How did the Church play a vital role in medieval life?

The Church Dominates Medieval Life• Priest in each village was often the only contact

people had with the Church– Celebrated the mass and sacraments– Explained Church teachings and the Bible (was in Latin)– Some ran schools in the later Middle Ages

• Life was marked by important events: birth, illness, marriage, death Church involvement

• Church was social center, Church calendar very important (Gregorian calendar, 1582)

• Men and women were equal in Church doctrine, but– Church set minimum age of marriage for women– Men were fined for hurting their wife– Women often punished more harshly for similar offenses

Monasteries and Convents• What are they?• Benedictine RuleBenedictine Rule– Created around 530– A system of rules that regulated monastic life– 3 vows: obedience, poverty, chastity– Day was divided for worship, work, and study (did much

to help advance farming methods and the economy

• Provided basic health and educational services• Helped keep learning alive—libraries, copying texts• Many women entered convents because of

opportunities for learning

Church Power Grows• Pope = leader of Western Christian Church, head of the

entire Church hierarchy• Papal supremacy- Papal supremacy- authority over all secular rulers (this

would included kings and emperors)• Church leaders were usually highly educated, & were

appointed to gov’t positions by feudal rulers• Doing good deeds, believing in Christ, and participating in

the sacraments were all required to avoid hell.– Only the Church could administer the sacraments– Consequences?

• Canon law = Church law – Disobeying could result in excommunicationexcommunication or worse,

iinterdictnterdict (excluded an entire town or kingdom from the sacraments and Christian burial).

• Tried to stop warfare among nobles, called the Truce of God

Corruption and Reform• Success = problems– Some monks and nuns had possessions of their own– Some priests lived luxuriously

• Calls for reform:– Cluny, France, 900s, Abbot Berno revived the

Benedictine Rule and many other monasteries followed

– Rome, 1073, Pope Gregory VII pushed to limit secular influence on the Church and outlawed marriage for priests and selling of Church offices (simony)

• FriarsFriars traveled and taught to the poor (groups like the Franciscans and Dominicans)

Jews in Medieval Europe

• Spain was center of Jewish culture—Muslim controlled, but all religions tolerated

• 1000s- Jews began to be persecuted in W. Eur.– Blamed for disasters– Not part of parish structure, Christians suspicious– Excluded from land ownership and some

occupations

• Jews migrate to E. Eur.– Welcomed– Formed long-lasting communities

Pilgrimage• A religious journey• European Christians journeyed to the Holy

Land– Why the Holy Land?

• Holy Land occupied by Seljuk Turks (fanatical Muslims) in the 11th century– Unfriendly to the Christians– Raided north and defeated a Byzantine army

• Will be the cause of the 1st Crusade in 1095

To summarize: