Medieval Church

Four: The Medieval Church (AD 476–1453)

From the fall of Rome to the fall of Constantinople.

The Medieval Church was covered by darkness

Isaiah 9:19—Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened,

Roughly, the period from the 5th to 15th century is referred to as the "Dark Ages."

Civilization and civility came to a halt

There was little or no advancement in literature, art, and science

There was much poverty and superstition filled the land. Other countries raided Europe and killed many people. There were many people killed by the bubonic plague that swept the entire continent.

Discussion: Does God still use judgment to punish people?

The Bible was withheld from the people

The church taught that only the priests could interpret the Bible. The common people were forbidden to read the Bible. The Bible was either in the original languages or in Latin which few people could understand even if they had wanted to read it for themselves.

The people were kept in darkness

The mass was said in Latin which no one could understand. Truth and science were suppressed by the Catholic Church. Galileo, the man who invented the telescope, was almost killed because what he observed through his telescope went against the official position of the pope who was supposed to be infallible.

The leaders of the church were immoral

Ideas of the church in this period

Communion

Communion was the center of Christian worship in this time. The Mass was said in Latin, and in many rural villages the priest was uneducated, so he was not able to give sermons. The clergy were allowed to sing, but the congregation was not allowed to sing.

Asceticism

Some people did not like how the church was growing in wealth and power. These people separated themselves from the world and lived in communities by themselves. They prayed seven times during the day and memorized large portions of Scripture. The men were called monks and the women were called nuns. The monks and nuns lived in separate communities.

Purgatory

The church knew that righteous people went to heaven and that wicked people went to hell, but what happened to people who were neither entirely wicked nor extremely righteous? Purgatory was developed over time as an answer to where average people go when they die. It is said to be a place where the average person is purged from what little sins they had.

Indulgences

These were documents that could be bought from the church to remove the punishment for sin.

Christendom

In this time, there was no distinction between the religious and the secular. The governments and the church shared (and sometimes fought each other for) power. All people born in a Christian country were automatically considered Christian.

The rise of the papacy

In the early church, the bishop of Rome (later to be known as the pope) was just one of many bishops. All bishops were equal in power. But by the end of this period, the pope was the most powerful person in the church. How did this happen? It happened over many years and it was because of the ideas of some of the popes.

Leo the Great (c. AD 400–461)

Leo was pope from AD 440–461. He said that papal power was given to Peter by Christ and that power was passed down from Peter to his successors. [1] He was the first pope to claim this power from Peter. He convinced both the Huns (who were from Central Asia) and the Vandals (who were from East Germany) not to attack Rome.

Gregory the Great (c. AD 540–604)

Gregory came from a religious family—his great-great grandfather was a pope. He was well educated and was a government leader. He was unwillingly made pope in AD 590, and he continued as pope until he died in AD 604. He called himself the "servant of the servants of God."

There were many problems in Rome, and he contacted the Emperor in the East for help. The Emperor had his own problems to handle, so he did not send help to Rome. Gregory decided to fix these problems himself. He took money from the treasury of the church to buy food for the people and to fix the aqueducts. The Lombards (who were a Germanic people) were conquering much of Europe. Gregory made diplomatic relations with them and convinced them not to attack Rome. By acting in these matters of government, Gregory was one of the first popes to emphasize the "temporal power" of the papacy. He said that the succession of Peter gave him power to make decisions about moral problems.

Donation of Pippin (AD 754)

The Lombards were again attacking the area around Rome, and Pope Stephen II could not depend on help from the Byzantine (Eastern) Empire. He wanted to find a new government leader to help him with this problem. He asked for help from Pippin the Short, who was king of the Franks (which would later be called France). Pippin promised that he would fight the Lombards and return the land that they had taken.

Donation of Constantine

This was a false document that said that Constantine gave the land around Rome to Pope Sylvester. It is believed that Stephen II used this document to convince Pippin to help him.

Charlemagne

Charlemagne took the throne in AD 771. On Christmas Day 800, the pope named him emperor. There was again a Christian emperor. There was still a question of whether the church or the government should be the highest leader.

The Investiture Controversy (AD 1076)

This was a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV. The government had power to appoint clergy, including the pope. Henry became emperor when he was only six years old, and so other leaders in the government helped make decisions while he was growing up. The church took advantage of this time to take back the power to appoint clergy. They knew Henry was too young to stop them. In AD 1059 they held a council that declared that nobility would have no part in selecting church leaders.

