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Lecture notes, cheat sheets
History of religion. Christianity in the Middle Ages and Modern Times (lecture notes)
Directory / Lecture notes, cheat sheets Table of contents (expand) Topic 7. Christianity in the Middle Ages and Modern Times 7.1. Schism of Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism) Already in the initial period of its existence, Christianity was not a unified church in administrative terms. The process of approving the Creed at the Ecumenical Councils demonstrated serious differences between Western Christianity (Catholicism) and Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy). On the territory of the western part of the Roman Empire there was a single Roman Catholic Church, which owed its foundation to the activities of the Apostle Peter, who preached in Rome and found his martyrdom there. The head of this church was the Pope (from the Latin pappas - father, father), in the 306st-337nd centuries. who performed the dangerous functions of a priest of the Roman Christian community (several popes were executed or died at the hands of the emperor’s soldiers). Later, the pope became the bishop of Rome, and subsequently gained power over the vast territories of Italy, Gaul, Germany and England. In the 35th century Representatives of the Catholic Church prepared a false document (the so-called “Gift of Constantine”), in which it was as if the Roman Emperor Constantine I (XNUMX-XNUMX), in gratitude for spiritual guidance and deliverance from the leprosy that tormented him, donated the entire Western world to the Pope for church administration. part of the empire. [XNUMX] Originating in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, Orthodoxy, unlike Catholicism, did not undergo rigid centralization, but was a conglomeration (aggregate) of several separate churches headed by separate patriarchs. The most respected and oldest of these churches were four: Constantinople (its patriarch formally continued to be considered the head of the entire Eastern Church), Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (which was the most ancient patriarchy on the grounds that the first bishop of the Jerusalem community would be James, brother of Jesus). But the educational activities of these churches led to the fact that Christianity penetrated into many countries of Eastern Europe precisely in its Orthodox interpretation. These countries included Serbia (late 865th century), Bulgaria (XNUMX), Romania (XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries), etc. Thus, we can say that not individual countries, but tribes were subjected to Orthodox baptism living on the territory of future sovereign (independent) states. Formally, these tribes were considered independent, but the recognition of the church authority of one of the Orthodox churches (as a rule, it was about the Patriarchate of Constantinople) made them subject, even in the church question, to Byzantium. Such a position, which suited the leaders of these tribes at the initial stage of relations, ceased to satisfy them later, when separate states began to take shape in the tribal territories, which preferred to adhere to independence in relation to religion. Taking advantage of the crisis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople associated with the invasion of the Turks into the territory of Byzantium in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, Bulgaria, followed by Serbia, chose to declare their churches autocephalous (independent) from the rest of the Orthodox churches. Friction between the main directions of Christian doctrine arose shortly after the VII Ecumenical Council (787), which is officially recognized by supporters of the Orthodox Church as the last Ecumenical Council. Church contradictions are based not only on discrepancies of a purely dogmatic nature, the main of which is the addition by Catholics to the Creed "filioque" (translated from Latin - "and from the son"). The meaning of this addition is that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. An important factor in the final rupture of the churches were political reasons. Their essence was the confrontation between the Italian rulers and the Byzantine Empire, which for some time successfully carried out expansion into the territory of the Apennine Peninsula. The first step towards a break was the schism (church conflict) of 862-870, provoked by the actions of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, who deposed the Patriarch of Constantinople Ignatius and erected in his place Photius, who was by his convictions an absolutely secular man. Pope Nicholas I considered this moment convenient to prove his power and came out with a condemnation of the new patriarch and a demand for the return of Ignatius to the patriarchal throne. Photius, outraged by the interference of the Pope in the internal affairs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, convened a council in 867, which condemned the initiative of Pope Nicholas I. But at that moment the situation changed dramatically, since the patron of Patriarch Photius, the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, was killed, and the ascendant the throne of Vasily I “castled”, replacing the current patriarch with his predecessor Ignatius (870). However, this candidacy did not suit the Pope, which was facilitated by another aggravation of relations due to the ecclesiastical subordination of Bulgaria, which adopted Christianity in its Orthodox version, but was in the sphere of interests of the Catholic Church. A few years later, Ignatius died (879), and Photius again ascended to his place, forced to agree to a mutually beneficial exchange: Pope John VIII lifted