7. The Reconstituted Roman Empire: Charlemagne and Papal Power

In the late 1970s when I was a new professor teaching my first courses in church history, one of the questions students sometimes asked as we moved into the Middle Ages was: “Do you think there were any real Christians then?” Though I should not have been surprised, I was nevertheless jolted by the query.

My response today is the same as then: of course there were! Moreover, there is no way for Protestants to trace their heritage back to the New Testament era or to the church fathers except by going through the Roman Catholic Church. We may rightly ask whether certain popes were truly Christian. But whatever the answer, they are our popes. The Western church did not disappear in the generations following the apostle Paul and then suddenly reappear as Martin Luther was nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg. Nor is the matter solved by identifying “Protestant” stepping stones such as Waldo, Wycliffe, and Hus.

Mormons maintain that the gospel was lost at the end of the apostolic age and that it reappeared in the form of the “Restored Gospel” when Joseph Smith dug gold plates from the Hill Cumorah. That is Mormon history. It is not Christian history — even if we were to shrink the “lost” centuries down to ten or fewer.

I am a Catholic through the Middle Ages. My people (Lutheran by ancestry, Reformed by adoption) came straight out of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther and John Calvin were both Catholics, as were the vast majority of firstgeneration Protestants.

As Protestants, we do our own heritage a disservice if we imagine that medieval Catholicism belongs to Catholics only. It is a heritage we share. With that perspective, it is natural for us to regard Catholics today as brothers and sisters whose ancestors, unlike ours, did not veer off the Roman Catholic road in the sixteenth century.

Nil manet aeternum, nihil immutabile vere est, Obscurat sacrum nox tenebrosa diem. Nothing remains forever, nothing is truly unchangeable, Shadowy night blots out the holy day.

ALCUIN (D. 804)

When we contemplate the Catholic Church, we have no difficulty affirming that nothing remains unchangeable or even remains forever. Of course the church has remained, but it is not the same church that existed in medieval times. A thousand years ago the Catholic Church was often as wild and unruly as the barbarians it sought to convert. Clerical sins ranged from adultery and embezzlement to rape and murder. And unlike the scandals of today, some of the clergy from popes on down seemed almost to glory in their crimes.

Any study of medieval popes reveals a close proximity to heads of state. This is a time when the church reigns supreme but never without interference or challenge. Here we see the full flowering of Christendom — a theocracy of sorts born in the reign of Emperor Constantine and reignited on Christmas Day 800, when Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The papacy maintains close connections with “secular” government; at times the two are virtually one and the same. Missionary outreach, bolstered by the military, is considered a critical component of foreign policy.

But missions and monasteries also foster literacy and libraries and a spirited upsurge in scholarship. The medieval period that indulges violence and church corruption also promotes mathematics and metaphysics and manuscript copying. And there is a keen awareness that individuals and events are part of the record that will stand the test of time. History matters, and names are not to be forgotten. Among them are Boniface, Alcuin, Charlemagne, Anskar, Pope Joan, Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand), Urban II, and Innocent III.

The Byzantine civilization centered in Constantinople blossoms as the Western Roman Empire is falling into decay. Many of the glories of Rome are transported east and adapted by the Byzantine culture. Roman law and statecraft is absorbed into Justinian’s codes, and from the Hellenistic culture of Greece comes science, philosophy, poetry, and prose as well as music, art, and architecture. During the three centuries following Gregory the Great, civilization in the East is more advanced than in the West, where culture often seems to be regressing, spurred on by inequalities of feudalism. Territorial kings rule over warrior lords of the manor. The lords contract not only knights as fighting men but also a host of others. All are vassals in a system that ranks every individual from top to bottom, peasant serfs being at the very bottom, trading arduous labor for security and use of the land. But the disparity between the landed nobles and the impoverished peasants cannot last. Nor are knights — or peasants — always reliable. There are uprisings of serfs and battles among kings and among nobles. Indeed, there is a continual rearranging of society, all in the shadow of Viking raids from the undefined borders to the north.

PARADE OF HISTORY

The pomp and pageantry of the Eastern church is matched by that of the Western church as a procession of popes moves through medieval times. The power of the empire competes with the power of the church in a parade of pickpockets, clerics, clowns, court jesters, and criminals of every kind. The most titillating story features a female pope who gives birth during the fanfare of a parade from St. Peter’s to the Lateran. But the most shameful of parades of this era are the Crusades. Marching off to the Holy Land with a flourish, these frenzied swarms of civilian soldiers and besotted citizens mark the low point of the period.

Built on a foundation of sand, the feudal hierarchy begins to crumble into anarchy, despite the widely quoted clerical claim of its being authorized by God:

God himself has willed that among men, some must be lords and some serfs, in such a fashion that the lords venerate and love God, and that the serfs love and venerate their lord following the word of the Apostle; serfs obey your temporal lords with fear and trembling; lords treat your serfs according to justice and equity.

Popes in the generations following Gregory I are mostly Romans (or at least Italians) who view their reigns as political plums. Their independence, however, is curtailed by the still-powerful Byzantine emperor. But by the eighth century, the political power of the West is beginning to emerge, in fits and starts, from barbarian devastation. And by the time of Gregory II, whose sixteen-year reign begins in 715, the East is struggling on two fronts—the iconoclastic controversy from within and Muslim threats from without.

Another factor that offers the Western church a measure of independence is poor communication — the distance between Rome and Constantinople and the fact that the well-designed Roman roads are now in disrepair. What once was a northern land of barbarians is now being tamed in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. The Franks — from the time of Clovis — and the Germans are on their way to adopting a European Catholic mentality through the influence of Charles Martel and Boniface and later Charlemagne.

As the power of kings becomes more centralized, so also does the power of popes — power based in some instances on outright forgeries, the most notorious being the Donatio Constantini (Donation of Constantine), written around 750. Pope Hadrian I is the first to cite it as justification for Charlemagne to recognize the authority of the church. His letter, dated 778, references “blessed Sylvester, Roman Pontiff,” who was given “the right to bestow authority” over vast realms by Emperor Constantine. Although this was long before Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Romans, Charlemagne has a give-and-take relationship with the papacy, and the letter perhaps seemed to him as routine bartering. Such had been the case with his father and grandfather. His father, Pippin (the Short, whose grandson was Pippin the Hunchback), was crowned King of the Franks in 754 by Pope Stephen II; and his grandfather, Charles (the Hammer) Martel (the illegitimate son of Pippin the Middle), was also indebted to popes and bishops for his power.

