Chapter 16

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. [1]

120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion. By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."

THE EPISCOPATE

The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the development of the episcopal system in the Church. Each provincial city had its bishop, assisted by priests and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and a patriarch had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropolitans. This graded arrangement of ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to the highest, helped to make the Church centralized and strong. It appears to have been modeled, almost unconsciously, on the government of the Roman Empire. [2]

THE PATRIARCHS

The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice. At the time of the Council of Nicaea [3] there were three patriarchs, namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among the most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that the churches established in them should be singled out for preëminence. Some years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop of that imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council of the Church. In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the same dignity. Henceforth there were five patriarchs--four in the East but only one in the West.

CLERGY AND LAITY

The Christian Church was a very democratic organization. Patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all ranks of life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit them for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had sufficient funds to support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs was discouraged and finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, priests and bishops were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of celibacy for the clergy became very pronounced during the early Middle Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general abandonment of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe where papal influence prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did not begin to come into use until the fifth century, when some of them began to don clothing of a more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress--the tunic and the toga. [4] Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity, by differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention from worldly occupations.

HERESIES

While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was also elaborating her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many controversies upon such subjects as the connection of Christ with God and the nature of the Trinity. In order to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the opposing views were debated and a decision was reached. The Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arianism, formed the first, and one of the most important, of these general gatherings of the Church. After the Church had once expressed itself on any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as unlawful to maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were called heretics, and their teachings, heresies. The emperor Theodosius, whose severe laws finally shattered the ancient paganism, [5] devoted even more attention to stamping out heresies among his Christian subjects. He prohibited meetings of heretics, burned their books, and threatened them with death if they persisted in their peculiar doctrines. During his reign a Spanish bishop and six of his partisans were executed for holding unorthodox beliefs. This was the beginning of the persecutions for heresy.

WORSHIP

As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire, thus becoming the religion of the rich and powerful as well as the religion of the poor and lowly, more attention was devoted to the conduct of worship. Magnificent church buildings were often erected. Their architects seem to have followed as models the basilicas, or public halls, which formed so familiar a sight in Roman cities. [6] Church interiors were adorned with paintings, mosaic pictures, images of saints and martyrs, and the figure of the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of fragrant incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship. Beautiful prayers and hymns were composed. Some of the early Christian hymns, such as the _Gloria in Excelsis_ and the _Te Deum Laudamus_, are still sung in our churches. Organs did not come into use until the seventh century, and then only in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to divine service, early became attached to Christian edifices.

SUNDAY

The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the first day of the week" [7] in memory of Christ's resurrection. They attended public worship on the Lord's Day, but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from worldly business and amusements. The Jewish element in some churches, and especially in the East, was strong enough to secure an additional observance of Saturday as a weekly festival. Saturday long continued to be marked by religious assemblies and feasting, though not by any compulsory cessation of the ordinary occupations. During the fourth century Sunday, as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and more to be kept as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's Sunday law [8] formed the first of a long series of imperial edicts imposing the observance of that day as a legal duty. In this manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of religion.

FESTIVALS

The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape during the early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting (Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival. Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. [9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration of which was finally assigned to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany (January 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. In course of time many other feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were added to the calendar of the "Christian Year."

121. EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST

By the time of Constantine, Christianity had spread widely throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor was then largely Christian. Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece were all ecclesiastical provinces with their own metropolitans. Many Christians were found in Syria and Egypt. Churches also existed in Mesopotamia and Arabia, and even beyond the boundaries of the empire in Armenia and Persia. Between the time of Constantine and that of Justinian, Christianity continued to expand in the East, until the gospel had been carried to such distant regions as Abyssinia and India.

UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Most of the Christian communities in the Orient owed allegiance to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The Roman emperor, however, was the supreme religious authority in the East. He felt it as much his duty to maintain the doctrines and organization of Christianity as to preserve the imperial dominions against foreign foes. Since he presided over the Church, there could be no real independence for its officers. Bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs were in every respect subordinate to his will. This union of Church and State formed one of the most characteristic features of Christianity in the East.

THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES; HERESIES

Eastern Christians, far more than those in the West, devoted themselves to theological speculations. Constantinople and the great Hellenistic cities of Antioch and Alexandria contained many learned scholars who had prolonged and heated arguments over subtle questions of belief. After the Arian controversy had been settled in the fourth century, other disputes concerning the true nature of Christ broke out. These gave rise to many heresies.

NESTORIANISM

The heresy known as Nestorianism, from Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, spread widely in the East. Nestorian missionaries even penetrated to India, China, and Mongolia. The churches which they established were numerous and influential during the Middle Ages, but since then most of them have been destroyed by the Mohammedans. Members of this sect are still to be found, however, in eastern lands. [11]

ORTHODOXY

After the formation of the Nestorian and other heretical sects, the orthodox faith was preserved in the East only by the Greeks of Asia Minor and Europe. The Greek Church, which calls itself the "Holy Orthodox Church," for a time remained in unity with the Roman Church in the West. The final separation of these two churches occurred in the eleventh century. [12]

122. WESTERN CHRISTIANITY: RISE OF THE PAPACY

THE PAPACY

Christianity in the West presented two sharp contrasts to eastern Christianity. In the first place, the great heresies which divided the East scarcely affected the West. In the second place, no union of Church and State existed among western Christians. Instead of acknowledging the religious supremacy of the emperor at Constantinople, they yielded obedience to the bishop of Rome, the head of the Roman Church. He is known to us as the pope, and his office is called the Papacy. We shall now inquire how the popes secured their unchallenged authority over western Christendom.

ROME AN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

A church in Rome must have been established at an early date, for it was to Roman Christians that St. Paul addressed one of the _Epistles_ now preserved in the New Testament. St. Paul visited Rome, as we know from the _Acts of the Apostles_, and there he is said to have suffered martyrdom. Christian tradition, very ancient and very generally received, declares that St. Peter also labored in Rome, where he met a martyr's death, perhaps during the reign of the emperor Nero. To the early Christians, therefore, the Roman Church must have seemed in the highest degree sacred, for it had been founded by the two greatest apostles and had been nourished by their blood.

ROME A "MOTHER-CHURCH"

Another circumstance helped to give the Roman Church a superior position in the West. It was a vigorous missionary church. Rome, the largest and most flourishing city in the empire and the seat of the imperial government, naturally became the center from which Christianity spread over the western provinces. Many of the early Christian communities planted in Spain, Gaul, and Africa owed their start to the missionary zeal of the Roman Church. To Rome, as the great "Mother-church," her daughters in western Europe would turn henceforth with reverence and affection; they would readily acknowledge her leading place among the churches; and they would seek her advice on disputed points of Christian belief or worship.

THE ROMAN CHURCH INDEPENDENT

The independence of the Roman Church also furthered its development. The bishop of Rome was the sole patriarch in the West, while in the East there were two, and later four patriarchs, each exercising authority in religious matters. Furthermore, the removal of the capital from Rome to Constantinople helped to free the Roman bishop from the close oversight of the imperial government. He was able, henceforth, to promote the interests of the church under his control without much interference on the part of the eastern emperor.

THE ROMAN CHURCH ORTHODOX

Finally, it must be noted how much the development of the Roman Church was aided by its attitude on disputed questions of belief. While eastern Christendom was torn by theological controversies, the Church of Rome stood firmly by the Nicene Creed. [13] After the Arian, Nestorian, and other heresies were finally condemned, orthodox Christians felt indebted to the Roman Church for its unwavering championship of "the faith once delivered to the saints." They were all the more ready, therefore, to defer to that church in matters of doctrine and to accept without question its spiritual authority.

THE PETRINE SUPREMACY

The claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy over the Christian world had a double basis. Certain passages in the New Testament, where St. Peter is represented as the rock on which the Church is built, the pastor of the sheep and lambs of the Lord, and the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, appear to indicate that he was regarded by Christ as the chief of the Apostles. Furthermore, a well-established tradition made St. Peter the founder of the Roman Church and its first bishop. It was then argued that he passed to his successors, the popes, all his rights and dignity. As St. Peter was the first among the Apostles, so the popes were to be the first among bishops. Such was the doctrine of the Petrine supremacy, expressed as far back as the second century, strongly asserted by many popes during the Middle Ages, and maintained to-day by the Roman Church.