the anathema (excommunication) imposed on Photius, but in return received Bulgaria into his submission. The fulfillment of the agreed terms of the contract turned out to be one-sided. Photius again ascended the patriarchal throne with great celebrations, but was in no hurry to give Bulgaria under the jurisdiction of the Pope. In 880, at the Council of Constantinople, which united the patriarchs of all the Eastern churches, Photius was acquitted of all charges brought by the Roman Catholic Church and was officially recognized in the patriarchal rank. This conflict, which did not result in a long confrontation, became the “first call” of unabating contradictions, the final aggravation of which occurred in 1054 and ended with the official division of the churches, which henceforth divided Christianity into two different directions. [36] 7.2. Features of the development of Catholicism in the Middle Ages The rise of the papacy, associated with the emerging split of the formerly united Christianity into two branches and the concentration in the hands of the Pope of Rome not only of ecclesiastical power over the whole of Western Europe, but also of a significant part of secular influence, had a reverse side. The sharply increased prestige of the heir of St. Peter (as the popes were often called, hinting at the origin of their power from the first leader of the Roman Christian community - the Apostle Peter) made his place the subject of political intrigues and behind-the-scenes struggle between the cardinals and external forces interested in the choice being made. If in the first centuries of our era the throne of the Roman high priest was simply dangerous, later personified only one of the many churches of the Christian world, now it has become the arena of a real struggle, which was not slow to affect the moral qualities of people who sought to take possession of it. Period VIII-XI centuries. - the time of the moral decline of the Roman papacy, the constant change of popes, many of whom, being purely secular people, took the priesthood only in order to take enormous secular and spiritual power into their own hands. Indicative is the case of Pope Formosus (891-896), whose successor Stephen VII (896-897) was filled with such strong hatred for his predecessor that he ordered his corpse to be dug up and put on trial, as a result of which he was condemned and thrown into the Tiber. There were frequent cases when popes succeeded each other on the throne, after which the deposed candidate again regained the papal throne. So, Benedict IX in the XI century. managed to restore his right to the papacy several times, and, characteristically, most often he himself refused his post, selling it to another candidate. According to the old saying that "the fish rots from the head," the rest of the Catholic Church did not remain indifferent to what was happening to its top: a mixture of secular and spiritual authorities, as well as commercialization spread to the entire building of the church, penetrating it from the upper to the lower floors. Among the feudal lords, the custom was widely practiced to buy the positions of a priest, bishop, or even archbishop. An ordinary knight could afford to buy the position of a priest and administer both secular and spiritual court over his servants. A baron or a count bought the position of a bishop and thus became vicegerents of the Catholic Church over individual cities or entire regions. The custom of buying and selling church offices cannot even be called corruption in the modern sense of the word, since the collection of the agreed amount took place quite officially, with the issuance of a receipt or receipt. Church celibacy (a vow of celibacy given by a priest upon entering the priesthood) was also significantly softened, since many cardinals, and even simple priests, openly cohabited with women, and children born in such a "civil marriage" were adopted by close or distant relatives, acquiring surname and significant rights. Such a mixture of powers led in the XI century. to another innovation, which would have seemed wild to the early hierarchs of the Christian church, military service became a vassal duty of the clergy. Priests, called upon to perform a peacekeeping function, from now on became full participants in feudal civil strife, and far from being the most peaceful. History has preserved many examples when bishops actively led their troops to storm enemy walls or to militia a neighboring feudal lord. The social differentiation of the clergy increased significantly. It was divided into owners of parishes or individual dioceses (priests, bishops, archbishops), who had significant incomes due to the collection of payments from the population for the remission of sins (the so-called indulgences), and mendicant monks, who often did not have their own parish and were forced to spend time wandering in foreign lands. Naturally, this situation did not suit many representatives of the clergy, who tried to return the church, mired in worldly needs, to the service of the Christian faith. The most famous was the Cluny movement, which received its name from the name of the monastery of Cluny in France and gradually gained significant influence. Starting at the end of the 1073th century, it advocated the separation of the church from secular power and a return to the observance of the basic Christian commandments. A symptom of the changes taking place not only at the level of individual monasteries, but also at the very top of the Catholic Church, was the election to the papal throne of Gregory VII (1085-1056), a graduate of the Cluny Monastery, who for the first time dared to enter into an open conflict with the powerful Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry VI (1106-1075), defending the priority of spiritual power over secular power. In XNUMX, the Lateran Council, assembled by Gregory VII, issued a decree according to which the sale of church posts was prohibited, and the election of priests and bishops from now on became an internal affair of the Catholic Church, beyond the control of secular rulers. Taking advantage of the strife among the German princes, many of whom openly opposed the emperor, Pope Gregory managed to force Henry VI to bow his knee to him, recognizing the supremacy of the pope. Of course, the struggle between secular rulers and spiritual rulers was not over, but the papacy managed to achieve significant success. The increased authority of the papal power and the growing economic power of the Catholic Church allowed the highest representatives of the clergy to implement a plan to spread their influence beyond Europe, even by force. An epochal event both in the history of the Christian Church and in the history of all medieval Europe was 1096, since it was in this year that Pope Urban II (1080-1099) at the Council of Clermont proclaimed a crusade against the “infidels” (Muslims), arguing for the need for violent conquering the Middle East by searching for and collecting surviving Christian relics (for example, the Holy Sepulcher). The result of the First Crusade (1096-1099) was the liberation of Jerusalem and the creation of several small states in the conquered territories, as well as the spiritual and knightly orders of the Hospitallers and Templars, who became obedient conductors of the papal will in the process of fighting against infidels and heretics. True, subsequent campaigns failed to repeat the success of the first, and already in 1187 the Turks were able to regain Jerusalem, after which all aggressive plans for the Middle East could only be spoken of as unsupported adventures. Some exception is the IV Crusade (1204), during which the crusaders managed to capture Constantinople and fragment the Byzantine Empire, establishing in its place the Latin Empire with its center in Nicaea, but this success was short-lived. Already in 1261, the power of the Latin emperor, supported by the Catholic Church, was overthrown, and the revived Byzantine Empire entered a short period of greatness, which, unfortunately, turned out to be the last in its long history. 1252th century period was the time of the emergence of a new institution within the Catholic Church, the name of which still retains a connotation of mystery and sacred horror. We are talking about the Inquisition (from Latin inquisitio - to investigate, investigate), the existence of which is usually dated to 1243, when Pope Innocent IV (1254-1966) officially allowed the use of torture in those court cases where it was a violation of the interests of the church. During the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, which account for the largest number of inquisitional proceedings, thousands of people (including Giordano Bruno) were accused of heresy and sentenced to a painful death, the only reason for which were confessions, knocked out with the help of sophisticated torture. Despite the fact that already in the XVIII century. The Inquisition practically stopped active, focusing not on the punishment of apostates, but on the inclusion of heretical books in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books), its actual prohibition occurred at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, and the legal abolition of the Inquisition followed only in XNUMX. The papacy at the end of the 1294th century. fell into a new period of decline, which was provoked by the conflict between Pope Boniface VIII (1303-1285) and the French king Philip IV the Fair (1314-37). During Boniface's pontificate, alarming symptoms of the decline of the Catholic faith became noticeable, as evidenced by the increase in the methods of collecting various levies in favor of the church, as well as the moral decline of the clergy. The statement of Pope Boniface himself is typical: “Clerics must say what the people say, but this does not mean that they are obliged to believe in what the people believe.” [1305] Having put forward a claim about the divine origin of the power of the pope, Boniface VIII demanded that secular rulers recognize the supremacy of spiritual power, but his claims encountered a harsh response from the French king Philip, who at the beginning of the 1314th century. managed to begin the process of centralizing France and did not want to tolerate attacks on his property, even from the Pope. The chancellor of the French king, Philippe Nogaret, captured the pope in his own palace, which led to the sudden death of Boniface and the election of a new pope, which took place under the watchful supervision of the French king. The new Pope Clement V (1305-1378), elected under pressure from France, was forced to agree to move his residence from Rome to the southern French city of Avignon, which marked the beginning of the Avignon Captivity of the Popes (XNUMX-XNUMX), which became a symbol of decline and unquestioning submission of the heir Saint Peter at the will of secular rulers. Only towards the end of the 1337th century. The Catholic clergy managed, taking advantage of the difficult situation of France associated with its participation in the Hundred Years War (1453-1431), to return their location to the historical center of the entire Catholic world - Rome. Unfortunately, the change in the location of the papal throne, although it made it possible to eliminate the direct dependence of church affairs on secular authorities, did not solve the problems that were growing within Catholicism itself. More and more priests called on the leadership of the Catholic