This program reviews the stories of great Christian theologians, founders of mendicant orders, and reformers who prepared the way for the Protestant Reformation.  We'll conclude with a review of key places in the medieval church.  For the map review, you'll need Map 3 at the end of your syllabus; if you don't have it handy, please don't begin the review until you can locate it, so you can follow along as I remind you of some key persons and events associated with each place.   

    This review program relates especially to chapters 28-33 of volume 1 in The Story of Christianity, by Justo L. González (San Francisco:  Harper, 1984). 

MISSIONS 

    In earlier units we have seen how Christianity spread to many lands through the missionary work of monks, nuns, and priests.  But the faith came to Norway through the efforts of a quite different type of person:  a Viking who looked like Jesse ("The Body") Ventura and who used a challenge to battle as an altar call.  ("Let's fight, and may God send victory to the side that he favors!")  His name was Olaf, and today he is honored as Norway's national saint.  Dr. Lang graduated from St. Olaf College, a high-quality liberal arts college in Minnesota named for him; St. Olaf's choir, like ours, has an outstanding reputation!  One by one, through the efforts of people like Olaf, the Scandinavian nations of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark became Christian, and their "barbarian" ways yielded to higher codes of conduct.

    Meanwhile, among the barbarian Franks, Charlemagne was trying to Christianize the people of the area that we now call France.  He was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope himself, and he sought to establish Augustine's City of God on earth.  You remember that Charlemagne wanted every Christian to be instructed in the essentials of the faith, as based on certain key teachings.  One key text that Charlemagne did not require was the Twenty-Third Psalm, my grandmother's favorite passage in the whole Bible.  Charlemagne certainly wouldn't argue with my grandmother; he wouldn't stand a chance!  But he instructed priests to make sure that their church members knew all of these three:

• The Ten Commandments, which Charlemagne wanted Christians to know as basic guidelines for what is right and what is wrong.
•  The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, Charlemagne felt, could be learned by even the simplest persons, to bring them closer to God.
• The Nicene Creed, which Charlemagne believed to contain the most important beliefs of the church.  Even though many Christians would not understand all its subtleties, memorization of the creed would provide a solid foundation for anyone.

    How would you measure up to the emperor's standards, if they were part of Emory & Henry's graduation requirements?

FRANCIS OF ASSISI

    A person who was quite different from Charlemagne, and yet who influenced the church even more than the powerful emperor, was Francis of Assisi.  This humble man was one of the greatest Christians who ever lived.  Why?  Because he was committed to the highest ideals more fully than any of us could ever hope to be.  Francis kept all three of the typical monastic vows. 

    (1) Many medieval theologians taught that chastity, abstinence from sex, would bring a person closer to God.  Francis was chaste, even in his close relationship with Clare of Assisi. 

    (2) Obedience was a concern of great popes like Innocent III, to whom Francis appealed for authorization of his order.  Francis was hurt when some of his friars rejected his severely ascetic discipline in favor of a more moderate approach. 

    (3) But for Francis, obedience was itself anchored in devotion to another vow:  poverty, which was his special emphasis.  Francis left his prosperous family, married "Lady Poverty," and spent his life among the poor as one of them.  He liked to be known as the Poverello, the "Little Poor Man."  His themes of poverty and humility permeated the Order of Friars Minor (O.F.M.) which he founded.  It is often called the Franciscan Order.  Franciscan missionaries built some of the outposts that became major California cities.  In fact, California city names reflect their religious origins:  San Francisco (St. Francis), Santa Clara (St. Clare), San Diego (St. James), and Los Angeles (City of Angels).

