Christianity steps into power vacuum

Monotheism

We have seen in ‘Early beliefs, paganism and religion’   the transition from  a  more egalitarian social  system (sometimes not totally correct referred to as  a matriarchy)   to a more male dominated paternalistic system.  Most Neolithic societies are thought to have been more egalitarian than the later Bronze Age societies. It has been argued that this also resulted in a change form a more feminine centric  belief system (Mother Earth Concept)  to one based around a Sky Deity. This latter led to to the development of a belief system built around the tripartition of the society. From here on we see the power of cities and the city elite who gradually take onboard the role of God and combine secular and spiritual powers into the one person (king, pharaoh, shah, etc).

However these city states and empires were still surrounded by tribes with religious believes still very much around the Sky Deities. We also see in these new urban societies that often one god became the main god and that this deity had some sort of a superior position over the other gods and goddesses, this religious concept is known as henotheism.

We also now see the arrival of the  Sumerian/Babylonian tradition of city gods. Several of the early city states had created their own senior deity that held such a position and this often made it easier for the king to take on that god position himself.

While the mythical Abraham of the Jews – the first one to worship one God – is placed around 2000BCE we don’t have any archaeological evidence of these people until the first millennium BCE. The Jewish mystical tradition, the Kabbalah, also dates back from these times.  Abraham is not only seen as the founding father of the Hebrews but also of  the Muslims and the Christians. He came from Ur and worshiped his city God and this city god travelled with him on his trip west towards the ‘Promised Land’.

Not far from here, in Egypt, we see around 1300BCE , pharaoh Akhenaton forcefully introducing monotheism in Egypt around the God Aten. Akhenaton means server of Aten, however this religious concept didn’t stick in Egypt.

Back to the Israelites, and around 800BCE we see the Judaic tradition of monotheism firmly established among them.

It is uncertain how monotheism developed into such a strong movement, but perhaps the explanation simply is that all human beings do have a strong individual spiritual notion and that therefore deep within the human nature we reject the power of another human being or system (king, empire) over our minds.

This obvious will have been assisted by the clear evidence to most people at the time, as it is to us now, that power often corrupts and that these king gods mostly didn’t behave in a godlike fashion.

The concept of monotheism, whereby its believers did not accept that the secular rulers had power over their mind, didn’t sit well amongst these rulers. The Jews rapidly became one of the most prosecuted people, the Hittites, Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans all faced these stubborn Jews. The poor Jews were most of the times no match to these far more powerful neighbours and suffered the consequences of their strong believe. But despite all of this their believe system survived and through Christianity and Islam monotheism became the most powerful form of religion over the following 2500 years.

Famously Jesus, according the Bible, answered when he was asked about who is charge: ‘Give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor and to God what belongs to God.’

While under Charlemagne the secular and religious powers were once again brought together it rapidly became an ongoing power struggle between the emperors and popes,  this despite the fact that  a key element of the original Christian tradition (based on Greek philosophy) was that there should be  a separation between Church and State. It was seen as a fundamental human right that one should have total control over his or her own mind. While the Investiture Controversy made some changes to that situation it still would nearly take a millennium before full separation was achieved.

While monotheism became the dominant religion many aspects of the early (pagan) religious concepts are still clearly visible even within the current religious versions.

 

 

The small nomadic tribe of the Israelite

A rather small Indo-European tribe, living in an environment surrounded by very powerful empires tried somewhere between 2000 and 1500BCE  to find a land where they could settle and become farmers. In an area wedged between the sea and the dessert, arable land comes at a premium and many others were interested in that same piece of land. Despite persecution, massacres and exiles this small tribe survived against all odds most likely because of their strong cohesion, sense of community, tradition and devotion to one God, very importantly their God.  They claimed they received their Law via Moses directly from their God and this allowed him to obtain obedience from his people this belief assisted the tribe to maintain a peaceful society in pursuit of their own country.

They outlasted many far more wealthy and powerful empires. Their strong conviction of being ‘the chosen people’  was used to occupy – around 1500BCE –  the land of  Canaan – as this was promised by their God to Abraham. This promise was an endorsement to aggressively fight with other tribes in the area in order to claim this land theirs.

Most likely this –  from origin Jewish culture – would have disappeared in obscurity if it wasn’t for the reason that the  far more sophisticated and advanced knowledge of that time developed by the Greek was lost in the West. The Greek had taken the rather archaic and primitive culture of their own nomadic forebears and developed a much more modern society.  However, between 200 and 600AC this wealth of knowledge was lost in the West.  Christianity and later also the Islam started to fill the vacuum left.

Transition from Jewish sect to Christian religion

The Christian concept of a single God, eternal salvation for the faithful and victory over death was certainly not unique at that time; there were many sects that had similar concepts. Christianity was of course originally a Jewish sect, and operated as such – as one of the different forms of Christianity. It also basically appropriated most of the Jewish religious texts, so in all there was nothing much new that was invented in that respect. Similar to the above mentioned pagan adaptations, also many of the Jewish traditions became an integral part of Christianity.

In the beginning the apostles simply preached their message of the gospel and the messiah within the context of Judaism; basically heralding a new era, a modernisation.

At this stage there was not a  divide between – what later became known as orthodox Christians and  heretics. There were certainly different views in those early period which existed alongside each other and over time they influenced each other and slowly further common themes arrived in a very dynamic process of discussion, exchange and eventually more formal approaches. A process also sometimes known as  ‘identity formation’ .

