The Christian Influence on the Middle Ages Essay

Submitted By Felisha-Rodriguez
Words: 1123
Pages: 5
Open Document
A common judgement of religion is that if it causes so much trouble, it shouldn’t exist. Well, had religion never existed, many of life’s aspects society has grown accustomed to, some that are claimed as indispensable such as : a strong military, a fundamental educational foundation and a written language to accompany verbal languages would also cease to exist. During the High Middle Ages, Christianity began to assert itself through various controversial forms. One of the forms being through war during the crusades where Christians and Muslims defended their separate faiths by means of conquering territory. Assertion also occurred through scholastic philosophers who dared to answer questions regarding concepts such as realism and happiness. Lastly, through literature with Dante’s Divine Comedy and The Wycliffe Bible in Middle English.

The Great Schism of 1054 was the division of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, relationships between these two churches were embittered by ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes. The Schism ended in Constantinople becoming the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church (SG 2). Religion based arguments were typical Christians versus Other Christians. Although the East-West Schism had ended between 1095 and 1972 nine crusades were preached by the Christian church. These campaigns were predominantly persuaded by the wanting to free the Holy land from unbelievers (SG 5). The soldiers were called crucesignati meaning "signed by the cross" due to the crosses worn on their clothing. In 1171, the crusaders were defeated by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert. The Byzantines asked the Pope for mercenaries to help them recover the lands they had lost. The first crusade was launched by Pope Urban II in 1095, it began as a pilgrimage and by 1099 it became a military expedition by European Roman Catholics. “While the Crusades stand as a symbol of the expansive energy and religious zeal of high medieval Europe, their long term impact was a heightening of the already tense relations between Christians and Muslims (Matthews 238). Once the crusaders arrived at the Holy Land, a massacre of the city’s inhabitants occurred resulting in Jerusalem’s successful recapturing. Christians were able to retain control from 1099-1187. Christian pilgrims still continue to dream of the recapturing of the Holy Land (SG 6).

Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury, founded Scholasticism, a system of theology and philosophy based on Aristotelian logic used to clarify issues and explore the ramifications in order to draw a conclusion. The center of Scholasticism is “Faith Seeking Understanding” (Matthews 241). Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God stated that if God exists in our minds, he must exist in reality. In the end, “faith comes first, but reason can increase faith. Belief leads to understanding” (SG 10). But then came the universals controversy of whether or not human beings and church existed in reality or just in the mind. Peter Abelard sought to teach a moderate realism, which went against what his own teachers and many scholars presented by stating that “universals existed, but only as mental concepts and as mental devices to sharpen and focus thinking” (Matthews 241).

Had it not been for the medieval scholars who improved the education system, current students would not have the highly beneficial opportunities we have today. There was a time when the simple idea of a University, a single place where one could study many different subjects without having to travel across lands seemed ludicrous. During medieval times Universities concentrated on 7 liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic/logic, mathematical, arithmetic, theology, astronomy (SG 9). These subjects are still the core foundation of the scholastic system today. Other scholars also sought to connect faith with reason. One of them being, Gratian with his Decretum, a manual of canon law containing valuable
Show More

Related Documents: The Christian Influence on the Middle Ages Essay

Essay about Student Guide

Europe’s Age of Faith Student Guide Europe’s Age of Faith Lesson Checklist  Read Chapter 14, Section 3 pages 317–319, and answer the questions in the Student Guide.  Complete The Church in Medieval Life activity online.  Read the Chapter 14 Highlights.  Take the Chapter Quiz. Read Read Chapter 14, Section 3 pages 317–319 and answer the questions in the Student Guide. Think about the following questions as you read: • What roles did the Christian church assume during the Middle Ages…

Words 323 - Pages 2

An Analytical Essay: The Success Of The First Crusade

Western Christian world from 1096 to 1099. It was a military expedition intended to recover the Levant occupied by the Muslim and ultimately ends in 1099 years that the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. (Asbridge) The Muslims captured Jerusalem since 1076, from that time every Christian who wanted to pilgrimage to Jerusalem was very difficult. Soldiers of Muslim made Jerusalem very dangerous for Christians and Christians who lived in Jerusalem were difficult. (History Learning)This made all Christians greatly…

