Hierocracy (medieval)

In the Middle Ages, hierocracy or papalism[n 1] was a current of Latin legal and political thought that argued that the pope held supreme authority over not just spiritual, but also temporal affairs.

[1][2] Papalist writers at the turn of the 14th century such as Augustinus Triumphus and Giles of Rome depicted secular government as a product of human sinfulness that originated, by necessity, in tyrannical usurpation, and could be redeemed only by submission to the superior spiritual sovereignty of the pope.

Hierocracy was criticised at the time from a pro-royal perspective by John of Paris, in defence of the universal monarchy of the Holy Roman emperor by Dante Alighieri, and by critics of papal supremacy over the Catholic Church itself such as Marsilius of Padua.

In his 1075 Dictatus papae, Pope Gregory VII gave the principle a detailed legal form that sought to translate the abstract theory of primacy into concrete government policy.

Originally this was the Western Roman Empire, but when later monarchs arose and unjustly carved out territories for themselves, the pope had chosen to suffer their claims to sovereignty to avoid schism among the faithful, and subsequently limited his administration in practice to Italy—without, however, renouncing any rights.

Writing in the context of the dispute between Boniface and Philip of France, John of Paris argued in his 1303 De potestate regia et papali ("On Royal and Papal Power") that Christ's kingship was not of this world, and could not be interpreted as temporal jurisdiction.