During the 6th century, Roman EmperorJustinian I launched a military campaign inConstantinople to reclaim the western provinces from the Germans, starting withNorth Africa and proceeding to Italy. Though he was temporarily successful in recapturing much of the western Mediterranean he destroyed the urban centers and permanently ruined the economies in much of the West. Rome and other cities were abandoned. In the coming centuries theWestern Church, as virtually the only surviving Roman institution in the West, became the only remaining link to Greek culture and civilization.
In the East, Roman imperial rule continued through the period historians now call theByzantine Empire. Even in the West, where imperial political control gradually declined, distinctly Roman culture continued long afterwards; thus historians today prefer to speak of a "transformation of the Roman world" rather than afall of Rome. The advent of the Early Middle Ages was a gradual and often localised process whereby, in the West, rural areas became power centres whilst urban areas declined. Although the greater number of Christians remained in the East, the developments in the West would set the stage for major developments in theChristian world during the later Middle Ages.
Prior to the Second Council of Constantinople was a prolonged controversy over the treatment of three subjects, all considered sympathetic toNestorianism, theheresy that there are two separate persons in the Incarnation of Christ.[1] Emperor Justinian condemned the Three Chapters, hoping to appeal tomonophysite Christians with his anti-Nestorian zeal.[2] Monophysites believe that in the Incarnate Christ there is one nature, not two.[3] Eastern patriarchs supported the emperor, but in the West his interference was resented, andPope Vigilius resisted his edict on the grounds that it opposed the Chalcedonian decrees.[2] Justinian's policy was in fact an attack on Antiochene theology and the decisions of Chalcedon.[2] The pope assented and condemned the Three Chapters, but protests in the West caused him to retract his condemnation.[2] The emperor called the Second Council of Constantinople to resolve the controversy.[2]
The council met in Constantinople in 553, and it has since become recognized as the fifth of thefirst seven Ecumenical Councils. The council condemned certainNestorian writings and authors. This move was instigated by Emperor Justinian in an effort to conciliate themonophysite Christians, it was opposed in the West, and the popes' acceptance of the council caused a major schism.[4]
The council interpreted the decrees ofChalcedon and further explained the relationship of the two natures of Jesus; it also condemned the teachings ofOrigen on thepre-existence of the soul, andApocatastasis.The council, attended mostly by Eastern bishops, condemned theThree Chapters and, indirectly, thePope Vigilius.[2] It also affirmed the East's intention to remain in communion with Rome.[2]
Vigilius declared his submission to the council, as did his successor,Pelagius I.[2] The council was not immediately recognized as ecumenical in the West, and the churches ofMilan andAquileia even broke off communion with Rome over this issue.[4] The schism was not repaired until the late 6th century for Milan and the late 7th century for Aquileia.[4]
In the 530s the second Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was built in Constantinople under Justinian. The first church was destroyed during theNika riots. The second Hagia Sophia became the center of the ecclesiastical community for the rulers of the Roman Empire or, as it is now called, theByzantine Empire.
When theWestern Roman Empire fragmented under the impact of various 'barbarian' invasions, the Empire-wide intellectual culture that had underpinned late Patristic theology had its interconnections cut. Theology tended to become more localised, more diverse, more fragmented. The classic Christianity preserved in Italy by men likeBoethius andCassiodorus was different from the vigorousFrankish Christianity documented byGregory of Tours, which was different from the Christianity that flourished inIreland andNorthumbria. Throughout this period, theology tended to be a moremonastic affair, flourishing in monastic havens where the conditions and resources for theological learning could be maintained.
Important writers include:
Saint Gregory I the Great waspope from September 3, 590 until his death. He is also known as Gregorius Dialogus (Gregory the Dialogist) inEastern Orthodoxy because of theDialogues he wrote. He was the first of the popes from a monastic background. Gregory is aDoctor of the Church and one of the four greatLatin Fathers of the Church. Of all popes, Gregory I had the most influence on theearly medieval church.[5]
Benedict of Nursia is the most influential of Western monks. He was educated in Rome but soon sought the life of a hermit in a cave atSubiaco, outside the city. He then attracted followers with whom he founded the monastery ofMonte Cassino around 520, between Rome andNaples. In 530, he wrote hisRule of St Benedict as a practical guide for monastic community life. Its message spread to monasteries throughout Europe.[6] Monasteries became major conduits of civilization, preserving craft and artistic skills while maintaining intellectual culture within their schools,scriptoria and libraries. They functioned as agricultural, economic and production centers as well as a focus for spiritual life.[7]
During this period the Visigoths and Lombards moved away from Arianism forNicene Christianity.[8] Pope Gregory I played a notable role in these conversions and dramatically reformed the ecclesiastical structures and administration which then launched renewed missionary efforts.[9]
Little is known about the origins of the first important monastic rule (Regula) in Western Europe, the anonymousRule of the Master (Regula magistri), which was written somewhere south of Rome around 500. The rule adds legalistic elements not found in earlier rules, defining the activities of the monastery, its officers, and their responsibilities in great detail.
Irish monasticism maintained the model of a monastic community while, likeJohn Cassian, marking the contemplative life of the hermit as the highest form of monasticism. Saints' lives frequently tell of monks (and abbots) departing some distance from the monastery to live in isolation from the community.
Irish monastic rules specify a stern life of prayer and discipline in which prayer, poverty, and obedience are the central themes. Yet Irish monks did not fearpagan learning. Irish monks needed to learnLatin, which was the language of the Church. Thus they read Latin texts, both spiritual and secular. By the end of the 7th century, Irishmonastic schools were attracting students fromEngland and from Europe. Irish monasticism spread widely, first toScotland andNorthern England, then to Gaul and Italy.Columba and his followers established monasteries atBangor, on the northeastern coast of Ireland, atIona, an island north-west of Scotland, and atLindisfarne, which was founded by Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona, at the request of KingOswald of Northumbria.
