Dark Ages

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313 Constantine, Edict of Milan.
Also called the Edict of Toleration.
The Edict gives legal status to Christianity.
315 Build the Arch of Constantine within sight of Forum.
325 Council of Nicaea: Nicaean Creed.
Trinity orthodox, no to the Arian heresy.
330 Build first basilican church of St Peters.Same site as present church.
Constantine builds new capital, Constantinople.
337 Death of Constantine.(born 280)
360 Scrolls begin to be replaced with books.
360 Picts & Scots cross Hadrian’s Wall attack Roman Britain.Huns invade Europe.
374 Ambrose elected Bishop of Milan.
Milan now the most active Christian center in Italy.
383 Roman legions begin to evacuate Britain.
Signs of the Times.
386 Bishop Ambrose introduces hymn singing.
(Milan).
387 Ambrose baptizes Augustine (see Aug’s Confessions Bk V).You can visit the spot in the Cathedral of Milan.
395 Emperor Theodosius divides empire into
Eastern and Western halves.
Permanent eclipse of Rome, Milan capital of Western Empire.
400 Jerome translating whole Bible into Latin.Working in Jerusalem.
401 Visigoths invade Italy.
410 Visigoths sack Rome.
Worst sack ever.
Most terrible calamity of all for Romans.
411 A shaken Augustine writes The City of
God.
Tries to make sense of sack of Rome.
414 Daughter of Emperor, Galla Placidia, marries Visigoth king Athaulf.Soon Athaulf is dead.Galla is stranded among the barbarians.
430 Death of Augustine.
Buried in Pavia in the church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro.
432 Patrick begins his mission to Ireland.Brings Roman Catholic church to Ireland.
451 Attila crosses the Rhine with
700,000 of his closest friends.
Huns besiege Paris; St. Genevieve leads resistance.
455 Vandals sack Rome.Rome losing control.
476 Death of last Roman Emperor in Rome.
Now empire ruled from East.
496 Baptism of Clovis.King of the (“barbarian”) Franks. (France)
500 Benedict in Rome studying Law.
Disgusted by corruption of Rome.
Later Benedict founds western monasticism.
525 Death of Boethius, translating all Plato
& Aris into Latin.
Dies before he can finish.
Boethius buried in Pavia, San Pietro in Ciel d’ Oro.Christian scholar Dionysius Exiguus introduces idea of dating B.C./A.D.
527 Accession to imperial throne of Justinian.
His rule ends with his death in 565.
For a brief time he unifies the whole of the Eastern & Western
Emp.
529 Benedict founds the Benedictine monastic
order.Founding house at Monte Cassino.
534 Toledo capital of Visigothic kingdom
of Spain.
Lasts till the Moslem conquest in 711.
537 King Arthur killed in Battle of Camlan
.
No documentary evidence for the date.
550 Saint Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.
Last Supper appears in painting.
Appearance of Crucifix as church ornament.
556 Elect St. Germain bishop of Paris.
Later he founds Benedictine monastery in Paris.
570 Gregory Prefect of Rome.Highest civil post responsible to Constantinople.
Birth of Mohammed, founder of Islam (died 632).
576 Death of St. Germain.
Buried in Parisian monastery named for him (des Prés).
590 Gregory becomes Pope.
St. Gregory the Great.
596 Gregory sends Augustine to England.Christian Rome on the offensive.
597 Augustine begins the conversion of Eng to Roman Christianity.Baptizes King Ethelbert of Kent.
Founds Canterbury (Benedictine).
600 Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, writing his Etymologiae (Origins).Summary of all known knowledge at his time.
1,000 Medieval manuscripts survive.
609 Consecrate the Pantheon as Christian
church.Santa Maria in Rotonda.
603 Lombards (Northern Italy) convert to Christianity.
Pavia becomes their capital.
615 Death of St Columban.
Irish missionary to Europe.
637 Arabs conquer Jerusalem.
640 Arabs in Egypt find Library of Alexandria with 300,000 scrolls.
End of Alexandria as center of Mediterranean learning, book production.
641 Arab conquest of Persian empire.
642 Eastern Roman Empire dangerously surrounded by Arab conquests.
673 First synod of the English Roman Catholic
church,
Synod held at Hertford.
674 Arab conquests push east to the Indus river.All of the middle east now under Arab control.
664 Synod of Whitby.
Roman church triumphs in dispute with locals.
696 Elect the first Doge of Venice.
Paoluccio Anafesto.
700 Lindesfarne Gospels, illuminated Bible.
711 Arab conquest of Spain.End of Visigothic Kingdom of Spain.
720 Arab conquest of Sardinia.
735 Death of Venerable Bede.
English church historian, adopts B.C./A.D.
718 Boniface leaves England.
Brings Roman Catholic Christianity to Low Countries and GermanyMartyred in Holland in 754.
