Church History: Notable Events (inc. Ecumenical Councils, Periods of Persecution, Religious Warfare, etc.)

64 - 313 - Christian Persecutions in Rome (All Facts) 

• Brought on by their refusal to participate in the state loyalty exercises, which involved sacrificing to state gods which they, like the Jews, rejected

• The Roman government eventually recognized that they were not Jews, and viewed them as treasonous because, unlike Jews, they did not have the same legal exemptions from sacrificing to the state gods that the Jews had

• The Roman government eventually accused them of “superstition” (not believing in the gods)

• Roman society saw them as a secret society engaged in subversive activities because they were meeting in private, which was fundamentally contrary to Roman law and custom of the time

• Many had died in the arena because many were of low social status, although those who held Roman citizenship went to Rome for trial despite suffering there as well

• Over time, the Roman government because more tolerant of them and increasingly rarely acted against them

64 - Persecution under Nero (All Facts) 

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

• Caused by the Great Fire of Rome, in which the namesake emperor supposedly started himself, which caused all of his building projects to burn, and led him to blame and persecute Christians from that point onward during his reign

• In order to divert the citizens’ anger, he made scapegoats of members of the new Christian faith, rounding them up and putting them to death in various cruel and spectacular ways

  • Despite his blaming Christians, many Romans believed the namesake himself was responsible for the namesake event

• Nero even had Christians burned alive for their faith

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Peter, a martyr

  • Paul, a martyr

177 - Persecution in Lyon (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

• Event in which

  • More than 20 Christians were arrested

  • Of the 20 that were arrested, those who claimed Roman citizenship were tortured and beheaded in jail

  • Of the 20 that were arrested, those who did not claim Roman citizenship were led into the namesake town’s amphitheater and thrown to wild beasts in front of a howling crowd

  • A young woman named Blandina was hung on a stake but the wild beasts did not touch her and since then nothing was heard of her

  • Some of the prisoners were strangled in their cells and others thrown to wild dogs

  • Many Christians were stoned and raped

• Event which was caused by

  • Feeling against the Christians reaching a fever pitch in the namesake town

  • Popular passions having been whipped up by rumors that Christians indulge in cannibalistic orgies and incest

250 - Decian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

• Outbreak that was prompted by the namesake emperor’s attempt to reunify the empire by proposing to use religion as a common denominator, by requiring all citizens to attest to their loyalty to the empire by sacrificing to the state gods and in return receive a certificate for doing so

  • This was the first empire-wide ruling that potentially affected all Christians, in which

    • Many were apostatized for sacrificing

    • Many were martyred for refusing to sacrifice

    • Many were publicly whipped or burnt to death

  • These harms done to Christians were carried out by

    • Court orders

    • Vigilante groups

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Origen of Alexandria

258 - Valerian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor, especially after his passage of two edicts

  • 257 - Issued an edict that ordered Christian clergy to sacrifice to the gods and exiled them for failing to do so 

  • 258 - Issued an edict that forbade all Christians from worship

    • The punishment was dished out depending on the rank of the person: the higher the rank of the person, the harsher the punishment 

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • Pope Sixtus II, a martyr

  • Cyprian of Carthage, a martyr

303 - Diocletianic Persecution (All Facts) 

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake Roman Emperor

  • He attempted to “save” the empire from monotheistic Christianity in favor of its traditional polytheistic state religion which had served as a unifying element

    • He had done this in a last-ditch effort to reverse the rise of Christianity and restore the polytheistic imperial cult

• Was comprised of a series of four edicts which

  • Commanded the surrender of Christian books

  • Seized and dismantled Christian churches

  • Ordered the arrest of Christian clergy

  • Threated Christians to “sacrifice to the pagan gods or die”

• By the time of the namesake emperor’s reign, however, he was behind the times of the empire as Christianity had become much more popular and even garnered sympathy from polytheists

  • Thus, there was little public support to be drawn for the namesake development

  • Thus, it failed to unify the empire, which, ironically, was his goal in the first place

• Many famous Christians were persecuted including

  • St. Agnes of Rome 

311 - Edict of Sardica (All Facts)

• Issued by Emperor Galerius of the Roman Empire, it granted toleration to Christians in the wake of the Diocletianic Persecution 