Charles Martel was the warrior king who unified the Franks, preparing the way for his grandson, Charlemagne. A ruthless military general, he beat back the Saxons and later the Frisians. But his most celebrated claim to fame came in 732 at the Battle of Tours. His was a decisive victory over the Muslim invaders, though not the one-sided exaggeration portrayed by a chronicler:

EVERYDAY LIFE

Same Sex Love

When historians read letters and other documents from the medieval Mediterranean world, it is easy to view customs through the lens of their own culture. But such a perspective can be very misleading. Expressions of same-sex love and friendship, for example, are often presumed to be homosexual in nature. Homosexuality was not uncommon in ancient and medieval times, but what appears to a contemporary Western eye to be gay or lesbian love may have been nothing of the sort.

In early medieval times passionate pledges of “brotherly love” were the norm. In fact, there were sometimes signed contracts binding “blood-brothers” together, not as in a marriage contract but as a bond of loyalty to one another. Such bonds also exhibited physical expressions of love. For example, in the eleventh century Anselm wrote to two young men embarking on a monastic life: “My eyes eagerly long to see your face, most beloved; my arms stretch out to your embraces. My lips long for your kisses; whatever remains of my life desires your company.” On another occasion, he wrote to a monk assigned to another monastery: “We cannot now be separated without tearing apart our joint soul and severing our heart.” Such passion should not necessarily be equated with sexual desires. After all, Anselm later initiated the Council of London, which among other things, regulated against homosexual activity among clerics.

Alcuin’s Passionate Poetry and Love

During the early Middle Ages …”passionate friendship” … was common and comprised the subject matter of much clerical writing….

A distinctly erotic element, for instance, is notable in the circle of clerical friends presided over by Alcuin at the court of Charlemagne. This group included some of the most brilliant scholars of the day … but the erotic element subsisted principally between Alcuin and his pupils … The prominence of love in Alcuin’s writings, all of which are addressed to males, is striking. In one poem he writes, “You, sweet love, are the most welcome guest of all.”

Another is addressed to someone older:

Love has pierced my heart with its flame …,

And love always burns with fresh fire….

Let me therefore flee to you with my whole heart,

And do you flee to me from the vanishing world….

He wrote to a friend (a bishop and possibly the recipient of the poem quoted above),

I think of your love and friendship with such sweet memories, reverend bishop, that I long for that lovely time when I may be able to clutch the neck of your sweetness with the fingers of my desires. Alas, if only it were granted to me … to be transported to you, how would I sink into your embraces … how would I cover, with tightly pressed lips, not only your eyes, ears, and mouth but also your every finger and your toes, not once but many a time.

John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality

Later in the Middle Ages, the intense love that Hildegaard of Bingen expresses toward a younger nun, Richardis von Stade (who served her faithfully and then departed to another convent), is sometimes presumed to be a lesbian love. But the context suggests, rather a deep motherly love. Monastic culture often encouraged the writing of love letters to God and Jesus and the saints — and to fellow monks and nuns. The spiritual love they expressed to one another was often just that — a form of intense platonic affection. It would be naïve to assume, however, that homosexuality was not at times a factor.

The Muslims planned to go to Tours to destroy the Church of St. Martin, the city, and the whole country. Then came against them the glorious Prince Charles, at the head of his whole force…. By the grace of Our Lord, he wrought a great slaughter upon the enemies of Christian faith, so that—as history bears witness — he slew in that battle 300,000 men, likewise their king And what was the greatest marvel of all, he only lost in that battle 1500 men.

Charles commissioned Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, to evangelize the Frisians and Boniface (Winfrid) to evangelize the Germanic tribes He seemed to see no conflict in combining military might with missions.

Boniface (Winfrid): Apostle to the Germans

The most celebrated medieval missionary was Winfrid Boniface (c. 672 – 754), an ordained priest and monk from Devonshire England Willibald, who wrote The Life of St. Boniface in 768, presents his as a typical “saintly” childhood After he was weaned and reared with his mother’s “anxious care,” Winfrid decided “to enter the service of God and began to think deeply of the monastic life “ He sought the counsel of clerics on how to overcome “the frailties of his nature “ When his father learned of his desire to become a monk, he rebuked him “with violence” and paraded “before him all the inducements of pleasure and luxury “ But he resisted, “filled with the spirit of God “ Then his father, “struck down by a sudden and fatal sickness,” at last gives the boy his blessing.

Hearing the stories of missionary monks, Winfrid recognizes his calling to cross the English channel and evangelize the “heathen” on the continent After an unsuccessful ministry in Friesland, he returns home But three years later, in 718, he sets out again, though first traveling to Rome, where he receives a papal commission After facing more failures, he finally settles in the Rhineland, where he will serve for the remainder of his life In 723 he again visits Rome, this time to be commissioned a missionary bishop by Pope Gregory II, who gives him the name Boniface.

His most celebrated confrontation with paganism is his attack on the thunder god at Geismar A mighty oak tree stands as a sacred symbol, the very spirit of the god Some in the region are faithful Christians, but others offer sacrifices to trees and springs and conduct various divinations and incantations. Upon his arrival, Boniface strides into the middle of the crowd, grabs an axe, and begins chopping down the gigantic tree. “Suddenly, the oak’s vast bulk, shaken by a mighty blast of wind from above crashed to the ground” forming a Cross, writes Willibald. Indeed, “the oak burst asunder into four parts, each part having a trunk of equal length. At the sight of this extraordinary spectacle the heathens who had been cursing ceased to revile and began, on the contrary, to believe and bless the Lord.”

