Religion experienced a lot of progress and transformation throughout the Middle Ages. Christianity held consistent popularity and other religions such as Islam were on the rise in participation. After the fall of Rome, there was no unified state or government in Europe and the Catholic Church used that opportunity to become a large powerhouse. The Roman Empire had effectively split into three different worlds: Muslim, Byzantine, and western European. Various Kings, Queens, and other leaders looked to the Catholic church for power and protection in exchange for alliances. Meanwhile, the Islamic religion was growing in wealth, power, and people. With the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, Muslim groups took under large parts of land and united them under a single caliph. The Byzantines were still operating from Constantinople, just under a smaller rule and rural life assumed greater importance in the backbone of their society. Religion was largely involved in the Middle Ages’ art and architecture. Massive Cathedrals were built and even books were a work of art before the invention of the printing press. In addition, their economy was directly affected by religious activity such as missions and conquests. Overall, the general trends marking the progress religion in the Middle Ages are inclusion of everyone, a building of a community, and the opportunity of becoming equals with other practitioners.
Christianity gained power and popularity in part because citizens across Europe
iii) On biblical grounds the Church is a community of both saints & sinners. Separation only comes at final judgement. Therefore ‘two’ churches: the essential/invisible church contained within the outward empirical church. (To what extent did this distinction allow for the development of corruption within the empirical church?)
The church had changed in many different ways in the transition between the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance known as the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages spiritual leaders had vital presence in society and gained power over time. One of the major changes in the church during the Middle Ages was the monasteries and abbeys. Over the period of the Middle Ages monasteries became more popular and necessary for society. Even though the church changed majorly in monasteries popularity and necessity in society the beliefs systems of the church stayed the same throughout the duration of the Middle Ages.
If the plague were to happen today in the United states, it would impact us like how it impacted the middle ages, by religion. First our religion would survive, and like medieval time we would believe we were punished by god. We would all stay in our own religions and trust that our god would keep us safe. This is what many believed in the middle ages. We would haft to get back to work and maybe even work harder to keep everything in progress. We would continue to build lives and make new families. We would use a lot of ideas the europeans used during their plague.
During times of chaos and unrest, people need rules, guidelines and a sense of belonging to provide order and stability. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were many wars and conflict happening. People were lost, lacked leadership and were in dire need of some commonality to unite and bring them together. Religion took power when the government didn't in Europe. According to the 9th grade curriculum, religion, as seen through the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, has unified society by providing stability and order.
Religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance When the Renaissance, the “rebirth” of sciences and arts, began, and the Middle Ages ended, many things changed. As the world of science and art grew more and more advanced, new discoveries were made and the secular world became more prominent, one thing that was greatly affected was religion. In both time periods, everyone was still Christian, the content of the Bible is the same, and there were prominent religious leaders. In the middle ages, the main focus in life was to get into heaven, so the church was very important, but in the Renaissance, peoples views on the world changed as they started to learn more about it. In particular, some things that were affected were the types of Christianity, the literacy, and the perspectives of the people.
Religion has influenced an entire range of changes in the elongated history of the world. The alterations that have taken place in the past are clear and concise evidence that the underlying and ultimate influence is religion. Religion has been apart of a plethora number of events in the past because, religion gives humans a clear source of origin of the universe, and carries an everlasting assurance that provides protection and happiness among the permutations in life. Religion also served its purpose in all aspects of life, especially during the events between the 1600’s and 1800’s.
The base of civilization is religion; without it, no civilization could advance as much unless they had something to believe in and strive for. From 1000-1500 B.C., civilizations were flowering. They had strong religions, a flourishing economy, a variety of government forms, and a variety of social systems. Civilizations such as the Islamic Empire and the Medieval Empire were becoming stronger and fought against each other in the Crusades. While that was happening, the Vikings were raiding the medieval empire in hopes of becoming alike their war-like gods. Religion was a positive force in developing civilizations because it created stronger governments, closer communities, and new advancements that assisted economically.
