Carolingian Renaissance The
Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival during the late 8th century and 9th century, mostly during the reigns of
Charlemagne and
Louis the Pious. There was an increase of
literature, the
arts,
architecture,
jurisprudence,
liturgical and
scriptural studies. The period also saw the development of
Carolingian minuscule, the ancestor of modern lower-case script, and the standardisation of Latin which had hitherto become varied and irregular (see
Medieval Latin). Reform was the creed of Charlemagne's Christianity. There was an emphasis on the differences of Christianity for the laity and Christianity for the nobility. At this time, religion and politics were deeply intertwined with one another. Charlemagne's belief in correcting the education system of the nobility was an example of this relationship between church and state. Illiteracy was a common problem among nobility as well. To address the problems of illiteracy among clergy and court scribes, Charlemagne founded schools and attracted the most learned men from all of Europe to his court, such as
Theodulf,
Paul the Deacon,
Angilbert,
Paulinus of Aquileia. It is also important to acknowledge that at this time, creating a manuscript would have been comparable to the modern expense of purchasing a laptop. Therefore only wealthy, influential individuals such as Charlemagne would have been capable of propelling this expansion of clerical education.
Growing tensions between East and West The cracks and fissures in Christian unity which led to the
East-West Schism started to become evident as early as the
fourth century. Cultural, political, and linguistic differences were often mixed with the theological, leading to schism. The transfer of the Roman capital to Constantinople inevitably brought mistrust, rivalry, and even jealousy to the relations of the two great sees, Rome and Constantinople. It was easy for Rome to be jealous of
Constantinople at a time when it was rapidly losing its political prominence. Estrangement was also helped along by the German invasions in the West, which effectively weakened contacts. The rise of Islam with its conquest of most of the Mediterranean coastline (not to mention the arrival of the pagan Slavs in the Balkans at the same time) further intensified this separation by driving a physical wedge between the two worlds. The once homogenous unified world of the Mediterranean was fast vanishing. Communication between the
Greek East and Latin West by the 600s had become dangerous and practically ceased. Two basic problems – the nature of the
primacy of the bishop of Rome and the theological implications of adding a clause to the
Nicene Creed, known as the
filioque clause – were involved. These doctrinal issues were first openly discussed in Photius's patriarchate. and its largest extent during the Middle Ages. By the fifth century, Christendom was divided into a pentarchy of five sees with Rome accorded a primacy. The four Eastern sees of the pentarchy, considered this determined by canonical decision and did not entail hegemony of any one local church or patriarchate over the others. However, Rome began to interpret her primacy in terms of sovereignty, as a God-given right involving universal jurisdiction in the Church. The collegial and conciliar nature of the Church, in effect, was gradually abandoned in favour of supremacy of unlimited papal power over the entire Church. These ideas were finally given systematic expression in the West during the
Gregorian Reform movement of the eleventh century. The Eastern churches viewed Rome's understanding of the nature of episcopal power as being in direct opposition to the Church's essentially conciliar structure and thus saw the two ecclesiologies as mutually antithetical. For them, specifically,
Simon Peter's primacy could never be the exclusive prerogative of any one bishop. All bishops must, like St. Peter, confess Jesus as the Christ and, as such, all are Peter's successors. The churches of the East gave the Roman See, primacy but not supremacy. The Pope being the first among equals, but not infallible and not with absolute authority. The other major irritant to Eastern Christendom was the Western use of the
filioque clause—meaning "and the Son"—in the Nicene Creed . This too developed gradually and entered the Creed over time. The issue was the addition by the West of the Latin clause
filioque to the Creed, as in "the Holy Spirit... who proceeds from the Father
and the Son," where the original Creed, sanctioned by the councils and still used today, by the Eastern Orthodox simply states "the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father." The Eastern Church argued that the phrase had been added unilaterally and, therefore, illegitimately, since the East had never been consulted. In the final analysis, only another ecumenical council could introduce such an alteration. Indeed, the councils, which drew up the original Creed, had expressly forbidden any subtraction or addition to the text. In addition to this ecclesiological issue, the Eastern Church also considered the filioque clause unacceptable on dogmatic grounds. Theologically, the Latin interpolation was unacceptable since it implied that the Spirit now had two sources of origin and procession, the Father and the Son, rather than the Father alone.
