Forced Compliance in the Medieval Era

This series is based on my research for Daermad Cycle, a Celtic-inspired fantasy series. Although I did not choose to have the Roman Catholic Church exist in Celdrya, I used the history of the Church as a mirror for other creations of my own.

 

The Roman Catholic Church set of dogma of fundamental beliefs and principles that distinguished it the Greek and Roman views that had preceded it, and which were to have importance in the future in terms of their economic impact.

First, Christianity proclaimed that all men are the creatures of God, and equal in His eyes. Any inequalities recognized as existing between men should be seen as only the “natural” inequalities that one finds between brothers.

Second, the Church condemned slavery. For one man to hold another in bondage was to make some men gods over others, which was counter to the Christian doctrine that there is only one Lord and Master over all men, and He resides in Heaven. That the Church notoriously acquiesced to or actively condoned slavery at various times did not change the fact that the underlying principle against slavery worked as an acid eating away as the expedient rationales or justifications used in its defense.

Third, the Church declared that work and labor has dignity, and is not the mark of an inferior or a slave. With the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, work was declared to be man’s curse for having disobeyed God’s laws, but honest labor was also an avenue for man’s salvation for the glory of God.

Fourth, charity and alms-giving were among the cardinal virtues of the Roman Catholic Church. But charity and alms-giving were proscribed among the good works that men could do in God’s name, with two limitations. Only the “truly and deserving needy” should be recipients of such gifts, and the giving should be in proportion to the giver’s ability to perform “good works”.

Despite these positive principles, the carnality of Church leaders and the authoritarianism with they insisted upon obedience would eventually create vast separation between the Church and the people they insisted upon controlling.