Session 9: Tensions Within the Church
Session 9 Tensions Within the Church
Eastern and Western Christianity divided in 1054. The East
continued to develop in its distinct way after the schism.
We will do an overview of the development of monasticism and
popular religious devotion between 1000 and 1300.
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, participants should
• describe the
growing estrangement between East and West and list reasons for the schism
• know and
understand the events that shaped the development and reforms in monasticism •
understand the people involved—such as Bernard, Francis, Clare, Dominic—and
identify their various contributions
• know the
difference between the various types of mendicant orders and other new orders
in the time period
• contrast
monks and their work to the pastoral ministry of the regular canons • compare
the Franciscans to their own denomination’s goals and methods
A. Read: Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, chapters
21
Write a Big
Idea paragraph from your reading.
B. Read the following articles and give a one paragraph
answer to the question asked.
1. The
Schism:East and West Go Their Separate Ways
What
do you see as the biggest obstacle the church faced to remain united?
2. Monasticism and Spirituality
“What
does this mean for me and for others as we attempt to live out the Christian
life
together?”
3.Monks and
Clergy
How
would a Franciscan describe holiness?
C. Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the
following:
AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS, READING 8
The Schism: East and West Go Their Separate Ways
The factors that led to the division between the Roman and
Eastern churches had been centuries in the making. The issues were ones not
only of church practice and theology but also of culture and politics. The
Muslim invasions in the 600s and 700s weakened the Eastern churches. The
Muslims also brought particular theological issues regarding idolatry and the
Trinity to the forefront.
Factors Leading to and Sealing the Schism—1054
Refer to Resource 9-1 in the Student Guide.
In retrospect, the schism between the Eastern and Western
churches was likely from the time that Constantine moved the capital of the
empire from Rome to the East in 330. The Roman Empire was divided in 395.
Various other issues over the next seven centuries heightened tensions leading
to schism.
By 190, Latin rather than Greek was used in the Roman
Church. By 450 few in the West spoke Greek, and by 600 few in the East spoke
Latin.
Generally, the East was more Johannine, the West more
Pauline; the East more mystical, the West more practical and legalistic. The
East talked of union with God and the “deification” of humanity; the West
talked of communion and redemption.
The bishop in Rome claimed primacy from the time of Pope
Damasus (366-384) and Pope Leo I (440-461). But this was never accepted among
the other principal sees of Christendom, including the important Eastern ones
of Antioch and Alexandria. The East espoused a “pentarchy” made up of five
patriarchs, rather than a papacy.
In the East, the patriarch was subservient to the
emperor—called Caesaropapism. In the West, the pope gained more and more
authority over secular rulers.
The requirement that priests be celibate was common—though
not universal—in the West from about 385, but not in the East. The Eastern
Church required only that bishops be celibate, not priests. At the same time,
priests in the East wore beards, and those in the West typically did not.
Another differing practice was that unleavened bread was
used in the West during the Lord’s Supper, but the East used leavened bread.
In the East the Monophysite tendencies to deny the full
incarnation or humanity of Christ had led to the schism of 484, when Pope Felix
excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople. This lasted until 518, when the
East reaccepted the common creeds of the church.
However, the filioque phrase in the Nicene Creed,
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, remained a
point of contention. The West used the phrase only when it began to recite
routinely the Nicene Creed in the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper from about 590.
The phrase was not used at all in the Eastern Church.
One debate that concerned the Eastern Church was the
monothelite controversy, or “monergism.” In an attempt to win over the many
Monophysites remaining in the East, Patriarch Sergius (d. 638) used the term
“activity” or “energy” to speak of the single nature or person of Christ.
Finding opposition to this teaching, Sergius, in consultation with Pope
Honorius I—who served from 625 to 638—dropped the phrase and substituted it
with “monothelite,” that Christ possessed one single will. But by now the
Monophysite churches in the East were under Muslims, and the issue became less
crucial.
Nonetheless, the Sixth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople,
680–681) condemned monothelitism and its supporters. It favored the
understanding of two wills in Christ, still bound in a single “hypostasis.” The
Sixth Council thus condemned the views of Pope Honorius. Later this became an
argument against the doctrine of papal infallibility.
