Christianity

Question 1

What percentage of the population is Christian by the late Roman Empire?

Answer 1

10%.

Question 2

By 300ad, what is the state of urban Christianity?

Answer 2

2/3 of towns don’t have an organised Christian community.

Question 3

What percentage of the peasantry aren’t Christian by the late Roman Empire?

Answer 3

85%

Question 4

What percentage of the urban population isn’t Christian by the late Roman Empire?

Answer 4

7% of the 10% urban population.

Question 5

What can be said about late Roman Christianity?

Answer 5

It was not one homogenous religion.

Question 6

What do pre-1900 European historians argue about Christianity?

Answer 6

That Christianity was a continual growth, always coming out on top.

Question 7

How can we describe early Christian growth?

Answer 7

As slow and sporadic.

Question 8

What are the two things that led to a growth of Christianity?

Answer 8

1. Christianisation of the Empire.

2. Romanisation of Christianity.

Question 9

When was the Christianisation of the elites?

Answer 9

320-380 AD.

Question 10

How and why were elites converted?

Answer 10

Using informal powers of patronage. It is not however clear if they converted for true religiosity or political power.

Question 11

When were Pagan temples violently shut down?

Answer 11

390 AD.

Question 12

When was there a change in the religiosity of the peasantry?

Answer 12

500 AD. Although there were whispers of change by 400 AD.

Question 13

What was the Christian infrastructure like prior to Constantine?

Answer 13

Small communities in few towns, little inter-community contact due to religious persecution. No authority structures.

Question 14

What was Christian infrastructure like after Constantine?

Answer 14

By 400 AD, the Christian authority structure mirrors that of the Empire: e.g. provincial capital = diocese.

Question 15

When was the Council of Nicaea?

Answer 15

325 AD.

Question 16

What followed on from the Council of Nicaea?

Answer 16

Discrepancies in belief due to local traditions. Christian, practises were made more palatable to wider society, there was an intense period of doctrinal creation.

Question 17

When was the concept of the Trinity solidified?

Answer 17

375~ AD. 60 years after the Council of Nicaea.

Question 18

When was the concept of the Reincarnation solidified?

Answer 18

5th Century.

Question 19

How was Christianity made more palatable to the masses?

Answer 19

Introduction to the Church was made to be less rigorous in doctrinal studies. Adult baptism was changed to infancy. – issue of sinning after the Great Cleanse?

Question 20

What was the change in Christian behaviour to make it more palatable?

Answer 20

Penance became a private affair rather than public embarrassment. Participation in civic rituals was permitted.

Question 21

What must be remembered about the position of the Pope?

Answer 21

He did not fill the emperor’s power vacuum.

Question 22

What was the late antiquity pope responsible for?

Answer 22

Validating correct doctrine, establishing rules and regulations, and making clerical appointments.

Question 23

What is the emperor’s role in the early Christian church?

Answer 23

Only he can call ecumenical councils and appoint imperial officials- thus he controls the narrative.

Question 24

What is the role of bishops in the early Christian church?

Answer 24

They have no enforcements of their own, non-orthodoxy in the east is threatened to conformity and vice versa.

Question 25

How can we say that the empire became divinised?

Answer 25

Emperors became non-secular, and were divinely appointed.

Question 26

What was the authority of the emperor following Christianisation?

Answer 26

Quasi-religious authority rather than merely a political entity.

Question 27

Following the fall of the empire what happened to Western Christendom?

Answer 27

It was fragmented into kingdom-based communities, still part of an ideological entity yet no practical structure.

Question 28

What is the role of the Pope in the early medieval period?

Answer 28

Limited. Holds prestige as leader of earliest Roman Christian community, Papacy a great centre of pilgrimage.

Question 29

When did the Pope begin to gain practical authorities?

Answer 29

1200

Question 30

How was active incorporation of peasants achieved?

Answer 30

It was achieved via institutional expansion and change, e.g. allowing priests to preach.

Question 31

How many parish churches were needed to adequately service England and what does this show?

Answer 31

17,000, shows the limitations of the broader infrastructures.

Question 32

What did medieval liturgies focus on?

Answer 32

Agricultural prosperity such as in the Harvest Festival, this increases the enthusiasm in the peasantry increasing membership.

Question 33

What did Christian education rely on?

Answer 33

Leftover elites from the Roman Empire, yet pre-educated Christians disappear as elites do.

Question 34

What did the collapse of the Roman elites mean?

Answer 34

The collapse of the intellectual infrastructure meant there was no money in Christian works such as literature and buildings.

Question 35

What were the functions of monasteries? (4 things)

Answer 35

Functioned as a powerhouse of prayer on behalf of communities as a whole. To educate, interact with rural peasants, preservation of Christian culture.

Question 36

What were the two biggest cultural impacts on christianity in the early medieval period?

Answer 36

Islam and Northwestern culture.

Question 37

When was the significant change in Christianity in the early medieval period?

Answer 37

7th Century.

Question 38

What were the two changes that occurred 550-650AD?

Answer 38

Institutional religious change and the dealing of new social climates.

Question 39

What were the three new views that developed during the 7th century?

Answer 39

Views on sin, atonement and the otherworld.

Question 40

How many monasteries/convents were there in Gaul by 600AD?

Answer 40

200

Question 41

How many monasteries/convents were there in Italy by 600AD?

