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4.

The High Middle Ages: The Church


Study Questions

1. The Cluny Reformers mission was to restore monastic life to its prestige and glory.
They were able to stay pure and uncorrupt because they took orders from nobody except
Rome. In 1059, Pope Nicholas’ proposal to have future popes elected by cardinals was a
tremendous accomplishment because is eliminated outside influence from the clergy
within the Church. A major part of Pope Gregory’s legacy was his reforms. He believed
that the Church should be a separate entity from secular society. His reforms to separate
clergy from the rest of the world included celibacy. From this point on it became Roman
Catholic tradition that priest would not get married. Pope Innocent sought to further
realize and accomplish Gregory’s belief in a Church separate from the secular world. He
achieved this by prohibiting priests from being judges at trials to prevent any chance of
reaping any reward. He also established the sacraments they we know of today.

2. As population increased and Europe was able to sustain a population the possibility for
intellectual development increased as well. Before universities groups of people with
prospects of learning would come together and teach themselves. Whoever, overtime
these groups of people eventually evolved into organized institutions of higher learning.
The intellectual revolution that occurred during the 12th century was directly influenced
by Muslims in the Sicily and Spain. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, Arabs took
all of this knowledge and translated it to Arab where it was thankfully not lost. The only
problem Europeans had with this wealth of information was that they had trouble
understanding and accepting both this newfound knowledge and the Church. This
problem was alleviated by scholastic philosophers. They used reasoning and intelligent
inferences to connect both religion and science.

3. This painting obviously had tremendous religious influence. At numerous points in it


there is a holy man, doing various acts, i.e. hugging Jesus, talking to beasts creatures, and
walking.

4. Although the Crusades to the Holy Land were often ineffective, the battles that
occurred in other parts of Europe had much more avail. Sicily was recaptured by
Normans from the Muslims and in Spain the large Muslim populations from North Africa
were push out of Spain and back to present day Morocco. By looking at the movements
of military expeditions and forces it can be inferred that one of the reasons for the
Crusades was to once and for all expand the Churches power as far as possible and to
push any non Christians away from Central Europe, Christendom.

Identifications:

Holy Roman Empire: The multiethnic Empire's territorial extent varied over its history,
but at its peak it encompassed the Kingdom of Germany, the Kingdom of Italy and
the Kingdom of Burgundy; for much of its history the Empire consisted of hundreds of
smaller sub-units, principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities, as well as other
domains. Despite its name, for most of its history the Empire did not
include Rome within its borders.

Cluniac reformers: were a series of changes within medieval monasticism focused on


restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The
reforms were largely carried out by Saint Odo (c. 878 – 942) and spread throughout
France (Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne, Poitou), into England, and through much
of Italy and Spain. Pope Gregory had contacts within the Cluny.

Gregory VII: One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he
played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman
Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal authority and the new canon law governing
the election of the pope by the college of cardinals. He was at the forefront of both
evolutionary developments in the relationship between the Emperor and the papacy
during the years before becoming pope. His reforms were very successful.

Henry IV: was King of England and Lord of Ireland (1399–1413). He also asserted
hisgrandfather's claim to the title King of France.

Excommunication: kicked out of the church and unable to receive sacraments

Sacraments: a religious symbol or often a rite, which conveys divine grace, blessing,
or sanctity upon the believer

“to go to Canossa”: to humble oneself

Innocent III: As pope, Innocent III began with a very wide sense of his responsibility and
of his authority. The Muslim recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 was to him a divine
judgment on the moral lapses of Christian princes. He was also determined to protect
what he called "the liberty of the Church" from inroads by secular princes. This
determination meant, among other things, that princes should not be involved in the
selection of bishops, and it was focused especially on the "patrimonium" of the papacy,
the section of central Italy claimed by the popes and later called the Papal State

Fourth Lateran Council: Innocent III wanted to reformulate papal involvement in the
Crusades as outlined in his decree “To Free the Holy Land”, but only towards the end of
his pontificate did he realize this project.

Dogma: is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind
of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from.

Transubstantiation: when the priest changes the bread and wine to the body of Christ

Anselm:
Abelard: medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician.

Aristotle: Aristotle's views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval


scholarship, and their influence extended well into the Renaissance. Aristotelianism had a
profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish
traditions in the Middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology,
especially Eastern Orthodox theology, and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.

“Scholastic” philosophers: (see above)

Thomas Aquinas: was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church and an immensely
influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, He was the
foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school
of philosophy and theology. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much
of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his
ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.

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