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• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  235 order of women known as the Poor Clares. o Innocent III approved Francis’s short rule for the friars in 1209, and Francis may have attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The itinerant lifestyle of the Franciscans made them flexible instruments for many ministries. o The history of the early order is extraordinarily complex, but out of Francis’s ideals arose thousands of men committed to evangelical poverty, the care of the poor, and the saving of souls. o Almost inevitably, the order also gave rise to great theologians and mystical teachers, including Duns Scotus (1265–1308) and Bonaventura (1217–1274). • Dominic de Guzmán (1170–1221) studied arts and theology, then sold his possessions during a famine to help the poor; he joined the canons regular in Osma and, after undertaking legations to northern Europe, conceived of the ideal of preaching the gospel to pagans. When he became engaged with the Albigensians, he and his companions founded the Order of Preachers (1208), which was approved by Innocent III in 1216 and fully recognized by Honorius III in 1218. o From the Latin dominicani came the tag “dogs of the Lord” for the fiery preaching and disciplined zeal of the new order. o Despite his zeal to oppose heresy, it is doubtful that Dominic himself led the inquisition (the papal-led interrogation of those The first of the mendicant orders was founded by Francis of assisi around the year 1209. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock. 236 Lecture 32: Papal Revolution suspected of heresy), but because of their great learning and dedication, both Dominicans and Franciscans were used by the papacy as agents of inquisition. o Like the Franciscans, the Dominican order produced great theologians, including Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), and great mystics, including Meister Eckhart (1260–1327), John Tauler (d. 1361), and Henry Suso (1295–1366). • Together, the two mendicant orders not only served as flexible instruments of papal policy, but they energized evangelization and the care of the poor. Their commitment to the intellectual life made them the leading figures in the development of the medieval universities. Miller, Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict. Moore, Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216). 1. Discuss the political (and moral!) implications of the forgery known as the Donation of Constantine. 2. What does the investiture conflict tell us about the increased confidence of secular rulers in the West? Questions to Consider Suggested Reading

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  for practicing charity in a community where people are committed to each other for life. Benedict sees the common life as a time of preparation for the o higher states of commitment, as in the life of the hermit. For many who lived it, however, the life was sufficiently o rigorous and demanding to require a lifetime of dedication to accomplish true obedience. As monasteries became more prosperous, the “school” o dimension came to the fore, and monasteries formed the basic source of both Christian discipleship and learning for centuries. The Legacy of Benedictinism • Pope Gregory I (“the Great”) was himself a Benedictine monk and wrote the biography of Benedict. He used Benedictine monks as the instruments for the restoration of the church in England. • In 596, Gregory sent Augustine, the prior of the monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome, together with other monks, to England and made him the archbishop of Canterbury. • Augustine converted King Ethelbert, whose wife, Bertha, was already Christian, and through the king, England rapidly became Catholic. • The Benedictine monasteries, which fit so well within the manorial system of medieval society, became places that exemplified and enabled a deeper commitment to the faith. English monks in particular were critical to the next stage of evangelization in Europe. • Perhaps the most remarkable testimony to the work of Benedict is that despite a long series of repressions and reforms, the way of life according to his Rule continues to be lived by men and women around the world to the present day. Not many 1,500-year-old books have worn as well. 193 194 ecneuflnI stI dna msicitsanoM enitcideneB :62 erutceL Suggested Reading Casey and Tomlin, Introducing the Rule of Benedict. Knowles, Christian Monasticism. Questions to Consider 1. How did the Rule of Benedict provide an accessible form of the “life of perfection” in a way earlier rules had not? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of understanding the path to God as mediated by “a Rule and an abbot”?

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  Evangelization of Western Europe Lecture 27 In the past few lectures, we have identified important elements in the formation of a Catholic Europe: At the political level, we saw the Frankish conquests and consolidation and the commitment of the Merovingians to Catholicism and to the papacy. At the religious/cultural level, we saw how Benedictine monasticism fit within the manorial economic system and provided a place for the learning and dissemination of a specifically Catholic culture. In this lecture, we will pull together more firmly and directly three of the main players who together helped make Europe Christian: the monks who worked as missionaries, the kings who either sponsored them or were converted by them, and the popes who commissioned and directed them. The Bishops of Rome • The pope was by far the central figure in bringing the Christian message to all of Europe. The strength and relative independence of the papacy over the course of some nine centuries played an important role in securing and expanding the Catholic tradition in the West. • Not all popes were great or even competent; many were mediocrities. But when greatness in a person combined with the significance of the office, powerful things could happen. Already in this course, we have noted the importance of two bishops of Rome whose tenure was sufficiently lengthy and whose moral and intellectual integrity were sufficiently impressive to exercise great influence. Damasus I was a vigorous opponent of Arianism and o Donatism; united himself with the Cappadocians; strengthened the position of the papacy (establishing its archives); and commissioned Jerome to translate the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible, which provided a uniform Scripture to the West. 195