THE GOLDEN AGE

    We've described the beginnings of Augustinian, Benedictine, and Franciscan monasteries.  The Jesuit Order didn't begin until after the medieval period.  But we've not yet dealt with one more monastic order, which occupies a place of importance alongside the others:  the Dominicans, known formally as the Order of Preachers (O.P.)  Dominic, a devout Spanish priest, developed the Order of Preachers in response to the Cathar movement which was growing rapidly in Europe.  The Cathars accused leaders in the Catholic Church of abandoning Jesus' mission and becoming overly concerned with power and prestige.  Their charges echoed critiques by Franciscans, Waldensians, and others who felt that Christians should have a simple lifestyle.  Dominicans were not to stay inside churches or monasteries; instead, they were to go out preaching and teaching among the people.  You remember the Benedictine motto, "ora et labora."  I'm going to give you another chance on your Latin.  Which of these do you think is the Dominican motto?
    ama deus
    ite missa est
    veritas

    If you chose ama deus, maybe you were thinking of the motto on the door of my office:  "Sonrie, dios te ama" ("Smile, God loves you" in Spanish).  Or maybe you were remembering that beautiful movie based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  "God is love" would be a good monastic motto, but Dominic chose a different one.

    The phrase "ite missa est" does come from the Middle Ages.  When the Latin worship service was over, the priest normally pronounced these Latin words, which meant, "go, it is finished."  The word missa came into English as Mass, which became the Catholic term for the Eucharist or Lord's Supper.  The Dominican Order has a different motto.

    Yes, the Latin veritas = "truth" became the watchword of the Order of Preachers.  It still points toward the educational emphasis of the Dominicans, which led to the founding of parochial schools and colleges throughout the world.  The quest for truth led the greatest thinker of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas, to become a Dominican.  Thomas Aquinas would identify without hesitation another thinker as the greatest philosopher in the history of humankind.  Who?  Not Ed Damer, or Ben Letson, but Aristotle.  Most church leaders in the Middle Ages anchored their philosophical understandings in the teachings of Socrates and Plato.  But Thomas Aquinas used Aristotelian philosophy to explore all the key questions of the Christian faith.  Even though Aristotle lived centuries before Christ, his method of inquiry was so valuable that Aquinas adapted it for Christian theology.  Perhaps the most familiar adaptation is Aquinas' cosmological argument for the existence of God, based on Aristotle's identification of God as Prime Mover or First Cause.

ANSELM, ABELARD, & HELOISE

    Aquinas was not the first great thinker of the Middle Ages to struggle with tough questions.  A couple of centuries earlier, Anselm also developed a cosmological argument for the existence of God, based on the philosophy of Realism.  Anselm also answered the question, Cur deus homo? = "Why did God become human?" in a book by that title.  He gave some of the most profound insights into the meaning of the incarnation. 

    Two other great thinkers who lived about the same time as Anselm, Abelard & Heloise, are known for their torrid love affair.  But more important for Christianity was a set of in-depth questions and answers, Sic et non = "Yes and No," which this brilliant couple must have developed together, as they struggled to understand key religious issues.  With all our modern advances in knowledge, we still stand in awe of many of the great minds of the Middle Ages.

EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY

    We have sought to understand the story of how Christian missionaries entered new territory in Eastern Europe.  But these were mostly Eastern Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic missionaries.  One mission team had two people, Cyril and Methodius, who traveled together like a pair of young Mormon missionaries.  These two brothers brought to the Slavic peoples both the Christian faith and the first written alphabet for their various languages.  From Cyril we get its name:  the Cyrillic alphabet.  In Slavic countries like Russia, Bulgaria, and some other Eastern European nations, the Cyrillic alphabet is still in use.  It was constructed from biblical Greek and Hebrew, and the brothers invented other letters for sounds that didn't exist in Greek or Hebrew.  Methodius was of course very Methodical in his mission work, just like the brothers John and Charles Wesley.

    The first Russian ruler to turn from paganism to Christianity was Queen Olga, in the 900's A.D.  After she was baptized, Queen Olga established a church closely linked with Byzantium.  Her grandson was an enlightened ruler named Grand Prince Vladimir.  He is considered the founding father of Russian Christianity.  A delightful legend tells how he sent out observers to consider the best religion for his people -- Islam, Judaism, Latin Christianity, or Eastern Orthodox Christianity.  The messengers were so impressed by the beauty of the Orthodox liturgy at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople that they didn't know whether they were still on earth or had been transported to heaven.  Vladimir brought the Russian people into Orthodox Christianity through a mass baptism in 988; I remember when the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the millennium of that event a few years ago.  When was that?  Hmmmm, ... 1988!  

