Church I: Popes, Monks, &
Parishes
How to Cause a Rat Stampede, 1872
"The smell of a goat is obnoxious to the nostrils of rats;
the two wont be friends and companions on any
account whatever, and the introduction of goats to
one's barn or premises will cause an immediate
stampede of all the rats."
A. E. Youman, A Dictionary of Everyday Wants (1872)
What we’re doing today…
 Medieval Christianity
 Institution or way of life?
 Oratores – Those who Pray
 Buildings & Worship
 Devotional Life
 Saints & Relics
 Pilgrimage
 Problems
 Reform
 Power
 Christianization
The Timeline – 800-1250 - Church
 http://digihum.mcgill.ca/~matthew.milner/teaching/classes/hist214_f13/ti
meline/
Medieval Christianity
 Christianity – the matrix of medieval life
 cooking instructions called for boiling an egg "during the length of time wherein you say a
Miserere."
 governs birth, marriage, and death, sex, and eating, made the rules for law and medicine,
gave philosophy and scholarship their subject matter
 History of Christianity the study of the societies, cultures, institutions which
grew up around the belief in the Christian story
 The Church:
 the ‘ekklesia’ (greek) as a community
 As an institutional church with rules & organization
 Constant tension (sometimes productive!) between these two
 The Church ‘mediates’ the divine hierarchy of the world – but is it above or
part of worldly ‘order’ – ie the realm of kings and rulers?
Corpus Christianum – the Universal Church
 The Living, the Dead and the Saints
 Church Militant – on Earth
 Church Dormant – in Purgatory
 Church Triumphant – in Heaven
 Church Militant
 Visible & tangible aspect of a wider human community
 Institutional, but also fraternal
The Oratores – the Institutional Church
 All Christians are oratores – those who pray – but clergy have special role
to pray for the whole community, not just for themselves
 Clergy – men!
 Women are not clergy, but can still be ‘oratores’
 Secular clergy (living in the world)
 bishops, priests
 Regular clergy (living according to a rule)
 monks and nuns
Well-established by the Carolingian period
Not necessarily priests!
 Other (non-monastic) orders appear later (e.g. the Mendicant orders)
The Oratores – Monasticism

Renounce the work to focus on prayer as work – prayer as labour

Monasteries, Abbeys, Priories, Nunneries




Communities of men and women who take oaths of poverty, chastity, and obedience;

Governed by abbot or prior I abbess or prioress
Religious Orders

own systems of governance and ecclesiastical jurisdictions or provinces – but tension with Bishops’ authority

Often assumed missionary work on political frontiers – Spread of Christianity, particularly eastward

High focus on learning & education
Benedictine Rule

Rule for communal life written for Monte Cassino (529), used by most orders in some form

Constitution with 73 chapters – regulations for daily life; Abbots rule for Life; monks can’t leave communities and must
obey

Until c.900 most monks in Western Europe are Benedictine – independent monasteries
Cluny Reforms



Burgundian Abbey of Cluny in 910 – strict observance of the rule; Abbot subject only to Pope, not local lords or bishop; new houses
have Priors, subject to Abbot.
Cistercians - severely ascetic order; strict observance

form proto-industrial and economic corporations

founded by Bernard of Clairvaux: the order had five houses in 1115, 328 in 1152, and 694 in 1300
Carthusians – open to men and women
The Oratores – Parishes & Priests
 The Parish
 By 1000 parish firmly established as basic administrative division of the secular church was
the parish
 Often synonymous with Manor estates – sometimes not
 Urban parishes geographically very small (c.32 in Norwich), rural parishes very large Gammelstad is a ‘Church Village’ with c.400 ‘houses’ for staying over on Sunday night.
 Parish Priests
 Secular (most often)
 Paid for by the parish – a ‘benefice’
 Physicians-for-the-soul
Sacraments, blessings
 Celibate (supposedly)
 Low literacy pre-1215
The Oratores – the Overseers

Episcope ‘oversight’ in greek – episcopacy / episcopal = bishops

Bishops & Abbots

the 'princes' of the church

direct jurisdiction over the secular church in their dioceses - dioceses

Abbots / Priors over monastic houses.

