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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.
956 Questions
What readings were read in medieval church times?
The Bible
the works of Aristotle
guides to proper living
Was the catholic church more powerful in the Renaissance than the middle ages?
The Roman Catholic Church had a great source of power and influence in the past. The Roman Catholic Church have the same amount of power and influence present today. Its power and influence today is greater than it was in the past, but that may also be in different ways then what it once held.
1. It owned land.
The Roman Catholic Church owned many large areas of farmland. People who grew crops on this land had to give one tenth of everything they grew to the
Roman Catholic Church. This was called the Tithe. This was a lot of crops for many poor people to lose.
2. It controlled people's beliefs.
The Roman Catholic Church told people that when they died, their souls lived on either in Heaven or in Hell. Hell, they said, was a place of great pain and suffering. The people were understandably frightened of going there. So, the Roman Catholic Church gave them hope. It said that after you die your soul
goes first to a place called Purgatory, where it would stay until any sins had been burnt away. The Papacy has recently stated that purgatory never existed,
and apologized for its mistake.
3. It was rich.
As you can imagine. People wanted to be in purgatory for the shortest possible time. The Roman Catholic Church said that you could shorten your stay in
purgatory if you did several things. These included:
• Attend Church and live a good life
• Go on a pilgrimage
• Monetary Tithes. The Roman Catholic Church also made money through a second form of Tithes in the form of money. In addition to providing a tenth of
any crops made, people were expected to give another tenth out of their income to The Roman Catholic Church.
• Buy a special pardon. These pardons were known as Indulgences. The Indulgences were sold out of special interests for the sake of the papacy, and
indirectly exploited those that bought them out of their money. These indulgences are now invalid since purgatory never existed at all. The Roman Catholic Church made a lot of money this way, as people - especially rich people - tried to buy their way to heaven.
4. It was not controlled by the King.
The Roman Catholic Church was under the Papacy's control and therefore was lead by the Pope. This meant that the King could not tell anyone from the
Roman Catholic Church what to do. Even if a Roman Catholic Churchman committed a crime, they could not be tried by a normal court, but instead were
tried by fellow Roman Catholic Churchmen.
5. Main Answer:
The Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church located in Vatican, Holy See which is located inside Rome, Italy. It is its own country governed by its own laws. It is the world's smallest nation, and occupy's a large portion of modern day Rome of about 600 sq. mi. A fair percent of this is still intact today especially in monetary assets, and in politics of the world as its own foreign power. For example it is a part of the United Nations, and has a high economic value within its small boarders thanks to its followers. Today it is far more powerful then it was in the Middle Ages. Although it is questionable more tamed in its disciplinary methods, and hopefully domesticated in its public practices.
The Roman Catholic Church remains by far the largest denomination in Christianity. It has a well disciplined clerical hierarchy, and demands respect and obedience from its followers. The Vatican, a tiny theological state representing the Roman Catholic Church, provides political and diplomatic power unavailable to other Christian Churches. The immense wealth of the Catholic Church can be used to promote its interests. The Vatican is a government itself. It is a political state of which every Roman Catholic becomes a member at the time of baptism. Their allegiance is to the Vatican of the Roman Catholic Church first, then to the country in which they were born. To this day The Roman Catholic Church has more power than any other singular society publicly known.
Example from History:
The Inquisition: Around 1232 CE, under the Papacy's order, the Roman Catholic Church started a new program. It was a court system called The Inquisition.
This court was staffed with the Roman Catholic Church officials who were supposed to seek out and punish people suspected of not obeying the Roman
Catholic Church.
Heresy is any act or action against the Roman Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church beliefs. A heretic is someone who commits an act of heresy.
The Roman Catholic Church officials assigned to the court of Inquisition were assigned the job of tracking down heretics. Once tracked down, if a heretic confessed, they were punished. Punishment was quite severe. Punishment ranged from loss of property, to imprisonment, to death. If a heretic did not confess, they were tortured until they did confess. There was no escape. According to the Roman Catholic Church, these punishments were necessary to save the souls of heretics.
It was an awful time. The court of Inquisition was open to great abuse.