    Vladimir's capital was at Kiev.  The Russian liturgy was based on the work of Cyril and Methodius, and it reflected the beautiful Byzantine worship services of Hagia Sophia.  Kiev was a magnificent city, on its way toward displacing Constantinople, when it was destroyed by Mongol invaders.  Slowly and painfully, Russian Orthodox Christianity was rebuilt.  This time the Christian center was in a growing town which would one day claim to be what Kiev never became:  a replacement for Constantinople, which had called itself the "New Rome" as the capital of Eastern Orthodoxy.  The name of this Third Rome was Moscow.  Under the leadership of Ivan III, the Grand Prince of Russia, Moscow assumed leadership of Eastern Christianity.  Constantinople was destroyed by Ottoman Turks, so Muscovites felt that they could rightly claim their city to be the Third Rome.  Russian Christianity would produce timeless liturgies, magnificent cathedrals, and hauntingly beautiful icons.

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

    Christianity has been enriched not only by its interactions with people in the Far East, but also those in the Middle East.  She shared with us a number of understandings that Muslims and Christians have, including their views of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.  The Crusades had a lot of negative aspects, but one positive aspect was that they brought about more interchange between Christians and Muslims.  Both great religions have many shared understandings of prophets and other religious leaders, whose stories are told both in the Bible and the Qur'an:  Jesus, John the Baptist, Abraham, Moses, and others.   

 JOAN OF ARC

    Whew!  This stuff is getting too complicated for Dell the computer.  One of my faculty colleagues asked his computer, "Is there a God?"  But the computer didn't know enough Aristotelian or Thomistic philosophy to give a proper answer.  I have on the door of my office something else a computer can't grasp, a saying which I got from Science Digest:  "Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana."  I guess if your computer's circuits are starting to sizzle, it's time to turn to the story of Joan of Arc.  Let me ask a simple question:  what nation considers Joan of Arc its national saint?  Hint:  Joan would sing along with its citizens, "Allons, enfants de la patrie..." Oui, la France!

    Joan was a very impressive young woman, who at age sixteen saw the need for clear, authoritative leadership for the French people.  She was convinced that God was calling her to enable the best candidate, Charles the Dauphin, to attain that position by being anointed with sacred oil in the Cathedral at Rheims.  Against all odds, she succeeded, and Charles became King of France.  Joan didn't go back home then and spend the rest of her life watching MTV.  She continued to lead Charles' armies in making his throne secure.  When she was captured, imprisoned for a long time, interrogated, and treated harshly, Joan showed courage in the most difficult circumstances.  As she was being burned at the stake on false charges, she exhibited the same quality which Christ manifested on the Cross:  forgiveness.  Joan called out to the crowd, "I beg all of you standing there to forgive any harm I have done, as I forgive you the harm you have done me."  Within a quarter-century, her conviction as a heretic was overturned.  In 1920 she was declared a saint.

CATHERINE OF SIENA

    Another strong woman in the medieval church was Catherine of Siena.  Her devotion to Dominican ideals and the depth of her spiritual experience made her highly respected in the city of Siena, Italy.  But like Joan of Arc, Catherine had a vision which went far beyond her own home town.  She too sought to enhance leadership, in her case papal leadership, which should be exercised from Rome.  Well, of course, we might think that surely the Bishop of Rome would govern the church from Rome.  But that wasn't happening. 

    Where did the popes live during much of the fourteenth century?  Here's a hint:  remember the folk song, "Sur le pont d'--------, on y danse, on y danse."  No, not Paris -- it was too far from Rome to keep up the necessary links with church officials.  A closer French city was much more practical:  Avignon, where popes and cardinals built huge palaces and surrounded themselves with symbols of luxury and self-indulgence rather than leading the church.  Catherine worked for years and finally succeeded in bringing Pope Urban VI back to urban Rome, where he belonged.  Not all the problems were resolved -- in fact, other problems arose later -- but she had reestablished the precedent of having the popes make Rome the headquarters of the Catholic Church.

