Medieval Cathedral as Economic and Political Instrument: A Confrontation between Beauty and Unrest

Due to the lack of government administration in medieval age, church governance appeared to be the dominant polity in Christian society. Through monopolizing cultural content and mainstream ideologies, hundreds of thousands of religious architecture were being built, and the Gothic cathedral’s image became a powerful political symbol during the time. Correspondingly, an overwhelmingly venerable aura of monumental cathedral has resulted in lacking of genuine commentary on its social function. In addition, while large-scale sculptural construction was in great demand of resources and labors, clergies’ abuses of privilege in both economic and political aspects had triggered a series of social conflicts among different classes. In order to have an impartial understanding of medieval church, in this essay I will investigate in the interaction between medieval church construction and its socio-political context by analyzing a selection of historical events in the following passage.

Medieval church played a pivotal role in European economy during thirteenth to fourteenth century. Back in time, medieval cathedral was not only a religious figure, but also an economic institution. Not to mention the cathedral itself contains an extreme complicated financial system on its operation, its prerogative economic monopoly within society was widely confirmed. To demonstrate, occupying its franchise monopoly status, the church collected monopoly rents as part of fundraising for their cathedral construction, and this went out of control in many areas. Barbara enumerated that burghers at Vézelay and Santiago had complained that stalls rent charged by administrative church were too high and that competing ecclesiastical stalls curtailed their profits. Meanwhile, coercive taxation and costly octaves of hospitality were also disputed between townspeople and abbot, which recorded in the chronicle of Saint Nicaise: In this year … many citizens of the archbishop’s ban and of the chapter’s ban, fearing an inquisition into usury would be made against them, made a conspiracy against the chapter. Notably, Christianity popularized an important opinion that a man’s duty to God is prior than his duty to the State. As a result, the medieval church was though an institution avowed in public interest, that nevertheless consistently behaved in a manner that promoted its own particular interests.Evidence had shown that resources in need of constructing process were not only available, but also more than sufficient, which in a sense is considered not reasonable. This fact leads to the question: is there a inevitable connection between resource supply and local violence? The answer is yes. In Bread, wine & money: The windows of the trades at Chartres cathedral, Jane William examined the adoption of serfs at Charters. In doing so, the canons and bishops are able to have their serfs providing goods and services for cathedral constructions that they would otherwise pay a higher price from the market. As an illustration, those disputed serfs were selectively appeared as labors and merchants on the lower-story trade windows at Charters, whereas a peaceful scene of townspeople fulfilling their duty in the maintenance of church was depicted, that a variety of occupation including artisans, sculptors, masons, wine makers/merchants, etc had ensured medieval cathedral to sustain self-sufficiency. Along with the farmland and such properties owned by church, the church’s economic operation had been debated as a failure in keeping social balance. Not surprisingly, the dependent serfs were paid with very little or no disposable income. This unequal distribution of resource had triggered cloister serfs’ dissatisfaction on the one hand, and prompted count’s antagonism on the other hand, thus promoted a series of rebellion movement during thirteenth century. Under this circumstance, while the church failed in functioning as an economic entity in some sense, its political function should be brought up into the discussion. 

According to one of the general versions in describing medieval church on the level of public administration, it represented order in the places of anarchy, and its quasi-government position was well-appreciated at beginning. Nonetheless, this attitude shifted rapidly during thirteenth to fourteenth century, as a rapid expansion of church power taken place, a rising tendency of riots happened accordingly in a wide spectrum of Christendom. In detail, Williams gave examples of the riots that continuous erupted on 1210, 1215 and 1253, in which the confrontation between the ecclesiastics and the serfs transformed from economic squeezing into political oppression, for the serfs provoked violent resistance against the cathedral, and resulted in serious damage on cathedral constructions as well as social stability. This intensive outbreak of violence did not arouse ecclesiastics’ contemplation on their problematic operation in society, instead, they invested more resources and labors in the reconstruction(defensive construction) of cathedrals; in particular, when the cathedral of Chartres burnt down in 1210, an absolute priority was given to the rebuilt of cathedral, in which a considerable load of agricultural production was placed on the townspeople for fundraising. Moreover, the canons were in sought of supports from the pope in solidifying church’s absolute rights and privileges in the reconstructing process. Emphasizing that the church officials offered the liberty within the cloister to potential labors in regaining new serfs, therefore, invoked enmity from secular power. Noted the tension created by the bishop, canon and the counts had resulted in this prominent source of social conflict at the time, namely the antagonism between the centralized ecclesiastic authority and decentralized secular power. Both Williams and Barbara have engaged with this relationship remarked as “permanent state of war”. Owing to the pope’s confirmation on cathedral’s privilege, the ecclesiastics had brought town tradesmen into the cloister in exemption from counts’ taxes and jurisdiction, which from my perspective, can be regarded as an abuse of privilege. The count and countess who failed in defending their economic rights, applied extreme approach such as forcing, incarcerating, and even killing the serfs in return, consequently, stimulated more local violence to innocent townspeople.

To conclude, on the one hand, the medieval church was economically efficient and successfully promoted extensive cathedral constructing programs, yet simultaneously concealed the fact of asymmetrical distribution of resources, as well as violent extraction upon the locals in its funding process. The ecclesiastics were appeared to be more interested in the maximization of their self-interest rather than mutual benefits within the society. On the other hand, corruption in prerogative practices provoked social conflicts not only between church and the locals but also among secular powers. Here the church had mispositioned itself to be a political entity free from public constraints, which abused their privileges with support from the pope. However, the church was not independent from social interaction, thus inevitably led to large-scale rebellions. In my opinion, when a faith-driven institution is bound up with public functions, political motives would much transform its primitive pursuit into the other side. Medieval church was once the representation of order and justice in a chaotic anarchy sphere, where people tended to seek security, both physically and spiritually. It gradually reached to a brilliant period, when its art and culture attained to the most productive and prosperous stage, along with the spiritual power deeply engrained in people’s mind. But as the loose in control of behavior, negative image unfolds in every little corner of its spectrum, and suddenly became a new tyranny that could collapse at anytime. Turning into the modern world, catholic church has lost its position in both economic and political dominance, but focus mostly on its religious and aesthetic function. All things considered, when looking back to those spectacular monumental cathedrals, one thing I can learn other than its beauty and grandeur, is the best age of its history, that once vanished, never come back.

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