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The Church fights to recover the Holy Land In 1095, Pope Urban II called upon all Christian rulers to organize a crusade; Christians were to "take back the cross"; Crusade comes from the Latin word crux, or cross; 4 major crusades between 1097 and 1204; many crusaders used their religious commitment as an excuse to kill non-Christians The Church struggles with corruption The pope was recognized as Europe's supreme ruler in the Middle Ages; Bishops and abbots were living like princes, concerned only about money and power; the papal throne too, seemed to become the possession of a few noble Roman families Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII guided the Church from 1073-1085; he started the Gregorian reforms and forbade lay investiture and insisted on celibacy for priests; banned simony and his reform was supported by many all over Europe; excommunicated Henry IV and later forgave Henry when he pretended to be sorry, but after, Emperor Henry IV put together an army and drove Gregory from Rome Fourth Lateran Council Pope Innocent III gathered 1,200 Church leaders for the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome; every aspect of Catholic life was discussed and regulated by decree; Catholics must receive Holy Communion at least once a year; the term TRANSUBSTANTIATION was used; because civil law and Church law were so closely related, leaders began to fear that any threat to the faith was a threat to all of society The Inquisition An official court set up in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX to investigate suspected heretics; people were being cruelly punished in the name of the Gospel because the leaders of the Inquisition acted out of fear as well as faith Friars witness to Christ When peasants began to relocate from farms to towns during the High middle Ages, a huge increase in the number of poor people in the cities resulted; many poorly trained priests that couldn't defend/explain the truths of the faith; many unholy priests; Church needed reform; Friar=latin word "frater" meaning "brother"; mendicant=latin word "mendicus" meaning "beggar"; two great orders of friars that began at this time were the Franciscans and the Dominicans Other Facts Dominicans preached and taught; Franciscans focused on the poor and on nature; Pope Innocent III was the strongest that a Pope has been/will ever get; at the Fourth Lateran Council, it was said that they must dress differently so you know what religion you belong to (people were more easily discriminated this way) St. Thomas Aquinas was called "the dumb ox"; became a great scholar and professor after becoming a Dominican friar; studied ancient Greek philosophy and pagan authors and defended the Christian faith and helped people to better understand it; Summa Theologica is his best-known work and it has the most important points of theology in it; his teachings are still used in the Church today