P.

O Box 342-01000
Thika
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Web: www.mku.ac.ke

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

COURSE CODE: BHU 1210

COURSE TITLE: CHURCH HISTORY II

BY:REV. DR. REGINA KINUTHIA

CONTACT :0722487618

e-mail:[email protected]

copyright@2016-All rights reserved for MKU

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MEANING OF SYMBOLS

Objectives

Activity

!
Key note

Summary

Self Assessment Question (SAQs)

Further Reading

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COURSE OUTLINE

Week Topic Lectures

1 The fall of the Roman  Western Roman Society
Empire  Characteristics of the church Medieval
 The tripod of the church memorial

2 Main Division of the  Early Middles Ages

Church in the Middle Ages  High Middle Ages
 Late Middle Ages

3 Papal Hegemony  Gregory the Great

 Gregorian Reforms
 The growth of Papal Powers

4 The Development of  The Seven sacraments

Sacraments

Continuou Assessment Test

s

5 &6 Medieval Monasticism  Origin

 Monastic Orders

7 &8 Doctrinal Controversy  Adoptionistic, Eucharistic and Iconoclastic

 Filoque , Virgin Conception and Predestination
 Investiture
9 The AD 1054 Great Schism  Non Theological and Non theological Causes
 Immediate causes
 Attempts at Reunion
 Results
Continuou Assessment Test
s

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  Economic causes
10 The Crusades  Personal factors
 Religious hatred between Christians and Muslims
 Courses of the Crusades

11 Scholasticism  Anselm
 Peter Abelard
 Thomas Aquinas
 Albert The Great
 Peter Lombard
12 The Renaissance  Outstanding Humanists
 Art and Architect
 Literature
 Technology
 Scientific Revolution

13 Reformation  Protestant reformation

 Counter reformation

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Reformation Class Discussions

Recap of the main points Questions and Answer

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The fall of the Roman Empire

Introduction

The term ‘middle ages’ is generally used to refer to that period in European history between the
fall of Rome and the Protestant Reformation 500 – 1500 AD. It traces the rise and fall of the
church's fortunes through the "thousand years of uncertainty," from the time when Barbarian and
Arab invasions toppled/knocked down the power of Rome, to Christendom's loss of
Constantinople and the subsequent opening of a new age of discovery and learning.

WESTERN ROMAN SOCIETY

From the 3rd century onwards, large tribal groups mainly of Huns, Magyars, Bulgars, Avars, and
Slavs slowly incorporated/amalgamated into Roman territory. These Barbarians, who were
sometimes invading armies and sometimes simply huge numbers of immigrants, began to fill the
armies of Rome. At first the Romans gave them land in exchange of peace. However, during the
4th century, many of these tribes became more hostile toward the Romans. They constantly
raided/plundered important Roman settlements and seriously devastated the Roman Empire.
Most of these tribes adopted the Roman laws and customs and gradually polished the language
of French. Some landholders accepted their new lords while others remained independent
fighting for the Empire. In the meantime, the Western empire and the old Rome were declining.
In 410, the city of Rome itself was conquered and sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and again by
the Vandals in 455. In 476 the last Western emperor was deposed by the barbarian General
Odoacer, and there were no more.

FACTORS THAT LED TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1. Poor Governance -a succession of weak emperors

2. Numerous plagues
3. Natural disasters
4. Economic instability
5. Lack of Union in the empire

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Despite all these factors Rome was hardly about to collapse. What truly destroyed the Western
Roman Empire and changed the course of history were the barbarians. In spite of some Roman
military success, the Goths, whom the Romans had allowed into their land, crossed the Danube
on September 4, 476 successfully deposing/overthrowing the last Western Roman emperor:
Romulus Augustus. This event signaled the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the
Middle Ages.

Main Divisions middle Ages

The Middle Ages are commonly divided in three epochs: The Early Middle Ages, the High
Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages.

Early Middle Ages (5th-10th Century)

The breakdown of Roman society led to many problems.

i. Economically, it became unsafe to travel or trade goods over any long distance and
therefore, most newly-conquered settlements faced many economic problems.
ii. Illiteracy: within a generation, illiteracy rose incredibly in the West as most Roman
schools and libraries ceased to function.
iii. Powerful Church: the Christian Church was the only real centralized institution that
survived the fall of the Empire mostly intact. Bishops, who still studied and knew how to
write properly, became more important in this newly-created society. This led to a very
powerful church that was not as devoted to religion as it was to politics.
iv. Infrastructure: the new system was incapable to support the infrastructure required for
public baths, education facilities and entertainment - mainly because of bad tax coverage
and excessive corruption. Beginning in the 8th century, the medieval economy slowly
improved. For the first time in four hundred years there was hope of improvement.
Kingdoms were beginning to take form causing law and order to improve notoriously.
v. Feudalism: With the ever-growing threats mainly from the numerous warlike tribes that
had recently settled in the West, Feudalism gradually developed. The concept was
simple: Knights protected landlords in exchange of land. At first during the Early Middle

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 Ages, the system was very flawed/ weak as knights could easily change allegiance or not
fight at all. However this system allowed peasants to work freely.
vi. Islamic Threat: to the East, Islam became a very powerful religion which eventually
invaded Spain and seriously threatened the Franks and most of Europe.

However, a great leader and military genius stopped their progression. He is also credited for
creating the first standing army of the West since the Roman Empire and for being able to
defeat stronger opponents with more numbers and better weaponry - he was Charles Martel. At
Tours, he won his greatest victory and successfully put Europe out of risk of a total Muslim
invasion. Many credit him as "the savior of Christianity" and even though he was almost
excommunicated years before, the church itself publicly recognized him as its savior.
Martel's son, Pippin the Younger or Pippin the Short, was the first Carolingian king in 751. He
expanded Frankish borders but still was not a very important figure. His son, Martel's grandson,
Charlemagne was a much more prominent person. Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome
on Christmas day, 800. His rule united most of modern France, Northern Italy and Western
Germany. However, that unity didn't last long. For 200 years after Charlemagne's death, the
West and East were in conflict - both seeking more power.

One of the main events that historians consider to have set the High Middle Ages was the Great
Schism of 1054 in which the Catholic Church was separated from the Orthodox Church.

High middle Ages (11th, 12th and 13th centuries)

The High Middle Ages was a period of innovations with gunpowder being successfully
incorporated into Asian (and shortly afterward European) warfare. In just three centuries, more
discoveries were made than in the previous millennium.

The Carolingian Empire (what is Carolingian empire/dynasty) was divided into France and
Germany under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Italy and other minor
factions. This was partly due to conflicts between East and West and more importantly because
of political and military divisions caused by the two elder heirs of Louis the Stammerer.
A very important figure of the High Middle Ages is William the Conqueror who was crowned

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king of England in 1066. His rule marked the mass construction of castles that dominated
warfare for the following three centuries.

He defeated the Vikings who were frequently attacking the European. This peace and the
Warm Period that lasted until the 14th century's Little Ice Age, gave room to an enormous
increase in population.

By the mid-13th century, many parts of Europe reached population levels surpassed only until
the 19th century. While this caused many scientific discoveries and inventions, it also
provided military stability which was despised by the army. An outlet for this desire of war
was The Crusades - called by the pope. The Crusades caused thousands of deaths, but they also
brought many innovations from the East to the West. Architecture was greatly improved and
Eastern inventions that would prove useful for the Age of Exploration during the 15th century
were usual.

It is during this epoch when, due to increased population and decreased activities of the upper
class, many new forms of literature emerged. In Southern France, troubadours who sang of
courtly love appeared. Dante wrote the Divine Comedy which was the period's most important
poem. Folklore took a sharp twist and new stories, such as Robin Hood, were continuously
revised to fit the zeitgeist. Chess was also incorporated, just as many sports and games. The High
Middle Ages gave birth to many important inventions such as the astrolabe and the very first
glasses. The notion that the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages as some call them, lacked art or science
couldn't be further from the truth.

The Late Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries).

In the Late Middle Ages the progress that characterized the High Middle Ages (increase in
population, more discoveries, peace and the Warm Period, many scientific discoveries and
inventions, military stability, new forms of literature) came to a halt.

This period was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war. The
Little Ice Age that began in the 14th century caused poor harvest and a series of famines that
killed hundreds of thousands.

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The Black Death killed almost a third of the Western Europe population between 1347 and
1350.

The warfare between states, civil wars, and peasant revolts occurring in the kingdoms greatly
diminished the population of Europe almost into half.

Popular uprisings broke out across Europe, causing the Late Middle Ages to become a period
characterized with poverty.

During this epoch, the Catholic Church was characterized by controversy, heresy, and schism
which greatly divided it against itself. At one point, the church was led by three popes at the
same time, causing great instability.

The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 had a devastating effect on European intellectual
and economic affairs. Europe slowly recovered.

Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late
Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period.

The Tripod of the Church Medieval History

The tripod of Church medieval history consists of Germanism, Romanism and Christianity. In
the Middle Ages, these three elements were constantly influencing each other, that the main
events in the history of the Church hail from these elements. And the result of the harmonious
and the unharmonious blending of the three is Mediaeval Church history.

Mediaeval Age focused on the activity of the GERMANIC tribes and other tribes outside the
Roman Empire. Furthermore, it gave prominence to the subsequent conversion of these 'barbaric'
tribes to Christianity specifically to the Catholic faith. These massive conversions were always
attributed to the ever zealous activity of the monks in Ireland, Britain and Rome.

These tribes/ people and their 'un-Roman' acts proved to be an asset for the Church, not
necessarily for the Empire. They became the stronghold of Catholicism in Western Europe. And
it started with Clovis, king of the Franks, through his conversion to Christianity in 496. His

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conversion was his vow to the god of the Christians if ever he would defeat the Alemannis. The
Franks themselves became a great kingdom by 626, occupying and conquering the Germanic
tribes such as the Ostrogoths and the Goths. Later, they became an Empire on par with the
Byzantine and the Persian Empires, when the Pope himself crowned Charlemagne, Emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire.

This formation of the different tribes into more organized and systematic kingdoms and later into
an Empire under Charlemagne was obviously influenced by the spirit of the Roman Empire
itself. The culture of Rome with its systematic judicial processes raised this formerly 'barbaric'
kingdom into the dignity of an Empire, side by side with the existing great empires at that time.

We see here two forces in tension always: the 'barbarians' and the Romans. The Catholic Church
served as the middle person between the two, not by making the barbarians more Roman, or the
Romans more barbaric, but by converting the 'barbarians' and entrusting to them the care of the
Empire-from the Old (Romans) to the New world order (Barbarics).

Thus, Christianity became the catalyst between the two. Nevertheless, this fusion did not happen
overnight. It took centuries for the three influential entities (Germanism, Romanism and
Christianity) to act in the stage of history, in order to produce what we now call the Church
Mediaeval History.

Characteristics of the Church Mediaeval History

By characteristics, we mean that the Mediaeval Age of the Church is full of these four realities.
It was as if these were the kind of air we breathe if we transport ourselves into this time.
Moreover, these serve as the theme of the age; that with their presence, we can truly say, it is the
Middle Ages.

There are four main characteristics used to describe the identity of the Church in the Middle
Ages. They are: Christian unity, relationship between 'sacredotum' and 'emperium',
preponderance of the Church in education, and feudalism.

