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900 FIRST UNIVERSITY BEGINS IN CORDOBA, SPAIN
During the tenth century, Muslims ruled Cordoba, Spain. Islamic tolerance of both the Christian and Jewish religions cultivated an environment in which the three religious groups thrived alongside one another. The economic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits throughout the region combined to produce one of the most enlightened civilizations in history. In fact, scholarly interests were so great that the first university-like institution of learning was founded during this period of coexistence. Under Muslim tutors, Jews learned Arabic (the language of the Koran), becoming students of the Koran, as well as of their own Hebrew Bible. As a result, Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138-1204), a later native of Cordoba and one of the most revered Jewish sages, wrote in Arabic not Hebrew.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
909 WILLIAM THE PIOUS ESTABLISHES MONASTERY AT CLUNY
In 909, a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church led by William the Pious (d. 918), duke of Aquitaine, founded a new monastery at Cluny, France. The monastery strove for a return to strict adherence to the Benedictine Rule drawn up by Benedict of Nursia (480-547) and became the center of monastic reform for nearly two centuries. The order cultivated personal spiritual life and placed great emphasis on worship. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Cluny wielded great influence in the opposition of Pope Gregory VII (1023-1085) to clerical marriages and simony, the buying and selling of spiritual benefit. At the height of the reform, there were more than eleven hundred monasteries in Germany, France, England, Italy, and Spain associated with the Cluniac order.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
930 THE AUTHORITATIVE TEXT OF THE HEBREW BIBLE IS ESTABLISHED
Due to the high regard in the ninth and tenth centuries for the emergent rabbinic tradition in Jewish culture, for many years the Hebrew Bible was seen as secondary in authority to the writings of the rabbis for law and practice. In fact, it was the tenth century before an authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible finally was determined for common use. By 930, the text was firmly in place, probably under the influence of the Karaites, "the people of Scripture," who flourished in the eighth century. This group of Jews, established by Anan ben David, sought to return the Jewish Bible to its original position as the primary authority for Judaism. With the establishment of an authoritative text, both personal interpretation and scholarly analysis were able to draw from the same source.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
935 SAADIA BEN JOSEPH WRITES THE BOOK OF BELIEFS AND OPINIONS
Under the protection afforded Jews by the Islamic Empire, Jewish academies flourished in Iraq. The leaders of these institutions, known as gaons, were regarded as the final authority for Jewish practice. The most important gaon was Rabbi Saadia ben Joseph (882-942) of the academy in Sura. Saadia articulated Jewish law, a traditional topic for rabbinical writing, but also completed an Arabic translation of the Bible. He produced his greatest work, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, in 935. It was the first systematic Jewish theological treatise ever written. Embracing the cultural changes that came with the spread of Islam, Saadia tried purposely to analyze Judaism against the backdrop of Islam and its intellectual life.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
940 HASDAI IBN SHAPRUT BECOMES COURTIER TO THE MUSLIM RULER OF SPAIN
As the Islamic Empire strengthened in Spain, the caliph (the local ruler) used Cordoba—one of the great Islamic cities that attracted wealth, artists, and scholars—as his headquarters. In 940, Jewish Rabbi Hasdai Ibn Shaprut gained the caliph's favor and began serving as a courtier. His courtier-rabbi status, though unique at first, became a typical model for Jewish leaders in Spain during the tenth century. Many of these leaders wielded authority in the public life of the Islamic state and became involved in the intellectual life that flourished in the Muslim world. Hasdai not only was able to positively affect the Jewish lifestyle, but his wealth afforded him influence in the literary development of Cordoba. He personally supported several poets, and with his assistance the golden age of Hebrew literature dawned in the Middle Ages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
955 OLGA OF RUSSIA IS CONVERTED
