Peter and Paul, in a mosaic from Ravenna (500s AD) In the later Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, the Pope was the leader of the Catholic Church. Whenever there was a question [...]
Montanus and Montanism: This is the amphitheater in ancient Carthage where Romans killed Christians during the Decian persecution. Montanism was a Christian heresy. A man named Montanus started it; he [...]
Catholic priests celebrating Christian Mass The central Christian ritual The central part of Christian life in antiquity and the Middle Ages was the Christian Mass. That was when you went to church and the priest went through a [...]
Medieval excommunication ceremony What is excommunication? Excommunication was a Christian idea. It meant you could not take Communion anymore. Beginning in the Roman period, bishops or groups of bishops excommunicated people who were doing [...]
Maybe our earliest image of the Last Supper - from the Catacombs of Domitilla, 100s AD The Last Supper At the Last Supper, Jesus gave his disciples bread and wine. What's the Last Supper? [...]
Bishop Ambrose of Milan Who was Bishop Ambrose? By the later 300s AD, the Roman emperors were all Christians. So more and more of the people of the empire converted to Christianity. One of [...]
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Soon after the failure of the Fifth Crusade, Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, decided he would try his luck on Crusade, since he hadn't been allowed [...]
The Pope calls for another crusade In 1200 AD, Pope Innocent began to ask the rulers of Europe to participate in a fourth crusade, again attempting to take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids who ruled there. Saladin had died in [...]
Lorenzo de' Medici In the early 1400s AD, a few rich families ruled the city-state of Florence in northern Italy. With the Holy Roman Empire very weak, these families ran Florence as an independent country. But most people in [...]
Prince John on a coin Why did people hate King John? When Richard the Lionhearted died of gangrene in 1199 AD (when he was 42), his younger brother John became king. The [...]
