Medieval Roman Catholic Traditions - Essay Example

Medieval Roman Catholic Traditions The Roman Catholic Church, is the oldest and largest Christian congregation in the world dating about two thousand years and with more than 1.16 billion believers worldwide. The Catholic Church has at the top of its hierarchy the papacy, and the person at the seat of Papacy is called the Pope.1. The Catholic Church doctrine believes in the Trinity, the sixty books of the Bible and the Deutro Canonical books of the Bible and its Traditions that date back several centuries ago During the medieval time, the period from 5th to about 15th Century, there were a number of traditions introduced in the Catholic Church by different circumstances or individuals.

Among the traditions that were indoctrinated include the establishment of purgatory as a physical place, the usage of Latin in prayer and worship, the Marian practices and the usage of the Rosary, the establishment of the Papacy and its powers, the veneration and canonization of saints, the dogma of transubstantiation, the confession of sin to the priest, the usage of the scapular among many other things.2 These Traditions cannot be traced back to the Bible, but they are accepted by the Catholic Church to be true and infallible.

The doctrine of purgatory was introduced by Gregory the Great in 593. He established a connection between earthly penance and purification after death; that is, those who are alive can pray and purify those who are dead and in purgatory. However, only venial sins can be purified when in purgatory, while mortal sins cannot. This belief has remained constant and in its line of thought, the All Souls day was established on the 10th Century where people who are alive remember the dead and celebrate Mass in their honor for their salvation.

3The Papacy was established quite solidly in the 6th Century, around the year 610, by Gregory I and later by Boniface III. The leaders of the Church before 610 did not have supreme authority over all the Christian communities. Most of them were killed together with their congregations, and they spent most of their time debating on theological matters with other bishops. In 709, the kissing of the feet of the Pope was indoctrinated. The infallibility of the Pope was established almost a thousand years late in the 1870’s.

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is special in that most popes die while in office and it is not common for a Pope to resign (.4 The duration between the last resignation of the Pope and the one in 2013 is almost 600 years. Popes only resign if they are of poor health and unable to offer service to the Church as expected.The Catholic Church insists on being traditional since it gains its strength from its history and traditions. Old traditions are not discarded as they are continually taught to younger generations and are considered sacred as councils of the laity were required to pass them before they were accepted as true.

The traditions indicate the strong stability of the Catholic Church as they have changed little over the centuries, while they have had a tremendous impact on world and Christian history. ReferencesMonti, James. (2013) A Sense of the Sacred: Roman Catholic Worship During the Medieval Ages. Burges, Stanley, M. (1994) The Holy Spirit: Medieval Roman Catholic and Reformation Traditions. Testa, Stephen L. (2013) List of Catholic Heresies and Human Traditions. www.jesus-is-savior.com