The Roman Catholic Church had complete influence over the lives of everyone in medieval society including their beliefs and values. The Church’s fame in power and wealth had provided them with the ability to make their own laws and follow their own social hierarchy. With strong political strength in hand, the Church could even determine holidays and festivals. It gained significant force in the arts, education, religion, politics as well as their capability to alter the feudal structure through their wealth and power.
The Church was organised into a hierarchical system that sustained the Church’s stability and control over the people and lower clergy, by organising them into different groups. First there were the ordinary believers, the citizens of the kingdom who followed the Christian faith. Then there was the clergy, the members who devoted their lives to the church. Each group of the clergy was assigned specific functions by the clergy nobles to help run the Church competently. Amongst all the clergy associates, the Pope was at the top, he had the equivalent if not more power than the ruling monarch and was in charge of all political affairs and administered the clergy. He was able to dictate political laws and even comment on the Monarch’s decisions. Under the Pope, there were the bishops. The bishops directed church courts and managed cases correlated to the public such as marriage, wills and other public predicaments. Priests held religious services that consisted of sacraments, baptisms and the usual Sabbath services. The monks and nuns received manual labour that required helping clean the monasteries and assist the needy. Educated monks copied manuscripts of medieval and ancient knowledge in the Scriptorium. Finally...
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...n standing against the nobles of the monarch.
The Roman Catholic Church’s reputation in wealth and power furnished them with the ability to have a major impact over feudal society. Their wealth earned them great power and loyalty from the royals and citizens. Their power was used to restrict not only peasant folk but also nobles and the monarch in following the Catholic faith. This influenced everyone’s daily life and morals. The Church was similar to a government institution where it sustained its own laws and rights. This provided stability to the land as people have benevolent morals with the assistance of religion. Education from the Church has initiated structural learning which made a gradual end to the barbaric era (Dark Ages). The Church’s legacy gained them the medieval reputation from society and this has influenced the reputation of the Church today.
Feudalism was a political system in which the lesser served the greater in return for land. Also, the Church had a great deal with the political side of the Middle Ages. “In time of chaos The Roman Catholic Church was the single, largest unifying structure in medieval Europe” (Doc. 3). In other words, the Church influenced all there was. In 800 CE Pope Leo named King Charlemagne the “Emperor of the Romans” (OI). This is a great example of how the Church had political power.
Kings often struggled with the Church over power and land, both trying desperately to obtain them, both committing atrocities to hold onto them. Time and time again, the Popes of the postclassical period went to great extremes to secure the Church’s position in the world. Both the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of this. D...
A 16th-century movement in Western Europe that aimed at reforming some doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches. The world of the late medieval Roman Catholic Church from which the 16th-century reformers emerged was a complex one. Over the centuries, the church, particularly in the office of the papacy, had become deeply involved in the political life of Western Europe. The resulting intrigues and political manipulations, combined with the church’s increasing power and wealth, contributed to the bankrupting of the church as a spiritual force.
Before the Reformation, medieval Christians all worshipped under the same universal idea of Christendom. The catholic faith had existed for centuries (since 325 C.E. Constantinople, Council of Nicaea) without opposition to it legitimacy, but at the turn of 1500s new ideas on Christian belief erupted all over Europe causing a split between the Church. Christianity prior to the reformation was a part of the worshippers’ everyday life. Their home, work, and social lives were oriented around the Church, yet many 16th century Christians before the Reformation did not fully understand why. Most 16th century Christians were not educated enough to understand the mandatory sermons and mass services that were preached in the medieval church because these services were in Latin. Only the upper echelon of society were sophisticated enough to understand sermon. This upper crust included the clergy, nun, monks, monarchs, nobles, and the patricians which made up a small portion of the medieval population. The clergy consisted of the Pope (Top), Cardinals (princes of the church and electors of the pope), Bishop (overseers of the dioceses), and Priest (lowest and served at each parish). The clergy were the intermediaries between the laity and God and their most important job was to ensure proper following of the sacraments .
During the period between medieval to the western modern there were many different areas addressed at this time. Each time period had a variety of systems to benefit their population. The church was weakened by internal conflicts as well as by disagreements between church and state. The rising of the bourgeois class, and secular ideals succeeded in the growing towns and gave support to the expanding monarchies. However, there are many parts to each area of social, political and religious.
One of the key roles set by the Church of the medieval West, was that of the
Roles of the Catholic Church in Western civilization has been scrambled with the times past and development of Western society. Regardless of the fact that the West is no longer entirely Catholic, the Catholic tradition is still strong in Western countries. The church has been a very important foundation of public facilities like schooling, Western art, culture and philosophy; and influential player in religion. In many ways it has wanted to have an impact on Western approaches to pros and cons in numerous areas. It has over many periods of time, spread the teachings of Jesus within the Western World and remains a foundation of continuousness connecting recent Western culture to old Western culture.-
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the major power and influence over the European continent. The kings, queens and other leaders allied with the church to gain more power. Normal citizens in Europe had to give up 10 percent of their earnings each year to the Church which in effect made the church even more powerful and rich. Those who spoke out against the Church were accused being crazy. They were often punished. The church would burn them at the stake in front of the townspeople.
