In fact, history would argue that no kingdom's monarchy could have ruled with power without the support of the Catholic Church, and more specifically the papacy. This time of great Church power also came with wide spread Church corruption and positional abuse. .
The doctrinal theology of the Catholic Church was one that perverted the original foundations of the Apostolic Churches. They were not founded on the principle of salvation and righteousness through grace, but rather on a system of legalism and merit. They more closely reflected the Jewish system of legalistic righteousness, rather then the Christian idea of God's free grace to repentant sinners. It can even be argued that the Catholic Church of time went beyond Jewish legalism in that they sold righteousness. .
Indulgences, which were granted by the pope, forgave individual sinners not their sins, but the temporal punishment applied to those sins. These indulgences could be used to buy one's way into heaven, as well as a loved one's (Schwiebert). The papacy had created a system so corrupt that the people actually believed that these indulgences acted as payment for sin. No longer was the message of the Church one in which the sinner is called to repent and submit to God for salvation. The message had changed to one in which the people could buy salvation through the purchase of indulgences. .
The implementation of indulgences was just one of many erroneous doctrines the Catholic Church had instituted within the framework of the Church. There were other blatant fallacies that cheapened the cost of Christ's death on the cross. By being able to purchase salvation through legalistic practices and the use of worldly treasures, the Catholic Church completely uprooted the original foundations of the Church, namely the cross. Grace had been cheapened to a form of monetary worship and no longer exalted the great sacrifice of love by Christ.