WYCLIFFE & HUSS

    At the end of the period that we call the Middle Ages, church leadership was in serious decline.  A number of people tried to reform the church in various ways, but the crisis was too widespread and too severe.  In Oxford, England, a Catholic theologian and priest named John Wycliffe taught that one thing should be the basis for reforming the church.  All Christian beliefs, liturgies, and governance should be based on that one thing:  the Bible.  That was a radical notion, because the church hierarchy taught that only they could interpret the Bible correctly.  Wycliffe wanted to translate the Bible into the language of the people and let them see for themselves how it could guide their lives.  For this and other reasons, Wycliffe was removed from his teaching position at Oxford University. 

    But Wycliffe's ideas had spread to other parts of Europe, especially to Bohemia, the area that we call the Czech Republic.  There in Prague, another priest/teacher named John Huss incorporated those ideas into his lectures and sermons.  Repression of Huss was far more severe, and Huss died at the stake like Joan of Arc.  Nevertheless, his teachings were acknowledged by Martin Luther as influential on him.  What more could a person hope than that their ideas would help future generations?  Wycliffe and Huss contributed much to Christianity as we know it today, since both Protestants and Catholics now agree with a number of their views.

    An interesting thing to reflect on, as we conclude this period of Christian history, would be one thing you might give to the church as part of its enduring legacy.  One person can make a difference!

    Now it's time for your last map review -- please turn in your syllabus to Map 3.

UNIT 3 MAP REVIEW: 
THE THIRD FLIGHT OF THE Wasp

   This is your captain, Fred Kellogg, speaking.  This is the final flight of Wasp Airlines.  Our flight will take us through many of the places important for the story of medieval Christianity.  Please buckle your seat belts.

    Our third flight originates from a city with a familiar name.  You may know that Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church has three colleges.  Our college is one.  Hiwassee College is near Madisonville, in east Tennessee.  The third college is Tennessee Wesleyan College.  In what Greek polis is Tennessee Wesleyan College located?

    Athens!

    Right!  But you'll look in vain in Athens, Tennessee, for the Parthenon.  You'll have to go to Nashville or to Greece to see that!  So let's fly to Athens, Greece.  When you think of Athens, your first mental images may be of Socrates or the Acropolis.  But in the history of Christianity, Athens is significant as the center of a major denomination.  Just as we identify the Catholic Church with Rome and the United Methodist Church with Nashville, which denomination do we identify with Athens?

    It's in Greece, so it must be Greek Orthodox.

    Yes -- among the various Eastern Orthodox churches, the Greek Orthodox Church is one of the strongest.  The Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Athens exercises leadership of Greek Orthodox Christians, including those who have immigrated to America.  Dr. Saliba grew up as a member of the Greek Orthodox Church in his homeland of Lebanon.

    The next stop on our journey is in Bulgaria, but its name reminds you of the most beautiful church in Constantinople.  You remember that it was named Hagia Sophia, Greek for "holy wisdom."  And Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is also named after the personification of wisdom as a beautiful woman, as you can read in the book of Proverbs.  Wisdom is represented in Bulgaria by one particular figure.  If you've studied Theatre with Dr. Biliana Stoytcheva-Horissian, or if you've seen a student play which she has guided, you would say that she is the personification of wisdom in Bulgaria!  J 

    But wisdom in Bulgaria is traditionally represented by Tsar Boris.  You may have thought that only Russia had tsars (sometimes spelled czars), until you learned differently in this course.  After Tsar Boris became a Christian, he negotiated for an independent Orthodox Church for Bulgaria, with its own archbishop, in Boris' capital of Sofia.  He also offered protection to Slavonic Christians who fled from persecution in other parts of eastern Europe.

    The Cyrillic alphabet, developed by Christian missionaries Cyril and Methodius, was used for the translation of the Bible and other literature into Bulgarian.  That alphabet was also used to transcribe Russian.  In the 900's A.D., Kiev was perhaps the leading city in all of Russia.  It became a Christian center through the work of one person.  Who was that?  His name reminds me of Grand Home Furnishings in Bristol.

    Grand Prince Vladimir?

     Yes, Vladimir made Kiev a Christian city.  He transformed Kiev through careful negotiation with Eastern and Western Christians and then a mass baptism of his people.  Today Kiev is the capital of Ukraine, an independent nation with many Orthodox Christians which has complex political and religious ties with Russia.

    I know the city that took Kiev’s place as the center of Russian Orthodox Christianity several centuries later:  Moscow. 

