Gentry - Church

Church

During the decline of the Roman Empire, Roman authority in western Europe completely collapsed. However, the city of Rome, under the guidance of the Catholic Church, still remained a centre of learning and did much to preserve classic Roman thought in Western Europe. The only universal European institution was the Catholic Church, and even there, fragmentation of authority was the rule; all the power within the church hierarchy was in the hands of the local bishops and finally the Bishop of Rome. The clergy encompassed almost all of the era's educated men in Europe and was furthermore strengthened by considerable wealth, and thus, it naturally came to play a significant political role.

During the Early Middle Ages, the monasteries of the Catholic Church were the centres of European education and literacy, preserving Latin learning and maintaining the art of writing. Mediaeval universities had been run for centuries as Christian episcopal or monastic schools (scholae monasticae), in which monks and nuns taught classes; evidence of these immediate forerunners dates back to the 6th century AD. With the increasing growth and urbanisation of European society during the 12th and 13th centuries, a demand grew for professional clergy. Before the 12th century, the intellectual life of Western Europe had been largely relegated to monasteries, which were mostly concerned with performing the liturgy and prayer; relatively few monasteries could boast true intellectuals. Following the Gregorian Reform's emphasis on canon law and the study of the sacraments, bishops formed cathedral schools to train the clergy in these and the more secular aspects of religious administration. Learning became essential to advancing in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and teachers also gained prestige. By the 13th century, almost half of the highest offices in the Church were occupied by degreed masters (abbots, archbishops, cardinals).

Modern systems of education in Europe derive their origins from the schools of the High Middle Ages. Most schools during this era were founded upon religious principles with the primary purpose of training the clergy. Many of the earliest universities, such as the University of Paris founded in 1160, had a Christian basis. Free education for the poor was officially mandated by the Church at the Third Lateran Council (1179), which decreed that every cathedral must assign a master to teach boys too poor to pay the regular fee; parishes and monasteries also established free schools teaching at least basic literary skills. With few exceptions, priests and brothers taught locally, and their salaries were frequently subsidised by towns. Private, independent schools reappeared in mediaeval Europe during this time, but they, too, were religious in nature and mission. Some of the greatest theologians of the High Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas and Robert Grosseteste, were products of the mediaeval university.

The Christian clergy has traditionally officiated over of acts worship, reverence, rituals and ceremonies in Europe. Among these central traditions have been baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, marriage, the Mass or the Divine Service, and coronations.

In the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. In some ancient cultures, rulers were considered to be divine or partially divine, and some promulgated the practice of emperor worship. The European coronation ceremonies of the Middle Ages were essentially a combination of the Christian rite of anointing with additional elements. Following Europe's conversion to Christianity, crowning ceremonies became more and more ornate, depending on the country in question, and their Christian elements—especially anointing—became the paramount concern. Anointing a king was considered equivalent to crowning him.

The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and the Church of Sweden (including former dominions of the Swedish Empire: Finland, Estonia and Livonia) have applied the formal, church-based leadership or an ordained clergy in matters of either the church or broader political and sociocultural import. Until the reformation, the clergy was the first estate but was relegated to the secular estate in the Protestant Northern Europe. After compulsory celibacy was abolished in Sweden during the Reformation, the formation of an hereditary priestly class became possible, whereby wealth and clerical positions were frequently inheritable. Historically, Sweden, including the former Swedish province of Finland, has had a more elaborate form of liturgy, which preserved more than other Nordic countries links to the Mediaeval Catholic tradition. In Germany, the high church movement is much smaller than in Sweden. Because of several unions between Lutheran and Reformed churches since the Prussian Union, resulting in the simple spread of Calvinist concepts from the Reformed Churches by "osmosis", Lutheranism has often taken on a Reformed context.