Treating him as Roman emperor, Sylvester coordinated decisions on ecclesiastical matters with Otto III, even those concerning lands outside the bounds of Otto III’s territory.  Because of his role in the establishment of independent archbishoprics in Poland and Hungary, the German church, which had been anxious to extend its authority in those regions, revolted against the emperor.  In this era, the German chuch was a critical source of imperial funds and manpower.

1002 After the German emperor Otto III died this year, John Cresentius III (son of Cresentius II) became patricius of Rome and ruled the city until his death in 1012.

1003 After Pope Sylvester II’s death in this year, his great learning acquired a legendary character.  Some attributed it to magic, supposedly learned in Spain; some to the devil; others to an artificial head that answered questions.

1003 In June, a certain Sicco or Secco was appointed John XVII, bishop of Rome, by direction of John Cresentius III.  Pope John XVII died on 6 November.

1004 In January, a certain Fasano was consecrated John XVIII (1004-9), bishop of Rome.  His election was decided by John Cresentius III.

1004 The Fatimid Caliph Hakim began a 10-year persecution of Christians in southern Syria and Palestine.

1008 The Leningrad Codex dates to this year.  It is the oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Old Testament and is the source document for most modern English Old Testament translations.

1009 Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  By 1014, Hakim had burned or pillaged 30,000 churches.

1009 Bruno of Querfurt, a German nobleman, killed by the Prussians.  Bruno had been ordained a missionary bishop to the Slavs in 1004 and worked the area between Ukraine and Sweden.  He also authored a biography of Adalbert, bishop of Prague (see 996/7).

1009 Pope John XVIII abdicated.  He lived thereafter at the Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls (Rome).

1012 Benedict VIII (1012-24), bishop of Rome.  Benedict was the first pope from the powerful Tusculani family that replaced the Cresentii as leaders in Rome.

1013 The Caliph Hakim allowed Christians to emigrate into Roman (Byzantine) territory, as a concession to the Emperor.

1014The Nicene Creed  is believed to have been used in the liturgy at Rome for the first time, at the coronation of the German (Holy Roman) Emperor Henry II (1002-24).  The version of the creed used included the filioque.  Pope Benedict VIII encouraged Henry to attack the Roman (Byzantine) South.  He hoped to restore papal jurisdition there (which had ended in 732).

1014 The Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Basil II (963-1025) conquered western Bulgaria.

1015 Tuy in northwestern Spain raided by Norsemen.  The episcopal see there was vacant until 1070.

1015 King Olaf Haraldsson took Norway out from under Danish control.  Olaf ruled until 1028, when he escaped Canute (see 1015/16) and fled to Russia.  During his reign, Olaf brought clergy from England to Norway.  Olaf died in 1030 in an attempt to retake the throne.  When exhumed in 1031, his body was discovered incorrupt, and Olaf was deemed a saint and martyr.

1015 Gerard, bishop of Limoges, persecuted Manichean heretics.

1015/16 King Canute conquered England.  In 1019, he took Denmark, and Norway in 1028.  Canute’s empire fell apart at his death in 1035.

1016/17 Pope Benedict VIII (1012-24) turned back a Saracen attack on northern Italy.  Benedict encouraged the Normans to attack forces of the Roman (Byzantine) empire in the South.

1016 Hakim’s friend Darazi announced that Hakim was God.  By 1017, Hakim restored religious liberty to the Christians and returned their confiscated property.  Hakim substituted his name for that of Allah in mosque services.  Hakim disappeared in 1021, but Darazi’s followers, the Druze, believe he will come again.

1017 Pope Benedict VIII (1012-24) set up a new bishopric in Besalu.  Each new bishop of Besalu was required to pay the papacy one pound of gold “in token of true obedience.”

1018 A resurgent Roman (Byzantine) Empire conquered and annexed Macedonia and Bulgaria.

1020 In Toulouse in about this year, a certain chaplain named Hugh was given the task of striking “a Jew, as is always the custom there each Easter.”  Hugh struck the man so hard that he died.  This “custom” was perhaps indicative of an increasingly un-Christian attitude (see 1040 & 1096). 

1022 During the reign of Anund (1022-39), son of Olof, the Christian faith became widespread in Sweden.

1022 Pope Benedict VIII (1012-24) called the synod of Pavia. Attended by the German emperor Henry II, the synod promulgated decrees against clergy who were not celibate and against simony..

1022 King Robert II of France (Robert the Pious, 996-1031) burned some Canons of St. Croix in Orleans at the stake for holding that the material world is inherently evil.  One of the heretics was a certain Stephen, who had been confessor to the queen, Constance of Aquitane.

1022 Several Manichean heretics were put to death in Toulouse.

1024 When Pope Benedict VIII died in the spring, he was succeeded by his brother, John XIX (1024-32).  John (real name Romanus) had been the ruler of Rome.  He rose from layman to pope in a day.

1024 Pope John XIX agreed that the church of Constantinople was to be recognized as “universal in her sphere.”

1025 During his tenure as patriarch of Constantinople, Alexius the Studite (1025-43) restricted monks and clergy seeking justice to the church courts and standardized the payments due from lower clergy to their bishops.  Alexius also began anew the persecution of Jacobites, at this time centered near Melitene.  In an attempt to check lay patronage of monasteries (known as kharistike), he began a registry of monastic property and patronage rights,  the chartophylakeion.

