Simultaneously with the collapse of the immense Roman Empire, a split between Eastern and Western Christianity also arose. Over the years, the East and the West developed their own views on Christianity and Christology, which ultimately led to Eastern Christianity officially deciding to split off. An event that came to be known as the Great Schism. Eastern Christianity grew into the Eastern Orthodox Church and Western Christianity grew into the Catholic Church.
Contents
- Split from Eastern Christianity
- The Investiture Controversy
- Renewal
- The Crusades
- Protest and poverty movements
- The beginning of the late Middle Ages
- The end of the late Middle Ages
Split from Eastern Christianity
Despite the fact that a divide had emerged between Eastern and Western Christianity in the early Middle Ages, Christianity was still seen as one religion. This changed at the dawn of the High Middle Ages because after the Great Schism, Eastern Christianity decided to go its own way.
The Filioque
The High Middle Ages started uneasily because the Eastern Christians could not agree with the addition that Pope Benedict VIII (date of birth unknown – 1024) had made to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. The word that struck the Eastern Christians was the Latin word ‘Filioque’ which literally translated means ‘and of the Son’. By adding this word the new text became: ,Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, (,And in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord and gives of life: who proceeds from the Father and the son ,). By adding this word, the church wanted to make it clear that the Holy Spirit proceeds (receives his personality) from both the Father and the Son.
The Great Schism
However, Eastern Christianity wanted to hold on to the original text because it was based on the words of Jesus Christ himself, as can be read in John 15:26. When both parties continued to hold on to their own views and a discussion arose about the authority of the pope, both parties decided to proceed with a number of excommunications. Something that both Pope Leo IX (1002-1054) and Michaëlis Caerularius (1000 – 1058), the Patriarch of Constantinople, were guilty of. The conflict finally came to an end when Eastern Christianity decided to go its own way and establish the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Reconquista
Another important event at the beginning of the eleventh century was the so-called ‘Reconquista’ (Spanish/Portuguese for; reconquest), which took place on the Iberian Peninsula. Several small Christian kingdoms decided to attack the Moors (an Islamic people) who had occupied the Peninsula since the eighth century and managed to drive them out in various places. The Reconquista, which had already begun in the early Middle Ages, would eventually take more than eight hundred years at intervals.
The Investiture Controversy
In addition to the Great Schism and the Reconquista, the so-called Investiture Controversy was also central to the eleventh century. T his battle was fought by the Roman-German Emperor, then leader of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Pope and began in the eleventh century, but did not end until the twelfth century.
In name Domini
Ever since Emperor Otto I the Great (912-973) and Pope John Various emperors made it very difficult and the relations between the pope and the emperor were not always good. When Emperor Henry III (1039-1056) was in power, he had already appointed several popes in a period of ten years, but had deposed them just as easily. But this came to an end when Pope Nicholas II (c. 990-1061) came to power and issued a papal bull called ‘In nomine Domini’. In the In nomine Domini it was determined that from now on the cardinal bishops would be the only electors for electing a new pope, after which permission would be sought from the cardinal priests, the cardinal deacons, the laity and the Emperor of the Holy Place. Roman Empire.
Eruption
In April 1073, the struggle between the emperor and the pope erupted when Gregory VII (between 1020 and 1025-1085) was elected pope. Pope Gregory VII was a strong advocate of completely abolishing lay involvement in electing a new pope, but this view soon brought him into conflict with Emperor Henry IV (1050-1106). Emperor Henry IV decided to punish the Pope for his statements by deposing him, whereupon the Pope took revenge by excommunicating the emperor. Various Christian princes and bishops subsequently turned away from the emperor, after which the emperor decided to apologize to the pope. In January 1077, Pope Gregory VII granted absolution to Emperor Henry IV and the Investiture Controversy came to an end.
To punish
The Investiture Controversy made the church realize that it needed more resources to punish any apostates and, in addition to excommunication , also known as the major ban, the interdict and the minor ban were introduced. The interdict was a measure in which a believer was deprived of certain rights, without excluding the believer from the (church) community. An interdict could also be both personal and local (regional, per city, etc.). With a minor ban, a believer was denied the sacraments, but here too the believer was not excluded from the (church) community.
Renewal
The High Middle Ages was a period of innovation on several points. Various new monastic orders were founded and so-called scholasticism emerged at the monastery schools.
Monastic orders
In the High Middle Ages, disorder and corruption within the church increased enormously, after which many believers decided to revolt. In particular the order of Cluny, which was affiliated with the Benedictine monastery; the Abbey of Cluny made itself heard and quickly formed a very popular reform movement. However, the Order of Cluny was not exempt from criticism because although they were initially known for their impeccable lifestyle, many felt that the monks did not comply strictly enough with the (monastic) Rule of Benedict. In the hope of changing this, Robert Molesme (1028-1111) founded the monastic order of the Cistercians. Some time later the order of the Carthusians emerged from the Cistercians, who chose to spend most of the day in seclusion.
