A History of Western Philosophy

years after this exploit ( 532), Justinian embarked upon another, more worthy of praise--the building of St. Sophia. I have neve ...

until nearly the time of Charlemagne. The Byzantines held gradually less and less of Italy; in the South, they had also to face ...

world about 270. For fifteen years he lived alone in a hut near his home; then, for twenty years, in remote solitude in the dese ...

comparatively luxurious. Then again there was the difficulty that the monks gave a turbulent support to their favourite bishop, ...

dictines have been remarkable for learning, but at first all their reading was devotional. Organizations have a life of their ow ...

friend, who secretly supplied him with food let down by a rope, to which a bell was tied to let the saint know when his dinner h ...

him a poisoned loaf. But Benedict miraculously knew it was poisoned. He had the habit of giving bread to a certain crow, and whe ...

our knowledge of the life of Saint Benedict, whose Rule became the model for all Western monasteries except those of Ireland or ...

more prone to heresy than those of the West. The patriarch of Constantinople, at this time, held the erroneous opinion that our ...

ness. It tells them also that rulers should not be criticized, but should be kept alive to the danger of hell-fire if they fail ...

gest, but is derived from Saint James via the blessed Jerome. Those who thought he was being unduly subservient to Greek usage w ...

this be so,... you shall have the office of hirelings, and not the merit of shepherds." The above are a few of the letters of a ...

the heart of your Piety [i.e., you] in the hand of His grace; and whatsoever things should be done justly, whatsoever things wit ...

Pope, such as whether cousins may marry, whether spouses who have had intercourse the previous night may come to church (yes, if ...

reason to fear that they also would be conquered by these vigorous barbarians. They saved themselves by an alliance with the Fra ...

in 739, and were hotly opposed by Pope Gregory III, who turned to the Franks for aid. The Merovingian kings, the descendants of ...

power; moreover they only became emperors when the Pope crowned them. For all these reasons, the emancipation of the Pope from B ...

ing him. He was cured of leprosy and gave up worshipping idols. Then "with all his satraps, the Senate, his nobles and the whole ...

and pope; their mutual dependence was galling to both, but for centuries inescapable. There was constant friction, with advantag ...

external protection, and papal elections had degenerated into disorderly faction fights, In 799, local enemies seized the Pope, ...