How did the monasteries help in spreading christianity?
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Monasteries were actually one of the great means of the evangelization of Europe! As centers of learning and bearers of Grecco-Roman culture, they attracted local pagan nobility who wanted their sons to recreate the Roman Empire. The fact that Christianity came as part of the package was only natural to them, as Rome by the monastic era was itself Christian.
In addition, monasteries were established where the regular clergy were less likely to be able to reach: in the rural farmlands, rather then in the cities. This led to the gradual conversion of the people, unlike other cultural changes that tended to merely replace the upper echelon of society and leave the ‘common’ culture relatively untouched (the overlaying of French court customs on Anglo-Saxon England, for example, or the successive series of invaders who entered Celtic folklore as varieties of ‘fair folk’).
In addition, monasteries were established where the regular clergy were less likely to be able to reach: in the rural farmlands, rather then in the cities. This led to the gradual conversion of the people, unlike other cultural changes that tended to merely replace the upper echelon of society and leave the ‘common’ culture relatively untouched (the overlaying of French court customs on Anglo-Saxon England, for example, or the successive series of invaders who entered Celtic folklore as varieties of ‘fair folk’).
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