Part 01 - The Three Heirs of Christendom

The Christian Roman Empire of the 300's and early 400's ultimately split into three parts that ruled from Constantinople, from the confused Germanic dominated West, and from underneath the dominion of the Moslem Caliphate. What was the character of each of these three parts of early Christendom by the middle of the 700's? Dr. John Rao addresses this question in the lecture. 

Part 02 - The Carolingians: Romanization and Christianization

Dr. John Rao first takes a detailed look at the Germanic West at the time of the Papal alliance with the Carolingian Family of the Kingdom of the Franks. He examines the complex and intense effort at Romanization and Christianization of a still highly Germanic world under Pippin, Charles the Great, Louis the Pious and their children from the 750's through until the middle of the 800's.

Part 03 - The Church under the Carolingians

What exactly was Church life like under the Carolingians? What was the position of the Papacy, Metropolitans, Bishops, monks, and parish priests? How deeply was the Faith understood? What were the ecclesiastical differences among the different parts of Charlemagne's Empire? 

Part 04 - The East: Iconoclasm From the 750's Until the Victory of Orthodoxy

The Eastern part of the old united Roman Empire was ripped apart by the Iconoclast Heresy in the 700's and early 800's. Dr. John Rao discusses the nature of that heresy and the growth in depth of the orthodox response to it from its height in the 750's until its final defeat in the 840's. 

Part 05 - The Western Empire, the Church and Caesao Papism: I

If the Papacy thought that it would escape the kinds of Church-State problems that it had experienced in its relationship with the Emperors in Constantinople under the new alliance with the Carolingians, it was sadly mistaken. Problems emerged in a variety of realms, including Iconoclasm and the conduct of the missions. 

Part 06 - The Western Empire, the Church and Caesaro Papism: II

The missions in the West under the Carolingians most concerned the Saxons and some of the Scandinavians and Slavs. Saint Boniface was disturbed by the meshing together of politics and religion in Frankish policy. So was the great scholar-monk Alcuin. And this aside from the difficulties of dealing with Germanic, Slavic, and Norse Paganism in and of themselves.

Part 07 - Carolingian Divisions and their Effects on the Church in the West: I

Germanic customs also badly affected politics. The Empire was looked upon as a family territory to be divided among the heirs of Louis the Pious, already causing problems when the former was still alive. This horrified Churchmen concerned for Christian and Roman unity. But the problem had just begun for Lothair, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald when their father finally died. 

Part 08 - Carolingian Divisions and their Effects on the Church in the West: II

The "Carolingian Renaissance," illustrating the consequences of earlier work done to Romanize and Christianize the Germanic West, reached its peak underneath Louis the Pious' sons. Nevertheless, their divisions, made worse through deaths, rebellions, and the invasions of Northmen and Saracens, made the latter 800's a disastrous time for the Christian Roman West. Popes tried vainly to halt the decay by choosing an Emperor who could defend both Church and State.

Part 09 - East-West Battles: Papal Primacy, Photius and the Missions

The East experienced a period of revival under the Macedonian Dynasty, which lasted until the middle of the 1000's. This growth, following the end of the Iconoclast Heresy, also gave new confidence to the Church, her Patriarchs, and the joint Church-State sense of mission. Fights with the West ensued, especially regarding Papal Primacy and who, exactly, was in charge of the missions to the Slavs and the Bulgars. The whole story of SS. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples enters into this drama.

Part 10 - Christianity in the Middle East, Armenia and Georgia

Dr. John Rao's talk concerns the life of Orthodox, Nestorian, and Monophysite Christians under the Moslems in the Middle East in the 700's and 800's. A short discussion of the distinct life of Orthodox Georgia and Monophysite Armenia conclude the lecture.  

Part 11 - Christianity in Spain after 711

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro discusses Spain after the fall of the Visigothic Kingdom to the Moslem invaders of 711 A.D. After describing the Christian retreat to the northern reaches of the peninsula, he explains the life of the Church in both its free and Moslem-dominated areas. The problems of Christian survival in an Islamic State are also outlined. 


Taken from the Roman Forum Gardone Symposium 2007 - Christianity and the Carolinigians (751-896).