Western civilization: history, culture, and society

¶ … Power of the Medieval Church

There is little doubt that the Church was one of the most powerful institutions in Medieval Europe. Many factors contributed to its remarkable success. Among these was the importance of religion in the everyday lives of people of all classes and backgrounds. It is not by accident that the Middle Ages is sometimes known as "The Age of Faith." In a world that had not yet discovered scientific explanations for the travails that beset humankind, religion offered answers and also hope. The monasteries that dotted the map of Europe provided safe havens in the violent storm that was the essence of Medieval life for so many. Within their sheltering walls, there existed a different, more peaceful, more promising modus vivendi. Here, man was free from the constant wars, and the sudden destructions that too often befell the men and women of that period. On another level too, the Church and its monasteries served as beacons of learning in an otherwise largely illiterate and ignorant world. Especially in the earlier part of the era, monks and priests were often the only educated people to be found. Clerics served in the administration of Charlemagne and later monarchs. Monks preserved the learning of the Ancients by copying out old classical manuscripts and their Islamic copies. Within the Church, there were individuals who still attempted to solve the problems of humanity intellectually, and not with the sword alone. St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Duns Scotus, and others continued the ancient traditions of inquiry and argument. Without these churchmen, Medieval life would have been bare indeed.

Another factor in the creation of the Church's awesome power was its high level of organization. A hierarchical and complex organization, the Church was oftentimes the only clear "authority," and certainly the only truly enduring one for many centuries. The same church, with the same administrative apparatus, could be found in any one of the countries or lordships of Western and Central Europe. The Pope stood at the head of a vast and far-reaching machine. Moving up its ranks, priests and prelates interacted with and guided every human being, from the peasant to the Emperor. Its laws and precepts gave men and women reason to believe that their lives were ordered and regulated; that they lived not simply at the whim of warriors and half-barbaric adventurers. Such concepts helped to mitigate the savagery of rulers and their knightly supporters. The Medieval Code of Chivalry was much tempered by the Church, incorporating ideas of charity, compassion, and duty to one's fellow man into what, in other circumstances, would have been a hard and unforgiving military ethos.