Joan of Arc

We just learned about the Avignon Papacy.

Another part of early Christianity is the famous French person Joan of Arc.

She was born in France in 1412, while there was a war going on between France and England.

When she was 13 she said that she had a vision of some Christian saints, who told her she needed to go help King Charles VII of France to win the war.

At first no one believed her, but she begged over and over again to go see the king.

When she was 17 she finally got to see the king, and he let her go to some of the battles and try to help out.
Wherever she was at the French won their battles easily, so people started believing that she was a sign from God that they could win the war.

She wasn't really a fighter who carried a sword, she usually had a banner that she waved around to try and help get all the French soldiers excited about winning.

When she was 19 she was captured by the English soldiers, and they had a trial where they said she was bad and wasn't talking to Christian saints but was working for the devil, and they had her killed.

Years later the French people said that trial was not fair and said she was innocent, and the church leaders agreed so she became a Christian hero Saint Joan of Arc.

Her story is very famous in France and people have even found the house where she grew up and turned it into a museum.


(from: wikipedia - joan of arc)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mariology

Avignon Papacy

We just learned about the Mirabilia Descripta.

Another part of early Christianity is the Avignon Papacy.

Remember that there were church leaders in all the different countries called Bishops, and that the Bishop in Rome - Italy was supposed to be the leader of all the other Bishops, called the Pope.

In the early 1300s, the king of France was very powerful, and helped a French person get elected as the Pope.
But to make France more powerful, he wanted him to live in the city of Avignon instead of Rome.

So in 1305 this Pope and the 6 popes after him all lived in Rome and were the heads of all the other churches.
It made the people in the city of Rome angry because they believed they were the most important city, and also having the Pope live in your city means you get a lot of power and money that they didn't get anymore.

After 74 years in 1379 AD the new Pope moved back to Rome.


(from: wikipedia - avignon papacy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Augustine of Hippo

Mirabilia Descripta

We just learned about the first English Bible, Wycliffe's Bible.

Another part of early Christianity from around the 1300s is the book Mirabilia Descripta.

When a Christian person named Jordanus of Severac went to India to explore and see what people believed in, he ran into some trouble, and was put into prison.

Later on he was let out, and traveled all over India writing about the way people lived, what they believed in, and all about the land and country.

He wrote it into a book he called Mirabilia Descripta which means something like Diary of Marvels.
His book was so well written at the time it was better than any other explorer from the west who traveled to India.

Because he wrote so well about it, other Christians were able to travel to India and help tell people about God and Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - jordanus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Ninian in Scotland

Wycliffe's Bible

We just learned about the Divine Comedy - Paradiso.

Another part of early Christianity is Wycliffe's Bible.

When people found the old writings and letters that make up the Bible, they were in different languages like Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic.

The church put all of these together and translated them into Latin, and some other languages like Greek or Cyrillic.

The first time the Bible was written in English was when a priest named John Wycliffe worked to translate the whole Bible into English in 1395.

Wycliffe believed that people needed to be able to read the Bible in their own language, and not many people could speak or read Latin to understand the Bible readings in church.


(from: wikipedia - wycliffe's bible)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Latin Vulgate Bible

Divine Comedy - Paradiso

We just learned about the Divine Comedy - Purgatorio.

Another part of the Divine Comedy book written in Early Christianity is Paradiso.

In this part of the story, Dante writes about what heaven might be like.

Long ago people didn't really know how the planets and stars worked, and a lot of people thought that the other planets and the sun went around the earth.
These days we know that the earth and other planets go around the sun, but in Dante's picture of heaven he thought the earth was the middle of our universe.

He wrote about 10 levels of heaven:
- Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Stars, Primum Mobile, Empyrean

Each higher level was better than the last one, and the Empyrean was the special holy perfect place where God lived.
The Primium Mobile was like a circle outside all of the planets that helped move the sun and stars, and this was where the angels lived.

Just like the other parts of this book, it was so popular that many people came to believe that this was what heaven really looked like.