Photian Schism In the 9th century AD, a controversy arose between Eastern (Byzantine, later Orthodox) and Western (Latin, later Roman Catholic) Christianity that was precipitated by the opposition of the Roman
Pope John VIII to the appointment by the Byzantine
emperor Michael III of
Photius I to the position of patriarch of Constantinople. Photios was refused an apology by the pope for previous points of dispute between the East and West. Photius refused to accept the supremacy of the pope in Eastern matters or accept the filioque clause. The Latin delegation at the council of his consecration pressed him to accept the clause in order to secure their support. The controversy also involved Eastern and Western ecclesiastical jurisdictional rights in the Bulgarian church, as well as a doctrinal dispute over the
Filioque ("and from the Son") clause. That had been added to the
Nicene Creed by the Latin church, which was later the theological breaking point in the ultimate Great
East-West Schism in the eleventh century. Photius did provide concession on the issue of jurisdictional rights concerning Bulgaria and the papal legates made do with his return of Bulgaria to Rome. This concession, however, was purely nominal, as Bulgaria's return to the Byzantine rite in 870 had already secured for it an autocephalous church. Without the consent of
Boris I of Bulgaria, the papacy was unable to enforce any of its claims.
East-West Schism The
East-West Schism, or Great Schism, separated the Church into Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek) branches, i.e., Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. It was the first major division since certain groups in the East rejected the decrees of the
Council of Chalcedon (see
Oriental Orthodoxy), and was far more significant. Though normally dated to 1054, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between Latin and Greek Christendom over the nature of papal primacy and certain doctrinal matters like the
filioque, but intensified by cultural and linguistic differences. The "official" schism in 1054 was the excommunication of Patriarch
Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, followed by his excommunication of papal legates. Attempts at reconciliation were made in 1274 (by the
Second Council of Lyon) and in 1439 (by the
Council of Basel), but in each case the eastern hierarchs who consented to the unions were repudiated by the Orthodox as a whole, though reconciliation was achieved between the West and what are now called the "
Eastern Rite Catholic Churches." More recently, in 1965
the mutual excommunications were rescinded by the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, though schism remains. Both groups are descended from the Early Church, both acknowledge the
apostolic succession of each other's bishops, and the validity of each other's
sacraments. Though both acknowledge the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy understands this as a primacy of honour with limited or no ecclesiastical authority in other dioceses. The Orthodox East perceived the Papacy as taking on monarchical characteristics that were not in line with the church's traditional relationship with the emperor. The final breach is often considered to have arisen after the capture and sacking of Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in 1204.
Crusades against Christians in the East by Roman Catholic crusaders was not exclusive to the
Mediterranean though (see also the
Northern Crusades and the
Battle of the Ice). The sacking of
Constantinople, especially the
Church of Holy Wisdom and the
Church of the Holy Apostles, and establishment of the
Latin Empire as a seeming attempt to supplant the Orthodox
Byzantine Empire in 1204 is viewed with some rancour to the present day. Many in the East saw the actions of the West as a prime determining factor in the weakening of Byzantium. This led to the Empire's eventual conquest and fall to Islam. In 2004,
Pope John Paul II extended a formal apology for the sacking of Constantinople in 1204; the apology was formally accepted by
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Many things that were stolen during this time: holy
relics, riches, and many other items, are still held in various Western European cities, particularly
Venice.
