Role of Christianity in Western society

{{Short description|none}} {{Multiple issues| {{very long|date=January 2026<!--Originally added February 2025, date changed after updating word count-->|words=19,965}} {{full citations needed|date=January 2026}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Christianity sidebar|background}} [[File:Disputa del Sacramento (Rafael).jpg|thumb|''Disputation of the Holy Sacrament'' by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, 1509–1510]]

{{Christian culture}} Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the history and formation of Western society. Throughout its long history, the Catholic Church has been a major source of social services like schooling and medical care; an inspiration for art, culture and philosophy; and an influential player in politics and religion. In various ways it has sought to affect Western attitudes towards vice and virtue in diverse fields. Festivals like Easter and Christmas are marked as public holidays; the Gregorian Calendar has been adopted internationally as the civil calendar; and the calendar itself is measured from an estimation of the date of Jesus's birth.

The cultural influence of the Church has been vast. Church scholars preserved literacy in Western Europe following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book|editor1-last=Brooke|editor1-first=John H.|editor2-last=Numbers|editor2-first=Ronald L.|title=Science and Religion Around the World|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-195-32819-6|pages=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6HPW1TodZwC&pg=PA71}}</ref> During the Middle Ages, the Church rose to replace the Roman Empire as the unifying force in Europe and is credited with dissolving traditional kinship networks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henrich |first=Joseph Patrick |title=The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous |date=2020|pages=57|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-17322-7 |edition=First |location=New York |quote=...{{nbsp}}the medieval Catholic Church inadvertently altered people's psychology by promoting a peculiar set of prohibitions and prescriptions about marriage and the family that dissolved the densely interconnected clans and kindreds in western Europe into small, weak and disparate nuclear families. The social and psychological shifts induced by this transformation fueled the proliferation of voluntary associations, including guilds, charter towns, and universities, drove the expansion of impersonal markets, and spurred the rapid growth of cities. By the High Middle Ages, catalyzed by these ongoing changes, WEIRDer ways of thinking, reasoning, and feeling propelled the emergence of novel forms of law, government, and religion while accelerating innovation and the emergence of Western science.}}</ref> The medieval cathedrals remain among the most iconic architectural feats produced by Western civilization. Many of Europe's universities were also founded by the church at that time. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries.<ref>Johnson, P. (2000). The Renaissance: a short history. Modern Library chronicles (Modern Library ed.). New York: Modern Library, p. 9.</ref> The university is generally regarded<ref>Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: ''A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-521-36105-2}}, pp. XIX–XX</ref><ref name="Verger">{{cite journal |last1=Verger |first1=Jacques |title=Parisian Scholars in the Early Fourteenth Century |journal=European Review |date=13 July 2009 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=268–269 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/parisian-scholars-in-the-early-fourteenth-centurycourtenay-william-jcambridge-university-press-cambridge-1999-285-pages-4000-hardback-isbn-0521642124/B9C91F113903305984005C01FC058CE5 |access-date=8 July 2020 |publisher=Cambridge Core}}</ref> as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting, born from Cathedral schools.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Haskins | first1 = Charles H. | year = 1898 | title = The Life of Medieval Students as Illustrated by their Letters | journal = The American Historical Review | volume = 3 | issue = 2| pages = 203–229 | doi=10.2307/1832500| jstor = 1832500 }}</ref> Many scholars and historians attribute Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Lindberg | first1 = David C. | author-link = David C. Lindberg | last2 = Numbers | first2 = Ronald L. | author2-link = Ronald L. Numbers | title = God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science | place = Berkeley and Los Angeles | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1986 | chapter = Introduction | pages = 5, 12 | isbn = 978-0-520-05538-4 | quote = It would be indefensible to maintain, with Hooykaas and Jaki, that Christianity was fundamentally responsible for the successes of seventeenth-century science. It would be a mistake of equal magnitude, however, to overlook the intricate interlocking of scientific and religious concerns throughout the century.}}</ref><ref name="abc.net.au">{{cite web|last1=Harrison|first1=Peter|title=Christianity and the rise of western science|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=8 May 2012|url=http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm|access-date=28 August 2014}}</ref>

The Reformation brought an end to religious unity in the West, but the Renaissance masterpieces produced by Catholic artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael remain among the most celebrated works of art ever produced. Similarly, Christian sacred music by composers like Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Verdi is among the most admired classical music in the Western canon.

The Bible and Christian theology have also strongly influenced Western philosophers and political activists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Riches |first=John |title=The Bible: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0192853431 |location=Oxford |at=Ch. 1 |chapter=}}</ref> The teachings of Jesus, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, are argued by some to be among the most important sources of modern notions of "human rights" and the welfare commonly provided by governments in the West. Long-held Christian teachings on sexuality, marriage, and family life have also been influential and controversial in recent times.<ref name="Adrian Hastings">{{cite book |last1=Hastings |first1=Adrian |title=The Church in Africa, 1450–1950 (Oxford History of the Christian Church) |date=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0198263999 |url=https://archive.org/details/churchinafrica140000hast }}</ref>{{rp|309}} Christianity in general affected the status of women by condemning marital infidelity, divorce, incest, polygamy, birth control, infanticide (female infants were more likely to be killed), and abortion.<ref name="Stark">{{cite book |last1=Stark |first1=Rodney |title=The Rise of Christianity A Sociologist Reconsiders History |date=2020 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691214290}}</ref>{{rp|104}} While official Catholic Church teaching<ref name="Kreeft61">{{cite book |last1=Kreeft |first1=Peter |title=Catholic Christianity A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church |date= 21 February 2011 |publisher=Ignatius Press |isbn=9781681490700}}</ref>{{rp|61}} considers women and men to be complementary (equal and different), some modern "advocates of ordination of women and other feminists" argue that teachings attributed to St. Paul and those of the Fathers of the Church and Scholastic theologians advanced the notion of a divinely ordained female inferiority.<ref name="Bokenkotter465">{{cite book |last1=Bokenkotter |first1=Thomas |title=A Concise History of the Catholic Church |date=2007 |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |isbn=9780307423481 |page=465|edition=Revised }}</ref> Nevertheless, women have played prominent roles in Western history through and as part of the church, particularly in education and healthcare, but also as influential theologians and mystics.

Christians have made a myriad of contributions to human progress in a broad and diverse range of fields, both historically and in modern times, including science and technology,<ref name="Gilley">{{cite book |last= Gilley |first= Sheridan |others=Brian Stanley|title=The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities c. 1815 – c. 1914 |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|quote= ... Many of the scientists who contributed to these developments were Christians...|isbn=0521814561|page=164}}</ref><ref name="Steane">{{cite book |last=Steane |first=Andrew |title=Faithful to Science: The Role of Science in Religion|year=2014 |publisher=OUP Oxford|quote= ... the Christian contribution to science has been uniformly at the top level, but it has reached that level and it has been sufficiently strong overall ...|isbn=978-0191025136|page=179}}</ref><ref name="L. Johnson">{{cite book |last= L. Johnson |first= Eric|title=Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal |year=2009 |publisher=InterVarsity Press|quote= ... . Many of the early leaders of the scientific revolution were Christians, including Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, Francis Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Descartes, Ray, Linnaeus, and Gassendi...|isbn= 978-0830875276|page=63}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/people/100_scientists.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119123204/http://www.adherents.com/people/100_scientists.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=19 November 2005|title=100 Scientists Who Shaped World History|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/people/100_Nobel.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524041145/http://www.adherents.com/people/100_Nobel.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=24 May 2007|title=50 Nobel Laureates and Other Great Scientists Who Believe in God|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref> medicine,<ref name="S. Kroger">{{cite book |last=S. Kroger|first= William|title=Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in Medicine, Dentistry and Psychology|year=2016 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing|quote=Many prominent Catholic physicians and psychologists have made significant contributions to hypnosis in medicine, dentistry, and psychology.|isbn=978-1787203044}}</ref> fine arts and architecture,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/people/adh_art.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211024930/http://www.adherents.com/people/adh_art.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=11 December 2005|title=Religious Affiliation of the World's Greatest Artists|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="adherents.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/people/100_business.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119112115/http://www.adherents.com/people/100_business.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=19 November 2005|title=Wealthy 100 and the 100 Most Influential in Business|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="E. McGrath">{{cite book|last=E. McGrath|first=Alister|title=Christianity: An Introduction|year=2006|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|quote=Virtually every major European composer contributed to the development of church music. Monteverdi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, and Verdi are examples of composers who made significant contributions in this sphere. The Catholic Church was one of the most important patrons of musical developments, and a crucial stimulus to the development of the western musical tradition.|isbn=1405108991|page=[https://archive.org/details/christianityintr0000mcgr/page/336 336]|url=https://archive.org/details/christianityintr0000mcgr}}</ref> politics, literatures,<ref name="E. McGrath" /> music,<ref name="E. McGrath" /> philanthropy, philosophy,<ref name="A. Spinello">{{cite book |last= A. Spinello|first= Richard |title=The Encyclicals of John Paul II: An Introduction and Commentary |year=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |quote= ... The insights of Christian philosophy "would not have happened without the direct or indirect contribution of Christian faith" (FR 76). Typical Christian philosophers include St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The benefits derived from Christian philosophy are twofold&nbsp;...|isbn=978-1442219427|page=147}}</ref><ref name="Vincelette">{{cite book |last= Roy Vincelette|first= Alan |title=Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Nineteenth Century |year=2009 |publisher=Marquette University Press|quote= ... .Catholic thinkers contributed extensively to philosophy during the Nineteenth Century. Besides pioneering the revivals of Augustinianism and Thomism, they helped initiate such philosophical movements as Romanticism, Traditionalism, Semi-Rationalism, Spiritualism, Ontologism, and Integralism...|isbn=978-0874627565}}</ref><ref name="Hyman1967">{{cite book |last1=Hyman |first1=J. |title=Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions |last2=Walsh |first2=J. J. |date=1967 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |oclc=370638}}</ref>{{rp|15}} ethics,<ref name="Encyclopaedia Perthensis">{{cite book |last= Brown |first=J. |title=Encyclopaedia Perthensis, Or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, Etc. : Intended to Supersede the Use of Other Books of Reference, Volume 18|publisher=University of Minnesota|quote= ... Christians has also contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery, or at least to the mitigation of the rigour of servitude.|isbn=978-0191025136|page=179|date=24 July 2014 }}</ref> humanism,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190921538.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190921538 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Humanism |date=2021-09-09 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-092154-5 |language=en-US |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190921538.001.0001|editor-last1=Pinn |editor-first1=Anthony B }}</ref><ref>Davies, p. 477</ref><ref>Löffler, Klemens (1910). "Humanism". ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. VII. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 538–542.</ref> theatre and business.<ref name="J. Hillerbrand">{{cite book |last= Hillerbrand|first=Hans J. |title=Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set |year=2016 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing|quote= ... In the centuries succeeding the Reformation the teaching of Protestantism was consistent on the nature of work. Some Protestant theologians also contributed to the study of economics, especially the nineteenth-century Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers&nbsp;...|isbn=978-1787203044|page=174}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991128185243/http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=28 November 1999|title=Religion of History's 100 Most Influential People|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="adherents.com" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/adh_phil.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000118210213/http://adherents.com/adh_phil.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=18 January 2000|title=Religion of Great Philosophers|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref> According to ''100 Years of Nobel Prizes'', a review of Nobel Prize awards between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.<ref name="Nobel Prize">Baruch A. Shalev, ''100 Years of Nobel Prizes'' (2003), Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, p.&nbsp;57: between 1901 and 2000 reveals that 654 Laureates belong to 28 different religions. Most (65.4%) have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. {{ISBN|978-0935047370}}</ref> Eastern Christians (particularly Nestorian Christians) have also contributed to the Arab Islamic Civilization during the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic.<ref name="Hill, Donald 1993. p.4">Hill, Donald. ''Islamic Science and Engineering''. 1993. Edinburgh Univ. Press. {{ISBN|0-7486-0455-3}}, p. 4</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Legend of the Middle Ages |last1=Brague |first1=Rémi |author-link=Rémi Brague |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8YjEkLPXNYC |access-date=11 February 2014 |isbn=9780226070803 |page=164 |date=15 April 2009 |publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref><ref name="Ferguson-2008">Ferguson, Kitty [https://books.google.com/books?id=trM7NJz011oC&dq=preserve+ancient+knowledge+syria&pg=PT100 Pythagoras: His Lives and the Legacy of a Rational Universe] Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2008, (page number not available{{Snd}} occurs toward end of Chapter 13, "The Wrap-up of Antiquity"). "It was in the Near and Middle East and North Africa that the old traditions of teaching and learning continued, and where Christian scholars were carefully preserving ancient texts and knowledge of the ancient Greek language."</ref> They also excelled in philosophy, science, theology and medicine.<ref name="christiansofiraq.com">{{Cite web |last=Brague |first=Remi |title=Assyrian Contributions to the Islamic Civilization |url=http://www.christiansofiraq.com/assyriancontributionstotheislamiccivilization.htm |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.christiansofiraq.com}}</ref><ref name="Nestorian">{{Cite web |date=2023-04-18 |title=Nestorianism {{!}} Definition, History, & Churches {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nestorianism |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Rodney Stark writes that medieval Europe's advances in production methods, navigation, and war technology "can be traced to the unique Christian conviction that progress was a God-given obligation, entailed in the gift of reason. That new technologies and techniques would always be forthcoming was a fundamental article of Christian faith. Hence, no bishops or theologians denounced clocks or sailing ships—although both were condemned on religious grounds in various non-Western societies."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gj6FDwAAQBAJ|title=The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success|date=26 September 2006 |page=48|publisher=Random House Publishing |isbn=9780812972337 }}</ref>

Christianity contributed greatly to the development of European cultural identity, although some progress originated elsewhere, Romanticism began with the curiosity and passion of the pagan world of old.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Peter N. |date=2006 |title=History of Religion Becomes Ethnology: Some Evidence from Peiresc's Africa |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2006.0035 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=675–696 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2006.0035 |s2cid=170111458 |issn=1086-3222|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The great fairy tale tradition : from Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm : texts, criticism |date=2001 |publisher=W.W. Norton |author=Jack Zipes |isbn=0-393-97636-X |location=New York |oclc=44133076}}</ref> Outside the Western world, Christianity has had an influence and contributed to various cultures, such as in Africa, Central Asia, the Near East, Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Curtis 2017 173">{{cite book|title=Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East|first=Michael |last=Curtis|year= 2017| isbn=9781351510721| page =173|publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Cultural Politics and Asian Values|first=Michael |last= D. Barr|year= 2012| isbn=9781136001666| page =81|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> Scholars and intellectuals have noted Christians have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam.<ref>{{cite book|title=Secular Nationalism and Citizenship in Muslim Countries: Arab Christians in the Levant|first=Michael |last=Curtis|year= 2018| isbn=9781351510721| page =11|publisher=Springer|quote=Christian contributions to art, culture, and literature in the Arab-Islamic world; Christian contributions education and social advancement in the region.}}</ref>{{TOC limit|3}}

==Politics and law== ===From early persecution to state religion=== [[File:Nicaea icon.jpg|thumb|upright|Icon depicting the Roman Emperor Constantine (centre) and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381]]

The foundation of canon law is found in its earliest texts and their interpretation in the church fathers' writings. Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century arising out of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The life of Jesus is recounted in the New Testament of the Bible, one of the bedrock texts of Western Civilization and inspiration for countless works of Western art.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">BBC, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/ ''BBC—Religion & Ethics—566, Christianity'']</ref> Jesus' birth is commemorated in the festival of Christmas, his death during the Paschal Triduum, and his resurrection during Easter. Christmas and Easter remain holidays in many Western nations.

The early followers of Jesus, including Paul and Peter, carried their new theology concerning Jesus and its ethic throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, sowing the seeds for the development of the Catholic Church, of which Saint Peter is considered the first Pope. Christians sometimes faced persecution during these early centuries, particularly for their refusal to join in worshiping the emperors. Nevertheless, carried through the synagogues, merchants and missionaries across the known world, Christianity quickly grew in size and influence.<ref name="ReferenceA">Geoffrey Blainey; ''A Very Short History of the World''; Penguin Books, 2004</ref> Its unique appeal was partly the result of its values and ethics.<ref name="George H. van Kooten">{{cite book|last=van Kooten| first=George H.|editor=D. Jeffrey Bingham| title=The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/TheRoutledgeCompanionToEarlyChristianThought| year=2010| publisher=Routledge| location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-44225-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/TheRoutledgeCompanionToEarlyChristianThought/page/n36 24]|chapter=1:Christianity in the Greco-Roman world}}</ref>

The Bible has had a profound influence on Western civilization and on cultures around the globe; it has contributed to the formation of Western law, art, texts, and education.<ref>{{cite book|title= Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry|first=Harold |last= G. Koenig|year= 2009| isbn=9780521889520| page =31 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|quote= The Bible is the most globally influential and widely read book ever written. ... it has been a major influence on the behavior, laws, customs, education, art, literature, and morality of Western civilization.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible|first=Jonathan |last=Burnside|year= 2011| isbn=9780199759217| page = XXVI|publisher=Oxford University Press|quote= }}</ref> With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, the Bible is one of the most influential works ever written. From practices of personal hygiene to philosophy and ethics, the Bible has directly and indirectly influenced politics and law, war and peace, sexual morals, marriage and family life, toilet etiquette, letters and learning, the arts, economics, social justice, medical care and more.<ref>{{cite book |last=Riches |first=John |title=The Bible: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0192853431 |location=Oxford |at=Ch. 1}}</ref>

====Human value as a foundation to law==== The world's first civilizations were Mesopotamian ''sacred states'' ruled in the name of a divinity or by rulers who were seen as divine. Rulers, and the priests, soldiers and bureaucrats who carried out their will, were a small minority who kept power by exploiting the many.<ref name="Alfred J. Andrea">{{cite book| author1-last=Andrea| author1-first=Alfred J.| author-link1=Alfred J. Andrea | author2-last=Overfield| author2-first=James H.|title=The Human Record: To 1500 Sources of Global History|edition= eighth|volume=1|year=2016|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co.| location=New York|isbn=978-1-285-87023-6|pages=6–17}}</ref>

{{blockquote|If we turn to the roots of our western tradition, we find that in Greek and Roman times not all human life was regarded as inviolable and worthy of protection. Slaves and 'barbarians' did not have a full right to life and human sacrifices and gladiatorial combat were acceptable... Spartan Law required that deformed infants be put to death; for Plato, infanticide is one of the regular institutions of the ideal State; Aristotle regards abortion as a desirable option; and the Stoic philosopher Seneca writes unapologetically: "Unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal... And whilst there were deviations from these views..., it is probably correct to say that such practices...were less proscribed in ancient times. Most historians of western morals agree that the rise of ...Christianity contributed greatly to the general feeling that human life is valuable and worthy of respect.<ref name="Marc Stauch">{{cite book |last1=Stauch |first1=Marc |last2=Wheat |first2=Kay |title=Text, Cases & Materials on Medical Law |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-138-02402-1 |chapter=12.1.2.1:The Sanctity of human life by H.Kuhse }}</ref>}}

W.E.H.Lecky gives the now classical account of the sanctity of human life in his history of European morals saying Christianity "formed a new standard, higher than any which then existed in the world...".<ref name="W. E. H. Lecky">{{cite book| last=Lecky| first=W.E.H.|title=History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne|volume=2| year=1920| publisher=Longman's, Green, and Co.| location=London, England}}</ref> Christian ethicist David P. Gushee says "The justice teachings of Jesus are closely related to a commitment to life's sanctity...".<ref name="David P. Gushee">{{cite book| last=Gushee| first= David P.| title=In the Fray: Contesting Christian Public Ethics, 1994–2013| year=2014| publisher=Cascade Books| location =Eugene, Oregon| isbn=978-1-62564-044-4| page=109}}</ref>

John Keown, a professor of Christian ethics distinguishes this 'sanctity of life' doctrine from "a quality of life approach, which recognizes only instrumental value in human life, and a vitalistic approach, which regards life as an absolute moral value... [Kewon says it is the] sanctity of life approach&nbsp;... which embeds a presumption in favor of preserving life, but concedes that there are circumstances in which life should not be preserved at all costs", and it is this which provides the solid foundation for law concerning end of life issues.<ref name="Elizabeth Wicks">{{cite book |last=Wicks |first=Elizabeth |title=The State and the Body: Legal Regulation of Bodily Autonomy |publisher=Hart Publishing Co. |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-84946-779-7 |location=Portland, Oregon |pages=74, 75}}</ref>

====Early legal views of women==== Rome had a social caste system, with women having "no legal independence and no independent property".<ref name="Jane F. Gardner">{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Jane F. |title=Women in Roman Law & Society |year=1991 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Indianapolis |isbn=0-253-20635-9 |page=67 }}</ref> Early Christianity, as Pliny the Younger explains in his letters to Emperor Trajan, had people from "every age and rank, and both sexes".<ref name="Luke Painter">{{cite book|last=Painter| first=Luke| title=Finding the Roots of Christianity: A Spiritual and Historical Journey|year=2017|publisher=Resource Publications| location=Eugene, Oregon| isbn=978-1-5326-1031-8| page=104}}</ref> Pliny reports arresting two slave women who claimed to be 'deaconesses' in the first decade of the second century.<ref name="Lynn Cohick">{{cite book| last=Cohick|first=Lynn| author-link=Lynn H. Cohick|title=Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life|year=2009| publisher=Baker Academic Publishing| location=Grand Rapids, Michigan| isbn=978-0-8010-3172-4|page=195}}</ref> There was a rite for the ordination of women deacons in the Roman Pontifical (a liturgical book) up through the 12th century. For women deacons, the oldest rite in the West comes from an eighth-century book, whereas Eastern rites go back to the third century and there are more of them.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Macy|first=Gary|year=2013|title=Get the facts in order| journal= U.S. Catholic Faith in Real Life| volume=78|issue=1|pages=18–22}}</ref>

The New Testament refers to a number of women in Jesus' inner circle. There are several Gospel accounts of Jesus imparting important teachings to and about women: his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, his anointing by Mary of Bethany, his public admiration for a poor widow who donated two copper coins to the Temple in Jerusalem, his stepping to the aid of the woman accused of adultery, his friendship with Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus, and the presence of Mary Magdalene, his mother, and the other women as he was crucified. Historian Geoffrey Blainey concludes that "as the standing of women was not high in Palestine, Jesus' kindnesses towards them were not always approved by those who strictly upheld tradition".<ref name="Geoffrey Blaney">{{cite book| last=Blaney| first=Geoffrey| title =A Short History of Christianity| year=2014| publisher=Rowman and Littlefield| location=Lanham, Maryland| isbn=978-1-4422-2589-3|pages=19, 20}}</ref>

According to Christian apologist Tim Keller, it was common in the Greco-Roman world to expose female infants because of the low status of women in society. The church forbade its members to do so. Greco-Roman society saw no value in an unmarried woman, and therefore it was illegal for a widow to go more than two years without remarrying. Christianity did not force widows to marry and supported them financially. Pagan widows lost all control of their husband's estate when they remarried, but the church allowed widows to maintain their husband's estate. Christians did not believe in cohabitation. If a Christian man wanted to live with a woman, the church required marriage, and this gave women legal rights and far greater security. Finally, the pagan double standard of allowing married men to have extramarital sex and mistresses was forbidden. Jesus' teachings on divorce and Paul's advocacy of monogamy began the process of elevating the status of women so that Christian women tended to enjoy greater security and equality than women in surrounding cultures.<ref name="Tim Keller">{{cite book| last=Keller| first=Tim| title=The Reason for God Belief in an age of skepticism| year=2008| publisher=Penguin Books| location=New York| isbn=978-0-52595-049-3| page=[https://archive.org/details/reasonforgodbeli00kell_0/page/249 249]| url=https://archive.org/details/reasonforgodbeli00kell_0/page/249}}</ref>

====Laws affecting children==== In the ancient world, infanticide was not legal but was rarely prosecuted. A broad distinction was popularly made between infanticide and infant exposure, which was widely practiced. Many exposed children died, but many were taken by speculators who raised them to be slaves or prostitutes. <!-- Is this appropriate here? --> It is not possible to ascertain, with any degree of accuracy, what diminution of infanticide resulted from legal efforts against it in the Roman empire. "It may, however, be safely asserted that the publicity of the trade in exposed children became impossible under the influence of Christianity, and that the sense of the seriousness of the crime was very considerably increased."<ref name="W. E. H. Lecky"/>{{rp|31,32}}

====Legal status under Constantine==== Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan in 313 AD ended the state-sponsored persecution of Christians in the East, and his own conversion to Christianity was a significant turning point in history.<ref>Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley-Blackwell, by James B. Rives, p. 196</ref> In 312, Constantine offered civic toleration to Christians, and through his reign instigated laws and policies in keeping with Christian principles{{Snd}} making Sunday the Sabbath "day of rest" for Roman society (though initially this was only for urban dwellers) and embarking on a church building program. In AD 325, Constantine conferred the First Council of Nicaea to gain consensus and unity within Christianity, with a view to establishing it as the religion of the Empire. The population and wealth of the Roman Empire had been shifting east, and around the year 330, Constantine established the city of Constantinople as a new imperial city which would be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Patriarch in Constantinople now came to rival the Pope in Rome. Although cultural continuity and interchange would continue between these Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the history of Christianity and Western culture took divergent routes, with a final Great Schism separating Roman and Eastern Christianity in 1054 AD.

