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<blockquote data-quote="Wutang" data-source="post: 1533146" data-attributes="member: 2952">The Middle Ages gets stereotyped as a theocracy in the popular imagination but the institutions of church and the secular authority were separate even though they often collaborated. Even then, the two institutions still constantly competed with each other for power and influence. This was a bit of a surprise to me when I first started actually reading about the &quot;Dark Ages&quot; and Middle Ages as opposed to getting my information of the era from popular cultures since I was assumed that the kings and lords and popes and bishops just spent their entire time stomping on the faces of peasants.A better example of a true theocracy where the secular and spiritual authorities are one and the same would be Buddhist Tibet where the monks were also secular authorities or funny enough the more &quot;enlightened&quot; Reformation and post-Reformation kingdoms where the king was also the head of the state church.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wutang, post: 1533146, member: 2952"] The Middle Ages gets stereotyped as a theocracy in the popular imagination but the institutions of church and the secular authority were separate even though they often collaborated. Even then, the two institutions still constantly competed with each other for power and influence. This was a bit of a surprise to me when I first started actually reading about the "Dark Ages" and Middle Ages as opposed to getting my information of the era from popular cultures since I was assumed that the kings and lords and popes and bishops just spent their entire time stomping on the faces of peasants. A better example of a true theocracy where the secular and spiritual authorities are one and the same would be Buddhist Tibet where the monks were also secular authorities or funny enough the more "enlightened" Reformation and post-Reformation kingdoms where the king was also the head of the state church. [/QUOTE]

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