Answer 41

100

Question 42

What can be noted about the location of early medieval monasteries?

Answer 42

They were clustered in former intensely Romanised areas, especially in the Mediterranean

Question 43

What were monasteries seen as by contemporaries?

Answer 43

Extensions of urban worship

Question 44

How can we consider the importance of monasteries?

Answer 44

By analysing the architecture- many were converted town houses, no basilicas etc.

Question 45

How can we exemplify the rising prominence of monasteries in early medieval Europe?

Answer 45

Monte Cassino (Benedict's last monastery) began (6th C) as the size of a village church, by 11th C was a fortress.

Question 46

What was the regional synergy between monks and laity?

Answer 46

They shared in the wealth/poverty of the area of residence, and frequently needed bailing out by pious lays.

Question 47

What can be noted about the E/W divide for monasteries?

Answer 47

Monks were more prestigious in the East.

Question 48

How does P. Brown describe monasteries/convents?

Answer 48

As an "amphibious group"- not lay or clerical.

Question 49

What was oblation?

Answer 49

The offering of girls (from 6) and boys (from 10) to monasteries/convents as "fruits of the world" for God (or due to inconvenience.)

Question 50

What was tonsure?

Answer 50

The specific haircut monks had. This was done due to the importance of hair in early medieval lay life.

Question 51

What is a source for the importance of monasteries to laity sin?

Answer 51

Gregory of Tours to Emperor Maurice 593, in reaction to the prohibition of combat-able men being banned from cloistering.

Question 52

What did Gregory of Tours write to Emperor Maurice in 593?

Answer 52

'there are many who, unless they abandon all cannot gain salvation'

Question 53

When did the belief of supreme power of collective prayer over individual prayer arise?

Answer 53

6th Century on

Question 54

How did convents begin?

Answer 54

As an extension of familial piety- pride at having virgins etc.

Question 55

Who suggests that virginity was the notion of the sacred in the profane world?

Answer 55

P. Brown.

Question 56

What is an example of convent's total seclusion?

Answer 56

St John's, Arles. 200 women remained in the convent even in a fire.

Question 57

Who is a signifiant example of physical piety encouraging Christianity?

Answer 57

Radegund- a wife of a Merovingian queen who cleaned beggars etc.

Question 58

What was critical to the establishment of Christendom? (According to R. Fletcher)

Answer 58

The acceptation of Christianity by the barbarian aristocracy.

Question 59

When did urban Christianity flourish?

Answer 59

Late 300s AD.

Question 60

What is one way of approaching the study of the growth of Christendom?

Answer 60

One could follow patterns of Latin use in Europe- however the Germanic influx of people compromises this.

Question 61

What is too rudimentary an interpretation of early Christianity?

Answer 61

The antithesis narrative between paganism and Christianity.

Question 62

What almost eradicated Christianity entirely, who argues this?

Answer 62

R. Fletcher argues that Frankish invasions into Gaul almost eradicated Christianity entirely.

Question 63

Who is a case study for the reC-Christianisation of Europe?

Answer 63

Nicetius (bishop of Trier 525-65), brought Italian merchants to build churches.

Question 64

Why was there such little Christianisation until the arrival of Columbanus?

Answer 64

Because monastery culture was urban based, and barbarian aristocrats rejected this.

Question 65

What was prevalent in 6th C Gaul?

Answer 65

Simony (but more common in Gallo Romans not Franks).

Question 66

What does R. Fletcher suggest was needed for Christianisation of barbarians?

Answer 66

"missionary stimulus"

Question 67

When was Columbanus active in monastery founding?

Answer 67

East Francia 590-610

Question 68

Why was Columbanus' form of monasticism so popular amongst barbarian aristocrats?

Answer 68

Allowed kinship solidarity, private penance

Question 69

What was the common public penance in early medieval Europe?

Answer 69

barred from office, lifelong chastity

Question 70

How can we exemplify the extremity of early medieval public penance?

Answer 70

A 7th Century Spanish king was forced to abdicate.

Question 71

What was private penance in the early medieval era?

Answer 71

usually fasting- seen as 'spiritual medicine' thus diverse

Question 72

What did Columbanus' religious changes coincide with, making it so successful.

Answer 72

The creation of a cohesive aristocracy 575-625 with privileges.

Question 73

What monastery acted as a missionary outpost?

Answer 73

Weltenberg was an eastern outpost.

Question 74

What was the gripping religious narrative in 7th Century Europe?

Answer 74

A search for evangelism across Europe, from barbarian aristocracies to popes themselves.

Question 75

Who vowed they would spend their whole life a pilgrim, exemplifying the evangelist narrative?

Answer 75

Amandus

Question 76

What two early medieval thematic changes went hand in hand according to R. Fletcher?

Answer 76

Secular imperialism and Christian evangelism.

Question 77

What is the German historiographical coining of the church in the 7th Century?

Answer 77

Adelskirche- literally 'church of the nobility'.

Question 78

Why was Columbanus monasticism rural based?

Answer 78

Because Columbanus originated from Ireland, where rural was the only option.

Question 79

What is a source for the institutional overhaul in the early medieval church?

Answer 79

John Chrysostom: 'should not everyone build a church?'.

Question 80

How can we say that there was cultural overlap between peripheries of Christendom?

Answer 80

There was the monastery Brētona in Spain which was inhabited by English monks