====Fourth century political influence and laws against pagans==== {{See also|Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire}} During the fourth century, Christian writing and theology blossomed into a "Golden Age" of literary and scholarly activity unmatched since the days of Virgil and Horace. Many of these works remain influential in politics, law, ethics and other fields. A new genre of literature was also born in the fourth century: church history.<ref name="Isaac Padinjarekutt">{{cite book |last=Padinjarekutt |first=Isaac |title=Christianity Through The Centuries |publisher=St. Paul's |year=2005 |location=Mumbai |page=32}}</ref><ref name="Jonathan Bardill">{{cite book| last=Bardill|first=Jonathan| title=Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age| year=2012| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=New York| isbn=978-0-521-76423-0}}</ref>

[[File:Anthonis van Dyck 005.jpg|thumb|upright|''Saint Ambrose and Emperor Theodosius'', Anthony van Dyck]] The remarkable transformation of Christianity from peripheral sect to major force within the Empire is often held to be a result of the influence held by St. Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, but this is unlikely.<ref name="Cameron">{{cite book |last1=Cameron |first1=Alan |title=The Last Pagans of Rome |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=US |isbn=9780199747276}}</ref>{{rp|60,63,131}} In April of 390, the Emperor Theodosius I ordered the punitive massacre of thousands of the citizens of Thessaloniki. In a private letter from Ambrose to Theodosius, sometime in August after this event, Ambrose told Theodosius he cannot be given communion while Theodosius is unrepentant of this terrible act.<ref>Cotten, Christopher Ryan. Ambrose and Stilicho. Diss. uga, 2007. url=https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/cotten_christopher_r_200708_ma.pdf</ref>{{rp|12}}<ref>{{cite CE1913|wstitle= St. Ambrose |volume= 1 |last= Loughlin |first= James Francis |author-link= |pages=383-388|short=1}}</ref><ref name="Randall D. Law">{{cite book|editor-last=Law| editor-first=Randall D.| title=The Routledge History of Terrorism|year=2015| publisher=Routledge| location=New York| isbn=978-0-415-53577-9| pages=46–48}}</ref> Wolf Liebeschuetz says records show "Theodosius duly complied and came to church humbly, without his imperial robes, until Christmas, when Ambrose openly readmitted him to communion."<ref name="Hugo">{{cite book |last1=Liebeschuetz |first1=John Hugo Wolfgang Gideon |last2=Hill |first2=Carole |editor1-last=Liebeschuetz |editor1-first=John Hugo Wolfgang Gideon |editor2-last=Hill |editor2-first=Carole |title=Ambrose of Milan: Political Letters and Speeches |date=2005 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=9780853238294 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalletters0000ambr }}</ref>{{rp|262}}

McLynn states that "the encounter at the church door has long been known as a pious fiction."<ref name="McLynn">{{cite book |last1=McLynn |first1=Neil B. |title=Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital |date=1994 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520914551}}</ref>{{rp|291}} Daniel Washburn explains that the image of the mitered prelate braced in the door of the cathedral in Milan blocking Theodosius from entering, is a product of the imagination of Theodoret, a historian of the fifth century who wrote of the events of 390 "using his own ideology to fill the gaps in the historical record."<ref name="Drake">{{cite book|title=Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices|editor1-last=Drake|editor1-first=Harold Allen|editor2-last=Albu|editor2-first=Emily|editor2-link=Emily Albu|editor3-last=Elm|editor3-first=Susanna|editor4-last=Maas|editor4-first=Michael|editor5-last=Rapp|editor5-first=Claudia|editor6-last=Salzman|editor6-first=Michael|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|year=2006}}</ref>{{rp|215}} According to Peter Brown, these events concern personal piety; they do not represent a turning point in history with the State submitting to the Church.<ref name="Brownpowerandpersuasion">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Peter|title=Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|year=1992|isbn=9780299133443}}</ref>{{rp|111}}<ref name="Cameron"/>{{rp|63,64}}

According to Christian literature of the fourth century, paganism ended by the early to mid—fifth century with everyone either converted or cowed.<ref name="Brown2">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Peter|year=1997|title=Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|pages=[https://archive.org/details/authoritysacred00pete/page/49 49–54]|edition=revised|isbn=9780521595575|url=https://archive.org/details/authoritysacred00pete}}</ref>{{rp|633,640}} Contemporary archaeology, on the other hand, indicates this is not so; paganism continued across the empire, and the end of paganism varied from place to place.<ref name="Lavan">{{cite book |last1=Lavan |first1=Luke |editor1-last=Lavan |editor1-first=Luke |editor2-last=Mulryan |editor2-first=Michael |title=The Archaeology of Late Antique "paganism" |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004192379}}</ref>{{rp|54}} Violence such as temple destructions are attested in some locations, generally in small numbers, and are not spread equally throughout the empire. In most regions away from the imperial court, the end of paganism was, more often, gradual and untraumatic.<ref name="Lavan"/>{{rp|156,221}}<ref name="Sághy">Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome: Conflict, Competition, and Coexistence in the Fourth Century. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2016.</ref>{{rp|5,7,41}}

Theodosius reigned (albeit for a brief interim) as the last Emperor of a united Eastern and Western Roman Empire. Between 389 and 391, Theodosius promulgated the Theodosian Decrees, a collection of laws from the time of Constantine including laws against heretics and pagans. In 391 Theodosius blocked the restoration of the pagan Altar of Victory to the Roman Senate and then fought against Eugenius, who courted pagan support for his own bid for the imperial throne.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14577d.htm |title=Theodosius I |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref> Brown says the language of the Theodosian Decrees is "uniformly vehement and the penalties are harsh and frequently horrifying." They may have provided a foundation for similar laws in the High Middle Ages.<ref name="Brown2"/>{{rp|638}} However, in antiquity, these laws were not much enforced, and Brown adds that, "In most areas, polytheists were not molested, and, apart from a few ugly incidents of local violence, Jewish communities also enjoyed a century of stable, even privileged, existence."<ref name="Brown1">Brown, Peter. Late antiquity. Harvard University Press, 1998</ref>{{rp|643}} Contemporary scholars indicate pagans were not wiped out or fully converted by the fifth century as Christian sources claim. Pagans remained throughout the fourth and fifth centuries in sufficient numbers to preserve a broad spectrum of pagan practices into the 6th century and even beyond in some places.<ref name="Bayliss">{{cite book|last=Bayliss|first=Richard|title=Provincial Cilicia and the Archaeology of Temple Conversion|publisher=British Archaeological Reports|location=UK|year=2004|isbn= 978-1841716343}}</ref>{{rp|19}}

====The political and legal impact of the fall of Rome==== The central bureaucracy of imperial Rome remained in Rome in the sixth century but was replaced in the rest of the empire by German tribal organization and the church.<ref name="Ermatinger">{{cite book |last1=Ermatinger |first1=James William |title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Greenwood guides to historic events of the ancient world |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |edition=illustrated, annotated |ref=9780313326929}}</ref>{{rp|67}} After the fall of Rome (476) most of the west returned to a subsistence agrarian form of life. What little security there was in this world was largely provided by the Christian church.<ref name ="Cuthbert Butler">{{cite book| last=Butler|first=Cuthbert| title=Benedictine Monachism: Studies in Benedictine Life and Rule| url=https://archive.org/details/BenedictineMonachism| year=1919| publisher=Longmans, Green and Company| location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/BenedictineMonachism/page/n13 3]–8}}</ref><ref name="Roy T. Matthews">{{cite book| author1-last=Matthews| author1-first=Roy T.| author2-last=Platt| author2-first=F.DeWitt| title=The Western Humanities| year=1992| publisher=Mayfield Publishing Co.| location=Mountain View, California| isbn=0-87484-785-0| page=[https://archive.org/details/westernhumanitie00matt/page/181 181,198–200]| url=https://archive.org/details/westernhumanitie00matt/page/181}}</ref> The papacy served as a source of authority and continuity at this critical time. In the absence of a magister militum living in Rome, even the control of military matters fell to the pope.

===The role of Christianity in politics and law in the Medieval period=== The historian Geoffrey Blainey likened the Catholic Church in its activities during the Middle Ages to an early version of a welfare state: "It conducted hospitals for the old and orphanages for the young; hospices for the sick of all ages; places for the lepers; and hostels or inns where pilgrims could buy a cheap bed and meal". It supplied food to the population during famine and distributed food to the poor. This welfare system the church funded through collecting taxes on a large scale and by owning large farmlands and estates.<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Penguin Viking; 2011; pp. 214–215.</ref> The canon law of the Catholic Church ({{Langx|la|jus canonicum}})<ref>Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 771: "Jus canonicum"</ref> is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church.<ref>Della Rocca, ''Manual of Canon Law'', pg. 3</ref> It was the first modern Western legal system<ref>Berman, Harold J. ''Law and Revolution'', pp. 86, 115</ref> and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Peters |first=Edward N. |title=Canonlaw.info Homepage |url=http://canonlaw.info/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=canonlaw.info}}</ref> predating the European common law and civil law traditions.

====The Rule of Benedict as a legal base in the Dark Ages==== The period between the Fall of Rome (476 C.E.) and the rise of the Carolingian Franks (750 C.E.) is often referred to as the "Dark Ages", however, it could also be designated the "Age of the Monk". This era had a lasting impact on politics and law through Christian ascetics like St. Benedict (480–543), who vowed a life of chastity, obedience and poverty; after rigorous intellectual training and self-denial, Benedictines lived by the "Rule of Benedict:" work and pray. This "Rule" became the foundation of the majority of the thousands of monasteries that spread across what is modern day Europe; "...certainly there will be no demur in recognizing that St. Benedict's Rule has been one of the great facts in the history of western Europe, and that its influence and effects are with us to this day."<ref name ="Cuthbert Butler"/>{{rp|intro.}} [[File:Gregorythegreat.jpg|thumb|upright|Pope Gregory the Great (''c'' 540–604), who established medieval themes in the Church, in a painting by Carlo Saraceni, c.&nbsp;1610, Rome]] Monasteries were models of productivity and economic resourcefulness teaching their local communities animal husbandry, cheese making, wine making, and various other skills.<ref name="Dennis J. Dunn">{{cite book| last=Dunn|first=Dennis J.| title=A History of Orthodox, Islamic, and Western Christian Political Values| year=2016| publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Switzerland|isbn=978-3-319-32566-8|page=60}}</ref> They were havens for the poor, hospitals, hospices for the dying, and schools. Medical practice was highly important in medieval monasteries, and they are best known for their contributions to medical tradition. They also made advances in sciences such as astronomy.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Koenig|editor1-first=Harold G.|editor2-last=King|editor2-first=Dana E.|editor3-last=Carson|editor3-first=Verna Benner|title=Handbook of Religion and Health|edition=second|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-533595-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofreligi0000koen/page/22 22–24]|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofreligi0000koen/page/22}}</ref> For centuries, nearly all secular leaders were trained by monks because, excepting private tutors who were still, often, monks, it was the only education available.<ref name="Paul Monroe">{{cite book| last=Monroe| first=Paul|title=A Text-book in the History of Education|year=1909|publisher=The Macmillan Company| location=London, England|page=253}}</ref>

The formation of these organized bodies of believers distinct from political and familial authority, especially for women, gradually carved out a series of social spaces with some amount of independence thereby revolutionizing social history.<ref name="Roger D. Haight">{{cite book|last=Haight| first=Roger D.| title=Christian Community in History Volume 1: Historical Ecclesiology| year=2004| publisher=The Continuum International Publishing Group| location=New York|isbn=0-8264-1630-6|page=273}}</ref>

Gregory the Great (''c'' 540–604) administered the church with strict reform. A trained Roman lawyer, administrator, and monk, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook and was a father of many of the structures of the later Catholic Church. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he looked upon Church and State as co-operating to form a united whole, which acted in two distinct spheres, ecclesiastical and secular, but by the time of his death, the papacy was the great power in Italy:<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06780a.htm |title=St. Gregory the Great |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref> Gregory was one of the few sovereigns called Great by universal consent. He is known for sending out the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome to convert the then-pagan Anglo-Saxons in England, for his many writings, his administrative skills, and his focus on the welfare of the people.<ref>Flechner, "Pope Gregory and the British" ''Histoires de Bretagnes'' 5, p. 47 [https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/7383/1/Flechner_Gregory_and_the_British_Mission_Canon_Law.pdf]</ref><ref name="OCA">{{Cite web|url=https://oca.org/saints/lives/0216/03/12/100789-st-gregory-dialogus-the-pope-of-rome|title=St. Gregory Dialogus, the Pope of Rome|website=oca.org, Orthodox Church in America|language=en|access-date=2018-04-20}}</ref> He also fought the Arian heresy and the Donatists, pacified the Goths, left a famous example of penitence for a crime, revised the liturgy, and influenced music through the development of antiphonal chants.<ref>Kenneth Levy, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dlhhy74e6ugC&dq=suppression+of+regional+musical+dialects&pg=PA7 ''Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians''(Princeton University Press 1998] {{ISBN|9780691017334}}), p. 7</ref>

{{blockquote|Pope Gregory the Great made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. From this time forth the varied populations of Italy looked to the pope for guidance, and Rome as the papal capital continued to be the centre of the Christian world.}}

====Charlemagne transformed law and founded feudalism in the Early Middle Ages==== thumb|EB1911 Europe{{Snd}} Charlemagne's empire at its greatest extent Charlemagne ("Charles the Great" in English) became king of the Franks in 768. He conquered the Low Countries, Saxony, and northern and central Italy, and in 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor. Sometimes called the "Father of Europe" and the founder of feudalism, Charlemagne instituted political and judicial reform and led what is sometimes referred to as the Early Renaissance or the Christian Renaissance.<ref name="Roger Collins">{{cite book|last=Collins| first=Roger| title=Charlemagne| year=1998| publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto, Canada|isbn=0-8020-8218-1|page=1}}</ref> Johannes Fried writes that Charlemagne left such a profound impression on his age that traces of it still remain. He promoted education and literacy and subsidized schools, he worked at protecting the poor enacting economic and currency reform; these, along with legal and judicial reforms, created a more lawful and prosperous kingdom. This helped form a group of independent minded warlords into a well-administered empire, with a tradition of working with the Pope, which became the precursor to the nation of France.<ref name="Johannes Fried">{{cite book |last1=Fried |first1=Johannes |title=Charlemagne |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674973411 |at=Introduction}}</ref> Fried says, "he was the first king and emperor to seriously enact the legal principle according to which the Pope was beyond the reach of all human justice—a decision that would have major ramifications in the future."<ref name="Johannes Fried"/>{{rp|12}}

====Modern common law, persecution, and secularization began in the High Middle Ages==== [[File:Canossa-three.jpg|thumb|left|Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII in Canossa 1077, as depicted by Carlo Emanuelle]] By the late 11th century, beginning with the efforts of Pope Gregory VII, the Church successfully established itself as "an autonomous legal and political&nbsp;... [entity] within Western Christendom".<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|23}}For the next three hundred years, the Church held great influence over Western society;<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|23}} church laws were the single "universal law&nbsp;... common to jurisdictions and peoples throughout Europe."<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|30}} With its own court system, the Church retained jurisdiction over many aspects of ordinary life, including education, inheritance, oral promises, oaths, moral crimes, and marriage.<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|31}} As one of the more powerful institutions of the Middle Ages, Church attitudes were reflected in many secular laws of the time.<ref name="Eileen Power"/>{{rp|1}} The Catholic Church was very powerful, essentially internationalist and democratic in it structures, with its many branches run by the different monastic organizations, each with its own distinct theology and often in disagreement with the others.<ref name="Repgen">{{cite book|last=Repgen|first=K.|title =Politics and Society in Reformation Europe|year=1987|editor1-last=Kouri|editor1-first=E. I. |editor2-last=Scott|editor2-first=T.|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=London|chapter= What is a 'Religious War'?|isbn=9781349188147}}</ref>{{rp|311,312}}<ref name="Cohen3">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Jeremy|title=Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity|year=1999|publisher=The University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=0-520-21680-6}}</ref>{{rp|396}}

Men of a scholarly bent usually took Holy Orders and frequently joined religious institutes. Those with intellectual, administrative, or diplomatic skill could advance beyond the usual restraints of society. Leading churchmen from faraway lands were accepted in local bishoprics, linking European thought across wide distances. Complexes like the Abbey of Cluny became vibrant centres with dependencies spread throughout Europe. Ordinary people also trekked vast distances on pilgrimages to express their piety and pray at the site of holy relics.<ref>Kenneth Clarke; Civilisation, BBC, SBN 563 10279 9; first published 1969.</ref>

In the pivotal twelfth century (1100s), Europe began laying the foundation for its gradual transformation from the medieval to the modern.<ref name="Moore"/>{{rp|154}} Feudal lords slowly lost power to the feudal kings as kings began centralizing power into themselves and their nation-state. Kings built their own armies instead of relying on their vassals, thereby taking power from the nobility. The 'state' took over legal practices that had traditionally belonged to local nobles and local church officials; and they began to target minorities.<ref name="Moore"/>{{rp|4,5}}<ref name="Humanities">{{cite book|first1=Roy T.|last1=Matthews|author2=F. DeWitt Platt|title=The Western Humanities|publisher=MayfieldPublishing|location=Mountain View, California|year=1992|isbn=0-87484-785-0|url=https://archive.org/details/westernhumanitie00matt}}</ref>{{rp|209}} According to R.I. Moore and other contemporary scholars, "the growth of secular power and the pursuit of secular interests, constituted the essential context of the developments that led to a persecuting society."<ref name="Moore">{{cite book|last=Moore|first=R. I.|title=The Formation of a Persecuting Society|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Malden, Massachusetts| edition=second|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4051-2964-0}}</ref>{{rp|4,5}}<ref name="Cotts">Cotts, John D.. Europe's Long Twelfth Century: Order, Anxiety and Adaptation, 1095–1229. United Kingdom, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.</ref>{{rp|8–10}}<ref name="Diehl">Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500. Spain, Cambridge University Press, 2002.</ref>{{rp|224}}<ref name="Boswell">Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. N.p., University of Chicago Press, 2015.</ref>{{rp|xviii}} This has had a permanent impact on politics and law in multiple ways: through a new rhetoric of exclusion that legitimized persecution based on new attitudes of stereotyping, stigmatization and even demonization of the accused; by the creation of new civil laws which included allowing the state to be the defendant and bring charges on its own behalf; the invention of police forces as the arm of state enforcement; the invention of a general taxation, gold coins, and modern banking to pay for it all; and the inquisitions, which were a new legal procedure that allowed the judge to investigate on his own initiative without requiring a victim (other than the state) to press charges.<ref name="Moore"/>{{rp|4,90–100,146,149,154}}<ref>Richard M. Fraher, "IV Lateran's Revolution in Criminal Procedure: the Birth of {{lang|la|inquisitio}}, the End of Ordeals and Innocent III's Vision of Ecclesiastical Politics", in {{lang|la|Studia in honorem eminentissimi cardinalis Alphonsi M. Stickler|italic=yes}}, ed. Rosalius Josephus Castillo Lara. Rome: Salesian Pontifical University ({{lang|la|Pontificia studiorum universitas salesiana, Facilitas juris canonici, Studia et textus historie juris canonici|italic=no}}, 7), 1992, pp. 97–111</ref>{{rp|97–111}}

<blockquote>"The exceptional character of persecution in the Latin west since the twelfth century has lain not in the scale or savagery of particular persecutions,&nbsp;... but in its capacity for sustained long-term growth. The patterns, procedures and rhetoric of persecution, which were established in the twelfth century, have given it the power of infinite and indefinite self-generation and self-renewal."<ref name="Moore"/>{{rp|vi,155}}</blockquote>

Eventually, this would lead to the development among the early Protestants of the conviction that concepts of religious toleration and separation of church and state were essential.<ref name="Scribner"/>{{rp|3}}

=====Canon law, the value of debate, and natural law from medieval universities===== Christianity in the High Middle Ages had a lasting impact on politics and law through the newly established universities. Canon law emerged from theology and developed independently there.<ref name="Shoemaker">{{cite book |last1=Shoemaker |first1=Karl |editor1-last=Young |editor1-first=Spencer E. |title=Crossing Boundaries at Medieval Universities |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004192164 |chapter=When the Devil went to Law school: Canon Law and Theology in the Fourteenth Century}}</ref>{{rp|255}} By the 1200s, both civil and canon law had become a major aspect of ecclesiastical culture, dominating Christian thought.<ref name="Hastings">Hastings, Ed. The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, US, 2000.</ref>{{RP|382}} Most bishops and Popes of this period were trained lawyers rather than theologians, and much Christian thought of this time became little more than an extension of law. In the High Middle Ages, the religion that had begun by decrying the power of law (Romans 7:1){{Dubious|date=September 2023}} developed the most complex religious law the world has ever seen.<ref name="Hastings"/>{{RP|382}} Canon law became a fertile field for those who advocated strong papal power,<ref name="Shoemaker"/>{{rp|260}} and Brian Downing says that a church-centered empire almost became a reality in this era.<ref name="Downing">{{cite book |last1=Downing |first1=Brian |title=The Military Revolution and Political Change Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe |date=1993 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691024752}}</ref>{{rp|35}} However, Downing says the rule of law, established in the Middle Ages, is one of the reasons why Europe eventually developed democracy instead.<ref name="Downing"/>{{rp|4}}

Medieval universities were not secular institutions, but they, and some religious orders, were founded with a respect for dialogue and debate, believing good understanding came from viewing something from multiple sides. Because of this, they incorporated reasoned disputation into their system of studies.<ref name="Quodlibetal">{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Brian |last2=Nevitt |first2=Turner |editor1-last=Davies |editor1-first=Brian |editor2-last=Nevitt |editor2-first=Turner |title=Thomas Aquinas's Quodlibetal Questions |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190069544}}</ref>{{rp|xxxiii}} Accordingly, the universities would hold what was called a quadlibettal where a 'master' would raise a question, students would provide arguments, and those arguments would be assessed and argued. Brian Law says, "Literally anyone could attend, masters and scholars from other schools, all kinds of ecclesiastics and prelates and even civil authorities, all the 'intellectuals' of the time, who were always attracted to skirmishes of this kind, and all of whom had the right to ask questions and oppose arguments."<ref name="Quodlibetal"/>{{rp|xxv}} In a kind of 'Town Hall Meeting' atmosphere, questions could be raised orally by anyone (''a quolibet'') about literally anything (''de quolibet'').<ref name="Quodlibetal"/>{{rp|xxv}}

Thomas Aquinas was a master at the University of Paris, twice, and held quodlibetals. Aquinas interpreted Aristotle on natural law. Alexander Passerin d'Entreves writes that natural law has been assailed for a century and a half, yet it remains an aspect of legal philosophy since much human rights theory is based on it.<ref name="Passerin d'Entreves">{{cite book |last1=Passerin d'Entreves |first1=Alexander |title=Natural Law: An Introduction to Legal Philosophy |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351503495 |page=1}}</ref> Aquinas taught that just leadership must work for the "common good". He defines a law as "an ordinance of reason" and that it cannot simply be the will of the legislator and be good law. Aquinas says the primary goal of law is that "good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided."<ref name="Michael Bertram Crowe">{{cite book |last1=Crowe |first1=Michael Bertram |title=The Changing Profile of the Natural Law |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9789401509138 |page=177 |edition=illustrated}}</ref>

======Natural law and human rights====== "The philosophical foundation of the liberal concept of human rights can be found in natural law theories",<ref name="Levent Gönenç">{{cite book| last=Gönenç| first=Levent| title=Prospects for Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Countries| year=2002| publisher=Kluwer Law International| location=The Netherlands| isbn=90-411-1836-5| page=218}}</ref><ref name="David Kim">{{cite book|editor1-last=Kim|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Kaul|editor2-first=Susanne|title=Imagining Human Rights|year=2015|publisher=de Gruyter| location=Berlin, Germany|isbn=978-3-11-037619-7|pages=13–17}}</ref> and much thinking on natural law is traced to the thought of the Dominican friar, Thomas Aquinas.<ref name="John Goyette">{{cite book| editor1-last=Goyette| editor1-first=John| editor2-last= Latkovic| editor2-first=Mark S.| editor3-last=Myers| editor3-first=Richard S.|title=St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives| year=2004| publisher=The Catholic University of America Press| location=Washington D.C.| isbn=0-8132-1378-9| page =Introduction}}</ref> Aquinas continues to influence the works of leading political and legal philosophers.<ref name="John Goyette"/>

According to Aquinas, every law is ultimately derived from what he calls the 'eternal law': God's ordering of all created things. For Aquinas, a human action is good or bad depending on whether it conforms to reason, and it is this participation in the 'eternal law' by the 'rational creature' that is called 'natural law'. Aquinas said natural law is a fundamental principle that is woven into the fabric of human nature. Secularists, such as Hugo Grotius, later expanded the idea of human rights and built on it.

