There is no
reason to look upon the union of this unquenchable thirst for power and
complete "other-worldiness" as a contradiction. The kingdom of God,
Augustine's _Civitas Dei_, must of necessity be established that the
destiny of the world may be fulfilled. Every pope must account to God
for his share in the advancement of the only work which mattered, and
the greater the power the ruler of this world had acquired over the
souls of men, the more he trembled before God, weighed down by the
burden of his enormous responsibility. "The renunciation of the world in
the service of the world-ruling Church, the mastery of the world in the
service of renunciation, this was the problem and ideal of the middle
ages" (Harnack). But not only the pope, every priest, as a direct member
of the kingdom of God, was superior to the secular rulers. This was
taught emphatically by the great St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for instance,
and Gregory VII., the wildest fanatic of the kingdom of God, said, in
writing to a German bishop: "Who then who possesses even small knowledge
and reasoning power, could hesitate to place the priests above the
kings?" Even the emperor Constantine, though he was still largely under
the sway of the imperial idea, distinctly acknowledged the bishops as
his masters; according to the legend he handed to the Bishop of Rome
the insignia of his power, sceptre, crown and cloak, and humbly held the
bridle of the prelate's horse.
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