On Defining the “Middle Ages”

It is always difficult to be precise about when one era ends and another begins. Traditionally, accounts of the development of Christian theology proceed directly from the close of the period of early Christianity – also known as the “patristic period” – marked by the Council of Chalcedon (451) to the great theological renaissance in western Europe during the Middle Ages. This is unsatisfactory for many reasons. The most obvious of these is that the “Middle Ages” is a cultural development that is specific to western Europe. It overlooks the fact that the Roman empire in the east was relatively unaffected by the fall of Rome in 410. The development of Byzantine theology does not easily fit the categories of western European history. It also overlooks earlier renewals in Christian theology in the west – for example, the important developments that took place during the reign of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor. This “Carolingian renaissance,” which began in the eighth century and continued well into the ninth, saw some particularly important theological developments, especially in relation to the theology of the sacraments.

The terms “medieval” and “Middle Ages” began to be used in the sixteenth century and are now widely used to refer to the period of transition between antiquity and the modern period. Those who actually lived at this time did not think of themselves as living in the “Middle Ages.” Although phrases similar to “medieval” are encountered in the medieval period itself, their meaning is quite distinct from the modern sense of the term. Thus Julian of Toledo (died c.685) uses the phrase “the middle age” or “the middle of time (tempus medium)” to refer to the period between the incarnation and the second coming of Christ. Since the Renaissance, the term has been used in a somewhat disparaging sense, to meet the somewhat uninteresting period of time separating the intellectual glories of antiquity and their retrieval in the Renaissance. Political historians often frame the “Middle Ages” as the period between the fall of the western Roman empire in 476 and the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.

The expansion of Islam around the Mediterranean in the seventh century led to widespread political destabilization and further structural changes in the region. By the eleventh century, a degree of stability had settled upon the area, three major power groupings having emerged to take the place of the former Roman Empire.

Byzantium, a region that centered on the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul, in modern-day Turkey). The form of Christianity that predominated in this region was based on the Greek language and was deeply rooted in the writings of patristic scholars of the eastern Mediterranean region, such as Athanasius, the Cappadocian fathers, and John of Damascus. A discussion of some distinctive themes of Byzantine theology may be found later in this chapter on pp. 93–5.

Western Europe, mainly regions such as France, Germany, the Low Countries, and northern Italy. The form of Christianity that came to dominate this region was centered on the city of Rome and its bishop, known as “the Pope.” (However, for the period known as the “Great Schism,” some confusion developed: there were two rival claimants for the papacy, one based at Rome, the other at the southern French city of Avignon.) Here, theology came to be concentrated in the great cathedral and university schools of Paris and elsewhere, based largely on the Latin writings of Augustine, Ambrose, and Hilary of Poitiers.

The Caliphate, an Islamic region embracing much of the extreme eastern and southern parts of the Mediterranean. The expansion of Islam continued, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 sending shock waves throughout much of Europe. By the end of the fifteenth century, Islam had established a significant presence in two regions of the continent of Europe: Spain and the Balkans. This advance was eventually halted by the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in the final decade of the fifteenth century and the defeat of Islamic armies outside Vienna in 1523.

An event of fundamental importance to the history of the church, generally known as the “Great Schism,” took place during this period. For a variety of reasons, relations between the eastern church based at Constantinople and the western church based at Rome became increasingly strained during the ninth and tenth centuries. Growing disagreement over the filioque clause in the Nicene creed (see pp. 56–66) was of no small importance to this increasingly sour atmosphere. Other factors also contributed, including the political rivalry between Latin-speaking Rome and Greek-speaking Constantinople and the increasing claims to authority of the Roman Pope. The final break between the Catholic west and Orthodox east is usually dated to 1054, although this date is slightly arbitrary. Tensions between the two regions dated from much earlier than this.

One major result of this breakdown in relations between the eastern and western churches was that there was little theological interaction between them. Although western theologians such as Thomas Aquinas felt free to draw on the writings of Greek fathers, these works tended to antedate this period. The works of later Orthodox theologians, such as the noted writer Gregory Palamas, attracted little attention in the west. It is only in the twentieth century that western theology may really be said to have begun to rediscover the riches of the Orthodox tradition.

The term “medieval theology” is often used to refer to western theology during this era, whereas the term “Byzantine theology” is used to refer to the theology of the eastern church over roughly the same period, prior to the fall of the city of Constantinople to Ottoman armies in 1453. During this period in western European history, the centers of Christian theology gradually moved northward, to central France and Germany. Although Rome remained a center of Christian power in the region, intellectual activity gradually came to migrate to the monasteries of France, such as Chartres, Rheims, and Bec. With the foundation of the medieval universities, theology rapidly established itself as a central area of academic study. A typical medieval university possessed four faculties: the td-level faculty of arts and the three higher faculties of theology, medicine, and law. In what follows, we shall consider some of these developments in western Europe, before turning to consider developments in Byzantium.

↑ Back to top