Boniface’s martyrdom in 754

“Can there be a more fitting pursuit in youth or a more valuable possession in old age than a knowledge of Holy Writ? In the midst of storms it will preserve you from the dangers of shipwreck and guide you to the shore of an enchanting paradise and the ever-lasting bliss of the angels.”

Boniface

Like other earlier missionaries, Boniface establishes monastic mission outposts, always with military support. Among these monasteries is the double (coed) monastery of Bischofsheim, where his cousin Lioba serves as the abbess, ruling over both nuns and monks in separate communities. The nuns — both English and native women — are cloistered, rarely going outside the convent walls. But regional officials, church leaders, and commoners come for counsel with the great abbess, “whose reputation for holiness and virtuous teaching,” according to Boniface, “had penetrated across wide lands and fill the hearts of many with praise.”

Lioba quickly realizes, however, that this is dangerous work. Boniface laments that local rulers “have shown their evil disposition and have sinned in a criminal way against the teaching of the gospels” by persisting “in the seduction of nuns.” Nevertheless, she perseveres and goes on to establish more outposts. Soon there is “hardly a convent of nuns in that part which had not one of her disciples as abbess.”

Meanwhile, Boniface is establishing a monastery at Fulda with the military support of Charles Martel. “Without the protection of the prince of the Franks,” he writes, “I can neither rule the people or the church nor defend the priests and clerks, monks and nuns; nor can I prevent the practice of pagan rites and sacrilegious worship of idols without his mandate and the awe inspired by his name.”

Boniface often clashes with Celtic and French Monks, whom he regards as disloyal to Rome. His greatest clash, however, occurs when he turns his work over to others and returns to pioneer missionary outreach. In 754 he journeys back to Friesland, where he and some fifty of his associates are ambushed and killed by local pagan forces. In 771, less than two decades following his death, Charlemagne ascends the throne, and during the nearly half-century of his reign, he combines missions and military might to extend the boundaries of the empire.

Alcuin: Principal of the Palace School

Prior to the reign of Charlemagne, a fine scholar and educator lit a candle, and the “Dark Ages” began to fade into dawn. Alcuin (c. 735 – 804) stands out as the greatest educator of this era. He was in many ways Charlemagne’s opposite. A highly literate and literary monk, he seemed an unlikely associate of the often-vicious warrior king. But Charlemagne’s choice of Alcuin to head his Palace School in France was a stroke of genius.

Anything but a one-man show, Alcuin assembled the greatest scholars of the age in the Palace School. Late in life, he summed up his accomplishments, saying he had “dispensed the honey of the scripture, intoxicated my students with the wine of ancient learning, fed them the apples of grammatical refinement, and adorned them with the knowledge of astronomy.” He did far more than that, and his scholarly reach stretched across Europe and beyond. Among his achievements are not only the founding of libraries but also the production of books, wherein he introduces a smaller font than was previously used — a calligraphy (Carolingian Miniscule) that allows for many more words per page of parchment, thus significantly reducing the cost of manuscripts.

Born into a noble family from York in Northumbria (northeast England), the precocious Alcuin (nicknamed Albinus) is placed in the Cathedral School at York as a young child. He quickly sprints to the head of his class, and his renowned master Egbert gives him special tutoring and takes him on his travels to the continent. When Egbert is elevated to the position of archbishop, he names Alcuin to succeed him. For the next fifteen years Alcuin maintains high academic standards while expanding the library, faculty, and enrollment. The best and brightest come to sit under his teaching.

MISSIONS AND MILITARY MIGHT

Since the times of Charlemagne’s grandfather, the idea of reforming the Frankish Church was linked to that of evangelizing the Saxon and Frisian pagans of the north. The energy and cultural training required to restore discipline and propriety among the bishops and monks of Gaul were the same qualities required to undertake missionary work beyond the borders of Christendom. It is no surprise then that the most important churchman and the architect of the first reforms under Charles Martel and later under Carloman and Pepin was a missionary. Boniface enjoyed the friendship of the Frankish mayors of the palace, and they provided him with indispensable political and military backing for his apostolate in Germany.

Alessandro Barbero and Allan Cameron, Charlemagne

His big break comes in the spring of 781 in Parma, Italy, when he meets Charlemagne (then King of the Franks) who convinces him to leave his position and head up the Palace School in the royal court in the town of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). An admirer of Charlemagne, Alcuin accepts the challenge and sets the stage for what would become known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The Palace School is the academy of choice for sons of the royal families and nobility, including Charlemagne’s son Pepin. With funds from his patron, Alcuin expands the library and attracts the best minds of Europe to this prestigious center of learning.

Alcuin is known primarily through his enormous capacity for correspondence, his letters copied and passed along for their wisdom and counsel. He challenges monks overseeing young scholars in Northumbria to “consider the splendour of your churches, the beauty of your buildings, your way of life according to the Rule.” They should be appreciative of the architecture that surrounds them every day. Knowing the temptations of the scholars under their charge, he continues: “Let the boys be present with praises of the heavenly king and not be digging foxes out of holes or following the fleeting courses of hares…. He who does not learn when he is young does not teach when he is old.”

Alcuin lives during difficult times. Learning is often interrupted by fierce invaders from the north who have no appreciation for high culture. When he learns that Vikings have ravaged his homeland, he is inconsolable. But his own emperor, Charlemagne, could be equally ruthless in crushing the opposition. He imposes the death penalty on Saxons who refuse to be baptized. It is no wonder, then, that revolt begins with the burning of churches and the slaughter of priests. Alcuin strongly objects to the bloodshed, writing to Charlemagne that “faith arises from the will, not from compulsion. You can persuade a man to believe, but you cannot force him You may even be able to force him to be baptized, but this will not help to instill the faith within him “ The Saxons, he insists, need “preachers, not predators “ Neither is the imposition of tithes acceptable. “The tithes, they say, destroyed the faith of the Saxons.”

