Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

Ses s i on 2: The Med i eva l Chur ch and the Reformat i on 37

b. 255 Bishop Stephen argued Matthew 16.18 for his distinctive role as bishop.

c. Council in Sardica (343) ruled that local councils may be appealed to the bishop of Rome.

d. Damasus I (366-384) provided a formal definition of the Roman bishop’s authority over all other bishops.

6. The Crusades

a. Began in 1095 and lasted for several centuries: a horrible and painful stain on the history of the Church

b. Motives: religious, political, economic. Whatever was given, the religious motive predominated: “recover the Holy Land from the infidels!”

c. Crusade outline

(1) First Crusade, Pope Urban II in 1095, led by Peter the Hermit, largely peasants and the poor with virtually no planning; conflicted with Constantinople, took Jerusalem in 1099 (which fell in 1187) ( Kingdom of Heaven ?)

(2) Second Crusade, 1144, main preacher was Bernard of Clairvaux (minimal military victories)

(3) Third Crusade in 1187, prosecuted by emperors, including the French king and Richard of England

(4) Fourth Crusade, “a disaster,” sacked Constantinople and established it in the Latin empire (1204-1261), which theoretically at least, ended the East-West Schism of 1054 (Byzantine empire restored in 1261)