ABSTRACT
The notion of a 'Medieval Christianity', like so many attempts to chop history into manageable pieces, is a modern one created by historians. People living between the fifth and fifteenth centuries might have been aware of some change, but saw no significant break between their religion and that of the earliest Christians. In one sense they were correct: Christianity had developed organically, step by step from the little community in Palestine in the late first century. However, the modern perception that Christianity in 900 or 1200 was different in significant ways from Christianity in 200 or 300 is also correct. Christianity's history had shaped it (and continues to shape it) in ways that no one in first-century Palestine could have predicted.
