The Civilization of the Middle Ages

:history:

• How does the church keep this soft power hold on the early monarchs in Europe after the fall of Rome?

• Where does there power come from, what is the leverage they hold?

• How strong a role do those who are literate (which, through monasticism, the church comes to be) play in public opinion?

• p.146:

  • How did the regular clergy, that is, the clergy living under monastic rule, come to assume these indespensable scoial obligations?

  • Social amelioration (enhancement?) between the 6th and 12th centuries

Monasticism

A form of asceticism which limits the physical aspects of human life to assure a saving relationship with a deity conceived of as a purely spiritual being.

• The heavy infusion of Platonist philosophy into Christian thought in the early centuries after Jesus, with its body-soul dualism…engendered the common belief that the soul was most assured of salvation when the spiritual aspects of humanity were cultivated to the exclusion of the physical

• In the mediteranean and Greek church monasticism often went to extreme lengths and wasn’t very communal. There were monasteries, but only for convenience.

• The anchoritic asceticism never attained the same importance in the West where in the 5th and 6th centuries it gave way to cenobitism (communal monasticism). Cantor says partly for climatic and sociel reasons.

• Extreme asceticism seems to only appear in wealthy societies but in this time in the west everyone was living an essentially involuntary form of asceticism (no food).

• Anchoritism became a powerful movement in western religious life only with the emergence of an urbanized society in the 11th and 12th centuries. Until then, western monasticism was distinguished for its attachment to cenobitism.

• In the beginning communal monasticism had a loose social structure (like that of the Greek church). Ireland at this time (5 and 6 century) had thriving monasteries that were particularly well educated and zealous

The Benedictine model

• St Benedict of Nursia (480-550) runs away from his schooling in Rome and finds the ascetic life kind of lonely. He joins a communal monastery but gets sick of the disorder and laxity so establishes (after experimentation and consideration) rules for monks to live by
• He did not seem to have intentions for these rules or replication of their order to become the basis for monasticism in the West

• The purpose of the Benedictine community was to assure salvation for the souls of its members

• The abbot had unchallenged authority and operated under the hierocratic principle that he would be called to account before God for his performance.
• The community of a Benedictine monastery became a kind of elite “religious spaceship” (strict in criteria for entry)
• Cantor says that this form of institution fit perfectly into the picture after the Germanic invasions where localism was becoming more widespread and literate leaders from the likes of the monastery were needed. Self supporting and self-governed Benedictine community

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• This Opus Dei (?) practice became what the monasteries were known for. Lay society was in awe with these ascetic men. They became the intermediaries between medieval society and the diety

• Because of this monarchs and lords started to endow bishops and abbots with large swaths of land

• They became a semi exclusive place as only the finest were chosen to join the monatery.

• They became advisers and chancellors due to the literary ability

Gregory the Great

• A Benedictine (black monk), who became pope in 590
• Large amount of his writings still survive
• Europe was in a bit of a state when he became pope. In Gaul the bishops aligned with the Merovingians (shrinking vision)
• Byzantine threat to the south and the Arian Lombards to the North
• Cantor outlines his 3 main contributions to the progression of ecclesiastical leadership

  • Expresses the papal authority under the hierocratic principle

  • Decides that the papacy must align with the Frankish kings to maintain there rule even just in Italy. They ruled the heartland of Europe

  • Made a push to convert England sending missionaries. Later converts from this mission had impacts in allying with the Frankish kingdom

Follow up

• Evidence for the cenobitism vs asceticism trends Monasticism
• Did the Irish have contact with the Greek church in the 5th and 6th centuries?
• How do we know that lay society were in awe of the ascetic life?
• What kind of advantage did literacy give you in the middle ages?
• How did allying with the church increase the power of a monarch Gregory