Medieval Religion

It was the foundation of everyday life in the middle ages. The Catholic church set the standards and rules of society. They taught that man was born in sin and the only way to get to heaven was to go through them. Since people couldn't read or write they depended on the church to teach them the right way to live and to tell them what the bible said. This made the church very powerful and the church became part of the government as well. It told kings what to do and how to do it. The church became very wealthy and powerful which made religion more important.

Lancelot wasn't real and comes from the same fable as Arthur.

Basically, they fell out over the power of the Church. Before he became Archbishop of Canterbury, Beckett served as Lord Chancellor to King Henry II, having been recommended to the post by the then Archbishop, Theobald. Henry II wanted to be the absolute, undisputed ruler of his kingdom, both State AND Church, and wanted to do away with the special priviledges enjoyed by the English clergy, which he felt undermined his authority.

To begin with, Beckett agreed with a lot of Henry's wishes, and set about enforcing the traditional Land Tax that had to be paid to the monarch by all landowners, including for land owned by the Church. Many members of the clergy thought that Beckett should be lobbying for an exemption from taxation on their part, and came to resent him for this. Beckett was also a flamboyant and loyal member of Henry's Court, which did little to endear him to those churchmen who thought that he ought to be being more impartial.

Archbishop Theobald died in 1162, and Beckett succeeded him several months later. It was then that the rift with the king began; Henry wanted to use Beckett in his new role as Primate to further help him dilute and weaken the independence and affluence of the Church in England. Beckett refused, resigned as Chancellor, and consolidated the landholdings of Canterbury under his control. Henry also wished to extend the authority of the secular legal courts over the clergy, which Beckett disagreed with.

the stand-off between the two culminated in the Consitutions of Clarendon of January 1164. The king used all his diplomatic skills to win over the other powerful Archbishops in the land, coercing them into agreeing to the assumption of special Royal priviledges over Church matters, a stronger English throne and a weakening of the ties with Rome held by the English Church. These rights and priviledges were set down in 16 consitutional documents, that were formally set out at Clarendon Palace on 11th January that year. All senior churchmen had come round to agreeing with them, and Beckett himself eventually grudgingly assented to their validity, but he refused to formally sign the documents. Furious, the King summoned Beckett to appear before a Great Council held at Northampton Castle on 8th October, to answer charges of having contempt for Royal authority. The Great Council convicted Beckett on all charges brought against him, following which he stormed out of the hearing and fled to a 2-year exile in France. The enraged King Henry persued the fugitive Archbishop to the full extent of his powers, issuing edicts and arrest warrants against not only Beckett himself, but all his friends and supporters too. However, Louis VII received Beckett warmly and offered him protection. He lived in exile at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny for two years.

Beckett sought to gain support from the then Pope, Alexander III, but although he was sympathetic to Beckett's plight, the Pontiff believed that the crisis should be diffused more diplomatically. However, in the end even he lost patience with King Henry, and threatened him with excommunication unless Beckett was allowed to return to England in safety, and all charges against him were dropped. Alarmed at this prospect, the King agreed.

Things seemed to return to normality for a while, but then King Henry II fell ill whilst in Normandy (which in those days was an English, not a French, possession) in the late Autumn of 1170. Fearing that he might not live, He gave orders that his young son, also called Henry, should be crowned as his successor, and the ceremony was conducted in York by the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Salisbury and London. Beckett was very angry- only Canterbury had the right to crown a new sovereign! He promptly excommunicated the three bishops who had participated in the coronation, who fled to join the king in Normandy whilst Beckett continued the banishment from the Church of all persons who had actively collaborated in the crowning of the new King. The ailing Henry II was exasperated at Beckett's continued opposition to his absolute authority, and decided that finally, something drastic had to be done. He dispatched four of his knights- Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton- to go and 'consult' with Beckett. They arrived in Canterbury on 29th December.

Beckett was on his way to Vespers when they approached him with a message that the King desired that he should report to Winchester to account for his actions. He refused, and continued with his preparations for the holy service. The four knights then grabbed their weapons and cut him down on the steps of the cathedral choir, slicing off the top of his head and wounding a number of monks who were present at the scene. They then fled. Beckett died instantly- he was 52 years old, and had served as Archbishop of Canterbury for 8 years.

Following his death, Beckett came to be venerated across all of Europe as a martyr, and three years later was canonised as a Saint by Pope Alexander III. Henry II - who did not die after all- came to feel great remorse and grief at his ordering the assassination, humbling himself by doing public penance at Beckett's tomb on 12th July 1174.

Henry II King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou.

90% grew crops and took care of the manor property.

