Roman Catholic Influence

At the beginning of the period during the Medieval Times, the Catholic Church had power and influence over everyone's lives. The church built up its power over the years through superstition and engraining in people’s minds that the only way to heaven was through church. People believed this because they were not exposed to any other formal education and anyone that spoke against the church was subject to heretics. Toward the end of the period, after

After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was no main dominating force in Europe to enforce laws and protection for the people. The Middle Ages had begun and without the Romans, life became centered around survival. The destabilization caused rates of illiteracy, disease, and deaths to rise dramatically and to remedy the average peasants worry, the feudalism system flourished and required work in exchange for the safety of manors. Yet while there was not a overlooking empire to look towards for authority, the Catholic Church served its role to bring all classes together (Document 6). The Middle Ages will be ultimately known as an age of faith because of the prevalence of violence, power of religion, and the Catholic Church’s preservation of knowledge.

The Middle Ages, or Medieval time, was an era of war, plague and political oppression. It is thought to have begun with the fall of the Roman Empire (history.com). After the fall of the Roman Empire, there were no laws or government to protect the poor people, so they “turned to lords to keep the peace and act on their behalf” ("Characteristics of the Feudal World"). This led to the beginnings of Feudalism, a social system in which people worked and fought for nobles who gave them protection and land in return (“Feudalism”). Under the feudal system, the Pope was positioned at the top of the hierarchy pyramid.

In Medieval Europe, the church played a critical role in shaping government and society. Most of the contemporary leaders were drawn from the church and contributed in championing the ideals of the church, leading to the papacy (Cook 33). During the papacy, the Pope of the Catholic Church assumed the position of the world leader, administering over the church flock and the non-Christian subjects. However, before the church rose to this eminent posit, its relationship with the government was tumultuous. Often, the people who professed the Christian faith were publicly persecuted. The ancient societies viewed the church with suspicion and suspected the church leaders incitement and sedition (Rublack 37). Based on the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the emotions the event evoked, the Roman rulers were wary of another public incident that may sway the loyalty of the subjects. The history of the church and the Eastern and Western factions of Rome shaped modern day Europe political landscape. The interaction between the Empire and the Papacy in Medieval Europe shaped modern day governments by influencing the rise to power or decline of some.

The Catholic Church influenced life in Medieval Europe to such an extent that they were the centre of most people’s daily lives. Nearly all of Europe was Roman Catholic which meant that they held a very large influence over people’s behaviours and superstitions. This ensured that they held a unique and powerful position with regard to controlling the way in which Europe was managed. The Church through the Pope ruled over all other powers in Europe. All royalty and monarchs were told what they could or could not do by the church. If they did anything that the Pope felt was against the Catholic Church, he had the power to excommunicate that person from the church. This could be any person from a labourer all the way through to Lords and Kings.

Through the religious outlets, mainly the religiously-inspired, Papal revolution that occurred in the 11th century, the tradition was established and formed its everlasting mark on the legal system.1 The movement under Gregory VII was based on how the Church was founded by God, and the Pope was delegated the task of implementing all individuals in a society where divine law is the only law and is seen as the supreme ruler over the region, since he is an official of God on earth. During this movement, occurring from 1075-1122, the Pope and his followers tried to maintain the Bishop of Rome as the sole ruler of the Church, while preventing the control of kings over the ministry, which caused the Roman Catholic Church to form the first Western Legal System, a self-determining system of administration and law that would maintain its ecclesiastical roots. The primary distinction between this legal system and all of those prior to it is that it stood by and against the domain of the secular monarchies. Even though the clerical did not advocate most of the holy, religious responsibilities rulers had, the church understood the need to have sectors in secular governments.3 This reform’s spiritual basis was its main concern in terms of the ruler and system of law of the era. The creation of scriptural policies (e.g., Atonement and the Last Judgment) resulted in establishing Canon law, which is a major element of Western Legal Tradition and has affected the way individuals view legality, including how individuals viewed and dealt with issues such as criminal issues.2 The use of the revolution as a form of dividing the religious and secular dimension of Western Europe, and its systematization and rationalizing, were

People faced the rise and the fall of the Catholic Church during the medieval time. The Popes used to hold the final authority for the church and over the state. Pope Gregory VII asserted the Pope had granted the divine power from God because Saint Peter was the first of getting this