"...one cannot and need not deny that Human Rights are of Western Origin. It cannot be denied, because they are morally based on the Judeo-Christian tradition and Graeco-Roman philosophy; they were codified in the West over many centuries, they have secured an established position in the national declarations of western democracies, and they have been enshrined in the constitutions of those democracies."<ref name="Joe Barth Abba">{{cite book| last =Abba| first=Joe Barth| title=Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas on Justice and Human Rights: A Paradigm for the Africa-cultural Conflicts Resolution-Nigerian Perspectives| year=2017| publisher=Deutsche Nationalbibliothek| location=Zürich| isbn=978-3-643-90909-1| page=31}}</ref>

Howard Tumber says, "human rights is not a universal doctrine, but is the descendent of one particular religion (Christianity)." This does not suggest Christianity has been superior in its practice or has not had "its share of human rights abuses".<ref name="Howard Tumber">{{cite book|editor1-last=Tumber|editor1-first=Howard|editor2-last=Waisbord| editor2-first=Silvio| title=The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights|year=2017|publisher=Routledge| location=New York| isbn=978-1-138-66554-5|pages=412–414}}</ref>

David Gushee says Christianity has a "tragically mixed legacy" when it comes to the application of its own ethics. He examines three cases of "Christendom divided against itself": the crusades and St. Francis' attempt at peacemaking with Muslims; Spanish conquerors and the killing of indigenous peoples and the protests against it; and the on-again off-again persecution and protection of Jews.<ref name="David Gushee">{{cite book|last=Gushee|first=David|title=The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision Is Key to the World's Future| year=2013| publisher=Eerdman's|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan| isbn=978-0-8028-4420-0| pages=164–213}}</ref>

Charles Malik, a Lebanese academic, diplomat, philosopher and theologian was responsible for the drafting and adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

=====Revival of Roman law in the Medieval Inquisition===== {{Main|Inquisition}}

According to Jennifer Deane, the label ''Inquisition'' implies "an institutional coherence and an official unity that never existed in the Middle Ages."<ref name="Deane">{{cite book |last=Deane |first=Jennifer Kolpacoff |title=A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition |year=2011 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |location=Lanham, Maryland |isbn=978-0-7425-5575-4}}</ref>{{rp|6}} The Medieval Inquisitions were actually a series of separate inquisitions beginning from around 1184 lasting to the 1230s that were in response to dissidents accused of heresy,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm|title = CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Inquisition}}</ref> while the Papal Inquisition (1230s–1302) was created to restore order disrupted by mob violence against heretics. Heresy was a religious, political, and social issue.<ref name="Moore2">{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Robert Ian|title=The War on Heresy|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Boston|year=2012|isbn=9780674065376}}</ref>{{rp|108,109}} As such, "the first stirrings of violence against dissidents were usually the result of popular resentment."<ref name="Peters">{{cite book|editor-last=Peters|editor-first=Edward|title=Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Pittsburgh|year=1980|isbn=0-8122-1103-0}}</ref>{{rp|189}} This led to a breakdown of social order.<ref name="Moore2"/>{{rp|108,109}} In the Late Roman Empire, an inquisitorial system of justice had developed, and that is the system that was revived in the Middle Ages. It used a combined panel of both civil and ecclesiastical representatives with a Bishop, his representative, or a local judge, as inquisitor. Essentially, the church reintroduced Roman law in Europe (in the form of the Inquisition) when it seemed that Germanic law had failed.<ref name="Monter">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Inquisition, The: The Inquisition In The Old World |first=William |last=Monter |date=April 7, 2020 |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/inquisition-inquisition-old-world |pages=no page numbers available}}</ref> "The [Medieval] Inquisition was not an organization arbitrarily devised and imposed upon the judicial system by the ambition or fanaticism of the church. It was rather a natural—one may almost say an inevitable—evolution of the forces at work in the thirteenth century."<ref name="Henry Charles Lea">{{cite book |last=Lea |first=Henry Charles |title=A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages Volumes 1,2,3 |volume=1 |year=1887 |publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York |page=Preface }}</ref>

=====The invention of Holy War, chivalry, and the roots of modern tolerance===== In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to re-take the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Hugh S. Pyper says "the city [of Jerusalem's] importance is reflected in the fact that early medieval maps place [Jerusalem] at the center of the world."<ref name="Hastings"/>{{rp|338}} <blockquote>"By the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks had conquered [three—quarters of the Christian world]. The holdings of the old Eastern Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, were reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East."<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/madden/03463.html |title = Thomas Madden: The Real History of the Crusades}}</ref><ref name="Thomas F. Madden">{{cite book| last=Madden| first=Thomas F.| title=The Concise History of the Crusades| edition= Third| year=2014| publisher=Rowman and Littlefield| location=New York| isbn=978-1-4422-1574-0}}</ref></blockquote> This was the impetus of the first crusade, however, the "Colossus of the Medieval world was Islam, not Christendom" and despite initial success, these conflicts, which lasted four centuries, ultimately ended in failure for western Christendom.<ref name="Thomas F. Madden"/>

At the time of the First crusade, there was no clear concept of what a crusade was beyond that of a pilgrimage.<ref name="Laiou"/>{{rp|32}} Riley-Smith says the crusades were products of the renewed spirituality of the central Middle Ages as much as they were of political circumstances.<ref name="Riley-Smith"/>{{rp|177}} Senior churchmen of this time presented the concept of Christian love to the faithful as the reason to take up arms.<ref name="Riley-Smith"/>{{rp|177}} The people had a concern for living the ''vita apostolica'' and expressing Christian ideals in active works of charity, exemplified by the new hospitals, the pastoral work of the Augustinians and Premonstratensians, and the service of the friars. Riley-Smith concludes, "The charity of St. Francis may now appeal to us more than that of the crusaders, but both sprang from the same roots."<ref name="Riley-Smith">{{cite journal| last=Riley-Smith|first=Jonathan|title=Crusading As An Act Of Love|journal = History|volume= 65|issue= 214|year=1980|pages= 177–192|doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1980.tb01939.x|jstor=24419031}}</ref>{{rp|180,190–2}} Constable adds that those "scholars who see the crusades as the beginning of European colonialism and expansionism would have surprised people at the time. [Crusaders] would not have denied some selfish aspects... but the predominant emphasis was on the defense and recovery of lands that had once been Christian and on the self-sacrifice, rather than the self-seeking, of the participants."<ref name="Laiou">{{cite book|first=Giles |last=Constable |author-link=Giles Constable |editor1-last=Laiou |editor1-first=Angeliki E. |editor-link=Angeliki Laiou |editor2-last=Mottahedeh |editor2-first=Roy P. |editor2-link=Roy Mottahedeh |title=The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection |location=Washington D.C. |year=2001 |isbn=9780884022770 |chapter=The Historiography of the crusades}}</ref>{{rp|15}} Riley-Smith also says scholars are turning away from the idea the crusades were materially motivated.<ref name="Jonathan Riley-Smith">{{cite book |last1=Riley-Smith |first1=Jonathan |title=What Were the Crusades? |date=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-1-58617-360-9 |pages=ix–xvii |edition= Fourth }}</ref>

Ideas such as holy war and Christian chivalry, in both thought and culture, continued to evolve gradually from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|184,185,210}} This can be traced in expressions of law, traditions, tales, prophecy, and historical narratives, in letters, bulls and poems written during the crusading period.<ref name="Alkopher">{{cite journal|last=Alkopher|first= Tal Dingott|title= The Social (And Religious) Meanings That Constitute War: The Crusades as Realpolitik vs. Socialpolitik|journal= International Studies Quarterly| volume= 49|issue= 4|year=2005|pages= 715–737|doi= 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2005.00385.x|jstor= 3693507}}</ref>{{rp|715–737}}

According to political science professor Andrew R. Murphy, concepts of tolerance and intolerance were not starting points for thoughts about relations for any of the various groups involved in or affected by the crusades.<ref name="Murphy">{{cite journal|last=Murphy|first=Andrew R.| title=Tolerance, Toleration, and the Liberal Tradition|date=1997|volume=29|issue=4|publisher=The University of Chicago Press Journals|journal=Polity|pages=593–623|doi=10.2307/3235269|jstor=3235269|s2cid=155764374}}</ref>{{rp|xii–xvii}} Instead, concepts of tolerance began to grow during the crusades from efforts to define legal limits and the nature of co-existence.<ref name="Murphy"/>{{rp|xii}} Eventually, this would help provide the foundation to the conviction among the early Protestants that pioneering the concept of religious toleration was necessary.<ref name="Scribner">{{cite book|editor1-last=Scribner|editor1-first=Robert W.|editor2-last=Grell|editor2-first=Ole Peter|editor3-last=Scribner|editor3-first=Bob |title=Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=United Kingdom|year=2002|isbn=9780521894128}}</ref>{{rp|3}}

====Moral decline and rising political power of the church in the Late Middle Ages==== During the "calamitous" fourteenth century with its plague, famine and wars, people were thrown into confusion and despair. From its pinnacle of power in the 1200s, the church entered a period of decline, internal conflict, and corruption.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|209–214}} According to Walter Ullmann, the church lost "the moral, spiritual and authoritative leadership it had built up in Europe over the centuries of minute, consistent, detailed, dynamic forward-looking work.&nbsp;... The papacy was now forced to pursue policies which, in substance, aimed at appeasement and were no longer directive, orientating and determinative."<ref name="Ullmann">{{cite book |last1=Ullmann |first1=Walter |title=A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-203-34952-0 |edition=2nd}}</ref>{{rp|184}}

According to Matthews and DeWitt, "The Popes in the fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth century turned their interest to the arts and humanities rather than to pressing moral and spiritual issues. Moreover, they were vitally concerned with the trappings of political power. They plunged into Italian politics...ruling as secular princes in their papal lands. Their worldly interests and blatant political maneuverings only intensified the mounting disapproval of the papacy and provided the church's critics with more examples of the institution's corruption and decline."<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|248}} As the Church grew more powerful, wealthy, and corrupt, many sought reform. The Dominican and Franciscan Orders were founded, which emphasized poverty and spirituality, and the concept of lay piety developed—the ''Devotio Moderna'' or the new devotion—which worked toward the ideal of a pious society of ordinary non-ordained people and, ultimately, to the Reformation and the development of modern concepts of tolerance and religious freedom.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|248–250}}

=====Political power of Women rose and fell===== In the 13th-century Roman Pontifical, the prayer for ordaining women as deacons was removed, and ordination was re-defined and applied only to male Priests.

Woman-as-witch became a stereotype in the 1400s until it was codified in 1487 by Pope Innocent VIII who declared "most witches are female". "The European witch stereotype embodies two apparent paradoxes: first, it was not produced by the 'barbaric Dark Ages', but during the progressive Renaissance and the early modern period; secondly, Western Christianity did not recognize the reality of witches for centuries, or criminalize them until around 1400."<ref name="Margaret Schaus">{{cite book| last=Schaus| first=Margaret| title=Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia| year=2006| publisher=Routledge Taylor and Francis Group| location=New York| isbn =978-0-415-96944-4| pages=842}}</ref> Sociologist Don Swenson says the explanation for this may lay in the nature of medieval society as heirocratic which led to violence and the use of coercion to force conformity. "There has been much debate&nbsp;... as to how many women were executed&nbsp;... [and estimates vary wildly, but numbers] small and large do little to portray the horror and dishonor inflicted upon these women. This treatment provides [dramatic] contrast to the respect given to women during the early era of Christianity and in early Europe&nbsp;..."<ref name="Don Swenson">{{cite book| last=Swenson|first=Don| title=Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred: A Social Scientific Introduction}}</ref>

Women were in many respects excluded from political and mercantile life; however, some leading churchwomen were exceptions. Medieval abbesses and female superiors of monastic houses were powerful figures whose influence could rival that of male bishops and abbots: "They treated with kings, bishops, and the greatest lords on terms of perfect equality;&nbsp;... they were present at all great religious and national solemnities, at the dedication of churches, and even, like the queens, took part in the deliberation of the national assemblies&nbsp;...".<ref name="newadvent.org">{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01007e.htm |title=Abbess |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date=2019-11-01 }}</ref> The increasing popularity of devotion to the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus) secured maternal virtue as a central cultural theme of Catholic Europe. Kenneth Clarke wrote that the 'Cult of the Virgin' in the early 12th century "had taught a race of tough and ruthless barbarians the virtues of tenderness and compassion".<ref name="Civilisation, BBC 1969">Kenneth Clarke; ''Civilisation'', BBC, SBN 563 10279 9; first published 1969.</ref>

=====The political Popes===== In 1054, after centuries of strained relations, the Great Schism occurred over differences in doctrine, splitting the Christian world between the Catholic Church, centered in Rome and dominant in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, centered in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Relations between the major powers in Western society: the nobility, monarchy and clergy, also sometimes produced conflict. For example, the Investiture Controversy was one of the most significant conflicts between Church and state in medieval Europe. A series of Popes challenged the authority of monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials. The Court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, based in Sicily, experienced tension and rivalry with the Papacy over control of Northern Italy.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06255a.htm |title=Frederick II |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |date=1 September 1909 |access-date=16 July 2011}}</ref>

In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) issued ''Unam sanctam'', a papal bull proclaiming the superiority of the Pope over all secular rulers. Philip IV of France responded by sending an army to arrest the Pope. Boniface fled for his life and died shortly thereafter.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|216}} "This episode revealed that the popes were no longer a match for the feudal kings" and showed there had been a marked decline in papal prestige.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|216}}<ref name="Ullmann"/>{{rp|xv}} George Garnett says the implementation of the papal monarchial idea had led to the loss of prestige, as, the more efficient the papal bureaucratic machine became, the further it alienated the people, and the further it declined.<ref name="Ullmann"/>{{rp|xv}}

The Papacy had its court at Avignon from 1305 to 1378<ref name="Morris">Morris, Colin, ''The papal monarchy: the Western church from 1050 to 1250 '', (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 271.</ref> This arose from the conflict between the Italian Papacy and the French crown. Theologian Roger Olson says the church reached its nadir at this time when there were three different men claiming to be the rightful Pope.<ref name="Olson">{{cite book|last=Olson|first=Roger E.|title=The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform|publisher=InterVarsity Press|location=Downer's Grove, In.|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofchristian00olso/page/172 172]|isbn=978-0-8308-1505-0|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofchristian00olso}}</ref>{{rp|348}}<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|248}} <blockquote>"What the observer of the papacy witnessed in the second half of the thirteenth century was a gradual, though clearly perceptible, decomposition of Europe as a single ecclesiastical unit, and the fragmentation of Europe into independent, autonomous entities which were soon to be called national monarchies or states. This fragmentation heralded the withering away of the papacy as a governing institution operating on a universal scale."<ref name="Ullmann"/>{{rp|176}}</blockquote>

=====The political and legal power of the state through Modern Inquisitions===== The history of the Inquisition divides into two major parts: "its creation by the medieval papacy in the early thirteenth century, and its transformation between 1478 and 1542 into permanent secular governmental bureaucracies: the Spanish, Portuguese, and Roman Inquisitions...all of which endured into the nineteenth century."<ref>"Inquisition, The: The Inquisition in the Old World." Encyclopedia of Religion. Encyclopedia.com. 28 April 2020 https://www.encyclopedia.com </ref><ref name="Edward Peters">{{cite book| last=Peters| first=Edward| title=Inquisition| year=1989| publisher=University of California Press| location=Berkeley, Cal.| isbn=0-520-06630-8|page=318}}</ref>{{rp|154}} The old medieval inquisitions had limited power and influence, whereas the powers of the modern "Holy Tribunal" were extended and enlarged by the power of the state into "one of the most formidable engines of destruction which ever existed."<ref name="Pick">{{cite journal |last1=Pick |first1=Bernard |title=Historical Sketch of the Jews Since Their Return from Babylon. With Illustrations of Jewish Customs and Life. (Concluded.)|journal=The Open Court |date=1897 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=337–364 |url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5051&context=ocj |access-date=10 June 2020}}</ref>{{rp|343}}

Historian Helen Rawlings says, "the Spanish Inquisition was different [from earlier inquisitions] in one fundamental respect: it was responsible to the crown rather than the Pope and was used to consolidate state interest."<ref name="Rawlings">{{cite book|last=Rawlings|first=Helen|title=The Spanish Inquisition|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Malden, Mass.|year=2006|isbn=0-631-20599-3}}</ref>{{rp|1,2}} It was authorized by the Pope, yet the initial Inquisitors proved so severe that the Pope almost immediately opposed it to no avail.<ref>Mathew, Arnold Harris. The Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI. N.p., Creative Media Partners, LLC, 2018.</ref>{{rp|52,53}} Early in 1483, the king and queen established a council, the {{ill|Supreme Council of the Inquisition|lt=''Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición''|de|Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición|eo|Konsilio de la Supera Inkvizicio|es|Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición}}, to govern the inquisition and chose Torquemada to head it as inquisitor general. In October 1483, a papal bull conceded control to the crown. According to José Cassanova, the Spanish inquisition became the first truly national, unified and centralized state institution.<ref name="Casanova">{{cite book |last1=Casanova |first1=José |title=Public Religions in the Modern World |date=1994 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=0-226-09535-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/publicreligionsi00casa }}</ref>{{rp|75}} After the 1400s, few Spanish inquisitors were from the religious orders.<ref name="Rawlings"/>{{rp|2}}

The Portuguese Inquisition was also fully controlled by the crown which established a government board, known as the General Council, to oversee it. The Grand Inquisitor, who was chosen by the king, was always a member of the royal family. The first statute of Limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) appeared in Toledo in 1449 and was later adopted in Portugal as well. Initially, these statutes were condemned by the Church, but in 1555, the highly corrupt Pope Alexander VI approved a 'blood purity' statute for one of the religious orders.<ref>Burk, Rachel L., "Salus Erat in Sanguine: Limpieza De Sangre and Other Discourses of Blood in Early Modern Spain" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1550.https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1399&context=edissertations</ref>{{rp|19}} In his history of the Portuguese Inquisition, Giuseppe Marcocci says there is a deep connection between the rise of the Felipes in Portugal, the growth of the inquisition, and the adoption of the statutes of purity of blood which spread and increased and were more concerned with ethnic ancestry than religion.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Marcocci|first=Giuseppe|editor-last=Paiva|editor-first=José Pedro|title=From start to finish: the history of the Portuguese Inquisition revisited|journal=História da Inquisição Portuguesa (1536–1821)|publisher=Esfera dos Livros|location= Lisboa|year=2013|volume=20|url=https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-77042014000100302|pages=01–07}}</ref>

Historian {{ill|Thomas F. Mayer|lt=T. F. Mayer|it}} writes that "the Roman Inquisition operated to serve the papacy's long standing political aims in Naples, Venice and Florence."<ref name="TFMayer">{{cite book|last=Mayer|first=T. F. |title=The Roman Inquisition on the Stage of Italy, c. 1590–1640 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|year=2014|isbn=978-0-8122-4573-8}}</ref>{{rp|3}} Under Paul III and his successor Julius III, and under most of the popes thereafter, the Roman Inquisition's activity was relatively restrained and its command structure was considerably more bureaucratic than those of other inquisitions were.<ref name="TFMayer"/>{{rp|2}} Where the medieval Inquisition had focused on popular misconceptions which resulted in the disturbance of public order, the Roman Inquisition was concerned with orthodoxy of a more intellectual, academic nature. The Roman Inquisition is probably best known for its condemnation of the difficult and cantankerous Galileo which was more about "bringing Florence to heel" than about heresy.<ref name="TFMayer"/>{{rp|5}}

===The role of Christianity in politics and law from the Reformation until the Modern era=== {{See also|Political influence of Evangelicalism in Latin America}} [[File:Façade de la cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Genève 2009-07-11.jpg|thumb|right|Calvin preached at St. Pierre Cathedral, the main church in Geneva.]] In the Middle Ages, the Church and the worldly authorities were closely related. Martin Luther separated the religious and the worldly realms in principle (doctrine of the two kingdoms).<ref>Heinrich Bornkamm, ''Toleranz. In der Geschichte des Christentums'' in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band VI (1962), col. 937</ref> The believers were obliged to use reason to govern the worldly sphere in an orderly and peaceful way. Luther's doctrine of the priesthood of all believers upgraded the role of laymen in the church considerably. The members of a congregation had the right to elect a minister and, if necessary, to vote for his dismissal (Treatise ''On the right and authority of a Christian assembly or congregation to judge all doctrines and to call, install and dismiss teachers, as testified in Scripture''; 1523).<ref>Original German title: ''Dass eine christliche Versammlung oder Gemeine Recht und Macht habe, alle Lehre zu beurteilen und Lehrer zu berufen, ein- und abzusetzen: Grund und Ursach aus der Schrift''</ref> Calvin strengthened this basically democratic approach by including elected laymen (church elders, presbyters) in his representative church government.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', pp. 4–10</ref> The Huguenots added regional synods and a national synod, whose members were elected by the congregations, to Calvin's system of church self-government. This system was used by the other Reformed churches.<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', 11. Auflage, p. 325</ref>

Politically, John Calvin favoured a mixture of aristocracy and democracy. He appreciated the advantages of democracy: "It is an invaluable gift, if God allows a people to freely elect its own authorities and overlords."<ref>Quoted in Jan Weerda, ''Calvin'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage (1958), Stuttgart (Germany), col. 210</ref> Calvin also thought that earthly rulers lose their divine right and must be put down when they rise up against God. To further protect the rights of ordinary people, Calvin suggested separating political powers in a system of checks and balances (separation of powers). 16th-century Calvinists and Lutherans developed a theory of resistance called the doctrine of the lesser magistrate which was later employed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Thus early Protestants resisted political absolutism and paved the way for the rise of modern democracy.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', p. 10</ref> Besides England, the Netherlands were, under Calvinist leadership, the freest country in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It granted asylum to philosophers like René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Pierre Bayle. Hugo Grotius was able to teach his natural-law theory and a relatively liberal interpretation of the Bible.<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', S. 396–397</ref>

Consistent with Calvin's political ideas, Protestants created both the English and the American democracies. In 17th century England, the most important persons and events in this process were the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton, John Locke, the Glorious Revolution, the English Bill of Rights, and the Act of Settlement.<ref>Cf. M. Schmidt, ''England. Kirchengeschichte'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band II (1959), Tübingen (Germany), col. 476–478</ref> Later, the British took their democratic ideals also to their colonies, e.g. Australia, New Zealand, and India. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the British variety of modern-time democracy, constitutional monarchy, was taken over by Protestant-formed Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands as well as the Catholic countries Belgium and Spain. In North America, Plymouth Colony (Pilgrim Fathers; 1620) and Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628) practised democratic self-rule and separation of powers.<ref>Nathaniel Philbrick (2006), ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War'', Penguin Group, New York, N.Y., {{ISBN|0-670-03760-5}}</ref><ref>Clifton E. Olmstead, ''History of Religion in the United States'', pp. 65–76</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html|title=Plymouth Colony Legal Structure|website=www.histarch.illinois.edu|access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/masslib.html|title=Liberties|website=history.hanover.edu|access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref> These Congregationalists were convinced that the democratic form of government was the will of God.<ref>M. Schmidt, ''Pilgerväter'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band V (1961), col. 384</ref> The Mayflower Compact was a social contract.<ref>Christopher Fennell, ''Plymouth Colony Legal Structure''</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein and David Rubel (2002), ''The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower'', DK Publishing, Inc., New York, N.Y., {{ISBN|0-7894-8903-1}}, p. 61</ref>

==Sexual morals== Classics scholar Kyle Harper says that for a period of time {{blockquote|"...the triumph of Christianity not only drove profound cultural change, it created a new relationship between sexual morality and society... The legacy of Christianity lies in the dissolution of an ancient system where social and political status, power, and the transmission of social inequality to the next generation scripted the terms of sexual morality.<ref name="Kyle Harper">{{cite book| last=Harper| first=Kyle| title=From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity| year=2013| publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts| isbn=978-0-674-07277-0 |page=4,7}}</ref>"|author=Kyle Harper|title=From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity|source=pages 4 and 7}}

Both the ancient Greeks and the Romans cared and wrote about sexual morality within categories of good and bad, pure and defiled, and ideal and transgression.<ref name="Rebecca Langlands">{{cite book| last=Langlands| first=Rebecca| title=Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome|year=2006| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| isbn=978-0-521-85943-1| page=10}}</ref> But the sexual ethical structures of Roman society were built on status, and sexual modesty meant something different for men than it did for women, and for the well-born, than it did for the poor, and for the free citizen, than it did for the slave—for whom the concepts of honor, shame and sexual modesty could be said to have no meaning at all.<ref name="Kyle Harper"/>{{rp|7}} Slaves were not thought to have an interior ethical life because they could go no lower socially and were commonly used sexually; the free and well born were thought to embody social honor and were therefore able to exhibit the fine sense of shame suited to their station. Roman literature indicates the Romans were aware of these dualities.<ref name="Rebecca Langlands"/>{{rp|12,20}}

Shame was a profoundly social concept that was, in ancient Rome, always mediated by gender and status. "It was not enough that a wife merely regulate her sexual behavior in the accepted ways; it was required that her virtue in this area be conspicuous."<ref name="Rebecca Langlands"/>{{rp|38}} Men, on the other hand, were allowed live-in mistresses called ''pallake''.<ref name="John Younger">{{cite book| last=Younger| first=John| title=Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z|year=2005| publisher=Routledge| location= New York| isbn=978-0-415-24252-3| page=106}}</ref> This, for example, permitted Roman society to find both a husband's control of a wife's sexual behavior a matter of intense importance and at the same time see his own sex with young boys as of little concern.<ref name="Rebecca Langlands"/>{{rp|12,20}} Christianity sought to establish equal sexual standards for men and women and to protect all the young whether slave or free. This was a transformation in the deep logic of sexual morality.<ref name="Kyle Harper"/>{{rp|6,7}}

Early Church Fathers advocated against adultery, polygamy, homosexuality, pederasty, bestiality, prostitution, and incest while advocating for the sanctity of the marriage bed.<ref name="witte20">{{cite book |last1=Witte |first1=John Jr. |title=From Sacrament to Contract Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition |date=1997 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=9780664255435 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromsacramenttoc0000witt }}</ref>{{rp|20}} The central Christian prohibition against such ''porneia'', which is a single name for that array of sexual behaviors, "collided with deeply entrenched patterns of Roman permissiveness where the legitimacy of sexual contact was determined primarily by status. St. Paul, whose views became dominant in early Christianity, made the body into a consecrated space, a point of mediation between the individual and the divine. Paul's over-riding sense that gender—rather than status or power or wealth or position—was the prime determinant in the propriety of the sex act was momentous. By boiling the sex act down to the most basic constituents of male and female, Paul was able to describe the sexual culture surrounding him in transformative terms."<ref name="Kyle Harper"/>{{rp|12,92}}

Christian sexual ideology is inextricable from its concept of freewill.<ref name="Kyle Harper"/>{{rp|14}} The Greeks and Romans said moralities depend on social position which is given by fate. Christianity "preached a liberating message of freedom". It was a revolution in the rules of behavior, but also in the very image of the human being as a sexual being, free, frail and awesomely responsible for one's own self to God alone.<ref name="Kyle Harper"/>{{rp|14–18}}

==Marriage and family life== {{See also|Catholic Church and women}} [[File:Weyden Matrimony.jpg|thumb|left|''"Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."'' (Gospel of Matthew 19:6) Matrimony, ''The Seven Sacraments'', Rogier van der Weyden, c.&nbsp;1445.]] There has been some debate as to whether the Church has improved the status of women or hindered their progress. [[File:Svatba (2).jpg|thumb|right|Orthodox wedding, Cathedral of Ss. Cyrill and Methodius, Prague, Czech Republic]] From the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Church formally recognized marriage between a freely consenting, baptized man and woman as a sacrament—an outward sign communicating a special gift of God's love. The Council of Florence in 1438 gave this definition, following earlier Church statements in 1208, and declared that sexual union was a special participation in the union of Christ in the Church.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09707a.htm |title=Sacrament of Marriage |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref> However, the Puritans, while highly valuing the institution, viewed marriage as a "civil", rather than a "religious" matter,<ref name="Feige, Diana 1995 P109">Feige, Diana, and Franz G M. Feige. "Love, Marriage, and Family in Puritan Society." Dialogue & Alliance 9, no. 1 (1 March 1995): 96–114. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed 3 December 2010). P109</ref> because they found no biblical precedent for clergy performing marriage ceremonies. Further, marriage was said to be for the "relief of concupiscence"<ref name="Feige, Diana 1995 P109"/> as well as any spiritual purpose. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin denied the sacramentality of marriage. This unanimity was broken at the 1930 Lambeth Conference, the quadrennial meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion—creating divisions in that denomination.