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a) Christian unity - during this time, the international community of nations and people were
united around the and under the watchful eye of the Roman Pontiff. Different form our time
today, theirs was the great reverence to the Pope as the highest authority after God, that no one
can judge the pope except God. Secondly, the society itself, after the Christianization of the
barbaric nations, was Christian. Unlike today's secularized world, each nation integrate into its
state laws the laws of the Christian religion.

b) Relationship between the Church and State - the internal life of the community was
determined by the symbiosis between Church and State, the papacy and the empire. In the West,
there was dualism while in the East, there was centralism (caesaropapism - the emperor
considered himself as the supreme leader of the Church). In the newly established Holy Roman
Empire, the king recognized the sovereignty of pope and the pope respected the king's right.
When the balance is disturbed, tensions and battles would always occur.

c) Preponderance of the Church in Education - the Church in Middle Ages had a strong
monopoly on education. The only intellectual at that time were clerics (priests and bishops).
Clerics became advisers to the court of the kings and queens. Universities were established
around 1200, where all professors were clerics. It was only in the latter part of the mediaeval
time that there were laity who can be rightfully addressed as doctors, lawyers, or humanists.

d) Feudalism - this system was not practiced in Rome, but in Germany after the people were
converted to Christianity. Society was organized in a hierarchy in which each leader swore an
oath to a greater leader. The oaths were usually centered around the possession of land. It is a
system of relationship between the vassal and the landlord. The vassal promised to give service
to the king and the king is duty bound to protect the people under him. These vassals had lesser
tenants who tilled the soil and work for them. This is a system of society wherein everyone is
under the lesser tenants, who were in turn under the tenants-in-chief (duke, counts, and bishops)
who are under the king. In this system, it is obvious that even the Church was controlled by the
king.

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The system of Feudalism began to be superseded by the growth of trade and the middle class. By
the High Middle Ages, the role of cash had grown to the point where the feudal structures began
to break down, and a more modern world began to take the place of the medieval one.

At the same time, national feeling was beginning. Kings stopped being feudal lords and started
being rulers of the whole people. The common person began to think of himself as an
Englishman or a Frenchman.

Summary

The Church in Mediaeval period was one of the great influencing factors in the formation of the
new civilization of the Western Empire. She tainted the color of Christianity to the society
brought up by her unitive role. In short, what reconcile the two different cultures of the Goths
and of the Romans was the teaching of Catholic Church on Jesus Christ. She truly build the
Christian society.

On the other hand, the Church was also influenced by the ones she influenced. Changes in her
liturgy, disciplines, and theology were much indicative of that time. Abuses and sinfulness crept
into the Church; so much so, she would need a real reform for most of her life. Unfortunately,
this was not given emphasis. Reforms therefore were strongly felt in the latter part of the period.
In fact, the modern period of the Church would start with the great Protestant Reform, started by
Martin Luther.

While it is very myopic to say that Mediaeval Age of the Church is all Dark Age (for many
papal abuses were committed in this period), it is also an exaggeration to consider that the
Church was all holy during this journey of faith and life. The Church has truly benefited many
learning experiences from this age; they may be encouraging or discouraging.

POPE GREGORY THE GREAT (590-604)

He was born about 540 in a rich, senatorial family in Rome. He heard the call of god and devoted
himself to a religious life and sold his vast estate in 574 dedicating the proceeds to the welfare of
the poor and the building of six monasteries in Sicily. He became a monk of the Benedictine
order. In 586 he became an abbot of his monastery in Rome, and in 590 was elected pope. The

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word schaff very aptly sums up his character as ‘monastic, ascetic, devout, and superstitious;
hierarchical, haughty and ambitious, yet humble before God.

His brilliant rule set a standard for those who came after him and he is really the first ‘pope’ who
can with perfect accuracy be given this title. He is the chief architects of the papal system which
has influenced so greatly the history of the world.

He was passionate about missions, for more than two-thirds of Europe was still pagan.

In 597, he sent Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England. From Britain, missionaries
went back to the continent to spread their faith among Germanic tribes.

The claim to universal supremacy in the church, first made by Leo 1, was renewed by Gregory
on the same grounds. When in 588 John, the patriarch of Constantinople, assumed the title of the
‘Universal Bishop’, Gregory protested strongly to the power and to the patriarch himself that it
was ‘proud, profane, wicked, blasphemous,’ and suggested that the patriarch was ‘the forerunner
of ‘Anti-Christ.’ He himself assumed the title of ‘Servant of servants which is still borne by the
popes;

His attitude seems ludicrous considering that he made for himself the stupendous claim of being
the ‘Successor of Peter’ and the ‘Vicar of Christ on earth’.

He taught that there was no salvation for anyone outside the one Catholic church, and he claimed
to be the head of it

He was a man of deeply devotional spirit who regarded the Holy Scriptures with profound
respect and looked for the speedy coming of the Lord to judge a wicked world.

He was long remembered as a powerful preacher and able theological writer.

He promulgated the doctrine of purgatory which others had adumbrated (to give a general idea
about something without details, outline) since the days of Origen

He greatly influenced music and rituals, though the Gregorian chants seem to have been
developed later.

He encouraged the use of pictures and images in the church on condition that they would not be
worshipped.

He strengthened the Roman Catholic Church remarkably in a difficult period, and helped to
secure for his successors that predominance for which he himself strove for with all his might.

Pope Gregory the Great died in 604 and his reign marked a great step forward in papal power
and in the development of the Roman Church.

The Changing Face of the Church

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 i. Papal claims

Instead of being a humble pastor, as the early presbyters who ministered to the flock of God, he
is now able to hold his own with kings and beat them at the diplomatic game. He proudly
claimed that he was supreme over all the churches and all other bishops.

ii. The Lord’s Supper

Although the communion was still mainly regarded as a memorial of death of Christ, the idea
was growing first that it was itself a sacrifice. The doctrine of transubstantiation the real presence
was widely accepted, although there was no very clear understanding as to what this presence
meant.

iii. Purgatory

He favored the doctrine of purgatory –a place under the earth where the souls of men and women
were purged of their sins through suffering severe torments through fire. The doctrine was
widely accepted though it did not become an article of faith in the Roman Catholic Church till
1439.

iv. Prayers for the dead and prayers to saints

These and their concomitants of indulgences and masses for the departed naturally grew up as
the belief of purgatory increased. Saints and martyrs were greatly venerated, and the anniversary
celebrations at their tombs, the impression grew up that prayers were being offered to them or for
them. Thus prayers to the saints came to be regarded as normal by 787.

v. Adoration of Mary

Since the council of Ephesus declared in 431 that Mary was Theotokos, ‘Mother of God’ the cult
of Mary went on increasing. Festivals were held in her honor and then came her worship. By the
end of the 6th century, adoration was widely offered her and prayers were addressed to her. There
was much superstition as to her intervention on behalf of her votaries.

vi. Auricular Confession

This refers to the confession of sin was essential for restoration to church standing after a
grievous fall. At first it was made publicly in church, but since this seemed to foment scandals, it
tended, to become a private Confession before a priest. At first it was not compulsory, until 763
when bishop of Metz.

vii. Places of worship

With the increase of wealth among Christians their meeting places became more and more
ornate. For example is the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople. By 814 the worship of images

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in churches had become such a scandal that the Muslims had begun to taunt the Christians with
being idolaters.

viii. The Priesthood

As sacerdotalism (connected with priests) increased, the altar, which formerly had no place in the
Christian Church, became of greater and greater importance. This led to drastic alterations which
extended even to the architectural design of churches. The priesthood of all believers was well-
nigh forgotten. The priest was regarded as of different order from the laity and as having a
special grace and divine authority by reason of his ordination. He became indispensable in the
Christian’s approach to God. He handled divine mysteries and his work was regarded as a
species of magic, like the work of the heathen priests. The altar came to be regarded as the most
sacred place in the building and was railed off from the nave of the church. This is how the
priestly caste grew separated from the people. Mass vestments came to be regarded as an
essential part of the priest’s equipment by the end of the 6th century.

ix. Incense

The burning of incense was used at first only for fumigation of Christian buildings. It had no
connection with

Gregorian Reform

This term is traditionally used to designate the vast movement of reform of the Church,
beginning toward the middle of the 11th century and continuing into the 1st decade of the 12th
century. Gregory VII, who has been made the patron of this movement, was neither its initiator
nor its final consummator.

Why then are they called Gregorian Reforms? Or what justify the application of the
adjective Gregorian to the reforming movement?

(1) Importance of his reign

(2) The measures taken by this pope and implemented by his representatives under his
motivation

(3) The prestige that he was able to restore to the papacy

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The history of the Gregorian reform revolves around three areas

(1) Reaffirmation of papal primacy

(2) Reform of the clergy

(3) Freeing the Church from lay ascendancy.

Reaffirmation of papal primacy

The Gregorian age marks a crucial stage in the history of papal primacy. The papacy in the tenth
and in the first half of the 11th century had experienced a period of crisis, weakness and at times
disgrace.

Therefore Pope Gregory VII initiated the following reforms divided into two major documents:
the Dicatus papae, and the bulla Libertas ecclesiae.

The Dictatus Papae (The Dictates of the Pope)

This is the document that sums up the powers that the Gregorian papacy gathered to itself.

1. That the Roman church was founded by God alone.

2. That the Roman pontiff alone can with right be called universal.
3. That he alone can depose or reinstate bishops.
4. That him alone can make new laws, to assemble together new congregations, to make an
abbey of a canonry; and, on the other hand, to divide a rich bishopric and unite the poor
ones.
5. That he alone may use the imperial insignia.
6. That of the pope alone all princes shall kiss the feet.
7. That his name alone shall be spoken in the churches.
8. That this title [Pope] is unique in the world.
9. That it may be permitted to him to depose emperors.
10. That no synod shall be called a general one without his order.
11. That no chapter and no book shall be considered canonical without his authority.

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 12. That a sentence passed by him may be retracted by no one; apart from he himself.
13. That he himself may be judged by no one.
14. That the Roman church has never erred; nor will it err to all eternity, the Scripture
bearing witness.
15. That the Roman pontiff, if he have been canonically ordained, is undoubtedly made a
saint by the merits of St. Peter
16. That he may depose and reinstate bishops without assembling a synod.
17. That he who is not at peace with the Roman church shall not be considered catholic.

Reform of the clergy

Clerical marriage is the practice of allowing clergy to marry, a practice not to be confused with
that of allowing married persons to become clergy. Clerical marriage is admitted in
Protestantism, Anglicanism, Independent Catholic Churches, Judaism, Islam, and the Japanese
sects of Buddhism. The Roman Catholic Church, while allowing married men to be ordained
(only exceptionally in its Western form but more commonly in the Eastern Catholic Churches),
also excludes clerical marriage. Marriage after ordination is also excluded for priests of the
Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox churches, whose parish clergy are generally married
before becoming priests, although unmarried priests are sometimes assigned to parishes.[1]

The Bulla Libertas Ecclesiae

This is latin for "freedom of the Church." It is idea of the freedom of church / ecclesiastical
authority from secular or the temporal power, which guided the Reform movement which began
in the 11th century. It is also the name of a papal bull issued by Gregory VII in 1079.

After the decentralization of the post-Carolingian period, this became the slogan of the Church in
light of disapproval over lay warlords installing themselves as abbots and other high-profile
churchmen. Unfit to perform theological functions, much less to defend the interests of the
Church, these warlords viewed Church property as an extension of their own landholdings.

What resulted was the plunder of movable wealth (of which the monasteries had become the
keepers during the period of Viking invasion) and the parcelling out of land and office as the

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temporal powers saw fit. This sorry state of the Church prompted enthusiasm for 'freeing' it from
the direct control of these milites; Gregory VII helped frame this goal through the specifics of his
reform program.

In addition to calling for spiritually pure figures at the helm of the Church, Gregory VII
addressed the practical problems of pluralism (holding more than one church office) and poorly-
educated clerics.

