CHAPTER 12 LESSON 1

CHAPTER 12 LESSON 1

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

• How did the Church influence political and cultural changes in medieval Europe?

• How did both innovations and disruptive forces affect people during the Middle Ages?

Open Ended

What can you infer about Joan of Arc based on the illustration?

The Papal Monarchy

Since the fifth century, the popes of the Catholic Church had claimed supremacy over the affairs of the Church. They had also gained control of territories in central Italy that came to be known as the Papal States.

At the same time, the Church became involved in the feudal system. Chief officials of the Church, such as bishops and abbots, came to hold their offices as grants from nobles.

Reform of the Papacy

When an individual became a Church official in the Middle Ages, he was given a ring and a staff. These objects symbolized the spiritual authority with which the Church granted, or invested, the official. Secular, or lay, rulers usually chose nominees to Church offices and gave them the symbols of their office, a practice known as lay investiture. 

Multiple Choice

As the popes' power grew, they established control of areas in central Italy that came to be known as

• nation-states.

• investitures.

• Papal States.

• monasteries.

Reform of the Papacy

Elected pope in 1073, Gregory was convinced that he had been chosen by God to reform the Church. 

Gregory believed that only by eliminating lay investiture could the Church regain its freedom. Then the Church would be able to appoint clergy and run its own affairs.

Open Ended

How were church officials chosen?

LAY INVESTURE

• How did this practice affect the loyalty of the church officials?

• How did this involvement affect the spiritual practices of Church leaders?

Multiple Choice

Until the Investiture Controversy challenged the practice, people usually became Church officials by

• the appointment of the ruler of the country.

• a papal order.

• inheriting the office from their father.

• an election in which all the members of the community vote.

The Church Supreme

To achieve his political ends, Innocent used the spiritual weapons at his command. His favorite was the interdict. An interdict forbids priests from giving the sacraments (Christian rites) of the Church to a particular group of people

Known as the Investiture Controversy, It dragged on until a new German king and a new pope reached a compromise known as the Concordat of Worms in 1122. Under this agreement, a bishop in Germany was first elected by Church officials. The king in turn invested him with the symbols of temporal (earthly) office. A representative of the pope, then invested the new bishop with the symbols of his spiritual office.

Multiple Choice

According to the compromise reached in the Concordat of Worms, a German bishop

• had to travel to the German city of Worms to receive his appointment.

• could be appointed by the king, but bishops from other kingdoms could not.

• could be nominated by the king, but the pope could refuse to appoint him.

• received symbols of his earthly office from the king and symbols of his spiritual office from the pope's representative.

Open Ended

Analyzing PRIMARY SOURCES

“As God, the creator of the universe, set two great lights in the firmament of heaven, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, so He set two great dignities in the firmament of the universal church, . . . the greater to rule the day, that is, souls, and the lesser to rule the night, that is, bodies. These dignities are the papal authority and the royal power. And just as the moon gets her light from the sun, and is inferior to the sun . . . so the royal power gets the splendor of its dignity from the papal authority.”

—Pope Innocent III, 1198

DBQ INTERPRETING How does the Pope characterize royal power?

Multiple Choice

How does an interdict work?

• It forbids priests to administer religious rites to certain people.

• It bars people from entering their church.

• It refuses kings the right to appoint anyone to religious office.

• It bans infidels from Christian cities.

New Religious Orders

• Cistercians

• Franciscans

• Dominicans

CISTERCIAN

One of the most important new orders of the Middle Ages was the Cistercian (sis • TUHR • shuhn) order. It was founded in 1098 by a group of monks who were unhappy with the lack of discipline at their own Benedictine monastery

CISTERCIAN

The Cistercians were strict. They ate a simple diet, and each had only a single robe. All decorations were eliminated from their churches and monastic buildings. More time for prayer and manual labor was gained by spending fewer hours at religious services.

Women in Religious Orders

The number of women joining religious houses also grew dramatically. In the High Middle Ages, most nuns were from the ranks of the landed aristocracy. Convents were convenient for families who were unable or unwilling to find husbands for their daughters, for aristocratic women who did not choose to marry, or for widows.

Women in Religious Orders

 Hildegard of Bingen, who became abbess of a religious house for females in western Germany. Hildegard was also one of the first important women composers. She was an important contributor to the body of music known as Gregorian chant

Franciscans

The Franciscans were founded by Francis of Assisi. Francis was born to a wealthy Italian merchant family in Assisi.

The Franciscans became very popular. They lived among the people, preaching repentance and aiding the poor. Their calls for a return to the simplicity and poverty of the early Church.

Franciscans

The Franciscans also undertook missionary work, first throughout Italy and then to all parts of Europe and the Muslim world.

DOMINICANS

The Dominican order was founded by a Spanish priest, Dominic de Guzmán. Dominic wanted to defend Church teachings from heresy—the denial of basic Church doctrines. 

Multiple Choice

Men who join a religious order are called monks and live in monasteries; women who join a religious order

• are also called monks and also live in monasteries.

• are called nuns and live in convents.

• are called abbesses and live in abbeys.

• must live at home, because there are no religious houses for women.

The Inquisition

The Church created a court called the Inquisition, or Holy Office, to deal with heretics. This court developed a regular procedure to find and try heretics. The Dominicans became especially well known for their roles as examiners of people suspected of heresy.

Multiple Choice

Many faithful Church followers felt that the harsh methods of the Inquisition were justified in order to save the souls of

• heretics.

• vassals.

• clerics.

• widows

Religion in the High Middle Ages

The Catholic Church of the High Middle Ages was a crucial part of ordinary people’s lives from birth to death. The sacraments, such as baptism, marriage, and the Eucharist (Communion), were seen as means for receiving God’s grace and were necessary for salvation

Religion in the High Middle Ages

Emphasis on the role of the saints was closely tied to the use of relics, usually bones of saints or objects connected with saints. Relics were considered worthy of worship because they were believed to provide a link between the earthly world and God. It was deemed that relics could heal people or produce other miracles.

Multiple Choice

Ordinary people prayed to saints because

• they believed saints could intervene directly with God in their favor.

• they loved the pictures of saints they saw in their churches.

• they did not wish to approach God himself with their requests.

• the saints had once been regular people, just like them.

Open Ended

Analyzing PRIMARY SOURCES

On an abbey’s relics

“There is kept there a thing more precious than gold, … the right arm of St. Oswald … This we have seen with our own eyes and have kissed, and have handled with our own hands.…”

—from The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus.

DBQ READING CLOSELY What relic is described by this monk?

Religion in the High Middle Ages

Medieval Christians also believed that a pilgrimage to a holy shrine produced a spiritual benefit. The greatest shrine, but the most difficult to reach, was the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Open Ended

How did the Church influence political and cultural changes in medieval Europe?