church and rome
... Campbell Western Civilizations 11/02/02 Decline of Rome and The Church of Yore The Roman Empire has been called the greatest empire in the world, but everyone knows that it fell. ... “At the time of Rome’s weakening, their was an increasingly widening gap between the plebian and patrician classes due to the poverty of the plebeians and the extreme richness of the patricians” Roman urban wealth relied solely on the trade of slaves. ... In a time of disunity, in a feudal system that often left the monarch with little or no power, the Medieval Christian Church exercised a power and an influence that extended well beyond the religious. In fact, the Medieval Church, affected significantly the secular areas of the Middle Ages. In the social level there is also the strong influence of the Church. ... They volunteered to lead a life of hardship and suffering in accordance to the teachings of the Church. The sacraments, too, show the extreme influence of the Church on peoples beliefs. ... Excommunication, which prohibits the taking of sacraments, was used infrequently as most people, even monarchs, looked to not antagonize the Church.