Aim: How did the Church become the most powerful force in Europe?

Do Now: Documents 1,2,3

HW: Read chapter 8, section 4 Reading on Medieval village

Vocabulary• Clergy – ordained officials of a religion• Sacraments – special Christian ceremonies• Tithe – church tax, usually 10% of earnings• Heresy – the holding of beliefs considered wrong

by the Church• Excommunicate – to expel a person from the

Church• Friar – traveling monk, preached to poor in towns• Simony – selling of Church offices• Investiture – ceremony to give someone an official

rank or position

Construction began:1163 Completed :1345

Notre Dame de Paris:

• Manorialism, feudalism encouraged local loyalties

• Christian beliefs brought people across Europe together in spiritual community of Christendom

• Religion touched almost every aspect of Christians’ lives

Christian Beliefs

Religion in the Middle Ages

Political roleThe medieval church had broad political powers and performed many governmental functions

Economic roleBy the 1200s, the church was the wealthiest institution in Europe and a leading landowner

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

The Church HierarchyThe clergy were organized in a strict hierarchy ofrank – the parish priest was at the bottom

Saint John Marie-Baptiste Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests

Catholic Church HierarchyThe

Pope

Cardinals

Archbishops

Bishops

Priests

The Church HierarchyThe priest directly served the people in hisparish and could administer five of the sevensacraments

The Church HierarchyThe bishop managed a diocese and performedthe sacraments of confirmation and holy orders

The Church HierarchyKings or powerful nobles would selectbishops on the basis of family connections orpolitical power

The Church HierarchyAn archbishop managed a group of several dioceses called an archdiocese

The chief diocese in a province. To help things run smoothly, one bishop in each province has seniority. He's an archbishop and his diocese is an archdiocese.

The Church HierarchyThe pope held supreme authority and wasadvised by the curia, counselors from the highest ranks of the clergy

Pope Innocent Confirms Rule of Francis, circa 1300

The Church HierarchyThe curia’s most important and powerful memberswere cardinals, who advised the pope on legal andspiritual matters

Raphael, Portrait of a Cardinal, 1510-12

Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi, Raphael 1518

MonasticismThe church had two types of clergy:

secular - priests, bishops, and the poperegular - monks

MonasticismMonks and nuns served God through fasting,prayer, and self-denial

A medieval depiction of a monk at work in a monastic scriptorium

MonasticismMonasticism refers to the way of life in religious communities - monks in monasteries and nunsin convents

MonasticismBenedict established a monastery in the 500s; the Benedictine Rule governs monk’s lives

The Church and Medieval Life – Social roleChurch leaders were feudal lords and politicaladvisors - popes held political and spiritual power over monarchs

The Church and Medieval LifeChurch courts followed canon law and couldexcommunicate a person or issue an interdict against an entire region

Galileo in front of the Roman Inquisition, 12 April 1633 Painting by Cristiano Banti

The Church and Medieval LifeHeretics were people who denied the church’sprinciples or who preached beliefs not approvedby the church

The Church and Medieval LifeThe church had the power to tax; parish priests collected a tithe - one-tenth of a person’s income

The Church and Medieval LifeThe clergy was involved with social work andcaring for the poor and needy

The Church and Medieval LifeMajor problems in the church were layinvestiture and simony

Jan Hus, a Bohemian preacher who called for Church reforms, was declared a heretic by the Church. Hus was summoned to

the Council of Constance and burned at the stake in 1415.

The Church and Medieval LifeIn the 1200s, two religious groups werededicated to church reform - the Franciscansand the Dominicans

The pope approving the Franciscan order

St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, commonly known

as the Dominican Order

The Church and Medieval LifeDominicans sought out heretics in what became known as the Inquisition

Not only were Europe’s common people inspired by a new sense of piety, many clergy members sought ways to improve conditions.

• 900s, 1000s, pope had little authority

• Considered head of church, but local bishops made most important religious decisions

• Papacy not held in high regard

• Few popes noted for religious devotion; most were nobles concerned with increasing own power

Papacy • 1049, first of series of clever,

capable popes dedicated to reforming papacy came to power, Leo IX

• Believed that Europe’s clergy had become corrupt, wanted to reform it

• Concerned with simony, buying and selling of church offices by bishops

Church Reforms

Growth of Papal Power

Excommunication• Bishops guilty of bad offenses excommunicated, cast out of church• No greater punishment for Christians in Middle Ages• Person excommunicated could not take part in Eucharist, could not be saved

Conflict• One who rejected Leo’s authority, bishop of Constantinople • 1054, Leo excommunicated bishop, split Christian Church in two• Those who agreed Leo called Roman Catholics; those who sided with bishop,

Orthodox

Reforms• Leo became more active in governing church than other popes in past• Reforms brought him into conflict with political, religious leaders• Many bishops believed pope had no authority to tell them how to act

Power and Conflict

Popes and PoliticsPopes gained influence over people’s religious lives,

also over European politics

• Pope became head of huge network of ecclesiastical courts, heard cases on religious, moral matters

• Pope also ruled territories, like Papal States

– Had ability to raise armies to defend territories

– Several popes hired Normans to fight wars

– Crusades against Muslims launched by popes

Although popes had increased their power, they still came into conflict with political leaders. Popes of the late 1000s were firmly resolved to change the way members of the clergy were chosen.

• Kings, other leaders played active role in choosing clergy

• Kings chose most bishops

• Holy Roman emperor named several popes

Tradition• Reform popes did

not think anyone but clergy should choose religious officials

• Issue became critical during Pope Gregory VII’s pontificate

Reform • Henry IV, Holy

Roman emperor, chose new bishop for city of Milan

• Gregory did not approve, removed bishop

• Henry disputed Gregory’s authority

Bishop of Milan

Conflict over Bishops

Excommunication

• Gregory’s response was to excommunicate Henry

• Called on clergy, nobility of Germany to replace emperor

Bishops

• Gregory, Henry continued fighting over bishops for years

• Later popes reached compromise: local clergy would choose bishops

Canossa

• Fearing he would lose his throne, Henry traveled to Canossa to beg forgiveness

• Reluctantly, Gregory lifted excommunication

Power

• Most important outcome: Gregory stood up to emperor

• The pope had become one of strongest figures in Europe

Gregory and Henry

“The continuity and the authority of the Church of Rome stood out in

marked contrast against the short-lived kingdoms which rose and fell in the early Middle

Ages.”

Write a short response to this statement by a historian of the Middle Ages.