The Role Of Religion In The Middle Ages

Religion has played a profound part in the life of those in the 15th century and still does to this day, dictating how we present ourselves and what we do on a day to day basis. Religion from the middle ages has impacted extensively on living, by introducing educational routes that have persisted until today, providing the major ceremonies celebrated and acknowledging the roles of both males and females in the church. The main religions acknowledged in medieval Europe were those of Christendom and Islāmic beliefs. Churches founded the first means of education and still contribute to its expenditure today. In the middle Ages the Catholic Church laid the foundations for many positive ways of thinking that now influence the whole world. The

The Medieval message conveyed through easter celebrations continues in the 21st century, spreading the message of the rising of the Messiah. Lent played a considerable role in the Catholic and Christian churches Easter during the Middle Ages, it consisted of fasting for forty days and forty nights to appreciate how Jesus journeyed into the desert for the same amount of time without food or water, lent is still practiced today in the catholic and christian churches although it has slightly changed.In the modern world giving up chocolate for forty day is typically lent , but in the middle ages people fasted from meat, dairy and eggs, in the church it was frowned upon to indulge during the season of Lent. Evidence of this taboo in Lent is shown in the film based on medieval France during lent, called Chocolate(2002) directed and produced by Lasse Hallström. In this film various members of the church are punished for indulging in chocolate after being warned of the consequences of these actions.

During medieval times, eggs were a main part of Easter and they were given out by the monarchy and taken to the local church to be blessed before being raced down a grassy hill. The rolling of the egg symbolized Christ rising and rolling away the rock from the tomb that he, the Messiah. These eggs weren’t made of chocolate but were boiled eggs uniquely and delicately decorated and is a ritual still practiced today in Brittan

The roles of women and men in the medieval church were far more formal. Woman were under appreciated, disrespected and plainly denied roles of authority. In the Christian church many women ch ose to dedicate themselves to god for one reason or another, but many of the nuns were dictated to join a monastery at a young age by their families, who wished to do good for the church and gain a good name. A majority of the woman who joins a monastery joined to be given an education because that was the only role considered important enough for a female to be taught. Islāmic women were granted more freedom than the average Christian woman but were still not allowed to posses any domination over males in the church, if a Islāmic wife was to misbehave their husband was allowed to inflict a variety of punishments, including beating, luckily the men weren't allowed to do this unless his wife had been insubordinate towards them. In both religions females weren't allowed to make any sort of reading or have any ascendancy in a religious