Universal power

In the Middle Ages, the term universal powers referred to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope. Both were struggling for the so-called Dominium mundi, or world dominium, in terms of political and spiritual supremacy. The emperor and the pope maintained their respective authorities through diverse factors such as territorial dispersion, low level of technic and productive development in feudal mode of production, and social and political tendency of feudalism to decentralization of power.

The universal powers continued into the early 19th century until the Napoleonic Wars. The reshaping of Europe meant the effective end of the Empire. Although the Papacy had its territorial limits confined to the Vatican and lost influence in international relations, it retained its spiritual influence in the contemporary world.

Given the Caesaropapism of the Byzantine Empire, the situation in the Western World after the decline of the Roman Empire assumed an exceptionally powerful position of the Bishop of Rome. As the only patriarch in the Western World, his status was soon converted into that of a primate (bishop). In addition to this spiritual power, the Bishop of Rome sought to gain temporal power over a territory held by various Germanic Kingdoms in order to make it a true theocracy. The Bishop of Rome tried to extend his territory from the city of Rome to the whole of Italy and further to the whole of the Western Roman Empire (in accordance with the Donation of Constantine). The coronation of Charlemagne in the year 800, which began the Carolingian Empire, marked the appearance of a secular authority with universal claims. The two century long coexistence of the Pontiff and the Empire (regnum et sacerdocium) was difficult and yielded the Investiture Controversy and several different ideological formulations (the theory of the two swords, Plenitutdo postestatis, Dictatus papae, condemnations of simony, and nicolaism). In these the Pope tried to establish the supremacy of religious authority over civil authority, which has come to be called political augustinism. Meanwhile, the Emperor tried to enforce the legitimacy of his position, which claimed to come from the old Roman Empire (Translatio imperii). In order to do this, he established his military capability to impose his territorial power and extend his power over religious life. This was done in a manner similar to that of his equivalent in the East. Both efforts fell far short of their goals.

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