Church to carry out reforms that could serve to raise its moral and political authority in the eyes of the entire Christian world. A symptom of a split in the ranks of the clergy itself was the emergence of antipopes, who were supported by a significant part of the clergy and often anathematized the popes themselves, elected by the conclave (meeting) of cardinals. In order to solve the accumulated dogmatic and institutional problems, the Basel Council (1449-1431) was convened, which managed to find ways to eliminate the Hussite heresy that had spread in Austria and the Czech Republic, but this council also failed to unite Catholicism by adopting certain decrees, since Pope Eugene IV (1447-1438) convened an alternative council in Florence (1439-1439). In 1453, it was at the Council of Florence that the Florentine Union was concluded, which summed up the opposition between the Roman and Constantinople churches, subordinating the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Pope. This union did not lead to the desired result, since the Byzantine Empire, which was thus trying to attract the troops of the Western European rulers to its aid, fell under the blows of the Turks in XNUMX, and the Russian Orthodox Church received in its hands a significant reason for putting forward its claims to the role of the most powerful among Orthodox churches. By the beginning of the Renaissance, the papacy failed to find the necessary sources and strength to update religious dogma and the institution of the Catholic Church itself, which was the main reason for the emergence of the reform movement that unfolded in Europe at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. 7.3. Scholastic philosophy and mystical teachings Dogmatic disputes accompanied the entire history of the development of Christianity (suffice it to recall the struggle between the Nestorians and the Monophysites), but in the Middle Ages these debates took on a new form, caused by the changing conditions in which the Catholic Church found itself. The development of natural science and the study of the works of ancient thinkers forced the representatives of the church not only to be content with the statements taken on faith, but to strive to substantiate them. Philosophy was assigned the role of a servant of theology, but even inveterate theologians had to use logical techniques to confirm their judgments, so philosophy was an obligatory subject of study within the medieval university. The philosophical justification of religious truths became the main subject of scholasticism, which occupied a leading place in the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. Another thing is what role was assigned to philosophy or, more broadly, to rational knowledge in the process of comprehending God and the surrounding world. For the first time, such a question in the form of an antithesis (opposition) between reason and faith was raised by the medieval philosopher John Scott Eriugena (810-877), who argued that the sacred texts have indisputable authority, but to comprehend the depth of the ideas and ethical provisions expressed in the Bible is necessary not only and not so much by blind faith, but also by rational explanation and clarification of what is written. "Nemo intrat in caelum nisi per philosophiam" (No one ascends to heaven except through philosophy) - this is how he briefly formulated the essence of his position. According to legend, the ordinary parishioners were so outraged by Eriugena's "heretical" statement from their point of view that they killed him and burned the manuscripts that he had with him. Nevertheless, the works of the philosopher continued to be copied, which led to their official prohibition by the Roman Catholic Church, and twice - in 1050 and 1225. In the future, any theologian faced the need to somehow resolve the issue of the relationship between faith and reason in the comprehension of God, which led to the formation of two traditions: rationalistic (scholasticism) and intuitive (mysticism). The rationalists insisted that the mind must necessarily participate in the process of cognition, while the mystics focused on the supersensible, intuitive connection of the soul with God. All the sharpness of the rationalist position was well understood by medieval theologians, since the danger lay in the initial freedom of reasoning, which could lead to conclusions that did not correspond to the dogma. The most striking example of the application of philosophical research methods to the solution of theological problems was the famous dispute about the nature of universals (general concepts), which divided the entire intellectual elite of medieval Europe into two currents: realists and nominalists. Realists, whose most prominent representative was the theologian Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), argued that general concepts exist in reality, while individual things serve only as their imperfect similarities, which a person is forced to be content with due to the imperfection of his nature. The nominalists, the essence of whose doctrine was most clearly expressed by the English thinker William of Ockham (1280-1349), insisted on the opposite: only single things are real, and general concepts serve only as names (in Latin, nomina means "name"). Such a dispute, seemingly very abstract both from real life and from religious dogma, was nevertheless very important, since it boiled down to the interpretation of the Creed. If we take the position of nominalism and interpret general concepts as empty words, then we get an understanding of the Trinity as a simple combination of three gods, which has no connection other than linguistic, which in itself was already drawn to a heretical