    Right!  Grand Prince Ivan III led Moscow to such a key position among Eastern Christians that the city became known as the Third Rome, following old Rome and New Rome (Constantinople).  Ivan establish the eagle as the national symbol of Russia.

    I thought the eagle was the symbol for the United States...?

    It is now.  But in the 1400's, Grand Prince Ivan III made the Byzantine two-headed eagle a central figure in the Russian state insignia. 

    Now that praise song, "On Eagle's Wings," is running through my mind! 

    Mine too!  We've gone about as far east as our Wasp's wings will take us, so let's head west.  The first city that we come to is Prague.  A praguematic question:  in what country is Prague located? 

    Is it Slovakia?

    You’re close!  Here's a hint:  the country is made up of different ethnic groups, not only Slovaks but also Bohemians, Moravians, and Czechs.  It was merged with Slovakia until recently, and the larger country was called Czechoslovakia.

    The Czech Republic!

    Right!  You remember that the great Christian hero John Huss, who inspired many people to fight for religious freedom, was a Czech (pronounced "check") who lived in Prague.  Huss was condemned as a heretic by a group that met in Switzerland.

    Was that group the Gnomes of Zurich?

    No, those are the secretive Swiss bankers who are able to squirrel away your assets in numbered bank accounts.  If you have trouble remembering your Social Security number or E&H ID number, you'd better not open a Swiss bank account with all your spare cash!  A group of church leaders, meeting in Constance, Switzerland, condemned John Huss as a heretic.  Although John Huss came to the Council of Constance under a safe-conduct pass, the council ordered him to be burned at the stake.  That makes me shudder -- let's get out of here and head south, toward Italy! 

    Italians love good food, so we know that we'll eat well.  Just out of curiosity, what is your favorite food?

     Pizza!

    Well, we're in the right place then, because it looks as if our airplane is running out of fuel, and we'll have to land on the Appian Way.  We'll have pizza in Pisa!  There's a familiar-looking person leaning against the Tower of Pisa.  He appears to be a high official of the church.  The Council of Constance, which we just left, put a lot of pressure on him to resign his office.  What office do you think he holds?

    He must be a Pope.

    You're correct.  The first Pope John XXIII, one of three persons who all claimed at the same time to be the only true head of the Catholic Church, was forced by the Council of Constance to resign.  He was known as the "Pisa Pope," because his predecessor had been chosen at a council here in Pisa.  Pope John hid in the luggage compartment of our Wasp Airlines plane and came back here.  That helped to end the Great Schism.

    One person who was very active in seeking to have the Popes govern the church effectively from Rome lived in the city of Siena, a little south of Pisa.  Last names had not yet been invented, so she was known as Catherine of Siena.  Her life was one of such devotion to the church that she is now recognized as a great Christian saint.

    Another famous saint lived in the nearby town of Assisi.  Who was he?

    Oh, that's easy -- Saint Francis of Assisi!

    I'm sorry, but that's wrong.  Francis is just a nickname, meaning "Frenchy."  Here's a hint:  the saint who lived in Assisi had one of the most common names in the world.  He would be called Ivan in Russia, Juan in Mexico, Jean in France, or Jan in the Czech Republic. 

    Then he must be John.

    You're close!  His Mom and Dad didn't speak English, but John is the American equivalent of the name of the saint from Assisi:  Giovanni.  Because Mama Pica was originally from France, Papa Pietro gave little Giovanni the nickname Francesco ("Frenchman"), and he is usually known as Francis of Assisi. Otherwise we would have the Giovannian monks, and a city in California would be named San Giovanni instead of San Francisco! 

    From Assisi we travel to "eternal Rome."  There we will find the writer of one of the four gospels which are accepted in the Christian canon.  We see him hard at work on his book.  Do you recognize him?

    Yes, that's Mark!

    Right!  Mark, working in Rome, produced a gospel on which I, your captain, would eventually write my Yale Ph.D. dissertation.  There is so much to see in Rome! 

    Could we possibly see a baptism? 

    Yes, of course -- if we can find Hippolytus of Rome, who wrote about baptisms in his Apostolic Tradition. 

    We attend a baptism following Hippolytus’ liturgy.  The service is really beautiful, and it is very different from baptisms in the 21st century.   