The major headings of Gregorian reform can be seen as embodied in the Papal electoral decree
(1059), and the resolution of the Investiture Controversy (1075–1122) was an overwhelming
papal victory that by implication acknowledged papal superiority over secular rulers

The growth of Papal power

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire had a major impact on the role of the church and of the
bishop of Rome.

i. Most of the barbarians respected the church and left it intact.

ii. The Pope of Rome gained more power by the absence of an emperor.
iii. Church and society were identical. In theory during this period only the orthodox and
committed believers could enjoy the full right of citizenship. The only exception was the
Jews who were described as the licensed enemies of God. Thus the church was a
compulsory society just as the modern state is a compulsory state. Baptism was
compulsory.

The medieval church was a state why?

 It had all the machinery of a state. It had law and law court, taxes and tax collectors,
had great administrative machinery consisting, of priests, bishops and people etc.
 It had power of life and death over the citizen of Christendom, e.g. Christian empire.
 However, the medieval church state had no police force. The church was weak in its
means of coercion (to force somebody to do something). It had to depend on consent

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 and co-operation of secular rulers in the maintenance of discipline. If the secular ruler
refused to cooperate the only recourse was excommunication.

How did the church come to occupy this central position in society during the middle ages?

The collapse of the Roman Empire left a mental, political, and spiritual vacuum which took
centuries to fill. The church moved in to fill this vacuum particularly in the west.

Proliferation (to increase) of religious orders revitalize the church.

The East /West Schism

CAUSES

Non-Theological Factors

1. The division of the empire from the end of the 3rd century from this period the empire
was usually divided into two parts an Eastern and Western part each under its own
emperor. Constantine furthered this process by founding l starting a 2nd Imperial capital
in the east, i.e. Constantinople.
2. The Barbarian invasion at the start of the fifth century. Destroyed political unity of the
Greek east and the Latin west. The severance was carried even further by the rise of the
Islam.
3. Divergent customs. The problem of languages. By 45AD there were very few people in
the Latin west who could speak or read Greek. By 600AD it was rare for the Byzantines
to speak Latin. There were also differences in church practices e.g. in the use of the
leavened and unleavened bread. Also the question on how to deal with penitence.
4. Different stages of development. The east considered itself to be sophisticated, learned
and superior. On the other hand the west was barbarized and semi-educated because of
invasions.

Theological factors:

1. The Papal claim to absolute power over the entire church including Constantinople.

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The East replied ‘you have the primacy of honor but no primacy of jurisdiction.’ We respect you
as our elder brother.

2. Church controversies
These included the image and the filoque clause controversy. The image or iconoclastic
controversy centered on the place of images in the church. The Iconoclast or image smashes
(East) suspicious of any religious act which represented human beings or God demanded the
destruction of icon, while the Iconodules or venerators of the icons (West) vigorously defended
the place of icons in the life of the Church. The filoque clause controversy revolved around the
‘the Nicene creeds phrase…and the son, which was an addition to the creed. The words added in
the west had to do with the double procession of the Holy Spirit, i.e., that the Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son. The words were accepted by the synod of Aachen in the
West in 809 AD. The clause was rejected in the east and therefore added tension.

Immediate causes
A new series of disputes.
This was the last straw which broke the camel’s back.

i. Election of Photius

In 858 Photius was consecrated patriarch of Constantinople after the disposition of the previous
patriarch Ignatius. Pope Nicholas the 1st denounced this election and called on Photius to resign.
Photius did not comply. But a new emperor deposed him and reinstated Ignatius. In 877 Ignatius
died and was succeeded by Photius. The West could not do anything and therefore the religious
lift was growing.

ii. Diptychs

A diptych is an official list of all Patriarchs and Popes who ruled and who were considered
legitimate by the Orthodox Church. In 1009, Pope Sergius IV issued a statement of faith and
sent it to Constantinople. It included the Filoque clause which was a total anathema to the
Eastern Church. This annoyed the patriarch of Constantinople who retaliated by excluding the
name of Sergius IV from the Diptychs. This implied that Constantinople was not in communion
with Sergius. However Rome never learnt of this immediately.

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 iii. The Norman occupations

The Normans was a group of people from Scandinavians who settled in southern Sicily. They
threatened both the pope and the eastern emperor.

The Roman Pope LEO IX and the Eastern Emperor made an alliance against the Normans in
1053, the Normans won the war and captured the Pope. This aroused deeper suspicion of the east
to the west. The east though that the pope had given himself freely. The patriarch of
Constantinople Michael I Cerularius, suspecting the Pope’s intention to take over southern Italy
decided on pre-emptive war. He advised the Greek Emperor to cross the Latin Churches in
Constantinople. The act antagonized the Pope who sent delegates to Constantinople led by
Cardinal Humbert. The Cardinal arrived in Constantinople with 2 letters. The first letter was
addressed to the Emperor. It was friendly and courteous. It was aimed at isolating the patriarch.
The second letter was addressed to patriarch. It was an extremely fierce letter. The cardinal’s
attempts failed. The eastern Roman Emperor refused to have any further dealings with the
cardinals after that. And so it was in 1054 cardinal marched in the temple in Constantinople and
laid a letter of ex-communication on the high altar of Santa Sofia, and then shook the dust to
mark the break of the link between Rome and Constantinople. This created a big gap between the
Roman and the eastern churches and marked the beginning of the great schism of east and west.

iv. Attempts at Re-union

Two serious attempts were made to secure the union between the eastern and western churches.
This happened in 13th and 15th Century.

13th century.

The moving spirit behind this first attempt is Emperor Michael VIII 1259-82. His prime motive
was political. He wanted Papal support against an enemy who had occupied Sicily. For this
reason he was prepared to recognize the pope’s authority over the church. A re-union council
was held at Lyons in 1274 in which the orthodox delegates agreed to recognize the papal claims
and to recite the creed with the Filoque. This agreement was short lived. It was fiercely rejected
by the majority of the clergy and laity in the Eastern Church. Indeed the east was so horrified by
the agreement that upon Michael’s death he was deprived over a Christian burial.

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 15th century

A second reunion council was held at Florence in 1438-39. The Muslims were threatening
Constantinople and the Eastern Empire was in desperate circumstance the East needed Western
help at any cost. Papal authority was still supreme in the west. This council was attended by the
Eastern Emperor John VIII, the Patriarch of Constantinople and a large delegation from the
Eastern Church. There were prolonged discussions and genuine attempts were made by both
sides to reach a genuine agreement – the concord of reunion. This was signed based on 2
principles.

(a). Doctrinal agreement. According to this, Papal authority and the filoque clause were to be
accepted by the east.

(b). Respect for differing traditions. The east was to use leavened bread and the West
unleavened.

Results:

The paper union again failed. Some delegates disowned it. The emperor and the patriarch tied to
uphold it. In 1453, Constantinople was overturned by the Turkish Muslims or the Ottomites. The
Eastern Church however survived.

Medieval Monasticism

Definition

The word monk comes from the Greek word MONOS which means alone. Monks were people
who had withdrawn from society to pursue spiritual life and solitude.

In every period when new life stirs within the church, that life seems to express itself in the
forming of new monastic orders. The monastic system, which became so important in the Middle
Ages, arose from unnatural asceticism which was manifesting itself even in the day of St. Paul.

Classification

It is possible to classify monasticism into 2 categories.

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1. Eremitical monasticism: In this kind of monasticism each monk lived in solitude. It is also
called hermitic monasticism.

2. Coenobitic monasticism

Common life: The monks lived in a community or a monastery governed by a head monk and
governed by rules.

Origins

Monasticism is pre Christian. It probably arose in India or some closely bordering lands.

Christian’s monasticism arose in Egypt in the 3rd AD century. Why Egypt? This is because by
the 3rd century Egypt had a strong vibrant Christian community. Also the proximity of the desert
favored an ascetic life style.

Christian asceticism took its rise from St. Anthony who was born in Egypt in AD 251. He
forsook wealth and social position, and retired to the mountain-caves in order to dedicate himself
to lonely contemplation.

Later he gathered round him a small group of disciples which he organized into a community in
the desert. Members of such communities were known as Cenobites, meaning ‘having life in
common’, a more accurate term than ‘monk’ which really means ‘a solitary’.

The first great organizer of monastic communities was Pachomius (292-346), who established a
monastery at Tabanessi on the island in the Nile in Upper Egypt. When Athanasius visited this
community soon after its foundation he was welcomed by 3000 monks chanting hymns and
litanies. This shows the sudden popularity of the movement. By the end of the century very many
similar communities had been established in Egypt and the movement had begun to spread
elsewhere. In the west monasticism grew up more slowly, in spite of the vigorous support of
Athanasius, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine. St. Martin of Tours was one of the earliest and
best leaders in the West in Gaul.

Causes

Q.What are the Religious and sociological factors that stimulated medieval Monasticm

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Religious: The growing laxity in the Church

The softening of the moral fibre of the Christian community after Constantine had given peace
to the church in 313AD. Viewed from this angle monasticism represented a reaction against
spiritual laxity within the church following the end of persecutions.

Sociological: Desire to escape persecutions and social or civic obligations

Also desire to escape from city life with its crowd, noise moral corruption etc. As far as the
character of monasticism is concerned, at first it was a movement of the lay people outside the
hierarchy structure of the clergy. To some extent it was a rebellion against the clericalism in the
church. However, by the end of 5th century the movement had spread so widely that it had
become an accepted feature of the Catholic Church.

Outstanding People in Early Monasticism

Paul of Thebe (Abu Bolos): He is traditional regarded as the first Christian hermit. Fled during
the Decian persecution in to the Theban desert as a young man and lived an ascetic life dying at
an advanced age.

Saint Antony (AD 251-356): He is traditionally regarded as a founder of proper monasticism.

He was born into wealthy Coptic family in AD 271. He heard the story of the rich young ruler
read in church. He at once sold his possessions and went to the desert as a hermit. He was a
moderate in his asceticism and this deeply impressed his contemporaries.

Pachom (Pachomius) 292-346: Regarded as the real founder of Celibatic monasticism. He was
born in Upper Egypt in c. 290AD. He got converted while serving the Roman army. He used his
military knowledge in the service of monasticism.

Athanasius: Is credited with introducing monasticism into the west between AD 335 – 46.

Basil of Caesarean: He popularized monasticism in Asia Minor in an area called Turkey. He

introduced the Basil rule which emphasized prayer work and Bible reading. Also taught that
monks should care for orphans and discouraged extreme asceticism. Above all Basil succeeded
in bringing the monastic life into the life of the Church as a whole.

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A serious practical problem was to keep the ascetics from passing wholly outside the local
Church under its bishop. Some forms of this movement regarded Church attendants and
sacrament as of secondary importance. Basil sought to curb there tendencies by setting up
monastic communities with a rule under which the authority of the local bishops was safe
guarded.

Benedict of Nursia: He was the great reformer of Western Monastism. Born at Nursia in central
Italy and primarily remembered for his rule for the monastic life. The rule is characterized by
great moderation. In the words of walker, the rule called for “A strict life but one not at all
impossible for the average earnest man. It emphasized obedience, worship and work”. For many
centuries in medieval west Benedict’s rule provided the standard pattern for monastic
observance. However no central organization existed for enforcement to bring uniformity. Each
monastery was independent of every other.

Monastic Renewals in the Middle Ages

The most important monastic order at the Middle Ages were the Benedictine, Cluniacs,
Cistercians, Friars and Dominicans

1. The Benedictine Order

Benedict was born was born in Monte Cassino in Italy in AD 480. As a teen he was sent for
education in Rome. He was so shocked by the immorality of the city that he went off to live by
himself in a cave in a steep valley about thirty miles away. Followers gathered around him and in
529, he built a monastery on Monte (In Italy Mountain) Cassino and here founded the
Benedictine Order. Benedict’s ideals for his monks was a community which elected its own
abbot (Syric Abba for Father) and then obeyed his fatherly rule. Monks were to be invited as
‘novices’, i.e. on trial for a year, and then took vows for life, living in the community without
any possessions of their own.