1025 A certain Gundulf led a band of Manichean missionaries from Italy into the diocese of Arras.  Reginald, bishop of Arras, and Gerard, bishop of Cambrai, converted the missionaries back to the Catholic faith.

1027 Canute, king of England, journeyed to Rome as a pilgrim, “Because I heard from wise men that St Peter the Apostle has received from the Lord a great power of binding and loosing, and bears te keys of the kingdom of heaven; and therefore I deemed it useful in no ordinary degree to seek his patronage before God.”

1027 Pope John XIX crowned Conrad II German emperor.  Canute of England witnessed this coronation.

1028 Sihtic, son of Olaf Cuaran of Dublin (see 980), went on pilgrimage to Rome and likely negotiated a bishopric for Dublin.

1028 William V, duke of Aquitane, called a council of the bishops of Charroux to plan for the suppression of Manichean heretics.  The heresy had supposedly been introduced from Italy. 

1030 A Russian trading center was founded in Yuryev (Tartu), Estonia, surrounding an Orthodox cathedral of St. George.

1030 A community of Cathar (see 1143) heretics existed in Monteforte by this year.

1032 The fourteen year old Theophylact(grandson of Count Gregory of Tusculum, himself son or grandson of Alberic, son of Marozia) was elected Pope Benedict IX (1032-44, 1045, 47-48).  Nephew of the brothers Benedict VIII (1012-24) and John XIX (1024-32), Bendict was the last pope from the Tusculani family.  Some sources indicate that Theophylact (Teofilatto) was in his twenties when he was elected to the papacy.  His father, Count Alberic III, won him the papacy through bribery.

1034 In around this year a certain Euthymios produced an account of a heretical group known as the Phoundagiagitai.  In around the year 1000, the supposed founder of the group, John Tzourillas, was charged with rape.  John had preached near Smyrna with considerable success.  The Phoundagiagitai were fond of breaking up church services on the grounds that prayer should be private (Matthew 6.6).  Initiation into the group involved a ceremony in which the Apocalypse of St. Peter was recited over the intiate’s head.  They held that the devil had been expelled from heaven for stealing the sun and the soul.  Euthymios added:  “They teach not to expect the resurrection of the dead, nor the second coming, nor the Last Judgment, but that all power over earthly things with hell and paradise belongs to the lord of this world, that is to say, the devil, and that he puts his friends in paradise and his enemies in hell, and that he has nothing in common with God, but that God reigns in the heavens and the lord of the world on earth.”

1036 Luke ordained bishop of Novgorod.  He was the first native Russian to hold episcopal office.

1038 Death of King Stephen of Hungary.  Stephen’s Edict, a collection of ecclesiastical legislation, required attendance at church, observation of Sunday as a sabbath, and fasting during Lent.  He had implemented a plan to insure at least one church for every ten settlements.  The contemporary historian Rudolfus Glaber wrote, “The Hungarians, previously accustomed to prey on their neighbors, now freely give of their own for Christ’s sake.  They who formerly pillaged the Christians ... now welcome them like brothers and children.”  (In this period east-west trade and pilgrimages to the Holy Land caused an increase in traffic through Hungary.)

1039 At some point in his reigh, Emund, king of Sweden, half-brother to his predecessor, Anund, replaced the bishop Adalward of Skara with a certain Osmund, possibly an Englishman.  Adalward had been sent from Hamburg-Bremen.

1040 About this year Rodulfus Glaber (Ralph the Bald) blamed the Jews of Orleans for the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (see 1009).  Ralph stated that the Jews wrote to “the prince of Cairo” encouraging him to destroy the church - “that if he did not quickly destroy the venerable church of the Christians, then they would soon occupy his whole realm, depriving him of all his power.” 

1042 A Christian Wend named Gottschalk rose to power among the Wagrians and Abotrites, the westernmost Wendish tribes.  Gottschalk had been educated in a Saxon monastery in Luneburg.  When a Saxon killed his father, Gottschalk had returned home to wage a war of vengeance, but he had been captured by Duke Bernhard of Saxony.  Bernhard had released Gottschalk, who had entered the service of King Canute of Denmark, Sweden, and England.  After returning to his native land in this year, Gottschalk married a daughter of the Danish King Sweyn, built churches, established monasteries, and invited German priests into the land.  Bishoprics were established at Oldenburg and Mecklenburg. 

1042 The Patriarch Alexius the Studite endorsed the popular revolt against the Emperor Michael V (1041-42).  Michael, known as the Caulker, was deposed.

1045 Benedict IX’s profligacy elicited a rebellion among the Roman populace.  Benedict fled Rome and John of Sabina was elected Pope Silvester III (1045).  Benedict’s brothers then drove Silvester out of town, and Benedict was restored..

1045 Giovanni Gratiano became Pope Gregory VI (1045-46).  He purchased the papacy from Benedict IX for 1500 pounds of gold.  Benedict had led a profligate life as pope, but fell in love with Gratiano’s niece.  He wanted to marry her, but did not want to abdicate the papacy to do so without profit.  Benedict later changed his mind and returned to Rome as pope.  There were thus three claimants to the papacy.

