The role of Catholicism in shaping Medieval European society

Medieval Europe

There were several happenings in the Medieval Europe that shaped the history of that region and the world at large, but the most significant was the religious aspect of it. Christianity was the main religion of this time in history which came in the form of Catholicism. This was the church that dominated the lives of the people at this time from birth to death, despite the social class and even the highest of all leadership as the king were adherents of the Catholic Church and the Medieval religion. The religious institutions like the convents and monasteries were very important, powerful and wealthy and many people dedicated their lives to the church as nuns and monks. The sole purpose of each individual despite the profession was to know the Christian religion, adhere to its teachings and offer service as much as they could to the Catholic Church, that was the sole purpose of human nature and the rest were secondary. People went to church everyday and prayed five times a day. There was a belief that all the good that mankind experienced was from the blessings of God and that the ills that befell man was due to their sins. The human existence and nature was divinely controlled and each individual was well versed in religion (Siteseen Ltd., 2014).

Due to the high esteem that the Christian religion had among the people, there were attempts to purify this religion and make it the only religion in the Medieval Europe. This resulted in the Pope calling upon the Christian church to carry out campaigns against other religions like the Jews and the Islam. These campaigns were led by the bishops, scholars and warriors hence thousands of people who were not Christians lost their lives and they were also banished from the European countries. In 1095, Pope Urban II called for "holy war" against the Islam which saw the Turks taking over Jerusalem. These campaigns saw the Christian religion dominating even the laws of Europe hence there being no difference between the government and the church, there were suspicions that grew within the church where anyone who expressed a disagreeing opinion was branded a heretic and burnt. The Roman Catholic Church became the supreme power during this time in history. Any threat towards the Christian church was met with violent force and all measures were taken to spread the faith in all parts of the European region. In a rebuttal, the Islam also forged several conquest wars that saw them expand their religion and covered several tertiaries, the same happened to Judaism and generally there was bad blood between the Christians and the other religions like Islam and Judaism.

The late medieval period saw the establishment of the "Christian synthesis" which grew to be very formal and too confining at the same time. The revival of learning that was made possible in the late 11th Century made it possible for the sprouting of the Christian synthesis. During this time, there was renewed peace, trade grew exponentially which also saw establishment of towns and the contact with the Islam and Byzantium increased. There were various subjects taught in the town schools and universities were also established that saw increase in the number of subjects taught. There were grammar, rhetoric, law and theology introduced in the universities. There was a cosmopolitan intellectual class that was created by the reliance on the Latin translations of the classical texts which made the curriculum throughout Europe generally the same and uniform. There were philosophies that came up, some that even questioned the medieval Catholic Church beliefs, science was developed, literature was embraced and architecture was also widely spread. There were great thinkers in physics who went against the Aristotelian theories, this was the creative period that changed the world view of many through the synthesis of the Christian and Greco-Roman thought (Emeritus, nd), and the dominant Christian way of looking at every aspect in life was challenged in this period.

The great Schism was occasioned by the confusion that rocked the Catholic church when in 13678 Pope Urban was elected but showed ruthless leadership and the King of France joined hands with disgruntled Cardinals to announce that they did not recognize the election of Pope Urban and successfully led the election of Pope Clement VII, effectively creating two popes, one resident of Rome and another of Avignon. Several countries joined France in supporting Clement VII and several others joined Rome in supporting Urban as the pope. This situation created a great divide in the Catholic Church and the Western countries, hence the great schism.