In the modern era, the medieval Catholic Church is often spoken of in negative terms. It is inevitable in a world largely shaped by the Reformation that many people focus on the corruption that plagued the Catholic Church in the late middle ages. However, long before the papacy faced off with Martin Luther, the Catholic Church played a vital role in European society. In the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire and in the centuries before nation states coalesced, the Catholic Church was the sole entity that held European society together. We'll examine the history of the Catholic Church from 200 to 1563 AD, with a particular focus on the social impact of the church.

1. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Mosaic of Christ as the Good Shepherd, from the tomb of Galla Placida, Ravenna, Italy, c. 450.
• Judaea
• Client kingdom of Rome, 63 BCE-6 CE
• Roman province, 6-636 CE
• Jews exempted from Roman religious
practice by Caesar Augustus, but not by
later emperors
• Important classes in Jewish society
• Sadducees
• Pharisees
• Essenes
• Jesus of Nazareth, circa 4 BCE-30 CE
• Messiah, from Hebrew Maschiach
• Christ, from Greek Christos

2. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Mosaic of Jesus, St. Peter (r), and St. Paul (l), San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, c. 550.
• St. Peter, d. circa 60
• First bishop of Rome
• Matthew 16: 18, “It is upon this rock that
I will build my church.”
• St. Paul, d. 65
• The martyrdom of St. Stephen
• The vision near Damascus
• Faith versus Jewish law
• 13 New Testament books authored by St.
Paul

3. St. Paul and his travels
Map from Coffin and Stacey, Western Civilization, Volume I, 14th edition.

4. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Statue of Mithras slaying a bull, 1st century AD, British Museum, London.
• Religions in the Roman Empire before
Christianity
• Traditional Roman religion
• Jupiter Optimus Maximus
• Cult of emperors
• Lares and Penates
• Cult of Fortuna
• Mystery religions/cults
• Cult of Isis and Serapis
• Cult of Eleusis
• Cult of Mithras

5. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Persecution
• Christian rejection of Roman religious practice
• Christian insistence on all other beliefs as false
• Roman belief in Christian cannibalism
• Matthew 26: 26-28, “Take, eat, this is my body… Drink, all of you, of this; for this is my
blood…
• Roman belief in Christian immorality
• Persecutions carried out under Nero, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
• The “Great Persecution” carried out under Diocletian, 303-306
• Martyrdom
• Pliny the Elder to Trajan: “I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they
confessed I repeated the question twice again, adding threats at the same time; when, if they
still persevered, I ordered them to be immediately punished: for I was persuaded whatever
the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly
deserved correction…”

6. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Left—head of Constantine the Great, Capitoline Museum, Rome; right—statue of
Julian the Apostate, Louvre Museum, Paris.
• Constantine I, r. 312-337
• Battle of Milvian Bridge, 312
• Edict of Milan, 313
• Council of Nicaea, 325
• Julian the Apostate, r. 361-363
• Reversed policies against non-
Christians in administrative positions
• Theodosius I, r. 379-395
• Debate over the Altar of Victory, 382
• Symmachus versus St. Ambrose
• Massacre at Thessalonika, 390
• Edict of 391

7. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Map of Christian communities, late 3rd century CE, from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, 4th
edition.
• Orthodoxy established by 200
• Catholicus, from Greek katholikos
(universal)
• St. Peter as chief disciple
• Men as leaders of the church
• Bishops, priests, deacons
• No official roles for women
• Orthdoxy versus
heterodoxy/heresy
• Debates over heretical views
largely centered on doctrinal
disputes and/or practice

8. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Gnosticism
• From Greek gnosis (knowledge)
• Gnostic Gospels
• 52 Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945
• Gospels of Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and Philip
• Testimony of Truth
• The Thunder, Perfect Mind:
• “For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin....
I am the barren one, and many are her sons....
I am the silence that is incomprehensible....
I am the utterance of my name. “
• Mary Magdalene viewed as the leading disciple, women allowed to preach and prophesy
• Declared heretics, gospels rejected and destroyed c. 200

9. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Arianism
• Arius of Alexandria, c. 260-336
• “We acknowledge One God, alone unbegotten, alone everlasting, alone unbegun, alone
true, alone having immortality, alone wise, alone good, alone sovereign… who begat an
Only-begotten Son… And God, being the cause of all things, is unbegun and altogether
sole but the Son being begotten apart from time by the Father, and being created and
found before ages, was not before his generation… For he is not eternal or co-eternal
or co-unoriginate with the Father, nor has he his being together with the Father… but
God is before all things as being Monad and Beginning of all.”
• Council of Nicaea, 325
• Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible
and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his
Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God,
begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father… Whosoever shall say that
there was a time when the Son of God was not, or that before he was begotten he was
not, or that he was made of things that were not… the Catholic and Apostolic Church
anathematizes them.”
• Declared heretics in 325, but many Germanic tribes converted to Arian Christianity (Visigoths,
Ostrogoths, Vandals, Lombards)

10. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Donatism
• Stemmed from persecution of 303-306 in Numidia
• Those Christians who apostatized to avoid persecution were viewed as not being
true Christians
• Condemned at the Council of Arles, 314
• Manichaeism
• Mani of Babylonia, c. 215-277
• Belief in dualism, drawn from Zoroastrianism
• Condemned by Emperor Theodosius I in Edict of 381
• Pelagianism
• Pelagius of Britain/Ireland, fl. 400
• Believed that strength of will could lead to salvation; divine grace not necessary
• Condemned at the Council of Carthage, 418

11. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Painted panel icon of Mary and Jesus, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai Egypt, 7th century.
• Nestorianism
• Nestorius of Constantinople, d.
451
• A response to the growing
popularity of the Cult of Mary
• Rejected Mary as the mother of
God (Theotokos) because this
would confuse people about
Christ’s divinity; preferred the
term mother of Christ
(Christotokos)
• Condemned at the Council of
Ephesus, 431
• Many Nestorians moved to Persian
territory, became the Church of
the East

12. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Monophysitism
• From Greek monos and physis—single nature
• Christ divine and his humanity subsumed by that divinity
• Condemned at the Council of Chalcedon, 451
• The dyophysite position embraced at Chalcedon and followed in the West
• Hypostasis—dual nature, neither subordinated, perfect divinity and
perfect humanity
• Monophysite communities in Egypt and Syria later persecuted by the
Byzantine Church

13. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
• Adoptionism
• Bishop Felix of Urgel, d. 818
• Christ was the son of God only by adoption, thus denying the unity of the trinity
• Condemned at Councils of Frankfurt and Aquileia, 794 and 796
• Limited impact in Spain and southern France
• Iconoclasm
• Embraced by the Byzantine church and emperor, 726-787 (again from 815-843)
• Promoted the destruction of icons on the basis that worship of icons was a sin
• Byzantine army began the movement because officers believed their losses to
Muslim forces were due to the use of icons in Byzantine worship (whereas Muslims
allowed no icons in their worship)
• Rejected by popes in Rome, but limited support for moderate iconoclasm in the
Frankish church

14. The Early History of the Church: Persecution, Toleration, and the Early Heresies
Statue of St. Ambrose, from the Palazzo dei Guiriconsulti, Milan.
• Early church fathers
• St. Ambrose, d. 397
• Bishop of Milan
• Massacre of Thessalonika, 390
• St. Jerome, d. 420
• The Vulgate Bible
• St. Augustine, d. 430
• Bishop of Hippo
• Confessions
• City of God
• Predestination
• Original sin
• Necessity of infant baptism

15. Moses with horns, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dominican Nunnery/Imperial City
Museum.

16. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Mosaic of Jesus (c), Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (l), and Empress Zoe (r), in Hagia Sophia,
Istanbul, Turkey, 11th century.
• The fall of the Western Empire, 476
• Division between the western and eastern
churches
• Catholicism in the west
• Pope and bishops as heads of the church
• Arianism survived in Germanic kingdoms
into the 7th century
• Greek orthodox in the east
• Emperor and patriarchs as heads of the
church
• Caesaropapism
• Monophysitism survived in Egypt and
Syria
• Nestorianism survived in the Sassanid
Persian Empire
• The Acacian Schism, 484-519

17. San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

18. Justinian mosaic, San Vitale.

19. Theodora mosaic, San Vitale.

20. Hagia Sophia, built during the reign of Justinian I (r. 529-565), Istanbul, Turkey.

21. • Interior of Hagia
Sophia

22. Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, San Gimignano, Italy, 12th century (frescos 14th
century).