1045 Michael Psellus (1018-1078) was chosen by the emperor Constantine IX (1042-54) to head the philosophy department of the recently founded imperial university.  After the schism began, Psellus was strongly opposed to reunion with Rome.  Due to Psellus' influence as Consul of the Philosophers, the emphasis of philosophy returned to its Platonic roots, the idealism of the Cappadocians, and away from the Aristotelian thrust which had been promoted by Photius.

1046 The Emperor Constantine IX (1042-54) began rebuilding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  A German Saxon, Suidger of Bamburg, was appointed pope (Clement II) by the German (Holy Roman) Emperor Henry III.  Benedict was canonically deposed.

1046 In December 1046, the papal situation in Rome was resolved by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (1039-56) at a synod in Sutri.   The synod deposed the three rival claimants, and Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, a German, became Clement II (1046-47).  Clement then crowned Henry emperor.  When Clement died in 1047, Benedict reentered Rome, was driven from Rome again, and Poppo of Brixen (another German) replaced him as Damascus II (1048).

1049 Founding of the monastery of the Theotokos Euergetis in Constantinople by a certain former civil servant named Paul.  This monastery became very influential, in part because of the support it received from the imperial family.  Paul composed a florilegium, known as the Euergetinos, which included a many saints’ lives and became popular, adding to the monastery’s influence.

1049 The German emperor Henry III appointed the Alsatian count Bruno, bishop of Toul, to the papacy.  Bruno refused the appointment unless it was approved by the clergy and people of Rome.  He then entered Rome on foot, as a pilgrim, and was consecrated Pope Leo IX (1049-54).

1049 The synod at Rheims.  Pope Leo IX traveled to Rheims to consecrate the church of St. Remigius (the patron saint of France).  Since the king of France forebade his bishops to attend, only twenty were present.  The pope demanded to know which of them had paid for their office.  The bishops who confessed received pardon.  Others were excommunicated and deposed.

1050The investiture controversy.  Some see the period from 1050 to 1130 as one of a major world revolution.  In this view, the revolutionaries are the Gregorian reformers who complain about the interference of laymen in church affairs, simony in particular.  Their ideal society has complete freedom of the church from control by the state, the negation of the sacramental character of kingship, and the domination of the papacy over secular rulers.  The radical revolutionary leaders are Humbert and Hildebrand, while Peter Damiani is seen as a moderate.

The reform movement may have been motivated by a desire to maintain a distinction between the clergy and laity, which was in danger of being obscured by the rising level sanctity among the common people.  Kings such as Henry III (1039-56) of Germany and Edward the Confessor (1042-66) of England were extremely pious, as were many nobles.  If the clergy (and the monasteries) were perceived as no more holy than the common people, how could their rights and privileges continue to be maintained? 

1050 Berengar of Tours, canon of the cathedral and head of the school of Saint-Martin, began teaching a theory of the eucharist in which the Lord was present in a spiritual sense only.  Berengar wrote to Lanfranc, then a teacher in Normandy but later archbishop of Canterbury (1070-89) against the latter's condemnation of Ratramnus.  Lanfranc was absent when the letter arrived, however, and it was passed by others along to Pope Leo IX (1049-54), who excommunicated Berengar and ordered him to appear at the Council of Vercelli.  Berengar traveled to Paris to obtain permission from King Henry I to attend the council, and Henry had him imprisoned.  The De corpore of Ratramnus (see 868 above) was ordered destroyed by the Council of Vercelli, and Berengar was condemned in absentia.

1050 Between about this year and 1250, most of Spain reconquered from the Muslims.  Only Granada and a small amount of nearby territory held out - until 1492.

1051 Founding of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev.

1052 The relics of Symeon the New Theologian were translated to Constantinople.

1052 The Normans had been forcing the Greeks in Roman (Byzantine) Italy to conform to Latin usages; the patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius (1043-59), in return demanded that the Latin churches at Constantinople should adopt Greek practices, and in 1052, when they refused, he closed them.  (Angold places the church closings in 1049.)

1052 By this year, around 700 monks lived at Mount Athos (see 963).

1053 Pope Leo IX  (1049-54), in a letter to Bishop Thomas of Carthage, mentioned that there were only five bishops left in North Africa.  In Augustine’s time (circa 400), there had been over 600.

1053 The battle of Civitate.  In June, the Normans took Leo IX prisoner.  Leo was released nine months later.  He had been on campaign against them in the south of Italy, but the papal army was defeated on June 18.  In his war against the Normans, Leo was in league with the Roman (Byzantine) emperor Constantine Monomachos (1042-55), who promised to transfer jurisdiction over southern Italy from the the patriachate of Constantinople to the papacy.  Constantine’s forces, under Argyrus, the Roman (Byzantine) governor in southern Italy, had been defeated in February.

