UNIVERSITATEA BABES-BOLYAI

The Ethics of Power

Abuse of power and corruption in the medieval Catholic Church
Mathe Reka ONG Management I

Introduction

Spiritual Power is arguably the most dangerous power of all. In the wrong hands, it gives the power to make judgments even about the eternal fate of another person. It needs a sign on it at all times saying, Handle with extreme care. The greater the power a person exercises, the more need there is for checks and balances before it is used and accountability after it is used. If the governing image of how to act as a priest or religious is tied to the ideas of lordship and control, then, no matter how benevolently ministry is carried out, an unhealthy domination and subservience will be present. The worst case is that of the messiah complex, where a person believes that God is calling him or her to be, as it were, a messiah, a chosen one who is called to some special mission and is, therefore, above the rules that apply to ordinary mortals, including the moral rules1 According to many scholars power is the most important phenomenon of human society. It is particularly interesting topic of ethics because it deals with the most important factor through which the relationships within a society are regulated. When hearing about power one usually thinks of money and guns, force and intimidation. Very seldom happens that we think of power in positive terms. From the point of view of theology, God is the most powerful entity and is also purely good. Consequently power, at its core, is good. According to a standard theological thought dating back to St. Augustine abused power is not power at all. It is rather a tumbling away from true power. It is clear that the above quotation cannot pretend to treat thoroughly the ethical questions related to religions; it is intended to afford an insight into one of the most important problems dealt by ethics: the ethics of power, presented by the power of the religions and more precisely, the power of Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. The following paper has four goals: first, it will clarify concepts such as ethics and morality, second it will present how different religions have influenced morality, thirdly it will shortly present the history behind the selling of indulgences during the Middle Ages and lastly, will raise questions of normative ethics regarding the power of the medieval Roman Catholic Church.

Ethics and Morality Ethics can be divided into two parts: general (theoretical) ethics, and special (applied) ethics. General ethics explains and proves the general concepts and principles of the moral order. Applied ethics relates these general philosophies to the different relations of man, and defines his obligations in particular. Ethics as a topic begins with the works of Aristotle, and his dealing of a theoretical question which had been raised by his precursors Socrates and Plato. At its original form, Ethics was concerned with the human aim of having virtue of character, in other words having admirable and well-chosen habits. An excellent character should be turned at living well and eudemonia, a Greek meaning "human flourishing", well-being or happiness. According to this, ethics is a systematic study of how individuals should best live. Ethics originally was coupled with the study of politics and law-making. The ancient philosophers Platon and Aristotle based their teaching on the idea of the absolute good and both of them believed in the highest good. They imagined a society, respectively a city that would ensure to all of its members the .good. While Platon insisted that this can be achieved by the absolute justice, Aristotle considered the well-being the ultimate goal of an ideal society. In his works, Aristotle describes different kinds of virtues as necessary to achieve and excellent character: being of "great soul", being just or fair, practical and theoretical wisdom, the virtue of being a truly good friend, and having the nobility of a gentleman. Another related concept is morality. According to Wikipedia, Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good (or right) and those that are bad (or wrong). Morality has two different senses: the descriptive and the normative. In its first, descriptive sense, it refers to cultural, personal or social values and codes of conduct. It does not indicate claims of right or wrong, it only refers to what is considered right or wrong. The branch of philosophy which studies morality in this sense is the descriptive ethics. On the other hand, normative ethics studies morality in the sense in which morality refers to issues that might be right or wrong independent of the values and codes of a particular culture.
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In trying to understand the questions of morality, we have to examine the different points of view that are valid across cultures and millennia. Peterson and Seligman concluded that certain virtues have won out different cultures they have examined. The major virtues identified were courage, justice, wisdom and humanity. Each of these included different separations, for example humanity included kindness, social intelligence and love. Modern days morality development is a process tied to the socio-cultural progress of different individuals of humanity. Scientists, predominantly socio-biologists, believe that morality is a creation of evolutionary processes acting at individual and group level. Some socio-biologists suggest that morality developed because they assured survival of mankind. Individuals developed "pro-social" emotions, like guilt or empathy, in reaction to these ethical behaviors. According to this, morality is a set of behaviors that inspires human cooperation and it is driven by different ideologies and can be characterized as self-perpetuating.

