Lesson 24: The ‘Middle’ Middle Ages

"Let us all hasten to approach to perfect manhood, to the measure of the completed growth of the fulness of Jesus Christ, in Whom let us love one another, praise one another, correct one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, that with Him in one another we may reign and triumph." Columbanus

“How the Irish Saved Civilization”

The Christianization of England

Willibroad

Willilfred or Boniface

Charles the Great reigns 771-814

Creates the first great empire since Rome

“The Moses of the Middle Ages” – led Germanic people out of barbarism by giving a new code of civil & ecclesiastical laws.

He was 7 feet tall and had long flowing white hair,He love hunting, swimming, and riding, but hada real interest in culture – music & literature.

Major Contributions of Charlemagne

Military Conquest – 50 campaigns conquering Lombards in Italy,Muslims in Spain, expanding German frontier (Bavaria), defeatingpagan Avars in Hungary, and 18 campaigns over 30 years againstSaxons. Expand the kingdom. Forced conversions of enemy ended in 797.

This established order during a period of barbarian chaos.

Able Administrator – He had an unique gift in organization and administration that enable him to sustain a large empire.

Carolingian Renaissance

Charlemagne recruited Alcuin from England to come and establisha palace school. This palace school carried on the Roman highereducation and was instrumental in Germanic people assimilating classical and Christian learning flowing out of the Roman empire. Alcuin in charge of all learning in the empire.

The monasteries became focal point of knowledge of culture in West

1. Language – developed our modern printed letters.2. Literature – directed monk-scholars to preserve ancient works &

established libraries to contain them.3. The Bible – Revised the text of the Latin Bible4. Education – established that every parish must have a school and

encouraged the study of logic, philosophy, and literature.

The Emperor of the Romans

Pope Leo III was forced to flee Rome by factions in Rome. He fledto Charlemagne and Charlemagne returned with his army to supportLeo III. As a return favor, on Christmas Day, 800, Leo III crownedCharlemagne emperor while he was kneeling to receive communion.

“To Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and peace-making emperor of the Romans, long life and victory!”

This made Charlemagne supreme ruler of the Western worldmuch to the dismay of the Byzantine emperors.

Chiefly this made the King subservient to the pope, though he wouldfight this and seek to maintain control of the church in his kingdom.

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES

Gottschalk- true Augustinian theology

Communion Controversy

Paschasius Radbertus (785-860)

Ratramnus of Corbie ( d. 868)

“real presence”

“spiritual presence”

Lateran Council of 1215 Transubstantiation became fixed dogma

Other Notable Scholars

John Scotus Engina (810-877)

Dionysius the Areopagite

Division of Nature

Agobard of Lyons (779-840)

Concerning Images

Concerning Hail & Thunder

The Collapse of the Empire

Louis the Pious (814-840)

Louis the German

(843-876)

Charles the Bald

(843-877)

Lothair

(843-855)

The Collapse of the Empire

Louis the Pious (814-840)

Louis the German

(843-876)

Charles the Bald

(849-877)

Lothair

(843-855)

Western Europe Under Attack

Three Lines of Attack

1. Muslims

2. Magyars

3. Norsemen

THE CONVERSION OF THE NORSEMEN AND CENTRAL EUROPE

“SACRED KING”

“Alfred, unshakeable pillar of the people of Wessex, aman full of justice, vigorous in war, wise in speech, and-above all else-learned in holy literature….O RedeemerChrist, save his soul!”

William the Conqueror

1066-1087

Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000)

German Empire and Feudalism

Henry I(919-36)

Otto the Great(936-973)

Holy Roman Emperor 962

FEUDALISM

Royal land grant feudum

Lord gave land for church and church property “manse”

Lord (secular) appointed bishop or abbot (invested)

Lay Investure

Cluniac Revivals

Strong support for the ideal of “sacred kingship”Supply of well trained civil servants

An army from the huge lands owned by the monasteries

Efficient monasteries where the Cluniac monks honored God and prayed for society