How The Catholic Church Lead European Governance During The Middle Ages

How the Catholic Church lead European governance during the Middle Ages
Catholic, in its purest form meant wholly, general or universal. At least this is what it represented as a church. Catholicism came about when letters were discovered around the second century containing the name of the church. This gave proof to the existence of the church even as far back as in the earlier times. Western Europe was leading in terms of numbers of followers in the middle Ages. The Roman Catholic Church used Latin language in all its services, despite the fact that many people in Western Europe were illiterate and did not understand or speak Latin. The European people by then could only rely on pictures which were on walls and stained glasses to understand
the biblical story. The Church, using eternal damnation sparked fear that brought people closer to church and to God. Clergy by then, being the most educated in the entire Europe, judged people on their morals and other secular duties in order to protect the biblical doctrines that were diminishing. In doing so, the church retained power and enjoyed the highest priority in Western as well as in some parts of Eastern Europe. The Roman Catholic Church was not only the single but by far, the most influential and at the same times a unifying body for that era.
Catholic bishops had secular influence as well as spiritual power that yielded into good decision making processes and good governance.
They were the key pillars to organizations and government. Having studied for many years the bishops were very fluent in Latin and that gave them some authority that even kings were mandated to consult Bishops and take orders from them in their daily affairs. The Church using its much respected leadership and expertise was involved in various other decisions making and had delegates in all special committees, where they levied taxes on peasants and implement the code of the church amongst many other functions. Thanks in part to this, Christendom community was formed. Christendom Community was based on the belief that the pope was the overall head of the church of God on earth. The Catholic Church saw the need to infiltrate the world using crusades which they used as a method to control many countries together with its people. Having the intelligence the church administration did not wait for complaints to be brought to them but rather sought after the suspects, in order to create fear, with the hope of regaining control and trust of the people. Countries that differed on the position of the Catholic Church in the society turned to be strongest in protecting religion as a way of integrating
Europe.
Catholics led many crusades (the word means, “war of the cross”), which were portrayed in general as a series of holy wars targeting infidels led by power-mad, popes and fought by religious fanatics.
These occurrences later influenced powerful rulers in Europe, as well as the Kings of England, Germany and France. Crusading knights were wealthy men with plenty of land in Europe and yet willingly gave up everything to undertake this holy mission. The crusaders did so more as a penitential act of charity and love. The well organised and powerful crusades across the whole of Europe, eventually led to a permanent split between Eastern Orthodox Christians, who believed that the church was them and they were the church and that western Christianity who are the sharp critics of eastern orthodox. The church was sometimes known to sell the forgiveness that medieval people
needed.
The economic life was another area where the Catholic Church was deeply involved in. Monasteries were on great chunks of land that if combined with annual tax, the church was collecting, made it more dominant over the populous than any political powers and governments in all of Europe. Deliberate denial of the catholic faith referred as heresy was a serious crime which allowed accused people one month to confess or be whipped and sent to prison. Those who refused to confess were tortured and some were even burnt at the stake. Western and European governments adopted the same type of principles of mass control to cut off the church in their societies as experienced in the Soviet Union and its neighbouring countries. The Inquisition existed so as to deny all heretics of their rights, and deprive them of their assets and for quite a number of years this system was considered as some form of legal framework throughout most of Europe. Papal inquisition and Spanish inquisitions are some of the style of inquisition that history has recorded.
Church and the state were enjoying some form of partnership. In the twelfth century, Schools were introduced to the people for the first time in the history of Europe but to educate only the clergy, who would later join the team of elites to take control of Europe. The school idea introduced universities in Europe that in turn led to the promotion of literacy.
Scholasticism was the new concept that derived as a result of the social influence of Catholic Church on the European Governance. This concept was not very well received by the church when it first emerged, because it was thought to weaken faith and promote Heresy. To a large extent, up until the early nineteenth century, the Catholic Church was not even allowing its congregants to carry bibles out of perceived fear that if people became educated they will start questioning the teachings. Such rules were enforced predominantly in western and even some eastern European countries.

Governments in Europe kept getting richer and they continued oppressing the poor denying them of their fundamental, basic and legal right to food, clothes and shelter. The canonist began fighting for the legal protection of the poor which pushed for the creation of Europe’s first hospitals a concept that emerged from within the church that today is widely available in every society as a service to the community. The church did this as a duty to restore sanity, dignity and pride to the poor people.
The church faced a massive challenge after a great plague and famine attacked Europe and killed millions of people, including members of the clergy who were considered saviours of the people. The middle ages governance was not experienced enough to handle disasters of that magnitude, and so it was left to the church which was survived by inexperienced and corrupt clergy members to run its affairs. This however did not stop the church’s focus on power and wealth. The church taught and preached to the contrary of what the populous were acquainted to. And it was such actions that angered many and contrived amongst themselves on how to form other denominations challenging the Catholic Church.
By and Large the Catholic Church’s ecclesiastic power was absolute. Wherever the bishop appeared the people were there, believing that’s where God was, and that was the method the bishops used to ensure that they kept the followers in check. The eternal damnation concept, and the torment that they exerted on the people, added undue pressure on everyone making it even harder for the European governance system. The Church’s control on Europe in spiritual, social, economic and political issues gave no room for European governance to penetrate during the middle Ages. Their way of governance impressed everyone and was emulated by political systems and government leadership, for centuries that followed. Catholicism became the order, church and religion of the Roman Catholic. The passing of legislations favouring the church was evidence as to how the Catholic Church remained in control of the European governance. The role of the church was clearly cut out in many constitutions; it was not by default but power and fear. As Europe embraced the renaissance period, people started to think independently and subsequently, they started questioning the teachings that they were receiving. New progress was made in the areas of arts and sciences. Despite this evolution of Christianity in the middle ages Catholic Church continued to be cited as the mother of all churches to be turned to, for guidance and leadership. Catholic Church ensured supremacy and control over Europe in the middle Ages.