Editing History of Christianity (section)

== Early Middle Ages (c. 600–1000) ==
{{Further|Early Middle Ages}}{{See also|Christian monasticism|Byzantine Iconoclasm|Illuminated manuscript|Insular art}}
By the early 600s, Christianity had spread around the Mediterranean.{{sfn|Brown|2008|pp=2, 6–8}} However, [[Early Muslim conquests|between 632 and 750]], Islamic [[caliphate]]s conquered the Middle East, North Africa, and the [[Iberian Peninsula]].{{sfn|Barton|2009|p=xvii}}{{sfn|Dorfmann-Lazarev|2008|pp=65–66}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=4}} Most urban Asian churches disappeared, but Christian communities established in remote areas between the fifth and the eighth centuries continued to survive.{{sfn|Dorfmann-Lazarev|2008|pp=66-67; 85}}{{sfn|Micheau|2006|p=373}} In the same period, war on multiple fronts contributed to the Eastern Roman Empire becoming the independent [[Byzantine Empire]].{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=39-41, 54}} Until the eighth century, [[Germanic peoples|most of Western Europe]] remained largely impoverished, politically fragmented, and dependent on the church.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=58, 61}}{{sfn|Rousseau|2017|pp=2–3, 5}} 

During this period, invasion, deportation, and governmental neglect left many communities without a church, leaving Christianity to [[Syncretism|syncretize]] with local pagan traditions.{{sfn|Brown|2008|pp=11–13}}{{sfn|Abrams|2016|pp=32–41}} The church of this age was only indirectly influenced by the Bible.{{sfn|Oakley|1985|p=171}} Nevertheless, "[[Christendom#Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages|Christendom]]," the notion of all Christians united as a [[polity]], emerged at the end of this age.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|pp=xv, 8, 13}}{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=552}}  

=== Monasticism and art ===
Until the end of the Early Middle Ages, Western culture was preserved and passed on primarily by monks known as "regular clergy" because they followed a {{lang|la|regula}}: a rule.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=47}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=199}} The rule included chastity, obedience and poverty sought through prayer, memorization of scripture, celibacy, fasting, manual labour, and almsgiving.{{sfn|Stewart|2017|pp=308–309}}{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=277}}
[[File:Book of Hours (Use of Metz) Fol. 27r, Decorated Initials.tif|thumb|alt=image of decorated page from the book of hours|A page from a 15th-century [[book of hours]] (prayer book) with a decorated initial]]
Monasteries served as orphanages and inns for travelers, and they provided food for those in need.{{sfn|Brodman|2009|pp=66–68}}{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=295}}{{sfn|Constable|2004|pp=35–36}} They supported [[literacy]], practiced classical arts and crafts, and copied and preserved ancient texts in their [[scriptoria]] and libraries.{{sfn|Ferzoco|2001|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Woods|Canizares|2012|p=5}} Dedicated monks created [[illuminated manuscript]]s.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=202–203}} From the sixth to the eighth centuries, most schools were connected to monasteries, but methods of teaching an illiterate populace could also include [[mystery play]]s, vernacular sermons, saints' lives in epic form, and artwork.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=552}}{{sfn|Ferzoco|2001|p=2}}{{sfn|Herrin|2021|pp=40, 80-81}}

This was an age of uncertainty, and the role of [[Relic|relics]] and holy men able to provide special access to the divine became increasingly important.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=24, 27–29}}{{sfn|Markus|1990|p=26}} Promoting that special access, church offers that donations would fund prayers for the dead provided an ongoing source of wealth.{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=514–517; 530}}{{sfn|Bonser|1962|p=236}} Monasteries became increasingly organized, gradually establishing their own authority as separate from political and familial authorities, thereby revolutionizing social history.{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|pp=275–277; 281; 298}}{{sfn|Haight|2004|p=273}} Medical practice was highly important, and medieval monasteries were best known for their public hospitals, hospices, and contributions to medicine.{{sfn|Phipps|1988|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Crislip|2005|p=3}} The sixth-century [[Rule of Saint Benedict#Secular significance|Rule of Saint Benedict]] has had extensive influence.{{sfn|Truran|2000|pp=68–69}}{{sfn|Butler|1919|loc=intro.}}{{sfn|Dunn|2003|p=137}}