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

In the middle ages it consisted of many things that took much power in the church. It is called that in the Middle Ages the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in 476 AD, to the discovery of America, in the year 1492. During this period the political, economic and social life revolved around to the possession of the land. This period is known as the feudal period. Many landscape data from its protection to forms of communication were very interesting at that time. It is very important to recognize all these ideas that remained in the Middle Ages. Things like the ports were consolidating their commercial importance, especially at the end of the middle ages, the important technological innovations that were developed. The communication was made by means of human beings and animals. It was very common for the main roads to be guarded, due to frequent assaults. Then as the construction of the castles were developed and established in those times. It is very interesting how they maintained all these things. I also cannot forget how difficult and how important was the work of the church and its power. The Pope was like the ruler of the people and was a higher point of the emperor. Seeing how important the power of the church was in this work and comparing it nowadays. It is seen that now the church is for those who follow it and not many people see the importance that remains the church and the power of the Pope. I would still like to try to understand how the power

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there was a period in history where there existed no real centralized political authority in Western Europe; however, the church remained as strong as ever. Taking advantage of the inherent power vacuum, the Catholic Church became the highest authority in Western Europe. Due to the lack of other formal institutions, the church became the center of education, thus the clergy comprised some of the best educated and administrated minds in the chaos following the collapse of the empire. The Church also capitalized on the political entropy to enact the principle of papal primacy. This doctrine elevated the Roman Pope to become the absolute leader of the Catholic Church, giving them unprecedented religious

This law, rooted in religious teachings, regulated many facets of daily life, including morals and marriages. During the later Middle Ages, the law of Europe was governed by the Church. An entire jurisdiction was exercised by the church which protected the widows, orphans and helpless and also dealt with offenses. Popes of the Middle Ages eventually had a power over all rulers, even kings and emperors. The pope was the leader of a bureaucratic structure of churchgoing men in charge of church-related business. Based in Rome, the pope was the medieval Church's leader. Church leaders such as bishops and archbishops sat on the king's council and played leading roles in government. Bishops, who were often wealthy and came from noble families, ruled over groups of parishes. The Roman Catholic Church was the supreme power during the Middle Ages. It was the stabilizing force in everyday life which kept the community framework together. The laws and rules of the land, public policies and governance of the people were all affected by religion during the Middle Ages. Any attempt at threatening Christianity by other religions was met with force and all measures were taken to spread the religion in other parts of the

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese have a religious requirement that the priests must remain celibate. This is one cultural factor for the Catholic community, that some believe has contributed to sexual offenses. Another cultural factor is that some men consider having sex with an older, attractive, adult women as getting lucky. Although, legally sex with a person who is under the age of consent is called statutory rape. However, women are less likely to believe the idea that a young boy is lucky because he had sex with an older women. It has also been a social attitude that in a marriage, rape cannot happen. In the past, the husband would not have been convicted of rape even if he forced or threatened his wife into sexual activity (Rathus).

Catholicism is a term used to refer to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholicism is a universal religion that institutes a continuity with the early Christian church founded by Jesus Christ. There were over 17,483 parishes in the United States alone in 2014, recorded by “Services” a Catholic data base. The Catholic Church has had many influences on the New World she established herself in. She has had an influence on every life, place, and idea she touched. Some examples she had important influences on include: the colonization of America, many laws that have been established, education, hospitals, and organizations. Therefore because of these many influences Catholicism is the most important factor in the development

In the void left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome grew even more in both power and prestige beginning in the sixth century and continuing to the reformation in the ninth century. It is the aim of this paper to explain how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power of the medieval world, the factors contributing to this dominance over Western Europe, and the positive and negative ramifications of the position becoming so powerful. Through this paper you will discover how papacy was able to fill the vacuum of power left by the fall of an empire.

The relationship between the Church and the State is a controversial topic that sparks great political discourse. Since the period of the Great Reformation in Europe to the contemporary religious and political establishments, suspicion and dishonesty continue to define the relationship between the Church and political leadership in the society. On one hand, the Church maintains its moral duty: to oppose and stand against any form of excessive use of political power, to cause suffering and create inequality in the society. On the other hand, the State accuses the Church of moral high-headedness and accuses it of using its position and influence in the society to breed disloyalty in the masses towards their political leaders. These scenarios