The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI Saint Benedict and Gregory the Great
In the chaos of the wars in the sixth and succeeding centuries it was the Church that preserved what was left of the Roman culture.
Monasticism began in Egypt and Syria in the fourth centuries. St. Anthony, the first of the hermits was born in Egypt in 250 AD. His rigorous asceticism was popular and attracted many copycats.
Monasticism sprang up in Syria around the same time and the Greek speaking world saw monastic organizations flourish because of St. Basil (circa 360 AD).
Monasticism began outside of the Church hierarchy and the work of St. Athanasius was what reconciled the clergy to the monks. St. Jerome promoted the movement and St. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St Martin of Tours set it up in Gaul and St. Patrick set everything up in Ireland. St. Columba founded the monastery of Iona in 566.
"There seem to have been nuns before there were monks - as early as the middle of the third century. Some shut themselves up in tombs" (Russell, 377).
The Western tradition of monasticism owes much to St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order. In 520 AD he founded the monastery at Monte Cassino. Benedict brought order to the ascetic way of life.
Benedict died in 543 and his monastery was sacked by the Lombards, but afterwards the monks returned and Monte Cassino became a place of scholarship that greatly aided the West in later years.
Benedict has been described as a miracle worker and that he wounded his body so he could cure the wounds of his soul.
"His fame being spread abroad, the monks of a certain monastery, whose abbot had lately died,
besought him to accept the succession. He did so, and insisted upon observance of strict virtue, so
that the monks, in a rage, decided to poison him with a glass of poisoned wine. He, however,
made the sign of the cross over the glass, whereupon it broke in pieces. So he returned to the
wilderness" (Russell, 379).
Benedict also faced an assassination attempt from a wicked priest. When the poisoned loaf he sent to Benedict was taken away by a crow at Benedict's command the priest sent seven naked women to tempt Benedict. For fear of the temptation being too much for the younger monks Benedict left the monastery. When news that the wicked priest had died a jubilant young monk went and told Benedict the news and said it was safe to come back. Benedict went back but mourned for the dead priest and imposed a penance on the monk who had gleefully related the news.
Gregory the Great, the powerful pope was born in Rome around 540 to a rich, noble family. After a bright start to a political career Gregory turned himself over to God and became a Benedictine monk.
"Gregory, owing partly to his personal qualities and partly to the prevailing anarchy, was able to assert successfully an authority which was admitted by ecclesiastics throughout the West, and even, to a lesser degree, in the East. He exerted this authority chiefly by means of letters to bishops and secular rulers in all parts of the Roman world" (Russell, 382).
Gregory also wrote Book of Pastoral Rule that gave practical advice to Bishops and elevated the papacy to authority and the church in authority over the state.
Gregory was hostile to secular learning and the Church retained that hostility until the 11th century under Pope Sylvester II.
Gregory wrote many letters that show him stern with both secular authorities and other bishops. However, he was much more deferential when dealing with the Emperor, even in dealing with Phocas who murdered his way to power in a brutal way.
Missionary work was crucial at the time of Gregory and much of the barbarian population of the West either converted from paganism or from Arian Christianity during the time. Gregory was particularly concerned with re-Christianizing England that had been nominally Christian under the empire but was lately overrun by pagan Angles and Saxons.
"The period we have been considering is peculiar in the fact that, though its great men are inferior
to those of many other epochs, their influence on future ages has been greater. Roman law,
monasticism, and the papacy owe their long and profound influence very largely to Justinian,
Benedict, and Gregory. The men of the sixth century, though less civilized than their predecessors,
were much more civilized than the men of the next four centuries, and they succeeded in framing
institutions that ultimately tamed the barbarians. It is noteworthy that, of the above three men, two
were aristocratic natives of Rome, and the third was Roman Emperor. Gregory is in a very real
sense the last of the Romans. His tone of command, while justified by his office, has its instinctive
basis in Roman aristocratic pride. After him, for many ages, the city of Rome ceased to produce
great men. But in its downfall it succeeded in fettering the souls of its conquerors: the reverence
which they felt for the Chair of Peter was an outcome of the awe which they felt for the throne of
the Caesars.