    Now our trip takes us to the time of one of the greatest leaders of the church that traces its heritage back to Peter and Paul.  He was a model bishop, who knew how to help people work together effectively.  He is so highly respected still today that his nickname is "the Great."

    You must be talking about Gregory!

    Yes, we often call him Gregory the Great, although his official name is Pope Gregory I.  Several other Bishops of Rome have also chosen Gregory as their papal name in his honor.  Oh, look -- there's a person leading a Bible study group of Christian women:  Paula, Eustochium, and others.  Is that Dr. Qualls?

    No, it's Jerome.  Sounds as if they're planning a trip to Bethlehem.  Can we go with them?  

    I’m sorry, but we need to go north to see the famous Bishop Ambrose in Milan.  A woman named Monica appealed to him to help her son, who was a seeker, looking for eternal truth in all the great philosophies of his time.  Ambrose helped the young man to find answers in Christianity.  Do you remember the name of Monica’s son?

    Yes – Augustine of Hippo!

    Right!  Now we’ll travel to the very farthest western limits of Italian influence in the Middle Ages.  We arrive at Avignon.  In the late Middle Ages, we find the people speaking French, but we also find a Pope in Avignon!

    What?  The papacy is in Avignon as well as Rome?

    Yes, remember that it was the hard work of Catherine of Siena that brought the papacy back from the Babylonian captivity of the church in Avignon to Rome, where it belonged!

    We’re leaving Avignon now and will be arriving soon at Tri-Cities Airport.

    Are we really going to Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City?

    I'm sorry, but you must be thinking of the wrong Tri-Cities.  I'm sure that the Bristol Follies are as good as the Paris Follies, Kingsport champagne sparkles as much as French champagne, and Science Hill in Johnson City is as magnificent as the Eiffel Tower.  But I'm speaking of the French Tri-Cities:  Cluny, Citeaux, and Clairvaux. 

    You may not remember the precise distinctions among these three monastic centers.  But all three were important for the monastic reforms which they pioneered in the Middle Ages.  Both Cluniac (from Cluny) and Cistercian (from Citeaux) monks, including such outstanding persons as Bernard of Clairvaux, developed their reform strategies by taking seriously a document of St. Benedict's.  I'll bet you know what that Benedictine document was. 

    Of course, you're talking about Benedict's Rule.

    Yes!  From the Tri-C's, we can go on to Orléans, the namesake of my wife's home town, New Orleans.  A great battle was fought there:  not the Battle of New Orleans, but the battle of old Orléans!  The leader showed both courage and inspiration, even after being wounded by an arrow, so the victory was a turning point in the war.  Her soldiers were inspired by her devotion to the cause of Charles the Dauphin.

    Vive la France!  Long live Joan of Arc!

    Mais oui!  Her leadership in the battle of Orléans would enable Joan of Arc eventually to lead Charles the Dauphin down the aisle of a cathedral.  No, not for wedding vows, but to be anointed rightful King of France.  That cathedral was in Rheims.  Remember to pronounce the name of the city through your nose!

    Another place in France among those that we should see is the monastery of Bec in Normandy.  When we arrive, we find the monks hard at work.  One of them is writing a book which he says will answer a central Christological question.  His name is Anselm, and his book bears the title, Cur deus homo?  ("Why did God become human?")

    But when I think of France, places like Bec, Rheims, Orléans, the Tri-C's, Lyons, and Avignon don't come into my mind right away.  The word "France" conjures up images of Paris, and I feel like humming the tune, "I love Paris in the springtime."

    Me too!  Like Rome, Paris could introduce us to many Christian leaders over the centuries.  Let's meet "The Dumb Ox," one of the most brilliant persons who ever lived.  He is teaching at the University of Paris and building on Aristotle's philosophy to develop proofs for the existence of God.  Do you recognize that description?

    Must be Michael Jordan!

    No, he was a Bull rather than an Ox.  The person who developed the Grand Medieval Synthesis based on Aristotelian philosophy is Thomas Aquinas.  Should we call him Thomas, or Aquinas, or Thomas Aquinas?  He says that any name is OK, as long as we call him for supper!  But he would like for us to meet his major professor, Albertus Magnus.  Albert the Great speaks so highly of his home town that we just have to see it. 

