Eleventh-Thirteenth Century Christianity

 

(p. 179ff in Church History in Plain Language) Feudal system develops after the death of Charlemagne

            --Viking raids throughout empire => willingness of people to surrender their lands and persons to nobles/aristocracy in exchange for protection

            --Localized government

                        --Lord and vassal

                        --Fiefs (lands given by lords to vassals for cultivation, etc.)

                        --Lords responsible for administration of vassals and fiefs

            --Oaths of fealty to the lords after paying of homage; vassal is then invested with symbols of his place in the lord’s domain and jurisdiction over the fief

                        --oath was sacred and binding (felonious to break it)

            --Church needed protection from same threats as the peasants and others did

                        --forced the church into the feudal system

                        --bishops become vassals of kings and nobles

                        --Church attempts to put barons morally straight, although ineffectively

                                    --Peace of God movement (11^th c.) attempts to excommunicate anyone participating in pillaging of sacred places and refusing to spare non-combatants in warfare

                                    --Truce of God movement (11^th c.) attempts to put into effect “closed seasons” on fighting (e.g. from sunset Wednesday to sunrise on Monday, or during Lent)

 

Otto the Great restores the empire in 962 (his real power is confined to Germany and Italy)

 

Conflicts between pope and emperor in 10^th century (imperial intervention in ecclesiastical affairs, appointments of bishops, offering the papacy as a prize to the victors in disputes between nobles, etc.) set stage for investiture crisis in 11^th century

 

Monastery at Cluny (in Burgundy) founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 909, with the stipulation that the monks there were to be “wholly freed from our power, and from that of our kindred, and from the jurisdiction of the royal greatness,” as center of monastic reform

            --eventually becomes a center of church-wide reform movement, calling for commitment to clerical celibacy and the end of simony

            --attempt to wrest the church from secular control (churches in the feudal period were subject to the lords on whose domains they sat)

                        --approx. 300 Cluniac monasteries are freed from lay control at this time

                        --Emperor Henry III appoints Bruno (a Cluniac monk) as pope, becomes Leo IX

                                    --Leo refuses to accept the office from the emperor; waits to receive the acclamation of the people of Rome before he will be consecrated; effectively questions the imperial right to appoint the pope

                        --many Cluniac monks placed in high position at the papal court by Leo IX (himself a Cluniac monk) in 1048, namely Humbert of Silva Candida and Hildebrand

                        --Leo IX launches reform synods across Europe to address issues of clerical concubinage, simony, and lay investiture

                        --Leo is placed under house arrest by the Normans (invading and conquering Sicily and Southern Italy) in 1053 for 9 months from June 1053-March 1054

            --Leo IX pisses off the Byzantines by electing a Latin bishop in Sicily (which had been under Byzantine jurisdiction, then Muslim authority until the Norman invasions, which brought the pressure for Latin-rite Catholicism to be instituted in the region)

                        --Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople responds by closing all Latin-rite churches in Constantinople, denounces the Western practices of using unleavened bread in the Mass and the respect accorded to the Pope

                        --Pope and Patriarch mutually excommunicate each other, though by the time the Patriarch excommunicates Leo, the latter had been dead for several months.

            --Victor II (1055-57) continues Leonine reforms, as does Stephen IX (1057-58)

            --Stephen’s death leaves the papacy vacant for several months; a cabal of Roman nobles succeeds in electing Benedict X, but his election is not recognized by the reform party, though he has some plausible reform credentials and was a friend of Stephen’s.  (Roman nobles were opposed to reform papacy because it meant they would lose control of the office and its revenue)

            --Reform cardinals in Dec. 1058 elect Nicholas II (1058-61) as pope with backing of German empire; drove Benedict from Rome with help of imperial troops and gifts to the citizens of Rome distributed by Hildebrand

                        --Recognition of a need to reform the papal elections—give freedom to the cardinals to avoid influence of the laity

            --College of Cardinals created in 1059; given the power to elect the popes (freed the papacy from control of Roman nobles and feuding families or kings)

           

Hildebrand (a reform-minded monk; and Cardinal Archdeacon of Rome) elected pope in 1073 as Gregory VII (1073-1085)

