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Church Reform A Need for Change By the 10th the Church was Western Europe’s leading landowner The Position of pope was becoming dominated by aristocratic families who fought to put their own in office Also local lords dominated churches by appointing the bishops and abbots and collecting income from churches These ill-gotten spiritual leaders cared little about conduct of the clergy Reform movements helped restore the power of the papacy as a spiritual leader The Peace of God Bishops took action to put a stop to the rampant attacks against the church – Church councils formed peace associations Groups of men in particular districts who assessed themselves and used the money to provide armed protection against thuggish lords – Some churchmen tried to reduce the amount of warfare by initiating the Truce of God They limited the number of days on which fighting was permitted – Sundays, Special feast days, and the seasons of Lent and Advent were to be free of fighting – If all forbidden days had been observed fighting would have been permissible on only 80 days of the year Reform of the Papacy In the 10th the papacy provided little leadership to the Christian peoples of western Europe Popes were appointed to advance the political ambitions of their families Pope John XII was appointed pope by his powerful father when he was only 18 – He concentrated on expanding papal territories At the local parish level, in the 10th and 11th centuries, many priests were married – These priests were called Nicolaites The Controversy over Lay Investiture In 1075 Pope Gregory held a council at Rome – Published decrees against nicolaitism, simony, and lay investiture Clerics who accepted investiture from laymen were to be deposed Laymen who invested clerics were to be excommunicated – The church’s penalty of excommunication relied for its effectiveness on public opinion – Henry IV in the Empire, William the Conqueror in England, and Philip I in France protested Why did the issue of lay investiture provoke the wrath of the Kings? Kings appointed monks and clerics as their administrators – Rulers used church offices, bishoprics, and abbacies as the financial means with which to support royal governments The revenues of a diocese or monastery supplied the incomes for royal officials and their staffs Reaction from Germany Gregory accused Henry IV of lack of respect for the papacy and insisted that disobedience to the pope was disobedience to God – In 1076 many of the German bishops who had been invested by Henry withdrew their allegiance from the pope Gregory replied by excommunicating them and suspending Henry from the kingship The Christmas season of 1076 witnessed an ironic situation in Germany; the Clergy supported the emperor and the nobility supported the pope – Henry outwitted Gregory According to legend, Henry stood for 3 days in the snow seeking forgiveness As a priest, Gregory was obliged to grant absolution and to readmit the emperor to the Christian community The Saga Continues In 1080 Gregory VII again excommunicated and deposed the emperor; in return, Henry invaded Italy, captured Rome, and controlled the city when Gregory died in 1085 – Gregory’s successors encouraged Henry’s sons to revolt against their father In 1122, at a conference held at Worms, the issue was settled by a compromise – Bishops were to be chosen according to canon law in the presence of the emperor or his delegate This allowed emperors an effective veto over ecclesiastical appointments Red Beard Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Germany attempted to assert control over the pope and northern Italian cities in 1176 The Italian infantry under the pope defeated Barbarossa’s mounted knights in combat Frederick had to recognize the independence of the Italian cities This weakened him and allowed German princes to gain power which set back German unification even further Frederick did arrange for his son Henry VI to marry heiress to the kingdom of Sicily – The pope resisted as much as possible the joining of the kingdom of Sicily with the Holy Roman Empire which caused further problems between Fred and his princes The Papacy in the High Middle Ages Pope Urban II laid the foundations for the papal monarchy by reorganizing the central government of the Roman church, the chancery, and papal finances – He recognized the college of cardinals as a definite consultative body – These agencies combined with the papal chapel constituted the curia Romana Curia Romana – the papal court, the papacy’s administrative bureaucracy and its court of law – The Roman curia had its greatest impact as a court of law As the highest ecclesiastical tribunal, it formulated canon law for all of Christendom Monastic Revival The Viking, Magyar, and Muslim invaders attacked and ransacked many monasteries across Europe Powerful laymen appointed themselves or their relatives as abbots, took the lands and goods of monasteries, and spent monastic revenues Abbots, bishops, and archbishops thus had military responsibilities that required them to fight or send contingents of soldiers when called on to do so The first two abbots of Cluny, Berno