Iconoclasm, Politics & Religion, Medieval Theology Flashcards
the year 529 is something of a landmark in christian history there was a meeting in france called the ____ which dealt with ___
Synod of Orange
Pelagianism
in 529 the synod of bishops a Synod in orange criticized and completely disowned the salvation and salvation by works as the pelagians had been advertising
now without going into great detail about it the Pelagian heresy was
a denial of salvation by grace alone so it was a very serious attack on biblical Christianity it stressed human free will and salvation as a cooperative endeavor between God and man. God supplies his grace and then the individual is at liberty to accept or reject that grace and if he accepts it then he will be able to work toward his salvation and receive credit for his good works along the way as a simplified version of the heresy It’s named after a british monk by the name of Pelagius and so the pelagian heresy fight
before long somebody came along with a modified version of pelagianism called _____ in the ____ century, which asserted…
semi-pelagianism
the absolute necessity for god’s grace no one could work his way to heaven apart from god’s grace so god’s grace would really enabling power that that enabled people then to perform meritorious good works and enhance their opportunity for salvation in that that was in the 6th century
In the 7th century, the Christian movement east and west was now being threatened by
islam became a very serious threat especially to the eastern part of the roman empire now remember the western part had collapsed by this time there is no longer an identifiable roman empire in the west
but constantinople held out for a long time in fact constantinople would not succumb to the conquest of the turks until 1453 about a thousand years longer than the empire in the west
In ____ the Frankish tribe from the west inflicted an immense defeat upon the Muslims…
islam was a standing threat though both east and west but then in 732 the frankish tribe from the west inflicted a immense defeat upon the muslims the muslims at that time were overrunning spain and some of their forces spilled over into tour at southern france and the leader of the franks charles martel by name became the hero of the hour and his forces conclusively defeated the muslims at that point and preserve the christian culture of the west in in general
In 717 _____ who is sometimes called ____ became the Roman Emperor at Constantinople and there at Constantinople there had developed ____.
Leo III
Leo the Isyrian
Caesaro-papism
What is caesaro-papism?
notice that caesar first pope second well the fact the pope was probably a distant ninth by this time. In the east more and more the eastern patriarchs were having long-standing disagreements with rome about one issue or another and the emperor was far more influential in the church than the pope would have been he controlled the appointment of bishops for example the patriarchal bishop was responsible to the emperor rather than the pope and so an eastern church was moving toward independence from rome entirely
What happened in 1054?
now that wouldn’t come until the last straw you might say was broken that was in the year 1054. in 1054 the east went its own way renouncing the papacy the pope excommunicated the patriarch of constantinople and the patriarch returned the favor by excommunicating the pope and whatever the patriarch or other bishops did in the east they were responsible ultimately to the emperor who was the head of the church as well as the state that has a long history behind it it goes back to the emperor constantine the first roman emperor to accept the christian faith and what he did he made himself the protector of the church and supporter of the church but at the same time he was not going to be manipulated by the pope or anybody else
but it but the western relationship of church and state did not develop so thoroughly as the eastern one did at least not toward cesaro papism
Name 5 things Justinian I did.
- he protected the church he defined its teachings and he prosecuted people who committed heresy
- he closed pagan schools in athens and other places
- he destroyed pagan temples in egypt
- and persecuted the samaritans in palestine
- he’s mainly remembered though for his legal mind he collected roman law and subjected it to a thorough analysis and arrangement which became known as the code justinian the code of justinian and it was destined to have a very long stretch of influence in fact almost all these legal systems of western nations show the evidence of that of the durability of the code justinian
In Justinian’s code, he included an affirmation of _______ and prescribed __________ for those who would not conform to his code. It forbid the inhumane treatment of ________ and became….
Christianity
penalties
slaves
basis for criminal and civil law in most of Europe
justinian was generous toward the church and he spent money to erect some magnificent church buildings the most famous of these is still standing…
hagia sophia the holy wisdom hagia sophia it is no longer a church it’s now a muslim museum for a long time it was a mosque but now it’s a muslim museum what was its name as a mosque it had a different name right i’m sorry it had a different name as a mosque didn’t it oh yes i don’t remember what the name is actually they changed the status of fabia sofia two months ago it’s most again oh okay let’s hear that again they changed the status of aguilla sofia a few months ago and it’s mosque again oh that’s right yeah yes thank you that’s right and it was in the news not long ago right it became a a mosque once again yes it’s a magnificent structure and all the tourists flock there when they go to visit constantinople which is no longer constantinople but istanbul
all right so each of the a as a consequence of a variety of tensions some doctrinal issues a lot of arguments about authority the eastern church divided into four other churches well for three other churches…
the first one was constantinople that’s obvious the second was alexandria in egypt the third was antioch in syria and the fourth was jerusalem these are the four patriarch gates in the east and they operate with a great deal of autonomy they weren’t really legally independent of one another although that would be coming in the future but they certainly were acting in an autonomous fashion that happened after the great schism or before all before okay but the great scissors 10 54 we’ll get to it and it was quite picturesque a front uh chin to chins uh standoff between the pope’s emissary and the patriarch
all right Leo III as i said became emperor at the in the east in 717 he ruled in a manner which is _________ and he became concerned about _____________
thoroughly authoritarian to the church as well as the state
a practice that he was convinced was leading to idolatry idolatry in the eastern church
well here’s what it was there for a long time the church had been decorating its sanctuaries with statuary paintings stained glass windows with pictures on it and all of these things he said were superstitions and they ought to be abolished now the greek word for these items is icons people that that words come into english now we hear it every day any more icon so and so is the icon in this in the sports world or icon in the entertainment world whatever well he used the term icon to describe those things
Why did the monks want to preserve icons and the emperor want to get rid of them?
