Byzantium And Religious Power Essay

Religion in Western civilization has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping and developing Western society. Regardless of the form of religion, such as polytheism or monotheism, people in ancient societies believed in a God or Gods. This belief in a higher power was an important part of human progression and expansion. Religion was the backbone of Western civilization and has always been a very important foundation of culture, schooling, philosophy, art, and social interaction. Before Judaism and Christianity, philosophers such as Aristotle ponder the thought of a higher power and in his book Metaphysics wrote about eternal motion was an unmoved mover. Throughout time and from the expansion of ancient people, new religions formed from the thoughts of morality and virtue. With the help

Chaos: The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would disruption that separated Catholic define the continent in the modern and central Europe, like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry Vill challenged papal authority and questioned the Church 's ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible- and pamphlet-reading pastors and princes. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the so-called Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church 's delayed but forceful response to the Protestants. The main chaos that caused reformation were religious,

The Byzantine Empire was a successful maritime-based civilization that connected Europe and Asia. There is much debate on whether the Byzantine Empire was a new empire or a continuation of the Roman Empire. Although the Byzantine Empire is made up of old parts of Eastern Rome, it was it’s own new civilization because of different religious beliefs, new advancements in technology, and a far superior economy to that of the Romans.

Bishops gained a lot of power with control of church memberships, finances, and the selection of priests. In 590, “Gregory the Great was named Bishop of Rome…and named himself ‘Pope’ and the ‘Head of the Universal Church.’” He was the key to asserting papal primacy and started the requirement of confession and penance. He also worked to convert the pagan kings, hoping more people would follow in their footsteps. With the belief that Constantine left his crown to the papacy, the future Popes had the power to crown the emperor acting as god’s representative. Charlemagne was crowned as the first Holy Roman

Author of the book, Becoming Charlemagne, by Jeff Sypeck provides a clear glimpse into the life of one of the world’s greatest kings and ruler and later emperor Charlemagne, otherwise known as Karl or Charles the Great. Sypeck creates a vivid and strong look into the time of Charlemagne, early medieval Europe and some other important world leaders, including Pope Leo III, Irene the Byzantine emperor, Alcuin the scholar and Harun al-Rashid ruler of Baghdad. These figures are crucial to the story of Karl becoming Charlemagne, and their stories included in the book help form and symbolize Charlemagne the Ruler. Understanding Charlemagne and early medieval Europe is presented vibrantly throughout the book by in-depth stories, facts and a clear

Source #1: "Byzantine Empire." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Livius, 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 6 Oct. 2015. .

The wealth that Byzantium held may have been largely due to the religious influence of the empire. Benjamin of Toledo begins praising Byzantium by stating that it is surrounded by land and sea that allow for all areas of the Mediterranean to have entrance into the empire. According to Benjamin’s observations, the vast religious state of Byzantium attracts many peoples; “Constantinople is a busy city, and merchants come to it from every country by sea or land, and there is none like it in the world…” He attributes the empire’s success to the religious values that influence everyone throughout the empire. The religious influences are huge throughout the empire as noted by Benjamin, “There are also as many churches as there are days of the year”.

In 1025, the death of Basil II marks the date that Byzantium began to decline. For the next 59 years, the empire would be misgoverned by thirteen inept emperors that would bring the once overwhelmingly rich and powerful state to the verge of collapse. The following years the emperors spent lavishly on buildings, churches and largesse, draining the imperial treasury. Adding to the financial crisis, the emperor Romanus VII was under the burden of wealthy landlord’s to relieve them from the pressure of taxation. He abandoned Basil II policy requiring the rich to pay the unpaid taxes of the poor. As the peasants were in no position to pay the tax, this lead to a dramatic reduction to the states revenue. The emperors also did not enforce a series

The Great Schism of the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 was very significant in the development of the early church. It can also be known as the East-West Schism which comes from the regions of the East and the West which divided due to controversial opinions about celebration rituals, the papal authority and other important events and practices. The Great Schism influenced the development of the early church considerably though great discord within the early church.

Tensions developed between the Eastern and Western Churches over political, social and theological differences over beliefs and practices of religious. The Western theologians considered themselve as aids to devotion did not like the fact that the Byzantine did not agree. The Influence of Byzantium in Eastern Europe called themselves Romaioi, and was traced from their ancestors back to the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines divided thenselves from the Mediterranean Society of Classical Rome.

For 500 plus years, the Roman empire brought a unique way of life to a vast area of land. In 476, the western half of the empire collapsed by invading German tribes. But in the east, the empire was ruled by the Byzantine empire. The old Greeks city-port of Byzantium, (Istanbul and Turkey), was the center of the Roman empire. The Romans changed the name to Constantinople after the first Byzantine emperor Constantine. It became the seat of the Byzantine emperors and the center of the eastern Christian church. In the Byzantine empire, ancient Greek and Roman culture and learning were preserved. The Byzantines loved music, poetry, and art. They decorated their churches like Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It has highly complex and finely

In the section of “Piety and Power in Byzantium”, Moore discusses the role of Byzantine women’s financial patronage and veneration of religious icons had on the molding of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Byzantium. Moore mentions that Empress Helena (ca. 248-ca. 330) was the “first Christian imperial patron” (Moore 2015, 69) because she was responsible for the “construction of more than thirty churches in the Holy Land as well as churches in Rome” (69). Empress Helena and her financial patronage set the precedence for other empresses and wealthy women to fund the construction of other religious institutions. The veneration of icons came to be an important facet of Eastern Orthodoxy through empresses and wealthy women’s advocacy for them. Although

Reorganization, likewise called Protestant Reconstruction, the religious insurgency that occurred in the Western church in the sixteenth century. Its most prominent pioneers without a doubt were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Having extensive political, financial, and social impacts, the Transformation turned into the reason for the establishing of Protestantism, one of the three noteworthy branches of Christianity.

Back in the fourth century, when Constantine saw the church threatened with schism over the Arian controversy, he had called a council. At other times in the centuries immediately thereafter, other cases had been solved by similar means. Later, as the popes gained power, the council became instruments for their policies and programs. Now, as the moral authority of the papacy waned through the decades of the Babylonian Captivity and the ensuring Great Schism, there were many who wrote that a universal council could destroy the great evils of the time, both by restoring unity and by performing the church. They were many calling regarding reforming the church. As a result, people like John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Martin Luther will entail great

Constantine the great also known as “Constantine I” or “Saint Constantine” was a Roman Emperor or Illyrian-Greek Origin from 306 to 337 AD. He was the Son of Flavius Valerius Constantine, a Roman Emperor of his consort Helena. As emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. The government was restructured and the civil and military authorities were separated. A new gold coin was introduced to combat inflation known as the solidus. It became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and he played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Nilan in 313,