Monastic Reform Cluny From the
6th century onward most of the monasteries in the West were of the
Benedictine Order. Owing to the stricter adherence to a reformed
Benedictine rule, the abbey of
Cluny became the acknowledged leader of western monasticism from the later 10th century. Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the abbot of Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac spirit was a revitalising influence on the Norman church, at its height from the second half of the
10th centuries through the early
12th.
Cîteaux , in a medieval
illuminated manuscript. The next wave of monastic reform came with the
Cistercian Movement. The first Cistercian
abbey was founded in 1098, at
Cîteaux Abbey. The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to a literal observance of the
Benedictine rule, rejecting the developments of the
Benedictines. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, and especially to field-work. Inspired by
Bernard of Clairvaux, the primary builder of the Cistercians, they became the main force of technological diffusion in medieval Europe. By the end of the
12th century the Cistercian houses numbered 500, and at its height in the
15th century the order claimed to have close to 750 houses. Most of these were built in wilderness areas, and played a major part in bringing such isolated parts of Europe into economic cultivation.
Mendicant Orders A third level of monastic reform was provided by the establishment of the
Mendicant orders. Commonly known as friars, mendicants live under a monastic rule with traditional vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience, but they emphasise preaching, missionary activity, and education, in a secluded monastery. Beginning in the
12th century, the
Franciscan order was instituted by the followers of
Francis of Assisi, and thereafter the
Dominican Order was begun by
St. Dominic.
Investiture Controversy The
Investiture Controversy, or Lay investiture controversy, was the most significant
conflict between secular and religious powers in
medieval Europe. It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and
Pope Gregory VII concerning who would appoint bishops (
investiture). The end of lay investiture threatened to undercut the power of the Empire and the ambitions of noblemen for the benefit of Church reform. Bishops collected revenues from estates attached to their bishopric. Noblemen who held lands (fiefdoms) hereditarily passed those lands on within their family. However, because bishops had no legitimate children, when a bishop died it was the king's right to appoint a successor. So, while a king had little recourse in preventing noblemen from acquiring powerful domains via inheritance and dynastic marriages, a king could keep careful control of lands under the domain of his bishops. Kings would bestow bishoprics to members of noble families whose friendship he wished to secure. Furthermore, if a king left a bishopric vacant, then he collected the estates' revenues until a bishop was appointed, when in theory he was to repay the earnings. The infrequence of this repayment was an obvious source of dispute. The Church wanted to end this lay investiture because of the potential corruption, not only from vacant sees but also from other practices such as
simony. Thus, the Investiture Contest was part of the Church's attempt to reform the episcopate and provide better
pastoral care. Pope Gregory VII issued the
Dictatus Papae, which declared that the pope alone could appoint or depose bishops, or translate them to other sees. Henry IV's rejection of the decree lead to his excommunication and a ducal revolt; eventually Henry received absolution after dramatic public penance barefoot in Alpine snow and cloaked in a hairshirt (see
Walk to Canossa), though the revolt and conflict of investiture continued. Likewise, a similar controversy occurred in England between
King Henry I and
St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, over investiture and ecclesiastical revenues collected by the king during an episcopal vacancy. The English dispute was resolved by the Concordat of London, 1107, where the king renounced his claim to invest bishops but continued to require an oath of fealty from them upon their election. This was a partial model for the
Concordat of Worms (
Pactum Calixtinum), which resolved the Imperial investiture controversy with a compromise that allowed secular authorities some measure of control but granted the selection of bishops to their
cathedral canons. As a symbol of the compromise, lay authorities invested bishops with their secular authority symbolised by the lance, and ecclesiastical authorities invested bishops with their spiritual authority symbolised by the
ring and the
staff.
