Chapter 5 A Church Divided AD 500 to AD 1300
What on Earth Was Happening?
•The ancient Roman Empire was falling apart.
•The feudal system gradually emerged to provide a semblance of social order.
•Churches in eastern and western parts of the former empire were developing very different perspectives and practices.
How did the fall of the Roman Empire affect life for the church and the regular folks.
The Roman Church and the Bishop of Rome moved into the vacuum created by the fall of Rome to the barbarian.
In some respects the Bishop or Papacy began to enact policy for the entire church.
The lack of centralized political authority in Rome resulted in local kingdoms, city states and feudal lords. The castle system developed with serfs worked for the feudal ruler who provided military protection and stability to the local communities.
The village and the local church became the center of feudal life. The local priest was the authority for church life. The Latin Vulgate was the only legal bible and most of the locals were illiterate and had to look to the priest for all matters of faith.
What were some of the differences that began to develop between the Western and eastern Church.
How did the rise of Islam affect the church?
Islam teaches that Muhammad was accosted by the angel Gabriel during a dream and told to memorize a certain message. For several years, Muhammad kept this to himself, thinking he was being attacked by a demon. Once his wife convinced him otherwise, he began to preach according to these received words. Over the next twenty-plus years, Muhammad gradually delivered more and more of the message. His followers memorized his words, maintaining an entirely oral record of the Qur’an. Only minor portions were inscribed on leaves, rocks, and bones.
Muhammad was born in Mecca Saudi Arabia in the 6th century AD. He was totally illiterate but heard about the Jewish Yahweh from Jewish merchants. He morphed aspects of the “people of the Book” with the pagan Arabian moon god and invented Allah and the monotheist religion, Islam. After years of rejection in his own town, he went to Medina the hub of Jewish commercial activity to spread his new religion but eventually they rejected him as well. He reacted by raiding the Jewish caravans, killing the Jews, and sharing the booty with his followers. This began his career of violence, conquest and enslavement of Jews and Christians.
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion, Allah corresponded to the Babylonian god Baal, and Arabs knew of him long before Mohammed worshipped him as the supreme God. Before Islam the Arabs recognized many gods and goddesses, each tribe had their own deity. There were also nature deities. Allah was the god of the local Quarish tribe, which was Mohammed’s tribe before he invented Islam to lead his people out of their polytheism. Allah was then known as the Moon God.
As Islam continued to spread, variations within the Qur’an began to arise. This was due to continued oral memorization alternate writings on leaves and bones, and differences of opinion between Muslims on what Muhammad had actually said. These disagreements were serious enough to spark violence.
A succeeding caliph, Uthman, ordered all written copies of the Qur’an, including scraps, to be collected.These were given to a panel of scholars who were tasked with determining the “correct” words and pronunciations. Afterwards, Uthman sent a single copy of the written Qur’an to each of the major regions of the Empire, and ordered all prior copies—in all forms—to be destroyed.
In the account of the possessed boy in Mark we read about how the demon, “convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.”(Mark 9:20).
Interestingly there is Islamic written accounts where Muhammad seems to have suffered from demonic seizure-like spells and other similar convulsive behavior.
For example, we have multiple attestations to Muhammad foaming from the mouth:
“The authoritative Hadith relate that Muhammad used to faint whenever revelation came to him. It is claimed he used to act like a drunkard. In his book, Al-Qur’an al-Majid, Darwaza claims that Muhammad was taken out of this world.
Abu Huraira says that ‘whenever Muhammad received revelation, he was overwhelmed by trembling.’ Another account says: ‘He became distressed, foaming at the mouth and closing his eyes. At times he snorted like a young camel’ (Ahmad b. Hanbal I, 34, 464, VI, 163).” (The True Guidance (Part Four): An Introduction to Quranic Studies, p.
What was the Iconoclasm issue?
•Conflict quickly erupted between iconodules (“icon-kissers”) and iconoclasts (“icon-smashers”).
At first, the emperor sided with the iconoclasts
•Iconoclasts claimed that iconodules were idolizing their icons.
•In 787, the Second Council of Nicaea allowed reverence of icons but clearly forbade worship of icons.
How did the Holy Roman Empire come about?
The Franks had conquered much of the former western Empire.
•In 496, Clovis, chief of the Franks, accepted the Nicene Creed and supported the Roman Church.
•Charles became king of the Franks in 768; he strongly supported the Roman Church.
•King Charles later became known as Charlemagne or Charles the Great.
•In 799, power-hungry Italian nobles accused Pope Leo III of embezzlement.
•Leo III fled to King Charles; on December 23, 800, Charles acquitted the pope of all charges.
•In 799, power-hungry Italian nobles accused Pope Leo III of embezzlement.
•Leo III fled to King Charles; on December 23, 800, Charles acquitted the pope of all charges.
•On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III dubbed Charles “Holy Roman Emperor,” in continuity with the rulers of ancient Rome.
The church had created an emperor.
What was the Filioque Controversy?
•Churches in western Europe had added the word filioque (“and the Son”) to the Nicene Creed in the AD 500s.
Eastern Christians recited, “The Holy Spirit … proceeds from the Father.”
Western Christians recited, “The Holy Spirit … proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
•Photius, bishop of Constantinople, spoke out against the added phrase in 867.
Photius declared the phrase to be heretical and excommunicated Pope Nicholas, bishop of Rome
What finally caused the Great Schism of 1054?
•For many years, Christians in the eastern and western regions viewed themselves as members of one church, despite disagreements.
•Between the 9th and 13th centuries, however, the church split into two communions:
Roman Catholic
Eastern Orthodox
•There were three primary reasons for the split between Roman Catholicism (west) and Eastern Orthodoxy:
1. The Filioque Controversy
2. The Great Schism of 1054
3. The Fourth Crusade
•On July 16, 1054, Bishop Humbert of Rome placed a notice of excommunication on the Lord’s Supper table of the Church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople.
•Humbert’s notice accused Eastern Christians of adding filioque to the Nicene Creed—the precise opposite of the truth!
How did the Crusades begin?
At the Council of Clermont in 1095 Pope Urban II called upon Christians in Europe to respond to an urgent plea for help from Byzantine Christians in the East. Muslims were threatening to conquer this remnant of the Roman Empire for Allah. The threat was real; most of the Middle East, including the Holy Land where Christ had walked, had already been vanquished. Thus began the era of the Crusades, taken from the Latin word crux or cross. The pope sweetened the deal by offering “plenary indulgence” An indulgence is partial if it removes part of the temporal punishment due to sin, or plenary if it removes all punishment. Those who would join the crusade would receive forgiveness of all sin, avoid purgatory and earn immediate entrance into heaven upon death.
•In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to take Jerusalem from the “Turks and Arabs.”
•The pope promised anyone who participated in the Crusade the “equivalent of penance.”
•The First Crusade (1099)
Conquered Jerusalem, brutally slaughtering Jews and Muslims.
•The Second Crusade (1147–1149)
Failed to take Edessa from the Muslims; afterward, Jerusalem fell into Muslim hands again.
•The Third Crusade (1189–1192)
Also failed to retake Jerusalem.
•The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204)
Never reached the Holy Land and became entangled in a series of financial and political issues which brought the Crusaders to Constantinople.
On Good Friday, 1204, the western Crusaders broke through the walls of Constantinople.
For three days, the Crusaders killed, tortured, and raped eastern Christians in the name of Christ.
•The relationships between eastern and western Christians never recovered from those three days.
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