The first ruler in Russian lands known to convert to Christianity was Olga (d. 969), the grand duchess of Kiev from 945 to 964. In about 955, she accepted the Christian faith and traveled to Constantinople to be baptized. At that time Constantinople was the second most important religious center next to Rome. Olga returned to Kiev, the capital of the Russian realm, but unfortunately her faith had little influence upon her land. Kiev remained a pagan state under her son, Sviatoslav, who ruled from 964 to 978. However, Olga's grandson, Prince Vladimir (956-1015) of Kiev, who reigned from 978 to 1015, became the person responsible for bringing Orthodox Christianity to the people of Russia.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
962 OTTO I REVIVES THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
The Holy Roman Empire, originally founded in 800 by Charlemagne (742-814), was revived in 962 with the coronation of the German king, Otto I (912-973), as emperor. This was a revival of Charlemagne's alliance of church and state. Otto reasserted his right to appoint and control bishops. His policy was one of empowering the church in order to diminish the authority of secular rulers. Initially his empire included only Germany and part of Italy, but the Holy Roman Empire eventually spread over Western Europe and lasted from 962 until it was dissolved by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1806.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
988 RUSSIA IS CHRISTIANIZED
Tradition has it that, following a strong pagan revival, Prince Vladimir (956-1015) of Kiev—grandson of Olga (d. 969), the first Russian ruler to accept Christianity—sent out emissaries to study Judaism, Islam, Roman Christianity (Catholicism), and Greek Christianity (Orthodoxy). Vladimir married Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor and chose Orthodoxy. In 988, Vladimir proclaimed Christianity as the official Russian religion and ordered all his subjects to be baptized. The upper classes and city dwellers quickly adopted Christianity while the lower classes and rural areas remained pagan into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The official religion of the state until 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church continues to have great political influence.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
February 2, 962
Pope John XII was one of the worst of a long line of reprobate Italian vicars. King Otto I was one of the best of a promising succession of German sovereigns. When Pope John crowned Otto as Roman Emperor on February 2, 962, he effectively signed his own political death warrant and the rebirth certificate of the Holy Roman Empire in one grand and ceremonious stroke.
The Holy Roman Empire was first born on Christmas Day 800. On that day, while Charlemagne, the conquering king of western Europe, was worshiping at St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo III stepped down from the altar and crowned him successor to the Caesars of Rome. But Charlemagne's heirs could not maintain his empire. Separate kingdoms once again arose with no central government to hold them together.
Near the end of the ninth century and through the first half of the tenth, the papacy fell into moral decadence. Immoral popes were seated and deposed at whim, the lives of many of them ending in murder or imprisonment. During this infamous period John XII became pope in 955.
Meanwhile in Germany, young Otto I was rising in power. Wielding Christianity as a unifying sword, King Otto formed wise and careful alliances with other German tribes. Appointing bishops at the same time as he anointed civil authorities, he gave generous land grants to the German church, building it into a national institution.
By sword point, Otto sought to bring a western Slavic tribe known as the Wends to the foot of the cross. Denmark, Poland, and Bohemia bowed to him as their feudal sovereign. And then, with his eye on the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, Otto led his army into Italy to rescue the widowed Adelaide, Italy's former queen who had been imprisoned by King Berengar II, her late husband's successor. Otto married Adelaide, reduced Berengar to a fief of the German crown, and returned to Germany.
Several years later, Otto came up against Berengar again when Pope John XII sent an appeal for his help against the king. This time Otto marched peaceably into Rome at the head of a massive army, and there, on February 2, 962, John XII crowned him emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Otto became greatly alarmed by the moral degradation of the papacy, and the next year he returned to Rome and brought Pope John to trial before an ecclesiastical court. Cardinals charged the pope with adultery, incest, and turning the papal palace into a brothel. They removed John from office, replacing him with Otto's choice, a capable but ecclesiastically unaccredited layman. The new pope, Leo VIII, and many successive popes would now answer to the Holy Roman emperor.
