The Trials of Christians in the Middle Ages

With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Christian Church was left alone to bring about the restoration of civilization by providing both civil and spiritual leadership, an extremely difficult task. One result was a dramatic change in Apostolic Christian theology following Constantine, when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. This was followed by leaders of the Church declaring that a theocratic empire in Western Europe was a God-given right for the Church. In its attempts to assert this control, which also meant involving the Church in the power politics of Europe, the Church came close to self-destruction. An effort to reform the Church and correct the serious failures of its administrative procedures was attempted by the most powerful monarchs, academics and some cardinals. It almost succeeded early in the 15th century, but unexpectedly a request to debate indulgences ignited the Reformation in the 16th century.