In the East, the course of history was different. Mahomet was born when Gregory was about thirty
years old." (Russell, 387).
Showing posts with label St. Benedict. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Benedict. Show all posts
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Medieval Notes, Including John Scotus
(Originally written December 7, 2006 in Book 11)
The History of Philosophy vol. 2
Chapter 5 - The Medieval Interval
Plato and Aristotle dominated the Classical period. Augustine and Aquinas dominated the Medieval period; but, lived 8 centuries apart. Augustine and Aquinas dealt with different problems, whereas Plato and Aristotle dealt with the same problems.
The Dark Ages
The barbarian conquering of Rome caused enormous stress. The barbarians were incapable of sustaining such a complex culture like Rome's.
The collapse of a uniform society caused man to primarily focus on staying alive.
The Classical philosophy was lost to Europe in the Dark Ages.
Literacy declined to the point that Charlemagne complained that the clergy did not know enough Latin to interpret the Scriptures.
The Church
Anything surviving from the Roman World in the Dark Ages was due to the Church.
Christianity made converts out of the pagan and Arian barbarians.
"By the end of the Dark Ages, Christianity was more widely spread and Orthodoxy more firmly entrenched than before the barbarian invasions began" (Jones, 142).
The Rise of the Papacy
The early Church was ruled by bishops, not by the Pope.
The doctrine of Papal primacy made the Pope the head of the Church and gave it temporal authority.
A Christian king was subject to the Pope.
Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century pulled papal primacy to its extreme. The power of the Popes stopped Europe from instituting a unified government until the rise of nationalism in the early Modern period.
Monasticism
While the Papacy drove the Church to become a secular power, the spiritual nature was preserved by two things:
1) Monasticism
2) The Friars
Monasticism began in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.
Monasticism got its credibility from St. Benedict.
Humility was the top virtue in monastic life.
The monastic movement constantly reformed to maintain a spiritual primacy over a temporal primacy. Though it wasn't perfect it worked well enough.
The Friars of St. Francis
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Francis of Assisi was a mystic reformer and founded the Order of the Friars Minor.
He was dedicated to poverty, simplicity and good works.
He achieved a large measure of success in inflaming the hearts of the average man with the love of God.
The main difference between now and the Dark Ages is that men in the Dark Ages were ready at any moment to be touched by the otherworldly.
Feudalism
Particularism began to grow in the fragmented ruins of the old Empire.
Men with property gained power as central governments were too weak to perform duties.
"Immunity" was granted to land owners by the central government which gave them the power of controlling their lands with no government interference.
Small peasant farmers would "commend" their lands to these large land owners. "Commendation" was the act of giving up one's land for protection and security. The ones who commended their lands would live on them and work them still, but they would no longer own the land.
Charlemagne (742-814) organized a strong central government and was crowned Emperor by the Pope. But his kingdom collapsed shortly after his death.
Feudalism was born out of the rapid commending process that followed the collapse of Charlemagne.
Authority and power and administration became inextricable from land ownership.
Medieval society was dominated by the concept of status, not the concept of citizenship.
The Middle Ages had a very fragmented society.
Chivalry
Chivalry was an ideal that emphasized private honor and public service.
Along with the Church and feudalism Chivalry marked the culture of the Middle Ages.
St. Louis, King of France
Louis IX was born in 1214 and set out to recapture Jerusalem in 1248. It failed, but he tried again in 1270.
Louis IX described chivalry as "upright" and "worthy".
Uprightness involved courage, modesty, charitableness, sobriety, faithfulness and justice.
Louis IX saw sin as a disease, much like Augustine.
Louis IX did not extend his notions of charity and humility to the Jews.
Louis IX distrusted education. As St. Francis, Louis IX was satisfied with simple faith.
Louis IX saw outward dignity as vital in society. His count was elaborate and attendants were lavishly dressed to show their rank.
Feudalism was so deeply entrenched in Louis IX's society that his closest friend and biographer, Sire de Joinville would not swear an oath of allegiance to Louis' family in the event he died in Crusade because Joinville was not his liegeman.
