1. Very rich century, of many changes, of a more consolidated Christianity and at the doors of the Crusades. The relationship between Christianity and Islam, which since the end of the previous century and entering the century in question was calm, began to wear out. The peace, which once reigned between both, little by little gave place to intolerance.
2. This was a period that historians call Carolingian Renaissance, in consequence of two very important dynasties existing in the region where today is France. One of them was that of the Merovingians. Clovis, king of the Franks (a barbarian tribe) and grandson of Meroveus, converted himself to Christianity. After the conversion of the Franks, other barbarian peoples followed the same path. Thus, Clovis had crucial importance for the expansion of Christianity. The barbarian peoples, after the conversion, formed the countries that today we know as European Continent.
3. The second dynasty, the Carolingian, began with Charles Martel who, winning two battles in Tours and Poitiers, in the previous century, practically expelled the Muslims from the region that today corresponds to the French territory. The dynasty followed with his son, Pepin, the Short, and, finally, with the son of this, Charlemagne, the Great, who became emperor, anointed by the pope. One can say that it was a Pre-Carolingian Renaissance.
4. There exist many Christians that think that the religious intolerance of Christianity is represented by the Inquisition. However, many Christian manifestations of intolerance occurred right in the first centuries of the High Middle Ages. One of the fires that provoked the destruction of the Library of Alexandria was caused by Christians. This idea of erasing from the world the classical thought of the Greek philosophers was widely defended, for it was believed to be important that only the religious truth be admitted in the scenario of the world. As result, Christianity became a religion that did not accept other ideas, and this would be the ferment for what would occur more ahead, with the Crusades, in the 11th century.
5. It is worth remembering that, in 529, the Benedictines closed the Academy of Plato under the following motto: “If we have religion, we do not need philosophy”. This was the beginning of what today we call Age of Darkness, on account of the distancing in relation to the classical period. However, in this period, many enlightened were arising in diverse points of the globe. We were not abandoned, even in the most terrible times, for we are always welcomed...
6. At the beginning of this century, Harun al-Rashid (fifth caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate) transferred the center of the caliphate, which was in Syria, to the city of Baghdad, current Iraq. Thus, with the contemporaries Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne, began the golden century of Islamism and, equally, of the Carolingian Renaissance. Renaissance because Charlemagne invested in the arts, in the beautification of the cities and rescued part of the classical culture, texts of Homer, Plato and others that, until then, the Church rejected, affirming that the Gospels were enough. There was peace between them, for they were friends that exchanged presents, even without ever having met. However, this time of tolerance lasted little.
7. We have, then, a phenomenon quite interesting. The Christians came from a Jewish trunk; after they mixed themselves with the Roman Empire, adhering to various rites, ceremonies and cult to images. Next, they mixed themselves to the barbarians, until arriving at a period in which they did not mix themselves with the Muslims. It was necessary that they arm themselves, because, from the end of the 8th century, began the disputes for space and predominance, resulting in an armed Christianity. However, there was a period of truce between Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid, because they became friends and respected each other, even without never having met, propitiating a period of religious tolerance. The Muslims could visit Europe and the Christians could visit the Holy Land. The historians call this moment golden period. But, unfortunately, the human instinct was — and still is — deeply rooted to bellicosity, to quarrel and to dispute. This made that this friendship last little time.
8. In this golden period, stood out in Baghdad the Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom), founded by the fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, Harun al-Rashid. Not being he a fundamentalist and appreciating art and culture, he proposed himself to bring to the House of Wisdom what of best other civilizations possessed, as the ancestral wisdom of India. In Europe, he rescued texts of Aristotle, Plato and Plotinus. In short, it was a center of science, art and technology. There are records of people that went there to study and learn. They stand out, among others, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi and Ibn Sina. This last received from the Christians the name of Avicenna, for having been a great sage, knower of diverse sciences and especially notable in the medicine. In this period, Islam found itself in full splendor, compared to the Christian world.
9. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi had an idea genial. The Romans were very good in legislation, but not in calculations, for they used little stones to count (little stones, in Latin, is calculus). Then, al-Khwarizmi created a symbol for each numeral, something that nobody had thought before. Thus, it was positioned unit under unit, ten under ten, a line was drawn and they were added as many numbers as necessary in little time, without the necessity of counting stones. The numbers were Hindu-Arabic, because he created the numerals from one to nine, while the zero was created in India to represent the nothing.
