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7) Tues. 10/1. Mediterranean Changes and New Cultural Settings. Fifth through Eight Centuries. Byzantium. Rise of Islam. Rome and the Papacy. Ravenna. Overview of Christianity in Italy, the Iberian Penninsula, Gaul, and northeastern Europe. Missionaries and Roman Models. The Life of St. Martin. Christianity in Britain and Ireland. The role of monasticism in the spread and reception of Christianity. Bede and his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Exporting Roman commodities: relics, monks, liturgy and manuscripts. Opus dei: the Divine Office. Liturgy and Gregorian Chant in early medieval Europe.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 3, "The Conversion of the West (350-700)," pp. 35-53. [Note:Byzantium and Islam briefly treated on p. 61-62]. Sourcebook 1: Sulpicius Severus, Life of St Martin (selections). Sourcebook 1: "The Ruin." In The Earliest English Poems. Trans. Michael Alexander. 2nd ed., pp. 28-29. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977. Sourcebook 1: Irish Hermit Poems. Selections from Jackson, Kenneth. Early Celtic Nature Poetry, pp. 3-5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935. Sourcebook 1: Bede, selections from Ecclesiastical History of the English People. .
8) Thurs. 10/3. Modes and Agents of Conversion. Conversion, coersion, persuasion. Preaching, poetry and holy lives/sanctity. What is Hagiography? Holy places, images and objects. Orthopraxis and orthodoxy. Penitentials. Synod of Whitby. Holy reading: the Bible in the early Middle Ages. Liturgy, time and cosmos. Rituals and power in early medieval Europe. The Ruthwell Cross and early medieval spirituality.
Handout: Selection from a sermon of Columbanus. "The Dream of the Rood." "The Ascension" by Cynewulf.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 4, "The Papal-Frankish Alliance," pp. 54-64. Sourcebook 1: Boniface. Selections from The Letters of Saint Boniface. Trans. Ephraim Emerton. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. Sourcebook 1: Boniface (alias Wynfrith). Letter to Eadburga, 716-717 from Anglo Saxon Prose, trans. Michael Swanton (London: Everyman, revised ed. 1993): 36-42. . Sourcebook 1: Texts relating to church building, ritual practice and holy objects in Ireland and England, from Early Medieval Art. 300-1150, ed. Cecilia Davis-Weyer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971): 70-79.
Recommended: Eckenstein. Women Under Monasticism. Ch. IV, "Anglo-Saxon Nuns in Connection with Boniface." 118-142. Available at Ad Hoc website. Review from last class: Bede, Book I, ch 23; Book II ch 33 (pp 65-91 acount of Roman mission to Kent); Book III, (pp138-197) Irish missions and synod of Whitby.
Section 4: Early Medieval Saints' Lives: St Martin and St. Brigit. Sourcebook 1: Introduction to Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, by Thomas F.X. Noble and Thomas Head (Univeristy Park, Pennysylvania: Pennsylvania State Press, 1995): xxiii-xliv. Sourcebook 1. Cogitosus. "Life of St. Brigit" .
MIDTERM STUDY QUESTIONS AVAILABLE IN SECTION.
On-line Resources:
E-texts:
Life of Saint Martin by Sulpicius Severus, Fathers of the Church vol. 7.
Gregory of Tours: On Clovis. OMS.
John Chrysostom: Easter Sermon. OMS.
John Moschos: An Angel Story from the Spiritual Meadow . OMS.
Procopius: Description of Hagia Sophia from De Aedificiis. OMS.
Paul the Silentiary: Description of Hagia Sophia from Descriptio S. Sophiae . OMS.
Corpus Iuris Civilis - The Digest and Codex on Marriage. OMS.
The Qu'ran: Surahs 1 and 47. OMS.
Muhammad: Last Sermon. OMS.
Hadith Selections. OMS.
The Pact of Umar, 7th Century. OMS.
Anonymous Arab Chronicler: The Battle of Poitiers, 732 . OMS.
Eckenstein. Women Under Monasticism. Ch. IV "Anglo-Saxon Nuns in Connection with Boniface." 118-142.
St. Columban: Boat Song, 600 CE . OMS.
Bede: Ecclesiastical History The Conversion of England. OMS.
Texts about St. Boniface. OMS.
Images: