Chapter 8.3

 Converted people to Christianity  Some women married pagan kings to convert them  Clothilde persuaded husband Clovis of Franks  Parish Priest: only contact that people had with the Church  Administered sacraments: sacred rites of the Church  Preached Gospels and teachings  Guided on values and morality  Assistance to sick and needy  Married both peasants and nobles, baptized all children, buried all dead

 Social center  Gossiped and danced after church  Schools  Decorated  Stone rather than wood  Relics  Churches required tithe: tax equal to 1/10 th of income  Christian Calendar: marked holy days, change of seasons, honoring saints

 Equal before God  Daughters of Eve  Weak and easily led to sin  Needed guidance of men  View of ideal woman  Modest and pure “Mary” mother of Jesus  Churches dedicated to “mother of God” and “queen of heaven”  Minimum age for marriage  Men fined if they seriously injured wives  Punished women more harshly

 Men and women withdrew from public to become monks/nuns  Devoted life to God  Benedict  530 organized monastic life  Benedictine Rule: 3 vows  Obedience to abbot or abbess  Poverty  Chastity/Purity  Spiritual value of manual labor  Work on physical tasks

 Learning  Monasteries and convents  Preserved ancient writings  Copied ancient works  Kept learning alive  Taught classics, wrote summaries  Wrote history  Introduced use of BC and AD  Convents  Strong-minded women could escape limits  Write books, compose music  Restrictions  Could not preach Gospel  Church frowned on learning

 Controlled spiritual life  Became most powerful secular (non-religious) force in Europe  Pope claimed authority over all secular rulers  Bishops and archbishops usually nobles  Churchmen only educated people  Feudal rulers appointed them to high positions  Since Church administered sacraments, they had absolute power  Canon law: Applied to religious teachings, clergy, marriages, morals  Excommunication: If disobeyed Church law, could not receive sacraments or Christian burial- most feared penalty  Powerful nobles could face interdict:  Order that excommunicates whole town, region or kingdom!  Even strongest rulers would give in, rather than face interdict

 Church wealth and power grew/discipline weakened  Wealth left to monasteries/convents…monks and nuns forgot vow of poverty  Clergy lived in luxury  Priests could marry, but some didn’t spend enough time in Church  Treated priesthood as inheritance  Cluniac Reforms: Early 900s in W Europe  French monastery revived Benedictine Rule  Many monasteries followed lead  Pope Gregory VII extended to entire Church  Outlawed marriage for priests  Prohibited simony-selling of church offices  Church only could choose officials (not kings)

 More reform  1200s Francis of Assisi set up orders of friars  Monks that did not live in monasteries  Travelled around Europe preaching to poor  Poverty, humility, love of God  Franciscan and Dominican orders  Combat heresy

 Preserved oral/written tradition  Spain-Conquered by Muslims  Tolerant of both Christianity and Judaism  Sephardim- Hebrew for Spain  Sephardic Jews served as officials in Muslim royal courts  Late 1000s: Persecution increased  Church forbid Jews to own land or work  Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jews  Illness, famine, disasters blamed on Jews  Economic woes—many Jews were moneylenders because they were barred from other jobs  Migrated to E Europe to escape  Welcomed knowledge and skills  Thrived until modern times