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  87 • Little is known of Clement’s life. Born in Athens, he became a student of the Platonic philosopher Pantaenus in Alexandria. In the late 2 nd century, he became head of the Christian catechetical school in that city. The only other biographical fact we know about Clement is that he fled from persecution in 202. • Clement forged a “thinking person’s” version of Christianity. He sought a middle way between the extreme elitism of Gnosticism and the ignorance of simple believers. He thought in terms of a “Christian Gnosticism” that was orthodox and connected to the larger tradition. He affirmed the lines of the developing rule of faith and despised the compositions of Valentinus and Basilides. • Clement’s project took the form of a three-stage presentation using the forms of ancient Greek rhetoric and philosophy. o The Protrepticus (“Exhortation”) is a classic call to conversion, such as was issued by Greco-Roman philosophers. We see an example in Lucian of Samosata’s Nigrinus, which castigates false philosophers and calls for adherence to the teaching of Nigrinus. Clement similarly attacks pagan errors—especially in religious matters—and argues for the truth of Christianity. o The Paidogogos (“Instructor”) in Greek education was the one who taught young children their morals and manners. Clement’s book by this title offers an extensive catalogue of Christian moral behavior. o Clement’s most ambitious work, the Didaskalos (“Teacher”), was never completed; however, the compilation of notes for that work, the Stromateis (“Fragments”), itself constitutes a major and deeply learned statement on Christianity’s use of Scripture and its relationship to philosophy. • Clement’s work represents a much more ambitious and systematic effort than Justin’s not only to render Christianity as reasonable but to make it a serious contender in ancient philosophical discourse.

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  influence of the Cluniac sensibility. Three monks of Cluny were even elected bishops of Rome. • The influence of Cluny remained strong until the early 12th century and even at that date produced a final remarkable leader in Peter the Venerable (c. 1094–1156). Peter was elected abbot in 1122 and defended Cluny’s commitment to scholarship against another famous monastic reformer, Bernard of Clairvaux. The Abbey of Cîteaux • Bernard began as a monk of the second great reforming monastery, the Abbey of Cîteaux, founded in 1098. The Cistercian monks sought a more rigorous observance of the Rule of Benedict than was practiced in communities associated with Cluny. Like Cluny, Cîteaux established an order that exercised control o over the reform in its daughter houses. At the start of the 13th century, there were some 500 monasteries associated with Cîteaux across Europe and even in the Latin East. The ideal of Cîteaux was to locate communities in isolated o places. The mother-house abbey church was begun in 1140 and completed in 1193; the dukes of Burgundy were generous benefactors of Cîteaux. The most marked feature of the reform was the embrace of o manual labor as an ideal, returning to the balance between work and prayer that the Rule had first envisaged. By locating in remote areas, the Cistercians sought to ensure that agricultural labor—not labors of the mind—would remain at the center of the monastic labora. In this sense, it was a reform in the direction of the primitive. • The most well-known alumnus of Cîteaux was the Cistercian monk Saint Bernard (1090–1153), who became the most famous—and, in some respects, contentious—of the reformers in the Benedictine tradition. Bernard left the monastery of Cîteaux in 1115 to found his own monastery at Clairvaux and become its first abbot. 213