            --Makes reform the centerpiece of his papacy

            --Claims the universal title “The pope alone is called by right universal.” (forgets Gregory I’s rejection of the title of ecumenical patriarch or universal patriarch)

            --Makes papal legates supersede all bishops

                        --Pope alone reserves right to depose and translate bishops, call councils, authorize canon law

                        --Pope also claims right to depose emperors and absolve their subjects of loyalty

                        --Pope sees bishops as servants of Rome, not equals to the pope

            --Official synodal prohibition at Rome of lay investiture in 1075—angers most secular rulers

                        --notable people who are angry include Emperor Henry IV

           

                        --Henry had breached rules against lay investiture in 1071 by his appointment of the Archbishop of Milan from amongst the anti-reform party; Rome favored a rival candidate for the office

                                    --Pope Alexander II had his advisors excommunicated in 1073

--Henry and Gregory clash over the practice of lay investiture, esp. in Milan where the two rival candidates were still battling. 

                        --Henry deposes both candidates and appoints his own

                        --Gregory rebukes Henry; Henry has a synod depose Gregory and challenges Gregory’s right to depose a reigning monarch, who can be judged by no one but God

                        --Gregory deposes some German and Lombard bishops, deposes Henry and releases all Christians from allegiance or service to Henry

                        --Henry’s ecclesiastical support and the support of German princes crumbles

                        --Eventually, Henry goes to Canossa in 1077 and waits three days barefoot and wearing sackcloth in the snow; receives papal absolution from Gregory

                                    --Henry turns Canossa to his own advantage, seeing it as a reconciliation between himself and the pope (Gregory did not see it this way—he saw it as conditional)

                                                --Henry’s nobles believe Gregory has betrayed them, elect anti-king Rudolf

                                    --Henry still powerful enough to stir up resistance to Rudolf and papal reform

                                    --Gregory again excommunicates Henry in 1080, deposes him and proclaims Rudolf king

                                    --Pope comes to be seen as a fomenter of rebellion

                                    --Henry appoints anti-pope Clement III but fails to capture Rome

                                                --Finally in 1084, Henry enters Rome, installs Clement III and is crowned emperor by Clement

                                                --Gregory rescued from the Castel Sant’Angelo by the Normans, who sack Rome; Gregory is sent to die in exile

            Real conflict between Henry and Gregory was over spiritual authority; Gregory believed secular powers were pagan in origin; his claim to the power to depose kings was rooted in The Donation of Constantine; who was fit to serve as king was based upon the utility of the Church; this was the highwater mark of papal claims to universal temporal dominion

 

The Crusades

 

Various motives for crusades—include religious fervor, adventure-seeking, personal profits, etc.

 

10^th and 11^th  century saw mass pilgrimages to the Holy Land (even though that was under Muslim jurisdiction)—includes one group of approx. 7000 from Germany in 1065

 

Persecution in 11^th century by the Seljuk Turks, esp. in Jerusalem and Asia Minor

 

Eastern empire loses Asia Minor

            --Emperor appeals to Rome and the Western kings for assistance

1095, Pope Urban II preaches the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont

            --promises both spiritual (e.g., a plenary indulgence—remission of the temporal punishment of sin, either in this life or in purgatory; later extended to those who contributed to the Crusade effort, thus one could effectually buy oneself a plenary indulgence) and temporal (e.g., land) rewards for crusading against the infidels

            --“taking the cross” to follow Christ (wearing the cross on one’s clothing to and from the Crusade fight)

            --Deus Volt! God wills it! The battle cry of the First Crusade

            --an emotional attachment to the Holy Land had existed in the Christian heart since the earliest times

            --The concept of Christian Holy War seemingly suspends Augustine’s just war theory

                        --attacks are not limited to Muslims but targeted Jews and other Christians as well

                        --attacks against non-combatants and women and children

                        --Some said to saw open dead Muslim carcasses in search of gold; often cooking and eating the flesh as they went—Muslims were said to taste “better than spiced peacock”

First Crusade (1095)

            --primarily French, German, and Southern Italian

            --Went first to Constantinople, caused a ruckus, much to the chagrin of the emperor who expected trained and disciplined mercenaries, not the “aforetime robbers” as Urban II called them