Morality and Religions Throughout most of mankinds history, visions and regulations for an ideal life have been provided by religions, thus creating moral codes. These include the ancient Egyptian code of Ma'at, the Ten Commandments of Judaism and Christianity; Judaism's Noahide Law; the yamas and niyama of the Hindu scriptures, the Quran of Islam as well as the la of Buddhism. Religious moral traditions co-exist with the secular modern framework like humanism, utilitarianism, consequentialism and others. Monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam define right of wrong by the rules and laws set by their scriptures and interpreted by the leaders of their faith. Buddhism, like many polytheistic religions is less absolute. In order to decide whether a deed was right or wrong one has to take into account all circumstances. In Hinduism one has to consider factors such as social rank, stages of life, and kinship. Different religions offer diverse ways of dealing with moral problems. For example, Hinduism considers that it "may be inevitable and indeed necessary" in certain circumstances to kill somebody.

Religion cannot always be positively associated with morality. According to David Hume "the greatest crimes have been found, in many instances, to be compatible with a superstitious piety and devotion; Hence it is justly regarded as unsafe to draw any inference in favor of a man's morals, from the fervor or strictness of his religious exercises, even though he himself believe them sincere." Christianity is no exception from this: Simon Blackburn affirmed that the "Bible can be read as giving us a carte blanche for harsh attitudes to children, the mentally handicapped, animals, the environment, the divorced, unbelievers, people with various sexual habits, and elderly women", while pointing out morally questionable subjects in the Bible's New Testament as well. On the other hand, Christian theologists clarify that the Bibles Jewish laws show the development of moral standards towards defending the weak by commanding death penalty on slave traders. According to Elizabeth Anderson, "the Bible contains both good and evil teachings", and she characterizes as "morally inconsistent. Even though the Bible contains morally opposing teachings, it is undeniable that Christianity has had a great influence on todays morality and ethics, as a whole. With the dawn of Christianity a new era in ethics started to begin. Christianity started to impose values such as the relationship between God and the world, the unity of all mankind and the destiny. St. Paul stated that moral law is written in the hearts of all men, even the non-Christians. This law expresses itself in the conscience of us and is the standard according to which the human race will be judged. As mentioned earlier, Aristotle's writings were the base for ethics, his writing being taught until the 6th century until non-Christian schools of philosophy were closed. Aristotles teachings continued to be part of the secular education and through two Islamic philosophers, Alfarabi and Averroes his theories have greatly influenced all medieval philosophy, not only in Europe but also in the Middle East. Thanks to the Latin translations during the 12th century, Dominican priests, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas were able to combine his philosophy with Christian theology. Thomas Aquinas work, the Summa Theologiae was greatly concerned with ethics. It stated that a rational foundation for ethics was compatible with Christianity. He added new theological virtues such as faith, hope and charity to the already existing ones. By his work, supernatural support was introduced, helping people to be virtuous. To sum up, the highest good was regarded as the goal and means of politics and, generally speaking society itself.
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According to Christian teachings, reason can rise from the understanding of the creation to the knowledge of the reality of God. The structure of ethics should be based on this fundamental truth. God created man, all things else. The ultimate end of man is to know God, to love and serve Him, and thus reach the perfect and unending happiness. The desire to happiness is part of the on man's nature since it was embedded there by his God. However, in the present life perfect happiness is unattainable because of, among many other reasons, the inevitable death.