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  237 Universities and Theology Lecture 33 O ne of the most impressive signs of a mature Christian culture in the High Middle Ages was the development of universities. As we have seen, the desire for higher learning within Christianity was never completely lost, even during the most chaotic periods of life in the West. Universities, though, were a new invention in the West; they emerged when they did because of the convergence of a number of factors. In a flash, over the span of some 80 years, four great universities were founded in Europe that quickly became important centers of learning and eventually contributed heavily to social change: Bologna in 1119, Paris in 1150, Oxford in 1167, and Cambridge in 1200. Context for the Emergence of Universities • The convergence of a number of factors set the stage for the emergence of universities in the 12 th and 13 th centuries. We have already noted the increased wealth and security in Europe based on predictably good weather, steady crops, and successful trade—all these, plus population growth in urban areas, set the context for leisure as the basis of culture. Of considerable significance also was the production of manuscripts in monastery scriptoria, which reached a point of sufficient dissemination to enable shared learning at a higher level. • The development of a professional clergy, as in the Franciscans and Dominicans, as well as the development of a professional diplomatic corps, demanded higher levels of education. The ordinary clergy would remain woefully undereducated within Catholicism until the Counter-Reformation of the 16 th century, but both monks and mendicants represented the most learned people of the medieval world.

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  • The churches of San Vitale and Sant’Apollinare in the imperial city of Ravenna in Italy, as well as the Great Palace in Constantinople, display magnificent frescoes and mosaics in honor of God and the imperial family. • Under Justinian, the literary arts of history and poetry flourished. But the emperor’s whim also led to the state closure of the neoplatonic Academy in Athens in 529. It had been a real and symbolic center of Greek culture for almost 1,000 years. The Pandidakterion (sometimes called a “university”) of o Constantinople was founded in 425 under Theodosius II; Justinian used its resources in his architectural and legal initiatives. The school had 31 chairs for such subjects as arithmetic, o geometry, law, medicine, music, and rhetoric; 16 chairs teaching in Greek; and 15 chairs teaching in Latin. It flourished as a shining example of higher learning until the 9th century and survived in diminished form for hundreds more years. Efforts at Religious Unity • In religious matters, Justinian was a staunch defender of the Nicene Creed and made real if unsuccessful efforts to achieve unity within the empire in matters of doctrine. • As part of his policy of embracing the western part of the empire and seeking to restore it as part of a unified state, Justinian recognized the primacy of the bishop of Rome in 528 and maintained the doctrinal definition of Chalcedon, reversing the monophysite position that had dominated the empire since 483. • At the same time, he sought to placate the strong monophysite advocates in Constantinople—not least Theodora—tendencies that he also increasingly shared. In the Theopaschite controversy (the term refers to a member o of the Trinity suffering on the cross), Justinian adopted this 161

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  86 Lecture 12: The Beginnings of Christian Philosophy Justin Martyr • Both the symbolic and the real birth of Christian philosophy in the proper sense are represented by Justin Martyr (c. 100–165). • Born as a pagan in Samaria, Justin passed through a series of philosophical schools, seeking the perfect one. He thought he found it in Platonism but then was converted to Christianity. • In Antioch, he met and engaged in a lengthy controversy with a Jew named Trypho shortly after the final devastation of Jerusalem following the Bar Kochba revolt (135 C.E.). He later opened a Christian school in Rome, where Tatian (the apologist and leader of the Encratites) was one of his students. • Denounced as a Christian by the Cynic philosopher Crescens, Justin refused to offer sacrifice to the gods and was beheaded. • Justin’s works reveal a lively intellectual engagement with the larger world. o The Dialogue with Trypho reports the last sustained debate between a Christian and Jew concerning their respective claims that is carried out with at least the appearance of civility and equality. The tone is that of competing philosophers, as Trypho and Justin debate whether Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies and which version of Scripture (the Hebrew or the Greek) was better. o In his First Apology , Justin defends Christians against the charges made against them but goes further in a sweeping assessment of pagan religion (negative) and pagan philosophy (positive), especially Platonism, representing Christianity as the endpoint of the human quest for wisdom. Clement of Alexandria • Clement of Alexandria (150–c. 215) took significant steps beyond Justin in establishing a genuinely philosophical form of Christianity.

