Bob W wrote:
Italy? Which is the only part of the world the Church ever
ruled. The church was generally an adjunct to the state elsewhere.
It certainly was not. Read your history!
Bob
I have. On most issues the Church was subservient to the King of France,
the Holy Roman Emperor or the King of Spain (Explicitly so in Spain).
That's not to say that the Second Estate wasn't extremely influential,
but it certainly did not _RULE_ (Cardinal Richilieu aside). In Spain,
after the Reconquista, the Church was viewed as an arm of the state and
very explicitly so.
The reason it seems different was the common practice of giving nobles
who wouldn't inherit titles a religious title, while they went on to
actually serve their king.
Richilieu for example was primarily a French ruler, not a case of the
Church running France. He very clearly put France ahead of the church as
a whole.
-Adam
