Download High Middle Ages - Marshall Community Schools

The High Middle Ages
and the
Apex of Church Power
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• The Crossbow: Weapon of the Devil
• In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a papal bull or a religious law or ruling,
forbidding the use of crossbows.
• According to Webster, a crossbow is a weapon for shooting quarrels that
consists of a short bow mounted crosswise near the end of a stock.
• According to the Pope, the crossbow was an instrument of Satan, hateful
to God and unfit for Christians.
• So what was the Pope's beef with the crossbow?
• To a modern audience, a ban on a lethal weapon does not seem so
strange.
• Maybe the Pope just wanted to reduce bloodshed among Christians, yet
such a ban was unheard of in the 12th century.
• The Church clearly had no problem with Christian violence.
• They'd already sent the rulers of Europe on one crusade at the end
of the 11th century and would do so twice more in the 12th century
alone.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• The Crossbow: Weapon of the Devil
• So how do we explain this unprecedented prohibition on the
crossbow?
• The answer is simple: the crossbow threatened to undermine
the very foundations of medieval society.
• Crossbow vs. Armored Knight
• You see, before the crossbow came on the scene, the ultimate killing
machine in Western Europe was the armored knight.
• Their mounts made them quick and maneuverable, while their
armor made them nearly invincible.
• The only force that could challenge an armored knight was another
armored knight.
• However, these knights were dreadfully expensive to outfit and maintain.
• The knights themselves required nearly a decade of training.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• Crossbow vs. Armored Knight
• Their arms and armor required skilled craftsmen and lots of metal,
and their horses consumed vast amounts of food.
• By contrast, a crossbowman didn't require much training at all.
• With its simple point-and-click interface, a couple of weeks was all it
took to master the crossbow.
• A crossbow is a relatively cheap piece of equipment.
• It requires very little metal, especially compared to a full set of
plate armor.
• Most importantly, using a crossbow doesn't entail feeding a horse all
year just to go to battle for a couple weeks.
• Yet that was not the worst of it.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• Crossbow vs. Armored Knight
• For you see, the crossbow packs a great deal of punch into a bolt enough punch, in fact, to pierce through plate armor, the very thing
that made the armored knight seem invincible.
• This meant that a knight - a member of the nobility, Europe's
apex warrior - with his expensive armor, horse, and a lifetime of
training could be brought down by a peasant with a week's
training and a crossbow.
• The Armored Knight's Importance to Feudal Society
• Big deal, you might say; new technology replaces old technology.
• This sort of thing happens so much in our world today that it's hard to
remember that entire ways of life can come to be built upon a technology
and its replacement can upset an entire civilization.
• Such was the case in Medieval Europe.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• The Armored Knight's Importance to Feudal Society
• The overturn of the armored knight would not have been such a big
deal were it not for the fact that Charlemagne had engineered the
entire feudal system for the purpose of generating armored knights
for his army.
• In the Roman Empire, membership in the aristocracy had been
limited to those from ancient families - or those with enormous
wealth and land that went with being from an ancient family.
• In Charlemagne's time, all the ancient families were dead and
forgotten, what wealth there was had long been pillaged, and
the land was an open frontier, owned by no man.
• Recognizing the importance of the armored knight in warfare
and having limited resources at his disposal, Charlemagne had
taken his greatest and most loyal warriors and made an
aristocracy of them by giving them plots of land to rule, or fiefs.
• These fiefs were enough to support the newly made lord,
allowing him to train and outfit knights.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• The Armored Knight's Importance to Feudal Society
• In exchange for his fief, the feudal lord provided armored
knights and foot soldiers to his king when he called.
• This feudal system allowed Charlemagne to call on a powerful
army without having to outfit and train them himself.
• Thus, in essence, the entire aristocracy of Medieval Europe owed their
lofty position to the importance of knights on the battlefield.
• If a peasant with a crossbow could take down an aristocratic knight,
what was the point in having aristocrats?
• What purpose did the aristocracy serve any longer?
• A New Opportunity for Kings
• This very question was being asked in the courts of kings across Europe.
• You see, kings have always had a sort of love/hate relationship with their
feudal lords.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• Yes, it is nice to have an army of invincible killing machines at your
beck and call, especially one that you don't have to pay for.
• The problem is that the knights and armsmen of feudal lords are
loyal to their feudal lord, who supported and trained them, not to
their king, who just calls upon them.
• This made it very hard for a king to enforce his will on his lords, since
they were all quite heavily armed and nearly as powerful as the king
himself.
• Thus, feudal lords were as dangerous a weapon as they were useful.
• Push one too hard, and your own sword could turn on you.
• Of course, a king would have knights and soldiers of his own, but the cost
of outfitting and maintaining knights was so cripplingly expensive that a
king would bankrupt himself trying to build an army on his own.