123. GROWTH OF THE PAPACY

PONTIFICATE OF LEO I, 440-461 A.D.

Up to the middle of the fifth century about forty-five bishops had occupied St. Peter's chair at Rome. The most eminent these was Leo the Great. When he became bishop, the Germans were overrunning the western provinces of the empire. The invaders professed the Arian faith, as we have seen, and often persecuted the orthodox Christians among whom they settled. At such a time, when the imperial power was growing weaker, faithful Catholics in the West naturally turned for support to the bishop of Rome. Leo became their champion against the barbarians. Tradition declares that he succeeded in diverting Attila from an attack on Rome, and when the Vandals sacked the city Leo also intervened to prevent its destruction. [14]

PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY I, 590-604 A.D.

After Leo, no important name occurs in the list of popes until we come to Gregory the Great. Gregory, as the son of a rich and distinguished Roman senator, enjoyed a good education in all the learning of the time. He entered public life and at an early age became prefect of Rome. But now, almost at the outset of his career, Gregory laid aside earthly ambition. He gave up his honorable position and spent the fortune, inherited from his father, in the foundation of monasteries and the relief of the poor. He himself became a monk, turned his palace at Rome into a monastery, and almost ruined his health by too great devotion to fasts and midnight vigils. Gregory's conspicuous talents, however, soon called him from retirement and led to his election as pope.

TEMPORAL POWER OF GREGORY

The work of Gregory lay principally in two directions. As a statesman he did much to make the popes virtual sovereigns at Rome and in Italy. At this time the Italian peninsula, overrun by the Lombards and neglected by the eastern emperor, was in a deplorable condition. The bishop of Rome seemed to be the only man who could protect the people and maintain order. Gregory had very great success in this task. He appointed governors of cities, issued orders to generals, drilled the Romans for military defense, and sent ambassadors to treat with the king of the Lombards. It was largely owing to Gregory's efforts that these barbarians were prevented from conquering central Italy.

GREGORY'S SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY

Gregory was no less eminent as a churchman. His writings and his personal influence greatly furthered the advancement of the Roman Church in the West. We find him sternly repressing heresies wherever they arose, aiding the conversion of Arian Visigoths in Spain and Arian Lombards in Italy, and sending out monks as missionaries to distant Britain. [15] He well deserved by these labors the title "Servant of the servants of God," [16] which he assumed, and which the popes after him have retained. The admiration felt for his character and abilities raised him, in later ages, to the rank of a saint.

POSITION OF THE PAPACY

When Gregory the Great closed his remarkable career, the Papacy had reached a commanding place in western Christendom. To their spiritual authority the popes had now begun to add some measure of temporal power as rulers at Rome and in Italy. During the eighth century, as we have already learned, [17] the alliance of the popes and the Franks helped further to establish the Papacy as an ecclesiastical monarchy, ruling over both the souls and bodies of men. Henceforth it was to go forward from strength to strength.

124. MONASTICISM

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT

The Papacy during the Middle Ages found its strongest supporters among the monks. By the time of Gregory the Great monasticism [18] was well established in the Christian Church. Its origin must be sought in the need, often felt by spiritually-minded men, of withdrawing from the world --from its temptations and its transitory pleasures--to a life of solitude, prayer, and religious contemplation. Joined to this feeling has been the conviction that the soul may be purified by subduing the desires and passions of the body. Men, influenced by the monastic spirit, sought a closer approach to God.

EARLY CHRISTIAN MONASTICISM

The monastic spirit in Christianity owed much to the example of its founder, who was himself unmarried, poor, and without a place "where to lay his head." Some of Christ's teachings, taken literally, also helped to exalt the worth of the monastic life. At a very early period there were Christian men and women who abstained from marriage, flesh meat, and the use of wine, and gave themselves up to prayer, religious exercises, and works of charity. This they did in their homes, without abandoning their families and human society.

