SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES | KAIROS GLOBAL | AUGUST 2023

Author: Rodney Pereira

Intro: Having covered the Church during the first three centuries, Rodney Pereira takes us through the Middle Ages and tells us why this period was significant for the Church and the world. 

Early Middle Ages: 400–1054

Catholic history is a testimony to Jesus' faithfully kept promise of not allowing the gates of hell to prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). The Church has withstood every kind of trial from within and without and prevailed. This comes to mind as we ponder the Catholic history of the Middle Ages, or Medieval Period. ‘The Early Middle Ages’ is a significant and long period of Church history where many basic features of Christianity were fixed and would endure for many more centuries. The official listing of the seven sacraments, the establishment of the rule of law, the creation of the Christian calendar, several ecclesiastical reforms, and the fixing of the Bible canon all happened in this period. The Catholic Church became the most conspicuous institution of this period and was very much a part of everyday life.

The historian Bruni was the first to present a three-period view of history: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modernity. The ‘Middle Ages’ were named so because this period happened to be in the middle of the ancient world (dominated by Rome and Greece) and the new world (until Renaissance or early modern Europe) as ‘the in-between age’. The Medieval Period is itself subdivided into the Early, High (Central), and Late Middle Ages. But just like the Middle Ages, these periods don’t have a standard classification, and scholars often arbitrarily assign different starting and ending points. The Early Middle Ages are sometimes referred to as the ‘Dark Ages’. Many historians regard the period as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century through the 10th century. The controversial term ‘Dark’ implies that this age was without much cultural or scientific development. But the truth is that there were indeed great human advances throughout this period. The Middle Ages evoke poignant memories of monasteries, cathedrals, Church councils, heresies, feudalism, manuscripts, missionaries, apologists, religious pilgrimages, and the Arab conquests. 

A series of events set the tone for the story of the Middle Ages. After almost three centuries of persecution, the Edict of Milan (312 AD) by Emperor Constantine I led to the legalisation of Christianity. The Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD) by Emperor Theodosius led to Christianity assuming the status of the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Rome was ransacked in 410 AD by the Visigoth leader Alaric. By 476 AD, the Roman Empire, which began in 27 BC, had fallen completely. Christianity started spreading quickly beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. Soon, many barbarian tribes were converted to Catholicism or Arian Christianity. The sustained progress of Catholic faith in the West began with the conversion of Clovis I, the pagan king of the Franks. We will take a look at some important aspects of the Early Middle Ages.

The Monks

One of the most significant influences in the making of Catholic Europe was monasticism. After the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, persecution slowly came to an end. There was no more bloody martyrdom, no more big challenges. The alliance between the Church and the empire led to laxity of faith, and moral corruption started creeping in. But like in every period, heroic sanctity flourished in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages too. The monks compensated for the lack of martyrs by becoming the new martyrs of faith, dying to themselves and the world, renouncing worldly pleasures, and preserving the purity of the Church. Theirs was ‘white martyrdom’, dying daily for Christ. If the Church of the first three centuries was built on red martyrdom, the Church of the early Middle Ages was mostly built on white martyrdom. The early monks came to be called the Desert Fathers. Two types of monasticism evolved during this time: solitary and communal (cenobitic). While St Anthony of the Desert could be considered the ‘Father of Eremitism’ (the life of hermits) of the solitary type, St Pachomius could be considered the ‘Father of Cenobitism’. The first Christian monasteries were established at the beginning of the 4th century in Egypt. In the East, St Basil the Great (329–379 AD) drew up a Rule of Life for Monks, which still continues to be used in the Eastern Church. St Benedict of Nursia (480–547 AD), compiled ‘The Rule’ for the regulation of monastic life and conduct in the West. He is hailed as the founder of western monasticism and the patron saint of all of Europe. The Benedictine Rule wholesomely blends prayer life, study, and physical labour; it became the foundation for all forms of community life, both Catholic and Protestant. Monastic life shaped the history of Christianity from the 4th century until the Protestant Movement in 1517.

Monks were the pioneer missionaries of the time. They are also credited with preserving western civilisation. Until the 12th century, the monastery was the centre of all scholarship. Monks preserved classical literature by copying, preserved manuscripts, and fostered cultural development through craft and artistic skills. Monasteries had huge scriptoria and libraries and became the seedbed of modern universities. The monk’s daily life included prayer, reading, and manual labour. They saved agriculture in Europe and became the agriculturists of the Middle Ages. Pope Benedict XVI, in his lecture on ‘The Roots of European Culture’, observed that because of the monks, ‘human work was now seen as a special form of human resemblance to God, as a way in which man can and may share in God’s activity as creator of the world.  Monasticism involves not only a culture of the word, but also a culture of work, without which the emergence of Europe, its ethos and its influence on the world would be unthinkable’. Monks were all-rounders, undertaking various endeavours like medicine preparation, cattle breeding, wine and cheese making, and industrial activities like glasswork, metallurgy, salt mining, clock-making, crafting artefacts, and many other enterprises. A historian of medieval science, Lynn White, commented that ‘the monk (of medieval times) was an intellectual ancestor of the scientist’. They created some of the finest art of the period and skilfully illustrated books called ‘illuminated manuscripts’. Coupled with monastic education, the cathedral and episcopal schools that existed from the fourth to the tenth century and the parochial (parish) schools that sprang up in the ninth century enriched the intellectual culture through the educational efforts of the Church, becoming the foundation for the modern education system.