Theirs was a simple life, busy, disciplined and very strict, joined together by the ‘work of God’
(Greek Opus Dei). They had a scheme of eight daily worship periods, coming at intervals of

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three hours throughout the day and night. Each worship period included prayers, psalms and
Bible reading.

His monks slept with one candle burning in the dormitory, clothed and belted so as to be ready,
but without the knife in the belt, lest they hurt themselves while sleeping.

Rule very strict. Obedience was to be without delay… above all, no murmuring for any cause, by
and any word, gesture.’

When a monk did wrong the punishment was to be shut out of the fellowship, and left to do the
daily duties alone. Benedict remained there till his death and burial about 543.

By and by the order became immensely popular and very rich. With prosperity and success came
degeneracy (corruption, immorality wickedness, evil) and abuses.

2. The Cluniac Order

This order or movement was started by Bernon in AD 910 at Cluny in France. Berno was an
Abbot of Monastery which stood for strict following of St. Benedict’s Rule. The ORDER was
started to counteract the corruption and lack of zeal which had manifested itself in the
Benedictine Order. It stood for the freedom of the church from all secular interferences by
princes and patrons, and the free election of Bishops and Abbots by the chapter or the monks. It
also stood out fanatically for clerical celibacy. The influence of Cluny spread far and wide
because of its exacting discipline.

The idea of the Truce (i.e. peace) of God began at Cluny. This was a rule forbidding fighting
from Saturday night to Monday morning. The rule was so successful that Thursday, Friday and
Saturday were added later as non- fighting days.

Cluny strengthened the campaign against Simony (Buying and selling of spiritual things, as did
Simon the magician in Acts 8:18), and other abuses in the church.

He is responsible for starting the observance of All Saints ’ Day November 1 followed by All
Souls’ DAY (November 2nd)-piety.

3. The Cistercians (Latin Citeaux) (1100)

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This order was founded at Citeaux in Burgundy by Robert monks who wanted to keep the
original Benedictine rules in their strictness and purity. They aimed at a return to great simplicity
of life. Their clothing was made of undyed cloth, not black like that of the other monks. They
were often called ‘the white monks’, but their appearance was only a greyish white. They aimed
at plain, simple living. Instead of the elaborate prayers and music of the Cluniacs, their daily
services were simple; their crucifix was of wood, their robes not silk but cotton. They reduced
the length of the services, and spent more time in silence. They like the Cluniacs opened more
monastery and were linked into a family of monasteries.

Bernard (1090-1153) is the most famous Cistercian founded the famous monastery of Clairvaux
in 1115 in a wild and remote valley. His influence was immense and stories regarding the force
of his eloquence became legendary.

‘Mothers used to hide from him their sons, wives their husbands, men their friends – lest he
should persuade them to leave the world and become monks.’

He was a great reforming and purifying influence in the church, and so chiefly through him, did
the whole Cistercian Order. He was far more of a spiritual power than the popes of the time.

He was however very intolerant. The Cistercian order grew up to include 700 monastic houses.
The church has greatly treasure several of Bernard’s such as ‘Jesus the very thought of thee.’

4. The Mendicant (begging) Order or the Friars

The two most famous orders of Friars are the Dominicans and the Franciscans. They were
important movement of spiritual renewal in the late Middle Ages. The friars unlike most monks
were not shut away from the world, but in it. They differed from other monks in not being
confined to a monastery but going about as preachers and teachers among the people. They
unlike many monks and nuns did not come from the more privileged classes. They were poor, or
in sympathy with the poor. Many of them were ready to beg their bread without blush or shame,
since the Lord made himself poor in this world for our sakes.’ Their Influences was immense. As
trade and wealth grew, towns were growing. The poorest peoples, living in huts which they built
outside the walls, were not provided for by the ordinary Parish system. There was a need for
help, and the Friars came to fill it.

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They refused all personal possessions and became a ‘mendicant’ (begging) Order. Both became
great missionary Orders. The members of these orders were recruited from humble life and their
democratic spirit made a wide appeal. They soon completely eclipsed the older orders, a fact
which caused grave jealousies. The organization of the Dominican and Franciscan were similar.
Each had a second Order, for women, and a third Order for both men and women in ordinary life
who accepted their ideals and lived in simplicity and faithfulness.

The founders of the two Orders were opposite in one way. Dominic had found in province
ignorant priests, and this made him call for sound learning, as a guard against heresy. Study was
a first duty for a Dominicans. Francis had a fear of learning, thinking that it might spoil the
simplicity of his brothers. He sometimes spoke as if they were better without books-even a
prayer book.

(i) Franciscan Order (1209)

The Franciscan order was founded by the saint Francis (1181-1226) of Assisi in Italy. He was
born of a very wealthy family. He heard the words of Matthew 10:7-9 read in the church, and felt
that they were spoken to himself, as a call to preach, tend the sick and lepers, have no money, be
ready to suffer, and in it all, not be anxious.

Francis loved nature, his gaiety and acceptance of the world mission. He preached with such
ardor that men and women of the town were all eager to leave their homes and follow him.

He saw some trees by the road side on which rested an innumerable flock of birds. “Wait here,
he said, ‘I will go and preach to my sisters the birds.”

“My little sisters, you have received many things from God. He preserved you in the Ark, that’s
birds should not perish out of the world. You do not sow or reap, but He feeds you. You do not
spin or sew, but you are clothed. Keep yourself from the sin of ingratitude, and try always to
please God.”

He made over them the sign of the cross, and they rose in the air with a wonderful song…one
flight going East, one West, one South, one North. So the preaching of the cross, renewed by St.
Francis, would be borne by his friars through the whole world. And the friars, like the birds,
would possess nothing for themselves, but trust the providence of God.

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Their aim was to live a life of poverty in imitation of our Lord. They came to have a dominant
position in the church, counting among their great men Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, and William
of Occam.

The Franciscans were directly involved with the crusades from their very origin

The Franciscans after their saint’s death found that they had to provide training for their Friars.

In time they set aside the ideals of St. Francis as to poverty, and entered the same vicious circle
as other orders with regard to wealth and worldliness.

(ii) The Dominican Order (AD 1215/6)-a.k.a. the order of Brothers preachers

The Dominican order was founded by Dominic(1170-1221), a Spanish nobleman, at the time of
the bloody campaign against the Albigenses, a.k.a Gathari ( GK for ‘the pure)was a Christian
sect in S. France and N. Italy who regarded the clergy of their time as corrupt, and countered
their rites as worthless because they were not men of GOD. Albigenses lived a life of great
strictness, in contrast with the lax and mostly ignorant Christian clergy of that area. The church
was trying to suppress these heretics by force but Dominic was sent to convert them if he could.
His missionaries he knew must excel in holiness, love, and powers of persuasion.

Dominic insisted on a simple and austere/harsh life to impress the common man, an aim in which
he succeeded. In 1215 Dominic opened a house in Toulouse, and he had several colleagues lived
there in community. The name ‘Friars (i.e. Brothers) Preachers’ was later suggested for them by
Pope Innocent III, and they still use this name more often than ‘Dominicans’. was supposed to be
operated by the Bishops.

Dominicans were indirectly connected with the Crusades because they were often, as preachers,
used by the popes to encourage peoples to give or to go. Also all the envoys sent to the lands of
the Mongols by the Pope, were either Dominicans or the Franciscans as they were outstanding
missionaries of the period.

Pope Gregory IX committed the engine of the iniquity into the hands of the Dominican order,
giving its leaders vast powers to coerce (force/compel) bishops and nobles whose help they
wanted in their nefarious (wicked/evil) work. The Dominicans under the Bishop of Citeaux and

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Simon de Montfort conducted such a thorough and successful persecution of the Albigenses that
they almost exterminated them and bathed so many lands in blood. Arch bishop R.C. Trench
says: the machinery so wonderful in its wickedness and craft, did not fail in its object… By the
middle of the 14th century there were probably few Albigenses.

5. The Military Order:

(i) the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem founded in 1048
(ii) the Knights Templars founded in 1119
(iii) the Teutonic Knights founded in 1121

The military Order was composed of soldier – monks. The orders began in Palestine with the
object of caring for and protecting Pilgrims. They soon however became very militant and made
it their chief objective to fight the Saracens. They all became very wealthy and influential and
spread to various lands.

Contributions of monasticism to Christian life

 Scholasticism
 Revival
 Reservation of materials
 Icons as focus of worship
To start with the Church was very cautious and skeptical about the movement until it was joined
by prominent Church leaders.

Conclusion

At their best, the monasteries of the various Orders did a great work in forwarding agriculture,
providing schools of learning, caring for the poor and giving hospitality to the sick and needy.
After the founder had died, however, and the first enthusiasm had waned with the growth of
health and power, it generally happened that they fell into spiritual decadence and in time moved
far from their early ideals.

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Medieval Doctrinal Controversies
i. The Trinitarian and Christological controversies
The Trinitarian and Christological controversies were resolved consistently with Scripture. The
three later controversies (9th-12th centuries) were all resolved on the side of error — evidence of
the growing apostasy of the church, increased willingness to tolerate error and a reluctance to
subject church dogma to the light and scrutiny of Scripture. Nevertheless, the truths for which
pious men such as Gottschalk suffered were to have a glorious resurrection at the Reformation.
These controversies lent weight to the Reformers' claim that there had been opposition to the
false doctrines adopted by the Roman church and a continuity of true doctrine in the visible
church despite the errors of the official church.

ii. The Predestination Controversy

As a result of the writings and influence of Augustine (5th century) the church had originally
supported the doctrine of predestination against the heretical Pelagius. But soon there
commenced a gradual drift away from this accepted truth. The new prevailing sentiment
cautiously moved between Augustinianism and Semi-Pelagianism and then towards Semi-
Pelagianism itself — giving some weight to the preceding and enabling grace of God yet
claiming merit for man's consenting and co-operating will.
There were, however, supporters of the Augustinian position. Isidore of Seville (560-636AD)
still held to a twofold or double predestination (i.e. predestination of both the elect and the non-
elect). Then in the 9th century a controversy developed around this doctrine through the writings
of Gottschalk, a Saxon monk (c.805-c.868 AD), who devoted himself to the study of Augustine.
He became convinced of Augustine's doctrine of predestination and through reading his writings
to his fellow monks he won many to this doctrine. Unlike the popular view of the time which
applied predestination only to the elect, and only foreknowledge to the non-elect, Gottschalk
clearly propounded double predestination. To Gottschalk the thought seemed revolting that any
sinful creature could ever be able to produce a change in the divine counsels.
Gottschalks’ views were opposed by his former abbot, Rabanus Maurus who wrote against the
doctrine of double predestination, misrepresenting Gottschalk as teaching that divine
foreordination placed every man under constraint, so that although he may want to be saved, and
may strive after it with faith and good works, he still labors in vain if he has not been predestined

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to salvation. Called before a Synod at Mainz in 848AD, Gottschalk courageously maintained his
views but was condemned by the Synod. A year later he was summoned before the Synod of
Chiersy where he refused to recant and was condemned a heretic. The Synod deposed him from
the priesthood. He was publicly scourged, compelled to burn his books and imprisoned for the
rest of his life — some 19 years — despite appeals to Pope Nicholas! From prison, Gottschalk
delivered his courageous testimony:
"I believe and confess that God foreknew and foreordained the holy angels and elect men to
eternal life, but that he almost equally foreordained the devil ....with all reprobate men, on
account of their foreseen future evil deeds, by a just judgment to merited eternal death ".
Having been refused communion and Christian burial unless he recanted which he refused to do,
Gottschalk died a martyr unshaken in his faith, his conviction of the unchangeableness of God
reflecting itself in his inflexible conduct. Although he majored on one issue, he correctly
perceived the importance and ramifications of the doctrine of God's sovereignty. Following
Gottschalk's death the controversy seems to have been abandoned until revived in the 14th
century by the famous Augustinians, Bradwardine and Wycliffe. Nevertheless it seems that a
small, generally Augustinian, faction survived in the church but not sufficiently influential to
contain the widespread theological drift towards Semi-Pelagianism — a drift away from the
sovereignty of God. Undoubtedly one reason for this was that the concept of man's free will as
qualifying man's guilt and inability, and consequently implying merit, was helpful in
strengthening the Roman church's idea of sacramental mediation in salvation. Semi-Pelagianism
having become deeply embedded in Roman Catholic faith became an additional reason for that
Church's hostility to the Reformation.

iii. The Eucharistic Controversies

The controversy was whether the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper literally
and actually became the body and blood of Christ (the mystical view), or whether these elements
were only a representation of His body and blood (the spiritual view). Church fathers had held
both views but Augustine unmistakably held the spiritual view. But the mystical view (i.e.
transubstantiation) spread in an age of excessive superstition such as the Middle Ages. Gradually
the spiritual view as held by Augustine gave way to transubstantiation.

