Medieval Church: Reform, Schisms, and Culture
Reform and Monastic Orders
Reform was necessary because the monasteries fell into abuse of power. Significantly enriched, abbots became feudal lords.
The Abbey of Cluny
His monks began to restore the great principles of the Rule of St. Benedict. Cluny became independent of temporal power and overhauled the customs that had been made in monasteries. Monasteries dependent on Cluny spread across Europe, bringing with them Romanesque art.
The Cistercian Abbey of Cîteaux
The monks of Cluny also fell into some of the mistakes committed by their ancestors. So, almost two centuries later, Robert of Molesme attempted to return to the primitive rigor of Cluny and founded the Cîteaux or Cistercian abbey.
Mendicant Orders
The mendicant orders appeared in the thirteenth century. The development of cities and the spread of certain heresies created a new situation in the Church. Rural priests were unable to serve the masses of urban poor.
The Church drove and transmitted Christian culture in the Middle Ages.
- The Dominicans, founded by Domingo de Guzman.
- The Franciscans, founded by Francis of Assisi.
- The Augustinians, founded by St. Augustine.
- The Carmelites, who took their name from Mount Carmel.
They live poorly in small urban communities. They are dedicated to preaching and intellectual work. They do not have the riches of the great abbeys but draw their livelihoods thanks to charity.
Pilgrimages
A pilgrimage is an individual or group travel, made on religious grounds, to a sacred place. The three most popular sites were Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela.
The Crusades and the Expansion of Islam
The expansion of Islam brought two consequences for the Church of the West:
- They cut trade relations with East Christian kingdoms.
- The pilgrims had serious difficulties visiting holy places.
Between 1095 and 1270, there were eight crusades. Jerusalem was conquered in 1099 amid atrocious massacres, but it would later be conquered by Muslims.
Positive and Negative Aspects of the Crusades
Although militarily a failure, the Crusades strengthened the power of the Pope and opened new trade routes with the Orient. However, they further contributed to widening the gap between the Christians of the East and West.
The Schisms
Western Schism
In the fourteenth century, an Italian pope, Urban VI, was elected. The French cardinals, feuding with him, rejected this election and proclaimed Clement VII as Pope, who lived in Avignon (France). Both popes, in Rome and Avignon, excommunicated each other. Christianity split into what is called the Western Schism. To solve the problem, the Church met at the Council of Pisa, deposed both popes, and elected a third, Alexander V. But the situation worsened by not giving up the previous popes. Years later, at the Council of Constance, a new pope, Martin V, was elected. Of the three popes who had then resigned, two (John XXIII and Pope Gregory XII), but Benedict XIII, fled from Avignon and took refuge in the castle of Peñíscola, where he died.
The Great Schism (East-West Schism)
The separation of the Latin and Greek churches grew larger and larger. There were political, cultural, and religious reasons. This brought the rift between the two Churches, which materialized in 1054 when the patriarch Michael Cerularius ordered the closure of Latin monasteries that were in the East. Pope Leo XII and the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other. Thus was born the Orthodox Church. Years later, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem. They merged into a hug and lifted the excommunication.
Gothic Art and Cathedrals
Gothic art developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is characterized by verticality and the reflection of divinity through light. Its most typical expression is the cathedral, but it also rose in remote monasteries seeking silence and poverty preached by the Cistercians.
Features of Gothic Cathedrals
They are characterized by their slenderness, emptying the thick stone walls and replacing them with glass made of light, and the vertical key elements of Gothic art. Notable examples in Spain include: Leon, Burgos, Toledo, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, etc.
Medieval Universities and Culture
The Church encouraged and transmitted Christian culture in the Middle Ages. Alongside the monasteries and cathedrals arose monastic and cathedral schools. Around 1200, the first universities arose: Palencia, Salamanca in Spain, Bologna, Paris, and Oxford in the rest of Europe. They studied Latin, theology, philosophy, law, and medicine.
Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant is a hymn whose lyrics come from the Psalms and other biblical texts. Latin was commonly used, and its name comes from Pope Gregory I.