ALCUIN AND HIS PUZZLES

In addition to his expertise in theology, linguistics, and biblical studies, Alcuin was a master of liberal arts, fine arts, mathematics, and science. In fact, he is considered one of the fathers of mathematics. Mathematics and logic, he reasoned, could be best understood through story problems. With that in mind, he developed and passed along puzzles that were designed to sharpen the minds of young students. The best known of these brain teasers are the stories of the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage and the story of the three jealous husbands, each of whom would not let the others be alone with his wife. The stories are similar; in each case there must be a crossing of a river. The problem relates to how many times the boat must go across the river to accomplish its purpose. In the case of the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage, if left alone to their own devices, the wolf will eat the goat or the goat will eat the cabbage. So how does one mentally think the way out of this problem? At some point the oarsman must bring back something that has already been left on the other shore. The same is true of the jealous husbands and their wives. The only way people advance in life, Alcuin asserted, is to think their way out of problems.

THE VENERABLE BEDE

A scholar of the Carolingian Renaissance, Bede (c. 672 – 735) was first and foremost a writer and teacher. In addition to his biblical commentaries, he wrote his celebrated masterpiece, A History of the English Church and People. The text is a remarkably objective treatment of the period, drawn “from ancient documents, from the traditions of our forebears, and from my own personal knowledge.”

Born into a prosperous family in Northumbria, he entered a monastery at age seven and died in a monastery more than a half-century later. Monastery life, however, did not preclude his having a wife. In one of his commentaries he writes: “Prayers are hindered by the conjugal duty because as often as I perform what is due to my wife I am not able to pray.” In another commentary, he confesses: “Formerly I possessed a wife in the lustful passion of desire and now I possess her in honourable sanctification and true love of Christ.”

Bede is remembered not only as the father of English history but also for his passion for having the Bible translated into the language of his own people. To Archbishop Egbert, he wrote of the need for Scripture “to be known and constantly repeated in their own tongue by those that are unlearned, that is, by them who have knowledge only of their proper tongue” — this he wrote centuries prior to the Protestant Reformation. His own contribution to this cause was an Old English translation of the gospel of John, which was completed on his deathbed.

In affairs of state, Alcuin is regarded as one of Charlemagne’s chief advisors; but, missing his homeland, he returns to England in 790 Within a few short years, however, Charlemagne recalls him He is needed to stand up against Felix, archbishop of Urgel, and the growing Adoptionist heresy — belief that Jesus was only an adopted son and became divine through sinless fidelity to God The matter is settled, largely through Alcuin’s arguments, at the Council of Frankfurt in 794 But Alcuin insists that heretics, like pagans, should not face the death penalty Indeed, Felix, whose Adoptionist position is soundly rejected at the Council, is allowed to return to his home in Spain, where he continues for many years to preach his heresy

In 796 Alcuin becomes the abbot of Saint Martin’s abbey at Tours Now in his sixties, he is determined to leave the life of court luxury and return to monastic living. In 800, four years before his death, he encourages Charlemagne to go to Rome to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope.

By this time, Theodulf of Orleans has stepped into the position Alcuin vacated when he departed to the abbey four years earlier He carries on the educational and ecclesiastical reforms of the Carolingian Renaissance for more than a decade after the death of Alcuin. Accused of conspiracy in 817, he is exiled and dies in 821 from poisoning Today Saint Theodulf might be forgotten but for his great Palm Sunday hymn, which is often sung while children process into the sanctuary waving palm branches:

All glory, laud, and honor to thee, Redeemer, king,

To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

Emperor Charlemagne: Education, Women, and War

Like military leaders before him, Charlemagne (742 – 814) was a ruthless warrior bent on expanding his vast domains. Yet by all accounts he was a religious man who promoted and funded monasteries. The oldest son of Pippin III and grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne grew up in a military family that controlled a large portion of what is today Switzerland and France. His mother, Bertha, a daughter of royalty, brought prestige and lands to the marriage. Little is known of his childhood but, according to his earliest biographer, his physical presence as an adult was unmistakable: “He was six feet four inches tall, and built to scale. He had beautiful white hair, animated eyes, a powerful nose … always stately and dignified.” Disciplined in eating and drinking, his mealtime entertainment was not the usual fare of court jesters. Rather, an aide read aloud the best literature of the day. He was conversant in other languages, believing that “to have another language is to possess a second soul.”

Emperor Charlemagne

On his father’s death in 668, when Charles is in his mid-twenties, he and his brother Carolman become co-heirs to the vast kingdom. When Carolman dies three years later, Charles becomes sole king of the Franks. His mother arranges a marriage with Desiderata, daughter of the king of the Lombards, for obvious political gain, but the marriage is annulled the following year. Charles reportedly puts her out — against his mother’s wishes — and marries thirteen-year-old Hildegard, a duke’s daughter. She bears him nine children, several of whom grow up to be their father’s land-grabbing warriors.

With Desiderata out of the way, Charles declares war on her father and conquers the Lombards in northern Italy. From there he moves south and also pushes the borders of his kingdom into what is today Spain, Hungary, and Germany. Ruthless as a commander, he reportedly executes more than four thousand Saxon prisoners in a single day. Nor is he a gentleman on the home front. Hildegard competes with eight wives and concubines and many more children.

In addition to his campaigns of aggression, Charles holds back invading Muslims. But expansion is his forte, often through relatively peaceful means with little dismantling of local culture. Indeed, surrendering to his forces has positive effects. With a unified administration, local wars diminish, and commerce, farming, and education are vastly improved.

The turning point in Charlemagne’s reign comes in 800. A year earlier Pope Leo III had appealed for protection. Having risen up through the ranks from the lower classes, Leo is scorned by Roman aristocrats and fears for his life. Charles uses the opportunity to boost his own standing. He comes to Saint Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Day 800 to pray, and there the pope crowns him Holy Roman Emperor. Labeled “Charlemagne’s Pope,” Leo reigns until he dies in 816. Yet he stands his ground against the emperor on some matters, particularly when Charlemagne, motivated by expansionist aims, seeks to change the Nicene Creed by adding the filioque (“and the son”), a move considered heretical by the Eastern Church.

With wars yet to wage, Charlemagne reforms the realms already under his rule. Inaugurating the “Carolingian Renaissance,” he courts scholars, most notably Alcuin, and encourages education across the empire. His court at Aachen becomes an impressive cultural and educational center. With Alcuin’s expertise, he creates a university town, drawing talent from all social levels and fostering a wide range of academic disciplines. Music, art, architecture, roads, bridges, and thermal baths add to the city’s prestige.