1054 The East-West Schism (The Schism of 1054).  Leo, the archbishop of Ochrida, wrote a letter to Bishop John of Trania in Italy enumerating the innovations of the Roman Church.  Leo asked John to give the letter a wide hearing (all Frankish bishops and priests and peoples and the most reverend pope himself”) in order that the truth might prevail.  This letter was closely followed by a letter from Michael Cerularius, the patriarch of Constantinople (1043-59). Pope Leo IX (1049-54) sent a sharp reply, severely rebuking Cerularius.  He wrote, “No one can deny that, just as the whole door is directed by its handle, so the order and structure of the whole church is defined by Peter and his successors.  And just as the handle pushes and pulls the door while itself remaining stationary, so Peter and his successors have the right to pronounce judgment on any local church.  No one should resist them in any way or try to usurp their place, for the supreme seat is not to be judged by anyone.”  Leo cited the Donation of Constantine (see 754) in evidence of his rights, and accused the “Greeks” of having deleted the filioque from the Nicene Creed.

The emperor of Constantinople, Constantine Monomachos (1042-55, also termed Monomathus), facing a threat of his political interest in Italy, had need of the pope’s help.  Monomachos sent a conciliatory reply asking Leo IX to send delegates to restore friendly relations.  The pope sent Cardinal Humbert and Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine (later Pope Stephen IX (1057-58)), and Bishop Peter of Amalfi, who arrived in April and met with the emperor.  Monomachos forced Nicetas of Stethanos, a follower of St. Simeon the New Theologian and an open critic of Rome, to publicly burn and disavow his writings against Roman practices.

Cerularius received the papal letter from the delegation, but thereafter refused to meet with them.  Frustrated, Humbert left a bull on the altar of St. Sophia (July 16).  The bull stigmatized the Eastern Church as “the repository of all the heresies of the past.”  It also anathematized Michael Cerularius, the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, the marriage of priests, and the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.  Humbert departed on July 18.  Constantine called Humbert back to discuss the bull at a synod, then sent him away again when he discovered that he himself would be prevented from attending, and that the people firmly supported the patriarch.  Cerularius in turn, at the head of a council of two archbishops, twelve metropolitans, and seven bishops, drew up a sentence of excommunication against the authors of the bull and “all who had helped in drawing it up, whether by their advice or even by their prayers” (July 20).

1054 The monastery at Cluny (see 909) was freed from episcopal control and placed directly under the papacy.

1056 Death of Jaroslav the Wise, son of Vladimir and prince of Kiev.  During his reign, Jaroslav rebuilt the Church of Holy Wisdom in Kiev and founded the monastery of St. George.  His daughters married the kings of Norway and Hungary.  Jaroslav’s wife, Ingigard, who had come from Sweden, founded the monastery of St. Irene.

1057 Michael Cerularius, the patriarch of Constantinople, arranged the downfall of the Emperor Michael VI Stratiotikos and had Isaac Comnenus, a general, made emperor.  In return, Comnenus allowed the patriarch to name the chief patriarchal administrators.

1057/58 According to a thirteenth century source, Michael Cerularius called a council which removed the patriarch of Rome’s name from the diptychs. 

1058  The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Isaac Comnenus accused Michael Cerularius of usurping imperial authority.  Cerularius was never brought to trial, as he died in 1059.  Some historians speculate that Michael’s attitude had been influenced by reading the Donation of Constantine, which Cardinal Humbert had carried to the emperor and patriarch in 1054.  Since the second and fourth ecumenical councils had given the patriarch the same privileges as the pope, Michael may have argued on that basis for additional authority.  This explanation is present in the works of Theodore Balsamon, a twelfth century canon lawyer. 

Michael Psellus acted as a prosecutor for the emperor.  The conflict between Psellus and Cerularius dated back at least to Humbert’s visit in 1053/54, when Psellus had acted on behalf of the emperor.  While Cerularius obtained canonization for Symeon the New Theologian, Psellus had less use for mystics.  He allowed that mystic, apophatic knowledge was possible, but refused to see it as the sole ground for Christianity, since it was inherently selfish and contributed little if anything to society.  Reason, on the other hand, he saw as a more sure method of approach to God, and it promoted a fruitful life within the larger Christian community.

1058 Using large bribes, the Roman aristocracy had John Mincius, a member of the powerful Tusculani family, elected Pope Benedict X (1058-59).  Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, would not consecrate Benedict.  In December, a group of cardinals met in Siena and elected Gerard of Lorraine, the bishop of Florence, a Frenchman, as Pope Nicholas II (1058-61).  Supported by imperial forces and the Roman populace (whom he lavished with gifts), Nicholas forced Benedict from Rome.

1059 Cardinal Humbert was responsible for the publication of two works reforming the western church.  One limited involvement in the election of the pope to the college of cardinals.  Prior to this time, the German emperor, Henry III (1039-56), had regularly elected popes on his own.  His son, Henry IV (1056-1106), was a minor at this time, and his family were involved in a struggle with the German nobility.  The second work was The Three Books Against the Simoniacs.  It redefined simony from “the buying and selling of church offices” to “any interference by laymen in church affairs,” thus accusing most of the rulers of Europe of grave sin.  In this work Humbert also called on the faithful to refuse to take the sacraments from any priest whose personal conduct they considered unworthy, effectively reviving the Donatist heresy.  This advise was later condemned by the papacy.

