Religion In The Middle Ages

Rome was important to Europe because the country was under its rule. In other words, all of Europe was part of the Roman Empire and depended on it. Therefore, when half of the empire declined; the rest fell as well. The fall of the Roman Empire’s government resulted into religion being the new government system. Three labels that describe the Middle Ages are: the Age of Faith; their lifestyle depended on their faith, the Age of Feudalism; their lifestyle depended on the feudal system, and the Dark Ages; everything going on was bad. The best label to describe the Middle Ages is the Dark Ages because everything going on during this time had a dark side.

The Medieval monastery was established during the middle Ages, this was a place where people got together (mostly monks, nuns and other spiritual beings) and they spent their time praying, studying and most of all helping

Although it’s not completely a good presumption to assert that Christianity was the best for the Roman Empire, it had a benefiting impact upon the Roman Empire in various ways, with the conversion of Constantine in or about 312 AD marking a major initial step.

Around 500 CE, Christianity started to become the prominent religion in Europe, replacing the practice of polytheistic religions and eventually forming Roman Catholicism along with Eastern Orthodoxy. As Christianity and the Church became increasingly more important to both Eastern and Western Europeans, Christianity began to spread outward from Europe through various modes of interaction with other civilizations and empires. For example, by the eleventh century, military conquests in the Byzantine Empire brought many Balkan Slavic peoples under the control of Byzantium.

Before The Renaissance, there was a time period known as the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of darkness and illiteracy. Around eighty percent of the European population was illiterate and or uneducated relying completely on the Roman Catholic Church for education. The uneducated were mostly peasants. The few people that were educated were priests, and other religious figures in the church. Although as time progressed peasants, began to become more independent. With the invention of the printing press education began to become more widespread. Many people began to become specialized in other subjects besides farming and questioned the ideas of the church. As the Middle Ages came to an end so did the strength and overall power of the Roman Catholic Church.

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:

By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.

Christianity played a major role throughout the Middle Ages in society and politics. The Middle Ages, classified from 600 AD to 1350 AD, was significantly effected by Christianity because of the impact it had on the daily lives of people of the time. The beginning of the Early Middle Ages, after the Fall of Rome in 476 AD and the period known as the Dark Ages, the reorganization of the empire brought a desire for faith and religion, primarily Christianity. This trend of Christian importance was apparent until 1350, when the Black Death caused the end of a systematized era. The church is often viewed, during this period of time, as a center of corruption, greed, and evil, with materialistic popes and

Christians went from being persecuted to dominating Rome rather quickly. In a world where separation between church and state does not exist, a Christian becoming the sole emperor of Rome symbolized a huge turning point in history. The power switched and the Pagans in turn became persecuted. Christians rose up and took control of all aspects of Roman society. The Pagan past was destroyed, banned, or forgotten about. Those Christians that did not agree with how things were being run either left the empire and became monks or formed their own sect. All of Rome changed.

People in the middle ages were very religious. People believed that Roman Catholic Church represent God. The church had a big influence on the content spread in the Middle Ages, and they were content with religious or moralistic. The only religion recognized in Middle Ages Europe was Christianity and specifically Catholicism. Christianity in the middle ages dominated the lives. The life of the medieval people was dominated entirely by the church and many religious institutions gained power and wealth. It was single the larges institution in west of Europe. It touched everyone’s life no matter what rank in social class they lived in. Everyone in western Europe was Rome Catholic Christian at that time. From the reaches king all the way down.

In addition, there were prominent figure during this time that also aided in the growth of Christianity. One person who aided to the growth of Christianity was Constantine. Constantine was a Emperor of the Western Roman Empire and was the first emperor to publicly convert to Christianity in 312 AD. Constantine conversion was prompted before going into war he was Alerted by a vision that the Christian God is on his side, Constantine

The Middle Ages were a period in Europe dating from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, around the 5th century. However, the fixing of dates for the beginning and end of the Middle Ages is arbitrary. According to the Norton Anthology, "Medieval social theory held that society was made up of three 'estates': the nobility, composed of a small hereditary aristocracy,...,the church, whose duty was to look after the spiritual welfare of that body, and everyone else..."( Norton 76).

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.

Although Christianity was initially practiced within Semitic populations of the Roman Empire, by the 4th century A.D the Christian religion had a huge impact to the Greeks and also the early Byzantine Empire. But by this time Christian communities had been established in all the important cities in the Roman Empire. In 313 the next emperor Constantine legalized Christianity throughout the empire. He also