Catholicism equates premarital sex with fornication and ties it with breaking the sixth commandment ("Thou shalt not commit adultery") in its Catechism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church{{Snd}} The sixth commandment |publisher=Vatican.va |date=29 October 1951 |access-date=2 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813092321/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm |archive-date=13 August 2013 }}</ref> While sex before marriage was not a taboo in the Anglican Church until the Marriage Act 1753, which for the first time stipulated that everyone in England and Wales had to be married in their parish church"<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2296151.stm | work=BBC News | title=The no-sex 'myth' | date=3 October 2002}}</ref> Prior to that time, "marriage began at the time of betrothal, when couples would live and sleep together... The process begun at the time of the Hardwicke Act continued throughout the 1800s, with stigma beginning to attach to illegitimacy."<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/>

The Hebrew Bible and its traditional interpretations in Judaism and Christianity have historically affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality,<ref name="Mbuwayesango 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Mbuwayesango |author-first=Dora R. |year=2016 |orig-date=2015 |chapter=Part III: The Bible and Bodies – Sex and Sexuality in Biblical Narrative |editor-last=Fewell |editor-first=Danna N. |editor-link=Danna Nolan Fewell |title=The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=456–465 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199967728.013.39 |isbn=9780199967728 |lccn=2015033360 |s2cid=146505567}}</ref><ref name="Leeming 2003">{{cite journal |author-last=Leeming |author-first=David A. |author-link=David Adams Leeming |date=June 2003 |title=Religion and Sexuality: The Perversion of a Natural Marriage |editor-last=Carey |editor-first=Lindsay B. |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |publisher=Springer Verlag |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=101–109 |doi=10.1023/A:1023621612061 |issn=1573-6571 |jstor=27511667 |s2cid=38974409}}</ref> favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity,<ref name="Mbuwayesango 2016"/><ref name="Leeming 2003"/> including autoeroticism, masturbation, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been labeled as "sodomy" at various times).<ref>{{cite book |last=Sauer |first=Michelle M. |year=2015 |chapter=The Unexpected Actuality: "Deviance" and Transgression |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8mBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 |title=Gender in Medieval Culture |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=74–78 |doi=10.5040/9781474210683.ch-003 |isbn=978-1-4411-2160-8}}</ref> They have believed and taught that such behaviors are forbidden because they are considered sinful,<ref name="Mbuwayesango 2016"/><ref name="Leeming 2003"/> and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.<ref name="Mbuwayesango 2016"/><ref name="Gnuse 2015">{{cite journal |last=Gnuse |first=Robert K. |date=May 2015 |title=Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality |journal=Biblical Theology Bulletin |publisher=SAGE Publications on behalf of Biblical Theology Bulletin Inc. |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=68–87 |doi=10.1177/0146107915577097 |issn=1945-7596 |s2cid=170127256}}</ref>

===Roman Empire=== Social structures in the Roman Empire held that women were inferior to men intellectually and physically and were "naturally dependent".<ref name="Noble, p.230">{{cite book |last1=Strauss |first1=Barry S. |last2=Noble |first2=Thomas F. X. |last3=Cohen |first3=William B. |last4=Osheim |first4=Duane |last5=Neuschel |first5=Kristen B. |last6=Accampo |first6=Elinore A. |last7=Roberts |first7=David D. |title=Western Civilization The Continuing Experiment · Volume 1 |date=2005 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |isbn=9780618561902 |page=230}}</ref> Athenian women were legally classified as children regardless of age and were the "legal property of some man at all stages in her life."<ref name="Stark"/>{{rp|104}} Women in the Roman Empire had limited legal rights and could not enter professions. Female infanticide and abortion were practiced by all classes.<ref name="Stark"/>{{rp|104}} In family life, men could have "lovers, prostitutes and concubines" but wives who engaged in extramarital affairs were considered guilty of adultery. It was not rare for pagan women to be married before the age of puberty and then forced to consummate the marriage with her often much older husband. Husbands could divorce their wives at any time simply by telling the wife to leave; wives did not have a similar ability to divorce their husbands.<ref name="Noble, p.230"/>

Early Church Fathers advocated against polygamy, abortion, infanticide, child abuse, homosexuality, transvestism, and incest.<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|20}} After the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official religion, however, the link between Christian teachings and Roman family laws became more clear.<ref name="nathan187">{{cite book |last1=Nathan |first1=Geoffrey |title=The Family in Late Antiquity The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134706686}}</ref>{{rp|91}}

For example, Church teaching heavily influenced the legal concept of marriage.<ref name="Eileen Power"/>{{rp|1–2}} During the Gregorian Reform, the Church developed and codified a view of marriage as a sacrament.<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|23}} In a departure from societal norms, Church law required the consent of both parties before a marriage could be performed<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|20–23}} and established a minimum age for marriage.<ref name="shahar18">{{cite book |last1=Shahar |first1=Shulamith |title=The Fourth Estate A History of Women in the Middle Ages |date=2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134394203}}</ref>{{rp|33}} The elevation of marriage to a sacrament also made the union a binding contract, with dissolutions overseen by Church authorities.<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|29,36}} Although the Church abandoned tradition to allow women the same rights as men to dissolve a marriage,<ref name="witte20"/>{{rp|20,25}} in practice, when an accusation of infidelity was made, men were granted dissolutions more frequently than women.<ref name="shahar18"/>{{rp|18}}

===Medieval period=== According to historian Shulamith Shahar, "[s]ome historians hold that the Church played a considerable part in fostering the inferior status of women in medieval society in general" by providing a "moral justification" for male superiority and by accepting practices such as wife-beating.<ref name="shahar18"/>{{rp|88}} "The ecclesiastical conception of the inferior status of women, deriving from Creation, her role in Original Sin and her subjugation to man, provided both direct and indirect justification for her inferior standing in the family and in society in medieval civilization. It was not the Church which induced husbands to beat their wives, but it not only accepted this custom after the event, if it was not carried to excess, but, by proclaiming the superiority of man, also supplied its moral justification." Despite these laws, some women, particularly abbesses, gained powers that were never available to women in previous Roman or Germanic societies.<ref name="shahar18"/>{{rp|12}}

Although these teachings emboldened secular authorities to give women fewer rights than men, they also helped form the concept of chivalry.<ref name="Eileen Power">{{cite book |last1=Power |first1=Eileen |editor1-last=Postan |editor1-first=Michael Moïssey |title=Medieval Women |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107650152}}</ref>{{rp|2}} Chivalry was influenced by a new Church attitude towards Mary, the mother of Jesus.<ref name="shahar18"/>{{rp|25}} This "ambivalence about women's very nature" was shared by most major religions in the Western world.<ref name="bitel102">{{cite book |last1=Bitel |first1=Lisa |title=Women in early medieval Europe, 400–1100 |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521597739 |page=102}}</ref>

=== Family relations === [[File:Thanksgiving grace 1942.jpg|thumb|Christian family saying grace before eating]] Christian culture puts notable emphasis on the family,<ref>{{cite book |title=A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds |first=Beryl |last=Rawson |year=2010 |isbn=9781444390759 |page=111 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |quote=...&nbsp;Christianity placed great emphasis on the family and on all members from children to the aged&nbsp;...}}</ref> and according to the work of scholars Max Weber, Alan Macfarlane, Steven Ozment, Jack Goody and Peter Laslett, the huge transformation that led to modern marriage in Western democracies was "fueled by the religio-cultural value system provided by elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3322 |website=Religion-online.org |title=The Collapse of Marriage by Don Browning{{Snd}} The Christian Century |date=7 February 2006 |pages=24–28 |access-date=2007-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181232/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3322 |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref> Historically, ''extended families'' were the basic family unit in the Catholic culture and countries.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mental Health Social Work: Evidence-Based Practice| first= Colin Pritchard|last=Pritchard|year= 2006| isbn= 9781134365449| page =111 |publisher=Routledge|quote= ... in cultures with stronger 'extended family traditions', such as Asian and Catholic countries...}}</ref> According to a study by the scholar Joseph Henrich from Harvard University, the Catholic church "changed extended family ties, as well as values and psychology of individuals in the Western world".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schulz |first1=Jonathan F. |last2=Bahrami-Rad |first2=Duman |last3=Beauchamp |first3=Jonathan P. |last4=Henrich |first4=Joseph |date=2019-11-08 |title=The Church, intensive kinship, and global psychological variation |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau5141 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=366 |issue=6466 |article-number=eaau5141 |doi=10.1126/science.aau5141 |pmid=31699908 |s2cid=207943472 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Correspondent |first=Caitlin McDermott-Murphy Harvard |date=2019-11-07 |title=Roman Catholic Church ban in the Middle Ages loosened family ties |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/roman-catholic-church-ban-in-the-middle-ages-loosened-family-ties/ |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref>

Most Christian denominations practice infant baptism<ref>{{Cite web |date=1999-08-19 |title=Major Branches of Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents |url=http://adherents.com/adh_branches.html |access-date=2023-05-19 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990819112057/http://adherents.com/adh_branches.html |archive-date=19 August 1999 }}</ref> to enter children into the faith. Some form of confirmation ritual occurs when the child has reached the age of reason and voluntarily accepts the religion. Ritual circumcision is used to mark Coptic Christian,<ref name=riggs_2006>{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Riggs |title=Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Religions and denominations |chapter=Christianity: Coptic Christianity |year=2006 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-6612-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTMOAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Ethiopian Orthodox Christian<ref name=Columbia_encyc_2011_circ>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2011 |title=Circumcision |encyclopedia=Columbia Encyclopedia |publisher=Columbia University Press |url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/circumcision.html }}</ref> and Eritrean Orthodox infant males as belonging to the faith.<ref>{{Cite book|last=DeMello|first=Margo|title=Encyclopedia of Body Adornment|publisher=ABC-Clio|year=2007|isbn=9780313336959|pages=66|quote=Coptic Christians, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Eritrean Orthodox churches on the other hand, do observe the ordainment, and circumcise their sons anywhere from the first week of life to the first few years.}}</ref><ref name="N. Stearns 2008 179">{{Cite book|last= N. Stearns|first=Peter|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780195176322|pages=179|quote=Uniformly practiced by Jews, Muslims, and the members of Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, male circumcision remains prevalent in many regions of the world, particularly Africa, South and East Asia, Oceania, and Anglosphere countries.}}</ref> Circumcision is practiced among many Christian countries and communities; Christian communities in Africa,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Creighton|first1=Sarah |last2= Liao |first2 =Lih-Mei|title=Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: Solution to What Problem? |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108435529|page=63 |language=English |quote=Christians in Africa, for instance, often practise infant male circumcision.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first =Armelle |last =Nga|url= https://www.africanews.com/2019/12/30/the-ritual-of-circumcision-in-africa-the-case-of-south-africa/ |title=The Ritual of Circumcision in Africa: The Case of South Africa |date =30 December 2019 |publisher=Africanews|quote=This practice is old and widespread among African Christians with very close links to their beliefs. It can be executed traditionally or in hospital.}}</ref> the Anglosphere countries, the Philippines, the Middle East,<ref>{{cite book |last1= Bakos|first1=Gergely Tibor|title=On Faith, Rationality, and the Other in the Late Middle Ages:: A Study of Nicholas of Cusa's Manuductive Approach to Islam |date=2011 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn= 9781606083420|page=228 |language=English |quote=Although it is stated that circumcision is not a sacrament necessary for salvation, this rite is accepted for the Ethiopian Jacobites and other Middle Eastern Christians.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=J. Sharkey|first1=Heather |title=A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East|date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521769372|page=63 |language=English |quote= On the Coptic Christian practice of male circumcision in Egypt, and on its practice by other Christians in western Asia.}}</ref> South Korea and Oceania have high circumcision rates,<ref name="Associated Press">{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/19456997e17c4a12a24abb9d11c01dba|title=Circumcision protest brought to Florence|publisher=Associated Press|date=March 30, 2008|quote=However, the practice is still common among Christians in the United States, Oceania, South Korea, the Philippines, the Middle East and Africa. Some Middle Eastern Christians actually view the procedure as a rite of passage.}}</ref> while Christian communities in Europe and South America have low circumcision rates.

During the early period of capitalism, the rise of a large, commercial middle class, mainly in the Protestant countries of Holland and England, brought about a new family ideology centred around the upbringing of children. Puritanism stressed the importance of individual salvation and concern for the spiritual welfare of children. It became widely recognized that children possess rights on their own behalf. This included the rights of poor children to sustenance, membership in a community, education, and job training. The Poor Relief Acts in Elizabethan England put responsibility on each Parish to care for all the poor children in the area.<ref>Vivian C. Fox, "Poor Children's Rights in Early Modern England", ''Journal of Psychohistory'', January 1996, Vol. 23 Issue 3, pp. 286–306</ref> And prior to the 20th century, three major branches of Christianity—Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=20-04-020-f | title =Children of the Reformation |publisher =Touchstone|access-date =2010-01-11}}</ref>—as well as leading Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin generally held a critical perspective of birth control.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-01-040-f | title =Onan's Onus |publisher =Touchstone|access-date =2009-03-20}}</ref> [[File:LDS genealogy library slc utah.jpg|thumb|left|The LDS church's Family History Library is the world's largest library dedicated to genealogical research.]] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts notable emphasis on the family, and the distinctive concept of a united family which lives and progresses forever is at the core of Latter-day Saint doctrine.<ref>{{citation |first= Douglas E. |last= Brinley |title= Together forever: Gospel perspectives for marriage and family |page= [https://archive.org/details/togetherforeverg00brin/page/48 48] |isbn= 1-57008-540-4 |place= Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher= Bookcraft |year= 1998 |oclc= 40185703 |url= https://archive.org/details/togetherforeverg00brin/page/48 }}</ref> Church members are encouraged to marry and have children, and as a result, Latter-day Saint families tend to be larger than average. All sexual activity outside of marriage is considered a serious sin. All homosexual activity is considered sinful and same-sex marriages are not performed or supported by the LDS Church. Latter-day Saint fathers who hold the priesthood typically name and bless their children shortly after birth to formally give the child a name and generate a church record for them. Mormons tend to be very family-oriented and have strong connections across generations and with extended family, reflective of their belief that families can be sealed together beyond death.<ref name="Bushman">{{cite book |last1=Bushman |first1=Richard Lyman |title=Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199718696}}</ref>{{rp|59}} In the temple, husbands and wives are sealed to each other for eternity. The implication is that other institutional forms, including the church, might disappear, but the family will endure.<ref name="Pew-201201-MIA">{{Cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Mormon/mormons-in-america-executive-summary.aspx#family |title=Mormons in America |website=Pew Research Center |date=January 2012 }}</ref> A 2011 survey of Mormons in the United States showed that family life is very important to Mormons, with family concerns significantly higher than career concerns. Four out of five Mormons believe that being a good parent is one of the most important goals in life, and roughly three out of four Mormons put having a successful marriage in this category.<ref name="DN-20120112">{{Cite journal |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700214901/New-Pew-survey-reinforces-Mormons-top-goals-of-family-marriage.html?pg=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120116100601/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700214901/New-Pew-survey-reinforces-Mormons-top-goals-of-family-marriage.html?pg=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 January 2012 |title=New Pew survey reinforces Mormons' top goals of family, marriage |journal=Deseret News |date=January 12, 2012 }}</ref><ref name="LDS-Family-Proc">{{Cite web |title=The Family Proclamation |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}</ref> Mormons also have a strict law of chastity, requiring abstention from sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage and fidelity within marriage.

A Pew Center study about Religion and Living arrangements around the world in 2019, found that Christians around the world live in somewhat smaller households, on average, than non-Christians (4.5 vs. 5.1 members). 34% of world's Christian population live in two parent families with minor children, while 29% live in household with extended families, 11% live as couples without other family members, 9% live in household with least one child over the age of 18 with one or two parents, 7% live alone, and 6% live in single parent households.<ref name="Pew-2019">{{cite web |title=Religion and Living Arrangements Around the World |url=https://www.pewforum.org/2019/12/12/religion-and-living-arrangements-around-the-world |website=Pew Research Center |date=12 December 2019}}</ref> Christians in Asia and Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, overwhelmingly live in extended or two parent families with minor children.<ref name="Pew-2019"/> While more Christians in Europe and North America live alone or as couples without other family members.<ref name="Pew-2019"/>

=== Clerical marriage === {{Main|Clerical marriage}}

[[File:Orthodox priest family.jpg|thumb|Married Eastern Orthodox priest from Jerusalem with his family (three generations), {{circa|1893}}]] Clerical marriage is admitted among Protestants, including both Anglicans and Lutherans.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Social Life of the Early Modern Protestant Clergy| first=Beverly |last=Tjerngren|year= 2021| isbn=9781786837158| page =3 |publisher=University of Wales Press|quote=}}</ref> Some Protestant clergy and their children have played an essential role in literature, philosophy, science, and education in Early Modern Europe.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Social Life of the Early Modern Protestant Clergy| first=Luise |last=Schorn-Schütte|year= 2003| isbn=9780230518872| page =62 |publisher=Springer|quote=}}</ref>

Many Eastern Churches (Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Eastern Catholic), while allowing married men to be ordained, do not allow clerical marriage after ordination: their parish priests are often married, but must marry before being ordained to the priesthood. Within the lands of the Eastern Christendom, priests' children often became priests and married within their social group, establishing a tightly-knit hereditary caste among some Eastern Christian communities.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey| first= W. |last=W. Braumüller|year= 2006| isbn=9783700303121| page =17 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote= because Eastern Christian priests were allowed to marry and therefore the clergy soon became somewhat of a caste made up of a closely - knit families}}</ref><ref>Tarnavky, ''Spohady'', cited in Jean-Paul Himka. (1986). ''The Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Society in Austrian Galicia.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press pg. 444</ref>

The Catholic Church not only forbids clerical marriage, but generally follows a practice of clerical celibacy, requiring candidates for ordination to be unmarried or widowed. However, this public policy in the Catholic Church has not always been enforced in private.

==Slavery== {{main|Catholic Church and slavery}}

The Church initially accepted slavery as part of the Greco-Roman social fabric of society, campaigning primarily for humane treatment of slaves but also admonishing slaves to behave appropriately towards their masters.<ref name="nathan187"/>{{rp|171–173}} Historian Glenn Sunshine says, "Christians were the first people in history to oppose slavery systematically. Early Christians purchased slaves in the markets simply to set them free. Later, in the seventh century, the Franks..., under the influence of its Christian queen, Bathilde, became the first kingdom in history to begin the process of outlawing slavery. ...In the 1200s, Thomas Aquinas declared slavery a sin. When the African slave trade began in the 1400s, it was condemned numerous times by the papacy."<ref name="Glenn S. Sunshine">{{cite book| last=Sunshine| first = Glenn S.| title=Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home| year=2009| publisher=Zondervan|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan| isbn=978-0-310-29230-2| page=44}}</ref>

During the early medieval period, Christians tolerated enslavement of non-Christians. By the end of the medieval period, enslavement of Christians had been mitigated somewhat with the spread of serfdom within Europe, though outright slavery existed in European colonies in other parts of the world. Several popes issued papal bulls condemning mistreatment of enslaved Native Americans; these were largely ignored. In his 1839 bull ''In supremo apostolatus'', Pope Gregory XVI condemned all forms of slavery; nevertheless some American bishops continued to support slavery for several decades.<ref name=starkrodney>Stark, Rodney (1 July 2003). "The Truth About the Catholic Church and Slavery". ''Christianity Today''.</ref> In this historic Bull, Pope Gregory outlined his summation of the impact of the Church on the ancient institution of slavery, beginning by acknowledging that early Apostles had tolerated slavery but had called on masters to "act well towards their slaves... knowing that the common Master both of themselves and of the slaves is in Heaven, and that with Him there is no distinction of persons". Gregory continued to discuss the involvement of Christians for and against slavery through the ages:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Greg16/g16sup.htm|title=IN SUPREMO APOSTOLATUS|date=3 December 1839}}</ref>

{{cquote|In the process of time, the fog of pagan superstition being more completely dissipated and the manners of barbarous people having been softened, thanks to Faith operating by Charity, it at last comes about that, since several centuries, there are no more slaves in the greater number of Christian nations. But{{Snd}} We say with profound sorrow{{Snd}} there were to be found afterwards among the Faithful men who, shamefully blinded by the desire of sordid gain, in lonely and distant countries, did not hesitate to reduce to slavery Indians, negroes and other wretched peoples, or else, by instituting or developing the trade in those who had been made slaves by others, to favour their unworthy practice. Certainly many Roman Pontiffs of glorious memory, Our Predecessors, did not fail, according to the duties of their charge, to blame severely this way of acting as dangerous for the spiritual welfare of those engaged in the traffic and a shame to the Christian name; they foresaw that as a result of this, the infidel peoples would be more and more strengthened in their hatred of the true Religion. }}

===Latin America=== [[File:StPeterClaver.jpg|thumb|upright|Saint Peter Claver worked for the alleviation of the suffering of African slaves brought to South America.]]

It was women, primarily Amerindian Christian converts who became the primary supporters of the Latin American Church.<ref name="Stearns">{{cite book |last1=Stearns |first1=Peter N. |last2=Mason |first2=George |title=Gender in world history |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415223119 |url=https://archive.org/details/genderinworldhis0000stea }}</ref>{{rp|65}} While the Spanish military was known for its ill-treatment of Amerindian men and women, Catholic missionaries are credited with championing all efforts to initiate protective laws for the Indians and fought against their enslavement. This began within 20 years of the discovery of the New World by Europeans in 1492{{Snd}}in December 1511, Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican friar, openly rebuked the Spanish rulers of Hispaniola for their "cruelty and tyranny" in dealing with the American natives.<ref name="Woods135">{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=Thomas Jr. |title=How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization |date=2012 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=9781596983281}}</ref>{{rp|135}} King Ferdinand enacted the ''Laws of Burgos'' and ''Valladolid'' in response. The issue resulted in a crisis of conscience in 16th-century Spain.<ref name="Johansen">{{cite book |last1=Johansen |first1=Bruce Elliott |title=The Native Peoples of North America A History · Volume 1 |date=2005 |publisher=Praeger Publishers |isbn=978-0275987206 |quote=In the Americas, the Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas avidly encouraged enquiries into the Spanish conquest's many cruelties. Las Casas chronicled Spanish brutality against the Native peoples in excruciating detail. |url=https://archive.org/details/nativepeoplesofn0000joha }}</ref>{{rp|109,110}} Further abuses against the Amerindians committed by Spanish authorities were denounced by Catholic missionaries such as Bartolomé de Las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria which led to debate on the nature of human rights<ref name="Koschorke">{{cite book |last1=Spliesgart |first1=Roland |editor1-last=Koschorke |editor1-first=Klaus |editor2-last=Ludwig |editor2-first=Frieder |editor3-last=Delgado |editor3-first=Mariano |editor4-last=Spliesgart |editor4-first=Roland |title=A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990 |date=2007 |publisher=Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=9780802828897}}</ref>{{rp|287}} and the birth of modern international law.<ref name="Woods135"/>{{rp|137}} Enforcement of these laws was lax, and some historians blame the Church for not doing enough to liberate the Indians; others point to the Church as the only voice raised on behalf of indigenous peoples.<ref name="Dussel145">{{cite book |last1=Dussel |first1=Enrique |title=A History of the Church in Latin America |date=1981 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=9780802821317 |quote=The missionary Church opposed this state of affairs from the beginning, and nearly everything positive that was done for the benefit of the indigenous peoples resulted from the call and clamor of the missionaries. The fact remained, however, that widespread injustice was extremely difficult to uproot ... Even more important than Bartolome de Las Casas was the Bishop of Nicaragua, Antonio de Valdeviso, who ultimately suffered martyrdom for his defense of the Indian.}}</ref>{{rp|45,52,53}}

Slavery and human sacrifice were both part of Latin American culture before the Europeans arrived. Indian slavery was first abolished by Pope Paul III in the 1537 bull Sublimis Deus.<ref name="Johansen"/>{{rp|110}} While these edicts may have had some beneficial effects, these were limited in scope. European colonies were mainly run by military and royally appointed administrators, who seldom stopped to consider church teachings when forming policy or enforcing their rule. Even after independence, institutionalized prejudice and injustice toward indigenous people continued well into the twentieth century. This has led to the formation of a number of movements to reassert indigenous peoples' civil rights and culture in modern nation-states.

A catastrophe was wrought upon the Amerindians by contact with Europeans. Old World diseases like smallpox, measles, malaria and many others spread through Indian populations. "In most of the New World 90 percent or more of the native population was destroyed by wave after wave of previously unknown afflictions. Explorers and colonists did not enter an empty land but rather an emptied one".<ref name="Noble, p.230"/>{{rp|454}}

{{See also|Population history of American indigenous peoples}}

===Africa=== Slavery and the slave trade were part of African societies and states which supplied the Arab world with slaves before the arrival of the Europeans.<ref name="Ferro221">{{cite book |last1=Ferro |first1=Marc |title=Colonization A Global History |date=2005 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134826537}}</ref>{{rp|221}} Several decades prior to discovery of the New World, in response to serious military threat to Europe posed by Muslims of the Ottoman Empire, Pope Nicholas V had granted Portugal the right to subdue Muslims, pagans and other unbelievers in the papal bull Dum Diversas (1452).<ref name="Thomas66">{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Hugh |title=The Slave Trade The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440–1870 |date=2013 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9781476737454}}</ref>{{rp|65–6}} Six years after African slavery was first outlawed by the first major entity to do so, (Great Britain in 1833), Pope Gregory XVI followed in a challenge to Spanish and Portuguese policy, by condemning slavery and the slave trade in the 1839 papal bull ''In supremo apostolatus'', and approved the ordination of native clergy in the face of government racism.<ref name="Duffy221">{{cite book |last1=Duffy |first1=Eamon |title=Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes |date=1997 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300073324 |url=https://archive.org/details/saintssinnershis00duff }}</ref>{{rp|221}} The United States would eventually outlaw African slavery in 1865, and Brazil in 1888.

Clapham Sect were a group of social reformers associated with Clapham in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s. Despite the label "sect", most members remained in the established (and dominant) Church of England, which was highly interwoven with offices of state. However, its successors were in many cases outside of the established Anglican Church.<ref>Wolffe, John/ "Clapham Sect (act. 1792–1815)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' 2005; online edn, October 2016</ref>

By the close of the 19th century, European powers had managed to gain control of most of the African interior.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/> The new rulers introduced cash-based economies which created an enormous demand for literacy and a western education—a demand which for most Africans could only be satisfied by Christian missionaries.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/> Catholic missionaries followed colonial governments into Africa, and built schools, hospitals, monasteries and churches.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/>{{rp|397–410}}

==Letters and learning== {{Main|Christianity and science|Science and the Catholic Church}}

{{See also|List of Christian thinkers in science|List of Christian Nobel laureates|List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics|List of Catholic scientists}} [[File:Map of Medieval Universities.jpg|left|thumb|Map of mediaeval universities established by Catholic students, faculty, monarchs, or priests]] The influence of the Church on Western letters and learning has been formidable. The ancient texts of the Bible have deeply influenced Western art, literature and culture. For centuries following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, small monastic communities were practically the only outposts of literacy in Western Europe. In time, the Cathedral schools developed into Europe's earliest universities and the church has established thousands of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions throughout the world in the centuries since. The Church and clergymen have also sought at different times to censor texts and scholars. Thus different schools of opinion exist as to the role and influence of the Church in relation to western letters and learning.

