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Gregory the Great, the first pope of this period was a man of high morals who stressed spiritual qualities and reacted negatively to the title of universal bishop, preferring to b called instead " the servant of servants." However, his teachings often included the superstitions, and even pagan ideas, of the masses that were being meshed together with biblical ideas. Under his leadership anti-Scriptural ideas such as penance and purgatory were further developed and strengthened. After Gregory, the papacy began a moral descent reaching bottom during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Popes of the latter period were found guilty of all kinds of incredible excesses and immorality causing the papacy to lose credibility. Eventually there were reform movements that brought the popes back into greater influence, but various efforts from outside the hierarchy to call people back to the simplicity of the Bible were squelched. The bible has become the property of the educated clergy and was considered "too difficult" and "too holy" for the common masses. Eventually the reading of the Scripture by anyone other than priests was officially condemned. Also during this time hundreds of years and lives were spent in building massive cathedrals that were now viewed to be God's house," straying from the liberating New Testament concept of all disciples apart from buildings being a temple of the Holy Spirit. The church in the minds of most became the hierarchy and the building. During tis period, after years of simmering problems, the final break between the Eastern (or Orthodox) Church and the Western (or Roman Catholic) Church took place, with the patriarch and the pope both excommunicating the other (ca. 1050 A.D.). Significant is the fact that neither group was making any real appeal to Scripture to back their dogmas. Occupying muh attention during at least two hundred years of this period were the much talked about Crusaded in which solders fought in the name of Christ to take the only Land away from the Muslims. There was even a tragic Children's Crusade that brought death to man children who left their homes in 1212 to go fight the unbelievers, believing God would bless those with pure hearts. This is a far cry from Jesus' declaration, "my kingdom is not of this world." Monasticism and the asceticism under the leadership of such men as Francis of Assisi became popular during this period. Whole movements of people mistakenly thought the only way to be truly holy was to seclude themselves from the world and to follow severe regimens of self-deprivation (Colossians 2:16-23). More and more men and woman were taught that salvation was a matter of receiving the right sacraments,doing the right acts of penance, learning to use all the right symbols (e.g. the sign f the cross) and venerating the right objects (e.g. statues of Mary or relics from past) things noticeably absent in the Scriptures. In Part four of my Series the history of the church i will be explaining in detail again through the years of 1500-1700 the Rediscoverying of the Bible: The Protestant Reformation.
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