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The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

In a previous post we talked about Christianity and how I influence during the Middle Ages .Time of greater prominence and both political and economic power.We will tell you what exactly this power consisted of and how it was held ideologically.

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

Index of the article

The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is one of the most fascinating stages in history, a period that is strongly characterized by the existence of the Feudal System or Feudalism .A world of nobles, peasants, tributes, vassals, feuds, and weakened monarchies.But beyond this, the medieval world was dominated by the Catholic Church or Christian.that is essential that in order to understand the development of the middle ages, we investigate in depth the importance of Medieval Church .

  • D In fact, we can say that the Catholic church had an influence on all the orders of life of the medieval age, and no sector of society remained oblivious to these influences.

Various circumstances explain this extraordinary ecclesiastical influence during this stage of European history and the deep cultural and religious traces left in Europe and the Western world.

It was the time of greatest splendor of the Church and specifically of the Catholic Church, since it had a lot of influence on society and, although there were other creeds, in the eleventh century Europe was largely Christian.

In fact it is a period of history in which a new concept of union was born in reigns and European territories: Christianity.

Christianity experienced a period of great influence although it was deeply affected when 1054, the Byzantine bishops denied the authority of the Pope provoking the so-called schism of the East.Since then, the European Christian world was divided in two: East opted for the Greek Orthodox Church, while the West remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church as it is still known.

The importance of the Church in Medieval society

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

In the West, the Church is closely linked to feudal society; the Church itself was a great feudal power , because it owned a third of the territorial property of the Catholic world and among other things, was entitled to tithing, which was the tenth part of the harvest of all people.

In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church played a decisive role .It was the only institution that succeeded in exercising its power throughout a politically fragmented Europe.

The daily life in the Middle Ages and the way of thinking of nobles and peasants were greatly influenced by the principles and beliefs of the Christian Church.As a consequence of this, the actions of the people were closely linked to religious norms .

The Church was at the same time the center of intellectual life .From this preeminent role, I enable the consolidation of a particular interpretation of the world, designed and ordered according to the Di os.

A medieval mentality based on religious precepts crystallized and lasted for centuries.

Organization of the Church during the Middle Ages

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

We have already said how the Church in the Middle Ages had a lot of power The main reason is found in its richness, and of course, in a clear organization as well as in cultural importance, and in the influence on social life. The church was opposed to disorder, ignorance and the violence of the feudal society.All the members of the Church formed the clergy, which was divided into two: the secular clergy and the regular clergy.The spiritual head of all was the Pope.

The secular clergy

The secular clergy were those members of the Church who lived in the world, mixed with the laity: the Pope, the archbishops, bishops and parishes.

The parishes were the ones in charge and regulated small districts called parishes .parishes formed a diocese, whose head was a bishop , and several dioceses formed an archdiocese, led by an archbishop.

The regular clergy

From the 6th century the regular clergy is organized in the West.Its members are those who chose to isolate themselves from the world and live in monasteries ruled by an abbot.They also followed specific rules.His rule was based on the motto ora et labora, that is, he prays and works.

In the West, the monacato was initiated by Saint Benedict of Nursia, who founded the Benedictine order, which forced its members to fulfill vows of obedience, chastity and poverty .The rule of St.Benedict was supported by the Papacy.

The main heretic movements of the Middle Ages

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

During the extended Middle Ages, different interpretations and currents of thought related to Christianity that, in some cases, substantially departed from the dictates of Rome.The Papacy, through the civil power of the different territories, tried to fight against any hint of heterodoxy that was detected although, in some cases, As we are going to see next, the forms of Christian religiosity considered heretic had such preeminence that they managed to attract thousands of people from different places in Europe.The main heretic movements (although not the only ones) that convulsed Europe during The Middle Ages were the following:

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

Priscilianism .Priscilianism was a religious movement that originated in the fourth century that receives the name of its main preacher, Prisciliano .This current emerged as a rejection of the growing wealth and relaxation of customs presented by the Church of Rome and defended that the Church had to return to poverty.Also, among other changes, one of the most revolutionary theses at that time that defended Priscilianism was that women should have a leading role in the ecclesiastical environment, should enjoy ample freedom and, in addition, He should have authority in the Christian context.Priscilianism spread widely throughout the Iberian peninsula and gained many adherents, despite the increasing measures of contention that the Church of Rome launched. Both Priscillian and his closest collaborators were excommunicated , but this only made their influence continue to grow and the authorities took increasingly expeditious measures to tackle the problem Prisciliano.After being betrayed by some of his companions, Prisciliano was executed, most of his most important followers were arrested and the rest of those who professed that religion were considered as heretics, suffering various penalties such as the confiscation of their property or banishment.

Adoptionism .The idea advocating adoptionism was that Jesus was not a divine being from his origin, but that had been adopted by God to act as his son on Earth .Adoptionism gained great importance during the first centuries of Christianity, since this dictation was easy to link with classical culture, where many heroes had reached the status of gods in recognition of their acts or hazanas, or with the bean, where the Messiah was considered a human chosen by God.Although the adoptionist theories in general were losing strength as the successive councils decided that the Encar The nation of God was the orthodox theory recognized by the Church, but other theories closely related to this idea knew a great force until well into the 6th century.