Art and Letters
Architecture
The 12th and 13th centuries were a period of great artistic blossoming.
Vaulted circling and stained glass windows marked the new Gothic style. The abbey church of St. Denis, the Cathedral of Noyon, Enlis, Paris, Rheims and the Sainte Chapelle are perfect examples of the Gothic style. The architecture reflected Christian piety.
Painting and Poetry
Painting and poetry moved from static, unmoving depictions to depictions of living, breathing men in nature.
It focused on the world, but their was still an otherworldly element: case in point - Dante.
The chasm between the otherworld and this world was removed. The two worlds were no longer bitter hostiles at war with each other.
Science
Bartholomew the Englishmen
Bartholomew was one of the most popular science writers of the Middle Ages.
He used Aristotle only in a way to describe it in a very confusing manner.
Science was mixed with heresy and old wives tales.
Aristotle and Medieval Science
It took time to assimilate Aristotle to science.
Men in the Middle Ages were more concerned with salvation, not with accumulating the facts.
Vincent Beauvais
Bartholomew and Vincent Beauvais were very unscientific.
The Universities
Some monastic and cathedral schools popped up after Charlemagne's renaissance.
The Universities slowly arose over Europe to satisfy the new hunger for knowledge slowly awakened over the 8th-11th centuries.
Philosophy during the Medieval Interval
The cultural problem for the 13th century philosopher was to find a place for these this-worldly ends in a scheme of life that still had a basically otherworldly orientation. The success of Aquinas lies in solving this central problem.
There was virtually no philosophical development in the 8 centuries between Augustine and Aquinas, save for Boethius, Isidore of Seville and John Scotus Erigena.
John Scotus Erigena
John Scotus Erigena (ca. 810-877) was born in Ireland. He studied Greek in an Irish monastery at a time when Greek was nearly lost in all the west.
He travels to France in 847 and taught at Paris in the palace school that Charlemagne founded.
He was involved in deep theological topics like Free Will and the Eucharist. He avoided the extreme forms of predestination, but went too far and was condemned as a Pealagian. His views were condemned in 855. Then his views on the Eucharist were condemned (he denied the Doctrine of Transubstantiation)
He decided to take a safer task of translating Greek into Latin.
John Scotus Erigena was deeply concerned with synthesis. As a Christian, Erigena must have a synthesis, an overarching philosophy that fit with the Catholic dogma.
Nature
John began with the nature of reality.
He believed that things fall into two classes:
1) Things that are
2) Things that are not
Things that are not have different modes, they are modes of non-being
1) Sinful man
2) Changing particulars
3) Potential being
4) Things that are "beyond our intellect"
Things that are are those things that we can comprehend.
John Scotus Erigena's divisions are influence by Plato (most of the texts he translated were neoplatonic ones)
Like Plato and the Neoplatonists, John identified the form of the Good with God.
God
According to John, God is "beyond being" and thus, not to be. John had a problem in attempting to reconcile Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian dogma.
John held that there were two ways for finite minds to approach God:
1) An affirmative way
2) A negative way
The affirmative way consists of stating things like God is being, God is good, etc. These assertions are neither wholly true nor wholly false.
Every positive or affirmative statement about God must be supplemented by a negative statement.
Instead of stating the negative and positive about God as "God is being and not-being" he stated then like "God is super being"
John Scotus Erigena believed that God was truly Good, but to say that God was good was misleading because it wasn't the whole truth.
Creation
John Scotus Erigena started with a paradox in dealing with creation. If God made the world He must move, but how can He who is immutable move?
John asserted that the concepts of making and creation (like the concepts of being and goodness) applied to God in only a metaphorical sense.
He also asserted that the transcendence of the the Creator and the dependence of the creature (Two vitally important Church doctrines) were contradictory.
Theophanies
John held the world to be a "theophany" of God (an appearance of God). It is not an illusion, but the chosen method of God to reveal Himself to man. Human minds are a part of this theophany and thus their understanding is a part of God's theophany.