The Medieval Catholic Church and its Power After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europes population faced great challenges. People lost not only clear political leadership but also services such as running water or military protection. Bands of invaders, the Germanic tribes, Vikings and Mongols were constantly raiding and killing. In this environment emerged a new leadership that offered Europe some hope. Missionaries spread Christianity throughout Western Europe among Germanic tribes and Vikings. The Benedictines founded monasteries that would offer the todays equivalent social services: healthcare, food, education and also protection. Thus, Church has started to take over the roles of the State. Its understandable that during these times, entire communities dedicated hundreds of years of time and money into magnificent cathedrals such as Notre Dame to honor God and the Church. By spreading the Christianity, political connections with Rome and the Papacy started to grow. The Popes role grew stronger through these political connections. He declared the Frankish kings Holy Roman Emperors, ordained by God with papal blessing. Kings and rulers such as Charlemagne the Great and Charles V served the Pope and promoted Catholic traditions and beliefs during their reigns. The Pope approved the marriages of kings and their queens as well as their kingdoms. Its understandable that by 1000, most of Western Europe followed the Popes command and kings and knights headed into crusades to regain the Holy Lands of Palestine from Muslim control. Owning land in the medieval society meant power and Church officials held much of this economic and political power. Aside of towns and cities run by craftsmen and the land that was in the property of kings and local noblemen, Church controlled much of the land, hence a part of the power over the medieval society.
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The power built up over the centuries relied not only on political connections and economic power but also relied on superstition and ignorance of the larger population. The generally accepted common knowledge was that one cannot get into heaven only via the church. Using the evil and the biggest fear of man, death and more precisely, eternal suffering as the base of society Church has built itself an unquestionable power and a real empire. The population viewed the priests as their assurance to get to heaven since there was no alternative. Church services emphasized this message and generation lived and died with the idea that by making and keeping the priest happy they surely would escape the eternal suffering and will go to heaven. The relationship between church and its members was based not only on spiritual guidance but on something much more trivial money. Royal families would send their daughters to monasteries and make them nuns, for the sons, the wealthy could buy high positions in the Catholic Church. The generally accepted wisdom was that this way they would get their salvation. The Roman Catholic Church did not base its wealth only on the richest. Going into heaven was a main concern of every mankind hence a great source of revenue. The first step to go to heaven and attain salvation was the baptism. Marriage had to be blessed and the death had to be buried in the holy land. For all these services regardless of their wealth, every man had to pay. In addition, after each service one had to pay a sum to the church via the collection, pay tithes and work on the Church land for free for a specified number of days annually. The Catholic Church use three other revenue generating ways: Relics: These were pieces of the cross, straw, hay, dove feathers etc. that has been thought to be nearest to Jesus on Earth and were all officially sanctioned by the Vatican. Buying the relics was considered a way to show God ones gratitude and a way of honoring Him by spending the money on objects related to His son. All the revenue generated by the relics went directly to Vatican and the Church. Pilgrimages: A great way for the believers to show their faith and an even better revenue source for the Church. At the end of the way, a pilgrim would arrive at a place of worship was owned by the Catholic Church. Great sales could be made by selling badges, holly water and certificates that would attest that the pilgrim indeed completed the journey.
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Indulgences: Through the centuries this became an entire industry. Indulgences were sold certificates that were produced in bulk and had been pre-signed by the pope that pardoned a persons sins and gave them access to heaven. Selling indulgences, like all evils came in gradually. Around 1230 Hugh of St-Cher come up with the idea of a treasury that was at the disposal of the Church and it consisted of Christs and the saints immeasurable merits, a thesis demonstrated by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Based on these merits, Gods mercy and the value that the Churchs prayers presented, the theological explanations of indulgencies were created. According to Catholic Catechism, each person is due to an immediate punishment for their sins that must be paid either on earth or in purgatory a temporary, afterdeath holding place. At the beginning indulgencies could be granted to those involved the forgiveness of sins to all who would fight the church's battles, the holy wars. Crusades were fought against heretics and infidels. Heretics were considered all classes of Christians who did not support Papacy while infidels were those not believing in Christianity, like Muslims. Those who engaged in these wars could be sure of