The three main groups were the Jewish Christians, Gentiles and the Gnostics, but also between these groups there were also differences based on social, cultural and geographic differences. The central themes included: Jesus, the crucifixion and salvation – not necessarily all in the same  combination with each other –  but most other elements were at stage open to interpretation.

They were able to link very general (catholic in Greek means general) ethics such as ‘thou shall not kill’, ‘thou shall love their neighbour” and elements such as looking after the poor and the weaker people in the society to their more religious beliefs. The early Church also showed itself far more tolerant to women and slaves than most of the other cults.

The first split occurred with the orthodox Jews who wanted gentiles (which included Greeks, Romans and Arabic people) – who were attracted by the new teachings – to follow the Law of Moses.

St  Paul preached a more modern version that didn’t require circumcision and certain other elements of the Law, in particular in relation to food and with whom to share food. Apostles like Peter and James (Jesus brother) wanted the converts to strictly adhere to Jewish Law; Paul who mainly preached amongst gentiles was far more tolerant.

Some of these issues were resolved at what ids believed the first Council which took place in Jerusalem around 50CE.

These internal conflicts however kept festering on, but when the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 and the Jewish Diaspora started this split more or less automatically happens. The Jewish religion remained closed and exclusive, while its new brand Christianity was more open and (at least in the beginning) more tolerant. The seeds for further conflicts between the Jews and the Christians can certainly be traced back to the very early years of the beginning of the split. It was under the zealous leadership of St Paul that the Christian Church started to emerge and it was him who transformed the historical Jewish Jesus into a mythical hero. Karen Strong argues that historical events need to be mythologised in order for it to become a source of religious inspiration ¹ . This also further described in the section ‘Early beliefs, paganism and religion’.

From its early beginnings Christianity was a literate religion, which allowed it to spread more easily. The early Christians formed their own communities, the organisation was done by the elders. Rather earlier they already had priests (presbuteros-elder) or bishops (supervisors)leading the service. During the 2nd century bishops gradually became the supervisors over the priests, they nearly always settled their bishopric within the Roman civitas. This process rapidly accelerated after Christianity became the Roman state religion A bishop was elected by both the ecclesiastic and secular members of his communities. With the spread of Christianity and the increase in its organisation, slowly these two parts became more separated. The ecclesiastic members became exclusively in charge of  the religious activities, especially after the concept of sacraments started to take roots. Baptism was a well established initiation rite that was also used by the early Christians and the early meals they shared together, became more formalised after excesses started to occur and regulations were introduced with evolved in the Eucharist.

Many of this early doctrine linked in very well with human faith and as such as easily accepted by the people. Over time more and more of this faith became institutionalised into religion. Problems started to occur when the gap between faith and religion started to grow to such an extent that people concluded it had very little to do with their faith.

It is remarkable to see how modern the writings of these early philosophers are in comparison to some of the discussions that are taking place on this topic in the 21^st century.

During the 1st century the Middle East and North Africa was the heartland of early Christianity (Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia).

Mixing of religious concepts and traditions

The evolving  Christian doctrine was as much based on the Bible ( a library of diverse documents)  as it is on globally accepted moral codes such as they were discussed in the works of the Greek philosopher Plato.   The early Church fathers used the works of Plato and Aristotle as the basis for the Christian doctrine they started to develop. Especially the role of the soul made the Greek close allies of the Christians.  Also the Greek had been the first to – thanks to the invention of writing – to move from pagan mythic to theory and this was further developed by these great philosophers into a top  down approach of conceptual hierarchies, which very much suited the new religion.

One of the most interesting concepts the Christians took over from the Jews was that of the Messiah. A name that originated in Mesopotamia and had a secular meaning along the lines of: leader, king, savior. While the Jews see their Messiah as the future new King David (and are still waiting on him), the Christians (Khristos in Greek means messiah) believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

Both religions talk of a Messianic era, once the Messiah returns (Christians) or arrives (Jews) there will be a millennium of peace. The theological belief of chiliasm or pre-millennialism  (where an Antichrist would be defeated which would lead to a world of peace, plenty and happiness for the poor) describes the period that will herald the coming of the messiah. This is described in a body of text known as eschatology (a set of church doctrines concerning the final state of the world), based on the prophecies in the Book of Revelation. This concept had entered the Catholic and Jewish faith via the Babylonian and Persian concepts of eschatology.

These doctrines dominated people in the Middle Ages. At regular interval a new ‘messiah’ was spotted sometimes it was a zealot, at other times a king, they all fitted nicely into the eschatology fantasies.

We also find these fantasies back in art (Jeroen Bosch), the Crusades, and many of the so called heretical movements, they were heavily influenced by this believe. While the Church, most of the time, tried to play down the physical interpretation of these eschatology doctrines and indicated that they were of amore spiritual nature, they most of the time failed to convince the people. Only very slowly during the Age of Enlightenment do we see these concepts losing their momentum.

Furthermore concepts that we now classify as Christian were borrowed from Egypt and the Middle East such as common meal rituals, purification, fasts, the concept of immortality, that transmigration of souls  and initiation rites.  Buddhism  also  has the concept of the  Immaculate Conception.

During Roman times we also saw the Cult of Mithra briefly becoming the official state religion Mithra was originally a Zoroastrian  Deity which was likened by the Romans as God Sol (Sun). Zoroastrianism dates back from well before the  6th century BCE and Zoroaster was the Persian prophet who preached this new religion. Zoroastrianism became the state religion in Persia and sometimes referred to as the bridge between mythology and philosophy.

