1 Ch. 13 Sec. 3 The Church

2 The Church Hierarchy  The parish priest, at the lowest rank, was responsible for the religious instruction & moral & spiritual life of the community  The priest also had the important role of administering five of the seven sacraments, ceremonies at which participants received God’s grace to help ward off the consequences of sin

3 TTTThese were baptism, communion, penance, marriage, & anointing the sick EEEEach bishop managed a group of parishes, called a diocese TTTThe pope held supreme authority HHHHe was advised by the curia, a group of counselors from among the highest ranks of clergy

4 TTTThe curia’s most powerful members were cardinals, (princes of the church) who elected & advised the pope

5 Monasticism TTTThe other church clergy were monks, who lived in monasteries according to strict rules NNNNuns lived similar lives in convents MMMMonks & nuns served God through fasting, prayer, and self-denial MMMMonasticism is the way of life in convents & monasteries

6  In the 500s a young Roman named Benedict, disgusted w/ worldly corruption, became a hermit & he attracted followers  He established a monastery & a code of conduct w/ strict rules to govern & organize monks’ lives called the Benedictine Rule  He was later called Saint Benedict

7  Monasteries & convents adopted his code of conduct  An abbot was elected head of each monastery  An abbess served the same role in a convent

8  Some monks became missionaries  Saint Patrick is credited w/ bringing Christianity to Ireland  Saint Augustine led a group of monks to England & he became Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the English Church

9 TTTThe German nun Hildegard of Bingen wrote religious music & a medical text SSSShe founded a convent & served as its first abbess SSSShe was later named a saint

10 The Church & Medieval Life  The church had its own courts & code of law, called canon law  The courts could excommunicate people, cutting them off from the church, sacraments, & church burial

11  The court could issue a interdict to punish an entire region  All churches would be closed, & clergy could perform no marriages, burials, or other sacraments  Interdiction was used to control rulers who opposed church policies  Heretics were people who denied the truth of official church principles or preached beliefs not approved by the church

12 TTTThe parish priest collected a tax called a tithe, consisting of one- tenth of a Christian person’s income TTTThe church also received income from its lands BBBBy the 1200s it was the wealthiest institution in Europe & the church’s teaching helped shape the economy

13 Problems of the Church  Nobles or kings sometimes appointed friends as bishops  People could also buy high church positions  This practice of simony, drew growing criticism

14  Seeking reform, Saint Francis of Assisi founded the order of Franciscans, & Saint Dominic founded the order of Dominicans  Members of these orders, called friars, lived & preached among the people  In the mid-1200s the church ordered the Dominicans to eliminate heresy by seeking out & punishing heretics

15  This search for heretics was called the Inquisition  Heretics who did not confess were punished or executed