From the 600s and 700s, relations between the East and the
West were complicated by Islam, which slowed direct communication. Bearing in
mind their Islamic neighbors’ views against images of God, there were many in
the Eastern Church who opposed icons. The physical representation of Christ
became problematic. In 756 Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of an image
of Christ.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council, which met in Nicea in 787,
dealt with the practice of venerating icons. The West, which used statues and
images of the saints, opposed iconoclasm. Those who supported the use of icons
noted that they were not worshiping the object, only venerating it.
The Incarnation, supporters affirmed, implied that God
revealed himself through matter. The church must beware of Gnostic and
Manichaean dualism, the view that matter is evil. The purpose of icons was to
teach and remind the faithful of the great events of salvation, supporters of
icons believed. The council condemned iconoclasm, thus upholding the use of
icons. Yet, in spite of this, many in the Eastern Church opposed icons.
In 858 Emperor Michael deposed Ignatius as patriarch of
Constantinople and installed Photius (810-895). However Ignatius refused to
abdicate. Michael and Photius called upon the pope to convene a council in
Constantinople to decide between the two patriarchs and to further debate the
issue of icons.
The pope’s representatives to the Constantinople Council in
861 agreed to the installation of Photius as patriarch. At a synod at Rome in
863, however, the pope annulled the decisions of the 861 Council, declared
Ignatius still the patriarch, and deposed all priests supporting Photius.
Meanwhile, Photius denounced the presence of Latin
missionaries in the East, particularly in Bulgaria, the filioque clause
of the Latin creed, and the primacy of Rome. In 867 a council called by the
Eastern church excommunicated the pope himself. However, Michael assassinated
the new Emperor, Basil, who favored Ignatius.
This effected reconciliation with the West. Photius became
patriarch when Ignatius died in 877. His accession was approved by the pope. A
new emperor, however, in 892, deposed Photius, again revealing the power of the
state over the church in the East and igniting tensions with the West.
The final schism came in 1054 when the pope’s delegate to
the East, Cardinal Humbert, placed a sentence of excommunication upon the
patriarch on the high altar of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople.
Further Developments in the East
Refer to Resource 9-2 in the Student Guide.
From earliest times, monasticism was deeply imbedded in the
East. Monasticism was a reaction, a response to state acceptance of
Christianity. It maintained a sense that self-denial, seclusion, and martyrdom
accompanied what it meant to be a Christian.
Eastern monks were responsible for evangelizing the Slavs.
In their attempts to convert the Slavs, Brothers Methodius (815-885) and Cyril
(826-869) developed an alphabet. They emphasized the vernacular, the
translatability of the gospel. The “civilizing” of the Slavs inseparably
accompanied their Christianization. The Bulgarian Czar, Boris, was baptized in
864. Almost immediately, the church in Bulgaria faced a heretical sect, called
Bobomilism, which mingled Christian teachings with Manichaeanism.
The Eastern Church favorably impressed Emperor Vladimir of
Russia, who was looking for a religion to unify his realm, and sent emissaries
to look over the various religions. In 988 Vladimir was baptized. He
established Christianity as the official religion of Russia and brought priests
from the Byzantine or Eastern Empire, who took with them their liturgy and
practices. At first the liturgy of the Russian church was in Slavic.
Early Russian theology interpreted the Bible as a vast
allegory. Two centuries later, the Mongol conquest left the Russian Church in
chaos and ended much theological discourse. But gradually Moscow gained
ascendancy. Eastern Orthodoxy became the symbol of Russian unity and
nationalism. Russia saw itself as the heir of Constantinople, and hence, Rome.
Monasticism flourished. But there were no new theological movements, only
legends about the saints. In some places there were reversions to pre-Christian
practices of confessing sins to the earth.
When the Eastern and Western churches finally separated in
1054, the church in Russia became the center of Eastern Orthodoxy. Though
Russia maintained traditions and hagiographic legends, the Bible itself only
barely survived, and it was mixed with apocryphal and pagan literature.
As these churches developed, the
Eastern system of having ecclesiologically “autocephalous” or national churches
took form. Each national church had its own leaders and hierarchy, and each was
responsible to secular rulers.
In 1204 the Fourth Crusade of the West, which was supposed
to fight the Muslims, instead turned against the Eastern Church. Western rulers
set up a Latin kingdom. Only in 1261 did Emperor Michael VIII, who reigned from
1259 to 1282, recover Constantinople from the Western powers.