In AD 1075 Pope Gregory VII composed a document that said that the pope had sole power to rename an emperor. So the church now not only had power to appoint its own leaders, but also leaders of the government. By this time, Henry was an adult and he responded by saying that Gregory was no longer pope and called for an election for a new pope. Gregory then excommunicated Henry. This back-and-forth fighting continued between these two for a long time.

Innocent III (AD 1160–1216)

Innocent fought with the government leaders for power.

Concordat of Worms (AD 1122)

This was the end of the Investiture Controversy. The government and the church made an agreement that the church could appoint clergy. Only if the church had a dispute among themselves would the government solve the dispute.

The Inquisition

The Inquisition was a special court set up in the 1200's to deal with the heretics. Anyone who disagreed with the church was deemed a heretic. The heretics were hunted down and brought to trial by the church leaders.

The Holy Wars which are also called the Crusades lasted from AD 1095–1291

These wars were an attempt by the church to retake the Holy Land from the Muslims

The church convinced political rulers of Europe to lead the Crusades. The Muslims were gaining power in Europe. The church wanted to drive the Muslims out of Jerusalem and reclaim the city for the pope.

The crusaders failed to free the Holy Land from the control of Islam

The East-West Schism (AD 1054)

The following chart shows some of the differences between the Eastern and Western churches:

East	West
Used Greek	Used Latin
Priests could marry	Priests could not marry
Priests wore beards	Priests were clean-shaven
Nicene Creed says the Spirit comes "from the Father"	Adds "and the Son" (Called the Filioque Clause)
Different ceremonies for mass
Doctrinal differences

Pope Leo IX wanted Michael, the patriarch of Constantinople, to submit to him. The pope sent representatives to Constantinople, but Michael refused to meet with them. The representatives excommunicated Michael, and he in turn excommunicated them.

Some people separated from the Catholic Church

There were remnant groups in this period that were not part of the Catholic Church.

The Albigenes were located in Albi, France

They believed the New Testament provided the authority of their faith. They opposed the pope and the Roman Church. The Albigenes were persecuted by Pope Innocent III in 1208.

The Waldensians were located in France, Italy, and Switzerland

They were named after their leader Peter Waldo who had the Bible translated into the people's language. Waldo taught that Scripture is the authority of Christians. Their slogan was, "The Word of God speaks, and we ought to obey it."

Prominent leaders of the period

Boniface

Boniface was born in 680 AD. His birth name was Winfred. He trained as a Benedictine monk, and he spent most of his life as a missionary to the Germans.

Legend says that when he took an ax to the tree that stood as a tribute to the god of thunder, that lightning struck the tree and it fell to the ground.

Anselm

Anselm was born around AD 1033. In 1903 William II, the son of William the Conqueror, made Anselm the archbishop of Canterbury, but he wanted to keep the power to appoint clergy. Anselm refused to let William have this power, and as a result, he spent time in exile.

Henry I, the brother of William II, took over after his brother died, and he asked Anselm to return. Anselm did not get along with this ruler, either, and he was soon in exile again. He did a lot of writing in his times of exile.

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was born in AD 1225. He is possibly the greatest theologian of the Middle Ages. He introduced reason (based on ancient philosophers) into his theology.

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1330–1384) was the first to translate the Bible into English. He is referred to as the Morning Star of the Reformation. He had followers, which were called lollards, which means "poor preachers." He stood against the Catholic Church. Following are some of the things he questioned about the church:

• The church's right to temporal power and wealth
• The sale of indulgences
• The worship of saints and relics
• The pope's authority
• Transubstantiation

He would have been killed by the Catholics had it not been for the protection of the English nobles. Wycliffe's preaching and Bible translation prepared the way for the Reformation. The Catholics hated him so much his body was dug up and desecrated years after his death.

John Huss

John Huss (1369–1415) had been a reader of Wycliffe's writings, and he strongly opposed the authority of the pope. He insisted that Christ alone was the head of the church and that only God could forgive sins. When brought before a council to be questioned about his beliefs, he said, "I would not for a chapel full gold recede from the truth." He was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake by a council of the Roman Catholic Church.

Peter Abelard

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Leo-I accessed on 5/14/2019.