Timeline 476 - 999
476
The last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by Odoacer, a German general
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.
Columba banging on the gate of Bridei, son of Maelchon, King of Fortriu. J. R. Skelton (Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton; 1865–1927) (illustrator), erroneously credited as John R. Skelton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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
540
b. Columban, Irish missionary to the continent when it was struggling with a resurgence of paganism
550
d. Benedict of Nursia
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
c. 700
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