Trending in the 10th Century

We're going to start a new series that we will be returning to from time to time. The series is called "Trending." But rather than looking at what's trending in the next hour or even in the next five minutes, as our culture may have it, let's talk about what was trending for a century. The first century we are going to look at is the tenth. What was trending in the tenth century? What big movement or big idea dominated the discussion and left its mark? You could probably make a case for any number of things, but I want to talk about Cluny. Cluny was a monastery in France. Early in the tenth century, the leaders who established that monastery saw it as a place of significant reform for the church.

By the tenth century, the church had seen significant cultural decline. The previous century saw the Vikings roaming and pillaging and destroying virtually everything they could. Toward the end of that century, many of those Norse leaders converted to Christianity and settled down, but there remained the wake of the carnage that had been inflicted. The tenth century was also a time of spiritual upheaval, as the papacy was entering into a period of intense decline.

And so, the monastery at Cluny was established to get the church back on track and as movement of reform. Among the many leaders at Cluny, one stands out: Odo. His tenure at Cluny ran from 927 to 942. He stressed a return to the Benedictine rule, which brought an intense structure with an emphasis on work and prayer to monastic life. He also focused on worship and introduced significant art into the structures of churches in the tenth century, so that that art could aid in worship. He was very much committed to the idea of beauty and bringing beauty into worship.

The influence of the monastery at Cluny spread throughout the land, and over the next two centuries, one thousand monastic houses were established from the leadership at Cluny. So, one of the significant factors and movements that trended in the tenth century was the monastery at Cluny.

We should also note a few honorable mentions. One comes near the very end of the tenth century, and that is the baptism of Vladimir the Great, the grand prince of Kiev. Vladimir was baptized in 988. Christianity had come to Russia in the early 900s but Vladimir was a committed pagan, and he has a colorful history. His brothers were involved in killing each other so that they could take over the throne. In the wake of all that, Vladimir fled to Scandinavia, but then he was able to return, and he assumed his role as the grand prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015. And he needed to settle on a religion. He sent his counselors out to review the religions of Islam and Judaism but he settled on Christianity. And much of the reason why was because of what was happening in Cluny and the emphasis on beauty. So, Vladimir was baptized in 988, and while much of Russia was already accepting Christianity, his baptism accelerated the acceptance of Christianity in the lands of Russia.

One final honorable mention is the year 1000. The coming of the new millennium spread a great deal of doom as the end of the world was assumed to be coming. It was a time of intense apocalyptic speculation. So those were some of the things trending in the tenth century.