Chapter Seven

The Middle Ages
I. The Disintegration and Rebuilding of the Christian World from the Fifth to the Eleventh Centuries
After three centuries in the Roman empire the church came to believe that it could not exist outside of it.  Bishops were made high governmental officials and the emperor convened councils, but the empire was very sick.  Upon Theodosius' death the empire was divided into two parts and in the fifth century it was totally disintegrated by the invasions of the barbarians.  Somehow the church survived through all of this.  The Middle Ages run from the age of antiquity and ten centuries to the time of the Renaissance of the sixteenth century.  The Middle Ages saw the building of great cathedrals, the crusades, huge monasteries and Christianity was in full vogue.
A. Invasions and a Redrawing of the Religious Map
1. Invasions by Germanic Tribes--during the fifth century many German tribes and Huns crossed the Danube and Rhine Rivers and stopped the onslaught of the Romans.  In 410 A.D. Rome was captured and sacked by the Visigoths.  The Vandals conquered North Africa in 430 A.D. and Carthage in 439 A.D.  Attila the Hun invaded the West and was stopped by the Roman army with the help of the Barbarians in 451 A.D.  In 455 A.D. Rome was sacked again by the Vandal Genseric and the last Roman emperor, a boy named Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned by the barbarian Odoacer in 476 A.D.  The ancient world, both Roman and Christian came to an end.  The East had remained pretty much the same, but the West was now in the hands of various barbarian tribes; i.e., the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, Alans etc...
2. The End of the World?--Many Christians believed that the end of the world was here.  Christians wondered why God had not protected this precious Rome. Some thought it was punishment for their sins while the pagans still in hiding thought it was the gods revenge on the Christians.
See Handout #88
3. Bishops defend the towns--In all of this loss and confusion the church was the only institution that remained stable.  Many bishops held their dioceses together with their own armies.
See Handout #89
See Handout #90
4. The conversion of the Franks--The church had to go along with the Barbarians. The barbarians were from the Arian Christian churches of the North and tolerated the mainstream Christians that they conquered. The Arian Vandals in Africa were not as tolerant and cruel persecutions were carried out. The Franks had remained pagans until Clovis, their king, attributed his success to his wife's God, who was Christian. Clovis' conversion to the Christian faith had far reaching effects. Clovis reigned now over what used to be part of the Roman empire and he was viewed as the new Constantine. 
5. Justinian--in the East the emperor Justinian (527-565 A.D.) tried to recapture the territories that had fallen and partially succeeded in Northern Africa and parts of Italy. He is best known for publication of the Code of Roman Law. A collection of  Roman laws which is the basis of civil law in Europe and religious society today.
II. The birth of Islam and the Arab invasions--7th century Arabia was the crossroads of civilization and religions. For the most part Arabs were a mixed breed of polytheistic nomad tribes who were constantly warring with one another. They were attracted to the town of Mecca because of its black stone (the Ka'bah), and because huge fairs and pilgrimages were held there.
See Handout #91
See Handout #92
A. The last of the prophets--Mohammed in 610 A.D. proclaimed himself a prophet of God. Like Abraham and Jesus, Mohammed had the mission of restoring monotheism to the Arab nations and giving his people their own book of scriptures (The Koran). Moslem owed absolute submission to the one God--Allah. This is the beginning of the Moslem era. He unified the Arab tribes and returned in triumph to Mecca.
B. The Holy war--with the armies of the roman empire and Persian empire spent and exhausted from prolonged fighting the Arabs were the new kid on the block with a fighting force that was ready to "accept death enthusiastically for God". Jerusalem was captured in 638 A.D., as was Syria and Palestine. Alexandria fell in 642 A.D. and Persia in 651 A.D. At the end of the century they had Carthage in 698 A.D. and Spain in 732 A.D., with the help of the Berbers who had converted to Islam. The new enemy of Christianity was Islam. This was the beginning of the endless war. From the eleventh century onwards the Christians would organize crusades to fight the invaders.
III. A new religious geography
A. The church's center of gravity shifts-the oldest churches in the East and in North Africa collapsed under Arab domination. Although tolerated by the Moslems, the Christian Copts of Egypt and the Lebanese Maronites are still here today. In North Africa in 698 A.D. there were forty bishops at the time of the Arab conquest. In 1053 A.D. there were five. In 1076 A.D. there were only two left. By the twelfth century Christianity disappeared entirely from Africa. The Moslems now held the Mediterranean territory and communications with the East and West churches became more difficult. The shift to the north as the center of the church became a natural transition. On the continent the Slavs settled on the banks of Danube and came down to the Mediterranean. This formed a solid barrier between the Greek East and the Latin West.
1. The Byzantine empire--in the south the Eastern Roman empire had lost Syria, Palestine and Egypt. From now on it will be known as the Byzantine empire, taking its name from the town which had preceded Constantinople. The decline of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch, isolated in Arab world strengthened the role of the patriarchate of Constantinople. This became the head of the Eastern church rivaling the pope, the Bishop of Rome.
