Christian Religious Life Following the fall of the Roman Empire, thousands of Christian men and women went to live in religious communities where they could live simple lives worshipping god and doing good deeds. men – monks in monasteries women – nuns in convents

Monastery

Daily Life in a Monastery: Strict rules: a monk named Benedict developed strict rules for living in a monastery

“Laziness is the great enemy of the soul, therefore monks should always be kept busy, either in manual labor or holy reading.”

2. Attended religious prayer services 7 times a day. Monasteries were the most important places of learning during the Middle Ages. - Each had a library with Bibles and books . - Monasteries kept important records

4. Scriptorium = a room where scribes hand copied Bibles and the books and ancient manuscripts from Greece and Rome. *Because of the work of these scribes, the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome was preserved.

The Art of the Church Scribes: The scribes hand copied the words and then decorated the letters and the entire page with intricate designs that often used gold paint to make the pages seem lit up with light. These were called “illuminated manuscripts.”

A Book of Hours – A prayer book from 1324.

How did the monks help western civilization survive? Describe life on a monastery.

The Catholic Influence

By 1000, missionary monks (religious teachers who wanted to spread their religion) had brought the church’s teaching to most of Europe. The Roman Catholic Church united western Europeans and played a leading role in daily life, political life, and even had the power of life or death over people.

DAILY LIFE: Life revolved around the church. To become a king, vassal, or knight, a man took part in a religious ceremony. Most holidays were in honor of saints or religious events. People obeyed the church rules ( NO meat on Fridays) On Sundays, people attended worship services. Church leaders ran schools and hospitals. Monks and nuns provided food and shelter to travelers. Priests recorded births and deaths, performed marriages, and conducted burials.

POLITICAL LIFE: Church played an important role in gov’t.. Church officials worked with kings and nobles to govern western Europe. Church officials were owners of large amounts of land and so they were lords and vassals of other lords. Church officials were advisors and record keepers for the king because often the kings could not read or write!. Local priests were chosen by nobles. The church told people to obey the king’s laws UNLESS they went against the canon laws = laws set up by the church. - people who disobeyed the canon laws were excommunicated ~ they lost their church membership AND their political rights were taken away.

THE INQUISITION: Even though the church was very powerful, it faced the problem of heresy = religious beliefs that go against the church A church court called the Inquisition was set-up to end heresy by force. The Inquisition assumed a person was guilty of heresy and the only reason for a trial was to get a confession.

Problems With the Church: Church became very wealthy, but it also became careless about carrying out religious duties. - Church members supported the church by giving tithes (money offered to the church.) - rich nobles donated $$ and land to monasteries.

When a church official died, a local noble took over the land and filled the position with someone who could PAY. These new church officials were not very religious. **By about 1000, some western Europeans were worried about what was happening with the church. They tried to make reforms (= changes) and get the church back to its religious ideals.

One group of religious leaders who tried to improve the church were a group of preachers called friars. Like monks, friars gave up their worldly possessions to live a life devoted to religion and God. BUT, they did not live isolated away from the rest of society. They lived in the towns and tried to bring Christianity to the people.

Now answer the 4 questions on Lesson 16 using today’s Lesson.