But to the end of his life, Charlemagne the warrior is sending troops into battle, sometimes leading the charge himself. In 811, when he is marching his men north to attack King Godefrid and his Norse army, he learns that the king has been murdered. The seventy-year-old Charlemagne turns back. It would be his last campaign. He dies in 814 with his son, Louis the Pious, succeeding him. His long reign of forty-seven years can be summed up in his own terms: “By the sword and the cross.” Most of his subjects had known no other ruler. A monk penned lines that spoke for many:

From the lands where the sun rises to western shores, People are crying and wailing … the Franks, the Romans, all Christians, are stung with mourning and great worry … the young and old, glorious nobles, all lament the loss of their Caesar…. The world laments the death of Charles…. O Christ, you who govern the heavenly host, grant a peaceful place to Charles in your kingdom. Alas for miserable me.

Following the reign of Charlemagne, the papacy begins a lengthy period of decline. Thirty-five popes reign in the 170 years between 880 and 1050, averaging less than five years each. Indeed, between 896 and 904 there are nine popes — the same number that reigned in the whole of the twentieth century. The short tenure is not because they are old and sickly: some begin their reign as teenagers. Some are deposed, others murdered; some reign only a few weeks or months. Five popes are assassinated. Besides popes, there are antipopes, making a tidy chronology of succession well nigh impossible. The era is tainted by papal corruption of every kind. It thus might be natural to suppose that a feminine touch would bring some decorum to this male-only club.

Pope Joan: Legend and Legacy

That a woman would sit in the papal throne is not so inconceivable in light of the fact that some popes in this era were unordained teenagers. Furthermore, women often held an honored place in the church, sometimes, like Lioba, overseeing large monastic complexes.

John Anglicus was reportedly an English scientist who relocated in Rome and gained a reputation for erudite scholarship. His status and renown paved the way for church office. Indeed, the scientist soon became a cardinal and, with the death of Pope Leo IV, was elevated to the papacy in 853. All goes well until one day, while in procession to the Lateran from St Peter’s Basilica, the carriage is forced to make a quick stop while the pope gives birth to a baby “in a narrow lane between the Coliseum and St Clement’s church “ One of the earlier sources tells the story with a slightly different slant She “disguised herself as a man and became, by her character and talents, a curial secretary, then a cardinal, and finally pope. One day, while mounting a horse, she gave birth to a child.”

THE CADAVER SYNOD

In an era of papal sleaze some popes — most notably Stephen VII — almost seem to revel in their wickedness. The act for which Stephen is most remembered is his presiding over the “Cadaver Synod” in January of 897. Ordering the body of his predecessor, Formosus (891 – 896), unearthed, he demands that the “stinking corpse” be attired in papal robes, propped up in a chair, and put on trial. Formosus, who had reigned as pope for five years, was by all accounts able, intelligent, and saintly — at least by ninth-century standards. But Stephen, acting as judge, rails at the decayed corpse. Formosus, not surprisingly, loses his case and is duly punished. Three fingers from his right hand by which he had given the papal blessing are chopped off, and his papal garments are exchanged for the garments of a pauper. All his acts and decrees as pope are invalidated — as was his papacy itself. Stephen reigns only a matter of months before he is stripped of his papal crown, imprisoned, and strangled. In 897, long after his body was thrown in the Tiber (on the orders of Stephen) and retrieved by a devoted follower, Formosus is reinstated as a legitimate (albeit dead) pope and given a proper papal burial. A decade later, however, his body is once again unearthed on the orders of Pope Sergius III. This time he would be properly humiliated by being beheaded.

Following the birth, the narrative is muddled. Pope John VIII, who is actually Pope Joan, reigns for less than three years. But when she is found to be disguising herself as a man, there is no mercy By one account she is tied by the feet and dragged over the cobblestones while citizens of Rome stone her to death She is then buried at the very spot where she gave birth—the whereabouts of the baby unknown. She is not “placed on the list of the holy pontiffs, both because of her female sex and on account of the foulness of the matter “ Another version suggests a more humane post-partum ending. She is secreted away to an undisclosed convent, where she repents and raises her son, who grows up to become bishop of Ostia.

From the thirteenth century into the Renaissance, the report of Pappess Joanna is widely disseminated — in one instance to defend a pope who is a heretic. If being a woman does not disqualify one from being pope, so the argument goes, why should heresy? Although the church officially denied the account, the rumors persisted — one asserting that for a time there was a statue near the Lateran called “The Woman Pope with Her Child “ Likewise, the church was rumored to be so nervous about the possibility of electing another woman pope that the chair used for the papal consecration was designed with a hole so that an inspector can verify gender with certainty Sixteenth-century Reformers used the story to disparage the church Since that time the account of the female pope has continued to resurface, but it is generally considered to be no more than a fascinating, albeit false, story.

Anskar: Apostle to the North

The ministry of Anskar (801 – 865), like that of Boniface, is closely tied to military exploits. A French-born Benedictine monk, he risks his life to evangelize Scandinavia. Initially, he faces strong opposition in Denmark and welcomes an invitation from King Bjorn to relocate in Sweden. Successful as a diplomat, he is soon named archbishop of Hamburg for all Scandinavia and northern Europe. Conversions — often politically motivated — are numerous, but after fourteen years of arduous labor he is forced to flee. All the previous gains are lost with the Danish invasion of Sweden.

As military threats wane, he returns to his post and pours his life into spiritual formation rather than merely counting converts. A preaching, teaching monk who leads by example, he is troubled when he is heralded a saint and insists that his life story not be written until after he dies. Yet he knows his story will inspire others, and Rimbert, his biographer, faithfully records it, emphasizing his youthful conversion:

When he had thus given himself up to boyish levity, he had a vision during the night in which he appeared to be in a miry and slippery place, from which he could not escape except with great difficulty; beside him was a delightful path on which he saw a matron advancing … followed by many other women clothed in white, with whom was his (deceased) mother…. The mistress [being] the Holy Mary, said to him: “My son … if you desire to share our companionship, you must flee from every kind of vanity….” Immediately after this vision … his manner of life … suddenly changed.

