The Medieval Church (476-1400s)

The term middle ages, dark ages or medieval period, can be used to describe the time between the call of Rome (476) to the renaissance (1400s). 

After Rome fell no single state or government had such control over Europe.  In fact, it was the Catholic Church that had the most power.  One of the greatest leaders of this time was Charlemagne.  In 800, the pope (Leo III) named him ‘Emperor of the Romans.’  Over time his realm become known as the Holy Roman Empire.

In the middle ages ordinary people had to tithe a tenth of their income to the church.  This made the church very wealthy.

It was not just the church that was powerful, Islam was on the rise.  After the death of Mohammad (632), Muslim armies captured large parts of the middle east.  At its height, the Muslim world was more than three times bigger than Christendom.

The Black Plague

In 1347 twelve boats arrived in Sicily from the Black Sea with most of the sailors lying dead, and those who were not dead were covered in black boils.  From them spread a sickness called the bubonic plague.  You could go to bed feeling healthy but be dead in the morning.  This plague killed over twenty million people across Europe (about thirty percent of the population) in three years.  The plague caused fevers and chills, severe aches and pains, and, of course, death.  Many Christians were known for their compassion to those with the plague at the cost of their own lives.

Many people believed that the plague was a judgement of God.  Some people became ‘flagellants’, who travelled Europe arranging public displays of penance.  This could involve whipping and beating one another.  Others turned on the neighbours reporting those they believed to be heretics.  Thousands of Jews were killed and this time, with many Jews fleeing to the lesser populated parts of Eastern Europe.

Feudalism

In rural areas the system of feudalism was strong.  Under feudalism the king gave large pieces of land to noblemen and bishops.  In exchange for working in the land, peasants were allowed to make their home there and were offered protection from any invading armies. 

The feudal system began to change in the eleventh century with the development of the iron plough and crop rotation.  The land was now more productive, and the population increased.  Fewer labourers were needed, and many people headed to the towns and cities.  

In an article on the Gospel Coalition website, Gavin Ortland, points out that one of the doctrines that was emphasised in the medieval church was that of the incarnation.  The fact that God became man stands at the heart of medieval Christianity.  Their view of the world perceived God’s glory infused throughout creation.  Even food, sex and emotion can be appreciated as components of our spiritual existence before God.  Modern Christians have lost a sense of our own humanity—our work, our culture-making, our suffering and our dignity as God’s image bearers—because we’ve lost our focus on Christ’s humanity.

Corruption in the church

There was much corruption in the church.  Despite the fact that priests were supposed to be celibate, many priests and bishops had mistresses as well as wives.  There was also the practice of simony—the buying and selling of ecclesiastical office.  Unqualified men purchased church offices, feudal lords or kings.

Indulgences were a part of the medieval church.  In purchasing an indulgence an individual was promised that severity and time in purgatory would be reduced.  You could also purchase indulgences for the loved ones that had already passed on.

This period saw the growth of monasteries.  One particularly influential monk was Benedict (480-543).  His Benedictine Rule—a kind of written constitution laying out the standards for the monastery and congregation and limiting the abbots authority according to these standards—spread across Europe.  Benedict believed that ‘idleness is the enemy of the soul’ and he insisted that monks should do manual as well as spiritual labour.

At one stage during the middle ages there was three popes all seeking to be in control at one time.  One of the popes was in the Vatican, in an Italy that was torn by internal strife.  Another resided in Avignon in France.  This schism lasted for thirty years.  Finally, the cardinals lost patience with this situation and elected another pope at Pisa.  This third pope died and was promptly replaced by a successor.  This Great Schism lasted between 1378 with death of Pope Gregory XI and was not sorted out until 1449. 

The popularity of relics grew during the middle ages.  A relic was something that it was claimed had once belonged to or been touched by Jesus are a saint.  Popular relics included one fragments or nails and wood from the cross.  There were also claims to have straw from Jesus’ manger.  While most relics were fake, people believed that they could work miracles.  Churches could enhance their reputation by being the home of relics.   

The middle ages saw a thriving trade in relics.  The relics bought and worshipped by medieval Europeans ranged from the mundane to the bizarre.  Bones of saints and martyrs were highly demanded.  One church even claimed to have the brain of the apostle Peter (however, when it was accidently moved it turned out to be a piece of stone).  Relics of the virgin Mary were very valuable, and included her milk and samples of linen that the baby Christ was wrapped in.  Numerous churches claimed to have the foreskin from the circumcision of Jesus.