313 - Edict of Milan (All Facts) 

• Issued by Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire, it 

  • Granted religious autonomy to all groups including Christians

  • Effectively made Christianity legal throughout the Empire

  • Ordered the compensation of Christian property that had been

    • confiscated by the imperial treasury

    • acquitted by private persons prior

  • Marked the first time that the imperial government recognized the Christian church as a lawful institution

  • Transformed Christianity from a potentially persecuted to a legally recognized religion

314 - Council of Arles (All Facts) 

• Council in which Donatism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Donatus of Carthage was excommunicated

• Council notable for three bishops from Britain being present at it, signifying Christianity’s expanding role in Britain 

• First Council called by Constantine the Great

325 - First Council of Nicaea (All Facts)

• Council in which the namesake creed was established and codified, which all Christians were expected to accept by that point 

• Council in which Arianism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Arius was excommunicated 

• Council which also dealt with administrative issues, formalizing the administrative model for the church based on the Roman provincial model that came to characterize the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Church 

• Council which established the official date of Easter (the official date now considered in the Roman Catholic Church)

  • Council which decided that Easter should be the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox on the Julian calendar authorized by Julius Caesar 

• Second Council called by Constantine the Great

335 - First Council of Tyre (All Facts)

• Council in which the charges brought against St. Athanasius were evaluated

• Council which ended up deposing St. Athanasius of Alexandria 

• Third council called by Constantine the Great

341 - Sassanian Persecution (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of Shapur II of the Sassanid Empire, in which thousands of Christians died

343 - Council of Sardica (All Facts)

• Council called by Emperors Constans I (of Western Rome) and Constantius II (of Eastern Rome)

• Council which attempted to resolve "the tension between East and West in the Church” but miserably failed and was a disaster with both sides hurling insults at each other and the only result being deadlock

359 - Council of Rimini (All Facts)

• Council in West Rome which was persuaded to accept a pro-Arian creed put forward by the emperor’s advisers

  • Council which declared that the Son is only similar to the Father, thus overturning the decision at the Council of Nicaea

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

359 - Council of Seleucia (All Facts)

• Council in East Rome which was persuaded to accept a pro-Arian creed put forward by the emperor’s advisers

  • Council which declared that the Son is only similar to the Father, thus overturning the decision at the Council of Nicaea

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

360 - (Zeroth) Council of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Council which ratified pro-Arian alternations to the Nicene Creed

• Council called by the pro-Arian Constantius II

380 - Edict of Thessalonica (All Facts) 

• Issued by Theodosius the Great of the Roman Empire, it

  • Made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire 

381 - First Council of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Council in which Arianism is officially and forever condemned as a heresy by the Church

• Council in which Apollinarianism was condemned as a heresy by the Church

• Council called by the pro-Nicene Theodosius the Great

382 - Council of Rome (All Facts)

• Council which determined the official canon of sacred scripture, which was the exact same list as the one given at the Council of Trent over 1,000 years later

• Council presided over by Pope Damasus / St. Damasus

392 - Theodosian Decrees (All Facts)

• Series of laws passed by the namesake emperor which banned all forms of pagan ritual and practice, they

  • Made Nicene Christianity the only legitimate religion within the empire

    • This made Nicene Christianity not only legal but favored by the Roman government

  • Harshly treated the followers of Christian heresies such as Manichaeism, Arianism, and Donatism, in which they often received the death penalty

  • Made Jews suffer legal disabilities

  • Ordered the 

    • Seizure of pagan temples

    • Breaking up the states of pagan gods

    • Prohibition of the practice of pagan rites, even in private at home

    • Taking away of the Altar of Victory in the Senate

428 - 477 - Persecution under Gaiseric in the Vandal Kingdom (All Facts)

• First outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake king of the namesake (second) barbarian successor kingdom in which Nicene (non-Arian) Christians (Catholics) were persecuted

• Many non-Arian Christians (Catholics) faced death or exile if they refused to recant their faith 

431 - First Council of Ephesus (All Facts) 

• Council in which Nestorianism was condemned as a heresy and its founder Nestorius of Constantinople was excommunicated 

• Presided over by Nestorius of Constantinople

• Council called by Theodosius II 

449 - Second Council of Ephesus (All Facts) 

