The Early Middle Ages: 476-1000

Benedict, Columba, Columban, Gregory the Great, Islam, and John of Damascus

480 b. Boethius, a significant thinker who influences the Middle ages. In The Consolation of Philosophy he tries to find comfort in reason and philosophy. He doesn't quote scripture
480 b. Benedict of Nursia, who wrote the normal Rule for Western monks to the present
521 b. Columba, Irish missionary to Scotland working from the isle of Iona
540 b. Columban, Irish missionary to the continent when it was struggling with a resurgence of paganism
525 d. Boethius
529 The Council of Orange approves the Augustinian doctrine of sin and grace, but without absolute predestination
540 b. Gregory the Great
550 d. Benedict of Nursia

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The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
By C.S. Lewis / Cambridge University Press

The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as 'the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organisation of their theology, science, and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe'. This, Lewis' last book, has been hailed as 'the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind'.

560 b. Isidore of Seville, whose Book of Sentences was the key book of theology until the twelfth century
575 Gregory the Great becomes a monk
590 Gregory the Great becomes pope. He was a very effective and popular pope during a time when the government was weak. He fed the peasants and protected farms and villages from Lombard invasion. His development of the doctrine of purgatory was instrumental in establishing the medieval Roman Catholic sacramental system
596 Gregory sends Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagans in England. He imposed the Roman liturgy on the old British Christians
597 d. Columba, missionary to Scotland
602 Through Gregory's influence and his baptism of a Lombard King's child, the Lombards begin converting from Arianism to Orthodoxy
604 d. Gregory the Great
613 d. Augustine of Canterbury
615 d. Columban, missionary to the continent
622 Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina, the beginning of Islam
635 The Nestorian church did not disappear after the council of Ephesus in 431. They evangelized east. By 635 Nestorian Christianity had reached the heart of China, but it disappeared after two hundred years
636 d. Isidore of Seville
637 b. Wilfrid, British missionary to Belgium
663 Synod of Whitby reconciles the old British liturgy and the Roman liturgy
675 b. John of Damascus, an important Eastern Orthodox mystic
680 b. Boniface, who brought Anglo-Saxon Christianity to the pagans in Germany. He cut down the pagan's sacred tree and built a church out of it

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How the Irish Saved Civilization
By Thomas Cahill / Random House, Inc

This introductory volume to Thomas Cahill's "The Hinges of History ®" series, presents the reader with a new way of looking history through the "gift-givers", those who entrusted to our keeping one or more of the singular treasures that make up the heritage of the West. It covers the time period between the end of the classical period and the beginning of the medieval period, enabling us to look back to our ancient roots and forward to the making of the modern world. 245 pages with index. Softcover.

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The
By Bede / Oxford University Press

Starting with the invasion of Julius Caesar in 55 B.C., Bede recorded the history of the English up to his own day in 731 A.D. A scholarly monk working in the north-east of England, Bede wrote the five books of his history in Latin. The Ecclesiastical History is his most famous work, and this edition provides the authoritative Colgrave translation, as well as a new translation of the Greater Chronicle, never before published in English. His Letter to Egbert gives his final reflections on the English Church just before his death. This is the only edition to include all three texts, and they are illuminated further by a detailed introduction and explanatory notes.

8th Century Composition of Be Thou My Vision
709 d. Wilfrid
711 Islam has spread from India to North Africa. All of North Africa is under Islamic control
720 Muslims take Spain
726-787 The iconoclastic controversy. Emperor Leo III attacked the use of images. John of Damascus defended the use of icons in worship by differentiating between veneration and worship. He also argued that the use of images is an affirmation of Christ's humanity, because a real person can be depicted. The opposition responds that images of Christ are not valid depictions because they can only represent his humanity, but not his divinity
732 Europeans turn back the Muslims at the Battle of Tours
749 d. John of Damascus
754 d. Boniface
787 Council of Nicea supports the decision of John of Damascus concerning icons. This decision was not well recieved in the West because John's words for veneration and worship were difficult to translate
800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne head of the Holy Roman Empire (a.k.a. the Nominally Christian Germanic Kingdom). His dynasty is called the Carolingian Empire. His reign is the cultural high point of the Early Middle Ages
875-950 The Dark Ages. The Carolingian Empire was weakened and was assailed by new invaders. This period also marks the low point of the papacy