This is an extensive series of slides on Christian missions, beginning in the Bible and going to modern times. This section covers the later middle ages

1. Missions
History of Missions
Dr. Robert Patton
Missionary to Suriname,
South America

2. Confrontation with Islam
 Within 100 years after the death of
Mohammed in 632, Islam had spread across
western Africa to Spain and finally was
stopped in France at the battle of Tours. In
the east, it spread across the middle east into
Pakistan and further. Then for 400 years,
there was a stalemate punctuated by
Crusades which never really won the areas
back for any length of time

3. Spread during first caliphates

4. Spread of Islam

5. Spread of Islam

6. The crusades
 There were a number of crusades
mostly from the 11th to the 13th
centuries. Motives were mixed – to
regain the Holy Land from the Muslims,
but also many atrocities were
committed on both sides – and against
the Jews as well, resulting in long term
animosity with Islam

7. The first crusade was by
 Peter the Hermit and others – a group
of unorganized Frenchmen, many of
whom never reached Constantinople,
and those who passed were either killed
by the Turks or sold as slaves

8. Seige during crusades

9. The crusades
 There were 7 crusades between 1096-1270
 Motives were mixed and results scanty
 The crusades were both militarily and
spiritually a disaster.
 The first crusade did win Nicea, Antioch and
Jerusalem. The knights started a feudal
system and organized the Knights Templar to
protect the areas

10. Second crusade
 Muslims captured Edessa, and the king
of France and emperor of the Holy
Empire fought unsuccessfully
 Saladin won Jerusalem in 1187

11. Third crusade – kings crusade
 3 kings – Frederick drown, and Phillip
returned to France. Richard continued, failed
defeat Saladin, but was able to have safe
conduct for pilgrims to come to Jerusalem
 Fourth crusade resulted in weaking the
Eastern church and increasing resentment.
They sacked Constantinople

12. Crusades
 Sixth crusade opened a corridor to
Jerusalem and the Christians were in
charge, but only briefly before the
Saracens took back control
 The seventh was the tragic children’s
crusade, which was a total disaster

13. The crusades
 They were a “religious war” to get the Holy
Land back
 There were many atrocities committed with
great bitterness and loss of life
 The church, who was given the sword of
the Spirit, the word of God, degraded to
using the sword of might given to the
government, not the church

14. Further antagonism with the
eastern church
 The crusades came from the west, but
when lands were won, they were placed
under the western church, and not the
eastern church whose “guests” they
were

15. Results of the crusades
 The east was weakened until it fell to
the Muslims
 The west found nationalism beginning
as feudal lords remained in the area of
the middle east
 The pope became more powerful with
the support of several groups of monks

16. Saladin – muslim conqueror

17. Raymond Lull, missionary to
Islam
 Raymond Lull, initially a profligate (1232), saw two
visions of Christ. He resigned his wife & family,
leaving them adequate finances, and became a
monk, and after another vision, he eventually
learned Arabic & reached out to Muslims.
 He had a Saracen slave to learn Arabic, and almost
killed him after the slave cursed Christ; the slave
committed suicide after being jailed.
 He left support for his wife and family and became a
missionary

18. Raymond Lull, missionary to
Islam
 He was an apologist and wrote 60 books on
theology
 He opened a monastery in Majorca, Spain for
training evangelists with the help of King
James II of Spain
 On his first missionary venture, he lost heart,
and his goods were taken back off the ship,
which sailed without him. He relented and
went on the next ship

19. Raymond Lull, missionary to
Islam
 Finally he returned to Bugia, east of Algiers
 After 10 months hiding, he presented himself
publicly no longer hiding, and was stoned to
death in 1315
 Apparently some of his philosophical ideas
were not well accepted, but it is clear that he
had a tremendous burden and love for the
Muslims

20. Raymond Lull (or Llull)

21. Life of Raymond Lull

22. Mongols invade Europe
 The Mongols swept east to China and
west to the middle of Europe, sweeping
everything away in their path
 Their leader – Genghis Khan
 The pope sent 3 envoys asking him to
become a Christian. He sent back three
replies asking the pope to submit to him
as divinely ordered ruler of the world

