Editing History of Christianity (section)

===Regional differences===
[[File:Cyril Metodej.jpg|thumb|alt=image of a monument depicting Saints Cyril and Methodius|[[Saints Cyril and Methodius|St. Cyril and St. Methodius]] monument on [[Radhošť|Mt. Radhošť]], Czech Republic]]
[[Eastern Europe]] had been exposed to Christianity during Roman rule, but it was [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Byzantine Christianity]], brought by the ninth-century saints [[Cyril and Methodius]], that was integral to the formation of its modern states. Dukes and kings used the new faith to solidify their position and promote unity, while some directly enforced it with new laws, building churches, and establishing monasteries.{{sfn|Radić|2010|p=232}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|pp=126; 129}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=12}} The brothers developed the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] to translate the Bible into the local language. Their disciples then developed the [[Cyrillic script]], which spread literacy and became the cultural and religious foundation for all Slavic nations.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=25}}{{sfn|Schaff|2011|pp=161–162}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|p=127}} 

In 635, the Church of the East brought Christianity to the Chinese [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|Emperor Taizong]] whose decree to license the Christian faith was copied onto the [[Xi'an Stele|Sianfu stele]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=189}} It spread into northwestern China, [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]], [[Turpan|Turfan]], and south of [[Lake Balkhash|Lake Balkash]] in southeastern [[Kazakhstan]], but its growth was halted in 845 by Emperor Wu-Tsung, who favoured [[Taoism]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=189-190}} The Church of the East evangelized all along the [[Silk Road]] and was instrumental in converting some of the [[Mongolic peoples|Mongolic]] and [[Turkic peoples]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=191}} After 700, when much of Christianity was declining, there were flourishing Christian societies along all the main trade routes of Asia, South India, the Nubian kingdoms, Ethiopia, the Caucasus region.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=5}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=188, 189-191}} 

In Western Europe, [[canon law]] was instrumental in developing key norms concerning oaths of loyalty, homage, and fidelity.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=106}} These norms were incorporated into civil law where traces remain.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=114}} Within the tenets of [[feudalism]], the church created a new model of consecrated kingship unknown in the East, and in 800, Clovis' descendant [[Charlemagne]] became its recipient when [[Pope Leo III]] crowned him emperor.{{sfn|Nelson|2008|pp=302, 307}} Charlemagne engaged in a number of reforms which began the [[Carolingian Renaissance]], a period of intellectual and cultural revival.{{sfn|Collins|1998|pp=102-107}} His crowning set the precedent that only a pope could crown a Western emperor enabling popes to claim emperors derived their power from God through them.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} The Papacy became free from Byzantine control, and the former lands of the [[Exarchate]] became States of the church.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}}{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}} However, the papacy was still in need of aid and protection, so the Holy Roman emperors often used that need to attempt domination of the Papacy and the Papal States.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} In Rome, the papacy came under the control of the city's aristocracy.{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}}{{sfn|Ullmann|1972|p=71}}

In Russia, the baptism of [[Vladimir of Kiev]] in 989 is traditionally associated with the conversion of the [[Kievan Rus']].{{sfn|Poppe|1991|pp=5–7}} Their new religious structure included dukes maintaining control of a financially-dependent church.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=12}}{{sfn|Štefan|2022|p=111}}{{refn|group=note| The prince appointed the clergy to positions in government service, satisfied their material needs, determined who would fill the higher ecclesiastical positions, and directed the synods of bishops in the Kievan metropolitanate.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=15}}}} Monasticism was the dominant form of piety for both peasants and elites who identified as Christian while retaining many pre-Christian practices.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=173–174}}

[[Viking]] raids in the ninth and tenth centuries destroyed many churches and monasteries, inadvertently leading to reform. Patrons competed in rebuilding so that "by the mid-eleventh century, a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church" resulted.{{sfn|Howe|2016|p=3}} There was another rise in papal power in the tenth century when [[William IX, Duke of Aquitaine]], and other powerful lay founders of monasteries, placed their institutions under the protection of the papacy.{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=287}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=177–178}}{{sfn|Costambeys|2000|pp=380; 393–394}}