for the most part the monks in the eastern church were the ones who produced those images and sometimes they sold them at a very nice price and so the monks had a vested interest in preserving the use of icons whereas the emperor was resolved to eliminate them if he could when the emperor tried to abolish the use of images entirely this led a lot of people to be very unhappy great disturbances occurred public demonstrations in fact in some cases open riots agitated by unhappy monks this is rare rare that the church leaders ever confronted the emperor like that so it was a very serious issue
but emperor leo iii maintained that the use of icons in religion violates the second commandment which says you shall not make unto yourselves any graven image
What happened with the patriarch of Constantinople during the iconclast controversy?
now the patriarch of constantinople found himself now opposing his own emperor on this issue and it was a dangerous thing to do eventually some soldiers raided the homes of icon holders and the people resented that because their idols were being taken away from them and they resisted violently so there’s a serious situation developing
the patriarch when he became allowed in his opposition to the imperial policy the patriarch was deposed the emperor said out with you
How did the west look at the iconoclast controversy?
while this was happening in the east there were two popes in succession in the west Gregory II and Gregory III now both of those popes knew about the image problem the icon problem in the east and they denounced the emperor for pursuing that policy they said it is not idolatry and in all fairness to the issue to the people involved in the issue keep in mind that by that time by the eighth century i still a large majority of europeans east and west could not read they were still illiterate and so the church in the west was the first one to introduce the use of icons and it didn’t cause a great uproar in the west when it did in the east and the idea because behind the icons was here are people who cannot understand the written text of the bible or the church liturgy or any such thing we need to instruct them in the faith and we’ll give them pictures to do it whether they’re statuary or paintings or whatever but pictures all called icons so it was a harmless intention behind it but the problem was that after a while it was evident that many ignorant people were now worshiping the icons instead of being taught the lesson they needed to learn they were now practicing outright idolatry and they didn’t even know it and it was that problem was more pronounced in the east where the emperor was taking the policy into his own hands yeah this time where the services whatever you want to call it mass or whatever held in the common tongue still or were they latin in the east greek of the west and was that what most people spoke or was that already to the point well that’s a good point because uh the latin language in the west was being supplanted by languages derived from it and then mingled with native dialects and so most of the people had a spoken language which really was not pure latin by any means it was getting farther and farther away from that and so the problem was the bible was available in latin but they couldn’t read it they couldn’t read any language they could converse with one another in their native tongue but they couldn’t put it on paper so like even the preaching they wouldn’t have been able to understand defend it some of the priests did obtain a substantial education most of them were monks because the monasteries kept alive the practice of literacy and they even operated some monastic schools as we shall see but they could educate only a fraction of the people most of the priests would not have the equivalent of what you and i would call a high school education not not nearly and some of them are outright illiterate and so what they do i’ll give you an example this happened back in the 20th century i knew a missionary who was working in alaska and he said when he arrived in alaska he realized that the russian orthodox church had a mission there where he was going to work so he decided he’d try to get acquainted with a priest there and he he wandered into the russian church and there was a free start celebrating the liturgy problem was he had a manual called a missile missile was a sort of a prayer book with the liturgy of the church in it and he was going on a in russian but the problem was that booking had he had it upside down and he didn’t know it was upside down because he couldn’t read any language yeah that’s an extreme situation that was not common but it did happen so you can see it’s a serious matter
Who was John of Damascus? Who were the two sides in the icon controversy?
after all the controversy brought into the public eye a teacher and theologian named John of Damascus john damascene or john of damascus an 8th century figure he later became a very influential theologian in constantinople and he supported the use of icons and his position triumphed at a council of the church the eastern church the count is called the second council of nicaea the first council of nicaea was in 325 so this is much later second council of nicaea in 787 and there at this council the government withdrew its program of against the iconic land or against the icon icono files the iconophiles were the people who loved the icons that wanted to preserve them the iconoclasts were the ones who want to destroy the icons and they did
well leo iii who had initiated all this controversy died in 741 and after he died the following emperors were not nearly so zealous to promote iconoclasm many monks bishops and hierarchs in the west hailed the decision of charlemagne there when he said that the finding of the second council although it was in the east applied to the west as well and he said he thereafter would support that policy of preserving the icons the turmoil about the icons agitated agitated the church and the state of constantinople through the reigns of several monarchs john Damascene’s work as a theologian in this matter and his formulation of orthodox doctrine for the east in general established the teaching of the greek church and the greek church is still separate from rome and it still shows the evidence of john davisone’s contribution so he would be regarded as one of the foremost fathers of what’s now called the greek orthodox church you may know that in downtown greenville there’s a very beautiful saint george’s greek orthodox church and i’ve been in there for a service one time i was curious i went in and beautiful place in there and the the liturgy of that church recites it in english now it shows beyond doubt that the greek orthodox church has moved farther and farther away from the biblical roots with which it began and in particular the greek theology we want to call it that was a frontal rejection of the works of paul and augustine now they did never publicly announce paul or augustine where they chose to to ignore their teaching in some ways and for paul and augustine the matter of salvation was pure and simple so la grace alone that’s the means of our salvation but you won’t find that teaching in the greek church or other eastern orthodox churches most of the great greek theologians writing after john damascene died were producing commentaries on his work he wrote a systematic theology which he entitled the fountain the fountain of knowledge founded of knowledge that was his major work but he produced many other things too preached a lot of sermons some of which have been preserved the iconoclastic controversy reflects a very deep dispute between church and state the emperor’s image had been the subject of veneration for a long time and sometimes when in the eastern church when the people held a religious procession they would carry icons in the procession and one of the icons was the image of the reigning emperor himself yeah in fact in the end when the emperor went by the emperor’s icon went by the throngs on the sides of the street would holler bless it is he who comes in the name of the lord that was the emperor as statues adorn the city and its environs in fact that didn’t even seem to bother the pope at the time and the pope that had an emperor of the eastern had an icon of the eastern emperor in the lateran palace in rome the statutes of constantine received great veneration because he was the one who gave christianity legal standing
Did Constantine make Christianity the state religion?