Yet the Eastern Church continued to face the peril of Muslim
Turks, and Michael sought the support and protection of the Papacy. In this
context, the Council of Lyons was called in 1274 to attempt reunion. The
Eastern Church, under pressure, recognized papal claims and agreed to recite
the Nicene Creed using the filioque clause. However, the Eastern laity
and priests never accepted the council’s decisions, and Michael was condemned
as a heretic and apostate, and refused a Christian burial.
While the West continued to develop theologically, the East
drew upon the ancient Greek Fathers. Eastern theology placed emphasis on the
mystical life to be found in Christ and the sacraments. The East stressed two
ways of seeking to know God: the Way of Negation and the Way of Union. The Way
of Negation spoke of God in negative terms. God cannot really be apprehended by
human thought. God was incomprehensible. This way emphasized God’s
transcendence.
The Way of Union was the means of quietness—Greek hesychia.
It offered immediate knowledge of God in personal union. This way could be
entered through prayer, which was an act of the whole person—body as well as
soul and spirit. A “prayer of the heart” filled one’s entire consciousness. The
“Jesus Prayer,” which was simply, “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on
me,” was linked to bodily postures and breathing techniques. Those praying were
to fix their eyes on their hearts. This was thought to help concentration. The
culmination of the prayer was a vision of heavenly light.
Behind this practice was a
hesychast theology that emerged from the monastic movement in the East,
especially those situated at Mount Athos. Hesychasm emphasized that men and
women were single, united wholes. The body was not an enemy, but a partner and
collaborator with the soul, just as Christ took human flesh and saved the whole
person, body as well as spirit. So all who pray to Him may experience his
“energy.”
God himself enters into immediate relation with humankind.
It is the grace of God imparted, a direct manifestation of the living God.
“Saints” are as all Christians may be, “deified” by their experience with God.
God remained “wholly other,” while at the same time, immanent.
Hesychasm was attacked from the West by Barlaam, a monk from
Calabria, who said that God cannot be known immediately, but only mediately.
Barlaam accused the East of holding to a materialistic view of prayer.
Gregory Palamas (1296-1359),
archbishop of Thessalonica—after 1347—defended Hesychasm. He agreed that in
prayer persons cannot experience the essence (ousia) of God, but they
may experience the “energy” of God. Gregory’s position was ratified by Eastern
councils of 1341 and 1351—both held at Constantinople. The Eastern Church considers
these the Eighth and Ninth Ecumenical Councils.
Last Attempts to Restore Unity
The Council of Florence, which met 1438 to 1439 to attempt
reunion, also met under the Eastern Church’s pressure from the Muslims. The
council reaffirmed the West’s commitment to both the objectionable filioque clause
and the supremacy of the Papacy.
The council was attended by both the Eastern emperor and
patriarch. The East accepted papal claims—though left ambiguous whatever powers
were attached to this—and the filioque clause of the Nicene Creed.
The Western Church allowed the East to continue some of its
customs, including the use of leavened bread at the Lord’s Supper. However,
like the Lyons Council’s decisions, the acts of the Council of Florence could
not be imposed upon the people in the East. One Eastern Grand Duke stated, “I
would rather see the Muslim turban in the midst of the city than the Latin
mitre.”
That is essentially what
happened. The East received little help from the West when the Muslims attacked
in 1453. Constantinople fell. On May 29, 1453, the last Christian service was
held in Saint Sophia, this great center of the church, and the cathedral became
a Muslim mosque.
Monasticism and
Spirituality
The Monastic Ideal
Refer to Resource 9-3 in the Student Guide.
Monasticism expressed corporate religious ideals. For the
laity the monasteries represented the highest form of Christian life, devotion,
and holiness. The world was evil, and the monasteries were the only
repositories of good. Many relied on the prayers of monks for themselves and
their loved ones. Monarchs often used monks in matters of state, since they
were often more highly educated. Wealthy families sent some of their children
to monasteries. Meanwhile, the rules that governed individual monasteries became
more and more minute.
Until this time, monasteries were intensely local in
interests and ministries, and there was no connection between monasteries and a
broader religious order. The greater organization of monasticism began in the
tenth century. The Cluny monastery in Burgundy was established under the
auspices of Duke William of Acquitaine and under the leadership of Abbot Berno
in 909, in an attempt to reestablish strict obedience to the Rule of
Benedict. William gave the monks complete freedom to select their leader and
placed the monastery under the pope himself.
