The Medieval Christian Church and Crusades 6:Medieval Christian Europe Part I

How did the Church exercise its growing influence on medieval society, government, and economic activity?

What effects did the spread of Christianity and the rising authority of its clergy have on the Church?

In what directions did Christianity spread? How did Christianity spread across Europe?

westward and northward; through the establishment of monasteries, by missionaries, and by monarchs deciding to become Christians

How did the Crusades expand European awareness of the world and its many cultures?

by leading many people to lands in Southwest Asia, outside of Europe, and exposing them to more places and peoples

The Rise of Cathedrals

Bishops, who supervised parish priests, managed larger churches called cathedrals. These magnificent buildings were a source of pride to the communities that built them. Cities all over Europe competed to build grander, taller cathedrals. Members of the Church contributed money, labor, and skills to help build these monuments glorifying their God.

How did the Church's spiritual authority lead to political power?

Breaking the Church's laws, or canon law, could lead to penalties such as ex-communication and the interdict, which people did not want to suffer. Secular rulers gave in to the Church rather than face the interdict, which would lead to revolts.

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What authority did the Eastern Orthodox Church honor above that of the pope?

the Byzantine emperor

Preaching Orders

A different approach to reform was taken by friars, or monks who traveled widely preaching to the poor, especially in Europe's growing towns. The first order of friars, the Franciscans, was founded by a wealthy Italian later known as St. Francis of Assisi. Giving up a comfortable life, he devoted himself to preaching the Gospels and teaching by his own example of good works. The Spanish reformer St. Dominic also set up a preaching order of friars to work in the larger world. He called on friars to live in poverty, as the early Christians had. Dominic was particularly concerned about the spread of heresies, or religious beliefs that differed from accepted Church teachings. The Dominicans worked to teach people about official Christian doctrines so they would not be tempted into heresies. Some women responded to the call for reform. They became Dominican nuns or joined orders like the Poor Clares, which was linked to the Franciscans. Often these orders welcomed only well-born women whose families gave a dowry, or gift, to the church. Another group, the Beguines (BEHG eenz), welcomed poor women who could not be accepted by other religious orders.

The Benedictine Rule

About 530, a monk named Benedict organized the monastery of Monte Cassino in central Italy. He created rules to regulate monastic life. In time, the Benedictine Rule was used by monasteries and convents across Europe. Under the Benedictine Rule, monks and nuns took three vows. The first was obedience to the abbot or abbess who headed the monastery or convent. The second was poverty, or giving up worldly goods, and the third was chastity or purity. Each day was divided into periods for worship, work, and study. Benedict believed in the spiritual value of manual labor and required monks to work in the fields or at other physical tasks. Like peasants all over Europe at the time, monks and nuns cleared and drained land. They also experimented with crops. By helping to develop new farming methods, they contributed to the gradual improvement in the farm economy, which supported medieval life.

The Great Schism

By 1054, other controversies had worsened the divide, leading to the Great Schism, or the permanent split between eastern and western Christianity. The Byzantine Christian Church became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the west, the Church became known as the Roman Catholic Church. After the Great Schism, other differences grew between the two branches of Christianity. Popes in Rome had long asserted their claim to papal supremacy. The patriarchs in the eastern Christian Church continued to reject this claim. The Roman Catholic Church had a single leader, the pope, while the Eastern Orthodox Church recognized a number of patriarchs, or high-ranking clergy. During the many controversies that erupted between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, popes and patriarchs excommunicated each other. Although both churches still followed the same faith, the centers of power saw each other as rivals. During the Middle Ages and after, their contacts remained guarded and distant.

Working for Peace

By about 1000, the Church had begun to use its authority to limit feudal warfare. It tried to enforce periods of peace known as the Truce of God. It demanded that fighting stop between Fridays and Sundays and on religious holidays. Such efforts may have contributed to the gradual decline in private feudal wars that had raged in Europe for centuries.

