06: The Church at War - Part II

THE NINTH CENTURY

Charlemagne & the Final East-West Split

CHARLEMAGNE

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The emperor Justinian (ruled 527 – 65) had visions of restoring the Roman Empire to its former glory. He initiated a series of battles with the Ostrogoths in Italy to that end. Throughout the 540s Italy was wracked with conflict as Roman and Gothic armies conquered, lost and reconquered territory over and over. Finally, in 554 A.D., Justinian was victorious, and Italy was again in Roman Imperial hands. But the peninsula was in ruins, the economy destroyed and the aristocracy fragmented.[viii]Technically under imperial control, Italy was not really a part of the empire once again.

When Justinian died in 565 A.D., this tenuous connection with the Eastern Empire fell apart and Italy was once again unable to rely on the protection of Constantinople from her enemies.

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The Lombards were a Germanic tribe that had settled in Northern Italy and had begun to threaten the more southerly parts, including Rome. With the pull back of imperial military power from Italy the popes were left as de facto rulers of the city. Essentially, the only authority in the city was the Catholic Church.

One Pope Pelagius II dealt with the Lombard threat by bribing them to go away. When he died in 590, the city was in a crisis. Not only were the Lombards still a threat but also there was a plague raging. This was believed to be bubonic plague and what killed Pelagius.

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Into this mess a man named Gregory was elected pope. Gregory did not want the position and tried several ways to get out of serving. In the end, however, he assumed the office. Gregory proved to be a very capable administrator.

He restored order, secured food distribution from Sicily, had the city’s aqueducts rebuilt, and reinforced the city’s defenses. From a theological perspective he sent missionaries to England that eventually brought that nation into the Roman Catholic fold.

Gregory the Great (540 -604),as he would become known, is also the originator of much Roman Catholic doctrine such as purgatory and the belief that in the Mass Christ is sacrificed again and again. He’s held in very high esteem by the Roman Catholic church to this day and was made a saint and is considered a “Doctor of the Church,” the highest distinction in Roman Catholicism. Only about 30 people in all of history have been given that title and Gregory was the first.

Despite Gregory’s skill and power, the papacy after him became weaker again for a time after his death. Rome was also still technically under the authority of Constantinople and papal elections had to be confirmed by them until Gregory III who reigned from 731 – 741.

However, it became increasingly difficult for Constantinople to control Italy – or protect it. So, when the Lombards again became a threat, Pope Stephen II (715 – 757) sought help from Pepin, King of the Franks. Pepin owed his throne to help from Stephen’s predecessor and so agreed to intervene and stop the Lombards.

Thus began an alliance between the papacy and the Kingdom of the Franks – what we now call France.

Fast forward a few years: Pope Leo III (750 – 816) was facing a revolt of the Roman nobles because of his heavy hand and desire that more power accrue from them to the church. After he was kidnapped and subsequently rescued, Leo appealed to the current Frankish King, Charlemagne, for help.

Charlemagne came to Rome In December 800 with some troops and restored order in Leo’s favor. There, in St. Peter’s, on Christmas Day, 800 A.D., Leo declared him the successor to Augustus and crowned him Holy Roman Emperor.

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Of course, there already was a Roman emperor as far as the folks in Constantinople were concerned so this was another step towards a permanent separation of the two halves of the empire. So, we again see the difference in West and East. In the West, the church is over the emperor, the in the East, the opposite is true.

Charlemagne is one of the most important figures in the history of the church and of Western Europe in general. The grandson of Charles Martel, who stopped Islam from further European incursion, Charlemagne unified Europe to an extent it had not been since the fall of Rome. By the end of his reign most of modern France, Germany, the Netherlands and Lombardy (northern Italy) were within his realm.

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His reign is known as the “Carolingian Renaissance.”

Other accomplishments include:

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· Built a large palace in his capital of Aachen (today in western Germany near the Belgian border) that became a document repository and center of learning. There are over 7,000 ancient manuscripts that survive today due to this repository. Part of the imperial chapel at Aachen still stands today.

· Built 30 cathedrals throughout his realm and over 400 monasteries. We’ll see when we get to the discussion of monasticism in the Middle Ages how important this was for the preservation of learning.

· Provided a copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible for every church in his realm.

· Development of “Carolingian Miniscule” script. Writing style in the Roman Empire and up to this point was not standardized. It was written with the letters and words all run together in all capitals and with almost no punctuation. Carolingian Miniscule could be called the first modern font. It used a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, had a set design for each of the letters, had text styles for headings and used punctuation. What was important about this is that ancient documents were copied into a more readable format that facilitated their learning and transmission. Also, much later as the printing press was invented, CM was used as the model for some of the first printing fonts.

· Brought together the foremost minds of Europe to preserve ancient culture and learning.

· Codified law for the first time in the West since Roman Imperial days.

