More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
August 11 - October 9, 2017
The Arab conquests also had enormous consequences for the economic and political life of Western Europe.
trade on a large scale was interrupted, and each area had to become more self-sufficient.
Under such circumstances, the main source of wealth was land, rather than money.
The result of all this was the political and economic fragmentation of Western Europe, and the decline of all centralized power, including that of kings.
Wherever there was a strong ruler and a measure of peace, schools flourished, manuscripts were copied, and there was a measure of theological activity.
his tone was so erudite, and his speculation so abstract, that not many read his work, fewer understood it, and no one seems to have become his follower.
Of the many other issues debated among Western theologians, the most significant were predestination and the presence of Christ in communion.
there were some who held that in communion the bread and wine cease to be such, and become the body and blood of Christ.
still at that time many theologians took this to be the result of popular exaggeration and inexact use of language.
those invasions, which had subsided for a while, had not ended, and would start afresh at a time that coincided with the decline of the Carolingian empire.
Eventually, the Norsemen became Christians. Many simply took over the faith of those whom they had conquered and among whom they settled.
The Hungarians assimilated much of the culture of their German neighbors, as well as of the Slavs they had conquered.
the papacy, reflecting the times, fell to the lowest depths of its entire history.
in Rome itself chaos often reigned.
Bruno refused to accept the papacy unless he was elected to it by the people of Rome. To that end he left for the ancient capital, in the company of two other monks of similar ideas, Hildebrand and Humbert.
it was to be expected that most of those who yearned for reform had taken up the monastic life. Thus, it was out of monasteries that a wave of reform arose that conquered the papacy, clashed with the powerful, and was felt even in the distant shores of the Holy Land.
Monasticism itself was in need of reformation.
several wise decisions and providential circumstances turned that small monastic house into the center of a vast reformation.
Under their leadership, the ideals of monastic reform expanded ever farther.
One of the characteristics of the Cluniac reformation of monastic life was that all their houses had to have clear title to their property, thus freeing them from subjection to the whims of a feudal lord.
It was not an “order” in the strict sense, but rather a series of independent monasteries, all under the rule of a single abbot, who normally appointed the prior of each community.
the Cluniacs came to spend practically all their time at the Divine Office, neglecting the physical labor that was so important for Benedict.
After ordering the life of hundreds of monastic houses, they set their sights on the reformation of the entire church.
the Cluniac movement seemed to many a miracle, a divine intervention to bring about a new dawn.
so was the dream of those reformers a church whose leaders would be free from every obligation to civil authorities, be they kings or nobles.
these reformers made clerical celibacy one of the pillars of their program.
clergy families were forcibly pulled out of their homes and thrown out in the streets.
Obedience, another cornerstone of Benedictine monasticism, would also be fundamental to this reformation of the eleventh century.
A good monk should own nothing, and must lead a simple life.
it invited simony, and the power that bishops and abbots had as feudal lords led them to be constantly involved in political intrigue.
the simplicity of life that had been Benedict’s ideal was lost,
one of the main causes of the final failure of the reformation of the eleventh century was the wealth of the church,
Bernard was first and foremost a monk.
it was a series of reforming popes that led the way to reformation as they understood it.
Bruno, on his way to Rome, asked Hildebrand to join him in the task of reformation that lay ahead.
in truth he wished nothing more than the reformation of the church.
After entering Rome barefooted and being acclaimed by the people and the clergy, Bruno accepted the papal tiara, and took the name of Leo IX.
the movement for reformation by abolishing simony and promoting clerical celibacy had the support of the masses,
Leo made two grave errors during his pontificate. The first was to take up arms against the Norsemen who had settled in Sicily and southern Italy.
His other error was to send Humbert as his legate to Constantinople.
it was decided that the Romans would elect the new pope, but that this had to be a German—thus making it impossible for any of the various parties in Rome to capture the papacy.
for a time Victor held the reins of both church and empire, and the reformation that he advocated progressed rapidly.
The power of election was to rest with the cardinals who also held the title of bishops, who would then seek the consent of the rest of the cardinals, and, finally, of the Roman people.
His dream was of a world united under the papacy, as one flock under one shepherd.
long before his time Augustine had declared—and the rest of the church had agreed—that sacraments administered by schismatics were nonetheless valid.
By joining the monastic ideal of celibacy to his reformation, Gregory and his friends made it much more difficult for their plans to succeed.
Henry felt that the power of bishops and other prelates was such that, for the political survival of the empire, the emperor must be free to appoint those who would support him.
Finally, Henry felt that his only recourse was to appeal to Gregory’s mercy.
Finally, since it was impossible for one who claimed to be the leader of Christ’s disciples to do otherwise, Gregory granted the pardon that Henry begged, and withdrew his sentence against the emperor.
Pope Paschal was ready to make peace, and declared that all consecrations that had taken place during the previous reign, even under lay appointment and investiture, were valid. But he also made it clear that any future lay investiture was unacceptable, and that any who disobeyed him on this point would be excommunicated.
