Catholic Painting of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
As Jesus continued his public ministry, the Pharisees got more and more scared of his influence. Jesus even started publicly condemning the Pharisees, proclaiming to “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees,” which meant to be wary of their faulty doctrine. The Jewish religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus and to use treason against Caesar as the reason. Jesus even predicted that this would soon happen and that after he would be resurrected.
One day, Jesus took his disciples James, John, and Peter to a mountain outside of Jerusalem. There he Transfigured Himself in front of them and the Prophets Moses and Elijah mystically appeared. Jesus stated that poverty for His sake will bring riches in the next life. The Temple, a Jewish place of worship, was being used as a marketplace for moneychangers, so Jesus overturned their tables and said to not make His Father’s house into a place of money.
After three years of public ministry, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a colt, as the people laid palm leaves at his feet. In Jerusalem, Jesus prophesied that the Temple would be razed, that there would be war, famine, drought, and suffering, and that some of the disciples would be alive to see this. All these things would come true, when the disciple John witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in AD 70.
Orthodox Icon of the Last Supper.
In his last days on earth, Jesus celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover with His disciples and had a meal with them. After the Last Supper, Judas Iscariot, handed over Jesus to the authorities for 30 pieces of silver. The Jews came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was preparing for His coming death. Peter tried to defend Jesus when he cut off the ear of one of the guards, but he was told by Jesus to lay down his sword.
After Jesus was arrested, most of the disciples fled and Peter even denied knowing Jesus three times. Judas tried to give the silver back to the chief priests, but when they refused, he hung himself in shame. The next morning, Jesus was questioned by the Roman Governor of Judea Pontious Pilate, who asked the people whether they wanted to free Jesus or Barabbas (a well-known murderer) and they chose Barabbas.
Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One of the criminals scolded Jesus and the other said to Jesus: “Remember me when you enter into Your Kingdom,” and Jesus replied, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Icon of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
After Jesus died, the sky became dark, the earth shook, the Veil of the Temple was torn in half, and the graves of the dead were opened. One of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus saw this and repented. When Jesus gave up his earthly life, He completed the mission for which God the Father had sent him to earth: to give His life for the sins of man.
Muhammad (571-632) is the main prophet and the founder of the Islamic faith. Around 605, he had a mystical experience, which inspired him to start preaching monotheism to Arab tribes in Arabia. In his home city of Mecca, Mohammad found few willing to convert, so he traveled to neighboring Medina, where he found great success, and was welcomed as a political and religious leader. In 630, Muhammad led Medina into battle with Mecca, conquered the city, and forced the population to convert.
After Muhammad’s death in 632, Arabia united as a unified Islamic kingdom for the first in history and was ruled by a king called a caliph. Over the next 100 years, Islamic conquests spread their empire from India to Spain. Thousands of people were forcibly converted and Christians were martyred for refusal to deny their faith. The growth of Islam was slowed after the Muslims lost the Battle of Tours to the Kingdom of the Franks in 732.
“The Koran” is a book that Muhammad claimed was directed to him by the Angel Gabriel. The Islamic faith has five pillars: There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet; pray five times a day; fast during the month of Ramadan; give 2.5% percent of your wealth to the poor; and make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in your lifetime.
The Umayyad Caliphate before the Battle of Tours, 720.
After Muhammad’s death, there was a division among Muslims about who should lead the Islamic forces and Abu Bakr, a Sunni Muslim, was chosen to lead the empire. The Muslims set up many hospitals and made major advancements in medical knowledge. A large portion of Europe was occupied by the Muslims at some point; Greece for 500 years, Portugal for 600, Spain for 800, Sicily for 300, Serbia for 400, Romania for 400, Bulgaria for 500, and Hungary for 150.
Justinian (527-565) was one of the most influential Byzantine emperors, establishing law codes in 533 and 534. Previously, in 532, there was a significant uprising called the Nika Revolt in which John of Cappadocia started riots over food shortages. There were two groups of revolutionaries: the Greens and the Blues, and they both combined to fight against Justinian. These rebels persuaded a Senator named Hypatius to seize power causing Justinian to consider fleeing, but he decided to stay and eventually put down the rebellion.
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
Justinian wanted to unite the old Roman Empire under an Orthodox Christian emperor. Consequently, Byzantine General Belisarius took 10,000 infantry and 5,000 calvary to North Africa in 533, and defeated the Vandals. The Byzantines would control North Africa until the Mulsims conquered it in the late 7th century. Justinian then invaded Ostrogoth-controlled Italy in 534. After 20 years of fighting, the Byzantines finally controlled Italy.
The Lombards took advantage of the weakened Byzantines and invaded Italy in 554, taking most of Northern Italy in the process, but the Byzantines still controlled Rome. The Persians then attacked the Byzantine city of Antioch and sieged Thrace, while the first Bubonic Plague began to spread. In 601, the Byzantine Empire signed a 50 year peace deal with Persia.
In order to turn the empire to one single Orthodox faith, Justinian also started trying to convert the Monophysites, the Nestorians, and the Arians. Before his reign, the Monophysites and the Nestorians were condemned as heretics at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Three Nestorian writers penned a book called the “Three Chapters.” Although it did not contain any heretical doctrine, it was written by heretics, so the Byzantines condemned the work. However, since it was found free of heresy at the Council of Chalcedon, the Byzantines had to call their own council to condemn the authors, but not anathematize them. Moreover, Justinian tried to get the Monophysites to repent after this scandal, but they still refused.