1059 At a Lateran council held in April of this year, Pope Nicholas II (1059-61) established new procedures for the election of popes, giving a controlling voice to the cardinals.  Earlier, the bishop of Rome had frequently been chosen by the Roman nobility or the German emperor.  In fact, when Stephen IX died in 1058, the Roman nobility and a minority of the cardinals had chosen Benedict X as pope, while the majority of the cardinals had supported Nicholas, then Gerhard, bishop of Florence.  Nicholas’ election had been secured through Cardinal Hildebrand’s influence over the German emperor.  In 1061 the German bishops declared Nicholas’s procedures for papal elections void.

1059 The De corpore of Ratramnus (see 868 and 1050 above) was condemned at the Lateran Synod held this year.

1059 The papacy, at first alarmed by the Norman conquest of Sicily and southern Italy, began to forge an alliance with the Normans against the German emperor (at that time, Henry IV, 1056-1106).  In what is known as the Investiture of Melphi, Pope Nicholas II (1059-61) presented Capua to Richard of Aversa and Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily to Robert Guiscard.  In return, the Normans swore allegiance to the papacy.  These lands had all belonged to the Roman (Byzantine) empire before the Norman attacks, which had begun at Melfi in 1041.  Guiscard took Calabria in 1060, but Apulia held out until 1071 when Bari fell.

Pope Nicholas used the Donation of Constantine to justify the robbery of Roman (Byzantine) imperial lands at sword point.

1060 A synod of Spalatum (Croatia) forbade the ordination of Slavs unless they were literate in Latin.  This appears to have been directed against the Slavonic liturgy.

1061 Anselm of Baggio elected as Pope Alexander II (1061-73).  The imperial regent, the Empress Agnes, sided with the Roman nobility against Alexander and recognized Peter Caladus of Parma as Pope Honorius II (1061-64).  As bishop of Parma, Honorius had opposed Hildebrand’s reform movement.

1061 Sometime during his papacy, Pope Alexander II (1061-73) wrote to the bishops of Spain to protect the Jews from warriors fighting the Saracens.

1061 Richeldis, the lady of the manor at Little Walsingham, Norfolk, England, had three visions of the Virgin Mary in which Mary showed her the house where she had lived in Nazareth.  Mary instructed Richeldis to build a copy of the house.  It is said that Richeldis’ workmen began a structrure in the style then current.  The following day, they found it 70 yards from where they had left it, and completed by unknown hands.

1062 In April, Honorius II came to Rome.  Duke Godfrey of Tuscany convinced Alexander and Honorius to await an imperial decision.  A group of nobles kidnapped the German empress Agnes, and Anno, archbishop of Cologne, became regent.  At Anno’s direction, the matter of the papal succession was investigated, and the choice fell to Alexander.

1063 Honorius II again set himself up in Rome.  He left in 1064 when the Council of Mantua, Tuscany, decided in favor of Alexander.

1063 Pope Alexander II (1061-73) sent the papal banner to Normans fighting Saracens in Spain and Sicily.  The banner was a sign of papal approval and blessing.

1064 A group of several thousand pilgrims traveled from Germany to the Holy Land.  They were led by four bishops.

1066 Gottschalk (a leader of the Wends -- see 1042) slain during an uprising.  As a result of the violence, the bishoprics at Mecklenburg and Oldenburg were vacated, and remained so until 1149.  Bishop John of Mecklenburg, an Irishman under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, was tortured, then beheaded.  His head was offered on the tip of a spear to the Slavic god Redigast.  Monks in Ratzeburg were stoned to death.

1066The Norman Conquest of England.  William’s invasion was supported by the papacy, which had quarreled with Harold Godwinson.  Harold had refused to carry out the papal decision that the incumbent archbishop of Canturbery, whom he felt had not be canonically elected, should be deposed.  The pope sent William the banner of St. Peter.  However, having become king of England, William decreed that no clergy could go to Rome, receive a papal legate, or appeal to the papal curia without his permission.  Gregory VII (1073-85) later claimed that the Donation of Constantine required that William be his vassal, but William refused.

William’s newly conquered kingdom contained 35 monasteries.  Among them they controlled one-sixth of the kingdom’s revenues.

1066 Andrew, the archbishop of Bari, a city in southern Italy, visited Constantinople.  While there, he renounced Christianity, declaring himself a Jew.  He then removed to Egypt.

1068 The king of Aragon made his kingdom a fiefdom of the papacy.

1069 At some point during his tenure as patriarch of Constantinople (1057-69), Luke Chrysoberges suppressed the carnival-like festivities that had come to accompany the feast of the Holy Notaries (Marcian and Martyrius), held on 25 November.

1071 A Turkish army defeated the Romans (Byzantines) at Manzikert, opening Asia Minor to invasion.  The Roman emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118) appealed to the papacy for military assistance.  The investiture controversy prevented Gregory from providing the requested support.

1071 The Normans in southern Italy took Bari, the capital of Roman (Byzantine) Apulia.  (See 1059)

1071 The king of Aragon banned the Mozarabic rite.  Use of the Latin rite was compulsory.

1071 When the bishop of Milan died, the German emperor Henry IV (1056-1106) appointed a man opposed to the reform movement as bishop.  Pope Alexander II (1061-73) recognized a different man as bishop of Milan.  The Patarini (literally, “rag-pickers”), a populist movement in Milan opposed to clerical marriage and simony, opposed the emperor’s candidate and supported the pope’s.

