The Middle Ages: The Church

• By the Middle Ages, the Christian religion had spread throughout western Europe.

• Historians like to say that “Christianity and the Church touched the life of almost everyone during the Middle Ages.”

• From baptism at birth to one’s wedding ceremony to the last rites performed near death, the Church was a central feature in most people’s lives.

• Almost every village had a village priest. The priest was usually a peasant himself.

• He would administer the sacraments, or special ceremonies, of the church for the peasants in his village.

• The village priest also supervised the villager’s moral and religious training.

• Poor peasants turned to their priest in times of trouble and confusion.

• So village priests were also called parish priests, because the areas priests served were called parishes.

• A group of parishes made up a diocese. • Bishops were church officials in charge of

dioceses. The head quarters of a dioceses was in the largest town in the area.

• Often these towns had cathedrals, large beautiful churches that took years to build.

• Just as parish priests answered to bishops, bishops answered to archbishops. They, in turn, answered to the pope. The pope was the leader of the Church. He lived in Rome.

• As you can tell, from the previous slide, the Church was highly organized much like a government.

• In fact, the Church at this time had many powers that governments have today.

• The Church established laws for people, it settled disputes. • The Church was even able to, at times, raise an army for

battle.

• During the Middle Ages the Church eventually became the largest landholder.

• Kings and nobles gave fiefs to nobles in exchange for their loyalty.

• Nobles often granted fiefs to the Church.

• As a result, the Church grew rich and powerful. • The Church also held power because it’s officials could

excommunicate people• Excommunicate means to be cut off entirely from the Church.

• Excommunication was a powerful weapon because the

Church was so important to the people of Europe.

• During the Middle Ages, some people came to believe that the best Christian life was one that was cut off from the rest of the world.

• These people became monks and nuns. Monks formed communities called monasteries.

• Nuns formed communities called convents. The term for this way of life is monasticism.

• Monasteries played several important roles during the Middle Ages. For example, the monks were the most learned people of their time.

• Monks became scholars and teachers. • And since printing was yet to be invented, their copying

of books from the ancient world preserved much knowledge for future generations.