Cluny became highly developed under Odilo, abbot of the
monastery from 994 to 1049, and Hugh, abbot from 1049 to 1109. Kings and
princes sought its prayers and made pilgrimages to it. Cluny exemplified the
high order of communal life.
By the eleventh century the
Cluny monastery in Burgundy represented an ideal form of monasticism. Built
with the donations of wealthy patrons, its buildings at Cluny were grand in
architectural style, including a huge basilica with 15 towers and 5 chapels.
marble and lined with sculptures, rich tapestries, paintings, manuscripts, and
books. Cluny represented monasticism at its highest, in medieval eyes. It
established daughter monasteries throughout Europe, each grandly designed and
loyal to the abbot of the mother house at Cluny. Its halls and rooms were decorated with imported
The Cistercians
Cluny, with its grand pretensions, did not please everyone.
Robert of Molesme (1027-1111), an abbot, sought to return to a simpler and
stricter form of monastic life. He and his followers founded a monastery at
Burgundy, Citeaux, in 1098 in order to return to the Benedictine Rule and
a more austere monastic life.
Citeaux represented the uneasy conscience of the church
regarding its growing wealth and power. It had strict rules on diet and
required both silence and manual labor. In fact, it pioneered some farming
techniques. Cistercians were not to be involved in the affairs of the world.
They emphasized meditation and spiritual friendship. It was a call away from
worldliness.
Cistercian abbots
advised monks, “be mothers” in their care for each other and for those who came
seeking their ministry. Both God’s grace and free will were to bestow a love
that produced good fruit. The Cistercians won approval from the pope in
1119.
As in other orders, lay brothers were admitted to the
Cistercian houses. These brothers, who outnumbered the regular monks, could not
read or take part in many aspects of communal worship. The monks did not see it
as their calling to educate these or others, but rather to pray and “lament.” The
lay brothers were given more menial tasks within the monastery. Times of famine
saw the monasteries admitting more and more of these “converts.”
Bernard (1090-1153), a Cistercian, became the leading
religious figure of his time. In 1112, with 30 other young noblemen of
Burgundy, including his own brothers, Bernard entered the monastery of Citeaux,
the mother house of the Cistercian order. Instructed by the abbot of Citeaux to
found a new monastery, Bernard established one at Clairvaux.
This monastery became one of the
centers of the Cistercian order. Personally, Bernard became known for his
austerity, self-discipline, and saintliness. He was immersed in the Bible. In
his own time, his prestige in the Christian Church was immense. He obtained
recognition for the Rules of the new order Knights Templar in 1128. In a
dispute over the Papacy in 1130, Bernard supported the one who won, Innocent
II. The Cistercian order became favored by the pope and the Cistercian order
grew rapidly. Bernard was a champion of orthodoxy. Bernard succeeded in having
Abelard condemned at the Council of Sens in 1140. A Cistercian and former pupil
became Pope Eugenius III in 1145—increasing Bernard’s influence. Bernard roused
support for the Second Crusade of 1147 and founded the military order of
Knights Templar.
Bernard conceived of theology as serving devotional
purposes, as within a monastic cloister. He developed a practical, not a
systematic, theology that expressed the relation of the believer to God in
terms of marriage. The greatest of all “love affairs” was the one initiated by
God and moved along by grace, which kindled desire for God within human beings.
“The reason we love God is God.” He “gives power to love. He draws yearning to
its consummation.”
God is the initiator, sustainer, and goal of Christian love.
Bernard united love and perfection. Through this action of divine love, human
love can be perfected in this life, Bernard taught. The essence of both
sanctification and perfection, for Bernard, is love.
Bernard emphasized the love and the grace of God. He
understood Christian love to be both intellectual and sensual, trying to move
away from the strictly legal and abstract concept the Latin word for love, caritas,
had taken on. For Bernard, love was without selfinterest. It moved the
person from a “mundane” loving with all the heart, to a “rational” loving with
all the soul.
Bernard possessed optimism in both God’s grace and human
response. He remarked: “Remove free will and there is nothing to be saved; remove
grace, and there is left no means of saving. The work of salvation cannot be
accomplished without the co-operation of the two.” The hindrance to the highest
love is not humanity as such. The body or flesh of humanity may be made fully
subject to the Spirit if God is loved supremely. “And thus,” Bernard wrote, “we
must set our love on him, little by little conforming our will to his.”
