Chronology of Medieval Christianity

Christian History Timeline 800 CE - 1100 CE

When was Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III? When was the investiture conflict? When did Crusaders capture and plunder Jerusalem? When was it decreed that popes could only be elected by cardinals? These are all important dates in the history of Christianity; not only are they presented here in this timeline, but they are presented in historical and religious context.

There are several different types of color-coded dates in this timeline of Medieval Christianity, explained in a color key at the bottom of the timeline.

Timeline of Medieval Christianity: 800 CE - 1100 CE
December 25, 0800	Charlemagne (c. 742 - 814) was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. This coronation marked the beginning of a new relationship between the church and state, with the emperor's temporal authority depending upon the spiritual blessing of the pope.
0801	Vikings begin selling slaves to Muslims.
May 19, 0804	English scholar Alcuin of York died in Tours France at the age of 69.
0806	Hien Tsung becomes the Emperor of China. During his reign a shortage of copper leads to the introduction of paper money.
July 08, 0810	Pepin, the son of Charlemagne, died in Italy.
June 12, 0816	Leo III dies.
June 22, 0816	Stephen IV is elected pope.
January 24, 0817	Pope Stephen IV (V) died.
January 24, 0817	Paschal I was elected pope.
February 11, 0824	Pope Paschal I died.
January 20, 0842	Eastern Roman Emperor Theophilus, the last emperor to advocate Iconoclasm, died.
February 19, 0842	The Iconoclastic Controversy ended when Constantinople formally accepted the veneration of icons in churches and worship services.
0843	The worship of icons was restored in the East by Byzantine emperor Michael III (839 - 867), thus ending the "Iconoclastic Controversy."
0844	The controversy over the doctrine of transubstantiation began with Paschasisu Radbertus, Ratramus, and Gottschalk
January 25, 0844	Pope Gregory IV was elected.
0847	The controversy over Filioque begins.
January 27, 0847	Pope Sergius II died.
January 27, 0847	Leo IV was unanimously elected pope.
April 10, 0847	Leo IV was consecrated pope.
0850	The Acropolis of Zimbabwe was built in Rhodesia.
July 10, 0855	Pope Leo IV died.
September 29, 0855	Benedict III was consecrated pope.
April 17, 0858	Pope Benedict III died.
April 24, 0858	Nicholas I was elected pope. Nicholas successfully asserted the independence of the papacy
0863	Under Cyril (0826 - 0869) and Methodius (c. 0815 - 0885) the conversion of Moravia begins. The two brothers were sent by the patriarch of Constantinople to Moravia, where the ruler, Rostilav, decreed in 863 that any preaching done had to be in the language of the people. As a result, Cyril and Methodius developed the first usable alphabet for the Slavic tongue - thus, the Cyrillic alphabet.
0867	Photian Schism between Eastern and Western churches begins during the first patriarchy of Photius (c. 0820 - 0891). Photius excommunicated Pope Nicholas I (c. 0800 - 0867) during their dispute over various issues, but especially the use in the Western church of the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed (meaning: "and from the son"). This had been added to the statement that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. The schism leads to Photius' deposition, but he later managed to achieve reconciliation with Rome.
November 13, 0867	Pope Nicholas I died.
December 14, 0867	Adrian II was elected pope.
October 05, 0869	The Fourth Council of Constantinople (8th ecumenical council) opened under Pope Adrian II in the West and Emperor Basil I in the East. During its six sessions, the council condemned iconoclasm. This would be the last ecumenical council held in the East, but it has never been accepted by the Orthodox Church which instead recognizes the council of 0880 that supported Photius. The council of 0869 was convened at the suggestion of Basil I, the new Byzantine emperor, to confirm the restoration of St. Ignatius of Constantinople to the see that Photius had resigned. Photius had already been condemned, without a hearing, at a Roman synod. At Constantinople his defense was cut short, and when he refused to sign his own condemnation, he was excommunicated. The result of these councils was to intensify the bitterness between East and West.
February 28, 0870	The Fourth Constantinople Council closed. Under the direction of Pope Adrian II in the West and Emperor Basil I in the East, the council condemned iconoclasm and was the last ecumenical council held in the East.
0871	King Alfred the Great of England created a system of government and education which allowed for the unification of smaller Anglo-Saxon states in the ninth and tenth centuries.
December 14, 0872	John VIII was elected pope.
