The medieval church period spanned roughly one thousand years (AD 500–1500) and produced several figures and ideas that continue to influence the church today. This era—the name of which is derived from the Latin phrase medium aevum (middle age)—began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended roughly with the beginning of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. During the medieval era of church history, the power of the papacy grew, and the biblical gospel was slowly eclipsed, although several individual thinkers made important contributions to our theological understanding. The full-orbed truth of the gospel would not be restored to a prominent place in the church until the Protestant Reformation. Nevertheless, God preserved His remnant throughout the medieval church period.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in late the fifth century, Western Europe turned to various regional kingdoms and tribal leaders for political stability. As a result of various events and developments, the bishop of Rome (better known today as the pope) became a dominant figure both in the life of the church and in politics.
Those who sought a life of prayer, contemplation, purity, order, and even separation from the larger culture found solace in an increasing number of monasteries across Europe. Though monasticism began in the early church, the number and role of monastic orders grew during the medieval period. Monks in monasteries hosted pilgrims, fed the hungry, cared for the sick, provided education, and copied manuscripts of the Bible and other documents by hand. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), one of the most influential medieval monks, revitalized the Benedictine order, helped formulate the Rule for Knights Templar, and even wrote hymns, such as “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin later appealed to several of Bernard’s works in their own writings on the doctrine of justification (sola fide).
Over time, the papacy grew in power and influence. Gregory I (540–604), often called Gregory the Great, is typically seen as the first medieval pope, and his reign was characterized by efforts to curb moral degeneration in the church and by calls for missionary endeavors (such as sending Augustine of Canterbury to England).
Later medieval popes became especially involved in political affairs. A defining moment came on Christmas Day in the year 800, when Pope Leo III crowned the king of France, Charles the Great (or Charlemagne), as the first Roman emperor in more than three centuries and ruler over what would be called the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne believed that the church (especially the clergy) was necessary for a well-ordered and controlled society, and he conducted many of his military campaigns against the growing threat of Islam. The Christian West’s struggles with Islamic empires later led to the infamous Crusades (1096–1229), which (initially) sought to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control.
Other tensions plagued the medieval church. Throughout the first millennium of church history, divisions between the Eastern and Western church increased regarding issues of authority, tradition, and doctrine (for example, the filioque controversy). In 1054, the Great Schism between East and West occurred, and the two remain separate ecclesiastical bodies to this day.
During the later medieval period, Scholasticism—which emphasized the primacy of dialectical reasoning and logic as methods of learning—prevailed in Europe’s universities and monastic schools. Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109), Peter Abelard (c. 1079–1142), Peter Lombard (c. 1096–1160), John Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308), and Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) were some of the most significant Scholastic thinkers. Thomas Aquinas, in particular, represents the high point of the medieval Scholastic-theological method in his influential work Summa Theologica. Thomas leaned upon the theological developments of the early church (notably Augustine) and codified them into a highly organized summation of Christian doctrine.
While papal influence continued to expand across Europe, it also became the target of increasing competition and attacks within the church. During the fourteenth century, competing popes held the office simultaneously—sometimes as many as three “popes” were in office at once. These popes tried to excommunicate one another along with the followers of the other popes. In what became known as the Babylonian captivity of the papacy, the pope relocated to Avignon, France, and a rival was installed in Rome in response. Additionally, the moral corruption of the popes and priests undermined the church’s reputation among the people. As the church demanded more financial contributions from regional kingdoms, it increased its push for the sale of indulgences to pay for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As a result, an increasing number of clergy and laypeople called for church reform. Some of these early calls for reformation—whether moral, theological, or ecclesiastical—came from people such as Jan Hus (c. 1372–1415) and John Wycliffe (c. 1330–84), who is often referred to as the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”
Throughout the medieval period, the papacy endorsed doctrines and practices such as purgatory, transubstantiation, indulgences, the treasury of merit, supreme papal power, the observation of seven sacraments, and the primacy of the Latin translation of the Bible. With the growing threat of Islam in the East and the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) to the Muslims in 1453, many Eastern Christians fled to Western Europe, carrying ancient documents and manuscripts. The rediscovery of these records, together with a heightened appreciation for the arts, literature, and antiquity, led to a rebirth in learning known as the Renaissance. Renaissance humanism, with its emphasis on going back to the sources (ad fontes), found its voice in people such as Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407–57) and the massively popular Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), who oversaw a new edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 and engaged in theological disputes with Martin Luther. With the arrival of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1440s, pamphlets and books could be quickly produced and disseminated across Europe. The combination of moral corruption, theological error, and social and political anxiety set the stage for the Reformation of the Western church that began in the early sixteenth century.
In the sixteenth century, the term evangelical came into prominence as a description of the Protestant church. In many cases, the terms evangelical and Protestant were used interchangeably. Today, that synonymous use of the adjectives no longer functions with any accuracy. Historic Protestants have forgotten what they were protesting in the sixteenth century. The central protest of the Reformation church was the protest against the eclipse of the gospel that had taken place in the medieval church.
R.C. Sproul
Tabletalk magazine
We too often forget, however, that the dark ages did not begin in the fifth century in Europe, nor did they end at the turn of the first millennium AD. The dark ages began long ago in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against the Lord and fell into a corrupt state. And while no respectable historian would ever assign the title “Dark Ages” to the larger part of the history of civilization, since the fall, man has witnessed a dark age.
Burk Parsons
Tabletalk magazine
Against the claims of the medieval church that tradition, bishops, and councils were authoritative along with the Bible, the Reformers insisted that the Bible is the only absolute authority for Christians.
W. Robert Godfrey
Tabletalk magazine