incidentally stop right there for a moment if you haven’t seen it before you will eventually see it somebody writes a book or an article who extend expounds on constant so here is the man who made christianity the roman state religion don’t you believe it he did not he made it one legal religion among many the pagan religions had the same rights and privileges as the christian it was not until emperor theodosius later theodosius ii was the one who actually made christianity the state religion in the west then the use of images did become increasingly idolatrous the emperor constantinople claimed to be the vicar of christ and it’s clear he viewed the church as an arm of the state and he subjected the church to the authority of the state and he met with bishops in a sort of synod of bishops but the whole affair was something orchestrated by the emperor himself and the big issue was he wanted the church officially to declare him the 13th apostle this and he wondered there was a lot of agitation going on
What is the iconostasis?
now today orthodox believers greek believers or other orthodox believers when they enter the church they go first to a section of the wall called the icano icono stasis the icono sasses it’s a series of icons in fact the sanctuary is very heavily decorated with this and when people come in they first of all before they would take a seat in the church they said they go to the icon of stasis and they kiss each of the icons and say a prayer as they do so so it is truly idolatrous practice
What does the feast of orthodoxy commemorate?
each year the orthodox church greek or otherwise celebrates something called the feast of orthodoxy it commemorates the triumph of the iconophiles the lovers of icons over the iconic class the production of icons is still today the work of bugs and they work in teams and they deliberately leave their paintings and statuary unsigned as a christian duty of humility icons they say provide windows into heaven from which the beings in heaven can manifest themselves to believers on earth some icons they claim are the works of christ himself many of them are the works of recognized and canonized saints of the church on one occasion the claim is that the virgin mary appeared in a church building and left an icon behind as proof of her visit and through the incarnation they claim god produced the perfect icon of himself and that is jesus christ and so if jesus christ is an icon then of course icons are not evil
the orthodox monasteries have often tried to erect their buildings where somebody made a report of a miraculous vision of someone from the other world who brought his icon down for federation well that controversy has been resolved to the satisfaction of the people involved in it now and they resolutely deny there is now or has not ever been any idolatry
How does eastern missionary work compare with western?
now how about missionary work we’ve dealt extensively with the missionary work of the western or latin church which is very very impressive at the time went far and wide hundreds of people involved in this practice and in the east there were some missionary work at the early stage but it really didn’t endure on that level very long the patriarchs did at one time appoint officials called directors of missions so there was some organized effort especially among the slavic people of eastern europe and some of the slavic christians there served serve in the imperial army and that’s what brought them into the church when they enlisted in the army
that’s what we have in romanism and eastern orthodoxy two vast large movements which are really given over to the priority of…
sacramental worship rather than preaching was becoming ever more prominent in both the east and the west and today that’s what we have in romanism and eastern orthodoxy two vast large movements which are really given over to the priority of the sacraments rather than the word of god in fact an ordinary daily mass in the roman church today there is very seldom any preaching at all it’s all ceremony focused on the altar where the transubstantiation of bread and wine is presumed to occur
What was the condition of Christendom in the 9th century?
well we’ve gotten up now to about the opening of the 9th century so let’s make some observations about the condition of christendom in that era as i’ve been saying now if you compare the east and the west the comparison is very startling or very substantial in some ways by about 800 cesaro papism had taken a heavy toll in the east and little missionary spirit was it evident any longer and there were a variety of political and military threats confronted the eastern empire they came from persia and arabia and other countries that succumbed to succumb to islam in the west though the roman empire was no more but most of the barbarians in the west had been converted to at least to the degree that they were nominal adherence to christianity and usually that was in response to the preaching of evangelists evangelic evangelistic monks in ireland and england and gold germany and so forth although there was a church state connection in the west it was never so complete as it was in the east and so therefore the church state connection in the west did not have the effect of almost immobilizing the church and making it a department of the state the way that happened at constantinople
in doctrinal matters the eastern theologians had not given a lot of attention to anthropological and soteriological issues such as pelagianism and semi-pelagianism the eastern leaders were more interested in…
what they said were the practical questions concerning with self concerning with salvation and eastern theologians were far more interested in those strange christian doctrines where they could apply greek philosophy and speculation such as the creation of the universe and the trinity of the godhead those subjects seem to attract the eastern thinkers far more than the western thinkers who are interested no end in saturiology and so greek theology took its character largely from greek philosophy latin theology from the works of augustine and then of course others who came later eventually thomas aquinas
How was monasticism in the east different?
another major difference in east and west appears in their respective monastic establishments the monasticism of the east was decidedly mystical in character it stressed severe asceticism asceticism means self-denial punishing the body to cultivate the health of the soul that’s what they said eastern monks therefore when they entered the monastery were without reservation committed to winning their own salvation by depriving themselves of the ordinary comforts of life and going out outside the monastery and spreading the faith was a very distant secondary consideration in the west however that was not the case western monks were in the vanguard of catholic expansion and they became the primary institute instruments of evangelistic outreach by 1800 western monasticism was vigorous indeed it was flourishing while that of the east was stagnant as the eastern church in general was stagnant yet in some of his practices the eastern church was more faithful maybe than the western church
Name examples of sectarianism in the east and what happened in the west.
sectarianism was another feature of the east which had no counterpart in the west in the east the speculative theologians disputed among themselves and in so doing they sapped a lot of the energy out of the eastern church and disputes about obscure issues cause divisions which really ought not to have occurred but they did and because of that even some of the eastern churches not only renounce the papacy but they renounced the bishop of constantinople as well give you some example in egypt there is still today a coptic church the coptic language is used for liturgical purposes and the priests will read the text of the liturgy and then translate it for the people who don’t know the coptic tongue and not many people do so there are what we call coptic churches in syria there are what are called jacobite churches and ethiopia has her own orthodox church eritrea does as well so all these are separate churches now with their own hierarchy in fact some of them even have officials they call popes yeah it’s not not a widespread practice but it does happen in the west however no such massive sectarianism developed there were challenges from various heretical groups but the roman church latin church was able to withstand them to rebuke them and sometimes with the aid of sympathetic civil governments they were able to crush them
Probaby the most stubborn of the problems confronting the western church was ________. Explain this.
