Byzantine vs Western Europe
Byzantine Empire : As the first Christian Emperor of Rome, Constantine claimed to have divine favor for his rule. He defined Christian practices and intervened in theological disputes. This policy came to be known as “caesaropapism”, whereby the emperor ruled as both secular lord and religious leader. This tendency to exalt Byzantine emperors as absolute rulers of both state and church was reinforced by the appearance of Justinian in the 6th century. He was an energetic, capable ruler with an energetic, capable wife called Theodora, a very religious Christian. Extension of the political boundaries of the empire to regain most of the western territories again, only to be lost by later emperors •The development of the Justinian Code, a law code that systemized Roman law going back to the Republic and continuing through the empire •Of the accomplishments listed, the Justinian Code is the emperor’s most enduring legacy, since it became the basis of law in western Europe and eventually the United States. The church in the west : The power of the church was promoted by an unlikely Germanic group known as the Franks. They controlled much of what is now France by the 5th century C.
E. when their leader Clovis led his forces on a campaign that wiped out the remains of Roman authority a few years after Rome’s fall in 476. Clovis converted to Christianity, under some pressure from his wife, and from then, the Franks’ conquests were done in the name of Jesus. One of his descendants, Charlemagne, ruled a kingdom that spread across a huge part of Europe, including both modern day France and Germany. Charlemagne was able to rescue the Roman Pope from captivity, and the Pope returned the favor by crowning Charlemagne as the new “Holy Roman Emperor,” uniting church and state.
Still, the Pope was the one controlling the crown, and the ceremony took place in Rome. The Catholic Church established its influence in several ways: •Development of a church hierarchy – The Pope in Rome came to be the head of the church, with cardinals that reported to him. Under the cardinals were archbishops, who governed bishops that were spread all over Europe. Individual priests lived in villages and towns and were supervised by the bishops. •Establishment of wandering ministries – Not only did the church have priests attached to almost every village, but it also had wandering priests who represented its influence.
Two orders were the Franciscans, known for their vows of poverty and ability to relate to peasants, and the Dominicans, a more scholarly order who ministered more to educational needs. •The establishment of monasteries- Monasteries also spread all over Europe. These retreats from civilization were inhabited by monks who devoted their lives to study, worship, and hard work. Convents for nuns also were established, and both monasteries and convents served many vital functions: 1) Refuge for those in trouble – The monasteries and convents were seen as safe havens that represented the protection that the church offered to people. ) Communication to the central church hierarchy – Abbots headed monasteries, and they served as another means of keeping church officials in touch with what was going on. •3) Centers of scholarship, education, and libraries – Monks very often were the only people in Europe that could read and write, and they spent large amounts of time copying ancient manuscripts that otherwise might have been lost in the various invasions. Some monasteries eventually formed the first European universities that began their library collections with books the monks had coped.