The Legacy of Judeo-Christian Teachings

By the late Middle Ages, traditions that had grown out of Christianity and Judaism had helped shape many aspects of life in Western Europe. The blending of Jewish and Christian teachings much later was called Judeo-Christian ideas. The teachings of these religions, along with ancient Greek and Roman ideas about law and government, would lead to new ways of thought. In time, these ideas became the basis for republican forms of government in the modern world that emphasized democracy and human rights and rejected the power of hereditary rulers. Judeo-Christian teachings emphasized the value of the individual and the importance of social responsibility, or the idea of people helping one another, especially those in need. These teachings also included the idea of free will, or the freedom of humans to make choices for themselves. Christianity emerged in the Greco-Roman world, where it absorbed ideas of equality before the law, consent of the governed, and individual liberty.

The Village Church

By the later Middle Ages, the church had grown into a social center as well as a place of worship, in part because it was the largest building in a village. Life revolved around the church calendar, which included holidays such as Easter and other holy days dedicated to important saints, or deceased people recognized for their holiness or virtue by the Church. The main events of a person's life took place at the church. The sacrament of baptism was a ceremony that admitted a person to the Christian community. Marriage, another sacrament, was performed at the entrance to a church. The dying received yet another sacrament, and when dead, were buried in the churchyard. At first, the village church was a simple building. Later, prosperous communities built larger churches of stone, rather than wood. Some churches housed relics, or the possessions or remains of saints and other holy figures. During the Middle Ages, many people made pilgrimages, or journeys to a sacred place, to pray or touch the relics. The medieval writer Geoffrey Chaucer noted that, when spring comes, Then people long to go on pilgrimages ... To seek the stranger strands Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands —Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

Why might cathedrals be considered a testament to the Church's power?

Cathedrals were large and elaborate. They required a great deal of work and expense, so the Church must have had sufficient power and wealth to have had them built.

The Parish Priest

Christian rituals and faith were part of the fabric of everyday life. In villages, the priest of the parish, or local region, was often the only contact people had with the Church. The priest celebrated the mass and administered the other sacraments, the sacred rites of the Church. Christians believed that they needed the sacraments to achieve salvation, or the deliverance from sin into everlasting life. Priests passed on Church teachings and helped the sick and needy. If he could read or write, the local priest served as the only teacher in the village. Priests also collected the tithe, or tax paid each year to the Church. The Church required Christians to pay a tithe, or tax equal to a tenth of their income. In the early Middle Ages, the tithe supported the local parish. Later, increasing amounts of money were sent to Rome.

CRITICISMS OF THE CHURCH

Church Political Power Grows The Church accumulated vast amounts of wealth and even controlled its own armies. Simony Simony involved the selling of Church land, spiritual offices, holy relics, or sacred property. The practice gave spiritual authority to people interested in monetary or political gain. Selling of Indulgences A complex system was developed to calculate earthly penance for sins and the required time a person must spend in purgatory, a physical place in which the soul was punished for sins on Earth, after death. Priests would reduce a person's penance or time in purgatory in exchange for contributions to the Church .Growth of Church Wealth Everyone was required to pay a tithe, or one-tenth, of his or her income to the Church. Peasants lacking money were required to provide goods, food, or livestock and regularly work on the Church's land without pay.

Dispute Over Icons

Differences in customs and celebrations were a growing sign of the divide. A huge controversy erupted in the 700s over the issue of icons, or holy images. This dispute contributed further to the divide. Many Byzantine Christians prayed to images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. In 730, however, a Byzantine emperor outlawed the veneration, or honoring, of icons, saying it violated God's commandment against worshiping "graven images." The ban set off violent battles within the Byzantine empire. The pope took a hand in the dispute, excommunicating the Byzantine emperor. Although a later Byzantine ruler restored the use of icons, the conflict left great resentment against the pope.

The Christian Church Is Divided

During the Middle Ages, a growing divide split Christendom, as the Christian world was sometimes called. The divide opened up differences between Byzantine Christians in the east and Roman Catholics in lands to the west. In general, Christians in both regions originally shared a common theology or set of beliefs, and the same holy days in the Christian calendar, such as Christmas and Easter. Over time, however, the practices of Christians in the east and west grew apart. Long-simmering controversies broke into open conflict, leading to a schism, or great divide, within the Christian world.

