Byzantine influence upon the Western world was most marked in Italy–not surpisingly, since the Italian peninsula was the wealthiest part of Western Europe, and was always close enough to the Byzantine Empire to feel its influence. Italian religious art was, until the early 14th century, ... More
The expansion across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea by the Greeks in the 8th to 6th centuries is a well-known phenomenon, and the Greeks themselves were aware of this (Socrates for example famously compared the Greeks to frogs around a pond). Equally significant, but of a somewhat different ... More
We have seen in the previous post some significant characteristics of the Gregorian reforms. Several observations can be made concerning these reforms, both in the three areas separately identified and as a whole. The first observation is that these reforms displaced a number of long-standing ... More
(An important source for this post is Karl F. Morrison’s “The Gregorian Reform” published in Christian Spirituality, Origins to the Twelfth Century, New York, 1988.) The Gregorian reform is an important event in the story of Western Christianity. The initial aim of these reforms ... More
“…for here it is precisely the element of the unexpected in the events I have chosen to describe which will challenge and stimulate everyone alike…” Polybius Polybius’ statement, and his work in general, which was an attempt to explain how, in the course of a few ... More