Anskar is known for prayer and fasting but never at the expense of other duties. His monks are expected to be ever busy at work — taking a page from the Benedictine principle ora et labora (pray and work). When unable to do heavy manual labor, he is often seen knitting while he prays. Like many other medieval saints, Anskar is credited with countless miracles. He brushed aside such claims, insisting that “the greatest miracle in my life would be if God ever made a thoroughly pious man out of me.” He died of natural causes, having been denied the martyr’s crown for which he longed. In the years that followed, much of his religious realm reverted to paganism.

SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN, ROMAN AMAZONS, AND PAPAL PORNOCRACY

The political disorder of Europe [in the tenth century] affected the church and paralyzed its efforts for good. The papacy itself lost all independence and dignity, and became the prey of avarice, violence, and intrigue, a veritable synagogue of Satan…. And what is worse … three bold and energetic women of the highest rank and lowest character, Theodora the elder … and her two daughters, Marozia and Theodora, filled the chair of St. Peter with their paramours and bastards. These Roman Amazons combined with the fatal charms of personal beauty and wealth, a rare capacity for intrigue, and a burning lust for power and pleasure…. They turned the church of St. Peter into a den of robbers, and the residence of his successors into a harem. And they gloried in their shame. Hence this infamous period is called the papal Pornocracy.

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church

Gregory VII (Hildebrand): Proponent of Papal Supremacy

Hildebrand (c. 1020 – 1085), who reigned as Gregory VII for twelve years beginning in 1073, was the most honorable and most powerful pope in the centuries following Gregory I. Born in Soana, a village in southern Tuscany, he worked his way up the clerical ladder with the help of his uncle, a well-connected abbot. He was a powerhouse of managerial energy and was known as the “little monk” because he was small in stature and had been educated in a monastery in Rome. His competency attracted the attention of John Gratian (Pope Gregory VI), who in 1045 had purchased the papal office from his god-son Pope Benedict IX for a large sum. On assuming office, John Gratian assigned Hildebrand the job of eradicating the corruption and violence running rampant in all levels of the church.

But opposition is strong. A year later, in 1046, King Henry III of Germany deposes John Gratian along with two other competing popes and names a German bishop as Pope Clement II. Clement returns the favor by crowning Henry as Holy Roman Emperor, giving him the authority to appoint subsequent popes. Pope Gregory (John Gratian), flees to Germany for refuge, accompanied by Hildebrand. After Gregory dies, Hildebrand briefly returns to monastic life before being called back to Rome to become an aide to Pope Leo IX. When Leo dies, Hildebrand continues his administrative responsibilities under Pope Victor II, and two years later he is working in behalf of the soon-to-be-elected Pope Stephen IX. In 1059 he secures the papal throne for Nicholas II, and he is again at center stage in 1061 for the coronation of Pope Alexander II, whose reign extends for twelve years, during which time Hildebrand’s star continues to rise.

While the funeral rites are being conducted in Rome for Alexander on a spring day in 1073, a sudden uproar is heard in the Lateran basilica: “Blessed Peter has chosen Hildebrand! Let Hildebrand be pope!” Hildebrand reportedly seeks to stifle the crowd, but when the ceremony is over, he accepts an escort, and with cheering crowds, goes to St. Peter’s, where cardinals and other high-ranking clergy pronounce his election as pope. His detractors charge that the election is highly irregular and even illegal. It ignores the protocol set in place by his predecessor, Nicholas II, most specifically that papal elections must have the approval of the German emperor — in this case Henry IV. But he is the right man for the job. The rationale is enunciated the following day in the decree of election:

A man mighty in human and divine knowledge, a distinguished lover of equity and justice, a man firm in adversity and temperate in prosperity, a man, according to the saying of the Apostle, “of good behavior, blameless, modest, sober, chaste, given to hospitality, and ruling his house well”; a man from his childhood generously brought up in the bosom of this Mother Church, and for the merit of his life already raised to the archidiaconal dignity.

Henry IV, informed of the decision, gives his consent. Hildebrand is consecrated pope in June, having been ordained a priest in May. Like popes before him, he claims great power, based in part on the eighth-century forged Donation of Constantine. Hildebrand, however, trumps the Donation with his own Dictatus, twenty-seven theses that confirm his power.

Old enough to be Henry’s grandfather, Hildebrand seeks to take advantage of the king’s youth. But opponents of the pope are numerous, particularly after he threatens to both excommunicate and depose Henry. Indeed, on Christmas night 1076, Hildebrand is ambushed and taken prisoner, only to be released the next day. But weeks later, Henry calls a synod and, with the support of German clergy and ruling class, deposes the pope. Hildebrand promptly declares Henry not only deposed but also excommunicated. Henry shoots back with a memo accusing Hildebrand of being “no pope” at all, who must be replaced with “another who will not cloak violence with religion” — a “false monk” who dares to defy the one “anointed to kingship” by God. “Step down, step down, thou eternally damned.”

GREGORY VII, DICTATUS PAPAE (1075)

1. That the Roman church was established by God alone….

9. That all princes shall kiss the foot of the pope alone….

12. That he has the power to depose emperors….

18. That his decree can be annulled by no one, and that he can annul the decrees of anyone.

19. That he can be judged by no one.

22. That the Roman Church has never erred and will never err to all eternity….

26. That no one can be regarded as catholic who does not agree with the Roman Church….

The showdown has begun. At stake is who will control appointments to church office. This dispute, known as the Investiture Controversy, is considered by many scholars to be the most far-reaching conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. Henry underestimates German reverence for the pope — and his own low popularity ratings. German princes, recognizing an opportunity to enhance their own standing, side with Hildebrand and are prepared to elect a new king. Recognizing his situation, Henry journeys across the Alps to a castle at Canosa where the pope is residing. For three long January days, he stands barefoot at the gate in penitence. Finally, the Pope absolves Henry and revokes the excommunication.

