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    Religion in The Medieval Ages

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    Gabriel
    The medieval church had a clear authoritarian structure with the Pope at the top, followed by Cardinals, Bishops, Archbishops, Priests, and Monastic Orders. Through the seven sacraments, the medieval church controlled an individual's life from birth to death. The present separation of church and state did not exist, as kings were answerable to the clergy in religious matters. The Medieval Church sustained its power through extreme punishments like burning heretics at the stake. While the church became corrupt over time, it also established important institutions and preserved classical knowledge during the Middle Ages.

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    Religion in The Medieval Ages

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    Gabriel
    65 views3 pages
    The medieval church had a clear authoritarian structure with the Pope at the top, followed by Cardinals, Bishops, Archbishops, Priests, and Monastic Orders. Through the seven sacraments, the medieval church controlled an individual's life from birth to death. The present separation of church and state did not exist, as kings were answerable to the clergy in religious matters. The Medieval Church sustained its power through extreme punishments like burning heretics at the stake. While the church became corrupt over time, it also established important institutions and preserved classical knowledge during the Middle Ages.

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    Religion in the Medieval Ages

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    The medieval church had a clear authoritarian structure with the Pope at the top, followed by Cardinals, Bishops, Archbishops, Priests, and Monastic Orders. Through the seven sacraments, the medieval church controlled an individual's life from birth to death. The present separation of church and state did not exist, as kings were answerable to the clergy in religious matters. The Medieval Church sustained its power through extreme punishments like burning heretics at the stake. While the church became corrupt over time, it also established important institutions and preserved classical knowledge during the Middle Ages.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    65 views3 pages

    Religion in The Medieval Ages

    Uploaded by

    Gabriel
    The medieval church had a clear authoritarian structure with the Pope at the top, followed by Cardinals, Bishops, Archbishops, Priests, and Monastic Orders. Through the seven sacraments, the medieval church controlled an individual's life from birth to death. The present separation of church and state did not exist, as kings were answerable to the clergy in religious matters. The Medieval Church sustained its power through extreme punishments like burning heretics at the stake. While the church became corrupt over time, it also established important institutions and preserved classical knowledge during the Middle Ages.

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    of 3

    RELIGION IN THE MEDIEVAL AGES

    Many historians place the mark of the beginning of the medieval era at the 5th century fall of the Roman

    Empire. Others place the mark in the year 800 when Charlemagne was installed as the first Holy Roman

    Emperor by Pope Leo III (Ertit et al., n.d.).

    The medieval church had a clear authoritarian structure: the Pope, functioning as the Church's head,

    was at the top. The Cardinals, who were both his counselors and Church's administrators, were placed

    beneath him. Bishops and Archbishops, who oversaw a cathedral or region, followed next. Priests who

    presided over a parish, village, or town church were next, followed by Monastic Orders. These were

    monks and nuns who lived in monasteries under the supervision of an abbot or abbess.

    Through its seven sacraments, namely baptism, confirmation, penance, Eucharist, holy orders, marriage

    and extreme unction, the medieval church constructed and defined the individual’s life, literally, from

    birth to death. Not only that, the medieval church was said to retain control over a person's soul after

    death through her teachings of purgatory and her prayers for the dead. From birth to death, whether

    you were a labourer, a serf, a person of noble birth or even the King or Queen him/herself, your life was

    dominated by the Church. Ultimately, religious institutions evolved into wealthy establishments. The

    majority of the populace dedicated their lives to the Catholic Church and faith. The Church was believed

    to be the manifestation of God’s will and presence on earth; and its dictates were not to be questioned.

    The present separation between church and state was unknown at the time. Bishops and monarchs

    served in different but complementary capacities with the greatest personal loyalty being demanded by

    the church. Kings were answerable to the clergy in religious matters, just as were all laymen. Pope

    Gregory VII (1073–85) made a theological case that the clergy, led by the pope, were superior to

    monarchs and other lay rulers, whose job it was to carry out the clergy's orders (Lynch & Adamo, 2014).
    The Medieval Church sustained its power over the populace by use of extreme forms of punishments for

    perceived apostates. John Christian Laursen et al narrate that in the English diocese of Canterbury, fifty-

    three men and women were charged of Lollardy, a popular kind of Wycliffite heresy, between April 28th

    and June 5th of 1512. Five of these were burnt at the stake after being handed over to secular

    authorities. Penances were imposed on forty-five others (John Christian Laursen et al., 2005).

    With time, the Church became corrupt and oppressive, characterized by a love of worldly goods and

    pleasures rather than spiritual pursuits. However, that being said, it should also be noted that the

    Church is credited with establishing hospitals, colleges and universities, and social systems for the care

    of the underprivileged. We owe not only the preservation of many important works but also some of the

    most magnificent discoveries in history to the early monks. In his article, Ben House quotes art historian

    and critic Kenneth Clark who describes how western Christianity survived for almost a century thanks to

    early Irish Christians preserved in books the best of western achievements. This happened at a time

    when "uneducated, pagan, barbarous hordes, ignorant of the Greco-Roman legacy, were reorganizing

    Europe" (It Takes a Monk to Save a Civilization, n.d.).

    References:

    1. Ertit, V., Üyesi, Ö., Üniversitesi, A., Fakültesi, F., Bölümü, S., Dalı, K., & Tarihi, G. (n.d.). marife dini

    araştırmalar dergisi Turkish Journal of Religious Studies Religion as one of the Leading Actors of

    Medieval Europe (A Critique of Rodney Stark). Retrieved November 2, 2021, from

    https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1184260

    2. It Takes a Monk to Save a Civilization. (n.d.). Chalcedon. https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/it-

    takes-a-monk-to-save-a-civilization

    3. John Christian Laursen, Nederman, C. J., & Hunter, I. (2005). Heresy in transition: transforming ideas

    of heresy in Medieval and early modern Europe. Ashgate.


    4. Lynch, J. H., & Adamo, P. C. (2014). The medieval church: a brief history. Routledge/Taylor & Francis

    Group.

    5. The Medieval Church. (2019, July 7). Brewminate: We’re Never far from Where We Were.

    https://brewminate.com/the-medieval-church/

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