Ethics – The Love of Neighbor Medieval Christianity 500 - 1450

1. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
May 17, 2005

3.  Saint Hildegard of Bingen, also
known as Saint Hildegard and
Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German
writer, composer, philosopher,
Christian mystic, Benedictine
abbess, visionary, and polymath.
 Hildegard was elected magistra by
her fellow nuns in 1136; she
founded the monasteries of
Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen
in 1165. One of her works as a
composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is
an early example of liturgical
drama and arguably the oldest
surviving morality play.

4.  She wrote theological, botanical,
and medicinal texts, as well as
letters, liturgical songs, and
poems, while supervising
miniature illuminations in the
Rupertsberg manuscript of her
first work, Scivias.
 Although the history of her
formal consideration is
complicated, she has been
recognized as a saint by branches
of the Roman Catholic Church
for centuries. On 7 October 2012,
Pope Benedict XVI named her a
Doctor of the Church.

5. • Known in Hebrew as Moshe ben Maimon or the Rambam (an acronym)
• Regarded as the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages
• Influenced by:
– Aristotle’s works
– Neoplatonism, such as the doctrine that we can only grasp what “the One” is not
– Muslim commentaries on Aristotle
• Both widely admired and widely criticized:
– Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) agreed that we cannot know what God is, only what God is not,
but drew more moderate conclusions than Maimonides
– Baruch Spinoza (d. 1677) joined Maimonides in rejecting the view of divine providence as
God’s actively taking care of individuals, rewarding them and punishing them, but
criticized him for accepting the creation of the world and the possibility of miracles
– Isaac Newton (d. 1726) studied Maimonides extensively; agreed that God is absolutely one
and transcendent, also that Scripture contains riddles accessible only to the intellectual
elite
• Still influential as a proponent of negative theology and an intepreter of
rabbinic Law

7. Christianity began as one church
around 33 AD with the
followers/apostles of Christ.
Today there are three main branches of
Christianity:
Roman Catholic
Eastern Orthodox
Protestant

8.  Around 1020, the Normans (or Vikings) invaded the
Southern half of Italy.
 Pope Leo IX of Rome tried to defeat the Normans but
lost badly.
 The Normans captured the Pope and began closing
down churches in the Southern half of Italy, which was
controlled by the Byzantine Empire.

10.  During the beginning of the 11th century, there were
already tensions between the east and west.
 After Diocletian divided the east and western Roman
empire, they had grown apart because of distance.
 When Christianity began, arguments began over
which diocese should be considered the most
powerful.

11.  The Norman invasion caused problems between the
east and west.
 The Byzantine churches spoke Greek and had different
customs than the Roman church.
 The Normans made the churches they conquered use
Latin rituals.
 To get even, the Emperor in the east made the Latin
churches over there use Eastern customs.

12.  There was already tension between the Byzantine and
old Roman Empire.
 The Eastern priests could marry before they became
priests. Rome didn’t agree.
 The Roman church used unleavened bread in their
mass. The east thought this was too “Jewish”.
 The Eastern church had Greek mass. The Roman
Church used Latin.

13.  The priests of the two churches dressed different.
 The Eastern church worshipped icons that represented
religious figures. The west saw this as idol worship.

14.  The Eastern churches did not like how the Pope of
Rome claimed himself to be the head of the Christian
church.
 If anyone, the Eastern church believed the patriarch
(bishop) of Constantinople should be the head.
 In 1054, the final straw came when the Western
Church added the filioque to their creed which
included the “Holy Spirit” in the Christian Trinity.

15.  In 1054, Pope Leo IX of Rome and the
Patriarch/Bishop of Constantinople decided to
excommunicate each other.
 Excommunication is the worst punishment a member
of the Christian Church can receive.
 They are not allowed to receive sacraments and have
no hope of entering heaven, according to Christian
beliefs.

16.  The result of the 1054 Schism is the division between
the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church.
 The word Orthodox means dedication to the
traditional faith.
 The Eastern church believed that they followed
traditional Christian beliefs and unlike the Roman
church with they viewed as greedy and too close to
Judaism.

18.  Eastern Orthodox Christians are not considered
Apostolic (key word “apostle) because they don’t
follow the divinity of St. Peter.
 They do not recognize the supremacy of the Pope.
 The two churches have never gotten back together but
did reconcile their differences in the 1900s.