The pope has prevailed, and the king is humiliated. But soon Henry is up to his old tricks, and Hildebrand excommunicates him again. Henry then deposes Hildebrand, and Clement III becomes antipope. Hildebrand, now a sickly old man, is exiled. But he fights back with words: “I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.” He dies in 1085. Ten years later Henry is deposed for the final time by his own son and also dies in defeat.

For Hildebrand, however, glory comes some seven centuries later when he is canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1728. Considered by some to be one of the greatest pontiffs of all time, he fought corruption — with corruption, some would say — and helped clean up the moral sewer in which the church had been wallowing. His reign increased the power of the papacy and helped to establish a process whereby popes would be selected by the College of Cardinals.

Pope Urban II: Clamoring for Crusades

Hildebrand’s protégé, Urban II (c. 1035 – 1099), reigned as pope for more than a decade, from 1088 until his death, though opposition kept him in exile from Rome until 1094. He is most remembered for launching the Crusades. In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, he delivered a stirring address calling for an army of God to rescue the Holy Land from the Muslim invaders, a plea that had already been voiced by Alexius, emperor in the East. Rumors of Urban’s anticipated Crusade sermon had spread, spurring thousands of people to congregate and listen intently for marching orders. Priests and peasants, monks and military leaders pack the cathedral and push out into the surrounding fields as Urban gives a rousing appeal, speaking with force and conviction:

Pope Urban II commissions the First Crusade

From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth … an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God … has invaded the lands of those Christians and depopulated them by the sword, plundering and fire…. Recall the greatness of Charlemagne. O most valiant soldiers, descendants of invincible ancestors, be not degenerate. Let all hatred between you depart, all quarrels end, all wars cease. Start upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre, to tear that land from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves.

As he enumerates unspeakable atrocities of torture and rape and murder committed by Turks against Christians, the frenzied crowd spontaneously shouts “Deus vult!” (God wills it!), which will become the rallying cry of the Crusades. In the months following the council, Urban persuades some of the most popular preachers of the day to offer their support. Peter the Hermit becomes the front man, stirring Christians of every social status in villages and towns to sacrifice themselves and their sons to this work of God.

Vast armies of Christians make their way to the East, utterly unprepared to fight as disciplined soldiers or to sustain themselves apart from foraging off the land and breaking into homes. Jews and Muslims are sometimes slaughtered indiscriminately. Yet these untrained soldiers are persistent, despite their losses. They are fighting under the sign of the cross; this is a holy war.

Jerusalem is captured in 1099, taken by an army of less than forty thousand, the remnant of a swarm ten times that size. An observer wrote that he had waded through corpses and blood up to his knees on his way to worship on the Temple Mount the following morning. No doubt this was an exaggeration, but it is awful enough to make the Muslims vow they will never forget such atrocities.

Urban dies after the “victory” but before the news reaches Rome. He will play no part in the joyous celebrations. Christian forces control Jerusalem for most of a century and set up four Crusader states before being overtaken by Muslim warriors. The Eastern Empire has made a treaty with the Turks, much to the chagrin of the Western church leaders and crusaders. More Crusades will follow.

WERE THE CRUSADERS BARBARIANS?

The Crusades were not unprovoked. They were not the first round of European colonialism. They were not conducted for land, loot, or converts. The crusaders were not barbarians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. They sincerely believed that they served in God’s battalions.

Rodney Stark, God’s Battalions:

The Case for the Crusades

Pope Innocent III: Symbolic Sun

In the century following the death of Hildebrand, popes of varying capabilities come and go, but none have power and influence comparable to that of Innocent III (1160 – 1216). During his eighteen-year reign, he fashions the papacy into a multinational corporation such as never seen before. The pope, as he envisions the office, is the ruler of the universe, second only to God. Before he ascended the papal throne at age thirty-seven, he had analyzed the reign of six successive incompetent popes and had determined that he could be far more effective if he demanded for himself absolute power. So without wasting any time, he sealed his authority in the first year of his reign with a document boldly pronouncing himself the sun, in comparison to the temporal ruler, who was merely the moon.

Like many popes before and after, Innocent was born into a wealthy aristocratic family with clerical connections. Indeed, his pedigree was no less than Segni blueblood — a most prominent family that had, through the generations, given the church nine of its sons as popes. As a young man he had worked for his uncle, Pope Clement III. Armed with an excellent education, he went on to become one of the most scholarly popes of all times — and a wily politician as well. With sleight of hand, he turned rulers against each other for political advantage and excommunicated others, quickly naming their successors.

The most far-reaching test of his theory of power involved King John of England. The pope and king had previously crossed swords, their duel culminating in John’s refusal to accept Stephen Langton as Innocent’s nomination for archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent retaliated by placing England under interdict (a discontinuance of all church rites), published on Palm Sunday 1208. King John strikes back, confiscating church properties and levying heavy taxes on the clergy, sending his henchmen to break into their residences and kidnap the clerics’ unlawful wives — wives who can be retrieved only by paying a fine. The interdict lasts more than six years. Some eight thousand churches and cathedrals are closed, and thousands of clerics are without jobs. Christmas and Easter services and all Masses are cancelled, as are marriages and funerals. England is in a mess.

“THE MOON AND THE SUN”

The creator of the universe set up two great luminaries in the firmament of heaven; the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. In the same way for the firmament of the universal Church, which is spoken of as heaven, he appointed two great dignities; the greater to bear rule over souls (these being, as it were, days), the lesser to bear rule over bodies (those being, as it were, nights). These dignities are the pontifical authority and the royal power. Furthermore, the moon derives her light from the sun, and is in truth inferior to the sun in both size and quality, in position as well as effect. In the same way the royal power derives its dignity from the pontifical authority: and the more closely it cleaves to the sphere of that authority the less is the light with which it is adorned; the further it is removed, the more it increases in splendor.

Pope Innocent III, 1198

King John finally relents after Innocent incites Frankish warlords who are eager to invade England. He agrees to make financial reparations and to return the church property. But the six-year religious recession has profound consequences. English barons, angry with their king, rebel. The Magna Carta is drafted, and John is forced to sign it. However, Innocent, now fearing parliamentary power, promptly condemns the document and threatens excommunication on anyone who seeks to enforce it.

