Ecclesiastical Punishment Quotes
William the Conqueror. This is one of the earliest government action separating some church functions from state functions.
The church was in constant roil with the Bishops, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor each striving for superiority over the other two, almost like branches of government fighting for power. This was the bishops attempt to “impeach” the Holy Roman Emperor who was never charged or given an opportunity to face or refute the charges. He was not even present at the Council. See {611260} for his reply.
Essentially, the Council voted to close all the banks of the day and get rid of all the bankers. Without banking economic development of Christian (Catholic) Europe stagnated and did not thrive until the Borgia’s used their banking prowess to actually attain the Papacy. Ironically, Christians, Jews and Muslims all had banned banking—usury—the charging of interest for borrowed money—as a serious sin. To this day there are orthodox fundamentalists of all three religions who decry modern banking, but the majority of Christians and Jews no longer have any problem with banking, and while the Muslims generally still decry it as a sin, the wealthy Muslims have come up with various fig leaves where they pretend that banking us not usury, and in the modern world, although they are castigated by a mullah or two, the essence of capitalism goes on even in Muslim countries.
