Early Medieval Christianity

 

Monasticism—St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-550)

            Benedict is credited with the rise of Western monasticism

                        --Educated in Rome; withdrew from society because of the low morality in Rome

                        --Attracted a community of followers after his withdrawal, became the first Benedictine monastery

                        --Other monasteries soon follow

                                    --Each monastery elects its own abbot and follows a prescribed rule (now known as the Rule of St. Benedict) that orders its daily life

                                    --Monks are to devote themselves to the directives of the abbot who is in charge of the monastery (he is to be obeyed as a father would be obeyed)

                                    --Life of the monastery is centered around the celebration of the Divine Office (the Canonical Hours)

                                                --Seven periods of prayer throughout the day (see Psalm 119:164, “Seven times daily I have sung your praises.”)

                                                            --Matins/Lauds (sometimes divided into two separate times, other times celebrated all at once)—usually in the wee hours of the morning, with Lauds to begin right at daybreak

                                                            --Prime (about 9:00 a.m.)

                                                            --Tierce (about 12:00 p.m.)

                                                            --Sext (about 2:00 p.m.)

                                                            --None (about 3:00 p.m.)

                                                            --Vespers (about 5:00 p.m.)

                                                            --Compline (about 8:00 p.m.)

                                    --Monks also to devote themselves to work and private devotion and contemplation during the hours between the celebration of the Divine Office

                        --Many monasteries become centers of literary preservation and learning, largely because the celebration of the Divine Office required books from which to conduct the services

 

The Pope Becomes Powerful in the West

            Absence of the imperial throne and the invasion of the barbarians from the north left Rome a political backwater without any centralized governmental power.  Thus, the bishop of Rome, being the ecclesiastical leader in the city began a rise to political power, as well as church power. 

            --Already the bishop of Rome had been the “first among equals,” to whom other bishops and church leaders turned for advice in setting conflicts within their dioceses

            --The sacking of Rome by the Goths in 410, and the later invasions in the same century left the Italian peninsula in shambles, so much so that St. Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible) thought it was the end of the world come upon the earth.  So said Jerome, “Captured is the city which once held the world captive.”

–This was a reason for many Christians to mourn, but Rome would survive into the 21^st century and probably beyond, as the center of the Christian world.

Pope Leo I (the Great) (c. 440-460)

            --Emperor Valentinus III in 445 decrees that the Roman Bishop the head of the whole, universal Church

            --Had dealings with Attila the Hun to convince the barbarian leader to turn away from Rome; he succeeds in 452, but other Germanic tribes come to Rome in 455, and pillage and loot the city (though Leo had at least convinced them not to burn the city)

                        --Leo saw Christian Rome as the spiritual city, the true Eternal City

                        --The Pope was the head of the otherworldly imperium (the Church), not the temporal city or empire of Constantine. 

            --One of the first to give a full scriptural argument for papal supremacy in light of traditional Petrine primacy—see the Readings in Christianity(pp. 74-75) section assigned

                        --Peter is uniquely privileged in Matthew 16:18, where he is told, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church, and the gates of hell shall not overcome it.  And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven…”

                                    --The power of the keys is taken to be that power to determine who shall be admitted to heaven and who shall not—(again, there is no salvation outside the Church)

                                    --The power of binding and loosing is taken to be the power of granting or refusing forgiveness for sins

                        --The other Apostles receive this privilege from Jesus Christ in Matthew 18

                                    --Because Peter received it first, therefore, he is first among the Apostles and is to be their chief shepherd and leader

                        --Jesus specifically prays for Peter that when he is sifted by Satan and tempted that he will remain strong and overcome and stand

                                    --The other Apostles’ want/need strength in a leader

                                    --Better peace of mind for the Apostles if their leader is strong and stable

                                    --Peter’s stability is the stability of the other Apostles

                                    --Power is transferred from  Jesus to Peter, then from Peter to the Apostles

                        --Jesus’ specific command to Peter to “and when you return, strengthen your brothers…” (Luke 22:31—still at the Last Supper, just after the bread and wine have been distributed)  and to “feed my sheep” (John 21—Peter’s reinstatement, after the denial, the crucifixion and resurrection) is taken to be a special commissioning of Peter as leader of the Apostles

