The Reformation.

Essay by rhydeHigh School, 12th gradeA+, November 2005

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

Downloaded 51 times

The church grew during its first thousand years from being a small group of individuals to a major religious movement in Palestine that spread its influence through the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe. The growth in its members grew alongside the growth of an administrative organization. There had always been variation and diversity amongst the churches from the start, and as the power structure in the western churches expanded, the differences amongst the churches of the east and west also increased. Due to the vast variations, a division was heading the way of the church, and soon in 1054AD, there was a major division between the east and west churches. The pope and the patriarch of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) excommunicated each other and the ban was not lifted until 1965. The western church became known as the Roman Catholic and the church of the east were known as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox.

There was a division that occurred soon in the Western Churches which later became known as the Great Reformation- there was an "explosion" in the western church during the 1500's. As a result of this great revolution in the church, many were no longer regarded as members of the Roman Catholic Church.

The commencement of the Crusades in order to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims and Pope Urban's hope to regain control of the eastern churches slowly lead to Europeans coming out of isolation. Europeans were exposed to a world of new ideas, land, products, and money and by 1200 AD, some cathedral schools and monasteries had been developed into great centers of learning. The centers of learning were keen on learning as well as preserving and passing on existing knowledge. Consequently, the Crusades did very little for the church...