statement, since it violated one of the provisions of the Creed . If we adhere to a realistic position, then there was another danger - considering the Trinity as a general and indivisible concept led to the logical conclusion that the suffering of Jesus on the cross meant the torments of the cross of the entire Trinity, and this statement violated another position of the main dogma of Christianity. The pinnacle of the development of medieval scholasticism was the work of the famous Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1125-1274). In his work "The Sum of Theology" he distinguishes two kinds of truth: "truth of faith" and "truth of reason", which have the same divine origin, but a different form, which does not prevent us from talking about the same thing. Reason can be guided as long as it does not refute church dogmas. If, in the process of searching for truth, reason and faith come to different conclusions, then only faith should be trusted. Another significant step of Thomas in the process of rational substantiation of church dogmas was his formulation of five proofs of the existence of God. 1. Proof from movement. All things in the world do not move by themselves, but are set in motion by something, from which it follows that there is one and only thing that combines both the movement itself and its source, and this thing is God. 2. Evidence from reason. Things do not exist on their own, but for a certain reason that exists outside of things, but since this series cannot continue indefinitely, it is necessary to admit the existence of the first cause, which determines the existence of all the others. 3. Proof from possibility. The existence of things is accidental, since it is not justified by necessity, but since the world still exists, this means that there is a thing that cannot but exist, and this thing is God. 4. Proof from the hierarchy. Each person contains spiritual qualities, and their content is uneven: no matter how beautiful a person is, there will always be another who will be even more beautiful, therefore it is necessary to allow the presence of a being that embodies the ultimate norm of spiritual qualities that cannot be exceeded. . Such an Absolute, according to Thomas, is God. 5. Proof from the end. The emergence of each thing is accidental, but its existence is purposeful. Let the world as a whole not have a specific goal, but each element of this world has such a goal and strives to achieve it. The irresistible force that draws all things to the fulfillment of their own purpose is God. The purpose of human existence is the comprehension of God, therefore, we can say that God, giving a person the desire for a goal, thereby gives the possibility of his own knowledge. The era of scholasticism can be characterized as a short period of time on a global scale, when religion, philosophy and emerging science tried to keep pace, but happily parted ways at the moment when the development of culture and society provided such an opportunity. But not all theologians defended the rational path of knowledge of God. Some spoke out against the priority of the mind, seeing in this way the limitation and constraint of the framework of human thinking, which prevents one from ascending to merge with the Absolute. In scholasticism, mystics saw a distortion of the original contact of man with God, offering in return their own ways of restoring the lost connection. The most prominent supporters of the mystical trend in theology were Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) in Catholicism and Gregory Palamas (1295-1359) in Orthodoxy. According to Meister Eckhart, God and man initially represent a unity, which is realized by God, since it was created by His Word, but is not realized by man, therefore the destiny of man is to rise to the awareness of his unity with God and be able to take it for granted. As a result of original sin, man fell away from God, but since God is love, his all-encompassing mercy leaves man a chance to return. God is not just the creator of the world, he is also invisibly present in all his creations, so a person first needs to look into himself, abandoning material temptations and vain lusts. Having managed to cleanse his soul of material sediments, a person will be able to discern God in his soul, who was hidden under these sediments. [38] A person’s life is meaningless if there is no god in it, therefore any suffering causes pain to a person, but as soon as he understands that all sufferings are given to him from God and he experiences them for God’s sake, then the pain will be replaced by sincere joy from the not in vain of his victim - Eckhart comes to this conclusion. Gregory of Panama belonged to a completely different religious tradition. Orthodoxy and Catholicism diverged in their dogmatic and political disputes so much that nothing could unite the lost unity of the Church of Christ), but in its initial positions and in the conclusions to which he came, his reasoning largely coincided with the thoughts of Eckhart. Created being has lost its original connection with God, but the source of divinity in the world of things remains light. Not created and not material, it is an attribute of divine existence, and only participation in this light serves as an opportunity for a person to return to the Kingdom of God. According to the largest modern researcher of the mystical tradition in Orthodoxy S.S. Khoruzhiy, “inherent in uncreated divine being is uncreated light, and this light is divine energy... Divine energies are the “actions” or “performances” of God, by which God acts in created being; and thanks to these His actions the union of man with God is made possible ". [39] Light spreads throughout being, therefore the absence of light