• The best he could hope for was enough of an advantage over his
lords to intimidate them into falling in line.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• With the crossbow, all of that changed.
• A king could outfit a company of crossbowmen at a fraction of
the cost of a cavalry unit.
• They did not even have to be trained; any old peasant could do
it.
• All you had to do was give him a crossbow, feed him when
there was fighting to be done, and then set him back to hoeing
fields when the war was over.
• This made crossbowmen an excellent alternative to knights,
and kings began building large armies of cheap crossbowmen.
• This, in turn, gave kings a lot more power to enforce their
will on the nobility.
• If a noble wanted to lead his armored knights in rebellion,
the king had an army of crossbowmen to mow those
lovely knights down.
* The Return of the Crossbow and Its Implications for Europe
• This did not mean that the aristocracy was no longer needed.
• Centuries had entrenched the feudal system as the most
effective form of administration for a kingdom.
• Kings needed their lords to help them rule their countries.
• It did not even mean that knights were no longer needed.
• Armored knights continued to charge across medieval
battlefields for centuries to come.
• Armored cavalry remained an important part of every
medieval army until the ascent of gunpowder in the 15th
century.
• What the ascension of the crossbow meant was that knights
were no longer as important as they used to be, and kings
gained more authority and power over their feudal lords.
* The Great Schicm
• Definition of Great Schism
• I have a pastor friend who served at a church that actually split over the color
of carpet.
• One group wanted blue, the other brown, and unable to compromise,
they actually went their separate ways.
• Although splitting over carpet might be a bit uncommon (and rather
ridiculous), church splits aren't.
• They've been happening for generations and generations, beginning with the
Great Schism.
• The Great Schism of 1054, also known as the 'East-West Schism,' divided
Christianity, creating Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
• Although 1054 is the official date of this divide, tensions between
the East and the West had been brewing for years.
* The Great Schicm
• Definition of Great Schism
• To understand what caused the final split, we're going to take a
look at the political upheaval and cultural differences of the
East and the West.
• We'll then tackle the straw that broke the camel's back: Papal
authority, or in other words, the 'power of the Pope.'
• For the medieval church, this was their 'color of the
carpet' issue - the one thing they just couldn't compromise
on and the one thing that led to the official split.
• Political and Cultural Disunity
• In around the year 330, Constantine moved the political capital of the Roman
Empire from Rome to Constantinople.
• From there, he managed to rule the entire empire.
• However, this was no easy task, and soon the empire broke down into
Western and Eastern Empires, each with their own emperors.
* The Great Schicm
• Political and Cultural Disunity
• In fact, Theodosius, who died in 395 AD, was the last emperor to
rule over both halves.
• Although the two halves seemed to be separated politically, the
Christian Church still tried to maintain its power, a task which was
extremely difficult at best!
• With their own emperors, and being separated by geography, the
two halves grew further and further apart.
• Making matters worse, the Western Empire (Rome and its
surrounding areas) were continually invaded by the barbarians
from the North, while the Eastern Empire (now known as the
Byzantine Empire) thrived.
• Adding to the disunity, the Church cultures of the East and West had
become vastly different.
• While the Western Empire clung to Latin, the Eastern Church
adopted Greek.
* The Great Schicm
• Political and Cultural Disunity
• Before long, even the Eastern Bishops no longer spoke
Latin, and the Western Church had never used Greek in its
ceremony.
• As the language barrier grew, so did the differences in
church practices.
• For instance, the two couldn't agree on which type of
bread to use in communion, leavened or unleavened.
• The Eastern Church also vehemently disagreed with the
addition of the Filioque clause, (We believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the
Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is
adored and glorified.) which dealt with the authority of
the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the
Spirit - into the Nicene Creed, or the Church's statement of
faith
* The Great Schicm
• Political and Cultural Disunity
• Although it was eventually added, the East refused to
accept it.
• Although this issue wasn't as big of a deal as the
power of the Papacy, it caused some real tensions
and was a precursor of things to come.
• This leads us to the biggest point of contention: the power of the Papacy.
• Power of the Papacy
• To explain, from the beginning of the Church, three bishops were recognized
as the head guys in charge.
• They were the Bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch.
• Although these three were all very powerful, everyone knew and accepted
that the Bishop of Rome (a.k.a the Pope), was the main man, being known as
'the first among equals.'
* The Great Schicm
• Power of the Papacy
• Now, in around 451, these three were joined by the Bishops of Constantinople
and Jerusalem.
• This made sense, as the political capital of the Empire had been moved
from Rome to Constantinople over a hundred years before.
• After all, if the East claimed political power, they should also have a few
bishops.
• However, the religious power was still considered to be in the West, and
the Pope was still considered to be the head honcho. (Pontificus
Maximus)
• Unfortunately, the Eastern Bishops didn't quite see it this way.
