The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and Nowadays

The Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages was one of the most powerful pan-European institutes. It was thanks to her efforts that she managed to reconcile the conflicting interests of Western European countries, and the region in which they were located turned into a fairly cohesive and monolithic community.

History of the Catholic Church

The basic dogmas of the Christian faith were formed before the beginning of the Middle Ages. In a concentrated form, they were recorded in the Creed, adopted in 325 at the Council of Nicaea. Since that time, 264 years have passed, and the Catholic Church decided to make a very significant addition to it, which finally divided the eastern and western branches of Christianity. It is a question of the famous dogma (589), in which it is asserted that the source of the Holy Spirit is not only God the Father, but also God the Son. Most likely, this provision was adopted in order to gain the upper hand in the protracted polemics with the Arians. Adding to the formula of faith ("I believe in one God") the addition of "and the Son," the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages introduced a new, more subordinate interpretation of the Trinity: it turned out that the Son is younger than the Father, despite the fact that both are sources of the Holy Spirit. Despite the fact that this view was controversial, in 809, with the support of Charlemagne, it was finally consolidated in the Aachen Cathedral. There is another important innovation, which in those days was adopted by the Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages, the Roman pontiff Gregory the Great first voiced the idea of the existence of some intermediate place between hell and paradise, where the guilty righteous could atone for their minor sins. On the basis of this assumption, a dogma of purgatory arose. Another innovation was the postulate of a stock of good deeds. According to this dogma, the righteous and saints perform so many good deeds in their lives that there are too many of them for personal salvation. As a result, the "excess" of good is accumulated in the church and can be used to save the less righteous parishioners. This idea was very practical application: the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages began selling indulgences. Beginning in 1073, the title "Pope" began to belong only to the Roman bishop. According to the doctrine of the apostolic heritage, all those attributes of power that once belonged to the apostle Peter, who led the first 12 apostles, pass to him . In 1870, this thesis was finally fixed in the Vatican Council in the form of a dogma about the supremacy of the pope.

The role of the Catholic Church in our time

Despite the fact that the power of the Western branch of Christianity today has diminished noticeably, it is too early to say that the influence of this organization in the modern world does not mean anything. The Catholic Church is still a significant public institution, which can easily change public opinion on a particular issue. Since the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church has managed to accumulate huge wealth. In the United States, the property of its organizations is estimated at about $ 100 billion, and the annual income is at the level of $ 15 billion. It is quite natural that such a large and finely financed organization, like the modern Catholic church, firmly defends its global interests. Despite internal contradictions and some separation from the people, the influence of this organization in the Western world is still at a very high level.