is darkness, which is nothingness, and being is a heterogeneous formation, characterized by varying degrees of being filled with light. Light is a movement, the aspiration of God towards a person who has fallen away from him, but not every person is able to see the divine light directed at him, therefore the condition for a person’s return to the divine is the process of synergy - the merging of opposing energies. For an ordinary person, such a merger is an intuitive comprehension of the essence of the deity in an act of mystical insight. It can be said that the mystical experience is an opening of the eyes, only after which a person begins to realize to what extent he has been blind. A feature of medieval Christian mysticism is a distinctly pronounced personalism (from Latin persona - personality). A person achieves a union with a deity, but does not dissolve in the Absolute (as, for example, occurs in classical Hinduism when Atman and Brahman merge), but retains his individual features, acquiring in addition divine properties, becoming a God-man and becoming like Christ himself in this capacity. 7.4. Sects and heresies With the help of an extensive system of dogmas, the Catholic Church jealously guarded its right to priority in resolving religious issues, so every priest who allowed a free interpretation of Holy Scripture in his sermon could be classified as a heretic. During the Middle Ages, there were many different heresies, most of which have survived only fragmentary information. Paulicians. This heresy arose in the XNUMXth century. in Armenia. Its founder was the priest Konstantin Silvan, who apparently combined in his doctrine the legacy of Manichaeism with the involvement of various Eastern cults. Having spread throughout almost all of Europe, the supporters of the Paulician heresy gradually concentrated in the south of France, coexisting with the heresy of the Cathars that arose there. There is practically no information about their teaching, it can only be stated with certainty that the Paulicians were supporters of a dualistic understanding of the divine nature, recognizing the presence in it of both a constructive (creative) and a destructive (destructive) principle. They did not recognize the Church and any church hierarchy, arguing that every person is predisposed to enter the Kingdom of God, and no one can help or hinder him in this. The disappearance of the Paulician heresy turned out to be the result of the inquisitorial activity of the Catholic Church to eradicate heretical sentiments in Languedoc (south of France). From the point of view of orthodox Christian views, the Paulicians were no less apostates from the true faith than the Cathars and Albigensians, although their religious doctrines differed. One way or another, but the crusade against the Cathars put an end to the existence of the Paulician current, although separate islands of his followers remained in Eastern Europe until the XNUMXth century. Bogomils. The emergence of the heresy of the Bogomils is associated with the educational movement of representatives of the Eastern (Orthodox) churches, which at the beginning of the 865th century. made the Bulgarian kingdom, whose borders touched the northern borders of the Byzantine Empire, the object of their close interest. The result of their active efforts to Christianize the Slavs was the adoption by the Bulgarians of the Orthodox faith in XNUMX, but a side effect of the active spread of Christianity among the pagans was the penetration into their environment of dualistic beliefs, originating in Manichaeism. The founder of a new trend, widely known under the name of Bogomilism, or Catharism (from the Latin katar - pure), was a certain Jeremiah, who proclaimed himself the new apostle and heir of Jesus Christ on earth. He himself and his closest associates (whose names have been reported to this day, paradoxically, by the "Synodicus of Tsar Boris", the purpose of which was to anathematize heretics) - Stefan, Vasily, Mikhail and others - extended their influence not only to the territory Bulgaria, but also to neighboring states. To the amazement and indignation of the Patriarchs of Constantinople, adherents of the Bogomil heresy were even in Constantinople itself, and they were not forced to abandon their own convictions even by the terrible fate of Basil, one of the main preachers of Bogomilism, who was burned for refusing to repent of the sins attributed to him. According to the beliefs of the representatives of the Bogomil heresy, the universe is dominated by dualism, which originates in the very act of the creation of the world. God does not create the entire universe, but only a bright and spiritual world, while Satanail, who is the eldest son of God, gets the creation of a material and sinful world in which man is condemned by nature to exist. Christ, being the youngest Son of God, is able to bring a ray of light and goodness into the world, but he cannot fix the world, which was originally created according to the laws of evil. Pressed by representatives of orthodox Orthodoxy, supported by the secular Byzantine authorities, the Bogomils were able to keep their faith intact for several centuries: only in the XII century. traces of their movement are lost in Bulgaria. But even before the XNUMXth century, that is, until the Turkish invasion itself, the Bosnian Church retained its autocephaly (independence), borrowing a significant part of its doctrine from the heritage of the Bogomil heresy. Cathars. Another name for the Cathars is Albigenses (named after the city of Albi). This is perhaps the most active heresy, which became famous thanks to the cultural upsurge with which their activities were associated in the territory of Southern France, as well