Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/418

 HISTORY

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HISTORY

prevailing was a propitious soil for the growth of the new ecclesiastical hfe, which displays three main phases.

(1) The foundation of the Church by the Apostles, those few but all-important years in which the mes- sengers of God's Ivingdom, chosen by Christ Himself, laid out the ground-plan for all subsequent develop- ment of the Church (Apostolic Epoch).

(2) The expansion and interior formation of the Church amid more or less violent but ever persistent attacks on the part of the Roman government (Epoch of Persecutions). In the different provinces of the Roman Empire, and in the East even beyond its con- fines, Christian communities sprang into life guided originally by men who had been appointed by the Apostles and who continued their work. Insignificant at first, these communities increased steadily in mem- bership despite the equally steady opposition of the Roman government and its sanguinary attempts at repression. It was then that the ecclesiastical hier- archy, worship, the religious life assumed fixed forms that conditioned all later development.

(3) The third epoch is characterized by a close union between Church and State, by the consequent privi- leged position of the clergy and the complete con- version of the Roman state (The Christian Empire). Heresies regarding the person of the Incarnate Son of God bring to the front important dogmatical ques- tions. The first great councils belong to this epoch, as well as the rich ecclesiastico-theological literature of Christian antiquity. Meanwhile the ecclesiastical hierarchy and administration are developed more fully, the primacy of Rome standing out conspicuously as in the preceding epoch. Monasticism introduces a new and important factor into the life of the Church. The fine arts place themselves at the service of the Church. In the eastern half of the empire, later known as the Byzantine empire, this development went on quite undisturbed ; in the West the barbarian invasion changed radically the political conditions, and imposed on the Church the urgent and important task of converting and educating new Western nations, a task which she executed with great success. This brought a new element into the life of the Church, so important that it marks the begirming of a new period.

Second Period: The Church as mistress and guide of the new Romanic, German, and Slavic states of Eu- rope, the secession of Oriental Christendom from eccle- siastical unity and the final overthrow of the Byzantine empire. — In this period occurred events which for a considerable time greatly affected ecclesiastical life. Three main epochs suggest themselves.

(1) The first centuries of this epoch are characterized by the development of a close union between the papacy and the new Western society and by the falling away of the Orient from the centre of ecclesiastical unity at Rome. The Church carried out the great work of civilizing the barbarian nations of Europe. Her activity was consequently very many-sided, and she gained a far-reaching influence not only on reli- gious, but also on political and social life. In this respect the creation of the Western Empire and its relations with the pope as the head of the Church were characteristic of the position of the medieval Church. A deep decline, it is true, followed this alliance of the popes with the Carlovingians. This decline was mani- fest not only at Rome, the centre of the Church, where the factious Roman aristocracy used the popes as political tools, but also in different parts of the West. Through the intervention of the German em- peror the popes resumed their proper position, but at the same time the influence of the secular power on the government of the Church grew dangerous and insupportable. The action of Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, led to a rupture with Rome, which was destined to become final.

(2) A second part of this period shows how the Christian West grew into the great fellowship of the peoples under the supreme guidance of a common religious authority. Popular life everj'where reflects this Christian universalism. In the conflict with the secular power, the popes succeeded in carrjdng through ecclesiastical reforms, and at the same time set afoot in the West the great movement of the Crusades. All public interests centered in the ecclesiastical life. Nobles and commonalty, filled with the spirit of faith, furthered vigorously through powerful associations the aims of the Church. The papacy rose to the zenith of its power, not only in the religious, but also in the temporal domain. New orders, particularly the mendicant, fostered a genuine religious life in every rank of society. The universities became the centres of a notable intellectual activity, devoted for the most part to the development of theology. The building of magnificent churches was undertaken in the cities and was an evidence at once of the religious zeal and the vigorous self-confidence of the inhabitants. This powerful position of the Church and her representa- tives entailed, nevertheless, many dangers, arising on the one hand from the increasing worldliness of the hierarchy, and on the other from the opposition to an excessive centralization of ecclesiastical government in the papal curia, and the antagonism of princes and nations to the political power of the ecclesiastical supe- riors, particularly the popes.

(3) In consequence a third epoch of this period is filled with reaction against the evils of the preceding time, and with the evil results of wide-spread worldli- ness in the Church and the decline of sincerely religious life. It is true that the papacy won a famous victory in its conflict with the German Hohenstaufcn, but it soon fell under the influence of the French kings, suf- fered a grievous loss of authority through the Western Schism and had difficulty at the time of the reform councils (Constance, Pisa, Basle) in stemming a strong anti-papal tide. Furthermore, the civil authority grew more fully conscious of itself, more secular in temper, and frequently hostile to the Church; civil encroachments on the ecclesiastical domain multi- plied. In general, the spheres of spiritual and secular authority, the rights of the Church and those of the State, were not definitely outlined until after many conflicts, for the most part detrimental to the Church. The Renaissance introduced a new and secular ele- ment into intellectual life; it dethroned from their supremacy the long dominant ecclesiastical studies, disseminated widely pagan and materialistic ideas, and opposed its own methods to those of scholasti- cism, which had in many ways degenerated. The new heresies took on a more general character. The call for "reform of head and members", so loudly voiced in the councils of those days, seemed to justify the growing opposition to ecclesiastical authority. In the councils themselves a false constitutionalism con- tended for the supreme administration of the Church with the immemorial papal primacy. So many pain- ful phenomena suggest the presence of great abuses in the religious life of the West. Simultaneously, the Byzantine Empire was completely overtlu-own by the Turks, Islam gained a strong foothold in south-eastern Europe and threatened the entire Christian West.

Third Period: The collapse of religious unity among the two western nations and the reformation from within of the ecclesiastical life accomplished during the conflict against the latest of the great heresies. — Im- mense geographical expansion of the Church owing to the zealous activity of ner missionaries through whom South America, part of North America and numerous adherents in Asia and Africa, were gained for the Catholic Faith. In this period, also, which reaches to our own time, we rightly discern several shorter epochs during which ecclesiastical life is characterized by peculiar and distinctive traits and phenomena.