Missionaries

Several events led to Europe becoming predominantly Christian and remaining a strong Christian influence until the twentieth century. Clovis, king of the Franks, was the first major tribal king to convert to Christianity, and he played a significant role in the Christianisation of France. Every tribe that invaded the Western Roman Empire ultimately converted to the Christian faith. This laid the foundation for a Christian Europe. The monks set off for different parts of Europe as pioneer missionaries. In the 6th and 7th centuries, the Irish monks pioneered missionary work across Europe with great success. In the 8th century, Benedictine monks appeared on the scene. Pope Gregory sent Augustine and his companions to evangelise Britain, or England. Thus, the land of the angles embraced Christianity by the end of the seventh century. St Boniface (675–754 AD) went to evangelise the Germanic peoples and came to be called ‘The Apostle of Germany’. As the unifier of Europe, he is considered the Englishman who exerted the greatest influence in the history of the continent. An interesting story describes how St Boniface came across a tribe worshipping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree in Saxony dedicated to ‘Thor’. Boniface is said to have removed his shirt, took up an axe, and hacked down the six foot wide wooden god. Standing on the trunk, he asked, ‘How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he’. Many people were baptised that day, and a chapel was later built with the wood from the tree. Numerous great missionaries toiled tirelessly for the conversion of Europe. St Willibrord and companions worked in the Netherlands; St Ansgar, called the ‘Apostle of the North’, primarily evangelised in Sweden and also in Denmark and Norway. St Cyril and St Methodius, ‘Apostles of the Slavs’, preached extensively in Russia and Hungary. St Patrick worked for the conversion of Ireland. Soon it became the ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’, sending missionaries to different parts of Europe. For example, St Columba and St Columbanus sowed the seeds of God's Word in Scotland. Missions in Spain started in the sixth century and in Poland in the tenth century.

The Rise and Spread of Islam

Islam posed a threat to Christian regions for over seven centuries. Within eighty years of Muhammed’s death, the Islamic forces conquered extensive regions, including the eastern Roman Empire, many parts of Asia, and Europe, including most of Spain. Muslim armies captured the cities of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Baghdad in the seventh century, and Constantinople was threatened a number of times. By this time, the entire coastal strip of North Africa had come under their control. Christians in the West had to tolerate Muslim control in the Middle East for around four centuries. Muslim forces tried to invade France, but the decisive victory of the Christian forces led by Charles Martel in the battle of Tours (or Poitiers) in 732 AD, foiled their plans. Islam expanded very rapidly, chiefly due to military conquests. Consequently, out of five ancient patriarchal sees, three—Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage—came under Muslim occupation, and only the patriarchies of Rome and Constantinople had effective freedom of governance. The Christians had some amount of freedom and autonomy in many areas controlled by the Muslims, and they even sometimes outnumbered the Muslims. But over time, the Muslim numbers increased, and things started to become more difficult for the Christians.

Heresies

The Church always had challenges to face, either from inside or outside. Once the Church became the official religion of Rome, there were no persecutions or threats from outside. But threats in the form of heresies and discord started to arise from within. Big battles were brewing inside. The new atmosphere of freedom and state patronage led to theological errors rising every now and then, some leading to serious challenges to unity. In the East, between the 4th and 5th centuries, heresies like Arianism, Donatism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism troubled the Church. Pelagianism disturbed the West. And from the 6th to the 9th centuries, heresies such as Monophysitism, Monothelitism, Adoptionism, and Iconoclasm would cause serious disturbance. Several apologists of the Middle Ages, like St Cyril of Alexandria, Theodore of Mopsuestia, St Maximus the Confessor, St John Damascene, St Augustine, St Jerome, and papal authors like Leo I and Gregory I, all fiercely fought heresies at various points of this period. In a way, the heresies helped in examining and clarifying important doctrines. For example, the heresy of Arianism led to the Church gaining a deeper understanding of the trinity and teaching, and heresies like Nestorianism, Docetism, and monophysitism led to more clarity about the person of Jesus. St Augustine is the most renowned Christian philosopher of the Middle Ages and one of the most influential Christian theologians. His ‘Confessions’ is one of the most celebrated and innovative works of Latin literature. St Jerome translated all the books of the Bible with painstaking effort from the original languages into Latin, and his translation, called the Vulgate, became the common Bible of the Middle Ages.

Ecumenical councils 

The Church Councils of the Early Middle Ages were mostly in response to heresies. The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) was the first ecumenical (Vatican II was the twenty-first). The Church convened five ecumenical councils between the fifth and eighth centuries: the Second Council of Ephesus (431 AD), the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD), the Second Council of Constantinople (553 AD), the Third Council of Constantinople (680–681 AD), and the Second Council of Nicaea (787 AD). Only the seven Councils up to the Second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.) are the ecumenical councils accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy. The Councils had a profound influence on the clarification and development of Christian doctrine. Nicea I and Constantinople I clarified the doctrine of the Trinity, the next four councils contributed to Christology. One Council was held in the 9th century, the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869–870 AD), which condemned iconoclasm (the destruction of works of art) and crystallised the teaching on religious art developed over the previous six councils.

An agricultural officer in the Kerala Government Department of Agriculture, Rodney Pereira lives in Trivandrum with his wife Leema Pereira and their son Joshua.