1072-76 Adam of Bremen wrote his Deeds of the Bishops of the Church of Hamburg.

1073 Pope Alexander II (1061-73) excommunicated the advisors of German emperor Henry IV who had urged Henry to appoint the new bishop of Milan (see 1071).

1073 Gregory VII (1073-1085), “Hildebrand,” believing the Forged Decretals to be authentic, enforced them.  Also, in A.D. 1073, at a synod held in Rome, he pronounced the title of ‘pope’ the sole and peculiar dignity of the Bishops of Rome.  In his Dictatus Papae (1075), he stated that the pope had the right to depose emperors, that the pope’s authority is the authority of Christ, that the papal office alone was universal in its authority, that the pope alone (without a synod) could depose bishops without giving the accused a hearing, that no one could condemn an appellant to the apostolic see, that no council was canonical without papal approval, and that no book or decree was canonical without papal assent.  In addition, he claimed that the Roman church had never erred, not would it ever, “to all eternity.”  The notion that the papacy alone is universal and plenary, while all other powers in the world are particular and dependent, is called the “plenitude of power.” In authoring the Dicataus Papea, Gregory employed the forged decretals of Pseudo-Isidore.

It is important to realize that for about 200 years before this, the power of the bishop of Rome had been very limited.  The great bishoprics and abbeys of western Europe had flourished with little or no assistance from Rome, and with no effective papal jurisdiction over their affairs.

Gregory also insisted that the church become uniform in both liturgy and organization.

1074 A paper mill was set up in eastern Spain in this year, the first paper mill in Europe.

1075 The cathedral in Milan was burned as a result of conflict between local authorities and the Patarini (see 1071).  At the request of the city fathers, the German emperor Henry IV deposed both rival bishops of Milan and installed another.  Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) threatened the emperor with excommunication and deposition.

1075 Soon after this year, a certain Kekavmenos, governor of the theme of Hellas, composed a book of advice for his sons, known as the Advice and Counsels.  Kekavmenos encouraged regular church attendance, the recitation of a psalm during the quiet of midnight (for concentration), and private study of the scriptures. 

1076 In January, the German emperor Henry IV (1056-1106) called a council, which met in Worms.  The council deposed Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) and referred to him as a “false monk.”  The bishops of Lombardy later confirmed the council’s decision.  The pope replied by excommunicating the bishops who opposed him and declaring Henry deposed.  Gregory released Henry’s subjects from their oaths of allegiance to him.  Gregory used the fact that Pope Zacharias had given permission to Pepin to depose the last of the Merovingian kings (Childeric III) precedence for the notion that popes can depose sovereigns.

1077 The German emperor Henry IV, having lost his power base within the German church due to Gregory’s threat to excommunicate his supporters, petitioned the pope for absolution at Canossa in northern Italy.  The pope was on his way to a council of German nobles meeting to replace Henry.  Through the intervention of Abbot Hugh of Cluny, Gregory agreed to absolve Henry and let him remain on the throne.  The German princes, however, made Rudolf of Swabia king of Germany.

1080 In March, Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) again declared Henry IV deposed.  Stating that Henry would soon die, the pope named Rudolf king of Germany.

1080  The German emperor Henry IV called a council at Mainz, which deposed Pope Gregory VII and made Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, Pope Clement III (1080-1100).  At a battle on the banks of the Saale in Saxony, the forces of Henry IV and Rudolf of Swabia battled.  Although Henry’s army was defeated, Rudolf was killed (October).  As the German nobility discussed the question of Rudolf’s successor, Henry entered Italy and besieged Rome.  He was not able to take the city until 1084.

For most of the period from 1080 through 1111, there were two rival popes.

1080+ First Benedictine monasteries founded in Denmark.

1080+ When King Inge of Sweden attempted to end pagan worship at Upsalla, he was deposed.  His brother-in-law Sweyn assumed the throne, but Inge retook the crown by force and imposed the Christian faith.  Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) congratulated Inge on his victory.

1081 Alexius Comnenus, who had recently become Roman (Byzantine) emperor (1081-1118), confiscated church property to finance a war against the Normans who, led by Robert Guiscard (see 1059), sought to capture Dyrrachium in preparation for an assault on Constantinople.  The Normans took Dyrrachium in October 1081.  In 1082, the imperial army had some success against the Normans, now led by Robert’s son Bohemund.  The Normans began to withdraw, and the Venetians, Alexius’s allies, retook Dyrrachium for the emperor.  In 1082, Alexius promised never again to appropriate church property.

The patriarch Cosmas I (1075-81) had imposed penance on Alexius and his family for the riot instigated by Alexius’ supporters.  Alexius did the prescribed penance, then deposed Cosmas, replacing him with Eustratios Garidas (1081-84). 

During Alexius’s reign, the patriarchal synod condemned Neilos of Calabria.  Neilos taught that Christ was divinized only after his resurrection, and that as a reward for living a virtuous life.  Neilos concluded that each virtuous Christian could expect divinization after death.  In addition, he refused to refer to Mary as the Theotokos.