Knowledge is Illumination
"Everything that exists is an aspect of the divine nature reflected from some perspective or other" (Jones, 179).
Knowledge is fundamentally an act of grace by God in which He illumines our mind.
Four-Fold Division of Nature
While nature is truly one and beyond being, the human mind divides and classifies as was God's intention. There are four divisions of nature:
1) God - the nature that creates and is uncreated
2) The Platonic archetypes - the nature that creates and is created
3) The Physical World - the nature that does not create and is created
4) God - The nature that does not create and is not created
"God issues into the world and returns from it to Himself" (Jones, 180).
God is not conscious until he creates His mind. The archetypes are the divine images of God. They do not exist independently. They are the divine mind.
The archetypes (primordial causes) are the sources of the essences of the particulars in the physical world.
The primordial causes are: goodness, being, life, wisdom, truth, intelligence, reason, virtue, justice, health, greatness, omnipotence, eternity and peace. While we view them as a plurality, they are really a unity.
Anything that exists in the physical world that is describable as one of these primordial causes is so because it takes part (a finite part) in them.
The physical world has being by participating in the various primordial substances.
Is John's view Christian?
There are some Neoplatonic interpretations of nature that readily fit within the framework of Catholic Christianity.
John's metaphysics is a rational system, but is in danger of collapsing into subjectivism and mysticism.
The mystic elements were too strong for a Christian standard at his time. A private mystical basis was not the solution the Church as an institution was looking for.
John's fourth level (not-created and non-creating) seems to destroy individuality. Man's eternal salvation is done through a return to God by all souls. It is not exactly Kosher with the Church. It is blasphemy and heresy.
John's neoplatonism also renders sin and evil as unreal.
John also had to interpret the Scriptures rather loosely.
He also used the writings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as an almost canonical authority. Unfortunately, St. Dionysius the Areopagite was later shown to be a fake.
The Neoplatonic Problem
Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian Dogma are antagonistic. The problem was to include some deeply entrenched Neoplatonic ideals of the Middle Ages into Christianity.
The Controversy over Universals
The thinkers of the 11th century were logicians, not metaphysicians. They focused their energy on two very technical problems:
1) The status of universals
2) the relation between the spheres of faith and reason
It was desirable, if only for pragmatic reasons, to prove the Christian truths.
Reason was an indispensable weapon agains infidels and heretics.
Men of the Middle Ages basically agreed there were three modes of cognition
1) Revelation
2) Reason
3) Perception
The problem of universals and the scope of faith and reason was (and is) an interrelated problem.
The History of Philosophy vol. 2
Chapter 5 - The Medieval Interval
Plato and Aristotle dominated the Classical period. Augustine and Aquinas dominated the Medieval period; but, lived 8 centuries apart. Augustine and Aquinas dealt with different problems, whereas Plato and Aristotle dealt with the same problems.
The Dark Ages
The barbarian conquering of Rome caused enormous stress. The barbarians were incapable of sustaining such a complex culture like Rome's.
The collapse of a uniform society caused man to primarily focus on staying alive.
The Classical philosophy was lost to Europe in the Dark Ages.
Literacy declined to the point that Charlemagne complained that the clergy did not know enough Latin to interpret the Scriptures.
The Church
Anything surviving from the Roman World in the Dark Ages was due to the Church.
Christianity made converts out of the pagan and Arian barbarians.
"By the end of the Dark Ages, Christianity was more widely spread and Orthodoxy more firmly entrenched than before the barbarian invasions began" (Jones, 142).
The Rise of the Papacy
The early Church was ruled by bishops, not by the Pope.
The doctrine of Papal primacy made the Pope the head of the Church and gave it temporal authority.
A Christian king was subject to the Pope.
Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century pulled papal primacy to its extreme. The power of the Popes stopped Europe from instituting a unified government until the rise of nationalism in the early Modern period.
Monasticism
While the Papacy drove the Church to become a secular power, the spiritual nature was preserved by two things:
1) Monasticism
2) The Friars
Monasticism began in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.
