Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
organisational structure based on five major sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, An-
tioch and Jerusalem. At the outset, each bishopric carried equal weight, but in subsequent
years Rome emerged as the senior party. The reasons for this were partly political - Rome
was the wealthy capital of the Roman Empire - and partly religious - early Christian doc-
trine held that St Peter, founder of the Roman Church, had been sanctioned by Christ to
lead the universal Church.
The patron saints of Rome, Peter and Paul, were both executed during Nero's persecution of the Christi-
ans between 64 and 68. Paul, who as a Roman citizen was entitled to a quick death, was beheaded, while
Peter was crucified upside down on the Vatican Hill.
Papal Control
But while Rome had control of Christianity, the Church had yet to conquer Rome. This it
did in the dark days that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. And although no one per-
son can take credit for this, Pope Gregory the Great (r 590−604) did more than most to lay
the groundwork. A leader of considerable foresight, he won many friends by supplying
free bread to Rome's starving citizens and restoring the city's water supply. He also stood
up to the menacing Lombards, who presented a very real threat to the city.
It was this threat that pushed the papacy into an alliance with the Frankish kings, an al-
liance that resulted in the creation of the two great powers of medieval Europe: the Papal
States and the Holy Roman Empire. In Rome, the battle between these two superpowers
translated into endless feuding between the city's baronial families and frequent attempts
by the French to claim the papacy for their own. This political and military fighting even-
tually culminated in the papacy transferring to the French city of Avignon between 1309
and 1377, and the Great Schism (1378−1417), a period in which the Catholic world was
headed by two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon.
 
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