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12th Century
- a. Popes after Greg VII more inclined to consolidate power and build strong administrative system
- b. 12th century: Church had organized hierarchy
- i. Pope and papal curia (cardinals) at top
- ii. Archbishops controlled archdiocese
- iii. Bishop with diocese
- iv. Priest and parishes
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Pope Innocent III
- i. Reached height of its political, intellectual, and secular power in 13th c
- 1. Papal monarchy extended sway over both ecclesiastical and temporal affairs and was evident under Innocent
- 2. Believed he was supreme judge of European affairs
- a. Forced King Phillip II Augustus of France to take back wife and queen after annulment
- b. Intervened in German affairs and installed candidate as emperor
- c. Compelled John of England to accept papal choice for position of archbishop of Canterbury
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What did Pope Innocent III do to achieve political ends?
- 1. To achieve political ends, he used spiritual weapons at his command, especially the interdict
- a. Impsed on region that forbade priests to dispense sacraments in hopes that people whould exert pressure against their ruler
- i. Successful in causing Philip to restore wife to queenship
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I. New Religious Orders and Spiritual Ideals
- a. Second half of 11c- first half of 12= wave of religious enthusiasm
- i. Increase in monasteries and emergence of new monastic orders
- 1. Cistercian founded by monks dissatisfied by lack of strict discipline at Benedictine monastery
- a. Strict
- b. Simple diet
- c. Single robe
- d. No decorations
- e. Large time for prayer and manual labor
- f. Developed new activist spiritual model for 12th c. Europe
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a. Women in religious orders
- i. Increase in number joining religious houses
- 1. High middle ages: nuns from aristocracy who didn’t want/ find husband, as well as female intellectuals
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i. , Hildegard of Bingen
- 1. Wrote of mythical visiosn; three books based on them; many sought her advice
- 2. One of first important female composers and contributor to body of music called Gregorian chant
- a. Monophonic: single line of unaccompanied vocal music
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a. Gospel Life
- i. Saint Francis and Saint Dominic founded two new religious orders whose members not cloistered, but went out to preach
- 1. More personal religious experience for ordinary people
- 2. Known as mendicant (begging) orders
- a. Members lived in deliberate poverty= acting against wealth
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i. Saint Francis of Assisi
- 1. Abandoned worldly goods; lived and preached in poverty
- 2. Attractive lifestyleà rule to preach and emphasize poverty
- a. Pope Innocent III confirmed Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans)
- 3. Franciscans called for return to simplicity and poverty of early church; female: Poor Clares
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Order of Preachers (Dominicans)
- i. Order of Preachers (Dominicans) originated out of desire to defend orthodox church
- 1. Created by Dominic de Guzman, who was appaled by heretical movements
- a. Believed in poverty lives but learned and capable people who could preach against heresty
- b. Pope Innocent III approved order
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i. Beguines
- 1. Communities of women living together in poverty
- a. No vows/ free to leave
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a. Monasticism and Social Services
- i. Most important for religious life in Middle ages
- 1. Monks and nuns did a lot (pray, copy, maintain, missionaries, preach, social welfare)
- ii. Monasteries gave food and clothes to poor; hospitality to pilgrims; cared for sick; planted herb gardens; ran hospitals
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Sacraments
Saints
- a. Sacraments administered by clergy
- i. Outward symbols of inward grace; imperative for salvation
- b. Saints
- i. Achieved special position in heaven, enabling them to be intercessors before God
- ii. Development of cults: Saint Nicholas
- iii. Virgin Mary
- 1. Most important mediator with Jesus
- 2. Human mother of Jesus
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Relics
Pilgrimages
- i. Bones of saints or objects connected to them
- ii. Holiness inherent in relics; belief of being able to heal
- iii. Indulgences attached to relics; brought a remission of time spent in purgatory
- 1. Indulgences granted for good works such as charitable contributions and viewings of the saints’ relics
- i. Two pilgrim centers
- 1. Rome and Santiago de Compostela
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I. Voices of Protest and Intolerance
Desire
- a. Desire for more personal and deeper religious experience led people into direction hostile to church
- i. Holding of religious doctrines different from orthodox teachings became problem
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Heresy (Cathars)
- i. Cathars
- 1. Albigensians who believed in system in which good and evil were separate and distinct
- a. Things good because created by God of light; evil stemmed from Satan
- 2. Dualism
- a. Souls trapped in material bodies
- 3. Believed church ahd nothing to do with God and was evil
- i. Spread in s. France led to Pope Innocent III appealing ot nobles of northern France for a Crusade against the heretics
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Crusades against Cathars (1209)
- a. Crusades against Cathars (1209) bloody battle
- b. S. France devastated, but Catharism remained, which caused Church to devise method for dealing with hereticsà Holy Office, a formal court whose job it was to ferret out and try heretics
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Holy Office
- i. Anyone could be accused of a heresy, since identity was not revealed
- 1. Confessed: public penance and punishment
- 2. Heretic’s property confiscated and divided between secular authorities and church
- a. Those who didn’t confess voluntarily in 1252: tortured
- i. Relapsed heretics turned over for executions
- a. To Christians, heresy was a crime against God and humanity; and force was needed to save souls
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Persecution of Jews
- i. Only religious minority in Christina Europe allowed to practice non-Christina religion
- 1. Involved in trade and crafts
- ii. In s. Europe, Jews important for cultural and intellectual intermediaries between Muslim and Christian worlds
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Religious enthusiasm
- i. Religious enthusiasm of High Middle Ages produced intolerance against enemies of Christianity
- 1. Christians searched for enemies at home, persecuting Jews
- a. Protectors of Jews in danger too
- b. Popes tried to issue decrees ordering Jews not to be persecuted
- ii. Persecuted more and more
- 1. Friars urged action against “murderers of Christ”
- a. Organized public burnings of Jewish books
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Fourth Lateran Council in 1215
- i. Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 decreed Jews must wear distinguishing clothing to separate selves from Christians
- 1. Same council encouraged development of Jewish ghettos, not to protect, but isolate
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End of 13th Century
- i. End of 13th c., European kings, who were first protectors of jews, had fleeced Jewish communities of money and renounced their protection
- 1. Edward I expelled all Jews from England
- 2. French king did same, but readmitted them
- 3. Most northern European Jews forced to move into Poland
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Homosexuality
- i. Portrayed as a regular practice of Muslims and heretics like Albigensians
- 1. 1250-1300, it became a criminal act deserving of death
- ii. Legislation against it referred to it as sin against nature
- 1. Thomas Aquinas argues that because sex was for procreation, it could legitimately take place only in ways that didn’t exclude possibility
- a. Homosexuality contrary to nature and deviation from natural order established by God
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