During the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Church stepped in to provide stability and services to the people where the empire once did. Church leaders and popes negotiated with barbarians and provided food and aid. The Church then sent missionaries to convert and educate barbarians, transforming their lifestyle and leading to the formation of powerful Christian kingdoms like the Franks and Germans. While the Church united Europe, a new threat arose in Islam. This led to the Crusades between the 11th-13th centuries as Christians tried unsuccessfully to retake the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

1. The Spread of Christianity

2. KINGDOMS ARE
BORN
FROM THE
ASHES
OF ANOTHER

3. The Fall of the Roman Empire

5. THE FALL OF ROME (476)
IS IT GOOD OR BAD
FOR THE CHURCH?

6. NO ROMAN RULE MEANS:
 No Military : Invasions will abound
 No Water and Sanitation : plagues abound
 No Law and Courts : Chaos
 No Civil or Social Services
 No Commerce, Trade and Monetary System

7. IF THIS HAPPENED IN
THE PHILIPPINES, ARE
WE PREPARED?
WHO WILL FILL THE
GREAT VOID?

8. During the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Leo the Great and
his successors became the pillar of hope for the
people.
The people look at the popes as their only
protectors and providers during the disorders
of war and famines
Church leaders especially the popes conducted
political negotiations at their own risk to pacify
the barbarians
The papacy provided grain and food from the
ecclesiastical estates for the starving people,
thereby assumed the role and function of the emperor

9. WILL THESE ACTS OF
THE
CHURCH BE A LONG
TERM SOLUTION DURING
THIS
DARK AGE?

10. CONVERT AND
CIVILIZED
THE BARBARIANS

11. THE CHURCH’S MISSION ON THE
BARBARIANS
Missionaries who were monks were sent by the popes to the Franks
and Germans, including the Saxons and those barbarians in the
north.
The barbarians were educated in Roman traditions and Christian
faith which led to their change of socio-economic and religious
practices.
 The barbarians nomadic lifestyle of looting/ransacking cities was
transformed to farming and building communities.

12. Western culture having lost its center in cities as these were destr
the barbarians have found a new center of Christian culture, these w
the monasteries which brought to the barbarians the
 Cross ( Christian message of salvation)
 Book ( Western Culture and Philosophy)
 Plow (promotion of civilization and new settlement)
Monasteries became the centers of education, invention, industry
preservation of past knowledge as the monks tried to make copies o
manuscripts that were saved when the barbarians burned major citi
including libraries and churches.
THE CHURCH’S MISSION ON THE
BARBARIANS

13. The converted Franks and Germans became the successor of
the Roman
Empire together with the Church. They would later on become
the powerful
Frankish and Germanic kingdoms where Charlemagne and Otto
the Great
Would come from. These kingdoms would become the protector
of the Church and the people from other barbarian invasions
including that of the Muslims.
THE CHURCH’S MISSION ON THE
BARBARIANS

15. While the Church was busy in converting and uniting Western
Europe,
a new threat was rising from the east that was left uncheck for
3-4 centuries.
This was due to internal and external discord among the
different western
Kingdoms, the Church and its schism with the east, and no
powerful empire
to impede it.

16. CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE RISE OF
ISLAM

18. If Christianity grew from bloody persecution, Islam spread fast
through conquest and military might.
The Muslims having conquered half of Christian lands within 3
centuries have reshaped the course of history of the known
civilized world.
They also conquered, 3 of the 5 main center of Christianity
during that period, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch. Thus
begun the 3 centuries of religious war between Christians and
Muslims for the control of the Holy Land
THE CRUSADES

20. Define as the series of military campaign by the Christians to
regain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims (Infidels)
2 Central Goal
 Rescue, defend and protect Christians in the East
 Liberate, defend and regain control of Christian cities and
Holy sites in
the east specially Jerusalem.
Considered as 1. Defensive wars in the face of Islamic threat
2. Spiritual Acts of penance, pilgrimage and
indulgence
THE CRUSADES

22. 1ST CRUSADE (1096-1099)
Pope Urban II responded to the plea of the Patriarch in
Constantinople to save Christianity in the east. He appealed to
the western Christiandom to defend Christianity and recover the
Holy land from the Muslim
It brought a new vigor to the life of knights and their lords. Aside
from the religious piety, there was also the chance of having
peace among warring lords.
The crusaders are mostly made up of Franks and Germans.
This is the only crusade that was successful.
It lead to the founding of the Jerusalem Kingdom

24. 2ND crusade – ended in failure
3rd crusade – french, germans and the english kings and
knights
- partially succeeded, KING RICHARD THE LIONHEART
MADE A PEACE TREATY WITH SULTAN SALADDIN,
CHRISTIANS WILL BE ALLOWED TO PRACTICE THEIR
FAITH IN MUSLIM TERRITORIES
4th crusade – instead of reconquering jerusalem, crusaders
ransacked constantinople, ending the temporary alliance of
eastern and western Church. This led to the total schism
between east and west.
The crusades like all wars did include some sad examples of
war carnage. There is always no winner in war.

25. With the failure of the crusades in reconquering Christian
lands from the Muslims, Christianity refocus itself in
developing further the European culture and in converting
northern Europe especially the Vikings.

26. With the trade to the east being put to stop due to the
ottoman empire controlling the east, during the late middle
ages (14th century) a desire to find a new route to the east
would lead to the greatest expansion of the church, the era of
the missionaries.