            --the most successful of the Crusading campaigns

                        --captured Jerusalem in fierce and bloody contest (blood said to run up to the knees and horses’ bridles in the Temple), established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (fell in 1291)

 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux preaches 2^nd Crusade in 1147

            --two years of trying never got this one off the ground, despite royal and saintly backing

            --expenses were too great to continue the campaign

 

1187—Fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria

            Third Crusade (1189)

                        --Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, Richard the Lion Heart

                                    --Fred. drowns, Philip fights with Richard and goes home, Richard stays

                        --Saladin proclaims a jihad, but seeks to avoid much bloodshed; proposes that Richard marry his sister and receive Palestine as a wedding present

                                    --Richard and Saladin come to terms, agree to a three-year truce and free access to Holy Land sites for Christian pilgrims

 

Fourth Crusade (c. 1202)

            --Sacking of the Christian city of Zara on the Adriatic under pressure of the Venetians who were in economic competition with Zara

            --Constantinople sacked in 1204

            --Innocent III condemns the actions of the 4^th crusade though still appoints a Latin archbishop of Constantinople

            --Latin empire of Constantinople set up between 1204-1261—weakens already fragile Eastern empire; further dissolves unity between East and West

            --Crusades end in 1291 with fall of Acre, the last stronghold of Latin Christianity in the Holy Land, to the infidels

 

Foundation of the Knights Templar, the Hospitalers, and the Teutonic Knights

            --all were combinations of militarism and monasticism

            --sought to protect the pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land and to fight infidels

Papal efforts to unite Christendom failed miserably, but papal influence and prestige increased mightily

 

“The Holy War was the papacy reaching for universal sovereignty, one united Church, West and East.”

           

 

Scholarship and Heresy—the 12^th and 13^th Centuries

 

Charlemagne requires monasteries to establish schools to teach those “who with God’s help are able to learn.”

            --Cathedral schools develop in the towns and cities to educate the laity

                        --curriculum revolves around the 7 liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy)—liberal because they were the domain of the freepersons in ancient Rome

                        --become the foundations of the universities that spring up in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, e.g. the University of Paris, the University of Bologna, the University of Salamanca, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, etc.

            --universities also begin with the popularity of various teachers and masters who attract students to them by their writings or preaching.  These clusters of students form the nucleus of a collegium which becomes associated with a larger universitas—masters and students grouped into guilds (a banding together out of mutual scholarly interests and the need for academic protection)

           

Scholasticism the dominant medieval method of thought and scholarship

            --attempts to reconcile reason and faith, logic and revelation

            --also attempts to systematize theology and doctrines of the Church

            --dialectical method (juxtaposition of two seemingly contradictory statements and attempting to resolve the differences)

 

In the monasteries, learning/study/contemplation becomes a means to salvation, or at least for spiritual development

 

The study of theology is the principal pursuit of the universities, but the study of Canon Law becomes an important secondary pursuit in some universities alongside medicine and philosophy. 

            --University of Bologna led the way in the study of Canon Law

            --Gratian in 1140 develops his Decretum, a systematization of various traditional canons, grouping them by category and reducing redundancy and contradictions

            --Gratian’s work remains the basis of Canon Law until the revisions of 1917-1918

                        --Canon Law touched all aspects of all men’s and women’s lives, including marriage, family, and sex

                        --declared penalties/penances for fornication and adultery, defined the permitted degrees of marriage (which would lead to interesting political moves on the part of European monarchs and nobles later on down the road)

                        --promoted a rational, legal basis for the papacy; no such rational basis existed for the secular powers at this time => papal prestige over the secular powers (e.g., the rise of Innocent III, a canon lawyer, to the papacy and the attainment of the peak of papal  power)

            --University pursuits also provide rational theological foundation for Christendom

 

 

 

 

Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274)—“The Angelic Doctor”

            --Dominican friar from the town of Aquino in Italy, sent to the University of Paris to help quell the rise of skepticism and doubt among the scholars and students just recently introduced to he works of Aristotle

            --Aristotle’s philosophy is based on empirical observation (look at things themselves, and put them into categories which are man-made constructs that simplify the classification of things.  By inductive reasoning, the nature of a thing may be revealed)

