How Did Medieval Churches Influence Today's Society

Medieval churches had a far more important role in the middle ages than the modern day churches do at this time. During the middle ages, medieval churches had a major impact on the lives of the people during this time. Being a part of everyday life, “the church served to give people spiritual guidance and it served as their government as well”. Since the church would enforce religious conformity on its people, groups such as the waldensians, were against the church’s orthodox religious belief because they would rather have people comprehend it in a way that they would understand it and also receive the word how they themselves, see fit. Steering people away from the orthodox lifestyle of the church, this group was considered to be a part of the many who

Throughout the high middle ages, the Medieval Church exerted power of a great magnitude. Not only did the church have religious power but also political as well. “The papacy asserted the Church of Rome as the sole authority in Christendom, a position strongly opposed by the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople”. The Medieval church was also very wealthy. Throughout time the people have donated land to the church, making the church the single largest landowner by the end of the twelfth century. To keep rulers from opposing papal policy, the Medieval Church conformity of religion by means of excommunication and interdict. Heresy, which is the denial of the revealed truths of the Christian faith, began to circulate around this time. Groups such as the Waldensians, didn’t agree with the church because in their eyes, the church did not follow the word of god. Peter Waldo who is the founder of the waldensians wanted the bible to be the language of the people. The waldensians would go from town to town to preach a simple understanding of the word of god. Since the way that the waldensians were preaching wasn’t as