Some Abbots, were, in turn, bishops

Bishop’s church is a cathedral



Cathedra – ‘throne’ in greek

Centre of learning & governance

Can be an abbey or a secular church
Bishop joined by ‘chapter’

Help with government of the diocese

Church Courts – morality & religious law

For clergy!
Bishop who oversees bishops is

an Archbishop or Metropolitan
The Oratores – The Papacy
 The Bishop of Rome – the Pope
 The successor of the Apostle Peter
 ‘Latin patriarch’
 Claims precedence and authority over all other
bishops
 Rules the Patrimony of St Peter – or Papal
States as a secular ruler
 Cardinals – assistants to the Pope
 Elect the Pope (from 1059)
 Act as legates or representatives
 The Curia
 The papal court – not merely administration,
but bureaucracy for moral and religious matters
– scope is Canon Law
Churches
 ‘two celled’ – altar space &
congregation space
 Larger more complex
 Romanesque – c.950-1150

Rounded arches, heavy brick work
 Gothic – c.1150-1500

Pointed arches, stained glass - light
 Chapels, Parish Churches,
Collegiate Churches, Abbeys,
Cathedrals
Buildings - Monasteries

Self-Sufficient communities

Can own manors

More than just church building

Guest houses

Libraries & Workshops

Hospices & infirmaries

Kitchens & Cellars

Economic sites: Quarries, Mines, Vineyards, Mills,
Smitheries…
Fontenay Abbey, France
Monasteries
 Close links to the social elites
 Elites give land and wealth to monasteries
 Monastery gives status to elite family
 Monasteries represent the divine on earth, say prayers and masses for
souls of donors
 Younger sons of elites become abbots
 In Domesday Book (1086), 15% of land in England held by abbeys (more
than bishops)
Charity
 The Fall from the Garden of Eden breaks charity with God
 Caritas and Amicitias, Charity and Friendship
 Aim of Christian life - restoration of fallen humanity to state of charity
 Death of Jesus indebts Christian to Christ-like conduct
Caritas is not philanthropy - obligation and reciprocity; not equality between parties
 Worship & devotion shaped by these ideals
 Ethical guidelines
 7 Deadly sins to avoid: Pride, envy, wrath, sloth, lechery, covetousness and gluttony  7 Virtues to culivate: meekness, patience, charity, chastity, spiritual activity, generosity and
abstinence.
 7 works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, cloth the naked,
visit the captive, shelter the homeless and bury the dead.
The Mass

Celebration of the Last Supper – Jesus & his Disciples

Holy Meal of Bread and Wine – ‘Hoc est corpus meum’ This is my body

Understood to be miraculously Body and Blood of Jesus

Understood as ‘sacrificial’ work of Jesus in crucifixion – restores charity between God &
Humanity as blood payment for debt of sin

Only clergy ‘communicate’ regularly


Once a year for lay people; no wine for lay people (maybe the king!)
Celebrated daily by priests – was what defined a priest
Practices – Monastic Life
 Highly organized and regulated
 Worship
 Monastic Hours
 Masses, confessions, preaching for laity
 Work
 laborare est orare (to work is to pray)
 Some education and charitable work
 alms for poor, hospices
 Guardians of the Word
 preservers of documents, charters, &c.
Practices – Relics & Cult of the Saints
 Relics – holy objects imbued with sacredness

Making the sacred present – accessible & tangible
 Illiterate people = visual, material signs

Miracles & Oaths
 Relics

provide the institutions with an aura of religious authority

Trade in relics – theft, ‘translation’
 Saints

Friends of God – have his ‘ear’

Patronage – patron saints for churches, towns, occupations; can speak to ‘superiors’ on one’s
behalf – ie God & Christ

Relics often bodily remains or objects owned by a saint
 Hagiography – biographical writing about saints’ lives