Mithra was not part of monotheism, however it looks like  certain elements of the Mithra Cult (as well as Zoroastrian religion) did find their way into Christianity. Mithra stood for the celebration of light (Sol) and was celebrated in December (Sol Invictus) which later became Christmas. Zoroastrian eschatology and demonology, with its concepts of angels, satan and hell,  also made its way into Christianity. As well as the concept of ‘Virgin Birth, ‘Holy Spirit’, the ‘Judgement of the Dead’ and the ‘Resurrection of the Body’. Scholars also suggest that Zoroastrianism  influenced the Hindu and Buddhism religions.

The most northerly temple of Mithra – who was in particularly followed by Roman soldiers – was in Sarrebourg, near Metz and some of it  has been restored and is now on display in the Court D’or  museum in Metz.

Another interesting link with pagan elements is that the Celtic god for light, Lugh was speared in the side by a spear similar of Jesus and Lugh as well as the German God Odin were hanged on a tree similar to Jesus on the Cross. Many pagan religions have spearing in their stories, often related to the taboo of incest. Dying and rising Gods are also known in the mystery cults of Osiris, Attis and Persephone.

Germanic pagan traditions also survived and the Church changed tactics by turning many of these traditions and celebrations into Christian traditions and celebrations.  Temples and holy pagan sites became places where Christians congregated and many of these places were used to built the first (wooden) churches. With a growing number of saints it was not to difficult to replace the many pagan gods and their holy days became the holy days of the saints, in that process these saints also often  took over the attributes, symbols and features of those pagan gods.

The pagan festivals were closely linked to the growing seasons and the solar and moon cycles. Many of these festivals were replaced with Christian symbols

Easter – spring festival

Whitsunday – summer solstice

Christmas –  winter solstice (Yule)

Other festivals linked to the harvest include St John (24 June), Maria Ascension (15 August), St Martin (11 November).

Another  observation is the role of art in this process of communication. While the Ten Commandments forbids idolatry, it did find a way around it by claiming that Jesus had lived a human life on earth and that therefore images were OK.

While beauty could be interpreted as  vanity,  in this religeous context this was ok as  its purpose was to invoke contemplation. Christian art is decorative,  initially this was expressed in the manuscripts that are beautifully and elaborate decorated and later of course paintings to adore the churches as well as the architectural sculptures in cathedrals and the cathedral itself.

See also video clips:

Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem Via Dolorosa, Galilee, Israel

Monastery St Agatha Netherlands (Manuscripts)

Monastery Ter Apel Netherlands

St Pierre Geneva

 

 Persecution of Christians

Increasingly Romans became dissatisfied where their traditional religion and many looked for more personal forms of religious experience, the most well know were the religions of Isis (ritual purification by water) , Mithras (sharing ceremonial meals with bread and wine) and Cybele (annual feast of resurrection in spring).  They were known as mystery religions  their rites were not open to others and as such were seen as mysterious in the eyes of the official Roman religion.  Christianity was seen as one of these mystery religions.  The problem that the Roman authorities had with the emerging Christian mystery was that unlike all the others  was that this one was strict monotheistic and unlike all of the other cults didn’t accept the umbrella function of the veneration of the Emperor.

These prosecutions started in all earnest in 64 when Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the fire that devastated Rome, during his rein also Peter and Paul were crucified.

In January 250 Emperor Decius issued an edict declaring that all citizens have to sacrifice to the gods. As Christians only recognised one god, they would not sacrifice, thus persecution started again. Christians established church houses, mainly in the poorer areas. Catacombs were used for burials as cremation was not part of the religion. This period of prosecution cumulated under Diocletian (Great Prosecution 303-311).

However, the situation wasn’t the same throughout the Empire and in particular in the East, from the 2^nd half of the 3^rd century the situation started to improve for the Christians. This might also be a period were some of the first church buildings started to emerge – mainly in the eastern part of the Empire.

Until approx 310 Christians were still persecuted throughout the Roman Empire and there was little opportunity to establish official structures. However, as in modern day, persecution only hardens the core of the movement and the slain martyrs were adored as heroes. Nevertheless it was estimated that by this time 20% of the Roman population were Christians.

Martyrs – the heroes of Christianity

Anybody who fell in these religious battles became a martyr. Especially the very first martyrs – when the Christians were still persecuted – strengthened the small and tight nit early community. They became the heroes of their age and were, similar to current heroes, adored. The relicts and graves of these martyrs were venerated.

A famous observation from Tertullian – one of the early Church Fathers who lived around 200 – was that, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

The martyrs became an important symbol of the Christian victory and as such also as symbols of the power of the spirit over the body. When the religion became the state religion there were no new martyrs any more and it after that time that the concept of saints slowly developed, Christian heroes were needed to maintain and grow the religion. This concept neatly assisted the transformation of the many pagan cults and pagan god heroes and many saints took the place of old pagan traditions and symbols.

The graves of these saints were venerated and people gathered at the site to remember, especially the anniversary became a popular event and many churches were subsequently built over these graves. Christian believed in a direct link between the remains and the spirit of saints. The St Peter Basilica in Rome is most probably the most well known of these churches. The Eucharist at these places was seen as being more effective. As a follow on from here, this made their reliquiae very valuable and this made the trade in these  remains one of the most lucrative of the Middle Ages.