0874	Iceland is colonized by Vikings from Norway.
0874	Vikings settled in Iceland.
December 16, 0882	Pope John VIII died.
December 16, 0882	Marinus I was elected pope
May 15, 0884	Pope Marinus I died.
May 17, 0884	Adrian III was elected pope.
September 14, 0891	Pope Stephen V died.
October 06, 0891	Formosus was elected pope, but after his death things really got strange.
April 04, 0896	Pope Formosus died.
0900	Mayans emigrated to Yucatan Peninsula.
January 29, 0904	Sergius III was consecrated as pope. Sergius inaugurated a violent and corrupt era of the papacy - so much so that the decades following his reign came to be called the "pornocracy" of the papacy.
0910	The Benedictine monastery of Cluny in Burgundy becomes a place of monastic reform. The two major innovations here are the direct subjection of monasteries to the pope (avoiding the oversight of secular, local and ecclesiastical powers) and the building of "daughter monasteries" subordinate to the Cluniac "family," which grew to sixty-seven monasteries by 1049 CE.
January 04, 911	Pope Sergius III died. Sergius had inaugurated a violent and corrupt era of the papacy - so much so that the decades following his reign came to be called the "pornocracy" of the papacy.
0930	Under Otto I, the Holy Roman Empire was officially revived.
0936	The Althing, the oldest body of representative government in Europe, is established in Iceland by the Vikings.
May 10, 0946	Agapitus II was elected pope .
c. 0950	Catholicism becomes prevalent and dominant religion throughout Europe.
0950	According to traditional historiography, Europe enters Dark Ages.
December 16, 0955	Pope John XII, just 18 years old, was elected pope on the orders of Duke Alberic II of Spoleto, ruler Rome and his father. John's reign lasted nine years, and it is believed that he died in the arms of his mistress.
February 02, 0962	Pope John XII crowned German King Otto I Emperor.
December 04, 0963	Pope John XII died.
December 06, 0963	Leo VIII was elected pope.
March 01, 0965	Pope Leo VIII died.
October 01, 0965	John XIII was elected pope.
May 22, 0966	Benedict V elected pope.
July 04, 0966	Pope Benedict V died in Hamburg, Germany.
January 18, 0973	Benedict VI was elected pope.
September 06, 0973	Pope John XIII died.
0981	Eric the Red is exiled from Iceland and settles in a new land he called Greenland in order to attract settlers.
0988	Vladimir I (c. 0956 - 1015), grand duke of Kiev, declares Eastern Orthodox Christianity the official state religion of Russia and the conversion of the Russian populace begins.
January 29, 0993	St. Ulrich (c. 890-973), Bishop of Augsburg from, was canonized by Pope John XV. Ulrich became the first person formally elevated to sainthood.
0995	Japanese literary and artistic golden age begins under Emperor Fujiwara Michinaga (ruled 0995 - 1028).
May 03, 0996	Gregory V was elected pope.
May 21, 0996	Pope Gregory V crowned Otto III as Emperor.
February 04, 0999	Pope Gregory V may have died (February 18 also sometimes listed as the date of his death).
February 18, 0999	Pope Gregory V may have died (February 04 also sometimes listed as the date of his death).
April 02, 0999	Sylvester II was elected pope.
c. 1000	Scandinavia and Hungary convert to Christianity.
c. 1000	Chinese perfect the production and use of gunpowder.
c. 1000	Church leaders begin building the massive cathedrals which would come to characterize European Christianity throughout the Middle Ages.
June 21, 1002	Pope Leo IX is born in Egisheim, Germany.
May 12, 1003	Pope Sylvester II died.
1009	The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is destroyed by Muslim armies.
1012	Germany begins to persecute heretics.
May 12, 1012	Pope Sergius IV died.
May 17, 1012	Benedict VIII was elected pope.
February 14, 1014	Pope Benedict VIII crowned Henry II as emperor.
1021	Caliph al-Hakim proclaimed himself to be divine and founded the Druze sect.
April 09, 1024	Pope Benedict VIII died.
May 18, 1024	Benedict VIII was installed as pope.
May 01, 1045	Gregory VI was elected pope.
September 20, 1045	Sylvester III was elected pope. Today he is regarded as an antipope.
March 03, 1046	Antipope Sylvester III died. After a Roman mob drove Pope Benedict IX out of Rome, they chose Sylvester in his place. Sylvester was driven out of Rome by Benedict's supporters and Sylvester's supporters sold the papacy to Giovanni Graziano, who became Pope Gregory VI. Sylvester recognized Gregory as the legitimate pope and returned to his old bishopric of Sabina.
December 20, 1046	At the Synod of Sutri, German king Henry III removed Popes Gregory VI, Benedict IX and Sylvester III, naming Bishop Siutger Pope Clement II in their place.
December 20, 1046	Pope Gregory VI was forced to resign due to scandals.
December 25, 1046	Clement II was elected pope.
October 09, 1047	Pope Clement II died.
