The Roman Church, as the successor of the Roman Empire in the West, formed the chief center of civilization during the earlier part of the Middle Ages. She stood between the conquering Germans and the Romanized provincials and helped to join them both in lasting union. To the heathen she sent out her missionaries, preaching a religion of love and charity and introducing a higher morality than the barbarians had ever known before. She multiplied hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. Her bishops were the only protectors of the weak and the oppressed. She fostered education, art, and learning within the walls of churches and monasteries. Her priests and monks were the only teachers in an ignorant age. In an age of bloodshed and violence, when might made right, she proclaimed the superiority of the spirit to mere brute force. To sum up: the Roman Church was an indispensable agent in the making of medieval Europe. THE MENACE TO CHRISTENDOM Christianity in its Greek and Roman forms was not the only great religion of the Middle Ages. In the seventh century, before the separation of the two churches had been completed and before all Europe had become Christian, another religion arose. It grew with marvelous rapidity, stripped the Church of much territory in western Asia, northern Africa, and Spain, and promised for a time to become the dominant faith of the world. This was Islam, or Mohammedanism, the religion of the Arabs. STUDIES 1. In what different senses is the word "church" often used? 2. "The eastern patriarch was the shadow of the emperor, cast on the spiritual world." Explain this statement. 3. Why did heresies develop in the East rather than in the West? 4. Look up in the New Testament the following texts relating to the primacy of St. Peter: _Matthew_, xvi, 18-19; _Luke_, xxii, 31-32; and _John_, xxi, 15-17. 5. What is "the power of the keys" which the popes claim to possess? 6. What reasons for the growth of the Papacy have been set forth in this chapter? 7. In what non-Christian religions is monasticism an established institution? 8. Look up in the New Testament the following texts quoted as favorable to monasticism: _Matthew_, xix, 21; _Mark_, x, 29-30; and _Luke_, xiv, 26. 9. What is the origin of the words "monk," "hermit," "anchorite," and "abbot"? 10. Summarize the principal benefits which the monastic system conferred on Europe. 11. Give reasons for the rapid conversion of the Germans to Christianity. 12. In what sense is it true that "half Europe owes its Christianity to women"? 13. Who was the "Apostle to the Germans"? 14. Who were the "Apostles to the Slavs"? 15. Comment on the significance to European civilization of the missionary activity of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages. 16. Why has the separation of the Greek and Roman churches been described as "the most momentous fact in the history of Christendom during the Middle Ages"? 17. Why could not such an institution as the Papacy develop in the East?