Stained Glass In The Medieval Period

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Stained Glass In the medieval period, stained glass was used majorly in churches/cathedrals to have a view of the outside and allow light to enter the building. This allowed churches to have a colourful lighting. Not only was stained glass used for light, it was also used to tell a story(as shown in the picture below). The stained glass demonstrated shows the story of Jesus Christ was crucified, how he dies on the cross and how he is buried. Stained glasses are in almost all of the churches today because churches nowadays are outcomes of the medieval church's problems which was that the church and christianity started without much money before it became popular. Such stained glass stories was used in churches…show more content…
It also made the church look more grand and inspirational to others, it could also represent the significance of the church and christianity. Stained glass costed a lot to make in the medieval times so it was a symbol of wealth for the church's. Stained glass demonstrates and proves how churches became richer and more developed from the simple old churches. This is because church's got wealthier and more powerful through time because of everybody switching to christianity, you also had to pay for baptisms because if you weren't baptised then you couldn't go to heaven when you die and the churches did not have to pay taxes! This means that they saved a lot of money and were more wealthy than any king of europe. Another reason of how the church got rich is that if you wanted to go to heaven after you died in (addition to having to pay for baptism) you would have to be buried on ‘Holy Land’ which basically was land owned by the church. Since the church had the monopoly on religion and who and who can't go to heaven is up to them the church being vastly rich is shown in its buildings such as churches, cathedrals and…show more content…
Since everyone was christian especially the king, the church heavily used its power to completely influence the rulers of said medieval country to make decisions of the church such as waging war against other countries. A perfect example of this is the crusades such as ‘The First Crusade” which was the church waging war to regain control of the ‘holy land’(jerusalem) but in the end the muslims managed to keep jerusalem to themselves. Another example of of the church's’ influence is the Spanish Inquisition which was when someone who wasn't loyal to the roman catholic church they would be burnt on the stake in public. But nowadays the rulers of countries have decided not to let the church's influence and run the country anymore. This shows that the church isn't as powerful as it was back in the medieval ages but christianity is much more popular now as it is the most followed religion with 31 percent of the world's population following

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