After Rome

1. After Rome A Computer Workbook

2. The Nature of the Class • In this computer assisted class, you will have two different types of learning experience: • 1. You will get information from the slides. • 2. You will have some experience using the Internet to find material: the Treasure Hunts.

3. The Treasure Hunt • Each topic will have a list of items that you may wish to explore further. • You should use a good search engine, such as Google, to search for those items. • You will have completed the lesson when you have completed the outlines and the highlighted searches.

4. How Much Time Should This Class Take. • You should be able to read the slides very quickly. You might want to review them several times to have the outline in mind. • Most students will not find all the items in the Treasure Hunts. You should spend no more than three hours in your searches. • Some students, who are just beginning to develop their technical skills, will not get very far in the three hours allotted. Real technophiles will finish or almost finish the whole. • The idea is to work on some important research skills. This is not a graded assignment.

5. Did Rome Fall? • Many people have envisioned the fall of Rome as a sudden event. • The Barbarians are said to have invaded. • The picture is of one army and state replacing another.

6. Another View • The Barbarians had been coming slowly into the western empire for more than a century • Most of the victorious “Barbarian” generals held high rank in the Roman Army • Throughout the Southwestern Part of the Empire, the basic outlines of Roman Civilization, the Catholic Church, the Villa, and the Town remained.

7. The Catholic Bishop • In many of the towns in Southern Europe, the Catholic Bishop became the socially and politically dominant leader. • The Bishop took over the older Roman administration, often having task that ranged from the inspection of brothels to the maintenance of the water supply. • It was “Rome Without Emperors.”

8. Great Figures of the Transition • Pope Gregory the Great • Very wealthy and very educated young Roman • Became a monk, then, Pope • Put the Church’s property in order • Wrote the Pastoral Rule outlining his vision of the pastor-bishop as the one with the “Cure of Souls” • Developed doctrine of Purgatory.

9. Cassiodorus • Roman who worked for the Ostrogothic Kings • Established a monastery on his very rich estates • Built the great Latin library at Vivarium c 580 • Established his monastery as one of the great schools of Europe, continuing and maintaining the traditions of good Latin and protecting the transmission of the Scriptures.

10. Rome in the East • The Eastern Roman Empire exists until 1453 when the Turks conquer Constantinople • The Great Emperor Justinian is able to reestablish Roman Rule in Italy for a season • The Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople • The Codification of Roman Law • Ravenna

11. Locate a map of Europe showing the various western areas that passed out of Roman Rule What was the “Sack of Rome” Find Justinian Take a Virtual Tour of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia Take a Virtual Tour of Ravenna, Justinian’s city in Italy. First Treasure Chest

12. The Churches of the East The aftermath of the Christological controversies was a deeply divided church in the East Many of the common terms for these churches are drawn, perhaps, unfortunately by western historians from the “heresies” supposedly taught by their leaders. “Nestorian,” “monophysite, etc.

13. Christianity in the Persian Empire • The Persian Empire was the constant opponent of Rome from the Fourth to the Seventh Centuries, BCE. • Officially Zoroastrian in faith • Christianity was very widespread in this Empire as a minority religion, especially, in the most western areas.

14. Persian Christianity • Deeply influenced by Theodore of Mopsuestia • Very committed to a strict Biblical hermeneutic • Most characteristic practice was reading the Bible aloud: qeryana • Although Nestorius was received by this church after his exile, it was not a Nestorian church. • The Great University of Nisibis • Spread from Antioch of Syria

15. As Far as China • Syrian Christianity was known in China as early as 635 when Christians presented an apology for monotheism at Hsian-fu. • A Monastery was established there to house works of Syrian Christianity.

16. Second Treasure Hunt • Locate a description of Zoroastrian religion. • Why could the Christians survive as an active minority where the Magi were the dominant religious tradition? • Find a map of the Persian Empire and try to envision this central Asian empire as the great bridge between East and West

17. Never Win A War • The Romans defeated the Persians finally and absolutely under Heraclius in 627. • Both sides were totally exhausted by the rigors of this warfare. • The Eastern Roman Empire was now open to fresh invasions from the East. • This is the background for the Great Islamic Conquests.

18. Islam • Begin among the Arabs, a people caught between the Persians and the Romans • Deep debates among the Arabs between the advocates of Christianity and the advocates of Judaism. • The Prophet Mohammed receives his poetry that stressed monotheism and obedience to God. • The Qu’ran is a collection of his verses written down many years after his death. Mohammed himself could not read or write.

19. Arab Conquest • Very quickly Islam, a religion of warriors, became the successor of the Persian Empire and conquered Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa. • Constantinople would face continuous War until the Turks triumphed in 1453, partially as a result of the plague. • Remember that until the 16th century, the “First World” was the East. The West was comparatively disadvantaged.

20. Churches in Arab Lands • Islam has a long and complicated history. These points only deal with Arabic Islam before 900 CE. • The Arabs were, like the Persians, generally tolerant. The Churches of the East continued to flourish • Early “Islamification” was primarily through discriminatory taxation and through the partial enslavement of Christian and other populations.

21. Third Treasure Hunt • Find a site that deals with the life of Mohammed. • Locate an Internet picture of the Qu’ran in Arabic Script. • Find someone reading the Qu’ran on the Net. (You may need “Real Player.”). • Find a list of the pillars (basic practices of Islam).

22. “Celtic” Britain and Ireland • Danger: Myth Makers At Work. • “Irish” and “Celtic” Christianity are often almost codes for present day religious concerns. • Be critical of all accounts of early Irish Christianity, including this one.

