The Church and the Fragmentation of Territorial Authority

• In Event: State, Religion, and Violence

Abstract

The starting point for many analyses of European state formation is the fragmentation of territorial political authority after the collapse of the Carolingian empire. This paper argues that the efforts of the Catholic church were behind this fragmentation: the Church selectively targeted would-be hegemons, bolstered other monarchies, and mounted a legal and ideological program that promoted primogeniture, elections, royal sovereignty, and the power of cities and nobles as counterweights to imperial royal power. The result was the disintegration of central authority hostile to the church, and its consolidation of church allies.

Author

• Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University