What power/limits did the Christian church in Europe have from 300 to 1200 CE?

Question

I know that they had quite a bit of power over who ruled & where. Please help me out on the Crusades and how the Christian church influenced that. I do know that Kiev was one of the few places that chose Orthodody...what about that, too? I'm continuing to search...help please!

Answer 1

Edward Gibbon is considered preachy and archaic, but still consulted broadly because his analysis was uncommonly good. Rome was old. Rome was tired. Rome was broke. Rome was decayed beyond human means of restoring. Their enemies had old scores to settle, and settle them they did.

That left a vacuum of power. The Church was just about the only coherent and organized body left. It was a stabilizing force without using force, because the church at that time (AD 476 is the traditional date of the fall of Rome, when Romulus Augustulus ("little Augustus") was deposed by Ordovacer--Western Rome was done, except for the Roman church.

As for the Crusades, it is confusing. Sometimes even the things people pose for answers are confusing (firstcrusade link). The secret is that it was complicated. In general, Christian Europe had been pressured by Moslems from the south, east, and west (Spain had fallen). There were pivotal battles in southern France, Vienna, and a continual hold-out by the Byzantine and lesser-known Khazars (which was a nation whose national religion was Judaism) that held back the Moslems for a while.

The Christian church began with eastern-orthodox fashioned organizations. They were essentially a national franchise. The Syrians were centered in Antioch, Egyptians in Alexandria (Coptics), there were those also in Greece, Ethiopia, Armenia, Bulgaria, and of course Rome, but the main assembly was set in Constantinople (Byzantium) by the emperor Constantine, but the leader there (metropole) was essentially titled "first among equals". When the Roman empire divided, then, along with some Church issues that unrelatedly took place then Rome distanced themselves from their eastern brethren. The 'franchise' concept didn't make the same kind of official presence in western europe until the nations began to gel more or less along the lines of that which produced those we might recognize today. Then the church hierarchy inside those nations had an organizational flavor from their nations, but were still distinctly controlled by their father, the papa, the Pope, in Rome. As it happened, there was a French flavor in France, a German flavor in what would become Germany, an English flavor (giving rise to the unique body that Henry VIII so easily wrested from Rome), and a Spanish and Portuguese flavor as the locals gradually broke the Moor (Moslem) control. The northern lands of Africa never came back to Christian spheres of influence even during colonial periods when France conquored most of them centuries later.

The important word in all of that time was "influence"--the times were about as controlled as an avalanche running in slow motion. Good luck.

Answer 2

that is what that is favor to stay in a us of a which does not enable freedom of speech, freedom of religion or many different freedoms different international places savour. people in Saudi Arabia both keep on with the guidelines or they're persecuted. an similar ingredient take position to Christians in Biblical cases - purely they were fed to the lions for leisure. Why are infantrymen from different international places stationed in Saudi Arabia? in the journey that they are holding Saudi Arabians, then the warriors must have each and every good to worship besides the undeniable fact that they please so long because it does not bodily reason damage to anybody. otherwise, those infantrymen could purely flow decrease back to their personal international places and luxuriate of their non secular freedoms.