SECTION 4THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY

Chapter 15Medieval Europe

I. Religion and Society (pgs. 544-552) The Catholic Church played an important role in

Medieval Europe and used its powers to uphold its teachings.

Between 1050 and 1150, more monasteries were built and new religious groups were started.

New Religious Orders The Cistercian (sihs-thur-shuhn) order of monks

was founded in 1098.

The most famous Cistercian monk was Bernard of Clairvaux (klar-voh).

Clairvaux helped promote the Second Crusade and defended the poor against the rich.

In the 1200s, several new religious orders were created.

The men in these orders were called friars – comes from the Latin word “brother.”

Friars were different from monks in that they traveled around preaching.

They could not own property or personal wealth and lived by begging.

Francis of Assisi founded the first order of friars in 1209 who became known as Franciscans.

A Spanish priest named Dominic de Guzman founded another group of friars called Dominicans.

The Role of Religion In medieval Europe, daily life revolved around the

Catholic Church.

MASS – Catholic worship services (Sundays/holy days)

SACRAMENTS – rituals done in church (communion) SAINTS – holy men and women who had died

(Mary) RELICS – bones/personal belongings of Saints

(power/healing)

What Was the Inquisition? The Catholic Church was very powerful in medieval

times and wanted everyone to accept the Church’s teachings.

Heresy (hehr-uh-see) is having religious beliefs that conflict with Church teachings.

To combat heresy, the pope established a court called the Inquisition (ihn-kwuh-zih-shuhn).

People brought before the Inquisition were urged to confess their heresy and ask for forgiveness.

Those who confessed were punished and allowed to go back to the Church.

Those who did not were considered guilty and tortured and turned over to political leaders , who could execute them.

How Were the Jews Treated? Many Europeans hated Jews for:

1) Refusing to become Christians

2) Being moneylenders who charged interest, which was considered a sin.

Hatred of Jews is known as anti-Semitism (she-muh-tih-zuhm)

Christian mobs killed thousands of Jews and many were forced out of their homes.

II. Medieval Culture

Medieval Art and Architecture Architecture in the Middle Ages reflected the importance of

religion.

People built large churches, called cathedrals.

Two popular architectural styles of that time are: 1) Romanesque – rectangular buildings with long, rounded

roofs, huge pillars, and thick walls 2) Gothic – ribbed vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses,

large stained glass windows.

The First Universities Oxford University in Oxford, England was founded

in 1231 and was one of the first universities established in Europe.

Universities were also opened in Bologna (buh*loh*nyuh), Italy and Paris, France.

Who Was Thomas Aquinas? Thomas Aquinas (uh*kwy*nuhs) was a Dominican friar

who began a new way of thinking and studying theology called scholasticism (skuh*las*tuh*sih*zuhm).

Scholasticism combined Church teachings with reason and the teachings of Aristotle.

Aquinas also emphasized the idea of natural law.

He claimed that natural law gave people certain rights that the government should not take away:

1) right to live

2) right to learn

3) right to worship

4) right to reproduce

Medieval Literature During the Middle Ages, people generally spoke

and wrote in Latin.

In addition, each region developed its own vernacular (vuhr*na*kyuh*luhr), or everyday language.

During the 1100s, new literature was written in vernacular:

1) troubadour (troo*buh*dohr) poetry – love poems, often about a knight and lady

2) heroic epic – stories of brave knights fighting for kings/lords