The Early Middle Ages

AD 600–105425 eventsShow on the timeline

The Mediterranean world breaks apart. Islam rises, missionaries carry the faith to northern and eastern Europe and to China, and Greek East and Latin West drift toward schism.

Monasteries preserve learning and send out missionaries: Boniface to Germany, Ansgar to Scandinavia, Cyril and Methodius to the Slavs. The Church of the East reaches China. In Byzantium the controversy over icons is settled; in the West the papacy allies with the Franks. The mutual excommunications of 1054 mark the estrangement of Rome and Constantinople.

Events of this era

AD 635, estimated date
The Church of the East Reaches China
A monk named Aluoben (Alopen) brings Christian scriptures to the Tang capital Chang’an. In 638 the emperor Taizong licenses the teaching and has a monastery built. A stele of 781 tells the story.
AD 637/638, estimated date
Jerusalem Surrenders to the Caliph Umar
Later Christian and Muslim historians tell how Jerusalem, after a siege, was yielded on terms to the caliph Umar; the Christian account names the patriarch Sophronius. One Muslim historian quotes the written guarantee given to its people and churches.
AD 664, firm date
The Synod of Whitby
At Hilda’s monastery of Whitby, King Oswiu of Northumbria hears the Irish and the Roman parties argue over the date of Easter and decides for Rome, citing Peter’s keys. Bishop Colman and his followers leave for Iona and Ireland.
AD 680 to AD 681, firm date
The Third Council of Constantinople
A council called by the emperor Constantine IV defines that Christ has two wills and two operations, divine and human, never opposed. It condemns the teaching of one will and those who had upheld it, among them four patriarchs of Constantinople and Pope Honorius.
AD 719–754, estimated date
Boniface, Apostle to the Germans
The English monk Winfrid, renamed Boniface, is sent by Pope Gregory II to preach east of the Rhine. He fells the sacred oak at Geismar, founds bishoprics and the abbey of Fulda, reforms the Frankish church under Roman authority, and is killed in Frisia.
AD 726–730, estimated date
The Iconoclast Controversy Begins
The emperor Leo III moves against religious images, and the patriarch Germanus resigns rather than consent. John of Damascus writes in their defence from outside the empire. In 754 a council under Leo’s son condemns images as contrary to the doctrine of Christ.
AD 731, firm date
Bede Completes His Ecclesiastical History
At Wearmouth-Jarrow the monk Bede finishes a history of the English church in five books, dated by years from the birth of Christ and built on named sources. He lists his other works, mostly on Scripture, and dies four years later while translating John’s Gospel.
AD 754 to AD 756, firm date
The Donation of Pepin and the Papal States
Threatened by the Lombards and unaided by the emperor, Pope Stephen II crosses the Alps to the Frankish king Pepin. Pepin defeats the Lombards and gives Ravenna and its cities not to the emperor but to St Peter, making the pope a ruler of territory.
AD 787, firm date
The Second Council of Nicaea Restores Icons
A council called by the empress Irene and led by the patriarch Tarasius, with legates of Pope Hadrian I, overturns the iconoclast council of 754. It decrees that images are to be set up and honoured, and that worship in the full sense belongs to God alone.
AD 789, firm date
Charlemagne’s Reform of Church and Learning
In the General Admonition of 789 Charlemagne orders the clergy of his kingdom to keep the canons, preach the faith, sing the Roman chant, open schools and copy books correctly. With Alcuin and other scholars he has the text of the Bible revised.
25 December AD 800, firm date
Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor
On Christmas Day 800, in St Peter’s at Rome, Pope Leo III sets a crown on the head of the Frankish king Charles and the Romans acclaim him emperor. The sources of the time disagree about who planned it and whether the king wished it.
AD 829 to AD 831, estimated date
Ansgar’s Mission to Scandinavia
The monk Ansgar is sent from the Frankish court to the Danes and then to the Swedish trading town of Birka, and becomes the first archbishop of Hamburg. His churches are few and fragile, and depend on the leave of kings.
11 March AD 843, estimated date
The Triumph of Orthodoxy
After the death of the iconoclast emperor Theophilus, his widow Theodora and the new patriarch Methodios restore the veneration of icons at Constantinople. The day is kept each year on the first Sunday of Lent.
AD 863 to AD 885, estimated date
Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs
Two brothers from Thessalonica, sent from Constantinople to Moravia, give the Slavs an alphabet, the Scriptures and the liturgy in their own language. Rome’s attitude to the Slavonic liturgy shifts from approval to prohibition and back, and ends in a ban.
AD 863 to AD 867, estimated date
The Photian Schism
Pope Nicholas I refuses to recognize Photius as patriarch of Constantinople and declares him deposed; Photius denounces Latin teaching in Bulgaria, the filioque above all, and his council condemns the pope. The breach is healed, but its arguments return.
AD 864–866, estimated date
The Baptism of Boris and the Conversion of Bulgaria
Boris, ruler of the Bulgars, accepts baptism from Constantinople and takes the name Michael. He puts down a revolt of his nobles, then asks the pope for bishops, and his country becomes a prize in the quarrel between Rome and Constantinople.
November AD 879 – March 880, firm date
The Council of Constantinople Restores Photius
A council at Constantinople, with legates of Pope John VIII, recognizes Photius as patriarch, rejects the council that had condemned him ten years earlier and forbids any change to the creed. Orthodox documents count it among the councils of universal authority.
11 September AD 910, estimated date
The Founding of Cluny
Duke William of Aquitaine gives his estate at Cluny for a monastery under the Rule of Benedict and renounces every right over it, placing it under the apostles Peter and Paul and the protection of the pope.
February AD 962, firm date
Otto I Is Crowned Emperor
Called into Italy by Pope John XII, the German king Otto I is crowned emperor at Rome and confirms the papal territories, while requiring each new pope to make a promise before the emperor’s envoys. Within two years he has the pope deposed.
AD 963 to AD 972, estimated date
The Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos
With the backing of the general and emperor Nikephoros Phokas, the monk Athanasius builds the Great Lavra on Mount Athos as a self-governing monastery. A few years later an imperial charter gives all the monks of the Mountain a common rule.
AD 966, estimated date
The Baptism of Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko, duke of the Poles, marries the Bohemian princess Dobrawa and is baptized, and his people follow him. The annals of the Kraków chapter date the baptism to 966. In 1000 the emperor Otto III founds an archbishopric at Gniezno.
AD 988/989, estimated date
The Baptism of Rus’
Vladimir, prince of Kyiv, accepts baptism from Constantinople and marries the emperor’s sister. The chronicle of Kyiv tells of a choice among faiths and of his people baptized in the Dnieper; Greek and Arabic writers tell of an alliance.
AD 999/1000, estimated date
Iceland Adopts Christianity by Law
At the Althing the pagan lawspeaker Thorgeir, asked to settle the dispute between Christians and heathens, rules that all Icelanders shall be baptized and live under one law, with a few old customs allowed for a time.
AD 1000 or 1001, estimated date
Stephen I and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary
Stephen, ruler of the Hungarians, defeats pagan rebels, founds bishoprics with Esztergom at their head, and is crowned king. A writer of his own day credits the emperor Otto III; a Life written a century later says that the pope sent the crown.
16 July 1054, firm date
The Schism of 1054
Legates of the Roman see excommunicate the patriarch of Constantinople in Hagia Sophia, and his synod anathematizes them in return. The sentences name persons, not churches, but later ages take the day as the breach between East and West.