• From An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (1995)

  Although, like all military families, we moved a lot—by the fifth grade my older brother, sister, and I had attended four different elementary schools, and we had lived in Florida, Puerto Rico, California, Tokyo, and Washington, twice—our parents, especially my mother, kept life as secure, warm, and constant as possible. My brother was the eldest and the steadiest of the three of us children and my staunch ally, despite the three-year difference in our ages. I idolized him growing up and often trailed along after him, trying very hard to be inconspicuous, when he and his friends would wander off to play baseball or cruise the neighborhood. He was smart, fair, and self-confident, and I always felt that there was a bit of extra protection coming my way whenever he was around. My relationship with my sister, who was only thirteen months older than me, was more complicated. She was the truly beautiful one in the family, with dark hair and wonderful eyes, who from the earliest times was almost painfully aware of everything around her. She had a charismatic way, a fierce temper, very black and passing moods, and little tolerance for the conservative military lifestyle that she felt imprisoned us all. She led her own life, defiant, and broke out with abandon whenever and wherever she could. She hated high school and, when we were living in Washington, frequently skipped classes to go to the Smithsonian or the Army Medical Museum or just to smoke and drink beer with her friends. She resented me, feeling that I was, as she mockingly put it, “the fair-haired one”—a sister, she thought, to whom friends and schoolwork came too easily—passing far too effortlessly through life, protected from reality by an absurdly optimistic view of people and life. Sandwiched between my brother, who was a natural athlete and who never seemed to see less-than-perfect marks on his college and graduate admission examinations, and me, who basically loved school and was vigorously involved in sports and friends and class activities, she stood out as the member of the family who fought back and rebelled against what she saw as a harsh and difficult world. She hated military life, hated the constant upheaval and the need to make new friends, and felt the family politeness was hypocrisy.

• From An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (1995)

  Perhaps because my own violent struggles with black moods did not occur until I was older, I was given a longer time to inhabit a more benign, less threatening, and, indeed to me, a quite wonderful world of high adventure. This world, I think, was one my sister had never known. The long and important years of childhood and early adolescence were, for the most part, very happy ones for me, and they afforded me a solid base of warmth, friendship, and confidence. They were to be an extremely powerful amulet, a potent and positive countervailing force against future unhappiness. My sister had no such years, no such amulets. Not surprisingly, perhaps, when both she and I had to deal with our respective demons, my sister saw the darkness as being within and part of herself, the family, and the world. I, instead, saw it as a stranger; however lodged within my mind and soul the darkness became, it almost always seemed an outside force that was at war with my natural self. My sister, like my father, could be vastly charming: fresh, original, and devastatingly witty, she also was blessed with an extraordinary sense of aesthetic design. She was not an easy or untroubled person, and as she grew older her troubles grew with her, but she had an enormous artistic imagination and soul. She also could break your heart and then provoke your temper beyond any reasonable level of endurance. Still, I always felt a bit like pieces of earth to my sister’s fire and flames. For his part, my father, when involved, was often magically involved: ebullient, funny, curious about almost everything, and able to describe with delight and originality the beauties and phenomena of the natural world. A snowflake was never just a snowflake, nor a cloud just a cloud. They became events and characters, and part of a lively and oddly ordered universe. When times were good and his moods were at high tide, his infectious enthusiasm would touch everything. Music would fill the house, wonderful new pieces of jewelry would appear—a moonstone ring, a delicate bracelet of cabochon rubies, a pendant fashioned from a moody sea-green stone set in a swirl of gold—and we’d all settle into our listening mode, for we knew that soon we would be hearing a very great deal about whatever new enthusiasm had taken him over. Sometimes it would be a discourse based on a passionate conviction that the future and salvation of the world was to be found in windmills; sometimes it was that the three of us children simply had to take Russian lessons because Russian poetry was so inexpressibly beautiful in the original.