Crusades The Crusades were a series of military conflicts conducted by Christian knights for the defense of Christians and for the expansion of Christian domains. Generally, the Crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy Land sponsored by the papacy against invading Muslim forces. There were other crusades against Islamic forces in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily, as well as the campaigns of Teutonic knights against pagan strongholds in Eastern Europe (see
Northern Crusades). A few crusades such as the
Fourth Crusade were waged within Christendom against groups that were considered heretical and schismatic (also see the
Battle of the Ice and the
Albigensian Crusade). was built in the
County of Tripoli by the
Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the
Seljuk Turks closed Christian pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the
Battle of Manzikert. Emperor
Alexius I asked for aid from
Pope Urban II (1088–1099) for help against Islamic aggression. Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom in a speech made at the
Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, combining the idea of pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war against the invading forces. In the
First Crusade, after nine months of war of attrition, a traitor named Firuz led the Franks into the city of Antioch in 1098. However, after less than a week, the might of an army numbering hundreds of thousands led by Kerbogah arrived and besieged the city. The crusaders reportedly had only 30,000 men and the Turks outnumbered them three to one; facing desertion and starvation,
Bohemond was officially chosen to lead the crusader army in June 1098. On the morning of 28 June, the crusader army, consisting of mostly dismounted knights and foot soldiers because most horses had died at that point, sallied out to attack the Turks, and broke the line of Kerbogah's army, allowing the crusaders to gain complete control of the Antioch and its surroundings. The
Second Crusade occurred in 1145 when
Edessa was retaken by Islamic forces. Jerusalem would be held until 1187 and the
Third Crusade, famous for the battles between
Richard the Lionheart and
Saladin. The
Fourth Crusade, begun by
Innocent III in 1202, intended to retake the Holy Land but was soon subverted by Venetians who used the forces to sack the Christian city of
Zara. Innocent excommunicated the Venetians and crusaders. Eventually the crusaders arrived in Constantinople, but due to strife which arose between them and the
Byzantines, the crusaders sacked Constantinople and other parts of Asia Minor, rather than proceeding to the Holy Land, effectively establishing the
Latin Empire of Constantinople in Greece and Asia Minor. This was effectively the last crusade sponsored by the papacy; later crusades were sponsored by individuals. Thus, though Jerusalem was held for nearly a century and other strongholds in the Near East would remain in Christian possession much longer, the crusades in the Holy Land ultimately failed to establish permanent Christian kingdoms. The Europeans' defeat can in no small part be attributed to the excellent martial prowess of the Mameluke and Turks, who both utilized agile mounted archers in open battle and
Greek fire in siege defense. However, ultimately it was the inability of the Crusader leaders to command coherently that doomed the military campaign. In addition, the failure of the missionaries to convert the Mongols to Christianity thwarted the hope for a Tartar- Frank alliance. The Mongols later on converted to Islam. Islamic expansion into Europe would renew and remain a threat for centuries, culminating in the campaigns of
Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century. On the other hand, the crusades in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily eventually led to the demise of Islamic power in the regions; the Teutonic knights expanded Christian domains in Eastern Europe, and the much less frequent crusades within Christendom, such as the
Albigensian Crusade, achieved their goal of maintaining doctrinal unity.
Medieval inquisition The Medieval Inquisition officially started in 1231, when
Pope Gregory IX appointed the first inquisitors to serve as papal agents to remove
heresy. Heretics were seen as a menace to the Church and the first group dealt with by the inquisitors were the
Cathars of
southern France. Heresy had been seen as a recurring problem for the medieval Church since the burning of heretics at Orlèans in 1022. The main tool used by the inquisitors was interrogation that often featured the use of torture followed by having heretics
burned at the stake. After about a century this first medieval inquisition came to a conclusion. A new inquisition called the
Spanish Inquisition was created by
King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella in order to consolidate their rule. This new inquisition was separated from the Roman Church and the inquisition that came before it. At first it was primarily directed at Jews who converted to Christianity because many were suspicious that they did not actually convert to Christianity. Later it spread to targeting Muslims and the various peoples of the Americas and Asia. The inquisitions in combination with the
Albigensian Crusade were fairly successful in suppressing heresy.
