Medieval Church
All categories › Church History
Medieval Theologians (11) Monastics and Missionaries (6)
After Light, Darkness
A survey of the theological and institutional developments that carried the church from apostolic light into the darkness preceding the Reformation.
Gregory the Great
The monk-pope who expanded the power of the papacy and set the course of medieval teaching on grace and merit.
Medieval Theologians
Short sketches of the major medieval theologians from Patrick to William of Ockham, and their contributions to Roman Catholic and Reformation theology.
Medieval Theologians
Anselm of Canterbury
The Benedictine archbishop who sought “faith seeking understanding” and taught that Christ’s death made satisfaction to God.
Boethius
The Roman statesman and philosopher, “last of the Romans, first of the scholastics,” who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison.
Gottschalk of Orbais
The Saxon monk who revived Augustine’s doctrine of predestination and died imprisoned for it.
John Duns Scotus
The Franciscan “subtle doctor” who taught the primacy of God’s will and championed the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Maximus the Confessor
The monk who suffered mutilation and exile for confessing that Christ has a true human will as well as a divine one.
Paschasius Radbertus
The Carolingian abbot who wrote the first doctrinal book on the Eucharist and taught that the bread becomes the very flesh born of Mary.
Peter Abelard
The brilliant Paris teacher who pioneered scholastic method and taught the moral influence theory of the atonement.
Peter Lombard
The author of the Sentences, the textbook of medieval theology, who fixed the number of the sacraments at seven.
Ratramnus of Corbie
The Carolingian monk who answered Radbertus, teaching with Augustine that Christ is present in the Supper spiritually.
Thomas Aquinas
The greatest theologian of the Middle Ages, whose synthesis of Aristotle and Christian doctrine became Rome’s official theology.
William of Ockham
The English Franciscan whose nominalism shaped the late medieval schools and who held Scripture to be the only infallible authority.
Monastics and Missionaries
Benedict of Nursia
The abbot of Monte Cassino whose Rule became the pattern for monastic life in the West.
Bernard of Clairvaux
The Cistercian abbot, preacher, and mystic whom Calvin regarded as the major witness to truth between Gregory the Great and the Reformation.
Boniface
The English monk who evangelized the Germans and bound their churches to the bishop of Rome.
Columba
The Irish monk who founded Iona and carried the gospel to the Picts and Scots.
Patrick of Ireland
The Briton, once a slave in Ireland, who returned as a missionary and planted a monastic church among the Celts.
The Venerable Bede
The English monk-scholar whose Ecclesiastical History is our chief source for the early English church.