July 17, 1048	Damasus II was installed as pope.
August 09, 1048	Pope Damasus II died.
February 12, 1049	Leo IX was elected pope.
1050 - 1200	The first agricultural revolution of Medieval Europe begins in 1050 CE with a shift to the northern lands for cultivation, a period of improved climate from 700 CE to 1200 CE in western Europe, and the widespread use and perfection of new farming devices. Technological innovations include the use of the heavy plow, the three-field system of crop rotation, the use of mills for processing cloth, brewing beer, crushing pulp for paper manufacture, and the widespread use of iron and horses. With an increase in agricultural advancements, Western towns and trade grow exponentially and Western Europe returns to a money economy.
April 25, 1050	Pope Leo IX held an Easter Synod to discuss the teachings of Berengar of Tours.
November 11, 1050	Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV was born. Henry played a major role in the Investiture Conflict, a disagreement between the papacy and secular rulers which was part of a wider conflict over the relationship between church and state.
June 15, 1053	Forces led by Pope Leo IX were defeated in a battle against the Normans.
March 12, 1054	Pope Leo IX escaped captivity and returned to Rome
April 19, 1054	Pope Leo IX died.
July 16, 1054	The Western Christian Church, in an effort to further enhance its power, had tried to impose Latin rites on Greek churches in southern Italy in 1052; as a consequence, Latin churches in Constantinople were closed. In the end, this led to the excommunication of Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople (who in turn excommunicated Pope Leo IX). Although generally regarded as a minor event at the time, today it is treated as the final event that sealed the Great Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity.
April 15, 1055	Victor II was installed as pope.
July 28, 1057	Pope Victor II died.
August 02, 1057	Stephen X (IX) was elected pope.
March 29, 1058	Pope Stephen X (IX) died.
December 06, 1058	Nicholas II was elected pope.
1059	The College of Cardinals is established as the body responsible for electing popes.
April 13, 1059	Pope Nicholas II decreed that future popes could only be elected by cardinals.
August 27, 1061	Pope Nicholas II died.
December 28, 1065	Westminster Abbey was consecrated.
February 28, 1066	Westminster Abbey opened.
September 29, 1066	William the Conqueror invades England and claims the English throne at the Battle of Hastings. Because William is both the King of England and the Duke of Normandy, The Norman Conquest fuses French and English cultures. The language of England evolves into Middle English with an English syntax and grammar and a heavily French vocabulary.
1071	Turkish armies are victorious over Byzantine forces in the Battle of Manzikert, leading to a sharp decline in the power of the .
June 22, 1073	Gregory VII was elected pope. Gregory undertook important reforms in the Church, one of the most important of which was his insistence on papal primacy over secular rulers when it came to the investiture of clergy. This, in turn, led to one of the most serious conflicts between church and state during the Middle Ages.
1074	Pope Gregory VII excommunicates all married priests.
1075	The Investiture fight begins between Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman emperor Henry VI (1050 - 1106). Gregory denies Henry the traditional right to appoint bishops. Henry does not accept this quietly and so was eventually excommunicated and deposed in 1077, but Henry and his supporters, along with an army, drove Gregory into exile during an invasion of Italy (1081 - 1083).
1076	First recorded execution in England by the ax: the Earl of Huntingdon.
January 01, 1076	During his conflict with Pope Gregory VII over lay investiture, Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV persuaded 26 bishops to refuse obedience to the Gregory.
January 24, 1076	Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV wrote a letter to Pope Gregory VII, condemning him as a usurper of the papacy because of his insistence that only the pope could invest clergy.
February 14, 1076	Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry IV because of his refusal to accept Gregory's position that secular rulers should not be allowed to invest clergy.
September 24, 1076	At the Synod of Worms, German King Henry IV declared that Gregory VII was no longer pope.
January 28, 1077	Henry IV submitted to Pope Gregory VII, briefly ending the conflict over lay investiture.
September 21, 1077	German King Heinrich IV traveled to Canossa to ask for forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII.
1080	Order of the Hospital of St. John is founded in Italy. This special order of knights was dedicated to guarding a pilgrim hospital, or hostel, in Jerusalem.
