Daily Medieval

Pope Gregory VII (c.1015 - 1085) tried to establish many reforms in the Church, they did not all "stick." One of his reforms was t...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

After years of being pope and asserting his will on the world, Innocent III decided to bring together all the church leaders and establish ...

Pope Innocent III believed in the absolute power of the pope over secular authorities , and he did what he could to assert that power where...

Pope Innocent III was determined to assert papal authority over every area possible. He made sure that kings, although they had their ...

Finally, the pope mentioned more than any other in this blog gets his time in the spotlight. He was named Lothario at birth, and his father,...

Pope Alexander III decided that it was time to tackle the pagans on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea (the Baltic is between the penins...

Walter de Coutances was a courtier and then Archbishop of Rouen whose life was tied up in the careers of three kings of England: Henry II, ...

As we saw in yesterday's post, Venice was able to coerce the members of the Fourth Crusade to winter over in Zara (a Dalmatian city now ...

The influence of Byzantine art and culture on Italy (especially in the 13th century) was discussed yesterday , and I referred obliquely to a...

Giovanni Gualberto (c. 985 – 12 July 1073) was not the sort of person you would expect to found a monastic order. A nobleman born in a castl...

In a message for the World Day of Creation (27 June, 2024), Pope Francis said of Joachim de Fiore that he  "was able to propose the ide...

The Almohads were a North African Berber group who founded an empire in the 12th century. By 1159 they had extended their power over the Ma...

King Alfonso IX of León (1171 - 1230) may be noted for calling the Three Estates together to advise him—the first such gathering in Western...

John of Brienne never expected to be a king, or even a lord. He was born about 1170 to Count Erard II of Brienne and Agnes of Montfaucon, a ...

Francis of Assisi , prior to his episode on the Fifth Crusade , traveled to Rome with his followers to request of the pope permission to fou...

One piece of evidence that supported the idea of Spontaneous Generation in the Middle Ages was the case of the barnacle goose. (See the thi...

The Waldensians are a Christian protestant group that originated in the Middle Ages and still exists, having survived—sometimes through seve...