Thus began a "reformation" of the papacy that lasted nearly three centuries. From Otto the Great's time, the Holy Roman Empire would exist continuously until Napoleon I [Bonaparte] replaced it with his Confederation of the Rhine in 1806.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
996 CALIPH EL HAKIM PERSECUTES COPTS IN EGYPT
Legend has it that Mark the Evangelist founded the church in Egypt, known as the Coptic Church. Throughout the ages, the Copts were persecuted by many of the conquerors and rulers of their homeland. In the early seventh century Persians exercised authority over the Copts until the Muslims conquered Persia. Since that time Muslim Arabs have had varying degrees of dominion in the area up to the present day. Among the most severe persecutions experienced by the Copts was one that took place during the devastating rule of Caliph el Hakim, who came into power in 996 and ruled until 1021. It is reported that el Hakim destroyed three thousand Egyptian churches and induced large numbers of Christians to abandon their beliefs under threat of death.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
999 LEIF ERIKSSON CONVERTS
Despite his heritage as the son of pagan Norse leader Erik the Red (950-1003), who had settled in Iceland and founded Greenland, Leif Eriksson became a Christian in 999 through the influence of Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason (969-1000). Leif then brought a priest to Greenland and, despite his father's objections, introduced Christianity to their small Norse settlement there. Though the population of the settlement was never much more than two thousand, the members succeeded in building churches and a cathedral. Eventually a bishop was established, becoming the civil and religious leader of the Norse community in Greenland. In 1000, Leif Eriksson was the first European to discover America by landing in what he called Vineland, which probably was Newfoundland.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
999 SYLVESTER II BECOMES POPE
After his education at a Benedictine monastery, Sylvester II (945-1003) studied in Spain and became a teacher at the cathedral school at Reims, France. Known for his abilities in mathematics, philosophy, and natural science, Sylvester is considered to be the one who introduced Arabic numerals to Western Europe and invented the pendulum clock. In 999, he became the first Frenchman elected pope, becoming head of the church at a time of great corruption. He stood against prevailing evils such as the secular control of church elections, nepotism, and simony. Sylvester also played a significant role in the spread of Christianity into Eastern Europe, establishing new bishoprics in Hungary and appointing the first archbishop of Poland.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
During the tenth century, Muslims ruled Cordoba, Spain. Islamic tolerance of both the Christian and Jewish religions cultivated an environment in which the three religious groups thrived alongside one another. The economic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits throughout the region combined to produce one of the most enlightened civilizations in history. In fact, scholarly interests were so great that the first university-like institution of learning was founded during this period of coexistence. Under Muslim tutors, Jews learned Arabic (the language of the Koran), becoming students of the Koran, as well as of their own Hebrew Bible. As a result, Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138-1204), a later native of Cordoba and one of the most revered Jewish sages, wrote in Arabic not Hebrew.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
909 WILLIAM THE PIOUS ESTABLISHES MONASTERY AT CLUNY
In 909, a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church led by William the Pious (d. 918), duke of Aquitaine, founded a new monastery at Cluny, France. The monastery strove for a return to strict adherence to the Benedictine Rule drawn up by Benedict of Nursia (480-547) and became the center of monastic reform for nearly two centuries. The order cultivated personal spiritual life and placed great emphasis on worship. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Cluny wielded great influence in the opposition of Pope Gregory VII (1023-1085) to clerical marriages and simony, the buying and selling of spiritual benefit. At the height of the reform, there were more than eleven hundred monasteries in Germany, France, England, Italy, and Spain associated with the Cluniac order.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
930 THE AUTHORITATIVE TEXT OF THE HEBREW BIBLE IS ESTABLISHED