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Paschasius Radbertus (800-865 AD) clearly taught that "the substance of bread and wine is
effectually changed into the flesh and blood of Christ “while "the figure of bread and wine
remain ". He supported his doctrine by the word of institution interpreted in a literal sense and
appealed to marvelous instances of the supposed appearances of the body and blood of Christ.
His teachings caused a sensation, but many were not prepared to accept the miraculous proofs.
Radbertus then quotes Augustine and continues, "...we see then that the doctor says that the
mysteries of Christ's body and blood are celebrated in a figurative sense by the faithful ".

Ratramnus (d.868) strongly and ably opposed the views of Radbertus. He argued that the
elements remain in reality what they were before consecration and that only in a spiritual sense
to the faith of believers are they the body and blood of Christ. “Bread and wine produce after
consecration, an effect on the souls of believers which they cannot produce by their natural
qualities." He believed that unbelievers cannot receive Christ as they lack the spiritually renewed
heart to do so. Hence Ratramnus regarded the Mass only as a commemorative celebration of
Christ's sacrifice whereby Christians are assured of their redemption. "How then", asks
Ratramnus, “Shall that be called Christ's body and blood in which no change is recognized to
have taken place? But since they confess that they are Christ's body and blood....and this change
did not take place in a corporeal sense but in a spiritual, it must now be said that this was done
figuratively ". This view was supported by Alcuin, Rabanus Maurus, John Scotus Erigene and
Florus Magister supported this view.
Pope Sylvester II, however, defended the Radbertus view of miraculous transformation of the
elements by priestly consecration — possibly since it greatly strengthened the power of the
priesthood who were thereby confirmed as miracle workers. The pope's view prevailed. No
council was called to decide the matter. Transubstantiation won — Radbertus was canonised in
1073. Ratramnus' writings on the subject were twice condemned (1050 and 1059) and included
in the Tridentine Index of prohibited books. However, they were preserved and were of benefit
to the Reformers more than 600 years later.
Bishop Ridley in 1555, supported Ratramnus; “This man was the first that pulled me by the ear
and forced me from the common error of the Roman church to a more diligent search of
Scripture and ecclesiastical writers on this matter". Berengar (1000-1088) also held Ratramnus'
doctrine of the spiritual presence of Christ in the Mass. He admitted a change in the elements to

33
that of a consecrated state but did not admit a change of substance. He died in 1088, rejecting
transubstantiation. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council exalted transubstantiation to the position
of a fixed dogma in these words.:’ The body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of
the altar under the forms of bread and wine; the bread substantiated into the body and the wine
into the blood by divine power...And this sacrament no-one can in any case administer except a
priest who has been properly ordained.'

iv. The Images Controversy

This controversy was among the major factor contributing to the split between the Eastern and
the Western churches. It had greater historical than doctrinal importance. Its origins go back to
the 3rd and 4th centuries when increasing veneration was being shown to the remains of those
who had been martyred for the Faith. A tendency to worship departed saints then developed,
assisted by the influx of nominal converts from polytheistic idolatry following the cessation of
persecution and the establishment of Christianity as the state religion under Constantine. This
tendency to saint-worship led to visual representations being made of them. At first, these
consisted of paintings but in due course statues were made of their supposed likeness.
Muslims overrunning Christian countries discovered these images and rightly charged
Christianity with the sin of idolatry. The resultant reaction led to the Iconoclastic Controversy in
the East. The emperor Leo the Isauriam (714-41
AD) declared war on the cult of icons. His supporters were called Iconoclasts (icon-breakers),
his opponents, Iconodules (icon-venerators).
Popular riots against the iconoclastic emperor broke out in Constantinople and Venice (which
threw off its allegiance to the Byzantyne Empire and became an independent Italian republic).
The Emperor Leo's position was not helped by Pope Gregory II(715-31) who supported the
Italian iconodule rebels for two reasons:—
(1) The papacy accepted the iconodule position as theologically correct (though the actual
veneration of icons had not developed so fully in the Western church as in the East).
(2) Popes objected to the iconoclast emperors' subjection of the Eastern Church to state control,
making the emperor supreme judge in doctrinal and spiritual matters.
Leo's son and successor, Constantine V (741-75), continued the iconoclast campaign by
summoning an ecumenical Church Council in Constantinople in 754 (packed with 338 iconoclast

34
bishops) which condemned idols and required that all images be destroyed and removed from
places of worship.
However it said nothing about saint-worship, the root cause of images, nor of the use of the cross
(the crucifix being banned as having an image on it). But the reform attempt failed. A Second
Council of Nicea in 787 pronounced in favour of icons. This has remained, ever since, the
Eastern Orthodox Church's position. (The Council distinguished between latreia (=latria, Latin)
or divine worship, and proskunesis (=dulia, Latin) veneration given to icons). The Church of
Rome went further, however, and allowed "graven" as well as painted images, despite a minority
opposition from such men as Agobard (d.841), archbishop of Lyons who not only condemned
image worship but also saint-worship (which he regarded as a cunning device of Satan to
smuggle heathen idolatry into the church), and Claudius, bishop of Turin(814-839

v. The Nicene Creed

The filoque clause controversy revolved around the ‘the Nicene creeds phrase ‘…and the Son’,
which was an addition to the creed. The words added in the west had to do with the double
procession of the Holy Spirit, i.e., that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The
words were accepted by the synod of Aachen in the West in 809 AD. The clause was rejected in
the east and therefore added tension.

vi. Investiture Controversy

The Investiture Controversy was about the ceremony by which a man became a bishop or an
archbishop. During the investiture, the bishop or archbishop- elect was given a signet ring
representing his authority to act legally for his territory (diocese or archdiocese), a long staff
like a shepherd's crook (crozier) signifying his spiritual leadership of the people of the diocese,
a lump of dirt (glebe) that demonstrated his possession and ownership of the lands with which
the churches in his diocese had been endowed, and a white woolen stole to hang around his
neck (pallium) indicating that he was a legitimate successor to a long tradition of spiritual
teaching and leadership reaching all the way back to the apostles (apostolic succession). Since
bishops and archbishops appointed and directed all the clerics below them, either directly or
indirectly, the investiture ceremony was the most important single factor in selecting church
personnel and setting the structure of authority within the Church as a whole.

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The controversy revolved around laymen taking part in the ceremony of investing churchmen
with their office, thus claiming the right to invest the candidate with some or all of the insignia
of his office. By giving the bishop-elect his ring of legal authority the layman was promising to
back up the bishops authority by force if necessary, by giving the glebe he was promising to
defend the Church's possessions, and by giving the crozier he was recognizing that the bishop
had powers over his -- the layman's -- subjects. By giving or investing the pope, a layman could
claim that he was recognizing the bishop's rights over him and his heirs. After all, when he
died, the bishop would have an important role in investing his successor.

The fact that the layman had the right to or not to invest a bishop- elect gave laymen a veto
power over the selection of church officials. After all the lay argument simply boiled down to
the view that investiture consisted of a series of acts in which the layman transferred power
from himself to a churchman. The Church argued that its authority came directly from God and
not from a bunch of secular lords. Jesus saying "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church. The point is that the Church argued that it, the Church, was established by Jesus
and given to the disciple Peter and his successors. Of course, Peter was the first bishop of
Rome, so the popes are his successors. That argument is called the Petrine Doctrine.

The Crusades

Definition

The crusades ware a series of religious wars fought between Christians in Europe and Muslims
in the Middle East in 1095 – 1291. There were nine crusades fought by European Christians
against Muslims in the Middle East. Although the main goal of the crusades was to take control
of or to capture and defend the Holy land-Jerusalem from the Muslims, there were many reasons
why the Europeans and others were willing to travel and fight a war in a foreign land.

Causes

1. Non – theological causes

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i. Economical causes

-During the 11th century Western Europe repeatedly suffered from food shortage. For some
crusaders the wars provided an opportunity for:

-Rooted plunder and change of environment.

-Further the Italian cities were beginning to grow and thus looked eastward for trade. Italian
traders encouraged the crusaders as a mean of furthering their commercial interests.

-The possibility of opening up new trade routes between Europe and the Middle East.

ii. Personal factor

-Ambitious people saw in the crusade opportunity for adventure, fame and power.

-Desire for territorial advancement: The crusade provided an opportunity for the young sons of
European nobles to get new land in the Middle East.

2. Theological Causes

i. Religious hatred between Christianity and Muslim. The desire to rescue the Holy places
from the Muslims and especially Jerusalem: For centuries Christians from the West and the East
travelled from Europe to Jerusalem, which they had made the goal of their pious pilgrimages. In
the 11th century the Turks who were Muslims, began to interfere with the pilgrimages.

ii. The desire to defend the Byzantine Empire from the Turks: In AD 1071, Turks fought
against the Byzantine Empire at the Battle Manzikert. The Byzantines, who were Christians, lost
and were subjected to heavy taxations. The tax was threatening this historic bulwark of
Christians. The Byzantine emperor appealed to the Christians in Europe for help to protect his
empire from the Turks and the popes were inclined to give it

iii. It was the desire of the Popes to heal the (AD 1054) breach/schism between the Western
and the Eastern Churches and to restore Christian unity. In 1095, Pope Urban 11 called for a
crusade against the Muslims to regain control of Jerusalem. To all crusaders, he gave this
promise: All who die by the way, whether by land or sea, or in battle against the (Muslims), shall
have immediate (forgiveness) of sins.

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iv. Divisions among the Muslims: During this period Islam was divided politically between the
caliphs of Bagdad, Cairo and Cordova, it also split into two religious sects i.e. the Sunni.
Throughout the crusades Christians’ success depended largely on the division of the Islam.

v. Monastic and ascetic orders: The 11th Century was a period of deepening religious feelings.
Its manifestation took the form of monastic and ascetic orders. It was characterized by a strong
sense of other worldliness (this world is not my home), the misery of earth and blessedness of
heaven. Those regions where the revival moment was strongest were chief recruiting grounds of
the religious army the new piety placed a lot of emphasis on relics and pilgrimages to the Holy
lands. It is not surprising that they were willing and indeed eager to defend the Holy places from
Islamic occupation and to keep open the root to them.

vi. The desire by the Popes to rid themselves of powerful nobles.

