Medieval Church

By the Medieval time, the Catholic Church had a well-established role in Western European society. At a local level, the representative of the church was the parish priest, who mostly came from the community whose spiritual well-being he was responsible for. Groups of parishes were organised into dioceses each under the administration of a bishop, who was responsible for archbishops, cardinals and ultimately the pope. The parish priests, who often also took an active political role, were known as the secular clergy. Existing parallel to the secular clergy were the regular clergy, the monks and nuns who had chosen to ...