Expression

Lotario dei Conti di Segni became Pope Innocent III in 1198 at just 37 years old, and during his eighteen-year reign (1198–1216) the medieval papacy reached the summit of its power and prestige. A brilliant lawyer and theologian trained at Paris and Bologna, Innocent saw the pope as the moral arbiter of Christendom — the one who, as Christ's vicar, could call kings to account before God's law. And he largely made it so. He compelled King John of England and King Philip of France to submit to his judgments, placing whole kingdoms under interdict (a suspension of most sacraments) when rulers defied him. He confirmed the new orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, recognizing the spiritual renewal they brought — a wise act, since he saw that the Church's strength lay in holiness, not just authority. His crowning achievement was the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, one of the most important councils of the Middle Ages, which defined Catholic doctrine (including the word 'transubstantiation' for the Eucharist), required Catholics to confess and receive Communion at least once a year, and reformed Church discipline. Innocent also called the Fourth Crusade, which went tragically astray and sacked Christian Constantinople in 1204 — a disaster he condemned but could not prevent, a sobering reminder that even powerful popes could not control the forces they set in motion. Innocent III shows the medieval ideal of a Christendom united under spiritual leadership, at its most fully realized — and its limits.

Just as Gothic cathedrals reached new heights in stone, medieval music reached new heights in sound. At the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris around 1170–1200, two composers whose names we actually know — Léonin and his successor Pérotin — created the most sophisticated polyphony the world had yet heard, the music of the 'Notre-Dame school.' Building on the organum you studied last week, they layered not just two but three and four independent voices over a slow-moving chant 'tenor.' Pérotin's 'Viderunt omnes' soars in four voices, the upper parts shimmering and weaving while the bottom voice holds each chant note for an astonishingly long time — music designed to fill the vast new Gothic space and lift the soul toward heaven, the audible equivalent of light streaming through stained glass. Around the same time, a remarkable woman composed music unlike anything else of her age: St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), a German Benedictine abbess, mystic, writer, healer, and visionary. Her sacred songs, with their long, soaring, ecstatic melodic lines, seem to rise endlessly upward; she described her music as the very 'symphony of the harmony of heaven.' One of the few named composers before the modern era — and a woman in a male-dominated age — Hildegard was named a Doctor of the Church in 2012. Together, the architects of Notre-Dame's polyphony and the visionary Hildegard show medieval sacred music at its most glorious.

This week's writing assignment, 'The Bible in Stone,' asks you to do two things well at once: DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN. Description appeals to the senses — it makes a reader see, hear, and feel. Explanation answers 'why' and 'what it means.' A strong piece of writing about a cathedral needs both: not just 'the windows are blue and beautiful' (description), but 'the windows glow deep blue because medieval builders believed colored light was a glimpse of the divine' (explanation). Your task: choose Chartres or Notre-Dame de Paris, then write two paragraphs. The first paragraph describes — put your reader inside the cathedral, looking up at the impossible height, watching colored light fall across the stone floor, hearing footsteps echo. Use concrete sensory details. The second paragraph explains — why did they build so high? Why fill it with light and stained glass? How was it 'the Bible in stone' for people who could not read? Weave in at least two adjective or adverb clauses from this week's grammar (for example: 'the cathedral that rose at Chartres,' or 'because the builders longed for heaven') and underline them. Begin drafting today and finish as carry-over work. Read it aloud: can your listener both see the cathedral and understand why it was built?

Return to St. Francis, who began the week. In an age when the Church was rich and powerful — the age of mighty cathedrals and a pope who humbled kings — Francis chose nothing: no money, no property, only Christ. Yet Pope Innocent III, at the height of his power, recognized and blessed Francis's little band, sensing that the Church's true strength lay in such holiness. And it was Francis who, in 1223, built the first Nativity scene at Greccio so that simple people could 'see with their own eyes' the poverty into which Christ was born. As Advent moves toward Christmas, that crèche is Francis's gift to us: a hope made visible. The greatest cathedral and the poorest stable both point to the same coming King.