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Roman Catholic church in medieval times
Roman Catholic church in medieval times
The importance of religion in the middle ages
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European history, the middle ages, or medieval period, lasted from the 5th to the 15th century (Middle Ages). During that period of time, the Catholic Church was the largest, and most important part of people’s lives. It influenced all parts of European society, from the poorest, to most powerful including the King. This influence was cause by the people turning to their priests for religious guidance, giving them agency over nearly every facet of their lives.
The Church was run by a Pope, monks, and nuns, and priests. The Pope was the head of the Catholic Church. The Pope was views as God’s representative, and the populous looked up to them on how to live and pray. It was the Pope’s choice, to decide what the church would teach. Pope Benedict forced all monks and nuns to take three vows, in order to practice in the Church. A vow of poverty, to give up all worldly goods; a vow of chastity to stay single; a vow of obedience to promise to obey the church and the rules of the monastery (Benedictine Rules). Nuns were women who prayed, weaved, practiced teaching, and wrote books, while monks devoted majority of their lives to the discipline of prayer.
In some cases the church was more powerful than the king, since church had the power to excommunicate or to exclude from the communion of believers and from the privileges and public prayers of the church (Dictionary.com). For example, Henry the fourth, Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated from church by Pope Gregory the seventh. Harold the second, king of England was also excommunicated by Pope Alexander the second (Biography.com). It gave the Pope tremendous influence over the monarchies, and anyone who turned against him, would be excommunicated from church and were believe to go to...
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...taught, and only people of more sound faith still regularly attend church services. According to a poll, only forty percent of the American people attend church, compared to ninety nine percent of people who would back in the Middle Ages (Startling Facts).
On the positive note, people who attend church do so out of their own faith, as opposed to when they were pressured into fearing God from the medieval clergy. Going to the Church is now an expression of the love for God, it builds spiritual strength, and gives people direction in their lives where they would be lost otherwise. What made the biggest difference between religions in the Middle Ages and now is the people's dependence on their clergy. Whereas before people needed priests and Popes to interpret God's word for them, people can now read the Bible themselves, and come to their own conclusions and learning.
People paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church. This tax was called tithes. Tithes could either be paid in money or in goods produced by poor peasant farmers. Since peasants were very poor, they virtually always had to pay in seeds, grain or parts of animals. This usually caused peasants a lot of trouble because they needed the seeds to plant crops the following year. The church was so wealthy that it took these tithes from peasants and put them in large barns. The barns food would usually be invaded by rats and other animals that would eat the seeds, or the seeds/goods would simply rot. This truly shows the power and wealth of the Roman Catholic Church. The people were almost forced to play these tithes because if they did not pay them, there were huge consequences. The peasants could either get punished on earth by the church, or go to hell after
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 .
The Middle Ages was a time period from 500 CE to about 1500 CE. During this time, Christianity spread slowly across Europe, and eventually became a dominant religion in the world. Along with the spread of Christianity, the rise of Islam, from a global perspective, was the most important event of this period. In the Mediterranean world, the Middle Ages saw the institutionalization of several monotheistic religions. Islam and Christianity were very deeply rooted in the cultures and societies during this time, and this can be seen in the social hierarchy of medieval Islamic and Christian societies.
The relationship of “ordinary” medieval people and their churches - the local parish churches during the decline of papal prestige is an indication of the prestige as well as loyalty to the church. Unfortunately, due to the decline in prestige by means of the papacy moving from rome as well as the belief the church was under the influence of the french monarch, the public began to lose faith in the church as a whole and question its legitimacy. Not only did this derive from the listed reasons above, but also from the fact that at one point, there were two popes.This lead to confusion among Catholics due to the fact that two popes meant they had to obey one and ignore the other meanwhile the word of the pope is meant to be divine order, so it contradicted the legitimacy of what they were saying.
In the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church had been central to the lives of all, nobility as well as peasants
The Middle Ages was a time of knights, the lords they supported, and the kings and queens they worked under. A time the Roman Catholic Church took over the European landmass like rapid fire, and when moral codes designated the manner in which people acted. Almost most influential of all was feudalism. At the time of the medieval period, the social, political, and economic lives of Europeans were defined by feudalism.
During the Middle Ages the Popes had many roles, this caused there to be a lot of disagreements between the Popes and Kings of the Empire. In the the article Middle Ages Popes vs Kings the Pope and kings fought over power because they each wanted complete control of the empire. That is because the Pope wanted to have control so the people could look to them for protection and help with life choices. The King was there to tell the people what they need to abide by to live correctly. King Henry challenged the Pope by appointing the bishops and trying to have them vote the Pope out of rule (Middle Ages Popes vs
If one thing is for certain, it is that the pope and the Catholic church played a huge role in Medieval Europe. They helped shaped the people’s lives and political authority. While the pope was in control of the Catholic church, he was also in control of politics; he was over the kings, and the kings had to answer to the pope. While having so much political power, it eventually lead to the kings wanting their power back and trying different ways to get it back, which lead to a decline in the pope’s authority. The decrease in the pope’s authority lead to the Great Schism; where Europe was split up due to disagreements in the Papacy.
The medieval church was very important in the medieval era. It had a big effect on society and it influenced many people’s lives. There were many various reasons why the church was very important. People didn’t just go there to pray, but also for social gatherings and meetings.
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...
The Catholic Church in Early 1500 By the 16th century the church as an institution was starting to
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.
The Church Had enormous influence over the people of medieval Europe and had the power to make laws and influence monarchs. The church had much wealth and power as it owned much land and had taxes called tithes. It made separate laws and punishments to the monarch’s laws and had the ability to send people to war. The church controlled the people of Europe's beliefs and determined holy days and festivals. The people who worked in the church were some of the most educate people. It was one of the powerful institutions in Medieval Europe and even had its own hierarchy. The church, because of its large power and influence, caused the Christian religion to be the most widespread belief in the world. The remnants of the once powerful religion can still be found in many places to day.
I disagree with Dostoevsky who said that the church itself has become so worldly that it’s no longer Christian. In my opinion, people who are still having those religious practice because they want to show their belief in the public and it is one of the ways to influence or make other people believe what they believe. For example, Christians are having caroling and Christmas parade every year during Christmas. People are born with curiosity character. When the non-believers are exposed to a belief, they will curious about the belief and thus they will want to know about certain belief. As they are learning that particular religion, most of them will agree and start to believe it. Hence, they have higher tendency to become believers than those
Perhaps no other event was as influential to the rise of papacy in Rome as the decline of the Roman empire. With the decline of the empire, the church became the last refuge of stability. Without the protection of the empire, Rome was subject to poverty, disrepair, and attack from enemies.1 The rise of the papacy was a response to this situation. It was further cemented by the leadership of such men as Leo I and Gregory I, the latter sometimes referred to as the father of the medieval papacy.2 Finally, the granting of lands and authority to the bishop of Rome greatly increased the power of the Roman church.3