Initially few of the martyrs were saints; however they were rapidly fast-tracked into sainthood, without the checks, set out by the Church, which would normally have to be undertaken in establishing saints. Surprise, surprise it were mostly abbots, bishops and devout noble ladies who became the next to be venerated, after the martyrs, they became the next generation of saints. The full process of canonisation was not established until around 1235 (this is still in practice).

 

From religion to political power

The conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine  was the turning point point for Christianity. This gave the new religion the backing needed to become a world religion. Under the Edict of Milan issued by the  Emperor in 313, the Christians received their freedom of worship and Cthist brought doctrinal unity to the faith .

He moved, in325,  the capital of his empire from Rome to Constantinople. It was not far from here in Nicea  (modern day Iznik in Turkey, close to Diocletian’s capital Nicomedia) that he called the first Church Council together. Untill the 9th century all such Councils were convened in the Middle East; such had been the impact of St Paul on the region.

When it became the Roman state religion under emperor Theodosius I between 379 and 395 it also enforced that unity with the power of the empire. With the support of the Emperor behind them the Church could now proclaim its authority over the various flavours of Christianity and as such established as what became known as ‘orthodox Christianity’ and basically anything else became heresy and with the military power behind them these heretics could now be prosecuted.

For the first time Christian thinkers could rise to prominence and these ‘Church Father’ became instrumental in the formation of the Catholic faith and religion. Apart from the early church meetings, this extra level of intellect was added to provide the foundation for this new religion. Their influence  persists until today. They built on the works of the Greek philosophers who among other things promoted the idea that memory was a key tool to obtain knowledge. This is sometimes also called a memoria-culture built on remembering, commemorating, memorising, considering and forgetting. This was used  in the teachings of the Church as key tools to shape people and society. The Church also considered that the minds of simple people should not be overfed with knowledge and only provided sparsely. Even at the beginning of the 20th century in Oss local folklore had it  that there was an arrangement between the Dean of the catholic community  of the town and the local catholic industrial margarine magnate . “If you keep them stupid, we keep them poor’.

Church Fathers

Latin Church Fathers:Ambrose of Milan                   339 – 397Hieronymus                            347 – 419Augustine                                354 – 430Pope Gregory the Great        540 – 604  Greek Church Fathers Basillius the Great                330 – 379 Gregory of Nyssa                   335 – 394 Gregory of Nazianze              330 – 390

 

From church house to basilica

Under the stewardship of Constantine  the rather primitive church houses started to be turned in to stone churches. They were based on the Roman basilica, these were large roofed halls erected for transacting business and disposing of legal matters. Such buildings usually contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces at one or both sides, with an apse at one end, where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows. Constantine’s design of the new church had a centre nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end: on this raised platform sat the bishop and priests. The first one was built at his palace complex in Trier.

The promise of the idea of eternal life was very important to the general Roman society, so Christianity, which uttered this promise, became a real option – anybody can become  Christian and attain eternal life! This is contrast with other cults/religions, which were exclusively available to certain groups (men, merchants, soldiers, etc).

It is estimated that already by 400 roughly half of the Roman population had been converted to Christianity. Another indication of the size of Christianity is that for the Nicaea Council in 325, Emperor Constantine had invited 1,800 bishops, 1,000 from the East and 800 from the West (some 300 of them attended – including closest to northwest European  region – the Bishop Nicasius from Dijon).

Christian superiority

The new religion rapidly took the next step and simply hijacked the Jewish concept of the ’chosen people’ and from that time onward they proclaimed themselves as ‘God’s chosen people’. Until that time the often prosecuted Christians has showed themselves tolerant towards other religions and sects and it had distinct anti-authoritarian elements. However, once ‘in power’ that rapidly changed and they rapidly became an aggressive and rather militant religion with little tolerance for any body who would not follow the religion to the letter of the word as proclaimed by the pope or the emperor. Religious differences could easily see a convicted victim condemned to the death penalty. This set the scene for the supremacy of the Catholic Church, often through shear terror as we will see during the reign of Charlemagne and later on the Inquisition.

During the Concilium Germanicum in 743  a range bans were introduced whereby the secular powers had to support the priests and bishops. They included: animal and food offerings, offerings within dwellings, adoration of stones, rocks, springs and trees, making vows near thorn bushes, holy trees or springs, the cutting of wooden idols, or the making of  images of devils, fortunetelling and predictions based of offerings of lots and so on. Rain and cloud incantations were equally forbidden as was sorcery, predictions made at the birth of a new baby, wearing and using of amulets. Pagan feasts were abandoned in particular those at new years eve and those on Thursdays (in honour of Donar).  Having meals in churches , the singing of secular sons and performance of girl choirs were all of limits.  If priests were involved in fortunetelling they were dismissed and put into as monastery.

By destructing famous temples of Zeus, Serapis, Holy Oakes and other holy pagan sites they showed the supremacy of their God.

This militant aspect of this faith also allowed for a unified political system that started to evolve in Europe, especially under Charlemagne in the late 8th century. He adopted the concept of ‘temple destruction’ and under his regime missionaries such as Willibrord and Boniface destructed the page temples of the Germanic tribes. The Teutonic Order maintained that practice along the Baltic to well into the 13th century.

