Medieval society, we have now learned, owed much to the
Church, both as a teacher of religion and morals and as an agency of
government. It remains to ask what was the attitude of the Church toward the
great social problems of the Middle Ages. In regard to warfare, the prevalence
of which formed one of the worst evils of the time, the Church, in general,
cast its influence on the side of peace. It deserves credit for establishing
the Peace and the Truce of God and for many efforts to heal strife between
princes and nobles. Yet, as will be shown, the Church did not carry the
advocacy of peace so far as to condemn warfare against heretics and infidels.
Christians believed that it was a religious duty to exterminate these enemies
of God.
THE CHURCH AND CHARITY
The Church was distinguished for charitable work. The
clergy received large sums for distribution to the needy. From the doors of the
monasteries, the poor, the sick, and the infirm of every sort were never turned
away. Medieval charity, however, was very often injudicious. The problem of
removing the causes of poverty seems never to have been raised; and the
indiscriminate giving multiplied, rather than reduced, the number of beggars.