This grace perfecting love began
at baptism, in to dwell, and this coming
in of the Spirit opened up spiritual possibilities and privileges in the
believer. The agent of perfection is the Spirit; the standard of perfection is
Christlikeness. Though ultimate perfection lies beyond this life, there is more
than simply imputed righteousness to be known here, Bernard affirmed. Bernard’s
view. Then at confirmation, the Spirit came
The devotion and
Christ-centeredness of Bernard, and the monks of Clairvaux in general, is
evident in songs written by Bernard. Among them:
Refer to Resource 9-4 in the Student Guide.
JESUS,
THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE
Jesus,
the very thought of Thee
with
sweetness fills my breast;
But
sweeter far Thy face to see,
and
in Thy presence rest.
No
voice can sing, no heart can frame,
nor
can the mem’ry find
A
sweeter sound than Thy blest name,
O
Savior of mankind!
O
Hope of every contrite heart,
O
Joy of all the meek,
To
those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How
good to those who seek!
But
what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor
tongue nor pen can show:
The
love of Jesus, what it is
None
but His loved ones know.
Jesus,
our only joy be Thou,
as
Thou our prize wilt be;
Jesus,
be Thou our glory now,
and
through eternity.
O
SACRED HEAD, NOW WOUNDED
O
sacred Head, now wounded,
with
grief and shame weighed down,
Now
scornfully surrounded,
with
thorns Thine only crown;
O
sacred Head, what glory,
what
bliss till now was Thine!
Yet,
tho’ despised and gory,
I
joy to call Thee mine.
What
Thou, my Lord, hast suffered,
was
all for sinners’ gain.
Mine,
mine was the transgression,
but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo,
here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis
I deserve Thy place.
Look
on me with Thy favor,
and
grant to me Thy grace.
What
language shall I borrow,
to
thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For
this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy
pity without end?
O
make me Thine forever;
And,
should I fainting be,
Lord,
let me never, never
outlive my love for Thee.
The Franciscans
Refer to Resource 9-5 in the Student Guide.
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was another example of
self-abnegation and humiliation. Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth
merchant, who educated him well. He became dissatisfied with a life of ease and
devoted himself to prayer. After a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis began
ministering to lepers and helping to repair the local church.
Around 1208, upon hearing Jesus’ words to the rich young
man, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me,” Francis took
the commandment literally. To his father’s ire, he took off his fine clothing
and set out to obey Christ.
By 1209, a band of followers gathered behind him. In 1210
Francis received approval for a monastic order from Pope Innocent III. Clare, a
follower of Francis, founded a Second Order of St. Francis, or the Order of
Poor Ladies, upon Francis’s ideals in 1212.
Francis won men and women more by deeds than words. His
views toward monasticism were radical. He wished his followers to become
“voluntary beggars.” His Rule stated, “The brothers shall not acquire
anything as their own, neither a horse nor a place nor anything else. Instead,
as pilgrims and strangers in this world who serve the Lord in poverty and
humility, let them go begging for alms with full trust.”
At the same time, Francis
loathed idleness or sloth and rejected all social barriers. He championed the
poor. His order was called “Fratas Minores,” after the “little people.” He
induced the rich to contribute to the poor. Francis was distrustful of learning
because it took him away from action. He believed Christ was to be followed
literally.
In an age that saw otherwise, Francis rejected the idea of
Crusades against the Muslims. He admonished Franciscans not even to engage in
arguments or disputes with Muslims. In 1219 Francis himself, along with eleven
companions, visited Eastern Europe and Egypt. Francis realized he lacked the
skills for administering the growing order, and upon his return from his trip
abroad, leadership of the order passed to others. The Rule of Francis
was approved by Pope Honorius in 1223.
Francis’s devotion to both the good of people and to nature
is summarized in two well-known verses:
Lord,
make me an instrument of Thy peace:
where
there is hatred, let me sow love;
where
there is injury, pardon;
where
there is doubt, faith;
where
there is despair, hope;
where
there is darkness, light;
where
there is sadness, joy.
O
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to
be consoled as to console,
to
be understood as to understand,
to
be loved as to love;
for
it is in giving that we receive;
it
is in pard’ning that we are pardoned;
it
is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Francis’s sense of oneness with nature is characterized in
this verse, still sung today:
ALL
CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING
All
creatures of our God and King,
Lift
up your voice and with us sing:
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Thou
burning sun with golden beam,
Thou
silver moon with softer gleam,
O
praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou
rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye
clouds that sail in heaven along,
O
praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou
rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye
lights of evening, find a voice!