One view, first propounded by Enlightenment philosophers, asserts that the Church's doctrines are entirely superstitious and have hindered the progress of civilization. Communist states have made similar arguments in their education in order to inculcate a negative view of Catholicism (and religion in general) in their citizens. The most famous incidents cited by such critics are the Church's condemnations of the teachings of Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. Events in Christian Europe, such as the Galileo affair, that were associated with the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment led some scholars such as John William Draper to postulate a conflict thesis, holding that religion and science have been in conflict throughout history. While the conflict thesis remains popular in atheistic and antireligious circles, it has lost favor among most contemporary historians of science.<ref>{{cite book|author=Russel, C.A.|editor=Ferngren, G.B.|year=2002|title=Science & Religion: A Historical Introduction|page=7|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=0-8018-7038-0|quote=The conflict thesis, at least in its simple form, is now widely perceived as a wholly inadequate intellectual framework within which to construct a sensible and realistic historiography of Western science}}</ref> [[File:Active Christians in Science.jpg|thumb|Set of pictures for a number of notable scientists self-identified as Christians: Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon and Johannes Kepler]] In opposition to this view, some historians of science, including non-Catholics such as J.L. Heilbron,<ref>{{cite web |title=J.L. Heilbron|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/contribhome.php?get=heil01 |publisher=London Review of Books |access-date=15 September 2006}}</ref> A.C. Crombie, David Lindberg,<ref>{{cite book |title=When Science and Christianity Meet |author=Lindberg, David C. |date=October 2003 |author2=Numbers, Ronald L. |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-48214-6|author-link=David C. Lindberg |author2-link=Ronald Numbers}}</ref> Edward Grant, historian of science Thomas Goldstein,<ref>{{cite book |title=Dawn of Modern Science: From the Ancient Greeks to the Renaissance |last=Goldstein |first=Thomas |publisher=Da Capo Press |date=April 1995 |isbn=0-306-80637-1}}</ref> and Ted Davis, have argued that the Church had a significant, positive influence on the development of Western civilization. They hold that, not only did monks save and cultivate the remnants of ancient civilization during the barbarian invasions, but that the Church promoted learning and science through its sponsorship of many universities which, under its leadership, grew rapidly in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler all considered themselves Christian. St.Thomas Aquinas, the Church's "model theologian", argued that reason is in harmony with faith, and that reason can contribute to a deeper understanding of revelation, and so encouraged intellectual development.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Fides et Ratio'' (Faith and Reason), IV|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/JP2FIDES.HTM#Ch4b |author=Pope John Paul II |date=September 1998 |access-date=15 September 2006}}</ref> The Church's priest-scientists, many of whom were Jesuits, have been among the leading lights in astronomy, genetics, geomagnetism, meteorology, seismology, and solar physics, becoming some of the "fathers" of these sciences. Examples include important churchmen such as the Augustinian abbot Gregor Mendel (pioneer in the study of genetics), the monk William of Ockham who developed Ockham's Razor, Roger Bacon (a Franciscan friar who was one of the early advocates of the scientific method), and Belgian priest Georges Lemaître (the first to propose the Big Bang theory). Other notable priest scientists have included Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste, Nicholas Steno, Francesco Grimaldi, Giambattista Riccioli, Roger Boscovich, and Athanasius Kircher. Even more numerous are Catholic laity involved in science:Henri Becquerel who discovered radioactivity; Galvani, Volta, Ampere, Marconi, pioneers in electricity and telecommunications; Lavoisier, "father of modern chemistry"; Vesalius, founder of modern human anatomy; and Cauchy, one of the mathematicians who laid the rigorous foundations of calculus.

Most contemporary historians of science agree that Galileo affair as an exception, with the relationship between science and Christianity, and have corrected numerous false interpretations of the affair.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finocchiaro|first1=Maurice A.|title=The Trial of Galileo : Essential Documents|date=2014|isbn=978-1-62466-132-7|chapter=Introduction|pages=1–4|publisher=Hackett Publishing Company Incorporated |quote=..one of the most common myths widely held about the trial of Galileo, including several elements: that he "saw" the earth's motion (an observation still impossible to make even in the twenty-first century); that he was "imprisoned" by the Inquisition (whereas he was actually held under house arrest); and that his crime was to have discovered the truth. And since to condemn someone for this reason can result only from ignorance, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness, this is also the myth that alleges the incompatibility between science and religion.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Jules Speller |title= Galileo's Inquisition Trial Revisited |date=2008 |publisher= Peter Lang |isbn= 978-3-631-56229-1 |pages= 55–56}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John Lennox|title=God's Undertaker|date=2009|publisher=Lion Books|isbn=978-0-7459-5371-7|page=26|author-link=John Lennox}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia| first = Ernan| last = McMullin| title = Robert Bellarmine| publisher = Scribner & American Council of Learned Societies| editor-last = Gillispie| editor-first = Charles| encyclopedia = Dictionary of Scientific Biography| date = 2008| ref=Reference-McMullin-2008}}</ref> Professor Noah J Efron says that "Generations of historians and sociologists have discovered many ways in which Christians, Christian beliefs, and Christian institutions played crucial roles in fashioning the tenets, methods, and institutions of what in time became modern science. They found that some forms of Christianity provided the motivation to study nature systematically..."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILIPEAAAQBAJ|title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion|pages=80|isbn=9780674057418 |last1=Numbers |first1=Ronald L. |date=8 November 2010 |publisher= Harvard University Press }}</ref> Virtually all modern scholars and historians agree that Christianity moved many early-modern intellectuals to study nature systematically.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILIPEAAAQBAJ|title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion|pages=80–81|isbn=9780674057418 |last1=Numbers |first1=Ronald L. |date=8 November 2010 |publisher= Harvard University Press }}</ref>

Christian scholars and scientists have made noted contributions to science and technology fields,<ref name="Gilley" /><ref name="Steane" /><ref name="L. Johnson"/> as well as medicine,<ref name="S. Kroger" /> both historically and in modern times. Many well-known historical figures who influenced Western science considered themselves Christian such as Copernicus,<ref name="Polish Biographical Dictionary">''Pro forma'' candidate to Prince-Bishop of Warmia, cf. Dobrzycki, Jerzy, and Leszek Hajdukiewicz, "Kopernik, Mikołaj", ''Polski słownik biograficzny'' (Polish Biographical Dictionary), vol.&nbsp;XIV, Wrocław, Polish Academy of Sciences, 1969, p. 11.</ref> Galileo,<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharratt |first=Michael |year=1994 |title=Galileo: Decisive Innovator |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-56671-1|pages=17, 213}}</ref> Kepler,<ref>"Because he would not accept the Formula of Concord without some reservations, he was excommunicated from the Lutheran communion. Because he remained faithful to his Lutheranism throughout his life, he experienced constant suspicion from Catholics." John L. Treloar, "Biography of Kepler shows man of rare integrity. Astronomer saw science and spirituality as one." ''National Catholic Reporter'', 8 October 2004, p.&nbsp;2a. A review of James A. Connor ''Kepler's Witch: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order amid Religious War, Political Intrigue and Heresy Trial of His Mother'', Harper San Francisco.</ref> Newton<ref name="Newton - 1">Richard S. Westfall{{Snd}} Indiana University {{cite book | url =http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/newton.html |title=The Galileo Project |publisher=Rice University | access-date = 2008-07-05<!-- , 2012-02-07-->}}</ref> and Boyle.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/?Boyle_Lecture | title = The Boyle Lecture | work = St. Marylebow Church}}</ref> Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.<ref name="abc.net.au"/><ref>{{citation | last = Noll | first = Mark | author-link = Mark Noll | title = Science, Religion, and A.D. White: Seeking Peace in the "Warfare Between Science and Theology" | publisher = The Biologos Foundation | page = 4 | url = http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | access-date = 14 January 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150322013257/http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | archive-date = 22 March 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 = Lindberg | first1 = David C. | author-link = David C. Lindberg | last2 = Numbers | first2 = Ronald L. | author2-link = Ronald L. Numbers | title = God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science | place = Berkeley and Los Angeles | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1986 | chapter = Introduction | pages = 5, 12 | isbn = 978-0-520-05538-4 }}</ref><ref name="Gilley1">{{cite book |last=Gilley |first=Sheridan |title=The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities c. 1815–c. 1914 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |others=Brian Stanley |year=2006 |isbn=0521814561 |page=164}}</ref>

According to ''100 Years of Nobel Prize (2005)'', a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000, 65.4% of Nobel Prize Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference (423 prizes).<ref name="Nobel prize">Baruch A. Shalev, ''100 Years of Nobel Prizes'' (2003), Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, p.&nbsp;57: between 1901 and 2000 reveals that 654 Laureates belong to 28 different religion Most 65.4% have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.</ref> Overall, Christians have won a total of 78.3% of all the Nobel Prizes in Peace,<ref name="Shalev, Baruch">Shalev, Baruch (2005). 100 Years of Nobel Prizes. p. 59</ref> 72.5% in Chemistry, 65.3% in Physics,<ref name="Shalev, Baruch"/> 62% in Medicine,<ref name="Shalev, Baruch"/> 54% in Economics<ref name="Shalev, Baruch"/> and 49.5% of all Literature awards.<ref name="Shalev, Baruch"/>

===Antiquity=== [[File:Codex binding Louvre MR373.jpg|thumb|upright|left|David dictating the Psalms, end of the 10th century–11th century.]]

Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the 1st century AD, and from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and his early followers. Jesus learned the texts of the Hebrew Bible and became an influential wandering preacher. Accounts of his life and teachings appear in the New Testament of the Bible, one of the bedrock texts of Western Civilization.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> His orations, including the Sermon on the Mount, The Good Samaritan and his declaration against hypocrisy "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" have been deeply influential in Western literature. Many translations of the Bible exist, including the King James Bible, which is one of the most admired texts in English literature. The poetic Psalms and other passages of the Hebrew Bible have also been deeply influential in Western Literature and thought. Accounts of the actions of Jesus' early followers are contained within the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles written between the early Christian communities{{Snd}} in particular the Pauline epistles which are among the earliest extant Christian documents and foundational texts of Christian theology.

After the death of Jesus, the new sect grew to be the dominant religion of the Roman Empire and the long tradition of Christian scholarship began. When the Western Roman Empire was starting to disintegrate, St Augustine was Bishop of Hippo Regius.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8787/ |title = Bona, Algeria |website = World Digital Library |date = 1899 |access-date = 2013-09-25 }}</ref> He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity and he developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City.<ref name="CC">{{cite book | last = Durant | first = Will | title = Caesar and Christ: a History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325 | publisher = MJF Books | location = New York| year = 1992 | isbn = 1-56731-014-1 |author-link=Will Durant| title-link = Ancient Rome }}</ref> His book ''Confessions'', which outlines his sinful youth and conversion to Christianity, is widely considered to be the first autobiography of ever written in the canon of Western Literature. Augustine profoundly influenced the coming medieval worldview.<ref name="Wilken 2003 291">{{cite book | last = Wilken | first = Robert L. | title = The Spirit of Early Christian Thought | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven | year = 2003 | isbn = 0-300-10598-3 |page=291}}</ref>

=== Byzantine Empire === {{See also|Byzantine science|Byzantine medicine|Byzantine law}} [[File:Hagia Sophia Interior Panorama.jpg|thumb|Interior panorama of the Hagia Sophia, the patriarchal basilica in Constantinople designed 537&nbsp;AD by Isidore of Miletus, the first compiler of Archimedes' various works. The influence of Archimedes' principles of solid geometry is evident.]] The Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Christian civilization, and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in size, wealth, and culture. There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cameron |first=Averil |title=The Byzantines |publisher=Blackwell |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-9833-2 |location=Oxford |pages=42–49 |author-link=Averil Cameron}}</ref>

The Byzantine science played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy, and also in the transmission of Islamic science to Renaissance Italy.<ref name=Saliba>{{cite web|author=George Saliba|author-link=George Saliba|title=Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe|website=Library of Congress |date=2006-04-27|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3883|access-date=2008-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/antiqua/byzantine |title=Byzantine Medicine – Vienna Dioscurides |access-date=2007-05-27 |work=Antiqua Medicina |publisher=University of Virginia |archive-date=2 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402055524/http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/antiqua/byzantine |url-status=dead }}</ref> Many of the most distinguished classical scholars held high office in the Eastern Orthodox Church.<ref>The faculty was composed exclusively of philosophers, scientists, rhetoricians, and philologists ({{cite book | last=Tatakes |first=Vasileios N. |author2=Moutafakis, Nicholas J. | title=Byzantine Philosophy | year=2003 | publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=0-87220-563-0|pages=189}})</ref>

The Imperial University of Constantinople sometimes known as the ''University of the Palace Hall of Magnaura'' ({{langx|el|Πανδιδακτήριον τῆς Μαγναύρας}}), was an Eastern Roman educational institution that could trace its corporate origins to 425&nbsp;AD, when the emperor Theodosius II founded the ''Pandidakterion'' ({{langx|grc-x-medieval|Πανδιδακτήριον}}).<ref>"The Formation of the Hellenic Christian Mind" by Demetrios Constantelos, {{ISBN|0-89241-588-6}}: "The fifth century marked a definite turning point in Byzantine higher education. Theodosios ΙΙ founded in 425 a major university with 31 chairs for law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric and other subjects. Fifteen chairs were assigned to Latin and 16 to Greek. The university was reorganized by Michael III (842–867) and flourished down to the fourteenth century".</ref> The Pandidakterion was refounded in 1046<ref>John H. Rosser, ''Historical Dictionary of Byzantium'', Scarecrow Press, 2001, p. xxx.</ref> by Constantine IX Monomachos who created the Departments of Law (Διδασκαλεῖον τῶν Νόμων) and Philosophy (Γυμνάσιον).<ref>Aleksandr Petrovich Kazhdan, Annabel Jane Wharton, ''Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', University of California Press, 1985, p. 122.</ref> At the time various economic schools, colleges, polytechnics, libraries and fine arts academies also operated in the city of Constantinople. And a few scholars have gone so far as to call the Pandidakterion the first "university" in the world.<ref name="Loukaki 1997, 1553">Marina Loukaki: "Université. Domaine byzantin", in: ''Dictionnaire encyclopédique du Moyen Âge'', Vol. 2, Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1997, {{ISBN|2-204-05866-1}}, p.&nbsp;1553: {{blockquote|Le nom "université" désigne au Moyen Âge occidental une organisation corporative des élèves et des maîtres, avec ses fonctions et privilèges, qui cultive un ensemble d'études supérieures. L'existence d'une telle institution est fort contestée pour Byzance. Seule l'école de Constantinople sous Théodose Il peut être prise pour une institution universitaire. Par la loi de 425, l'empereur a établi l'"université de Constantinople", avec 31 professeurs rémunérés par l'État qui jouissaient du monopole des cours publics.}}</ref>

The writings of Classical antiquity never ceased to be cultivated in Byzantium. Therefore, Byzantine science was in every period closely connected with ancient philosophy, and metaphysics.<ref name="Anastos">Anastos, M. "The History of Byzantine Science." Dumbarton Oaks papers. p. 16 (1962)</ref>{{rp|409}} In the field of engineering Isidore of Miletus, the Greek mathematician and architect of the Hagia Sophia, produced the first compilation of Archimedes works c.&nbsp;530, and it is through this tradition, kept alive by the school of mathematics and engineering founded c.&nbsp;850 during the "Byzantine Renaissance" by Leo the Geometer that such works are known today (see Archimedes Palimpsest).<ref>Alexander Jones, [https://www.ams.org/notices/200505/rev-jones.pdf "Book Review, Archimedes Manuscript"] American Mathematical Society, May 2005.</ref> Indeed, geometry and its applications (architecture and engineering instruments of war) remained a specialty of the Byzantines.[[File:ViennaDioscoridesFolio3v7Physicians.jpg|thumb|left|The frontispiece of the Vienna Dioscurides, which shows a set of seven famous physicians ]] Though scholarship lagged during the dark years following the Arab conquests, during the so-called ''Byzantine Renaissance'' at the end of the first millennium Byzantine scholars re-asserted themselves becoming experts in the scientific developments of the Arabs and Persians, particularly in astronomy and mathematics.<ref>King, David. "The Astronomical Works of Gregory Chioniades. Volume I: Zīj al-⊂ Alā⊃ ī by Gregory Chioniades; David Pingree; An Eleventh-Century Manual of Arabo-Byzantine Astronomy by Alexander Jones." (1991).</ref>{{rp|116–118}} The Byzantines are also credited with several technological advancements, particularly in architecture (e.g. the pendentive dome) and warfare technology (e.g. Greek fire).

Although at various times the Byzantines made magnificent achievements in the application of the sciences (notably in the construction of the Hagia Sophia), and although they preserved much of the ancient knowledge of science and geometry, after the 6th century Byzantine scholars made few novel contributions to science in terms of developing new theories or extending the ideas of classical authors.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=H. Floris |date=1994 |title=The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226112799 |page=395}}</ref><ref> Dickson, [http://www.roma.unisa.edu.au/07305/medmm.htm Mathematics Through the Middle Ages] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513152720/http://www.roma.unisa.edu.au/07305/medmm.htm |date=13 May 2008 }}.</ref>

In the final century of the Empire, Byzantine grammarians were those principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical and literary studies to early Renaissance Italy.<ref>Robins, Robert H. "The Byzantine Grammarians." Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 51 (1998): 29–38.</ref>{{rp|8}} During this period, astronomy and other mathematical sciences were taught in Trebizond; medicine attracted the interest of almost all scholars.<ref name="TM189">Tatakis, Basil, Vasileios N. Tatakēs, and Vasileios N. Tatakes. Byzantine philosophy. Hackett Publishing, 2003.</ref>{{rp|189}}

In the field of law, Justinian&nbsp;I's reforms had a clear effect on the evolution of jurisprudence, and Leo&nbsp;III's ''Ecloga'' influenced the formation of legal institutions in the Slavic world.<ref>TROÏANOS, S., and VELISSAROPOULOU-I. KARAKOSTA. "Histoire du droit." (1997).</ref>{{rp|340}}

In the 10th century, Leo VI the Wise achieved the complete codification of the whole of Byzantine law in Greek, which became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law, generating interest to the present day.

===Preservation of Classical learning=== [[File:KellsFol032vChristEnthroned.jpg|thumb|upright|The Book of Kells. Celtic Church scholars did much to preserve the texts of ancient Europe through the Dark Ages.]]

During the period of European history often called the ''Dark Ages'' which followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Church scholars and missionaries played a vital role in preserving knowledge of Classical Learning. While the Roman Empire and Christian religion survived in an increasingly Hellenised form in the Byzantine Empire centred at Constantinople in the East, Western civilisation suffered a collapse of literacy and organisation following the fall of Rome in 476AD. Monks sought refuge at the far fringes of the known world: like Cornwall, Ireland, or the Hebrides. Disciplined Christian scholarship carried on in isolated outposts like Skellig Michael in Ireland, where literate monks became some of the last preservers in Western Europe of the poetic and philosophical works of Western antiquity.<ref name="ReferenceB">Kenneth Clark; Civilisation, BBC, SBN 563 10279 9; first published 1969</ref> By around 800AD they were producing illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, by which old learning was re-communicated to Western Europe. The Hiberno-Scottish mission led by Irish and Scottish monks like St Columba spread Christianity back into Western Europe during the Middle Ages, establishing monasteries through Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire during the Middle Ages.

Thomas Cahill, in his 1995 book ''How the Irish Saved Civilization'', credited Irish Monks with having "saved" Western Civilization:<ref>''How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe'' by Thomas Cahill, 1995.</ref>

{{blockquote|[A]s the Roman Empire fell, as all through Europe matted, unwashed barbarians{{Dubious|date=September 2023}} descended on the Roman cities, looting artifacts and burning books, the Irish, who were just learning to read and write, took up the great labor of copying all western literature{{Snd}} everything they could lay their hands on. These scribes then served as conduits through which the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe, newly settled amid the rubble and ruined vineyards of the civilization they had overwhelmed. Without this Service of the Scribes, everything that happened subsequently would be unthinkable. Without the Mission of the Irish Monks, who single-handedly re-founded European civilization throughout the continent in the bays and valleys of their exile, the world that came after them would have been an entirely different one-a world without books.{{Dubious|date=September 2023}} And our own world would never have come to be.}}

According to art historian Kenneth Clark, for some five centuries after the fall of Rome, virtually all men of intellect joined the Church and practically nobody in western Europe outside of monastic settlements had the ability to read or write. While church scholars at different times also destroyed classical texts they felt were contrary to the Christian message, it was they, virtually alone in Western Europe, who preserved texts from the old society.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

As Western Europe became more orderly again, the Church remained a driving force in education, setting up Cathedral schools beginning in the Early Middle Ages as centers of education, which became medieval universities, the springboard of many of Western Europe's later achievements.

[[File:Cistercian numerals.svg|thumb|upright|Numbers written with Cistercian numerals. From left to right: 1 in units place, 2 in tens place (20), 3 in hundreds place (300), 4 in thousands place (4000), then compound numbers 5555, 6789, 9394.]] The Catholic Cistercian order used its own numbering system, which could express numbers from 0 to 9999 in a single sign.<ref>{{cite journal |first = David |last = King |year = 1995 |title = A forgotten Cistercian system of numerical notation |journal = Citeaux Commentarii Cistercienses |volume = 46 |issue = 3–4 |pages = 183–217 }}</ref><ref name=chrisomalis>{{Cite book |last = Chrisomalis |first = Stephen |title = Numerical notation : a comparative history |date = 2010 |publisher = Cambridge University Press |isbn = 978-0-511-67683-3 |location = Cambridge |pages = 350 |oclc = 630115876 |doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511676062 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1 = Meskens |first1 = Ad |last2 = Bonte |first2 = Germain |last3 = De Groot |first3 = Jacques |last4 = De Jonghe |first4 = Mieke |last5 = King |first5 = David A. |date = 1999 |title = Wine-Gauging at Damme [The evidence of a late medieval manuscript] |url = https://www.persee.fr/doc/hism_0982-1783_1999_num_14_1_1501 |journal = Histoire & Mesure |volume = 14 |issue = 1 |pages = 51–77 |doi = 10.3406/hism.1999.1501 |name-list-style = amp }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last = Beaujouan |first = Guy |date = 1950 |title = Les soi-disant chiffres grecs ou chaldéens (XIIe – XVIe siècle) |url = https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhs_0048-7996_1950_num_3_2_2795 |journal = Revue d'histoire des sciences |language = fr |volume = 3 |issue = 2 |pages = 170–174 |doi = 10.3406/rhs.1950.2795 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last = Sesiano |first = Jacques |title = Mathemata : Festschrift für Helmuth Gericke |editor-last2 = Lindgren |editor-first2 = Uta|editor2-link= Uta Lindgren |date = 1985 |publisher = F. Steiner Verlag |isbn = 3-515-04324-1 |editor-last = Folkerts |editor-first = Menso |editor-link=Menso Folkerts |location = Stuttgart |language = fr |chapter = Un système artificiel de numérotation au Moyen Age |oclc = 12644728 |name-list-style = amp }}</ref> According to one modern Cistercian, "enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit" have always been a part of the order's identity, and the Cistercians "were catalysts for development of a market economy" in 12th-century Europe.<ref name="SpringBankBaedekerSFChron">{{cite web |url=https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Good-Works-Monks-build-multimillion-dollar-2496735.php |title=Good Works: Monks build multimillion-dollar business and give the money away |first=Rob |last=Baedeker |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=24 March 2008 |access-date=7 August 2009 }}</ref> Until the Industrial Revolution, most of the technological advances in Europe were made in the monasteries.<ref name="SpringBankBaedekerSFChron"/> According to the medievalist Jean Gimpel, their high level of industrial technology facilitated the diffusion of new techniques: "Every monastery had a model factory, often as large as the church and only several feet away, and waterpower drove the machinery of the various industries located on its floor."<ref name="Gimpel">Gimpel, p. 67. Cited by Woods.</ref> Waterpower was used for crushing wheat, sieving flour, fulling cloth and tanning – a "level of technological achievement [that] could have been observed in practically all" of the Cistercian monasteries.<ref>Woods, p. 33</ref> The English science historian James Burke examines the impact of Cistercian waterpower, derived from Roman watermill technology such as that of Barbegal aqueduct and mill near Arles in the fourth of his ten-part ''Connections'' TV series, called "Faith in Numbers". The Cistercians made major contributions to culture and technology in medieval Europe: Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture;<ref name="NewAdvent"/> and the Cistercians were the main force of technological diffusion in fields such as agriculture and hydraulic engineering.<ref name="NewAdvent">{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/16025b.htm |first=Herbert|last=Thurston|title= Cistercians in the British Isles |encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date=18 June 2008|publisher=NewAdvent.org}}</ref>

===Index Librorum Prohibitorum=== thumb|left|Title page of ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' (Venice 1564) The Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. While the promulgation of the ''Index'' has been described by some as the "turning-point in the freedom of enquiry" in the Catholic world,<ref>Charles B. Schmitt, ''et al.'' ''The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy'' (Cambridge University Press, 1991), "Printing and censorship after 1550", p. 45ff.</ref> the actual effects of the Index were minimal and it was largely ignored.<ref>Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 145</ref>

The first Index was published in 1559 by the Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition. The last edition of the Index appeared in 1948 and publication of the list ceased 1966.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285220/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum |title=Index Librorum Prohibitorum |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=8 June 2023 }}</ref>

The avowed aim of the list was to protect the faith and morals of the faithful by preventing the reading of immoral books or works containing theological errors. Books thought to contain such errors included some scientific works by leading astronomers such as Johannes Kepler's ''Epitome astronomiae Copernicianae'', which was on the Index from 1621 to 1835. The various editions of the Index also contained the rules of the Church relating to the reading, selling and pre-emptive censorship of books.

Some of the scientific works that were on early editions of the Index (e.g. on heliocentrism) have long been routinely taught at Catholic universities worldwide. Giordano Bruno, whose works were on the Index, now has a monument in Rome, erected over the Church's objections at the place where he was burned alive at the stake for heresy.