Rise of universities Modern western universities have their origins directly in the Medieval Church. They began as
cathedral schools, and all students were considered clerics. This was a benefit as it placed the students under ecclesiastical jurisdiction and thus imparted certain legal immunities and protections. The cathedral schools eventually became partially detached from the cathedrals and formed their own institutions, the earliest being the
University of Paris (
c. 1150), the
University of Bologna (1088), and the
University of Oxford (1096).
Spread of Christianity Conversion of the Slavs Though by 800 western Europe was ruled entirely by Christian kings, central and eastern Europe remained areas of missionary activity. In the ninth century SS.
Cyril and Methodius had extensive missionary activities among the
Slavic peoples, translating the Bible and liturgy into
Slavonic. In the ninth and tenth centuries Christianity made great inroads into central and eastern Europe. The evangelisation, or Christianisation, of the Slavs was strongly supported by one of Byzantium's most learned churchmen of the
Eastern Roman Empire (also called Byzantine Empire)
Patriarch Photius. The Byzantine emperor
Michael III chose Cyril and Methodius in response to a request from
Rastislav, the king of
Moravia who wanted missionaries that could minister to the Moravians in their own language. The two brothers spoke the
Slavonic vernacular local for the region of
Thessaloniki, still very close to the original Proto-Slavic, and translated the
Bible and many of the prayer books. As in the later centuries the translations prepared by them were copied by speakers of other early Slavic dialects, different local variants evolved as recesions of the later
Church Slavonic literary and liturgical language. Some of the disciples, namely
Naum of Preslav,
Clement of Ohrid,
Saint Angelar, and
Sava, returned to
Bulgaria where they were welcomed by the Bulgarian
Tsar Boris I who viewed the Slavonic liturgy as a way to counteract Greek influence in the country. In a short time the disciples of Cyril and Methodius managed to prepare and instruct the future Slavic clergy into the
Glagolitic alphabet and the biblical texts, where also the
Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the late 9th century.
Bulgaria was
officially christianised in 864 and was recognised as a patriarchate by Constantinople in 927, the first one after the five original Patriarchates forming the
Pentarchy from the late
Roman Empire. The Serbs were accounted Christian as of about 870. Serbian patriarchate was recognised by Constantinople in 1346. The
Baptism of Kiev in the 988 spread Christianity throughout
Kievan Rus', establishing Christianity in the predecessor state of
Belarus,
Russia and
Ukraine. The much later Russian patriarchate was recognised by Constantinople in 1589. The missionaries to the Slavs had subsequent success in part because they used the people's native language rather than
Latin as the Roman priests did, or
Greek.
Mission to Great Moravia (
Kopčany,
Slovakia, 9th-10th century) - the only preserved building from the time of Great Moravia. When king
Rastislav of Moravia asked Byzantium for teachers who could minister to the Moravians in their own language, Byzantine emperor Michael III chose two brothers,
Cyril and Methodius. As their mother was a Slav from the hinterlands of Thessaloniki, the two brothers had been raised speaking the local
Slavonic vernacular. Once commissioned, they immediately set about creating an alphabet, the
Cyrillic script; they then translated the Scripture and the liturgy into Slavonic. This Slavic dialect became the basis of
Old Church Slavonic which later evolved into
Church Slavonic which is the common liturgical language still used by the Russian Orthodox Church and other Slavic Orthodox Christians. The missionaries to the East and South Slavs had great success in part because they used the people's native language rather than
Latin or
Greek. In Great Moravia, Constantine and Methodius encountered Frankish missionaries from Germany, representing the western or Latin branch of the Church, and more particularly representing the Holy Roman Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and committed to linguistic, and cultural uniformity. They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and they regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as part of their rightful mission field. When friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among Christians, travelled to Rome to see the Pope, seeking an agreement that would avoid quarrelling between missionaries in the field. Constantine entered a monastery in Rome, taking the name Cyril, by which he is now remembered. However, he died only a few weeks thereafter.
