Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/401

 The Rise of the Papacy 339 follows : " Two powers govern the world, the priestly and the Pope Gela- kingly. The first is assuredly the superior, for the priest is of"the rek-^ responsible to God for the conduct of even the emperors them- church'^to selves." Since no one denied that the eternal interests of man- the State kind, which were under the care of the Church, were infinitely more important than those merely worldly matters which the State regulated, it was natural for the clergy to hold that, in case of conflict, the Church and its officers, rather than the king, should have the last word. Gradually, as we have said, the Church began to undertake The Church the duties which the Roman government had previously per- peSorm^the formed and which our governments perform to-day, such as ^o"ernment keeping order, the management of public education, the trial of lawsuits, etc. There were no well-organized states in western Europe for many centuries after the final destruction of the Roman Empire. The authority of the various barbarian kings was seldom sufficient to keep their realms in order. There were always many powerful landholders scattered throughout the kingdom who did pretty much what they pleased and set- tled their grudges against their fellows by neighborhood wars. Fighting was the main business as well as the chief amusement of this class. The king was unable to maintain peace and protect the oppressed, however anxious he may have been to do so. Under these circumstances it naturally fell to the Church to keep order, when it could, by either threats or persuasion ; to see that contracts were kept, the wills of the dead carried out, and marriage obligations observed. It took the defenseless widow and orphan under its protection and dispensed charity ; it promoted education at a time when few laymen, however rich and noble, were able even to read. These conditions serve to explain why the Church was finally able so greatly to extend the powers which it had enjoyed under the Roman Empire, and why it undertook duties which seem to us to belong to the State rather than to a religious organization.