3. The Development of the Western Church

In 597 Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory I as a missionary to Britain from Rome. He established a mission in the south east and built a cathedral at Canterbury where he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine’s mission had great success with the Anglo-Saxon pagan kingdoms. The church became strong enough to be a centre of mission to central Europe.

It took some time for the the churches from the Celtic tradition and those from the Roman tradition to find a way to work together. In 663 a conference at Whitby resolved the disagreements. After this the church in England was under the authority of Rome.

Charlemagne

In 774 the Roman Bishop Hadrian I made an agreement with the Frankish King Charles. This gave protection to the church against the Eastern emperor and the other European groups who were trying to gain control over Italy. Charles wanted to restore the glory of Rome. He rebuilt an empire that stretched far into northern Germany. In 800 Pope Leo III crowned him as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He was known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne. He built huge churches, and started a great programme of copying manuscripts. He tried to remodel society on Christian lines and reformed the church’s liturgy.

The Split between East and West

Charlemagne was also at the centre of the great debate between the Eastern and Western churches which eventually led to them splitting. After the Council of Constantinople in 381 the text of the Nicene Creed said that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father. Augustine of Hippo influenced the western church to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (the Latin word was filioque).  In 589 the Spanish church added this to their version of the creed and then after 800 Charles used it in his private chapel. The Eastern church was angry at this addition to the creed. The Roman church added it to their version of the creed in the 11th century, and after negotiations between the bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople finally broke down, the Pope excommunicated the Patriarch in 1054. The split has continued to the present.

The Increase of Papal Power

An Italian named Hildebrand had worked for the papacy since the 1040s. In 1073 he became Pope Gregory VII.  He began to build a new image and a new structure for the church in which the Pope and the church would be the ruler over all the kingdoms of the world. The claim to have sovereignty over the whole world was new. In the western church the bishop of Rome had gradually become the centre of power because there were no rivals. But now Gregory decided that he was not just the Vicar of St Peter but the Vicar (substitute) of Christ as well.

The Donation of Constantine was a forged document. It was alleged to have been written in 313 by the Emperor Constantine. It gave the bishop of Rome the highest position in the church and made him the ruler of the whole western Empire.  This document was probably forged around the time of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire and was not shown to be a forgery until the Renaissance. But it strengthened the status and power of the papacy.  Gregory VII twice excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor over who should appoint bishops. From then on the Pope appointed bishops and gradually took authority to appoint all the clergy.

In the 12th century Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered over a dispute concerning whether the King or the Pope had supreme authority over the church in England.

Marriage

The church became more centralised, the parish system was developed and a process began to prevent all clergy from being married. In the past monks and higher clergy were generally not allowed to marry. At the second Lateran Council in 1139, all clergy were prevented from marrying, and the existing marriages were declared invalid.

The church extended its control also over the laity. Since the 9th century some had taught that marriage was a sacrament. In the 11th and 12th centuries this became established doctrine and so marriage was also brought under the control of the church.

The more power was centralised in Rome the larger the bureaucracy became. The 12th century was also the time when church law (Canon Law) was unified and systematised especially by the Italian monk Gratian. Bishops also developed their own bureaucracy, and Kings and Nobles often used these bishops and other clergy in their secular administration.

Universities

In the 12th and 13th centuries heretical movements attracted many followers. But the church also established schools attached to cathedrals some of which became universities. This was the time when universities began to be established in Europe.  A new intellectual life began to flourish as a result of a new interest in the work of Aristotle. Aristotle’s works were well known in the Jewish and Islamic world. But through contact with Islam these works came into the hands of Christians in the west and were translated into Latin.  This sparked a huge interest in ancient writings. The intellectual discussions in the new university schools were centred on how to connect the use of reason with the truths revealed in the scriptures. This movement became known as scholasticism.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Thomas was born into a noble family in Aquino in Italy. He joined the Dominicans and studied in Italy and at the Universities of Cologne and Paris (the leading university of his day). He studied the works of Aristotle and urged that they all be translated into Latin.  He helped the church work out what to do with Aristotle. He taught that reason and analysis did not replace faith and revelation, but helped to illustrate and even prove it to be true. He built on Aristotle’s idea that every created thing must have a cause. He developed a system of describing things in terms of their cause and tracing everything back to God who is the first cause of all things. His great work is his Summa Theologiae.  In it he discusses the being and nature of God as well as things to do with ordinary Christian life. His attempt to relate faith and reason has had lasting impact on Christian (especially Roman Catholic) theology, but even in his own day not everyone agreed.

Popes and Councils

In 1309 the Pope moved his headquarters to Avignon (under pressure from the French King). In 1377 Gregory XI moved back to Rome. In 1378 there were two Popes, both elected by the College of Cardinals. A Council in Pisa in 1409 tried to resolve the schism but this only resulted in there being a third Pope. Finally the matter was resolved at the Council of Constance in 1415, but the Papacy never regained its prestige or power and was never again taken seriously as the Ruler of the World, except, perhaps, in 1494 when Pope Alexander VI drew a line on a map to divide the New World of the Americas between Spain and Portugal.

After this some wanted a change in the way authority was exercised. They rejected Gregory VII’s idea that the Pope had ultimate authority. They said a General Council should be the highest authority. They were called Conciliarists. It was a General Council that ended the controversy of the three Popes in 1415. But in 1460 Pope Pius II (who had been elected by  the Council) published a Bull forbidding appeals to a General Council. After this it was illegal to appeal to a General Council.