Convents Offer Opportunities for Women

During the Middle Ages, many women entered convents. For some capable and inquiring women, convents offered an escape from the restrictions of medieval society. In the 1100s, Hildegard of Bingen served as abbess, heading her own convent. She composed religious music, wrote scholarly books, and had visions of the future. As reports of her prophecies spread, popes and rulers sought her advice. By the late Middle Ages, the Church had begun to restrict the activities of nuns. The Church withdrew rights nuns had once had, such as to hear confessions. It frowned on too much learning for women, preferring them to accept Church authority.

Life in Monasteries and Convents

During the Middle Ages, some men and women withdrew from a worldly life to become monks and nuns. Behind the walls of monasteries and convents, they devoted their lives to spiritual goals.

A Spiritual and Worldly Empire

During the Middle Ages, the Christian Church split into eastern and western churches. The western church, headed by the pope in Rome, became known as the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church grew stronger and wealthier during the Middle Ages. The pope was the spiritual leader of Roman Catholic Christians but also ruled vast lands in central Italy, later called the Papal States. As the spiritual heir and representative of Christ on Earth, according to Church teachings, the medieval pope eventually claimed papal supremacy or authority over all secular rulers. The pope headed an army of clergy who not only supervised church activities but also influenced political affairs. The high clergy, such as bishops and archbishops, were usually nobles. Like other feudal lords, they had their own territories and armies. Since they were often well educated, feudal rulers appointed them to administer their own governments. Church officials were closely linked to secular rulers. Churchmen were often highly educated, so feudal rulers appointed them to government positions. In addition, Church officials were often relatives of secular rulers.

The Spread of Christianity

During the early Middle Ages, the Church sent missionaries to spread Christianity to the diverse peoples of Europe. In 597, Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England. Other missionaries carried Christianity to Germanic tribes elsewhere in Europe. By the late Middle Ages, Western Europe had built a civilization based on Christianity. Differences in language, culture, and government divided the peoples of Europe, but they shared a common faith and viewed non-Christians with suspicion and hostility.

Monasteries provided education to some children who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to attend school. How do you think monastic schools might have helped spread Christianity across Europe?

Education was based on Christian beliefs; it may have encouraged children to become monks or nuns; schools likely encouraged people to convert to Christianity.

List three areas of Europe named on the map that became Christian between 476 and 1050.

Germany, Russia, Norway, Scotland, parts of England

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A Life of Service

In a world without hospitals, public schools, or social programs, monasteries and convents often provided basic social services. Monks and nuns looked after the poor and sick and set up schools for children. Travelers, especially Christian pilgrims traveling to holy shrines, could find food and a night's lodging at many monasteries and convents. Some monks and nuns worked in the outside world as missionaries. During the Middle Ages, men and women risked their lives to spread Christian teachings across Europe. Patrick was a monk who set up the Church in Ireland. Augustine was a missionary to the Angles and Saxons in England. Later, the Church honored some of its missionaries by declaring them, saints.

Reform Movements

In the early 900s, Abbot Berno set out to reform his monastery of Cluny in eastern France. First, he revived the Benedictine Rule, which required vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. He then encouraged monks to follow solely religious pursuits and refused to allow nobles or bishops to interfere in monastery affairs. Instead, Cluny was placed under the direct protection of the pope. Over the next 200 years, many monasteries and convents copied these reforms. In 1073, Gregory VII, a former monk, became pope and extended the Cluniac reforms throughout the entire Church. He prohibited simony (SY muh nee), or the selling of Church offices, and outlawed marriage for priests. Gregory then called on Christians to renew their faith. To end outside influence, he insisted that the Church, and not kings and nobles, choose Church officials. That policy would lead to a bitter battle of wills with the German emperor.

Why did prejudice against Jews increase as Christianity spread in the later Middle Ages?

