The papacy in the second half of the Middle Ages

The popes from the fifth century to the Reformation in the sixteenth century were not unlike the judges and kings of ancient Israel. The papacy contained both saints and scoundrels, and the witness of the church rose and fell accordingly just as God’s people did in ancient Israel under the judges and kings when they intermittently experienced seasons of blessing through obedience to God or languished in wilderness because of rebellion. However, an examination of the papacy’s history is beyond the scope of our inquiry. That said, we should note the general trends of the church under the papacy in the second half of the Middle Ages that led to the Reformation.

Innocent III was pope from 1198-1216. Pope Innocent’s view of the papacy was that, “The Lord gave Peter the rule not only over the universal Church, but also the rule over the whole world…No king can rule rightly unless he devoutly serves Christ’s vicar (the pope).” But Innocent’s ideal church reached beyond his desire for secular power. In 1215, Innocent recognized a need for changes within the church and called a council at the Lateran […] Continue Reading…

The fall of the Roman Empire

The ascendance of Christianity came too late to redeem the social fabric of Rome and the western half of the empire. The Roman world was culturally and spiritually impoverished and no longer had a unifying common core of belief. Its citizens had abandoned their reverence for the old Roman virtues that had once provided cohesion within its far-flung empire. It had been in decline long before the Edict of Milan in 313, and the newly sanctioned Christian virtues had not time to infuse life into the dying empire. The Roman world was culturally and spiritually spent and in a slow motion death spiral during the latter part of the fourth century and early fifth century.[1]

Historians mark certain milestones in the demise of the once mighty empire. To the north lay the barbarian German tribes and behind them were the Mongolian Huns. In 376 the German Visigoths (west Goths) crossed the lower Daube and were the first barbarian tribe to enter the eastern half of the Roman Empire (Byzantine). They were soon followed by the Ostrogoths (east Goths). Even though declining, the empire was still large and […] Continue Reading…

The struggle for sound doctrine

Dorothy Sayers was a masterful mystery novelist during the first half of the twentieth century and was counted as an equal among such famous authors as Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, and Baroness Emma Orczy. But her greatest love and calling was as a theologian and Christian apologist. She was friends with several of the greatest Christian writers of the era including C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J. R. R. Tolkien. In one of her essays titled “Creed or Chaos?” she wrote of the importance of the Christian doctrine.

It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that dogma does not matter; it matters enormously. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offset Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, […] Continue Reading…