as in Italy, Germany and some other European countries. [40] The choice of the place where the Albigensian heresy took hold and had a significant influence on cultural development is also not accidental, since the south of France was traditionally considered the most free-thinking region, which was explained primarily by historical reasons. For several centuries, it was Languedoc and Provence (the southernmost French provinces) that were subject to the beneficial influence of Arab culture, which preserved the heritage of ancient civilization and managed to exaggerate spiritual riches. Unlike previous heresies, the Cathar movement arose somewhat later (at the beginning of the 41th century), but became more widespread, which caused justified alarm on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, since representatives of this heresy sharply opposed papal authority, arguing that every person he is free to seek his own path to God, and the existence of the church only hinders the fulfillment of these aspirations. Based on the letters of the apostles, supporters of the Cathar heresy denied Catholic priests their special right to hear confession and perform absolution, since, for example, the Apostle James said: “Confess your actions to each other and pray for each other so that you can be healed.” [XNUMX] The Albigensians also opposed the dogma of the trinity of God, rejected the veneration of icons and crosses, and rejected church sacraments, considering them unnecessary on the path of spiritual improvement. They revered only the New Testament as sacred books and rejected the Old Testament due to its inability to serve as a guide that could lead a person to God. Fearing the further strengthening and spread of this movement, the Catholic Church was forced to resort to emergency measures to preserve its prestige and special place in the Christian world. Even the Lateran Council in 1179 anathematized all heretics, but this did not have the desired effect, since by that time the Cathars had already declared their church independent of the Roman Catholic Church, and secular authorities were in no hurry to eradicate heresy in their domains. Many French feudal lords themselves secretly adhered to the Cathar doctrine, and many of them dared to openly speak out against papal power. It was in the person of these rulers (who included the famous troubadours Bertrand de Born, Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count Alphonse of Toulouse, etc.) that the Cathars found defenders and patrons capable of protecting them from claims from orthodox Christians. Unfortunately, this protection was short-lived. Already in 1209, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against the Cathars and those laypeople (including those of noble birth) who adhere to, or at least tolerate, this heresy. The crusaders, who had come to destroy the Cathar heresy from all over Europe, were seduced by the omission of all sins promised by the Pope and began to actively eradicate apostates from the true faith. From 1209 to 1229, a crusade lasted against adherents of the Albigensian heresy, which resulted in their complete destruction, sanctioned by the authority of the papal government. According to the papal legate Arnold Amalric, which he said in response to a question from one of the crusaders about how to distinguish a heretic from a real Christian, everyone should have been destroyed, giving God himself the opportunity to distinguish his own from strangers. Flagellants. The flagellant movement arose in the 1349th century. and it turned out to be connected with the desire for spiritual purification that spread in French and Italian monasteries, not just with the help of strict observance of all fasts, but also by mortifying the flesh with self-flagellation (flagellants in translation from Italian mean "flagellations"). This sect became widespread in Italy, Switzerland and Poland, and the Catholic Church initially did not see anything reprehensible in the actions of the flagellants. But when the scourging began to assert that the scourging of the flesh replaces the remission of sins received from the priest, the hierarchs of Catholicism were forced to drastically change their benevolent attitude towards the new religious direction. Already in XNUMX, a papal bull (decree) condemned the movement of the flagellants as heresy, and the Inquisition, which immediately joined the process of eradicating heresy, burned out the slightest manifestations of self-flagellation throughout Western Europe with "fire and sword". 7.5. Reformation period. Education of Protestantism By the end of the XV century. dissatisfaction with the pope and his entourage, who denigrated not only the institution of the papacy, but also the Christian religion itself, became universal. Many thinkers, who themselves often belonged to a clergy, tried to find a way out of the current situation, to return to that life-giving Christianity, which contributed to the spiritual purification of people, and did not sell heavenly goods at reasonable prices. A simple Augustinian monk named Martin Luther (1483-1546), who taught theology at the University of Wittenberg, had to decide on the path of a radical reorganization of the church. The movement he started was called the Reformation (from the Latin reformatio - perestroika). In the early morning of October 31, 1517, Luther posted 95 theses on the doors of the city church, which contained his objections to the church policy pursued by the papacy. In particular, he spoke particularly sharply about the sale of indulgences that free the conscience of a person from sins and bring good profits into the pocket of the Catholic Church in return. Luther was not alone in rejecting indulgences, but his