God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History (6 page)

In 872, the pope (Bishop of Rome) agreed to drop the phrase “and the Son” only if the Eastern churches acknowledged the pope’s absolute supremacy over all Christendom. The Bishop of Constantinople, Photius, was offended at his “offer” and the gap between the East and West grew wider.

Then, in the summer of 1054, Pope Leo IX issued a papal bull (a formal declaration and notice) of various “unacceptable” practices of the Eastern Church, such as allowing priests to marry and not recognizing baptisms performed in the Western Church. This led to both sides issuing letters of excommunications against the other.
¹
Thus, 1054 is considered the year of the official break between what would be called the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, a break that has continued to the present day.

In a rather unfazed manner, clusters of Christians throughout Europe gathered together with differing agendas and vows. Many of these houses or “monasteries” became centers of education and service. Monks became a standard addition to the Christian church in the early 4
^th
century. Famous monks down through history—Anthony of Egypt (251-356), Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Anthony the Hermit (c.468-c.520), Benedict (c.480-543), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Bruno of Cologne (c.1030-1101), Francis of Assisi (1181/1182-1226), and Dominic de Guzmán (1170-1221)—have each made a lasting impression on both ancient and modern-day religious orders and monastic communities. Today, there are hundreds of monasteries and religious orders all around the world. Many of them intentionally separate themselves from the world to be devoted to study, prayer, contemplation, and service. Can you think of any benefits of this way of living?

Since the rise of Islam in the 7
^th
century, the Muslims had militarily conquered the historic Christian cities and lands, significantly Jerusalem. Pope Urban II (1042-1099) called a special council together in 1095—the Council of Clermont—to address the possibility of re-taking those lands back from the Muslims. The people approved with
Deus vult
(“God will it!”) and for the next four months, emissaries travelled all over Europe for the purpose of recruiting soldiers.

The response was tremendous! Kings and nobles, peasants and foot soldiers all joined the mission. Many of these recruits were previous enemies and had even been at war with each other! But none of that mattered anymore; they were intent on re-taking the land for Christ and (for some) getting a free pass to heaven from the pope.

When Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095, little did he know that it would end in a 200-year failure. From 1095 to 1291, Christians throughout Europe engaged in a total of
seven
major crusades and numerous smaller battles. While the intentions of some might have been grand—many believing they were setting out on a holy pilgrimage—their actions throughout the conflict were less so. It was a dark period in the history of the church and unlike the Muslims—who acted according to teachings of the Qur’an—many of the Crusaders did
not
act according to the teachings of the Bible.

The Crusaders took back Jerusalem, but the Muslims again recaptured it, and so it went. But the Muslims weren’t the only ones who received the brutal treatment at the hands of the Crusaders. Jews and other non-Christians were also slaughtered, burned, and pillaged. After the Crusaders were defeated during the Third Crusade (1189-1192), Pope Innocent III rallied for a fourth try. Interestingly, merchants in Venice agreed to supply the next army with ships at the cost of 84,000 silver coins. However, only one-third of the expected number of Crusaders showed up and they were 34,000 coins short! How would they pay for the ships?

A wealthy Eastern prince offered to supply the remaining amount under one condition: the Crusaders had to travel to Constantinople and dethrone the emperor (who he obviously didn’t like). After arriving in Constantinople, and several minor skirmishes with the people of the city, the “Christian” Crusaders sacked the “Christian” Constantinople on Good Friday, 1204. They raped and killed innocent civilians, tore down Christian statues, and took over the city. All dreams of having the Western and Eastern Churches reunited were dashed to pieces, along with the rest of the city. Another reason that the Crusades have left a dark legacy on Christian history.

While Innocent III’s rally for the Fourth Crusade fell on rocky ground, he would make a much more lasting contribution to the development of Roman Catholic worship. In 1215, Innocent called together the Fourth Lateran Council, which turned out to be the culminating event of his reign. Out of the many laws passed, three in particular were of great significance: (1) a lengthy explanation of the sacrament of Communion, (2) an affirmation of the primacy of the pope, and (3) the foundation of what would be called the “Inquisition,” a church-ordered tribunal concerned with detection and prosecution of theological heresy.

While the second and third laws are self-explanatory, the first one became the standard expression of how the Roman Catholic Church understood the sacrament of Holy Communion. They said: “[Christ’s] body and blood are contained in the sacraments under the outward forms of bread and wine; the bread being
transubstantiated
by God’s power into the body, and the wine into the blood.”

In other words—according to Roman Catholic theology—when you take the bread and wine in Communion, you actually take the physical body and blood of Christ even though the elements don’t
look
and
taste
like a real body and blood. This doctrine, called transubstantiation, has defined the central act of Roman Catholic worship ever since. In Latin, the final farewell of the Communion service is “
missa est
,” which means “Go forth.” Catholics then began calling their Communion service
missa
or
Mass
, which continues to this day.