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  193 for practicing charity in a community where people are committed to each other for life. o Benedict sees the common life as a time of preparation for the higher states of commitment, as in the life of the hermit. o For many who lived it, however, the life was sufficiently rigorous and demanding to require a lifetime of dedication to accomplish true obedience. o As monasteries became more prosperous, the “school” dimension came to the fore, and monasteries formed the basic source of both Christian discipleship and learning for centuries. The Legacy of Benedictinism • Pope Gregory I (“the Great”) was himself a Benedictine monk and wrote the biography of Benedict. He used Benedictine monks as the instruments for the restoration of the church in England. • In 596, Gregory sent Augustine, the prior of the monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome, together with other monks, to England and made him the archbishop of Canterbury. • Augustine converted King Ethelbert, whose wife, Bertha, was already Christian, and through the king, England rapidly became Catholic. • The Benedictine monasteries, which fit so well within the manorial system of medieval society, became places that exemplified and enabled a deeper commitment to the faith. English monks in particular were critical to the next stage of evangelization in Europe. • Perhaps the most remarkable testimony to the work of Benedict is that despite a long series of repressions and reforms, the way of life according to his Rule continues to be lived by men and women around the world to the present day. Not many 1,500-year-old books have worn as well. 194 Lecture 26: Benedictine Monasticism and Its Influence Casey and Tomlin, Introducing the Rule of Benedict. Knowles, Christian Monasticism. 1. How did the Rule of Benedict provide an accessible form of the “life of perfection” in a way earlier rules had not? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of understanding the path to God as mediated by “a Rule and an abbot”? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  158 ytinaitsirhC enitnazyB dna nainitsuJ fo truoC ehT :22 erutceL In effect, through his uncle and on his own, Justinian exercised imperial power for 47 years. He married a much younger woman named Theodora in 525. o Procopius claims she was a former prostitute, but given his general hostility toward her, the information must be taken with caution. She proved to be a formidable power at Justinian’s side. Justinian faced severe difficulties from the start of his reign: the o loss of the western empire, the threat of the Persian (Sassanid) Empire at his eastern borders, the revolt of city factions against him in 532, and being personally afflicted with the plague in 540. Yet his great energy and his ambition drove him to significant accomplishment. • Justinian’s ambition was nothing less than to restore the former greatness of the Roman Empire through conquest, organization, and adornment; his ambition was abetted by a willingness to exercise supreme rule and to concentrate all control in himself, as well as the personal traits that accompany political greatness. On the positive side, Justinian was brilliant, courageous, o tireless, tough, and bold. Examples include his marrying and sharing power with Theodora and his brilliant commissioning and efficient construction of the great church Hagia Sophia. On the negative side, he was ruthless and cruel. Witness the o slaughter of his foes in the Nika rebellion or the blinding of General Belisarius in later life out of jealousy. His religious disposition was sincere and grew stronger as he o aged; his commitment to Nicaean Christianity went hand in hand with the willingness to suppress other traditions. The Restoration of Roman Greatness • By concentrating all power in himself yet making use of superb generals and administrators, Justinian went a long way at the political level toward restoring the greatness of Rome.

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  order of women known as the Poor Clares. Innocent III approved o Francis’s short rule for the friars in 1209, and Francis may have attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The itinerant lifestyle of the Franciscans made them flexible instruments for many ministries. The history of the early order o is extraordinarily complex, but out of Francis’s ideals arose thousands of men committed to evangelical The first of the mendicant poverty, the care of the poor, orders was founded by Francis and the saving of souls. of assisi around the year 1209. Almost inevitably, the order also gave rise to great theologians o and mystical teachers, including Duns Scotus (1265–1308) and Bonaventura (1217–1274). • Dominic de Guzmán (1170–1221) studied arts and theology, then sold his possessions during a famine to help the poor; he joined the canons regular in Osma and, after undertaking legations to northern Europe, conceived of the ideal of preaching the gospel to pagans. When he became engaged with the Albigensians, he and his companions founded the Order of Preachers (1208), which was approved by Innocent III in 1216 and fully recognized by Honorius III in 1218. From the Latin dominicani came the tag “dogs of the Lord” for o the fiery preaching and disciplined zeal of the new order. Despite his zeal to oppose heresy, it is doubtful that Dominic o himself led the inquisition (the papal-led interrogation of those 235 .kcotsknihT/otohpkcotSi © 236 noituloveR lapaP :23 erutceL suspected of heresy), but because of their great learning and dedication, both Dominicans and Franciscans were used by the papacy as agents of inquisition. Like the Franciscans, the Dominican order produced great o theologians, including Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), and great mystics, including Meister Eckhart (1260–1327), John Tauler (d. 1361), and Henry Suso (1295–1366). • Together, the two mendicant orders not only served as flexible instruments of papal policy, but they energized evangelization and the care of the poor. Their commitment to the intellectual life made them the leading figures in the development of the medieval universities. Suggested Reading Miller, Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict. Moore, Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216). Questions to Consider 1. Discuss the political (and moral!) implications of the forgery known as the Donation of Constantine. 2. What does the investiture conflict tell us about the increased confidence of secular rulers in the West?