Religion had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of life in the medieval world. In the Christian belief, the first two people that were created by God were Adam and Eve. They were provided with a paradise to live in,the garden of Eden, and were only given one rule that they had to follow to not eat from the tree of good and evil. If they did eat fruit from the tree, then they would have to leave the paradise. Eve was tempted by Satan, and ate the fruit. She then gave some of that fruit to Adam, and they were banned from the garden. For this reason, women were seen as dangerous temptresses. This story showed that women were morally weaker, and were likely to lead their spouses into sin. They became known as the “weaker” sex, for it was a woman who first consumed the fruit in the Garden of Eden.
There is irrefutable evidence that over the period of the Middle Ages, both Christianity and Islam have been anchors in both shaping and influencing governance of kingdoms and empires comprising Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and territories ruled by Islam. Religion during this period was widely used to set laws, influence culture, justify armed conflicts, and pronounce punishment on citizens domiciled within the geographies depicted within this essay. I will attempt to illuminate the geopolitical climate, territorial demarcation, and religious influences that depicted life circa 500 – 1517 CE. From the background material submitted, I will directly answer the following questions:
From being a persecuted religion, Christianity rose up to be an official religion of Rome with the support of the Emperor Constantine and Theodosius I in the fourth century. By the early Middle Ages, the Church had become extremely powerful and was one of the two dominant forces that controlled the entire Europe, with the other being the State. Although the popes and the kings were ought to be supportive of each other, there usually existed between them a constant struggle for ultimate authority over the kingdoms. More than often, these conflicts created tension between the State and the Church eventually resulted in the people's sufferings.
Religion was so central to political and military conflict in the early modern period because religion encompassed the era due to the strongly religious cultural society. The centre of conflict deriving from the Catholic and Protestant divide, which caused conflict within politics and the military, because the opposing sides fought over religious territory and popularity. The centre of the conflict within these sectors of religion was The Reformation and the wars which followed, which created a struggle for power as different religions gained new support and thus power, and others experienced reduced power as a result. The resulting political and military turmoil created the growth of secularism, which attempted to stabilize politics and the military by increasing control. Therefore religion was so central to political and military conflict in the early modern period because the period was so strongly religious that it had more of an impact on political and military conflict than any other factor, because it was held in a higher regard than politics and the military sustained individually.
In several ways, Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages shared in their approach to dealing with the infidels living in their lands, particularly in their proclamation of legal edicts defining the level of toleration and the protection offered those nonbelievers. Yet, however similar the two society's legislative relations were in managing minority faiths, there still existed minor fundamental differences stemming from disparities in their societal structure.
The 15th century gave way to an irrepressible intellectual movement which challenged the Catholic dogma. The scientific revolution extended from the fifteenth to eighteenth century . Preceding this movement Europe was heavily reliant on the Roman Catholic Church which maintained a strict control in Western Europe. The church was assimilated into everyday life. As Europe was divided the Church was able to maintain its power due to social unity, economic, and political power.
In ancient times, the political ruler was also known as the highest religious ruler and sometimes even called divine (Church and State, Unknown). I think the church is the winner because the church teaches about Christianity and that religion is one of the most important legacies of ancient Rome. The Romans abused Christians for their beliefs but their religion still spreaded throughout the year. When the Middle Ages just started, all the Christians in the Western Europe belonged to a single church also known as the Roman Catholic Church. Overtime, the church leaders decided to create a system in which all the people of the city had a rank. There were cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and parishes. During the Middle Ages, the church received
The papacy of Roman Catholic Church reached its zenith in the thirteenth century. But there was a decline of the papacy in the fourteenth century due to disaster like the Black Death, The Great Schism, and many other evolutions in Europe. Many new ideas and advanced technologies were developed after series of changes. These ideas influenced the lives of many normal people in the Medieval Ages.