Monasticism

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The Clergy
The Regular (MONKS and MONASTERIES)
The Secular (Priests that deal with normal
folks)
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Who Came Up With The Idea of Monasteries??

• St. Benedict Roman noble.
• Left Rome in early 500s to lead a life of
  prayer.
• Established a monastery in central Italy.
• First person to set up a system of rules to
  organize the monastic community.
• Remember Regular Clergy?
• Regula means rules in Latin.
• What kind of rules?
• Monks could own nothing of their own!
• Several hours must be spent everyday for prayer.
• Monks had to spend several hours everyday
  working.

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Monasteries as centers for learning

• Monks were often the scholars during Medieval
  times.
• Monastery libraries were the main preservers of
  literature from ancient civilizations and of the
  early church.

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Monastery library, Waldsassen, Germany
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Vatican library
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Gregor Mendel Early Geneticist, Biologist
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What About the Secular Clergy?
Some had WEALTH AND POWER!

• How did they get so powerful?
• The Church was given land by nobles and kings
• They wanted to save their souls!
• Church officials (bishops), became nobles
  themselves.
• They were the LORDS who controlled the manor.
• In this way church officials could tell people
  how to get to heaven (spiritual power) and also
  control feudal lands (political power).

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Papal States
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Pope as Supreme Ruler

• In the Papal States the Pope was both the
  spiritual leader and the highest political
  leader.
• The church decreed that all monarchs (Kings)
  should obey the pope.
• Some Kings might have had a problem with that!
• All Christians were told to obey the civil law,
  unless it conflicted with church law.
• Video