Skills

Pray the Apostles' Creed slowly together, listening for the line 'I believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.' Then quickly review from Monday: What are the four marks of the Church? (One, holy, catholic, apostolic.) What does 'catholic' mean? (Universal — for all people, everywhere.) What does 'apostolic' mean? (Built on the apostles, handed down unbroken to today's bishops and pope.) The Creed we pray is itself a thread of apostolic continuity reaching back to the early Church you have been studying.

A PHRASE is a group of related words that does NOT contain both a subject and a verb (so it is not a complete thought). The most common is the PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE, which begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun called its OBJECT. Pattern: preposition + (modifiers) + object. Examples: 'in the catacombs,' 'under Justinian,' 'of the Church,' 'to the emperor.' Prepositional phrases do one of two jobs in a sentence. (1) As an ADJECTIVE PHRASE, it modifies a noun or pronoun, answering 'which one?' or 'what kind?' — 'The mosaics OF RAVENNA glittered.' (Of Ravenna tells which mosaics.) (2) As an ADVERB PHRASE, it modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb, answering 'how? when? where? why?' — 'Justinian ruled FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.' (From Constantinople tells where he ruled.) The trick: find the preposition, find its object, then ask what word the whole phrase describes. If it describes a noun, it is adjectival; if it describes a verb (or adjective/adverb), it is adverbial. Worked examples: 'The dome OF HAGIA SOPHIA floats.' — adjective phrase (which dome?). 'The Visigoths marched INTO ROME.' — adverb phrase (marched where?).

By the late 300s the Roman Empire was permanently split into two administrative halves, divided by a line running roughly down through the Balkans. The WESTERN Empire was Latin-speaking, ruled from Rome (later Ravenna), and included Italy, Gaul, Hispania, Britannia, and North Africa — this is the half that fell to the barbarian kingdoms by 476. The EASTERN Empire was Greek-speaking, ruled from Constantinople, and included Greece, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt — this is the Byzantine half that survived. Look closely at Constantinople's location and you will see why it endured for a thousand years: it sits on a peninsula guarding the narrow Bosphorus strait, the gateway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and between Europe and Asia. Protected by water on three sides and, later, by the mighty Theodosian Walls, it was almost impossible to capture. As the West fragmented, new Germanic kingdoms appeared on the map: the Visigoths in Spain, the Franks in Gaul, the Ostrogoths (then Lombards) in Italy, the Vandals in North Africa, the Angles and Saxons in Britain. Drawing this map shows at a glance the answer to the week's question: the West shattered into kingdoms while the East held together around its impregnable capital.

From memory, write whether each was Latin or Greek and where it was ruled from: the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire. Then write one original sentence containing a prepositional phrase and label the phrase ADJ or ADV.