probably the most stubborn of the problems confronting the western church was aryanism now this takes us all the way back to saint augustine’s time arius was his name aries was a rationalistic thinker a a monk who thought that it was wrong to to present the christian message as the message from jesus christ the god-man jesus christ was the son of god but not god the son that that in a nutshell was the aryan view and the arians magnified the irrationality of believing one equals three or three equals one and so they were outspoken then in defiance of this teaching now the western church produced some thinkers who try to defend the trinitarian fame and to do so and try to meet the the heretics on their own ground and argue fro m philosophy as well as theology but the western church was able to withstand that and as a consequence the western church was well united and well organized and very assertive at the same time the eastern church was becoming stagnant and even decadent
In Western Europe, the Roman Catholic church as we now call it by the year _____ was the wealthiest organization on the scene in any country. Explain this.
in western europe the roman catholic church as we now call it by the year 800 was the wealthiest organization on the scene in any western european country mainly it had revenue derived from very valuable properties then of course it was entitled to collect tithes from its members and fees for various church services so for example if people wanted to marry in the church there’s a fee for weddings there’s a fee for funerals there was a fee for masses for the dead and so the church was very very wealthy
What was the coptic attitude toward Orthodox Christians?
the coptic church that i mentioned still has a following in egypt about 10% of the population it’s about 10% of the population this body in egypt the coptic church separated from the orthodox greek church in egypt and chose its own patriarch as an act of defiance the cops (as they’re called) called the orthodox church members melkites from the hebrew word melech is the hebrew word for king and so the cops ridiculed the orthodox people because they said the orthodox people were stooges to the emperor they were melkites they were followers who had submitted simply to melech the king
When did the coptic church in egypt gain freedom of religion? Why?
the muslims when they appeared in egypt [Music] receives a strange welcome from some people um more than more than a a minority a small majority of egyptians at first turned to the muslims as liberators and they joined in persecuting fellow egyptians who would not comply and a large number of the coptic people who were unfaithful did become muslims and believe it or not, it would not be until 1841 1841 when the cops gained official toleration in egypt by that time the country was overwhelmingly muslim well you wouldn’t quite wonder why in 1841 did the government in egypt allow for toleration that’s because by that time great britain has moved into egypt and a good bit of egypt was subject to british rule and the british demanded freedom of religion for everybody
What is the coptic language?
the coptic language is a combination of egyptian greek and arabic terms it’s now just a liturgical language only the priests can read it and translate it for their congregations
another evidence of sectarianism in the east was the development of an armenian church, explain that.
another evidence of sectarianism in the east was the development of an armenian church now not armenian armenian the armenian church it originated in persia until the persian government began persecuted and then the armenians began fleeing for their lives they while they were still in persia they were not at all inclined to accept the ancient persian religion called zoroastrianism and when the byzantine empire of the eastern empire conquered a portion of persia the armenians armenians were faced with an attempt to make them conform to the orthodox greek church when the muslims conquered them the armenians were subjected to cruel repression at times
What was the error of the Armenian church and what was its influence?
the error of the armenian christians was that they they had a following that found the teachings of nestorius very appealing nestorius was a 7th century heretic who was involved in a teaching which like arianism denied the eternal and essential deity of christ
Nestorian missionaries were very active for a while some of them spread as far east as china where they are their descendants remain today suffering persecution at the hands of the communist government
While the western church was succeeding in the conversion of Germanic barbarians, what was happening in the east?
as islam spread over central asia the muslim place more and more restrictions upon christians of any stripe so while the western church was succeeding in the conversion of germanic barbarians the eastern church was losing ground to islam
What is the situation for Christianity in North Africa? What about Judaism?
muslims expansion all but annihilated the church in north africa so that if you go today to egypt you find about 10 of the people profess christianity in some version or other and there is an evangelical church in egypt today too it’s not tiny i think the figure i read was about 300 000 members so what not not tiny but they’re not very aggressive not very expansionary
so if you go in egypt and cross along the rim of north africa get all the way out to morocco on the western side you’ll encounter almost no trace of christianity or judaism either
although there are a few places in North Africa where judaism has made some progress for when the jews were chased out of spain in the 15th century 1492 the last muslim and jewish people who would not convert had to leave spain but the situation there was such that people missionaries were never welcome in that region when it was so-called christian it was connected to the eastern church rather than the western church although saint augustine was born in north africa but he made his mark as a scholar and theologian first in italy and then went back to north africa and then came the avalanche of muslims from the east going west and inflicting great damage as they went
What very bold thing did the eastern empire claim in 843?
in the west the emperors who rule and kings who ruled there after the collapse of the roman empire in the west those rulers sometimes antagonize the papacy and there are heated arguments back and forth at times when the pope’s excommunicated civil rulers that happen
in 1843 the eastern empire did a very bold thing it claimed the city of rome itself and the surrounding papal territory as a thief - a feudal thief - subject to imperial authority well making the claim was one thing and forcing it was another and nobody in the west is going to roll over and play dead for that but it shows you how ambitious the eastern rulers were at times
What date is usually assigned to the conversion of the Franks? What tradition was established?
when the conversion of the franks took place at the end of the - well 496 is the date usually assigned to it - when the conversion of the franks occurred this established a tradition of collaboration and mutual support between the kings of the franks and the pope in rome
this continued throughout the middle ages in a very irregular pattern sometimes the relations between the franks and the popes were very hostile other times that are very cordial a high point in the collaboration occurred when…
charlemagne who was king of the franks became charlemagne emperor of the romans
How did Charlemagne become Holy Roman Emperor?
here’s how it happened the papal states in central italy were in terrible jeopardy the barbarian tribes were assaulting it stealing slices of territory and the pope appeared to be helpless he was frightened as he called upon the king of the franks to come to his aid and charlemagne did he sent a large large army into italy that defeated the barbarians drove them out and saved the territory of the pope the pope was delighted of course and on christmas day in the year 800 there was going to be a big celebration centered in rome and featuring a special mass to thank god for salvation from the barbarians and among those who gathered there for worship was charlemagne himself the charlemagne is the name we give him today but his real name was Karl der Große. he was a german the franks were dramatic people and so the name has had a significant change but everybody now seems to call him charlemagne and he was kneeling in prayer when suddenly the pope got up walked over and on the kneeling king of the franks he placed a crown and said i hail thee emperor of the romans
What was Charlemagne’s German name?
