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CLASS SET: DO NOT WRITE ON OR REMOVE FROM CLASSROOM
Who Wants to be a Heretic?
ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS:
BEFORE READING THE ARTICLE BELOW RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS:
1. How do you think the Catholic Church reacted to people who started to question it?
2. What do you think would happen to people if they disagreed with the church’s teachings?
THE HERETIC
Obedience to the Church
Religion affected almost every aspect of the way people lived in the Middle Ages. The Church taught that there
was only one true religion, Christianity, and the only way to follow it was through the Catholic Church. One
14th century Pope said, “Obedience is the greatest good.” Christians were expected to obey the Church
absolutely in all matters of faith. People who began to question what the Church said were called “Heretics.” It
is a word that comes from the Greek language and means “someone who disagrees with accepted beliefs.”
When the Church used the word, it meant someone who preferred to choose what to believe rather than accept
Church teaching. The punishment for heresy was often burning at the stake.
Medicine in the Middle Ages
Medicine and the treatment of the sick during the Middle Ages was filled with superstition. The Church
dominated what direction the medical world took. Any views that were different from the established Roman
Catholic Church view could veer towards heresy with the punishments that entailed. Therefore, when the
Roman Catholic Church stated that illnesses were punishments from God and that those who were ill were so
because they were sinners, few argued otherwise. At the time, no one really knew what caused diseases.
Sickness was believed to be a punishment from God for sinful behavior. It was believed that the only way to
cure someone was to pray for their forgiveness. Doctors in the Middle Ages were usually priests or other
religious scholars. Hospitals often sprang up in monasteries (a community of monks – people who have taken a
vow to devote their life to religious service and prayer) or other religious establishments. The patients were
given food and comforted by religious nursing staff but little else was done to cure their illness.
Education in the Middle Ages
In medieval times, the clergy (the people, such as priests, who perform the sacred functions of a church), were
the people most likely to be educated. Most of the students in church schools were the sons of nobles who were
studying for careers in the clergy. They spent much of their time memorizing prayers and passages from the
Bible in Latin. Starting in the 1200s, small schools based in churches and cathedrals, developed into
universities. Students in universities studied Latin grammar, persuasive speaking and writing, logic, geometry,
arithmetic, astronomy, and music. Books at that time were hand copied and rare, so teachers often read to their
students.
Ancient texts were greatly respected in the universities, but the Church was sometimes uneasy about them. The
Church taught people to be guided by faith. Ancient writers like the Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that
reason or logical thinking was the path to knowledge. Church leaders feared that studying such writers might
lead people to question the Church’s teachings.
CLASS SET: DO NOT WRITE ON OR REMOVE FROM CLASSROOM
AFTER READING THE ARTICLE RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1.
2.
3.
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8.
According to the Catholic Church what is the only way to follow the religion of Christianity?
What were all Christians expected to do? Use a quote from the reading to support this.
What is a heretic?
What might have happened to someone who committed heresy?
How did the Church influence medicine during the Middle Ages?
How did the Church influence education during the Middle Ages?
INFERENCE: How might the fear of heresy impact the pursuit of knowledge or advancements?
INFERENCE: How do you think the concept of “heresy” served to keep the people “in line” during
the Middle Ages?
9. THINKING QUESTION: How are medicine and the pursuit of knowledge in Medieval Europe
different than in the Islamic Empire?