 

Highly sophisticated structures

Another critical element of the Catholic Church was that it inherited and copied the late Roman imperial, legal and administrative  structures (from Emperor Diocletian) of the so called ‘civil dioceses’, these were tax collecting districts. Each diocese had a vicarious. He also appointed ‘duces’ they were commanders of the boarder troops, later dukes were people with authority over an important region. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the bishops in the western lands maintained a resemblance of civilisation,  they were often recruited from the old Roman senatorial aristocracy, while others from this social class complemented the authority assumed by the Church. The bishop governed the diocese with the help from his cathedral clergy (chapter) and especially from his archdeacon, his principal collaborator. The word episcopate is from Greek/Roman origin (epi-scopus) and means ‘over-seer’. Bishops were people with ambitions, they often had lots of enemies. The collapse of the Roman Empire also undermined the unity of the Church as popes (modeled on the position of the emperors) lost their vital communication with their bishops and abbots. They became isolated in Rome where they were under siege of the local feudal rulers.

At the Council of Nicaea the Church official took over the Roman administrative system. Emperor Constantine organised the Council along the lines of the Roman Senate. It was also from this event that Church Councils became the institutions where creeds and canons were approved or disapproved, a tradition that has continues ever since. The word canon comes from the Greek word for reed; this was used by them as a measure stick. The Canon therefore is a measure, guideline.

Many bishops also became the political power in the region. At the same time there was little or no central control and this resulted in a widespread misuse of power and material greed; which bore little or no relation with the religious values that had formed the basis of these new structures.

Popes and bishops also greatly contributed to civic infrastructure developments such as water and drainage as well as in the beautification of Rome and later similar developments took also place in other Episcopal cities.

For well over a millennium the Nicaea structure was maintained, but the popes had very little authority over this process, often sons of kings and other nobles were made bishop they involved in secular prince-bishoprics. In the early days bishops could be married and in some places the position even became (semi) hereditary. There was a very profitable trade in the buying and selling the rights to run clerical offices (simony).

Interestingly around 500 the pagan Sallier chief Clovis, turned Merovingian king was the only Catholic monarch in Europe. The (Eastern) Emperor Anastasius supported the’ heretic’ Monophysitebreakaway and the Goths the heretic Arianism version.

An important development took place in 554 when Emperor Justinian issued a Pragmatic Sanction, a far reaching piece of legislation that covered the repossession Ostrogoth property, the restoration of the hand out of free grain to citizens of Rome, agriculture prices, excise taxes and research grants. Interestingly for Rome he also declared that its governors from now should be nominated by local bishops and all property previous owned by the Arian Catholic Church was granted to the Orthodox Catholics.

From this day onward Rome would no longer be the city of Caesars but the city of Popes.

Powerful multinational

From a religious point of view, the bishops were the spiritual successors of the 12 apostles. Paul appointed the two first bishops Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete.

The churches in the region of a diocese were served by presbyters and deacons (and deaconesses). This structure was adopted from the organisation of the Jewish synagogues.

Canons, deans and deacons

A canon is a community of regular clergy who live according to certain rules (canones). They didn’t do their monastic vows. A canon consisted of 15 people: 10 priest and 5 deacons and sub-deacons. The head of the canon is the dean, often an important person of nobility. The dean was frequently also an archdeacon within a diocese. For this he had to be appointed by the pope.

Archdeacons could appoint and dismiss priests and chaplains.  The parishes where therefore managed from the canonry. The powerful dioceses of Utrecht often appointed canons or Munster and they ended up later on as parish priests. The properties and rights (tithes) belonging to a parish were often also inheritable (and tradeable) goods. Deans, deacons, counts, bishops and kings all played their political power-games within this realm.

The Church was also the first organisation to introduce the concept of conferences. Hundreds of synods or councils have been conducted by the Church over the centuries. There were regional, national and international (ecumenical councils – oikoumenè meaning the whole of the civilised world). Some addressed very trivial issues, simply to confirm some donations or immunities and some were pure political. However, this democratic system certainly assisted in establishing internal cohesion.

Initially bishops were appointed to the new Christian communities that were rapidly establishing itself throughout the Roman Empire. Those bishops who moved outside the limes (Roman boarder) did so at their own request.

Diocese	Established	First bishop
Trier	50	Eucherius
Mainz	80	Crescens
Cologne (Colonia Agrippina)	88	Maternus
Marseille	1st century
Lyon	177	Pothinus
Tours	249	Gatianus
Reims	250	Sixtus
Rouen	250	Nicaisius
Metz	280	Clement
Montpellier	3rd century
Paris (Lutetia)	3rd century	Denis –died 250
Bourges	3rd century	Ursinus of Bourges
Bordeaux	314	Orientalis
Tongeren/Lièges	344	Servatius
Maastricht	350	Servatius
Besancon	445	Celidonius
Dijon	5th century (or earlier)	Urbanus?
Arras-Atrecht/Cambrai-Kamerijk	540	Vaast
Utrecht	695	Willibrord
Freising (Munchen)	739	Corbinian/Boniface
Wurzburg	743	Burchard
Paderborn	799	Founded by Pope Leo III
Hamburg	849	Ansgar

In the north-western region that we concentrate on the three important bishoprics between the Maas and Rhine were Trier, Cologne and Tongeren. Also indicating the possible different tribal countries that these seats represented. The seat of Tongeren moved to Maastricht and finally to Lièges.

In the 5^th century, during the migration period,  there was a retreat of Christianity and many bishoprics were without their ‘Sheppard’ for many decades.