Columbanus, an abbot from a Leinster noble family, traveled to Gaul in the late 6th century with twelve companions. Columbanus and his followers spread the Irish model of monastic institutions established by noble families to the continent. A whole series of new rural monastic foundations on great rural estates under Irish influence sprang up, starting with Columbanus's foundations of Fontaines andLuxeuil, sponsored by the Frankish KingChildebert II. After Childebert's death Columbanus traveled east to Metz, where Theudebert II allowed him to establish a new monastery among the semi-paganAlemanni in what is nowSwitzerland. One of Columbanus' followers founded the monastery of St. Gall on the shores ofLake Constance, while Columbanus continued onward across theAlps to the kingdom of theLombards in Italy. There KingAgilulf and his wifeTheodolinda granted Columbanus land in the mountains betweenGenoa and Milan, where he established the monastery ofBobbio.
As the political boundaries of the Western Roman Empire diminished and then collapsed, Christianity spread beyond the old borders of the empire and into lands that had never been Romanised. TheLombards adopted Nicene Christianity as they entered Italy.
Although Ireland had never been part of the Roman Empire, Christianity had come there and developed, largely independently fromCeltic Christianity. Christianity spread fromRoman Britain to Ireland, especially aided by the missionary activity ofSaint Patrick. Patrick had been captured into slavery in Ireland, and following his escape and later consecration as bishop, he returned to the isle to bring them theGospel.
The Irish monks had developed a concept ofperegrinatio.[10] This essentially meant that a monk would leave the monastery and his Christian country to proselytize among the heathens, as self-chosen punishment for his sins. Soon, Irish missionaries such asColumba andColumbanus spread this Christianity, with its distinctively Irish features, to Scotland and the continent. From 590 onwards Irish missionaries were active in Gaul, Scotland, Wales and England.
Although southernBritain had been a Roman province, in 407 the imperial legions left the isle, and the Roman elite followed. Some time later that century, various tribes went from raiding and pillaging the island to settling and invading. These included theGermanic migrants grouped asAnglo-Saxons. They werepagan, having never been part of the empire, and although they experienced Christian influence from the surrounding peoples, they began adopting Christianity at an institutional level after the mission ofSt. Augustine sent toKent by Pope Gregory I in 597.
In the early 500s, the center of Visigothic rule shifted from Barcelona (on the coast in the northeast of Spain) inland to Toledo. The Germanic king of the Visigoths from 549 was Agila, whose rule was limited to his fellow Visigoths while many others he considered to be his subjects continued to see themselves as belonging to Imperial Rome, represented by Constantinople. In 551 a usurper, Athanagild, invited help from Constantinople's Emperor Justinian I, and in 554 Athanagild was crowned king. He recognized Justinian's rule in the far south of Spain, a rule that was short lived.
Athanagild died peacefully in 567 followed by the usual successor conflict. His brother, Liuvigild, won the contest, and he copied some of the pomp and ceremony of Byzantine rule. Liuvigild conquered the Suevi kingdom, and in the south he took the city of Merida, in Lusitania, away from the Catholic bishop and demanded that his trinity-believing subjects convert to the branch of Christianity to which the Visigoths were adhering: Arianism.[11]
The largely Christian Gallo-Roman inhabitants ofGaul (modern France) were overrun by GermanicFranks in the early 5th century. The native inhabitants were persecuted until the Frankish KingClovis I converted from paganism to Nicene Christianity in 496. Clovis insisted that his fellow nobles follow suit, strengthening his newly established kingdom by uniting the faith of the rulers with that of the ruled.
TheGermanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of theEarly Middle Ages, resulting in a unique form of Christianity known asGermanic Christianity. TheEast andWest Germanic tribes were the first to convert through various means. However, it was not until the 12th century that theNorth Germanic peoples had Christianized.
In the polytheistic Germanic tradition it was even possible to worship Jesus next to the native gods likeWodan andThor. Before a battle, a pagan military leader might pray to Jesus for victory, instead of Odin, if he expected more help from the Christian God. Clovis had done that before a battle against one of the kings of theAlamanni, and had thus attributed his victory to Jesus. Suchutilitarian thoughts were the basis of most conversions of rulers during this period.[12] The Christianization of the Franks lay the foundation for the further Christianization of the Germanic peoples.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, navigator and geographer of the 6th century, wrote about Christians, bishops, monks, and martyrs inYemen and among theHimyarites.[1] In the 5th century a merchant from Yemen was converted inHira, in the northeast, and upon his return led many to Christ.
It is unclear when Christianity reachedTibet, but it seems likely that it had arrived there by the 6th century. The ancient territory of theTibetans stretched farther west and north than the present-day Tibet, and they had many links with theTurkic andMongolian tribes ofCentral Asia. It seems likely that Christianity entered the Tibetan world around 549, the time of a remarkable conversion of theWhite Huns. A strong church existed in Tibet by the 8th century.
Carved into a large boulder atTankse,Ladakh, once part of Tibet but now inIndia, are three crosses and some inscriptions. These inscriptions are of 19th century. The rock dominates the entrance to the town, on one of the main ancient trade routes betweenLhasa andBactria. The crosses are clearly of theChurch of the East, and one of the words, written inSogdian, appears to be "Jesus". Another inscription in Sogdian reads, "In the year 210 came Nosfarn fromSamarkhand as emissary to the Khan ofTibet". It is possible that the inscriptions were not related to the crosses, but even on their own the crosses bear testimony to the power and influence of Christianity in that area.
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