Catholicism's Role in the Middle Ages Essay

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Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church

As Urban II made clear in his Speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, the Church was meant to be a bulwark against the effects of the devil among men—and when men tried to force their way into and to the head of the Church, by machinations, political intrigue, and corruption, that bulwark was split apart and the faithful Christians of Europe were turned against one another. Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church played a significant role in shaping political relationships, overseeing warfare, and supporting notions of political authority in the High Middle Ages. Indeed, the Church had done so from the time Europe began to climb its way out of the Dark Ages, with the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800 AD.

In Urbran’s Council address, he stated of the Church that it is “our mother, as it were, at whose bosom we were nourished, by whose doctrine we were instructed and strengthened, by whose counsel we were admonished” (160). By imploring Christian foot soldiers and knights and “men of all ranks” to defend the Christian people and their holy mother Church from the invading Persians—the Turks—Urban was demonstrating the extent of the relationship between the Church and the Christians of Europe and the call to arms: Europe was Christendom in the High Middle Ages, and an attack upon Christendom by a “vile race” bent on destroying the Church and its Christians warranted such a call to arms (Urban II 163). As head of the Church, spiritual authority of the realm, and supporter of those emperors and leaders whose aims aligned with the Church’s, the Pope could exercise this privilege, as he did throughout the course of the Holy Wars.

Internally, Christianity was the bond of faith that united the various peoples of the various European nations.

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It was this bond, based on teachings, beliefs, practices, religious observances, and a common culture that allowed them to look to Rome for guidance both in spiritual and in political matters (to a certain extent). Externally, the threat of attack from the Turkish people, with their foreign religion which was viewed as an antagonist to the Christian faith, also served to unite the people of Europe and rally the Christians together. William of Tyre represents how this external threat moved certain Christian soldiers to put their services to use for the good of the Church and for the Lord: “In 1118, certain pious and God-fearing nobles of knightly rank, devoted to the Lord, professed the wish to live perpetually in poverty, chastity, and obedience” (86). One sees in William’s History how the thread of the Faith could link men of various classes and backgrounds during the High Middle Ages and shape their political relationships, the interest in warfare, and their notion of political authority in this way. If today’s media is the modern pulpit responsible for shaping modern culture and people’s beliefs on authority,….....

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