Monasticism got its credibility from St. Benedict.
Humility was the top virtue in monastic life.
The monastic movement constantly reformed to maintain a spiritual primacy over a temporal primacy. Though it wasn't perfect it worked well enough.
The Friars of St. Francis
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Francis of Assisi was a mystic reformer and founded the Order of the Friars Minor.
He was dedicated to poverty, simplicity and good works.
He achieved a large measure of success in inflaming the hearts of the average man with the love of God.
The main difference between now and the Dark Ages is that men in the Dark Ages were ready at any moment to be touched by the otherworldly.
Feudalism
Particularism began to grow in the fragmented ruins of the old Empire.
Men with property gained power as central governments were too weak to perform duties.
"Immunity" was granted to land owners by the central government which gave them the power of controlling their lands with no government interference.
Small peasant farmers would "commend" their lands to these large land owners. "Commendation" was the act of giving up one's land for protection and security. The ones who commended their lands would live on them and work them still, but they would no longer own the land.
Charlemagne (742-814) organized a strong central government and was crowned Emperor by the Pope. But his kingdom collapsed shortly after his death.
Feudalism was born out of the rapid commending process that followed the collapse of Charlemagne.
Authority and power and administration became inextricable from land ownership.
Medieval society was dominated by the concept of status, not the concept of citizenship.
The Middle Ages had a very fragmented society.
Chivalry
Chivalry was an ideal that emphasized private honor and public service.
Along with the Church and feudalism Chivalry marked the culture of the Middle Ages.
St. Louis, King of France
Louis IX was born in 1214 and set out to recapture Jerusalem in 1248. It failed, but he tried again in 1270.
Louis IX described chivalry as "upright" and "worthy".
Uprightness involved courage, modesty, charitableness, sobriety, faithfulness and justice.
Louis IX saw sin as a disease, much like Augustine.
Louis IX did not extend his notions of charity and humility to the Jews.
Louis IX distrusted education. As St. Francis, Louis IX was satisfied with simple faith.
Louis IX saw outward dignity as vital in society. His count was elaborate and attendants were lavishly dressed to show their rank.
Feudalism was so deeply entrenched in Louis IX's society that his closest friend and biographer, Sire de Joinville would not swear an oath of allegiance to Louis' family in the event he died in Crusade because Joinville was not his liegeman.
Art and Letters
Architecture
The 12th and 13th centuries were a period of great artistic blossoming.
Vaulted circling and stained glass windows marked the new Gothic style. The abbey church of St. Denis, the Cathedral of Noyon, Enlis, Paris, Rheims and the Sainte Chapelle are perfect examples of the Gothic style. The architecture reflected Christian piety.
Painting and Poetry
Painting and poetry moved from static, unmoving depictions to depictions of living, breathing men in nature.
It focused on the world, but their was still an otherworldly element: case in point - Dante.
The chasm between the otherworld and this world was removed. The two worlds were no longer bitter hostiles at war with each other.
Science
Bartholomew the Englishmen
Bartholomew was one of the most popular science writers of the Middle Ages.
He used Aristotle only in a way to describe it in a very confusing manner.
Science was mixed with heresy and old wives tales.
Aristotle and Medieval Science
It took time to assimilate Aristotle to science.
Men in the Middle Ages were more concerned with salvation, not with accumulating the facts.
Vincent Beauvais
Bartholomew and Vincent Beauvais were very unscientific.
The Universities
Some monastic and cathedral schools popped up after Charlemagne's renaissance.
The Universities slowly arose over Europe to satisfy the new hunger for knowledge slowly awakened over the 8th-11th centuries.
Philosophy during the Medieval Interval
The cultural problem for the 13th century philosopher was to find a place for these this-worldly ends in a scheme of life that still had a basically otherworldly orientation. The success of Aquinas lies in solving this central problem.
There was virtually no philosophical development in the 8 centuries between Augustine and Aquinas, save for Boethius, Isidore of Seville and John Scotus Erigena.
John Scotus Erigena
John Scotus Erigena (ca. 810-877) was born in Ireland. He studied Greek in an Irish monastery at a time when Greek was nearly lost in all the west.
