HI115: MEDIEVAL EUROPE, 410-1500

WEEK 1: The Fall of Rome and Late Antiquity

1.1. Introduction: the Limits of "Medieval Europe"

Travelers

A. Modern Travel to and from (Medieval) Europe: a benefit of studying Medieval History

1. Dr Stephenson, from Europe to USA
2. You, who will be armed with knowledge better to appreciate sites and sights across Europe

1. Geographical range of the course
2. Medieval Travelers: merchants, missionaries, pilgrims & crusaders

1. Journey of Intellect: philosophical or metaphysical journeys to enlightenment
2. Man as peregrinus in world, a mere traveler en route to the city of God

1. Christianity and Judaism
2. Christianity and Paganism
3. Christianity and Islam
4. Christianity and Barbarism

Define the terms: "Medieval" and "Europe"

The Middle Ages, the familiar English translation of the Latin Medium Aevum, which gives us also Medieval

Why 410?

... the Latin Christianity of the early Middle Ages goes back directly, not to the conversion of Constantine, but to the troubled, but immensely creative generation - a generation of barbarian invasion, civil war and weakened imperial authority - that coincided with the mature years of St. Augustine, who was baptized at Milan in 387, became bishop of Hippo Regius on the coast of North Africa (modern Annaba/Bone, Algeria) in 395 and who died in AD 430, at the age of 76, having come to witness a world very different to that in which he had grown up. (P. Brown, 1996, pp. 37-8)

Pagans and Christians

The Latin term religio means the apposite worship of each god, vibrant beings of higher and lower orders, and it is better to speak not of the Roman religion, but of religiones , plural, which “did justice to the perceived diversity of human fortune and to a heavy sense of obligation to diverse communites.” (P. Brown 1996, p. 21)

Conversion of Constantine

Favoured Christianity after a vision which led to a major victory at Milvian Bridge, AD 312. Adopted the Chi Rho sign, a Christian symbol, thereafter. However, Constantine only received baptism on his deathbed, and despite promoting Christianity -- and the extent to which he did may be exaggerated by his devout, Christian biographer Eusebius -- was tolerant of the old ways. Indeed, it is clear that initially he equated the worship of Christ with the worship of the Sun, solar monotheism (one god), a popular religio of the time. Constantine continued in his traditional role as pontifex maximus, chief priest in the traditional religion of Rome. He intended to play a similar, controlling role in the Christian hierarchy.

Pagans

Two derivations: The first, advanced first in 417 by the writer Orosius, is that pagani derived from pagus , the Latin word for countryside. Paganus, which we now translate as pagan, or adherent to the traditional religion, originally meant “of the country”, and thus implied unsophisticated; it is  the opposite in Latin of “civilized”, which itself comes from civitas, city. The most sophisiticated, Neo-platonist philosopher was thus lumped together with an illiterate farmer in his adherence to superstition (which itself derives from superstitio , an obsolescent faith). The second explanation is that paganus designated somebody who was not a “soldier of Christ”, i.e. not a Christian. In secular, that is non-religious usage, paganus referred to a “civilian”, not a soldier. Just as joining the army, and swearing an oath to serve the emperor, transformed a paganus into a miles, a civilian into a soldier, so baptism transformed a paganus into a Christian, a soldier of Christ. (See H. Chadwick, The Early Church, 1993, p. 152)
 

Arianism
 

Arius, the presbyter of Alexandria in northern Egypt, did not believe that Christ, the incarnate (i.e. Human) Son was one with the God the father. He maintained “The son who is tempted, suffers and dies, however exalted he may be, is not equal to the immutable Father [who is] beyond pain and death: if he is other than the Father, then he is inferior.” This dictum, that Christ was inferior to God the Father by virtue of taking human form, was known, after Arius, as Arianism. The alternative view held that “the Son is of one substance with the Father.” That is, the former cannot be considered inferior, but the same. Confirmation of this was found in the words of St. Paul, who declared “the Son shall at the last deliver up the kingdom to the Father and God will be all in all.” This showed that any distinction between Father and Son was only temporary, related to the created order of the World, and would end with the Final Judgement. The latter formulation was judged to be "Orthodox", or correct belief; the former held to deny the divinity of Christ (and hence prefigure Islam).
 

Travelers 1: St. Augustine (354-430)

Born in Thagaste, in Modern Algeria .

Confessions, completed AD 387
 

But you knew, God, why I left Carthage and went to Rome, and of that you gave no hint either to me or to my mother, who was fearfully upset at my going and followed me down to the sea. But as she vehemently held on to me, calling me back or saying she would come with me, I deceived her. I pretended I had a friend I did not want to leave until the wind was right to sail. I lied to me mother -- such a mother -- and I gave her the slip. (trans. H. Chadwick 1991, p. 81)

The purpose of, or at least the ostensible reason to begin, this work was to demonstrate that the City of God, being the Kingdom of Heaven, was distinct from any earthly political organization. The workings of God’s kingdom could not be tied to the fate of any empire, even the Christian Roman empire. Therefore, the fate of Rome had no bearing of the fate of man’s journey from the earthly to the divine realm. Simply put, the Sack of Rome in 410 did not mean God was, or as pagans held the gods were, angered by the Christianization of the Roman empire. The City of God moves from “a criticism of pagan religion and philosophy to an evaluation of government and society.” (H. Chadwick 1993, p. 226)