The Popes: Middle Ages Flashcards
Catholics call this time period in Church History during the 900s ‘Saeculum Obscurum’ (dark ages) while Protestants call it by this name, referencing the grave immorality of the papacy at the time.
Pornocracy
During the Pornocracy, the papacy was controlled by this family, named after the nobleman and count of Tusculum who was the de facto ruler of Rome for some time. He revived the title of ‘Consul’ of Rome.
Theophylactus
Names of Theophylactus’s wife and daughter who both held significant power in the Catholic Church and Rome as a whole during the Pornocracy.
Theodora and Marozia
(Same as a different question, but this person was a big figure in the Pornocracy) Daughter of Theophylactus who became a mistress to Pope Sergius III, bearing him the son who would become Pope John XI.
Marozia
Morally bankrupt man often considered the worst pope in history. Most important act was crowning Otto the Great was Holy Roman Emperor, but later the two would fall out and this man was exiled.
Pope John XII
Catholic religious order sometimes called the ‘Black Monks’ after their clothing that followed a namesake code of rules.
Benedictine Order (Benedictine Rule)
Reforms named after an important abbey in France that made Benedictine orders encourage art and caring for the poor.
Cluniac Reforms
First French Pope who introduced Arabic numerals to Europe after a stay in Catalonia and who crowned Stephen I of Hungary in 1000 AD.
Sylvester II
Climactic 1054 event in which controversies like ‘Filioque’ the nature of the Pentarchy (Five main bishops), and the use of leavened (east) or unleavened (Catholic) bread led to papal ambassador Humbert of Silva Candida and Patriarch Michael Cerularius excommunicated each other.
Great Schism (East-West Schism)
Pope during the Great Schism who sent the papal ambassador Humbert of Silva Candida to Constantinople in an ill fated mission that would result in a double excommunication.
Leo IX
Controversy over who can appoint bishops and abbot originating between HR emperor Henry IV and pope Gregory VII
Investiture Controversy
Important but polarizing pope, advocate of papal supremacy who was allied with Matilda of Tuscany and anti-king of Germany Rudolf of Swabia against his nemesis Henry IV, Norman general Robert Guiscard, and anti-pope Clement III.
Guiscard eventually invaded Italy forcing this man to flee. He ordered for his tomb to be engraved with the words “ I love justice and hate iniquity, and so I die in exile.”
Pope Gregory VII
King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor who after, putting down a Saxon rebellion, dealt with the investiture controversy. Allied with Robert Guiscard and anti-pope Clement III against his nemesis Gregory VII, Matilda of Tuscany, and anti-king of Germany Rudolf of Swabia. His walk to Canossa is a very famous event today.
Henry IV
Very famous event, one of the most dramatic events of the Middle Ages in which King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV walked with nothing but a hair shirt all the way to a certain city in Northern Italy, where his enemy Matilda of Tuscany’s ancestral castle was and where his nemesis was staying. He waited for three days during a raging blizzard behind the castle gates in order to call for penance and a removal of an excommunication from that nemesis, Gregory VII.
Nowadays, this phrase is used as a metaphor for penance in general.
Walk to Canossa
Important pope who tried to reconcile Orthodox and Catholics at the Council of Bari and who called for the enslavement of wives of priests at the Synod of Melfi. He also held the Council of Piacenza, which was attended by a representative of Alexius Komnenos of the Byzantines, who requested help against Muslims.
This led to the most important decision of his papacy, he called the Council of Clermont, said ‘Deus Vult’ and announced the First Crusade for Jerusalem.
Pope Urban II