THE HERMITS

Another monastic movement began about the middle of the third century, when many Christians in Egypt withdrew into the desert to live as hermits. St. Anthony, who has been called the first Christian hermit, passed twenty years in a deserted fort on the east bank of the Nile. During all this time he never saw a human face. Some of the hermits, believing that pain and suffering had a spiritual value, went to extremes of self- mortification. They dwelt in wells, tombs, and on the summits of pillars, deprived themselves of necessary food and sleep, wore no clothing, and neglected to bathe or to care for the body in any way. Other hermits, who did not practice such austerities, spent all day or all night in prayer. The examples of these recluses found many imitators in Syria and other eastern lands. [19]

RULE OF ST. BASIL

A life shut off from all contact with one's fellows is difficult and beyond the strength of ordinary men. The mere human need for social intercourse gradually brought the hermits together, at first in small groups and then in larger communities, or monasteries. The next step was to give the scattered monasteries a common organization and government. Those in the East gradually adopted the regulations which St. Basil, a leading churchman of the fourth century, drew up for the guidance of the monks under his direction. St. Basil's Rule, as it is called, has remained to the present time the basis of monasticism in the Greek Church.

ST. BENEDICT

The monastic system, which early gained an entrance into western Christendom, looked to St. Benedict as its organizer. While yet a young man, St. Benedict had sought to escape from the vice about him by retiring to a cave in the Sabine hills near Rome. Here he lived for three years as a hermit, shutting himself off from all human intercourse, wearing a hair shirt, and rolling in beds of thistles to subdue "the flesh." St. Benedict's experience of the hermit's life convinced him that there was a surer and better road to religious peace of mind. His fame as a holy man had attracted to him many disciples, and these he now began to group in monastic communities under his own supervision. St. Benedict's most important monastery was at Monte Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. It became the capital of monasticism in the West.

RULE OF ST. BENEDICT, 529(?) A.D.

To control the monks of Monte Cassino St. Benedict framed a Rule, or constitution, which was modeled in some respects upon the earlier Rule of St. Basil. The monks formed a sort of corporation, presided over by an abbot, [20] who held office for life. To the abbot every candidate for admission took the vow of obedience. Any man, rich or poor, noble or peasant, might enter the monastery, after a year's probation; having once joined, however, he must remain a monk for the rest of his days. The monks were to live under strict discipline. They could not own any property; they could not go beyond the monastery walls without the abbot's consent; they could not even receive letters from home; and they were sent to bed early. A violation of the regulations brought punishment in the shape of private admonitions, exclusion from common prayer, and, in extreme cases, expulsion.

SPREAD OF THE BENEDICTINE RULE

The Rule of St. Benedict came to have the same wide influence in the West which that of St. Basil exerted in the East. Gregory the Great established it in many places in Italy, Sicily, and England. During Charlemagne's reign it was made the only form of monasticism throughout his dominions. By the tenth century the Rule prevailed everywhere in western Europe. [21]

125. LIFE AND WORK OF THE MONKS

A MONASTIC COMMUNITY

St. Benedict sought to draw a sharp line between the monastic life and that of the outside world. Hence he required that, as far as possible, each monastery should form an independent, self-supporting community whose members had no need of going beyond its limits for anything. In course of time, as a monastery increased in wealth and number of inmates, it might come to form an enormous establishment, covering many acres and presenting within its massive walls the appearance of a fortified town.

THE MONASTERY BUILDINGS

The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the larger sort were grouped around an inner court, called a cloister. These included a church, a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery near it, a dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they transacted business. There was also a library, a school, a hospital, and a guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, laundries, workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay vegetable gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if the monastery was built on a stream. The high wall and ditch, usually surrounding a monastery, shut it off from outsiders and in time of danger protected it against attack.

MONASTIC OCCUPATIONS

St. Benedict defined a monastery as "a school for the service of the Lord." The monks under his Rule occupied themselves with a regular round of worship, reading, and manual labor. Each day was divided into seven sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the monastery church. The first service came usually about two o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before the monks retired to rest. In addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent several hours in reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the necessary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies of vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to maintain a large establishment. This emphasis on labor, as a religious duty, was a characteristic feature of western monasticism. "To labor is to pray" became a favorite motto of the Benedictines. [22]

ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE

It is clear that life in a Benedictine monastery appealed to many different kinds of people in the Middle Ages. Those of a spiritual turn of mind found in the monastic life the opportunity of giving themselves wholly to God. Studious and thoughtful persons, with no disposition for an active career in the world, naturally turned to the monastery as a secure retreat. The friendless and the disgraced often took refuge within its walls. Many a troubled soul, to whom the trials of this world seemed unendurable, sought to escape from them by seeking the peaceful shelter of the cloister.

