RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
Chapter 16
Page 189 - "Englamd" - England, as the country we now know, did not exist at this time. Britain had been invaded by Angles, Saxons, Danes, Jutes, and Norsemen after the Roman armies were withdrawn in the early fifth century. The Saxons settled in the southern part of the island; the Angles settled in the north-east and north-central parts. Each group of invaders set up their own little kingdoms, and there was constant strife between them. England gets its name from Angle-land.
Page 189 - Gregory and the Angles - The account of Gregory asking who the young boys were who were being sold as slaves in Rome is from Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People", probably written ca. AD 731
Bede fills in some fo the facts: that King Ethelbert of Kent wanted to marry a Frankish princess, Bertha, who was Christian, and she said she would only go to Britain and marry him if he would allow her to have a Christian priest in her household.
Queen Bertha sent to Rome for help and Pope Gregory sent Augustine and several other monks. Augustine really didn't want to go - he dragged his feet, and spent six months on the journey, but arrived in Kent at last.
The King agreed to hear him preach, provided it was in the open - he thought that being under a roof would put him under Augustine's control. When Augustine preached about God, and Jesus as Savior, not only was the King converted, but also the Chief Druid. The Chief Druid then pulled down the pagan altar and declared that he would worship God.
Unfortunately, Augustine's mission did not go as smoothly as it might have done. There were still Bishops of the Celtic Church in Britain, and they came to meet with Augustine. They were not sure about how genuine he was, and had agreed amongst themselves that if he welcomed them and came to greet them they would take it as a good sign. However, when they approached, Augustine was seated on a throne, and he did not rise to greet them, so they went off in a huff. Relations between the remaining Celtic Christians and the new Roman mission to the Anglo-Saxons were strained from then on.
Pages 189, 191 - Bede. Although his name is sometimes pronounced "Beed" it is more correct to pronounce it "BAY-duh". Bede (ca. AD 673-735) was sent as a seven-year-old boy to the monastery of Wearmouth in Northumbria (one of the kingdoms in northern England). After the monastery of Jarrow was founded in ca. AD 681 Bede moved there and stayed there for the rest of his life. He spent his life in study of the Scriptures, to history, and in writing and teaching. He wrote many historical and educational books - probably hismost famous book is Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (An Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples) which is a great source of history for early England.
Page 191 - the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter - Easter Day is not a fixed date on the calendar. Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection, is three days after Good Friday, the day of His crucifixion. The Crucifixion of Jesus took place at the time of the Jewish Passover - and the Jewish calendar was a lunar one. The debate about how to calculate the date of Easter was known as the Paschal Controversy, and went on for several centuries - in fact there still is a difference in how the Western Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches calculate the date of Easter. The Celtic Church followed the method of the Eastern Church. In England the difference between the churches was settled at the Council of Whitby in AD 664
Page 193 - Uthman ibn Affan (his name is sometimes given as Othman) - The textbook refers to him as the "second leader after Muhammad". This is a very confusing statement. When Muhammad died, there was a dispute as to who should become leader of the community of Muhammad's followers. Most members of the Islamic community believed that the next Caliph (leader of the community) should be Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad's earliest and closest followers. This group gave rise to Sunni Islam. Sunnis stress that they are following the example of Muhammad.
However, Muhammad had a cousin, whom he adopted as his son, and who married Muhammad's daughter Fatima. The group who became the Shi'a Moslems held that Ali should have been the first Caliph, and regarded Ali as the First Imam (religious leader). Ali did eventually become Caliph of the Islamic community, but the split between Sunni and Shi'ite continued to widen.
Abu Bakr is generally accepted as the first Caliph, who reigned AD 632-634.
The second Caliph was Omar (reigned AD 634-644), who took the title 'Commander of the Faithful' and started the Arab conquest, but was murdered in AD 644.
Calph Uthman (reigned AD 644-656) continued to lead the Arab conquest, but was murdered in AD 656
Ali became Caliph at last in AD 656 but was assassinated in AD 661
Page 194 - "Carolingian" means "related to Charles" (Carolus or Karl). In this case it refers to Charles Martel (ca.AD 690-741) and his descendents. Charles Martel's son was Pepin the Short (714-768), who supplanted the last Merovingian King of the Franks and had himself elected and anointed as King of the Franks in AD 751. Pepin's son was Charlemagne (AD 743-814) who became sole ruler of the Franks in AD 771 and was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, AD 800
Page 194 - Map of the extent of Islam - The color (red-brown) used for the monasteries of the Coptic Monophysites is almost the same as the color (dark red) used for the circles denoting other towns on the map. The Coptic Monophysite monasteries are all along or near the River Nile: in Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia. They do not include Aswan, Berenice, Alexandria or Fustad (Cairo)
Page 197 - Charlemagne - His name means "Charles the Great" (Charles le magnus)
Page 199 - Map of the Empire of Charlemagne - The colors chosen are confusing. The Marches (border regions) were the part bordering the Umayyid Caliphate, the part bordering Brittany, the region of Carinthia, and the region near Bohemia
Charlemagne's conquests were Saxony, Bavaria, Lombardy, northern Italy, and Corsica
Page 200 - The filioque clause - See also Page 220. The filioque clause (pronounced fill-ee-OH-kway, meaning "and the Son") was a word added to the Nicean Creed by a Council at Toledo (Spain) in 589. Its use spread gradually throughout the Western Church.
The Eastern Church generally does not dispute the doctrine (that the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father and the Son), but they do dispute the idea that a Church Council which did not involve the whole Church (Eastern and Western) could decide to add things to a Creed which had been formulated by a General Council of the whole Church.
Page 200-201 - The doctrine of the Real Presence (of Christ in the Eucharist) : The text book says that the first clear statement of the Real Presence was made by Radbertus (AD 785-865). However, there is an earlier statement by Cyril of Jerusalem (ca.AD 315-386). Cyril became bishop of Jerusalem in AD 348 and wrote many catechetical books. He gave a description of the Mass (Eucharist) which is very similar to the present form of the service. He expressed the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist very clearly -
"Since He Himself has declared and said of the bread: This is My Body, who shall dare to doubt any more? And when He asserts and says: This is My Blood, who shall ever hesitate and say it is not His Blood? . . . In the type of bread is given thee the Body, in the type of wine the Blood is given thee . . . Do not think it mere bread and wine, for it is the Body and Blood of Christ, according to the Lord's declaration. . . Having learned this and being assured of it, what appears to be bread is not bread, though perceived by the taste, but the Body of Christ, and what appears to be wine is not wine, though the taste says so, but the Blood of Christ . . . strengthen thy heart, partaking of it as spiritual (food), and rejoice the face of thy soul."
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
