The Crisis of Church State 10501300 Author:Brian Tierney with Selected Documents The Western concept of the separation of church and state - indeed, the idea of the modern state itself 0 grew out of a cernturies-long struggle between the kings and popes of medieval Europe. Few controversies have so indelibly influenced the course of Western civilization, both past and present. — The Crisis of Church & State brings to the con... more »temporary reader the major documents of the prolonged debate, revealing the ideas behind the conflict and relating them to the practical politics of the medieval world. Among the items recorded here are Henry IV's defiance of the papacy over the issue of lay investiture, the rise of the papacy to political power under "lawyer-pope" Innocent III, and Phillip IV's humiliation of Boniface VIII.
The author, Brian Theirney, interprets these disputes and provids a clear narrative of church-state relations in the Middle Ages, explaining the issues that loomed so large before the men of the time.« less