Influence of Christianity in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is one of the most fascinating stages in history. A period that is strongly characterized by the existence of the feudal system or feudalism. A world of noble, peasants, taxes, vassals, fiefs, and weakened monarchies. But beyond this, the medieval world was dominated by the Catholic or Christian Church the Middle Ages began in 476 with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in 1492 with the discovery of America.
Christianity began among a small number of Jews, in the third century, Christianity grew so much, until it became the dominant congregation in the north of the Mediterranean world. It also extended significantly to the east and south of the Mediterranean. In a few centuries the doctrine, the Church of God, its word had spread in almost the entire civilized world at that time. It produced a different conception of many things, originally Christian doctrine had no legal or political meaning but only moral.
Although Christianity reached effects on notable influences on politics and the State. In ancient times, the individual existed only the State and the individual had the mission of being a good citizen and obeying only the State. On the contrary, with Christianity, another end is proposed to the individual, a religious purpose, now the most important thing is not what you do for the State or how well you were, but an eternal life, salvation. In the Middle Ages the Church is affirmed as an autonomous authority and tends to be placed above the State, because while it deals with earthly things, the Church of the Eternal. Throughout the Middle Ages a series of official beliefs were elaborated that should be accepted by all, and religious authorities, with the help of political authorities, pursued those who could doubt these points of view.
But medieval Christianity was not unitary. In the West the Pope was the highest authority, and yet. In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church had a decisive role. It was the only institution that managed to exercise its power throughout a politically fragmented Europe.
The daily life in the Middle Ages and the way of thinking of noble and peasants were very influenced by the principles and beliefs of the Christian Church. As a consequence of this, people’s actions were closely linked to religious norms. The Church was at the same time the center of intellectual life. From this preemine.
During the extensive Middle Ages, different interpretations and currents of thought linked to Christianity emerged, which, in some cases, were substantially moved away from the dictates of Rome. The main heretical movements (although not the only ones) that convulsed Europe during the Middle Ages were: Pricianylism, Cathars, and Husitas. Most of these movements demanded the enrichment of the church and their already notable lack of interest towards the people.
The Church of Rome organized missions to evangelize these communities and return them to orthodoxy, but these missions not only did not achieve their goal, but had to resign themselves to the continue. Faced with such a failure, the Church of Rome initiated a violent offensive and gave the fight against the Cathars the condition of "crusade", presenting them as dangerous heretics and convincing the civil powers of the territories that had the greatest presence of Catharsbe exterminated by force.
Persecuted by both civil and religious authorities and before the threat of suffering serious corporal punishments or, even, of being executed if they were found suspicious of the slightest sympathy towards the Cathars, the few who remained took refuge in the forests and the strictestSecretism to survive, although they probably were completely extinguished at the end of the fourteenth century.
The last of the great medieval heresies before the arrival of the Protestant movements was that of the Husitas. The so -called "Husita Church" emerged in Bohemia in the fifteenth century and is called its main ideologist, Juan or Jan Hus. Juan Hus, linked to the University of Prague, defended that the Church had been veryof the sacred book. After Juan Hus was burned at the stake after attending Constanza’s council to defend his precepts, a true religious and civil revolution broke out in the Bohemian area. In 1419 the so -called revolts or husitas wars began, in which the religious sphere was united with serious civil problems.
These wars extended until 1434. As we could see, the Middle Ages was a very dark stage, externally it seemed that everything went according to the precepts of God, but it really was not so, the man degenerated everything under his own convenience causing, hunger, sadness pain, persecutions and persecutions andmuch more.
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