The reformer, John Calvin, pointed out that if all the relics were brought together "it would be made manifest that every Apostle has more than four bodies, and every Saint two or three."  He saw the whole thing as a hoax and a form of false worship.

While there was so much that was corrupt with the church at this time, some reforming popes, and the growth of monastic movements, sometimes caused a revival of sincere religion. 

The division of the church into west and east (1054)

In 1054 the church split between east and west.  The result has been that western Europe has been dominated by the Roman Catholic Church and eastern Europe by the Eastern Orthodox church.  His historic head of the western church is in Rome and the eastern church in Constantinople.  At the time of the split the pope in Rome was Leo IX, and the patriarch of Constantinople was Michael Cerularius.  These two churches excommunicated each other, although this excommunication was lifted by both sides in Jerusalem in 1965. 

The tensions between the church in eastern and western Europe actually went back to the fifth century.  In the early church of the second century three bishops stood out in prominence—the bishops of Rome, Alexandra, and Antioch.  Under Constantine (4^th Century) the seat of the empire moved from Rome to Constantinople.  However, Rome emerged as the prominent church.  The leading place given to the church in Rome was never acknowledged in the east.  There were also theological differences between east and west—with eastern theology rooted in Greek philosophy and western theology based on Roman law.

The differences in theology came to a head in debate regarding whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father (east) or both from the Father and the Son (west).  The Roman churches, without consulting the churches in the east, added the words ‘and from the Son’ to the part of the Nicene Creed that dealt with this issue.  The eastern church also resented the Roman churches enforcement of clerical celibacy, the idea that only a bishop could confirm people and the use of unleavened bread in the Lord’s Supper.

There was also division between the east and the west in relation to the use of icons (images of Jesus or other holy people).  This led to what was known as the iconoclastic controversy in the eighth and ninth centuries.  The iconoclasts were those who rejected images, believing that it was a type of idolatry.  In the early church the making of portraits of Christ and the saints had been consistently opposed.  But the use of such icons had steadily gained in popularity, especially in the east.  In the eighth century, the emperor in Constantinople, Leo III, took a public stand against the worship of icons.  His successor, Constantine V, severely persecuted those who venerated icons.  The use of icons was variously permitted and banned in the next couple of centuries.  The Eastern Orthodox church still celebrates the restoration of icon veneration by the Empress Theodora in 843 in the ‘Feast of Orthodoxy.’

The crusades (1096-1271)

The crusades were a series of religious wars fought in the middle ages mostly between the Christians and the Muslims.  It involved western Europe church teaming up with the Byzantine’s (eastern church), but it also saw the western church turn on the Byzantine empire.

The crusades began when Pope Urban II called on western Christians to take up arms and aid the Byzantines in recapturing the Holy Land from Muslim control.  This call to arms was met with great public enthusiasm.  Those who joined this pilgrimage wore a cross as a symbol of the church.  Groups such as the Knights Templar were set up at this time to protect the pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem.

The first crusade led to a Jerusalem being surrounded and when the city’s governor surrendered, the crusaders slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children.  

The second crusade took place after Muslim forces began to gain ground through holy war (or jihad) against the Christians, whom they called Franks.  The Christians in Europe were stunned when the northmost crusader state fell.  This crusade began with the leadership of the kings of France and Germany.  The crusaders tried to attack the Syrian stronghold of Damascus, but they were humiliatingly defeated.

In 1187 the Muslims began a campaign against the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.  They managed to take back the city.  This prompted the third crusade.  Among the kings involved was Richard the Lionheart of England.  His troops approached Jerusalem, but they refused to lay siege to the city.  The third crusade ended with a peace treaty that reestablished the kingdom of Jerusalem (but without the city of Jerusalem).

The fourth crusade involved the crusaders turning of the Byzantine emperor and conquering Constantinople in 1212.  This bloody conquest involved looting and destruction in the magnificent city, and soured relationships between eastern and western churches.

Throughout the remainder of the thirteenth century, there were a variety of crusades aimed not so much to topple Muslim forces in the Holy Land, but to combat any group that was perceived to be the enemy of the Christian faith.

While the crusades did ultimately end in defeat for the Europeans to the Muslims, it may have extended the reach of Christianity and Western civilization.  It also saw an increase in power attained by the western church and the elevation of the pope.