Notre Dame de Paris: Construction began:1163 Completed :1345

Throughout the Middle Ages, the church was one of the few sources of leadership and stability that people could rely upon. One historian has noted that “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.” As a result, the Catholic church became one of medieval Europe’s most powerful and long-lasting institutions. The church filled the power gap left after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire

From 590 AD to 1517AD, the Roman Church dominated the western world. The Roman Catholic Church controlled religion, philosophy, morals, politics, art and education.

 Pope Innocent III declared the Act of Papal Supremacy. He stated that the Pope was,  “lower than God but higher than man... Judges all and is judged by no one.... Princes have power on earth, priests over the soul. As much as the soul is worthier than the body, so much worthier is the priesthood than the monarchy... NO king can reign rightly unless he devoutly serve Christ’s vicar.” What does this mean for the power of the kings of Europe?

The Medieval church had broad political power and performed many government functions. Emperor Henry IV waited three days to meet Pope Gregory VII and the Countess Matilda

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

Monasticism - life in religious communities. Monks lived in monasteries and nuns in convents

Monks and nuns served God through fasting, prayer and self-denial. A monk at work in a monastic scriptorium

Benedict established monastery in the 500s; Benedictine Rule governed monks’ lives.

The monastery at Cluny in France

Clergy was organized in strict hierarchy of rank –parish priest was at bottom Saint John Marie-Baptiste Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests

Priests directly served people in parish.

Bishops managed a diocese.

Kings or nobles selected bishops based on family connections or political power

Archbishops managed a group of several dioceses called an archdiocese

Cardinals most important and powerful clergy; advised pope on legal and spiritual matters Raphael, Portrait of a Cardinal, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi, Raphael 1518

Pope held supreme authority during his Pontificate. He was the head of ecclesiastical courts and had the power to excommunicate. Galileo in front of the Inquisition, 12 April 1633

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.

Church leaders were feudal lords and political advisors; Popes held political and spiritual power over monarchs.

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

 Money was also gathered through the collection of indulgences.  These were guarantees of reduced time in purgatory for those who did good deeds or gave money for religious purposes.  Purgatory was understood to be a place that Christian people went after death to pay off their remaining sins.

Heretics - people who denied the church’s principles

Put yourselves in the shoes of a medieval European. Who might you fear more, the church or king? Why?

Always keep in mind that the powers of excommunication and interdict often seemed more mighty and frightening than the powers of the monarch/king. True, a king might imprison or even execute you, but if the church excommunicated a person, he/she would not only be shunned [socially, politically and economically banished/ostracized] in life, but also doomed for eternity. With the church, one fears social banishment in their lifetime and eternal damnation in the next life, death (possibly in hell).

 The Eastern section of the Roman Empire continued in the Empire of the Byzantines.  There were a few major theological differences between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholics.  The most significant difference was that there was an Emperor in Byzantium, unlike the divided Europeans.  The Emperor appointed the religious leader: The Patriarch.  This was called caesaropapism : Caesar over Pope

The Patriarch still had a lot of political power, but he was not as powerful as the Pope.

Bishop of Constantinople rejected Pope Leo IX’s authority; excommunication split church into Roman Catholics and Orthodox Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew

 Adapted from: trcshshw.wikispaces.com/.../Ch13.3+Lesson+ Plan+( Power +of+the+ Churc... ‎  Crash Course History Video The Fall of Rome:  ZNWVA