Words 1018 - Pages 5

Essay on The Papacy

Early Events of the Middle Ages Mark Kuhn Dr. Nickens CHHI 301-History of the Church I June 15, 2015 The beginning of the Dark Ages or Early Medieval period is said to begin with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This “brought significant political, religious, and social changes in the European society. Other important events of the Middle Ages included the rise of the Papacy and the establishment of Charlemagne’s empire.” (Newman) The powerful Roman Empire was gone. But the…

Words 2385 - Pages 10

Christianity In The Middle Ages

religion throughout Europe; the church significantly dominated the lives of the medieval people of the Middle Ages. The churches presence appeared among most individual’s lifetime from birth to their death, despite their social status. Artworks from the medieval times demonstrate the historic events and influences the church was experiencing and how messages were being expressed towards the Christian followers. In comparison to modern day artwork, the purpose of challenging traditional art is to create…

Words 1221 - Pages 5

Essay on The Renaissance

* Meaning of “Humanism” and “Renaissance”: * Traditionally, humanism and the renaissance were seen as a momentous cultural change, which ended the middle ages and began the (early) modern period * “Humanism,” was a term used at the time (more on that in a moment. But modern scholars have their own meaning: a shift in values, a new focus on the worth of human life, and human abilities, and human virtue (that certain people make for good moral models) * “Renaissance” (a term never used…

Words 899 - Pages 4

Essay Fracking: Early Middle Ages

Theatre in the Middle ages covered a wide variety of genres and subject matter. Some of the most popular genres of plays in the Middle Ages include morality plays, farces, masques and drama. Medieval drama began with religious and moral themed plays. An early prominent Medieval playwright was Hrotsvit of Gardensheim of the 10th century.Some other famous examples of Medieval plays include the N-Town plays, the morality play, Everyman, Hildegard of Bingen’s play set to music, OrdoVirtutum. The…

Words 426 - Pages 2

Octavio GutierrezProfessor Hudis Paper 3The age

Professor Hudis Paper #3 The age of synthesis. The high middle ages are often referred to as “the age of synthesis”. This age brought together many developments in religion, science, and classical learning. The age of synthesis occurred during the 11, 12th, and 13th centuries. On this paper I am going to try and elaborate on those aforementioned topics, as well as talk about Italian poet Dante and the affects of his work. Ill also talk about what writers had influence of Dante's work. Dante Aligheri…

Words 1577 - Pages 7

Everyman Religion Analysis

To begin, Everyman deals with the structure of the medieval Christian religious ritual. Everyman takes a psychomachic journey from the living world to meet with God on his day of reckoning. Medieval Christians had a standard set of performances that they engaged in before their own day of reckoning. The medieval Christians needed to “show” their compliance with the main Christian rituals. God commands the Messenger to Everyman which portrays God as the powerful being and the Messenger as the supporting…

Words 1596 - Pages 7

Early Middle Ages Monasticism

speak, worship and follow in their leader’s footsteps. During the Middle Ages Monasticism, the monks chose a way of life that explored different ideas, and ways of living compared to other religions. This way of life is called the Monastic Ideal and living like this has been around for a very long time. The Early Middle Ages ranged from about 476 to 1000 A.D. This was the time of lords, vasles, and serfs. But during the Early Middle Ages many religions were still co-existing and had many places of peace…

Words 488 - Pages 2

Humanities in the Early, High and Late Middle Ages Essay

the effects and developments that the humanities of the Early, High and Late Middle ages had on society. We have made some very interesting findings and come up with some intriguing conclusions. The findings are most definitely in condensed form for the simplicity of our assignment, although if given an unbridled word count, surely we would demonstrate volumes of text form such interesting periods. The Early Middle Ages Before we can talk about humanities, we must first define the word "Humanities"…

Words 2253 - Pages 10