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Medieval Religion

Religion in the medieval period is frequently depicted as a "time of ignorance and superstition," defying reason and logic. While Christianity and its denominations made up the majority of medieval religion, Germanic paganism and Islam also existed.

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Catholic church in medieval Europe?

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Asked by Wiki User

According to Foxe's

Book of Martyrs millions of Christians and Jews were tortured by the Roman Catholic Church. For many, the offense that brought death was breaking church law by reading the bible. The estimated deaths range from the conservative 150 million to the extreme of 500 million. The true figure is probably somewhere in the middle. These are historical facts that have long ago been verified.

How did the responsibilities of the nobility differ from those of the clergy and peasantry during the High Middle Ages?

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The clergy had responsibilities of their office, to the Church and their superiors. Secular clergy were responsible for the spiritual well being of their parishioners, and regular clergy had responsibilities within their orders, which could include anything from transcribing manuscripts to growing vegetables, washing dishes, or singing in a choir.

Peasants had the responsibility of doing their work, which was usually raising crops. They had to pay rent or do labor for their lords. Sometimes they had other responsibilities on their manors, but these varied. On some manors, the peasants had to elect their own reeves. It was possible they would be called to do duties for the manorial court.

The responsibilities of the nobility were most like those of the secular clergy, in the sense that they were responsible to their superiors but also had people for whom they were responsible. They had to support and obey they king and superior nobles, but they also had the responsibility to protect the peasants who lived on their manors. This went a good deal farther than the work secular clergy did, however, because it required them to attend to things that were physical, social, legal, military, official, where the secular clergy were only engaged in things spiritual. Unlike the nobility, the peasants and regular clergy usually had now one at a lower station for whom they had responsibilities.

Why did medieval people go to church?

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Myths means stories you do not believe in. The Greek myths were their religion. The Greeks firmly believed them. We call them myths because we do not believe in them. In our times people believe in Christianity. Some peoples might not believe, to them stories of Christ are myths.

What two areas in Europe were major trading centers during the middle ages?

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One important area was the port cities in Italy, such as Venice and Genoa, who built their trade with the Byzantine Empire and Black Sea ports and the Arabs.

Another was the port cities of the Baltic Sea, which were members of the Hanseatic League and traded with each other, and with groups farther east and west, such as the Russians and the English.

How did Christians view other religions in the middle ages?

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The Christian Church did not teach other religions in the Middle Ages. It banned them and persecuted their followers. Even to be suspected of something like witchcraft meant death by drowning or burning at the stake.

What was the deasise that killed lots of people in the medieval time?

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Asked by Wiki User

Lots of things killed people

Black plague

cholera

STD's

small pox

bad water

bad food

poisons

drowning

murder

flu

accidents

infections

typhus

drowning

wars

How did the church help educate people in medieval Europe?

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Monastic orders set up schools and libraries all over Europe. Students would come live in cities where many learned teachers were living because there was not very many schools for people who wanted to attend. They gathered to hear hese teachers. In time, these gatherings grew into universities. Church scholars also aided education by studying the writings of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers. In the mid 1200's the Christian scholar Thomas Aquinas studied the works of the greek philosopher Arisotle.He used his knowledge to argue that Church and governmentcould get along as long as time, such ideas led to new ways of thinking about government.

Where were the Middle ages cathedrals built?

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The use of cathedrals was the same in the Middle Ages as it is today, as the church associated with the central administration of a diocese. The diocese is a set of churches grouped according to geographical area.

The religious head of a diocese is a bishop, whose church is the cathedral. It is called a cathedral because the bishop's throne is there; the Latin word "cathedra" means seat. The presence of a cathedral was the thing that distinguished a city from a town, for much of the Middle Ages.

What caused conflicts between national monarchies and the catholic church during the middle ages?

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1st Answer:

They didn't and they worked pretty much hand in hand. It wasn't until the late 1300's and the 1400's that there was any problems. If you are thinking of Henry VIII, he isn't in the middle ages. He was much later.

2nd Answer:

There were many clashes between religious authorities and political rulers during the Middle Ages, including the Investiture Controversy in the 11th and 12th centuries, the events surrounding the Great Schism of the West in the 14th and 15th centuries, the events surrounding the death of Thomas Becket in 1190, and a number of others. They started early on, under the Roman Empire, in fact, and never really disappeared.