TEN CRUSADES

The generations before and after the reign of Charlemagne witnessed a corrosion of papal decorum. But it was also an era during which time the Church consolidated its power against the state and launched Crusades against its enemies. Catholicism today is vastly different, and yet it draws deeply from the often muddy well of medieval times.

The number of the Crusades varies from seven to more than a dozen (if lesser crusades such as the Shepherds’ Crusade are counted). The length of time is also disputed, the Seventh Crusade, for example, is sometimes calculated as two years rather than six. The success of the Crusades has been the most widely debated issue over the centuries, and they are often viewed today as dismal failures.

First Crusade (1096 – 1099): Initiated by Pope Urban II under the motto Deus vault! Joined by King Sigurd of Norway. Cheered on by Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless. Siege of Antioch and Jerusalem. Crusader States established.

Second Crusade (1147 – 1149): Instigated by Bernard of Clairvaux. Led by Emperor Conrad III and French King Louis VII. Jews are slaughtered; Lisbon is recaptured from Muslims.

Third Crusade (1187 – 1192): Initiated by Pope Henry VIII to mop up disasters of Second Crusade. Led by English King Richard I (the Lionheart), French King Philip II, and Emperor Frederick I. Jerusalem recaptured.

Fourth Crusade (1202 – 1204): Initiated by Pope Innocent III. Constantinople sacked and Crusader States re-established.

Children’s Crusade (1212): Led by French teenage peasant Stephen (accompanied by 30,000 children) and by a German leader of 7,000 children. None reached Holy Land, and the event may be more legend that historical fact.

Fifth Crusade (1217 – 1221): Initiated by the Fourth Lateran Council. Led by Hungarian King Andrew II and Austrian Duke Leopold VI. Goal is recovery of Jerusalem with attacks on Egypt. Greater losses than victories.

Sixth Crusade (1229 – 1229): Led by Emperor Frederick II, who recovers Jerusalem and Bethlehem through diplomacy and makes peace with Egypt.

Seventh Crusade (1248 – 1254): Led by French King Louis IX and directed primarily against Egypt.

Eighth Crusade (1270): Led by French King Louis IX. Destination is Syria. Ninth Crusade (1271 – 1272): Led by English Prince (later king) Edward I. Directed against the Sultan of Egypt and Syria.

But England is not the only brush fire Innocent is fighting. Fully aware of the bloodthirsty assaults in previous Crusades, he calls for a Fourth Crusade in 1198 (launched two years later). Although he is adamant that no Christian communities be attacked, unruly hordes sack the great city of Constantinople. Another target of the Crusade is a sectarian movement known as the Albigenses (or Cathars) in southern France. Refusing to acknowledge papal authority, they hold beliefs similar to those of the Manicheans, particularly a strong dualism of good and evil. Monks commissioned by the pope to set them straight are killed. Innocent declares war, suppresses the heresy, and confiscates their land.

Pope Innocent’s crowning achievement is the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the largest council to date, with some fifteen hundred clergy in attendance. At this council there is further consolidation of church power. The Waldensians (followers of Peter Waldo) are condemned and later persecuted with the full force of the Inquisition, and the church’s anti-Semitic stance is toughened. Jews are forcibly separated from Christians and required to wear badges identifying them as inferior to their countrymen. With Innocent’s endorsement, a Fifth Crusade is scheduled for 1217. But before it is launched, he dies.

Innocent’s legacy is summed up in part by On Heresy, Canon 3 of the Fourth Lateran Council. It sets the tone for centuries to follow:

We excommunicate and anathematize every heresy raising itself up against this holy, orthodox and catholic faith which we have expounded above. We condemn all heretics…. Let those condemned be handed over to the secular authorities … for due punishment…. Catholics who take the cross and gird themselves up for the expulsion of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgence, and be strengthened by the same holy privilege, as is granted to those who go to the aid of the Holy Land.

The generations before and after the reign of Charlemagne witnessed a corrosion of papal decorum. But it was also an era during which time the church consolidated its power against the state and launched Crusades against its enemies. Catholicism today is vastly different, and yet it draws deeply from the often-muddy well of medieval times.

What If….

What if Charlemagne had devoted his energy to military might, to the exclusion of education and the arts? It is difficult to imagine the Renaissance without the earlier Carolingian Renaissance of the later Middle Ages, spurred by this one man.

What if Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII) had not reformed the papacy, and the Catholic Church had continued on for generations mired in corruption? Might the Reformation have occurred much earlier? Or would the church have rotted and withered on the vine?

What if Urban II had not called for the First Crusade? Would the other Crusades have followed? The Crusades remain a sore point among Muslims today. How might Christian-Muslim relations be different were it not for the Crusades?

What if, centuries earlier, Charles Martel had not been victorious at the Battle of Tours, preventing the Moors from overrunning Europe? Would the Western world be Muslim today?

7. The Reconstituted Roman Empire: Charlemagne and Papal Power

7. The Reconstituted Roman Empire: Charlemagne and Papal Power

CHAPTER 7

The Reconstituted Roman Empire

Charlemagne and Papal Power

PARADE OF HISTORY

EVERYDAY LIFE

Alcuin’s Passionate Poetry and Love

Boniface (Winfrid): Apostle to the Germans

Alcuin: Principal of the Palace School

MISSIONS AND MILITARY MIGHT

ALCUIN AND HIS PUZZLES

THE VENERABLE BEDE

Emperor Charlemagne: Education, Women, and War

Pope Joan: Legend and Legacy

THE CADAVER SYNOD

Anskar: Apostle to the North

SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN, ROMAN AMAZONS, AND PAPAL PORNOCRACY

Gregory VII (Hildebrand): Proponent of Papal Supremacy

GREGORY VII, DICTATUS PAPAE (1075)

Pope Urban II: Clamoring for Crusades

WERE THE CRUSADERS BARBARIANS?

Pope Innocent III: Symbolic Sun

“THE MOON AND THE SUN”

TEN CRUSADES

What If….

Further Reading