1081 On campaign against the Normans in Epiros (Epirus), about 2500 Paulician soldiers from the region around Philippopolis deserted the emperor Alexius’s army.  (The Paulicians were dualistic heretics -- see 719.)  After defeating the Normans, Alexius set out to convert them to Orthodoxy.  He personally debated the Paulician leaders Culeon, Cusinus, and Pholus.  Alexius’s efforts were largely, but not entirely, successful. 

1082John Italos (Italus) was condemned by an Orthodox council in this year.  The following anathemas, directed against his doctrines, were incorporated into the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see year 842 above).

(11) those who seek to discover exactly how the Word was joined to his human substance, and how the latter was deified;
(12) those who introduce Greek doctrines of the soul, heaven, earth, and creation into the Church;
(13) those who teach metemphychosis or the destruction of the soul after death;
(14) those who say that ideas or matter are co-eternal with God, and those who say that creation is eternal or immutable;
(15) those who honor, or who believe that God will honor, Greek philosophers or heresiarchs who taught error above the Fathers of the councils who held to the truth, though these latter  may have sinned through passion or ignorance;
(16) those who do not accept the miracles of Christ, the Theotokos, and all his saints;
(17) those who think Greek philosophy to be true and try to convert the faithful to their opinions;
(18) those who teach that creation is the necessary result of the participation of matter in the ideas, and not the result of God's free will;
(19) those who say that it is impossible that we will rise to judgment in these same bodies;
(20) those who believe in the pre-existence of souls; those who deny that all of creation is ex nihilo; those who say that hell is temporary or that all of creation will be restored (including the most wicked); and those who understand the Kingdom of Heaven to be temporary.
(21) all of John Italos’s doctrines introduced in opposition to the Orthodox faith.

Italos had succeeded Michael Psellus as Consul of the Philosophers.  He had been employed by the emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071-78) in the latter’s efforts to make peace with the Normans.  After his condemnation, Italos was confined in a monastery.

1082 In return for its assistance against the Norman invaders, the Roman (Byzantine) emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) granted Venice the right of unrestricted trade without customs dues throughout the empire.

1084 Nicholas III Grammatikos (1084-1118) patriarch of Constantinople.  At some point during his tenure, Grammatikos suppressed the Christmas and Candlemas revels that had been introduced into St. Sophia, supposedly during the time of patriarch Theophylact (933-56).  Grammatikos characterized those who took part in such masquerades as “devotees of Dionysios.”  Nicholas also created an order of preachers to combat heretics, many of whom masqueraded as monks (see the account of Basil the Bogomil, 1104).

During Nicholas’s early years as patriarch, a controversy arose over whether Christ’s human nature was deified by nature or by hypostatic union.  Nilus the Calabrian (Neilos of Calabria) argued that it was by nature.  This view was seen as a renewal of the Monophysite heresy.  The emperor himself argued with Nilus on this point, without success.  After Nilus’s condemnation, a line condemning him was added to the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see 843).  Condemnation #11 of the synodicon appears to have Nilus in mind as well.

Also during Alexius’s reign as emperor, a certain Blachernites led a group of “Enthusiasts” in Constantinople.  They appear to have been Messalian in doctrine and practice (see 390).  A few years earlier, Psellus had indicated that Messalians kept a low profile in the capital.  He accused them of using magic.

1084 After some elements in the German church returned to his side, the German emperor Henry IV was able to continue the conflict with the papacy.  In March, Henry drove Pope Gregory VII from Rome (see 1180).  A synod which met in the Lateran palace deposed Gregory and re-affirmed Clement III as pope.  On 31 March, Clement crowned Henry German emperor.  Gregory found refuge at Castello Sant’ Angelo.

1084/5 Robert Guiscard, having returned from his campaign against the Romans (Byzantines) (see 1081), raised an army of 36,000 men and marched on Rome.  The German emperor Henry IV withdrew into Germany.  Guiscard’s Normans sacked Rome.  The populace, appaled with Pope Gregory for his ally’s behavior, refused to have him back.  Clement III re-entered Rome as pope, and Pope Gregory VII died in Salerno on May 25, 1085.

1085 Alfonso VI of Castile reconquered Toledo.  Though he promised the Muslims continued use of the city’s main mosque, the archbishop turned it into his cathedral the next year.  Toledo became an important center for the introduction of ancient Greek and more recent Arabic learning into the West.

1087 Nicetas, metropolitan of Ancyra, had brought an issue to the emperor Alexius’s attention in 1084 relating to one of Nicetas’s suffragan bishops who had been raised to metropolitan status by the emperor Constantine X Doukas (1059-67).  Nicetas argued that, according to canon 12 of the council of Chalcedon, a metropolitan retained authority over a suffragan who had been promoted.  Alexius referred the issue to the patriarch, but the patriach’s synod was unable to reach a decision, at least partially due to pressure from the patriarchal clergy, which preferred that the power to appoint metropolitans reside with the patriarchate.  Alexius then decided the case himself, against Nicetas.