(from: wikipedia - divine comedy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Persecution - Persia

Divine Comedy - Purgatorio

We just learned about the Divine Comedy and it's picture of the inferno.

Another part of that story is the Divine Comedy's picture of Purgatory.

Some Christians think that after you die if you believed in Jesus but did some bad things that you can go to a place between heaven and hell called purgatory and work your way up to heaven.

Other Christians don't agree and don't think this is a real place.

In the Divine Comedy, after the story goes through and talks about what hell looks like, it goes on to talk about what purgatory looks like.

In this place people were treated very badly, but not usually as badly as they were in the inferno hell.
They were forced to carry heavy weights, there was poisonous smoke and fire, and they were starving or blind.

If people made it through their suffering here for long enough they could go to heaven.
Many of the people and ideas in this picture of purgatory came from Greek mythology, so these weren't stories from the bible.
But because this book was so popular many people believed it was true.


(from: wikipedia - divine comedy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constantinople

Divine Comedy - Inferno

We just learned about the Divine Comedy.

Another part of early Christianity is Divine Comedy - Inferno.

We've learned that the Divine Comedy was a story about a man named Dante getting to see what heaven and hell are like.

Because this story was so popular, many people came to believe the things he wrote about are actually what heaven or hell are like.

When he wrote about hell, which he called inferno, he said there were 9 levels, called circles.

Each of the circles was bad, and had terrible things like terrible storms, freezing smelly rain, heavy stones to carry, smelly slimy swamps, fires, boiling rivers, burning sand, and many monsters.

This story uses a lot of things from Greek mythology like the river Styx, the dog cerebus, medusa and the minotaur.

Even though it was just a story and mixed things together like Christianity and Greek mythology, a lot of people believed that maybe he was right, and so for a long time people have talked about the circles or levels of hell and the different types of monsters and punishments there.


(from: wikipedia - inferno (dante))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Monasticism

Divine Comedy

We just learned about the Medieval Inquisition.

Another part of early Christianity is the book the Divine Comedy.

This was written by a man named Dante Alighieri who was an Italian poet.

Long ago there were many ideas about what heaven and hell looked like.
The different mythologies from Romans and Greeks and other people mixed together and a lot of people took those ideas and mixed them in with what the Bible says about heaven and hell.

Dante wrote this book of poetry and talked about going into hell and heaven, and a lot of the places that he described going are a lot like the stories from mythology.

No one really knows what hell and heaven look like, but Dante's book was so popular that many people started to believe that what he wrote about was what they really looked like.


(from: wikipedia - divine comedy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fifty Bibles of Constantine

Medieval Inquisition

We just learned about the Dominican Order.

Another part of early Christianity was the Medieval Inquisition.

We've learned that orthodoxy is what the church says you are supposed to do, and heresy is what the church says you are not supposed to do.

Long ago in many states and countries it was against the law to do or say something that was heresy.
If you were caught, the king or lord of the land would have a trial, and if you were found guilty you could be killed.

The church leaders decided that the kings and lords shouldn't be in charge of those trials, because they didn't know the laws that well.
They also wanted to try and give people the chance to learn what they did wrong and stop being heretics instead of being killed.

The church would send people from the Dominican or Franciscan order as judges to rule on trials as to whether the person was really bad or if they were just confused and needed to learn the right orthodox way to believe.
These trials were called Inquisitions.

For a while the Inquisitions were peaceful and did not allow anyone to be hurt. They were actually better than trials from the kings or lords where people were hurt and killed a lot more.

But as time went on the Inquisitions changed, and the Dominican and Franciscan leaders started to hurt people during the trials, to try and force them to admit that they had done something bad and were heretics.



(from: wikipedia - medieval inquisition)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Four Great Uncials

Dominican Order

We just learned about the Orthodoxy.

Another part of early Christianity is the Dominican Order.

We learned that the church all worked together and agree on rules that were called "Canon".
Following the rules is called "Orthodoxy", and breaking the rules is called "Heresy".