• When the Pope tried to fold them into his robes of authority, the
Eastern Bishops gave a stern, 'No, thank you!‘
* The Great Schicm
• Power of the Papacy
• Instead, they told the Pope they'd respect his position as the
honorary head of the Church, but when it came to real decision
making, they would take it from here.
• The East even went as far as calling their Bishop of
Constantinople the ecumenical patriarch, meaning
'universal patriarch.'
• As you can guess, the Pope and his Western cronies were
highly insulted and ready for a fight!
• Schism Officially Occurs
• With no compromise in sight, things went from bad to worse.
• Divided by language and entrenched in separate cultures, the frustration
of who was in charge was too much.
* The Great Schicm
• Schism Officially Occurs
• In 1054, the power struggle bubbled over when the Patriarch of
Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, dared to condemn some of the
religious practices of the Western Church.
• He even went as far as to close down Eastern churches that
followed the same practices.
• Now these were fighting actions, and soon the office of Pope
Leo IX and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated
each other.
• In other words, they said to each other, 'I'm in charge, and
to prove it, I'm going to kick you out of the church.'
• Unwilling to compromise, and definitely unwilling to step aside,
the two parties took their proverbial toys, their proverbial
carpets and went home.
• Thus, the Great Schism officially occurred, forming two distinct Churches
within Christianity: Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
* Organization of the Roman Catholic Latin Church
• Introduction to Clergy
• It's been said that every society needs structure in order to survive.
• In other words, someone's got to be in charge.
• If not, chaos ensues.
• After the 5th century fall of Rome, Europe found itself in just that - chaos.
• To fill the power void, the Medieval Church stepped up to give society
order.
• In this lesson, we're going to explore this order-giving institution by discussing
the hierarchy of power within the Church itself.
• Starting at the bottom and working our way to the top, we'll discuss the role
of the Church's clergy, or those who held religious responsibilities and duties.
• Although there are many sets and subsets within this group, we'll stick
with these main categories: priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and
Popes.
* The Great Schicm
• Introduction to Clergy
• In other words, we'll go from the village priest to the Pope himself!
• Priests
• First, there were the priests.
• Priests were in charge of the individual parishes, or a small church area
or district.
• These guys (and I do mean guys; there were no women priests), were the
ones who had face-to-face interaction with the community.
• They provided sacraments, or religious ceremonies and rites, to the
common people of the day.
• Dressed very plainly in unadorned robes, they held mass, kept
church records and visited the sick.
• Adding to their duties, they collected church taxes and used them to
feed the poor.
* The Great Schicm
• Priests
• First, there were the priests.
• In short, they were the church's hands and feet to the people, the
workhorses of the day.
• Bishops and Archbishops
• Moving up the clergy ladder were the bishops.
• Unlike the priests, bishops usually came from some money and some
power.
• Overseeing several parishes, which made up a diocese, bishops usually
dressed rather lavishly, often looking more like feudal lords than
clergymen.
• Many even ruled from their very own castles and compounds.
* The Great Schicm
• Bishops and Archbishops
• While the priests were visiting the sick and the poor, bishops were
often found socializing at royal courts and trying their hand in
politics.
• In fact, during the Middle Ages, all courts were mandated to
have a bishop with whom the king was forced to consult.
• Not all fun and games; bishops also settled conflicts pertaining to
serious issues, such as church discipline, marriage and annulments,
while also levying taxes on the people.
• On an official level, they were also supposed to see to the needs of
the priests, sort of acting like a support system and advisor.
• Next were the archbishops.
• The archbishop is the chief bishop with power over several dioceses
combined to create an archdiocese.
* The Great Schicm
• Bishops and Archbishops
• In other words, these guys were the top bishops of a designated
area or country.
• Their job description was very much the same as a bishop, but their word
held more force and power.
• To put it in modern terms, we could kind of call them the captains of
the bishop squad.
• Yes, they were all players, but the archbishops had bigger
megaphones!
• Cardinals
• After archbishops, we come to cardinals.
• Cardinals were the most important, senior archbishops.
• Numbering no more than 24 during the Medieval period, Cardinals
were originally the senior clergy within the Diocese of Rome.
* The Great Schicm
• Cardinals
• However, during the Middle Ages, senior bishops outside of Rome
could also become cardinals.
• As the word 'cardinal' actually means 'hinge,' the cardinals
supported the Pope.
• When a Pope died, the cardinals took over the administration of the
church.
• Even more important, the cardinals held the power of choosing the
next Pope, a responsibility they still carry today.
• Pope
• And this finally brings us to the Pope.
• The Pope is also known as the 'Bishop of Rome.'
• Believed to be the successor of St. Peter himself, the Pope was and is the
earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church.
* The Great Schicm
• Pope
• As the head of the Medieval Church, the Pope made the final decision on
the teachings of the Church.