The East developed an approach to sacred art unknown in the West, adapting ancient portraiture in [[icon]]s as intercessors between God and humankind.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|p=12}} In the 720s, the Byzantine Emperor [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo]] banned the pictorial representation of Christ, saints, and biblical scenes, and destroyed much early representational art.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=65}} The West condemned the [[Byzantine iconoclasm]] of Leo and some of his successors.{{sfn|Halsall|2021}} By the tenth and early eleventh centuries, Byzantine culture began to recover its artistic heritage.{{sfn|Louth|2008|p=46}}{{sfn|Shepard|2006|p=3}}

===Regional differences===
[[File:Cyril Metodej.jpg|thumb|alt=image of a monument depicting Saints Cyril and Methodius|[[Saints Cyril and Methodius|St. Cyril and St. Methodius]] monument on [[Radhošť|Mt. Radhošť]], Czech Republic]]
[[Eastern Europe]] had been exposed to Christianity during Roman rule, but it was [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Byzantine Christianity]], brought by the ninth-century saints [[Cyril and Methodius]], that was integral to the formation of its modern states. Dukes and kings used the new faith to solidify their position and promote unity, while some directly enforced it with new laws, building churches, and establishing monasteries.{{sfn|Radić|2010|p=232}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|pp=126; 129}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=12}} The brothers developed the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] to translate the Bible into the local language. Their disciples then developed the [[Cyrillic script]], which spread literacy and became the cultural and religious foundation for all Slavic nations.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=25}}{{sfn|Schaff|2011|pp=161–162}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|p=127}} 

In 635, the Church of the East brought Christianity to the Chinese [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|Emperor Taizong]] whose decree to license the Christian faith was copied onto the [[Xi'an Stele|Sianfu stele]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=189}} It spread into northwestern China, [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]], [[Turpan|Turfan]], and south of [[Lake Balkhash|Lake Balkash]] in southeastern [[Kazakhstan]], but its growth was halted in 845 by Emperor Wu-Tsung, who favoured [[Taoism]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=189-190}} The Church of the East evangelized all along the [[Silk Road]] and was instrumental in converting some of the [[Mongolic peoples|Mongolic]] and [[Turkic peoples]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=191}} After 700, when much of Christianity was declining, there were flourishing Christian societies along all the main trade routes of Asia, South India, the Nubian kingdoms, Ethiopia, the Caucasus region.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=5}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=188, 189-191}} 

In Western Europe, [[canon law]] was instrumental in developing key norms concerning oaths of loyalty, homage, and fidelity.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=106}} These norms were incorporated into civil law where traces remain.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=114}} Within the tenets of [[feudalism]], the church created a new model of consecrated kingship unknown in the East, and in 800, Clovis' descendant [[Charlemagne]] became its recipient when [[Pope Leo III]] crowned him emperor.{{sfn|Nelson|2008|pp=302, 307}} Charlemagne engaged in a number of reforms which began the [[Carolingian Renaissance]], a period of intellectual and cultural revival.{{sfn|Collins|1998|pp=102-107}} His crowning set the precedent that only a pope could crown a Western emperor enabling popes to claim emperors derived their power from God through them.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} The Papacy became free from Byzantine control, and the former lands of the [[Exarchate]] became States of the church.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}}{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}} However, the papacy was still in need of aid and protection, so the Holy Roman emperors often used that need to attempt domination of the Papacy and the Papal States.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} In Rome, the papacy came under the control of the city's aristocracy.{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}}{{sfn|Ullmann|1972|p=71}}

In Russia, the baptism of [[Vladimir of Kiev]] in 989 is traditionally associated with the conversion of the [[Kievan Rus']].{{sfn|Poppe|1991|pp=5–7}} Their new religious structure included dukes maintaining control of a financially-dependent church.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=12}}{{sfn|Štefan|2022|p=111}}{{refn|group=note| The prince appointed the clergy to positions in government service, satisfied their material needs, determined who would fill the higher ecclesiastical positions, and directed the synods of bishops in the Kievan metropolitanate.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=15}}}} Monasticism was the dominant form of piety for both peasants and elites who identified as Christian while retaining many pre-Christian practices.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=173–174}}

[[Viking]] raids in the ninth and tenth centuries destroyed many churches and monasteries, inadvertently leading to reform. Patrons competed in rebuilding so that "by the mid-eleventh century, a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church" resulted.{{sfn|Howe|2016|p=3}} There was another rise in papal power in the tenth century when [[William IX, Duke of Aquitaine]], and other powerful lay founders of monasteries, placed their institutions under the protection of the papacy.{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=287}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=177–178}}{{sfn|Costambeys|2000|pp=380; 393–394}}