2. The Barbarian West--with the decimation of the Roman empire by the Barbarians the city life disappeared as did the trade. Farming became centralized on large estates. General moral decline, lack of interest in study and the arts combined with the pagan superstitions and Christianity. Gradually the Christian faith helped to bring to birth a civilization combining Graeco-Latin heritage with Germanic contributions.
3. A religion of the countryside and of nature--during this period of time country parishes thrived, especially on large estates. Christianity became a peasant religion full of poetry and devotion to the soil.  Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne in the 5th century instituted Rogations prayers for a fruitful harvest. These roots in the country, the cult of saints and relics and a taste for the miraculous, a combined to produce a popular religion, which by the way is happening again in our church today.
See Handout #93
4. Monks, upholders and creators of a culture--it was the monks that kept Christianity alive rather than that of priests and bishops, whose qualities left much to be desired. The monks continued to evangelize the world. Especially the Irish monks who founded monasteries in England, Austria, and Italy. They introduced a new form of penance, private confessions in the 7th century.
IV. The First Rebuilding of the Christian World
A. The Carolingian renaissance--the Mayors, a family of warriors, eventually came into power.  Charles Martel took charge of church affairs. He appointed bishops and abbots and sold church land as he saw fit. He halted the Arab invasions in France in 732 A.D. and 737 A.D.  Pepin, Martel's son came into power and he requested Pope Zacharias to legitimize his power. An acceptable arrangement was agreed upon between state and church once again.
1. The birth of the papal states--Pope Zacharis was being threatened by invasion by the Lombards and Pepin came to his rescue from the north. The pope consecrated him king in 754 A.D. and Pepin gave back to the Pope all of the lands the Lombards had taken and consequently the papal states came into being, which lasted until 1870. The pope became ruler over them. This caused more tension with the emperor of Constantinople.
See Handout #94
2. A New Western Empire--Charlemagne, Pepin's son, became ruler in 768-814 A.D. He strengthened the unity of Western Europe and pushed the Arabs back to the northern part of Spain. He imposed his opinions on the papacy. The pope bestowed the imperial crown on him and he became the new ruler of Europe bringing with him a Germanic stamp that succeeded the Roman empire. From this point onward the two supreme rulers of this new empire were the king and the pope. The court of Constantinople resented another king being proclaimed by the Western church outside of the Byzantine empire and this became one more factor in the tension between the Eastern church and the Western church of Rome.
3. Order is restored--Charlemagne considered it his duty to restore order and peace to the church and to have it regain its prior prestige in the world. He carefully selected his bishops and made them high-ranking officials of the church and state. He undertook to reform the Frankish church. Secular priests were to live as canons; i.e., in small groups with other priests.
4. Liturgical reform--Charlemagne put a stop to the liturgy abuses so prevalent and introduced and imposed on the church the Roman liturgy. It was a move towards ritualism and legalism. The mass in Latin was a mysterious and sacred spectacle to be watched. Ordinary bread was replaced by unleavened bread. The priest now celebrated mass with his back to the people and recited it in a low voice. Private masses grew in large numbers.
5. Intellectual renewal--Charlemagne built seminaries for the clergy and an intellectual renewal was on. This is the 9th century and the greatest teachers, many were monks, were brought in to teach classical Latin, study scripture, the early church fathers, and liturgy. Intellectual debates on the various aspects of Catholicism once again arose and the controversy on the real presence of Christ was a main topic of debate.
B. The vicissitudes of the Byzantine empire-in 726-843 A.D. an argument over icons used in the Byzantine church came full blown. Some considered them idols while others considered them "silent sermons", "books for the illiterate".
1. The war over icons--in 726 A.D., emperor Leo III destroyed an icon particularly venerated as an image of Christ. This is the beginning of the policy of iconoclasm; i.e., the destruction of icons. He wanted to purify a popular religion and limit the influence of monks who were the great defenders of icons. Monks suffered martyrdom to protect their icons. In 787 A.D. the empress Irene convened the 7th ecumenical council at Nicaea and there they recognized the legitimacy of icons. The populace triumphed over the hierarchy and the icon battle was over and the people won.
2. The hey-day of Byzantium--from 867-1056 A.D. Byzantium was in a brilliant period of history. Military successes and the literary works were remarkable during this period of time, Even more so was the blossoming of monastic life. Mount Athos in northern Greece was to become the high place of Orthodox spirituality.
C. Evangelization continues--in the West the church continued to move along. Augustine of Canterbury went to England to re-establish the church. St. Boniface reorganized the Frankish church.  Anskar converted Germany, and the Scandinavian countries
See Handout #95
See Handout #96
1. Among the Slavs--Two brothers Constantine (St. Cyril & Methodius) were familiar with Slavonic and wrote the scriptures and liturgical texts in that language having good success with the Slavonic peoples. The Bavarian bishops objected on the grounds that all sacred books and liturgy should be in one of three languages written on the cross of Jesus, but the reigning patriarch of Constantinople upheld the brother's use of the Slavonic language.
2. The Bulgars and the Russians-the disciples of Methodius were persecuted by the Bavarians and moved north into Bulgaria and Russia.
