Wars, famine, disease and pestilence were common occurrences with the only stable influence being the Catholic Church.
This unfortunate situation continued until the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century. Thus the Middle Ages are the period of history between the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476AD and the intellectual revolution of the Renaissance in the 15th century.
Ok students, instead of beating you over the head with tons of dates and names which you will, no doubt forget, I will confine myself to several major themes to make things easier to understand and hopefully remember.
First, lets start with the Christian religion. Christianity is a monotheistic religion which developed in the 1st century AD in the Roman Empire. “Mono” means one and “thei” means god. So, monotheistic simply means that Christians worship only one god, known as Jehovah. This may not sound strange to you but you have to understand that in the 1st century AD nearly every religion was polytheistic. Can you guess what “poly” means? Of course, it means “many”. Thus, the Romans worshipped many different gods and the idea of worshipping only one god was a strange and uncomfortable concept for them.
This new idea of worshipping one god was slow to gain acceptance amongst the Roman people. Most Romans paid little attention to this new religion and many probably thought of it as just another undesirable offshoot of Judaism.
Judaism was tolerated but not popular in ancient Rome. The Roman occupation of Palestine led to conflict with Jews and even a Jewish Revolt which left many Jews worse off than they were before the rebellion.
Christianity gained popular attention because Roman authorities attempted to suppress it. This was because Christians refused to follow the official Roman religion nor did they accept the idea that the emperor was divine. This led to much trouble for early Christians and many paid for their religious devotion with their lives. In the 1st and 2nd centuries Christians were periodically arrested and harassed by the Roman authorities but this was mild in comparison to what followed in the 3rd century.
You may recall that the Roman Empire was gradually declining under the threat of barbarian invasions and internal divisions at this time. Many people looked for someone to blame for all of these troubles and the Christians made a convenient scapegoat.
Do you know what a “scapegoat” is? It is when we blame someone else for our troubles instead of accepting the blame ourselves. Roman citizens, encouraged by government propaganda, placed the blame for all of their troubles on Christians because Christians refused to worship Roman gods. The offended gods were now punishing the Romans for not punishing the Christians.
In 303AD, Emperor Diocletian began the “Great Persecution” of Christians in which Christians were compelled to worship Roman gods and to recognize the divinity of the emperor. Christians were stripped of their rights as citizens, their religious texts were collected and burned and they were banned from gathering together to worship. Christians serving in the Roman armies were given a chance to conform or face being forced out of the ranks. In some cases, Christians who refused to worship Roman gods were burned alive. Others were sent to the grand arenas where they be forced to fight in the bloody public contests against well-trained gladiators or even in some cases against wild animals like lions or bears. All in all, it was a bad time to be a Christian.
However, these violent persecutions did little to halt the spread of Christianity. The empire as we have already mentioned was in decline. Burning Christians did not halt the process. In fact, many people began to turn away from the Roman gods who had clearly let them down. Other religions became popular but Christianity eventually became the dominant religion of the empire under Emperor Constantine, who as you may recall, moved the capital to Byzantium in 323AD.
Under his successors, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and Rome became the center of the new state religion.
The early Christian church became the dominant influence in the lives of ordinary people as the empire collapsed. It was the one stable organization in a world where everything else was unstable. Governments rose and fell but the church remained constant. One of the most significant developments in the early church was the development of monasteries. Monasteries were places where more devout priests could go to escape the temptation of worldly influences and focus more on their relationship with God.
One of the first monasteries was formed by St. Benedict.
He had three very simple rules for those who wanted to share his lifestyle: poverty, chastity and obedience to God. Benedictine monks as his followers became known did not spend their time simply praying or studying the bible. Instead, they worked. Some would farm, others would cultivate medicinal herbs
and some would spend their time copying ancient manuscripts.
It is because of these Benedictines that much of the great scientific and philosophical learning of the ancient Greeks and Romans was preserved.
The Benedictines also provided a wide variety of services for people living nearby. They were a repository of knowledge and expertise on a variety of subjects especially medicine, agriculture and animal husbandry. Generation after generation of monks studying and experimenting on these and a variety of other useful subjects meant that local people could share in this knowledge and use it to their advantage. Sick or injured people would also go to the nearest monastery for medical assistance since there were no doctors or hospitals at that time. There were no schools either. Local children who were lucky enough to live near a monastery could go there to receive a basic education at a time when very few people could read or write. Travelers could also rely on a safe place to spend the night since there were few inns and the roads and forests were frequently haunted by bands of outlaws
who survived by stealing and poaching. Monasteries were thus not just a spiritual refuge but also a physical refuge from the dangers of an uncertain and unstable world.
Monks and monasteries were also the means by which Christianity spread throughout pagan Europe beginning in places like Ireland and England and then to western and northern Europe amongst the Franks and Germans. Dedicated monks served as missionaries to these tribes whom the Romans had considered barbarians. These monks brought not only a new religion with them they also brought their vast knowledge of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and medicine to the peoples of Europe enabling people to live a more stable, sedentary life as farmers rather than as marauders. The monks also acted as advisors and secretaries to the illiterate rulers of these barbarian lands actively shaping and guiding their polices as well as encouraging them to adopt a more benevolent policy regarding not just their own subjects but also the subjects of neighboring kingdoms.
Most importantly, as Christians these barbarian kings now were held accountable for their actions by the head of the church in Rome, the Pope. Policies which angered the Pope could lead to excommunication from the church and thus a loss of political legitimacy. So, perhaps for the first time in history, kings were being held accountable for their actions by a spiritual rather a temporal power.
Important points to remember about the Medieval Church:
- Christianity emerged in the 1st century AD as a sect of Judaism. It was a monotheistic religion which rejected the polytheism of Roman religion. Although Christians were periodically persecuted by the Romans for their beliefs, Christianity eventually became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine.
- Monks and monasteries spread Christianity throughout Europe. They preserved and copied ancient texts on all subjects. They served the medieval community by educating people on a variety of subjects such as animal husbandry, agriculture and horticulture to name just a few. They also provided rudimentary health care and a safe place for travelers.
- The Christian church transcended language and culture. The language of the church was Latin and Latin became the language of churchmen and educated people until the 19th century.
- It was all powerful. Everyone from the richest to the poorest, from the time of their baptism, which occurred only a few days after birth, through youth and adulthood to the day they died was accountable to the church. Everyone owed their allegiance to the Pope who was God’s representative on Earth.
- Church law superseded the laws of kings who risked being excommunicated if they acted contrary to the wishes of the Pope. Excommunication meant that you would go straight to Hell when you died.
- Priests often served as advisors and ambassadors to kings, emperors and princes and had great influence on their actions and policies.
- The village church was the center of medieval life. Baptisms, weddings and funerals all took place there. After death, the body would be buried either under the floor of the church, in a vault beneath the church or within church grounds.