• Council in which Monophysitism was accepted as theologically sound 

• Council called by Theodosius II 

• Council presided over by Dioscurus of Alexandria 

• Council which accepted these ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople

• Council which 

  • Supported monasticism in Egypt

  • Insulted the representatives of Pope Leo there

  • Accepted Monophysitism in the absence of Pope Leo, who was a fierce opponent of the doctrine 

451 - Council of Chalcedon (All Facts)

• Council in which Monophysitism was condemned as heresy and Eutyches, the founder of the heresy, was excommunicated 

• Council which reversed the decrees of the Second Council of Ephesus

• Council called by Emperor Marcian of the Roman Empire

• Council presided over by Pope Leo

• Council in which the bishops of Rome and Constantinople united to defend the Nicene Creed and the exact nature of the incarnate Christ

• Despite the condemnations of heresies in this council and previous ones, heresies continued to be embraced by different parts of the Western Roman and Byzantine Empires including

  • Arianism amongst the Barbarians

  • Monophysitism amongst the Egyptians, Syrians, and Palestinians

  • Nestorianism amongst the Sassanids

477 - 484 - Persecution under Huneric in the Vandal Kingdom (All Facts)

• Second outbreak of Christian persecution that had occurred under the reign of the namesake king of the namesake (second) barbarian successor kingdom in which Nicene (non-Arian) Christians (Catholics) were persecuted

• Many non-Arian Christians (Catholics) faced death or exile if they refused to recant their faith 

484 - 519 - Acacian Schism (All Facts)

• (Temporary) Split between the Western and Eastern Roman Churches that occurred due to Pope Felix III’s rejection of Emperor Zeno’s attempted reconciliation between Monophysitism and Nicene Christianity in his document called the “Henotikon” and Acacius of Constantinople’s issuing of the edict to his church without the Pope’s prior consent 

589 - Third Council of Toledo (All Facts) 

• Council which marked the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church (Nicene Christianity)

  • Up to that point, Visigothic Spain was split between its Arian Christian occupiers / rulers and the Nicene Christian subject population

• Council which codified the filioque clause into Western Christianity 

• Council which enacted restrictions on Jews, having led to repeated conflict with Visigothic Jews 

649 - Lateran Council (All Facts)

• Council in which Monothelitism was condemned as heresy

• Council presided over by Pope Martin

• Council which condemned Byzantine Emperor Constans II’s “Type” Edict

664 - Council of Whitby (All Facts)

• Council held in the kingdom of Northumbria in which important decisions affecting the Anglo-Saxon church were made including the decision to

  • Favor the Roman teachings put forward by Wilfrid, the ambitious priest, over that of the Irish teachings

  • Calculate Easter and observe the monastic traditions according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks in Iona and elsewhere, thus ending the differences between the Irish and Roman missionaries over the date of Easter and other customs

• Council presided over by King Oswy of Northumbria

680 - 681 - Third Council of Constantinople / Sixth Ecumenical Council (All Facts)

• Council in which Monothelitism is officially condemned as heresy, it thus restored Nicene Christianity

• Council presided over by Constantine IV of the Byzantine Empire and Pope / St. Agatho

• Council which thus insisted on Christ’s duality by asserting that both a divine and a human will were in Christ’s person

692 - Quinisext Council (All Facts)

• Council which confirmed eastern customs against western ways including

  • Asserting that the Patriarch of Constantinople was equal to the Pope

  • Allowing priests and deacons to get married

  • No longer obligating priests and deacons to keep the Saturday Fast during Lent

  • Banning the representation of Christ as a lamb (which was very common in western Churches)

• Council in which the papacy rejected the canons passed

• Council presided over by Justinian II of the Byzantine Empire

694 - 17th Council of Toledo (All Facts)

• Council which decreed that all Spanish Jews be subjected to enslavement and confiscation of their property, a culmination of over a century of anti-Jewish legislation in the Visigothic Kingdom

• Council presided over by King Egica of the Visigoths

726 - 787 - First Iconoclast Controversy of the Byzantine Empire (All Facts)

• Period that began under Leo III the Isaurian in which the namesake practice was implemented, which banned Iconodulism and heavily persecuted Iconodules

  • Period which saw a series of revolts and overall violent popular opposition to Leo III and his policies throughout the Byzantine Empire

