Cicero, Marcus Tullius 57Emperor CHARLEMAGNE (800–814) challenged this
church supremacy in politics when he began to
appoint bishops himself. This culminated in Pope Gre-
gory VII’s ban on such “lay investiture” of Catholic
bishops in 1073.
The Protestant REFORMATIONmodified the Catholic
view of church-state relations. Martin Luther claimed
that the government had supreme authority in social
matters and that the church should be primarily con-
cerned with spiritual matters and the individual’s
“inner life.” John Calvin saw a shared rule of society
by government and religious leaders. This caused Ger-
man Protestant princes to assume legal authority over
the church, an idea later adopted by King HENRY VIIIin
England.
With the proliferation of separate, DISSENTINGPro-
testant churches in England and America, the idea of
toleration of various sects and freedom of religious
belief expanded. This reached its height in the United
States, where individual religious belief and freedom
is protected by the CONSTITUTION. This reflects the
idea of separation of church and state. The U.S.
Supreme Court decides the relationship of religion
and politics, including prayer in public schools,
rights of religious expression and employment, and
spiritual education. Constitutional law is complex,
but it tries to steer a line between the two FIRST
AMENDMENTclauses that govern church-state relations
in the United States. The “establishment clause”
states that the federal government shall not make
laws respecting an establishment of religion, that is,
an official state church (as the Church of England);
the “free exercise” clause says that CONGRESSshall not
make a law violating the free exercise (belief, expres-
sion, etc.) of an individual’s religion. Protecting one
of the clauses (such as avoiding public support of
religion by permitting prayer in schools) may harm
the other clause rights (punishing those who want to
express their religion by praying in school). The
Supreme Court has tried to strike a balance between
these two, avoiding entanglement with government in
religion and not persecuting religious people. So, for
example, in various rulings it has held that students
may not pray (led by a school official) during regular
school hours in the school building but may pray
together as a group or club in the building before or
after regular school hours.
The primary motivation of religious FREEDOMin
America was to keep the government out of regulating
church affairs (doctrine, liturgy, worship, polity, etc.).
Early American BAPTISTS, especially in Virginia, fought
for noninterference of the state in church matters,
resulting in Thomas JEFFERSON’s statute for religious
freedom. But American Christians continued to believe
that state laws required moral knowledge to be just,
and moral knowledge required religious influence in
the government. The hope of EVANGELICALChristians
was that religious liberty would create widespread con-
versions to Christianity and that a generally Christian
culture would make Godly laws and policy.
As the United States became more pluralistic (with
non-Western, non-Christian inhabitants) as well as
more LIBERALpolitically, this evangelical expectation of
a Christian America was disappointed. By the 1950s,
U.S. society became less and less recognizably Christ-
ian in culture. An attempt to restore the earlier reli-
gious atmosphere in the United States was made by the
CHRISTIAN RIGHTin passing laws conforming to reli-
gious sensibilities (limited divorce, restricting ABOR-
TION, allowing PRAYER IN SCHOOL, etc.). The dynamic
between church and state promises to continue to be
an active feature of U.S. culture in the future.Further Readings
Brownlie, I., ed. Basic Documents on Human Rights.Oxford,
Eng.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
Figgis, J. N. Churches in the Modern State.London: Longmans,
Green & Co., 1913.
———. Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius 1414–1625.
New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
Hardy, A. The Spiritual Nature of Man.Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon
Press, 1979.
Jordan, W. K. The Development of Religious Toleration in England,
4 vols. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1932–40.
Malinowski, B. The Foundation of Faith and Morals.Norwood,
Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1936.
Moyser, G., ed. Church and Politics Today.Edinburgh: T & T
Clark, 1985.
Nicholls, D. The Pluralist State.New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1975.
Sturzo, L. Church and State,2 vols. Notre Dame, Ind.: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1962.
Troeltsch, E. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, 2
vols. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1931.Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 B.C.) Roman
lawyer, statesman, and political philosopher
Born into a prominent public family in Rome, Cicero
received a CLASSICALeducation emphasizing the Greek
classics of philosophy (especially PLATOand ARISTOTLE).
Living during a time when the Roman Empire was
expanding, causing a strain on the old Roman REPUBLIC