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  century through the work of the Briton Saint Ninian; the northern part of Scotland was evangelized by the Irish abbot Saint Columba (d. 597) over a period of 34 years. many legends surround Saint Patrick, but two authentic letters written by him are extant. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock. 156 Lecture 21: Expansion beyond the Boundaries of Empire Conclusions about the Expansion • Although the Roman Empire had attractions, Christianity succeeded in some places despite imperial power rather than because of it. This religion, in whatever form it appeared, clearly had the capacity to attract people on its own terms. • The “catholicity” (universal character) of the church included an ever greater diversity of populations, languages, and cultural forms, and although the more familiar forms of Christianity developed within the framework of an imperial heritage, the forms of Christian expression from North Africa to China in the years 400 to 800 testify to a remarkable cultural adaptability. • This survey confirms the point made earlier that what is called “orthodox” Christianity is, to a large extent, to be identified with imperial Christianity, while outside the empire, Christianity was most often Arian, Nestorian, or monophysite. • The powerful movement of peoples in the West and the evangelization of those tribal peoples would form the future cultural context for the Latin church. Bihlmeyer (Mills, trans.), Church History, pp. 216–240. Daniélou and Marrou, The First Six Hundred Years, (The Christian Centuries, vol. 1), pp. 281–375. 1. What does the success of Christianity among new peoples say about the inherent attractiveness of the religion? 2. Discuss the reasons that “orthodoxy” tends to be coterminous with the boundaries of empire. Suggested Reading Questions to Consider

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  87 • Little is known of Clement’s life. Born in Athens, he became a student of the Platonic philosopher Pantaenus in Alexandria. In the late 2 nd century, he became head of the Christian catechetical school in that city. The only other biographical fact we know about Clement is that he fled from persecution in 202. • Clement forged a “thinking person’s” version of Christianity. He sought a middle way between the extreme elitism of Gnosticism and the ignorance of simple believers. He thought in terms of a “Christian Gnosticism” that was orthodox and connected to the larger tradition. He affirmed the lines of the developing rule of faith and despised the compositions of Valentinus and Basilides. • Clement’s project took the form of a three-stage presentation using the forms of ancient Greek rhetoric and philosophy. o The Protrepticus (“Exhortation”) is a classic call to conversion, such as was issued by Greco-Roman philosophers. We see an example in Lucian of Samosata’s Nigrinus, which castigates false philosophers and calls for adherence to the teaching of Nigrinus. Clement similarly attacks pagan errors—especially in religious matters—and argues for the truth of Christianity. o The Paidogogos (“Instructor”) in Greek education was the one who taught young children their morals and manners. Clement’s book by this title offers an extensive catalogue of Christian moral behavior. o Clement’s most ambitious work, the Didaskalos (“Teacher”), was never completed; however, the compilation of notes for that work, the Stromateis (“Fragments”), itself constitutes a major and deeply learned statement on Christianity’s use of Scripture and its relationship to philosophy. • Clement’s work represents a much more ambitious and systematic effort than Justin’s not only to render Christianity as reasonable but to make it a serious contender in ancient philosophical discourse.

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  Eastern Orthodoxy—Holy Tradition Lecture 24 After centuries of religious struggle, Christianity in the Byzantine Empire settled into a long period of stability. The conflict over the nature of Christ ended in a state of resolution fairly close to the Chalcedonian position, and the violent turmoil unleashed by iconoclasm finally ceased. The pressure exerted by external enemies made the Byzantine Empire more compact and inward-turning. Constantinople remained the greatest city in the world, but the age of imperial aggression and expansion was over. Eastern Orthodoxy, furthermore, experienced no great intellectual crises, such as the Reformation and Enlightenment. This lecture considers the expansion of Orthodoxy to the Slavic peoples and three signal elements in the Orthodox tradition: the liturgy, the role of monasticism, and spirituality. The Mission to the Slavic Peoples • An indication of the internal vibrancy of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire was the mission to the Slavic peoples in the 9th century. • The mission was initiated by two brothers from Thessalonika, Cyril (826–869)—earlier known as Constantine—and his older sibling, Methodius (815–885). They are rightly designated as “the apostles of the Slavs.” They were both highly educated, and both worked as part of o the vast and effective civil service established by Justinian that was a hallmark of the late empire; both then became monks but remained at the disposal of the emperor. In 860–861, the brothers went on a diplomatic mission to the o Khazars (north of the Caucasus) and, while there, learned the Slavic language, which as yet existed only in speech, not in writing. 173

• From The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation (2012)