• The Pope also got to decide who were the friends and enemies of the
Church.
• Furthermore, it was within his prerogative to excommunicate anyone he felt
was not living in accordance with church laws.
• Since it was believed that excommunication led to eternal damnation,
this power gave the Pope a strong hold over the Church and its people.
• Along with his religious duties, the Pope also held secular power.
• Medieval Popes governed Rome.
• Even more powerful than the kings of the day, Popes even had
armies of their own, wielding military might to crush their enemies,
while also holding the power to make economic and political
alliances.
* The Investiture Conflict
• Introduction to the Conflict
• The Investiture Conflict of the 11th and 12th centuries is one of the most
important controversies ever to arise between church and state.
• Ironically, it's hardly known among the masses.
• In order to help it stick, and to give you a frame of reference, I'm going to
use a ridiculous teenage drama.
• During my cousin's daughter’s senior year of high school, the captain
of the cheerleaders fell and broke her ankle.
• Unable to fulfill her duties, protocol was followed and the
cheerleading coach picked her replacement.
• This all sounds good until I tell you this: the coach was also one
of the cheerleaders' moms!
• Making matters worse, she bestowed the pom-pom of power
to her daughter, who wasn't even a senior!
* The Investiture Conflict
• Introduction to the Conflict
• Instantly, 12th grade attituide and pouts flooded the principal's
office, demanding the removal of the coach and the right to
choose their own senior captain!
• In reaction to this, and to prove her power, the cheerleading
coach decided to kick the rebelling seniors off the squad!
• Although this silly power struggle eventually resulted in nothing
more than some hurt feelings and tear-stained uniforms, it
oddly bears resemblance to the Investiture Conflict.
• The Conflict Begins
• To begin, the Investiture Conflict was a nasty conflict between the pope and
the Holy Roman Emperor over who held power to appoint or invest Church
officials.
• With this definition in mind, let's take a look at how things got rolling.
* The Investiture Conflict
• The Conflict Begins
• Traditionally, the power to appoint Church officials was held by secular
authorities whose rulers were not clergy and whose power was not
derived from a spiritual basis.
• In other words, kings and emperors, not the pope or bishops,
handed out places of power within the Church.
• The problem? Just like the cheerleading coach, the secular rulers usually
gave these power seats to family members or political cronies who would
follow their rules and play puppet whenever asked.
• Call for Reform
• Now, this isn't that big of a deal at the lower levels of Church hierarchy.
• However, when we realize the emperor had the right to appoint the pope, it's
pretty plain to see how much power accompanied the ceremony of
investiture.
* The Investiture Conflict
• The Conflict Begins
• Making things even more convoluted, the pope then got to turn around and
choose the next Holy Roman Emperor.
• In essence, the process became a giant political game of 'you scratch my
back, I'll scratch yours!'
• In the 11th Century, a group of Gregorian reformers, who believed the pope
should be under the authority of no human, and who were tired of outside
forces telling them who their leaders were to be, decided it was time for the
Church to take back its power.
• When the very young Henry IV, king of Germany, was crowned Holy Roman
Emperor, they saw it as their chance.
• After all, why should a little boy get to choose the next pope simply
because he wore a secular crown?
• Like the indignant cheerleaders who flooded the principal's office, the Church
officials gathered in Rome in the year 1059.
* The Investiture Conflict
• The Conflict Begins
• At this meeting, they issued a statement known as In Nomine Domini,
meaning 'In the name of the Lord.'
• In it, they stated secular rulers would no longer have any part in the
selection of the pope.
• Instead, a college of cardinals would choose who holds the
papacy, or office of the pope.
• Obviously, this college stuck, as it is still the modern day vehicle
for choosing a pope.
• Gregory VII vs. Henry IV
• In the year 1075, Pope Gregory VII took things a step further.
• In the Church statement known as the Dictatus Papae, the Church
completely eliminated the practice of secular investiture.
* The Investiture Conflict
• Gregory VII vs. Henry IV
• In other words, when it came to picking Church officials, the
emperor was off the squad!
• This bold move didn't sit so well with Henry IV, who was a young boy at
the time of the earlier In Nomine Domini statement, but who had now
grown-up.
• To put it mildly, he had no intention of giving up his power to choose
bishops.
• Yes, as a boy he'd lost the power to pick the Church's captain,
but as a man he sure wasn't going to give up the right to
choose its co-captains.
• Wasting no time, Henry IV penned a letter to Gregory VII, telling him in no
uncertain terms he was no longer pope, and he wasn't messing around!
• Listen to this translated excerpt from the letter he sent to Gregory VII: 'I,
Henry, king by the grace of God, with all my Bishops say unto you - Come
down, come down, and be accursed throughout the ages!'
* The Investiture Conflict
• Gregory VII vs. Henry IV
• Sadly for Henry IV, Pope Gregory VII was not in the mood to back
down.