23. Genghis Khan
 Christianity had spread to Central Asia
and the Nestorians were expanding in
Mongolia and China

24. Genghis Khan

25. Genghis Khan empire

26. Genghis Khan

27. Marco Polo

28. Marco Polo
 This famous explorer met Kublai Khan,
who requested 100 Christians to come
to his empire to teach
 Polo returned after a hazardous trip,
but only one man eventually arrived,
John of Monte Corvino

29. Kublai Khan accepting gifts
from Marco Polo

30. Marco Polo’s trip

31. John of Monte Corvino
 Sent to Kublai Khan after a delay of 20
years. Marco Polo had relayed a
request of the Khan for 100 men to
show the superiority of the Christian
faith, but the pope did nothing. Finally
another pope sent just 2 men, and one
arrived

32. John of Montecorvino

33. John
 Seven monks arrived to consecrate him
as bishop. Later a second site was
opened. Then other monks came and
the work expanded.
 However they were an embassy. Later
the Chinese defeated Mongolia and the
Christian presence stopped 200 years

34. Danish-Halle Mission
 When the king of Denmark became a
pietist, he wanted to evangelize India.
 Having no missionaries, they ordained
two Lutheran missionaries, Ziegenbalg
& Pluschau. However, secret
information went to the Danish East
Indies Company to hinder their work in
every possible way

35. John
 Seven monks arrived to consecrate him
as bishop. Later a second site was
opened. Then other monks came and
the work expanded.
 However they were an embassy. Later
the Chinese defeated Mongolia and the
Christian presence stopped 200 years

36. Mongols on the west
 Monks adapted beards and walked with
the Mongols. It appeared with the
conversion of Toqtai that there was a
breakthrough, but his sons became
Muslims and the Mongols became
Muslims rather than Christians
 There was brief success around the
Black sea, that went Muslim later

37. Mongols in Persia & India
 First Christians were prominent and
tolerated. Dominicans tried to reach
this area with limited success.
 There was an attempt in India also with
virtually no success

38. There was little permanent
success in Asia
 Distance was partly a problem, but the
hordes of barbarians another
 Tamerlane destroyed much of western
culture and Christianity by 1405. He
was brilliant but ruthless

39. Tammerlane

40. Continued confrontation
with Islam
 In 1453, Constantinople fell and the
Mongols set up their empire to northern
India, then Malaysia to the East Indies
to Mindanao from the Roman Catholics
spreading south. Islam for a while was
the world’s largest religion

41. The fall of Constantinople

42. Roman Catholic evangelization
 Pope Gregory the great - missionary &
pope - accommodated the religion of the
pagans with some compromise and
mixture

43. Gregory VII – the great

44. Roman Catholic evangelization
 The corruption of the church led many to
try to escape to a personal relationship
with the Lord through monasticism
 The Franciscan, Benedictine, Dominican,
Augustinian, Jesuits had the biggest
outreach into other countries

45. Benedictus
 He started the first system of
monasteries with several under him
 He ordered the life of the monks so that
they would take time in worship, work,
and study
 He set an order with poverty, chastity,
and obedience

46. Benedict

47. Cluny reforms
 The monasteries became wealthy and corrupt
 The Cluny abbot was directly responsible to
the pope, and appointed other abbots under
him. Eventually there were 1100 monasteries
under him
 No simony (selling church offices) or
nepotism (favoritism to families), celibacy
 They began missionary outreach

48. Cluny reforms

49. Cluny monasteries

50. Cluny needed reformation
itself
 Cluny became wealthy, with many
aristocrats
 Several orders were renewed and
developed – Benedictine renewed with
central organization and asceticism
 Bernard of Clairvaux set up a great
Ciscerian monastery – mystic &
theologian

51. Bernard of Clairvaux and a
painting of his vision

52. Monasteries
 Some were military (lasted 150 years or
so)
 Friars – not in monastery, and
supported by alms. Worked directly
with the people, preached in vernacular
 The Franciscians were especially
involved in missionary outreach. Later
a number of intellectuals were in it

53. Franciscans
 They began under the leadership of
Francis foe Assisi
 They did much missionary work
 A number of great intellectual leaders of
the Roman Catholic church were from
this order