THE MONKS AS CIVILIZERS

The civilizing influence of the Benedictine monks during the early Middle Ages can scarcely be over-emphasized. A monastery was often at once a model farm, an inn, a hospital, a school, and a library. By the careful cultivation of their lands the monks set an example of good farming wherever they settled. They entertained pilgrims and travelers, at a period when western Europe was almost destitute of inns. They performed many works of charity, feeding the hungry, healing the sick who were brought to their doors, and distributing their medicines freely to those who needed them. In their schools they trained both boys who wished to become priests and those who intended to lead active lives in the world. The monks, too, were the only scholars of the age. By copying the manuscripts of classical authors, they preserved valuable books that would otherwise have been lost. By keeping records of the most striking events of their time, they acted as chroniclers of medieval history. To all these services must be added the work of the monks as missionaries to the heathen peoples of Europe.

126. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY OVER EUROPE

THE ROMAN CHURCH AND THE BARBARIANS

Almost all Europe had been won to Christianity by the end of the eleventh century. In the direction of this great missionary campaign the Roman Church took the leading part. [23] The officers of her armies were zealous popes, bishops, and abbots; her private soldiers were equally zealous monks, priests, and laymen. Pagan Rome had never succeeded in making a complete and permanent conquest of the barbarians. Christian Rome, however, was able to bring them all under her spiritual sway.

RECONVERSION OF THE ARIAN GERMANS

Christianity first reached the Germanic invaders in its Arian [24] form. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards were all Arians. The Roman Church regarded them as heretics and labored with success to reconvert them. This work was at last completed when the Lombards, in the seventh century, accepted the Catholic faith.

FRANKS AND ANGLO-SAXONS CONVERTED TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM

The Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, whose kingdoms were to develop into the chief states of medieval Europe, adopted from the outset the Catholic form of Christianity. The conversion of the Franks provided the Roman Church with its strongest and most faithful adherents among the Germanic tribes. [25] The conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain by Augustine and his monks, followed later by the spread of Roman Catholicism in Ireland and Scotland, firmly united the British Isles to the Papacy. [26] Thus Rome during the Middle Ages came to be the one center of church life for the peoples of western Europe.

ST. BONIFACE AND THE CONVERSION OF THE GERMANS

An Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Boniface, did more than any other missionary to carry Christianity to the remote tribes of Germany. Like Augustine in England, St. Boniface was sent by the pope, who created him missionary bishop and ordered him to "carry the word of God to unbelievers." St. Boniface also enjoyed the support of the Frankish rulers, Charles Martel and Pepin the Short. Thanks to their assistance this intrepid monk was able to penetrate into the heart of Germany. Here he labored for nearly forty years, preaching, baptizing, and founding numerous churches, monasteries, and schools. His boldness in attacking heathenism is illustrated by the story of how he cut down with his own hands a certain oak tree, much reverenced by the natives of Hesse as sacred to the god Woden, and out of its wood built a chapel dedicated to St. Peter. St. Boniface crowned a lifetime of missionary labor with a martyr's death, probably in 754 A.D. His work was continued by Charlemagne, who forced the Saxons to accept Christianity at the point of the sword. [27] All Germany at length became a Christian land, devoted to the Papacy.

CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS

Roman Catholicism not only spread to Celtic and Germanic peoples, but it also gained a foothold among the Slavs. Both Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great attempted to Christianize the Slavic tribes between the Elbe of the Slavs and the Vistula, by locating bishoprics in their territory. The work of conversion encountered many setbacks and did not reach completion until the middle of the twelfth century. The most eminent missionaries to the Slavs were Cyril and Methodius. These brother-monks were sent from Constantinople in 863 A.D. to convert the Moravians, who formed a kingdom on the eastern boundary of Germany. Seeing their great success as missionaries, the pope invited them to Rome and secured their consent to an arrangement which brought the Moravian Christians under the control of the Papacy. [28] From Moravia Christianity penetrated into Bohemia and Poland. These countries still remain strongholds of the Roman Church. The Serbians and Russians, as we have learned, [29] received Christianity by way of Constantinople and so became adherents of the Greek Church.