“Scholasticism” is a big word, but describes a very important movement beginning in the late 11
^th
century that would last for several centuries. Scholastics (as they became known) took ancient and “authoritative” texts and found what seemed like contradictory statements. They then tried to prove—by the rules of simple logic—that these ancient texts were in fact
not
contradictory. Thus, they advanced the idea of an underlying agreement of the religious texts of the church. Scholasticism became the primary method of learning in schools and universities and lasted until the 16
^th
century!

A number of influential theologians and philosophers developed aspects of the scholastic method. Anselm (1033-1109)—who became well-known for his argument for the existence of God—and Peter Abelard (1079-1142) both continued to develop various aspects of learning with the rules of logic.

Scholastics believed that asking questions was the primary means of arriving at the truth. During the 13
^th
century, various schools across Europe began developing their own “brand” of Scholasticism. Peter Lombard’s (1100-1160)
Sentences
became a primary textbook for many of the schools across Europe and it was Lombard who gave to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) the official list of seven sacraments that are still held by the RCC today (baptism, Eucharist, penance, confirmation, marriage, ordination, and last rights).

While all of these men made significant contributions to the development of theology and thought, the most important theologian and philosopher of the scholastic period—and of the Middle Ages—was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Aquinas’ watershed book on theology and philosophy,
Summa Theologiae
, is without question one of the most influential works of Western literature and served as a primary source for all of the main teachings of the RCC.

Aquinas not only laid much of the groundwork for later Roman Catholic theology, he also prioritized those parts of its theology within Roman Catholic theology. For example, he argued that Holy Communion was the highest of the sacraments and articulated a detailed and highly philosophical explanation of the doctrine of transubstantiation. He also recovered the perceived importance of Aristotelian natural philosophy; namely, that there was no fundamental contra-diction between the works of God and the natural world. Aquinas’ teaching of theology, doctrine, the sacraments, and philosophy—as summarized in his
Summa
—shaped Catholic thought thereafter.

Scholasticism came to a halt when people like Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308) and William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) started to decry the “supremacy” of logic used in the scholastic method. They argued that the structure of the world (i.e., its “logic”) was only one of many possible manifestations of God’s power and, ultimately, logic should be confined to the area of
words
only, not to the realities those words represent. The Humanists, too, began attacking the scholastic method for their perceived pragmatism. They believed, rather, that people should study the
humanities:
poetry, grammar, rhetoric, history, and philosophy. These combined criticisms crippled the scholastic movement, which eventually lost its central method in universities by the 16
^th
century.

The turbulent years between 1000 and 1300 shaped both the secular and religious world thereafter. By the end of 1300, the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches stood opposed to each other and many had died at the hands of both Muslims and Christians. When the dust settled, an organized Catholic theology brought some sense of unity out of the chaos but, as we shall see in the next chapter, that unity was on the brink of shattering once again.

1. How would you respond to an atheist who
   says, “Well, your religion isn’t a religion of
   peace, just look at what you Christians did
   during the Crusades!”?
   
2. Why did the Eastern and Western Churches
   split? Was that a good decision or not?
   
3. Can you imagine what the life of a monk
   might look like? What’s the first thing that
   comes to your head when you hear the word,
   “monk”?
   
4. If you had to describe the Roman Catholic
   view of Communion, what would you say?
   How is that different from what you might
   believe about it?
   

1
“Excommunication” is a formal declaration of church discipline by the church stating that the offending person is no longer in communion with the church and, therefore, with Christ.

A
 plethora of streams, creeks, and rivers riddle the Easter United States. As a kid, I grew up rafting and (later in life) kayaking down many of these. The chilly water and raging rapids seemed to quench my quest for adventure! Like most places around the world, these creeks and rivers converge into bigger creeks and rivers. Sometimes they pool into lakes and other times they empty into the oceans.

By 1500, a number of streams and creeks had converged into a raging torrent that would spark the Protestant Reformation. These include: social anxieties across Europe, issues related to
church
authority, the moral failures and abuses of priests, a growing desire for spiritual devotion, and a call to go back to the authentic biblical documents. All of these would have a role to play in one of the most significant events of church history, the Protestant Reformation.

Several social anxieties elicited a greater awareness of spiritual matters and the afterlife. You could say (as some have argued) that there was a preoccupation with fate and death. In 1319, a severe famine hit. Many starved to death and even criminals were taken from the gallows and fed to the poor in Poland and other parts of Europe. One of the most devastating events of the 14
^th
century was the Bubonic Plague or “Black Death.” Between 1348 and 1352, it is estimated that anywhere from one-third to one-half of the entire European population died as a direct result of the plague.

The Black Death produced a shortage of workers, and with a shortage of workers, potential employers had to increase wages to attract them. The effect was that this gave the workers an added sense of expectations and “rights.” Even the peasant-worker suddenly felt a sense of “worth”—that he deserved higher wages and better working conditions. Over time, this led to a general questioning of authority, especially church authority (as we will later see, this is one of the reasons why many of Luther’s followers were peasants).