1087 Death of Constantine the African (1020-1087).  Constantine had collected books from Egypt, Persia, Chaldea and India, translated them into Latin, and placed them in Monte Cassino.

1087 Pope Victor III (1086-87) sent an army to Tunis.  It defeated a Saracen force there and forced them to pay tribute to Rome.

1087 Pope Victor III (1086-87) held a synod at Benevento.  It excommunicated Pope Clement III (1080-1100) and condemned lay investiture.

1087 Italian merchants stole the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra (southwest Asia Minor), taking them to Bari (Italy).  Nicholas was bishop of Myra during the fourth century.  According to legend, Nicholas attended the council of Nicaea in 325.

1088 Christodoulos (died 1093) founded the Monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos.  Turkish raids were common in that era, and the island had been abandoned by its inhabitants.  The monastery had to be evacuated in 1092 in the face of these raids, but the monks soon returned as the Roman (Byzantine) fleet gained the upper hand in the Aegean.  By 1200, the monastery’s library held 330 volumes.

1088 Odo of Chatillon-sur-Marne was elected Pope Urban II (1088-99) by the reform party in Terracina (south of Rome) on March 12.

1089 Pope Urban II lifted the excommunication Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) had pronounced against the Roman (Byzantine) emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118).

1091 The Normans completed the conquest of  Sicily, begun in 1061.  During the ensuing century, the Normans used Sicilian contacts with the Roman (Byzantine) Empire to collect a number of ancient works in Greek, among them many writings of Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Euclid.

1091/92 A synod meeting at the Blachernae Palace in Constantinople corrected the views of Leo, metropolitan of Chalcedon.  Leo had opposed the melting down of icon frames on the grounds that this attacked the icon’s holiness.  The synod read out the declarations of the second council of Nicaea, and pointed out that the relative veneration due to icons does not extend to the material of the icons themselves.  Leo may have supported his views with an erroneous Christology, since his name is appended to two anathemas included in the Synodicon of Orthodoxy, also directed against the views of Eustratios of Nicaea.  See 1117.  Leo accepted the synod’s ruling and was re-instated.

1093 Anselm (1033/4 - 1109) became Archbishop of Canterbury.  He is most famous for his proof of the existence of God.  The proof, in short, was that since we have an idea of an absolutely perfect being, that idea constitutes proof of his existence, since he would be imperfect if he did not exist.  Anselm also developed a satisfaction theory of the atonement in his Cur Deus homo? (Why did God become man?)  Based on the feudal system, in which satisfaction for a crime depended on dignity of the person offended, Anselm argued that offense against God required an infinite satisfaction.  Thus, in Anselm's theory, the death of the God-man whose infinite merits brought man back into a right relationship with God. 

1093 The Saxons and Danes set up Henry, son of Gottschalk (see 1066), as king of the Wends.  Henry ruled from Old Lubeck, an isolated island of Christianity in a pagan sea.

1095At the council of Clermont (France), Pope Urban II announced the First Crusade.  No German prince loyal to the Henry IV took part in this crusade.

1096 Approximately 800 Jews of the town of Worms were slaughtered by the Crusaders.  Some were given refuge by the local bishop, whose protection was to no avail.  The only survivors were those who underwent forcible baptism. 

1098The Crusaders captured Antioch on 3 June with the assistance of an Armenian Moslem named Firouz, who betrayed the city.  The Turks were massacred.  Bohemund, a Norman, made himself prince of Antioch.  In so doing, he reneged on the agreement made with Alexius Comnenus to return Antioch to the Roman (Byzantine) empire.

1098 In reaction to the decadence of their order, Robert of Molesme led a group of Benedictine monks in the founding of the Cistercian order.  Their first monastery was in a poor, marshy part of the Burgundian forest known as Cisteaux.  The Cistercians specialized in the development of marginal land, and soon became very wealthy.

1098 At a council held in Bari, Pope Urban II (1088-99) permitted the Greeks of southern Italy and Sicily, now under Norman rule, to retain their own rituals and usages.

1099The Crusaders took Jerusalem on 14 June, slaughtering the Moslem inhabitants, and burning the Jews alive inside their synagogue.  Godfrey of Lorraine was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though he refused the title “king.”  He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin.

1099 Paschal II (1099-1118) became pope.  During his time, paedocommunion was still practiced in the West.  This is clear from the letter Pope Paschal II wrote to Pontius, the abbot of Cluny:  “As Christ communicated bread and wine, each by itself, and it ever had been so observed in the church, it ever should be so done in the future, save in the case of infants and of the sick, who as a general thing, could not eat bread.”

1100 On making the sign of the cross, from the Catholic Encyclopedia:  “At this period the manner of making it in the West seems to have been identical with that followed at present in the East, i.e. only three fingers were used, and the hand traveled from the right shoulder to the left. ... Moreover it is at least clear from many pictures and sculptures that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Greek practice of extending only three fingers was adhered to by many Latin Christians. ... However there can be little doubt that long before the close of the Middle Ages the large sign of the cross was more commonly made in the West with the open hand and that the bar of the cross was traced from left to right.” 

1100 A Russian bishopric established at Polotsk on the Dvina River.

1100 Between this year and 1152, the Cistercians began over three hundred new monasteries.