Like Muslims, Jews were outside the Christian faith but, unlike the Muslims, they were present within Christian society. The concept of boundary and that of the imagined Jew are both keys for deciphering the code of the relations between Christians and Jews in the Middle Ages, particularly in the thirteenth century. Medieval ecclesiastical legislation upheld the rights of Jews to protection and to an existence with a modicum of honour in the Christian world, and several popes issued protective bulls. An important milestone in the attitude of the church towards the Jews was the Fourth Lateran Council, convened in the Lateran Palace in Rome by Pope Innocent III. In the Middle Ages conversion generally operates in a single direction, from Judaism to Christianity, and traditionally the church continued to oppose forced conversions. The first recorded instance of Jews being accused of the ritual murder of Christians is in the mid-twelfth century.

The religious history of the fifteenth century was dominated by the Great Schism. The religious education of the laity had never occupied so high a place among the priorities of those clergy who took their duties seriously. The majority of priests capable of preaching and eager to do so effectively lived in towns, and thus their normal congregations represented only a small proportion of the total Christian population. At the beginning of the fifteenth century a ruling of the Inquisition listed the actions characteristic of a good and faithful Christian. The Catholic belongs to a complex society which cannot function without priests. Image-makers, painters and sculptors, put the resources of their talents and craft at the service of this multi-faceted religion. As people can estimate the frequency and regularity of religious practice, they can establish that the majority of the faithful did carry out the prescriptions of the Church, year in, year out.

The Carolingian renaissance appears as a well-organised programme. Observers from the time of Notker Balbulus and Heiric of Auxerre to the present day have been impressed by the Carolingian achievement. Much of the variety inherent in Carolingian learning can be attributed to differences in resources, talents and interests across the cultural landscape. Only a few of the Carolingian schools have been studied systematically. Books were at the heart of Carolingian education. The most original development in Carolingian rhetorical studies linked rhetoric with rulership. Carolingian poetry was a ubiquitous feature of Carolingian literary culture and one of its most impressive achievements modern collection, was an ubiquitous feature of Carolingian literary culture. The example Carolingian leaders provided in their courts and legislation and which Notker Balbulus enshrined in his emblematic account of Charlemagne's life was not lost on later politicians who believed that learning was important for the spiritual health of the individual and also for Christian society.

The history of the church in Brazil has traditionally been open to two basic interpretations. The first interpretation stems from the attitude of the original colonizer. The second interpretation is attributable to the people who suffered the consequences of the labour demands of the European settlers. There were three predominant religious orders in the Amazon region: the Carmelites, Franciscans and Jesuits. The organization of dioceses and parishes was slow and their influence on Catholic practice in Brazil for a long time minimal. In order to understand the process by which a Christian society developed in Brazil it is important to recognize the problems faced by Portugal when undertaking its colonial enterprise in America. The church was an agent of social control in colonial Brazil in a number of important ways. The church was called upon to create a general climate of agreement in favour of slavery.