Scholasticism
Various changes also took place at the monastery schools in the High Middle Ages. Scholasticism thus became unprecedentedly popular, in which people tried to find God through science and/or logic. In this way, people learned to think in contradictions and scholasticism could therefore be seen as a form of dialectic: A form of reasoning that tries to search for the truth through the use of contradictions. Some important scholastics were:
Anselm of Canterbury (10331109): Anselm laid the foundation for the doctrine of atonement : human guilt is so great that man could not possibly bear this guilt; therefore the guilt was borne by Christ, who thereby restored the relationship between God and man.
Petrus Abaelardus (10791142): Wrote the work ‘Sic et Non’ (‘Yes and No’), in which he gave the impression that he accepted all kinds of apparent contradictions in theological statements as truth and that for him nothing was certain .
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274): wrote, among other things, the book ‘Summa contra gentiles’ (Against pagans) and the ‘Summa Theologiae’ (‘Essential of theology’). The last book contained a well-thought-out substantiation of all Christian theological statements of that time.
The Crusades
Between the years 1096 and 1271, Western Christians undertook a total of nine crusades; military forays aimed at securing Christian and holy sites in Palestine.
Cause
Because the Muslim Seljuk Turks continued to advance and even managed to defeat the Byzantine army in 1071, Pope Gregory VII decided to devise a plan to stop the Muslims. He hoped to bring the Eastern and Western churches closer together again by jointly starting a war against the ‘infidels’ (non-Christians). But the outbreak of the Investiture Controversy prevented the Pope from getting his plan off the ground. This allowed the Muslim Seljuk Turks to continue as normal and
even conquered Jerusalem in 1078.
The First Crusade
During the Synod of Piacenza (1095), envoys of the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I (1056-1118), asked the church for help in their fight against the Seljuk Turks. Then, during the Synod of Clemont, Pope Urban II (c . 1035-1099) called those present to the First Crusade. The first expedition led by Godfrey of Bouillon (1060-1100), the Duke of Lower Lorraine, was a success and in 1099 the crusaders managed to conquer Jerusalem.
Crusades not a success
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) was the initiator of the Second Crusade, during which some of the crusaders managed to reach Jerusalem again. But in the years that followed, the next Seven Crusades would not be a success, as none of the crusaders managed to reach Jerusalem. The Crusades had also been less than successful in other areas. For example, the Eastern and Western Churches had grown even further apart because the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade had sacked the Byzantine capital Constantinople and the Western Church had made enemies among the Jews and Muslims.
Orders of knighthood
Following the first Crusades, Pope Paschal II (date of birth unknown – 1118) decided in 1113 to recognize several new orders. This is how one becomes a knight in the Order of Knights Hospitaller by caring for sick pilgrims and crusaders in the Holy Land. The Order of the Holy Sepulcher was formed by faithful crusaders who had been knighted at the so-called Holy Sepulcher of Jesus and in 1118 the Order of Knights Templar was also recognized; Christian crusaders who had waged a Holy War against the Muslims in the Holy Land. Finally, Pope Paschal II also recognized the Order of Saint Lazarus, which was formed by knights who fought diseases and helped those in need.
Protest and poverty movements
While the church was busy reconquering the Holy Land, domestic criticism of the Holy See, the central governing body of the Catholic Church, continued to increase. And following the example of the Cluniac order, others also rebelled.
Power grab
Arnold of Brescia (date of birth unknown – 1155) was a member of a poverty movement that believed that complete dispossession was necessary to obtain salvation. Following this, Arnold decided to demand that the church give up its worldly possessions and power, but the church had no intention of doing so. To show that he was serious, Arnold seized power in Rome in the year 1145 and proclaimed the Roman Republic. The Republic lasted ten years, but then the papal troops managed to recapture Rome. Arnold of Brescia was subsequently sentenced for heresy. Unfortunately, for the church, the damage had already been done and after Arnold’s death, several Christian (poverty) movements, such as the Waldensians and Cathars, rebelled against the church.
Poverty movements
In 1184, then Pope Lucius III was fed up with the many rebellious (poverty) movements and he issued the papal bull ‘Ad abolendam’. The papal bull could be seen as the beginning of the Inquisition because this papal bull gave the church the opportunity to prosecute all what it considered to be heretical (poverty) movements. The Waldenses in particular, who were also called ‘the poor of Lyon’, were severely persecuted by the church. But despite this, they managed to withstand the test of time and joined Protestantism in the sixteenth century. Following the example of the Waldensians, many new poverty movements were founded in the second half of the twelfth century. To prevent an abundance of poverty movements, Pope Innocent III (1160 or 1161-1216) decided to accept the mendicant order of the Franciscans in the year 1209. After which he also accepted the mendicant order of the Dominicans in 1214.
