The civilizations of Greece and Rome are considered to be the most ancient ones, and historians when describing the impacts on the world especially in the fields of arts, literature, and philosophy these two civilizations have left on the West. The question often raised was why Greeks and Romans became popular in history because they secured a significant place in conception. The Greeks were the ones who created the intellectual culture through scholars and writers of philosophy because of the Hellenic culture. The Roman civilization, founded back in 800 BC, was one of the mightiest empires. It started as a system of monarchy but turned into a republic even before turning into an empire. The culture of Rome was influenced by ancient Greece (Spielvogel, 2014).
The first contribution of these two civilizations was about the perception and understanding of religion. Both civilizations emphasized the importance of religion in the lives of people because it helped to make it better and purposeful. They praised several Gods and built many beautiful temples to show their devotion in the form of praying there together. The contribution of religious beliefs led them to develop the cultural art of music and dance performances, which are still known to be the most aesthetic and unique. The second most influential contribution of this civilization was in the field of politics. The system of politics that they developed was by the government instead of wealthy rulers who only favored the wealthy. They introduced such a system to provide rights and justice. They designed such a system of governance, which developed a better economic and social structure.
The third contribution of Roman and Greek Civilization was defining the roles of men and women in running the society. The men were assigned tasks like farming and business to provide for their families. The women and children were charged with their homes when the men were out working. The women looked after the homes and managed slaves. Roman civilization especially liberated women provided them the liberty of doing jobs, and removed restrictions. The women started teaching during the Roman civilization (Pyne, 2016).
Discuss how the Roman Catholic Church grew during the Middle Ages from a fragmented and localized institution to one that was highly centralized and explain how this development brought the Church into conflict with secular powers in Europe.
The Middle Ages was a period when the Roman Empire collapsed, and that was the time when only one institution left, and that was the Roman Catholic Church even though the church was under the supervision of some of the authorities of rulers at that time, but within the church, it was controlled by local bishops due to the designed hierarchy. The reason for its strength was its base, which was the Christian believers who were shattered by the collapse, but God’s kingdom was ultimately hostile when the day of deliverance would come. The church hierarchy was built once again with the additional leader who replaced the empire ruler, the Pope. He was considered to be the supreme power after that. The Pope started placing innovations in the readings; at that time, literacy was no longer a requirement for the clergy. These new steps were taken to facilitate the people of that time so that they manage their time and knowledge. All these decisions made the church a centralized institute, and all decisions were made only by the Pope.
When all of these happened, the Church imposed religious rules and regulations on the state and set the boundaries according to Christianity, but the Roman Empire’s rules came against those rules. It brought the overlap of both powers. Even though both the rules tried to negotiate, the conflict only rose. The other reason historians state that the conflict was not due to the power but the wealth that church fathers started to carry. Church authorities advised people to live simple lives and took luxurious lives by donating to people. The conflict lasted a long time, and other reasons were also raised which contradicted the teaching that the Church gave, but in the end, Romans lost complete power because everybody took the side of the church (Grzymała-Busse, 2015).
References
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western civilization. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Pyne, S. J. (2016). Fire in mind: changing understandings of fire in Western civilization. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 371(1696), 20150166.
Grzymała-Busse, A. (2015). Nations under God: How churches use moral authority to influence policy. Princeton University Press.