                        --Peter is said to still intervene for the pope and exhorts him and the Church so that the pope may not be overcome by temptation and may lead the Church properly

 

Monophysitism Gains a Place in the Imperial Court

            --Monophysitism is a heresy developing just after Chalcedon that stressed the single-nature of Christ, which was divine, not human

                        --Monophysite churches remain in some places, even today, notably the Egyptian Coptic church

                        --Monophysitism a threat to salvation, because if Christ was only divine, then our true humanity could not have been redeemed and renewed

            --In 484, Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople adopts Monophysite theology and is supported by Emperor Zeno

                        --Rome and Constantinople break communion with each other

                        --Acacian schism lasts for 35 years

                        --Writ of excommunication from Rome was pinned to Acacius’ liturgical vestments by pro-Chalcedonian monks during a celebration of the Mass

            --Popes become suspicious of imperial support of heresy in the East and begin to exert themselves in secular and sacred matters, drawing distinctions between the sacred and the secular by demonstrating the sacred is superior to the secular, not the other way around as Eastern emperors had assumed since Constantine

 

Gelasius I (492-96)

            --When elected to the papacy, he does not inform the emperor Anastasius

            --Writes to the emperor a notable letter drawing the reasons for the division between secular and sacred and explaining the papal authority’s precedence

                        --Sacred authority of the bishops more important than the secular power of the kings

                        --Bishops have to answer to God for the actions of the kings under their spiritual direction and authority

                        --Even emperors need salvation and must submit to the Church—the emperor is referred to in this memo as “most gracious son” of the pope

                        --The faithful (laity) in the Church owe their allegiance to the priests, in general, more so to the popes, because God has ordained the Holy See of St. Peter to be preeminent over all other priests and bishops and thus over the whole Church

                        --Anastasius writes to Hormisdas (pope from 514-23) “You may thwart me, reverend sir, but you may not command me.”

                        --When Anastasius dies, Justin succeeds him as emperor (he’s a Latin-speaking peasant, Chalcedonian in conviction, simple faith)

                                    --Justin forces Eastern bishops to adopt Formula of Hormisdas that condemns Acacius and Monophysitism, acknowledges Chalcedon as orthodoxy

                                                --Formula of Hormisdas also recognized Petrine primacy

                                                --Makes communion with Rome essential test of membership in the Catholic Church

                                                --Formula cited as evidence of papal infallibility in 1870 Vatican I

 

Pope Gregory I (The Great) (590-604)

 

A Benedictine monk from Rome, he had been born wealthy and had given the money from the sale of his possessions to the poor

            --appointed an ambassador to Constantinople by Pope Pelagius II, served 6 years

            --Returned to Rome to become the abbot of his monastery

            --Rome as in decay, the infrastructure crumbling, and the Lombards threatening to sack the city again; Gregory assists in Pelagius’ efforts to feed the sick, care for the poor and needy

            --Gregory is elected pope when Pelagius dies

 

Gregory begins taking Augustine’s City of God seriously—the Roman Church should be the real successor to the ancient imperial political power

            --Gregory takes on responsibilities to repair the city and take care of the poor, sick, needy, etc., supply of food and problems of the plague

            --Gregory’s reforms cause the downfall of Lombard control; Gregory gains territories (the Patrimony of St. Peter) throughout Italy and becomes their political ruler

            --Frequent preaching, calling people to renew spiritual commitments, urging celibacy on the clergy; saw himself as patriarch of the West (if not the full papal primacy of Leo’s assertions)

            --Attempted to exert greater control over the European bishops, and even in Africa

            --Sent missionaries to parts of the empire, notably St. Patrick to Ireland and St. Austin to Britain—most missionaries were monks under direct or indirect papal control

            --Mass as a true sacrifice, a re-presentation of the sacrifice at Calvary

            --Built upon Augustine’s speculation of an intermediary place for the cleansing of the souls of sin before they were allowed entry to heaven; turned this into a doctrine of purgatory; Masses could be said for the dead to gain them a quicker exit from purgatory (see the storehouse of merits of the saints)

            --Built upon Augustine’s teachings on baptism and original sin—taught that original sin was actually washed away by baptism; later sins forgiven by meritorious works if accompanied by penance

            --Accepted the power of relics to perform miracles (something passed along from already established tradition)

            --Taught the allegorical method of scriptural interpretation as the primary method