The Roman Empire and the Bishop of Rome

The mediaeval papacy was very involved in civil politics. The pope had these kind of, basically two swords. There was that of the kingdom of god and that of the civic realm. Controled both in diffe ways, but it did have control over both. And just like happens when anybody comes into a position of significant power, especially political power, there is a lot of corruption. But gregory typifies that because he is a wise politician as well as a wise theologian and christian thinker.