Course of the first four crusades

There were eight crusades in all but the first four are the most important

1st Crusade (1095-1099)

It was begun by Pope Urban 11 in 1095 as a result of an appeal from the Eastern Roman
Emperor Alexius Comnenus to assist him drive out the Turkish Muslim from the Byzantine
Empire. Pope Urban II responded to this appeal by proclaiming to the crusade in stirring sermon
at a Synod in Clermont in South France in 1095. The congregation was deeply moved and
replied “Deus Vult” God wills it. These words were made the slogan of the crusade. The Pope
also promised “plenary (total) indulgence” (tolerance, pardon) to all those who would volunteer.
Many volunteered to go and fight. This crusade was a great success. In 1095, the crusaders took
Nicaea, Antioch fell in 1098 and Jerusalem in 1099. When Jerusalem fell, the crusaders
massacred Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. It was necessary to set up government for the
future defense of Jerusalem. This was set up under the most respected of the crusaders leader
called Godfrey of BOSILLON, who accepted the title of king and protector of the holy
sepulcher. After his early death in 1099, he was succeeded by his brother who was crowned king
of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. His name was Baldwin of Edessa. The kingdom lasted for

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48 years i.e., 1099 – 1147. Then the leaders divided up the land into territories, each governed by
a European feudal lord.

2nd Crusade (1147-1149)

It was stimulated by the fall of Edessa to the Muslim 1144. Edessa was the key city in the
defense of the crusaders kingdom. This crusade was jointly preached by pope EUGENIUS III
and BERNARD of Clairvaux. These two stirred up King Louis VII of France and King Conrad
III of Germany to the crusade. The crusade started in 1147 but their journey was attended by
disasters. Many crusaders did not arrive and those who did failed to regain any land/ were
defeated. The crusade was a failure from a European point of view.

3rd Crusade (1189-92)

It was brought about /was a response to the loss/fall of Jerusalem to SALADIN (Salah al-Din)
the KURDISH Muslim ruler in 1187. It was launched in 1189. The crusading armies were led by
3 kings from Europe and therefore it is often referred to as the crusade of kings. These kings
were Richard the Lion Hearted of British, Philip Augustus 11 of France and the Holy Roman
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Europe’s greatest warrior. Frederick accidently drowned in Asia
Minor and the other two kings Philip and Richard quarreled until Richard returned to France.
Richard made a truce (peace) with Saladin. The third crusade was a hopeless failure.

4th Crusade (1201 – 4)

It was stimulated by Pope Innocent III and aimed at Egypt where Saladin’s main strengths laid.
Defeating Saladin was considered necessary for the recapture and holding of Palestine. The
crusaders were dependent on Viennese ships. The influence of Venetians turned the influence to
the Byzantine Empire’s capital, Constantinople, for various reasons. First, the Venice had
extensive commercial interests in the eastern Mediterranean and wished to install/ impose an
Eastern emperor who would comply with their wishes. The crusaders stormed the city of
Constantinople in 1204, plundered/rooted/robbed it overthrew the Byzantine Emperor and
appointed and installed their own emperor, a Latin patriarch of Constantinople. This crusade
deepened the division between the Greek and Latin Christianity and killed any future chances of
the union. This hastened the decline of the Byzantine Empire.

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Consequences of the Crusades

Positively,

i. Crusades led to increased trade

ii. Increased cultural contacts between Christians and Muslim.
iii. Stimulated the 15th century Renaissance (Rebirth).

Negatively,

i. The fourth crusade brought to an end any attempt to reconcile east and west.
ii. The relationship between Christian and Muslim was embittered/estranged for centuries.
iii. The crusades were helped to dislocate (disrupt) the European Fidel (noble) system.
iv. The popes emerged with greater powers than ever.
v. This episode in church history created indulgence.
vi. An indulgence was a papal certificate supposed to limit the penalty for sin. It was first
given to those who volunteered to go for the crusades and those who raised money for the
work.

Conclusions

In a sense the crusades were frontier wars, between Christian Europe and Muslim east. The
crusades constituted a complete reversal of the attitude of the early Christians towards war.
People like Tertullian believed that war was wrong (sin) evil and Christians should not
participate in it. It’s Augustine who came up with the idea of just war - minimal damage
violence. Prior to the crusades Christians were generally opposed to war. Indeed, participation in
war as a soldier was considered to be incompatible with the Christian ideal, later the theory was
advanced that wars can be justified (people fight for God). From then on some wars were
regarded as Holy and in fulfillment of the purpose of God. “DEUS VULT” (God wills) was the
cry.

Scholasticism –Schoolmen and Universities

Introduction

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Around AD 1000, there came three centuries (1050-1350 AD) of great church building.
Churches built in that period are the pride of Western Christendom today. A new learning began
to ferment. Scholasticism, a new style of study began to replace the old way of simply quoting
the earlier masters. There was a new rigor to argumentation, a new desire to return to the sources
of learning. Theological questions were wrestled with in a new way, more clearly in some cases
than before. This surge of intellectual life produced a succession of great theological teachers
known as the schoolmen. They were called school men because they belonged to the ‘schools’ or
‘colleges’ which had begun to flourish at that time in some of the monasteries and Cathedrals.
Just before 1200, some of these centers of learning began to develop into Universities.
The five school men are Anselm, Abelard, Peter Lombard, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas the
greatest of them all a.k.a. ‘the Angelic Doctor’.

a. ANSELM (1033-1109)
Anselm was the first important theologian to become Archbishop of Canterbury.
His contributions to St. Augustine’s words:
“Understand (REASON) so that you may believe (FAITH); believe so that you may understand”
which do we put first. Anselm saw no need for conflict between the two. What the Christian faith
teaches is an essential part of reasonable view of the universe and of life.
Anselm’s most famous work ‘Cur Deus Homo’ – Latin for ‘why (did) God became man?’
In the early church, theologians were concerned less with the inner life of God than with the actual life of
man, i.e. man as a sinner and how he must be forgiven. Jesus spoke of himself as giving his life as a
ransom for many (Mk10:45). Ransom is the price to be paid for release of a slave. But to whom was the
‘price’ paid, to the devil?
Anselm said ‘No’. He saw that it was blasphemy to think that the devil could make such demand from
God. There are not two supreme beings, only one. We must think of God alone.
Anselm used the word satisfaction, which means ‘payment of what is due’ - a term used by the Romans to
describe a moral obligation which is basic to society of any kind.
For example feudalism was based upon ownership and use of land. Feu means ‘fee’ i.e. payment for
services given. In feudal system land is received from ones lord for services given; services are due
to ones lord for such lands received. In using the word ‘satisfaction’, Anselm was thinking of moral
obligation in form of a feudal system. Man owes God service. Sin means that instead of serving God, man
has rebelled. The difference between service and rebellion is as great as the difference between heaven
and hell. Anselm uses these words to describe how great the difference is which man has to make up:

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‘Such satisfaction none can make but God. And yet the debt is owed by non but man, So the God-man
had come to pay it.’
OR
Anselm’s Major doctrinal contribution – Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man) – doctrine of
Christ’s incarnation (substitutionary atonement).
1. Satisfaction ought to be in proportion to the sin. In medieval worldview, the severity of a sin is
determined by the status of the person against whom the sin was committed.
2. Satisfaction must be paid to God by someone with something that is greater than all that is beside God.
3. Since humanity sinned, payment of debt of sin should be made by a man.
4. Since only God can pay for sin, and only man ought to make satisfaction for sin, then the one who must
make satisfaction must be both God and man.
5. Will later be basis of theology of indulgences – excess of Christ’s gift of love, good works, and purity
of saints creates a treasury of merit which can be drawn upon for forgiveness.

b. THOMAS OF AQUINAS (1225-1274

Thomas was born in a villae near Monte Cassino in central Italy. He was made Archbishop at the age of
60. He called himself ‘a weak old sheep.’
He wrote the services for the Eucharistic Festival-‘the Body of Christ.’ The festival was newly added
to the churches calendar in 1264 (its day is the Thursday after Trinity). The reasoning for adding this
festival was that Maundy Thursday, the day of the Eucharist’s institution, was also ‘the night when he
was betrayed’(1 Cor.11:23), and so was considered too sad a time to express Eucharistic joy. He wrote
commentaries on the Gospels, Epistles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms and Job.
He also wrote joyful Latin Hymns.
His most famos work is the Summa Theologica (theological system i.e. systematic theology). It took
him nine years to write it. It is all-inclusive, and deals with every question raised by enquiring mind. It is
set out in three parts:
God- His existence, nature, attributes, the Trinity; God in himself before all things; and God as known in
creation and providence. Dealing with the basic question of Faith and reason, Thomas gives great scope
to reason, holding that even apart from revelation; men may arrive at the belief in God, His eternity,
oneness, creative power and providence
Five arguments for the existence of God:
i. Change/motion – God as Prime Mover
ii. Cause – God as first efficient cause of all effects
iii. Necessity – God as that which is necessary in itself (first necessity)

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 iv. God as most perfect essence (essence of good/perfect)
v. Design – logic and order of universe proof of God

Man- his fallen nature, yet a nature able to be redeemed; his vices and virtues, law and grace.
Christ as God-Man-the Redeemer, the Way back to God. This is the shortest section. Thomas died
leaving it unfinished).

Renaissance

The word Renaissance means ‘a rebirth’ or ‘birth again,’ was a time of new inventions. It
signifies the Revival the New Learning. The people of Western Europe rediscovered the glories
of ancient Graeco-Roman civilization.

This rediscovery stimulated a burst of new painting, sculpture, architecture and writing. It is
used to designate the revival of Latin and Greek literature and art that took place at the end
of the medieval period and the beginning of the modern age. It was a new spirit of adventure,
enterprise, geographical discovery and intellectual quickening.

The use of the printing press spread knowledge among the masses as never before. The dry
and the sterile word-spinning of scholasticism was replaced by the method of genuine science
and its new and precious discoveries, while philosophy, too, was entering on a new era.

The most important achievement of renaissance was the invention of the printing press. Books
had previously been few but now they became the heralds of the GOSPEL and the preachers of
truth and science. The invention of the printing press made it possible for many more people to
enjoy learning. John Gutenberg of Mainz in Germany began to use movable type for printing
about AD1450. Printing spread like wildfire – Italy (1465), Paris (1470) and London (1477).

Seamen competed with one another in voyages of exploration. Prince Henry of Portugal (Henry
the Navigator), spent 25yrs organizing voyages of discovery to Africa. Arabic translations of
Greek authors, especially Aristotle helped to counteract the sad neglect of Greek culture in
Europe in the middle ages.

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Among the outstanding Christian Humanists were the following:

1. Savonarola (1452-1498).

Although he still accepted the medieval theology, he profoundly affected the lives of many
scholars in days when the renaissance had led a great number of them into the sensualism of
paganism in his native Italy. His saintliness and earnest preaching profoundly affected the
masses, transformed the lives of the lives of the intellectuals and caused fashionable women to
make a ‘bonfire of vanities’ in the public square. He aimed at making Florence a theocratic
republic. He was unjustly charged with heresy, and was struggled and burnt in 1498. Thus the
Roman church did to death one of the noblest of her sons and showed that purification of the
Roman system was impossible as it was then constituted.

2. John Colet (1466-1519

He was one of the groups of the Brilliant Humanists at Oxford and fell under the influence of the
ideas spread by Savonarola. He broke away from the methods of scholasticism, and his lectures
of Paul epistles caused a sensation, because he made the apostles message live again. Becoming
dean of St. Paul’s, he preached in 1512 a startling sermon before convocation in which he
declared that the vicious and depraved lives of the clergy were the worst heresy of the times.
First reform the Bishops, he declared, and it will spread to all and sundry (everybody). The laws
of the church would never be enforced until the bishops became new men. He taught his students
that the important matter was to keep the Bible and the Apostles’ Creed. He believed in no
priesthood and denied transubstantiation. Among his famous students were Erasmus, whom he
persuaded to produce his Greek version of the NT, and William Tyndale, to whom we owe so
much for his English translation of the Bible which cost him his life at the stake

3. Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536)

Born at Rotterdam, he became easily the greatest of the Humanist. For a short time he was
professor of Divinity and Gk and Cambridge. His literary labours were ceaseless. His
inchiridion, in praise of folly and colloquies abound in raillery against the medieval church, its
ceremonies, and clergy. His aim was to reform the Church of Rome from within and when,

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during the reformation, many were living her, he refused to do so. He was scathingly attacked by
both roman Catholics and Protestants and was accused of lack of courage. His Greek edition of
the NT was invaluable. He wanted to make it understood not only by ‘women’, but by ‘Scots and
Irish, and by Turks and Saracens.”