  • Period which saw sacred images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints being destroyed

  • In 726, Leo III officially banned the worship of religious images

  • In 730, Leo III presided over a mass-meeting of churchmen of the Byzantine Empire, which upheld the namesake revolutionary and controversial (and heretical) decree of Leo III

    • Thus, thereafter, all visible symbols of Christ other than the Eucharist were forbidden

    • Icons were smashed and statues were taken down

    • Anyone who refused to comply was guilty of idolatry and paganism

  • Leo III had instituted the namesake practice because

    • He had not been alone in the feeling that what were once only symbols of the divine had become divinities in themselves

    • He wanted to strengthen Christianity’s resistance to the appeal of Islam, which itself forbade any portrayal of the human form

    • He wished to check the growing power of the monasteries whose monks threatened the division between Church and State

    • He believed that practicing Iconodulism brought God’s wrath upon the empire

  • As a result of the revolts in Italy supported by Pope Gregory III against this practice, Leo III withdrew all the Balkans, Sicily, and Calabria from the jurisdiction of the pope and put them under the control of the church at Constantinople

    • This further broke down the link between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire

• Period which saw Italy break with the Byzantine Empire due to the Donation of Pepin

• Period which saw Constantine V continue the policies of his predecessor in which he oversaw persecution of image-worshippers

  • He stormed Constantinople after it had been seized by his revel brother-in-law Artabasdos and other opponents of iconoclasm

    • Having regained control of the capital, he intensified his persecution of image-worship even further

  • He stepped up his persecutions of image-worshippers in which icons and mosaics were smashed

  • He had violently attacked the monastic order as a whole, and many monks were martyred in the process

754 - Council of Hieria (All Facts)

• Council in which the veneration and production of religious icons was condemned as idolatrous and pagan

• Council presided over by Constantine V of the Byzantine Empire

756 - Donation of Pepin (All Facts)

• Treaty between Pepin the Short of the Franks and Pope Stephen II in which

  • Pepin the Short vowed to give 23 towns in central and northern Italy to Pope Stephen II

    • Pepin the Short promised Pope Stephen II he would invade Italy and take those towns from King Aistulf of the Lombards, who held them

    • When these towns were added to Pope Stephen II’s existing lands, they would contribute to the formation of a sizable papal state

    • The treaty also outlined that security for these papal states would be provided by Pepin the Short

  • In exchange, Pepin the Short and the Franks received the political and spiritual legitimacy for their reign that they had been craving up to that point

    • Thus, Pope Stephen II had the last Merovingian King ousted in favor of Pepin the Short

    • As a result, Pepin the Short and his successors were styled as “Patricians of the Romans”

• Treaty which essentially established the temporal authority of the papacy, cutting the link between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire, and establishing a new link between the papacy and Italy

• Treaty which contributed to the

  • Formation of the Papal States

  • Strong alliance between the Papacy and the Carolingian Empire

• Treaty which would have far-reaching effects on the balance of power in northern Europe and which led to war with neighboring states of the Papal States and the Franks

769 - Lateran Council (All Facts)

• Council in which the laity’s right to participate in the election of the pope was permanently revoked

• Council in which the previous Council of Hieria was condemned

• It was the most important church council of the 700s

786 - Council of Northumbria (All Facts)

• Attempted to correct church abuses in the namesake kingdom

786 - Council of Mercia (All Facts)

• Attempted to correct church abuses in the namesake kingdom

787 - Second Council of Nicaea (All Facts)

• Council in which iconoclasm was officially condemned, restoring Iconodulism and thus ending the First Iconoclastic Controversy of the Byzantine Empire

• Council presided over by Empress Irene of the Byzantine Empire

814 - 842 - Second Iconoclast Controversy of the Byzantine Empire (All Facts)

• Period that began under Leo V the Armenian in which the namesake practice was implemented, which banned Iconodulism and heavily persecuted Iconodules

• Period which saw Theophilos lead a bloody and violent campaign against icons and Iconodules and his ban of painters from the Byzantine Empire

• Ended with the death of Emperor Theophilos and reign of his wife St. Theodora who permanently restored Iconodulism to the Byzantine Empire

849 - Battle of Ostia (All Facts)

