Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Part 4 (300 – 1300, Rome)

obedience-and-authority

• Nicaea has always been regarded as one of the milestones in the history of the Church, reckoned as the first council styled 'general' or 'oecumenical'.

  CHR4-RC-101

• Behind the theological debate lay several hidden agendas which were as much to do with power politics as with theology.

  CHR4-RC-108

education-and-formation

• It was an extraordinary attempt to get everyone to scrutinize their lives, with the aid of expert help; priests were now expected to instruct as well as tend their flocks.

  CHR4-RC-297

• Their spacious naves were preaching halls stripped of obstacles so that crowds could listen to sermons; popular enthusiasm for mendicant preaching spread the style across Europe.

  CHR4-RC-304

faith-and-doubt

• Medieval churchmen eagerly expanded Augustine's identification of the Heavenly City with the Church, equating the earthly city with opponents of ecclesiastical power.

  CHR4-RC-178

• To dwell on Christ's sufferings was liable to make worshippers turn their attention to those the Bible principally blamed for causing the pain: the Jews.

  CHR4-RC-311