The Medieval Church

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The Medieval Church
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The Medieval Church(Secular Worldly)
political
spiritual
social
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What's going on here?

• Masses in Latin
• limited understanding of church rituals
• Priests poorly educated
• Few worshipers could read or write (illiterate)
• Most knowledge came from statues, paintings and
  stained glass windows.

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Benedicts Rule

• 520 AD Benedict founded a monastery at Monte
  Cassino in Italy
• Became a model for monks in other communities
• List of rules that provided for manual work,
  meditation and prayer.
• Monks could not own goods, must never marry and
  were bound to obey monastic laws.
• Life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

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Monastic Life

• Simple robes
• 1-2 plain meals a day
• Rule of silence
• Meditate during meals
• Nuns lived in monasteries as well
• Preserved ancient religious works
• Schools for the young, hospitals for the sick,
  food for the needy and guest houses for the weary
  travelers

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Missionary Efforts

• Pope Gregory I adopted Benedictine Rule
• Goal
• missionaries to different countries to spread the
  Christian ideologies
• Martyrs many killed.
• By mid- 1000s, most western Europeans were
  Catholics.

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The Power the Corruption

• Catholic Church helped govern western Europe
• Most bishops were nobles
• Feudal ties boosted Churchs wealth and political
  power
• Donations of land and money
• Appointed relatives as bishops or abbots

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The Need for Reform

• Pope Innocent III,
• condemned drunkenness, feasting and dancing among
  the clergy.
• Strict rules on heresy
• the denial of basic church teachings
• Threaten heretics with excommunication
• expulsion form the Church

• 900s call for reform
• free church from control of feudal lords
• 1059 AD Pope elected by a conclave of cardinals
  (not lords)

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The Inquisition

• A court set up in 1232, to seek out and punish
  people suspected of heresy
• Accusations without sufficient proof
• sometimes tortured to obtain confessions
• Welcomed back those who repented punished those
  who did not repent. (imprisonment, loss of
  property or execution)

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The Medieval Church
Everyday Life -some priest run churches -taxes to
the church (tithe) -attend village churches
Power of Church -Pope lead Roman Catholic -own
laws courts -excommunication
Reform -Church becomes rich powerful -some
clergy corrupt -some try to make changes
Nuns Monks -set up housing, hospitals schools
for sick poor -some missionaries -some preserve
learning