However, under the Merovingians and Carolingians the situation slowly started to change in favour of the Church again.After the last effective Merovingian king, Dagobert, several bishop seized the opportunity to establish powerful bishop states, especially in the souther part of Goal, but also the bishop of Trier was able to rise in power. However in most f the northern realm of the Merovingian Empire, close cooperation between the rulers and the bishops, prevented the bishops from taking too much secular power. During the following period the number of political murders of bishops increased quite dramatically, amongst others Lambertus the bishop of Maastricht in 706

By 814, there were 21 archbishoprics within the boundaries of the Carolingian empire: Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Cividale, Grado, Cologne, Mainz, Salzburg, Trier, Sens, Besançon, Lyon, Rouen, Reims, Arles, Vienne, Moûtiers-Tarentaise, Embrun, Bordeaux, Tours and Bourges.

Until 1559 the Parish of Oss was part of the Deaconate of Cuijk, Bishopric Liège, Archbishopric Cologne. Ootmarsum fell under Archbishopric Utrecht and Wietmarschen and Nordhorn under Bishopric Munster, Archbishopric Cologne.

Merging politics and religion

Soon after Christianity had become the state religion in the Roman Empire, the Church started to align itself with the secular powers and adopted the sucular Roman/Germanic structures also ints own structures. They argued that the secular structure had to be a mirror of the heavenly structure and therefor closely supported the monarchy as the best form of secular power.

The definition of what the catholic religion actually entailed and its rules and regulations was also a hotly debated issue during the first few centuries and it was only over time that the Christian canons   were developed. Canons are a group of texts considered authoritative by the Church; they included the Old and New Testament, the letters (epistles) from Paul and the interpretation and organisation of them in canon law by the so called church fathers of which perhaps the most important one was Augustine. However it wasn’t until the 6^th and 7^th century before a more complete and clearer picture started to emerge of the christian religion. A key role here played Chrodegang of Metz. His Rules for Canons, fostered a quasi-monastic regime of communal life amongst the urban clergy, his rule was implemented in virtual all bishoprics.

Chrodegang of Metz

He was born in the old Roman civitas of Tongeren, of a noble Hesbay/Frankish family that via his mother Landrada was related to the Robertians, a Frankish predecessor family of what became the Capetians.

He was educated at the court of his cousin Charles Martel, became his private secretary, then chancellor, and in 737 prime minister. On 1 March, 742, he was appointed Bishop of Metz, while still retaining his civil office.

In 748 he founded Gorze Abbey (near Metz). In 753 he was sent to Pope Stephen II to obtain his support for the crowning of Pippin as the new Frankish king, who had disposed of  the Merovingian King Childeric III.

Stephen turned to Pippin to in turn get his support against his fight with Aistulf, King of the Lombards, who were making inroads into the Papal Lands. Chrodegang accompanied the pope to Paris who on January 6, 754, personally consecrated Pippin as king.

After the death of St. Boniface, Pope Stephen conferred the pallium on to Chrodegang thus making him an archbishop, but not elevating the See of Metz.

Rule of Chrodegang

In his diocese ( and indeed in Gaul) he was the first to introduced the Roman Liturgy and chant (Gregorian), community life for the clergy of his cathedral, and wrote a special rule for them, the Regula Canonicorum, later known as Rule of Chrodegang. We saw a copy of the early documents in the Court D’Or in Metz, the former Merovingian palace and now museum. The rule containing thirty-four chapters which he gave his clergy (circa 755) was modeled according to the rules of St. Benedict and of the Canons of the Lateran. Through these rules he gave a mighty impulse to the spread of community life among the secular clergy.

Gregorian music

Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) has been instrumental in the musical liturgy. He established guidelines for the various forms of music for the different elements of the Holy Mass. He also founded the papal singing school ‘ scola cantorum’. His liturgy spread throughout the Christian world and is since 850 known as the Gregorian Liturgy.

Metz remained an important centre for church music and under the reign of Charlemagne, when his son Drogo was Bishop of Metz, further teachings took place here under the leadership of a monk send to the cathedral of Metz by Pope Leo. His teachings spread throughout the lands of the Franks and became known as Metx chant. In German Metz is pronounced as Mettis and the chant became known as the Mette.

He died at Metz and was buried in Gorze Abbey and died at Metz, March 6, 766. We visited his shrine in Metz Cathedral in 2009. The Cathedral also hosts the beautifully carved marble throne of Saint Clements, the founder of the cathedral. The throne has been the bishop’s throne since Merovingian times. In the treasury there is also the golden ring of St Arnoul, bishop of Metz and an ancestor of Charlemagne from 614 to 629.

The close relation between state and religion made it also easier to forcefully introduce and execute these religious laws. Charles the Great introduced a death penalty on pagans who didn’t want to be baptised.

The powerful axis between emperor and pope, together with the tight organisation of bishoprics strengthened the success of Christianity. At the same time the religion was also successful in attracting wealth, through a clever scheme linked to above mentioned promise of obtaining salvation after death as well as to its appeal to human ethics.

A very important consideration when looking at the Middle Ages is to imagine that there was no longer a distinction between Christianity and people in general. Christianity was not just a religion, it had become the custom of the land. Life was Christianity and Christianity was the only way of life. This was even extended to the animal world, as creatures created by God they were also seen as part of the Church and there are many occasions where animals are officially excommunicated, especially those creating pests and havoc such as caterpillars, mice and rats.

Perhaps by looking at some of fundamental theocracies in the Middle East is it possible to imagine what that society looked like.

The missionary urge became a key element in the expansion of the Church. The foundation for it can be found in the Gospels. Here, Christ told his 12 disciples to go out and preach the Christian message to the world. However it was not until, after the persecution period – at the beginning of the 4^th century – before this missionary work got underway in any serious way.