23. Rome Leaves Britain • Britain was among the first Western Areas to lose its Roman legions • Much of Roman civilization, especially, language, law, and religion remained. • These Roman “remains” would be important for the evolution of Christianity in the area.

24. Ireland • A Land Never touched by Roman Rule • The Irish would eventually replace the native peoples of Scotland and give Scotland its name and its historical language. Scotti was old Irish for sea rovers. • Tribal Society, very poor.

25. Patrick • We have some of his writings. • He came from “Roman” Britain and knew Latin and some Celtic dialects. • May have been a contemporary of “King Arthur.” • Returned to Ireland after escaping slavery as a pig herder on the island.

26. A Christianity of Monks • The Christianity that Patrick and his successors established was based on rural monasteries. • This was an adaptation of an urban religion to a rural and tribal environment. • These monasteries were more like those of the East, especially, Greece and Egypt, than the gentle monasteries of St. Benedict. • Extreme asceticism. • Different Dates for Easter and a different tonsure.

27. The Irish and Latin • The Irish monasteries treasured whatever Latin literature they could acquire. • Irish Latin, unlike the contemporary Latin of such people as St. Gregory or St. Benedict, was always a “learned” language. • Often, or so it is said, the Irish found and used obscure Latin words that they had learned from their literary researches. • Begins of the “new” Latin of Christian Europe.

28. Irish Missionaries • Irish Monks carried on many of the traditions of the Desert Fathers. • The ideal of isolation and voluntary exile. • Many Irish monks traveled through Europe, establishing monasteries. Later Anglo-Saxon monks would also follow this same practice. • Semi-missionaries. Often there were strong pockets of faith there before they came. Monasteries often served as “organizational centers for rural type of faith.”

29. Saxons and Other Invaders • England and its language were deeply influenced by the invasion of the Saxons who settled in the eastern regions of the island. • Gregory originally send Augustine to England, not to establish Christianity, but to convert the Angles, a Saxon tribe.

30. Augustine of Canterbury • The mission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury. • Commissioned by the Pope to go to “England” which had recently pasted from Celtic to Anglo-Saxon control. • Established the Sees of Canterbury and York. • Sought to spread many Roman customs.

31. Did Roman and Celtic Christianity Conflict? • Historians often talked of a struggle between the two forms of Christianity that was settled at the Council of Whitby (664) when England “joined” Europe. The Great Archbishop Wilfrid is said to have orchestrated the merger. • Actually change came very slowly with some Ionic (after Iona, a famous center of Celtic monasticism) monasteries lasting well into the next millennium.

32. Why Roman Christianity Triumphed? • Irish Christianity was never as isolated as legend had it. Always in close contact with Europe and Latin learning. • The wealth and majesty of episcopal Christianity served to establish Roman practices in a rapidly reurbanizing Britain. Remember Irish monasticism was a rural form of faith. • The importance of Latin Culture to both Saxon and Irish Church Leaders

33. The Great Boniface • Wynfrith renamed Boniface at Rome. d. 754 • Saxon Christian who went as a missionary to Germany and Holland • More an organizer than a creator • Great problem was a mixed Christianity that often included and featured pagan elements. • He cut down the Great Oak of Hesse to prove the superiority of Roman Christianity. • Established Fulda, the Great German Monastery

34. Bede • Great English Church Historian • Works are still studied. May be one reason why so much attention is paid to English and Irish Christianity at this period. • For him, Anglo-Saxon Britain is the New Israel under a new Davidic monarchy.

35. Confession and Spiritual Counsel • The Great Gift of Irish Christianity to the Church: private confession. • Came from the monastic practice of the “Soul Friend” or the “Spiritual Director.” • The root idea was from medicine. To find “cures” for sin. In monasteries, these were usually such practices as additional fasting, prayer, or sleeplessness.

36. Confession Part II • Spread from monasteries to concerned lay people, especially, women. • The Irish monks codified the various penances in books called Penitentials. • Great effort made to make the punishment fit the crime. • Often dealt explicitly with sexual sins, including different positions for intercourse. • Retained the monastic distrust of sexuality and sexual behavior.

37. Find a Medieval map of Ireland. Locate a site dealing with Patrick. Find Patrick’s writings on line. Find a site devoted to Irish monasticism Note the importance of the coming of the Saxons to England Find Iona on a map and trace the spread of Christianity from this Irish monastery. Find sites related to Boniface. Fourth Treasure Hunt

38. A Final Debate • The Debate over Holy Pictures or Icons • Eastern Emperors, pressed by the Muslims, wanted to strip Christianity of representative religious pictures. • People often prayed before the icons and saw them as talismen to protect them from evils. • The decade lasted several centuries in the East with the defenders of Icons finally winning

39. John of Damascus • Greatest Theologian of the Early Middle Ages. • Widely read in both East and West • Gave the most noted defense of holy pictures: • They were needed to educate the poor. • They should only reserve respect and not true worship. • As symbols or likenesses they contained and meditated the thing or person depicted.

40. Last Treasure Hunt • Find sites related to Icons. • Locate John of Damascus writings. • Find a description of the use of icons in Eastern Catholic worship.

41. That’s All Folks • Please send me an email telling me how you did with this class. • This is an experiment in which I tried to blend the use of an outline with some drill in how to do net-based research. Did you: • Develop more of a sense of how to use the net • Do you have significant questions about material that you were unable to answer from the net? • Please email me any questions that you have about this material.