March 31, 1084	Anti-pope Clement III crowned German emperor Henry IV.
1085	Christians conquered Toledo and began the process of re-Christianizing the Iberian Peninsula.
May 25, 1085	Pope Gregory VII died.
May 24, 1086	Abbott Dauferio (Desiderius) was elected Pope Victor III.
August 11, 1086	Heinrich V, eventual Holy Roman Emperor, was born. Heinrich was successful in the Investiture Conflict by arresting the pope and holding him prisoner until Heinrich's demands were met.
September 16, 1087	Pope Victor III died.
March 12, 1088	Urban II was elected pope.
1090 - 1155	Life of Arnold of Brescia. He first gained prominence in a struggle at Brescia between the bishop and the city government, but he became sharply critical of the church, declaring that secular powers only ought to hold property; he opposed the possession of property by the church because he believed it was being tainted by its temporal power. At the Synod of Sens (1140), dominated by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Arnold and Peter Abelard were adjudged to be in error. Abelard submitted, but Arnold continued to preach. Pope Innocent II ordered Arnold exiled and his books burned. In 1155 he was tried by the Roman Curia as a political rebel (not a heretic) and executed by secular authorities. To the end he was idolized by the Roman populace.
December 04, 1093	Anselm became Archbishop of Canterbury.
November 18, 1095	Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont.
November 27, 1095	Pope Urban II called for the Crusade in a famous speech at the Council of Clermont.
1096 - 1099	First Crusade is carried out in an effort to aid Byzantine Christians against Muslim invaders.
May 18, 1096	Crusaders massacred Jews in Worms, Germany.
July 12, 1096	Crusaders under the leadership of Peter the Hermit reached Sofia, Hungary.
June 19, 1097	Crusaders captured Antioch after a long siege. This had delayed progress towards Jerusalem by a year.
June 26, 1097	Armies of the First Crusade captured the Byzantine city of Nicea.
July 01, 1097	Crusaders defeated Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea.
October 20, 1097	The first Crusaders arrived at Antioch
March 21, 1098	The monastery in Citeaux, France was founded by St. Robert, marking the beginning of the Roman Catholic Cistercian religious order.
June 03, 1098	Armies of the First Crusade captured the city of Antioch (located in modern Syria).
June 07, 1099	Armies of the First Crusade reached the walls of Jerusalem.
July 08, 1099	Christian soldiers on the First Crusade marched around the city of Jerusalem.
July 13, 1099	Armies of the first Crusade launched a final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
July 15, 1099	Crusaders captured and plundered Jerusalem, killing an estimated 40,000 residents.
July 16, 1099	Crusaders herded Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it on fire.
July 29, 1099	Pope Urban II died. Urban followed the lead set by his predecessor, Gregory VII, by working to enhance the power of the papacy against the power of secular rulers. He is also known for having initiated the first of the Crusades against Muslim powers in the Middle East.
August 13, 1099	Paschal II elected pope. Paschal was imprisoned in 1111 by Henry V until he agreed to permit lay investiture, but Paschal repudiated his agreement in 1118.
September 13, 1099	Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria.
1100	The Polynesian islands are first colonized.
1100	A new asceticism is sought for monks who wish to engage in contemplation and self-examination. Two new orders are created: the Carthusian and the Cistercian. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, leader of the Cistercians, establishes 343 monasteries before he dies. Accompanying the fervent worship of Jesus during this period is the pronouncement of the Virgin Mary as a saint. This is the first time a woman was given such central significance in Christianity.
1100 - 1300	Construction of the famous cathedral in Chartres, France.
September 08, 1100	Anti-pope Clement III died.

Color Key: This chart explains which sorts of topics are given which colors in the chronologies.

Color	Topic
Blue	Councils, Synods, Bulls, and other official church decisions.
Yellow	Violence: Crusades, wars, insurrections, and other acts of violence.
Green	Popes: births, deaths, elections, and other actions important to the papacy.
Orange	Heresies, schisms, and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.
Purple	Jews: acts of antisemitism and persecution against the Jews
Red	Other: various events important to the development of medieval Christianity.
Grey	Miscellaneous events to provide historical context and comparison

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