Western Civilization I
Notes from 6/20

Religion

I began by discussing how Christianity became the official religion of the late Roman Empire.  Recall that Emperor Constantine (r. 306-337 C.E.) and his successors had given the Church special privileges and lands.  Constantine himself converted to Christianity during his reign.  By 313 C.E., Christians made up 20% of the Roman Empire's population.  Christianity's main rivals were Mithraism, a religion popular among army officers but restricted to males, and the Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis.  As Constantine and his successors gave Christians a favored status within the Empire, their numbers grew, and these competing faiths declined.

Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395 C.E.) raised Christianity to the status of official religion of the Roman Empire, and by the time the Roman Empire collapsed, the Church had developed an effective hierarchical administration, modeled on secular Rome's.  Strategically placed "generals" (bishops) in European cities looked for spiritual direction to their leader, the Bishop of Rome.  The Bishop of Rome even took Octavian's title, Pontifex Maximus, or highest priest.

Besides its privileged status and effective hierarchical administration, the Christian Church was successful because its religious message of providential purpose and individual worth gave solace to people going through very difficult times.  Moreover, the rituals of the Church, particularly those involving baptism and confession, united people beyond traditional barriers of social class, education and gender.

However, early Christianity did represent a sharp departure from classical Greco-Roman values.  Early theologians believed that "the body must be renounced for the sake of the spirit's salvation."  This idea of physical self-denial is also known as asceticism.  Christian asceticism gave rise to a monastic culture.  Early Christian monks were hermits who withdrew from society in order to live a life of self-denial, in imitation of Christ.  Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356 C.E.) was the father of hermit monasticism.  He was inspired by Jesus' command in Matthew 19:21, "If you will be perfect, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and follow me."  Monasticism replaced martyrdom (since Christians were no longer persecuted) as the most perfect way to imitate Christ and confess one's faith.  Later, communal monasticism developed as an alternative to hermitage.

Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547) brought communal monasticism to western Europe.  The Benedictine Monasteries established by his Order became powerful and wealthy institutions during the early Middle Ages.  Of course, monastic success and wealth nourished corruption, and were inconsistent with the vows of poverty and self-denial that were supposed to underlie the monastic calling.  By the 9th or 10th century, monasteries controlled a great deal of European wealth, particularly land.

In 927, the abbot of the Abbey of Cluny, in France, launched an influential reform movement.  The Cluniac Order soon established itself at the center of medieval monasticism,.  St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226) continued the movement begun at Cluny, urging that poverty and simplicity were central to true reform.  The Franciscans became a powerful force themselves, strengthening the Church, particularly among lay people.

Besides monasticism, there were several other important developments in Christianity during the early Middle Ages:

Islam quickly spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and by 732, Islamic armies had crossed the Pyrenees (from Spain into France).  But this advance was finally halted in 732 at Poitiers, by a Frankish king named Charles Martel.  However, Islam would continue to spread in the east, threatening the Byzantine Empire.  The first Crusade would be launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II, ostensibly to free the Holy Land from Islamic control and protect Byzantium.  The Crusades would have important consequences for the social, political and economic development of western Europe, which we will discuss next time.

The permanent division of Christianity into Eastern (Byzantine) and Western (Roman) had its origins in the political division of the Roman Empire, finalized by the Emperor Theodosius I in 393.  There were a number of important differences between east and west.  For one thing, there was language; the east was Greek-speaking, the west, Latin.  Secondly, in the east, a combination of Greek, Roman and Asian elements gave Christianity a more "mystical" orientation.  Third, in the east, greater secular control meant that the church there would be less independent.  In addition, doctrinal differences soon emerged between the two branches of Christianity.  At various times in its history, the eastern church rejected the use of icons, or images imbued with religious power and meaning, but iconography was very important in the west.  The eastern church also rejected the rule of celibacy for its priests, and differed with the west over the question of Christ's divine nature.  The eastern church never developed a concept of purgatory, like the west had, and there were ritualistic differences (such as whether to use leavened or unleavened bread in celebration of the Eucharist, or whether to conduct liturgies in the vernacular language).

Perhaps the biggest issue, however, was over the doctrine of papal primacy.  The patriarchs of the eastern church saw the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) as a peer, not a superior.  The western, or Roman, church, insisted that the Pope was the supreme head of all Christendom.  Citing Jesus' words to Peter, in Matthew 16:18, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,"  Pope Gregory VII strongly articulated this doctrine of papal primacy in 1075.  (See the textbook, at 301).

Gregory VII's strong statement of papal primacy not only widened the gap between the Roman and Byzantine churches, it also challenged the power and privileges of secular authorities.  Certainly, by the 11th or 12th century, some European monarchs had grown wary of an all-powerful Roman Church.  The German Emperor, Henry IV (r. 1056-1106), for example, insisted on his right to appoint (or "invest") bishops, causing a confrontation with Pope Gregory VII in which the Emperor was threatened with excommunication.  Henry and his successors ultimately backed down, renouncing their right to invest bishops, but the question of which authority -- secular or spiritual -- was supreme would plague Europe for many centuries to come.

Under Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216), papal power reached its height, but a centralized, meddling Church would come into constant conflict with the princes, kings and emperors of the High Middle Ages.  Between 1309 and 1377, the papacy was relocated to Avignon, in France, where the French kings hoped to exercise greater control.  This period is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity.  In 1377, Pope Gregory XII (r. 1370-1378) re-established the papal residence at Rome.  Gregory died in 1378, and the cardinals elected Urban VI to succeed him as Pope.  However, Urban challenged the cardinals, most of whom were French, when he announced his intent to reform the curia or papal court.  This led the cardinals, with the support of the French king, to elect their own pope, Clement VII (r. 1378-1397), who set himself up at Avignon.  So from 1378 on there would actually be two popes, one in Rome and the other in France.  This Great Schism highlighted the problem of the medieval church, whose worldliness and meddling in political affairs had threatened its very unity.  Eventually (in 1417), the Schism was resolved, but major reforms of Church practices would have to wait for at least another century, when Martin Luther launches the Protestant Reformation in 1517.  More on that next week.

I also made the point that Gregory VII's decree on papal supremacy back in 1075 coincided with a period of increasing intolerance and militancy of the western Roman Church.  The Crusades (begun 20 years later) was actually commenced with a slaughter of Jews in the German Rhineland.  The Church was also remarkable in the level of its misogyny (hatred of women), since women (Eve) were viewed as responsible for the fall from grace; see the text at page 307.