During the Middle Ages the church labored to build a community of faith. Benedict, Columba, and Francis organized communities in which the Gospel could be preached. Theodulf, Anselm, and Bernard of Clairvaux answered the call to reform that community and theology. And when the church’s leaders drifted from the authority of Scripture, a first wave of reformers in Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and John Hus arose to call God’s people back to the grace of God.

This was a Church that sought to reign, love and conquest, a Church that wanted to secure freedom, and proclaim the gospel. When that Church fell into corruption it undertook its own reform. Which one of these is the medieval Church? They all are! And in that we can find hope in the God Who loves His Church as we seek to live in His name.