MEDIEVAL CHURCH

--- 1: Slavic invasions (Slavs, Bulgarians, Poles, Letts, Czechs)    --- 2: Magyar invasions (Magyars, Slovenes, Serbs)
--- 3: Viking invasions (Vikings, Celts, Anglos, Saxons, Bavarians, Normans, Franks, Visigoths)

b) Re-evangelization of Europe

        The Old Age had ended with the barbarous invading all places around the Roman Empire. Due to this, the Church had to start over the re-Christianization of Europe. That work was realized through the cooperation between the Christian Kings and Roman missionaries. The most superstitious places in the European Continent were also evangelized.

b.1) In the Center

        After a few first attempts in Bavaria, Switzerland and Franconia, the great King Charlemagne became the main person who encouraged Saxon’s people to convert to the faith. He asked for missionaries from Rome, divided Central Europe in 9 dioceses (later provinces) and united all villages through the Latin language, the Roman Art and the Gregorian liturgy.

b.2) In the North

        The kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway quickly followed the footsteps of the Saxons in order to convert the barbarous people to Christianity. Exemplary kings and queens, with the help of sacrificed missionaries, introduced the Christian faith in all places from the north. They converted the kingdoms of Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. In England and Ireland, a lot of monasteries also flourished as great centers of Christian doctrine.

b.3) In the East

        The people in the East were evangelized by Latin priests (Slav, Croatia, Moravia, Hungary, Bulgaria and all the European East) and by German priests (Bohemia, Poland, Prussia, Russia and all the European East). The great work done by the brothers St. Cyrillic and St. Metodio was very memorable, since it translated the Catechism from Latin to the Slavic languages.

c) Monastic Life

c.1) First Monastic Life

        The observation of monastic life started during the 3^rd Century in the deserts of Egypt. It was started by the Fathers of the Desert. They were old citizens who left all their belongings and went to the Desert to pray study and make sacrifices. Saint Benedict was the founder of this lifestyle with his famous rule "ora et labora" dedicated to all Christians.

c.2) The Cluny Order

        Trying to renew the first monastic life, Cluny gave birth to this order during the 10th Century in the north of France. Cluny founded stable but enclosed and peaceful monasteries on mountains. He even added a real federal structure inside every monastery. The Cluny Order grew quickly around all Europe, and it offered religious formation to Europeans belonging to the high-class society.

c.3) The Cistercian Order

        Cluny’s rich and powerful majesty introduced a dangerous settling down inside religious monasteries. Due to this situation, Bernard (the soldier), in order to renew the monastic life, begun to recruit many young people from the Burgoyne province, and started teaching them the ideals of austerity and service. St. Bernard founded 340 Cistercian monasteries in 25 years.

d) Christian Culture

        The ancient culture of the Old Age had been torn down by the barbarous invasions. After that, the Church was the only structure that was able to keep the culture alive. The monasteries, the cathedrals and the invention of the first superior universities were the main places where the Church passed on its culture.

d.1) Monastic Schools

        Since the first years, the Schools of Catechism had taught the Bible and Christian philosophy. Now, it was necessary to teach new and different subjects to the new generations. In the Medieval Age, children and young people depended on their teachers (the monks) to teach them all the things that they needed to know. At the same time, the cathedrals also offered magisterial classes for young vocations teaching them the famous trivium (arithmetic, geometry and calculation) and quatrivium (theology, philosophy, art and poetry).

d.2) Catholic Universities

        The invention of the first Universities is one of the most important contributions of the Church to humanity. The pope initiated the creation of studies using the knowledge that he has gained from the ancient schools of Catechism and cathedral’s colleges. Courses like "superiors and universalities" were offered. The "faculties" also studied to obtain "teaching licenses" and to become lay teachers and doctors, as well.

        The first university’s professor was Saint Albert the Great, and his first pupil was Saint Thomas Aquinas. The main universities were Paris and Cambridge for the sciences, and Bologna and Salamanca for literature.

d.3) Christian Art

        Just like great constructions, Christian Art became popular through songs. It included poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture, ending with the transformation of cathedrals. There were two different stages in the Christian Art: the Romanic Art (static and glorious, with semicircular arc) and the Gothic Art (sensitive and realistic, with semi sharp arc).

e) Crusades against Islam

        The crusades were the Church’s military defense against the Moslems who have attacked Christian places. Three Crusades had happened in 200 years. They were inspired by Urban II in 1096 and fulfilled by the kings of Germany (the emperor Barbarossa), France (Godfrey of Bouillon) and England (Richard I).

e.1) In Rome

        Since the beginning, Islam had been trying to conquer the Church’s capital. Only God’s providence impeded the Moslem invasion.

e.2) In Spain

        The Muslims had entered in the Spanish peninsula since 711. However, after 5 centuries of suffering, the Spanish Christians finally put into gear the Re-conquest, which gladly ended with the victorious battle of Lepanto and the definite expulsion of Islam outside Spain and Mediterranean Sea.

e.3) In Israel

        The Holy Land, and even Jerusalem, had always been the priorities of the warlike ambitions of Islam. Here, the Church had to use all her resources to save the land of the Lord. Orders of mount (Order of St. John, Order of St. James, Order of Calatrava, Order of Temple…), voluntaries from all Europe, complete families, pilgrims and free Christians (400,000 of which came from Germany only) impeded the fall of Israel on Moslem hands.

f) The Eastern Schism

f.1) The icon’s devotion

        East’s devotion to the Lord and Virgin Mary’s images (Theotokos, Pantocrator…) had had an unexpected strength. The East had always preferred a more colorful and concrete devotion than the West which was more rational and systematic. Due to this, at the beginning of the 8^th century, a vicious controversy arose between the emperor of Constantinople, who was educated by Latin doctors and who believed in the same ideas, and his Eastern-Greek people, who didn’t like to let go of their popular devotion.

f.2) Mistakes of Rome

        Europe didn’t tolerate the fast growth of the popular devotion on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The Pontiff and Rome washed their hands and even remained silent when questioned about the Iconoclastic War between the Eastern Churches.

f.3) Rupture of Byzantium

        Constantinople contemplated the arrival of a new emperor: Focio. A good speaker and a great learner, Focio radically opposed Rome, multiplying the prejudice and hatred against the Church’s capital. The pope sent to Byzantium two ambassadors and an alternative:

-to end the fights and to look for solutions,
-or to be ousted from Church through excommunion.

        The radical followers of Focio didn’t follow the first given alternative, so in the year 1054, in the cathedral of Saint Sophia, the pope excommunicated the Church of Constantinople. Transcendental rupture occurred between the Western and Eastern Christianity.