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Church Fathers
First one
- a. Saint Augustine (354-430)
- i. North African professor of rhetoric at Milan who became bishop of Hippo
- ii. Confessions
- 1. 397
- 2. Self-portrait of the history of a heart, an account of his personal and spiritual experiences
- a. Struggle finding God until converted at 32
- iii. The City of God
- 1. Christian philosophy of government and history
- 2. Ideal relations between the City of God and the City of the World
- a. Loved God= City of God (Heaven)
- b. City of World necessary although earthly society imperfect and insecure
- i. Duty of rulers to curb instincts of sinful and maintain peace for Christians
- 3. Said secular government and authority were necessary in Christian life
- iv. Established view on sexual desire
- 1. Celibacy
- 2. If unable, marriage enables sex with a purpose-->children
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Church Fathers
Second One
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- ii.
- Dreamt of Jesus as judgeà converted
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- iii.
- Found compromise by purifying literature of pagan
- world and using it to further Christian faith
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- iv.
- Greatest scholar among Latin
- 1.
- Translated Old and New Testaments into Latin
- a.
- Latin Vulgate, or common text
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- i.
- Standard edition for Church
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The Power of the POpe
- a.
- Petrine Supremacy: doctrine that bishops should hold
- preeminent position in church
- b.
- Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom
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- i.
- His successors were “vicars of Christ” and bishops
- c.
- Bishops began using papa, “father” (pope)
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- i.
- Pope Leo I portrayed self as heir of Peter
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Church and State
- a. Roman emperors became Christians and played significant role in church affairs
- i. Viewed self as God’s representatives on earth
- 1. Built churches
- 2. Influenced structure of church
- 3. Involved in church government and doctrinal controversies
- b. While emperors occupied in church, bishops involved in imperial government
- i. Served as advisers to emperors
- ii. Decline of imperial ruleà bishops independent political role
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Church and State
Ambrose of Milan
- a. Created image of ideal Christian bishop
- i. Defend independence of church against tendency of imperial officials to oversee church policy
- ii. When Theodosius I wanted to kill many citizens for disobedience, Ambrose denounced it and refused the emperor t take part in church ceremonies
- 1. Theodosius did penance
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Church and State
Weakness of political authorities
- i. Weakness of political authorities also allowed church independence
- 1. Germanic Kingdoms:
- a. Kings controlled churches and bishops
- 2. In Italy
- a. Claimed power the same as secular authorities
- i. E.g.: Pope Leo I gained credit for Attila’s withdrawal, which as probably due more to plague than papal persuasion
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Church and State
Pope Gelasius I
- 1. Pope Gelasius I (492-496)
- a. Two ruling powers
- i. Spiritual and temporal with different functions
- ii. Church higher authority because all men must look to church for salvation
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Pope Gregory the Great
- a. Acceptance of bishops as head of church, but no agreement on extent of papal power
- b. Gregory the Great enabled church to play prominent role in civilizing Germans and aiding in emergence of new European Civilization
- c. Assumed direction of Rome and surrounding territories, which suffered from struggles of Germanic tribes (Lombards/ Ostrogothic-Byzantine)
- i. Made Rome and surroundings into administrative unit called Papal States
- 1. Provided for defense of Rome against Lombards
- 2. Established government for Rome
- 3. Fed people
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Pope Gregory the Great cont.