• Battle in which a fleet of Italian ships, some of which were papal (a part of the Papal States) defeated the Arab Muslims

863 - 867 - Photian Schism (All Facts)

• Schism between the episcopal sees of Rome and Constantinople, which centered on the right of the Byzantine Emperor to depose and appoint a patriarch without approval from the papacy

  • Thus, Roman and Byzantine Christianity officially split for the first time in this schism

• Schism which ended with the Fourth Council of Constantinople / Eighth Ecumenical Council

869 - 870 - Fourth Council of Constantinople / Eighth Ecumenical Council (All Facts)

• Council which deposed and anathematized Photius, a layman who had been appointed as Patriarch of Constantinople by Emperor Michael III of the Byzantine Empire without the pope’s approval, and reinstated his predecessor Ignatius

  • Council which ended the Photian Schism

  • However, despite Photius’s depositions, divisions between the Eastern and Western Churches remained

• Council which reaffirmed the Second Council of Nicaea in support of Iconodulism and which required the image of Christ to have veneration equal with that of the gospel book

• Council which papered over the divisions between the Eastern and Western Churches contributing to the eventual Great Schism

• Council presided over by Pope Adrian II and Basil of the Byzantine Empire

897 - Cadaver Synod (All Facts)

• Ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus, who had been dead for about nine months, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome conducted by Pope Stephen VI, who had Formosus's corpse exhumed, dressed in full papal vestments, and brought to the papal court for judgment

• Pope Stephen VI accused of and charged Formosus with

  • Perjury

  • Acceding to the papacy illegally

  • Presiding over more than one diocese at the same time illegally

• Pope Formosus was pronounced guilty, and his papacy retroactively declared null

• While the trial was occurring, a deacon stood by the body of Pope Formosus and spoke for it

• Pope Formosus had his three fingers he used for blessing chopped off and his corpse was thrown into the Tiber River

904 - 964 - Seculum Obscurum (All Facts)

• During this period, the popes were influenced strongly by a powerful and allegedly corrupt aristocratic family, the Theophylacti, and their relatives and allies

• Period which is seen as one of the lowest points of the history of the papal office

• Period during which the Vatican was rocked by death and scandal

• The decadence of the papacy during this period severely dented the authority of Rome and the papacy

910 - Cluniac Reforms (All Facts)

• Series of changes within medieval monasticism in the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor

• Movement which marked a revival of monasticism

• Movement which introduced the notion that the Church hierarchy has a responsibility for clerical discipline

• Movement which formed the basis of a widespread attack on abuses and corruption in the Church

• Movement which began in the namesake abbey in France and spread to England, the Iberian Peninsula, and Italy

• Movement which started with William, Duke of Aquitaine, who founded the namesake abbey; and was largely carried out by St. Odo of the namesake town in France

1022 - Council of Pavia (All Facts)

• Presided over by Pope Benedict VIII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry II

• Council which focused on clerical reform,

  • condemning

    • simony (selling church offices)

    • clerical incontinence (unmarried clergy living with partners)

    • practices like fasts on Sundays

  • enforcing

    • strict celibacy

  • banning

    • clerical marriage

• Council which aimed to restore discipline within the Western Church

1053 - Battle of Civitate (All Facts)

• Battle in which Pope Leo IX and his Papal forces were defeated by Robert Guiscard and the Normans after they invaded Italy, in which they captured Pope Leo IX and conquered southern Italy and Sicily

1054 - Great Schism (Historical Analysis)

• Event in which there was an officially recognized break in communion or divide between the then-established Western Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Byzantine Orthodox Church that was the point of a culmination of many historical developments including

  • The Quartodeciman Controversy

  • The Acacian Schism

  • The Council of Chalcedon

  • The Quinisext Council

  • The Fourth Council of Constantinople

• When Pope Leo IX decided to close Greek churches in southern Italy for their unorthodox practices, such as the use of leavened bread in the Mass, he essentially fixed / instigated the namesake development

1054 - Great Schism (Conceptual Analysis)

• Event in which there was an officially recognized break in communion or divide between the then-established Western Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Byzantine Orthodox Church that was the point of a culmination of many political, cultural, theological, and ecclesiastical developments throughout Church History including, but not limited to

  • The causes that led to the already-developed political, economic, and administrative divide between the Western and Eastern Roman Empire and fall of the Western Roman Empire leading to the survival and thriving of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)