Inquisition
To prevent the Franciscans and Dominicans from going their own way too much, the Fourth Lateran Council determined that they, and all monastic orders yet to be established, had to adhere to Augustine’s (monastic) Rule. To further tie the monastic orders to the church, Pope Gregory IX (circa 1170-1241) instructed the Dominicans in 1232 to take on the task of the Inquisition. By issuing this order, Pope Gregory IX officially confirmed and installed the Inquisition. Five years later, Pope Gregory IX decided to also charge the Franciscans with the task of the Inquisition, after which the Inquisition played a major role in the persecution of the Cathars. A persecution that began in 1209 and ended in 1329, when the Cathars had completely disappeared.
The beginning of the late Middle Ages
The late Middle Ages was dominated by the move of the papal seat from Rome to the French town of Avignon and the Western Schism.
The Babylonian Captivity of the Popes
In 1309, the French Pope Clement V (c. 1264-1314) ushered in the ‘Babylonian exile of the popes’ when, at the insistence of the then French king, he moved the papal seat from Rome to Avignon. This voluntary ‘exile’ only came to an end 67 years later when Pope Gregory Some of them wanted the new pope to sit in Avignon, the other part of the cardinals wanted the new pope to sit in Rome. The inhabitants of Rome revolted en masse when they heard that the new pope might again reside in Avignon and the college of cardinals decided to appoint the friendly and accommodating Italian Bartolomeo Prignano (circa 1318-1389) as Pope Urban VI. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that Pope Urban VI was not nearly as friendly and accommodating as the cardinals had thought.
The Western Schism
When Pope Urban VI turned out to be a true tyrant, part of the cardinal college decided to challenge his appointment. The cardinals, in particular French, argued that they had been put under pressure by the Roman people and even appointed an anti-pope in 1378; Clement VII (1342-1394). This situation, called the Western Schism, would continue for thirty-nine years and both popes did nothing during this period other than annul each other’s decisions and excommunicate each other’s followers. For the Western Church this was a dark page in its history and many were of the opinion that the Schism had to come to an end quickly. During the Council of Pisa in 1409, the cardinals decided to depose both popes, Pope Gregory Alexander V (1340-1410), who chose his seat in Bologna, became the new pope. Unfortunately, both deposed popes refused to resign, leaving three popes instead of two.
The Council of Constance
When Pope Alexander V died and part of the cardinal college decided to appoint John XXIII (circa 1370-1419) as his successor, the situation was no longer tenable. The then King of Germany and later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund (1368-1437) decided to organize the Council of Constance, with the aim of appointing one pope who was acceptable to all parties. Only Pope John XXIII was present at the council, but he decided to leave the meeting early in the hope that the council would be dissolved. However, King Sigismund managed to convince the cardinals present that no pope needed to be present to make ecclesiastical decisions and it was decided to appoint Martin V (1368-1431) as the new pope. Pope John XXIII was subsequently overtaken and captured during his flight, the very elderly Pope Gregory
The end of the late Middle Ages
After the papal seat was definitively returned to Rome, ecclesiastical power quickly fell into the hands of various powerful Italian families. This caused criticism of the church to increase significantly towards the end of the late Middle Ages.
Critics of the Church
The pope’s return to Rome caused various Italian families to compete with each other to obtain the highest church offices. Because this struggle encouraged nepotism, corruption, and simony, discontent grew among the followers of the church. One of the first who dared to openly criticize the church was the English John Wycliff (1330-1384). Not only did he believe that the church should have no earthly possessions, he also claimed that believers did not need the intervention of a priest to practice their faith. They could also use the Bible as a guideline. The Bohemian Johannes Hus (c. 1370-1415) was deeply influenced by John Wycliff and went one step further by claiming that Jesus Christ was the head of the church and not the pope. Jan Hus was sentenced to be burned at the stake for this statement. The Florentine penitent preacher Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498) did not so much target the church, but more the powerful Italian Medici family. He also managed to attract attention by burning books and destroying works of art . Finally, the Rotterdam Desiderius Erasmus (1466, 1467 or 1469 – 1536) also rebelled. He was a supporter of the humanist movement and was the founder of the idea of tolerance. Particularly in his book ‘Praise of Folly’ he was very critical of the practices of the church, but he remained loyal to the Catholic Church when the Reformation broke through.
The battle between Christianity and Islam
When the Turks managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire in 1453, they decided to grant the inhabitants of the Empire freedom of religion. They did the same in the countries Bosnia, Croatia and Hungary, which they conquered in 1463 and 1526 (respectively). However, the church was less open-minded, which was also evident from the Reconquista that it conducted in Spain against those of other faiths. However, the Reconquista came to an end at the end of the fifteenth century when the Spanish city of Granada, the last stronghold of the Muslim Moors, was captured by the Crown of Castile; a union between the kingdoms of León and Castile. After the departure of the Moors, the church decided to persecute both the Muslims and the Jews living in Spain as heretics and both groups of believers were forced to emigrate to countries such as Morocco and beyond.