=== Protestant role in science === According to the Merton Thesis there was a positive correlation between the rise of puritanism and protestant pietism on the one hand and early experimental science on the other.<ref name=sztompka2003>Sztompka, Piotr (2003), ''Robert King Merton'', in Ritzer, George, ''The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists'', Malden, Massachusetts Oxford: Blackwell, p. 13, {{ISBN|9781405105958}}</ref> The Merton Thesis has two separate parts: Firstly, it presents a theory that science changes due to an accumulation of observations and improvement in experimental techniques and methodology; secondly, it puts forward the argument that the popularity of science in 17th-century England and the religious demography of the Royal Society (English scientists of that time were predominantly Puritans or other Protestants) can be explained by a correlation between Protestantism and the scientific values.<ref name=gregory1998>Gregory, Andrew (1998), Handout for course 'The Scientific Revolution' at The Scientific Revolution</ref> In his theory, Robert K. Merton focused on English Puritanism and German Pietism as having been responsible for the development of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. Merton explained that the connection between religious affiliation and interest in science was the result of a significant synergy between the ascetic Protestant values and those of modern science.<ref name=becker1992>Becker, George (1992), ''The Merton Thesis: Oetinger and German Pietism, a significant negative case'', Sociological Forum (Springer) 7 (4), pp. 642–660</ref> Protestant values encouraged scientific research by allowing science to study God's influence on the world and thus providing a religious justification for scientific research.<ref name=sztompka2003/>

===Astronomy=== [[File:Specola1.jpg|thumb|left|Vatican Observatory Telescope in Castel Gandolfo]]

Historically, the Catholic Church has been a major a sponsor of astronomy, not least due to the astronomical basis of the calendar by which holy days and Easter are determined. Nevertheless, the most famous case of a scientist being tried for heresy arose in this field of science: the trial of Galileo.

The Church's interest in astronomy began with purely practical concerns, when in the 16th century Pope Gregory XIII required astronomers to correct for the fact that the Julian calendar had fallen out of sync with the sky. Since the Spring equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Church considered that this steady movement in the date of the equinox was undesirable. The resulting Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar used throughout the world today and is an important contribution of the Catholic Church to Western Civilisation.<ref>[http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/calendars Introduction to Calendars] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019043524/http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-information-center/calendars |date=19 October 2011 }}. United States Naval Observatory. Retrieved 15 January 2009.</ref><ref>[http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html Calendars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040401234715/http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html |date=1 April 2004 }} by L. E. Doggett. Section 2.</ref><ref>The international standard for the representation of dates and times ISO 8601 uses the Gregorian calendar. Section 3.2.1.</ref> It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582.<ref>See Wikisource English translation of the (Latin) 1582 papal bull 'Inter gravissimas' instituting Gregorian calendar reform.</ref> In 1789, the Vatican Observatory opened. It was moved to Castel Gandolfo in the 1930s and the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope began making observation in Arizona, US, in 1995.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/science/23Vatican.html?hpw | work=The New York Times | first=George | last=Johnson | title=Vatican's Celestial Eye, Seeking Not Angels but Data | date=23 June 2009}}</ref>

[[File:Gregorianscher Kalender Petersdom.jpg|thumb|right|Detail of the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII celebrating the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar]] [[File:Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition.jpg|thumb|''Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition'' by Cristiano Banti (1857)]]

The famous astronomers Nicholas Copernicus, who put the Sun at the centre of the heavens in 1543, and Galileo Galilei, who experimented with the new technology of the telescope and, with its aid declared his belief that Copernicus was correct, were both practising Catholics{{Snd}}indeed Copernicus was a Catholic clergyman. Yet the church establishment at that time held to theories devised in pre-Christian Greece by Ptolemy and Aristotle, which said that the sky revolved around the Earth. When Galileo began to assert that the Earth in fact revolved around the Sun, he therefore found himself challenging the Church establishment at a time when the Church hierarchy also held temporal power and was engaged in the ongoing political challenge of the rise of Protestantism. After discussions with Pope Urban VIII (a man who had written admiringly of Galileo before taking papal office), Galileo believed he could avoid censure by presenting his arguments in dialogue form, but the Pope took offence when he discovered that some of his own words were being spoken by a character in the book who was a simpleton and Galileo was called for a trial before the Inquisition.<ref name="ReferenceC">Jacob Bronowski; ''The Ascent of Man''; Angus & Robertson, 1973 {{ISBN|0-563-17064-6}}</ref>

In this most famous example cited by critics of the Catholic Church's "posture towards science", Galileo Galilei was denounced in 1633 for his work on the heliocentric model of the Solar System, previously proposed by the Polish clergyman and intellectual Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus's work had been suppressed de facto by the Church, but Catholic authorities were generally tolerant of discussion of the hypothesis as long as it was portrayed only as a useful mathematical fiction, and not descriptive of reality. Galileo, by contrast, argued from his unprecedented observations of the Solar System that the heliocentric system was not merely an abstract model for calculating planetary motions, but actually corresponded to physical reality{{Snd}} that is, he insisted the planets really do orbit the Sun. After years of telescopic observation, consultations with the Popes, and verbal and written discussions with astronomers and clerics, a trial was convened by the Tribunal of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy" (not "guilty of heresy", as is frequently misreported), placed under house arrest, and all of his works, including any future writings, were banned.<ref>Favaro, Antonio (ed.). Le Opere di Galileo Galilei, Edizione Nazionale [The Works of Galileo Galilei, National Edition] (in Italian) (1890–1909; reprinted 1929–1939 and 1964–1966 ed.). Florence: Barbera. {{ISBN|978-88-09-20881-0}}. A searchable online copy is available on the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, Florence, and a brief overview of Le Opere is available at Finn's fine books, and here.</ref><ref>{{anchor|_note-publication-ban}}Drake (1978, p.367), Sharratt (1994, p.184), Favaro [http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=16&VOLPAG=209 (1905, 16:209], [http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=16&VOLPAG=230 230)]{{in lang|it}}. When Fulgenzio Micanzio, one of Galileo's friends in Venice, sought to have Galileo's ''Discourse on Floating Bodies'' reprinted in 1635, he was informed by the Venetian Inquisitor that the Inquisition had forbidden further publication of any of Galileo's works (Favaro, [http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=16&VOLPAG=209 1905, 16:209)]{{in lang|it}}, and was later shown a copy of the order (Favaro, [http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=16&VOLPAG=230 1905, 16:230)]. {{in lang|it}} When the Dutch publishers Elzevir published Galileo's ''Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences'' in 1638, some five years after his trial, they did so under the pretense that a manuscript he had presented to the French Ambassador to Rome for preservation and circulation to interested intellectuals had been used without his knowledge (Sharratt, 1994, p.184; Galilei, 1954 [http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=753&chapter=109888&layout=html p.xvii]; Favaro, [http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=8&VOLPAG=43 1898, 8:43] {{in lang|it}}). Return to other article: Galileo Galilei ; Dialogue ; Two New Sciences.</ref> Galileo had been threatened with torture and other Catholic scientists fell silent on the issue. Galileo's great contemporary René Descartes stopped publishing in France and went to Sweden. According to historian of science Jacob Bronowski:<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

{{cquote|The effect of the trial and imprisonment was to put a total stop to the scientific tradition in the Mediterranean.{{Dubious|date=September 2023}} From now on the Scientific Revolution moved to Northern Europe. }}

Pope John Paul II in 1992 publicly expressed regret for the actions of those Catholics who badly treated Galileo in that trial.<ref>Choupin, ''Valeur des Decisions Doctrinales du Saint Siege''</ref><ref>An abstract of the acts of the process against Galileo is available at the Vatican Secret Archives, which reproduces part of it on its website.</ref> Cardinal John Henry Newman, in the nineteenth century, claimed that those who attack the Church can only point to the Galileo case, which to many historians does not prove the Church's opposition to science since many of the churchmen at that time were encouraged by the Church to continue their research.<ref>{{cite web |title=How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization |url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0101.html |publisher=Catholic Education Resource Center |date=May 2005 |access-date=4 February 2008 |archive-date=12 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712005046/http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0101.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Evolution=== {{Main|Evolution and the Catholic Church}}

Since the publication of Charles Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species'' in 1859, the position of the Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has slowly been refined. For about 100 years, there was no authoritative pronouncement on the subject, though many hostile comments were made by local church figures. In contrast with many Protestant objections, Catholic issues with evolutionary theory have had little to do with maintaining the literalism of the account in the Book of Genesis, and have always been concerned with the question of how man came to have a soul. Modern Creationism has had little Catholic support. In the 1950s, the Church's position was one of neutrality; by the late 20th century its position evolved to one of general acceptance in recent years. However, the church insists that the human soul was immediately infused by God, and the reality of a single ancestor (commonly called monogenism) for the human race.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

{{As of|2008|alt=Today}}, the Church's official position is a fairly non-specific example of ''theistic evolution'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.com/library/adam_eve_and_evolution.asp |title=Adam, Eve, and Evolution |access-date=10 October 2007 |author=Imprimatur Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego |work=Catholic Answers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329020837/http://www.catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp |archive-date=29 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-god.html | title=God and Evolution |access-date=10 October 2007 |author=Warren Kurt VonRoeschlaub |website=The Talk Origins Archive }}</ref> stating that faith and scientific findings regarding human evolution are not in conflict, though humans are regarded as a ''special creation'', and that the existence of God is required to explain both monogenism and the spiritual component of human origins. No infallible declarations by the Pope or an Ecumenical Council have been made. The Catholic Church's official position is fairly non-specific, stating only that faith and the origin of man's material body "from pre-existing living matter" are not in conflict, and that the existence of God is required to explain the spiritual component of man's origin.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}

===Embryonic stem cell research=== Recently, the Church has been criticized for its teaching that embryonic stem cell research is a form of experimentation on human beings, and results in the killing of a human person. Much criticism of this position has been on the grounds that the doctrine hinders scientific research; even some conservatives, taking a utilitarian position, have pointed out that most embryos from which stem cells are harvested are "leftover" from in vitro fertilization, and would soon be discarded whether used for such research or not. The Church, by contrast, has consistently upheld its ideal of the dignity of each individual human life, and argues that it is as wrong to destroy an embryo as it would be to kill an adult human being; and that therefore advances in medicine can and must come without the destruction of human embryos, for example by using adult or umbilical stem cells in place of embryonic stem cells.

== Arts == === Byzantium === {{Main|Art in Roman Catholicism|List of Roman Catholic Church musicians|Byzantine art}}

[[File:God2-Sistine Chapel.png|thumb|''The Creation of Adam'' by Michelangelo from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel]] [[File:Deesis mosaic Hagia Sophia.jpg|thumb|upright|Byzantine mosaic of the Deesis, 13th century, Hagia Sophia]] [[File:G. Conti La parabola del Buon Samaritano Messina Chiesa della Medaglia Miracolosa Casa di Ospitalità Collereale.jpg|thumb|upright|An 18th century Italian depiction of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Biblical subjects have been a constant theme of Western art.]] Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire,<ref>{{cite book |last=Michelis |first=Panayotis A. |date=1946 |title=An Aesthetic Approach to Byzantine Art |location=Athens |publisher=Pyrsoú}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Weitzmann |first=Kurt |author-link=Kurt Weitzmann |date=1981 |title=Classical Heritage in Byzantine and Near Eastern Art |location=London |publisher=Variorum Reprints}}</ref> as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kitzinger |first=Ernst |date=1977 |title=Byzantine Art in the Making: Main Lines of Stylistic Development in Mediterranean Art, 3rd‒7th Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0571111541 |pages=1‒3}}</ref>

Many Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern Europe, as well as to some degree the Muslim states of the eastern Mediterranean, preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward. A number of states contemporary with the Byzantine Empire were culturally influenced by it, without actually being part of it (the "Byzantine commonwealth"). These included Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Rus, as well as some non-Orthodox states like the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Sicily, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire despite being in other respects part of western European culture. Art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman Empire is often called "post-Byzantine". Certain artistic traditions that originated in the Byzantine Empire, particularly in regard to icon painting and church architecture, are maintained in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day.

===Architecture=== {{Main|Architecture of cathedrals and great churches}}

Several historians credit the Catholic Church for what they consider to be the brilliance and magnificence of Western art. "Even though the church dominated art and architecture, it did not prevent architects and artists from experimenting..."<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|225}} Historians such as Thomas Woods refer to the western Church's consistent opposition to Byzantine iconoclasm, an eastern movement against visual representations of the divine, and the western church's insistence on building structures befitting worship. Important contributions include its cultivation and patronage of individual artists, as well as development of the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles of art and architecture.<ref name="Woods135"/>{{rp|115–27}}

British art historian Kenneth Clark wrote that Western Europe's first "great age of civilization" was ready to begin around the year 1000. From 1100, he wrote, monumental abbeys and cathedrals were constructed and decorated with sculptures, hangings, mosaics and works belonging to one of the greatest epochs of art, providing stark contrast to the monotonous and cramped conditions of ordinary living during the period. The Late Middle Ages produced ever more extravagant art and architecture, but also the virtuous simplicity of those such as St Francis of Assisi (expressed in the Canticle of the Sun) and the epic poetry of Dante's ''Divine Comedy''.<ref name="Humanities"/>{{rp|248–250}} Abbot Suger of the Abbey of St. Denis is considered an influential early patron of Gothic architecture. He believed that love of beauty brought people closer to God: "The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material". Clarke calls this "the intellectual background of all the sublime works of art of the next century and in fact has remained the basis of our belief of the value of art until today".<ref name="Civilisation, BBC 1969"/>

===Painting and sculpture=== Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Bernini, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, and Titian, were among a multitude of innovative virtuosos sponsored by the Church.<ref name="Duffy221"/>{{rp|133}} During both The Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation, Catholic artists produced many of the unsurpassed masterpieces of Western art{{Snd}}often inspired by Biblical themes: from Michelangelo's ''David'' and ''Pietà'' sculptures, to Da Vinci's ''Last Supper'' and Raphael's various ''Madonna'' paintings. Referring to a "great outburst of creative energy such as took place in Rome between 1620 and 1660", Kenneth Clarke wrote:

<blockquote>[W]ith a single exception, the great artists of the time were all sincere, conforming Christians. Guercino spent much of his mornings in prayer; Bernini frequently went into retreats and practised the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius; Rubens attended Mass every morning before beginning work. The exception was Caravaggio, who was like the hero of a modern play, except that he happened to paint very well.

This conformism was not based on fear of the Inquisition, but on the perfectly simple belief that the faith which had inspired the great saints of the preceding generation was something by which a man should regulate his life.<ref name="Civilisation, BBC 1969"/></blockquote>

===Music===

In music, Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern Western musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church,<ref name="Hall100">{{cite book |last1=Hall |author-link1=John R. Hall (sociologist) |first1=John R. |last2=Battani |first2=Marshall |last3=Neitz |first3=Mary Jo |title=Sociology On Culture |date=2004 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134452378}}</ref>{{rp|100}} and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music, and its many derivatives. The Baroque style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.<ref name="Murray45">{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Chris |title=Dictionary of the Arts |date=1997 |publisher=Brockhampton Press |isbn=9781860195020 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofarts00broc }}</ref>{{rp|45}}

The list of Catholic composers and Catholic sacred music which have a prominent place in Western culture is extensive, but includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's ''Ave Verum Corpus''; Franz Schubert's ''Ave Maria'', César Franck's ''Panis angelicus'', and Antonio Vivaldi's ''Gloria''.

===Literature=== {{Main|Christian literature}}

{{Further|Christian library|Christian drama|American Catholic literature|Mennonite literature|Mormon fiction}} [[File:1612 First Quarto of King James Bible.jpg|thumb|upright|John Speed's ''Genealogies Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures'' (1611), bound into first King James Bible in quarto size (1612)]] Christian literature is writing that deals with Christian themes and incorporates the Christian world view. This constitutes a huge body of extremely varied writing. Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, while others provide allegory.

Similarly, the list of Catholic authors and literary works is vast. With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, the Bible and Papal Encyclicals have been constants of the Catholic canon but countless other historical works may be listed as noteworthy in terms of their influence on Western society. From late Antiquity, St Augustine's book Confessions, which outlines his sinful youth and conversion to Christianity, is widely considered to be the first autobiography ever written in the canon of Western Literature. Augustine profoundly influenced the coming medieval worldview.<ref name="Wilken 2003 291"/> The Summa Theologica, written 1265–1274, is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (c.1225–1274), and although unfinished, "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gracia |first1=Jorge J. E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jAcwGItzssC&dq=james%20f%20ross%20philosopher&pg=PA165 |title=The Classics of Western Philosophy: A Reader's Guide |last2=Reichberg |first2=Gregory M. |last3=Schumacher |first3=Bernard N. |date=2003-03-07 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-631-23611-5 |pages=165 |language=en}}</ref> It is intended as a manual for beginners in theology and a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Church. It presents the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West. The epic poetry of the Italian Dante and his ''Divine Comedy'' of the late Middle Ages is also considered immensely influential. The English statesman and philosopher, Thomas More, wrote the seminal work Utopia in 1516. St Ignatius Loyola, a key figure in the Catholic counter-reformation, is the author of an influential book of meditations known as the Spiritual Exercises. [[File:Benozzo Gozzoli 004a.jpg|thumb|upright|Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the great scholars of the Medieval period.]] Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy, especially that of Aristotle but also of Neoplatonism.<ref>Particularly through Pseudo-Dionysius, Augustine, and Boethius, and through the influence of Plotinus and Proclus on Muslim philosophers. In the case of Aquinas, for instance, see Jan Aertsen, "Aquinas' philosophy in its historical setting" in ''The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas'', ed. Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Jean Leclerq, ''The Love of Learning and the Desire for God'' (New York: Fordham University Press, 1970).</ref> The scholastics' intellectual systems by Aquinas, called the ''Summa Theologiae'', influenced the writings of Dante, and in turn, Dante's creation and sacramental theology has contributed to a Catholic imagination influencing writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien<ref>{{cite web |title=Tolkien's Catholic Imagination |url=http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2001/feature7.htm |last=Boffetti |first=Jason |date=November 2001 |work=Crisis Magazine |publisher=Morley Publishing Group |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821111145/http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2001/feature7.htm |archive-date=21 August 2006 }}</ref> and William Shakespeare.<ref>{{cite web |title=Assurances of faith: How Catholic Was Shakespeare? How Catholic Are His Plays? |url=http://www.crisismagazine.com/julaug2002/feature4.htm |last=Voss |first=Paul J. |date=July 2002 |work=Crisis Magazine |publisher=Morley Publishing Group |access-date=4 February 2008 |archive-date=22 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222065053/http://www.crisismagazine.com/julaug2002/feature4. |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In Catholicism, "Doctor of the Church" is a name is given to a saint from whose writings the whole Church is held to have derived great advantage and to whom "eminent learning" and "great sanctity" have been attributed by a proclamation of a pope or of an ecumenical council. This honour is given rarely, and only after canonization.

The King James Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible, has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zmc6f|title=The King James Bible: The Book That Changed the World – BBC Two|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

===Protestant=== The arts have been strongly inspired by Protestant beliefs. Martin Luther, Paul Gerhardt, George Wither, Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, William Cowper, and many other authors and composers created well-known church hymns. Musicians like Heinrich Schütz, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Henry Purcell, Johannes Brahms, and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy composed great works of music. Prominent painters with Protestant background were, for example, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach, Rembrandt, and Vincent van Gogh. World literature was enriched by the works of Edmund Spenser, John Milton, John Bunyan, John Donne, John Dryden, Daniel Defoe, William Wordsworth, Jonathan Swift, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Matthew Arnold, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Theodor Fontane, Washington Irving, Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Stearns Eliot, John Galsworthy, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, John Updike, and many others.

==Economic development== [[File:Francisco de Vitoria.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Francisco de Vitoria at San Esteban, Salamanca]] The notion of Christian finance refers to banking and financial activities which came into existence several centuries ago.

Christian Churches, such as the Catholic Church and Reformed Church, traditionally prohibit usury as a sin against the eighth commandment.<ref name="Cox1853">{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Robert |title=Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties: Considered in Relation to Their Natural and Scriptural Grounds, and to the Principles of Religious Liberty |date=1853 |publisher=Maclachlan and Stewart |page=180 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Considine2016">{{cite web |last1=Considine |first1=Kevin P. |title=Is it sinful to charge interest on a loan? |url=https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201603/it-sinful-charge-interest-loan-30591 |publisher=U.S. Catholic |access-date=4 June 2020 |language=en |date=2016}}</ref>

The activities of the Knights Templar (12th century), Mounts of Piety (appeared in 1462) or the Apostolic Chamber attached directly to the Vatican, may have given rise to operations of a banking nature or a financial nature (issuance of securities, investments) is proved.<ref>J. Le Goff, Marchands et banquiers au Moyen Âge, Puf Quadrige, 2011, p. 75</ref>

Francisco de Vitoria, a disciple of Thomas Aquinas and a Catholic thinker who studied the issue regarding the human rights of colonized natives, is recognized by the United Nations as a father of international law, and now also by historians of economics and democracy as a leading light for the West's democracy and rapid economic development.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Philosophical and Historical Analysis of Modern Democracy, Equality, and Freedom Under the Influence of Christianity |url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0010.html |last=de Torre |first=Fr. Joseph M. |year=1997 |publisher=Catholic Education Resource Center}}</ref>

Joseph Schumpeter, an economist of the twentieth century, referring to the Scholastics, wrote, "it is they who come nearer than does any other group to having been the 'founders' of scientific economics."<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Economic Analysis |last=Schumpeter |first=Joseph |year=1954 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=London}}</ref> Other economists and historians, such as Raymond de Roover, Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, and Alejandro Chafuen, have also made similar statements. Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization."<ref>{{cite web |title=Review of ''How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization'' by Thomas Woods, Jr. |url=http://www.nrbookservice.com/products/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=c6664 |work=National Review Book Service |access-date=16 September 2006 |archive-date=22 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822150152/http://www.nrbookservice.com/products/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6664 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Catholic banking families includes House of Medici,<ref>Crum, Roger J. ''Severing the Neck of Pride: Donatello's "Judith and Holofernes" and the Recollection of Albizzi Shame in Medicean Florence ''. Artibus et Historiae, Volume 22, Edit 44, 2001. pp. 23–29.</ref> Welser family, Fugger family,<ref>Negotiating the French Pox in Early Modern Germany by Claudia Stein</ref> and Simonetti family.

=== Protestant work ethic === {{Main|Protestant work ethic}}

[[File:Die protestantische Ethik und der 'Geist' des Kapitalismus original cover.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of the original German edition of ''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'']] The rise of Protestantism in the 16th century contributed to the development of banking in Northern Europe. In the late 18th century, Protestant merchant families began to move into banking to an increasing degree, especially in trading countries such as the United Kingdom (Barings, Lloyd),<ref>{{cite book|author=Humphrey Lloyd|title=Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWcAAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106|date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-60575-8|page=106}}</ref> Germany (Schroders, Berenbergs)<ref name="Schramm1963">Percy Ernst Schramm, Neun Generationen: Dreihundert Jahre deutscher "Kulturgeschichte" im Lichte der Schicksale einer Hamburger Bürgerfamilie (1648–1948). Vol. I and II, Göttingen 1963/64.</ref> and the Netherlands (Hope & Co., Gülcher & Mulder). At the same time, new types of financial activities broadened the scope of banking far beyond its origins. One school of thought attributes Calvinism with setting the stage for the later development of capitalism in northern Europe.<ref name="aura.abdn.ac.uk">{{cite journal | last1 = McKinnon | first1 = AM | year = 2010 | title = Elective affinities of the Protestant ethic: Weber and the chemistry of capitalism | url = http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/3035/1/McKinnon_Elective_Affinities_final_non_format.pdf | journal = Sociological Theory | volume = 28 | issue = 1| pages = 108–126 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01367.x| hdl = 2164/3035 | s2cid = 144579790 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> The Morgan family is an American Episcopal Church family and banking dynasty, which became prominent in the U.S. and throughout the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century.<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS"/>

The Protestant work ethic, the ''Calvinist work ethic'',<ref>The Idea of Work in Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times by Catharina Lis</ref> or the ''Puritan work ethic''<ref>{{cite book |last=Ryken |first=Leland |date=2010 |title=Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ox7aNVgljlMC&pg=PT51 |publisher=Harper Collins |pages=51– |isbn=978-0-310-87428-7}}</ref> is a work ethic concept in theology, sociology, economics and history which emphasizes that hard work, discipline, and frugality<ref>{{cite web|title=Protestant Ethic|url=http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/protesta.htm|website=Believe: Religious Information Source |date=16 June 2025 }}</ref> are a result of a person's subscription to the values espoused by the Protestant faith, particularly Calvinism. The phrase was initially coined in 1904–1905 by Max Weber in his book ''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Weber|first=Max|title=The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism|orig-year=First published 1905|translator-first=Talcott|translator-last=Parsons|date=2003|publisher=Dover| location=New York|isbn=9780486122373}}</ref> Weber asserted that Protestant ethics and values along with the Calvinist doctrine of asceticism and predestination gave birth to capitalism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tutor2u.net/sociology/reference/sociology-weber-calvinism-and-spirit-of-modern-capitalism|title=Weber, Calvinism and the Spirit of Modern...|date=March 22, 2020|website=tutor2u}}</ref> It is one of the most influential and cited books in sociology although the thesis presented has been controversial since its release. In opposition to Weber, historians such as Fernand Braudel and Hugh Trevor-Roper assert that the Protestant work ethic did not create capitalism and that capitalism developed in pre-Reformation Catholic communities. Just as priests and caring professionals are deemed to have a vocation (or "calling" from God) for their work, according to the Protestant work ethic the lowly workman also has a noble vocation which he can fulfil through dedication to his work.

