"Steve Weidenkopf shines a spotlight on some of the Catholic Church's greatest saints and dispels nine misconceptions. He explores the shifting centers of power, reform movements, and tensions both within the Church and between Church and State while also examining the challenges the Church faced in the eleventh through fourteenth centuries"--
Few periods of history are more maligned and misunderstood than the Middle Ages--three-hundred years of division, shifting centers of power, and tensions both within the Church and also between the Church and the secular rulers of the time.
In an engaging and easy-to-understand style, historian and author Steve Weidenkopf highlights some of our greatest saints--Francis, Dominic, Anselm, Aquinas, and Catherine of Siena--and dispels nine commonly accepted misconceptions about the era, which was an exciting period of enduring faith, reform, cultural achievement, as well as defeat and division.
With vibrant accounts of pivotal events and inspiring stories of the people who shaped the Church during the eleventh through fourteenth centuries, Steve Weidenkopf provides a clearer picture of an era where critics used events such as the Crusades and the relocation of the papacy to France to undermine the Church. The period also provided the hallmarks of Christian civilization--universities, cathedrals, castles, and various religious orders.
Weidenkopf also chronicles the development of Christian civilization in Europe and explores the contributions of St. Bruno, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Bridget of Sweden.
In The Church and the Middle Ages, you will learn that:
- Most Crusaders were motivated by piety and service, not greed.
- Heresy was both a church and civil issue and medieval inquisitors were focused on the eternal salvation of the accused.
- The Church preached against the mistreatment of Jews.
- Priestly celibacy was practiced long before the twelfth century.
- Serfs were never kept as slaves.
Books in the Reclaiming Catholic History series, edited by Mike Aquilina and written by leading authors and historians, bring Church history to life, debunking the myths one era at a time.
Steve Weidenkopf is an adjunct professor at Christendom College Graduate School in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of several books on Catholic Church history, including The Glory of the Crusades, The Real Story of Catholic History, and Timeless.
Weidenkopf has a bachelor's degree in international relations from Syracuse University and a master's degree in theological studies from the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College. He is a member of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and Latin East, has been a guest on EWTN, and writes regularly for Catholic Answers online. He lives with his family in Springfield, Virginia.
