Did the Church "support" Feudalism?

[Marc_Anthony]

Personally, I believe anybody who values one generation/decade/era over another is totally mistaken. The grass is always greener…

 

[Contarini]

If the Church was in support of a form of government as decentralized as the feudalism of the middle ages, for nearly a thousand years, why in the world do her bishops and leaders advocate big government intervention now? I’m under the impression that they never did in the past (until the modern era). Or am I wrong?

This is an anachronistic way of putting the question. What counts as “government” and “government intervention” changes with the centuries.

The Church did contribute to governmental centralization in two ways:

1. Pagan chieftains became Christian in part because Christian Europe (with its Roman heritage) had more organized, centralized forms of authority and (in the early Middle Ages) a conception of sacred kingship in which the king was God’s representative. Most pagan European cultures had more decentralized forms of government characterized by tribal conflict. Christianity brought greater peace and order, at least theoretically–and greater centralization.
2. In the 11th and 12th century, the Papacy pioneered the development of what we’d now call a government bureaucracy. Rulers followed suit.

In its conscious policies, at least after the 11th century, the Papacy tended to favor the aristocracy and the middle classes against the monarchs, because the monarchs’ claims of authority competed with those of the Papacy. In that sense the Popes promoted “feudalism.” (Medieval specialists have pretty much given up using the term “feudalism,” because it can mean so many different things.)

The Church has always taught that rulers have the authority to legislate for the common good–which is essentially what “government intervention” means in this context.

Was the Church in the middle ages as outspoken about political matters on the rights of workers/serfs and welfare as they are now? I believe she always advocated concern for the poor, but did she ever suggest that responsibility be placed on anyone other than individuals? Did she ever have expectations of governments to do anything for poor people besides offer military protection?

Absolutely. The idea that government’s only job is military is, as far as I can see, a modern and thoroughly un-Catholic idea. I am baffled by why Catholics accept it.

Edwin