CHAPTER 7 SEC 3 - THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

•The Church and its teachings were central to medieval life

•It took centuries for missionaries to spread Christianity across Europe but in time, the Roman Catholic Church emerged as the most powerful force in the region

•Religion shaped the everyday lives of Christian Europeans, and the Church hierarchy held considerable economic and political power

I. The Church Dominates Medieval Life – Church’s most important achievement was converting the diverse peoples of W. Europe to Christianity

In 597, Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England

By the late Middle Ages, W. Europe had become a Christian civilization and anyone who did not belong to the church community was viewed with suspicion

A. The Role of the Parish Priest – In villages, the priest of the parish was often the only contact people had with the Church

1. The priest celebrated mass and administered the sacraments, the sacred rites of the Church

a. Christians believed that the sacraments would lead them to salvation, everlasting life with God

2. Priests also preached the teachings of the Church and explained the Bible, which was in Latin only

a. They guided people on moral issues and offered assistance to the sick and needy and ran schools

B. The Importance of the Village Church – Church was a social center as well as a place of worship

1. The main events of a person’s life took place at the Church

a. Baptism marked entrance into the community, marriages were performed on the church steps, and the dead were buried in the churchyard

2. Some churches housed relics, which could be possessions or remains of saints

3. Many people made pilgrimages, or religious journeys, to pray before the relics

4. The Church required Christians to pay a tithe, or tax equal to a tenth of their income

C. The Rise of Cathedrals – Bishops, who supervised parish priests, managed larger churches called cathedrals

1. By the 1100s, communities used new technology to build huge cathedrals in the ornate, buttressed form known as Gothic style

a. Cities all over Europe competed to build grander, taller cathedrals

b. Members of the Church contributed money, labor, and skills to help build these monuments glorifying their god

D. Church Attitudes Toward Women – Church doctrine taught that men and women were equal before God but on Earth, women were viewed as weak and easily led into sin

1. The Church offered an ideal view of women in Mary, whom the Church believed to be the modest and pure mother of Jesus

2. Many Churches were dedicated to the “mother of God” and “queen of heaven” and men and women asked Mary to pray to God on their behalf

3. On the one hand, the Church tried to protect women by setting a minimum age for marriage and by fining men who seriously injured their wives. Yet, they often punished women more harshly than men for similar offenses

II. Monasteries and Convents – During the Early Middle Ages, some men and women withdrew from worldly life to the monastic life. They became monks and nuns and devoted their whole lives to spiritual goals.

A. Monastic Life: The Benedictine Rule – About 530, a monk named Benedict organized the monastery of Monte Cassino in central Italy. He created rules to regulate monastic life called the Benedictine Rule

1. Under the Benedictine Rule, monks and nuns took three vows: obedience to the abbot/abbess who headed the monastery/convent; poverty; and chastity (purity)

2. Each day was divided into periods for worship, work, and study

3. As part of their labor, monks and nuns cleared and drained land and experimented with crops

a.) Because they developed better agricultural methods, they helped to improve the economy of the Middle Ages

B. Service and Scholarship – In a world without hospitals or schools, monasteries and convents often provided basic health and educational services

1. monks and nuns looked after the poor and sick and set up schools for children

2. They gave food and lodging to travelers, especially to Christian pilgrims traveling to holy shrines

3. Some monks and nuns became missionaries who spread Christianity throughout western and central Europe

4. Monasteries and convents also kept learning alive

a.) Their libraries contained Greek and Roman works, which monks and nuns copied as a form of labor

b.) Educated monks and nuns also wrote and taught Latin, the language of the Church and educated people

C. Opportunities for Women – Although women could not become priests, many entered convents

1. In convents, women could escape the limits of society

2. In the later Middle Ages, the Church withdrew rights that nuns had once enjoyed, such as preaching the Gospels, and placed most independent convents under the control of Church officials

a.) The Church frowned on too much learning for women, preferring them to accept Church authority

III. Church Power Grows – After Fall of Rome, Church hierarchy controlled the spiritual life of Christians and also gradually became the most powerful secular, or worldly, force in medieval Europe

A. The Church’s Role in Society – During the Middle Ages, the pope was the spiritual leader of the Western Christian Church, based in Rome

1. Medieval popes declared themselves representatives of God on Earth and eventually claimed papal supremacy, or authority over all secular rules, including kings and emperors

