Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents

by Maureen C. Miller

Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict places the conflict that eventually led to the seperation of church and state within the wider context of social and political change in medieval Europe, broadening the scope from its traditional portrayal as an elitist struggle between church and state.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Medieval History, Medieval

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2004

About the author

Maureen C. Miller is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

[emily Ying · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a required book for a history class I shopped during sophomore year that I eventually dropped.... after three years finally finished reading it.....
Learned about Charlemagne(is this the same thing as Chamberlain?).... Carolingian? Dynasty? .....
Little bit about aquina......
About papal bull...(confused, does this mean pope is a bull or is it a document? Cuz the picture shows a document like thing)
About Henry 1,2,3,4.,., I wonder is that the same Henry who is the father of Bloody Mary....
Also some funny names like Peter Damian.... haha

Most of the words are like letters written by popes or kings if I understood correctly.... and maybe some by scholars in various monasteries?( not sure)
About stuff happening around 1000-1200 in Western Europe ....roughly correspond to late Tang, Song and early Yuan dynasty in China......

Major themes are mostly moral preaching and cliches you still hear in church everyday.....

What I'm mostly amazed is that people in that period already speak and write like we do today.......

And that Christianity was only legalized around 350 AD.....

[Galina Krasskova · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book: clear, concise and very informative. Includes excerpts from relevant documents.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative: I knew nothing about this crisis before, but it makes perfect sense.

[Stacy Croushorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short book, but not very interesting unless you're really a fan of the Investiture Conflict. The primary documents that are used are somewhat interesting, mostly for their wording and stylistic antiquities than their content. There are a few that are genuinely interesting (found towards the end), but aren't that great to waste time reading the whole book. However, as a scholar, this book would do well for purposes of explaining said conflict.