Due to the high regard in the ninth and tenth centuries for the emergent rabbinic tradition in Jewish culture, for many years the Hebrew Bible was seen as secondary in authority to the writings of the rabbis for law and practice. In fact, it was the tenth century before an authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible finally was determined for common use. By 930, the text was firmly in place, probably under the influence of the Karaites, "the people of Scripture," who flourished in the eighth century. This group of Jews, established by Anan ben David, sought to return the Jewish Bible to its original position as the primary authority for Judaism. With the establishment of an authoritative text, both personal interpretation and scholarly analysis were able to draw from the same source.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
935 SAADIA BEN JOSEPH WRITES THE BOOK OF BELIEFS AND OPINIONS
Under the protection afforded Jews by the Islamic Empire, Jewish academies flourished in Iraq. The leaders of these institutions, known as gaons, were regarded as the final authority for Jewish practice. The most important gaon was Rabbi Saadia ben Joseph (882-942) of the academy in Sura. Saadia articulated Jewish law, a traditional topic for rabbinical writing, but also completed an Arabic translation of the Bible. He produced his greatest work, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, in 935. It was the first systematic Jewish theological treatise ever written. Embracing the cultural changes that came with the spread of Islam, Saadia tried purposely to analyze Judaism against the backdrop of Islam and its intellectual life.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
940 HASDAI IBN SHAPRUT BECOMES COURTIER TO THE MUSLIM RULER OF SPAIN
As the Islamic Empire strengthened in Spain, the caliph (the local ruler) used Cordoba—one of the great Islamic cities that attracted wealth, artists, and scholars—as his headquarters. In 940, Jewish Rabbi Hasdai Ibn Shaprut gained the caliph's favor and began serving as a courtier. His courtier-rabbi status, though unique at first, became a typical model for Jewish leaders in Spain during the tenth century. Many of these leaders wielded authority in the public life of the Islamic state and became involved in the intellectual life that flourished in the Muslim world. Hasdai not only was able to positively affect the Jewish lifestyle, but his wealth afforded him influence in the literary development of Cordoba. He personally supported several poets, and with his assistance the golden age of Hebrew literature dawned in the Middle Ages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
955 OLGA OF RUSSIA IS CONVERTED
The first ruler in Russian lands known to convert to Christianity was Olga (d. 969), the grand duchess of Kiev from 945 to 964. In about 955, she accepted the Christian faith and traveled to Constantinople to be baptized. At that time Constantinople was the second most important religious center next to Rome. Olga returned to Kiev, the capital of the Russian realm, but unfortunately her faith had little influence upon her land. Kiev remained a pagan state under her son, Sviatoslav, who ruled from 964 to 978. However, Olga's grandson, Prince Vladimir (956-1015) of Kiev, who reigned from 978 to 1015, became the person responsible for bringing Orthodox Christianity to the people of Russia.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
962 OTTO I REVIVES THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
The Holy Roman Empire, originally founded in 800 by Charlemagne (742-814), was revived in 962 with the coronation of the German king, Otto I (912-973), as emperor. This was a revival of Charlemagne's alliance of church and state. Otto reasserted his right to appoint and control bishops. His policy was one of empowering the church in order to diminish the authority of secular rulers. Initially his empire included only Germany and part of Italy, but the Holy Roman Empire eventually spread over Western Europe and lasted from 962 until it was dissolved by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1806.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
988 RUSSIA IS CHRISTIANIZED
Tradition has it that, following a strong pagan revival, Prince Vladimir (956-1015) of Kiev—grandson of Olga (d. 969), the first Russian ruler to accept Christianity—sent out emissaries to study Judaism, Islam, Roman Christianity (Catholicism), and Greek Christianity (Orthodoxy). Vladimir married Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor and chose Orthodoxy. In 988, Vladimir proclaimed Christianity as the official Russian religion and ordered all his subjects to be baptized. The upper classes and city dwellers quickly adopted Christianity while the lower classes and rural areas remained pagan into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The official religion of the state until 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church continues to have great political influence.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
February 2, 962
Pope John XII was one of the worst of a long line of reprobate Italian vicars. King Otto I was one of the best of a promising succession of German sovereigns. When Pope John crowned Otto as Roman Emperor on February 2, 962, he effectively signed his own political death warrant and the rebirth certificate of the Holy Roman Empire in one grand and ceremonious stroke.