merit lay in the fact that he tried not only to speak out against this phenomenon, but to uncover the roots of the deep crisis that had gripped all of Western Christianity. In this aspiration, he was supported both by the common people, who were constantly ruined by the forced acquisition of indulgences, and by the noble German feudal lords, who saw in his demarche against the Catholic Church a convenient excuse for separating themselves from the power of the Pope. The papal court was not immediately able to recognize the full magnitude of the danger posed by an ordinary monk, and therefore began to react too late, when all of Germany was engulfed in the flames of a religious uprising. Support from all sections of the population enabled Luther to take an unprecedented step: in 1520, in the presence of students, he burned a papal letter excommunicating him from the church, thereby finally fixing the gap between his followers and orthodox Catholics. Unfortunately, at first Luther's lack of a clear program capable of restoring lost authority to Christianity led to a simplification and distortion of his views: numerous itinerant preachers who flooded Germany and other European countries offered their interpretations of his theses, which completely confused the common people. In order to overcome the crisis that broke out, Luther put forward his program to reform the foundations of the Christian religion, designed to restore the lost connection between man and God. God is able to endow a person with grace in response to his sincere faith, therefore the church, in the version in which it was presented by the Catholics, serves as an extra link in this chain. The role of the priest is not to act as an intermediary between God and man, but to show man the path, following which he himself will be able to achieve divine grace. To this end, Luther proposed to eliminate the sharp boundaries that existed between the clergy and the laity: priests were now allowed to marry, wear ordinary clothes and enjoy the same rights as ordinary citizens. The process of worship itself was greatly simplified, and the church was deprived of numerous paraphernalia - icons, complex rituals and rituals. The head of the church was the secular ruler of a particular country or city. This position of the Lutheran doctrine was especially beneficial to numerous German princes, since it deprived them of their church dependence on the Pope and made them full-fledged rulers of their own lands. The result of the efforts of Luther and Calvin (1509-1564) was the emergence of a new trend of Christianity - Protestantism, which was not accepted by the Catholic Church. At the church council of 1545-1563. It was decided to equate the Protestants with heretics, which automatically meant the spread of the activities of the Inquisition to them. This cathedral marked the beginning of an era of religious wars that continued until the end of the 24th century. Perhaps one of the most brutal moments of these wars was the famous St. Bartholomew's Night (Paris, August 1572, 1598), during which the conspiring Catholics made a surprise attack on the Protestants (who received the name Huguenots in France), culminating in a massacre. The massacre that began in Paris continued in other French cities, dividing the country into two opposing camps. The end of this bloody struggle was put only by the Edict of Nantes in XNUMX, which proclaimed Catholicism in France as the state religion, but secured the right to freedom of religion for the Protestants. The famous German sociologist and philosopher Max Weber (1864-1920) in his work “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” considers the emergence of a new system of ideals and values, embodied in the norms of Protestant ethics, as a reflection of the processes of the emergence of an industrial society taking place in the socio-economic sphere. In his own words, “a peculiar mentality, instilled by upbringing, in particular by the direction of upbringing that was determined by the religious atmosphere of the homeland and family, determines the choice of profession and the further direction of professional activity.” [42] Protestantism marked the beginning of a new attitude towards work, property, and the opportunity not only to have a certain fortune, but also to increase it. Man is predisposed not to be a blind toy in the hands of God, but he has the power to act and work, increasing his well-being in the earthly world, not forgetting about the heavenly world. As long as the desire for hoarding and frugality does not cross the boundaries beyond which it turns into greed and pride, Protestantism has a favorable attitude towards human economic activity and tries to encourage it by all possible means. It was precisely because of this approving attitude of the Protestant Church towards human labor in those countries where this religion was firmly entrenched (England, Holland, the USA) that the course of the industrial revolution and scientific and technological progress was significantly facilitated. << Back: Early christianity (The origin of Christianity. The historical background of the image of Christ. The history of the creation of the Gospels. The canon and apocrypha. The transformation of Christianity into the official religion. Apologists of Christianity. The Church Fathers. The formation of a system of dogmas (Ecumenical Councils)) >> Forward: Contemporary Western Christianity (Counter-Reformation. The period of religious wars (XVII-XVIII centuries). The crisis of Catholicism in the 19th century. Modern Catholicism: traditions and innovations. Directions of Protestantism, their emergence and development. Mormons) Author: Anikin D.A.
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