V. New Chaos, and the Slow Return to Equilibrium
A. The Dark Ages in the West (end of the ninth to the tenth century)
1. Destabilization--the unity of the Frankish empire vanished with the treaty of Verdun in 843. It divided up the kingdom in to two Frances and one Germany. In the tenth century the office of the emperor disappeared. Internal civil wars caused complete disorganization in the West. Normans from the Scandinavian countries invaded, killing and plundering. The Hungarians invaded Germany. The Saracens in the south invaded Africa and Spain and Italy. This occurred until the tenth century.
2. The holy empire and the new kingdoms--towards the end of the tenth century stability began to return to the church. In 962 A.D. the German King Otto I ruled and the holy Romano-Germanic empire was to last until 1806. Hungary came into being with the baptism of its king Stephen in 1000. Catholic Poland was born in 966 A. D. Grand Duke Vladimir extended the church of Constantinople northwards into Russia.
B. The church submerged in the feudal system--Land belonged to the war lord who defended it. He would place himself under the protection of a stronger war lord as a vassal and the social bonds were changed into a hierarchy of warriors and landowners. The church owned large portions of land and were caught up in this system. The bishop was a lord and vassal in the same way as the laity were. He dispensed justice on his land and maintained a small army. It was of great benefit to become a bishop because with it came the land and the money. The old rules of election of bishops by the clergy disappeared. Upon the death of a lord, civil or religious, the lord over them would grant this fiefdom to those he favored. The lord would bestow a cross and ring on his candidate unless he was a bishop, then another bishop would do the same.
See Handout #97
1. Mediocre bishops and bad popes--the quality of bishops declined. Lords preferred military men as bishops; they wanted to provide for their many children; and would often sell the position to the highest bidder. This is called simony; to sell holy things. Many priests kept concubines because the ecclesiastical legislation about celibacy was not very clear. The papacy had its own concubines.
See Handout #98
2. The three orders--the feudal system brought some equilibrium to society. The organization of the tripartite society became established; i.e., some pray, some fight, and some work.
C. The break between the Latin and the Greek churches: the schism of 1054 A.D.
1. Politics and religion--from the 5th century onward the differences between the Western and Eastern churches continued to grow. The reasons were partly political, partly cultural, and partly dogmatic. The Eastern church was basically ruled by the emperor of Constantinople. The Western church helped to re-establish the empire in the West in contrast to the empire in Constantinople and thus the tensions grew.
2. Cultural differences--the cultural differences were even more profound. The churches did not understand each other. The Eastern church did not know Latin and the Western church no longer understood Greek. They came to despise one another. To the Byzantines, the Latin people were from the dark ages, wild and uncultured with huge appetites. The Latin people thought that the Greeks were degenerates, effeminate hairsplitters. Byzantine became a foul word.
See Handout #99
3. Liturgy and doctrine--liturgy really became the central issue between the two churches. For the Greeks, ritual was faith in action. In the West it was easier to distinguish between the doctrine from the rite. To change the ritual in the East meant changing the faith. Consequently, fasting, unleavened bread, bearded celebrants were faith issues. In the East the priests could be married, but bishops and monks were celibates. In the West celibacy was demanded of all priests or at the very least married men renounced sexual relations with their wives upon ordination. The Greeks criticized the West for adding the word filioque to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; i.e., the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Greeks refused to add this last phrase to the creed.
4. The pope and the patriarch--although collegial power existed in the Greek church between the bishops and the patriarch, the Western episcopacy came under the rule of the pope who sat on the throne of Peter. In 1054 Pope Leo IX tried to reconcile the two churches' differences, but failed.
See Handout #100
5. The break--Cardinal Humbert, the legate sent to reconcile with the Greeks solemnly excommunicated the patriarch Michael Cerularius in 1054.
6. Fruitless efforts at reconciliation--there was no reconciliation with the Eastern church after 1054. The joint declaration between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras said they both regretted exchanging insults in 1054 and for the excesses of the past nine hundred years. This formed the first real step in closer ties with the church of the East in our day. Full reunion has still not been achieved, but Pope John Paul II has said it was one of his top priorities during his papacy before he dies.
See Handout #101

Handouts
88 In his monastery in Bethlehem, Jerome learns of the capture of Rome.
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89 The Barbarians in churches.
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90 The conversion of Clovis.
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91 The opening prayer of the Koran.
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92 Extracts from the surah (chapter) of the cow (Koran, Chapter II)
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93 Advice given by Pope Gregory the Great to St. Augustine on his mission to England.
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94 Capitulary of Charlemagne on Saxony (about 785 A.D.)
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95 Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs (863 A.D.).
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96  Prohibition of the Slavonic liturgy by Pope Stephen V (885 A.D.).
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97 Bishops of Le Mans in the tenth century.  Not such good guys.
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98 The three orders of feudal society.
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99 The reproofs of the monk Nicetas Stethatos to the Latins.  Jesus prayer.
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100 Sentence of excommunication delivered by Cardinal Humbert against Michael Cerularius.  Western Church drives the Eastern Church away.
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101 Joint declaration made by Pope Paul 
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Chapter Eight