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

Cataros or Albigenses .Catara heresy has become the most popular and well-known of all medieval Christian heresies , largely thanks to the immense many novels and movies that have been created around it.This current became very popular in the area of ​​southern France and Aragon and had very little to do with the dictates of official Christianity.The cataros defended that the world was composed of a dual reality, the physical world, created by the Devil or the Devil, and the Kingdom of Heaven or God , which was beyond the limits of the material scope.soul was the only sacred element of the human being, considering the body as an earthly garment that should not be given importance.Taking the soul as the main element and denying all possible contact with the material world, the cataros practiced asceticism and severe abstinence of all the land.They denied the sacraments and created their own organization outside the Church and, in good measure, also to the rest of the society of the moment.

In the beginning, the Church of Rome I organize missions for Evan gel these communities and return them to orthodoxy , but these missions not only did not achieve their goal, but they had to resign themselves to the continued expansion of the ideas of the Catara.Before such failure, the Church of Rome began a violent offensive and it gave the fight against the cataros the condition of "crusade", presenting them as dangerous heretics and convincing the civil powers of the territories that had a greater presence of cataros that they should be exterminated by force .Persecuted by both civil and religious authorities and faced with the threat of serious corporal punishment or, even, of being executed if they were found suspicious of the slightest sympathy towards the cataros, the few that remained took refuge in the woods and in the strictest secrecy to survive, although they probably died out completely at the end of the fourteenth century.

To learn more about the cataros, you can take a look Tazo to the following documentary dedicated to them:

The Hussites .The last of the great medieval heresies before the arrival of the Protestant movements was that of the Hussites.The so-called" Hussite Church " arose in Bohemia in the XV century and receives the name of its main ideologist, John or Jan Hus.Juan Hus, linked to the University of Prague, argued that the Church had departed much of the precepts of the Bible, which had become in a rich and degenerate earthly authority and that the only authority to which he owed obedience was to that of the Holy Book.

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

His constant criticism of the ecclesiastical hierarchy aroused an important rejection among the Church of Rome, but initially the authorities c iviles lent their support to John Hus , who took control of the University of Prague and became a confessor of Queen Sofia of Bavaria.However, the positions of the Hussites became radicalized and , after Juan Hus was burned at the stake after attending the Council of Constance to defend his precepts, a true religious and civil revolution broke out in the area of ​​Bohemia.In 1419 began the so-called revolts or Hussite wars, in which the religious field it was united with serious problems of civil society.These wars extended until the year 1434.

The main ecclesiastical reforms: the Clunians and the Cistercians

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

Although its great political and social importance never diminished throughout the Middle Ages, the Church and its precepts did evolve with the passage of the centuries.One of the most important aspects The evidences of the changes that the Church went through during this time were the internal reforms that were carried out to adapt to the changes and to fight against the internal problems that arose.The most prominent of them (not the only ones) were the Cluniac and Cistercian reforms .

The Cluniac reform , which began to emerge around the years 909 and 910, originated in the Benedictine abbey from Cluny , in France.The idea behind the Cluniac reform was to return to the original essence of the monacato, fight against the relaxation of customs that could be seen in different religious environments and, also, to achieve a certain independence from the political powers of the moment , especially of the feudal lords and the bishops of the region.Thus, the cluniacenses monasteries were put under the direct protection of the Pope , without paying any kindness to any other political or religious power and stand as entities practically independent in which the powerful abbot of Cluny controlled and coordinated the rest of the monasteries linked to this reform.

The Cluniac reform imposed a rigid discipline on its members to fight, as We have indicated above, against the relaxation of customs that was appreciated at that time in many areas of the clergy.Thus, the monks of the Cluniac reform had to dine at a Very strict way of life , reestablishing the old Benedictine rule in all its rigor.They should vote for poverty, chastity and obedience, while also promising to be an image of humility and penance.In most cases, even, there was a vow of silence and prayer and liturgy filled most of their lives.The cluniacense reform extended a lot, especially in southern Europe and at its peak, in the twelfth century, there were more than 1,500 Cluniac monasteries spread across the continent , before political and religious changes favored their decline and final disappearance.

The Church in the Middle Ages: influence and power

On the other hand, the Cistercian reform emerges largely as a reaction to the importance and wealth that they had reached the cluniacenses monasteries and, again, try d and fight against the estrangement that had been experienced of the ideal of monastic life returning to the roots of the monacato.The Cistercian Order underwent a great development in the twelfth century by the hand of Bernardo de Claraval and promulgated that the monks had to lead a life collected and based on work, prayer and help to the pilgrims.They settled especially in uninhabited or inhospitable areas, in search of isolation and recollection that would bring them closer to God and away from the mundane noise , creating practically self-sufficient units in which the monks worked assisted by peasants who sought the protection of the monastery, having a granexito in the production of products such as fabrics or wines whose surpluses were dedicated to trade.

The reform Cistercian was enormously successful and I experience a great extension, reaching more than 700 monasteries and tens of thousands of monks spread throughout Europe at the end of the Middle Ages.Suexito led them to replace the cluniacenses in many areas of power and became the most influential monacal order of Christianity.However, as happened to the Cluny order, their progressive departure from its own principles and its ever closer connection with the scope of power made this order to enter into decline soon, although it never disappeared at all.Already in the fifteenth century, with the emergence of a new form of religiosity more linked to orders beggars, to the help of the poor and sick within the same city and to the rise of asceticism, the Cistercians stopped enjoying the preeminence of yesteryear and were replaced by other types of orders such as the Franciscans .

Bibliography:
  • The historiographical controversy around the end of the Ancient Age of Gonzalo F ernandez ISSN 0213-0181
  • Relations between the Church and political power: between cesaropapism and separation of Silvio Cajiao
  • Goths, Franks, and Justinian's Empire 476-610 from Beck Sanderson ISBN 0971782385
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