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for western Europe: spiritual and secular authority became separated. It was a

turning point in European history.

It is interesting to contrast this with Europe’s neighbours. Here there was no
spiritual-secular divide. The eastern Byzantine emperors assumed complete control
of the eastern Christian church. They appointed the Patriarchs of the Eastern (or
Greek) Orthodox Church, making it a “theocratic” state, a type familiar to historians.
In Europe’s great non-Christian neighbor, Islam, it was the same. Here the energies
released from the birth of the new religion resulted in spectacular military expansion
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across the eastern and southern Mediterranean from the 7 century. The religious
leaders themselves (there was no Church) ruled as Caliphs. No religious-secular
divide was possible. For as long as the religious leaders of Islam felt secure, the
practice of secular science and even other religions was permitted. By the later
Middle Ages tolerance towards these practices declined. Secular thinking later
revived but, like government, remained strictly under the control of the Imans.

In ancient empires and civilisations there was no spiritual-secular divide. But in
western Europe it was different. Here the spiritual and the secular became divorced
from each other. This, as we shall see, made Europe unique in world history.

How did Charlemagne come to be crowned emperor?
After the fall of the Roman empire, the Popes soon realized the logic of their position.
Although their leadership of the Church gave them great spiritual power, their lack of
secular muscle left them insecure and exposed. As the barbarian kings of the west

emerged and converted to Christianity, the Popes began to look among them for a
secular protector. The obvious candidates were the Lombards, the barbarian people
who settled and ruled northern Italy. But they proved to be too overbearing. So in
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the 8 century the Popes approached the Franks, who were emerging as the leading
barbarian kingdom in the west. The approach paid off. The Frankish king Pepin took
territory around Rome from the Lombards, and in 756 gave it to the Pope to rule as

“The Papal States”. By 800 the Frankish ruler Charles - Charlemagne, or Charles the
Great - had built up a formidable kingdom, embracing modern France, Germany, the
Netherlands, northern Italy and part of northern Spain. On Christmas day in 800,
during Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo III stepped forward as
Charlemagne was kneeling in prayer, placed a crown on Charlemagne’s head,
declared him “emperor”, and prostrated himself before him. This was the most
sensational moment of the entire Middle Ages.