Today’s Readings Podcast Description

How did spiritual shepherds become earthly lords? Calvin traces the rise of papal civil power from slender beginnings: voluntary arbitration became ordinary jurisdiction; patrons became masters; princes, by a mistaken piety, helped abolish the ancient discipline of the Church. The Donation of Constantine is treated as a fable, and Gregory himself is cited as a witness that the Roman bishop once spoke as the emperor’s servant, not as his superior. Bernard is summoned against the claim of both swords: the keys were given for sins, not for lands; ministry was enjoined, dominion interdicted. The later demand of clerical immunity from civil courts is set against Ambrose and Gregory, who reserved questions of faith to the Church, yet submitted in other matters and refused to defend the Church  ...