            --Aristotle also assumed that for every cause, there is a prior cause—this chain of causes can be traced back to the first cause, the “Unmoved Mover”

                        --Aquinas identifies this “Unmoved Mover” with the Christian Creator God; thus Aristotle unwittingly offers a convincing rational “proof” of the existence of God

            --Aquinas’ chief contribution to theology is his Summa Theologica, a massive work of several volumes that addresses every aspect of theological knowledge at that point in time in typical scholastic fashion

                        --Aquinas maintains that philosophy and religion are distinct, but they are not contradictory of one another (reason and revelation are complementary and the one is incomplete without the other)—both are sources of knowledge and truth from the same God

                        --revelation is superior to reason as the main house is superior to the vestibule

                        --cooperating grace stimulates Christian virtues of faith, hope, love, temperance, justice, fortitude, and prudence => doing good works and thus earning merits toward salvation

                                    --Church remains the repository of grace

                        --sacraments are the exclusive channels of divine grace, available only in the Church united with Rome in submission to the papacy

                        --elaborates and defines the doctrine of transubstantiation

                        --elaborates on the importance and theological implications of penance (contrition, confession, and satisfaction [penitential acts])

                        --gave theological justification to indulgences and the treasury of merit (deeds of Christ and the saints had built up the depository of merit; priests may dispense from it through indulgences and penances to help those lacking sufficient merit in their own right)

                        --prayers to the saints are an aid to getting souls out of purgatory

                        --Thomas continues already established tradition; exalts it to cosmic significance through his application of Aristotelian philosophy to Christian doctrines; is the foundation of Catholic theology into the 20^th century prior to Vatican II (and now making a revival)

 

The Pursuit of “Lady Poverty”

            --13^th century criticism of the clergy centers around clerical greed, covetousness, and immorality

                        --these men who are supposed to be examples to the (illiterate) laity are themselves acting unseemly and leading the common folk astray

                        --Roman Court the chief instigator of corruption, according to most observers

            --Voluntary poverty a reaction against corruption and neglect in church ranks

                        --an attempt to restore apostolic Christianity

                        --wealthy churchmen and religious were not living up to the standards of Christian lifestyle

           

            Heresy was a cancer upon society, a treasonous act against the right government, secular or lay

            --only the baptized could be guilty of heresy (unbaptized are guilty of infidelity)

            --disobedience to authority amounted to heresy in many cases

            --Questions about the extent of the use of violence to protect the peace of Christendom

Question: Where is the pure church to be found?

            --Arnold of Brescia—in 1139 attacks worldliness of the church and clergy; urges a return to apostolic poverty; Innocent II banishes him from Rome

                        --attacked by Bernard of Clairvaux (a leading medieval mystic, preacher of the Second Crusade) after his banishment from Italy to Paris

                        --Returns to Italy in c. 1144 to Rome, joins a coup attempt to overthrow papal government; takes secular leadership of Rome

                        --in 1155, Rome is under interdict by Hadrian IV; Frederick Barbarossa helps capture Arnold; Arnold burns as a heretic and has his ashes scattered in the Tiber River

            --Peter Waldo (1140-1218): A wealthy merchant in Lyons

                        --leaves $ to wife, sends daughters to convents, estates to poor; takes up voluntary poverty as means to holy life

                        --gets help translating parts of the bible into French; preaches poverty to the peasants (holy life not just for monks)

                        --sends out Waldenses in tandem to preach

                        --excommunicated by archbishop of Lyons for refusing to stop preaching without authorization from the bishops

                        --appeal to Rome in 1179 (at Lateran III); gets permission to preach IF bishops invite the Waldenses to do so (slim chance that they will)

                        --Waldenses excommunicated by Lucius III in 1184 for their refusal to stop preaching without authorization

                        --only the Scriptures are binding, Christ’s pure teaching

                        --2 levels of commitment to Waldensianism—“The Poor in Spirit” and the “friends” of the Walensians who remained within the orthodox fold

            --The Cathars or Albigensians

                        --likely of Bulgarian origin, from the Bogomil heresy

                        --dualistic, Gnostic-like faith (spirit good, matter bad, rejection of Old Testament, human soul is imprisoned in material body, etc.)