54. Francis of Assisi

55. Dominicans
 Started by Dominic, a noble
 They were loyal to a prior, and also very
loyal to the pope – increasing his strength
 Many outstanding missionaries
 Most famous theologian – Thomas Aquinas
 Ran the inquisition

56. Dominic; picture imagining
angels with Thomas Aquinas

57. Reform movements 12th
century
 Albigenses – ?believed in dualism and denied
the purity of the material – more like
gnosticism. However, much information is from
their enemies. Perhaps they were
orthodox.They were brutally hunted and killed
– especially in southern France
 Waldensians –Protestants – wanted to preach
as poor layman but excommunicated by pope

58. Peter Waldo
 Apparently a rich man gave his property to his
wife and gave his goods to the poor.
 He is credited in making the first translation of
the scriptures in a local European tongue
 He preached voluntary poverty, and denied
transsubstantiation, and had lay preachers

59. Peter Waldo
 He traveled to Rome and presented his
ideas – initially inconclusive
 Later he was excommunicated by the
pope and his teaching was denied by
the 4th Laterine Council of 1215
 His followers were viciously persecuted

60. Peter Waldo

61. Waldensians
 Started their own groups when kicked
out of the church. Apparently some
secret groups tolerated in the church
which were Waldenisian in nature
 Church tried to win the “heretics’ over,
to eliminate them by persecution, and
forbad vernacular Bibles to avoid
invidious comparisons with the church

62. Popes
 Nicolas II was a strong pope, followed by a
series of weak men, with once 3 men claiming
to be pope! Finally with Leo IX a strong pope
took over, and the power of the papacy
increased to Innocent III
 Although the mass was not accepted until
much later as a sacrifice, it was beginning to
be so, and increased priestly power

63. Pope Leo IX & Innocent III

64. Papal supremacy
 Hildebrand helped Leo IX, and then Nicholas
II – finacial head – and the selection of the
pope in the hands of the cardinals. He was
elected unanimously and was Gregory VII
 Gregory VII placed the pope above all
temporal authorities. When Henry fought,
the pope left him barefoot int the snow 3
days before releasing excommunication

65. Gregory VII

66. Papal authority
 The church was freed from the power of the
state through a compromise
 Innocent III, humble and well educated,
believed that God made him the vicar of
Christ above all secular and spiritual powers.
He forced the king of France to restore his
wife when the king was granted a divorce.
He humbled King John of England – using an
interdict in both cases

67. Papal authority
 Innocent started a crusade
 Called laterine Council where
transubstantiation was approved, and all
people must attend mass at least at Easter
and confess yearly to a priest
 After Innocent, Boniface lost great power.
Eventually for 70 years or so, the pope was
in France and under French domination

68. East and West split 1054
 Constantine began by moving his center
to Constantinople. By 385, the
separation was there and the emperor
controlled the patriarch of the east, but
not the bishop of the West.
 In the east, emperors were almost
popes, and in the west, popes were
almost emperors

69. East & West break 1054
 The pope excommunicated the
patriarch on the high altar of St. Sophia
 The patriarch called the pope anathema
 The breach was not healed until 1965
 This, of course, has had an impact on
missions and which direction the
churches will try to reach

70. Comparison East & West church
 Practical
 Celibate priesthood
 Can shave
 Latin
 Holy Spirit from Father
and Son
 Use pictures & statues
 Theoretical
 Lower level priests marry
 Beards required
 Greek
 Holy Spirit only from
Father
 Kept icons; no pictures

71. Greek Orthodox outreach
 Princess Olga became a Christian and
influenced Vladimir – 988. Russia and
the slavs became open to Christianity

72. Roman Catholic orders
 Franciscan – 1182-1226
 Dominicans – 1170-1221
 Augustinians – 1256
 Jesuits - 1540

73. Scholastics 10-13th centuries
 The church worked to have a
consistency between intellectual beliefs
and religious beliefs
 The most famous theologian to do this
was Thomas Aquinas – who is still
studied today. Others include Anselm
and William from Ockham