  The Court of Justinian and Byzantine Christianity Lecture 22 The emperor Justinian I (b. 483–d. 565) can be considered as pivotal a figure in the history of the Roman Empire as Constantine, both as the last of the “Roman” emperors and as the shaper of the Byzantine Empire. A man of astonishing energy and vision, he accomplished magnificent things in his effort to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory. Although his efforts fell short because of various adverse forces, his accomplishments were sufficient to secure a form of civilization that endured for another 1,000 years and, during the years of European “dark ages,” represented to visitors and admirers a vision of ancient beauty and new possibility. The Life of Justinian • Justinian is rightly called “great” because his long life and distinctive gifts enabled him to shape both the present and the future. • We have unusually good information on his life because of Procopius of Caesarea, a secretary to Justinian’s general Belisarius. Procopius’s History of the Wars is an eyewitness account o of both eastern and western conquests, as he accompanied the general. His On the Buildings enumerates the great building projects o of the emperor. And the Secret History is a not-always- flattering account of the life and times of the court, including an unfavorable portrait of Justinian’s consort, Theodora, and a riveting account of the ravages of the plague in 541–543. • Born in Dalmatia (on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea) in 483, Justinian’s path to power came through his uncle and adoptive father, who became the emperor Justin in 518. Justinian functioned as a counselor and even co-ruler with o Justin between 518 and his own installation as emperor in 527. 157

• From Austerlitz (2001)

  Alphonso, barely half a century later, those glories had been almost entirely destroyed by our passion for collecting and by other imponderable disturbances and disruptions. On another occasion, said Austerlitz, Great-Uncle Alphonso took us up the hill behind the house on a still, moonless night to spend a few hours looking into the mysterious world of moths. Most of us, said Austerlitz, know nothing about moths except that they eat holes in carpets and clothes and have to be kept at bay by the use of camphor and naphthalene, although in truth their lineage is among the most ancient and most remarkable in the whole history of nature. Soon after darkness fell we were sitting on a promontory far above Andromeda Lodge, behind us the higher slopes and before us the immense darkness out at sea, and no sooner had Alphonso placed his incandescent lamp in a shallow hollow surrounded by heather and lit it than the moths, not one of which we had seen during our climb, came flying in as if from nowhere, describing thousands of different arcs and spirals and loops, until like snowflakes they formed a silent storm around the light, while others, wings whirring, crawled over the sheet spread under the lamp or else, exhausted by their wild circling, settled in the gray recesses of the egg boxes stacked in a crate by Alphonso to provide shelter for them. I do remember, said Austerlitz, that the two of us, Gerald and I, could not get over our amazement at the endless variety of these invertebrates, which are usually hidden from our sight, and that Alphonso let us simply gaze at their wonderful display for a long time, but I don’t recollect now exactly what kinds of night-winged creatures landed there beside us, perhaps they were China Marks, Dark Porcelains and Marbled Beauties, Scarce Silver-lines or Burnished Brass, Green Foresters and Green Adelas, White Plumes, Light Arches, Old Ladies and Ghost Moths, but at any rate we counted dozens of them, so different in structure and appearance that neither Gerald nor I could grasp it all. Some had collars and cloaks, like elegant gentlemen on their way to the opera, said Gerald; some had a plain basic hue, but when they moved their wings showed a fantastic lining underneath, with oblique and wavy lines, shadows, crescent markings and lighter patches, freckles, zigzag bands, fringes and veining and colors you could never have imagined, moss green shot with blue, fox brown, saffron, lime yellow, satiny white, and a metallic gleam as of powdered brass or gold. Many of them were still resplendent in immaculate garments, others, their short lives almost over, had torn and ragged wings. Alphonso told us how each of these extravagant creatures had its own character, and that many of them lived only among alders, or on hot, stony slopes, in pastures on poor soil, or on moors. Describing their previous existence as larvae, he said that almost all caterpillars ate only one kind of food—the roots of couch grass, the leaves of sallow or barberry, withered

• From Comrade Loves of the Samurai (1972)

