Emerging Church500-1000 A.D.

Medieval Church 1000-1500Renaissance Church 1500-1700Enlightenment Church 1700-1900Modern Church 1900-2000+

Early Church ~30-500

When we last left them…

• The Church had become legalized – and then required

• Emperor Constantine (300’s):• proclaims religious freedom, then

• calls an Ecumenical (worldwide) Council to define the faith

• Nicea, 325

• Moves the Roman Empire capital away from Rome, to Constantiople

• Christianity is now the official religion of the Roman Empire

How does this change things?

It looks like this….

Too legit, too legit to quit

• So everyone who’s anyone in the Roman Empire is now Christian.

• Including soldiers! Now, to fight for the Roman Empire, you have to pledge your life to the King of Peace.

• Also, it’s not long before stubborn pagans are forcibly converted (executed if they do not become Christian)

• Why?

Ouch! My Empire has fallen and it can’t get up!• For the first part of our period, around (circa) 400 A.D.-600

A.D., the Church, aligned with the Empire, became SMALLERin the WEST.

• The city of Rome falls around 455– it is sacked by ‘barbarians’ – tribal people outside the control of Rome

• With the western empire collapsed, Christianity is kind of on pause – with Christians trying to stay alive in the midst of war, invasion, starvation, social upheaval, etc.

• No new missionary activity,

• more just trying to hold on to the faith.

Video Link

400-1000 AD

Hold on! Hoooolllllld it!

• What kept the Christian faith going at this time?

• The Rise of Monasticism• Monasticism is the movement of:

• Living together in segregated (male/female) communities

• Working and praying in common

• Not owning individual property, not marrying, not making individual decisions (poverty, chastity, obedience)

• Living one’s life according to a “Rule” – a set of commonly accepted norms which determine the pattern of daily communal life

• Monasticism shows up before, outside and earlier in Christianity, but in the West, one guy is very influential:

Benedict of Nursia

400-1000 AD

Benedict of Nursia480 – 543

• Benedict founded twelve communities for monks in Italy (about 64 km to the east of Rome)

• "Rule of Saint Benedict" contained precepts for his monks.

• a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness

• most religious communities begun in the Middle Ages adopted it.

• In these communities, stability was continued, even while much of the Western European world was chaotic

• Knowledge, Wisdom, Peace, Order were kept and passed on

• Ancient texts were preserved and reproduced

• Later, as Western Christianity grew, it grew from these “seeds”

Eventually it looked like this…

Meanwhile, on the other side…

• Problems in the West did not affect the East

• The Eastern Roman Empire is also called the Byzantine Empire, and it adopted Greek as the official language

• At its height,it looked like this:

• It had a lot of what Rome used to have, but see how it goes up into Russia? That becomes important.

400-1000 AD

Irene of Athens• After the death of her husband Leo IV in 780, Irene ruled

the Byzantine Empire as regent for her son Constantine VI. Almost immediately Irene’s rule was challenged by her husband’s brother. She thwarted the attempt by forcibly ordaining her brother-in-law as a priest which removed him from the line of succession.

• As empress regent, Irene had a major impact on the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 787 Irene convened the Second Council of Nicaea which revived the veneration of icons (banned by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 730) and reunited the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church.

• As Constantine matured, he began to resent his mother’s control. Between 790 and 797 Constantine attempted to overthrow Irene, but he was an ineffective leader. In 797 Irene deposed and blinded her only child. She ruled alone until 802 when she was overthrown by her finance minister Nikephoros. Irene died in exile a year later.

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Then Fortunes Flip

• In the West, there’s a new Emperor: Charlemagne, who is crowned by the pope of the Holy Roman Empire in 800

• Charlemagne establishes a powerful and central government

• He does not conquer all of Europe, but does establish relative peace and order

• He also mounts a huge education campaign, centered on the monasteries, led by St. Alcuin.

• With others like Pope Gregory the Great (540-620), missionaries are sent throughout Western Europe and the barbarian tribes are converted to Christianity – without exception

• This begins more than 1000 years of Christianity being the central unifying force of Europe: Christendom

400-1000 AD

Flipped Fortune

• The Byzantine Empire shrinks, due to Islam’s incredibly quick rise to power

Byzantine Christianity shrinks …and grows!• As Islam takes away territory, for the most part Christians

continue their faith, but under restrictions: more tax, no evangelization, and less communication with their patriarchs (important bishops)

• The Empire is exhausted financially with fighting Islam…

• But also is expanding North in a similar way to Western Europe: Kiev is converted in 988, which begins the Russian Church (moves to Moscow in 1325)

• So Islam conquers Southern and Eastern Churches while Church expands North and West.

• (the Patriarch of Constantinople begs the Pope of Rome for help to defend against Islam… doesn’t get it)

400-1000 AD

Hello?Can you hear me?

~ 1000 A.D. Western Church Eastern Church

Centre of Authority Rome Constantinople

Language Latin Greek

Enemies Pagan barbarians Muslim Arabs

Power at this moment Going up Going down

Central Bishop Pope Patriarch(s)

Distance between: ~1800 kms by land and sea40 days of travel if you’re lucky

Schism (skih-zim)

• 1054: Pope Leo IX sends a letter to Michael Cærularius, Patriarch of Constantinople

• A fake document, the Donation of Constantine gave Pope status

• The representatives the pope sends meet a hostile reception, and the Patriarch does not recognize them as representatives of the Pope

• Pope Leo actually dies, ending his representatives’ authority.

• But they carry on and excommunicate Patriarch Michael

• Patriarch Michael, with other Orthodox Patriarchs, excommunicate the Pope

• For the people of the time, not much changed, but

• There are now two Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, who are no longer united with each other – The Great Schism of 1054

DIVISION