Jews were not part of the local parish, which influenced the everyday lives of Christian Europeans. Christians were suspicious of a culture they did not understand.

Communities in Spain and Northern Europe

Many Jewish communities thrived in Spain. The Arab Muslims who gained control of Spain in the 700s were generally tolerant of both Christians and Jews. Jewish culture flowered in Muslim Spain, which became a major center of Hebrew scholarship. Jews also served as officials in Muslim royal courts. Jews also lived in northern Europe. During the early Middle Ages, Christians and Jews often lived side by side in relative peace. Many Christian rulers valued and protected Jewish communities, although they taxed them heavily. Early German kings had given educated Jews positions in their royal courts.

Centers of Learning

Monasteries and convents performed a vital cultural function by preserving the writings of the ancient world. Their libraries contained Greek and Roman works, which monks and nuns copied as a form of labor. Most monks and nuns had little education, but some were well educated. They wrote and taught Latin or Greek, the languages of the ancient world. In England, the Venerable Bede wrote the most important history of England in the early Middle Ages.

How were Jews treated in Muslim Spain?

Muslim rulers were somewhat tolerant of other religions, and Jews flourished there.

Persecution

Often, however, medieval Christians persecuted Jews. During the Middle Ages, the Church and local rulers barred Jews from many occupations such as trade and handicrafts. More damaging, the Church forbade Jews from owning land. Popes and rulers still turned to Jews as financial advisers and physicians, but in much of Europe, Jews lived in increasingly isolated communities. By the late 1000s, as the Church's power had increased, anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews, grew. Christians blamed Jews for disasters such as epidemic diseases, famine, or economic hardship. Christians saw Jews as unfamiliar people and were suspicious of their culture and beliefs. In some areas, Jews were required to wear identifying clothing, or to live in a specific crowded and forcibly segregated part of a city called a ghetto. The Church forbade Christians from usury or the practice of lending money at interest. Because Jews were barred from so many other professions, some Jews became moneylenders. Moneylenders played a key role as the medieval economy grew, but nobles and others who borrowed heavily resented their debts, which further added to anti-Semitism. Between 1096 and 1450, Jews were persecuted and expelled from major European cities and states, including England, France, and parts of what is today Germany, Italy, Austria, and Hungary. In response to growing persecution, and after these expulsions, many thousands of Jews migrated into Eastern Europe. Some local rulers there welcomed their skills and knowledge. Jewish communities grew, experiencing times of relative tolerance and prosperity, as well as periods of persecution.

Differences East and West

Since early Christian times, differences had emerged over Church leadership. Although the Byzantine emperor was not a priest, he controlled Church affairs and appointed the patriarch, or highest Church official, in Constantinople. Byzantine Christians rejected the pope's claim to authority over all Christians. Other differences emerged during the Middle Ages. While reform movements in the West ended up forbidding the clergy to marry, Byzantine priests were allowed to marry. Greek, not Latin, was the language of the Byzantine Church. As in the Roman Church, the most significant Byzantine holy day was Easter, celebrated as the day Jesus rose from the dead. However, Byzantine Christians placed somewhat less emphasis on Christmas—the celebration of the birth of Jesus—compared to Christians in the West.

Prior to the Great Schism, how did the practice of Christianity in the Byzantine empire differ from that in Western Europe?

The Byzantine Church used Greek instead of Latin. Byzantine Christians celebrated the use of holy icons. Papal supremacy was rejected in the Byzantine Church. Priests could be married in the Byzantine Church. Rejection of the filioque clause helped ignite the flames that caused the Great Schism.

Church Law and Authority

The Church had complete power over spiritual matters and determined who could receive the sacraments. Without the sacraments, Christians believed that they faced everlasting suffering after death. The Church also developed its own body of laws, known as canon law, and had its own courts. Canon law was based on religious teachings and governed many aspects of life, from the behavior of the clergy to morals, marriages, and wills. Anyone who disobeyed Church law faced a range of penalties. The most severe and terrifying penalty was ex-communication. People who were excommunicated were cut off from the Church and its sacraments. A powerful noble who opposed the Church could face the interdict, an order excluding an entire town, region, or kingdom from receiving most sacraments and Christian burial. Even the strongest ruler was likely to give in rather than face the interdict, which might cause revolts by the people under his rule.