The Power of the Roman Catholic Church: Examples of the power of the Roman Catholic Church includes the flow of wealth, the use of sacraments to control people and their lives, the use of the Roman Catholic Church councils, the propaganda value of the religious beggars (friars), and finally, the horrible
cruelty of the Inquisition and the fear it generated.
What was a knight's religion in the middle ages?
There are two distinct meanings of the word knight. One was a heavy cavalryman, a man who would fight from horseback with heavy weapons, as opposed, for instance, to a mounted archer. So medieval writers might refer to the cavalry of an Islamic army as knights.
The other meaning of knight was a man who had been knighted by a king. (In earlier times, people other than kings knighted people in some places.) This required going through specific training and, finally, ceremonies. In practice, the people who did this were normally Christian. After the Great Schism in 1054, they would have been Roman Catholic in western Europe, or Eastern Orthodox in the East.
There were monastic orders of knights, and these, of course, required their knights to be of their religion. Those I am aware of were all Roman Catholic.
How did the Roman Catholic Church influence the middle ages socially?
The Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages in Europe is too broad a topic to completely answer your question. You would need to read several volumes on that topic. The Roman Catholic Church influenced on many levels, in different regions and at different times. The following are a few highlights.
The Church had a longstanding negative view of women and sex that began to develop early in its history even though it was through the help of wealthy women, who held meetings in their homes, that Jesus first began his ministry. The early Church "mothers" who had been so active in the formation of the early church were eventually told that to serve God they should "go home and pray." The symbolic images of women included Eve, the evil temptress who disobeyed God, and Mary, the pure mother of Jesus who conceived without sin (intercourse).
That extremely conservative attitude of the Church toward women continued from the early Middle Ages onward and was typified by the writings of the theologian Thomas Aquinas who took a rather misogynistic view of women. He was the major theological writer of the thirteenth century and his views helped form the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. He taught that women should be meek and submissive and preached a doctrine of male dominance. He followed the views of Aristotle and Tertullian by declaring that women are "defective and misbegotten": that males are the perfect form and female children are simply defective males.
Cleric's of the time were still ignorant of a woman's role in the reproduction of the species.
The prevailing view was that women were morally weak, lacked judgment and were created to be man's helpmate. Aquinas' audience within the Church was predominately male and celibate (or supposed to be) and fortunately, that female-focused negativity didn't always dominate outside the Church. In fact, clerics who gave raging sermons about the evils of women to male audiences, often softened their words for a female audience taking some care to not go too far in insulting their female supporters.
In spite of Church teachings, there were many happy marriages that although not founded on love grew into loving relationships in spite of the Church's view of women as weak, inferior and sinful. And, the Church's attacks on human sexuality could never succeed in making average, healthy men give up their relationship with women.
Education was difficult to acquire for women in the Middle Ages and educated women were uncommon. Early schools barred female students. A woman's education depended on the attitude of her father and there were many father who did not buy into the prevailing negativity about women, recognized their daughters' intelligence and educated them.
In a curious turnabout, a nunnery could be a refuge for a woman who was an intellectual and she could continue to study in a convent. A convent was also a refuge for a non-conformist, non-marriageable woman, as an alternative to marriage or as the next role for a widow. The most learned women of the Middle Ages were nuns and in the early Middle Ages to mid, novices were supplied mostly from the aristocracy. Later, women from the gentry were acceptable. Some nunneries required dowries of land, cash, furniture, livestock, etc. However, life was hard, days were filled with work, visitors were not allowed, physical punishment was meted out and once a women entered she rarely left. Nunneries, on a limited basis, took boarders and pupils, worship, ritual and prayer filled the hours, help was given to the poor and the nuns were self-supporting. Some queens founded abbeys that were ruled by abbesses of royal blood who had considerable power and influence that reached their highest points of power in the tenth and eleventh and centuries.
Early Thirteenth Century England supported over 600 monasteries for men with 14,000 inhabitants. There were about 140 convents for women with around 3000 residents. The male houses were much better endowed and men had more freedom of movement.
Catholic church in medieval Europe?
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.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
There are links below.
What power did the medieval church have?
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.
Please see the links below.
Why was church so important in continuing the art of learning and education in the medieval times?
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?
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?
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?
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?
. 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?
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.
Who provided the most financial support for musicians and composers during the middle age?
The Catholic Church
Where did people sleep during the middle ages?
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.