The Protestant concept of God and man allows believers to use all their God-given faculties, including the power of reason. That means that they are allowed to explore God's creation and, according to Genesis 2:15, make use of it in a responsible and sustainable way. Thus a cultural climate was created that greatly enhanced the development of the humanities and the sciences.<ref>Gerhard Lenski (1963), ''The Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics, and Family Life'', Revised Edition, A Doubleday Anchor Book, Garden City, N.Y., pp. 348–351</ref> Another consequence of the Protestant understanding of man is that the believers, in gratitude for their election and redemption in Christ, are to follow God's commandments. Industry, frugality, calling, discipline, and a strong sense of responsibility are at the heart of their moral code.<ref>Cf. Robert Middlekauff (2005), ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-516247-9}}, p. 52</ref><ref>Jan Weerda, ''Soziallehre des Calvinismus'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage (1958), Stuttgart (Germany), col. 934</ref> In particular, Calvin rejected luxury. Therefore, craftsmen, industrialists, and other businessmen were able to reinvest the greater part of their profits in the most efficient machinery and the most modern production methods that were based on progress in the sciences and technology. As a result, productivity grew, which led to increased profits and enabled employers to pay higher wages. In this way, the economy, the sciences, and technology reinforced each other. The chance to participate in the economic success of technological inventions was a strong incentive to both inventors and investors.<ref>Eduard Heimann, ''Kapitalismus'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band III (1959), Tübingen (Germany), col. 1136–1141</ref><ref>Hans Fritz Schwenkhagen, ''Technik'', in ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', 3. Auflage, col. 1029–1033</ref><ref>Georg Süßmann, ''Naturwissenschaft und Christentum'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band IV, col. 1377–1382</ref><ref>C. Graf von Klinckowstroem, ''Technik. Geschichtlich'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band VI, col. 664–667</ref> The Protestant work ethic was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. This idea is also known as the "Protestant ethic thesis".<ref name="SEP">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber |title=Max Weber |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=Fall 2008 |access-date=21 August 2011 |author=Kim, Sung Ho}}</ref> [[File:One World Trade Center and Trinity Church.JPG|thumb|upright|Trinity Church in Manhattan; it has been seen as embodying the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Religion in America|first=Peter |last= W. Williamls|year=2010| isbn=9780252009327| page =744|publisher=University of Philadelphia University Press|quote=}}</ref>]] Episcopalians and Presbyterians tend to be considerably wealthier<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS">{{cite news |author=B. Drummond Ayres Jr. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/us/the-episcopalians-an-american-elite-with-roots-going-back-to-jamestown.html |title=The Episcopalians: An American Elite With Roots Going Back to Jamestown |work=The New York Times |date=28 April 1981 |page=B17 |access-date=2012-08-17 }}</ref> and better educated (having more graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in America,<ref>Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet", ''Ethnicity'', 1975, pp. 154+</ref> and are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business,<ref name="Hacker 1957 1009–1026 p. 1011"/> law and politics, especially the Republican Party.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baltzell |title=The Protestant Establishment |url=https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich |url-access=registration |year=1964 |page=[https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich/page/9 9] |publisher= New York, Random House}}</ref> Large numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Rockefellers, Du Ponts,<ref name="W. Williams"/> Whitneys, Morgans, Fords,<ref name="W. Williams"/> Mellons,<ref name="W. Williams"/> Van Leers, Browns,<ref name="W. Williams"/> Waynes and Harrimans are Mainline Protestant families.<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS"/><ref name="W. Williams">{{cite book|title=Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression|first=Peter|last= W. Williams|year= 2016| isbn= 9781469626987| page =176|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|quote=The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.}}</ref> The ''Boston Brahmins'', who were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites, were often associated with the American upper class, Harvard University;<ref>{{cite book|title=Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity|first=Julia |last=B. Rosenbaum|year=2006| isbn= 9780801444708| page =45|publisher=Cornell University Press|quote=By the late nineteenth century, one of the strongest bulwarks of Brahmin power was Harvard University. Statistics underscore the close relationship between Harvard and Boston's upper strata.}}</ref> and the Episcopal Church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Boston's Wayward Children: Social Services for Homeless Children, 1830–1930|first=Peter|last=C. Holloran|year=1989| isbn=9780838632970| page =73|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism|first=Gillis |last=J. Harp|year=2003| isbn= 9780742571983| page =13|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|quote=}}</ref> The ''Old Philadelphianss'' were often associated with the American upper class and the Episcopal Church and Quakerism.<ref>{{cite book|title=Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class|first=E. Digby |last=Baltzell|year=2011| isbn=9781412830751| page =236|publisher=Transaction Publishers|quote=}}</ref> These families were influential in the development and leadership of arts, culture, science, medicine, law, politics, industry and trade in the United States.

Some academics have theorized that Lutheranism, the dominant traditional religion of the Nordic countries, had an effect on the development of social democracy there and the Nordic model. Schröder posits that Lutheranism promoted the idea of a nationwide community of believers and led to increased state involvement in economic and social life, allowing for nationwide welfare solidarity and economic co-ordination.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schröder|first=Martin|year=2013|title=Integrating Varieties of Capitalism and Welfare State Research|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=96, 144–145, 149, 155, 157}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Markkola|first=Pirjo|editor1-last=Kettunen|editor1-first=Pauli|editor2-last=Petersen|editor2-first=Klaus|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ChHcCoq7f0C&pg=PA102|title=The Lutheran Nordic Welfare States|journal=Beyond Welfare State Models. Transnational Historical Perspectives on Social Policy|location=Cheltenham|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|pages=102–118|isbn=9781849809603|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name=Kettunen>{{cite journal|last=Kettunen|first=Pauli|year=2010|url=https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/41875/nordwel1.pdf?sequence=1#page=18|title=The Sellers of Labour Power as Social Citizens: A Utopian Wage Work Society in the Nordic Visions of Welfare|journal=NordWel Studies in Historical Welfare State Research|pages=16–45}}</ref> Esa Mangeloja says that the revival movements helped to pave the way for the modern Finnish welfare state. During that process, the church lost some of its most important social responsibilities (health care, education, and social work) as these tasks were assumed by the secular Finnish state.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/10.21435/sfh.25/read/?loc=On_the_Legacy_of_Lutheranism_in_Finland-19.xhtml|doi = 10.21435/sfh.25|title = On the Legacy of Lutheranism in Finland: Societal Perspectives|year = 2019|isbn = 9789518581355|editor1-last = Sinnemäki|editor1-first = Kaius|editor2-last = Portman|editor2-first = Anneli|editor3-last = Tilli|editor3-first = Jouni|editor4-last = Nelson|editor4-first = Robert H}}</ref> Pauli Kettunen presents the Nordic model as the outcome of a sort of mythical "Lutheran peasant enlightenment", portraying the Nordic model as the result of a sort of "secularized Lutheranism";<ref>{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=Robert H.|year=2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4FaDwAAQBAJ|title=Lutheranism and the Nordic Spirit of Social Democracy: A Different Protestant Ethic|location=Bristol|publisher=ISD|pages=21, 121|isbn=978-87-7184-416-0|via=Google Books}}</ref> however, mainstream academic discourse on the subject focuses on "historical specificity", with the centralized structure of the Lutheran church being but one aspect of the cultural values and state structures that led to the development of the welfare state in Scandinavia.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hilson|first=Mary|year=2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_xi60bdHXoC&pg=PA112|title=The Nordic Model: Scandinavia since 1945|location=London|publisher=Reaktion Books|pages=112–133|isbn=9781861894618|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Social justice, care-giving, and the hospital system== {{See also|Catholic social teaching|Catholic Church and health care}} [[File:Physician in hospital sickroom printed 1682.jpg|thumb|upright|Historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse, says that the Church spearheaded the development of a hospital system geared towards the marginalized.]] The Catholic Church has contributed to society through its social doctrine which has guided leaders to promote social justice and providing care to the sick and poor. In orations such as his Sermon on the Mount and stories such as ''The Good Samaritan'', Jesus called on followers to worship God, act without violence or prejudice and care for the sick, hungry and poor. Such teachings are the foundation of Catholic Church involvement in social justice, hospitals and health care.

Today the Roman Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world.<ref name=Geopolitics>{{cite journal|last=Agnew|first=John|title=Deus Vult: The Geopolitics of Catholic Church|journal=Geopolitics|date=12 February 2010|volume=15|issue=1|pages=39–61|doi=10.1080/14650040903420388|s2cid=144793259}}</ref> It has around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of them located in developing countries.<ref name="World Development p.40">Robert Calderisi; ''Earthly Mission – The Catholic Church and World Development''; TJ International Ltd; 2013; p. 40</ref> In 2010, the Church's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers said that the Church manages 26% of the world's health care facilities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/18624/catholic-hospitals-comprise-one-quarter-of-worlds-healthcare-council-reports |title=Catholic hospitals comprise one quarter of world's healthcare, council reports :: Catholic News Agency (CNA) |publisher=Catholic News Agency |date=10 February 2010 |access-date=2012-08-17}}</ref> The Church's involvement in health care has ancient origins.

===Fourth century=== Historians record that, prior to Christianity, the ancient world left little trace of any organized charitable effort.<ref name="Gerhard Uhlhorn">{{cite book| last=Ulhorn| first=Gerhard| title=Christian Charity in the Ancient Church|year=1883| publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|pages=2–44,321}}</ref> Christian charity and the practice of feeding and clothing the poor, visiting prisoners, supporting widows and orphan children has had sweeping impact.<ref name="Charles Schmidt">{{cite book| last=Schmidt| first=Charles|title=The Social Results of Early Christianity| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X-UROGF6ZcUC|year=1889| publisher=William Isbister Ltd.|location=London, England| pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X-UROGF6ZcUC/page/n279 245]–256| chapter=Chapter Five: The Poor and Unfortunate| isbn=9780790531052}}</ref>

Albert Jonsen, University of Washington historian of medicine, says "the second great sweep of medical history begins at the end of the fourth century, with the founding of the first Christian hospital at Caesarea in Cappadocia, and concludes at the end of the fourteenth century, with medicine well ensconced in the universities and in the public life of the emerging nations of Europe."<ref name="Albert R. Jonsen">{{cite book| last=Jonsen| first=Albert| title=A Short History of Medical Ethics| year=2000| publisher=Oxford University Press| location=New York|isbn=0-19-513455-9|page=13}}</ref> After the death of Eusebios in 370 and the election of Basil as bishop of Caesarea, Basil established the first formal soup kitchen, hospital, homeless shelter, hospice, poorhouse, orphanage, reform center for thieves, women's center for those leaving prostitution and many other ministries. Basil was personally involved and invested in the projects and process giving all of his personal wealth to fund the ministries. Basil himself would put on an apron and work in the soup kitchen. These ministries were given freely regardless of religious affiliation. Basil refused to make any discrimination when it came to people who needed help saying that "the digestive systems of the Jew and the Christian are indistinguishable."<ref name="Robert H. Bremner">{{cite book| last=Bremner| first=Robert H.| title=Giving: Charity and Philanthropy in History|year=2017| publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-1-56000-884-2|page=14}}</ref> "...there is a striking resemblance between [Basil's] ideals and those of modern times.&nbsp;... certainly he was the most modern among the pioneers of monasticism, and for this reason, if for none other, his work has a permanent interest..."<ref name="W.K.Lowther Clarke">{{cite book|last=Clarke| first=W.K.Lowther|title=St.Basil the Great A Study in Monasticism| year=1913| publisher= Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, England|page=155}}</ref> [[File:SantaMariaDellaScalaSienaBack.JPG|thumb|Panorama of Siena's Santa Maria della Scala Hospital, one of Europe's oldest hospitals]] Charity has now become a universal practice.{{Dubious|date=September 2023}}<ref name="Thomas Max Safley">{{cite book| last=Safley| first=Thomas Max| title=The Reformation of Charity: The Secular and the Religious in Early Modern Poor Relief| year=2003| publisher=Brill Academic Publishers| location=Boston| isbn=0-391-04211-4|page =introduction,193}}</ref> Christianity played a key role in the building and maintaining of hospitals in the Byzantine Empire. Many hospitals were built and maintained by bishops in their respective prefectures. Hospitals were usually built near or around churches, and great importance was laid on the idea of healing through salvation.<ref>Lindberg, David. (1992) ''The Beginnings of Western Science''. University of Chicago Press. p. 349.</ref> When medicine failed, doctors would ask their patients to pray. This often involved icons of Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of medicine and doctors. Christianity also played a key role in propagating the idea of charity. Medicine was made, according to Oregon State University historian, Gary Ferngren (professor of ancient Greek and Rome history with a speciality in ancient medicine) "accessible to all and... simple". In the actual practice of medicine there is evidence of Christian influence. John Zacharias Aktouarios recommends the use of Holy Water mixed with a pellitory plant to act as a way to cure epilepsy.<ref name="Bouras-Vallianatos">{{Cite journal|last=Bouras-Vallianatos|first=Petros|date=25 April 2015|title=The Art of Healing in the Byzantine Empire|journal=Pera Museum}}</ref>

===Medieval period=== The Catholic Church established a hospital system in medieval Europe that was different from the merely reciprocal hospitality of the Greeks and family-based obligations of the Romans. These hospitals were established to cater to "particular social groups marginalized by poverty, sickness, and age", according to historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals |last=Risse |first=Guenter B |date=April 1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=59 |isbn=0-19-505523-3}}</ref>

The Fugger Family from Augsburg, Germany who were bankers, 500 years ago founded one of the first social housing projects in the world, which exists till today.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fugger.de/en/singleview/article/unparalleled-worldwide-for-500-years/1.html|title=Unparalleled worldwide for 500 years|last=Stiftungs-Administration|first=Fürstlich und Gräflich Fuggersche|website=www.fugger.de|language=en|access-date=2019-07-09|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507062015/https://www.fugger.de/en/singleview/article/unparalleled-worldwide-for-500-years/1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article126129696/Wer-guenstig-leben-will-muss-dreimal-taeglich-beten.html|title=Sozialer Wohnungsbau: Wer günstig leben will, muss dreimal täglich beten|last=Keil|first=Lars-Broder|date=2014-03-24|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/Fuggerei-Leben-im-Denkmal-id5379771.html|title=Fuggerei: Leben im Denkmal|last=Seibold|first=Karin|website=Augsburger Allgemeine|date=13 April 2009 |language=de|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref>

===Industrial Revolution=== {{further|Liberation theology}}

[[File:Sisters of Mercy at the Battle of Gravelotte.jpg|thumb|upright|"After the Battle of Gravelotte. The French Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo arriving on the battle field to succor the wounded." Unsigned lithograph, 1870 or 1871.]] [[File:LeoXIII1900.jpg|thumb|upright|In 1891 Pope Leo XIII issued ''Rerum novarum'' in which the Church defined the dignity and rights of industrial workers.]]

The Industrial Revolution brought many concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers. Influenced by the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, in 1891 Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical ''Rerum novarum'', which set in context Catholic social teaching in terms that rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions. ''Rerum Novarum'' argued for the establishment of a living wage and the right of workers to form trade unions.<ref name="Duffy221"/>{{rp|240}}

''Quadragesimo anno'' was issued by Pope Pius XI, on 15 May 1931, 40 years after ''Rerum novarum''. Unlike Leo, who addressed mainly the condition of workers, Pius XI concentrated on the ethical implications of the social and economic order. He called for the reconstruction of the social order based on the principle of solidarity and subsidiarity.<ref name="Duffy221"/>{{rp|260}} He noted major dangers for human freedom and dignity, arising from unrestrained capitalism and totalitarian communism.

The social teachings of Pope Pius XII repeat these teachings, and apply them in greater detail not only to workers and owners of capital, but also to other professions such as politicians, educators, house-wives, farmers bookkeepers, international organizations, and all aspects of life including the military. Going beyond Pius XI, he also defined social teachings in the areas of medicine, psychology, sport, TV, science, law and education. Pius XII was called "the Pope of Technology" for his willingness and ability to examine the social implications of technological advances. The dominant concern was the continued rights and dignity of the individual. With the beginning of the space age at the end of his pontificate, Pius XII explored the social implications of space exploration and satellites on the social fabric of humanity asking for a new sense of community and solidarity in light of existing papal teachings on subsidiarity.<ref>Felictity O'Brien, Pius XII, London 2000, p.13</ref>

The Methodist Church, among other Christian denominations, was responsible for the establishment of hospitals, universities, orphanages, soup kitchens, and schools to follow Jesus's command to spread the Good News and serve all people.<ref name="Establishments">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/modelsforchristi0000unse |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/modelsforchristi0000unse/page/290 290] |title=Models for Christian Higher Education: Strategies for Survival and Success in the Twenty-First Century |year=1997 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=9780802841216 |quote=Wesleyan institutions, whether hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, or schools, historically were begun with the spirit to serve all people and to transform society. |access-date=18 October 2007 }}</ref><ref name="Teasdale2014">{{cite book |last=Teasdale |first=Mark R. |title=Methodist Evangelism, American Salvation: The Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1860–1920 |date=17 March 2014 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=9781620329160 |page=203 |quote=The new view of evangelism called for the denomination to undertake two new forms of activities: humanitarian aid and social witness. Humanitarian aid went beyond the individual help that many home missionaries were already providing to people within their care. It involved creating new structures that would augment the political, economic, and social systems so that those systems might be more humane. It included the establishment of Methodist hospitals in all the major cities in the United States. These hospitals were required to provide the best treatment possible free of charge to all who needed it, and were often staffed by deaconesses who trained as nurses. Homes for the aged and orphanages were also part of this work. }}</ref> In Western nations, governments have increasingly taken up funding and organisation of health services for the poor but the Church still maintains a massive network of health care providers across the world. In the West, these institutions are increasingly run by lay-people after centuries of being run by priests, nuns and brothers, In 2009, Catholic hospitals in the US received approximately one of every six patients, according to the Catholic Health Association.<ref name=":0" /> Catholic Health Australia is the largest non-government provider grouping of health, community and aged care services, representing about 10% of the health sector.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cha.org.au/site.php?id=24|title=Nation must respond to looming dementia crisis|website=www.cha.org.au|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-07-09|archive-date=5 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905093141/http://www.cha.org.au/site.php?id=24|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1968, nuns or priests were the chief executives of 770 of America's 796 Catholic hospitals. By 2011, they presided over 8 of 636 hospitals.<ref name=":0" />

As with schooling, women have played a vital role in running Christian care institutions{{Snd}} in Methodist hospitals, deaconesses who trained as nurses staffed the hospitals,<ref name="Teasdale2014"/> and in Catholic hospitals, through religious institutes like the Sisters of Mercy, Little Sisters of the Poor and Sisters of St. Mary{{Snd}} and teaching and nursing have been seen as "women's vocations". Seeking to define the role played by religious in hospitals through American history, the ''New York Times'' noted that nuns were trained to "see Jesus in the face of every patient" and that:<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/us/21nuns.html |title=Nuns, a 'Dying Breed', Fade From Leadership Roles at Catholic Hospitals |last=Sack |first=Kevin |date=2011-08-20 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-11-05 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 }}</ref>

{{cquote|Although their influence is often described as intangible, the nuns kept their hospitals focused on serving the needy and brought a spiritual reassurance that healing would prevail over profit, authorities on Catholic health care say. }}

===Asia=== {{See also|Medical missions in China}} [[File:Dr. Peter Parker.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Peter Parker, an American physician and a missionary who introduced Western medical techniques into Qing dynasty China<ref>{{cite book |last1=Withrow |first1=W. H. |title=China and its People |date=1894 |publisher=William Briggs |location=Toronto |page=230 |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=%22David+W.+Stevenson%22+%22peter+parker%22&tbm=bks |chapter=Medical Missions in China |quote=David W. Stevenson, M.D., of the Canadian Mission, writes as follows: ... ' 'Dr. Peter Parker, who went out in 1835, almost opened China to the Gospel at the point of his lancet. His great eye hospital become noted the world over.' ' ...}}</ref>]] Protestant and Catholic physicians and surgeons of the 19th and early 20th centuries laid many foundations for modern medicine in China. Western medical missionaries established the first modern clinics and hospitals, provided the first training for nurses, and opened the first medical schools in China.<ref>{{cite book | first = Charles Sumner | last = Estes | author-link = Charles Sumner Estes |url=https://archive.org/details/christianmissio00estegoog| quote = Charles Sumner Estes. | title = Christian missions in China (PH. D. Thesis)|publisher= Johns Hopkins University|year=1895 | location = Baltimore | oclc=10128918 }}</ref> Work was also done in opposition to the abuse of opium. Medical treatment and care came to many Chinese who were addicted, and eventually public and official opinion was influenced in favor of bringing an end to the destructive trade.<ref>{{cite book | first = Edward Harper | last = Parker | author-link = Edward Harper Parker | year = 1905 |url=https://archive.org/details/chinaandreligio01parkgoog| title = China and Religion| publisher = John Murray | location = London |oclc = 1896744 }}</ref> By 1901, China was the most popular destination for medical missionaries. The 150 foreign physicians operated 128 hospitals and 245 dispensaries, treating 1.7 million patients. In 1894, male medical missionaries comprised 14 percent of all missionaries; women doctors were four percent. Modern medical education in China started in the early 20th century at hospitals run by international missionaries.

Missionaries from other Christian denominations came to British India; Lutheran missionaries, for example, arrived in Calcutta in 1836 and by "the year 1880 there were over 31,200 Lutheran Christians spread out in 1,052 villages".<ref>{{cite book|last=Kanjamala|first=Augustine|title=The Future of Christian Mission in India|year= 2014|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=en|isbn=978-1620323151|pages=117–19}}</ref> Methodists began arriving in India in 1783 and established missions with a focus on "education, health ministry, and evangelism".<ref name="AbrahamKirby2009">{{cite book|last1=Abraham|first1=William J.|last2=Kirby|first2=James E.|title=The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies|date= 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en |isbn=978-0191607431|page=93}}</ref><ref name="Jr2014">{{cite book|last=Yrigoyen|first=Charles Jr.|title=T&T Clark Companion to Methodism|date=2014|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|language=en |isbn=978-0567662460|page=400}}</ref> In the 1790s, Christians from the London Missionary Society and Baptist Missionary Society, began doing missionary work in the Indian Empire.<ref name="FrykenbergLow2003">{{cite book|last1=Frykenberg|first1=Robert Eric|last2=Low|first2=Alaine M.|title=Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-cultural Communication Since 1500, with Special Reference to Caste, Conversion, and Colonialism|year=2003|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|language=en |isbn=978-0802839565|page=127}}</ref> In Neyoor, the London Missionary Society Hospital "pioneered improvements in the public health system for the treatment of diseases even before organised attempts were made by the colonial Madras Presidency, reducing the death rate substantially".<ref name="LucykLoewenau2017">{{cite book|last1=Lucyk|first1=Kelsey|last2=Loewenau|first2=Aleksandra|last3=Stahnisch|first3=Frank W.|title=The Proceedings of the 21st Annual History of Medicine Days Conference 2012|date=2017|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-1443869287|page=237}}</ref>

==Education== {{See also|Christian school|Catholic school|Cathedral school|Catholic university|Medieval university}} {| class="wikitable" align="right" border="1" style="width:40%; font-size:90%" |+style="font-size:100%; color:black" |The number of Catholic institutions as of 2000<ref name="Froehle30">{{cite book |last1=Froehle |first1=Bryan |last2=Gautier |first2=Mary |title=Global Catholicism Portrait of a World Church |date=2009 |publisher=The University of Michigan |isbn=978-1570753756}}</ref>{{rp|17–20,30–35,41–43}} |- !style="background:blue; color:white"|Institutions !style="background:blue; color:white"|# |- |Parishes and missions |408,637 |- |Primary and secondary schools |125,016 |- |Universities |1,046 |- |Hospitals |5,853 |- |Orphanages |8,695 |- |Homes for the elderly and handicapped |13,933 |- |Dispensaries, leprosaries, nurseries and other institutions |74,936 |- |}

Missionary activity for the Catholic Church has always incorporated education of evangelized peoples as part of its social ministry. History shows that in evangelized lands, the first people to operate schools were Roman Catholics. In some countries, the Church is the main provider of education or significantly supplements government forms of education. Presently, the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system.<ref name="Gardner148">Gardner, p.&nbsp;148</ref> Many of Western Civilization's most influential universities were founded by the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Managing the University Campus: Information to Support Real Estate Decisions|first=Alexandra |last= Den Heijer| isbn=9789059724877| year =2011|publisher=Academische Uitgeverij Eburon| quote= Many of the medieval universities in Western Europe were born under the aegis of the Catholic Church, usually as cathedral schools or by papal bull as Studia Generali.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Christian Education|first=Mark|last= A. Lamport |year= 2015| page =484|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield| isbn=9780810884939|quote= All the great European universities-Oxford, to Paris, to Cologne, to Prague, to Bologna—were established with close ties to the Church.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Developing World|first=Thomas |last=B M. Leonard|year= 2013| isbn=9781135205157| page = 1369|publisher=Routledge|quote= Europe established schools in association with their cathedrals to educate priests, and from these emerged eventually the first universities of Europe, which began forming in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Sciences in the Universities of Europe, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Academic Landscapes|first=Kostas |last=Gavroglu|year= 2015| isbn=9789401796361| page = 302|publisher=Springer|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=First Peoples of the Americas and the European Age of Exploration|first=Patricia |last=GA. Dawson|year= 2015| isbn=9781502606853| page =103|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing|quote=}}</ref>

A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that Christians ranked as the second most educated religious group around in the world after Jews with an average of 9.3 years of schooling,<ref name="Pew2016">{{cite web |date=19 December 2011 |title=Religion and Education Around the World |url=http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2016/12/21094148/Religion-Education-ONLINE-FINAL.pdf |publisher=Pew Research Center |access-date=December 13, 2016}}</ref> and the highest of years of schooling among Christians found in Germany (13.6),<ref name="Pew2016"/> New Zealand (13.5)<ref name="Pew2016"/> and Estonia (13.1).<ref name="Pew2016"/> Christians were also found to have the second highest number of graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita while in absolute numbers ranked in the first place (220 million).<ref name="Pew2016"/> Between the various Christian communities, Singapore outranks other nations in terms of Christians who obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education (67%),<ref name="Pew2016"/> followed by the Christians of Israel (63%),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bokra.net/Article-1155836 |title= المسيحيون العرب يتفوقون على يهود إسرائيل في التعليم |website=Bokra |access-date=28 December 2011}}</ref> and the Christians of Georgia (57%).<ref name="Pew2016"/> According to the study, Christians in North America, Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific regions are highly educated since many of the world universities were built by the historic Christian Churches,<ref name="Pew2016"/> in addition to the historical evidence that "Christian monks built libraries and, in the days before printing presses, preserved important earlier writings produced in Latin, Greek and Arabic".<ref name="Pew2016"/> According to the same study, Christians have a significant amount of gender equality in educational attainment,<ref name="Pew2016"/> and the study suggests that one of the reasons is the encouragement of the Protestant Reformers in promoting the education of women, which led to the eradication of illiteracy among females in Protestant communities.<ref name="Pew2016"/> According to the same study "there is a large and pervasive gap in educational attainment between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa" as Muslim adults in this region are far less educated than their Christian counterparts,<ref name="Pew2016"/> with scholars suggesting that this gap is due to the educational facilities that were created by Christian missionaries during the colonial era for fellow believers.<ref name="Pew2016"/>

===Europe=== [[File:Pythagore-chartres.jpg|thumb|upright|Pythagoras on one of the archivolts at Chartres Cathedral. From Medieval Europe's Cathedral Schools grew many of Europe's modern universities.]] [[File:Oxford University Coat Of Arms.svg|thumb|upright|The coat of arms of the University of Oxford, bearing the Latin motto ''The Lord is my Light''. Europe's universities were essentially a Catholic invention.]]