Karl der Große
Why was the anointing of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor such an occasion for speculation?
well that’s become the occasion for a lot of speculation what did he mean by that your emperor of the romans but there was no longer a roman empire had not been one for centuries and it collapsed long ago how could he be emperor of the romans if there is no roman state any longer italy was broken up into dozens of principalities free cities feudal territories up and down well
Was Charlemagne pleased to be Holy Roman Emperor?
charlemagne nevertheless was embarrassed by the whole care fair because charlemine was a very tough-minded self-centered person he didn’t play second fiddle to anybody even the pope and when the pope put the crowd upon his head it’s evidence that charlemagne was really not pleased you could see the whole thing seemed to happen to be a farce and it gave the wrong impression there was the king kneeling before the pope receiving a crown so what’s the lesson there i the pope up here crowned you down there emperor of the romans so who’s really on top the pope is on top of course and charlemagne could not have been delighted with that because he never wanted to give the impression he was anybody stooge and that included the pope
By what year did Charlemagne conquer the Saxons? How were the Saxons ‘converted’?
charlemont was however a sincere adherent to roman catholicism he conquered the saxons by the year 804 and then forced christianity upon them at the point of a sword this was a reflection of his two-fold concern one was his devotion to political power and the second one his devotion to the catholic church but his political ambition was his primary concern
How did Charlemagne reveal his concern for the doctrinal integrity of the church?
it could now be argued though that in some ways anyhow that the roman empire had been brought back into existence by this deed of crowning and emperor mutual support of our pope and emperor made it appear the church and state were now united in a single desire to advance the kingdom of god
charlemagne revealed his concern for the doctrinal integrity of the church and when some spanish bishops were found to be adopting and espousing a teaching known as adoptionism that led to having them condemned charlemont had them condemned and a synod of bishops and he thereafter appointed bishops himself and
What was adoptionism?
adoptionism requires a little explanation remember when jesus was baptized a voice from heaven said what say what this is my son with whom i am well pleased yes this is my son with whom i am well pleased the voice of the father spoke from heaven and he thereby adopted the human jesus into the divine family well that is not biblical teaching that is serious heresy but the spanish bishops were attracted to it and when they did not relent charlemagne led the way in having them condemned for heresy and replaced with bishops of charlemine’s own choosing he did the same thing with the abbots of the monastery
To assure support for the catholic clergy, Charlemagne imposed…
the full establishment of tithes ties were always requirements but often there were requirements that people did not observe they ignored them but now he made it mandatory and he threatened people who refused to pay their tithes
What were 3 things which were compelled on people by Charlemagne?
in order to compel obedience to the laws of the church he decreed the death penalty for some offenses such as eating meat and lent when is lent we’ll be there soon right now yeah let is 40 days before easter that is the season of lent it’s in the calendar of the roman church and some other churches it is identified as a holy day a holy week and during that holy week the people are supposed to fast in particular in charlemine’s day this meant avoid eating meat for 40 days now much later the catholic church narrowed that to eating no meat on friday which is the traditional day of the crucifixion now what the what the the avoidance of meat had to do with the crucifixion escapes me i’m sorry i do not understand
well under charlemine compulsion in religious matters became common uniform rights and even uniform patterns of prayer were imposed in the churches baptism became viewed as a magical means to cleanse from sin and everyone was required to submit to baptism
How did clergy deliver sermons during Charlemagne’s time?
preaching declined in quality and prominence often clergymen read sermons which had survived from the ancient church fathers because they did not know how to compose sermons on their own
The clergy became what during Charlemagne’s time? What was the cult of saints?
the clergy had become the elite and there was a cult of saints which was highly developed the virgin mary was most prominent of them but a whole host of others until every day in the calendar year was denominated as a saints day on some days there are more than one
the authorities then called upon the civil rulers and the civil rulers responded by imposing religion upon people who were disobedient to the church
What one thing of great value did Charlemagne do?
now through his one thing charlemagne did of great value he established a palace school he realized how pitifully ignorant most of the clergy were and to try to overcome that he endowed a school at a place called isla chappelle and he fostered the education of the clergy by bringing in celebrated scholars even from a distance one he employed of great value great ability was Alcuin of York and England he established and expanded so uh schools and libraries many times the libraries were connected with monasteries now by the time he was he had died off when he died the territory we know will know as france was in a greatly improved condition educationally organizationally and in matters of discipline greatly greatly approved the carloma and charlemine deserves credit for paying the expenses of this
Name 3 scholars Charlemagne brought in in connection with this so-called Carolingian Renaissance?
and bringing Alcuin from england and he also brought paul the lombard in italy who was a historian who wrote a chronicle of his own people and then another italian scholar peter apisa skillful barbarian but of the the great names we cite the connection with this so-called Carolingian renaissance a renaissance due to charlemagne the third renaissance means rebirth and i think what happened there in the frankish kingdom was evidence of a revival of learning but restricted only to the franks and the wrong people and as a consequence calling it a renaissance i think is somewhat of an exaggeration but an improvement in learning that’s for sure
What was Alcuin’s influence?
