Ancient and Medieval Europe

HST 121 - Religious Revival and Reform

I. Overview
    A. Where did it occur?
        - among the common people
        - in the monasteries
        - within the church hierarchy and papacy

    B. Why did it occur?
        - church came under secular influence during the early Middle Ages
            - e.g., simony, pluralism
        - leads to anti-clericalism

    C. How did the church revive itself?

II. Popular Piety
        A. Sacramental System
                1. baptism
                2. confirmation
                3. marriage
                4. holy orders
                5. penance
                6. Eucharist
                7. extreme unction              
        B. Pilgrimages and Relics of Saints
                1. most cherished relics were associated with Christ
                        and the Virgin Mary
                2. Reading Abbey: 100s of relics
                3. Canterbury: body of St. Thomas Becket
                4. Santiago de Compostela: body of St. James the Apostle
                        (except for his arm, which was at Reading Abbey)
                        the cathedral, map of the pilgrimage routes
                5. towns had relics or images of saints to protect them
                6. trades honored specific saints
        C. Indulgences and Purgatory

III. Monastic Reforms
        A. Cluniacs
                1. founded in 909 by the duke of Aquitaine at Cluny
                        in Burgundy
                2. subject only to the pope
                3. widely admired for their strict godly lives
                4. but they eventually began to be influenced by aristocrats who
                        donated land to them and provided them with novices (abbey church)
        B. Carthusians
                1. emerged in the late 11th century in eastern France
                2. much admired, but small order because they led
                        extremely ascetic lives
                3. they worshipped together, but at all other times they
                        prayed and meditated in individual cells
        C. Cistercians
                1. formed by Benedictine monks who were dissatisfied
                        with the worldliness of their order
                2. they established an abbey at Cîteaux, in the wilderness
                        in eastern France
                3. stark and undecorated abbeys [an abbey in England]
                4. very ascetic lives
                5. conversi: peasants who were bound by vows of chastity
                        and obedience to the Cistercian abbot, and who worked
                        in the Cistercian fields
                6. St. Bernard of Clairvaux

IV. Heresies
        A. Waldensians
                1. founded in Lyons in 1173 by Valdez (Peter Waldo)
                2. Valdez gave up all his possessions and followed
                        a life of apostolic poverty
                3. the Church refused to give Valdez and his followers
                        permission to preach
                4. the Waldensians then began preaching about the uselessness
                        of the Church and its sacraments
                5. thus, they were declared heretical by the Church in 1181
        B. Albigensians (Cathars)
                1. named for the town of Albi in southern France
                2. also known as Cathars, which means "the pure"
                3. they represent a fusion of two traditions
                        a. they embraced the anti-clerical tradition
                        b. they embraced a dualist theology from the east
                4. evidence [Bernard Gui, Inquisitor's Manual]
                5. perfecti: "the perfect ones"
                6. consolamentum: ritual ceremony that wiped away all
                        previous sins
                7. Albigensian Crusade: launched by Pope Innocent III in 1208
                8. the Inquisition

V. Mendicantism
        A. Dominicans
                1. founded by St. Dominic (1170-1221), 
                        a well-educated cleric from Spain
                2. preached among the Albigensians
                3. Dominicans recognized by the papacy in 1215
                4. austere, humble life of strict poverty
                5. survived by begging for food
                6. women allowed into the order, but they had to
                        stay cloistered and couldn't preach
                7. preaching and education emphasized by Dominic
        B. Franciscans 
                1. found by St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226)
                2. he was a wealthy merchant's son who had a religious
                        epiphany and gave all his possessions to the poor
                3. then he went around taking care of lepers and the sick,
                        and preaching about humankind as a brother/sisterhood
                        of love and joy
                4. Franciscans recognized by the papacy in 1210
                5. poverty was the most important aspect of their lives,        
                        even more important than preaching

VI. Female Groups
        A. quasi-Cistercians in Spain
        B. Poor Clares in Italy
        C. Beguines in the Low Countries and Germany