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# Religion Affected Society ## Guiding Question How did the Catholic Church affect the lives of medieval Europeans? During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church became rich and powerful. Beginning in the 1000s, many Western Europeans became worried about the direction in which the Church was heade...

# Religion Affected Society ## Guiding Question How did the Catholic Church affect the lives of medieval Europeans? During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church became rich and powerful. Beginning in the 1000s, many Western Europeans became worried about the direction in which the Church was headed. They set out to return the Church to Christian ideals. They built more monasteries and formed new religious orders, or groups of priests, monks, and nuns. ## New Religious Orders One of the most important new orders was the Cistercian order. It was founded in 1098 by monks who were unhappy with wealthy monasteries and wanted a simpler, more spiritual way of life. Cistercian monks worshipped, prayed, and farmed the land. They developed new farming methods. Bernard of Clairvaux was a famous Cistercian monk.