The Artios Home Companion Series Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy

Teacher Overview

THE PAPACY helped to shape the medieval and modern eras. The popes didn’t have power over states and kingdoms from the beginning, though. The rise of the papacy came out of the lack of unified control that followed the fall of the . In this unit we will study the rise of the papacy, its power over kingdoms, and one of its best-known popes, Gregory the Great.

Reading and Assignments In this unit, students will:  Complete one lesson in which they will learn about Gregory the Great, journaling and answering discussion questions as they read.  Visit www.ArtiosHCS.com for additional resources.

Leading Ideas An individual’s character will be reflected in his leadership. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. — Proverbs 23:7 (KJV)

There is power in the spoken word to do evil or to do good. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. — Matthew 12:34

The rise and fall of nations and Gregory the Great leaders is determined by God. The king’s heart is a stream of water Key People, Places, and in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Events — Proverbs 21:1 Gregory the Great

Medieval to : Middle School Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy Page 47 L e s s o n O n e

History Overview and Assignments Gregory the Great

“The Pope of Rome was bishop of the greatest city in the world. The Vandals had ruined Carthage; and Alexandria were far away. Rome had no rival. It is true that the emperor had ceased to live there; but his departure had increased the importance of the bishop, for he was now the leading citizen. He was the most prominent and influential Christian in the Western Church.” – George Hodges

Jerome and Gregory, by Antonio Vivarini

Reading and Assignments Key People,  Review the discussion questions and vocabulary, then read Places, and the article: Gregory the Great Lays the Foundation of Papal Events Power.  Narrate about today’s reading using the appropriate Gregory the Great notebook page. Be sure to include key people, events, and dates within the narration.  Be sure to visit www.ArtiosHCS.com for additional resources.

Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy Page 48 Adapted for Middle School from the book: Saints and Heroes to the End of the by George Hodges Gregory the Great

A Roman senator, rich and of an ancient was then called Deira. Their yellow hair and family, was so attracted by the Order of St. fair skin pleased the eyes of Gregory, and he Benedict that he built six monasteries in stopped to question them. Rome; and then a seventh, in which he went “Where do you come from?” he said. to live himself, and became its abbot. His “We are Angles,” they replied, “from the name was Gregory, surnamed “the Great.” kingdom of Deira.” One day as the abbot walked about the “God be gracious to you, my children,” streets, he saw that there were slaves for said the abbot. “You are Angles? You are as sale. fair as angels. You should be Christians. I There were always slaves for sale in will go myself to your land of Deira, and save Rome. Some were men who had gotten so your people de ira — from the ire, from the deep in debt that they could not get out, and, wrath — of God.” having sold all else which they possessed, at Gregory did not go to England, as he last sold themselves. But most of the slaves hoped, because he was detained in Rome. were captives from the wars. All the borders The Pope died, and all the people demanded of the Roman Empire blazed with war. Even Gregory for the next pope, as the Christians after the barbarians came and destroyed the of Carthage had called for Cyprian, and the old empire, still they fought among Christians of Milan for Ambrose. The desire themselves. And after every battle, the was unanimous. The people wanted him, victors, whether they were Romans or Goths the wanted him, and the senate or Franks, gathered up a great company of wanted him. He wrote a letter to the prisoners and sold them in the nearest Emperor begging him to forbid the election, market. It was more humane than the but somebody took the letter away and former custom of putting them all to death. never sent it. There was no escape. So And it was better sometimes than the later Gregory became the Pope of Rome. custom of putting them in military jails One time, just before the monk Jerome without sufficient food or shelter. went to Rome to begin teaching classes in The consequence was that the slave the house of Marcella, there were two men, trade was a flourishing business in Rome, each of whom greatly desired to be bishop, and Gregory, kind-hearted and large- and their followers had such a battle in the minded though he was, never thought of Church of St. Maria Maggiore that, when it trying to stop it. was over, a hundred and thirty-seven dead A new lot of captives had come that day, bodies lay upon the floor. It shows not only sent down from Britain. They were of the what a fierce and disorderly time it was, but race called Angles, from whom England got how much men prized the office. Gregory, its first name of Angle-land. They came indeed, did not desire it, but that was from the western part of Yorkshire which because he did not care for wealth or power.

Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy Page 49 written the books. And the leader and spokesman of the Church was the Bishop of Rome. Moreover, just about the time when Gregory was questioning the Angle slaves, there was born in Arabia a man who was to change the whole course of the of the Christian East. Out of Mecca came Mohammed. To the conquest of the west of Christendom by the Goths and Vandals, was added the conquest of the East by Mohammed’s followers. But they did not become Christians like the Goths. They came in the strength of their own religion, hating the religion of the Christians, and they took possession of almost the whole of

the Eastern Empire. They captured Saint Jerome in His Study, by Domenico Ghirlandaio Jerusalem. They made themselves masters Gregory the Great of the Holy Land. They took Alexandria. The Pope of Rome was bishop of the They were long delayed in taking greatest city in the world. The Vandals had Constantinople, but they deprived it of its ruined Carthage; Constantinople and ancient power. Thus the successors of Alexandria were far away. Rome had no Gregory in the West became, not only the rival. It is true that the Emperor had ceased greatest bishops of the West, but the to live there; but his departure had greatest in the world. increased the importance of the bishop, for This was the office which prevented he was now the leading citizen. He was the Gregory from going to England. most prominent and influential Christian in A great slab of stone in the Forum at the Western Church. The invading Rome still shows the carved picture of barbarians cared little for the old empire, Emperor Trajan distributing food to widows but they had some respect for the Christian and orphans. One day, as Pope Gregory religion. Gradually, by the good services of passed that way, he stopped in front of the missionaries, many of them from the stone picture and looked at it with great monasteries of St. Benedict, it became their appreciation. It seemed to him a pleasant religion. It was the only living survivor of memorial of ancient times and of a good and the old world which they had destroyed. friendly man. That day, at prayer, he Whatever of ancient custom and culture and ventured to pray for Trajan, that he might learning had remained was in the Church. be pardoned for his paganism, and admitted The Church was the sole representative in into the Christian heaven. This reveals the all Europe of that departed civilization fellowship of Gregory with anybody who which had built the great cities, made the had tried to help his neighbors. enduring roads, carved the statues, and Gregory’s ministry was spent in good

Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy Page 50 deeds. He took a great and useful part in all The Christian Church had been planted the life about him: he dealt with Arians, who in Britain so early in history that nobody were still troubling Italy, and with knows for certain when or by whom: Donatists, who were still troubling Africa; probably by Christian soldiers in Roman disciplined idle and unworthy monks and legions. There it was, however, in that land ministers; attended to the needs of the poor which the Romans had conquered, and to and the sick; and gave his farmer careful which many wealthy Romans loved to go in directions about the working of his farm. He the cool summer. Constantine had started interested himself in the music of the from York on that eventful march which Church, and introduced a way of chanting made him the first Christian emperor. And which bears his name and is still in general when, later, he called a conference of use. He added a prayer to that Communion bishops to consider the case of the Service which is called the Mass, and Donatists, three of the bishops came from thereby completed it in the form in which it Britain. is still often said today. The Latin of that Then the Angles and Saxons invaded service, as was used in every Roman Britain. The Roman legions had been called Catholic Church until recently, was home to defend Rome, and the Britons, who substantially the same as it came from the had depended on their arms, were without hands of Gregory. defense. They were driven out of their fair country, from their pleasant cities and their churches, into the mountains of Wales. The pagan invaders changed Britain into England. Between the Christian Britons and their Christian brethren on the continent of Europe was thrust this wedge of English heathenism. Gregory remembered the Angle slaves. Out of one of the Benedictine monasteries which he had built, he chose a monk named Augustine (this was not ), and sent him with a band of forty monks to England. The missionaries to the English pagans went up through France; and, whenever they stopped to spend the night, such terrifying tales were told them of Pope Gregorius I Dictating the Gregorian Chants, by the fierce ways of the barbarous English that Hartker of Sankt-Gallen they stopped and sent a letter back to The Church in England Gregory, asking to be relieved from such a Nothing, however, that Gregory did was dangerous mission. But Gregory urged of so much importance to us as his sending them on. of a board of missionaries to convert the Thus in 597 A.D. — a date to be English. remembered — they crossed the English

Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 4: The Rise of the Papacy Page 51 Channel and set their feet upon the soil of gave him his own palace; and a ruined heathen England. But there were friends to British church beside it became the meet them. Bertha, the Queen of Ethelbert beginning of the Cathedral of Canterbury. of Kent, was already a Christian, being a The Christian religion was thus introduced daughter of the King of the Franks, who had among the English. his throne at Paris. She had kept her religion Gregory sent to Augustine a letter of in the midst of the paganism of the new advice. Do not destroy the temples of the country, and had caused to be rebuilt, near English gods, he said; change them into Canterbury, where she lived, a little ruined Christian churches. Do not forbid the church. This she dedicated to the brave harmless customs which have been memory of St. Martin, who had contended associated with the old religion; consecrate so faithfully with the pagans of his them, like the churches, to Christian uses. neighborhood, and out to little St. Martin’s Let them revere the saints where they have she often went to say her Christian prayers. worshiped idols. Thus, he said, “having Ethelbert, accordingly, knew who the some outward joys continued to them, they Christians were; though he knew so little may more easily accept the true inward joys. about them that he preferred to meet the For assuredly it is impossible to cut away all missionaries in the open air, lest they things at once from minds hardened by evil should bewitch him with some spell. He sat, custom; just as the man who strives to reach therefore, under a tree and watched the summit of perfection, climbs by steps Augustine and his men as they approached, and paces, not by leaps and bounds.” the forty of them in procession, carrying a It was in accordance with this advice banner and singing a litany to the music that the missionaries called the festival of which they had been taught by Gregory. The Christ’s resurrection “Easter,” from Eostre, King listened gravely as Augustine preached the English goddess of the spring. The the religion of Christ, and he promised to Christmas season they called “Yule-tide,” consider the matter carefully. Meanwhile from an English god of the winter; and they the missionaries were given freedom to still brought in the yule log from the woods teach, and houses in Canterbury in which to and hung the mistletoe upon the walls, as live, and pretty soon, St. Martin’s Church in the ancestors of the English had done in the which to worship God. long-gone days before ever an Englishman The fact that the missionaries came from had heard of Christ or had set his foot in Rome, that distant and renowned capital of England. the world, emphasized their message; and it Thus Tuesday kept the old name of was further confirmed by their holy living. Tuesco, the god of war; Thus one heathen Englishman after another And Wednesday, of Woden, the father of was converted; presently, the King himself; the gods; and after the King, following his good And Thursday, of Thor, the god of example ten thousand of his subjects in one thunder; day. And Friday, of Frigg, the goddess of Then Augustine was made a bishop — love; by the advice of Gregory the Great. the first bishop of the English. Etherlbert

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