While there are many negative aspects to the catholic conquest at the same time this also became the major driver behind healthcare, education and the many aspects of social work, all very critical elements in establishing a stable society. The western society would not have evolved without the Christian culture, tradition and religion.

Developments of calendars

With Easter such an important date in the Christian Calendar lots of effort was directed to making the calculations for the right dates. These calculations resulted in tables that than were used to fill in other important dates for the Church calendar.  Increasingly the monks and scribes started to use the open table to record other developments, events such as storms and the arrival of comets and other activities. The Liber Pontificalis was another important developments in record keeping as it provided an overview of the popes together with important developments. The major prayer book of the Middle Ages, the Book of Hours, always starts with calender and the appropriate time for certain prayers are guided through this calender.

While the hierarchical foundation of the Church was built on the Roman structures, it failed to built the same cohesion. Papal authority was often very low and popes, bishops and priest were often involved in activities that were contrary to the vows that they had taken. This cumulated in the so called Papal Pornocracy. It finally was Pope Gregory VII who ended this situation, which led to the so called Gregorian Reforms. This led to the reintroduction of religious discipline, the fight against heresy and the  reconquest of lost christian territories.

 

Barbarian tribes attracted by militant Christian attitudes

As we saw in the section on the Prehistory, the migration tribes all followed the pagan religion. Travelling south during the 4th and 5th centuries, they however, were confronted with a new religion that especially over the years proceeding  the initial invasion had swept through Europe.  The Christian model was based on the teaching of Jesus and it was St Paul who remodeled Judaism in order to give it a broader appeal.  A key attraction to the emerging new religion was that God would forgive all the sins of the faithful and would this save them eternal damnation. There was a huge emphasis on sin which allowed the religion to built on that to formulate rights and wrongs that would lead to salvation or damnation. The formulation of this new religion happened at the time that the more learned Greek and Roman civilizations started to disappear. Christianity also had a strong militant element to it. Paganism and heresy could be punished by death, similar to God’s Promise to the Jews’ this was seen as an endorsement to conquer neighbouring lands and persecute whoever didn’t follow the true Christian faith. Most tribes leaders rapidly acquired the Christian faith next to their pagan/Roman believes and traditions. It was relatively unimportant if their subjects actively followed this faith and in many regions it took many centuries for the populous to be truly converted.

Many of the important pagan religious elements were simply Christened. This made the transition from pagan to catholic much easier and also allowed for many Roman and pagan traditions to continue into this day and age. Perhaps the most famous is the birthday of the sun ‘Sol Invictus’ on the 25th of December. The Sunday – as the name says it – was dedicated to the Sun by Emperor Constantine in 321, this also became the sacred day in Christianity. Most of the superstitious believes were carried forwards into the new religion, however this time it was given a name ‘God’ and that stopped any further investigation of the nature of these superstitions.

The end of reason

Both the secular and the religious powers very rapidly understood the value of combining their activities. The powerful state/religion alliance started to mould the new west-European society. Interestingly, until around 800, Greek philosophy – which had developed separately from mythology and religion and was based on observations in the natural environment – became a key driver behind the early Christian religious movements and Aristotle, while being a pagan, was seen as ‘one of us’ especially amongst the early church fathers. The Greek legacy could only endure because of the early medieval intellect was involved in a permanent dialogue with the knowledge of the great Greek philosophers. From now on philosophy and religion merged and once secular and religious powers started to join forces, dialogue, tolerance and reason where the first virtues that went out of the window. Reason was replaced by the precondition that any form of intellectual pursuit had to be based on the authority of the Bible and the dogmas of the Church.

After nearly 1,000 years Emperor Justinian closed the famous Academy of Athens – founded by Plato – as part of his imperial ban against pagan education. Its most illustrious teachers where recruited by the Persian Emperor Khusro and recreated the academy at the Sassanid Capital of Ctesiphon, where the works of Plato and his successors translated into Persian and as such they were kept for humanity.

Sport had already been an earlier victim of the change.  There is no consensus on when the Ancient Olympic Games officially ended, the most common-held date is 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I declared that all pagan cults and practices be eliminated. Another date cited is 426 AD, when his successor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of all Greek temples. This ended a tradition that had lasted for over a thousand years (since approx. 776BC). Organised sport didn’t return until the 19th century.

Fortunately some of the other legacies of the Classics were preserved, but many only just.Interestingly it was Charlemagne who has been instrumental in preserving some of the great classical works  from Virgil, Horace, Pliny, Livy and Seneca for prosperity by employing hundreds of monks to copy these works in the various monasteries that he and his family had established. To show the impact; there are some 1,800 surviving manuscripts from between the years 0 to 800. From the following 100 years, 7,000 manuscripts survived.

It is also important to mention here – in the context of reason – that the men who copied these works, were simple copiers, very few actually did understand these works. This is totally different from the original writers and their students they very actively discussed and debated the issues written down in these works. The Christian scholars simply wanted to use these works to support their own view on life.

By 750 the tolerance from the previous centuries had been replaced by doctrine and the philosophy of reason was replaced by the doctrine of faith. Nothing could be challenged anymore and science came more or less to a total standstill. All cultural, art and scientific developments for the next four centuries took place within the Church (monasteries, churches, cathedrals and cathedral schools) .

Those who challenged the new society rapidly were expelled as heretics and not following the faith meant ostracism. Over the next millennium millions of people around the globe were killed under this regime. Many remnants of that rather intolerant culture are still lingering on in our society.

