There are many mistakes
here. Use with caution--or, better yet, see my notes on this material.
Byzantium
I) 3 major periods of medieval history
A) Early 325-1000
B) High 1000-1300
C) Late 1300-1500
II) Byzantium
A) Constantine : rebuilding / Christianization of the Roman
Empire
1) 313-357 as emperor of Rome
2) problems facing the empire
i) internal conflict - six other
generals
vying for power
ii) Barbarian invasions - Persian
invasions
iii) restoring morals
a) the people had broken
down morals in old Rome
iv) many previous emperors had addressed
these problems and the had failed
v) Constantine uses Christianity as
a form of goodness to connect the empire
3) Moves capital to Constantinople
i) tried to shake up old ways by moving
capital
ii) great location to make reforms
a) great place to protect
eastern Roman empire
b) along great trade route
c) located in the
Christianize
area of the Roman empire
1) upto 50%
of easterners are Christian
d) constructs Christian
churches, old Roman worship places were tainted with paganism
e) hippodrome - chariot
racing
1) no bloody
gladiators
4) Christianization of the empire
i) uses church to change people from
within in stead of external
ii) 50 yrs later, empire is completely
Christianize
iii) new Christian empire did not regard
rulers as God's - they were Gods representives
a) Constantine was called
the 13th apostle
iv) provides ethical guidance -
emotional
fulfillment
v) Physical security
a) cut down on civil war
b) barbarians in north alps
1) crossed the
Rhine / Danube to invade, many times they converted instead of fighting
2) Emperor used
barbarians as the fighters against future invaders
C) Justinian and Theodora
1) used to be barbarians - they converted
2) Justinian rose through the military ranks to
become the emperor
3) Emperorship
i) Rome was lost to the barbarians
ii) Nika Riots
a) green and blue sports
fans riot against each other
b) Justinian arrests the
leaders of both the green and the blues
c) They decide to join
forces
and riot together against Justinian
d) 30,000 people die before
the riots are put down
*Theodora was Justinian wife who used to be a prostitute
- this shows the forgiving nature of the Christian religion
iii) rebuilding Rome
a) Built Hagia Sophia which
was a great church
b) fortifies eastern empire
c) tries to reconquer
western
empire
iv) rebuilds morality
a) way to many laws existed
- made lawyers sort through them and create a law code
1) adds
Christian
morals and philosophy to the law code
2) best law
code the world had ever seen
D) Ways in which Byzantine empire was not so Christian
1) Cruelty
i) Basil the Bulger slayer
a) wins a military victory
and captures 14,000 bulgers
b) pokes out bulgers eyes
and left 10% of them with one eye to lead the rest home
2) Religious divisions : Christological
controversies
i) Nature of Jesus
a) Arianism - said that
Jesus was created by God - and he had not always existed
1) Had bishops
from the empire form to meet and decide if this was a proper way to
philosophize
about Christianity - Bishops vote that the Arians are heretics at an
Ecumenical
Council at Nicaea - also developed Nicaean creed
b) homousaious vs.
homoiusaious
(there is a difference in the spelling, notice the "i")
1) argument
about the essence of Jesus
i) homousaious say that the essence of Jesus is of like matter of god
ii) homoiusaious say that the essence of Jesus is of the same matter as
god
2)
ecumenical
council is held and the "like essence" people are called heretics
c) Theotokos - is Mary the
birth giver or mother of god
1) all who say
birth giver are condemned as heretics
d) natures of Jesus, does
he have a full human and full god nature?
1) those who
think this , Monophysite, are called heretics
e) monothelites - both
natures
of Jesus are after the same goal = heretics
f) monoergasistes - Jesus
is made of two common engeries = heretics
*Note - you probably don't need to know the details of these
controversies,
just know that the church went on a mad rash of condemning people
heretics.
*I do know some of the details behind these controversies if you would
like a deeper explanation to use on a test or something - study group
every
Monday and Wednesday at 7 in mj347.
*Note - people are arguing about nothing, these question that the
church
is trying to answer mean very little to the Christian faith, but they
allowed
simple disputes in philosophy to divide the church and divide the Roman
empire.
3) iconoclastic controversy
i) Byzantine churches were filled with
images of Christian art
ii) controversy started by going to
the ten commandments and the rule about worshiping idols and graven
images
iii) agreement was that Jesus was an
image, and anyone holding the view that there should be no images was
anti-Jesus.