Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/561

 The Medieval Church at its Height 4^^ contracts, usury, blasphemy, sorcery, heresy, and so forth. I'he Church even had its prisons, to which it might sentence offenders for life. 4. The Church not only performed the functions of a State ; Unity of it had the organization of a State. Unlike the Protestant min- X?^*^°" isters of to-day, all churchmen and religious associations of Church medieval Europe were under one supreme head, the Pope, who made laws for all and controlled every church officer, wherever he might be, whether in Italy or Germany, Spain or Ireland. The whole Church had one official language, Latin, in which all communications were written and in which its services were everywhere conducted. The Medieval Church may therefore properly be called a The Medi- monarchy in its government. The Pope was its all-powerful rmoSrchy and absolute head. He was the supreme lawgiver. He might ^" ^^^ ^°"^ °^ '■ ^ ^ government set aside or repeal any law of the Church, no matter how ancient, so long as he did not believe it to be ordained by the Scriptures or by Nature. He might, for good reasons, make Dispensa- exceptions to all merely human laws ; as, for instance, permit cousins to marry, or free a monk from his vows. Such exceptions were known as dispe7isatio7is. The Pope was not merely the supreme lawgiver ; he was the The Pope supreme judge. Any one, whether clergyman or layman, in any judgTor'"^ part of Europe could appeal to him at any stage in the trial of Christendom a large class of cases. Obviously this system had serious draw- backs. Grave injustice might be done by carrying to Rome a case which ought to have been settled in Edinburgh or Cologne, where the facts were best known. The rich, moreover, always had the advantage, as they alone could afford to bring suits before so distant a court. The control of the Pope over all parts of the Christian Church was exercised by his legates. These papal ambassadors were intrusted with great powers. Their haughty mien sometimes offended the prelates and rulers to whom they brought home the authority of the pope, — as, for instance, when the legate