The Church through
the Ages
The Middle Ages, 1000-1450
Larry Fraher
Kino Institute
cc108
A Brief Overview
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Historical Events
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1054: Eastern Schism
1095: First Crusade Launched
12th c.: Monastic Revival
1170: Murder of Becket
1215: Fourth Lateran Council
Mid-1200’s: Scholasticism, Inquisition
1270: Crusades End
1305-1370: Avignon Papacy
1370-1415: Papal Schism
1415: The Council of Constance
A Brief Overview
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Important People
Pope Urban II (Council of Clermont & the People’s
Crusade)
 St. Bruno & St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Monastic
Revival)
 Ss. Francis and St. Dominic
 Ss. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure
 The Rise of Great Medieval Religious Art
 The Popes of the Papal Schism
 John Wycliffe and Jan Hus
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A Brief Overview
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Important Theological Issues
The Rise of New Religious Orders
 Scholasticism
 Mysticism
 Papal Location
 The First Attempts at Reform
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Wycliff: Self-interpreting Scripture
 Hus: Eucharist under both species
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Seeds of Reform
Setting the Theological Stage
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Late Dark Ages (800-1100)
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Church’s fall into Pelagianism:
Belief in the doing of good, meritorious (Earning) of
Grace.
 Florus, Deacon of Lyons: The Grace of God is never
merited…
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Eucharistic Controversies
Radbertus: Real change of bread and wine into Body and
Blood of Christ
 Ratramnus: Bread and wine become mystical symbols of
the Body and Blood of Christ
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Setting the Theological Stage
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Theological Debates triggered by Gregorian
Reform & East-West Schism
Papal Primacy
 Filioque
 Church/Diocese run as a Monastic Community
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The first Crusade
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Pope Urban II
The Crusades
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The First Crusade – 1096
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Gathers in Constantinople in 1097
Nicaea: Western defeat in victory
Antioch: “The General’s Ego”
Taking of Jerusalem
Second Crusade – 1144
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First Crusaders go home.
Territories Captured by Christians, retaken by Islam
Fights between eastern and western Christianity don’t help…
Reaches Antioch before being given up.
The Crusades
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The Third Crusade – 1187
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Philip II, Barbarossa and Richard the Lionhearted
Make it as far as the outskirts of Jerusalem
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Barbarossa dies en route
Philip II tires and goes home
Richard is the only one left fighting
Jerusalem not re-captured.
The Last Crusades
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Disease and Bad Strategy doom the last Crusades.
Pillaging of Constantinople deepens east-west anger.
The Crusades
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The “Goal” of the Crusades
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Spiritual – Pilgrimage & Religious Fervor
Military – Recapture the Holy Lands
Geographic – Re-establish the Holy Roman Empire
Ecclesiological – Eastern and Western Unity
The Problem with the Crusades
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Spiritual – Pilgrimage implies a return home
Military – Supply lines and morale
Geographic – unfamiliar territory and climate
Ecclesiological – East often allied with Turks/Islam to
preserve their traditions.
Crusades in Context
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Holy Land as a place of pilgrimage…
Safety of pilgrims
 Respect and honor of holy sites
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Military combination of Church and State
Common Reality of the 11th to 13th centuries
 In service to God and Country
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Monastic Revival
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The “New Spirituality”
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Return to the “strict” observance of the Rule(s)
Bruno
 Bernard
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Battle against Abbot Suger of St. Denis Monastery
Augustinian Canons – Religious in the Parishes
 Dominic
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Preaching against Albigensianism (Neo-Manicheaism)
 The craft of argument
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Francis
Poverty, Simplicity and Service
 “Rebuild my church.”
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Monastic Revival
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St. Bernard vs. Abbot Suger
Monastic Revival
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Francis of Assisi
“And after the Lord gave me brothers, no one showed me what I
should do, but the Most High Himself revealed to me that I
should live according to the form of the Holy Gospel. And I had
this written down simply and in a few words and the Lord Pope
confirmed it for me. And those who came to receive life gave to
the poor everything which they were capable of possessing and they
were content with one tunic, patched inside and out, with a cord
and short trousers. And we had no desire for anything more…”
Monastic Revival
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The rise of the combination of Art and
Theology…
Illuminated Manuscripts
Images decorating and informing the
text with an understanding of the
faith.
Here: Mary as Eve’s Corrective.
Scholasticism
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The question of the day:
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Scholasticism’s Response:
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Religion OR Philosophy
Religion AND Philosophy
Great Names of Scholasticism
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Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas
Anselm of Canterbury
1033-1109
“And so, O Lord, since thou givest understanding to faith, give me
to understand – as far as thou knowest it to be good for me –
that thou dost exist, and that thou art what we believe thee to
be.”
Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. (Modern
Adaptation)
 God is that entity over which nothing can be greater.
 The concept of God exists in human understanding.
 God exists in one's mind but not in reality.
 The concept of God's existence is understood in one's mind.
 If God existed in reality, it would be a greater thing than God's
existence in the mind.
 There are things which exist in reality greater than in one’s mind.
 Since God is that which noting can be greater, God in reality,
must exist.
Thomas Aquinas, OP
1225-1274
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Five Ways – Proofs for the Existence of God
1.
2.
3.
From Motion: The Unmoved Mover
From Causality: First Efficient Cause
From Contingency: Regression to Nothing
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4.
