Prof. Martha Carlin

                                                                                   Week 4: Tuesday
 

                                                                EARLY WESTERN CHRISTENDOM

After Roman imperial power collapsed in the West in the later 5th century, a patchwork of kingdoms and lordships developed (e.g., the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, Merovingian Gaul, Visigothic Iberia, etc.).

Early medieval Western society was a blend of Roman, Celtic, and Germanic peoples and cultures, with Latin Christianity as its most unifying feature.

Christianity began as an urban-based religion, and it retained an urban focus (cathedrals, the headquarters of bishops and archbishops, were always in cities), even as urban life was fading in the West.

Some important terms:

   Hermit

   Monastery or convent

   Monastic rule (e.g., the Rule of St. Benedict)

   Regular clergy (Latin regula = rule)

   Abbot (or abbess)

    Monk (or nun)

    Saint

    Relic
        Click here to see a Byzantine reliquary (relic-container) of the True Cross, and a later medieval  foot reliquary of
                St. James from Namur, France
    Pilgrim

    Pope (=bishop of Rome)

    Archbishop
        Archdiocese or province or see

    Bishop
        Diocese or see

   Cathedral (=church containing the cathedra or throne of a bishop or archbishop)

    Priest
        Parish

    Secular clergy (not living under a Rule)
 

Some important people and sources:

    Gregory, bishop of Tours (d. 594), History of the Franks

    Pope Gregory I "the Great" (590-604), 4th Doctor of the Latin Church, Pastoral Care, Life of St. Benedict

    Isidore, bishop of Seville (d. 636), Etymologies

    St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 - c. 550), Benedictine Rule

    The Venerable Bede (d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of the English People

    St. Augustine of Canterbury (mission to England, 597-604)

    King Ethelbert (r. 560-616) and Queen Bertha of Kent (died c. 612)

    King Edwin (d. 632) and Queen Ethelburga of Northumbria

    Hilda, Abbess of Whitby (King Edwin's great-niece, 614-680), hosted Synod of Whitby (664)

  Map of Anglo-Saxon England

Click on the following to see some important surviving artifacts:

Three important primary sources:
 

    St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 - c. 550), Benedictine Rule:

        Terms:
               Novice

                Triple vows (obedience, stability, conversion of manners)

              Opus dei (= "work of God") -- worship service before dawn (vigils), plus 7 daytime worship services
                        (Matins, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline)

                Parts of a monastery include:
                    Church (with stalls for all monks or nuns in the choir)
                    Chapter house
                    Refectory
                    Dormitory
                    Cloister
                   Typical arrangement of principal monastic buildings

                Tonsure

                Habit: gown, cowl, scapular
 

    Venantius Fortunatus (d. 609), Life of St. Radegund (d. 587):
            Reverent biography of a royal female saint, written by a close associate.

    The Venerable Bede (d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of the English People:
            Descriptions of Italian missionaries in England in the early 600s.