Gregory I: The First Medieval Pope (1)

Introduction The most important institution in the Middle Ages, roughly the time from the death of Augustine to the Protestant Reformation (430-1517), was the Roman Catholic papacy. It dominated all the history of the Western Mediterranean world and Europe, and its influence was inescapable in the Eastern church until the great schism between east and west in 1054. The papacy determined, more than any other institution, political, economic, and ecclesiastical life during this millennium. But...