Peter Jones

The Pope's goal at this point was to make every individual citizen in the whole of Christendom into a kind of monk themselves, to monasticise everyone, to make everyone have the same level of dedication and commitment to the faith that a monk would have.

It's a hugely ambitious project.

And that really gets going in the 1070s onwards.

That's when we have, you know, clerical celibacy.

Priests aren't allowed to have sex.

And so it's getting serious.

Before this process of Gregorian reform, you have priests who are just...

You know, somebody from the local community wanted the job a lot of the time, and it's a bit venal.

You know, oh, my brother said I could do this.

I'm going to be priest.

After this, it becomes much more strict.

You know, they need to be trained.

They need to be educated.

There's a real self-conscious objective to sort of change the church and make everyone invested.

I mean, the real moment comes in 1215, which for medievalists, huge year, but not for Magna Carta.

Very important.

I mean, in measure it would be important, but for a lot of us, an even bigger event happens in November, which is the Fourth Lateran Council.

It doesn't sound as fun, but it changes so much.

For example, the Mass, you know, the bread becomes the body of Christ.

That's interesting.