• Rather than tucking his tale and running, the pope responded
by kicking the king out of the Church and deposing him as king
of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor!
• Of course, since neither party recognized the other's authority,
both their declarations were almost impossible to enforce.
• German Rebellion
• However, the pope got lucky on this one.
• When the power-hungry nobles of Germany realized the kingship was at
stake, they saw it as an opportunity to gain more land and power.
• Not wasting any time, they rebelled against their king, in a revolt known
as the Great Saxon Revolt.
* The Investiture Conflict
• German Rebellion
• The rebels even went as far as to elect a guy named Rudolf to be
their new king.
• With his country in chaos, Henry IV waved the white flag to the pope in the
year 1077.
• In a dramatic scene known as the Walk to Canossa, tradition tells us the
bedraggled king actually stood barefoot in the snow to apologize to Pope
Gregory VII.
• However, this apology was short-lived.
• In 1081 King Henry IV came back with a vengeance.
• He captured and killed the rebel king, Rudolf, and set his sights
on removing Gregory VII once and for all.
• When Henry IV invaded Rome, Pope Gregory VII made a fatal error.
* The Investiture Conflict
• German Rebellion
• In order to protect himself, he called on the Normans, or Vikings
from modern-day France, for help.
• Although these Vikings from the north did manage to ward off
Henry IV's forces, they also decided to rape and pillage Rome
and its people, making the pope, the guy who invited them in,
rather unpopular.
• With this, Pope Gregory VII was forced to flee Rome, in
essence, beating himself!
• After all the fighting for power, Pope Gregory VII died as an
exile in Norman lands.
• Sadly, neither his death nor the death of King Henry IV ended the Investiture
Conflict.
• Each of their successors picked up where their predecessors had left off.
* The Investiture Conflict
• German Rebellion
• Finally, in 1122, a compromise known as the Concordat of Worms was
reached.
• As a rather flimsy statement, it removed the secular right of
investiture, but gave secular leaders the right to have an unofficial
say in the appointment of Church officials.
• Sadly, this didn't really end the controversy.
• Disputes still arose, weakening the German lands and
disrupting the empire for years and years to come.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• My high school best friend works for a huge company that spans the nation.
• In order to keep everyone abreast of all the business dealings and
happenings, they have a yearly conference.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• Sort of like a pow-wow for all the higher ups.
• This year it was in Hawaii. I felt bad for the guy!
• Although not all organizations can afford to send everyone to paradise, the
idea of conferences is not a new thing.
• In fact, the Church has been holding conferences of sorts for centuries.
• They just call them councils.
• Today we're going to discuss some of the Church's most famous get
together pow-wows, or councils if you will.
• They are the known in history as the Lateran Councils.
• Their names are derived from the place in which they were held, the
Lateran Palace in Rome.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• In order to cement the discussions and decisions of each of these councils,
we're going to use the acronym R.A.C.E. In using this, we'll hope to make it
easier to remember why the leaders of the medieval church RACED to each of
these four councils.
• First Lateran Council
• Let's start with the First Lateran Council and the letter R.
• Held in the year 1123, this council was pretty much a review of
Church's laws and principle.
• Since it was really just a big review session, it doesn't get much
play or time in the history books.
• However, we do know things like the handling of church
property, the condemnation of simony, which was the selling of
church positions, and the fact that high-ranking clergy were
forbidden to marry were all discussed.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• First Lateran Council
• Hence, we give it the letter R.
• It was a review of Church canons, or laws and principles.
• Second Lateran Council
• Next, we have the Second Lateran Council.
• This one was held in the year 1139.
• It was called by Pope Innocent II in order to accuse and then
condemn a guy name Arnold of Brescia.
• This is where we get our letter A.
• The Second Lateran Council was called to accuse
Arnold of Brescia.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• In short, Arnold of Brescia dared to question the
power of the Pope, and obviously, the Pope wasn't
going to put up with it.
• Therefore, the Second Lateran Council was called to
put a stop to Arnold and his troublesome ideas.
• Third Lateran Council
• This brings us to the Third Lateran Council and the letter C.
• Held in the year 1179, this council was called into being by
Pope Alexander III.
• This council condemned what they considered a radical group
of Christians living in modern-day France known as the
Albigenses and Waldenses.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• The reason for this condemnation is that these radicals
actually had the nerve to say the Church had become
corrupt and that the Bible should be the rule of law for all
Christians!
• Along with the condemnation of these radicals, the Third
Council also stated the Pope could only be pope if he was
elected by a two-thirds majority of the College of
Cardinals.
• How fortuitous. This last point gives us more Cs by
which to remember the third Lateran Council.
•
It condemned some radicals and discussed the
voting practices of the College of Cardinals!
