The Building of Cathedrals

Here in Rome, it's amazing how many Christian buildings scatter the city's layout. As we wander around the streets, it seems as if there's a church or other Christian monument on every other corner. The city is littered with these old relics of Christian tradition...and that's not even including the presence of the Vatican which we are visiting tomorrow. We began discussing the economic reasoning behind the building of these cathedrals, challenging the idea that they were simply designed for the glory of God. The article Tyler and I read this week presented the idea that the Roman Catholic Church used the creation of cathedrals as entry-deterring devices in an attempt to slow or end the entry of Protestantism into the religion market. Based on the article presentations from Anna and Bri, and Dan and Colton, we now see that the Roman Catholic Church was acting as a monopoly in this market, denying the entry of substitutes through several entry-deterring devices including increasing the price of disobedience (for example, heresy would result in death). Roman Catholicism was understandably worried when substitutes began challenging their control of the market. For example, to combat the entry of Islam, they supported the Crusades, attempting to raise the cost of religious affiliation in the Islamic faith. In retaliation against Protestantism, they increased the danger of being open about said religious affiliation, claiming those in favor of Luther's (and others) ideas as heretics and worthy of death.

The building of cathedrals was used in the same way, to dissuade people from leaning towards a new form of religion. They were designed to overwhelm and astonish people in an attempt to show the Church's commitment to their form of religion. Creation of cathedrals showed potential entrants into the market (substitute religions) their commitment to continuing their level of output (for example, number of souls saved). This could be used to scare off any form of new religion that would undermine the power of the Church. In this way, the Roman Catholic Church used the creation of cathedrals to create more power for themselves in an attempt to retain their monopolistic hold on the market. In the end, other forms of religion were able to enter and create what we see today in the market for religion which resembles more of an oligopoly.

For an entity that was facing attacks that threatened their monopolistic control over the religion market, the Roman Catholic Church reacted in a rational way. When businesses face pressure from new competition, they must bolster their own hold on the market or lash out and make it difficult for the potential entrants to gain a foothold in the market. The Church was making a rational decision and acting just as other businesses would under similar market-threatening conditions. Building cathedrals, eliminating their opponents and supporting the implementation of pro-Church laws...all these tactics were practiced by the Church in an attempt to maintain their monopolistic control of the religious market.