The Hypocritical Application of Christianity in the Middle Ages

Ian A. MacFarlane

 

            For most Americans, the word Christianity carries with it an air of positivity.  Many people claim to strive to be a "good Christian," which brings to mind images of morality, charitability, and general concern for the welfare of everyone.  Unfortunately, when one looks at the most outspoken of the "Christian Leaders" in the United States, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and Jerry Falwell, we begin to see a different form of Christian morality then the view held by most people.  When we look at them, we see rich men, even though, according to the Bible, "'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Bible, Mt. 5.5).  These American Christian elites preach discrimination and bias based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation:

                       

                        Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were

                        Satanists, many of them were homosexuals--the two things

                        seem to go together (Robertson, Internet 1).    

Perhaps most in conflict with commonly held views of Christian morality is the fact that they seem genuinely unconcerned with the social welfare of the impoverished around them.  As the fore-most political candidate for the so-called "Christian Coalition", Pat Buchanan will lead the attack against social welfare programs and redistribution of tax moneys to help impoverished neighbourhoods.  Instead of trying to help the lower classes, he will support the gun lobby and push for across the board tax cuts which will most benefit the rich.  It seems odd that the fore-most leaders of Christianity in America would have such anti-Christian positions.  Yet, the trend throughout history has been that those with power use Christianity to oppress those without power.  In the middle ages, the situation was far worse.  The Church leaders were corrupt, and their policies were contradictory to the teachings and ethics of Christianity.  Though Christianity was the prominent religion in the middle ages, its application was in conflict with its teachings, and was used to oppress the lower classes.

            Of the Ten Commandments, the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth might as well have not existed in the middle ages.  The middle ages were a time of feudalism.  Nobles were granted land, and in return paid homage to their king in the form of tax revenues or military service.  They had, living on their land, serfs, who were the commoners of the time.  While the serfs toiled in the fields, the nobles lived in comparatively lavish luxury, not at all the meek and humble servants of God one would expect.  Despite the Tenth Commandment ("You shall not covet anything that is your neighbour's"), amassing more land and wealth was at the top of their list of priorities, and they often spent their time figuring out ways they could gain favor from the king, and thus more land.  Promising the serfs a better existence in the after-life, the nobles used Christianity to their advantage, keeping the serfs repressed. 

            The most well known commandment is the Sixth: "You shall not kill".  It is clear, concise, and impossible to confuse.  Nevertheless, medieval Christians ignored this commandment, using Christianity itself as an excuse to kill.  The Crusades saw the deaths of thousands of people, killing each other to force the word of their particular god on others, all the while contradicting the supposed word of God which told them not to kill.  In 1096, in the town of Worms, located in the Rhineland, a horrible massacre took place, led by Count Emich of Leiningen.  It is described as follows:

                       

                        In May of 1096, Emich and his followers swept through

                        the village of Worms pulling Jews from their homes and

                        families and under pressure of his self proclaimed Holy

                        Sword gave them the choice of conversion to Christianity

                        or death.  This was not Emich's first persecution of the Jews. 

                        He actually began his campaign back home a month earlier

                        near Speyer.  The reason for Emich's armies treatment of the

                        Jews was their belief that: "Since they were the race

                        responsible for the death and crucifixion of Jesus, they

                        deserved nothing better than conversion or death."  (Internet 2)

In this, we see both the brutality of the Crusades, and some measure of the justification of their perpetrators.  Blaming the Jews for the crucifixion of Christ, these crusading Christians sought vengeance.  Despite the fact that one of the guiding principles of Christianity is forgiveness, there was clearly no forgiveness given to those outside the Christian faith; the Jews were seen as Christ-killers, unworthy of forgiveness. 

            In keeping with this fine Christian tradition of killing in the name of God, the 12th Century saw the start of the inquisition, where Christians set about torturing and murdering the Albigensians (or Cathars) and the Waldensians, who were tired of the corrupt nature of the church, and sought to purify their Christian views.  The Albigensians believed that there were two gods, one good and one evil one.  The good god created all spiritual aspects of existence, including the souls of men.  The evil god created the material world; hence, all material and physical aspects of life are evil.  Thus, they embraced poverty as a way of connecting to the spiritual side (or the good side) of humans.  The Albigensians dismissed the Old Testament, but followed the New Testament "rigidly as the guide to the true apostolic life" (Shannon, 5).  They also felt that Christ was spiritual only, as he was sent by the good god, and had no physical form at all.  The Albigensians felt that Christ's purpose was to teach men how to save their soul from the evils of the physical body.

