ndom (particularly in regard to the emerging split between the Roman Church and the Church at Constantinople), and the beginnings of Roman Catholic missionary efforts in Germany and Britain. Medieval Catholicism's emphasis on the cult of saints and relics, demonology, and asceticism, in addition to the confirmation of the hierarchy of the papacy and the church, were the result of Gregory's proclamation of the "Christian Commonwealth" in which pope and clergy became responsible for the ordering of society.
Over the next four centuries, the Church became increasingly entangled in the lives of peasants, princes, kings, and the affairs of state (and all points in between), and found itself becoming increasingly "secularized." According to Manchester's thesis, "The conspicuous sacerdotal role (of the church) in the crowning of kings, who then claimed that they ruled by divine right, was characteristic of Christianity's domination of medieval Europe." Beyond this, the assorted bulls and proclamations of canon law issued by the popes and the Curia (the Church's
...