History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073.

HISTORY

of the
CHRISTIAN CHURCH^1
by
PHILIP SCHAFF
Christianus sum. Christiani nihil a me alienum puto
VOLUME IV.
MEDIAEVAL CHRISTIAINITY
From Gregory I to Gregory VII
A.D. 590–
HISTORY
of
MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY
FROM a. d. 590 TO 1517.
CHAPTER I.
General Introduction to Mediaeval Church History.
§ 1. Sources and Literature.
August Potthast: Bibliotheca Historica Medii Aoevi. Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des
Europäischen Mittelalters von 375–1500. Berlin, 1862. Supplement, 1868.
The mediaeval literature embraces four distinct branches;

1. The Romano-Germanic or Western Christian;


2. The Graeco-Byzantine or Eastern Christian;


3. The Talmudic and Rabbinical;


4. The Arabic and Mohammedan.
   We notice here only the first and second; the other two will be mentioned in subdivisions as far as
   they are connected with church history.
   The Christian literature consists partly of documentary sources, partly of historical works. We
   confine ourselves here to the most important works of a more general character. Books referring
   to particular countries and sections of church history will be noticed in the progress of the
   narrative.
   I. Documentary Sources.
   They are mostly in Latin—the official language of the Western Church,—and in Greek,—the
   official language of the Eastern Church.
   (1) For the history of missions: the letters and biographies of missionaries.
   (2) For church polity and government: the official letters of popes, patriarchs, and bishops.
   The documents of the papal court embrace (a) Regesta (registra), the transactions of the various
   branches of the papal government from a.d. 1198–1572, deposited in the Vatican library,
   and difficult of access. (b) Epistolae decretales, which constitute the basis of the Corpus
   juris canonici, brought to a close in 1313. (c) The bulls (bulla, a seal or stamp of globular
   form, though some derive it from boulhv, will, decree) and briefs (breve, a short, concise

(^1) Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. This
material has been carefully compared, corrected ̧ and emended (according to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's
Sons) by The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX, 1998.