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Did the Church Play Positive or Negative Role in the Middle Ages?

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Did the Church Play Positive or Negative Role in the Middle Ages?
Did the Church play a positive or negative role in the Middle Ages? The Middle Ages are known as dark period of history. The Roman empire collapsed, barbarian tribes took over and formed new kingdoms and the Church got great power. The Church got political influence and not always used it for good purposes. Also, the church preached about one thing and did another. In the end, was there anything positive about the church? Well, maybe after some thinking we may find some positive things, but in my opinion, the Church was more negative than positive in the Middle Ages. Why? There are several reasons. The first one is “indulgence”. This shows how wrong and rotten the Church was at the time. They sold indulgence to ordinary people who really believed it would save them, and used the money to power the crusades. Also pope Urban II promised everyone who took part in the crusades to get free indulgence. To me this means that people were so blinded they even gave their life to the church which promised salvation in return. Another reason are the crusades. I think that fighting and killing over who believes in better god is the most stupid thing people could do. The Church was preaching about living in peace, loving everyone around you and so on, but the Church itself was warring. I don’t understand how this could work without anyone stopping and saying “hey, wait a minute, this isn’t right!”. But again, this didn’t happen because people were blinded with the Church’s preachings. Another thing that was wrong about the Church was the Inquisition. This was again just about the money. The Inquisitors accused someone of being heretic, then investigated them, made a short trial, tortured and finally punished their victims. The tortures were brutal and the punishments unmerciful. The“heretic“ could be banished, forced to become a pilgrim, forced to wear a yellow cross for life, publicly recantationed or improsoned. Sometimes the “heretic” could be burned at stake. Also
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