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Sylvester became pope in 999, the first Frenchman to hold that
office. An avid reformer, Sylvester assumed responsibility for a
papacy that had been plagued by years of corruption. -
Canute (c. 994–1035) conquered England
in 1016. After his conversion to Christianity, Canute earned a reputation as a humble and wise ruler. -
(1006–1080) became Iceland’s first bishop in
1056, and his son and successor Gissur (1042–1118) presided as the
second bishop from 1082 until his death. -
The Normans expanded to Italy.
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The Camaldolese hermit-monk Pietro Damiani publishes a book denouncing the moral and sexual corruption of the Church
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The Norman prince Bohemond (c.1052–1111) took control of Antioch rather than returning it to the possession of Emperor Alexius I in Constantinople.
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Humbert della Silva Candida publishes the rules by which popes should be elected, restricting the electors to the cardinals and forbidding interference from the Roman nobility or the Holy Roman emperor, and resumes the Donatist heresy (the morality of a priest determines whether he is worthy of administering sacraments).
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The Knights Templar were a military religious order founded
by Hughes de Payens (c. 1070–c. 1136) c. 1118 with the original
purpose of protecting crusaders and pilgrims as they traveled to the Holy Lands. -
The Baltic regions (present-day Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) were also subjected to forced conversions and military conquest following the crusade in 1193 sponsored by Pope Celestine III (1106–1198).
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The Concordat of London finds a compromise between England's king Henry I and Pope Pasquale II on the issue of lay investiture (the king elects the bishops).
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Dominic (1170–1221) had been active in preaching against the
Albigensians since 1203. In 1206, with the support of the bishop of
Toulouse, he founded a teaching convent for women. In 1216 Dominic established the Order of Preachers (also known as Black Friars). -
Pope Lucius III excommunicates Peter Waldo, founder of the anti-Cluniac ascetic Waldensians ("poor men of Lyons").
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The third Crusade is led by King Richard the Lion-hearted of England, king Philip Augustus II of France, and emperor Frederick Barbarossa
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The Teutonic Knights are founded by German lords to fight in the crusade, establish their capital at Acre, and adopt the Templars' white mantle and the Hospitallers' rule.
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The daughter of King Andrew of Hungary, Elizabeth gained a
reputation from an early age as an extreme ascetic and holy woman. When her husband Louis IV of Thuringia died on crusade in 1227, Elizabeth became a Franciscan nun. She served the poor in Marburg, Germany, and was responsible for building one of Europe’s first orphanages. -
Pope Innocent III launches a crusade against the Catharist/Albigensian and the Waldensian heretics
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Pope Gregory X (1210–1276) agreed to provide
financial support and check the ambitions of Latin warlords with designs on Constantinople. -
The Inquisition is established in France to root out the remaining heretics.
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Boniface died shortly thereafter and his
successor, Benedict XI (1240–1304), held the office for only a year
until 1304. -
Struggle over property would also become the flash point for
Clement’s successor, except in the case of Pope John XXII
(1249–1334), the owner in question was not a warlord or a king, but Jesus Christ. -
the Dominican monk Thomas Aquinas publishes the "Summa Contra Gentiles", that reconciles science and religion.
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Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) is considered the “father of
humanism.” In addition to describing the “Babylonian Captivity” of
the church, he is credited with being the first to label the early
medieval period as the “Dark Ages”. -
Franciscan monk Marsilio da Padova publishes "Defender Of Peace", in which he argues that the Church has not authority over secular affairs and that the purpose of a state is to guarantee peace.
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Italian. Western Schism. Last Pope to abdicate during the Second Millennium AD. Died 18 October 1417.
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Pope Gregory XI dies and the Roman nobles elect Bartolomeo Prignano as pope Urban VI
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Pope Urban VI's fight against corruption causes the cardinals to move back to Avignon and elect another pope, Robert de Geneve as Clement VII ("Western Schism"), who is recognized by France's allies (Spain and Scotland) but not by France's enemies (England, Portugal, Flanders, Germany, Poland, Hungary).
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The Teutonic Knights are defeated by Jagiello's Polish-Lithuanian army at the battle of Tannenberg.
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The heretic Jan Hus is burned at the stake at Constance for opposing the sale of indulgences and claiming that the Church is a human invention.
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(or Vladislaus, 1424–1444), was convinced to break the Peace of Szeged, the uneasy truce that existed between the Christians and the Turks. Was the king of Hungary and Poland.
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(29 May 1427 – 4 November 1485). Was a French Roman Catholic declared "blessed" and a duchess consort of Brittany. She took the veil a nun in 1468, when entering the convent of the Three Maries at Vannes.
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Italian. Son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Closed the Fifth Council of the Lateran. Remembered for granting indulgences to those who donated to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica; excommunicated Martin Luther (1521). Extended the Spanish Inquisition into Portugal.
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Alexander VI forms a "holy league" with Milano, Venezia, German emperor Maximilian, and Fernando II of Aragonia to repel the invasion of Charles VIII of France.
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(c. 1500–1544) travelled with colonial explorers into what is modern-day Kansas. The explorers turned back in 1542, but Father Padilla elected to remain amongst the Tíguez people.
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The 37-year old Giovanni de' Medici, not yet a priest, is elected pope Leo X.
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John was a craftsman living in Constantinople under Ottoman rule. Captured by angry apostates because he himself would not recant, he was burnt and beheaded in 1546. John is considered by the Orthodox Church to be a “New Martyr of the Great Captivity.”
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Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican Palace in Rome.
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Pope Paul IV (a former Grand Inquisitor and practitioner of torture) issues a list of forbidden books, the "Index Expurgatorius".
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English pilgrims aboard the "Mayflower" land at Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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200,000 Jews are slaughtered during the Russian invasion of Poland by Cossacks led by Bogdan Chmielnicki.
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The Greek Jewish kabbalist Shabbatai Zvi is hailed as the messiah, but then accepts to convert to Islam to save his life.