FINAL EXTENSION OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM

Roman Catholicism gradually spread to most of the remaining peoples of Europe. The conversion of the Norwegians and Swedes was well advanced by the middle of the eleventh century. The Magyars, or Hungarians, accepted Christianity at about the same date. The king of Hungary was such a devout Catholic that in the year 1000 A.D. the pope sent to him a golden crown and saluted him as "His Apostolic Majesty." The last parts of heathen Europe to receive the message of the gospel were the districts south and east of the Baltic, occupied by the Prussians, Lithuanians, and Finns. Their conversion took place between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

127. SEPARATION OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTIANITY

DIVERGENCE OF EAST AND WEST

Before the Christian conquest of Europe was finished, Christianity had divided into two great communions--the Greek Church and the Roman Church. Their separation was a long, slow process, arising from the deep-seated differences between East and West. Though Rome had carried her conquering arms throughout the Mediterranean basin, all the region east of the Adriatic was imperfectly Romanized. [30] It remained Greek in language and culture, and tended, as time went on, to grow more and more unlike the West, which was truly Roman. The founding of Constantinople and the transference of the capital from the banks of the Tiber to the shores of the Bosporus still further widened the breach between the two halves of the Roman world. After the Germans established their kingdoms in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain, western Europe was practically independent of the rulers at Constantinople. The coronation of Charlemagne in 800 A.D. marked the final severance of East and West.

THE PAPACY AND THE EASTERN EMPERORS

The division of the Roman Empire led naturally to a grouping of the Christian Church about Rome and Constantinople, the two chief centers of government. The popes, it has been seen, had always enjoyed spiritual leadership in the West. In temporal matters they acknowledged the authority of the eastern emperors, until the failure of the latter to protect Rome and Italy from the barbarians showed clearly that the popes must rely on their own efforts to defend Christian civilization. We have already learned how well such men as Leo the Great and Gregory the Great performed this task. Then in the eighth century came the alliance with the Frankish king, Pepin the Short, which gave the Papacy a powerful and generous protector beyond the Alps. Finally, by crowning Charlemagne, the pope definitely broke with the emperor at Constantinople and transferred his allegiance to the newly created western emperor.

RISE OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE

The patriarch of Constantinople, as bishop of the capital city, enjoyed an excellent position from which to assert his preeminence over the bishops of the other churches in the East. Justinian in 550 A.D. conferred on him the privilege of receiving appeals from the other patriarchs, and a few years later that dignitary assumed the high-sounding title of "Universal Archbishop." The authority of the patriarch of Constantinople was immensely strengthened when the Mohammedans, having conquered Syria and Egypt, practically extinguished the three patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. [31] The Church in the East now had a single patriarch, just as that in the West had the one bishop of Rome. Rivalry between them was inevitable.

RIVALRY BETWEEN POPE AND PATRIARCH

One source of strife between pope and patriarch was the controversy, arising in the eighth century, over the use of images in the churches. These images seem to have been, not statues, but pictures (icons) of the apostles, saints, and martyrs. Many eastern Christians sought to strip the churches of icons, on the ground that by the ignorant they were venerated almost as idols. The Iconoclasts ("image-breakers") gained no support in the West. The Papacy took the view that images were a help to true devotion and might, therefore, be allowed. When a Roman emperor issued a decree for the destruction of all images, the pope refused to obey the order in the churches under his direction, and went so far as to exclude the Iconoclasts from Christian fellowship. Although the iconoclastic movement failed in the East, after a violent controversy, it helped still further to sharpen the antagonism between the two branches of Christendom. Other causes of dispute arose in later times, chiefly concerning fine points of doctrine on which neither side would yield.

THE FINAL RUPTURE, 1054 A.D.