The Church, during the Middle Ages, can only be characterized by corruption. When such an overarching power has no boundaries, they begin to overstep their rule. The Church at this time had more power than the secular rulers; this means that ultimately the Church had power over the people and everything else.(Gerrish 45-53) The Church, in a way, can also be compared to a tree. A tree starts from the ground and it begins to get bigger and bigger and stronger, but over time the original tree became inexistent. The roots, in which it was based on, cannot be seen now but the tree itself just keeps growing. The tree from the time it was planted to the time it reaches its peak is very different.
Religion is a major influence in our lives. Although religion covers every aspect of our lives, I am going to discuss the influence of religion in two areas. Religion among young adults and Religion and sexual issues. These topics are large, so I will only scratch the surface by discussing only a few issues within these two main topic areas. Religion is gaining popularity among young adults and college students, increasingly more students are attending a church and many different colleges are becoming involved in religious activities. Students at Wake Forest University are looking into dorms that will diversify the student body to educate students about other religions (4). Other schools have programs where people with similar interests can live in the same dorm. Some examples are the University of California, Berkeley and Davis Campuses, University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, University of Missouri at Columbia, and Columbia University in New York (2). These colleges allow students with similar religious views to live together. And it’s not just a few students, there are enough students to fill at least a wing of a dorm, if not a whole dorm (2). On Monday February 22nd, students and faculty members at Clemson University in South Carolina gathered to hear what Dr. Eugene C. Scott, from the National Center for Science Education, had to say about "Adam and Eve, and creationism versus evolution and a quivering mass of protoplasm." (1). She stated that "Evolution in its simplest form refers to a change over time, or decent with modification. Evolution is a scientific explanation based on observable facts." And that "Creationism simply put, means that God created." (1). Dr. Scott was trying to relay the message that religion and science don’t have to be opposites. Like the idea that God created evolution (1). The Students at Clemson received the message well. Despite the fact that Clemson sits in the middle of a geographic area nicknamed "The Bible Belt" known for its strong religious beliefs. In the Pop music industry, which is popular with young adults, religious groups are beginning to gain popularity. Greg Graffin, the co-founder of one of punk-rock’s most venerable bands, believes " when you’re 18, some kids want more then just bland pop culture , they want something with a little more substance." (3) And that substance can be pop music with religion tied into it. Violence among young adults is also becoming a greater problem.
Many bishops and abbots (especially in countries where they were also territorial princes) bore themselves as secular rulers rather than as servants of the Church. Many members of cathedral chapters and other beneficed ecclesiastics were chiefly concerned with their income and how to increase it, especially by uniting several prebends (even episcopal sees) in the hands of one person, who thus enjoyed a larger income and greater power. Luxury prevailed widely among the higher clergy, while the lower clergy were often oppressed. The scientific and ascetic training of the clergy left much to be desired, the moral standard of many being very low, and the practice of celibacy not everywhere observed. Not less serious was the condition of many monasteries of men, and even of women (which were often homes for the unmarried daughte...
Throughout the time of the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church served as one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval Europe, the Church served as a significant force in the arts, crafts and culture of Europe. The Church had a ranking structure (hierarchy) that was in many ways almost identical to the Feudal System, this showed that the Church had much power in those times then they do today and showed the influence that the Church had in those times. The power and the influence of the Church in those times were mainly roo...
To begin, there were two major problems with the church in the middle ages. Firstly, the bible was not easily accessible to the general public, due to the fact that it was written in latin - a language that only scholars, high church leaders, and elites could speak, read, or understand. Because of this, many of the common people simply had to believe whatever was told to them by their priest, which gave the priest an abundance of power and liberty to convince the people of anything he believed
Christianity most specifically, the Holy Roman Catholic Church has been involved in the world throughout time. Since Christianity, when if first became a major religion in society the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church has affected many areas of history. The Roman Catholic Church has affected the world historically, as demonstrated by it's impact upon the historical figures like Hypatia, Joan of Arc, and Jan Hus, historical events such as the Salem Witch Trials, and many other eras and events. The Roman Catholic Church slowed down scientific advancement during the Middle Ages when they had the greatest control over society, due to their personal beliefs. Finally, the Roman Catholic Church for a time changed the world ethically for women and homosexuals, although this is not inclusive. Without the extreme control the Roman Catholic Church had, the world would be a completely different place to live in. To prove this, topics such as the effect the Roman Catholic Church has had throughout history, how science has been affected by the Roman Catholic Church, and how the Roman Catholic Church has affected society ethically to a small and temporary degree.
Early in history, the Roman papacy consolidated its power. It became one of the most influential organizations in the medieval period. This rise to power resulted from the decline in the Western Empire, the leadership of Roman bishops, and special grants that gave the church land holdings. This rise to power caused some positive ramifications, such as the protection of the church from heresy. However, the absolute power of the pope also caused corruption and abuses, many of which would eventually spark the reformation.