Pope Adrian II gave Methodius the title of Archbishop of Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) and sent him back in 869, with jurisdiction over all of Moravia and Pannonia, and authorisation to use the Slavonic Liturgy. Soon, however, Prince Ratislav, who had originally invited the brothers to Moravia, died, and his successor did not support Methodius. In 870 the Frankish king Louis and his bishops deposed Methodius at a synod at Ratisbon, and imprisoned him for a little over two years.
Pope John VIII secured his release, but instructed him to stop using the Slavonic Liturgy. In 878, Methodius was summoned to Rome on charges of heresy and using Slavonic. This time Pope John was convinced by the arguments that Methodius made in his defence and sent him back cleared of all charges, and with permission to use Slavonic. The Carolingian bishop who succeeded him, Witching, suppressed the Slavonic Liturgy and forced the followers of Methodius into exile. Many found refuge with
Boris of
Bulgaria (852–889), under whom they reorganised a Slavic-speaking Church, instead of Greek. Meanwhile, Pope John's successors adopted a Latin-only policy which lasted for centuries.
Conversion of Bulgaria Some of the disciples, namely St. Kliment, St. Naum who were of noble
Bulgarian descent and St. Angelaruis, returned to
Bulgaria where they were welcomed by the energetic Bulgarian ruler
Boris I who viewed the Slavonic liturgy as a way to counteract Greek influence in the country. Prior to Christianity, the majority of Bulgaria was pagan. In 864
Boris I adopted Christianity from Constantinople, making it the official religion of Bulgaria. Shortly after he gladly accepted the Christian missionaries into the country. In a short time the disciples of Cyril and Methodius managed to prepare and instruct the future Bulgarian clergy into the
Glagolitic alphabet and the biblical texts and in AD 893, Bulgaria expelled its Greek clergy and proclaimed the
Old Bulgarian (also called Old Church Slavonic) as the official language of the church and the state. This act had long lasting consequences for the culture of Bulgaria and many other Slavic speaking people, as it produced the
Golden Age of Bulgaria and the development and spread of the
Early Cyrillic alphabet and
Medieval Bulgarian literature.
Bulgarian church was almost always aligned with the Orthodox Christianity after the split of the Eastern and Western churches in 1050, with occasional and temporary decades long union with the Roman church during the reign of
Kaloyan in the beginning of the 13th century.
Conversion of the Rus' The success of the conversion of the Bulgarians facilitated the conversion of other
Slavic peoples, most notably the East Slavic
Kievan Rus, predecessor state of
Belarus,
Russia, and
Ukrainia, as well as of the
Rusyns. By the beginning of the eleventh century most of the pagan Slavic world, including Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia, had been converted to Byzantine Christianity. The traditional event associated with the conversion of Russia is the baptism of Vladimir of Kiev in 988, on which occasion he was also married to the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor
Basil II. However, Christianity is documented to have predated this event in the city of Kiev and in Georgia. Today the
Russian Orthodox Church is the largest of the Orthodox Churches.
Conversion of the Scandinavians Early evangelisation in
Scandinavia was begun by
Ansgar,
Archbishop of Bremen, "Apostle of the North". Ansgar, a native of
Amiens, was sent with a group of monks to Jutland
Denmark in around 820 at the time of the pro-Christian Jutish king Harald Klak. The mission was only partially successful, and Ansgar returned two years later to Germany, after Harald had been driven out of his kingdom. In 829 Ansgar went to Birka on
Lake Mälaren, Sweden, with his aide friar Witmar, and a small congregation was formed in 831 which included the king's own steward Hergeir. Conversion was slow, however, and most Scandinavian lands were only completely Christianised at the time of rulers such as
Saint Canute IV of Denmark and
Olaf I of Norway in the years following AD 1000. ==Late Middle Ages (1300–1499)==