In the East, the Church used many more icons than the west, which caused the power-seeking Byzantines emperors to claim that images should be outlawed, since they saw the images as competition. This belief is known as Iconoclasm, and it started when the Byzantine Emperor Leo III turned against the use of Icons in the early 8th century. By 731, Pope Gregory III excommunicated anyone who condemned the veneration of icons. In response, Leo III sent men to arrest the Pope and the Byzantines invaded the Papal States. By 753, there was widespread persecution of the faithful in the East. Not only was praying to the Saints outlawed, but all images were removed from churches. The emperors even forced monks to leave monasteries and stopped all monasteries from receiving new monks.
Byzantine Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.
In 843, Byzantine Empress Theodora finally removed all Iconoclast bishops and restored the empire to Orthodoxy. This is celebrated as a feast called “The Triumph of Orthodoxy.” Thankfully, Iconoclasm was officially condemned as a heresy at the Council of Constantinople in 843.
Charlemagne outlived all but one of his sons, King Louis the Pious, who became emperor, established many churches and monasteries, gave money to the poor, but lacked his father’s commanding personality. Louis the Pious eventually divided the Holy Roman Empire between his sons Pepin, Lothair, and Louis the German in 817. When Louis the Pious’s other son, Charles the Bald, tried to split the empire again, the other sons rebelled against him.
Louis the German humiliated his father in 830 by making him do penance in a monastery. Louis the Pious left the monastery and took power again, but after his death in 840 his sons continued fighting over the throne. In 843, the Holy Roman Empire was broken into three kingdoms: France, Germany, and Lotharingia. The title of Holy Roman Emperor was given to the King of Lotharingia, even though it was the weakest kingdom. In France, the coasts were devastated by Viking raids and in Germany the borders were invaded by Magyar tribes.
In Germany, the Carolingian line died out in 987 and the Ottonian kings took power. Unable to defend against Vikings, the French Kingdom fell, and the rest of the empire was divided into five duchies: Bavaria, Franconia, Lorraine, Saxony, and Swabia. Saxony became the strongest of the duchies, and by 919 the Duke of Saxony acted as ruler, but had trouble asserting dominance over Swabia and Bavaria.
Map of the Holy Roman Empire under the reign of Otto I in 962.
In 936, Otto I, Duke of Saxony, was announced as the official ruler of the empire. In 951 he invaded Lombard-controlled Italy. After defeating the Maygars in the East, his troops proclaimed him emperor. As a reward for helping the Pope defeat the Lombards, Otto I was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 962, the first real emperor since Charlemagne.
The Carolingian Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire wanted to restore the Western Roman Empire but with a Christian dynasty. The government would be similar to the emperors of Rome, but the ruler would be called the Holy Roman Emperor. The capital was the German city of Aachen, the home of Charlemagne’s palace. Charlemagne hired artists, writers, and builders from every city he visited to build great structures. Alcuin of York, who was an Englishman, became a key advisor to Charlemagne and became Abbot of Tours, where he translated many works into Latin. In 787, Charlemagne told every abbot and bishop to establish a school in all monasteries and cathedrals, so the clergy could learn to read and write.
Saint Patrick of Ireland was one of the most influential Saints of all, converting Ireland from Druidism to Christianity without violence, and established many churches and monasteries. After its conversion in the 5th century, Ireland was known as the “Isle of Saints.” Many of the greatest missionaries of the Early Church were from Ireland and were converted by Saint Patrick. Irish Saint Columbia built a monastery on the Scottish Island of Iona and set out to Christianize England. Moreover, Columbanus (born 546) established monasteries throughout Gaul and Italy.
Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) used the famines, plagues, and wars to help convert thousands of people. By the 7th century, most of Europe was Christian even in the formerly pagan countryside. The Anglo-Saxons had been the most violent against conversion, killing many missionaries who tried to convert them.
Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by Saint Augustine of Canterbury.
Saint Augustine of Canterbury approached King Ethelbert of Kent (leader of the Anglo-Saxons) with 40 monks and convinced him to marry a Christian queen from France, so he could baptize his people. By 597, a substantial portion of England had been converted. Once the Anglo-Saxons accepted the Faith, the Celts refused to convert because of their hatred of the Anglo-Saxons. In 626, Irish missionaries convinced the Celtic King Edwin to accept Christianity, but in 633 Edwin was defeated in battle by the Welsh, which meant the Celts were no longer Christian. In 634, Edwin’s nephew, Oswald, came to power and made his kingdom Christian again.
In 686, Pope Conan sent three Irish monks on a missionary trip to Germany, which still had a large pagan population. Killian, one of the Irish monks, was made the first Bishop of Germany. Bishop Killian baptized the Duke Gosbert of Franconia but was martyred in 689. Saint Willibrord and 11 other Irish monks went on missions to the Netherlands and Germany. Subsequently, Pope Sergius I made Willibrord Bishop of Frisia, and as bishop, Willibrord traveled to Wurvburg in 704 and converted the Rhineland.
Saint Boniface (675-754) was an Englishman from Wessex, was sent by Pope Gregory II to continue the work of Killian. In Thuringia and Hesse, Boniface converted two chieftains along with their whole tribe and he succeeded Killian as Archbishop of Germany. As bishop, Boniface built many monasteries and churches in Germany, and even chopped down a large tree dedicated to the pagan god Thor.
Holy Roman Empire in 814, During the Carolingian Renaissance.
During the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, the Kingdom of the Franks and the Holy Roman Empire had a golden age known as the Carolingian Renaissance, in which they were the most influential kingdom in Western Europe. They had more control over the Church and the pope than the Byzantines, and this would eventually cause tension.