The Holy Roman Empire was first born on Christmas Day 800. On that day, while Charlemagne, the conquering king of western Europe, was worshiping at St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo III stepped down from the altar and crowned him successor to the Caesars of Rome. But Charlemagne's heirs could not maintain his empire. Separate kingdoms once again arose with no central government to hold them together.
Near the end of the ninth century and through the first half of the tenth, the papacy fell into moral decadence. Immoral popes were seated and deposed at whim, the lives of many of them ending in murder or imprisonment. During this infamous period John XII became pope in 955.
Meanwhile in Germany, young Otto I was rising in power. Wielding Christianity as a unifying sword, King Otto formed wise and careful alliances with other German tribes. Appointing bishops at the same time as he anointed civil authorities, he gave generous land grants to the German church, building it into a national institution.
By sword point, Otto sought to bring a western Slavic tribe known as the Wends to the foot of the cross. Denmark, Poland, and Bohemia bowed to him as their feudal sovereign. And then, with his eye on the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, Otto led his army into Italy to rescue the widowed Adelaide, Italy's former queen who had been imprisoned by King Berengar II, her late husband's successor. Otto married Adelaide, reduced Berengar to a fief of the German crown, and returned to Germany.
Several years later, Otto came up against Berengar again when Pope John XII sent an appeal for his help against the king. This time Otto marched peaceably into Rome at the head of a massive army, and there, on February 2, 962, John XII crowned him emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Otto became greatly alarmed by the moral degradation of the papacy, and the next year he returned to Rome and brought Pope John to trial before an ecclesiastical court. Cardinals charged the pope with adultery, incest, and turning the papal palace into a brothel. They removed John from office, replacing him with Otto's choice, a capable but ecclesiastically unaccredited layman. The new pope, Leo VIII, and many successive popes would now answer to the Holy Roman emperor.
Thus began a "reformation" of the papacy that lasted nearly three centuries. From Otto the Great's time, the Holy Roman Empire would exist continuously until Napoleon I [Bonaparte] replaced it with his Confederation of the Rhine in 1806.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
996 CALIPH EL HAKIM PERSECUTES COPTS IN EGYPT
Legend has it that Mark the Evangelist founded the church in Egypt, known as the Coptic Church. Throughout the ages, the Copts were persecuted by many of the conquerors and rulers of their homeland. In the early seventh century Persians exercised authority over the Copts until the Muslims conquered Persia. Since that time Muslim Arabs have had varying degrees of dominion in the area up to the present day. Among the most severe persecutions experienced by the Copts was one that took place during the devastating rule of Caliph el Hakim, who came into power in 996 and ruled until 1021. It is reported that el Hakim destroyed three thousand Egyptian churches and induced large numbers of Christians to abandon their beliefs under threat of death.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
999 LEIF ERIKSSON CONVERTS
Despite his heritage as the son of pagan Norse leader Erik the Red (950-1003), who had settled in Iceland and founded Greenland, Leif Eriksson became a Christian in 999 through the influence of Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason (969-1000). Leif then brought a priest to Greenland and, despite his father's objections, introduced Christianity to their small Norse settlement there. Though the population of the settlement was never much more than two thousand, the members succeeded in building churches and a cathedral. Eventually a bishop was established, becoming the civil and religious leader of the Norse community in Greenland. In 1000, Leif Eriksson was the first European to discover America by landing in what he called Vineland, which probably was Newfoundland.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
999 SYLVESTER II BECOMES POPE
After his education at a Benedictine monastery, Sylvester II (945-1003) studied in Spain and became a teacher at the cathedral school at Reims, France. Known for his abilities in mathematics, philosophy, and natural science, Sylvester is considered to be the one who introduced Arabic numerals to Western Europe and invented the pendulum clock. In 999, he became the first Frenchman elected pope, becoming head of the church at a time of great corruption. He stood against prevailing evils such as the secular control of church elections, nepotism, and simony. Sylvester also played a significant role in the spread of Christianity into Eastern Europe, establishing new bishoprics in Hungary and appointing the first archbishop of Poland.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The