            The Waldensians were more Christian (more like the Church's version of Christianity) then the Albigensians.  The Waldensians "sought to teach the pristine message of the Gospel and to live in absolute poverty" (Shannon, 20).  However, they rejected some aspects of the Church, such as the building of churches and the veneration of the cross.  They also believed that the sacraments of the Church were ambiguous; for this, they would be persecuted.   

            Why were the so-called "heretics" attempting to purify their religion in the first place?  The corrupt and greedy nature of the church had alienated them from Christianity.  The Bible makes clear references to the value of poverty and humility.  Zephaniah 2.3 says:

                       

                        Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his

                        commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps

                        you may be hidden on the day of his wrath (Bible, Zeph 2.3).

Further, in Matthew 19.21, Jesus says:

                       

                        If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give

                        to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come,

                        follow me (Bible, Mat. 19.21).

However, the Papacy and church leaders made it clear that this was to apply to the lower classes exclusively.  While the people struggled to survive, all the while dreaming of a better existence in the afterlife, those in power revelled in the joys of this life.  When the Albigensians brought up this point, they met with torture and execution as heretics.  When the Waldensians mentioned the fact that the sacraments were being administered by corrupt priests who were more interested in amassing wealth then in the observance of the teachings of the Bible, they met with the same fate as the Albigensians.

            The contradictions between Christian teachings and Christian behaviour is evident.  The question now becomes, why?  Why blatantly and hypocritically preach the religion but not practice it?  To anyone who has read Karl Marx, the answer seems obvious.  Christianity in the middle ages clearly served little purpose other then as a controlling device used by those in power.  It was wielded to keep the masses uneducated and content with their miserable existences, while keeping the church leaders in positions of power and comfort.  Marx wrote that:

                       

                        Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of

                        a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions.

                        It is the opium of the people.  To abolish religion as the

                        illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real

                        happiness (Internet 3).

So long as the Medieval elites could keep the people in a state of "illusory happiness" by feeding them lies such as "the meek will inherit the earth", the power of the elite class was secure.  Of course, some of the hypocrisy was justified by other Bible passages which contradict those that are commonly upheld as the traditional Christian standard.  Exodus 32.27 reads:

                       

                        And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel,

                        'Put every man his sword on his side, and go to and fro

                        from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man

                        his brother, and every man his companion, and every man

                        his neighbour'" (Ex. 32.27).

Indeed, St. Augustine, a fourth century scholar, found justification for battle.  He wrote:

                       

                        For what else is victory than the conquest of those who

                        resist us? and when this is done there is peace.  It is

                        therefore with the desire for peace that wars are waged,

                        even by those who take pleasure in exercising their warlike

                        nature in command and battle (Beach & Niebuhr, 130).

Though he was before the Middle Ages, St. Augustine's idea was in use throughout the Medieval period, as justification for the killing of others in the name of God.

            In modern times, the influence of Christianity is waning.  The elite still wish to maintain control, and those who seek power and would like to keep the poor oppressed are the ones who most passionately preach the necessity of "Christian Morality".  However, an enlightened world has found the principles of freedom and equality to be better governing factors.  The ambiguous and self-contradicting nature of the Bible made it an unreliable source of justification in the Medieval era, and it remains so today.  Unfortunately for the people of the middle ages, those who held power in their left hand held a Bible in their right, and most certainly did not practice what they preached.

 

Bibliography

 

The Bible, Old and New Testaments.  Translated by American Bible Society, New             York, New York.  OT, 1952; NT, 1971; Concordance, 1970.

 

Beach, Waldo, and H. Richard Niebuhr.  Christian Ethics.  The Ronald Press Company,             New York, New York.  1973.

 

Shannon, Albert C. (O.S.A.).  The Medieval Inquisition.  The Liturgical Press,             Collegeville, Minnesota.  1991.

 

Internet Sources

1.)  Robertson, Patrick.  "The 700 Club"-Quote from 1/21/93.              http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/quotes.html. 

 

2.)  A History and Mythos of the Knights Templar Presents: A Slaughter of Innocents.              http://intranet.ca/~magicworks/knights/worms.html

 

3.)  Marx, Karl.  Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law-             Introduction.  Published in the DeutschFranzösische Jahrbücher, 1844.              Transcribed for the Internet by [email protected], 1996.              http://csf.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/mfs/24/csf/web/psn/marx/Archive/1844-                  DFJ/law.htm?40#mfs