In the year 1033, the Benedictine Abbot Oliva, Bishop of Vic, proclaimed a “Peace and Truce of God” in his diocese (Gonzalvo I Bou 1994, xxii). From then on such declarations were issued by a growing number of synods and episcopal bodies.[282]
Beginning in the middle of the eleventh century, the “Peace and Truce of God” declarations transcended the ecclesiastical sphere, taken up and employed by the synods of the Prince (Count of Barcelona) and the members of his curia. The first record we have of these assemblies bringing together clergy and laity (Duby 1980, 123-133), dates from 1064, presided over by Ramon Berenguer I and his wife Almodis de la Marche. The most important aspect of these assemblies was that the agreements reached by them became laws, to be enforced by the princes’ “constitutions”. For instance, at the aforementioned gathering in 1064, a “Constitution of Peace and Truce” was proclaimed, and the prince’s involvement resulted in his authority ensuring the implementation of the decrees approved in the territories under his sovereignty. Thus did this type of assembly end up becoming a forum to which the princes turned for imposing order over specific areas of their domains. To enforce the Peace and Truce decrees, the Count of Barcelona appointed a series of public officials in each locality, paciarii (pahers in Romance), whose mission it was to collaborate with the bishops on the maintenance and implementation of the precepts approved by the Peace and Truce Councils.
The Peace and Truce of God Councils constituted the forerunner of feudal councils in so far as they propagated the practice of having major public decisions
approved by the community, presided over by the ecclesiastical or political authority. From this point of view, the idea that kings had to negotiate pacts regarding the most important decisions with their subjects (the “pactist” conception of power), can be traced precisely to the feudal era. From this point of view, as Goetz (1992, 260) indicates, the Peace of God movement should not be seen as a substitute for a supreme power, but an attempt to provide newly ascendant powers with newfound stability, and a social order parallel to that provided by new political and social organizations.
7.4