Medieval Church
After Darkness, Light
The story of Geneva’s motto, Post Tenebras Lux, and how the recovered gospel brought the light of Christ out of medieval darkness.
After Light, Darkness
A survey of the theological and institutional developments that carried the church from apostolic light into the darkness preceding the Reformation.
All Souls’ Day
All Souls' Day (November 2): its origin at Cluny, Rome's teaching on purgatory, suffrages, and indulgences for the dead, the Reformation's rejection of it, and a biblical response.
All Souls’ Day
All Souls' Day (November 2): its origin at Cluny, Rome's teaching on purgatory, suffrages, and indulgences for the dead, the Reformation's rejection of it, and a biblical response.
Anselm of Canterbury
The Benedictine archbishop who sought “faith seeking understanding” and taught that Christ’s death made satisfaction to God.
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.
Boethius
The Roman statesman and philosopher, “last of the Romans, first of the scholastics,” who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison.
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.
Gottschalk of Orbais
The Saxon monk who revived Augustine’s doctrine of predestination and died imprisoned for it.
Gregory the Great
The monk-pope who expanded the power of the papacy and set the course of medieval teaching on grace and merit.
History of the Bible
A history of the Bible’s canon, transmission, ancient versions, medieval preservation, printing, Reformation translation, and modern abundance.
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.
Medieval Theologians
Short sketches of the major medieval theologians from Patrick to William of Ockham, and their contributions to Roman Catholic and Reformation theology.
Papacy
A historical examination of the rise of papal authority, its development in the medieval church, and its departure from the New Testament pattern.
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.
Patrick of Ireland
The Briton, once a slave in Ireland, who returned as a missionary and planted a monastic church among the Celts.
Pelagius
The Pelagian controversy over original sin, human ability, and divine grace, and Augustine’s defense of salvation as the sovereign work of God.
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.
Platonic Influence
An examination of how Platonic philosophy influenced early and medieval Christian thought, sometimes obscuring the Bible’s teaching about creation and humanity.
Ratramnus of Corbie
The Carolingian monk who answered Radbertus, teaching with Augustine that Christ is present in the Supper spiritually.
Relics
The Roman Catholic veneration of relics: what relics are, how the medieval councils and Trent regulated them, Frederick the Wise's collection at Wittenberg, and the Reformers' answer from Scripture.
Relics
The Roman Catholic veneration of relics: what relics are, how the medieval councils and Trent regulated them, Frederick the Wise's collection at Wittenberg, and the Reformers' answer from Scripture.
Sacraments
The historical development of the medieval sacramental system and the Reformers’ recovery of a biblical understanding of grace, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Sacraments
How the Reformers challenged the medieval sacramental system and recovered baptism and the Lord’s Supper as signs joined to the promise of the gospel.
The First Council of Lyons
The First Council of Lyons of 1245 under Innocent IV: the deposition of the Emperor Frederick II and a new crusade after the loss of Jerusalem.
The First Council of Lyons
The First Council of Lyons of 1245 under Innocent IV: the deposition of the Emperor Frederick II and a new crusade after the loss of Jerusalem.
The Fourth Lateran Council
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 under Innocent III: transubstantiation defined, annual confession imposed on every Christian, procedures against heretics, and the Fifth Crusade.
The Fourth Lateran Council
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 under Innocent III: transubstantiation defined, annual confession imposed on every Christian, procedures against heretics, and the Fifth Crusade.
The Venerable Bede
The English monk-scholar whose Ecclesiastical History is our chief source for the early English church.
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.