These problems were all about power. The kings and emperors wanted to be able to appoint bishops who would do their bidding; the bishops and popes wanted to keep monarchs out of Church business. The clergy had rights the Church wanted to protect, such as the benefits of clergy, which meant that clergy who got into trouble with the law were tried by the Church instead of the state; the kings wanted the Church out of their business. The kings were limited in their taxation because the Church controlled a large amount of wealth, but was exempt from taxation in many places; the Church wanted to stay tax free. There were a number of other issues, but it all boiled down to a question of power, keeping power, or gaining power.

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What power did the medieval church have?

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There were many times when kings or emperors tried to take power away from the Church. One way they did this was to insist that they had the right to appoint bishops or even popes, and the question of whether the kings could do this was called the Investiture Controversy. When they tried to appoint bishops, they got away with it, sometimes, for a while. They even succeeded in appointing their own popes, though doing so split the Church in what was called the Great Schism of the West.

There were many kings and emperors who ran antagonized popes and found it was a big mistake. The problem they had was that the whole fabric of society was regulated by oaths, which were effectively binding contracts, and which could only be nullified by permission from the Church. Everything, from the support the nobility gave to the kings, to treaties the kings had with each other, could be rendered invalid, if a king was excommunicated. Since every king had his enemies, having this happened could cause rebellions and invasions. Great kings like Henry II of England, King John of England, and Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire both suffered from this sort of problem. In the case of King John, the result was sufficiently difficult that he allowed himself to become a vassal of the pope to get out of it.

On the other hand, the Church had little secular power. It usually had no military to command, and was at the mercy of the kings to some degree. When Pope Leo III was attacked by a mob that was enraged at his election, because his father was an ordinary farmer, Charlemagne had to send a military force to come to his rescue.

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Why was church so important in continuing the art of learning and education in the medieval times?

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1st Answer:

It didn't. It wasn't until the late middle ages that learning and art really began. The beginning of exploration, the invention of the printing press, and return of the Crusaders all added to newer thinking and inventions entering Europe. Thus, pushing it out of the "dark ages."

2nd Answer:

The Age of Migrations, which lasted from the 4th to 7th centuries, was a time when people were under a lot of stress to stay alive. The same was true to a lesser extent of the Viking Age, in the 8th and 9th centuries. When a society is suffering such stress, artwork becomes less important, and is less commonly pursued.

When the Age of Migrations ended, at about the end if the 7th century, it was followed by the Carolingian Renaissance, during which there was an increase in building, art, and literature. When the Vikings Age ended, it was followed by the Ottonian Renaissance. These times was a period of creativity in art and education that coincided with a period when people could spend energy on these things.

There was also a time called the Renaissance of the 12th century, which actually took place during the crusades. Since the wars did not happen in Europe, they did not focus the attentions of creative people there in ways that could sidetrack their creativity. Instead, creative people were able to look at the cultural achievements of the Muslim and Jewish peoples, and use the new ideas they found creatively. This period was particularly important for science and philosophy, but also provided an impetus for creative periods in poetry, music, and art.

There are some links below. The related question has numerous links from it to sections on medieval arts.

How did the church have power in medieval times?

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Often by holding powerful political and governmental positions. Cardinals, bishops, and even some priests held many offices in the political arena as well as the Church. The Church often had such and influence on the people due to religion that they were often able to manipulate political decisions and officers. Churches were given vast tracts of land, principle places in towns and villages, both of these led to strategic places and prominent positions in the local governments. This power led to corruption.

How did the Medieval church react to scientific advances?

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The Church exercised only a limited direct influence on science during the middle ages. The Church did one thing that some people might consider a negative action, but it nevertheless had a positive effect. In the Condemnations of 1210 to 1277, the Church declared the physical treatises of Aristotle heretical. This had the very positive effect of freeing the scientists from an incorrect scientific model and allowing them to pursue science empirically. The empirical approach was largely a matter of acquiring data and reporting it, which was hard to proscribe. It was considered legal to continue teaching what the heretical teachings were, by the way (except in Paris); it was just not allowed to say they were true.

During the middle ages, science tended to be very practical. Theoretical astronomy was not of nearly so much interest as metallurgy, for example. Without investigations into cosmology, science was not something that was likely to lead to questioning theology.

