Catholic salvation during the crusade period

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Hi, I was wondering what the catholic church taught on salvation during the crusade period. Mostly interested in 1000-13000 A.D. If you had any documents from that time,thanks.
 
Does anyone have any info or link on what was taught on salvation during the years around 1000-1300?. Thanks
 
Hi TR, this is a great question and I’ll be interested to sit and watch for answers here. The people here are extremely knowledgable.

From what I know, beliefs were not terribly different during this time. A lot more emphasis was placed on pennance in these days. If you committed a mortal sin, you were given a serious pennance (adultery, murder, blasphemy, etc.) I believe for this time period we were passed the idea that only baptism forgave sins (it does today but we do have the propensity to sin later in life – so we have the sacrament of reconciliation and have this for quite some time going beyond the time period in question).

I believe the first ideas of indulgences came around this time. From what I understand of listening to a nun on this, St Francis petitioned the Pope (or one of his bishops) for the ability to ask to God to empty Purgatory. This was granted eventually. Indulgences were for this purpose originally (and mainly still the same actually). Later came the scandal of asking for money far and above what was needed but that has been changed obviously.

But all in all, I think you’d be surprised to know that doctrinally the Church has not changed radically from this time to now. Obviously the Mass is not ordinarily said in Latin much these days.

I’d ask you to research this as I may be wrong. Hopefully this gives you something to start with. Please anyone who knows better, come and clear this up for me and TR.
 
I can point you to St Augustine who wrote in the late 4th and early 5th century. His sermons are super. What the Catholic church has taught about salvation has not changed and did not change from the beginning to the crusades up to today. If you are trying to get material for a debate against an allegation that the Church changed its position due to a great apastacy the early Church fathers like Augustine will tell you what you need to know.
 
Just wanting to learn about the history of the church and its thought on salvation. I would love some sermons from 900-13-- ad if you know of any that handle the subject,or official church documents.
 
total_relism said:
Hi, I was wondering what the catholic church taught on salvation during the crusade period. Mostly interested in 1000-13000 A.D. If you had any documents from that time,thanks.
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In Catholic history the period from 1000 to 1300 A.D. is known as the Scholastic period, when universities were founded and Catholic teaching was put into systematic textbooks to make our doctrines easier to study. Thus, we have a lot of material from that period explaining Catholic doctrine as it was then understood, including in the area of salvation.

One of the first scholastic thinkers to write systematically about salvation was St. Anselm of Canterbury. His book on the subject is called “Cur Deus Homo” – Why God Became Man. A copy of this book is available for free online at this website: fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-curdeus.asp

Toward the end of the 1200s, the two greatest theologians of the time wrote their masterpieces – St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica, which in English is called the Handbook of Theology, in which he tried to do two things: demonstrate the rational and Scriptural basis of all Catholic doctrine, and answer all objections he knew of to our doctrines. Re: the topic of salvation, though, the best document to look at by St. Thomas Aquinas is the Summa Contra Gentiles, or Handbook Against the Pagans, Book 4. That book is titled “Salvation” and it represents St. Thomas’ explanation of the Catholic doctrine on salvation along with answers to the objections of Muslims. It is available for free online here: dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm

A book you may want to look at by St. Bonaventure is his Collation of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Conference 1, On Grace. Some important statements from there: “For salvation, two things are necessary, namely the knowing of the truth and the exercising of virtue. The knowing of the truth is had through the Law, but the exercising of virtue is had through grace. … For that reason no one is saved through the Law, unless grace be there. And so it is clear, that much more excellent is the grace of God than the Law itself. At another time I spoke to you of the Law of the Decalogue, and now I shall speak to you of grace; and more necessary is grace for us than the Law; to receive which grace fruitfully Mother Church and the Apostle Paul urge us.” The rest of his book goes on to discuss the topic of grace and salvation, and the full book can be accessed at: franciscan-archive.org/bonaventura/opera/collat1.html

So there’s three documents from 1000-1300 on salvation from a Catholic perspective. I hope they help you. God bless!
 
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