Medieval Catholicism

[henrikhank]

Many people may say that before the Catholic Church there were many people in India and other countries who knew much about Science and good culture. But some other people say that Jews of OT had the real knowledge of science and culture. When some of these Jews went to India and other coutries they brought with them their knowledge. That’s why we have so many great scientist in ancient culture, because of Jew who went to different countries. Also one other reason, I think, is that some knowledge they could get without the Jews. Some thing are so obvious you just get them without meeting people of God.
It is even speculated that the ancient Greeks took many things from the Jews. So it is not so strange that the Catholic theologians used Scholasticism. It seems that Christianity were first accepted by those people had gain something fom the Jews in the OT times. Christianity spread to India, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and so on.
I don’t know were this is going but please comment on it.

 

[PrayForMeStJude]

REnaissance was a slow process. But French REvolution was sudden and brutal.

I’m not saying that events such as the French Revolution did not bring about rapid social change, I am arguing that when thinking about and interpreting historic events it is best to think of continuity rather than rupture. Basically, events such as the French Revolution, or other momentous events in history, make more sense when they are examined as part of long historical processes. Today there is a bit of a tendency to isolate important events from their historical context, which makes it too easy to fall into the error of saying, for example, “Before the French Revolution everything was one way. Afterwards, everything was another way.”

In reality, while the French revolution certainly brough great changes, it can only be understood as a series of events in continuity with earlier events. The French and American Revolutions, as well as other revolutions of that era, were the result of slowly spreading ideas concerning the rights and rationality of man, commonly seen as part of the “Enlightenment” (quite a misnomer!). I’m sure, of course, that you know all that, I just wanted to illustrate my point.

 

[Te_Deum]

Laudetur Jesus Christus!
How could the Catholic Church dominate the culture of the medival ages?

The answer is quite simple… the religious orders. Monasteries became the absolute centres of civilisation. Farms were built up around them along with markets and the like. They were parish centres for Mass and people went to pray the Hours as well. The religious were responsible for teaching the people, documenting history, translating ancient works etc.

It was the religious men that founded the great universities and taught the subjects of theology and law etc.

And the fact that every man, woman and child was a Catholic… well it’s not hard to imagine that the places where the pinnacle of a Catholic’s earthly existence, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, was celebrated, became the centre of European civilisation.

It also helped that the Church had not signed over her earthly rights. Large tracts of land belonged to the Church, bishops were active politicians (and so were the abbots and abbesses!).

 

[quilisma]

Because Europe was Catholic.

I’m reading both Dr. Carroll’s History of Christendom (The Cleaving of Christendom) and Antonia Fraser’s Mary Queen of Scots at the moment (each book discusses in detail aspects that the other doesn’t cover so thoroughly), so that I can understand both more fully. The reason I mention that is because I can’t remember at the moment which book says this specifically, but anyway, it’s spelled out in one of them and the concept is in both

They indicate that, up until quite recently, it was always taken for granted that all the people of a given country, including its heads of state, needed to be of the same faith in order to ensure peace and unity in that country.

You can see examples throughout history of this assumption in practice. Akhenaten’s successors in ancient Egypt took great pains to eradicate his efforts to bring all Egypt to the worship of one god (Aten) and return it to the old polytheistic Egyptian religion.

The Chinese people were expected for millenia to worship the emperor.

Ancient Israel had laws banning its people from associating with anyone who did not practice the Jewish faith in all its detail.

The Roman Empire felt threatened by the growing Christian community and considered the Christians’ national loyalty to be suspect because they would not sacrifice to the Roman gods.

The Moslems did everything in their power to ensure that everyone left alive in the territory they conquered was an adherent of Allah.

The Aztecs were all expected to provide their children and youth to the temple for the daily human sacrifices.

So it was only to be expected that the people of the barbarian nations of Europe of the Middle Ages would become Catholic when their heads of state were baptized. When Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, he thought it necessary for all England to follow him.

There was no concept of a unified nation that could contain a diversity of religions and still be at peace, until modern times.

Hope that helps to see the Catholic Europe of the Middle Ages in a wider context…

 

[MontChevalier]

Sveridge would be Weden but I got it wrong.
Thanks for your explanation of Sweden that I do not know know. I am going to study it.
If I had a board I would explain better. But we have time. The last 2000 years are moe or less like this:
Roman Empire - Politheism
Judais and Jesus Christ entered the roman empire, persecution till 313, eith of Milan bu Constantin, freedom of Christians. In 100 years, the whole europe became Christian.
400 - 700 - Invasion of Barbrians - Culture disappeared. Dark Ages.
717 - Invasion of Iberia by Gibaltar, Muslim, who conquered (almost) all Iberia and tried to conquer France but was stopped by Charles Martel in Poitiers in 721 (first attempt of Muslims to conquer Europe.
700-1000 - Education of the Basbarians by the Monks, above all Benedictin and Cistercians.
1000-1400- Middle Age.
16th century - Renaissance, Galileo, Printing, Portuguese Discovering, Newton, Science.
17th Century-Barocq, exageration of the REnasissance.
18th Century - Illuminism- mitigation of the Baroq. Pre-Romantism
19th Centruty - romantism and Realism (French Revolution - 1789), New Ideas, Democracy, Industrial Revolution…
20th Century - Everybody knows.

I would divide the last 1000 years in 3 Epochs:

**Middle Ages **- Aurean Christian Period. Beatiful. God as the center of the World. Do not confuse with the Barbarian invasions and put it all in the same bag. Some peole say the Middle Ages lasted 1000 years. It is crazy !!! It is the same thing as telling that the year 1000 dC is the same thing as the year 2000 when men went to the moon !!
Classicism, that inclues Renaissance, Baroq and Illuminism - They hated the Middle Ages so they’ld call it the Dark Ages. Cut God as the Center of the World. Now it is Man as the Center of the World. They copied the Greco Roman Culture (attention: this is the main aspect.
Romantims- they hated Classicism. (Every epoch hates the previous one). Copy? Never !!!.. The motto is to be original, do not copy anybody, to be self centered, subjective, and many more things.

Of Course, Middle Ages as Dark Ages is convenient for many anti-Catholics. Maybe that is why someone waught you that at school. But it is not only in Sweden. Everyone one in this Godless Society, tries to dispise the Middle Age.

Well, that would be because many Swedish people today have a lack of understanding regarding the Middle Ages. I went on looking for books on the History of Sweden, and I’m not really surprised to find that the Swedish Historians have basically looked at the medieval age with the same contempt the French Historians have, as a time of evil and darkness and unfit for “modern French” (Despite the fact that French Knights were some of the most impressive). So finding information has been, somewhat, difficult. But enthusiasm for History should always maintain itself at an all time high; no matter how politically-incorrect it is.

Keep learning.
-MontChevalier