The Middle Ages 476 - 1453
The Medieval Period began with the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. In 410, Rome was conquered. In 476, the Western Emperor was deposed by a Gothic King.
The Eastern Empire did not collapse, rather it rose in the fifth and sixth centuries. The greatest Byzantine ruler was Justinian, emperor from 527-565, who rebuilt Hagia Sophia and, influenced by his wife Theodora, instituted many reforms improving the status of women. The decline of the East began with the first Muslim invasions in 622. Finally Constantinople fell in 1453, the end of the Middle Ages, and was renamed Istanbul.
During this era, there were "wars and rumors of war" and a lot of suffering including the bubonic plague. The Apocalypse seemed near. On the eve of the year 1000, the first millennium in the Western calendar, a crowd gathered in Rome awaiting the end of the world. The year had been a chaotic one, with some using apocalyptic scripture to predict the end of time. Many people panicked and brought riches to monasteries and churches in hope of being judged favorably. When midnight came that New Year's eve, nothing happened. Pope Sylvester II came out, blessed the crowd, and sent them on their way.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the Catholic faith competed with Arianism for the conversion of the barbarian tribes. The 496 conversion of Clovis I, pagan king of the Franks, saw the beginning of a steady rise of the faith in the West.
In 530, Saint Benedict wrote his Rule of St Benedict as a practical guide for monastic community life. Its message spread to monasteries throughout Europe. Monasteries became major conduits of civilization, preserving craft and artistic skills while maintaining intellectual culture within their schools, scriptoria and libraries. They functioned as agricultural, economic and production centers as well as a focus for spiritual life.
During this period the Visigoths (germanic tribe) and Lombards (germanic tribe who ruled Italy 568-774) moved away from Arianism for Catholicism. Pope Gregory the Great played a notable role in these conversions and dramatically reformed the ecclesiastical structures and administration which then launched renewed missionary efforts. Missionaries such as Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent from Rome to begin the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, and, coming the other way in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Saints Colombanus, Boniface, Willibrord, Ansgar and many others took Christianity into northern Europe and spread Catholicism among the Germanic, and Slavic peoples, and reached the Vikings and other Scandinavians in later centuries
The Synod of Whitby of 664, though not as decisive as sometimes claimed, was an important moment in the reintegration of the Celtic Church of the British Isles into the Roman hierarchy, after having been effectively cut off from contact with Rome by the pagan invaders.
In the early 8th century, Byzantine iconoclasm became a major source of conflict between the Eastern and Western parts of the Church. Byzantine emperors forbade the creation and veneration of religious images, as violations of the Ten Commandments. Other major religions in the East such as Judaism and Islam had similar prohibitions.
Pope Gregory III vehemently disagreed. A new Empress Irene siding with the pope, called for an Ecumenical Council In 787, the fathers of the Second Council of Nicaea "warmly received the papal delegates and his message". At the conclusion, 300 bishops, who were led by the representatives of Pope Hadrian I "adopted the Pope's teaching" in favor of icons.
With the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in 800, his new title as Patricius Romanorum, and the handing over of the keys to the Tomb of Saint Peter, the papacy had acquired a new protector in the West. This freed the pontiffs to some degree from the power of the emperor in Constantinople but also led to a schism, because the emperors and patriarchs of Constantinople interpreted themselves as the true descendants of the Roman Empire dating back to the beginnings of the Church.
Pope Nicholas I had refused to recognize Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, who in turn had attacked the pope as a heretic, because he kept the filioque (‘ and from the Son’) in the creed, which referred to the Holy Spirit emanating from God the Father and the Son.
The papacy was strengthened through this new alliance, which in the long term created a new problem for the Popes, when in the Investiture Controversy succeeding emperors sought to appoint bishops and even future popes. After the disintegration of the Charlemagne empire and repeated incursions of Islamic forces into Italy, the papacy, without any protection, entered a phase of major weakness.
Charlemagne
Charles the Great (742-814), better known as Charlemagne, was crowned emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800 by Pope Leo III. Charles was genuinely surprised. About three decades earlier, Charlemagne had begun his rise to power when he became king of the Franks (768). Through numerous military campaigns, he increased the size of his kingdom so that it included a large part of western Europe. He forced those whom he conquered to become Christians.
Charlemagne waged war with the Saxons from 774-804. At one point, he threatened that he would kill all of the Saxons unless they became Christians.
He founded sees, issued a decree banning the rites of the heathen gods, and ordered the Saxons to be baptized and to pay tithes. The only result was another large raid on the Franks, after which the emperor beheaded 4,000 Saxons at Verden. The war went on, with Saxons burning new churches, killing Christian priests, and rebuilding the shrines of the gods.
In the end, Charlemagne accomplished his goals. Missionaries were sent to the Saxons so that the conquered people could be instructed in their new faith.
Charlemagne was not only a military man and ruler but also a reformer of both church and society. He invited cleric scholars to advise him, including Alcuin, Paul the Dean, Peter of Pisa, and Paulinus. Through his efforts, the brief "Carolingian Renaissance" of scholarship occurred.
Alcuin, an English monk and deacon from York who directed a school at Charlemagne's palace in Aachen, founded and expanded monastic schools, scriptoria (where manuscripts were produced by scribes), and libraries throughout the kingdom. He saw to it that classical and Christian patristic texts were copied using a standardized style of handwriting called the Carolingian minuscule.
With Charles' support, many beautiful books were produced, including illuminated manuscripts such as the Aachen Gospels and The Fountain of Life. The latter book, one of the first written in Carolingian minuscule script, was produced to commemorate the baptism of Charlemagne's son Pepin.
Charlemagne was a sincere Christian who was both interested in and took authority over religious affairs. He requested that Alcuin reform and unify the people's diverse liturgical practices. The Apostles' Creed was one element that was added. Charles also appointed bishops and called church councils.
He built up a hierarchical church order with archbishops at the head of sees who supervised the bishops who, in turn, watched over their provinces.
Pope Hadrian I (772-795) ended the West's formal acknowledgement of the rule of the emperor in Constantinople. He treated Charlemagne as the lay head of Christianity, which seemed very much in line with Charles' history of being both an effective military conqueror and church and social reformer. Just why the Hadrian's successor Pope Leo III crowned the king of the Franks and the Lombards is a matter of debate. Some think the Pope was trying to assert his authority over the very powerful man who was not under papal control. Others believe the Pope was openly rejecting the sovereignty of the Byzantine Emperors.
Crusades and Other Wars 814 - 1453 A.D.
War and conflict pervaded this era. The West suffered several invasions from Islamic peoples and the Scandinavians. For a brief time, during the rule of Charlemagne, the West experienced some stability.
The East also was in conflict. Beginning in 1071, Seljuk Turks conquered much of Asia Minor, including the key Christian cities of Antioch, Edessa, and Nicea. By 1079, they were in control of Jerusalem; Christian pilgrimages to the Holy City were essentially stopped.
Christians were not only victims but they also were the perpetrators of violence. The Crusades, called in response to the Seljuk Turks taking over Jerusalem, were military conquests that attacked not only Moslems, who were labelled the enemy, but also Christians. The Crusades also stirred up anti-Semitic bias and violence, which had first been expressed within Christendom during the reign of Constantine the Great.
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