• Fourth Lateran Council
• With this, we come to the last of the Lateran Councils, the
Fourth Lateran Council.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• Fourth Lateran Council
• Now, this one was quite the occasion!
• In fact, taking place in the year 1215, it's considered
one of the most important councils of the Catholic
Church!
• Called to order during the reign of Pope Innocent III,
this council was extremely important, extremely well
attended and extreme in the number of decrees it
put forth.
• Hence, the reason we're giving it the letter E.
• As for attendance, the Fourth Lateran Council was
attended by over 800 abbots and 400 bishops.
• Adding to this, it also saw the attendance of several
European Kings.
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• Fourth Lateran Council
• As for the decrees it put forth - history tells us there
were 70, dealing from the way Jews were supposed
to dress to requiring all Catholics to practice
confession on a yearly basis.
• It also called for Catholics to partake of communion
during the Easter holiday.
• Not only was the Fourth Lateran Council extreme in
its attendance and extreme in its reforms, it also
discussed the expulsion of non-Christians from the
Holy Lands.
• In other words, it discussed a renewed passion for the
Crusades.
• Yet again a reason to remember it with the letter
E!
* The Latrean Councils
• The Councils
• Fourth Lateran Council
• It was extremely important. It was extremely well
attended, and it called for the expulsion of nonChristians from the Holy Lands.
• All and all, it was the epitome of a church council
and still considered one of the most important in
all of Church history.
• So many notables attended, and such a wide
range of intellectual topics were discussed and
debated, that many see this council as the
beginning of the intellectual rebirth of Western
Europe known as the Renaissance.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• There are several people from the era of the early middle ages who have
made their mark on the history books, despite the lack of accurate historical
records.
• Today we'll be discussing one of the most famous: William the
Conqueror.
• In order to understand his importance, let's take a look at the topsy-turvy
political structure of the Dark Ages.
• Born in Normandy, of modern-day France, William became Duke of Normandy
at a very early age.
• As duke, he set his sights on a unified Normandy under his power, and
accomplished this great task by about 1060 AD.
• Now remember, he did this during the Dark Ages, so obviously this
guy had some smarts and some military might.
• With all this going for him, he set his sights beyond Normandy.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• This leads us to his dealings with England.
• When Edward the Confessor, king of England, died in the year
1066, he left no heir to take the throne.
• However, William of Normandy was a relative of Edward,
and you better believe he was more than willing to wear
England's crown.
• Unfortunately for William, there were several other
English noblemen who felt they deserved the crown, the
most popular and powerful of whom was Harold
Godwinson.
• Making matters worse, the King of Norway - not
Normandy but NORWAY - also threw his hat in the
running!
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• Battle of Hastings
• When the people of England chose Harold Godwinson as their king, the
King of Norway invaded England.
• Seeing this, William the Conqueror devised a plan that gave history
one of its most famous battles - the Battle of Hastings.
• Realizing the new King Harold of England had his hands full
trying to ward off the King of Norway, William crossed the
English Channel and made camp near the city of Hastings.
• Harold was able to fight off the King of Norway, but tired and
worn, he then had to face William.
• William, on the other hand, was fresh and ready for battle.
• He had had time to set up archers and a well-oiled cavalry
of armed knights.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• Battle of Hastings
• When they finally met, Harold's tired foot soldiers were no
match for William's fighting arsenal.
• Poor King Harold was killed in battle, and William
conquered Harold's remaining forces at the Battle of
Hastings.
• He was crowned King of England on December 25th,
1066.
• Tapestry and Domesday Book
• Perhaps in one of the most famous pieces of art from the era, the Battle
of Hastings was captured by William's wife, and her royal ladies, in what
has come to be known as the Bayeux Tapestry.
• In this famous work, they wove dozens of scenes depicting William's
victory at the Battle of Hastings.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• Tapestry and Domesday Book
• Perhaps in one of the most famous pieces of art from the era, the Battle
of Hastings was captured by William's wife, and her royal ladies, in what
has come to be known as the Bayeux Tapestry.
• In this famous work, they wove dozens of scenes depicting William's
victory at the Battle of Hastings.
• Taking a decade to complete, the artful tapestry became a massive
(and by massive I mean approximately 20 inches high and about
230-some feet long) narrative of the famous battle.
• These women gave all of history an artful record of one of the most
famous men and battles of European History.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• Tapestry and Domesday Book
• Unfortunately for William and England, his rule didn't knit together as
nicely as the tapestry.
• He spent the beginning of his English reign trying to suppress
revolts.
• The revolts were so numerous he ordered what has come to be
known as the Harrying of the North, in which he ordered the
burning of farms, killing of livestock, and murder of many
across the English countryside.
• It's estimated this action saw the deaths of over 100,000
people.