He travels to France in 847 and taught at Paris in the palace school that Charlemagne founded.
He was involved in deep theological topics like Free Will and the Eucharist. He avoided the extreme forms of predestination, but went too far and was condemned as a Pealagian. His views were condemned in 855. Then his views on the Eucharist were condemned (he denied the Doctrine of Transubstantiation)
He decided to take a safer task of translating Greek into Latin.
John Scotus Erigena was deeply concerned with synthesis. As a Christian, Erigena must have a synthesis, an overarching philosophy that fit with the Catholic dogma.
Nature
John began with the nature of reality.
He believed that things fall into two classes:
1) Things that are
2) Things that are not
Things that are not have different modes, they are modes of non-being
1) Sinful man
2) Changing particulars
3) Potential being
4) Things that are "beyond our intellect"
Things that are are those things that we can comprehend.
John Scotus Erigena's divisions are influence by Plato (most of the texts he translated were neoplatonic ones)
Like Plato and the Neoplatonists, John identified the form of the Good with God.
God
According to John, God is "beyond being" and thus, not to be. John had a problem in attempting to reconcile Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian dogma.
John held that there were two ways for finite minds to approach God:
1) An affirmative way
2) A negative way
The affirmative way consists of stating things like God is being, God is good, etc. These assertions are neither wholly true nor wholly false.
Every positive or affirmative statement about God must be supplemented by a negative statement.
Instead of stating the negative and positive about God as "God is being and not-being" he stated then like "God is super being"
John Scotus Erigena believed that God was truly Good, but to say that God was good was misleading because it wasn't the whole truth.
Creation
John Scotus Erigena started with a paradox in dealing with creation. If God made the world He must move, but how can He who is immutable move?
John asserted that the concepts of making and creation (like the concepts of being and goodness) applied to God in only a metaphorical sense.
He also asserted that the transcendence of the the Creator and the dependence of the creature (Two vitally important Church doctrines) were contradictory.
Theophanies
John held the world to be a "theophany" of God (an appearance of God). It is not an illusion, but the chosen method of God to reveal Himself to man. Human minds are a part of this theophany and thus their understanding is a part of God's theophany.
Knowledge is Illumination
"Everything that exists is an aspect of the divine nature reflected from some perspective or other" (Jones, 179).
Knowledge is fundamentally an act of grace by God in which He illumines our mind.
Four-Fold Division of Nature
While nature is truly one and beyond being, the human mind divides and classifies as was God's intention. There are four divisions of nature:
1) God - the nature that creates and is uncreated
2) The Platonic archetypes - the nature that creates and is created
3) The Physical World - the nature that does not create and is created
4) God - The nature that does not create and is not created
"God issues into the world and returns from it to Himself" (Jones, 180).
God is not conscious until he creates His mind. The archetypes are the divine images of God. They do not exist independently. They are the divine mind.
The archetypes (primordial causes) are the sources of the essences of the particulars in the physical world.
The primordial causes are: goodness, being, life, wisdom, truth, intelligence, reason, virtue, justice, health, greatness, omnipotence, eternity and peace. While we view them as a plurality, they are really a unity.
Anything that exists in the physical world that is describable as one of these primordial causes is so because it takes part (a finite part) in them.
The physical world has being by participating in the various primordial substances.
Is John's view Christian?
There are some Neoplatonic interpretations of nature that readily fit within the framework of Catholic Christianity.
John's metaphysics is a rational system, but is in danger of collapsing into subjectivism and mysticism.
The mystic elements were too strong for a Christian standard at his time. A private mystical basis was not the solution the Church as an institution was looking for.
John's fourth level (not-created and non-creating) seems to destroy individuality. Man's eternal salvation is done through a return to God by all souls. It is not exactly Kosher with the Church. It is blasphemy and heresy.
John's neoplatonism also renders sin and evil as unreal.
John also had to interpret the Scriptures rather loosely.
He also used the writings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as an almost canonical authority. Unfortunately, St. Dionysius the Areopagite was later shown to be a fake.
