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Medieval Christendom was ruled by the pope,
God's representative on earth, who had power over souls for eternity;
the Holy Roman Emperor was responsible for political justice in his lands.
Yet, in 1521, Charles V called Luther to a hearing at an Imperial Diet.
What kind of power did a political monarch have over a religious matters?
In this lecture, we will focus on the medieval metaphor of the “two swords,”
the spiritual sword that rules over the church,
the temporal sword that rules over political territories.
The concept of the two swords will help us understand why Charles V
took the matter of Luther's heresy into his own hand.
If one image could capture a central idea spanning the entire middle ages, from
the fifth century to the early sixteenth, it would be this one of the “two swords.”
The image depicting the two powers of church and
states comes from the story in Luke's gospel, chapter 22, verse 38,
when the disciples present Jesus with two swords.
In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII drew on this story and
invoked the two swords analogy in a papal pronouncement.
The document is called “Unam Sanctum” or
"ne Holy," which are the Latin words in a Christian confession of faith
of the phrase, “one holy catholic and apostolic church.”
Boniface wrote that God grants both the spiritual and
the temporal swords to the Church.
The Church wields its spiritual sword either to forgive sinners in Christ or
to impose a sentence of excommunication upon them.
The Church itself does not administer the temporal sword;
it lends it to civil authorities.
By assigning the temporal sword to the worldly authorities, Boniface adopted
an older idea from Pope Gelasius I, who was the first churchman to have
clarified the relation between the spiritual and temporal realms in 494.
According to Gelacius, the spiritual authority of the pope and
bishop is higher because they must give an account for
all souls under their jurisdiction at the end of time.
Boniface VIII extended Gelasius’ idea,
arguing that the Church also had authority over the political realm.
This view, which clarified the separation of,
but also the connection between the two powers, had a basis in the Bible.
In Matthew, chapter 22, verse 21, Jesus addressed the issue of paying taxes, and
said, “Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God, what belongs to God.”
The political authorities are to be obeyed,
as indeed God is also to be worshipped,
but, the implication is that the political realm is subservient to God.
The discussion of the hierarchy of power between the two swords was furthered
by the question of whether the spiritual authorities
should give up the temporal sword altogether.
This question too, stemmed from the Bible.
In Luke chapter 22, verse 51,
Jesus at his arrest told his disciples to put away their swords.
The spiritual realm does need the temporal sword to defend it.
The Diet of Worms was a civil court. Although he had already declared Luther a heretic,
Leo X looked to the political authorities to dispense punishment and
discipline with the temporal sword.
When Luther's own temporal ruler,
Frederick the Wise took no steps to stop Luther, Charles V intervened, but
the Emperor too, was slow to discipline Luther.
He was caught, on the one hand, between the desire to please the German princes, and
thereby unify the German states under his authority,
and on the other hand, the desire to remain in good standing with the Pope,
whose goal was to suppress the Reformation.
Charles V did what he needed to do, by sentencing Luther to death.
But thanks to another political authority, Frederick the Wise,
Luther escaped the fire in which many heretics before him had burned.
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