Class Review from Thursday 4 January

Church History

Reflection and Prayer as we approach the Solemnity of the Epiphany

Pope St. Leo the Great writes of the challenge that all who follow Christ have to be bearers of light: “The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all to find Christ. Dear friends, you must have the same zeal to be of help to one another; then, in the kingdom of God, to which faith and good works are the way, you will shine as children of the light.”

After the tragedy of the Great Schism
-Lateran Synod, meeting in April of 1059 deals with the problem of Lay Investiture
-Pope to be chosen by 7 cardinal bishops with the assent of the cardinal priests and deacons
-Cardinals: Senior Clergy of Rome; from word for ‘hinge or joint’; title given to 28 parish priests of the titular churches Rome who also served the five papal basilicas; these priests were the hinges between the See of Peter and the parishes of Rome.
-Clerical marriage was made illegal
-This set of reforms alienated the German Kings as control of the Papacy slipped from their control.

-Pope Gregory VII (1073 – 1085)
-vision of the awesome responsibility and dignity of the papal office
-view of the papacy set out in Dictatus Papae – 27 propositions

Background to the tension between East and West and the Schism
Problems in Constantinople
Byzantine Emperor Leo III (717-741) orders destruction of large icon over the gates of the palace in Constantinople
-Begins the Iconoclast controversy which plagued the Eastern Church for a century
-Iconoclasts wanted the destruction of all icons and statutes, claiming the Old Testament forbade images
-Icondules – those who respected icons and statues – accepted the Old Testament prohibition, and argued that icons and statues were not ‘worshipped’
-Icons and statues were silent sermons, books of the illiterate, and memorials of the mysteries of God.
-The controversy lasted from 726 – 843.
-Emperor Leo also tried to enforce his prohibition on images in the West.
-The Council of Constantinople in 843, under Emperor Michael III, restored the use of Icons and Images – called the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy.
-But what happened in the West? A Holy Roman Empire begins – this ‘new empire’ causes further tension between East and West

REMEMBER FOR MONDAY – WORKSHEET 010307 DUE


Music History

Introduction to Romanticism
-Historians observe that style in art moves between two poles: the “classic” and the “romantic”
-The “classical” spirit seeks order, poise, and serenity (remember: simple, balanced and non-emotional…)
-The “romantic” spirit longs for strangeness, wonder and ecstasy
-The German philosopher Nietzsche contrasted them through the symbols of Apollo (the god of light and measure) and Dionysius (the god of intoxication and passion.)
-The “classic” versus “romantic” alternation demonstrate two basic impulses in the human spirit: the need for moderation, control, organization versus the need for emotional expression, longing for the unknown or unattainable
-Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe.
-In part a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period and a reaction against the rationalization of nature.
-In art and literature it stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity of nature.
-It elevated folk art, nature and custom. It was influenced by ideas of the Enlightenment and elevated medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period.
-The name "romantic" itself comes from the term "romance" which is a prose or poetic heroic narrative originating in medieval literature.
-Romanticism in music developed parallel to the Enlightenment, the social revolutions of the 18th and 19th century, developments in both art and literature
-For example, Romantic poets rebelled against the conventional form and matter of their Classical predecessors: they leaned toward the fanciful, picturesque and the passionate (Byron, Shelley, Keats…) Some say that the pronoun “I” made its first appearance in poetry through Romanticism.

FOR MONDAY – CAREFULLY READ JOHN KEATS ODE TO A GRECIAN URN