A Corrupt Medieval Church? One of the most common modern cliches about the medieval Church is that it was corrupt and that its unwillingness to institute reforms resulted in the division of Christendom into separate Christian Churches during the sixteenth century. There are many historical weaknesses with this argument. It is based on the idea that the Church had the power to control the behavior of every bishop, cleric, and monk throughout Christendom, and it overlooks the many reform movements that punctuated medieval Church history. Certainly medieval clergymen felt at various times that the Church was not living up to its mission or aspirations, but one of the primary reasons why reformers had such a difficult time instituting reform were the demands that the laity placed on clergy and the ways the laity expressed their religious devotion. Ideally the Church was a spiritual...