10. This transformed the mathematics in the world. He is considered the father of algebra and of arithmetic for having developed the methods of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Observe how “numeral” and “al-Khwarizmi” resemble. And we use the Arabic numerals until today. This was only one of the innumerable contributions arisen there. Among them, the discovery of the anesthetic and the creation of the first place similar to what today we call hospital, where the person entered sick and left cured. The name said everything: House of Wisdom, in a true golden time!
11. Charlemagne died and his successor, Louis I, became known as the Pious, but his reign was terrible, for he did not manage to maintain control over anything. Returned the disputes, the wars and the pressure of the Muslims. When he died, the Franco-Imperial-Roman-Germanic was divided by the Treaty of Verdun, in 843. One of his sons, Charles II, came to be king of the Franks in the region that in the future would be France. Charles II maintained a powerful dynasty, remembering that Charles VII was the king that Joan of Arc helped to win the Hundred Years War. Louis, the German, remained responsible for the territory that in the future would be Germany. Lothair I remained with the region that would give origin to Italy and to the countries of the north. Thus were arising the countries that constitute Europe.
12. There also happened, in this century, the Viking invasions. They were warriors almost indestructible, coming from the seas of the north, and what most characterized them was the construction of their singular boats. They managed to navigate by seas and rivers, conquering cities wherever they passed, mainly in the region of the current Great Britain. And the most curious: they also became Christians. A king called Alfred of Wessex learned to fight against the Vikings and defeated them. After the victory, he gave them two options: go away or convert to Christianity. Many ended up converting. There was, then, an amalgam between Christians and Vikings, so that today the inhabitants of Great Britain possess Anglo, Saxon, Viking and Christian blood.
13. Two Christian missionaries considered saints, Cyril and Methodius, both born in Thessalonica, in Greece, stood out in this century. They went to preach Christianity to the Slavic peoples — Russians, Ukrainians and others of eastern Europe. They also created a kind of alphabet, called glagolitic, to communicate with these peoples. Later, this alphabet evolved and gave origin to the Cyrillic alphabet. Still today, the languages of Russia and of Ukraine use this system of writing.
14. In defense of the barbarian peoples, we can say that they were not necessarily “barbarians”. They received this name because they had not had Hellenic education. They were peoples that Alexander, the Great, when expanding his empire in the 4th century B.C., did not manage to conquer. Alexander taught to the peoples that he colonized the concepts of Plato, Aristotle and the Greek knowledges. In this context, they began to call barbarians those that had not been “illuminated” by the Greek thought, as if the Hellenic knowledge were essential condition to consider someone cultured. Certainly there were among these peoples violent individuals, but not all were like that.
15. Still in this century, we register a fact closer to the tradition than to the historical proof. There would have existed a papess Joan, a woman that would have disguised herself as man and become Pope John VIII. A religious that assumed the papacy during the Middle Ages. She would have ascended in the ecclesiastical hierarchy until becoming pope. She was only unmasked because, during a procession, she would have given birth. Some historians affirm that, in that moment, she was lynched and killed. Others sustain that she was enclosed in a convent. This papacy of John VIII or Joan would have occurred in the year of 855 between the pontificates of Leo IV and Benedict III, for a very short period, of only one year. The current scholars interpret this episode as a critique to the Church, that never fully accepted the feminine participation in the liturgies. Would it be legend? However, ideas repeated end up, many times, acquiring appearance of reality...
16. Another detail of this century: there arose the dogma of the transubstantiation, related to the act of taking the host in the masses in memory of the Last Supper of Jesus. For the Church, the bread represents the body of Christ and the wine represents the blood. With this dogma, the ceremony of the Last Supper is evoked in each mass. “Trans” means that, through the host, the substance of the body of Jesus is granted to each Christian participant of the Holy Mass. A ritual that needs to be repeated so that one remain in communion with Jesus.
17. In this century also began to arise the prayers of the Rosary, in dedication to Mary of Nazareth. It was composed of five our fathers and fifty hail marys, resulting in the rosary bead, contrary to the traditional Rosary, that had twenty our fathers and two hundred hail marys. The mysteries were three: joyful, sorrowful and glorious, remembering, in each one of them, five important passages of the life of Jesus or of Mary Most Holy. In the year of 2002, Pope John Paul II included a fourth mystery: the luminous. Today, the Rosary is no longer a “rosary bead”, but a fourth!
18. It is worth recalling the beginning of this century, when barbarians and Vikings were appeased and when peace reigned between Christians and Muslims. A true golden period!