Popes, bishops, monks, and secular clergy all fell prey to simony and barbarism by the late 800's, to a large degree due to the failure of the attempt to restore the Empire through the Carolingians. Dr. John Rao talks here of the tragic--though temporary--collapse of the dream of Christianizing and Romanizing the Germans. Taken from: Christianity in the High Middle Ages - 1995 VonHildebrand Institute