Alcuin exerted great influence upon Charlemagne and he encouraged the ruler to expand his educational activities and the clergy were the principal beneficiaries of this so-called renaissance almost every monastery had a special room called the scriptorium from which we get our term scripture of course scriptorium and the scriptorium was a place where monks studied and wrote and copied they copied ancient manuscripts and fed many evil ones as well they copied the bible again and again and again in latin it was the latin vulgate version which have been adopted in the fifth century
What developed out of the scriptorium during the carolingian period?
so out of the scriptorium there developed a new style of handwriting called carolingian miniscule carolingian miniscule it was a greatly improved style of handwriting that made the written material much more legible and it forms the basis for our modern script in european and english languages
What did Charlemagne accomplish by going to war?
charlemagne when he went to war was intent upon not only defeating his rivals but compelling them to submit to catholicism as well with the wealth he plundered from his victories on the battlefield he endowed more monasteries so more monks and priests could go to the scriptorium and learn their lessons it was important to note that among the things taught there was the greek language the greek language had just about disappeared in western europe almost vanished with the passage of time rome became more and more latin constantinople more and more greek and the cleavage between them was wide but the so-called renaissance brought manuscript copying into a more uniform script and therefore much easier to read
when charlemagne died he left his crown in the hands of
his son louis now that’s l-o-u-i-s but the french pronounced it louis and so louis the pious as he was known for he was a very deeply religious person he in fact became a co-emperor with his father that when his father died the crown reverted to louis when louis the pious became king it was year 8 40 when that happened his father died and he took over and then
Who ruled the three areas into which the carolingian empire was divided?
when he died the carolingian empire was divided into three and i have a map here to show you that that’s the wrong rack this one here okay there you can see it divided into three separate kingdoms and this decision to do it came because they quarreled so badly about the in succession and they finally gave up quarreling he decided to make a peaceful settlement so there’s the three where charles the bald world-headed man louis the german and lothar and so they divided the kingdom in those three ways and that brought peace in the family at least but not a great deal more than that and that accounts for the separation of france and germany now remember the franks were germanic people but the germanic element was stunted while the frankish well the latin element prospered this show is very clear isn’t it i don’t know why i don’t use a screen we have one right here let’s try it right there that’s better okay they’re good enough to shoot me though
all right now during this time there was the roman empire which was long gone the holy roman empire was not holy was not roman was not an empire that existed only on paper and only in the minds of some people instead what was happening across almost all of europe
was fragmentation the old roman authority was extensive it was under central direction coming from rome itself but that was all gone now and battles after battle occurred as as noble lords especially scrambled across the country looking for territory they could control and they did get a lot of territory that way germany for example by this time had more than 300 identifiable states some of them so tiny has to never merit inclusion on a map they were that small
What happened as a result of the division by Louis’s 3 quarrelling sons?
and the three quarreling sons of louis made this division that weakened central government from within at the very time of serious threats are coming from without a variety of barbarian forces arrived on the scene saracens slavs magyars vikings all invaded almost all at the same time and so the situation in europe was poor and getting poorer
What was good about Charlemagne?
with the passage of time while charlemagne ruled the franks he was a very tough-minded very insistent leader and very competent leader his morality leaves something to be desired that’s for sure but nevertheless he was a faithful churchman maybe not a christian but a faithful a devoted christmas christian devoted churchman yeah he voted yourself and his endeavors in education promoted promoted the liberal arts and even the study of scripture
Toward the end of his life, what did Alcuin begin to think and what did he urge Charlemagne to do?
but toward the end of his life Alcuin did something strange Alcuin who had led the so-called carolingian renaissance now had second thoughts he began to worry that too much education particularly in ancient pagan literature would have harmful effects upon the church by leading to false teaching and and a false philosophy pagan philosophy so out when and lost enthusiasm for the so-called renaissance some time before he passed from the scene he opposed Alcuin and opposed forced conversions and he urged Charlemagne to send missionaries to evangelize the pagan saxons rather than sending soldiers there to kill them and
How was baptism treated under Charlemagne?
the monarch agreed to send missionaries but only after his army first subdued the saxons and that meant a huge amount of bloodshed most of the saxon chiefs eventually did accept baptism but baptism was really just a formality as far as most of them were concerned they wanted to escape the wrath of charlemine that was one way to do it be baptized and get a hundred or fifty or a thousand other people to be baptized at the same time the roman church of the middle ages developed that attitude a baptized person is a christian right then and there because of baptismal regeneration baptism regenerates the souls of people who were dead in sin and now they’re alive and now they have the ability and desire to do good things or at least that was the principle it didn’t work in many cases so in this case then the saxons did not remain compliant charlemagne lost patience with them and decreed death penalty for anyone to refuse baptism or anyone who violated the canon laws of the church
What are the canon laws?
now when i say canon laws make sure you spell it right c-a-n-o-n it’s not c-a-n-n-o-n it’s not the rule the law of the gun barrel it’s the cannon law and that’s still they’re still kind of the law of the catholic church and rarely people hear about it anymore but there are very many volumes of canon law to which scholars examine for some time
One day when Charlemagne was furiously angry with his enemies, he sent an army to what’s now the French city of _________ and their duty was to punish the people there for refusing _______. The Saxons wanted ________ and Charlemagne’s answer was ________.. When he had finished…
Verdun baptism freedom of religion 4,500 people beheaded in a single day when he was finished the sharp line of division by this time had appeared between germany and france as a result of the partition among the sons of louis the pious and a large number of feudal entities developed in that territory
Explain feudalism in the carolingian period.
