History of Christianity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Church and society=== {{See also|History of European universities}} [[File:Mapa cister.svg|thumb|The spread of [[Cistercians]] from their original sites in [[Western Europe|Western]]-[[Central Europe]] during the Middle Ages|alt=this is an image of a map showing the original sites of the Cistercians in Central Europe]] There was substantial growth in heretical movements over the five or six decades at the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries. Nobles were overstepping in church affairs, many clergy were untrained, church posts were being bought and sold (simony), and there was a general sexual laxity.{{sfn|Dowley|2018|p=157}}{{sfn|Matter|2008|pp=529-530}} Religious leaders spoke out against the moral abuses of other ecclesiastical leaders.{{sfn|Matter|2008|p=529}} The eleventh century became an age of religious reform and renewal.{{sfn|Dowley|2018|p=157}}{{sfn|Matter|2008|pp=529-530}} Owing to its stricter adherence to the reformed [[Rule of St Benedict|Benedictine rule]], the [[Cluny Abbey|Abbey of Cluny]], first established in 910, became the leading center of Western monasticism into the early twelfth century.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=216, 218}}{{sfn|Constable|1998|pp=4–5}} The [[Cistercians|Cistercian movement]] was a second wave of reform. After 1098, they became a primary force of [[Medieval technology|technological advancement and diffusion in medieval Europe]].{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=218}} [[File:ChesterMysteryPlay 300dpi.jpg|thumb|Copper engraving by David Gee (1793-1872) that recreates a 15th-century Passion play. Details are based on written accounts, including pageant wagon design and the people in the street.|alt=re-creation of a fifteenth century mystery play ]] Beginning in the twelfth century, the pastoral [[Franciscans|Franciscan Order]] was instituted by the followers of [[Francis of Assisi]]; later, the [[Dominican Order]] was begun by [[Saint Dominic|St. Dominic]]. Called [[Mendicant orders]], they represented a change in understanding a monk's calling as contemplative, instead seeing it as a call to actively reform the world through preaching, missionary activity, and education.{{sfn|Fox|1987|p=298}}{{sfn|Jestice|1997|p=1, 5–6}} The means and methods of teaching an illiterate populace included mystery plays (which had developed out of the mass), wall paintings, vernacular sermons and treatises, and saints' lives in epic form.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=552}} Rituals, art, literature, and cosmology were shaped by Christian norms but also contained some pre-Christian elements.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=549}} Christian motifs could function in non-Christian ways, while practices of non-Christian origin became endowed with Christian meaning.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=550}} In the synthesis of old and new, influence cut both ways, but the cultural dynamic lay with Christianization.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|pp=550–552}} As literacy spread, [[Medieval university|western universities]], the first institutions of higher education since the sixth century, began as [[cathedral school]]s, or were directly formed into self-governing corporations chartered by popes and kings.{{sfn|Verger|1995|p=257}}{{sfn|Rüegg|1992|pp=xix–xx}}{{sfn|Den Heijer|2011|p=65|ps=: "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"}} Divided into faculties which specialized in [[law]], [[medicine]], [[theology]] or [[liberal arts]], each held ''[[quodlibeta]]'' (free-for-all) theological debates amongst faculty and students and awarded degrees.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1992|p=221}}{{sfn|Piron|2006|pp=404–406}} The earliest were the [[University of Bologna]] (1088), the [[University of Oxford]] (1096), and the [[University of Paris]] where the faculty was of international renown ({{circa|1150}}). Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page