    • When Western Rome fell, there was a massive power vacuum, so the Pope in the Western Church acted like the Roman Emperor of the West because he was the only unifying force in the West until the reign of Charlemagne and start of the Holy Roman Empire

  • The linguistic divide between the Latin-speaking West and Greek-speaking East, and the political, philosophical, and ecclesiastical realities those languages shaped

    • The East spoke Greek, which is a more philosophical language, so Eastern Greek Christian thinkers thought in more metaphysical categories

      • Eastern Early Church Fathers thought it was a good idea to use philosophy to speak about God

      • The words used to describe the Trinity were very philosophically-loaded

      • The ambiguity that arose from the abstractions produced by the East’s philosophical tradition explains why all the heresies originated in the East and why the East was the center for all the councils that sought to condemn those heresies it produced

    • The West spoke Latin, which is a more legal language, so Latin Christian thinkers thought in categories of morality and authority

      • Western Early Church Fathers were skeptical of the philosophical approach or partook in philosophy but not the linguistic baggage associated with it

      • The words used to describe the Trinity were minimal and simplistic

  • The ecclesiastical divide in authority

    • The East eventually developed the belief that theology debates and issues could be resolved by ecumenical councils (because East produced so many heresies and thus so many councils to condemn those heresies)

      • However, there were so many ecumenical councils in the East that it eventually became difficult to come to an agreement on which council was legitimate

      • Thus, the East had to consult with the West, which had no heresies or councils, and thus was unified under the rule of the Pope, not ecumenical councils, to then reconcile the differences between councils

    • The West eventually developed the belief that confusion over ecumenical councils could be resolved by siding with the Pope and thus that theology debates and issues were to be resolved by the papacy, rather than just by those that presided over ecumenical councils

  • The divide between the authority of the Popes and Patriarchs

    • The West eventually developed the belief that the Pope had supremacy over the other four patriarchs

    • The East initially held onto the belief that the Pope was a “First Among Equals” but eventually developed the belief that the Patriarchs had supremacy over the Pope because the Roman (Byzantine) Emperor lived in Constantinople, not Rome and because those Byzantine Emperors initiated the ecumenical councils

  • The divide between disciplinary customs

    • The West insisted priestly celibacy was mandatory

    • The East insisted priestly celibacy was optional

  • The Filioque Controversy

1059 - Treaty of Melfi (All Fatcs)

• Treaty signed between Pope Nicholas II and Robert Guiscard, in which

  • The Pope promised to recognize the Norman conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily and Robert Guiscard as Duke of Apulia and Calabria (which he had already conquered by that point), and as Duke / Count of Sicily (which he was going to conquer next but did not want the fear of Papal armies attacking his rear)

  • Robert Guiscard promised to be faithful to the Pope and the Catholic Church and promised to invade and take back Sicily from the Muslims

1076 - 1122 - Investiture Controversy (All Facts)

• Period of power struggles between the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire o

  • over the ability to choose and install various ecclesiastical officials including bishops, abbots, and the pope himself

  • which began with the Synod of Worms, in which Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, seeking to impose papal power over the European monarchs

  • which ended with the Concordant of Worms, in which Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V compromised in which Henry V agreed to renounce his right to appoint ecclesiastical bishops with the ring and crozier and allow their free election in return for the privilege of being allowed to be present at the election of bishops and intervening in disputes which had occurred regularly over the years

1076 - Synod of Worms (All Facts)

• Council presided over by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV

• Council which called for the condemnation of Pope Gregory VII, in which Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV persuaded German bishops to renounce their obedience to the pope

  • Council in which Pope Gregory VII had Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV excommunicated

• Council whose success marked the beginning of the “Investiture Controversy,” in which the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire competed for power in the ability to appoint ecclesiastical officials including the pope himself

1084 - Sack of Rome (All Facts)

• Event which saw Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and his forces besiege and capture a part of the namesake city, installing antipope Clement III to replace Pope Gregory VII, who then fled to the Castel Sant’Angelo, where he called on Robert Guiscard and the Normans to rescue him and protect him and the Romans from the invasion of the Holy Roman Empire