and Odo, set very high standards of religious behavior Cluny gradually came to stand for clerical celibacy and the suppression of simony – Simony- the sale of church offices – there was also concern about worldly goods and the taking of mistresses Revival and Reform in the Christian Church In the 11th Century monasteries remodeled themselves under the leadership of the Burgundian abbey of Cluny Pope Gregory VII’s strong assertion of papal power led to profound changes in serious conflict with secular authorities Cathedrals showed the revival in the church in the 12th and 13th Centuries What comes around… Deeply impressed laypeople showered gifts on monasteries with good reputations As the monasteries became richer, the lifestyle of the monks grew increasingly luxurious Soon fresh demands for reform were heard, and the result was the founding of new religious orders in the late 11th and early 12th Centuries The Cistercians In 1098 a group of monks left the rich abbey of Molesmes in Burgundy and founded a new house in the swampy forest of Citeaux Planned to avoid all involvement with secular feudal society Accepted only uncultivated lands far from regular habitation Refused all gifts of mills, serfs, tithes, and ovens Early Cistercians avoided elaborate liturgy and ceremony and kept chants simple Refused to allow the presence of powerful laypeople in their monasteries Bernard of Clairvaux In 1112 a 23 yr old nobleman named Bernard joined the community at Citeaux – 3 yrs later he was appointed founding abbot of Clairvaux in Champagne – He attacked the theological views of Peter Abelard – He intervened in the disputed papal election of 1130 – Drafted a constitution for the Knights Templar – Preached the 2nd Crusade Unavoidably, Cistercian success brought wealth and wealth brought power – By the later 12th century economic prosperity and political power had begun to compromise the original Cistercian ideals Medieval Heresies The Waldesians- attacked ecclesiastical authority – Followers of Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant from Lyons – Moved by Matt’s passage to sell all your goods and give to the poor so he did – Preached the gospel in the vernacular – Laymen are not allowed to preach Cathars- mixture of Manichaeism and Gnosticism – Gained followers in southern France and northern Italy – God of good and God of evil- O.T. God is the evil one – The world he created is also evil so they practiced abstinence to avoid bringing more wicked humans – Because the Flesh was evil, Christ would not have taken human form not could God have come from the evil flesh of a woman. – Jesus was not God but an angel – The Church is a creation by the evil god to enslave people – These heretics were harshly exterminated Mendicant Friars Pope Innocent III 1198-1216 – 13th century pope who presided over the papacy at its highest level of influence – Sanctioned the establishment of two new orders intended to help curb heresy The Dominicans and the Franciscans – The members of both were called friars – Worked among needy people, especially those living in towns, rather than isolating themselves It was said that “their world was their cloister” – To finance their good deeds they went about begging for alms People called them mendicants, or beggars – Preached and defended the teachings of the Church and fought heresy wherever they encountered it Dominicans Founded in 1216 by Saint Dominic- a Spanish nobleman who preached against the Cathars – Felt the way to fight heresy was to return to the simple ways of the apostles – Also insisted that the friars were educated – They became some of the leading theologians in European universities Order of the Friar Preachers became the official name of the Dominicans Thomas Aquinas Dominican theologian Studied Aristotelian Philosophy and unified it with Christian teachings His teachings are still considered the definitive statement of Roman Catholicism He upheld the value of Human reason and natural knowledge – But reason could never undermine faith – Reason and revelation do not contradict each other – Both reason and faith come from God Franciscans Francis – Son of a wealthy merchant from Assisi – Dreamed of becoming a knight but was captured during his first military venture – Had a dream in which he was directed to repair several ruined churches near the city Without permission used fathers money to do repairs and was flogged and imprisoned – Then pledged himself to a life of poverty and to helping the poor and the sick To demonstrate the teachings of Jesus – Soon a small group of like-minded people joined him The Order of Friars Minor was sanctioned by Pope Innocent III – Impressed Clare, a young noble woman She renounces her inheritance She founded an order of nuns called the Poor Clares The Middle Ages According to Perry seeing the Middle Ages as a period of cultural stagnation is a thing of the past. Its religious orientation sets it apart from the Greco-Roman world and from the modern secular world but: – “The Summa Theologica of Aquinas, The Divine Comedy of Dante, and the gothic cathedrals all attest to the creativeness and genius of the medieval religious spirit” (Perry 2004, 277).