heaven, regardless of their previous course of life. The salvation was granted not on the base of penance and faith in the forgiveness but on account of the provided services to the Church, such as killing its enemies in the crusades. After a while Popes argued that if they could forgive sins for service to the church, they surely have the right to pardon them for money offered to the Church. In addition they stated that their absolution was not only available for the living, but also for the dead. Step by step they concluded that if they have the right to remit for money sins committed in the past, future sins can be excused too for the right amount of money. Many of the indulgences mentioned precisely the sins to which it would grant the pardon. Also, some of them stated the number of years shortened in the torments of Purgatory. The indulgences and more precisely the selling of them contributed greatly to the growth of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. Its financial and social capital, hence its power gradually became extensive and comprehensive. During the later Middle Ages a substantial amount of abuses started to take place. Materialistic commissaries wanted to extract the most money for each indulgence. Unrestricted sale of
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indulgences were practiced by professional "pardoners (quaestores) whos duty was to collect offerings for a specific project. Some of these quaestores surpassed Church teachings, and assured impossible recompenses like deliverance from eternal damnation in return for money. In addition, some documents were forged while they declare that indulgences have been granted. The indulgences propagated astonishing magnitude, regarding their longevity and dimension of forgiveness. In the 1490s, an inscription by Israhel van Meckenem contained a forged indulgence of 20,000 years. One of the duplicates of this plate was altered and increased it up to 45,000 years. The power that the Church held through these promises was bigger than of any army. Not all Popes used this power in a wrong sense. Pope Boniface IX in 1392 wrote to the Bishop of Ferrara and condemned the practice of falsely claiming that these indulgences were ratified by the pope to forgive all sorts of sins and offer pardons of hundreds or even thousands of years. He also condemned the extraction of money from the faithful by assuring them of happiness in this world and eternal glory in the next. However, these practices continued to more than a hundred years. How is it that the worlds most powerful leader, the Pope condemns an action and still persists for a hundred years? The answer must rely on the explanation that even though the papacys power was extremely comprehensive by controlling all aspects of lives, the Popes power was not intensive and traditionally did not make much use of the persuasive methods of power, so this managerial solution could not solve the problem. The Churchs moral crisis culminated when Popes Julius I. and his successor Leo X. issued indulgences to those who would fund the building of the St. Peter's cathedral at Rome that was started in 1506. Collecting the money from the sale of indulgences was a task mainly of the monks of St. Dominics order. One of them, Tetzel was extremely zealous. According to Martin Luther indulgences were sold in the streets, market-places or even taverns. The general message was that that anybody who contributed opened himself the gates of heaven. If somebody made a payment on account of the dead, the soul was instantly liberated from purgatory. The prices were fixed to draw severely from the rich and yet not miss the pennies of the poor. Indulgences are the most precious and sublime of God's gifts; this red cross has as much efficacy as the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw near and I will give you letters duly sealed, by which even the sins you shall hereafter desire to commit, shall be all forgiven you. There is no sin so great that
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indulgence cannot remit. Pay, only pay largely, and you shall be forgiven. But more than all this, indulgences save not the living alone, they also save the dead. Ye priests, ye nobles, ye tradesmen, ye wives, ye maidens, ye young men, hearken to your departed parents and friends who call to you from the bottomless abyss: 'We are enduring horrible torment; a small alms would deliver us, you can give it, will you not?' The moment the money clinks in the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory and flies to heaven. With ten groshen you can deliver your father from purgatory. Our Lord God no longer deals with us as God--he has given all power to the pope."2 The indulgences have had a predefined form, a sort of template with the blanks having to be filled according to the circumstances: Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on thee;...and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy sufferings. I, in virtue of the Apostolic power committed to me, absolve thee from all ...excesses, sins and crimes, that thou mayest have committed, however great and enormous they may be, and of whatever kind....I remit the pains thou wouldst have had to endure in purgatory....I restore thee to the innocence and purity of thy baptism, so that at the moment of death, the gates of the place of torment shall be shut against thee, and the gates of Paradise open to thee. And if thou shouldst live long, this grace [favor-indulgence] continueth unchangeable till the time of thy end. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. The brother John Tetzel, commissary, hath signed this with his own hand.3

