Membership in the Church was not a matter of free choice.
All people, except Jews, were required to belong to it. A person joined the
Church by baptism, a rite usually performed in infancy, and remained in it as
long as he lived. Every one was expected to conform, at least outwardly, to the
doctrines and practices of the Church, and anyone attacking its authority was liable
to punishment by the state.
THE CHURCH AS INTERNATIONAL
The presence of one Church throughout the western world
furnished a bond of union between European peoples during the age of feudalism.
The Church took no heed of political boundaries, for men of all nationalities
entered the ranks of the priesthood and joined the monastic orders. Priests and
monks were subjects of no country, but were "citizens of heaven," as
they sometimes called themselves. Even difference of language counted for
little in the Church, since Latin was the universal speech of the educated
classes. One must think, then, of the Church as a great international state, in
form a monarchy, presided over by the pope, and with its capital at Rome.
TWOFOLD DUTIES OF THE CHURCH
The Church in the Middle Ages performed a double task. On
the one hand it gave the people religious instruction and watched over their
morals; on the other hand it played an important part in European politics and
provided a means of government. Because the Church thus combined ecclesiastical
and civil functions, it was quite unlike all modern churches, whether Greek,
Roman, or Protestant. Both sides of its activities deserve, therefore, to be
considered.