• Adding to this atrocity, William also ordered a census of sorts
that included all of England.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• William I, Duke of Normandy
• Tapestry and Domesday Book
• This census recorded all the landholding of England: who
owned what land, what they owned on the land, what
livestock lived on the land, and even the equipment
owned was recorded.
• All of this was then compiled in what is known as the
Domesday Book.
• Ironically, the man who gained so much in war actually lost his life on the
battlefield.
• William the Conqueror died in 1087 while waging war in Northern
France.
• With this, his eldest son became Duke of Normandy, and his
second son, also William, became king of England.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Henry, II Plantagenet
• After William, II died, his brother Henry, I became king
• Henry’s daughter Matilda became Empress after a brief fight with her
cousin Stephen for the throne
• Matilda’s son, Henry, II then became King
• England and France
• Throughout history, England and France have gone head to head in a
fight for land and power.
• Ironically, these two countries have always been closely linked
through blood, marriage, and some downright chaos.
• Today we are going to explore some of these monarchs by studying
the famous Angevin kings of England's Plantagenet dynasty and
their dealings with France's King Philip Augustus.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Henry, II Plantagenet
• England and France
• Let's start with England; however, by doing so, we'll also be
starting with France.
• Don't worry, I'll explain.
• Your job is just to keep in mind that England and France
have a very intertwined history.
• Henry II
• Henry II is the first Angevin king and also the first king of England's
Plantagenet dynasty.
• We get the term Angevin from the fact that he came from a
ruling family of Anjou, France.
• Yes, I did say France, not England.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Henry, II Plantagenet
• Henry II
• The term Plantagenet comes from the yellow flower his family
held as its emblem.
• Known to history as one of England's strongest kings, Henry II ruled
from 1154 AD to 1189 AD.
• Not only did this powerhouse rule England, he married the exwife of the king of France.
• Her name was Eleanor of Aquitaine, and, when they
married, Henry II neatly folded her French lands under his
royal control.
• Not only did Henry II rule England, he also controlled
Wales, Anjou, Normandy, and Gascony - basically a
massive part of France.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Henry, II Plantagenet
• Henry II
• As I said, England and France have been seriously
intertwined!
• Ironically, Henry II ruled a huge amount of Europe's lands, but he
couldn't keep his sons under control.
• They spent much of their time fighting over who got to govern
what portion of their father's land, and even allying with the
royal house of France to try to rob their father of his holdings.
• When Henry II finally died in 1189, his son Richard, known as
the 'Lionheart,' became King Richard I.
• Richard I
• Although Richard's rule spanned over a decade, he spent very little time in
England.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Richard I
• Instead, he occupied himself with the Crusades, or Europe's attempt to
free the Holy Lands from Moslem control.
• When not off crusading, or being held prisoner, he was often found in,
yes, you guessed it, France.
• In fact, some sources even go as far as to say that he, the king of England,
spoke very little English.
• King John
• Since Richard died without an heir, his brother John took the throne in the
year 1199.
• Most of us know John, without even knowing we know him.
• How?
• Well, he's the ruthless prince depicted in the famous tales of
Robin Hood.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• King John
• Besides being Robin Hood's bad guy, John is most famous for
the 1215 signing of the Magna Carta.
• In this über famous document, which the nobles of
England pretty much forced King John to sign, the first
steps toward limiting the power of England's kings and
protecting the rights of the nobility were taken.
• Not only did King John begin giving away some of the power of the English
monarchy, his reign signaled the end of the reign of Angevin kings.
• Perhaps even more devastating to England's future monarchies, as king, he
also lost most of England's French holdings - including all of Normandy - to the
French King Philip II.
• Philip Augustus
• This is a great place to turn our attention fully to France and its King Philip II,
the very guy who robbed the Plantagenets of much of their lands.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Philip Augustus
• Philip II, also known as Philip Augustus, had what could only be called an onagain, off-again relationship with the kings of England.
• He made an alliance with King Henry II, the first Plantagenet king, only to
betray him by supporting Henry's rebellious son, Richard, later on.
• He and Richard then joined forces to fight the Crusades, even going as far
as to swear to protect each other's lands!
• Not surprisingly, this friendship broke down only a few years later.
• Philip betrayed Richard, who at the time was imprisoned, by allying
with John, Richard's power-hungry younger brother.
• All stayed well and good, sort of, with these two until John finally
became King.
• When King John took a French lady as his bride (who just so
happened to own some French lands), Philip pretty much said,
'I don't think so.'
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Philip Augustus
• He attacked John's forces, and in the end, claimed rule
over much of England's landholdings in France.
• For all these reasons, history gives Philip Augustus credit for stripping the
Plantagenet Angevin kings of much of their wealth and power.
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Positions of Power in England
• During the Middle Ages, the Church held extreme power.
• People were afraid of dying and going to hell, and it was preached
that the Church alone held the keys to heaven.
