4th Age: A

United Christian
Europe
(960-1517 AD)
1. GROWTH
Foundations of the
monastery in Cluny,
France
This created a
powerful spiritual
force against lay
investiture which
was the right of
the king or
nobility to appoint
and to install
bishops and
other prelates.
 Monastic reform of
Bernard of Clairvaux
(1090- 1153),
 Another
movement of
monastic reform
followed with
Bernard of
Clairvaux (1090-
1153), one of the
most powerful
spiritual leaders of
Christianity. He
became the
counselors of
popes and kings.
German Emperor
Henry IV under the
authority of Pope
Gregory VI
Hildebrand who
became Pope
Gregory VI (1073-
1085) is famous
for the conflict
about the lay
investiture with the
German Emperor
Henry IV. The
emperor was force
to submit to the
pope’s authority at
the castle of
Canossa
Judicial structures of
the church by Pope
Gregory VI
Pope Gregory
paved the way
for the powerful
papacy of the
next century by
establishing the
judicial
structures of the
church.
2. ACHIEVEMENTS
 The Birth of another
religious order: the
Franciscans (St. Francis
of Asisi) and the
Dominicans (St. Dominic
of Guzman)
These orders penetrated the universities
and produce some of the greatest
theologians of the church. Among them
were Thomas Aquinas (a Dominican) and
Bonaventure (a Franciscan)
 Cities became
centers of economic
wealth, culture and
learning
 Visible
controversies
The non appreciations to the Crusades
whose recovery of the Holy Land
became their motivation from and
against the “infedel” Muslims
Another is the
INQUISITION,
which was
started by
Innocent III
against a
group of
heretics.