Update Fourteen

One Faith Day Four

The Medieval Church
9th century-15th century

I: The Roman Catholic Church

i: Introduction

Over the course of the centuries since the death of the Apostles, the churches that made up the Great Church waged political and theological wars to determine the supremacy in the Church. With the standardization of the bishop’s succession as the mode of authority in the Church, individual cities began to vie for power. In the beginning there were three sources of power. Jerusalem, being the home of the apostles and the site of the crucifixion, was the first important and influential church of the Great Church. This was made evident in the scriptures with the council of Jerusalem. Antioch, the focal point and home base for Paul’s missionary trips, grew to be a rival for supremacy in the Church. Alexandria, the world capital for religion and philosophy, quickly came to rival the two early churches of Jerusalem and Antioch due to its world influence and world class facilities and learning. Soon the church in Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans but a fourth church was on the rise to replace it. This church had no historic grounding from the scriptures for precedence. It contained no great philosopher and rarely produced any theologians of note. But it was the center of the world. With supreme administration and an unparalleled sense for the complexities of politics, the Roman church soon grew to overshadow the other churches. As the other main churches all existed in the east, the Roman church was able to grow to absolute precedence in the west. With this influence, and its claim to fame for the martyrdom of Peter and Paul (and the historically unverified papacy of Peter there ), the church of Rome rose in prominence until the showdown with its only real rival, the new imperial city of Constantinople and its Metropolitan.

ii: Pope Leo the Great

With the gradual decline of the empire in the west, accelerated by the removal of the imperial throne from Rome, other sources of authority were sought after by the people. As the court no longer had a major presence in the west the running of governmental structure and civil works had to come from another source. That source was the Church. For centuries the church in Rome developed its hierarchical and administrative structures far more advanced than any other church in the world. With the influence of the imperial court and it’s incredibly efficient structure, which had existed when the empire was at its height, this Roman church grew in political power and intrigue like no other. Due to this advantage and its bishop’s claim to be the successor of Peter, Rome had held a commanding presence among the Church for years. By the time of the ecumenical councils the bishops of Rome had taken on the title of pope (Latin for father) and had assumed a place of “first among equals.” As one of the Patriarchs (bishop of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, or Constantinople) the Pope did have real authority over other churches and as the only Patriarch of the west the Pope had virtual domination over all the western European churches. By the time of council known now as the Robber Synod was called all the powers of Roman authority in the west had converged on one man, Pope Leo the Great, the first Pope as we know it today. This man was not only the absolute ruler of the western churches but also a temporal ruler as well, holding a strong kingdom in Italy and Sicily called the Vatican States. This man ruled the west as an emperor, despite there being a western emperor since its appointment by Theodosius, as the real emperors of the west were weak ineffectual men of no import. Leo was the most powerful man in Christendom and sought to prove it. The councils always had been presided over by the Roman bishop and Leo sought to make this permanent. He and his successors were able to get the councils to raise them up to that place of “first among equals” and solidify it until the Great Schism of the 11th century took out all their rivals, making the bishop of Rome “first, period.”

iii: Augustine

Theologically before his time, Augustine stood on the border between the ancient church and the medieval church. Augustine was born in 354 in a small city just outside of Carthage. Despite this early date, Augustine’s theology would be crucial not only for the medieval church, but would also make up the foundation of protestant theology. As a young man Augustine grew up under the Christian tutelage of his mother. Between the influence of his pagan father and his own rebellion he would turn away from the faith, eventually falling in with a Gnostic-like sect of the name Manichaeism. Attracted by its apparent intellectualism, Augustine eventually became disillusioned with this young religion. Moving to Milan, Augustine took up teaching Rhetoric. While teaching, two events would turn him back towards Christianity. First, in studying at Milan, Augustine began to read neo-platonic philosophy, opening his mind to an almighty God that he had previously thought impossible. Second, in trying to better his rhetoric skill Augustine began to follow one of the best orators of his time, the great preacher and bishop of Milan, Ambrose. Sneaking into the back of Ambrose’s cathedral to hear his preaching, Augustine began to realize that one could be a true orator and intellectual yet also be a Christian. This broke through his last walls between him and the faith of his youth. Still, he was not prepared to give up his life he was living, as was evidenced by a prayer of his from this time “Oh God, give me the gift of Chastity…just not yet.” This would change in the year 386 when he and his friends were out sitting in their villa and one was reading and discussing the book of Romans. Augustine’s heart was broken and he ran away, crying out to God when the time would come for him to give up his sinful life. As he wept he heard the voice of a child saying, “Take up and read, take up and read.” Hearing this he ran back to his friends, picked up the scroll of Romans which was on the ground now, and read from it Roman’s 13: 13-14:

Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.

Reading this, Augustine was changed. From that day he devoted his great intellect to the work of God. After his baptism by Ambrose, Augustine sought to live the life of monk. Moving back to North Africa he settled in Hippo, where he became famous for his rhetorical and intellectual skills. While desiring a reclusive life, he was forced out of it due to the numerous issues surrounding the Church there. Manichaeism was growing, the Donatist schism was growing larger, and paganism was still a strong force. Being so well known and loved, Augustine was literally forced into ministry. While worshipping one Sunday, the people of the church grabbed him and dragged him to the front of the church where he was ordained by the bishop despite his weeping and protests. After this he again was forced into ministry when he was made co-bishop against his will, succeeding as bishop of Hippo in 395 when the elderly bishop died. Augustine was only 42 when he came into this office. In this office Augustine would battle many enemies of the Church, defeating the Donatists and the Manicheans while writing a library of works which was surpassed only by Origen. His most significant work would be his defense against the heresy of Pelagianism. Pelagianism, a creative name for the heresy derived after its founder Pelagius, was the belief that salvation is a work done by humans. The crucifixion was an example given to us to follow, the example of Jesus being the way we should live our lives. In doing so, living in perfection, we achieve salvation for ourselves. Despite its terrible approach so much against the scriptures, this belief caught on fast. While it was difficult to follow such a belief, it instilled a sense of elitism and particularity that was enticing to the ascetic times. While defending the Church from this heresy, Augustine developed the theological ideas of the all-sufficiency of God and the total depravity of man. Augustine developed the idea that man was unable to turn to God alone and that faith was indeed a gift given from God to man. Pelagius attacked this, saying that Augustine’s faith was just veiled Gnosticism. His claim came form the Gnostic belief that all matter was evil, something akin to Augustine’s idea that human were totally depraved. Using his superior skills, Augustine was able to defeat this heresy in a way the church accepted. While Pelagius was acquitted of heresy in some local synods, the Council of Ephesus finally called him out as a heretic, even though this was somewhat of a side note to the council. While defeated and anathematized, this heresy would raise up again in the form of semi-Pelagianism in the Roman Catholic Church. In defeating Pelagianism, Augustine developed a unique view of free will for that time. Since God was absolutely necessary for man to turn toward God, was there any free will? According to Augustine, man does have free will. The effect of the sin nature, however, causes that free will to ever be turned towards disobedience to God. We always do what we want, and in our sinful nature we always want to do those things contrary to God. It is God’s work in us that enables us to use our free will to turn towards Him and into obedience. These and many other great ideas of Augustine would be put onto the back burner for more than a thousand years, until a young monk in Augustine’s Augustinian order, by the name of Martin, would realize its implications and set about reforming the Church.