Exam notes draft

Identifications

  • Peace of God: A movement by the Church to protect non-combatants during feudal warfare.
  • Gothic: An architectural style (12th–16th c.) featuring pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and stained glass to elevate spiritual experience.
  • Gregory I the Great: Pope who strengthened papal power, promoted monasticism, and influenced early medieval Church doctrine.
  • Investiture Controversy: A conflict over the appointment of church officials, particularly bishops, between secular rulers and the papacy.
  • Henry III: Holy Roman Emperor involved in early Church reform, asserting imperial authority over papal appointments.
  • Iconoclasm: The rejection or destruction of religious images, especially in Byzantine Christianity, notably under Leo III and Leo the Isaurian.
  • Leo the Isaurian: Byzantine emperor who initiated the first phase of Iconoclasm (726–741).
  • Foundation Charter of Cluny: Document founding the Cluniac monastery, emphasizing reform and independence from lay control.
  • Charlemagne: First Holy Roman Emperor, champion of Christianity, and sponsor of the Carolingian Renaissance.
  • Carolingian Renaissance: A revival of learning and culture under Charlemagne, focusing on classical texts and Christian education.
  • Simony: The buying or selling of church offices or roles, a major issue of reform.
  • Saxon Capitulary: Laws issued by Charlemagne enforcing Christian practice among the Saxons.
  • Gero Crucifix:
  • Lay Investiture: The practice where secular leaders appointed church officials—central to the Investiture Controversy.
  • Papal Pornocracy: A term used to describe a period of corruption in the papacy, especially during the 10th century.
  • Dictatus Papae: A 1075 decree by Pope Gregory VII asserting papal authority over secular rulers.
  • Leo IX: Reform pope who fought simony and lay investiture, initiating the Papal Reform movement.
  • Urban II: Pope who launched the First Crusade in 1095 with the Council of Clermont.
  • Crusades: A series of religious wars sanctioned by the Church, aimed primarily at reclaiming Jerusalem and aiding the Byzantine Empire.
  • Peter Damian: Monk and reformer who opposed clerical corruption and promoted asceticism.
  • Papal Monarchy: Refers to the growing power of kings and emperors over religious affairs.
  • St. Boniface: Missionary who spread Christianity in Germany and supported Church reform.
  • Letter to Baugulf: Written by Alcuin to a monastery, emphasizing learning and moral living.
  • Anselm: Theologian and philosopher known for the ontological argument for God’s existence.
  • Peter Abelard: Philosopher and theologian known for his logical method and controversial love affair with Héloïse.

Documents

  • John of Damascus: Defended the veneration of icons during the Iconoclastic Controversy, arguing images help elevate the mind to God.
    • Said images can be verbal (scripture), corporeal (depictions), and allegorical (symbolic).
    • Stated: “It is impossible to make an image of God… yet we perceive Him through material things.”

Essay Themes

  • Major figures of the Byzantine Empire and their influence on the development of Christianity and the post-Chalcedonian debates:
    • Justinian
    • Theodora
    • Heraclius
    • Leo the Isaurian
  • Significance of Justinian:
    • Hagia Sophia
    • Code of Justinian
    • Conquests
    • Monasteries
    • 3 Chapters and relations with the Pope
  • Iconoclastic controversy:
    • History and importance
    • Relationship of religion and politics in the Byzantine Empire
    • Impact on relations between Rome and Constantinople (Leo and Constantine)
    • Eventual end of the controversy and the Triumph of Orthodoxy
  • Gradual separation between Rome and Constantinople resulting in the schism of 1054.
  • Transition from late antique to medieval Christianity:
    • Gregory the Great
    • Benedict of Nursia
  • Developments on the Continent and in England and Ireland.
  • Traditions of Irish monasticism and their influence on England and the Continent:
    • Missionary tradition
    • Austere lives of the Irish monks
  • Irish influence on English monasticism and its missionaries like St. Boniface
  • Boniface and the English monks/missionaries’ influence on reform in the Carolingian world.
  • Gradual conversion of Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire and the acceptance of Christianity, in its Arian and Catholic forms, by the Germans.
  • Problems facing the Frankish Church in the early 700s and the reforms of Charlemagne and the Carolingian dynasty.
  • Charlemagne’s reign:
    • Ideas about Christian kingship
    • Motivations
    • Conquests
    • Relationship with the Pope and Church
  • Reforms of the clergy (priests, bishops, monks):
    • Reorganization of the church hierarchy
    • Contacts with the Pope in Rome
  • Concerns with the salvation of people and efforts in improving the life of the Church and all Christians in the empire.
  • Purpose and accomplishments of the Carolingian Renaissance.
  • Civil wars and invasions (Magyars, Muslims, Vikings) that brought about the collapse of the Empire and the emergence of new forms of religious and political life after the year 1000.
  • Gregorian Reform and the great reform movement of the 11th Century:
    • Causes and consequences
  • Challenges faced by the Church in the 11th century:
    • Ignorant priests, immoral priests, married priests, absent priests
    • Eigenkirchen (“proprietary churches” founded by laymen on their property and so not part of the church infrastructure and staffed by untrained priests).
    • Bishops acting as princes, more concerned with power than preaching, serving both the church and the state (especially in Germany/Holy Roman Empire where the king/emperor generally appointed the bishops as part of his duties as ruler—the Reichskirchensystem).
    • Problems with simony (buying and selling of church offices/spiritual things), Nicolaitism (clerical marriage), and lay investiture.
  • Reforms at Cluny and the early phases of the reform movement in the 10th and 11th centuries, including the actions of Henry III at Sutri (1046).
  • Problems and challenges in Rome:
    • Italian families competing to control the papacy and its patronage
    • Traditions of the papal pornocracy.
  • Gregory VII:
    • Career and relationship with Henry IV
    • Role before becoming pope
    • Strong support of the reform of the church
    • Creation of a hierarchical church with the pope on top and a clear divide between the laity and the clergy
  • Policies, Henry’s ideas about kingship, and the Investiture Controversy.
  • Consequences of Reform:
    • Crusades
    • Papal Monarchy
    • 12th-Century Renaissance
  • Urban II and his role in defending Gregorian Reform.
  • Urban and the creation of the papal monarchy:
    • Use of cardinals and legates and new departments
    • Creation of the papal court
    • Infrastructure necessary to implement reform and papal authority.
  • Urban and the Crusades, especially the First Crusade (1095-99):
    • Goals, motivations, popularity, success, Jerusalem
    • Later crusades and their importance in the history of medieval Christianity.