Download Gregory I (The Great) Charles The Great (Charlemagne) Gregory I

Gregory I (The Great)
Charles The Great
(Charlemagne)
Gregory I (590-604) - Pope
Charlemagne (768-814) - Emperor
Life Before Pope
Mayor of Rome in 573
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Organized city’s defenses against Lombards (Ger.)
Sent to Constantinople as pope’s representative
Adopted monastic lifestyle in 575
Returned to Rome in 585
City in disrepair: buildings, city walls, etc.
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Floods, plague, Lombards; Gregory led efforts in maintaining the city
Major Accomplishments
Responsible for feeding & caring for large numbers of destitute people: Lombard invasion
and serious plague
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The church was the only authority people could rely on for help
Appointed pope in 590; 1st monastic pope
Kept the affairs of the churches under his immediate control: abbots, clergy, etc
Detailed organizational structure to administer papal estates
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Papacy was the largest land owner in Italy – 1,800 sq. miles
Each patrimony was administered by a rector – personal representative of the pope
After Gregory the pope was as much a political figure as a religious leader
Wrote a book, Pastoral Care
Strong disagreements with Patriarch of Constantinople who called himself “Universal
Bishop” – Gregory called him “forerunner of the Antichrist”
Gregory adopted the title “servant of the servants of God”
Significant contributions in theology:
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Purgatory (developed Augustine’s idea)
Mass repeated Christ’s sacrifice
Original sin washed away by baptism
Intercession by saints
Holy relics
Charles The Great
(Charlemagne)
King of the Franks (768-814)
Holy Roman Emperor (800-814)
Lombards threatened Rome again
Pope called out his army (to protect his properties)
Pope threatened excommunication (1st time a Pope threatened to excommunicate a king)
Charlemagne defeated the Lombards and became king of Lombards as well as Franks
He pledged protection for papal estates
Leo III
Elected pope 795 – 816
Much opposition
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Not from elite family; accused of adultery and perjury
Kidnapped by supporters of rival (April, 799)
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Tried to cut out his eyes and tongue (a traditional treatment of one’s enemy)
Deposed and sent to a monastery
Escaped & appealed to Charlemagne for help
Charlemagne refused to accept the pope’s deposition from office; he then “investigated”
the charges & declared him innocent
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Many think Charlemagne acted not because he had weighed the evidence, but
because he accepted the idea that the pope was above human law
He may also have thought it was more important to restore order and unity in the
church
Leo III placed the imperial crown on Charlemagne’s head on Christmas day 800 AD
Charlemagne was now King of Franks, Lombards, Papal estates, and ruler of the western
world
Leo III did not tell Charlemagne in advance what he was doing
This “coronation” began the Holy Roman Empire
It also gave the appearance that Charlemagne was dependent on the pope for his power
Charlemagne liked his new power, but not how he got it
Charlemagne now viewed himself as
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Protector of the Church
Military force
Reformer/Purifier as Josiah of the OT
Gave the empire a new set of laws
To unify
To educate
Charlemagne and Augustine’s City of God
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Augustine had argued that a true Christian state should model itself after the
heavenly city where perfect order and harmony existed
Peace and justice must be established for all
He became obsessed with regulating the religious and secular life of his people
Charlemagne’s Accomplishments
- Reforms Church management reform and discipline
Reform and revival of monasticism
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Rule of St. Benedict
Church customs, worship
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Had Alcuin revise the Vulgate – one version
Ordered a standard sacramentary so mass would be celebrated “properly”
everywhere
Doctrine
Education
New Struggles
Feudalism
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Political power exercised by wealthy land owners rather than centralized
governments
Church had to deal with wealthy individuals rather than kings
Bishops became vassals of feudal lords
Pornocracy (904-964)
Lay investiture – secular rulers selecting and ordaining church officials
Simony – selling church offices
Pope Formosus and
Emperor Lambert
Formosus – pope, 891-896
More of a politician than a shepherd
Crowned Lambert as Holy Roman Emperor, 894
Deposed him and crowned Arnulf as Emperor, 896
Died in 896
Lambert’s mother, Agiltrude, had Formosus’ body exhumed, dressed in papal robes, tried
in public court, all his decrees nullified
Had the 3 fingers used for papal blessings cut off;
Dragged his corpse through he streets of Rome and thrown into the Tiber.
Ironically, his body was burried in St. Peter’s a few months later.
Pornocracy (904 – 964)
Leading up to this period
896-904: 10 popes; 4 mths, 1 mth, 20 days
Sergius III (904) – John XII (964)
60 yrs of the papacy controlled by wealthy people and political leaders.
Sexual immorality widespread – chastity vows ignored.
Theodora and her two daughters used their bodies for land, position, wealth.
Marozia (Theodora’s daughter) had an illegitimate son by pope Sergius III
That son later became pope John XI (931-936)
Another son, Alberic, imprisoned, killed his mother, arrested his brother – the pope, and
ruled as dictator over the church (though not as pope)
Convinced church officials to elect his son, Octavian, as pope (955-964)
John XII (Octavian) became pope at 16
Made a toast to the devil in a drunken orgy.
Attended church only when he had to preside.
Personal conduct was scandalous.
Officially condemned many practices he enjoyed.
Reform
Otto I was crowned emperor by John XII. (962)
Otto thought John’s conduct was not appropriate.
Insisted that future pope’s be appointed only with his consent
John XII opposed Otto and planned to overthrow him.
Otto prepared to attack Rome, but John XII died “suddenly.”
Abbey of Cluny
Founded by Duke William of Aquitaine (September, 909)
Called for return to monastic vow of chastity by all clergy.
Reform of economic practices of abbeys; called for an end to simony.
Free the church from secular control, return it to papal authority.
Began on a small scale, but within a century had spread throughout Europe calling
for reform among the clergy.
Hildebrand (pope Gregory VII) – 1073-1085
Spiritual power supreme to temporal power
Envisioned one world under the pope
Prohibited lay investiture
Gottschalk
(808-868)
Represented Augustine’s views on predestination; thought the church had misunderstood
Augustine’s views
God had chosen some for salvation before the world was created
Their selection depended entirely on God’s grace
No human effort could cause a person to be saved
He was attacked and condemned as a heretic
Beaten and imprisoned until he died
Such teaching took away the role of the church in salvation
The church as the “dispenser” of grace was undermined
Transubstantiation
Paschasius Radbertus – monk (790-865)
Wrote The Body and Blood of the Lord
When the priest says the words, “This is my body . . . this is my blood,” the bread
and wine became the actual body and blood of Christ.
Only true for those who believe this
The presence of Christ in the Eucharist had been acknowledged for a long time
The majority viewed it as symbolic
Became official church doctrine in 1215;
4th Lateran council