Wat was therelationship between church &state in the East? How did it compare 2 the church/state in the West?

Answer 1

In the West there was a close relationship in the 400s. Germanus for example combined the roles of general o/c Roman forces in Gaul with Bishop. The church sought to ally with all kings and persuade them to rely on Christian priests only for the spiritual life of themselves & their kingdoms and expel "pagan" spiritual counsellors. Gradually over the years c450 to 950 AD they succeeded in all of W and N Europe. Kings in the 6th century tended to favour whichever spiritual party was more effective at helping their political purposes such as winning wars. Only from the 8th century on did the concept of Christendom come into existence, as European Christian powers formed alliances to combat Islam (which was perceived as a threat). Christendom was an ideological concept designed to bring European kings away from fighting each other and towards fighting Islamic kings, mirrored on the other side by the concept of Dar-al-Islam. It was the natural precursor of the Crusades..... not to mention of 9/11 and the Nato invasion of Iraq.

By the end of the first Millennium, Roman Church and every N and W European state were in unbreakable alliance, each reinforcing the power of the other over the people to suppress deviance and maintain social order, if necessary by violence (e.g. the Inquisition).

Answer 2

In the west, the collapse of the Western Empire left the western religious authorities in position to establish themselves as an independent authority, separate from state control. (They assisted themselves in this by forging a document that allegedly left the Church large stretches of Italian territory as gifts from Constantine's will, which allowed them to be both temporal and religious rulers in those territories.)

In the east, the state remained strong and took an active role in convening religious councils to settle doctrinal questions and give "orthodox" theology the force of law. Governments claimed the power to remove religious leaders whose views differed from the state-sanctioned doctrines, and the religious leaders who were installed were lent the power of the state to harass, expel, and kill those whose views were not currently favored by the church. (This happened quite often, as the official doctrines changed from time to time, with consequent blood-letting among the newly heterodox.)

Answer 3

government ran churches in east west the churches ran the goverment