Era 4: The Church in the High Middle Ages

Time Line 1200s ADFranciscans & Dominicans Cathedrals & Universities Scholasticism & Mysticism

Word List for Period 4 MendicantMysticism FriarsApophatic (via negativa) St. Francis of AssisiCatophatic (via positiva) St. Claire“Imitation of Christ” (by Thomas St. Dominica Kempis St. Dominic Stigmata Romanesque Cathedrals Gothic Cathedrals Flying Buttresses Universities Scholasticism Abelard & Heloise St. Anselm Ontological Argument St. Thomas Aquinas

I. New “Mendicants” Religious Communities “Mendicant” means “begging.” In the High Middle Ages, cities began to grow again. New “mendicant religious communities lived and ministered in cities, not monasteries, where they sustained their ministry by begging for alms. Members of these new religious orders were called friars, not monks. St. Francis (from Assisi in central Italy) started the Franciscans in the 1200s. His friend, St. Clare, started the Poor Clare’s, a community of nuns. In Spain, St. Dominic started the Dominicans, also in the 1200s. They became known as the “Order of Preachers (O.P.) Other Mendicant Religious Orders included the Augustinians.

Famous Franciscans In the Middle Ages, in the 1200s, the greatest Franciscan theologian was St. Bonaventure. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, a Franciscan missionary, Fr. Junipero Serra, founded the 21 California missions. Fr. Mychal Judge, who died in 9/11, was a Franciscan. He was chaplain to the New York City Fire Department.

Dominicans St. Dominic is often credited with inventing the rosary as a way to teach Christians about the faith. The rosary probably predates Dominic, but he used it extensively. In the 1200s, the Pope put the Dominicans in charge of the Inquisition. The most famous Dominican theologian in the 1200s was St. Thomas Aquinas.

II. New Style of Churches 1.The earliest Christians worshipped in homes. This was the age of “house churches.” 2.After Constantine legalized Christianity, church buildings were constructed because of patronage from the emperor and to accommodate the swelling number of Christians. These first churches copied the architecture of Roman public buildings, called basilicas. 3.Most churches were of “Romanesque” style – thick stone walls to support heavy, fire-resistant stone roofs, and small windows. 4.In the Middle Ages, the Church discovered a new style of architecture – Gothic. The use of support arches (called flying buttresses) on the outside of the building made it possible to design taller, thinner walls with gigantic stain-glass windows.

House Church of St. Clement in Rome

Roman Basilica

Romanesque Churches

Gothic Churches

Chartres Cathedral in France

A Labyrinth

III. Scholasticism, Cathedral Schools & Universities 1.The church has always valued education. St. Paul was a prolific writer/ Early church apologists and theologians like Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Origen, Jerome and Augustine wrote extensively, sometimes using pagan Greek and Roman philosophers. 2.Celtic and Benedictine monks “saved” Western Civilization by copying books from ancient Greece and Rome. Charlemagne, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, promoted schools and new learning during the so-called “Carolingian Renaissance.” 3.In the High Middle Ages, new schools often were built side-by-side with the new Gothic cathedrals. Eventually, these schools became universities and seminaries. 4.From about 1100 to 1300, scholasticism (learning) flourished in Christian Europe. The Benedictines produced St. Anselm. The Franciscans produced St. Bonaventure. The Dominicans produced the greatest Medieval theologian ever, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Great Universities: Oxford, Cambridge, Paris …

St. Anselm and the Ontological Argument – Ontological Proof for God’s Existence God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived God exists in the mind. If God exists in mind, God also must exist in reality, because a Being that exists only in mind is not as great as a Being that exists in both the mind and in reality.

Abelard and Heloise Abelard, a theologian and professor in the 1200s, falls in love with one of his students, Heloise. When she gets pregnant, her uncle exiles her to a nunnery and orders that Abelard be castrated. The two are buried together. Lovers today still visit their graves.

St. Thomas Aquinas -A “Dumb Ox” who roars. -Wrote “Summa Theologica” Proofs of God: (1) Unmoved mover; (2) Designer; (3) Moral Law-Giver -Near end of his life, Aquinas had a mystical spiritual experience in which he declared that all his writings were as mere straw.

IV. Spirituality & Mysticism The 1200s saw an intellectual revival (scholasticism, universities), but also a revival of the heart – spirituality, mysticism, contemplation. This interest in spirituality and mysticism would continue into the Renaissance, the period of the Reformation, and down to the present. – Apophatic Mysticism - Via Negativa (Negative Way): Shutting out distractions, not using senses – Catophatic Mysticism - Via Positiva (Positive Way): Using senses; sacramental; images, imagination

Franciscans & Via Positiva

St. John of the Cross & Via Negativa, 1500s

Other Famous Mystics & Writers Meister Eckhart, 1200s The Brethren of the Common Life (and Thomas á Kempis’ “The Imitation of Christ”), 1300s and 1400s

Women Mystics Hildegard of Bingen, 1100s Julian of Norwich, 1300s & 1400s St. Catherine of Siena, 1300s St. Theresa of Avila, 1500s