Christianity in Medieval Europe

World History I

The Papacy• The Catholic Church gained control of territories in

central Italy known as the Papal States.– This control kept the popes involved in politics.

• By the 11th century, the church wanted to be free from the practice of lay investiture.– Lay investiture was the appointment of church officials

by lords and vassals.– Gregory and King Henry IV argued over this practice.– In 1122, the Concordat of Worms declared that the

bishops were elected by church officials.

Power of the Church• In the 12th century, under Pope Innocent III, the

Church reached the height of its power.– Innocent became the most powerful person in Europe.– He used spiritual methods to achieve his goals.• He used the interdict, which forbid the priest from giving the

sacraments to a particular group of people.• Sacrament – Christian rites; needed for a Christian to go to

Heaven.• Interdiction would cause a conflict between the group under

interdiction and their rulers.

New Religious Orders• In the late 11th and Early 12th centuries, the

popularity of the Catholic Church kept growing.– The Cistercians were a group of monks who took their

beliefs to people outside of the monastery.• Women became more involved in the Church.

– The Franciscans, founded by Francis of Assisi lived among the people and focused on helping the poor.

– The Dominicans wanted to defend the church from heresy.• Heresy is the denial of basic church doctrines.

The Inquisition• Because of heresy, the church created a court called the

Inquisition.– It was created to find heretics and develop a procedure to deal

with them.– If an accused heretic confessed, they had to perform public

penance and suffer a punishment.– Eventually, those who refused to confess were tortured until

they did.• If they still didn’t confess, many were considered guilty and executed.

– Christians felt that heresy was a crime against god and humanity.– They believed using force to save souls from damnation was the

right thing to do.