What was the most powerful religion in the middle ages?

Answer 1

The Christians in the middle ages became so very, very powerful that now it's their turn to persecute others of different faiths. See related link "Crusades" and "Inquisitions"

One major problem in the middle ages that the process which began with Constantine, in which Church and state were joined reached its height. The Roman Catholic church sought and obtained temporal power and sought to and did depose Kings (on threat of excommunication). Both the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of temporal power being wielded under the name of Christ. The state became the instrument through which the Catholic church carried out its policy of eliminating rivals, by handing them over to the temporal authority for capital punishment.

Answer 2

AnswerVERY. He told kings and queens what they could or could not do. AnswerThe power of the popes varied with time. There were a some of them who were very powerful, and there were some others who were not. Pope Leo III owed much of his power to Charlemagne, who backed him after angry Romans took him hostage and threatened to tear out his tongue and put out his eyes; they were angry because he was not a member of a noble family, but the son of a serf. There were times when there were popes and anti-popes, each under the control of some king or emperor. When the Church divided in the Great Schism of 1054, the pope lost all of whatever power he had in Eastern Europe.

Still, if a pope got sufficiently upset, he could excommunicate a king, and if the king was not very powerful, it could be a huge problem for him because all oaths people took to be loyal to him or support him could be excused.

Answer 3

1st AnswerEveryone was Catholic. 2nd AnswerThe Roman Church was not the only Church, but it certainly was the largest, until it divided in 1054. After that, it was the Roman Catholic Church in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. In terms of the spiritual services provided the believers, and the forms of services, these were then recognizably very much what they are today.

But there were other churches also. During the first centuries of Christianity, several independent churches formed. Some of these disappeared, and several survived to the present day.

One was the Celtic Church, for which St. Patrick evangelized Ireland and St. Columba evangelized Scotland. This church later merged with the Roman Church in the seventh century. So now St. Patrick is Roman Catholic.

Others were the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, and so on. Their teachings were more or less orthodox, according to the larger Roman Church, and they remain in operation.

There were also heretical church organizations, such as the Bogomils and Albigensians. The later became so numerous in southern France that a crusade was launched against them.

There were groups rather like protestants in the Middle Ages. The Waldensians, founded in the twelfth century, and the Lollards, of the fourteenth century, clearly have protestant leanings. Both groups were labeled heretical by different popes, and members were sometimes burned.

There are links to articles in Wikipedia below.

Answer 4

In the medieval world, the Roman Catholic Church was the height of authority. It controlled all of Christendom, or what we call modern Western Europe. England did not become Protestant-ized until the reign of King Henry VIII in 1534, several decades after the medieval times. The Pope had the authority to displace rulers and issue edicts that made life troublesome for rulers and officials. The medieval church was extremely powerful, with all its wealth and spiritual control. Kings could not claim paganism or another religion, and if the people thought their ruler was anything but a Christian or was made known to be on the Pope's bad side, it would have been scandalous and promoted bad public opinion of a King. Public opinion then meant as much as it does now, if not more. There are many other detailed reasons for the church's power, but this is an explanation of medieval culture.

Answer 5

During the Middle Ages, the Christian Church placed itself, or sought to place itself, above the secular rulers of Europe. When William the Conqueror wished to claim the throne of England, he first obtained the support of the pope for his invasion.

As far as possible, every aspect of life was defined by the Church or by traditions that were amenable to the Church. On the one hand, it sought to impose the harshest punishments for infringements of its rules, but on the other hand it placed the onus on the secular rulers to carry out the death penalty, thereby avoiding the stain of sin for its clergy.

All festivities were to be Christian festivities, thus reinforcing the faith. However, some pagan festivities continued largely unchanged, even if the participants no longer understood their original, non-Christian significance. For the ordinary people, weekly attendance at church was not as important as we sometimes imagine, but was expected among the middle and upper classes. It became not just obligatory to be a Christian, but unthinkable not to be a Christian. Those accused of witchcraft were not accused of harming others, but merely of following unChristian practices.

Particularly in the early Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, the Church viewed learning with suspicion. It even discouraged kings and their heirs from becoming literate, saying that it was enough for the clergy to be able to read and write. When knowledge was concentrated in the Church, power was concentrated in the Church. Books thought to tell a non-Christian message, no matter how innocent, were destroyed.

Answer 6

a lot