Women and the Church

The Church taught that men and women were equal before God. But on Earth, women were viewed as weak and easily led into sin. Thus, they needed the guidance of men. At the same time, the Church offered the ideal woman, modest and pure in spirit, as reflected in Mary, whom Christians believed was the mother of Jesus. Many churches were dedicated to Mary, called the "mother of God" and the "queen of heaven." During the Middle Ages, Mary was a popular figure with many Christians who saw her as a sympathetic figure with the powers to help them in their struggles. The Church tried at times to protect women. It set a minimum age for marriage. Church courts sometimes fined men who seriously injured their wives. Yet the medieval Church upheld a double standard, punishing women more harshly than men for similar offenses.

What reason other than religious zeal and defense of the Byzantines likely motivated the Crusades?

The Church's power had begun to decline, and a religious conflict would revive Church authority.

How did the growing middle class lead to the expansion of towns and cities?

The growing middle class was made up of merchants who could not travel in winter. They waited out the winter near a castle or in a town. These settlements, in turn, attracted artisans who made goods that merchants could sell. This caused the settlements to grow in size.

How did the Crusades and the Reconquista increase the power of the Church?

The Crusades united secular forces in Europe behind the power of the Roman Catholic Church. During the First Crusade, the crusaders rode in part to aid the Byzantines, which increased the power and standing of the Roman Catholic pope relative to the Greek Orthodox emperor and patriarchs. Later crusades continued to strengthen the influence of the Church as the motivating force behind the military expeditions. Likewise, the Reconquista was initiated by Queen Isabella with the intent of uniting Christians within Spain and strengthening the Roman Catholic Church by expelling Muslims.

Why did the Holy Land become a source of contention in the Crusades?

The Holy Land was considered sacred to three religious groups. When Muslim Seljuk Turks took Jerusalem, Christian pilgrims could no longer travel to the Holy Land.

—Pope Gregory I, The Book of Pastoral Rule, c. A.D. 590

The pastor should always be pure in thought, . . . for the hand that would cleanse from dirt must needs be clean, lest, being itself sordid with clinging mire, it soil all the more whatever it touches. The pastor should always be a leader in action, that by his living he may point out the way of life to those who are put under him, and that the flock, which follows the voice and manners of the shepherd, may learn how to walk rather through example than through words.

The Church Faces Calls to Reform

The very success of the medieval Church brought problems. As its wealth and power grew, discipline weakened. Powerful clergy grew more worldly, and many lived in luxury. Monks and nuns often ignored their vows. Priests, who were allowed to marry during this time, sometimes devoted more time to the interests of their families than to Church duties. The growing corruption and decay led to calls for reform.

What did Christian priests do in villages?

They led mass and taught from the Bible. They guided people on moral issues, and they helped the needy and the sick.

How and why did medieval towns and cities grow?

Towns grew because of increased trade, the growth of trade fairs, the decline of serfdom, and the increased use of money.

Orthodox Christianity as a Unifying Force

Within the Byzantine Empire, Christianity was a strong unifying social and political factor, just as it had been in the western Roman empire. The people followed the same traditions, such as the use of icons, and celebrated holy days according to the Orthodox religious calendar. The use of Greek, the official language of the Byzantine church, was also a unifying factor, just as Latin unified the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. The patriarch of Constantinople traditionally blessed the Byzantine emperor and the emperor took a strong hand in Church affairs, affirming the unity between political and religious authority.

How did the Christian Church split geographically?

between the east and the west, with the Roman Catholic Church forming in the west and the Eastern, or Greek, Orthodox Church developing in the east

What led Jews to migrate to Eastern Europe and Muslim lands?

increasing persecution of Jews in the late 1000s.