Sacred Foundations

Historians of how European states took shape have usually pointed to the wars of the early modern period or to bargains between rulers and the people they governed. This book looks earlier and at a different actor. Anna Grzymała-Busse argues that the medieval Catholic Church was a central force in building the European state, both by contesting the power of kings and by supplying models for governing.

From around the eleventh century, the papacy pressed to free the church from secular control. That effort moved from confrontation with rulers to claims over people, land, and kings themselves. At the time, the church was the strongest, richest, and most tightly organized political body in Europe, and the author traces how its conduct shaped particular features of the state.

Long struggles with the papacy split up territorial authority across Europe, which encouraged self-governing towns and spread ideas about sovereignty. Because the church had organizational strengths and a deep pool of trained personnel, it created institutional forms that secular rulers later adopted, including chanceries, systems of taxation, courts, and councils. Its innovations also helped make the rule of law and parliamentary representation possible.

Drawing on a large body of evidence about papal disputes, excommunications, and church institutions, the book contends that the pressure and example of these religious authorities gave rise to secular state institutions and strengthened the capacity of states to govern.