Editing Caesaropapism (section)

{{Short description|System with state control of the Church}}
[[File:Crocetta d'oro longobarda con moneta di giustino II, da novara, VI-VIII sec..JPG|thumb|A small 
cross of [[Sheet metal|gold sheet]], with rubbings of coins of [[Justin II]] (emperor in 565–574) and holes for nails or thread, Italian, 6th century]]

'''Caesaropapism''' {{IPAc-en|ˌ|s|iː|z|ər|oʊ|ˈ|p|eɪ|p|ɪ|z|əm}} is the idea of combining the [[power (social and political)|social and political power]] of [[secularity|secular]] government with religious power, or of making secular authority superior to the spiritual authority of the Church, especially concerning the connection of the Church with government. Although [[Justus Henning Böhmer]] (1674–1749) may have originally coined the term ''[[Wiktionary:caesaropapism|caesaropapism]]'' (''Cäseropapismus''),<ref>Kenneth Pennington, "Caesaropapism," The New Catholic Encyclopedia: Supplement 2010 (2 Vols. Detroit: Gale Publishers 2010) 1.[http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/PenningtonCaesaropapism.htm 183–185] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029184027/http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/PenningtonCaesaropapism.htm |date=2013-10-29 }}
</ref> it was [[Max Weber]] (1864–1920) who wrote that "a secular, caesaropapist ruler ... exercises supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy."<ref>
{{cite book
| last1              = Swedberg
| first1             = Richard
| author-link1       = Richard Swedberg
| last2              = Agevall
| first2             = Ola
| title              = The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts
| url                = https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC
| series             = Stanford Social Sciences Series
| year = 2005
| location           = Stanford, California
| publisher          = Stanford University Press
| publication-date   = 2005
| page               = 22
| isbn               = 9780804750950
| access-date         = 2017-02-02
| quote              = Weber's formal definition of caesaropapism in ''Economy and Society'' reads as follows: 'a secular, caesaropapist ruler... exercises supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy.
}}
</ref> According to Weber, caesaropapism entails "the complete subordination of priests to secular power."<ref>
{{cite book
|last1              = Swedberg
| first1             = Richard
| author-link1       = Richard Swedberg
| last2              = Agevall
| first2             = Ola
| title              = The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts
| url                = https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC
| series             = Stanford Social Sciences Series
| year = 2005
| location           = Stanford, California
| publisher          = Stanford University Press
| publication-date   = 2005
| page               = 22
| isbn               = 9780804750950
| access-date         = 2017-02-02
| quote              = Caesaropapism entails 'the complete subordination of priests to secular power,' and it essentially means that church matters have become part of political administration ... .
}}</ref>

In an extreme form, caesaropapism is where the [[head of state]], notably the emperor ("Caesar", by extension a "superior" king), is also the supreme head of the church (pope or analogous religious leader). In this form, caesaropapism inverts [[theocracy]] (or [[hierocracy]] in Weber), in which institutions of the church control the state. Both caesaropapism and theocracy are systems in which there is no [[separation of church and state]] and in which the two form parts of a single power-structure.