now let’s take a moment and explain feudal f-e-u-d-a-l feudal-ism when the roman empire collapsed in the west there was no central authority to put it back together the only really efficient working central authority was the catholic church as the power of the pope grew substantially so in the absence of working political powers the cities and the states and the rural areas all began thinking about themselves about exercising their own government and they did and so I’ll give you an example in germany i’ll put this up again all right now (on whiteboard) say this this guy was the king of hungary he was a king of hungary and under him there were dukes counts by counts and this is a system then where there are levels of authority and prestige with the king always at the top but the king was always in need of help because he didn’t have nearly enough resources to act as a monarch would in a major war and territory had become scarce because everybody wanted it commerce was declining and so therefore land was becoming the principal form of value so there are land fights all the time on local levels and sometimes bigger than that and so here says another duke over here and earl over here and these people would make agreements covenants among themselves and the king then would try to align with a duke here or an earl over there or someplace and if he were successful in getting an agreement that would enhance the king’s power and with his power become an improved prestige but he could lose everything as quickly as he gained it because the lower people on the totem pole of nobility were sometimes stronger than the king himself and they realized their own strength and they fought against the king who might be applying for their alliance
What was warfare like during the Carolingian period?
warfare then became very very common but it was a warfare of a very limited scope two little principalities would fight each other or two or three would fight whatever the case may be but the armies were small and so the casualties were relatively few but the population of europe was low was low as well so feudal society then was going to be the pattern of political social and economic arrangement now for the foreseeable future warfare could not be stopped
Augustine of Hippo taught that war could be waged rightly only by
the auspices of the state private warfare was never justified it is always evil and must be avoided that was augustine’s teaching
Now that the Roman State was no more in existence, private warfare raged on and on and on. The church tried to moderate it if possible. How?
and one of the devices the church used was something called the truce of god here’s how it worked everybody knows from the church calendar there are holy days and on holy days there must be no fighting that would be wickedly sinful to fight on holy days and so the church sternly for about everyone from taking arms and fighting shedding blood on a holy day well which was the first holy day they had in mind well sunday sunday the holy sabbath day there should be never never be any funny any fighting on sunday and for a while in the feudal hierarchy the princess and dukes and so forth seemed to give attention to this they were glad to get the relief that came from a day without fighting but then somebody got the right idea that it would be nice if we could enlarge this policy because if if the holy day is sunday don’t we have other holy days too and one proposal was well let’s consider the sabbath from sundown friday to sunrise monday morning and there’d be fewer casualties then because there’d be less fighting good but then remember too there are holy seasons of the year lent 40 days before easter no fighting for 40 days hey everybody could take a holiday or and 40 days before christmas known as what advent that’s right another holy season and the problem was the church got too ambitious began demanding com appliance with his laws and the truths of god became a laughingstock
What were the papal states like during the carolingian period?
and so the the folks then realized that if they’re going to have any authority over the bloody warfare in europe and the popes themselves would have to take the lead they could not depend upon civil authority in italy the popes ruled substantial territory of their own this is known by various titles most commonly refer to it as the papal states this is territory in and around the city of rome about a fourth of the italian peninsula was subject politically to the pope so the pope was king in the papal states just as the king of hungary was had his territory and the king of the franks had his etc so this being the case the church was still trying to moderate the furious bloodshed taking place and that the papal states themselves should have been immune or exempt from any kind of attack because after all the holiest person on earth was there his holiness the pope but it’s amazing how little respect some people had for his holiness in fact in some cases his holiness with anything but holy some of them were is unscrupulous tyrants anyhow the papal states contain some very valuable minerals and therefore the pope derives substantial income from the papal states the peasants who work there worked for the pope and land was the most important form of wealth now so those estates which were in the territory of the pub were a major asset a major financial asset to the roman papacy elsewhere the bishops often held large lands as members of the feudal hierarchy so some of the states were ruled by religious lords others by secular lords the popes tried to keep the bishops loyal to rome and the roman catholic church was the only truly central form of government in europe at the time
Why did the popes agree that some reform was necessary? Which two ecclesiastical organizations were created?
so the situation politically socially economically was altogether different than had been under the roman empire the roman empire was a well-organized centrally governed power but that was gone now and going forever so the papacy was the symbol of order in a fragmented world and popes took the measures took measures to make the government of the church efficient and secure now i say that i don’t mean to limit the government of the church to the papal states pope should try to set an example by reforming the administration of the papal states and then hope that other countries would replicate that but anyhow the uh the church needed internal reorganization and some of the more perceptive popes looked at the condition of the church and its lands and lands that were being lost to time to thievery from other lords second and lords
and for that reason the popes agreed that some plan of reform was necessary and this brought into being two entirely new ecclesiastical organizations one is called the college of cardinals another is called the papal curia that’s c-u-r-i-a it’s a latin term for court c-u-r-i-a so the curology of cardinals and their papal curia made their debut
What is the college of cardinals?
now at this time around the 9th the 10th and 11th centuries in earlier times the bishops of rome were nominated by the clergy of rome and then elected by the so-called people now we have to be careful that term people anytime a politician tells you he's going to do something for the people demand a definition because they never mean everybody never they mean the political people the people who matter to them that's what what they mean it wasn't any different in the middle ages folks leo first and gregory first had become popes in that exact manner they were nominated by the clergy and elected by the so-called people the people in this case were the lower ranking noblemen but they were aristocrats they were not peasants or middle class by the year 1060 the election of the pope though where it was placed in the hands of a body still available today named the college of cardinals if you ever seen a photograph of a catholic cardinal if he's in full dress you'll see he wears on his head a yellow no a red scarlet scarlet i'd say a scarlet skull cap right over the back of his head that's the sign of a cardinal other clergymen are not entitled to wear that only cardinals are now what's the duty of a cardinal the duty of a cardinal begins when a reigning pope dies then the cardinals gather in rome and they hold a college of cardinals or a conclave of cardinals and they vote on the who will be the next pope sometimes they they're they're there for months they've even sometimes and for years but recent history hasn't taken that long by the earlier centuries as it often did and some of the elections were not honest there was bribery in those elections as there was in secular politics at the time and so what was intended as an institution to purify the church and make it operate more smoothly and more ethically in the end may have backfired the clergy of rome itself were the pope's chief aides and advisors he selected them from the local clergy now at first the college of cardinals seemed to work quite well but the pope found himself entangled in arguments with the so-called holy roman emperor and the college soon became more and more autonomous from the rest of the church hierarchy and the college would operate on its own
_________ who ruled from _____ to _____ issued the electoral decree which created the college of cardinals. From whom did he gain political support for this change?
