The Age of Faith
Setting the Scene
500 – 1000 AD – the “Dark Ages” time where there was no progress
and no learning
 Regions plundered (got attacked)
 Centers of learning were destroyed
900 AD – new spirit rose in the Church, began to rebuild themselves and
create new centers of worship
The Age of Faith
 Monasteries lead the reform
o Cluny in France led the push to return to Christian principles
o Needed to establish a new religious order
Restored and expanded the churches power and authority creating a new age
of religious feeling.
Problems with the Church
1. Priests were illiterate and could barely read their prayers
2. Popes were men of questionable morals
3. Bishops and abbots cared more about their feudal lord positions than
about their spiritual duties
3 Main Issues
1. Priests married and had families instead of them being metaphorically
married to God
2. Simony – buying your way into the church
3. Lay investiture – Kings appointing church officials or religious leaders
for their benefit
Reform and Church Organization
 Pope Leo IX and Gregory VII – enforced laws against simony
 1100’s – 1200’s – Church was reconstructed to resemble a kingdom
 Curia – which acted like a court developing canon laws or church laws
New Religious Order
 1200’s wandering friars traveled from place to place preaching and
spreading Church ideas
o Friars owned nothing and survived by begging, missionaries
o Dominic – founded 1st group of friars – the Dominicans
o They stressed the importance of study and education
o Francis of Assisi – founded the Franciscan order for women
o Women lived like friars but were not allowed to travel from
place to place
Cathedrals
 Most people worshiped in small churches near their homes but larger
churches called Cathedrals were being built in city areas
 Built to represent a city of God and decorated with all the richness
that Christians could afford
 800 – 1100 AD churches were built in the Romanesque style
 Early 1100’s thanks to the growing wealth of towns a new style know as
Gothic develops
Gothic
 The term Gothic comes from a German trip named the Goths
 Gothic Cathedrals were tall, open, bright and had huge stained glass
windows
 Notre Dame – famous cathedral in France