The Renaissance was the chief non-religious factors, which prepared the church for the
Reformation. Though not a religious movement, it prepared the way for the reformers by
opening men’s minds and breaking the shackles imposed for centuries by the hierarchy.

REFORMATION
The Protestant Reformation
(i)Introduction
In the Late Middle Ages many Christian sectarians and theologians (the Humanists) criticized
the Catholic Church for its "worldliness" and "corruption." They upheld that the church:
a. Was more interested in income than saving souls,
b. Had lost sight of spiritual mission
c. The popes had become too political.
d. Some priests engaged in vice and misconduct instead of personal faith and spirituality.
e. The Church dogma itself contained errors and falsehoods.
Although the Humanists prepared the way, they were not able to produce any reformation in the
church. The Church withstood their challenges and defined some of these most dangerous critics
as heretics. For the church to reform, a man of intense spiritual conviction, on fire with zeal for
the gospel and possessing, in addition, great ability and courage was required. Such a man was
Martin Luther, the Originator, and leader of the Reformation in Germany. Martin Luther brought

45
a new wave of theological (and political) assaults on the authority of the Church that resulted in a
complete rupture in western Christianity, which would have great social and political as well as
cultural and theological consequences.

(ii) Martin Luther's Criticisms of Catholicism

Martin Luther (1483-1546), a professor of Theology at the University of Wurtenburg (Germany),
was the central figure in the drama of the Reformation in Germany. He was a brilliant law
student, fond of music and philosophy. He entered the Convent of the Augustinian Eremites. The
scriptures were withheld from him. He tried to save himself through prayers, fasting and
penance. He wearied his superiors with his constant confessions and penance and still he found
no rest. Then at the age of twenty he discovered a Latin Bible, while reading Romans the peace
of God came into Luther’s heart. Through studying Augustine’s works he realized that men are
saved by God through Jesus Christ and not by their good works, and that this salvation depended
on God’s grace alone. The monastic life and external observances in religion became of less
importance to Him. He began to study careful the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, especially Paul’s
Epistles. Luther was a man obsessed by the problems of sin and salvation. His intense study of
theology and his desperate search for religious truths led him towards criticism of his own
Catholic faith.

His Criticism of the Church:

Venality: This was one of Luther's criticisms of the Church. The sale of special religious
dispensations like marriage annulments/termination.
Indulgences: An indulgence was a document issued by the Papacy that absolved a person
punishment for sins (e.g., promised quick passage through purgatory); the sale of indulgences
had become a significant source of Papal income by the late 1400s.
The trade in relics of Saints, a practice that played upon ingrained superstitions and magical
thinking repellant to Luther's conception on the faith.
Hierarchy: the Church hierarchy was man-made and had no support in the Gospels.
The Doctrine of Predestination: Luther, like Augustine, believed that at the beginning of
creation God had elected some souls for salvation, and that all other souls were doomed to
damnation. The Medieval Church, however, had adopted a "softer" approach to Predestination

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following the arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic theologians had argued that the
combination of the sacraments administered by the Church and "good works" could lead humans
from sin to salvation. (In other words, through proper behavior men and women could alter
God's eternal judgment and "convince" God to grant them Grace and salvation.)

iii) Luther's Theology

The basic elements of Luther’s own theology:
In 1513 Luther went through a religious crisis that culminated in a "conversion" experience. He
worried that he would never overcome his own sin and gain Grace and salvation, and moreover
wondered why God demanded that man follow commandments that humans, as sinners, were
destined to break, and thus be condemned to damnation. In studying and meditating on the Old
Testament, Luther came to the conclusion (or as he would put it, the Holy Spirit revealed to him
that) the key to God's grace was that God allowed humans to find salvation through faith. Luther
later said that with this realization he was "born again." Here was the origins of one of the
fundamental premises of Luther's theology—"Justification [salvation] by Faith Alone."

Luther's point was that good works and sacraments could not bring salvation; God had granted
salvation—"saving grace"—without any reference to how a person behaves. Luther argued that
Grace manifests itself in the form of Faith (which he considered a gift from God), and therefore
sincere faith alone (and not "works") brought salvation. This concept of Justification by Faith
remained his central premise, and launched Luther towards his break with Rome.
iv) Luther's Break with Rome
a. Indulgences
Pope Leo X (1513-1521) needed great sum of money to continue the building of St. Peter’s
Church, and to gratify his own extravagant tastes. To secure money he resolved to extend the
sales of indulgences. A famous seller of indulgences, a Dominican monk, named Tetzel ,
shamefully declared that ‘ no sooner will the money chink in the box, than the soul of the
departed will be free’ from purgatory. Also, Prince Albert of Brandenburg, who had purchased
positions as the Bishop of Mageburg, of Halberstadt, and of Mainz, had worked out an
arrangement with Pope Leo X under which the Papacy and the Prince would divide the proceeds
of the sale of indulgences. The spirit of Martin Luther was stirred to the depths.

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The public advertisement and sale of indulgences became too much for Luther to bear, and in
1517 he composed a list of ninety-five arguments against indulgences, which he distributed
among the faculty at Wattenberg. (These are the famous 95 theses that Luther is said to have
nailed to the door of the Wurtenburg Cathedral). The core of Luther's argument, again, was that
indulgences and good works could not bring salvation; only faith could bring salvation.

b. The Scriptures
Luther argued that any faithful Christian had as much authority in reading the Bible as did the
Pope and the clergy who were, simply men. He argued that the Bible, contains God's one and
only truth, and anyone who reads it guided by the Holy Spirit would find that truth without the
intercession of a priest.

c. Lutheranism
In 1520 he further developed the three main principles of this new religious position (which soon
became known as "Lutheranism": Justification by Faith, the ability of all true believers to
commune with God- the "Priesthood of all Believers", and the rejection of any belief or practice
not explicitly laid out in the Bible, “the scriptures alone”.
In keeping with these three fundamental premises, Luther rejected:
a. Clergy celibacy and argued that ministers should be able “to marry,” and did so himself
in 1525.
b. Practices like fasting and veneration of saints;
c. Institutions such as monastic orders and the entire ecclesiastical hierarchy, including the
Papacy.
d. Accepted only two of the Church's seven sacraments—baptism and the Eucharist- and
even then argued against the elements of the Catholic doctrine of Transfiguration.
But Lutheranism was not the only "Protestant" faith to emerge in the 1500s; other forms of
"protest" against Catholicism arose in England and in Switzerland.

Swiss Reformation
Zwinglianism and Anabaptism

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In Zurich in the early 1520s, a Catholic priest named Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) began
criticizing the doctrines of the Catholic Church along lines very similar to those of Luther. The
main difference between Zwingli's views and Luther's centered on the Eucharist—Zwingli did
not believe that the consecrated host had actually become Christ's body. The followers of
Zwinglianism therefore did not enter the Lutheran Church, but instead established their own. In
the 1520s, the Zwinglian Church became the state church of Zurich.

The Anabaptists: In about 1525, some of Zwingli's followers broke off to establish their own
church, based upon doctrinal differences with Zwinglianism. The Anabaptists
a. Rejected the idea of a "state" church, and argued that one is not "born into" any church.
b. Believed that one should join the church only out of full conviction and faith, which was
possible only among mature adults capable of understanding the tenets of the faith.
c. They rejected infant baptism and re-baptized those who joined their communion. rgued
that baptism should be administered to those adults who God had inspired to join the
church—this became known as Anabaptism.
d. They emphasized simple piety and pacifism (and to this day the Anabaptist churches
preach Christian pacifism).
e. Since they rejected any ties between Church and State, the Anabaptists quickly became
recognized as a threat to state power and became the object of extreme repression.
Zwingli was killed in a battle (in 1531), his followers lost control over the Protestant movement
in Zurich. Now the leading figure in the Swiss Reformation was John Calvin.

Calvinism
Calvin (1509-1564), was a French-born Protestant who studied the scriptures intensively. His
knowledge led him to reject many of the basic doctrines of Catholic dogma, had marked him as a
heretic in the eyes of Catholic officials in France. He moved to the Swiss city of Basil to escape
religious persecution in 1535 and later to Geneva in 1536, which would become the center of his
new church. Calvin laid out his theological positions in his Institutes of the Christian Religion
a. The Doctrine of Predestination.
He argued that God, who exercises complete and absolute control over all creation, had
predestined some souls (the Elect) for salvation and condemned the rest to damnation,

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independent of any action that men or women (all of whom are sinners) may take in their lives.
The Elect, Calvin argued, will behave in a proper Christian manner because God has infused
them with the desire to do so. Good works could not bring salvation, but were a sign that one
might already have been saved; the same was true of participation in the church.
b. The Catholic Church hierarchy
Calvin insisted that the church be governed by elected elders and elected ministers, he prohibited
c. Ritual
He argued that all rituals and all adornments (including not only icons, but even stained glass
decorations and all instrumental music).
d. Strict biblical practices
Calvin argued that all "true" Christians must act as God's "instruments" in the service of God's
glory. Passive faith was not good enough: Christians must be constantly vigilant to do God's
work and follow God's rule. Calvinism therefore demanded strict adherence to "proper" Biblical
(especially Old Testament) practices, supervised by the church elders.
In 1541, Calvin became, in effect, the ruler of Geneva, which became a theocracy. Government
power in the city was exercised by a "Consistory(cf. synod)" of church elders and ministers. The
ministers themselves made laws for the people of Geneva, which the Consistory then enforced.
The church and the Consistory supervised every aspect of the population's lives—not only their
public lives, but their personal lives as well--to ensure "proper" Christian moral behavior.
Anyone caught doing the devil's work—say, playing cards would be punished; such blasphemy,
like heresy, could be punishable by death—in the 1540s, the Consistory condemned about one in
every 200 people in Geneva to be burned at the stake for heresy, blasphemy, or witchcraft.
The very strictness and austerity of Calvinism contributed to its appeal in the 1500s. In the
1500s, Calvinism spread to France (where Calvinists were known as Huguenots), to the
Netherlands (the Dutch Reformed Church), to Scotland (the Presbyterians), and to England (the
Puritans). Through the Puritans, the Presbyterians, and Dutch Reform, Calvinist doctrines would
shape the nature of religious and community life in colonial New England.

iv. Anglicanism -Henry VIII and the English Reformation

The Reformation in England was carried out directly under Henry VIII. Henry a sincere Roman
catholic broke with the Vatican in order to secure a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, to whom

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he had been married twenty- four year. Catherine was the widow of Henry’s deceased brother,
Arthur. For political reasons Ferdinand of Spain and Henry VII of England eagerly wanted the
marriage and brought pressure to bear upon Prince Henry and Catherine. Under such pressure
from the monarchs Pope Julius consented and signed the dispensation allowing the marriage to
take place. As all the children, except Mary, were still- born, and there was no son to carry on the
Tudor line, Henry regarded it as a judgment for marrying his brothers’ widow.
In 1527 Henry VIII, who, like his father had been strengthening the power of the monarchical
state, appealed to Pope Clement VII for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. Henry
wanted a new wife to produce a male heir to the throne. Clement allowed the case to flounder in
the ecclesiastical courts. Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn. Anne refused the Henry’s
proposal. The pope afraid of Catherine’s nephew, the emperor Charles V, refused Henry’s
claims.
In 1531, Henry VIII pressured a gathering of English prelates to accept a declaration naming the
King as "supreme head" of the Church of England. Parliament then agreed to a series of laws
that made the English Church independent from Rome and placed it under the King's authority.
He charged the English clergy with treason which forbade them receiving orders from a foreign
power. Most English aristocrats supported this measure, since it meant no more payments of
dues to Rome; moreover, Henry then dissolved all monasteries and redistributed their lands and
wealth to aristocrats loyal to the King. In 1534, Parliament passed the "Act of Supremacy,"
finalizing the break with the Catholic Church and again declaring the King the head of the
national Church of England.

