Medieval Christian Europe - 2199 Words

With the decline of the Western Roman empire Western Europe was a disjointed land that had no true unifying structure till the rise of Christianity. In Roman antiquity people used the State or empire of Rome to define themselves and give them a sense of unity despite having a diverse group of people within the empire. When Western Rome fell this belief based on a Roman cultural identity disappeared and no longer were people able to identify themselves with any particular group as they once have. The Christian religion was able to fill this vacuum by having the people associate themselves to a religion instead of a given state or cultural group. During Medieval Europe Christianity became the unifying force that would define what it†¦show more content†¦The conversion of Constantine created the first Christian empire in history and would be used by future Kings of Western Europe throughout the Medieval era of Western Europe. Constantines example of building Churches and i nterjecting himself into the debate on Christian orthodoxy helped to create the existence of a Christian kingdom and how rulers should interact with the Church in general. With the fragmentation of the Roman Empire in the West regional warlords over distinct groups of people began to fill the power vacuum created by the Roman empire disappearing on their frontiers. In Gaul with the rise of the Germanic people they began to form kingdoms based around traditional institutions of loyalty and gift giving. This enabled them to bring together their ethnic people into a central governments to provide security for themselves and their peoples. Though the Roman empire may have left Gaul and their frontier areas many of the institutions that were created remained in place. The rise of Christian Churches and the power of the bishops in the city provided the new kings in Europe with another means of controlling their populations. The bishops of the Church in Gaul often came from landed gen tries ofShow MoreRelatedHow Truth Was Defined By Medieval Europeans1696 Words   |  7 PagesEric Green Urban British Literature 1st 3 December 2015 How Truth Was Defined By Medieval Europeans In life majority of people believe telling the truth is the correct way of living. Truth has endured the world throughout time and is seemingly unanswerable to those who do not understand it because this subject appears in every culture. Truth goes along with universal questions such as what is beauty, justice, and power. And love but none have a direct answer because they are all dependent onRead MoreThe Role Of Monastic And The Problem Of Christian Conversions For Pagan Societies1286 Words   |  6 Pagescivilization and the problem of Christian conversions for pagan societies in Europe during the early Medieval period of Europe. 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