The Dominican Order is a group of people the church put in charge to make sure people followed the rules.

They were called the Dominican because the order was started by a church leader named Saint Dominic.


(from: wikipedia - dominican order)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Codex Vaticanus

Orthodoxy

We just learned about the Heresy.

Another part of early Christianity is Orthodoxy.

Just like heresy is when someone breaks the laws of the church, orthodoxy is when someone follows the laws of the church.

The word orthodoxy comes from the Greek word ὀρθοδοξία (orthodoxía) meaning a correct opinion.
There are some churches like the Greek Orthodox Church that put that word in part of the name of their church to show that they try very hard to follow the rules of the church.


(from: wikipedia - orthodoxy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christology

Heresy

We just learned about the Rosary.

Another part of early Christianity is Heresy.

Through the hundreds of years after Jesus died, the church had a lot of talks about what was true, and what was right.
Their decisions were put together into books like the Decretum Gratiani that we learned about.

Sometimes people would say things that went against those rules.
When some idea was against the rules the church decided, it was called heresy.
Someone who said something that was heresy was called a heretic.

The word comes from the Greek word αἵρεσις (haíresis) which means choice.

When the church started getting their own soldiers and having wars, they started using that new power to force people not to say any heresies.


(from: wikipedia - heresy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Seven Ecumenical Councils

Rosary

We just learned about the Franciscans.

Another part of early Christianity is the Rosary.

In 1214 AD, a Spanish priest named Saint Dominic said that he had a dream of Mary the mother of Jesus.
She told him to make a necklace with beads on it, and the beads would be used to help say prayers.

Most rosaries have 59 beads, and a cross. The beads are either "Our Father" beads or "Hail Mary" beads.

Four of the beads hang down from the circle necklace, with the cross.
The circle necklace is grouped in 5 sets of haily mary 10 beads called "decades" or "mysteries" and separated by 1 our father bead.

When praying, a person starts at the cross, then moves up the chain to the circle, then around the circle saying a prayer for each bead.
Many prayers have to be memorized in order to do the whole rosary: The Apostle's Creed, The Lord's Prayer, Glory Be, Hail Holy Queen.

So for a full rosary reading, you would say:
- (From the crucifix) - The Apostle's Creed, The Lord's Prayer, 3 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- (Mystery 1) - The Lord's Prayer, 10 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- (Mystery 2) - The Lord's Prayer, 10 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- (Mystery 3) - The Lord's Prayer, 10 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- (Mystery 4) - The Lord's Prayer, 10 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- (Mystery 5) - The Lord's Prayer, 10 x Hail Mary, Glory Be
- Hail Holy Queen


(from: wikipedia - rosary)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianity in Armenia

Franciscans

We just learned about the Battle on the Ice.

Another part of early Christianity is the Franciscans.

Long ago a man named Francis of Assisi decided to go live by himself like a hermit.

A bunch of other people who also wanted to live away from other people to worship God together and called themselves Franciscans, because of Francis.

These groups of people became the monks that we know about today.


(from: wikipedia - franciscans)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: First Council of Nicea

Battle on the Ice

We just learned about the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

Another part of early Christianity was the Battle on the Ice.

We learned before about some of the first groups of people fighting wars in the name of Christianity, called Crusades.
From the years 1200 through 1300 there were a lot more wars like this.

There were around a dozen different crusades through these years, and they fought all over Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Western Asia, and even Northern Africa.

There was even a crusade that went into Russia and was fought on a frozen lake.
The Western church from places like Germany and France was fighting against the Eastern church in places like Russia.
In the battle the Russians won by a lot and Lake Peipus became a famous place in Russia where the Eastern church won an important battle.


(from: wikipedia - battle on the ice)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Golden Legend

Basilica of Saint-Denis

We just learned about the Notre-Dame de Paris.

Another part of early Christianity is the building of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, built in 1144 AD in France.