  'This young man is very fortunate,' said Sasanosuke, 'to be so appreciated by such a man as Hayemon. I should like to be that youth.' And, taking off his robe, he gave it to the slave for a present. But the slave would have preferred the garment to have been a great bottle full of wine. Afterwards, this fellow became the messenger between Hayemon and Sasanosuke, and enabled them to enjoy their loves, for they were both brave and honourable men. But one autumn the tree in the garden of the temple Saimenji on Mount Nayata bloomed for the second time. The samurai assembled at the temple to enjoy this spectacle, and made a noble pleasure party, feasting on delicious foods and wines. This caused them to forget both the flowers and themselves, and they remained till evening. There were among them several of the Lord's pages. Hayemon had also come to see the flowers and to enjoy himself with the other samurai. Itjisaburo Igarashi, one of the pages, gave him a cup of wine to drink, the half of which he had already drained himself. Hayemon thanked him with most flattering compliments, saying: 'You are a truly pretty boy. I delight in your beauty even while I am drinking.' And he let Itjisaburo fill the cup again with heady wine. When he was drunk he took his pleasure with Itjisaburo; but, on going away, he did not forget his two swords. These are the soul of a samurai. Someone told Sasanosuke of Hayemon's con-dud with Itjisaburo, and he was shaken by anger and jealousy. The next day the weather changed suddenly, it grew cold, and a furious gale began to blow. Sasanosuke waited for Hayemon at the door of his house and, when he arrived, impatiently took him by the hand and led him to a little inner court. Then he locked the door and also every way out of the house, and left Hayemon in that yard. Hayemon thought that Sasanosuke was making ready a love meeting, and waited for some time in the court. But the snow, which had begun to fall in the early evening, was getting thicker. At first Hayemon shook the snow from his shoulders and sleeves; but soon, although he had sheltered under an old paulownia, he began to suffer greatly. In a husky voice he called to his lover: 'Sasanosuke, I shall die of this cold.' But Sasanosuke mockingly answered him from the first-floor room, where he was amusing himself with the servant: 'I am sure that you are Still sufficiently warmed by the wine that pretty page poured out for you.' Hayemon groaned: 'You are teaching me a lesson this evening. I shall be very discreet in future. I will not look at a single other pretty boy. Forgive me, Sasanosuke. 'But Sasanosuke was unyielding. 'If you are in earnest, pass me your two swords to prove it. Only so shall I believe you.' And Hayemon passed him his two swords.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  There he experienced peculiar joys and trials, and foresaw great dangers of heresies that should spring up from within.589 All the forces of orthodox and heretical Christianity were collected there. Jerusalem was approaching its downfall; Rome was not yet a second Jerusalem. Ephesus, by the labors of Paul and of John, became the chief theatre of church history in the second half of the first and during the greater part of the second century. Polycarp, the patriarchal martyr, and Irenaeus, the leading theologian in the conflict with Gnosticism, best represent the spirit of John and bear testimony to his influence. He alone could complete the work of Paul and Peter, and give the church that compact unity which she needed for her self-preservation against persecution from without and heresy and corruption from within. If it were not for the writings of John the last thirty years of the first century would be almost an entire blank. They resemble that mysterious period of forty days between the resurrection and the ascension, when the Lord hovered, as it were, between heaven and earth, barely touching the earth beneath, and appearing to the disciples like a spirit from the other world. But the theology of the second and third centuries evidently presupposes the writings of John, and starts from his Christology rather than from Paul’s anthropology and soteriology, which were almost buried out of sight until Augustin, in Africa, revived them. John at Patmos. John was banished to the solitary, rocky, and barren island of Patmos (now Patmo or Palmosa), in the Aegean sea, southwest of Ephesus. This rests on the testimony of the Apocalypse, 1:9, as usually understood: "I, John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for (on account of) the word of God and the testimony of Jesus."590 There he received, while "in the spirit, on the Lord’s day," those wonderful revelations concerning the struggles and victories of Christianity. The fact of his banishment to Patmos is confirmed by the unanimous testimony of antiquity.591 It is perpetuated in the traditions of the island, which has no other significance. "John—that is the thought of Patmos; the island belongs to him; it is his sanctuary. Its stones preach of him, and in every heart, he lives."592 The time of the exile is uncertain, and depends upon the disputed question of the date of the Apocalypse. External evidence points to the reign of Domitian, A.D. 95; internal evidence to the reign of Nero, or soon after his death, A.D. 68. The prevailing—we may say the only distinct tradition, beginning with so respectable a witness as Irenaeus about 170, assigns the exile to the end of the reign of Domitian, who ruled from 81 to 96.593 He was the second Roman emperor who persecuted Christianity, and banishment was one of his favorite modes of punishment.594 Both facts give support to this tradition.