Christianity as your question suggests WAS important when as a religious order it was one.It was then the Roman Catholic Church.It was so important that kings and great rulers respected and the clergy was most powerful body.For various reasons nobles who found certain conditions unfavourable started overturning the most important Christianity of those days.Unity was strength which got fragmented into many versions.Now it is no longer Christianity but ,Roman catholics who still form the majority, protestants who further split into Seventh Day Adventists,Lutherans Anglicans,Marthomites Jacobites,Syrians and many more .In later days with short term bible courses a spate of organisations started each with its own version harping on their owm theories,but all based on JESUS and the bible interpretated in many ways.Every religion is as impotant as Christianity.No doubt .

Wine was most commonly produced in monasteries, run by monks or even convents. The reason was because wine production requires a lot of grapes, and land was one thing the church had plenty of.

Charlemagne also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, was the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire 3 centuries earlier. Called the Father of Europe, He united most of Western Europe.

They lived in basic housing usually passed down from parent to son. Their diet consisted from pottage and bread. Meat was a sign of wealth so it was rarely avaliable except for feasts and if it was poached. Not all poor people were serfs. After the Norman Conqest of 1066 the new lords from Normandy enslaved many people but gradually these people freed themselves though they were still under the law of their lords but they owed less to them.

Many poorer people had large families. While there were more mouths to feed there was more income to be made from more children. Children would work alongside their parents from six or seven and then they might receive an apprentiship from the ages of 11-14 for a few years. Some children were taught to read and write by their local priest. Destitute women often turned to prostitution while men often became mercenaries or performers.

The Church was a large part of people's lives but corruption led to them stripping the wealth from their parishers. Mass was heard each Sunday and there were a lot of religious Holy Days (Holidays) so there was quite a lot of time free from work.

Q is for Queen- here are the details

Queens were important too because they were the people married to the kings. And kings were really important because they pretty much owned everything and ruled everything. One really famous queen was Queen Elizabeth II... she was born in year 1926 and died in 1603.. she was the most famous Queen in the Renaissance because of her accomplishments, like she ruled England from 1558 till death and lots more.

In Medieval Europe, as in the Roman period, most people wore loose linen or wool tunics like big baggy t-shirts. But clothing did become more complicated in the Middle Ages, and more used to distinguish men and women of different professions from each other. Men mostly wore tunics down to their knees, though old men and monks wore their tunics down to the ground, and so did kings and noblemen for parties and ceremonies. Men sometimes also wore wool pants under their tunics. Wearing pants was originally a Germanic idea, and the Romans disapproved of it. But it gradually caught on anyway, especially among men who rode horses and in colder areas. Other men, especially noblemen, wore tights under their tunics. Knitting had not yet been invented, so they had to wear woven tights which did not fit very tightly. Outside, if it was cold, men wore wool cloaks.

Women also wore different kinds of clothes depending on who they were. All women wore at least one tunic down to their ankles. Many women, if they could afford it, wore a linen under-tunic and a woolen over-tunic, and often a wool cloak over that if they were going outside. On their legs women sometimes wore woven tights or socks, but women never wore pants. Nuns wore tunics like other women, but generally in black or white rather than colors. Noblewomen often wore fancy tall hats, sometimes with streamers coming off them. They sometimes plucked the hair from their foreheads to give themselves very high foreheads which people thought were beautiful.

On their feet, men wore leather shoes if they could afford them. You can tell if a medieval painting or tapestry was made before or after about 1300 AD by looking at the mens' shoes. In the earlier paintings men wear shoes with square toes, but later the shoes have pointy toes and even curve up at the toes in a kind of hook, just to be extra fancy.

Not much medieval clothing survives today, because clothing tends to rot when it is buried under the ground, and even in the air it tears and gets threadbare and then people use it for rags. Most of what we know about medieval clothing comes from medieval pictures and sculptures, which have lasted better.

Got this information at the website below:

After the Great Schism of 1054, the main body of the Church was divided between the Roman Catholic Church, in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East.

There were always other, independent, Churches, however, and these include the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church, among others, some of which continue to this day.

There were many other groups that were heretical, such as the Cathars, against whom the Church launched a crusade.

Generally speaking, monks and nuns lived in monasteries or convents, and did very much the same sorts of things other people did in terms of raising food, cleaning, cooking, and so on. They did not have families, but spent their time in prayer and devotion instead.

Many monks and nuns worked at specialized jobs, and there was a wide range of these from tending the sick and making medicine, to making cheese or wine, copying books, singing in choirs, educating people, and providing inns for pilgrims and other travelers, protecting travelers on the road, and even fighting wars.

There are links below.

The Church taught them that they were born in sin and had to work all of their lives to make sure that they got into heaven. They needed the Church because it was the middle man between them and God. Man couldn't read so the clergy told them about what the bible said and what God wanted. If they didn't follow the teachings of the church they would go to Hell and Hell was the most awful place a person could be. They thought of these places as real ( many people still do today) and that devils existed with them and in them.