One of the church leaders in France named Abbot Suger was upset that the churches were not big enough to handle all of the people coming to worship, and he also believed that having a beautiful church filled with light and color was a way to show worship to God.

The church that he had people make was the first one that was later called "Gothic" style.
This type of building had 5 special things that made it gothic:

Pointed Arches - The ceilings, windows or roofs would have an arch shape that was pointy at the top.

Ribbed Vaults - The tall hallways in the churches had large supporting beams going back and forth along the ceiling that looked kind of like ribs.

Flying Buttresses - The outside supports that helped hold the building up are called buttresses. For these buildings, they had long buttresses that stuck way out from the church, so they called them flying buttresses.

Tracery - The windows or doors used stone or metal to make shapes.

Stained Glass Windows - Glass that was colored and then framed into windows for artwork and light.


(from: wikipedia - basilica of saint-denis)



(from: wikipedia - basilica of saint-denis)



(from: wikipedia - flying buttress)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Holy Tunic

Notre-Dame de Paris

We just learned about the Decretum Gratiani.

Another part of early Christianity is the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris.

In 1160 AD in Paris, the leader of the church there was Maurice de Sully.
He thought that they should build a really big nice church in a style called "Gothic style", and dedicate it to Jesus' mother Mary.

The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris became very famous in Paris, and it was made even more famous later in 1831 when someone wrote a story about a hunchback who rang the bells in the tower.


(from: wikipedia - notre-dame de paris)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Holy Nails

Decretum Gratiani

We just learned about the Teutonic Order.

Another part of early Christianity is the Decretum Gratiani.

We've learned before that "Biblical Canon" means the things that are approved or agreed by the church.
And the word comes from the Greek word "κανών" which means rule or measuring stick.

Through the years many people were arguing about which writings about Jesus were real and which were fake.
They also argued about what all of the real and true writings meant, and what was the best way to live your life.

Like was it ok to make paintings of Jesus or famous people from church history?
How should people be baptized, and how should churches be built?
These decisions and a lot more rules had been made in the time over a thousand years since Jesus was born.

Around 1150 AD, a man named Gratian decided to try and put together all of the different rules and laws that the Catholic church had written down.

He put them into what he called the "Decretum Gratiani" which means "The Decree of Gratian".
People believe this to be the first real law book that listed all of the laws for how to live.

He listed them out in a very organized way, so that later on if someone was talking about a certain law of the church, they could talk about "Decretum c. 1. d. XI". Instead of writing out over and over what the law said, they could just basically say "Go look it up in the law book, at this spot."
This book of law put together by Gratian was the first part of what would become the Canon Law used by the church to rule if someone was guilty of breaking a church law or not.


(from: wikipedia - decretum gratiani)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: True Cross

Teutonic Order

We just learned about the Knights Templar.

Another military group in the Catholic church was the Teutonic Order, also called the Order of the Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem.

Just like the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, these were soldiers who wore armor and worked for the church.

The job of the Teutonic Order was mostly to protect Christians that were traveling to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, and to also help set up some hospitals.

This group is actually still around but the people are not soldiers anymore, they are just a group of people who try to do good things for the world.


(from: wikipedia - teutonic order)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Holy Sepulchre

Knights Templar

We just learned about the Knights Hospitaller.

Another part of early Christianity is the Knights Templar.

Just like the Knights Hospitaller, this was a group of people who fought battles for the church, usually for the Crusades.
They were known for the outfits they wore with a white background and a red cross on it.
Part of the meaning of the red cross was that they would go to war and kill people in the name of God, and he would reward them in heaven.

Some of the people in the Knights Templar did not fight battles, they were more like farmers or bankers.
Because a lot of people knew about them, people would give them money to help fight the Crusades that people thought were good.
With this money they built a lot of buildings and churches across all of Europe.

Later on one of the kings of France did not like the knights, so he said a lot of bad things about them, had many of them killed, and later on the church decided the knights should either quit or join the Knights Hospitaller and there would be no more Templars.


(from: wikipedia - knights templar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Catherine's Monastery