The Catholic Church founded the West's first universities, which were preceded by the schools attached to monasteries and cathedrals, and generally staffed by monks and friars.<ref name="auto">Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Penguin Viking; 2011</ref>

In 530, Saint Benedict wrote his ''monastic Rule'', which became a blueprint for the organization of monasteries throughout Europe.<ref name="Woods135"/>{{rp|27}} The new monasteries preserved classical craft and artistic skills while maintaining intellectual culture within their schools, scriptoria and libraries. As well as providing a focus for spiritual life, they functioned as agricultural, economic and production centers, particularly in remote regions, becoming major conduits of civilization.<ref name="LeGoff80">{{cite book |last1=LeGoff |first1=Jacques |title=Medieval Civilization 400–1500 |date=2000 |publisher=Blackwell Publishers Ltd. |isbn=978-0760716526 |edition=Reprint |url=https://archive.org/details/medievalciviliza0000lego_l6n6 }}</ref>{{rp|120}}

The Cluniac reform of monasteries that had begun in 910 sparked widespread monastic growth and renewal.<ref name="Duffy221"/>{{rp|88–89}} Monasteries introduced new technologies and crops, fostered the creation and preservation of literature and promoted economic growth. Monasteries, convents and cathedrals still operated virtually all schools and libraries.<ref name="Woods135"/>{{rp|40–44}}<ref name="LeGoff80"/>{{rp|80–82}}

Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated the famous and influential Chartres Cathedral School.

Universities began springing up in Italian towns like Salerno, whose ''Schola Medica Salernitana'', established in the 9th Century, became a leading medical school and translated the work of Greek and Arabic physicians into Latin. Bologna University founded in 1088 became the most influential of the early universities, which first specialised in canon law and civil law. Paris University founded in 1150 but formed from a pre–existing cathedral school, specialising in such topics as theology, came to rival Bologna under the supervision of Notre Dame Cathedral. Oxford University founded in 1096, later came to rival Paris in Theology, while Salamanca University was founded in Spain in 1243. According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, the universities benefited from the use of Latin, the common language of the Church, and its internationalist reach, and their role was to "teach, argue and reason within a Christian framework".<ref name="auto"/> The medieval universities of Western Christendom were well-integrated across all of Western Europe, encouraged freedom of enquiry and produced a great variety of fine scholars and natural philosophers, including Robert Grosseteste of the University of Oxford, an early expositor of a systematic method of scientific experimentation;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07037a.htm |title=Robert Grosseteste |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |date=1 June 1910 |access-date=16 July 2011}}</ref> and Saint Albert the Great, a pioneer of biological field research<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01264a.htm |title=St. Albertus Magnus |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |date=1 March 1907 |access-date=16 July 2011}}</ref>

In the 13th century, mendicant orders were founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic de Guzmán which brought consecrated religious life into urban settings.<ref name="LeGoff80"/>{{rp|87}} These orders also played a large role in the development of cathedral schools into universities, the direct ancestors of the modern Western institutions.<ref name="Woods135"/>{{rp|44–48}} Notable scholastic theologians such as the Dominican Thomas Aquinas worked at these universities, his ''Summa Theologica'' was a key intellectual achievement in its synthesis of Aristotelian thought and Christianity.<ref name="Bokenkotter465"/>{{rp|158–159}}

The Spaniard St Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540. Initially a missionary order, the Jesuits took Western learning and the Catholic faith to India, Japan, China, Canada, Central and South America and Australia.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14081a.htm |title=The Jesuits (The Society of Jesus) |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref> The order became increasingly involved in education, founding schools, colleges and universities across the globe and educating such notable Western scholars, intellectuals, artists and statesmen as René Descartes, Matteo Ricci, Voltaire, Pierre de Coubertin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Alfred Hitchcock, Bing Crosby, Robert Hughes and Bill Clinton.

According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, the university became a hallmark of Christian Civilisation, though, he writes, "in the most recent century perhaps no institution has done more to promote an alternative or secular view of the world".<ref name="auto"/>

===Latin America=== [[File:An older building, part of the Universidad National de Cordoba in Cordoba, Argentina.jpg|thumb|National University of Córdoba in Córdoba, Argentina, founded in 1613 by the Jesuit]] Education in Latin American began under the direction of missionaries who were sponsored by the Spanish crown. Royal policy stipulated that the Amerindians had to accept missionaries but they did not have to convert. Indians who agreed to listen to the missionaries were not subjected to work for encomenderos some of whom were notorious for brutal conditions.<ref name="Noble, p.230"/>{{rp|450–1}}

A key role in the development of the university system in Latin America was played by the Catholic orders, especially by the Jesuits, but also the Dominicans and Augustinians.<ref>Roberts, John; Rodriguez Cruz, Agueda M.; Herbst, Jürgen: "Exporting Models", in: Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (ed.): ''A History of the University in Europe. Vol. II: Universities in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800)'', Cambridge University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-521-36106-0}}, pp.&nbsp;256–284</ref> The founding and operation of most universities resulted from the – usually local – initiative of one of these orders, which sometimes quarreled openly over the control of the campus and the curriculum. The (temporary) dissolution of the Jesuit order in the late 18th&nbsp;century proved to be a major setback for the university landscape in Latin America, several of the suppressed Jesuit universities were reopened only decades later.

===North America=== [[File:Georgetown Jesuit Residence.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Students studying outside Wolfington Hall Jesuit Residence, Georgetown University, US |alt=Three young adults lie on grass reading books in front of a brick building with many windows.]] A number of Catholic universities, schools and colleges have been formed in the United States. The religious tolerance established by the American Revolution enabled the Catholic clergy of Maryland to found Georgetown University, America's oldest Catholic university, in 1789 and it became a Jesuit institution in 1805.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06458a.htm |title=Georgetown University |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia }}</ref> Saint Katharine Drexel inherited a fortune and established the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People (now known as the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament), founded schools across America and started Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans in 1925 for the education of African Americans.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2000/04/02/mother-katharine-drexel-to-be-canonized-oct-1-philadelphia-heiress-dedicated-her-life-to-helping-blacks-indians/|title=Mother Katharine Drexel to be canonized Oct. 1|work=tribunedigital-baltimoresun|date=2 April 2000|access-date=28 December 2011|archive-date=22 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222123902/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-04-02/news/0004120436_1_katharine-drexel-mother-katharine-blessed-sacrament|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Australasia=== [[File:Mary MacKillop.jpg|thumb|upright|Saint Mary MacKillop, Australia's first saint]]

From 19th-century foundations, the Catholic education system in Australia has grown to be the second biggest sector after government schools with around 21 per cent of all secondary school enrolments.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/religion.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080705220657/http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/religion.html| archive-date = 2008-07-05| title = About Australia: Religious Freedom}}</ref> The Church has established primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions. St Mary MacKillop was a 19th-century Australian nun who founded an educational religious institute, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and in 2010 became the first Australian to be canonised as a saint.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marymackillop.org.au/marys-story/beginnings.cfm?loadref=2 |title=Beginnings &#124; Blessed Mary MacKillop |access-date=2012-02-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323055450/http://www.marymackillop.org.au/marys-story/beginnings.cfm?loadref=2 |archive-date=23 March 2010 }}</ref> Catholic education is also significant in neighbouring South Pacific nations: 11% of New Zealand students attend Catholic schools<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nzceo.catholic.org.nz/pages/schools/schools-today.html |title=Catholic Schools – Today |access-date=2010-06-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526051744/http://nzceo.catholic.org.nz/pages/schools/schools-today.html |archive-date=26 May 2010 }}</ref>

===Africa=== [[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De slag bij Adua TMnr 5956-2.jpg|thumb|left|Ethiopian forces, assisted by St. George (top), win the battle against Italian invaders. Painted 1965–1975.]] By the close of the 19th century, European powers had managed to gain control of most of the African interior.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/>{{rp|398}} The new rulers introduced cash-based economies which created an enormous demand for literacy and a western education—a demand which for most Africans could only be satisfied by Christian missionaries.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/>{{rp|398}}Catholic missionaries followed colonial governments into Africa, and built schools, hospitals, monasteries and churches.<ref name="Adrian Hastings"/>{{rp|398}}

With a high number of adult baptisms, the Church is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else.<ref name="Froehle30"/>{{rp|46}} It also operates a greater number of Catholic schools per parish here (3:1) than in other areas of the world.<ref name="Froehle30"/>{{rp|48}}

According to Heather Sharkey, the real impact of the activities of the missionaries is still a topic open to debate in academia today.<ref>Heather J. Sharkey, ''Cultural Conversions: Unexpected Consequences of Christian Missionary Encounters in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia'' (Syracuse UP, 2013).</ref> Sharkey asserted that "the missionaries played manifold roles in colonial Africa and stimulated forms of cultural, political and religious change." "Historians still debate the nature of their impact and question their relation to the system of European colonialism in the continent." She noted that the missionaries provided crucial social services such as modern education and health care that would have otherwise not been available in Africa. Sharkey said that, in societies that were traditionally male-dominated, female missionaries provided women with health care knowledge and basic education.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Taimur |title=Religion in colonial Africa: Professor Heather Sharkey spoke about the role of Christian missionaries in the region |url=https://www.thedp.com/article/2002/10/religion_in_colonial_africa |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=www.thedp.com |language=en-us}}</ref> A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that "there is a large and pervasive gap in educational attainment between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa" as Muslim adults in this region are far less educated than their Christian counterparts,<ref name="Pew2016"/> with scholars suggesting that this gap is due to the educational facilities that were created by Christian missionaries during the colonial era for fellow believers.<ref name="Pew2016"/>

===Asia=== [[File:Xaviers college.jpg|thumb|upright|The Catholic St. Xavier's College in Mumbai is one of the most prestigious liberal arts colleges in India.]] Christ Church College (1866) and St. Stephen's College (1881) are two examples of prominent church-affiliated educational institutions founded during the British Raj.<ref name="CarpenterGlanzer2014">{{cite book|last1=Carpenter|first1=Joel|last2=Glanzer|first2=Perry L.|last3=Lantinga|first3=Nicholas S.|title=Christian Higher Education|date=2014|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-1467440394|page=103}}</ref> Within educational institutions established during the British Raj, Christian texts, especially the Bible, were a part of the curricula.<ref name="CraneMohanram2013">{{cite book|last1=Crane|first1=Ralph|last2=Mohanram|first2=Radhika|title=Imperialism as Diaspora: Race, Sexuality, and History in Anglo-India|date= 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en |isbn=978-1781385630|page=86}}</ref> During the British Raj, Christian missionaries developed writing systems for Indian languages that previously did not have one.<ref name="AKanjamala2014">{{cite book|last=Kanjamala|first=Augustine|title=The Future of Christian Mission in India|date= 2014|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=en|isbn=978-1630874858|page=120}}</ref><ref name="Bhaṭṭācāryya1969">{{cite book|last=Bhaṭṭācāryya|first=Haridāsa|title=The Cultural Heritage of India|year=1969|publisher=Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture|language=en|isbn=978-0802849007|page=60}}</ref> Christian missionaries in India also worked to increase literacy and also engaged in social activism, such as fighting against prostitution, championing the right of widowed women to remarry, and trying to stop early marriages for women.<ref name="Mullin2014">{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Robert Bruce|title=A Short World History of Christianity|year=2014|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|language=en|isbn=978-1611645514|page=231}}</ref>

In India, over 25,000 schools and colleges are operated by the Church.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7587319.stm | work=BBC News | title=Catholic schools in India protest | date=29 August 2008 | access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> The Jesuits' educational institutions have left a prestigious impact through their education institutions.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/06/06/102541143.pdf Catholic education in India] ''The New York Times'', 6 June 1887.</ref> Education has become the major priority for the Church in India in recent years with nearly 60% of the Catholic schools situated in rural areas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=AsiaNews.it |title=Card. Toppo: "Education is the Churches priority mission and key to Indian development" |url=https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Card.-Toppo:-%e2%80%9cEducation-is-the-Churches-priority-mission-and-key-to-Indian-development%e2%80%9d-9416.html |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=www.asianews.it |language=en}}</ref> Even in the early part of the 19th century, Catholic schools had emphasised relief for the poor and their welfare.<ref>J. Hutching THE CATHOLIC POOR SCHOOLS, 1800 to 1845: Part 1 The Catholic Poor-relief, welfare and schools Journal of Educational Administration and History, Volume 1, Issue 2 June 1969, pp. 1–8.</ref>

=== Protestant role in education === [[File:HarvardElizaSusanQuincy1836.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Harvard College, historically one of several favored undergraduate schools for the Protestant elite.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jerome|last=Karabel|title=The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|year=2006|page=23|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |access-date=2016-02-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|archive-date=2016-01-24|url-status=live|isbn=9780618773558 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Seen here is the 1836 Harvard alumni procession.]] As the Reformers wanted all members of the church to be able to read the Bible, education on all levels got a strong boost. Compulsory education for both boys and girls was introduced. For example, the Puritans who established Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 founded Harvard College only eight years later. Seven of the first nine of what are called colonial colleges were founded by Christians, including Columbia University,<ref>{{cite book|title=Standing Against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in Nineteenth-Century America|first=Diana |last=Hochstedt Butler|year= 1995| isbn=9780195359053| page =22|publisher=Oxford University Press|quote= Of all these northern schools, only Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania were historically Anglican; the rest are associated with revivalist Presbyterianism or Congregationalism.}}</ref><ref name="Khalaf 2012 31">{{cite book|title=Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820–1860|first=Samir |last=Khalaf|year=2012| isbn=9781136249808| page =31|publisher=Routledge|quote= Princeton was Presbyterian, while Columbia and Pennsylvania were Episcopalian.}}</ref> Brown University, Rutgers University and Yale University (1701); a nineteenth-century book on "Colleges in America" says, "Eighty three percent of the colleges in [the U.S.] were founded by Christian philanthropy."<ref name="John Marshall Barker">{{cite book| last=Barker| first = John Marshall| title = Colleges in America| year =1894| publisher=The University of Wooster| page=130}}</ref> Pennsylvania also became a centre of learning as one of the colleges not specifically Christian.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 69–80, 88–89, 114–117, 186–188</ref><ref>M. Schmidt, ''Kongregationalismus'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band III (1959), Tübingen (Germany), col. 1770</ref> Princeton University was a Presbyterian foundation.<ref name="Khalaf 2012 31"/>

A large number of mainline Protestants have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education. They founded most of the country's leading institutes of higher education.<ref name=mainline2000>McKinney, William. "Mainline Protestantism 2000." ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'', Vol.&nbsp;558, Americans and Religions in the Twenty-First Century (July 1998), pp.&nbsp;57–66.</ref>

:The private schools and colleges established by the mainline Protestant denominations, as a rule, still want to be known as places that foster values, but few will go so far as to identify those values as Christian.&nbsp;... Overall, the distinctiveness of mainline Protestant identity has largely dissolved since the 1960s.<ref>{{cite book|author=James Davison Hunter|title=To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYpEwnnIIqAC&pg=PA85|date=March 31, 2010|publisher=Oxford UP|page=85|isbn=9780199779529}}</ref>

Protestantism also initiated translations of the Bible into national languages and thereby supported the development of national literatures.<ref name="Olúfémi Táíwò">{{cite book| last= Táíwò| first=Olúfémi| title=How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa| year=2010| publisher=University of Indiana Press| location=Bloomington, Indiana| isbn=978-0-253-35374-0| page=68}}</ref><ref name="Christopher Thao Vang">{{cite book| last= Vang| first=Christopher Thao| title=Hmong Refugees in the New World: Culture, Community and Opportunity|year=2016|publisher=McFarland and Company| location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-1-4766-6216-9|page=291}}</ref> Episcopalians<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS"/> and Presbyterians<ref name="Hacker 1957 1009–1026 p. 1011">{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Hacker |title=Liberal Democracy and Social Control |journal=American Political Science Review |year=1957 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=1009–1026 [p. 1011] |jstor=1952449 |doi=10.2307/1952449 |s2cid=146933599 }}</ref> tend to be considerably wealthier and better educated than most other religious groups. {{clear}}

== Cleanliness == {{Main|Ablution in Christianity|Hygiene in Christianity|Cantharus (Christianity)}}

[[File:Bishop Sebouh - Washing of Feet.jpg|thumb|Bishop Sebouh Chouldjian of the Armenian Apostolic Church washing the feet of children]] The Bible has many rituals of purification relating to menstruation, childbirth, sexual relations, nocturnal emission, unusual bodily fluids, skin disease, death, and animal sacrifices. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church prescribes several kinds of hand washing for example after leaving the latrine, lavatory or bathhouse, or before prayer, or after eating a meal.<ref name="Pedersen-1999">{{Cite journal |url=http://pwtw.pl/wp-content/uploads/wst/12-2/Pedersen.pdf |title=Is the Church of Ethiopia a Judaic Church? |year=1999 |first1=Kirsten Stoffregen |last1=Pedersen |pages=203–216 |volume=XII |issue=2 |journal=Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne |language=en |access-date=17 May 2020 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115645/http://pwtw.pl/wp-content/uploads/wst/12-2/Pedersen.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The women in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church are prohibited from entering the church temple during menses; and the men do not enter a church the day after they have had intercourse with their wives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eotc.faithweb.com/liturgy.htm |title=The Origin and History of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Liturgy |website=Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref>

Christianity has always placed a strong emphasis on hygiene,<ref name="Warsh">{{cite book |last= Warsh |first= Cheryl Krasnick |others=Veronica Strong-Boag |title=Children's Health Issues in Historical Perspective |year=2006 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|quote= ... From Fleming's perspective, the transition to Christianity required a good dose of personal and public hygiene ...|isbn=9780889209121|page=315}}</ref> Despite the denunciation of the mixed bathing style of Roman pools by early Christian clergy, as well as the pagan custom of women naked bathing in front of men, this did not stop the Church from urging its followers to go to public baths for bathing,<ref name="Squatriti">{{cite book |last=Warsh |first=Cheryl Krasnick |others=Veronica Strong-Boag |title=Children's Health Issues in Historical Perspective |year=2006 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|quote= ...&nbsp;Thus bathing also was considered a part of good health practice. For example, Tertullian attended the baths and believed them hygienic. Clement of Alexandria, while condemning excesses, had given guidelines for Christians who wished to attend the baths&nbsp;...|isbn=9780889209121 |page=315 }}</ref> which contributed to hygiene and good health according to the Church Father, Clement of Alexandria. The Church also built public bathing facilities that were separate for both sexes near monasteries and pilgrimage sites; also, the popes situated baths within church basilicas and monasteries since the early Middle Ages.<ref name="Mary Thurlkill">{{cite book |last=Thurlkill |first= Mary |title=Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam: Studies in Body and Religion |year=2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |quote=...&nbsp;Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215 CE) allowed that bathing contributed to good health and hygiene&nbsp;... Christian skeptics could not easily dissuade the baths' practical popularity, however; popes continued to build baths situated within church basilicas and monasteries throughout the early medieval period&nbsp;... |isbn=978-0739174531 |pages=6–11 }}</ref> Pope Gregory the Great urged his followers on value of bathing as a bodily need.<ref name="Paolo Squatriti">{{cite book |last=Squatriti |first= Paolo |title=Water and Society in Early Medieval Italy, AD 400-1000, Parti 400–1000 |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|quote=...&nbsp;but baths were normally considered therapeutic until the days of Gregory the Great, who understood virtuous bathing to be bathing "on account of the needs of body"&nbsp;... |isbn=9780521522069 |page=54}}</ref> [[File:Bagno del Papa.jpg|thumb|''Bagno del Papa'' in Viterbo]] [[File:Agkistro Byzantine bath.jpg|thumb|Agkistro Byzantine bath]] Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch,<ref>{{citation | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan |editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan | title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6}}</ref> and the popes allocated to the Romans bathing through ''diaconia'', or private Lateran baths, or even a myriad of monastic bath houses functioning in eighth and ninth centuries.<ref name="Paolo Squatriti"/> The Popes maintained their baths in their residences, and bath houses including hot baths incorporated into Christian Church buildings or those of monasteries, which known as "charity baths" because they served both the clerics and needy poor people.<ref name=ArthurAshpitel1851>{{citation | first = Arthur |last=Ashpitel | year = 1851 | title = Observations on baths and wash-houses | oclc=501833155 |jstor=60239734}}</ref> Public bathing was common in medieval Christendom in larger towns and cities such as Paris, Regensburg and Naples.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions|first=Winston |last= Black|year= 2019| isbn= 9781440862328| page =61 |publisher=ABC-CLIO|quote=Public baths were common in the larger towns and cities of Europe by the twelfth century.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Perception and Action in Medieval Europe|first=Harald|last= Kleinschmidt|year= 2005| isbn= 9781843831464| page =61 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer|quote=The evidence of early medieval laws that enforced punishments for the destruction of bathing houses suggests that such buildings were not rare. That they ... took a bath every week. At places in southern Europe, Roman baths remained in use or were even restored ... The Paris city scribe Nicolas Boileau noted the existence of twenty-six public baths in Paris in 1272}}</ref> Catholic religious orders of the Augustinians' and Benedictines' rules contained ritual purification,<ref>{{cite book|title=The English Spa, 1560–1815: A Social History|first=Phyllis|last= Hembry|year= 1990| isbn= 9780838633915|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press}}</ref> and inspired by Benedict of Nursia encouragement for the practice of therapeutic bathing; Benedictine monks played a role in the development and promotion of spas.<ref name=ASpiritualHistory>{{cite book | title = Water: A Spiritual History| first =Ian |last=Bradley | year =2012| isbn= 9781441167675|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref> Protestant Christianity also played a prominent role in the development of the British spas.<ref name="ASpiritualHistory"/>

Contrary to popular belief<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historymedren.about.com/od/dailylifesociety/a/bod_weddings.htm|title=The Bad Old Days{{Snd}} Weddings and Hygiene|first=Melissa|last=Snell|work=About.com Education|access-date=29 April 2016|archive-date=30 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130223521/http://historymedren.about.com/od/dailylifesociety/a/bod_weddings.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> bathing and sanitation were not lost in Europe with the collapse of the Roman Empire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vlib.us/medieval/lectures/black_death.html|title=The Great Famine and the Black Death – 1315–1317, 1346–1351 – Lectures in Medieval History – Dr. Lynn H. Nelson, Emeritus Professor, Medieval History, KU|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-hygiene.htm|title=Middle Ages Hygiene|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref> Soapmaking first became an established trade during the so-called "Dark Ages". The Romans used scented oils (mostly from Egypt), among other alternatives. By the 15th century, the manufacture of soap in the Christendom had become virtually industrialized, with sources in Antwerp, Castile, Marseille, Naples and Venice.<ref>Anionic and Related Lime Soap Dispersants, Raymond G. Bistline Jr., in ''Anionic Surfactants: Organic Chemistry'', Helmut Stache, ed., Volume 56 of Surfactant science series, CRC Press, 1996, chapter 11, p. 632, {{ISBN|0-8247-9394-3}}.</ref> By the mid-19th century, the English urbanised middle classes had formed an ideology of cleanliness that ranked alongside typical Victorian concepts, such as Christianity, respectability and social progress.<ref name="Eveleigh, Bogs 2002">{{cite book |last1=Eveleigh |first1=David J. |title=Bogs, Baths and Basins: The Story of Domestic Sanitation |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud, England |year=2002 |isbn=9780750927932 }}</ref> The Salvation Army has adopted the deployment of personal hygiene,<ref>[http://www.salvationarmy-newyork.org/SSGNY/index.php?id=_about-history History of The Salvation Army – Social Services of Greater New York], retrieved 30 January 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107004550/http://www.salvationarmy-newyork.org/SSGNY/index.php?id=_about-history |date=7 January 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy|first=Neva|last=Ruth Deardorff|year= 2018|isbn= 9780191503023|publisher=Ohio State University Press|page=190}}</ref> and by providing personal hygiene products, such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lillian Taiz |url=http://archive.org/details/hallelujahladsla00taiz_0 |title=Hallelujah lads & lasses |date=2001 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2621-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gariepy |first=Henry |url=http://archive.org/details/christianityinac0000gari |title=Christianity in action: the international history of the Salvation Army |date=2009 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher= William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-8028-4841-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford Manual of Major Incident Management|first=Ian|last= Greaves|year= 2017|isbn= 9780191503023|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=116}}</ref>

The use of water in many Christian countries is due in part to the Biblical toilet etiquette which encourages washing after all instances of defecation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Biology: Concepts and Implications|first=Mary|last= E. Clark|year= 2006| isbn= 9780721625973|publisher=University of Michigan Press}}</ref> The bidet is common in predominantly Catholic countries where water is considered essential for anal cleansing,<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Biology: Concepts and Implications|first=Mary|last= E. Clark|year= 2006| isbn= 9780721625973| page =613 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote= Douching is commonly practiced in Catholic countries. The bidet ... is still commonly found in France and other Catholic countries.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date= 2013|title= Made in Naples. Come Napoli ha civilizzato l'Europa (e come continua a farlo)|trans-title=Made in Naples. How Naples civilised Europe (And still does it)|language=it |publisher= Addictions-Magenes Editoriale|isbn=978-8866490395}}</ref> and in some traditionally Orthodox and Protestant countries such as Greece and Finland respectively, where bidet showers are common.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Santiago |date=2014-07-08 |title=A hose: the strange device next to every Finnish toilet |url=https://en.biginfinland.com/hose-always-next-every-finnish-toilet/ |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Big In Finland |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also== * Christian culture ** Catholic culture * Christian art * Christendom * Christian influences on the Islamic world

==References== {{cols|colwidth=26em}} {{Reflist}} {{colend}}

{{History of the Catholic Church}} {{Catholic Church footer}} {{History of Christianity}} {{Christianity footer}} {{Culture by religion}} {{Subject bar |portal1= Christianity |portal2= Religion |portal3= Society}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Role of the Christian Church in civilization}} Category:Christendom Category:Christian culture Category:Christianity in culture Category:Christianity and society Category:Cultural impact Category:Western culture