The final rupture of Christendom was delayed until the middle of the eleventh century. In 1054 A.D. the pope sent his legates to Constantinople to demand obedience to the Papacy. This being refused, they laid upon the high altar of Sancta Sophia the pope's bill of excommunication. Against the patriarch and his followers they pronounced a solemn curse, or anathema, devoting them "to the eternal society of the Devil and his angels." Then, we are told, they strode out of Sancta Sophia, shaking the dust from their feet and crying, "Let God see and judge." The two branches of the Christian Church, thus torn apart, were never afterward reunited. [32]

128. THE GREEK CHURCH

THE GREEK AND ROMAN CHURCH COMPARED

The Greek and Roman churches, in some respects, are nearer together than Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Both recognize three orders for the ministry, namely, bishops, priests, and deacons. Priests of the Greek Church may marry, but this privilege is not extended to bishops, who, therefore, are chosen from the monks. Baptism, by both churches, is administered to infants, but by the Greek Church under the form of total immersion. Confirmation in the Greek Church follows immediately after baptism; in the Roman Church it is postponed to the age of reason. In the communion service the Greek Church gives leavened bread, dipped in wine. The Roman Church withholds wine from the laity and uses only a dry, unleavened wafer. While the services of the Roman Church are conducted in Latin, for those of the Greek Church the national languages (Greek, Russian, etc.) of the communicants are used. Its festivals do not coincide in time of celebration with those of the Roman Church, since the "Julian Calendar" followed in the East is now thirteen days behind the "Gregorian Calendar." [33]

SPREAD OF THE GREEK CHURCH

The Greek Church has not lacked missionary zeal. Through her agency the barbarians who entered southeastern Europe during the early Middle Ages were converted to Christianity. At the present time nearly all the peoples of the Balkan peninsula, including Greeks, Montenegrins, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Rumanians, belong to the Greek Church. [34] Its greatest victory was won toward the close of the tenth century, when the Russians were induced to accept the Greek form of Christianity. Outlying branches of the Greek Church are found also in the Turkish Empire. It now includes about one hundred and thirty-five million adherents in European lands.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE GREEK CHURCH

The patriarch of Constantinople is the spiritual head of the Greek Church. He enjoys, however, no such wide authority over eastern Christians as that exercised by the pope over all Roman Catholics. There are as many as sixteen branches of the Greek Church, each self-governing and under its own officers. Despite the local independence of its branches, the Greek Church remains unified in doctrine. It claims to be the only "Orthodox" church and clings with almost Oriental conservatism to the traditions of earlier ages. Nevertheless, as the official church of Russia, the largest and most swiftly growing of European countries, the Greek Church has before it a future of great importance.

129. THE ROMAN CHURCH

THE ROMAN CHURCH PROGRESSIVE

The separation of eastern and western Christianity naturally increased the importance of the Papacy. The popes henceforth had a free hand to guide the destinies of the Roman Church. That church under their direction was to show itself vigorous and progressive, with a wonderful power of adaptation to new and changed conditions.

THE ROMAN CHURCH SURVIVES THE EMPIRE

The Roman Empire in the West had gone down before the assaults of the Germanic barbarians, but in its place had arisen a new creation--the Roman Church. The chief city of the old empire became the capital of the Papacy. The pope took, and has since retained, the title of Supreme Pontiff (_Pontifex Maximus_), once given to the head of the Roman state religion. [35] Latin has continued to be the official language of Roman Catholicism. The Roman genius for law and government found a new expression in the creation of the papal power. The true successors of the ancient Roman statesmen were the popes of the Middle Ages. The idea of Rome, of her universality and of her eternity, lived on in the Roman Church.

WORK OF THE ROMAN CHURCH

The Roman Church, as the successor of the Roman Empire in the West, formed the chief center of civilization during the earlier part of the Middle Ages. She stood between the conquering Germans and the Romanized provincials and helped to join them both in lasting union. To the heathen she sent out her missionaries, preaching a religion of love and charity and introducing a higher morality than the barbarians had ever known before. She multiplied hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. Her bishops were the only protectors of the weak and the oppressed. She fostered education, art, and learning within the walls of churches and monasteries. Her priests and monks were the only teachers in an ignorant age. In an age of bloodshed and violence, when might made right, she proclaimed the superiority of the spirit to mere brute force. To sum up: the Roman Church was an indispensable agent in the making of medieval Europe.

