Missionaries?

Question

Back in the middle ages were Missionaries sent by kings and nobles to go tell ppl about their religion, or did they do it just cuz thats what they wanted to do.

BTW the reason I ask this is because my Dads side goes back to Missionaries in the 1600's from germany that went to the Ukraine

Answer 1

Christianity dominated Europe of the Middle Ages, and until the Protestant Reformation this meant the Roman Catholic Church, so there really wasn't a lot of missionary work as we think of it nowadays.

However, with the rise of various Protestant denominations, many felt called to spread their beliefs. The 1600's time frame would certainly fall into this period of religious zeal.

Most missionaries either went of their own accord (and at their own expense) or may have been sent by their churches and received whatever support they could get from them. In other words, I don't think there was a great deal of governmental sponsorship for them.

The Catholic Church sent out a lot of missionaries to Asia and to North and South America, in hopes of evangelizing the native peoples--these were priests and could sometimes count on more support from their church than most of the Protestant missionaries could; they also went to various European countries that had embraced the Protestant faith in efforts to bring them back to the Catholic faith.

The Protestant missionaries were also active in North America, particularly in the area now known as New England. The Society of Friends (better known as the Quakers) tried, unsuccessfully, to convert the New England Puritans to their own beliefs, and, perhaps because they understood persecution so well, were extraordinarily tolerant of other religious points of view.

Hope this sheds some light for you.

Answer 2

Speaking only of Christianity for the moment, missionaries are as old as the Church. Responding to the Great Commission, believers were inspired and impelled to tell the "Good news" to everyone else. Paul's journeys in Acts are a good example, but Eusebius's church history provides many others. By and large, churches, not countries, commission missionaries, by the countries involved are often interesting. A thousand years ago, the center of western civilization was in Ireland(!), and missionaries went from there to France(!).

On the negative side, it was not unusual for priests to accompany expeditions sent out by countries. Examples that do the church little honor include Olaf's subjegation of the Vikings, Charlemagne's empire, the Spanish conquests of Central and South America, and European settlement of the New World. The spread of Islam is another example of conversion by the sword.

Answer 3

Frankly my expensive you are plenty larger off contacting church buildings or missionary corporations to get that data. no longer announcing actual humans may not exhibit up however yahoo! solutions are stuffed with trolls and random losers who simply wanna have fun on the fee of others.

Answer 4

Missionaries tried to re-establish Christianity. They were a focal point of civilization and also helped the needy.