- a. Also pursued policy of extending papal authority over Christian church in west
- i. Intervened in ecclesiastical conflicts throughout Italy
- ii. Corresponded with Frankish rulers
- iii. Initiated efforts of missionaries to convert England to Christianity
- iv. Active in converting pagans
- Monastic movement was what helped
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Monks and their Missions
- a. Monk sought to live life free from world, cut off from human society, in order to pursue ideal of godliness or total dedication will of God
- b. Monasticism based on life of hermit who left society to pursue spirituality
- i. St. Anthony: Egyptian peasant who gave up land and pursued holiness in desert
- ii. St. Simeon the Stylite lived 3 decades in basket atop a 60 ft. pillar
- c. View: Martyrà monk who died and achieved spiritual life
- d. Soon found selves unable to live in solitude
- i. Feats of holiness were attractiveà monastic communities
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Monks and their Missions
Benedictine MOnasticism
- i. St. Benedict of Nursia
- 1. Established fundamental form of monastic life in w. Christian church
- a. Rules rejected ascetic ideas of eastern monasticism, which emphasized fasting and self-infliction in favor for moderation
- i. Moderation: poverty, chastity, obedience
- ii. Day divided into prayer and labor
- 1. Private meditation and reading
- 2. Gathered 7 times for common prayer and psalms
- 2. Monastery ruled by abbot
- a. Complete authority over monks
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Monks and Their MIssion
Women
Monks as New heroes
- a. Women sought to dedicate themselves to God
- i. First monastic rules produced by Caesarius of Arles for his sister
- 1. Rigid cloistering of female religious= nuns
- b. Monks became new heroes of Christian civilization
- i. Dedication became highest ideal of Christian life and spread religion
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Monks and their MIsssion
Irish Monks as MIssionaries
- i. Ireland beyond Roman reach
- ii. St. Patrick
- 1. Kidnappedà escapedà converted
- iii. Irish Christianity
- 1. Different from Roman
- 2. Absence of Roman gov’t models led to different church organization
- a. Instead of bishoprics, monasteries were fundamental units
- b. Abbots had more control than bishops
- 3. Irish monasticism
- a. Strongly ascetic
- i. Monks fasted, prayed, meditated under extreme privations
- ii. Repented regularly
- iii. Led to voluntary exiles
- b. Gave rise to use of penitentials
- c. Love of learning
- i. Fostered education and absorbed Latin/ Greek culture
- ii. Preserving Classical Latin
- d. Produced manuscripts illustrated with abstract geometric patterns
- e. Became fervid missionaries and began process of converting Angles and Saxons
- f. New monasteries became learning centers
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Monks and their MIssion
Conversion of England
- i. Pope Gregory the Great tried to convert England, using St. Augustine
- 1. England occupied by Germanic kingdoms
- 2. Converted King Ethelbert of Kent and subjects
- 3. Temples became churches
- 4. Old pagan feasts= new names in Christina calendar
- ii. Roman Christianity encountered Irish Christianity
- 1. Gradual fusion after arguments
- a. Still, England Church retained some Irish features
- i. Monastic culture with emphasis on learning and missionary work
- b. English monks journeyed to convert
- i. Boniface converted pagan Germans, but later killed by Frisians
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Women and MOnasticism
- i. Double monasteries, where monks and nuns lived in separate houses, but attended mass together were found in English and Frankish kingdoms
- 1. Followed common rules under abbess
- a. Belonged to royal houses
- i. St. Hilda
- 1. Abbess responsible for giving learning important role in monastery life
- 2. Educated five future bishops
- 3. Females were offered opportunities for learning
- ii. Nuns played role in spread
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Path of Celibacy
- i. Some women pursued path to holiness
- 1. Cloisters allowed celibacy
- a. Created new image of human body
- i. Refusal to have sex was victory over fleshy desires
- ii. Cult of virginity moved beyond religious
- 1. Groups of women studied importance and benefits of celibacy
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Christian Intellectual Life in the Germanic Kingdoms
- a.
- i. Christian scholar who served as official to Ostrogothic king Theodoric
- ii. Withdrew from public life after Theodoric’s death
- iii. Divine and Human Readings
- 1. A collection of the literature of both Christian and pagan antiquity
- a. Accepted advice of earlier Christina intellectuals to make use of Classical works while treasuring Scriptures
- b. Followed works of late ancient authors in placing secular knowledge into categories of seven liberal arts, divided into two major groups:
- i. the trivium, consisting of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, logic
- ii. quadrivium
- arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music
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Christian Intellectual Life in the Germanic Kingdoms
Bede
- i. Scholar and product of Christian Anglo-Saxon England
- ii. Entered monastery young and stayed there
- iii. Ecclesiastical History of the English People
- 1. Product of flourishing English ecclesiastical and monastic culture in eighth century
- 2. History of England begins with coming of Christianity to Britain
- iv. Had remarkable sense of history
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