why was the catholic church was so powerful in medieval europe?
360232
the catholic church had lots of land, land=wealth \nthey had large churches and powerful people that contolled them, the popes even led armies into war. but, mostly it's because they have large areas of land, and the church controlled many territoies.
194071
Catholics do a lot of things not in the bible.  They live by their own little set of rules and ideas they consider "truths".  Most cannot give a reason for their actions/beliefs, etc beyond "because that's what the catholic church says" and they just blindly follow it.
12175
He only has actual power within the limits of the Vatican.  However, being the absolute authority of the Catholic Church, he exerts great influence throughout the world.
745240
The Medicis of Italy.  They were bigger than the Rothchilds in the 20th century.  They produced Popes, Dukes, you name it.  Then there's the Habsburgs, which dominated the Royal Families of Germany, England, Russia and Scandinavia.
513905
no it was christians who had crusades who killed indiscrimitaly and took their land who really started with terroism. the cathlic church burning and torturing people to convert have killed more people than any muslim nation. I am cathlic so I know our history.
871675
All faiths have their bad moments. The Catholic church is no different. What people need to understand is that it's always the people behind it (ex: pope, bishops, priests, ect...) who are the causes of the evil, not the Church itself.\n\nI know many people who know of and understand the history of the Church and still proudly say that they are Catholic (or in my case, almost Catholic. XD )
564508
As I understand it, a critical division is obedience to the Pope, and therefore the various rules the Catholic Church has because of Papal Bulls.  Things about divorce and birth control, for example, and about priests being celibate while Lutheran ministers get married.  A lot, really.  Martin Luther had 95 Theses, among them the concept that one can get to heaven on faith alone, and not necessarily by good works.  Also, Catholics have never approved of individuals reading the Bible (only priests), while Luther recommended it.
73500
Agree with the above, except I believe it was so successful because the Kings of Europe wanted to throw off the control of the Church, so they encouraged the religious reformation to their political and economic advantage.  If they had not, it probably wouldn't have been successful.
429890
that is a wonder to me too, religions, such as the most popualr christianity was invented thousands of years ago and went under many modification, thus protestant, catholic etc.... by some roman or other major ancient empire leader, however, eventually people will come to realize how primitive religion is, compare the significane of religion today with the concept a hundred years ago, back then priests were next to kings and leaders, now ther jus some horny guys wantin to F some kids in church
242049
it is the catholic church. it is also the largest organization to own land in the world.
398529
its to do with the church belonging to the community etc etc and it is seen as a good deed to donate to the repair of a church.  Not all churches are "ruled" by the Vatican though remember, since Henry VIII the Church of England has been seperate.
614978
Although your question does have a slight antagonistic bent to it, I'd like to give you one part of the answer. \nFirst, my understanding is that the term "Catholic Church" is the only term we have for the ancient church. Thus, at the time of compiling the Bible, I believe that a Protestant Church did not even exist. So naturally, the "Catholic Church" would have been the Christ's "official" body and thus would have compiled and 'Cannonized'  the Bible.\n\nPlease check this site out to answer SOME of your question...\nhttp://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=685\n\nNow, both the Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles have thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. The **difference** is that a Roman Catholic Bible has an additional eleven books inserted between the Testaments: The Apocrypha, which the protestant church has actually rejected for a number of reasons. \n\nBoth churches use the same OT and the same NT because of their reliable 'historicity', etc.\n\nPlease visit the website listed above which details some of the reasons for why the Protestant churches actually have a different Bible than the Catholic church. \n\nHope that helps! :)
249132
Catholic churches are governed by Dioceses or Archdioceses.  Several churches in the same geographical area are "governed" by a specific arch/diocese.
639385
There are quite a few facts in this book of fiction. The Catholic church definitely carried on a campaign against the old pagan folk beliefs. This was done over a period of several centuries from the time that Constantine adopted Christianity through the campaigns against witches (which continued under protestants in the Salem witch trials). The fourth and fifith centuries correspond to the time when orthodox Christianity (the Catholic church) was trying to fight both the Arians of Spain, but also the pagans of northern Europe and Germany. The number of people killed during these pogroms ishard to determine accurately.
659267
I would say it began because of the rising wealth and importance of the merchant class.  Though still a definitively Christian period, there seems to be an increased interest in learning about secular things.  This could also have developed because of the absence of the papacy which at the time was in Avignon, France.
332391
For much of the Middle Ages, Islamic culture was the only culture that promoted learning, science etc. They preserved a lot of older European texts which otherwise we would not have today.
28017
the guy above me dosent know crap. One affect was that the christians had a desire for a higher standard of life when they saw how sophiticated the muslims were such as nice cities. It also lead to the fall of constantinople when the crusaders sacked the city on the way. The fall of constantinople lead to the collapse of the eastern roman empire. This gave the muslims an even stronger hold on Juresalem because the europeans lost so many men