The Neoplatonic Problem
Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian Dogma are antagonistic. The problem was to include some deeply entrenched Neoplatonic ideals of the Middle Ages into Christianity.
The Controversy over Universals
The thinkers of the 11th century were logicians, not metaphysicians. They focused their energy on two very technical problems:
1) The status of universals
2) the relation between the spheres of faith and reason
It was desirable, if only for pragmatic reasons, to prove the Christian truths.
Reason was an indispensable weapon agains infidels and heretics.
Men of the Middle Ages basically agreed there were three modes of cognition
1) Revelation
2) Reason
3) Perception
The problem of universals and the scope of faith and reason was (and is) an interrelated problem.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
St. Benedict and Gregory the Great (A)
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI - St. Benedict and Gregory the Great
The monastic movement, the rise of the papacy, and the conversion of the Barbarians were the greatest achievements of the Church in the 6th and succeeding centuries.
Monasticism was began in both Egypt and Syria simultaneously in the 4th century.
Monasticism initially had two forms:
1) Hermitage (solitary)
2) Monasteries (communal)
The communal form is what conquered the Christian world.
Syrian monks were more ascetic than others.
St. Basil (360 AD) introduced monasticism in Greek-speaking nations.
St. Athanasius brought the Church and monasticism together.
St. Jerome promoted monasticism. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St. Martin of Tours introduced it to Gaul. St. Patrick introduced it to Ireland.
Monasticism initially caused disorder in the Church.
St. Benedict was the founder of the Benedictine Order and the Benedictine Rule. He was born in 480 to a noble family and founded Monte Cassino in 520. Benedict stabilized monasticism and created order.
Pope Gregory the Great was a Benedictine and wrote about St. Benedict.
Gregory was born in 540 into a rich and noble Roman family. He became prefect of Rome in 573 but turned to religion.
He went to Constantinople from 579-585 as a Papal official in the Eastern Empire's imperial court. Gregory became Pope in 590 and faced political turmoil, ecclesiastical turmoil (simony and corrupt bishops) Arianism, and a reversion of England back to Paganism.
As Pope Gregory consolidated and asserted dominance to the Pontiff.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter VI - St. Benedict and Gregory the Great
The monastic movement, the rise of the papacy, and the conversion of the Barbarians were the greatest achievements of the Church in the 6th and succeeding centuries.
Monasticism was began in both Egypt and Syria simultaneously in the 4th century.
Monasticism initially had two forms:
1) Hermitage (solitary)
2) Monasteries (communal)
The communal form is what conquered the Christian world.
Syrian monks were more ascetic than others.
St. Basil (360 AD) introduced monasticism in Greek-speaking nations.
St. Athanasius brought the Church and monasticism together.
St. Jerome promoted monasticism. Augustine introduced it to Africa. St. Martin of Tours introduced it to Gaul. St. Patrick introduced it to Ireland.
Monasticism initially caused disorder in the Church.
St. Benedict was the founder of the Benedictine Order and the Benedictine Rule. He was born in 480 to a noble family and founded Monte Cassino in 520. Benedict stabilized monasticism and created order.
Pope Gregory the Great was a Benedictine and wrote about St. Benedict.
Gregory was born in 540 into a rich and noble Roman family. He became prefect of Rome in 573 but turned to religion.
He went to Constantinople from 579-585 as a Papal official in the Eastern Empire's imperial court. Gregory became Pope in 590 and faced political turmoil, ecclesiastical turmoil (simony and corrupt bishops) Arianism, and a reversion of England back to Paganism.
As Pope Gregory consolidated and asserted dominance to the Pontiff.
The 5th and 6th Centuries
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter V - The 5th and 6th Centuries
After Augustine died in 430 there was little philosophy.
The most important invaders of the Empire in the 5th century were the Goths. The Goths attacked the west. The huns attacked the East. The Ostrogoths ended the Western Empire in 476. The Vandals conquered Africa and Spain. The Visigoths conquered southern France and the Franks conquered the Northern part.