O
praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou
flowing water, pure and clear,
Make
music for thy Lord to hear.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Thou
fire so masterful and bright,
Thou
givest man both warmth and light!
O
praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
And
all ye men of tender heart,
Forgiving
others, take your part.
O
sing ye! Alleluia!
Ye
who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise
God and on Him cast your care!
O
praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let
all things their Creator bless,
And
worship Him in humbleness.
O
praise Him! Allelulia!
Praise,
praise the Father, praise the Son,
And
praise the Spirit, Three in One!
O
praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Francis and his followers possessed missionary zeal. By
preaching and showing repentance and brotherly love they intended to sow peace.
The Franciscans’ “cloister” was the whole world. The Franciscans won the hearts
and loyalty of the people, but did not inspire the friendship of bishops.
After 1227, the Franciscans were granted the right to hear
confession. This led, soon, to their clericalization. Among Franciscans, Christ
is the Liberator and the Transformer of culture. The emphasis is on praxis
rather than right theology. Praxis precedes theoria. Holiness is
right action. “Go ye into” is the call. There is concern about social
righteousness in anticipation of the Kingdom.
Franciscans emphasized the humanity of Christ and attempted
to be like Him in good deeds, not words. They see Jesus as a great model and
example. Their vision of Christ was of Him crucified, and this led them toward
asceticism, but it was an active or teleological asceticism. They took vows of
poverty, as Gannon and Traub write, in order “to remove the obstacles that
might prevent the full flowering of love.”
Like the Franciscans, holiness people of the Wesleyan
tradition tried to correct the worldliness creeping into the church. Like
Franciscans, ministers in the holiness tradition, in a certain way, take vows
of poverty. Even though sometimes material blessings might come our way, we do
not seek them and do not cling to them.
Unlike Dominicans and later Jesuits, Franciscans were not
known for their theological acumen. Rather, they were known for their deeds.
The fine points of Christian doctrine and dogma for them and for holiness
ministers must finally get around to the question, “What does this mean for me
and for others as we attempt to live out the Christian life together?”
There is a practical bent to this thought. Holiness people
are like the Franciscans in trying to be examples of holiness in an unholy
world, and to be such by works of mercy, forgiveness, and compassion to others,
which emanate out of pure love. We were raised up like the Franciscans to
“preach” the good news to the poor by deeds more than by wisdom. Radical
“Franciscans” do not appease the world; but they are willing to take the
lowliest positions in the church. Trained ministers communicate and apply their
knowledge to the simplest men and women
Bonaventure (1217-74) led the order from 1257 to 1274.
Highly educated, Bonaventure taught in Paris from 1247 until assuming the
leadership of the order. He attempted to reconcile radicals in the order,
called “spirituals,” who wished to keep strictly to Francis’s ideals of
poverty, and others who saw the necessity of establishing houses like other
orders.
Bonaventure saw in Francis the force for renewal in the
church alluded to in the work of Joachim. As a theologian, Bonaventure rejected
the popular notion of the immaculate conception of Mary. Bonaventure took an
active role in church politics and became a cardinal the year before he died.
About 1330, 100 years after
Francis’s death, Brother Ugolino di Monte Santa Maria recorded stories about
Francis from some of his followers and published The Little Flowers of Saint
Francis. It described apparitions and miracles, some of them amusing, which
surrounded the life of Francis. The book emphasized the miracles more than the
ideals and values of poverty, service, and obedience that characterized Francis
and the movement he created. It included description of the stigmata, or
five wounds of Christ crucified, that were imprinted in Francis’s body in 1224
while he was contemplating the Cross. The Little Flowers became a
classic in the history of Christian spirituality.
Spirituality Among the Regular Canons
Beginning in the eleventh century, a foundational change
took place in people’s thinking regarding the conception of the Christian life.
There was a new emphasis on obligation to one’s neighbor, and a new sense that
Christ wished followers to care for others. While new religious orders were
being developed, the regular clergy of the church also were experiencing
renewal and changes in their approach to ministry. Like the orders, the priests
evidenced pastoral concern, preached, evangelized, and contemplated God. The
regular clergy argued that their office was prefigured by Aaron and the
Levites. The church still was not entirely clear, even at this late date, on
what constituted “clerical” status, but there was a distinction on a number of
issues that separated the monks from the priests.
