Catholic Church During The Middle Ages

Kris Conway

Mrs. Foster

English IV

September 2, 2015 The Catholic Church was the only church in Europe during the Middle Ages, and it had its own laws and large coffers. Church leaders such as bishops and archbishops sat on the king’s council and played leading roles in the government. Bishops, who were often wealthy and came from noble families, ruled over groups of parishes called "diocese." Parish priests, on the other hand, came from humbler backgrounds and often had little education. The village priest tended to the sick and indigent and, if he was able, taught Latin and the Bible to the youth of the village. As the population of Europe expanded in the twelfth century, the churches that had been built in the Roman style with round-arched roofs became too small. The building collapsed within a century or less of their construction. Most people in medieval Europe were very religious. They took their babies to church to be christened and they were buried in the churchyard. Unlike today, the Catholic church was the only church in Europe and all christians belonged to it.

The word Catholic derives from the Middle English word 'catholik' and from the Old French 'catholique' and the Latin word 'catholicus' meaning universal or whole. Early Christians, such as Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred in c110, used the term 'catholic' to describe the whole Church - the literal meaning being universal or whole.Any other sects were viewed as heretical. The Catholic religion was seen as the true religion. The Christian church was divided geographically between the west (Rome) and the east. The Middle Ages were period in Europe dating from the collapased of the Roman Empire in the west, around the 5th