The church got wealthy during the middle ages because people were so afraid of going to hell. People paid their offering to church because the church told them they would go to hell if they didn't.

There were a couple of reasons.

1. A first argument with King Henry the Second. Henry made Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury, hoping he would help him reform the church courts. But Becket refused, making God his new master.

2. A Second argument. Becket excommunicated (Sacked) all the monks who followed King Henry of their jobs. This, once again, made Henry furious and fly into a rage.

Henry chose Becket as archbishop because he was his friend and he did not like the way that they didn't get punished. because Becket was his friend he thought that he could change the church rules but he was wrong. Becket him self changed himself and he was determined to be a really good archbishop.

Many people failed to attend Church. Many people were Jewish, for example, and the Jews were treated differently in different places and times. They were invited into kingdoms and cities because they were useful for their expertise in various areas of life. They were given ghettos, or walled neighborhoods, where they could be protected and secure. They were confined to ghettos as a way to keep them separate. And at times their valuable belongings were taken from them and they were evicted by people who had borrowed money from them.

The people who did not attend church included some called travellers, who were tinkers, vagabonds, criminals on the run, gypsies, unemployed knights returning from war, and itinerant entertainers. These were admired, hated, hired as laborers, or cast out of society, according to how the people in the area felt about them.

People who lived in cities could use the anonymity of city life to avoid church if they wanted to do so, but some found it useful to be seen going to church, and some actually believed. On the other hand, people in villages knew each other well, and if someone was absent from church too often, he might be regarded as a bad person.

Well, this is a difficult question, the Middle Ages was a very long period and, at different points in time, various nations held the most power. Try to be more specific , between when and when?

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Medieval doom paintings are pictures of what medieval people thought of. A picture of Heaven and a picture of Hell.

A doom is a painting of the last judgment, an event in christian eschatology. Christ judges souls, and then sends them to either heaven or hell. Many Dooms survive in medieval churches dating from around the 12th to 16th centuries, although they were virtually standard in churches from much earlier than that.

Dooms were used to remind medieval Christians of the afterlife and Judgment Day, and to help keep them mindful of sinning by showing in graphic detail the dramatic difference between Heaven and Hell. A Doom was usually sited either on the rear (Western) wall, if that had a suitable space, or at the front of a church, often on the Chancel arch itself, so that it would be constantly in view of worshipers as they looked towards the Priest during services.

Although there are many different versions, the theme's format stays broadly the same. On the left side of a Doom painting (that is, on Christ's right hand) is Heaven, whilst on the right is Hell. At the top of the image Jesus Christ sits in glory with his right hand encouraging the saved up and his left hand pointing down to Hell for the damned. Typically flanking him is the virgin Mary on his right and John the apostle on his left, sometimes with the twenty four elders mentioned in the book of Revelation encircling the three of them. The angles blow their trumpets to raise the dead for judgment. Commonly the Archangel lord is in the centre, with the scales he will use to weigh the souls of humanity to see if individually they are fit for Heaven: one person is on one side of the scale while demonic creatures that represent the sins committed by the person are on the other side of the scale. The creatures try to tip the scales in their favour while, in some versions of the painting, The Virgin Mary places a rosary next to the person she wishes to protect, or puts her hand on the scale to counterbalance the demons.

Those who are worthy are brought to the gates of Heaven, frequently represented by a castle with large walls built to keep out sinful impurities. This is most commonly depicted on the left hand side of Doom paintings. Groups of angels adorn the walls of Heaven celebrating the saved as they approach Heaven's gates, where saint peter waits with his keys.

Those on the other side of the painting, unworthy of Heaven, are seized by demons and brought into the mouth of hell, beyond which, mostly out of sight, lie the bowels of Hell where endless pain and suffering await them. The mouth of Hell is usually represented by a huge monster with its fiery mouth open wide to receive the Damned being forced into it. In some cases the demons have chains tied around the Damned who are helplessly pulled in, while in others the Damned are dragged or carried. In yet other cases the Damned are brought into Hell in wheelbarrows or baskets.

The magnificent shrine of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop and martyr, was completely destroyed by commissioners acting for king Henry VIII in 1538. It is recorded that 26 wagon loads of gold, silver, jewels and other valuables were stolen from the shrine and taken to the tower of London to be added to the king's treasury. The ornately-carved stone shrine, the elaborate wooden roof and other elements were smashed and thrown away as rubbish.

Today at Canterbury cathedral a candle is kept lit to mark the former site of the shrine, but nothing else remains.

Catholic women and men join religious orders to devote themselves to God and to building the Kingdom of God here and now.