CHAPTER XX THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT Section 83. Organization and Powers of THE Church In the preceding pages it has been necessary to refer con- stantly to the Church and the clergy. Indeed, without them medieval history would become almost a blank, for the Church was incomparably the most important institution of the time, and its officers were the soul of nearly every great enterprise. We have already learned something of the rise of the Church and of its head, the Pope, as well as the mode of life and the work of the monks as they spread over Europe. We have also watched the long struggle between the emperors and the popes, in which the emperors were finally worsted. We must now consider the Medieval Church as a completed institution at the height of its power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 475
