Saints LightWhat Did the Middle Ages Build?
The High Middle Ages gave the world universities, cathedrals, the friars and Aquinas, while also showing that the Church always needs reform.
What this lesson teaches
- The Church founded the first universities and built the Gothic cathedrals.
- Francis and Dominic founded the friars, who lived the Gospel among the towns.
- Thomas Aquinas showed that faith and reason come from the same God.
- The age also had worldly clergy, violence against heretics and a divided papacy.
Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites
- CCC 159
- CCC 2502
- CCC 2444
CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.
Scripture read in this lesson: Matthew 10:9.
A sample question from this lesson
What does the lesson say about the medieval university?
- It was invented by secular kings to oppose the Church
- It forbade students from raising any objections
- It taught only theology and nothing else
- It grew out of cathedral schools and was protected by popes
Show the answer
It grew out of cathedral schools and was protected by popes. Universities grew from cathedral schools, were chartered by popes, and taught arts, law, medicine and theology.
The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.
Words to know
- Friar
- A member of a mendicant order, such as the Franciscans or Dominicans, who lives in poverty and serves among the people rather than in an enclosed monastery.
- Summa Theologiae
- Thomas Aquinas's great, unfinished summary of theology, written as questions, objections and answers.
More terms in the Catholic glossary. More passages in the Scripture index.
Read the full lesson in the app
"What Did the Middle Ages Build?" is lesson 7 of Two Thousand Years in Twelve Lessons. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.
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- Do Faith and Science Conflict? (Hard Questions)