For monks, the focus was on personal virtue. They were not
so concerned about the affect of their lives or words upon others. Their only
concern was for God and personal union with Him. Regular clergy’s lives, on the
other hand, were devoted to others, as a pattern, forma, and exemplum.
Regulars were to be both teachers and learners, both verbo et examplo.
They attempted to edify by both word and example, to demonstrate the gospel by
their lives to others, and to be edified for the sake of others. While the
monks were learners only, their lives lived solely to God, the priests were
teachers.
For the monks, conversation was not considered educational
and silence was an end in itself, drawing them closer to God. Reasons they gave
for silence— given by Peter of Celle in the late twelfth century— included
tranquillity, profession, keeping the peace, quieting the heart, withdrawal
from secular things, scrutiny of the law of God, and contemplation. For regular
clergy, conversely, silence was preparation for speech.
To govern their lives, monks relied on sources such as the Rule
of Benedict, which suggested that outward behavior was entirely an aspect
of personal virtue. Preaching was not intrinsically “monastic.” Sharing the
wisdom of Christ with others, in monks’ eyes, was a sign of conceit.
The regular clergy, on the other
hand, saw behavior as a means of edifying others. The priests’ spirituality
emphasized that behavior was a support to effective verbal teaching and an
agent in moral education. They were to exemplify Christ by both life and
doctrine: vita et doctrina. They espoused a new conception of
individuals having responsibility for others. Their commitment to pastoral care
was educational in a way not limited to preaching. Likewise, their commitment
to evangelization was not limited to preaching. They sought to evangelize by
example as well as by speech.
Write in your
journal. Reflect on and respond to the following:
AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS, READING 9 BOOK SEVEN
The conversion to Neoplatonism. Augustine traces his growing
disenchantment with the Manichaean conceptions of God and evil and from this,
he comes finally to the diligent study of the Bible, especially the writings of
the apostle Paul. His pilgrimage is drawing toward its goal, as he begins to
know Jesus Christ and to be drawn to Him in hesitant faith.
CHAPTER XXI
27. With great eagerness, then,
I fastened upon the venerable writings of your Spirit and principally upon the
apostle Paul. I had thought that he sometimes contradicted himself and that the
text of his teaching did not agree with the testimonies of the Law and the
Prophets; but now all these doubts vanished away. And I saw that those pure
words had but one face, and I learned to rejoice with trembling. So I began,
and I found that whatever truth I had read [in the Platonists] was here
combined with the exaltation of your grace . . . For although a man may
“delight in the law of God after the inward man,” what shall he do with that
other “law in his members which wars against the law of his mind, and brings
him into captivity under the law of sin, which is in his members”? You are
righteous, O Lord; but we have sinned and committed iniquities, and have done
wickedly. Your hand has grown heavy upon us, and we are justly delivered over
to that ancient sinner, the lord of death. For he persuaded our wills to become
like his will, by which he remained not in your truth. What shall “wretched
man” do? “Who shall deliver him from the body of this death,” except your grace
through Jesus Christ our Lord; whom you have begotten, coeternal with yourself,
and didst create in the beginning of your ways—in whom the prince of this world
found nothing worthy of death, yet he killed him—and so the handwriting which
was all against us was blotted out? The books of the Platonists tell nothing of
this. Their pages do not contain the expression of this kind of godliness—the
tears of confession, your sacrifice, a troubled spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart, the salvation of your people, the espoused City, the earnest of the Holy
Spirit, the cup of our redemption. In them, no man sings: “Shall not my soul be
subject unto God, for from him comes my salvation? He is my God and my
salvation, my defender; I shall no more be moved.” In them, no one hears him
calling, “Come unto me all you who labor.” . . . These thoughts sank wondrously
into my heart, when I read that “least of your apostles” and when I had considered
all your works and trembled.
Preparation
for Session 10
A. Read: Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, chapters
20
Write a Big
Idea paragraph from your reading.
B. Read the following articles and give a one paragraph
answer to the question asked.
1. The
Dominicans and Thomas Aquinas
What
was the purpose of the Dominican order?
2. Rise of the Universities
Why
is academic freedom important?
3.Biblical
Interpretation
How
did Thomas Aquinas change biblical interpretation?
C. Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the
following:
AUGUSTINE’S
CONFESSIONS, READING 9
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