Another important development that undermined reason was that ever since Emperor Constantine created a tradition of veneration around his personage the position of king and emperor were seen as being separate from the more secular system of the lower nobility. Kings and emperors were Gods rulers on earth and kingship was even a sacrament and emperors were crowned by popes. They therefore had near unlimited powers. It was only after emperor Justinian, in the 2^nd half of the 6^th century, that ‘God’ became more worshipped and the emperors less. But Kings and Emperors did rather successfully held on to their close 2^nd position, throughout the Middle Ages.

In the absence of science, people assumed that there was direct divine intervention in all aspects of their life. This view was held not just by peasants but also by the nobility and the intelligentsia of the time.

Very slowly from around 1200 onwards, more liberal views started to creep into the system. People such as Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) tried to reinstate logic, he separated philosophy from theology again, and also mysticism from reason, clearly identifying the border between Revelation and Reason, Super-natural and Natural. However for the next three centuries theology firmly remained the foundation of science and philosophy. Progress was measured in a better and deeper  understanding of theology.

The pursuit of logic and knowledge was aimed to find the truth, but that didn’t always suit the rulers. In order to counteract these new developments they proclaimed more  religious dogmas and increased their persecution of ‘heretics’.

This in turn led to an increase of the pressure, between those relying on faith and piety to maintain the order and those pursuing knowledge in order to test the order and find the truth.  At the High the Middle Ages the Church had basically hijacked knowledge and proclaimed that there was no knowledge beyond their religions. .

Of course the autocratic attitude linked to the power in the hands of the rulers was a recipe  for disaster. Power corrupts and both in the Church and in the secular world this led to gross misbehaviour by those who had the monopoly on power. This inturn resulted in ongoing popular revolts and protests but it wasn’t until the Reformation – despite the fact that this was not the reason for it – before the axis between knowledge and religion could be broken.

Religion had separated itself  from the human moral belief system and the independent way that individual people will have to make decisions for humanity within or outside the letter of the law. From the Enlightenment period onwards we increasingly start to see a separation between secular and ecclesiastic powers and that led to a more balanced level of governance. Slowly beliefs were accepted as being within the realm of the individual who was able to follow them within their own personal freedom.

Philosophers of the Enlightenment period were greatly influenced by Chinese philosophers, especially by some of the Song Dynasty (around 1000), this shows how advanced this culture was, unfortunately China entered its own Dark Ages where it lost  its intellectual and scientific leadership to the West. Who knows what will happen next.

Spinoza

While this Dutch philosopher (1632- 1677) falls outside the period covered in the publication it is important to mention him here. He was the first one to publically challenge the way God is depicted by the Church. He separates religion from nature/science. He sees God as the infinite force of nature and not as the God portrayed in theism. Religion and nature are two separate issues. Religion tries to interpret nature but can only do this in a limited way and with the availability of more knowledge elements of religion in relation to the nature God need to change. The reason for religion is to create obedience in order to achieve peace. This started in the monotheistic religions with the Law that Moses received. This Law was necessary and specific for those people in their circumstances in that part of the world. That Law doesn’t make sense in different times, under different circumstances and in different parts of the world. In order to make this work, dogmas were needed to obtain the obedience.

The actual content of the Law is less important that the fact that there is law. Laws can be put aside if the sovereign wants to do so, as for example in situations of (perceived) threats and wars. As such the Law is empty, a dead letter. The Law in the hands of good rulers (secular and ecclesiastic) provide freedom in the hands of dictators or zealots it suppresses freedom.

This is separate from human morals and the independent way that individual people will have to make decisions for humanity within or outside the Law.

Religion requires piety for it to work while the pursuit of knowledge requires truth. Reason will challenge political and religious power in order to find the truth, which leads to freedom from authority.

While Spinoza can be called the first proclaimed atheist he doesn’t position himself against religion. He sees religion has a role to play as many people will need guidance. Everybody can obey, few can However, he argues that religion is a confused way of interpreting nature, as it has put God within the context of theism and not in the context of an infinite being. By making him a law maker, a ruler and a judge they have separated ‘him’ from nature, us, the universe. If religious people would go back to the origin of the infinite being also religion will see the real truth of knowledge.

 

Semi-paganism

Even today paganism is still around. Many folk stories – which were very much alive less than a century ago, especially in rural areas – had pagan elements in it. Many of these rural communities remained largely isolated until well into the 20 century.

While the forceful conversation coincided with the end of tribal life, for centuries there was not a real religious alternative to paganism for most of the people living on the land with the entire unexplained natural phenomenon around them, together with death, poverty and hardship.

The local priests were most of the time as poorly educated as the peasants they had to shepherd.  It took more than a millennium to stamp out many of the abscesses of the Church. Their power and wealth lead to significant corruption,especially under the so called Renaissance Popes, at the same time it led to a serious suppression of the peasant population throughout Europe. In general terms the clergy were hated by the local population, this however, did not stop their infallible believe in the religion.

The clergy – and in particular the hierarchy above to local priests –  were certainly not seen as objective players in society and certainly not as their protectors, instead the Church was clearly aligned with the local powers, the nobility in the Middle Ages and until recent the nouveau rich as large landowners and early industrialists. In Oss in the early 20^th century it was still the saying that the local priest was there to keep the people dumb while the local industrialist would keep them poor, a perfect combination.

This therefore remained a perfect environment for ordinary people to hang on to old pagan rooted traditions and festivities which inturn were rooted in the nature of their existence and closely linked to the natural environment they lived in.

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[1] Beryl Smalley; Historians in the Middle Ages 1974, p63