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The Influence of the Church |
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LINKS:The Dominican Friar Johannes
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The significance of religion on people's thinking and everyday life was very
big in the Middle Ages. The world shaped itself most of all in relationship to God and the
eternity. Man's life on earth was merely a period of transition on the way to eternal joy
in heaven or eternal damnation in hell. It was, therefore, of great importance how he
lived his life. He was to avoid especially the seven deathly sins, and also minor crimes
against God and fellow human beings. Because no man could, like Christ, be totally sinless
and free from original sin, there was, after death, a possibility to purify oneself from
the sins in the fires of purgatory which was some kind of a transition before the final
doom. One could shorten one's period in purgatory in advance by sincerely repenting one's sins and by performing penance in the form of prayer or different kinds of services. At the end of the Middle Ages people also increasingly started to give donations to the church. With them, one could wipe off one's sins. Yet, mere money wasn't enough - the sinner also had to repent his deeds. In the Middle Ages, it was typical to divide people into three groups of social station: those who fought (the bellatoeres, the nobility), those who prayed (the oratores, the clergy) and those who worked (the laboratores, the peasants). The priests, the monks and the nuns thus had a remarkable task in society; their prayers and Masses were serving God on behalf of the entire society. The position of the church in the Middle Ages is reflected by the fact that it was almost alone responsible for education until the late Middle Ages. All higher education was given within the church until the strong development of the university as an institution since the 12th century. Thereafter, primary education was given almost exclusively by the church. All the remarkable offices in society were held by men raised and educated by the church, men who had adopted a Christian outlook on life. Also the care of the poor and the sick relied on the church and charity. There were often hospitals in connection with convents. These hospitals took care of the poor and the miserable who didn't have any relatives. |