Miracles, tales of suffering, contests with the devil or unbelievers
Relic of the ‘True Cross’ - Vienna
Ottonian Relics
 The Staff of St Peter (Limburg an der Lahn Cathedral), and the Portable Altar
with the Sandal of St Andrew and the Beard of St Peter (Trier Cathedral).
St Martin of Tours
 Here lies Martin the bishop, of holy memory, whose
soul is in the hand of God; but he is fully here, present
and made plain in miracles of every kind.
 Hic conditus est sanctae memoriae Martinus
episcopus, cuius anima in manu Dei est, sed hic totus
est praesens manifestus omni gratia virtutum.
 (quoted in P. Brown, The Cult of Saints, p. 4)
Bones of the Saints
 Arm Reliquary of the Apostles, Cleveland
Museum of Art. From Germany (Lower
Saxony), ca. 1190
Practices – Pilgrimage
 Roots in late-Roman empire
 A good work, an act of penance for sins (to gain absolution, or, later,
indulgences)
 Travel as means of accessing the sacred
 To saints’ shrines, to visit relics, or places in holy texts
 Sacred place and sacred history
 see Mandeville on the Holy Land
 Can be local, regional, or international
 Santiago de Compostela
 Jerusalem
Practices – Santiago de Compostela
Problem #1: Reforms
 Begins with monasticism, moves to papacy, then to parishes
 Monastic reform – problems with the influence of nobles on monastic
houses; lax application of the Rule.
 Cistercians a response – attempt to reclaim true Rule of Benedict ; worship too ‘ornate’
 Gregory VII (1073-85) reforms
1. free the Church from secular control
2. centralize Church government under the Pope using canon law
3. assert the supremacy of the Papacy within a Christian Europe
 Canon Law
 ascetic standards of conduct
 imposition of celibacy
 end simony (paying for clerical offices) & nepotism (favouring relatives in church
appointments)
Problem #1: Reforms
 Fourth Lateran Council 1215
 Clarifies doctrine
 Focus on lay & clerical education in parish life
 Sacraments
 Lifecycle - Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, Extreme Unction
 Combat of Sin & Building of Community - Confession I Penance, Eucharist (Mass)
 Church – Ordination
 Burial & Coronation left out – not for the dead; not universal
 Knowledge of basic texts
 the Lord's prayer
 the creeds
 Ave Maria
 Lists of sins and virtues
Problem #2: Power – Investiture Controversy
 Whose law is more important?
 Civil or religious?
 Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV &
Gregory VII over the right to appoint
bishops
 bishops' main duty of obedience to popes
or secular rulers?
 Henry IV excommunicated
 Canossa – Walks to Canossa in the snow in
penance
 Henry I of England & Pope Paschal II 1107:
bishops do homage for their temporal
possessions & king can veto
 Concordat of Worms 1122
 Temporalities of bishop require homage
Problem #2: Power – Thomas a Becket
 Gregorian reforms ...
 Conflict continues - Henry II and Thomas a
Becket of Canterbury
 Henry II mutters "Will no one rid me of this
turbulent priest?"
 Thomas murdered in his Cathedral 1170
 Martyr’s death – is canonized
 Henry II does public penance
 Shrine is pilgrimage site in later medieval
period
Problem #2: Power – Innocent III
 Innocent III (1198-1216) height of
medieval papal power
 Tries to act as feudal monarch for all of
Europe
 Pepin the Short’s coup approved in 751 by
Pope Zacharias – can a Pope ‘appoint’ and
depose kings?
 England under interdict – King John
receives England as a Papal Fief
 Fourth Lateran Council 1215
Problem #3: Piety – Christianization
 How “christian” is Europe?

Syncretic – adopts local customs and calendars – Christmas as Saturnalia; All Hallows as
Samhain; Buildings – recycled temples in Rome – Parthenon
 Sacraments meant to heal spiritual deficiencies

Seen as physical medicine to cure ills - both spiritual and medical.

Holy water, spit, bread, cream, oils, salts, and incense supernatural effects
 Spiritual Realms

World populated not merely by people, but by spiritual beings – angels & demons; also elves and
other pre-christian beings
 Education

What kinds of beliefs and knowledge are necessary to ‘be’ Christian?

Access to the Bible in an age of illiteracy – preaching & reading?
 Orthodoxy – Right Belief

Who decides ‘right belief’ or doctrine? Is it possible to believe in elves and be Christian?

Can everyday people use relics and holy objects to heal, or is that a forbidden magic?
Take Away
Terms

Christianity colours all social relationships, systems of
explanation from politics, education, medicine, morality, and
even land ownership

Oratores – secular church responsible for lay people; religious
for prayer as work – monks & nuns

Develop complex institutional system of priests, bishops, up to
the Pope in Rome

Buildings reflect diverse religious communities & needs

Christianity as a community, bound by charitable actions

Saints regained ‘friendship’ of God; their bones are relics which
act as focal points for prayers and pilgrimage
Innocent III
Simony
1215
Caritas
The Mass
Concordat of Worms
Gregory VII
Cluny
Santiago de Compostela
Monastic Hours

Problems – Monastic reform – adherence to Rules of chastity
and poverty

Relationship between Popes, Bishops, and Rulers. Who is more
important? Pope or King?

Christianization – how christian was Europe in reality?