How Did The Catholic Church Influence Medieval Europe

The Catholic Church grew to become the most prominent religion in Europe by the end of the 4th century. The church played a very important role in the transition of civilized life after the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, and in the 5th century, the Catholic Church had formed a government with bishops heading Christian communities throughout Europe (Duiker 2014, 326). However, there were four cities, whose bishops had special places within the church, Rome, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch (Duiker 2014, 326). The bishop of Rome claimed to be the sole leader of the Christian Church because they were successors to the chief apostle, Peter (Duiker 2014, 326). By the 6th century, the popes extended their papal authority over the Christian

Monasticism played a very important role in Christian life. The monks became their modern heroes in the Christian world. Monks worked as public service workers to communities, worked in hospitals, aided travelers by giving them food and drinks, and other things that were beneficial to the community (Duiker 2014, 328). The monks worked as missionaries, trying to spread Christianity across Europe, and the monasteries where the monks lived were centers for learning wherever they were located (Duiker 2014, 328). Another way the Christian Church influenced everyday life for all Europeans was the use of sacraments. The sacraments of the church played a big role in people’s life from birth to death. Between 1050-1150, a wave of religious enthusiasm took over Europe. This led to several new monasteries and new monastic orders as more and more people became deeply involved in the Catholic church to attain salvation (Duiker 2014, 345). To attain salvation, certain sacraments were imperative to do during medieval times (Duiker 2014, 347). Many people thought that the clergy in the church are key roles in the attainment of salvation. The Christian church goal to have all citizens believe in Christ was to find and try nonbelievers or heretics. The Papal Inquisition was a court set up by the church to find heretics. If someone accused was found guilty, they were automatically sentenced to death.

The 1st crusade began when Pope Urban II had an opportunity to attack the Muslims in the west when the Emperor of Byzantium, Alexius I, needed help to ward off the Seljuk Turks. This was the reason the church needed to fight for and liberate the holy city of Jerusalem from the infidels. To convince the citizens of Europe to fight, Urban gave a speech promising for the remission of all sins, if one were to fall in battle (Duiker 2014, 350). At first, a peasant crusade started by Peter the Hermit led a wave of religious activism. However, this activism led to the persecution of all Jewish people because they were considered the murderers of Christ. The pope did not back the “peasant” crusades and relied upon his army of trained knights. The number of knights participating in the Crusade numbered around several thousand cavalry troops and over 10,000 infantries (Duiker 2014, 351-352). The crusaders reached the holy land of Jerusalem in June of 1099, and after a five-week siege, Jerusalem was taken after a massacre of all the men, women, and children who lived in Jerusalem. After this, the crusaders set up three crusader kingdoms to rule over Palestine (Duiker 2014, 352). The kingdoms were surrounded by hostile Muslims and they revolted and caused one of the three kingdoms to fall to the Muslim army. A 2nd crusade was called for after this but it ended in a complete disaster for the