23. Spread of Christianity, 300-600
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.

24. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Sutton Hoo belt buckle (possibly used to carry relics), 7th century, British Museum.
• Conversion stories
• St. Patrick and the Irish, late 5th
century
• Gregory of Tours and The History of
the Franks, c. 590
• Clovis, king of the Franks
• Clothilda, queen of the Franks
• St. Bede the Venerable and The
History of the English Church and
People, c. 730
• Edwin, king of Northumbria
• “The Sparrow Story”
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, late 9th
century
• Guthrum, king of the Danes
• The Treaty of Wedmore, 878

25. The Franks Casket, made in Northumbria, c. 700, British Museum. Front panel detail
of Wayland the Smith (l) and the Adoration of the Magi (r).

26. Left—the Church at Jelling, Denmark, founded by Harald Bluetooth, c. 980 (mound
behind church marks the pre-Christian burial site of Harald’s father, Gorm;
right—the Jelling Stone, depicting the crucifixion.

27. Left—the Middleton Cross, Yorkshire, 10th century; right—Thorwald’s Cross Slab, Isle
of Man, 10th century.

28. Baptismal font, Saint Denis cathedral, Paris, 8th century.

29. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Gregory the Great and three monk scribes, 10th century, Vienna Art History Museum.
• The role of the popes
• Bishops of Rome and popes (from
Latin papa)
• Leo I, r. 440-461
• Negotiations with Attila the Hun,
452
• Gelasius, r. 492-496
• Gelasian dualism
• Gregory the Great, r. 590-604
• Built up defenses of Rome
• Augustine of Canterbury, d. 604
• Missionary to the Angles
and Saxons
• Pastoral Rule
• Limited authority over western
churches until c. 1050

30. Papal communications, 600-700
Graph from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, 4th edition.

31. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Image of St. Simeon Stylites, 6th century, Louvre, Paris.
• Monk, monasticism, from Greek
monachos, solitary
• Eremitic monasticism
• Hermits
• St. Anthony, d. 356
• St. Simeon Stylites, d. 459
• Brought to Tours, Gaul by St.
Martin; spread from there to
Ireland in the 5th century

32. Skelling Michael, SW Ireland, Wikimedia Commons

33. Left—stairs to the monastery on Skellig Michael; right—monks’ cells on Skellig Michael. Images from
www.visitsouthwestkerry.ie.

34. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
St. Benedict giving the Rule to St. Maurus, c. 1130, Monastery of St. Giles, Nimes, France.
• Cenobitic monasticism
• St. Basil of Caesarea, d. 379
• Monks required to do
charitable acts
• St. Benedict, d. 553
• Monte Cassino, Italy
• The Benedictine Rule
• Cassiodorus, d. 575
• Viviarum, Italy
• Preservation of Classical and
Patristic texts
• Copying of texts became a
standard daily duty for monks by
the 7th century; copies shared
among monasteries

35. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Ruins of Whitby Abbey, Wikipedia.
• St. Patrick, c. 5th century
• Armagh, Northern Ireland
• St. Columba, d. 597
• Iona, Argyll and Bute
• St. Columbanus, d. 615
• Luxeuil, Burgundy and Bobbio, Piacenza
• St. Boniface, d. 754
• Fulda, Hesse
• Whitby, North Yorkshire
• The synod of Whitby, 664
• The correct date for observing Easter
• The “Celtic Church”

36. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Painting of a Christian woman, Giordani Catacomb, Rome, 3rd-5th century.
• Women and the early church
• No official roles for women in the early
Catholic Church
• Celibacy encouraged by St. Paul and
others
• Celibacy embraced by Empress
Pulcheria (d. 453), wife of Emperor
Marcian
• Female monasticism
• Early convent built by St. Pachomius (d.
346) for his sister and other women in
Egypt
• Encouraged by St. Ambrose
• Rules for nuns based on Benedictine
Rule, but moderated for women

37. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Image of St. Balthild, 14th century, British Library, London.
• Nunneries
• St. Radegund, d. 587
• Queen of Clothar I, king of Neustria
• Abbey of the Holy Cross, Poitiers
• St. Brigit, 6th century
• Kildare, Leinster
• St. Bathild, d. 680
• Queen of Clovis II, king of Burgundy
and Neustria
• Corbie, Picardy and Chelles, Meaux
• St. Hilda, d. late 7th century
• Whitby, North Yorkshire
• St. Leoba, d. late 8th century
• Cousin of St. Boniface, d. 754
• Kitzingen and Ochsenfurt, both in
Bavaria
• Double monasteries

38. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Manuscript page from Bede’s History, c. 730, British Library.
• Monasteries and education
• Novices and oblates
• Scriptorium
• Scribes and illuminators

39. Page from Pseudo Apuleius’ Herbal, produced at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury,
England, 11th century, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

40. Left—carpet page from the Lindisfarne Gospel, 7th century, Northumbria; right—Chi
Rho page of the Book of Kells, early 9th century, produced in Northumbria, now held
in Trinity Library, Dublin.

41. Left—Ende of Leon’s illumination of the apocalypse from “Commentary on the apocalypse of St.
John” by Beatus of Gerona, 10th century; center and right—Hildegard of Bingen’s Cosmic Tree and
Image of the Universe, from Liber Scivias, as preserved in the Rupertsberger Codex, c. 1180.

42. Lindau Gospel, front cover and back cover, Abbey of St. Gall, Switzerland, c. 880.

43. Latin text of the Bible translated into Anglo-Saxon under Alfred the Great (r. 871-
899).
• Gospel of St. Matthew, 7:24.
• Omnis ergo qui audit verba mea haec, et facit ea, assimilabitur viro
sapienti, qui aedificavit domum suam supra petram.
• Ælċ þāra þe þās mīn word ġe-hīerþ, and þā wyrcþ, biþ ġe-līċ þæm
wīsan were, sē his hūs ofer stān ġe-timbrode.
• Whoever, then, hears these commandments of mine and carries
them out, is like a wise man who built his house on rock.

44. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
Blessing of the Fields, Rogation Sunday, Hever, Kent, February 1967, Wikipedia.
• Catholicism in everyday life
• Religious calendar
• Advent
• Christmas
• Lent
• Easter
• Saints’ cults
• Saints’ days
• Rogation
• Baptism, weekly mass, yearly
confession, last rites
• Penitential texts

45. Left—the Gandersheim casket, made in eastern England to hold relics, 7th century,
Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, Germany; right—Tassilo Chalice,
found in Austria but artistic style is Anglo-Saxon, c. 780 AD, Kremsmünster Cathedral.

46. Left—Ranvaig’s casket, of Irish design, but found in Denmark, now in the National
Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen; right—the Birka Crucifix, found in Birka,
Sweden, 9th century, now in The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm.

47. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
• Catholicism in everyday life
• Marriage, divorce, and sex
• Church emphasized marriage by mutual consent
• Christina of Markyate
• Marriage only declared a sacrament at the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215
• Consanguinity laws—no marriage within 7 degrees of kinship, 1059-1215; no marriage
within 4 degrees of kinship 1215 onward
• Divorce allowed if both consented early on; later only separation allowed
• Complete separation (a mense et thoro) and partial separation (a mense)
• Separation allowed in cases of extreme domestic violence
• Sex outside of marriage and for any other reason than procreation regarded as a sin
• Concubinage regarded as a lesser form of marriage until the late 14th century
• Prostitutes not heavily penalized until the late 14th century
• Many urban brothels owned/run by high ranking clerics
• Inheritance
• Children born to a couple that later married would be legitimized by the church

48. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
The Capture of Jerusalem, from Sebastian Mamerot, Les Passages d’Outre Mer, 15th century,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
• Catholicism in everyday life
• Feuding and violence
• Sanctuary
• Confession and penance
• Pilgrimage
• The Peace of God, c. 990
• The Truce of God, c. mid-11th
century
• The First Crusade, 1096-1099

49. The Early Medieval Church: A Unifying Force in a Diverse, Decentralized Europe
• Catholicism and Europe’s kings
• Conversion
• Clovis, king of the Franks; Ethelbert, king of Kent; Edwin, king of Northumbria; Bridei, king of
the Picts
• Kings (and queens) as patrons of the church
• The “proprietary church” and lay investiture
• Charlemagne, king of the Franks, r. 768-814
• Crowned emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800
• The Filioque clause debate
• The court school at Aachen
• Alfred, king of the English, r. 871-899
• The court school at Winchester
• Otto I, king of the Germans, r. 936-972
• Crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962
• Deposition of Pope John XII in 964

50. Left—a gold bust of Charlemagne, Treasury of Aachen Cathedral, 14th century;
center—the crown of the Ottonian emperors, 10th century, housed in the Secular
and Sacred Treasuries in the Hofburg, Vienna, Austria; right—Otto III enthroned,
from the Gospel book of Otto III, c. 1000.

51. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
• Important social, cultural, political changes in medieval society, 1000-
onward
• 10th century agricultural revolution
• Crop rotation, horse collar, heavier plow
• Increasing trade in Europe and renewed trade with non-European countries
• More fairs, improved trade routes in Europe
• Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea trade
• The opening of the Silk Road to China, mid-13th century
• Increasing political centralization in England, France, and Germany
• Establishment of wealthy, non-noble classes
• Establishment of universities
• Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Salerno, Heidelberg

52. Map of high/late medieval trade routes,
from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.

53. Map of medieval universities, from Coffin
and Stacey, Western Civilizations, volume 1,
13th edition.
• Trivium
• Grammar, logic, rhetoric
• Quadrivium
• Arithmetic, geometry, music,
astronomy
• Theology/philosophy
• Medicine
• Law
• Roman law (from the Corpus Juris
Civilis)
• Canon law

54. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Illuminated initial of St. Benedict, from Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, Book 2: The Life of St. Benedict, 11th
century, British Library.
• Monasticism by the 10th century
• Benedictine Rule
• Milites Christi (soldiers of Christ)
• Proprietary church
• Simony (from Simon Magus)
• Lay investiture
• Concubinage

55. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Miniature of Emperor Henry III, The Gospel Book of Henry III, c. 1040,
Universitätsbibliothek Bremen, Germany.
• Reform movements
• Cluny, founded in 910
• Cluniac reform
• Papal reform movement
• Emperor Henry III, r. 1039/1046-1056
• Pope Leo IX, r. 1049-1054
• Pope Nicholas II, r. 1058-1061
• The Electoral Decree of 1059

56. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Pope Gregory VII being driven into exile in 1085, from The Life of Henry IV, 12th century, in the Codex Jenensis
Bose, Universitäts Jena, Germany.
• The Investiture Controversy
• Henry IV
• King 1056-1106
• Emperor 1071-1106
• Pope Gregory VII, r. 1073-1085
• Dictatus papae, 1075
• Canosa, 1077
• Rudolf of Swabia, anti-king, r. 1077-
1080
• Clement III, anti-pope, r. 1081-1089
• Concordat of Worms, 1122
• Pope Calixtus II, r. 1119-1124
• Emperor Henry V, r. 1106-1125

57. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Map of crusader routes in the First Crusade and People’s Crusade, from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the
West, volume 1, 3rd edition.
• Events leading up to the First
Crusade
• The battle of Manzikert, 1071
• Emperor Alexios Comnenos,
r. 1081-1118
• Pope Urban II, r. 1088-1099
• The Council of Clermont, 1095
• The First Crusade, 1096-1099
• The People’s Crusade, 1096

58. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.
• Crusader states
• County of Edessa
• Fell in 1144
• The Second Crusade, 1147-1148
• Louis VII of France, r. 1137-1180
• Kingdom of Jerusalem
• Fell in 1187
• Third Crusade, 1189-1193
• Richard I of England (the Lionheart),
r. 1189-1199
• Principality of Antioch
• Fell in 1268
• County of Tripoli
• Fell in 1289

59. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Louis VII of France, from the Grandes Chroniques de France, 14th century, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
• Later crusades
• Fourth Crusade, 1201-1204
• Sack of Constantinople
• Children’s Crusade, 1212
• Fifth Crusade, 1217-1221
• Sixth Crusade, 1248-1254
• Louis IX of France, r. 1226-1270
• Seventh Crusade, 1270
• The Spanish Reconquista, 1009-
1492
• The Baltic Crusades, 1147-1495

60. Routes taken by the later crusaders
Map from Coffin and Stacey, Western Civilizations, Volume I, 13th edition.

61. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Tree of Life and Death flanked by Mary and Eve from the Missal of Bernhard von Rohr, Archbishop of
Salzburg, 15th century, by Berthold Furtmeyer, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
• Signs of growing piety
• St. Thomas Becket, d. 1174
• St. Francis of Assisi, d. 1226
• St. Louis (Louis IX of France), d.
1270
• St. Thomas Aquinas, d. 1274
• St. Hildegard of Bingen, d. 1179
• St. Elizabeth of Hungary, d. 1231
• St. Catherine of Siena, d. 1380

62. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Statue of the Virgin and Child, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
• Signs of growing piety
• Patarenes, early 11th century
• Beghards and Beguines, 13th-14
centuries
• St. Francis of Assisi, d. 1226
• Franciscan friars
• St. Dominic, d. 1234
• Dominican friars
• St. Clare of Assisi, d. 1253
• The Poor Clares

63. Left—Siena cathedral exterior; right Siena cathedral nave.

64. Left—Notre Dame flying buttresses; right—Notre Dame nave.

65. Left—St. Denis, east entrance tympanum: Christ giving the Eucharistic wafer to the
archbishop.

66. Notre Dame, east entrance tympanum: Christ seated in center; below him, people
on the left are being saved, people on the right are going to hell.

67. Stained glass windows in St. Denis: left—left side depicts stages in Jesus’ life and
right depicts the tree of Jesse; right—pictures of kings and queens of France.

68. Left—Notre Dame’s pensive gargoyle; right—devil being struck by a monk in York
Minster.

69. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Waldensians, depicted in Les Champion des Dames, 15th century, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
• Signs of growing piety
• Waldensians
• Peter Valdes, d. 1216
• Cathars
• Albigensians
• Perfecti
• The Albigensian Crusade, 1209-1229
• The Inquisition
• The Spiritual Franciscans
• Categorization
• 1) statement of universal truth about
a category; 2) statement of
membership in that category; 3)
conclusion

70. Left—Innocent III excommunicating the Cathars; right—French knights attacking the
Cathars during the Albigensian Crusade, from the Chroniques de Saint-Denis, 14th
century, British Library.

71. Cathars being expelled from Carcasonne in southern France, from the Grandes
Chroniques de France, c. 1415, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

72. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Archbishop Thomas Becket being martyred in Canterbury Cathedral by knights of Henry II, from a 13th
century English psalter, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
• Early church-state conflicts
• King Henry II of England, r. 1154-
1189
• Thomas Becket, archbishop of
Canterbury, d. 1170
• The Constitutions of Clarendon,
1164
• “Criminous clerics”

73. The Late Medieval Church: A Forward-Facing Society and a Backward-Facing Church
Frederick I as a crusader, 12th century Apostolic Library, Vatican, Rome.
• Later church state-conflicts
• Emperor Frederick I, r. 1152-1190
• Guelphs and Ghibellines
• Lombard League and Battle of
Legnano, 1176
• Third Crusade, 1189-1192
• Innocent III, r. 1198-1216
• John of England, r. 1199-1216
• Philip II of France, r. 1180-1223
• Emperor Frederick II, r. 1215-1250
• Otto of Brunswick, r. 1209-1215, d.
1218
• Crusade against Frederick, 1248-
1250