74. Anselm of Canterbury

75. Thomas Aquinas

76. Thomas Aquinas

77. Universities
 Gradually the university began to replace
the monastery as the center of learning.
Famous universities opened at Paris,
Oxford and Cambridge
 Mysticism also arose in reaction to the
sacramentalism of the mass and the
intellectualism of the scholastics
 Famous – Thomas a Kempis, who wrote
The Imitation of Christ

78. Cambridge University and old
painting University of Paris

79. John Wycliffe
 Was against the corruption within the
church and its riches
 He translated the Bible into English –
finished by Nicholas of Herford
 He opposed the Pope, transsubstan-
tiation, and felt that the Bible should
take priority over the traditions of the
church

80. John Wycliffe
 He had influence on the Lollards and
Mennonites (through John Huss)
 He died of a stroke. The Roman
Catholic church declared that he was a
heretic, banned his books, and
exhumed his body, burned the bones
and cast them in the River Swift

81. John Wycliffe

82. John Wycliffe preaching to
Lollards

83. Burning the bones of John
Wycliffe

84. John Huss
 Richard II married Anne from Bohemia,
and the ideas of Wycliffe went to
Bohemia, where they were accepted by
Huss. Huss was called to appear before
the pope and guaranteed safe conduct
But there he was condemned to death
and burned. His group continued as
the United Brothers of Moravia

85. John Huss

86. Savonorola
 Da priester disi ben klagi da paus, en a
ben wani da kerki foe kenki. Dem ben
strafoe en hanga hem.
 Dem proberi foe kenki da kerki doro
council, ma a no boek success; wan
leisi 3 paus ben de. Te foe kaba, da
paus kisi krakti baka, en dem no abi
wan sortoe constitional lanti.

87. Savonorola
 This priest complained to the pope and
wanted reform within the church. The church
instead condemned and hanged him. During
this period, councils no succeeded in
reformation, and once they had 3 popes at the
same time. Finally the popes regained power
and they do NOT have a constitutional sort of
government

88. Savonorola
 Some of Savonorola’s problems
appeared when he gained secular
power in Florence, and acted as
governor. Some of his policies were
very strong, and he developed powerful
political enemies, and lost public
support

89. Savanorola

90. The pope’s power declined
 After the very powerful popes peaking
in Innocent III, the popes became
weaker.
 There was eventually a debacle with the
popes in France instead of the Vatican,
and the presence of 3 popes, each of
which excommunicated the other two!

91. What led to decline in the
pope’s power?
 First, feudalism was replaced by the
nation-state and the kin
 The wealthy merchants did not
appreciate the power of the pope
 England developed a constitutional
government, and France and Spain
gave more power to the king

92. Toward the end of the middle
ages came protestant ideas
 The universal church was being
replaced by the national state churches
 Righteousness by faith in the Bible
instead of the traditions of the church
 Greek philosophy was being replaced by
Biblical interpretation

93. Protestant reformation
 Mostly northern Europe
 Multiple factors – religious reform,
economics, development of nation-
states, development of a strong middle
class, ownership of large amounts of
land by the church, more intellectual
freedom, social mobility, taxation by the
church, clerics having papal courts

94. Developing reformation
 Two major problems pushed
reformation
 Taxation by the church
 Papal courts replacing the courts of the
nations themselves

95. Lutheranism
 1517 Luther’s 95 theses against
indulgences precipitated a reform
movement that resulted in the
reformation. The movement spread to
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and
Iceland. Salvation by faith and
translation of the scriptures into the
native languages were two
fundamentals

96. Maarten Luther & German
Bible 1534

97.  He was in agreement with Luther on almost all
items except communion. Zwingli felt that
communion was just a remembrance. Luther
spoke of consubstantiation – that somehow
Christ is present in the communion service (I
could never understand the difference – and
Luther also believed in infant baptism and
baptismal regeneration
Zwingli

98. Zwingli

99. Calvin
 John Calvin developed his religious
views and left the Catholic church. He
was forced to leave France and
relocated in Geneva, which he set up as
a sort of model community. He sent
many men back to France. Calvinism
ended up being strong in Holland,
Northern Ireland and Scotland