Religious Hierarchy in Medieval Times

The Religious Hierarchy of the Medieval Times refers to the religious folklore which has been changed with the change in time and also improvement in generations. The Religious Hierarchy in Medieval Times is also known as the Medieval Church Hierarchy. The hierarchy of the church was further divided into two hierarchies which the people used to follow at that time.  The further division is referred to as the monastic and the secular. 

The monastic hierarchy for men started the following ways

·         Oblates and some other children who were attending the monastic schools at a particular point of time. 

·         Above these are the novices and lay brothers.

·          After this comes the collection of Obedientaries and under this category lies the monks, Cellarer, Hospitaller, Sacrist and Infirmerer.

 All these were under the direct authority of the Pope, who is considered to be leader of the entire Catholic Church. 

Another is the secular hierarchy, which began with the minor order people, known as clerks

·         The category of clerks included the Door Keepers, Lectors, Acolytes and the men studying at the schools which belonged to the church schools such as universities.

·         Above the clerks, were the major orders of the clergy which included Priests, Bishops and Deacons.

·         And finally above the Bishops were the Archbishops and then the Pope.

 This is how the Religious Hierarchy in Medieval Times used to function. 

Also, during the Religious Hierarchy in Medieval Times, it was important to go on a religious pilgrimage. The hierarchy included a pilgrimage which means a trip to a shrine in order to worship the god. During the medieval times, there were many different pilgrimage centres and some of these pilgrimage centres includes Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, Jerusalem and Rome. The medieval church also played a major role in the medieval times religion and has some of the below mentioned important people engaged in the church:

·         The Pope – the pope is considered to be the leader of the Catholic Church and during the medieval times, Bishop was known as the pope who was the successor of the Saint Peter. 

·         Archbishops – These are considered to be important for the working of many churches but were heads of the only local ones

·         The Patriarch – These are also of equal importance, and are considered as heads for many local churches

·         Cardinals – The cardinals, who are also known as Catholicism, were the appointed people by the pope. The Cardinals are also known as the Prince of the Catholic Church which was of prime importance during the Religious Hierarchy in Medieval Times. 

The Medieval churches had dominated life of many people, be it the village peasants or the town’s people everyone believed in god and paid a visit to the church on a regular basis which helped in satisfying their inner soul.