74. The Holy Roman Empire 1150-1250
Maps from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.

75. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Broadsheet of Johannes Tetzel, 1546, circulated by Luther’s followers, from www.uni-due.de.
• Issues between the late medieval
church and society
• Indulgences, pardons, and relics
• Purgatory
• Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, 1387-
1400
• Concubinage
• Pluralism
• Absenteeism
• Separateness of the clergy
• Poorly educated priesthood
• “Hocus pocus” instead of “Haec est
meum corpus”

76. Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, 1387-1400
• “Masters,” quoth he, “in churches, when I preach, I am at pains that
all shall hear my speech, and ring it out as roundly as a bell, for I know
all by heart the thing I tell. My theme is always one, and ever was:
‘Radix malorum est cupiditas’. [Greed is the root of all evil]… then
show I forth my hollow crystal-stones, which are crammed full of rags,
aye, and of bones; relics are these, as they think, every one… By this
fraud have I won me, year by year, a hundred marks, since I’ve been
pardoner… Of avarice and of all such wickedness is all my preaching,
thus to make them free with offered pence, the which pence come to
me. For my intent is only pence to win, and not at all for punishment
of sin. When they are dead, for all I think thereon their souls may
well black-berrying have gone!”

77. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Statue of Pope Boniface VIII, 14th century, Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, Florence.
• Late medieval church-state conflict
• Philip IV of France, r. 1285-1314
• Pope Boniface VIII, r. 1294-1303
• Clericos laicos, 1296
• Ineffabilis amor, 1296
• Etsi de statu, 1297
• Asculta fili, 1301
• Unam Sanctam, 1302
• “There is one holy, Catholic and apostlic
church, we are bound to believe and to
hold, our faith urging us, and this we do
firmly believe and simply confess; and that
outside this church there is no salvation or
remission of sins… therefore we declare,
state, define and pronounce that it is
altogether necessary for salvation for
every human creature to be subject to the
Roman pontiff.”

78. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Arrival of Pope John XXIII at Council of Constance, from Ulrich Von Richental, Chronicle of the Council
of Constance, 15th century, Rosgartensmuseum, Konstanz.
• Avignon Papacy, 1309-1378
• Great schism, 1378-1417
• Conciliarism
• Marsiglio of Padua, c. 1275-1343
• Defensor Pacis, 1324
• “All Christ’s faithful are
churchmen”
• Council of Pisa, 1409
• Council of Constance, 1414-1417
• Papal Bull Execrabilis, 1460

79. Broadsheet of Pope Alexander VI, r. 1492-1503: Left—Alexander VI, Pontifex
Maximus; right—“Ego sum Papa” (“I am the Pope”).

80. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Engravings of Lollards on trial and in prison, from Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 1784.
• John Wycliffe, c. 1330-1384
• Oxford professor of theology
• Predestination not free will
• Questioned the Eucharist
• Condemned corrupt priesthood
• John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
1340-1399
• Lollards
• Rejected corrupt clergy
• Translated the Bible into English

81. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Jan Hus burned at the stake, from Ulrich Von Reichental, Chronicle of the Council of Constance.
• Jan Hus, c. 1372-1415
• Bohemian priest and professor at
University of Prague
• Eucharist central to belief
• Utraquism
• Questioned pope’s authority
• Hussites
• Bohemian Church

82. Jan Hus’ The Church, 1413.
• “No pope is the most exalted person of the catholic church but Christ
himself: therefore no pope is the head of the catholic church besides
Christ… Likewise, it is not necessary to believe that every Roman
pontiff whatsoever is the head of any particular holy church unless
God has predestined him. This is clear because otherwise the
Christian faith would be perverted and a Christian would have to
believe a lie... In the same way, it is not of necessity to salvation for all
Christians, living together, that they should believe expressly that any
one is head of any church whatsoever unless his evangelic life and
works plainly move them to believe this…”

83. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
• The Lutheran Reformation
• Gutenberg and the printing press, 1440s
• Martin Luther, 1483-1546
• Doctor of theology, University of Wittenberg, Germany, 1512
• The 95 theses, 1517
• Excommunicated, 1520
• Protected by Frederick the Wise, Duke of Saxony
• Preached justification of faith and predestination
• Diet of Worms, 1521; excommunication upheld
• Development of Lutheran Church, 1522 onward
• Monasteries closed
• Clergy allowed to marry
• Bible and church services in German

84. Some of Luther’s 95 Theses
• 1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to
be one of repentance.
• 2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction,
as administered by the clergy.
• 3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various
outward mortification of the flesh.
• 5. The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that
of the canons.
• 20. Therefore, the pope, when he uses the words “plenary remission of all penalties” does not actually mean “all
penalties,” but only those imposed by himself.
• 21. Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved
by papal indulgences.
• 27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul
flies out of purgatory. [This is a direct reference to Johannes Tetzel].
• 50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the indulgence preachers, he would rather
that the basilica of St. Peter were burned to ashes than built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.

85. Left—woodcut by Baldung Grien, 1521, depicting Martin Luther as an Augustinian
canon; right—engraving by Lucas Cranach, 1545, captioned “The pope alone can
interpret scripture and sweep away misapprehension in the same way that a donkey
alone can play the bagpipes and get the notes right.”

86. Left—woodcut, 1530, of the church as the seven-headed beast, captioned “For money a
sack full of indulgences.”; right—woodcut by Hans Brosamer, from the title page of
Johannes Cochleus’ The Seven Heads of Martin Luther, 1529, depicting Luther as the seven
headed beast (Luther l-r as doctor, saint, infidel, priest, fanatic, church supervisor, and
Barrabas.

87. Lucas Cranach image on title page from Martin Luther’s Against the Papacy Founded
by the Devil, 1545, depicting the pope with ass’s ears sitting on a pyre in the mouth
of Hell, represented by an enormous monster.

88. Lucas Cranach images, 1520/1521: Left—the pope and his indulgence sellers in the
Vatican; right—Christ driving the money changers from the temple.

89. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Portrait of John Calvin, by unknown artist of Flemish school, 16th century, Bibliotheque de Geneve,
Switzerland.
• Anabaptists, 1520s-1530s
• John Calvin, 1509-1564
• Served as a priest in France until 1534
• Argued for double predestination,
justification of faith, and good works
• Theocracy in Geneva, 1541-1564
• The Consistory
• Calvinist movements
• Huguenots in France
• Presbyterians in Scotland
• Puritans in England

90. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Henry VIII in the Whitehall Mural, by Remigius van Leemput, 17th century, Royal Collection, Hampton
Court Palace.
• The Reformation in England
• Henry VIII, r. 1509-1547
• “Defender of the faith”
• Catherine of Aragon, d. 1536
• Anne Boleyn, d. 1536
• Act of Supremacy, 1534
• Henry as “Supreme Head of the
Church”
• Celibacy of priests enforced
• Abolition of monasteries
• Edward VI, r. 1547-1553
• 1547 Injunctions
• Scripture and religious
instruction in English

91. Henry VIII on his deathbed, passing the throne to Edward VI, unknown artist, 16th
century, National Portrait Gallery, London.

92. Painting of the four evangelists stoning Pope Paul II, Avarice, and Hypocrisy to death,
by Girolamo da Treviso the Younger, c. 1540, in Royal Collection at Windsor Palace.

93. Map of European the Reformation, from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West,
Volume I, 3rd edition.

94. The Successful Reformation and its Aftermath
Statue of St. Ignatius Loyola, by Camilo and Guiseppe Rusconi, 1733, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
• The Counter/Catholic Reformation
• Council of Trent, 1545-1563
• Catholic practices, sacraments
reaffirmed
• Corruption, concubinage, simony
proscribed
• Reform of the papacy
• New offices and orders
• Office of censorship
• The papal index of prohibited books
• Foundation of The Society of Jesus
(Jesuit Order), 1534
• St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556