Also books on science might be written, but they needed to be copied by hand, so the influence of new books was not nearly as interesting to the Church as the influence of radical preachers.

Indirectly, the Church had a greater influence by sending men off on the crusades. Crusaders were exposed to new lands and new ideas. When they came home, they had different views about things than they did when they left. This promoted science a good deal.

When was Thomas Becket made a saint?

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In 1170. By: Sobana

On December 29 1170, four knights brutally murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket in the Canterbury Cathedral.
1170

What do the medieval clergymen do?

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. There were, and still are, two different kinds of clergy, and their jobs are very different.

The secular clergy are the deacons, priests, and bishops. They tend to the spiritual needs of secular people, administering sacraments, giving spiritual guidance, and leading or saying prayers as the need arises.

The regular clergy are those who subject themselves to the regulation of monastic orders. They live and work according to the rules of the orders, and do many different things. The medieval work they are perhaps best remembered for was transcribing books, especially Bibles. But during the Middle Ages, they also performed music for the Church services, grew medicinal herbs, prepared medicine, tended the sick, ran hospitals, ran inns for pilgrims, guarded pilgrims on the road, fought in the crusades, and operated a system rather like international banks. Some cooked, others did laundry, and yet others tended monastic gardens. Some wrote music, and others wrote books on philosophy. More than a few of them invented new technologies. Monks of the Carthusian monastery in Artois, France invented the artesian well. Roger Bacon was a monk who worked on developing the scientific method. Aside from these things, and a few others like them, they lived simple lives of prayer and contemplation

In what way were serfs bound to the soil?

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Most peasants were serfs. Serfs were people who could not lawfully leave the place where they were born. Though bound to the land, serfs were not slaves. If a lord transferred ownership of land, the serfs went with it. Their lords could not sell or buy them, but most of what their labor produced belonged to the lord.

Where did people sleep during the middle ages?

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I'm pretty sure they didn't sleep in the manor, they slept in their houses in the village. If there was a castle, the houses were surrounded by the curtain wall.

2nd answer: There are a number of possibilities, depending on the the period and the construction of the manor house. It was common for servants to live with their employers in the middle ages. In a simpler house, one with an open hearth instead of fireplaces, they probably slept in the great hall. The lord/lords family had private chambers called a solar, typically on an upper floor, although sometimes the solar was an attached structure. In a more complex house, either with more extensive upper floors above the hall or with additional ranges built perpendicular to the hall there could have been additional bedchambers. Better off town homes would have chambers apart from the solar that might be shared by servants/staff. If the house had a garret above the top floor and below the roof this area might be used for storage and for the servants to sleep in.

Just like modern houses, the design of medieval houses varies, with different floor plans depending on the needs of the household, the budget for construction, the time of construction, and to an extent tradition and fashion. For example, the great hall initially extended all the way to the roof to allow smoke from the central hearth to escape from roof vents. In later homes fireplaces replaced the central hearth, but in many cases the two story hall was retained out of tradition, despite its inefficiencies in the use of space and difficulties in heating such a large space.

Edit: Another possibility would be a separate structure in the manor complex to house servants, but not necessarily removed to the village. I found reference to a document from 1265 in which a manor being granted to a vassal was described. Within the manor complex there was listed "an old house for the servants" another building "which contains a bed" and attached to one of the utility buildings was "a solar for the use of the servants." So the servants were close, not living in their own homes in the village, but it seems at least some were housed outside of the manor house itself.

Who did nobles lose power to during the middle ages?

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During the A.D. 800s, this shift of power from kings to nobles led to new order known as feudalism. Under feudalism, landowning nobles governed and also protected the people in return for services,such as fighting in a noble's army or farming the lands.

Who were the western Europeans most influenced by during the middle ages?

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Despite The King being in charge the church, as long as The King was faithful, could literally take control saying what they want is God's will

What united people during the middle ages?

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Asked by Hockeyplayer26

The Catholic Church, however, served as a strong unifying force among the states and people of Europe.

What did medieval monks wear?

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They must have worn some sort of rough but durable cloth, as they were going to out in all sorts of weather. Probably they wore wool or burlap, or maybe a very heavy linen. I suppose it also depended on their location. But their clothes probably became ragged extremely quickly.