The Church was plagued by two central heresies, promulgated by Cyril and Nestorius. St. Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from 412-444. Nestorius was patriarch of Constantinople. The heresies death with Christ's divinity and humanity.
Nestorius held that Christ was two natures: one human and one divine.
St. Cyril inhumanely burned a female philosopher and Alexandria was not troubled with philosophy anymore. Cyril held that Christ had only one nature.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 favored Cyril's view, partially because Cyril presided and the adherents of his view voted on the matter before Nestorius and his followers showed up. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic but did not recant and founded a Nestorian sect that became popular in Syria and the East. Nestorian beliefs were so popular in China that it almost became the established religion.
Monophysitism grew out of the orthodox view (that of Cyril's) which overemphasized the divine nature of Christ. It was condemned by Pope Leo at the Council of Chalcedon.
The Council of Ephesus declared that Christ was only one Person. The Council of Chalcedon declared Christ was one Person with two natures. But Monophysites still existed in Egypt after the council.
The heresies in Egypt and Syria led to their easier conquest by the Arabs as they were heavily persecuted by the Catholic Church.
There were four men of great importance in the 6th century:
1) Boethius
2) Justinian
3) Benedict
4) Gregory the Great
The Goths incorporated the Roman culture and preserved the Roman way of Life.
Boethius wrote The Consolations of Philosophy which was purely Platonic.
Boethius held that:
1) Happiness was blessedness and this was the good, not pleasure
2) Friendship was a most sacred thing
3) Platonic metaphysics
4) Stoic morality
5) The privative theory of Evil
Boethius was not superstitious or morbid like most men of his age and was not as obsessed with sin.
Justinian was the Eastern Emperor of Rom. He closed the schools of philosophy in Athens due to the Athenian paganism.
Justinian was very pious.
Justinian reconquered Italy and Africa but at the cost of both areas.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter V - The 5th and 6th Centuries
After Augustine died in 430 there was little philosophy.
The most important invaders of the Empire in the 5th century were the Goths. The Goths attacked the west. The huns attacked the East. The Ostrogoths ended the Western Empire in 476. The Vandals conquered Africa and Spain. The Visigoths conquered southern France and the Franks conquered the Northern part.
The Church was plagued by two central heresies, promulgated by Cyril and Nestorius. St. Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from 412-444. Nestorius was patriarch of Constantinople. The heresies death with Christ's divinity and humanity.
Nestorius held that Christ was two natures: one human and one divine.
St. Cyril inhumanely burned a female philosopher and Alexandria was not troubled with philosophy anymore. Cyril held that Christ had only one nature.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 favored Cyril's view, partially because Cyril presided and the adherents of his view voted on the matter before Nestorius and his followers showed up. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic but did not recant and founded a Nestorian sect that became popular in Syria and the East. Nestorian beliefs were so popular in China that it almost became the established religion.
Monophysitism grew out of the orthodox view (that of Cyril's) which overemphasized the divine nature of Christ. It was condemned by Pope Leo at the Council of Chalcedon.
The Council of Ephesus declared that Christ was only one Person. The Council of Chalcedon declared Christ was one Person with two natures. But Monophysites still existed in Egypt after the council.
The heresies in Egypt and Syria led to their easier conquest by the Arabs as they were heavily persecuted by the Catholic Church.
There were four men of great importance in the 6th century:
1) Boethius
2) Justinian
3) Benedict
4) Gregory the Great
The Goths incorporated the Roman culture and preserved the Roman way of Life.
Boethius wrote The Consolations of Philosophy which was purely Platonic.
Boethius held that:
1) Happiness was blessedness and this was the good, not pleasure
2) Friendship was a most sacred thing
3) Platonic metaphysics
4) Stoic morality
5) The privative theory of Evil
Boethius was not superstitious or morbid like most men of his age and was not as obsessed with sin.
Justinian was the Eastern Emperor of Rom. He closed the schools of philosophy in Athens due to the Athenian paganism.
Justinian was very pious.
Justinian reconquered Italy and Africa but at the cost of both areas.
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