Church History, Middle Ages
Part I: Monks
How monks saved and shaped European Culture
Middle Ages
A. Barbarian Invasions and the Fall of Rome
AD
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Invasions_of_the_Roman_Empire_1.png
Middle Ages
1.Invasion of the Germanic tribes
a. First Sack of Rome 410 AD by
Alaric and the Visigoths
b. Fall of Carthage 439 by
Genseric and the Vandals
c. Leo the Great's negotiations
with Attila and the Huns 452
d. Second Sack of Rome 455 by Genseric
and the Vandals
e. Rome's fall 476: last Roman emperor Romulus
Augustulus dethroned by Odoacer of the
Ostrogoths (Odoacer, himself hewn in two by
Theodoric 493)
2. Conversion of Clovis, king of the Franks, and
3,000 of his warriors, Christmas day 496:
married Clotilde, a Catholic barbarian princess
When the dust settles…
Kingdom
of the
Ostrogoths
Kingdom of
Visigoths
http://www.firstboynton.com/2011/07/01/early-middle-ages-500-1000-barbarians-the-papacy/Altered
The Monks
Common Principle: living the Faith more deeply and
making it possible for others to do so
Different Methods …
3. “Strains” of Monasticism
a. Eastern Monastic tradition: arrives in West
through trade routes (flight from the world)
b. Benedictine Monastic tradition (prayer and
work)
c. Celtic Monastic tradition: the fruit of St. Patrick,
later spread by St. Columban, et al. (Penitence)
http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/slides/13xity/mapspreadofxity.jpg Altered
4. Monasticism’s impact on the
conversion of the Barbarians
a. Guesthouses sheltered refugees
b. Greco-Roman culture preserved by the monks copying
manuscripts
c. Monastic schools preserved education
d. Missionary Monks converted the barbarians
e. Monasteries founded by missionaries to sustain the
conversion of the people
Celtic Monasticism
• Extreme
austerities
• Missionary
wanderings
• Monasteries as
advance posts
in “enemy”
territory
St. Patrick c. 430461 – Armagh
St. Columba-Iona
St. Columban –
Bangor
The path of the Celtic missionary
monks 6th to 8th Centuries
http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/slides/13xity/mapspreadofxity.jpg Altered
St. Benedict of Nursia
• Born 480
• Monte Casino
founded 529
• Death 547
Enfide
Subiaco
Monte Casino
St. Scholastica
Pope St. Gregory, the Great
 At the time of Benedict’s death only three monasteries followed the
Benedictine rule (Subiaco, Monte Casino and Terricina) c. 547
 Lombard Duke takes Monte Casino as his own fortress 589
 Monks dispersed some coming to Rome
 Gregory founds and enters a Benedictine Monastery in Rome
 Gregory elected Pope 590
 Sends Augustine with forty monks to mission to the Angles and Saxons of
Britain 597
 Gradually other monasteries will adopt the Benedictine Rule
St. Boniface, Apostle to the Frisians
716-754
 Winfrid is born near Wessex, England c. 680
 Benedictine oblate at Exeter Abbey, 7 years old
 Head master of a school, Nutshulling Abbey
 At 30 years old starts his “peregrination for Christ”
 Initial mission to Frisia a failure
 Lives in Rome 718-19
 Pope Gregory II ordains him a missionary bishop and changes his name to
Boniface “You shall not be called Winfrid any more, but Boniface, meaning,
he who performs good works!”
 Pope Gregory III sends Boniface the pallium as his first act as Pope
 Anoints Pepin, the Short 751
 Martyrdom June 5, 754
Alcuin and the Carolingian
Renaissance
 735-804
 English Benedictine, Lindisfarne
 Head Master of the episcopal school at York
 Minister of Education for Charlemagne
 Oversaw the copying of the Vulgate. Development of Carolingian script:
punctuation and spaces between words lead to greater ease in reading
the Bible
Second wave of Invasions 700 – 1000
http://pixgood.com/middle-ages-vikings.html
Cluny
Benedictine reform during the midst of feudalism and lay
investiture
St. Peter Monastery: Motherhouse of the Cluniac
reform
Founder:
William I, Duke
of Aquitaine
910
• Donation of his
hunting grounds
in Burgundy
• Release of the
abbey from any
obligations to him
or his family other
than prayer
First Abbot:
St. Berno
Unique organization:
• Subject directly to
Pope with the
stipulation of monks’
right to approve:
• Appointments of
abbots
• Dispersion of order’s
property
• Rule of St. Benedict
• Prohibition on holding
land by feudal service
• Centralized
government
• Liturgy as the main
form of work
Cluny’s influence
Collaboration with
Leo IX on the “Truce
of God” c. 1050
Four Popes from
among its monks
• Gregory VII
• Urban II
• Paschal II
• Urban V
Conclave of 1119
at Cluny elected
Pope Callixtus II
http://empiregroupltd.blogspot.com/2015/07/cluny-abbey-church-iii-france.html
Cistercian Reform 1098
St. Robert of Molesme
St. Alberic
St. Stephen Harding
Citeaux
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
 Born 1091
 Enters Citeaux 1113 with 30 friends and relatives
 Founds Clairvaux, 1116
 Preaching in Burgundy 1134
 Mission for the Pope, reconciliation of kings 1137
 Preaches second Crusade at bidding of the Pope 1145
 Death at Clairvaux 1153
Clairvaux