· Defended and spread the Catholic faith throughout Europe, uniting it under Nicene Christianity (many of the Germanic tribes were Arians).

· Standardized the worship liturgy used in churches with that used in Rome. He also set up programs to educate the clergy and even provided model sermons less well-educated pastors could use with their congregations. The unified Catholic Church in Europe is primarily due to Charlemagne – so Leo knew what he was doing when he made him emperor!

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Unfortunately, this unified realm did not outlive its creator for long.

Charlemagne died in 814 A.D. and was succeed by his son Louis the Pious. Louis died in 840 and the kingdom passed to his son, Lothair I. However, Lothair had two brothers, Louis the German and Charles the Bald, neither of which was willing to hand the whole kingdom over to their brother.

For three years they fought among themselves for primacy until, in 843 A.D. an agreement known as the Treaty of Verdun was struck dividing Europe among them. This division had a lasting impact on the map of Europe that we still see today.

Charles the Bald received the western portion; most of what would become France. Louis the German, as you would suspect, received the eastern portion that would later become Germany and Lothair received the central portion that ran from what is now the Low Countries to the peninsula of Italy. Since this included both imperial cities, Rome and Aachen, he was de facto Holy Roman Emperor. When Lothair died in 855, his realm was split among his sons. From this we get a strong and unified France, a strong and, basically unified Germany and a fragmented and disunified southern Europe that persisted for hundreds of years.

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THE FINAL EAST-WEST SPLIT

If you remember when we talked about creeds and councils, we talked about the Nicene Creed originally formulated way back in 325 A.D. and revised to be more specific about some things in 381 A.D. This creed dealt with the heresy of Arianism and affirmed Christ’s divinity and eternality. Both eastern and western Christians agreed to both of these versions.

There’s one line in the revised creed regarding the Holy Spirit that says:

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.

Well sometime in the late sixth century, so in the 500s, the western church began to say “proceedeth from the Father and the son.” In Latin, “and the son” is filioque. There are two ways to say “and” in Latin. One is using a separate word et as in et al (and others). The other way is to use the suffix “-que,” as in Senatus Populusque Romanus – The Roman Senate and the People. So, filioque is one word meaning “and the son.”

This one little word ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There were two issues, one theological and one of authority.

To take the second first, the church at Constantinople did not view the bishop of Rome as the head of the entire church. The bishop of Rome, of course, disagreed. Therefore, when the western church unilaterally added filioque to the Nicene Creed, the Eastern Church felt they had overstepped their bounds. The Creed had been produced by a council of bishops so in their mind, no one bishop had the authority to change it.

The theological issue is somewhat complicated.

For one thing, the Eastern Church viewed the creeds as inviolable. To them, changing the historic creeds was like changing the scriptures. Secondly, the Greek speaking church saw God the Father as the single source of being within the Trinity.

Alister McGrath says:

“The Father alone, was the sole and supreme cause of all things, including the Son and Spirit within the Trinity. The Son and Spirit derive from the Father, but in different manners.” [ix]So, just as the Son was “begotten” of the Father, the Spirit proceeded from the Father.”

To them, it was unthinkable that the Spirit proceeded from the Son because it messed with the very nature of the Trinity. Their concern was to protect the position of the Father as the sole source of divinity. If the Son and the Spirit derive from him equally but differently, their divinity is, in turn, protected as well. So, to the eastern church, it threatened the divinity of the third person of the Trinity - so they took it quite seriously.

Alister McGrath says:

“The East saw the Spirit and the Son having distinct, yet complementary roles; whereas the western tradition sees the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ.” [x]

In the west where Arianism was still a threat, their goal was to protect the divinity of Christ so having the Spirit proceed from both the Father and the Son, makes Christ’s divinity clear.

John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

John 16:7 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

At any rate, the controversy over this raged for many years. Finally in 1054, Pope Leo IX sent an emissary, Cardinal Humbert, to Constantinople to try to resolve the issue. Humbert saw this as well as things like the married clergy of the Eastern Church as signs they were apostate. Needless to say, that did not lead to cordial meetings between him and Patriarch Michael Celarius, who refused to meet with Humbert initially. When they finally did meet, they ended up trading insults rather than looking for ways to resolve the issue.

Then on June 16, 1054 while Celarius was leading a mass at Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, Cardinal Humbert entered the church and placed a papal “bull,” or declaration on the altar excommunicating him and any who followed him and then stormed out. [xi] Michael responded by excommunicating him right back and so the gauntlet had been thrown down.

Historians consider this the final separation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church - a separation that remains until this day.

So, from here on out, in the west, the Roman Catholic Church is going to be preeminent until we get to the Reformation.

[viii]The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, p. 95 [ix]Historical Theology, Alister E. McGrath, p. 70 [x]McGrath, p. 71 [xi]Gonzalez, p. 265