The Catholic Reformation (1545-1648)

i) Definition
The catholic reformation also called the Counter-Reformation was the Catholic response to the
Protestant reformation. It involved greater emphasis on the central power of the papacy, the
clarification of a number of core doctrines and the refutation of Protestant beliefs at the Council
of Trent, and the growth of popular religious movements at grass-roots levels such as the Society
of Jesus to promote Catholic doctrines and root out heretical beliefs.

The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements

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 1. Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration: This element included the foundation of
seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological
traditions of the Church.
2. Religious orders: this involved the reform of religious life by returning orders to their
spiritual foundations
3. Spiritual movements: these were the new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional
life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French
school of spirituality
4. Political dimensions: involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition.

Evaluate the achievements of the counter-reformation

By the 1540s, there were several attempts to reform the Church from within for example, the
Jesuits. Many reformers attacked abuses as had Luther, but they avoided any clash with the
spiritual authority of the clergy or the Pope.

The Counter Reformation also took aggressive and hostile measures against the Protestantism.
For individuals who adhered to Protestant heresy were subject to punishment, torture and death.
On the other hand, however, wherever Protestantism obtained official status -- England,
Scotland, Geneva, Germany, and Scandinavia -- Catholics were persecuted.

After 1520, the Catholic Church censored/edited and burn books which might have spread the
Protestant Faith. The Church intended to destroy all heretical literature: all Protestant books were
burned; so too were the works written by reform-minded Catholic humanists; Petrarch and
Erasmus had to go as well. The Index of Prohibited Books became an institution within the
Church and was not abolished until 1966.

The policies of the Counter Reformation -- education, preaching, church building, persecution,
and censorship -- did succeed in bringing some people back to the Church. And, in 1545, the
Council of Trent met to institute concrete changes in policy and doctrine. Between 1545 and
1563, the Council modified and unified Church doctrine: it abolished numerous corrupt practices
and abuses and also gave final authority to the Pope. In general, the Council purged the Church.
It clarified issues like faith, good works, and salvation. It passed a decree that said the Church

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would be the final judge in biblical matters. The Council demanded that the Scriptures be
understood literally.

All compromise between Protestant and Catholic was rejected. The Reformation had split
Europe and the repair of that split was just not to be. The Church, as an institution, suffered a
severe setback in terms of its moral authority and political power. By strengthening the power of
monarchs, the Reformation helped to produce the modern state.

Protestant rulers, of course, rejected papal claims to power, asserted their own authority over
their own churches (e.g. Henry VIII in England) and in an indirect way, contributed to the
growth of political liberty. Liberty as an ideal, however, was still 200 years in future.

The Reformation provided justification for challenging the authority of monarchs. Since all
men are governed by the laws of God, punishment should be given to those who break these laws
-- kings included. So, in 1649, the English execute Charles I.

Discuss the major results of the Protestant Reformation

(1) Luther, Calvin, the Anabaptists and Jesuits all forced every man/ woman to make a choice.
The Medieval Matrix implied that one had to conform to the standards of the Church and
everything it represented. But what was now different was that the individual had a choice
regarding what it was he wished to conform to.

(2) The Reformation also split Europe, a division which would eventually lead to European wars,
civil wars, king killing, revolts and rebellion. Europe would not truly recover from Martin
Luther's Reformation until the 18th century, if it can be said it ever did recover.

ii) Council of Trent (1545–1563)

This was a commission of cardinals tasked with institutional reform, addressing contentious
issues such as corrupt bishops and priests, indulgences, and other financial abuses. It was
initiated by Pope Paul III (1534–1549) and upheld the following:

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 1. The Council upheld the basic structure of the Medieval Church: its sacramental system,
religious orders, and doctrine.
2. It rejected all compromise with the Protestants, restating basic tenets of the Roman
Catholic faith.
3. It supported salvation appropriated by grace through faith and works of that faith (not
just by faith, as the Protestants insisted) because "faith without works is dead", as the
Epistle of St. James states (2:22-26).
4. It Reaffirmed the doctrine of Transubstantiation: the consecrated bread and wine were
held to have been transformed truly and substantially into the body, blood, soul and
divinity of Christ, along with the other six Sacraments of the Catholic Church.
5. It commended practices that drew the rage of Protestant reformers, such as pilgrimages,
the veneration of saints and relics, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary.
6. It officially accepted the Vulgate listing of the Old Testament Bible which included the
deuterocanonical works (also called the Apocrypha, especially by Protestants) on a par
with the 39 books customarily found in the Masoretic Text and the Protestant Old
Testament.
7. It commissioned the Roman Catechism, which still serves as authoritative Church
teaching.
8. It repudiated the pluralism of the secular Renaissance which had previously plagued the
Church.
9. It tightened the organization of religious institutions, discipline was improved, and the
parish was emphasized.
10. It discouraged the appointment of Bishops for political reasons and encouraged Bishops
to live within their dioceses.
11. It gave bishops greater power to supervise all aspects of religious life.

iii) The Jesuits or the Society of Jesus

New religious orders were a fundamental part of the reforms. Orders such as the Capuchins,
Ursulines, Theatines, Discalced Carmelites, the Barnabites, and the Jesuits worked in rural
parishes, and set examples of Catholic renewal.

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The Jesuits were the most effective of the new Catholic orders. The Society of Jesus was
founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola, who was a soldier and Spanish reformer. This society
formed the backbone of the Catholic or Counter Reformation. The Jesuits combined the ideas of
traditional monastic discipline with a dedication to teaching and preaching. Their purpose was to
win back converts and to revive a Catholic or universal Christianity.

As theologians, the Jesuits highlighted one central flaw/mistake in Protestant theology, that of
predestination. Predestination offered hopes of salvation for the literate and prosperous. It also,
however, included the possibility of doom, despair and the abyss for other individuals. In
response, the Jesuits offered hope -- and that hope to the form of religious revival based on
ceremony, tradition in the power of the priest to offer forgiveness. In essence, the Jesuits made
Christianity more emotional. This was very appealing as one of the reasons why the Reformation
indeed took place was because the people wanted a more emotional and direct spiritual life. The
Jesuits urged princes to strengthen the Church in their territories. They even developed the
theology that permitted "small sins" in the service of a just cause. In other words, a small sin was
okay if and only if it led to some greater good.

By the 17th century, the Jesuits had become some of the greatest teachers, especially in France.
They had also become one of the most controversial religious groups within the Church.

The Jesuits helped to build schools and universities, design churches and even helped to produce
a unique style of art and architecture. This style -- called the Baroque -- was emotional and was
intended to move the heart. Today the society has many members worldwide.

Prominent figures in the Reformation

Martin Luther (1483–1546) — In 1517, nails his 95 Theses onto a Wittenberg Church door.
These theses were Latin propositions opposing the manner in which indulgences (release from
the temporal penalties for sin through the payment of money) were being sold in order to raise
money for the building of Saint Peter’s in Rome.

Huldreich Zwingli (1484–1531) — Swiss theologian and leader of early Reformation

movements in Switzerland. Vigorously denounces the sale of indulgences in 1518.

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John Calvin (1509–64) — Calvin was a French theologian and reformer who fled religious
persecution in France and settled in Geneva in 1536. He instituted a form of Church government
in Geneva which has become known as the Presbyterian church. He insisted on reforms
including: the congregational singing of the Psalms as part of church worship, the teaching of a
catechism and confession of faith to children, and the enforcement of a strict moral discipline in
the community by the pastors and members of the church. Geneva was, under Calvin, essentially
a theocracy.

John Knox (1513–1572) — An ardent disciple of Calvin, Knox established Calvinistic

Protestantism as the national religion of Scotland. He left a powerful political legacy within the
Calvinist or Reformed branch of Protestantism, a political legacy known as Presbyterianism.

Henry VIII (1491–1547) — In 1533, Henry was excommunicated by the pope for marrying
Anne Boleyn and having the archbishop of Canterbury sanction the divorce from his first wife,
Catherine. In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass an act appointing the king and his successors
supreme head of the Church of England, thus establishing an independent national Anglican
church.

Q. Discuss the Three main theological Issues of the Reformation

The theology of the Reformers departed from the Roman Catholic Church primarily on the basis
of three great principles: Sole authority of Scripture, Justification by faith alone, and Priesthood
of the believer.

Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone) was one of the watchwords of the Reformation. This
doctrine maintains that Scripture, as contained in the Bible, is the only authority for the Christian
in matters of faith, life and conduct. The teachings and traditions of the church are to be
completely subordinate to the Scriptures. Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, holds Scripture
and Tradition to be of the same inspired Deposit of Faith.

Sola Fide (by faith alone) was the other watchword of the Reformation. This doctrine maintains
that we are justified before God (and thus saved) by faith alone, not by anything we do, not by
anything the church does for us, and not by faith plus anything else. It was also recognized by the

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early Reformers that Sola Fide is not rightly understood until it is seen as anchored in the broader
principle of Sola Gratia, by grace alone. Hence the Reformers were calling the church back to
the basic teaching of Scripture where the apostle Paul states that we are “saved by grace through
faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God,” Eph. 2:8.

The third great principle of the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. The Scriptures
teach that believers are a “holy priesthood,” 1 Pet. 2:5. All believers are priests before God
through our great high priest Jesus Christ. “There is one God and one mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Tim. 2:5. As believers, we all have direct access to God through
Christ, there is no necessity for an earthly mediator. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
concept of the priesthood was seen as having no warrant in Scripture, viewed as a perversion and
mis-application of the Old Testament Aaronic or Levitical priesthood which was clearly fulfilled
in Christ and done away with by the New Testament.

Q. What was the impact of the refomers view of the the three principles on the Roman
Catholic Church?

As a result of these principles, the Reformers rejected the authority of the Pope, the merit of
good works, indulgences, the mediation of Mary and the Saints, all but the two sacraments
instituted by Christ (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper), the doctrine of transubstantiation, the mass
as a sacrifice, purgatory, prayers for the dead, confessions to a priest, the use of Latin in the
services, and all the paraphernalia that expressed these ideas.

Even though the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches fall within Orthodoxy as most
would define it, much of their teaching beyond the basic tenets is regarded as erroneous by
conservative Protestants. In fact, they would say much of it is clearly to be regarded as false
teaching which has perverted the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. In general, evangelical
Protestants see the Reformation as simply a call back to biblical Christianity.

References

1. The History of Christianity Rev. Ed. 1977, lion publishing, oxford England.
2. Deansly ch VIII

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3. Walker pp2,9-24
4. Lataurette a history of Christianity Ch. XVII
5. Henry Chadwick, early church ch,12; W. Walker pp 125-8; 198 – 201;
6. CH. Lawrence, medieval monasticism; RW southern ch.9; Deanesley ch. 9
7. John Foster: Church History 2 Setback and Recovery AD 500-1500,1989
8. A.M Harman. The Story of the Church 3rd Ed. Inter-Varsity Press, 1996
9. R. W. Southern, Ch3, Timothy Ware, The orthodox church. Ch 3., M. Deanesly,
medieval church Ch.5.
10. R w. Southern: western society and church in the middle Ages.
11. M. Deanesly, A history of the medieval church.
12. CP: Church + state by Bishop Okullu.

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