5.
Creatio ex nihilo (Creation from Nothing)
From Being/Order/Perfection
From Intelligence: Beyond Instinct
Aquinas
“1.1. Whether another doctrine is necessary besides the
philosophical sciences.
I answer: it was necessary for man’s salvation that there
should be a doctrine founded on revelation, as well as the
philosophical sciences discovered by human reason. It was
necessary, in the first place, because man is ordained to God as
his end, who surpasses the comprehension of reason…Men
must have some foreknowledge of the end to which they ought
direct their intentions and actions. It was therefore necessary
that some things which transcend human reason should be made
known through divine revelation.” – Summa, 1.1
Aquinas
“85.2. Whether the whole good of human nature can be destroyed by
sin…
I answer: we said in the preceding article that the natural
good which sin diminishes is the natural inclination to virtue.
Now the reason that man inclines to virtue is that he is rational.
It is because he is rational that he acts in accordance with his
reason, and this is to act virtuously. But a man would not be
able to sin without his rational nature. Sin cannot deprive him of
it altogether. It follows that his inclination to virtue cannot be
entirely destroyed. …” Summa, 85.2
Aquinas
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Transubstantiation
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Eucharistic Controversies Beginning in the 9th c.
Historical/Physical Presence (Radbertus & Ratramnus, 9th c.)
 Christ’s Glorified Body and Eucharistic Presence
(Berengarius, Lanfranc, 11th c.)
 Relation to Body and Blood in Sacramental Species (12th c.)
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Aquinas Responds with “Transubstantiation”
Aquinas
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Substance is always Immeasurable
Substance is always retained, accidents
(appearance) may change.
In Transubstantiation, Substance changes, accidents
remain.
 When it ceases to be bread (Accidentally)…
 When it ceases to be wine (Accidentally)…
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Eucharist is the Reception of Christ,
Substantially
The “Balance” to Scholasticism
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Bonaventure
Not only invest in reason…
 The heart and head must combine to know Jesus
Christ.
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This gets taken to extreme…
Rejection of theology
 Rise of “experientialism”
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Bonaventure argued that we cannot rely only on
reason…
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But would not have been hostile to reason.
Bonaventure, OFM
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Scholasticism = extrinsic
Bonaventure:
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God’s existence is known from:
within
 Without
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God’s presence is imprinted on the soul
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Observation of the external should not be the sole criteria
Bonaventure
“And thus it is clear how the manifold wisdom of God,
which is clearly revealed in Sacred Scripture, lies
hidden in all knowledge and in all nature. It is
clear how all divisions of knowledge are
handmaids of theology. It is likewise evident
how wide is the luminous way and how in
everything which is perceived or known, God
himself lies hidden within.”
St. Bonaventure – Retracing the Arts to Theology
Inquisition!!!
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Franciscans and Dominicans
Learned and well versed in Church teaching and
doctrine…
 “Thinking with the mind of the Church”
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To an area where heresy was thought to be
present.
3 days to 2 weeks ‘Preaching the Inquisition”
Root out the heretics
 Reconciliation
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Inquisition!!!
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Trial of Heretic followed
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If heretic failed to recant
Punishment
Most often penitential or imprisonment
 Sometimes death… 
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Spanish Inquisition is very Different than the
Ecclesial Inquisition
The office of the Inquisition existed in most
dioceses until Vatican II.
The Papal Schism
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1377 Pope Gregory XI Returns the Papacy to
Rome from Avignon, France, initiating the
“Papal Schism” in 1378
Increasing National Religious Loyalties = Divisions
 French Cardinals want Papacy in France
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Pope Urban VI Elected
 Keeps Papacy in Rome
 French Cardinals Elect another Pope (Clement VII)
 Two Popes…Governments begin to take sides
 Rome: England and Germany
 Avignon: Scotland, Spain and Naples
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The Papal Schism
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Urban’s Dastardly Politics
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Both “popes” excommunicate each other
The Council of Pisa (1409-1410)
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Cardinals from Both Sides Meet in Pisa
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Elect Alexander V (1409)
John XXIII (1410-1415)
Total Number of “reigning” popes = 3
Emperor Sigismund
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Calls the Council of Constance
Reconciles Pisa and Rome, Avignon (Benedict XIII) Refuses
Reconciliation and Flees to Spain.
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Abdicates in 1429
The Papal Schism
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Effects of Papal Schism
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Early attempts at democracy = Conciliarism
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Dominican Order – Some in the papal curia believe this
to be an answer
Cries for Reform
John Wycliffe – No Confidence in the Clergy
 Jan Hus – Simony and Eucharist
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Religious Identity was the Culture
“In the fifteenth century, indeed, the Church was enjoying its last
years as the relatively unchallenged custodian and interpreter of
the cosmos.” -- Ahlstrom, p. 22
Wycliff and Hus
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John Hus
Treatise on Simony
 Accessibility of all to both Species of Eucharist
 Hus at the Council of Constance (1415)
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John Wycliff
Evil of the Priesthood
 Everyone can be holy
 Scripture is Self Interpreting
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Adding to the Seeds of Reform
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1440 – Guttenberg invents the printing press…
Wycliffe’s call to read the bible now becomes
possible
 Self interpretation of scripture and faith becomes
widespread
 The lack of trust in the hierarchy combines… and
the stage is set…
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