Chapter III. The Foundation Of The Ecclesiastical Institutions Of The Middle Ages
In the period between the conversion of the Franks and the rise of the dynasty of Charles Martel, or the period comprising the sixth and seventh centuries, the foundation was laid for those ecclesiastical institutions which are peculiar to the Middle Ages, and found in the mediæval Church their full embodiment. In the Church the Latin element was still more or less dominant, and society was only slowly transformed by the Germanic elements. In the adjustment of Roman institutions to the new political conditions in which Germanic factors were dominant, the Germanic and the Roman elements are accordingly found in constantly varying proportions. In the case of the diocesan and parochial organization, only very slowly could the Church in the West attain that complete organization which had long since been established in the East, and here Roman ideas were profoundly modified by Germanic legal principles ([§ 101]). But at the same time the Church's body of teaching and methods of moral training were made clearly intelligible and more applicable to the new conditions of Christian life. The teaching of Augustine was received only in part at the Council of Orange, A. D. 529 (v. supra, [§ 85]), and it was profoundly modified by the moralistic type of theology traceable to Tertullian and even further back (v. supra, [§ 39]). It was, furthermore, completed by a clearer and more precise statement of the doctrines of purgatory and the sacrifice of the mass, and to the death of Christ was applied unequivocally the doctrine of merit which had been developed in the West in connection with the early penitential discipline, and which was seen to throw a new light upon the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. These conceptions served as a foundation for new discussions, and confirmed tendencies already present in the Church ([§ 102]). Connected with this theology was the penitential discipline, which, growing out of the ancient discipline as [pg 616] modified by the earlier form of monastic life, especially in Ireland, came under the influence of the Germanic legal conceptions ([§ 103]). In the same period monasticism was organized upon a new rule by Benedict of Nursia ([§ 104]), and the need of provision for the education of the young and for the training of the clergy was felt and, to some extent, provided for by monastery schools and other methods of education ([§ 105]).
§ 101. Foundation of the Mediæval Diocesan and Parochial Constitution
An outline of some of the legislation is here given, whereby the parish as organized in the West was built up, and the diocese was made to consist of a number of parishes under the bishop, who, however, did not exercise an absolute control over the incomes and position of the priests under him.
The selections are given in chronological order.
(a) Council of Agde, A. D. 506, Canons. Bruns, II, 145.
This is one of the most important councils of the period. Its various canons have all been embodied in the Canon Law; for the references to the Decretum of Gratian, in which they appear, see Hefele, § 222. It is to be noted that it was held under Alarich, the Arian king of the Visigoths. The preface is, therefore, given as being significant.