one thing that had to be resolved was to create a orderly procedure for the selection of posts in the past have been no orderly selection service assistant at all and there is no predicting what would happen when a folk died or left office and that of course happened very often the answer to that was to create the new office called Cardinal the Cardinals Nicholas second was the Pope who did that he issued an electoral decree creating the College of Cardinals from a body of papal advisors this deprives the Roman aristocrats of their right to choose books it also hindered the every ever primont influencing the papal selection nicholas ii gained political support for his change through an alliance with the Normans now the Normans enduring today there’s a section of France called Burgundy it’s on the coastline facing the English Channel well the Normans the Vikings originally they migrated it down from Scandinavia and settled on the Normandy come of France and built their own power house right there and it was quite powerful at times they were known to be very ferocious spiders and so troops supplied by the Normans were very much in demand and landlords whose properties were in danger or known quite often to employ Norman troops to fight for their cause and they often did so quite effectively Oh Nicholas ii recognized the value of support from the Normans and so he allied himself with the dormers he gave them plans and had belonged to the Byzantines and some for the Muslims as well he gave them their lands as payment for their support now prior to the creation of the Cardinals the election of the Pope was by consensus consensus usually of the clergy in and around the city of Rome and in those selections secular noblemen of great wealth or power had a great deal of influence and choosing the Pope’s involved there are a lot of irregularities a lot of disputed elections and
When did the French discontinue their support for the papacy as a military force for the last time?
nicholas ii then found himself entangled in increasing number of quarrel quarrels with the holy roman emperor who did not always agree to support the pope now the original arrangement remember on christmas day 800 the coronation of charlemont was to make the franks a political and military arm of the pope it didn’t work very long and as a consequence antagonism sometimes led to outright fighting between papal troops and french troops but all things considered from time to time the the diplomacy did well
in most of the engagements with the emperor and this may startle you but maybe i’ll ask you and see if you know the answer when did when did the french discontinue their support for the papacy as a military force or political force when did they do that for the last time it wasn’t so long ago in the 19th century to be exact yeah it was that 1870 and 71 when france and prussia went to war with each other and the russians won hands down and so the pope had to stay on good terms with both sides as he could and after that the french no longer dabbled very much in italian affairs
How many times were candidates chosen for the papacy ousted and declared to be anti-popes?
well prior to the creation of the cardinals we see that there was chaotic chaotic descent in and around rome choosing a pope was a hard proposition and getting its people satisfied to accept anybody’s decision was often the matter of almost impossibility and during the rest of the middle ages this again is startling there were 60 times 60 times when candidates chosen for the papacy were ousted and declared to be anti-popes you’ve heard of antichrist this is anti-pope 60 times that happened in the middle ages at times the popes would nominate their own successors but then they would still leave the election up to the cardinal electors
nicholas ii ordered the cardinal bishops who were most bishops in metropolitan rome to choose a papal candidate and to present him to the lord clerics and to the so-called people so we’re back with that again
Who could be elected to be a pope?
yes did the candidates to become the pope have to be a cardinal no if they could elect anyone no this is interesting any roman catholic male in good standing with the church if he is not married may become a candidate for pope even he’s not a priest now in that case he would become a priest you know if he were laymen were elected and spoke and the church was satisfied with that choice then he would have to be ordained as a pope consecrated as a bishop because he’d have to be bishop of rome and then declared to be a cardinal and pope he’d go boom boom up the line it never happened that way and uh but it could happen if it according to canon law any roman catholic male in good standing with the church if he’s not married could be eligible for consideration by the college of cardinals but the cardinals are so jealous of the their physician that they would rarely ever choose somebody outside the college and within the college there will be a crap game so to speak some time and with a lot of corruption a lot of threats and so forth so it was not a pretty picture
What is the papal curia?
okay now let’s look at the second institution that came into being at this period this is the papal curia meeting court now it doesn’t mean a court room as such but it means a court where governing affairs are ex are originated and how that they are implemented put into practice the papacy suffered from almost chaotic in inefficiency at times and so now the papacy was moving toward a better arrangement papal curia the papal court developed as let’s call it the machinery of the church or the machinery to govern the church and this would include particularly supervision over financial matters and church discipline this central agency did a great deal to advance papal control over the church unfortunately though in the control of papal dispensations curia became financially corrupt and it involved the church the scandal and that brought brought it right up to martin luther company who protested the scandals and uh condemned some of the teachings of the roman church
In the South of France there is a town named _______ which was going to become the site of a major effort to improve the catholic church by correcting the errors of clergy and people. ________ reforms came about when _______ had given a tract of land for the erection of a monastery. Why did wealthy people give money to monasteries at this time? Why was this a problem?
Cluny
Cluniac
Robert Molesme
now when people did that wealthy people did that in the middle ages they thought that by giving money to erect a monastery that the monks would do something for them in return and what would it be can you surmise well the monks were supposed to be committed to the life of poverty evangelical poverty they sometimes called it they had nothing like that that they could give to to their benefactor but they could pray for the benefactor and that was the intention here so Robert Molesme a wealthy aristocrat in france designated a large tract of land for the erection of a monastery and later he endowed other monasteries stories as well in return he expected that the most would pray for the repose of his soul after he died because like all the catholics of the era he expected to go to purgatory and purgatory is a place of temporal punishment it’s not eternal but it’s just like a dose of hell but not not the full dose and therefore he was satisfied that his own standing with God could be greatly improved as he supported the monks and they in turn supported him with their prayers and masses
