Editing Middle Ages (section)

=== Church life ===
{{Main|Gregorian Reform|Church and state in medieval Europe}}

[[File:Bonaventura Berlinghieri Francesco.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Francis of Assisi]], depicted by [[Bonaventura Berlinghieri]] in 1235, founded the [[Franciscan]] Order.<ref name=Hamilton47>Hamilton ''Religion in the Medieval West'' p. 47</ref>]]

Monastic reform became an important issue during the 11th century, as elites began to worry that monks were not adhering to the rules binding them to a strictly religious life. [[Cluny Abbey]], founded in the [[Mâcon]] region of France in 909, was established as part of the [[Cluniac Reforms]], a larger movement of monastic reform in response to this fear.<ref name=Rhino>Rosenwein ''Rhinoceros Bound'' pp. 40–41</ref> Cluny quickly established a reputation for austerity and rigour. It sought to maintain a high quality of spiritual life by placing itself under the protection of the papacy and by electing its own abbot without interference from laymen, thus maintaining economic and political independence from local lords.<ref name=Barber143>Barber ''Two Cities'' pp. 143–144</ref>

Monastic reform inspired change in the secular Church. The ideals upon which it was based were brought to the papacy by Pope [[Leo IX]] (pope 1049–1054) and provided the ideology of clerical independence that led to the Investiture Controversy in the late 11th century. This involved Pope [[Pope Gregory VII|Gregory VII]] (pope 1073–1085) and Emperor Henry IV, who initially clashed over episcopal appointments, a dispute that turned into a battle over the ideas of [[investiture]], clerical marriage, and [[simony]]. The emperor saw the protection of the Church as one of his responsibilities and wanted to preserve the right to appoint his own choices as bishops within his lands. Still, the papacy insisted on the Church's independence from secular lords. These issues remained unresolved after the compromise of 1122, known as the [[Concordat of Worms]]. The dispute represents a significant stage in creating a papal monarchy separate from and equal to [[laity|lay]] authorities. It also had the permanent consequence of empowering German princes at the expense of the German emperors.<ref name=Rhino />

[[File:Abbey-of-senanque-provence-gordes.jpg|[[Sénanque Abbey]], [[Gordes]], France|thumb|left]]

The High Middle Ages was a period of great religious movements. Besides the Crusades and monastic reforms, people sought to participate in new forms of religious life. New monastic orders were founded, including the [[Carthusian]]s and the [[Cistercians]]. The latter, in particular, expanded rapidly in their early years under the guidance of [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] (d. 1153). These new orders were formed in response to the feeling of the laity that Benedictine monasticism no longer met the needs of the laymen, who, along with those wishing to enter the religious life, wanted a return to the simpler [[hermit|hermetical]] monasticism of early Christianity, or to live an [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostolic life]].<ref name=Barber145>Barber ''Two Cities'' pp. 145–149</ref> [[Christian pilgrimage|Religious pilgrimages]] were also encouraged. Old pilgrimage sites such as Rome, Jerusalem, and [[Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela|Compostela]] received increasing numbers of visitors, and new sites such as [[Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo|Monte Gargano]] and [[Basilica di San Nicola|Bari]] rose to prominence.<ref name=Morris199>Morris "Northern Europe" ''Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe'' p. 199</ref>

In the 13th century [[mendicant orders]]—the [[Franciscan]]s and the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]]—who swore vows of poverty and earned their living by begging, were approved by the papacy.<ref name=Barber155>Barber ''Two Cities'' pp. 155–167</ref> Religious groups such as the [[Waldensians]] and the [[Humiliati]] also attempted to return to the life of early Christianity in the middle 12th and early 13th centuries, another heretical movement condemned by the papacy. Others joined the [[Cathars]], another movement condemned as heretical by the papacy. In 1209, a crusade was preached against the Cathars, the [[Albigensian Crusade]], which, in combination with the [[medieval Inquisition]], eliminated them.<ref name=Barber185>Barber ''Two Cities'' pp. 185–192</ref>