  • When Robert Guiscard and the Normans came, they outnumbered Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and his forces, forcing them to flee, thus protecting Pope Gregory VII and the Romans from the invasion of the Holy Roman Empire

  • Robert Guiscard then rescued Pope Gregory VII from his stay in the Castel Sant’Angelo

  • However, Robert Guiscard and the Normans proceeded to burn and destroy the namesake city

  • Event which made Pope Gregory VII become the most hated man in Rome for his request to have Guiscard and the Normans come and rescue him and the Romans from Henry IV and the Holy Roman Empire, only for Guiscard and the Normans to proceed to burn and destroy the city themselves

• Event which saw a pall of smoke cover the namesake city as thousands of bodies lie putrefied in the streets

1092 - Synod of Soissons (All Facts)

• Synod which condemned Roscellinus for his denial of the unity of the Trinity

1095 - Council of Clermont (All Facts)

• Council in which Pope Urban II gave a speech calling for the First Crusade, where he talked movingly about

  • How it was no longer safe for pilgrims to visit the Holy Places in Jerusalem owing to the atrocities and disorganization of Turkish rule there

  • The need to help Alexios Komnenos and the Byzantines in their struggle of reasserting Christendom against the infidel Muslims

• In response to his speech

  • the crowds cried “God will it!”

  • the bishop of Le Puy jumped up and knelt before the papal throne beginning him to join the crusade

  • Emissaries from Raymond, the count of Toulouse, and St. Gilles offered their services to help him and his forces

  • He sought additional noble support given that most of the people he gave the speech to were poor

1096 - 1099 - First Crusade (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Crusaders

  • retook Jerusalem and the Holy land from the Muslims, restoring Christendom

    • Conflict which saw massacres of Muslims and Jews

    • Conflict in which the Crusaders went to the church of the holy Sepulchre to give thanks to God and to decide who shall rule Jerusalem

  • were supposed to be helping Alexios Komnenos and the Byzantine Empire regain territory seized by the Seljuk Turks, but ended up keeping the land for themselves instead

    • Frankish and Norman knights marched across Europe to join up with a motley band of Germans, Flamands, and other groups led by Peter the Hermit

      • These groups crossed the Anatolian plateau in high summer and reached Antioch by October

      • They besieged Antioch for five months and then installed Bohemond of Taranto as Prince of Antioch

  • after capturing Antioch, moved on from Jerusalem and passed through Syria and Lebanon

  • sometimes made deals with local Arab rulers who were pleased at the prospect of Turkish power being curbed

• While all this was happening, the Fatimids in Egypt sought their chance to retake Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks

  • Conflict in which,

    • when the Crusaders returned, they found the Fatimids from Egypt behind Jerusalem’s heavily fortified walls

      • In response, they built siege towers and, after six weeks, they scaled the walls of Jerusalem under a storm of fire

    • the Byzantine Empire retook Smyrna, Ephesus, and Sardis

    • Genoa, Venice, and Pisa; whose fleets had helped the Crusaders to capture ports south of Beirut, were rewarded with trading privileges

    • The Crusaders successfully retook Jerusalem from the Fatimids

    • In its hour of victory, the Crusaders numbered no more than 12K foot soldiers and 1.2K knights, a small force which garrisoned vast tracts of territory in Anatolia, Syria, and the Holy Land

• Conflict after which the Crusaders set up “Frankish Kingdoms” in the Near East, especially four notable kingdoms including

  • The Kingdom of Jerusalem

  • The County of Edessa

  • The Principality of Antioch

  • The County of Tripoli

1097 - Battle of Dorylaeum (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Crusaders defeated the Seljuk Turks during the First Crusade

• Battle which opened the way to Anatolia for the Crusaders

1098 - Siege of Antioch (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Crusaders defeated the Seljuk Turks during the First Crusade, making it a Christian city again

• Battle in which Prince Bohemond of Taranto made a secret deal with a captain inside the city named Firoz, who opened the windows in a tower and let the Frankish and Norman knights who led the siege in after scaling the walls by ladder

• The namesake fortress city in southern Turkey was captured and not a single Muslim was left alive in the city

  • This came after five months of cold and starvation, which dashed the enthusiasm aroused at the Council of Clermont by Pope Urban II’s call for Europe to unite to deliver the Holy Land from the possession of the Muslim Turks