    Wow, Paris is really romantic.  I see a couple of lovers making out, over by that fountain.  I'll bet they are Abelard and Heloise, who starred in that racy movie, "Stealing Heaven."

    Sniff, sniff ... Excuse me, Heloise, that's not "Evening in Paris" that you're wearing.  Is it cologne?

Heloise:  Yes -- I'm sorry if it's too strong.

    Not at all.  Let's go to Albertus Magnus' home town, Cologne.  Now we're in the area known as the Holy Roman Empire.  It was settled by barbarians from tribes such as Vandals, Huns, Goths, and Franks.  Barbarians are of course characterized by not being able to speak or write Greek well.  Would you like to take my Greek 101 course, so you won't be considered a barbarian?

    To be perfectly Frank about it, Fred, I'll bet it's a hard course.

    Yes, but it's a lot of fun, because there are plenty of good puns in Greek!  Anyway, those barbarians known as Franks gave the name France to the Holy Roman Empire.  But there are plenty of other barbarians as well.  If we go up to Oslo Fjord, we can find a barbarian chieftain who is also a great revival preacher:  Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf, Harold's son).  Vikings of the Scandinavian countries -- Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark -- practice a Christianity which is quite different from the American form.

    Our airplane flies from Oslo to the little town of Caleruega in Spain.  That’s the home town of Dominic, the great Spanish priest who brought the church to the people.  His Order of Preachers became a worldwide missionary and educational group within the church.

     The last country on our itinerary is England.  Let's go first to the town with an Emory connection, where over the years a number of E&H students have studied at the University of Kent.  It's also the city whose Archbishop is the head of the Church of England.  Do you know the name of the city? 

    Canterbury -- I'll bet Chaucer could really tell some tales about Canterbury!

    Yes, Christianity was brought to Canterbury, in England, by a mission team headed by a man named Augustine.  You remember that the people of Hippo in north Africa warned us not to confuse him with their Augustine.  North of Canterbury is London, a city which would later take a leading role in the history of the church.  Followers of John Wycliffe recognized its potential significance.  Some of them even tried to take over the whole city.

    Mmbllammmdllummm...

    Your tongue is lolling out of your mouth, and you're mumbling.  People called Wycliffe's followers Lollards, which meant "mumblers."  The radical Lollard movement led by a man named Sir John Oldcastle was crushed.  But the Wycliffite movement points to the real need of reform.  I'm trying to remember; which college is closely linked with Wycliffe?  It has something to do with a car.

    Guilford?

    No, Guilford is a Quaker college rather than a Lollard college.  Those pacifist Quakers can play a tough game of football!

    Seven Mile Ford?

    We've not yet opened a branch campus of E&H in Seven Mile Ford, but we have a sign near there on the Interstate.  We're not part of John Wycliffe's heritage.  I was thinking of Oxford University, where John Wycliffe taught for many years even after his ideas were considered "heretical" by some of the church authorities.  He was eventually fired, but by then his views had spread far and wide.

    I wish we had time to visit the westernmost part of the island, known as Wales.  I'd like to visit a little town there.  In Wales, there are hundreds of place names that begin with llan ("holy place" or "church" in Welsh).  My favorite place name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which means "The Church of St. Mary's by the Pool near the White Hazel Trees beside the Whirlpool Rapids and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Caves."  I read about this village in Belden C. Lane's Landscapes of the Sacred, and I'd like to take you there.  But I was afraid that neither of us could remember how to spell it, so I didn't put it on the map. 

    It's time for the final stop on our tour:  one of the Tri-Cities.

    Cluny, Citeaux, or Clairvaux?

    Aha, I foxed you with that earlier question, and you don't want to be tricked again!  No, this time we'll go to one of the "Tri-Cities" in England:  Bristol.  It was a key Lollard center in England.  We'll use the airport as a springboard to return to our Wasp Nest in Emory.

If you would like to look down from space at all the places you've been on your trip, click here.

If you have comments or suggestions on any of these review programs, please email me:  fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.

To review a different unit in this course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 1, The Early Church
    Unit 2, The Imperial Church

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Last updated:  December 03, 2007