Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12.

This is resistance and reformation on the Fight Laugh Feast network from the

dissolution of the Roman imperial, through the age of medievalism, right up to the advent of modernity,

European culture was shaped by a complicated

futile relationship between clerics and kings. The alternating

partnerships and rivalries of popes and emperors of bishops and princes proved to be

the defining feature of the civilization of Christendom.

The whole structure of the Holy Roman Empire was predicated on an alliance between church and state.

Sometimes that alliance was amicable and mutually beneficial.

More often than not, though, it was fractious and maliciously competitive.

Because clear lines of authority, boundaries for jurisdictions and channels of communication were only rarely established, tensions often flared.

Nevertheless, both the civic rulers and the ecclesiastical hierarchs recognized that they greatly depended upon

one another. When Pope Leo the third invested Charlemagne with imperial authority he did so largely to

reward the Carolinian house for its defense of the people lands but it was also a form of insurance for the future,

wedding the fortunes of the empire to the safety, security, and prosperity of the church.

It was a formula that would be tested again and again over the centuries. In 1077 for instance a great conflict over the issue of investiture arose between the Holy

Roman Emperor Henry the fourth and the great reforming Pope Gregory the 7th. It led to what some historians have called

one of the most dramatic moments of the medieval age. The issue at stake was what role kings and princes should play in the affairs of the church,

appointing bishops and archbishops conferring lands and privileges on abbots and canons.

According to historian Paul Johnson, until the latter part of the 11th century a ruler was in effect the head of the church. In fact he says the

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