I think the point of confusion on this comes from the modern inability to grasp how decentralized both political and religious power were in the middle ages, not just in Germany but in most of Europe. So if, for example, the Pope issues a Bull banning the use of crossbows against fellow Christians, given the power and authority of the Pope, it's hard to understand how that would be more or less completely ignored.

But at any one time the Pope was typically at war with the Emperor of the HRE or the King of France or any number of other monarchs throughout Europe; cities, districts, and whole nations were routinely put under interdict, Kings and Dukes and Archbishops excommunicated for political reasons... and quite often there was more than one Pope at the same time. At one point there were three.

These prelates were powers unto themselves. 'The Church' as a monolithic entity didn't have much direct impact on an individual bishopric somewhere in Hungary or Saxony. Many of them started out as knights and won their position as a political favor or even by direct conquest. I'm not sure when exactly they would have stopped being knights, but in the case I quoted upthread, clearly this particular Bishop Walter von Geroldseck never did.

Amusingly, googling his name right now, I found that he has his very own Knight-Bishop action figure... complete with knights spurs



http://www.48specialmodels.com/e-pro...ts-detail.html

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