IX. Aachen (the Western Catholic Church, 732-1046)

By 750 the “centre of gravity” of the western Christian world had moved from Rome in the south to the Kingdom of the Franks in the north. For centuries, since the fall of the western Roman Empire, Europe had been dominated by Arian (or former Arian) Germanic tribes (such as the Goths). By the eighth century, the Franks, also a Germanic people, but who had been Nicene Christians since the baptism of their ruler, Clovis, in 496, assumed hegemony. This was sealed with military victories, defeating Muslim forces at Poitiers in 732 and defending Rome against the Lombards in the 740s. By the mid-8th century the Pope was transferring his political allegiance from the eastern Christian Empire at Constantinople to the Frankish ruler, Peppin. Later, at Christmas 800, Pope Leo III famously crowned Charles the Great as Emperor of a renewed Roman Empire. Charles saw himself as a ruler with religious and moral responsibility. 

About the same time, following in the footsteps of Irish monks the previous century, several prominent Anglo-Saxon missionaries, such as Wilfrid (later Boniface), Willibrord and Wynfrith, bravely reached out with the gospel to the pagan Germanic peoples such as the Frisians and Thuringians. The former was appointed by Pope Zachary as missionary archbishop of Mainz. Fulda monastery was founded in 744 as a centre for learning and a base for missionary work. Later missionary work among the Saxons would be more political and coercive.

Alongside missionary achievements, the Anglo-Saxons, along with the Franks, furthered a process of “Romanisation” and raised the status of the Papacy. Just as the Pope no longer looked to the Emperor at Constantinople, so the western church also emphasised the Trinitarian theology of Filioque, not shared by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Competing missions to the Slavic peoples became a battle fro competing spheres of influence between Pope Nicolas I (d.867) and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius (d. 867). The two branches of the Nicene church were growing apart, divided by differences in ceremony, language, theological authorities (in the West Augustine was the chief authority), models of salvation (the western church spoke of salvation in legal terms) and the understanding of the Trinity. Controversy over the Papacy and the Filioque would lead to the temporary, Photian schism (863-7) and the permanent schism in 1054.

A major focus of the Frankish Kingdom was education; historians speak of the Carolingian Renaissance. At Aachen, the Frankish capital, was the Academy, an institution of Christian scholars, headed by an Anglo-Saxon, Alcuin (d. 804). The “General Admonition” of 791 ordered the creation of schools at monasteries (such as St. Gall) and cathedrals (such as Laon, Mainz, Reims and Orleans) throughout the realm. This is where future monks and priests, but also laymen, were educated. From the XI century some of these schools grew into the first universities in Europe. Preaching in the language of the people, who did not speak the Latin of the church services, was also encouraged, although most preaching involved reading out written sermons by authorities such as Paul the Deacon (d.799). While on the whole this was not an age of great theological thought, in the eighth century in Spain there was controversy over Adoptonist teaching (Elipandus of Toledo & Felix of Urgel), condemned by the church in 799. There was also discussion on the Eucharist (Paschasius versus Ratramnus), the doctrine of Mary (Paschasius was the first to posit Mary's immaculate conception), and also on the doctrine of predestination (Gottschalk, d.869). One of the finest minds of the age was John Scotus Eriugena (810-877). Somewhat later Benedict of Aniane (d.821) spearheaded a process of “Benedictinisation” in the monastic movement, making the monastic rule of Benedict of Nursia (6th century) almost universal and placing a major emphasis on liturgical celebration.

The Carolingian Empire declined and broke up by the mid-9th century, and was eventually replaced by multiple kingdoms throughout Europe. Paradoxically, this situation led to the church being dominated by powerful families (“Lay Domination”); during the period 850-1050 popes were typically in office for just a few years at a time. The practice of Lay Investiture integrated the clergy into the feudal structure; clerics were invested in their posts by non-church laymen. (This controversy was finally resolved in 1122.) 

In response to this, and to combat abuses such as simony (the buying and selling of church positions) and non-observance of clerical celibacy, in the tenth century monastic reform movements sprang up in multiple locations. The most famous was Cluny monastery (from 910), free of lay interference, which grew into a huge centralised network of monastic houses across Europe. By the time of Hugo, the Abbot of Cluny was the second person in the western Catholic church – and arguably more influential than the Pope himself.

By the Xth century the church was recovering strength, as reflected in renewed missionary success, converting the Scandinavians and Hungarians to Christianity, who during the eighth century had presented a military threat, as well as the Poles and other Slavic peoples. An important missionary base was the episcopal see of Magdeburg (founded in 968). An important missionary was Adalbert of Prague (d. 997), who spearheaded missionary work throughout Eastern Europe.