Saeculum obscurum

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Saeculum obscurum ( Latin : dark century ) describes the period of papal history beginning with the murder of Pope John VIII in 882 until the deposition of three competing popes in 1046. In fact, it is a period of 164 years. The term was coined by Cesare Baronio (1538–1607).

During this time the papacy went through a deep crisis. At the end of the 9th century, the Carolingians as the protective power of the Pope lost influence, and Rome became largely insignificant, while the Holy Roman Empire now had to consolidate itself again under the Liudolfingern (Ottonen) Heinrich I and Otto I, the great . In the meantime, “unscrupulous” Roman aristocratic families rivaled for the chair of Petri (especially the Tusculans and the Crescentians ), which is why a third of the 45 popes were removed from their office during this time, another third ended up in dungeon, in exile or were murdered. However, not only did the popes no longer live up to the moral demands of their office because of their involvement in serious crimes, but also aroused the public with a dissolute lifestyle, which in this epoch was sometimes referred to as "women and whores" or "age of pornocracy " brought in.

The knowledge of the “immoral” life of Pope John XII. (955–964) did not prevent Otto the Great from letting him transfer the dignity of emperor to him. In return, the new emperor confirmed the Constantinian donation to the Pope . From then on, the relationship between spiritual and secular rule also changed. Every now and then, bishops were installed in their ecclesiastical office by emperors and kings with rings and staff ( investiture ). The simony was common practice in the acquisition of ecclesiastical offices. However, the growing opposition to these practices of the Ottonian and later Salian imperial churches was not able to prevail until the investiture controversy at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries.

See also

literature

  • Harald Zimmermann : Papal appointments in the Middle Ages. Böhlau, Graz et al. 1968.
  • Hans Kühner: Lexicon of the Popes. Church history - world history - contemporary history from Peter to today. Wiesbaden 1977.
  • Georg Denzler : The papacy. Past and present (= Beck'sche series 2065 CH Beck Wissen ). Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-41865-1 .
  • Karlheinz Deschner : criminal history of Christianity. Volume 5: 9th and 10th centuries. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 978-3498013042 .
  • Peter de Rosa: God's first servant. The dark side of the papacy. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3426048078 .

Individual proof

  1. H. Rössler et al .: Subject dictionary on German history , 1958, article Papsttum