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What are the liberal arts?
the 7 disciplines that are the foundation of all learning
What's antiquity?
the ancient past before the Middle Ages; another term for the ancient time period (think: antique)
What did Saint Patrick accomplish for the Church?
Who were the Druids?
Gaelic priests who believed they could work magic and cast spells/curses; sometimes practiced human sacrifice
What's logic?
the art of orderly thinking
What did Boethius accomplish for the Church?
when King Theodoric went mad he tortured & imprisoned Boethius
while in prison, Boethius wrote Consolation of Philosophy: only used logic/reason to prove God’s Providence directs all things to the good; happiness means seeing God in all things; human beings always seek justice, but God’s Justice makes all things right in the end; even suffering comes about through God’s Providence; this was one of the most popular, inspirational, and influential works of medieval times
Boethius was strangled in prison by the king’s executioner; he was kind of a martyr
What did Pope St. Gregory the Great accomplish for the Church?
he left his life as a Roman governor and gave away a large fortune to become a priest and enter a monastery
he became Pope after only 16 years as a priest
wrote Missale Romanum
sent out The Rule
sent out Benedictine Missionaries
sent out the Vulgate (Latin Bible)
worked 14 hours per day
signed his letters servus servorum Dei (servant of the servants of God); all popes since Gregory have used this title
he sent Saint Augustine and Benedictines to England for a huge conversion
What did Pope St. Gregory the Great accomplish temporally (administratively, governmentally)?
he was the first Pope with temporal power–making decisions that emperors or governors usually made:
commanded armies, defended the city, signed treaties
governed lands by ordering rebuilt homes, farms, and resources
left Italy a better place than he found it
What did Boethius accomplish for education?
translated Plato and Aristotle into Latin because Romans forgot how to speak & read Greek
wrote summaries of the 7 liberal arts, which became standard school textbooks for hundreds of years
What's The Rule?
the Rule of St. Benedict is the model for all monasteries in the West and consists of:
prayer: seven times per day
work: physical labor
rest: hours per day of complete silence, and certain hours to sleep
What's rhetoric?
the art of public speaking
What did Saint Benedict accomplish for the Church?
What's the Missale Romanum?
the organization of Mass for the Western Church (today it’s the Missalette, the books in the pews that outline Mass)
Who was Saint Benedict's sister, and what did she do?
his twin sister, Saint Scholastica, led a community of nuns (remember the cave story when they saw each other last)
What's arithmetic?
basic math; traditional operations of numbers (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
What did Saint Augustine of the sixth century accomplish?
he was a missionary to the Saxons of England and helped convert them
What's Providence? (Not the capital of Rhode Island one)
God knowing ahead of time what will happen in history, and His direction of history to serve His will
What are some legends about Saint Benedict?
angry monks poisoned his drink; he blessed it before drinking; the glass shattered
a jealous monk gave him poisoned bread; he blessed it before eating; a raven flew in and stole it
What's geometry?
a type of math dealing with shapes, lines, surfaces, points, and solids
Which king converted to Catholicism in England?
King Ethelbert of the Saxons