                        --lived abstinent, celibate, impoverished, vegetarian lives (considered it pollution of the worst sort to touch a woman or to eat products of sexual reproduction, such as meat, chicken, pork—but fish were okay)

                        --Christ was a life-giving spirit, not the incarnate God; crucifixion for the sins of the world was rejected as impossible, because a human Christ was impossible

                        --rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy

                        --spread around Toulouse/Languedoc in Southern France

                        --more extreme practices of the consolementum and the endure (forced starvation to ensure salvation)

 

Ineffectiveness of papal missions to the Cathars (and Waldensians, as well) due to the pomp and pageantry associated with the Cistercian missionaries—the pomposity of the Church was a sure sign of the corruption of the pure faith of Christ and the apostles

            --St. Dominic (Guzman) founds the mendicant Order of Preachers in 1206

                        --ministered to Cathars till 1208; in other places to other heretics till 1221

                        --received papal approval of the new order in 1220—became the Dominican Order, or Order of Preachers (Friars)

                        --concentrated in missionizing cities and towns

                        --orthodox apostolic poverty was seen as a way of countering the poverty of the heretics, chiefly the Cathars, but also of the Waldenses

                       

Innocent III launches the Albigensian Crusade in 1208

            --Northern French welcome opportunity to plunder the Southern regions of Languedoc

            --Success in the area by 1215; Catharism exterminated completely be end of century

 

Origins of the inquisitions in 1184 in papal bull Ad abolendum, by Lucius III

            --Fourth Lateran Council (1215) concedes that heretics may be punished by the secular powers; heretics’ property may be confiscated; excommunication of anyone who did not cooperate with the search for heretics; plenary indulgences for anyone who did cooperate with the search for heretics

                        --most punishments for heresy were mild—fasting on bread and water, wearing yellow crosses on one’s clothing for a period of time or for life, temporary or life imprisonment in the penitentiary, worst-case scenario death, usually at the stake; goal of all punishment was to force the errant heretic to repent and accept the truth, not his own false opinions

            --Heresy, according to 13^th c. theologian Robert Grosseteste, “an opinion chosen by human perception contrary to holy Scripture, publicly avowed and obstinately defended.”—generally, doctrinal error, something opposed to orthodoxy

            --Dominicans take over the inquisitors’ roles from the bishops in 1220

            --Inquisitors are under the jurisdiction of the pope alone, not the bishops

            --Innocent IV authorizes use of torture to extract information and confessions

                        --Church does not have a right to execute; capital punishment left to the state authorities to mete out

                        --Catharism exterminated before end of 13^th c.; Waldensians survive in the mountains and welcome Reformation with open arms

 

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226):

            --devotes his life to the pursuit of “Lady Poverty”

            --1209, writes a simple rule for his band of followers—take up the Cross, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and follow the directions of Christ given to his apostles when he first sent them out

                        --takes rule to Innocent III for approval and receives it

                        --makes a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Holy Land, attempts to convert the Sultan

                        --factions of his followers split while he is away into groups wanting more structure and organization and those who want to continue the pure pursuit of holy poverty

                                    --Cardinal Ugolino (later Gregory IX) appointed by the pope as Francis’ advisor; Peter de Cataneo appointed his administrator

                                    --Ugolino seeks to give Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor) authority in order to reform the Church; Francis himself had sought to reform the Church by humility/poverty

                                    --Franciscan rule is extended to include mendicancy as a fundamental element of the Order’s tenets; Francis dies in Oct. 1226 in Assisi

 

The Jubilee and Beyond

            1300—Boniface VIII proclaims a Jubilee Year, and promises plenary indulgence to anyone going on a pilgrimage to the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome

                        --Rome fills with pilgrims during the year

 

Cracks in Christendom—papal sovereignty replaces the idea of a Christian empire in the West

Origins of Nationalism and Nation-states are found in the 14^th century—growing divisions between secular and sacred powers

            --cash economy slowly replaces land => push for more revenue and thus more taxing authority by all persons seeking power and influence, sacred and secular

                        --Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France both begin taxing clergy (contrary to papal policy that only the Church had the right to tax Church properties)