THE MENACE TO CHRISTENDOM

Christianity in its Greek and Roman forms was not the only great religion of the Middle Ages. In the seventh century, before the separation of the two churches had been completed and before all Europe had become Christian, another religion arose. It grew with marvelous rapidity, stripped the Church of much territory in western Asia, northern Africa, and Spain, and promised for a time to become the dominant faith of the world. This was Islam, or Mohammedanism, the religion of the Arabs.

STUDIES

1. In what different senses is the word "church" often used?

2. "The eastern patriarch was the shadow of the emperor, cast on the spiritual world." Explain this statement.

3. Why did heresies develop in the East rather than in the West?

4. Look up in the New Testament the following texts relating to the primacy of St. Peter: _Matthew_, xvi, 18-19; _Luke_, xxii, 31-32; and _John_, xxi, 15-17.

5. What is "the power of the keys" which the popes claim to possess?

6. What reasons for the growth of the Papacy have been set forth in this chapter?

7. In what non-Christian religions is monasticism an established institution?

8. Look up in the New Testament the following texts quoted as favorable to monasticism: _Matthew_, xix, 21; _Mark_, x, 29-30; and _Luke_, xiv, 26.

9. What is the origin of the words "monk," "hermit," "anchorite," and "abbot"?

10. Summarize the principal benefits which the monastic system conferred on Europe.

11. Give reasons for the rapid conversion of the Germans to Christianity.

12. In what sense is it true that "half Europe owes its Christianity to women"?

13. Who was the "Apostle to the Germans"?

14. Who were the "Apostles to the Slavs"?

15. Comment on the significance to European civilization of the missionary activity of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages.

16. Why has the separation of the Greek and Roman churches been described as "the most momentous fact in the history of Christendom during the Middle Ages"?

17. Why could not such an institution as the Papacy develop in the East?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter iii, "The Benedictine Rule"; chapter iv, "The Reestablishment of Christianity in Britain"; chapter v, "St. Boniface, Apostle to the Germans."

[2] The correspondence may be indicated as follows:

The Roman Empire The Christian Church City--Municipal officials. Bishop. Province--Governor. Archbishop, or Metropolitan. Diocese--Vicar. Patriarch. Prefecture--Prefect. (No corresponding division.)

[3] See page 235.

[4] See page 258.

[5] See page 236.

[6] See page 284.

[7] _John_, xx, i, 19; compare I _Corinthians_, xvi, 2.

[8] See page 235 and note 1.

[9] See _Acts_, ii, 1-4.

[10] See page 239, note 1.

[11] In modern India (Malabar) there are no less than 400,000 Syrian Christians who owe their religion to Nestorian missionaries.

[12] See page 362.

[13] See page 236.

[14] See pages 248-249.

[15] See page 322.

[16] _Servus servorum Dei_.

[17] See pages 305-307.

[18] From a Greek word which means "living alone."

[19] See Tennyson's poem, _St. Simeon Stylites_.

[20] From a Syrian word, abba, meaning "father." Hence a monastery was often called an abbey.

[21] Other monastic orders arose during the later Middle Ages (see pages 449, 452), but the Benedictines still exist, chiefly in Austria and Italy. Their order was introduced into the United States during the nineteenth century.

[22] _Laborare est orare._

[23] For the missionary work of Celtic Christians see page 323 and note 1.

[24] See page 236.

[25] See pages 304-305.

[26] See pages 322-325.

[27] See page 308.

[28] Cyril and Methodius were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881 A.D. A millenial celebration of the two apostles was held in 1863 A.D. by the people of Moravia and Bohemia.

[29] See page 335. The Bulgarians also got their Christianity from Constantinople in the ninth century.

[30] See pages 217, 223.

[31] See page 376.

[32] Unsuccessful attempts to heal the schism between the two churches took place in the Middle Ages. The latest movement in this direction was made by Pope Leo XIII in 1894 A.D., but his efforts were not crowned with success.

[33] See page 186, note 2.

[34] Many Roman Catholics are found in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Albania.

[35] See page 148, note 2.