732 Charles Martel (Franks) defeats Arab advance.
Wins the Battle of Poitiers.
This marks the furthest northern advance of the Arabs in Europe.
741 Death of Charles Martel.
Son Pepin the Short now leads the Franks.
742 Birth of Charlemagne son of Pepin.
750 Pepin officially named King of the Franks.
Rules France and Germany.
754 HISTORIC ACCORD: Boniface arranges meeting, Pope-King
Pepin.
Pepin promises military help, protect Papal States from Lombards.Pope Stephen III promises consecrate Frankish dynasty (France/Ger).Triumph of policy is coronation of Charlemagne in Rome 800.
768 Death of Pepin.
Accession of son Charlemagne.
774 Charlemagne conquers Lombard kingdom, allies with Pope.Begin historic alliance of Papacy and kingdom of France.
778 Basques defeat Charlemagne at Roncesvalles,Song of Roland.
781 Carolingian Renaissance.
Charlemagne meets Alcuin at Pavia.
796 Monastic school at Tours becomes important center with Alcuin its head.
800 CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE,ROME, DEC 25, BY POPE LEO III
First “Holy Roman Emperor” (separation from East.)
(Voltaire said was neither holy nor roman nor an empire.)
811 Development of Venice.
Build fortress, Doges palace.
814 Death of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen).
827 Arab conquest of Sicily/Sardinia(never 100%).
843 Treaty of Verdun.
Divide Charlemagne empire among 3 grandsons.
846 Arabs sack Rome and Vatican, darkest days of Italy.Mediterranean now an Arab Lake.
851 Canterbury Cathedral sacked by Danes.England on the defensive.
861 Paris sacked by the Northmen.
(Normans).
871 Alfred the Great, King of England,
begin beat back Norsemen/Danes.
900 Alfonso the Great of Castile begins reconquest of Spain from Arabs.Constantinople still the richest city in the world-commerce/culture.

Papacy at its nadir, called Pornocracy, mistresses, mothers of popes.
919 Henry Duke of Saxony elected King of the Germans.
Begin success of House of Saxony.Son Otto becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
Unite Germany monarchy with papacy.
936 Otto elected King of the Germans.
951 Otto comes to Italy marries Adelaide of Burgundy.Adelaide widow of Lothar, King of Italy.
Otto becomes legitimate “king” of Italy & Germany.
Otto and Adelaide dominate the second half of 10th Century.(Adelaid dies 999).
Son Otto II, 973-983, Grandson Otto III, 983-1002.
962 Pope John XXII crowns Otto/Adel.
Holy Roman Emperor and Empress in Rome.
987 Hugh Capet, King of the Franks.
This ends Carolinian line, establishes new French line.
990 Establishment of the Cathedral school of Chartres.
Fulbert + Hugh Capet.
996 King Robert II, King of France
(to 1031, of Capetian line).
1000 Emp Otto III arranges election of his friend Gerbert of Aurillacas Pope Sylvester II, total cooperation between Emperor/Pope.
1000 Largest city in Spain is Moslem Cordoba.(Cordoba and Constantinople two of largest cities in world)
1009 On 18 October 1009, Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt. The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining. Christian Europe reacted with shock and and an impetus to later Crusades
1016 Pisa leads reconquest of Sardinia from Moslems.Coastal Italian cities most progressive in 11th Century.(Pisa/Venice/Genoa).
1031 King Henry I of France,.
Successful reign to 1060 (stable France).
1039 Henry III (German) Holy Roman Emperor.
Comes to Rome, great power.
1046 Cluniac reformer Gerhard of Burgundy, Bishop of Florence.Progressive reformist French church nourishes reform in Italy.
1054 Formal permanent division between
Eastern and Western Christian Church.
1055 Synod of Florence, Bishop Germany presides,Florence in center of reform.
1058 Elect Bishop Gerhard of Florence as Pope
Nicholas II.
Leads church reform.
1059 Pope Nick comes to Florence.Lay cornerstone of new Baptistry (like Pantheon).
1060 Death of King Henry I of France.
Son Philip I (Fat Philip) reigns 48 years.
1062 Begin Cathedral of Pisa.
Pisa on the march.
1063 Begin Saint Marks, Venice.
1066 William the Conqueror.
1073 Elect Hildebrand Pope Gregory VII.
Most important church reformer in 11th century.
1077 The Way to Canossa.
Emperor waits in snow for Pope,
Papal supremacy.
1079 Birth of Peter Abelard in Brittany.
1085 Reconquer Toledo from the Moslems.
Christians moving south. (“Reconquista”)
1090 Birth of Bernard of Clairvault
(Cistercian Order, France).
1094 El Cid takes Valencia from the Moslems.
(Moors).
1099 FIRST CRUSADE,
The West on the march.
1099 Crusaders take Jerusalem.