  • During this time, desertions increased as reports multiplied that Turkish reinforcements were near

• Battle after which Bohemond of Taranto made himself the city’s namesake prince

1099 - Battle of Ascalon (All Facts)

• Battle in which Godfrey de Bouillon and the Crusaders defeated Al-Afdal and the Fatimids during the First Crusade

• Battle which essentially prevented the Fatimids from retaking Jerusalem

1104 - Battle of Harran (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Crusaders were defeated by the Seljuk Turks

• Battle which allowed the Byzantine forces to advance unopposed into the lands controlled by the Crusader state of the Principality of Antioch

• Battle in which the Crusaders lose Laodicea and the Tripoli coast to the Seljuk Turks

• Battle in which, in response, the Crusaders demanded another crusade against Constantinople

1102 - 1109 - Siege of Tripoli (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Crusaders defeated the Arab Muslims in the namesake city and took it

• Battle after which the Crusaders established a new state there called the namesake

1110 - Siege of Beirut (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Crusaders took the namesake city from the Fatimids

1122 - Concordant of Worms (All Facts)

• Council presided over by Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in which they came to a compromise that ended the “Investiture Controversy”

• Council in which Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agreed to renounce the emperor’s right to appoint ecclesiastical officials with the ring and crozier and allow their free election instead

  • In exchange, Pope Callixtus II granted Henry V the allowance of being present at the election of bishops and intervening in disputes, which had been occurring regularly for several years up to that point

  • In practice, this compromise left the Holy Roman Emperors and European monarchs with some influence, but gave way to establishing much greater power for the papacy as the supreme Christian authority over Europe

• Council which made the distinction between temporalia (temporal power) and spiritualia (spiritual power)

1122 - 1124 / 1126 - Venetian Crusade (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the namesake fleet, in support of the Crusaders

  • Defeated the Egyptians and their fleet off Ascalon in 1123

  • Pillaged Rhodes in 1125

  • Occupied Chios in 1125

  • Ravaged Samos and Lesbos in 1125

  • Occupied Cephalonia in 1125

1123 - First Lateran Council (All Facts)

• Council which officially banned marriage for the clergy

  • If clergy were already married, they had to dissolve the marriage

• Council presided over by Pope Callixtus II

1129 - Council of Troyes (All Facts)

• Council in which Pope Honorius II approved of Hugues de Payens’ order of the “Knights Templar”

• Council in which the Latin Rule was implemented by St. Bernard of Clairvaux to guide the Cistercian and Knights Templar Orders

• Council which helped the “Knights Templar” order become extremely popular throughout Christendom

• Council presided over by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugues de Payens, and Pope Honorius II

1130 - Papal Election (All Facts)

• Election in which the papacy was divided and some selected Innocent II while others selected what became the antipope of Anacletus II due to rival factions of cardinals selecting different popes

1139 - Second Lateran Council (All Facts)

• Council which settled the Anacletus Schism

1141 - Council of Sens (All Facts)

• Council which condemned Peter Abelard as a heretic

• Council presided over by St. Bernard of Clairvaux

1148 - Council of Acre (All Facts)

• Council which called for the Second Crusade

• Great assembly which the royal Crusaders attended within the Kingdom of Jerusalem where they decided (foolishly) to attack Damascus

  • The Frankish barons of northern Syria refused to take part

1147 - 1150 - Second Crusade (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Crusaders decided to attack Damascus

• Conflict called by Pope Eugene III and preached by St. Bernard of Clairvaux

• Conflict called as a response to the fall of the Crusader county of Edessa to Zengi and the Seljuk Turks

• Conflict led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany

• Conflict in which the Crusaders arrived outside Damascus only to learn that Unur, their initial ally in Palestine, had appeared to Nur al-Din, who had dispatched a relief force

  • At the same time, Unur was secretly in touch with officials of the court of Jerusalem, and vast sums of money were being paid by him

• Conflict in which the Crusaders were defeated by the Seljuk Turks in humiliating fashion

  • After only a few days, the Crusaders abandoned their siege of Damascus and retreated, harried by Unur’s bowmen

  • As a result, the road back to Galilee was littered with corpses

  • Thus, the legend of valiant knights from the west lay shattered

• Thus, this disorganized crusade failed to halt the Turkish advance