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doctrine recognizable as an institutionalized religion. An unconscious compromise between the limitations of Christian theology and the needs of the Church evolved as Popes and priests worked to further their worldly influence while also attempting to convince the faithful to abide by the Holy Word. In order to make Christianity ever more appealing, they carried on the venerable Pauline tradition of sacrificing the gospel according to Jesus for the sake of popularity, so an already adulterated religion became further cheapened and inflated as rites and symbols became material and vulgar. Meanwhile, morality became formalized on a firm financial footing, and Purgatory experienced the first real estate boom in history.
Taken together, canny interpretations of Scripture and necessary rationalizations of ceremony became the basis for medieval theology and provided a theoretical framework for life in the Middle Ages. Fundamental to the Catholic schema was "Free will", as it meant that people were morally responsible for sinning and thus needed the Church for salvation. However, as an ideology, Christian theology was more effective in keeping people from thinking about themselves and their lives than in regulating their behavior. An intellectual vacuum was promoted by the fanaticism and superstition which prevailed amongst the clergy, who thought secular learning wicked. Everyone truly believed in the theoretical Christian schema, which, as the Age of Belief progressed, became increasingly theoretical and detached from reality. Actually, the Church based its power not only on the general idea that it provided the standard by which people thought they should live and die but also on the more concrete notion that the clergy was necessary for the sacraments. Thus, despite or because of how people indulged their passions on earth, most of them assumed a priest would determine whether they would spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. If a reprobate repented and confessed and the proper ceremony were performed, he went to Heaven after suffering a while in Purgatory. A priest could shorten this time by saying masses for the repentant and was willing to do so for a suitable fee, but just why the holy Fathers would not do so out of Christian compassion was never explained. This was the medieval schema. It was not just an official creed but a firm belief genuinely held by everyone—priests and people. It was this that made the clergy superior to the princes and Popes more powerful than the generals. It granted an authority limited only by divisions among
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