The Decline of the Medieval Church at the End of the Middle Ages

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

Feudalism, during medieval society, was parallel to the existence of the Catholic Church and its influence over the population. Religion permeated all elements of society and the way in which they related to each other. The Church wasn’t only a spiritual power, but a political and economic one and the struggles between the political and religious leaders will be key factors in the development of the medieval world. The church will also be the primary keeper of knowledge in the Middle Ages, and they will accomplish most cultural advancements.

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

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.

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church was the only powerful authority not complete disrupted by the attack by barbarians. In fact, the work of great Popes is what helped their power increase even more. The newly christened barbarians, done by the Pope Gregory the Great, inaugurated a new age in Jesus Christ called Christendom. All culture in Christendom conformed to that of the Church’s, and, with its headquarters in Rome, the powerful “papal monarchs”, as they were called, controlled the machine that was the Catholic Church.

The Great Schism divided the Christian world into the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe and the Near East. From then on, the influence of the Pope ended at the borders of the Byzantine empire. The Church also increased hostility between Christians and Muslims. The Crusades, and the war against the invading Muslims in Spain, were examples of this fight to keep Europe free of Islam. Also, the Jewish communities that lived in many European cities and towns had a hard time living among

Throughout the Middle Ages, the relationship between the Church and the State was an unpredictable one in which each were was either supporting

The rise of papacy in the Western Catholic Church is debatably the most corrupt and darkest time in Christianity. The collapse of the greatest and longest running empire in human history created an immense void in society which the church attempted to fill. The bishops of the roman churches who had previously been politicians were now in a position to usurp even more power. The power of the pope continued to rise even to the point of deposing and appointing the kings of Europe. The ramifications of the papacy on history are many.

Within the Middle Ages, the church became the most influential and important force for the European society. As the central governments of Europe grew weak, the church rose in strength. In result came an ever lasting battle between the two. Popes were in control of spiritual matters, and the emperor or king were in charge of political affairs. During the Middle Ages, the line in between spiritual and political was clearly not bold enough.

During the 14 and 1500’s, the Catholic Church was the major powerhouse on the world stage. The church became the largest land owner, giving them massive amounts of economical power. With limitless amounts of power for the church, they were even more powerful than the king himself; they had their own taxes, laws, and they even could excommunicate the king if they chose to do so. The church made royal officials fear it while also gaining the support of the people, sometimes unwilling support was given. Indulgences were purchased in the hopes that their loved ones would be saved from Purgatory or even Hell. The church’s goal used to be helping all people and preaching the word of God, but now the church was corrupt and blinded by power and money, only one man could initiate the change needed, Martin Luther.

The Roman Catholic Church was the only church during the middle ages. It had very large funds and its own set of laws. The Church, as some even considered very wealthy, had many sources of income and it accounted for one-third of the land in England. Breaking away from this entity that dominated most of the western world and once bound everyone together for thousands of years seemed inconceivable. It controlled religion, art, music, morals and even politics. There was truly no alternative and anyone who went against or defied the church was known as a heretic or pagan and was burned at the stake. Catholics began losing faith over time with the expanding influence of Humanism and corruption in the church. This sparked the Protestant Reformation,

The middle ages were an extremely different time from today. Everything from government to religion is not the same as it was back then. In the middle ages, government and religion were very much one thing, and there was not the separation of church and state that we have today. The Roman Catholic Church was one of the most important religious institutions that impacted the middle ages. The church and times both changed, causing the inevitable fall of the Roman Catholic Church. Although there were many causes, the three main reasons the Roman Catholic Church lost power and prestige in the late middle ages was because of corruption, changing beliefs, and fall in population.

One of the issues of the Medieval church was that they were worried that their pastorate were not sufficiently concentrating on otherworldly matters and were concentrating a lot on material riches. This was created generally as a result of a development of riches inside of the religious communities and inside of the individual coffers of the church. With this came a rot of general ethical quality, displayed by the ascent of indecencies, for example, insatiability, lack of restraint, and savagery. The Church looked to defeat these indecencies essentially by expulsion and execution. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was not a surprise. Reformers inside of the medieval church, for example, St. Francis of Assisi, Valdes, Jan Hus, and

The Middle Ages is a medieval time period in Western Europe that lasted from 500 to 1500 C.E. The Middle Ages began as a result from the collapse of the Roman Empire which began in 31 BCE, and fell in 476 C.E. In around 300 C.E. the emperor of the Rome divided the land for easier control. This began the decline of Rome. The Western half of Rome fell to Barbarian invaders, while the eastern half lived on as the Byzantine Empire. The Early Middle Ages began shortly after the western half fell. After the Roman Empire lost its position as the center of power, Western Europe fell into a time of chaos and warfare. There were a lot of attacks by Vikings, Magyars (hungarian nomads), and Muslims. The invasions caused disorder, and suffering, and the government system developed into feudalism.The High Middle Ages followed, the Early Middle Ages, and was the time period in Western Europe from around the 11th century to the 13th. The Middle Ages are referred to as the “Dark Ages” because of the disorder, hopelessness of the time. It is accurate to refer to the Middle Ages (500-1500) as a whole as a” the Dark Ages”.The Early Middle Ages meet the qualities of a dark age due to the, lack of government, education, and dysfunctional economy. However, the high middle ages was a time of improvement for these issues.

The Medieval, or Middle, Ages in Europe have often been called the Dark Ages, since they seem to have been lacking in many ways. However, the Church was always shining the light of the Gospel in even the darkest of places. “In the very bosom of this doomed society, a power remained which was capable of giving meaning to the drama, of bringing order out of disorder, of integrating the Barbarians into civilization and of using their youthful energies to restore the world to vigor and health. This power, to which the West owes its salvation, was the Church.1” Medieval Europe was, in many ways, more Christian then, than it is now. The Medieval era can be divided into three parts: the Early Ages, the High Ages, and the Late Ages. Each had its own achievements, shortcomings, and beliefs, but they are all inextricably linked. Though the Middle Ages have been called Dark, they always had the light of the Church shining in them.