Following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 6th Century Europe was left in shambles. Barbarians roamed the countryside murdering and pillaging. During the 6th and 7th Centuries many of these barbarian tribes began to settle down and adopt some of the methods of the Romans. Christian missionaries saw the opportunity to unite all of Europe under Christianity, and to spread the faith. Missionaries went throughout Europe teaching the Word of God. Often times these missionaries would modify Christianity to make it more compatible with the existing faiths of the barbarian tribes. The dates of many Christian holidays, such as Christmas, stem from the pagan holidays of the day.
In later centuries, while many of the peoples of Europe had officially converted, much of the barbarism of the tribes still remained within the culture. Gregory, the Bishop of Tours, gives an excellent description of the type of sins committed by many of the supposedly Christian peoples of Gaul. “Lothar seized him, thrust his dagger in his ribs and murdered him just as he had murdered his brother. Then they killed all the attendants and the tutors. When all lay dead Lothar climbed on his horse and rode away, showing no remorse for the slaughter of his two nephews.” (Gregory, 11) The war like and murdering natures of many of these Frankish kings were hard to curb after years of such actions. The Church tried to combat the sinfulness of its converts and gradually progress was made, but it took many centuries.
“By the end of the eleventh century, most western European pagans had become converted to Christianity and one of the religious aims of the early Middle Ages had been accomplished.” (Peters, 213) At the same time that conversion was virtually complete, much of the warlike nature of the warrior people were channeled through a unique outlet. The Crusades were used at during the 12th Century to remove the constant fighting within Europe, and instead use it to combat the heathen, and reconquer the Holy Land. Pope Urban II came up with the plan of sending the knights to the Holy Land in an attempt to bring peace to Europe. “Indeed, the first Crusade, which Urban’s plea created, was first and foremost a vehicle for lay warriors to participate in a renewed Christian society in the one capacity for which they were ideally suited, controlled violence in God’s service against non-Christians.” (Peters, 225) Urban realized that war was necessary for these knights, as it was there sole occupation, and they would not be happy without the ability to kill someone, so Urban sent them to kill someone else rather than each other. “He appealed to a large assembly of laity and clergy to impose peace everywhere in Christian Europe and to turn Christian weapons only against infidels.” (Peters, 225) And so the Crusades were born, and initially they were very successful, both in their stated goals and their underlying purpose of bringing peace to Europe.
Even within the Church positive reform was taking place around the time of the Crusades. The Cistercian monks were advocating a new spiritualism that brought the Church back to its roots. “The care of souls is the art of all arts.” (Peters, 108) The Cistercian’s saw God as being good and gentle, rather than an angry punishing deity. “This new sense of God’s affection for humanity and the obligation of interior spiritual development was largely an invention of twelfth century Cistercian writers.” (Peters. 223)
The Great Schism that occurred in the Church during the papacy at Avignon caused many to question the Papacy for the first time. Christians throughout Europe found themselves divided in what they believed. Many began to question what it was that made the Pope the leader of God, and also what impact the Pope had on their own souls. “Individual Christians wondered if their immortal souls were in danger should the sacraments be performed by a false priest ordained by a false bishop loyal to a false pope.” (Zophy, 36) These questions were eventually resolved once the Church was reunited, but the simple act of questioning led down the path of Reformation. Once people begin to question the process can never be reversed, and instead of dealing with the issue the Church simply continued to stagnate.
During the Renaissance the Church was in the best shape of its existence politically. All of Europe was united under Christianity, warfare had decreased significantly from previous centuries, and the Church was the looking like it was heading to reform. People were beginning to question doctrine, but it seemed aimed towards reform, such as had taken place in the 11th Century. However, instead of embracing the chance to become a truly Christian religious institution, the Church instead chose to lean on tradition, doctrine and its political might. This is the turning point at which all the early success of the Church becomes negated by its refusal to reform. The issue of conflict between science and religion began to become a major controversy, and the question of the cause of the Black Death still lingered. The Church’s explanation for the cause of the Black Death was unacceptable to many. How could God kill half the population simply to punish humanity? People wanted real answers, and the Church came up lacking.
Many of the scientific thinkers of the Renaissance such as Galileo and Copernicus were denounced by the Church. Even though their ideas appealed to reason, and rational thought, the church felt that these new ideas could bring into question the authority of the Church, since the Church has always taught an earth-centered view that was different than these new views of Galileo and Copernicus. Both Copernicus and Galileo were denounced as heretics. “Denounced by the Roman Inquisition in 1616, Galileo was told to abandon and cease to defend and teach as fact the Copernican notion that the sun is the center of the universe and that the earth moves around it.” (Zophy, 313) The fact that the Church refused to accept the possibility that it might have been wrong shows the stagnation and implacability that leads to its failure to maintain its place as the head of Europe.
During the Renaissance many new ideas about faith appeared that conflicted with traditional Catholicism. Many more people were educated, and they questioned the lack of knowledge of many of the priests who were supposed to be their teachers. Printing of the Bible in the vernacular spread knowledge of scripture, that often time conflicted with the teachings of the Church.
A heightened sense of pastoral obligation, a broad awareness of the need for reform, the insistence on self-awareness through confession, the spread of religious fraternities and devotional movements, the growing self-consciousness of the laity, and the rise of vernacular religious literature – all are eloquent testimony to the spiritual condition of Europe on the eve of Reformation. (Peters, 357)
The Catholic Church had failed to maintain control over the flow of information, and had refused to address the concerns of its faithful, and had instead simply stated that is was right and always would be no matter what.
Indulgences were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Theologians such as Martin Luther refused to accept that simply paying money could forgive one’s sins. People found the tactics of men such as Johann Tetzel to be morally reprehensible. Tetzel used this phrase as his sales slogan: “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, another soul from purgatory springs!” (Zophy, 173) The blatant sale of forgiveness was clearly not a step towards a Christian ideal.
The Catholic Church had been entrusted with the civilizing and Christianizing of Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. From the 6th to the 11th Centuries the Church carried out the mission of converting and civilizing the people. Barbarian tribes turned into civilized nations, murders became peaceful citizens. The Church had achieved its mission as well as could be expected. But in the centuries following the Church’s refusal to adapt and change to the changing environment of Renaissance Europe proved to be fatal. Christianity became a divisive instead of unifying force due to the fracture between Protestants and Catholics. If the Catholic Church had been willing to reform, it may have been able to keep Europe unified, and prevent years of religious wars that claimed thousands of lives. The Catholic Church ultimately failed to maintain its control, but its initial contribution is certainly the greatest factor in the civilizing of Europe.