2. The pope headed an army of churchmen who supervised church activities

3. High clergy, such as bishops and archbishops, were usually nobles who had their own territories and armies

4. The pope himself held vast lands in central Italy, later called the Papal States

5. Some monasteries also held large pieces of land, which gave them considerable political power

6. Church officials were closely linked to secular rulers and churchmen were often highly educated, so feudal rulers appointed them to government positions

B. Religious Authority and Political Power – The Medieval Christian Church was dedicated to the worship of God

1. Christians believed that all people were sinners and that many were doomed to eternal suffering

2. To avoid the tortures of hell, one had to do good works, believe in Christ, and participated in the sacraments

a.) because the Church administered the sacraments and could deny them as a punishment, it had absolute power in religious matters

3. The Church developed its own body of laws, known as canon law, as well as its own courts

a.) Canon law, based on religious teachings, governed many aspects of life, including wills, marriages, and morals

b.) Anyone who disobeyed Church law faced a range of penalties such as excommunication – exclusion from receiving the sacraments of a Christian burial, which condemned them to hell for eternity

c.) A powerful noble who opposed the Church could face the interdict, an order excluding an entire town, region, or kingdom, from receiving most sacraments and a Christian burial

1. Even the strongest ruler gave in rather than face the interdict, which usually caused revolts by the people

C. A Force for Peace – The Church tried to use its great authority to end warfare among nobles and declared temporary periods of peace known as the Truce of God

1. Truce of God – demanded that fighting stop between Friday and Sunday each week and on religious holidays

a.) Such efforts might have contributed to the decline of warfare in Europe during the 1100s

IV. Corruption and Reform – The very success of the Church brought problems. As its wealth and power grew, discipline weakened.

Many Christians left their wealth and land to monasteries and convents which led some monks and nuns to ignore their vows of poverty

Some clergy lived in luxury Priest could marry but some spent more time on family

matters than on religious duties, some even treating their priesthood as a family inheritance

Throughout the Middle Ages, there were calls for reform in the Church

A. Two Movements for Reform – In the early 900s, Abbot Berno set out to reform his monastery at Cluny, in France

1. First, he revived the rule of poverty, chastity, and obedience and then he refused to allow nobles or bishops to interfere in monastery affairs for the next 200 years, many monasteries and convents copied these reforms

2. In 1073, Gregory VII, a former monk, became pope and began another push for reform and wanted to limit secular influence on the Church

a. He insisted that the Church alone choose Church officials such as bishops

b. That policy eventually sparked a bitter battle of wills with the German emperor

c. Gregory also outlawed marriage for priests and prohibited simony, the selling of Church offices

B. New Preaching Orders – Friars, monks who did not live in isolated monasteries, took a different approach to reform

1. They traveled around Europe’s growing towns, preaching to the poor

2. The first order of Friars, the Franciscans, was founded by a wealthy Italian, St. Francis of Assisi

a. Francis devoted himself to preaching the Gospels and teaching by his own example of good works

b. The Franciscan order preached poverty, humility, and love of God

3. St. Dominic, a Spanish priest, founded the Dominican order of friars

a. Dominicans dedicated themselves to teaching official Church beliefs in order to combat heresies

4. Women also supported the reform movement and some became Dominican nuns or joined the Poor Clares, linked to the Franciscans

a. Often these orders welcomed only well-born women whose families gave a dowry, or gift, to the church

b. Another group, the Beguines, welcomed poor women who could not be accepted by other religious orders

V. Jews in Medieval Europe – In the Middle Ages, Jewish communities existed all across Europe

1. Jews flourished in modern day Spain, where Muslim rulers were tolerant of both Jews and Christians

a. Spain became a center of Jewish culture and Jews served as officials in Muslim royal courts

2. In other parts of W. Europe, Jews and Christians lived side by side in relative peace for centuries

a. Early German kings gave educated Jews positions at court and valued and protected Jewish communities although they taxed them heavily

3. By the late 1000s, W. Europe had become more Christianized and prejudice against the Jews increased

a. When faced with disasters they could not understand like illness or famine, they often blamed Jews

b. Christians did not have much interaction with Jews so they were suspicious of a culture they didn’t understand

c. As the Church grew in power, it issued orders forbidding Jews to own land or practice certain occupations

d. Popes and rulers still turned to educated Jews and financial advisers and physicians

e. In response to growing persecution, thousands of Jews migrated to E. Europe

1. There, rulers welcomed the newcomers’ skills and knowledge

2. Jewish communities thrived in E. Europe until modern times