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The Medieval Church: Power, Politics, and Piety
An overview of the medieval church as both a body of sincere belief and a landowning, tax-collecting political force that often competed with kings.
Faith and Health
The Church and Its Power
How the medieval church was organized and how it used its influence.
The Medieval Church: A History of Power and Corruption
How medieval critics described clerical abuses such as simony and worldly bishops, how reformers responded, and why historians hedge what was typical.
The Medieval Church: A Power Structure
How the medieval church was ranked from parish priest to bishop, archbishop and pope, and how authority, appointments and income moved between levels.
The Rise of the Papacy: A Medieval Power Struggle
How papal authority grew from the early Middle Ages to the thirteenth century, and how popes clashed with emperors and kings over who ruled whom.
The Role of the Church in Medieval Politics
How bishops served as royal advisers and landholders, and how excommunication and interdict worked as political weapons in medieval Europe.
The Role of the Church in Medieval Society
A look at the medieval parish: the sacraments from birth to burial, charity for the poor, the feast days and the church calendar that set the rhythm of the year.
The Role of the Church in Medieval Society: Power and Influence
How the medieval church became a major landowner and tax collector, and how its wealth fed economic and cultural influence over towns, estates and learning.
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Monasteries and Orders Monks, monasteries and the military religious orders. Medicine and Healing Doctors, herbs, theories and beliefs about illness and magic. Philosophy and Theology How medieval thinkers joined faith and reason. The Black Death The plague of the 1300s and its effects on society. Inquisition and Heresy How medieval church courts pursued heresy, and what the records really show. Saints and Mystics Holy men and women, visionaries and a martyr. Theologians and Reformers Thinkers who shaped and challenged Church teaching. Afterlife and Purgatory What people believed about death, heaven, hell and purgatory. Sin, Salvation and Virtue Medieval ideas about sin, salvation, providence and the virtues. Jews in Medieval Europe Jewish communities, scholarship, restrictions and expulsions. Pilgrimage, Relics and Shrines Holy journeys, saints bones and the shrines that drew travelers.