Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Western Church reading
Post your comments and thoughts here (only about the Church -- do not post about Russia). Also, try to go beyond just asking a question -- try to answer it yourself. See what links you can find to share with the class. If you can't find an answer, still ask the question -- just explain that you could not find the answer.
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In the reading it mentioned that people were unhappy with the ban on first-cousin marriage which got me interested in marriage in the Middle Ages and what family structure was like. This website talks about daily peasant life and what a typical family would be like, http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/pdailylife.html.
On page 269 of the reading it mentions that Benedict started a few churches at the beginning of his career after living in a cave as a hermit. I became interested in what the names of these churches/monasteries are. I found a Wikipedia article on him explainging that his first monastery was built at Mount Cassino in southern Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_of_Nursia
I was a little confused about the Concordat of Worms and what exactly were the priveleges given up/given to Henry and Calixtus. I found this site: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/worms1.html which provides the full text of both parts of the Concordat (Henry's and Calixtus's).
I was interested in learning more about the investiture controversy. The Hutchinson encyclopedia was a good site which gave me some information about it.
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Investiture+Controversy
This was a conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire and was an argument over who would pick the church officials (investitures). One of the affects of this controversy was a civil war which lasted nearly 50 years in Germany and also the victories of dukes and abbots (head of a monastery).
ABRAHAM
It states that on pg. 267, the pope held the highest amount of power in the Holy Roman Empire. It says that only he can choose the emperors, and that all princes must kiss his feet. This caused struggles and conflicts between popes and kings and vassals.
Did this lead to the Magna Carta?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_and_state_in_medieval_Europe#Magna_Carta
This link talks about a conflict between King John and the Pope over the election of the archbishop. The King issued the Magna Carta, but it was rejected by the pope, because it was forced upon the king in fear.
I was interested in life in the monastaries. I learned that:
- In between prayers, monks were allowed to work on their projects of writing, copying, or decorating books.
- The main meal of the day was at noon and consisted of the most simple and bland foods. Anything tastier, which appeared on occasion, was criticised. While they ate, scripture would be read from a pulpit above them.
-There was a "Warming House", which was the only room in the monastary with a lit fire.
To summarize, monastery life is very simplistic and restricted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monasteries
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/worms1.html
this is a link which talks about the concordat of worms, looking at it from Calixtus's and Henry's side, showing what was gained and lossed.
It has been proposed[1] that the international relations of territorial states, which was confirmed in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) had its origins in the Concordat of Worms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordat_of_Worms
When I was reading, I read about how their were uneducated higher ups or clergy in the system. I just wanted to figure out what the education system during this time was like and what the average person's education was like.
Here is a link about middle ages education...
http://library.thinkquest.org/6105/Education.html
I was wondering where the Center/the General Area of the Holy Roman Empire Located?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Holyromanempire.png
More on the Investiture Controversy
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08084c.htm
Worms is located in southwestern Germany (and i didn't actually know it was a place) - Map and background
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms,_Germany
In the reading, it mentioned "abbots" several times. I didn't know what this was and I found that abbot is the title given to the head of a monastery or to an honorable clergyman. It also mentioned that Gregory had to flee to Salerno. I found that Salerno is in south western Italy. Here is a link to a map.
http://www.pickatrail.com/jupiter/location/europe/italy/map/salerno.gif
in the reading it mentioned Henry II. last year in my history class my teacher talked a lot about this time period but only briefly spoke about Henry II. So reading about it in this document, i became really interested. so i googled Henry II.
From this link:
http://hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2henry2.htm
i learned more about Henry II childhood and youth. I also learned about how he came to power and his life before, during, and after ruling England.
i thought that the Benedictine was very interesting. I looked it up and found out the name was a way of referring to their members as the Benedictines. I also thought it was interesting on how they just accepted the authority and didnt question it as much as i thought might happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedictine
this is just a brief overview of Benedictine and it really informs you on it and the background and such.
I chose to look up the 158th Pope, Gregory the VII also know as Hildebrand. In the reading it mentions that he took a very strong stance on the decrees he made and they greatly impacted other parts of the kingdom, other popes such as Clement II, Leo IX, Nicholas II, and Alexander II also made decrees in attempt to purify the church. Gregory VII also brought back the clergy.
Good Source :http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06791c.htm
The reading talked a little bit about monasticism, but I wanted to learn more. This webpage from the Metropolitan Museum of Art had some really good information on monks and some cool facts.
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/mona/hd_mona.htm
One thing that interested me was that women had a lot of opportunities in monasteries that they wouldn't normally have had like being able to learn to read, write and do other things like medicine.
I was interested in what the rules of St Benedict actually were.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict
Wikipedia, along with providing more background information on the Rules, gives a Chapter-by-chapter interpretation of them. The first chapters in the Rules seem to define the basic rules while the later rule define more specific occurrences. There are 73 chapters in total.
It souns like parts of the church were highly corrupt. They were getting married, and they were favoring their relatives, both things that they were not supposed to do. If they still did these things, were they vulnerable to other forms of corruption, such as bribery?
When I was reading about the Investiture Controversy between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, I was wondering about other possible conflicts between the Pope and kings.
My question was: Were there other instances of conflict in the middle ages of church and state conflicts? And was this the start of separation of church and state?
Abraham used this link before but I found it useful.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_and_state_in_medieval_Europe
It said that Pope Boniface VIII made quite a bold statement saying that all should be ruled by the Pope. Phillip the Fair, king of France, was excommunicated by Boniface, but Phillip captured Boniface a month before the pope died. This was probably the peek of the church and state conflict, or at least in the middle ages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state
Here, I found examples of separation of church and state in Israel and Rome (before Edict of Milan) with Kings considering themselves to be the most holy, although Christians refuted this.
As John mentioned there seems to be a lot of corruption (something that Muhammad was trying to fight against). This got me wondering about not only corrupt Popes in general (popes that sinned during their run) and further: the most CORRUPT Pope. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI
Pope Alexander VI fathered atleast 10 illegitimate children.
I found it interesting on how it said that the pope had the most power in the Holy Roman Empire. But if the pope is in the Vatican (in Italy near Rome), while the Holy Roman Empire doesn't control Rome itself, how does the pope have so much power?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Emperor
Wikipedia explains that "The Emperor was crowned in a special ceremony, traditionally performed by the Pope in Rome, using the Imperial Regalia. Without that coronation, no king, despite exercising all powers, could call himself Emperor"
I couldn't really find much else on this topic.
The reading mentioned Thomas a Becket and how he got appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry. Then I got confused why King Henry was mad at him, so I looked it up. I found this
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/NORbeckett.htm
it has a detailed explanation of Becket's life.
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