Morality Questions The exaggerations and the selling of indulgences would be perceived today as corruption according to the laws since it did not break any existing law. Ethically cannot be easily classified as right or wrong, therefore the medieval Catholic Churchs practices cannot be appreciated from the point of view of descriptive or normative morality. While it is a historical certainty that the abuses were extremely widespread, we should also note that even when corruption was as its highest, the spiritual grants were properly used devoted Christians and the priests who insisted on the need of true regret. In addition, the money raised by the selling of

indulgences was used for many noble religious and secular causes such as building churches, schools, hospitals, leper colonies, but even roads and bridges. It is not difficult to comprehend why the Catholic Church, first strengthened the practice of indulgences by eliminating the wrong elements, instead of simply abolishing it. In 1562 the Council of Trent declared: In granting indulgences the Council desires that moderation be observed in accordance with the ancient approved custom of the Church, lest through excessive ease ecclesiastical discipline be weakened; and further, seeking to correct the abuses that have crept in [. . .] it decrees that all criminal gain therewith connected shall be entirely done away with as a source of grievous abuse among the Christian people; and as to other disorders arising from superstition, ignorance, irreverence, or any cause whatsoever--since these, on account of the widespread corruption, cannot be removed by special prohibitionsthe Council lays upon each bishop the duty of finding out such abuses as exist in his own diocese, of bringing them before the next provincial synod, and of reporting them, with the assent of the other bishops, to the Roman Pontiff, by whose authority and prudence measures will be taken for the welfare of the Church at large, so that the benefit of indulgences may be bestowed on all the faithful by means at once pious, holy, and free from corruption.4 Just like in the case of Pope Boniface IX, in spite of the orders, the quaestores continued their practice to the great indignity of the faithful until the Council adopted the legal methods and ordained that the method and the name of these traders should be entirely abolished. It also concluded that indulgences and other spiritual favors should be distributed by the bishops and granted for free and emphasized they were allotted for the sake of devotion. All grants of indulgences involving fees and financial transactions were explicitly cancelled in 1567 by St. Pius V. This happened only after the Reformation started to gain power and thus, the Catholic Church started losing it. We can conclude that power, if its used to the general benefit of the population is good. It is arguable what exactly constituted during the Middle Ages the general benefit of the population and whether the Catholic Church truly served that purpose or its power was self-centered. The leadership offered during the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, the safety the provided, along with schools, hospitals and even food for the poor suggest that Roman Catholic Church used its power to the

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benefit of public good. The fact that from the money collected after the indulgences were built not only leper colonies, hospitals, roads and bridges but also cathedrals might raise morality questions. However, since during medieval times cathedrals were considered the place of God and, by definition, God is good, the morality of these actions could be justified. As demonstrated, the use power by the medieval Catholic Church cannot be simply categorized as write or wrong, therefore we can agree that the decline of its power was not merely a consequence of its corruption. Its more likely that the extreme disparities of power within the medieval society have had a debilitating effect on the Church. As we can see throughout the course of history, the few with concentrated power after a while become weaker than the masses with comprehensive power. Power needs to be used rightly and creatively and shared cooperatively for the sake of the common good. Ethics can teach us how to use correctly the power: it will always guide us to directing power to the benefit of the common good; its never for the sake of empowering one group on the account of another.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus Henry, Ganss. "Johann Tetzel". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.. idem

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BIBLOGRAPHY

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