                                    --Threats of excommunication from Boniface VIII in 1296 did not phase them; Ed and Phil threatened Rome with sanctions against the churches in their realms (Ed. threatened to lift legal protections of the clergy and to seize church property; Phil threatened to put an embargo on exports of silver and gold from France, cutting off a valuable source of papal revenue)

                                    --Boniface concedes defeat; pretty much grants Ed and Phil what they want, because they can define what constitutes “dire need” for “defense”

            --Success of the Jubilee in 1300 increases Boniface’s confidence again; leads him to retaliate against Phil

                        --Phil responds that the pope has not been given temporal authority by Christ

                        --1301, Phil imprisons a French bishop for treason; Boniface rescinds the tax breaks he had given Phil in 1296

                        --Phil summons the First Estates-General and receives the unanimous approval of nobles, French clergy, and bourgeoisies in his stance against Boniface

            --Boniface issues the bull Unam Sanctam, the highest claims of power any pope had ever or would ever make in 1302/03.

                        --all people everywhere must be subject to the Roman pope

                        --no salvation outside the church meant no salvation apart from communion with the pope in Rome

            --Phil responds with trumped up charges against Boniface of illegitimacy of Boniface’s election, simony, heresy, and immorality

            --Boniface arrested by Phil’s officers in 1303, rescued by townspeople of Anagni, dies soon thereafter

                        --Political power of the pope crumbles after this (Boniface is one of the popes Dante puts in his Inferno, hell)

                        --Growing recognition of a distinction between sacred and secular powers

                        --1305, the Archbishop of Bordeaux becomes Pope Clement V with Phil’s approval; never leaves France and takes up residence in the city of Avignon

                       

Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy (1305-1377)

            --6 popes, all French, all remain in Avignon

            --papal bureaucracy grows extensively

            --popes are not much more than puppets of the French monarch

            --Resentment against Avignon papacy on the part of the Germans => efforts to stir up opposition against the Papal Government

                        --Marsilius of Padua writes Defensor Pacis, calling for a democratic-like church government residing in general councils; recognizes no special distinctions inherent in the priesthood and no special powers given to them by Christ

                                    --community of believers to be represented by the general councils

                                    --subordination of popes to councils

            --Criticism of Avignon papacy largely revolves around financial schemes of the Church during this period—fees for ecclesiastical privileges mounted, taxes for church lands, etc. increased; the annat, or first year’s income from a new bishop sent to the pope => frequent translation of bishops from see to see; the reservation of vacant sees’ income to the papacy

 

1377—Gregory XI returns to Rome, but dies within a year

            --French-dominated College of Cardinals elects an Italian (Urban VI) under pressure from Roman mobs wanting to restore the papacy’s place in Roman life

            --Have second thoughts about Urban, after he proves himself to be dictatorial, and the heat of Rome begins to oppress the delicate Frenchmen—Cardinals declare Urban an apostate forced upon them by the Roman populace and thus his election is invalid

            --Urban creates a new College of Cardinals to support him; French cardinals choose Clement VII who goes to Avignon

            --For 39 years, the schism is unresolved

                        --Rival colleges of cardinals

                        --mutual excommunication of the popes on both sides

                        --assertions of truth on both sides

            --Italy, HRE, and England side with Urban

            --France and Scotland side with Clement

            --1395, University of Paris faculty propose a general council to resolve the dispute, but problem remains that under Canon Law, only popes have the right to convene a council and promulgate its decrees

            --1409, Council of Pisa convenes after a majority of cardinals on both sides agree the time to resolve the differences has arrived

                        --Deposes both popes and elects Alexander V

                        --Neither of the other popes concedes defeat nor accepts the Councils decision, so now we have three popes, not just two

            --1414—HRE convenes the Council of Constance

                        --voting is on a national basis—one nation, one vote

                        --lay reps. are included alongside ecclesiastical officials

                        --1417, one pope steps aside, the other two are deposed, Martin V is elected

                        --Martin repudiates all of Constance’s decrees, except the one that elected him

                                    --Council had exalted councils above popes

                                    --Council had required regular meetings of general councils afterward

                        --By 1450, conciliarism as an active movement is dead