Schulze's Germany: a New History

In Schulze's Germany: a New History I found it interesting that early on the princes held the right to appoint church officials.  Before reading this I did not know that the secular world ever had any say or power at all over the church.  I find it interesting that an abbey in Burgundy actually had a movement to make the church able to position its own leaders.  I think this idea from the abbey made a huge impact on medieval.

The church was seen as the arbiter of truth, and justice in the medieval world.  Papal influences were instilled in local regions by the bishops and clergy who held much political sway.  Much money was sent from the regions to the papal states, one of the reasons the aristocracy supported the reformation.  The corruption of the church with the selling of indulgences and influence in the secular world was great at the time.

If perhaps the secular world had some control over the clergy in their regions, perhaps the secular authorities would have had more say in matters of the church, or at least be buffered from papal influences.  The appointed clergy would, I assume, be more willing to appease the local ruler who appointed him, and be more readily influenced, than one appointed by the church.  This buffer could in effect be beneficial to the local rulers and perhaps make them more opposed to the reformation.  For the reformation would seek to take away the state's power to appoint religious officials, and possibly remove the states influence on the pope.

The fact that this divergence brought around the idea of separation of church and state long before it became the mainstay in politics, especially the rise of the New World's political climate, is very interesting.  I personally thought it was a new idea not one that grew out of a disaccord with the church and local rulers over the ability to appoint clergy.