Christian Church in the Early Middle Ages. History of the Christian Church

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire under the ruler Constantine I the Great (272-337). In 313, he officially allows this religion on the territory of his country, issuing a decree equalizing Christianity in rights with other religions, and in 324 it becomes the official religion of the united Roman Empire. In 330, Constantine moved his capital to the city of Byzantium, which would be renamed Constantinople in his honor.

Early Christian Church Time Period

In 325, the First Ecumenical Council was held in Nicaea (now the city of Iznik, Turkey), at which the main dogmas of Christianity were adopted, and thus put an end to disputes about the official religion. The early Christian church, or apostolic age, also ends at Nicea. The starting date is considered to be the 30s of the 1st century AD, when the nascent Christianity was considered a Jewish sect.religion. The persecution of Christians began not from the pagans, but from the Jews. The first martyr of the Christian Church, Archdeacon Stephen, was executed by the Jews in 34.

Christian persecution and the end of persecution

The period of the early Christian church was a time of persecution of Christians by all the emperors of the Roman Empire. The most severe was the "Diocletian persecution" that lasted from 302 to 311. This Roman ruler set out to completely destroy the nascent faith. Diocletian himself died in 305, but his bloody work was continued by his heirs. The "Great Persecution" was legitimized by a verdict issued in 303.

The history of the Christian church did not know great oppression - Christians were sacrificed in dozens, driving their families into the arena with lions. And although some scholars consider the number of victims of Diocletian persecution exaggerated, all the same, the said figure is impressive - 3,500 people. There were many times more tortured and exiled righteous. Constantine the Great put an end to ostracism and gave rise to one of the main religions of mankind. Giving Christianity a special status, Constantine ensured the rapid development of this religion. Byzantium becomes at first the center of Christianity, and later the capital of Orthodoxy, in which, as in some other churches, this ruler is numbered among the saints of the Equal-to-the-Apostles. Catholicism does not consider him a saint.

Link of times

Churches were also built with donations from Constantine's mother, Empress Elena. Under Constantine, the Church of Hagia Sophia was founded inConstantinople - a city named after the emperor. But the very first and most beautiful is the Jerusalem Church, which the Bible tells about. However, many of the first religious buildings have not been preserved. The oldest Christian church on earth that has survived to this day is located in the French city of Poitiers, the main settlement of the Vienne department. This is the baptistery of John the Baptist, built in the 4th century. That is, even before the history of the Early Middle Ages began, during which the construction of churches, temples and cathedrals became widespread.

A rich historical period

It is generally accepted that the Early Middle Ages lasted 5 centuries, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 to the end of the 10th century. But some scholars consider the beginning of this first period of the Middle Ages to be exactly the year 313 - the time of the end of the persecution of the followers of the Christian religion.

The most difficult historical period, including the fall of the Roman Empire, the Great Migration of Nations, the emergence of Byzantium, the strengthening of Muslim influence, the invasion of Arabs in Spain, was completely based on the Christian religion. The Church in the Early Middle Ages was the main political, cultural, educational and economic institution for many tribes and peoples inhabiting Europe. All schools were run by the church, monasteries were cultural and educational centers. In addition, already in the IV century, all the monasteries were very rich and strong. However, the church not only sowed the reasonable, good, eternal. subjected to the most severe persecutiondissent. Pagan altars and temples were destroyed, heretics were destroyed physically.

Faith as a stronghold of the state

The Christian Church in the early Middle Ages experienced its first flowering, and by the end of the period, it had somewhat lost its positions. And later, in the following periods of the Middle Ages, a new upsurge of the Christian religion began. At the beginning of the 5th century, Ireland became one of the centers of Christianity. The Frankish state, which significantly expanded its territories under Clovis from the Merovingian family, adopted a new religion under him. In the 5th century, under this ruler, there were already 250 monasteries on the territory of the Frankish state. The church becomes the strongest organization with the full patronage of Clovis. The Christian Church in the Early Middle Ages played a cementing role. The flock that accepted the faith rallied at the direction of the church around the monarch, the country became much stronger and more impregnable for external enemies. For the same reasons, other countries of Europe also accepted the new faith. Russia was baptized in the 9th century. Christianity was gaining strength, it penetrated into Asia and up the Nile (the territory of modern Sudan).

Cruel methods

But for various reasons - both objective (Islam gaining strength) and subjective (during the reign of the descendants of Clovis, nicknamed the "lazy kings" who destroyed the Frankish state), Christianity temporarily lost its positions. For a short time, the Arabs occupied part of the Iberian Peninsula. The papacy was greatly weakened. The Christian Church in the Early Middle Ages became the religious ideology of feudalism.

Born in antiquity, Christianity that survived it stood at the cradle of feudalism, serving it faithfully, justifying oppression and social inequality "by the will of the Lord." In order to keep the masses in subjection, the church resorted to intimidation, especially fears of the afterlife. The disobedient were declared servants of the devil, heretics, which later led to the creation of the Inquisition.

The positive role of the church

But the Christian Church in the Early Middle Ages smoothed out social conflicts, disagreements and antagonisms as much as possible. One of the main postulates of the church is that everyone is equal before God. The church had no open hostility towards the peasants, who were the main labor force of feudal society. She called for mercy towards the disadvantaged and oppressed. This was the official position of the church, albeit sometimes hypocritical.

In the Early Middle Ages, with the almost complete illiteracy of the population, in the absence of any other means of communication, the church played the role of a communication center - people converged here, here they communicated and learned all the news.

The cruel planting of Christianity

The history of the Christian Church, like any other great religion, is extraordinarily rich. All the masterpieces of art and literature for many centuries were created with the support of the church, for its needs and for its subjects. It also influenced the policies pursued by states, the Crusades alone are worth something. True, they began in the XI century, but also in the period from V to Xcenturies, Christianity was planted not only by the power of persuasion and missionary work or economic considerations. Weapons played a very important role. Cruelly suppressed by the pagans in the period of its inception, the Christian faith was very often planted with bayonets, including during the conquest of the New World.

A page in human history

The entire history of the Middle Ages is full of wars. The Early Middle Ages, or the Early Feudal period, is the time when feudalism was born and took shape as a socio-political formation. By the end of the 10th century, the feudalization of land was almost over.

Despite the fact that the term "feudalism" is often synonymous with obscurantism and backwardness, it, like the church of this period, had positive features that contributed to the progressive development of society, which led to the emergence of the Renaissance.