• For this reason, the Pope held crazy power throughout medieval Europe.
• Along the same lines, the Archbishop of Canterbury stood right
behind the Pope, holding the highest position within the Church of
England.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Positions of Power in England
• Also within England, the King had some real power.
• With all these power players, it's not hard to see why conflicts often
arose.
• With the powerful force of the Church and the King both vying for
power in England, things could get really a bit hairy.
• Who was the ultimate authority, the Church or the King?
• On more than one occasion, this power struggle came to a
head.
• Today we're going to explore one particular time in
which this occurred.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Positions of Power in England
• Its main players were King Henry II of England
and Thomas Becket, good friends turned to
opponents in the struggle for power.
• Becket Becomes Bishop
• In the year 1162, Thomas Becket was appointed to the powerful position
of Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Now remember, this meant he was the highest Church official in all
of England.
• He was also a very good friend of King Henry II, the very man who
appointed him to his new rule.
• Like many kings before him, Henry liked having an ally in such a high
church position.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Becket Becomes Bishop
• In the year 1162, Thomas Becket was appointed to the powerful position
of Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Now remember, this meant he was the highest Church official in all
of England.
• He was also a very good friend of King Henry II, the very man who
appointed him to his new rule.
• Like many kings before him, Henry liked having an ally in such a high
church position.
• Making the setup even more fun, both Henry II and Becket loved hunting,
socializing, and generally being rather secular.
• What could be better than having your friend, who just happened to
be the Archbishop of Canterbury, in your royal corner?
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Becket Becomes Bishop
• In essence, it was the perfect setup of 'you scratch my back, I'll
scratch yours'!
• Or so Henry II thought.
• Unfortunately for Henry II, history tells us Becket was serious about his
new position - so serious that he gave up his lavish, fun-filled lifestyle.
• Even more surprising to the king was that, when push came to
shove, Thomas Becket put the Church above his friend, the King.
• Nowhere was this more plainly seen than in the conflict of the
Constitutions of Clarendon.
• Constitutions of Clarendon
• The Constitutions of Clarendon were an attempt by King Henry II to prove his
law was more important than Church law.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Constitutions of Clarendon
• The Constitutions of Clarendon were an attempt by King Henry II to prove his
law was more important than Church law.
• Henry recognized the Church as a threat to his power.
• Henry also saw a problem in the treatment of criminals who happened to
be members of the clergy.
• Clergy who were accused of a crime of a secular nature did not
receive the same trial as a layperson.
• Instead, they were tried in an ecclesiastical, or Church, court.
• An ecclesiastical court could not dole out the same
punishments as a secular court.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Constitutions of Clarendon
• These courts were forbidden from shedding blood.
• While a violent criminal could be punished by death
in a royal court, an ecclesiastical court could only
remove the clergy member from office.
• Henry felt that the punishments the Church was allowed to issue were not
adequate.
• The king created the Constitutions of Clarendon to require clergy
criminals to be tried in a royal court.
• Under the Constitutions, an officer of the king would be present
during the trial in ecclesiastical court, and, after the criminal was
sentenced accordingly, the officer would escort the criminal to the
king's court for further trial.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Constitutions of Clarendon
• Seeing the power of the Church growing, Henry II wanted to make it
clear that clergymen were still under the jurisdiction of the crown.
• In other words, law-breaking clergymen, known as criminous
clerks, would be forced to answer not just to the church, but to
the crown.
• Going a step further, Henry II's Constitutions of Clarendon also
made it illegal for the clergy to appeal to the Pope without first
getting express permission from the crown.
• Now, at first the clergy of England said 'yes' to the Constitutions.
• Tradition tells us Becket was very uncomfortable with this
decision, but, in deference to the king, he agreed.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Constitutions of Clarendon
• His discomfort was based on the view that criminals were
being put on trial twice for the same crime
• However, when the residing Pope Alexander said, 'Oh no, I
don't think so' to the Constitutions, Thomas Becket reversed his
position and also denied the validity of the king's Clarendon
Constitutions.
• In other words, Becket no longer had the king's back.
• As you can imagine, this didn't sit so well with the king, and
Becket, in fear for his life, actually fled from England.
• Becket's Murder
• In time, Becket returned to England; however, old tensions soon revived.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Becket's Murder
• When Becket asked the Pope to excommunicate the Archbishop of York,
who just so happened to be very loyal to the king, Henry II had had
enough.
• In a moment of frustration, he is said to have cried out, 'Will no one
rid me of this turbulent priest?'
• Whether Henry II actually meant the words of this infamous
outburst, history will never know.
• However, upon hearing the anguish of their king, four loyal
knights took it upon themselves to rid the crown of Becket
- and so they did.
• On December 29, 1170, these four knights actually
killed Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury
and one-time bosom friend of King Henry II.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• Thomas Becket and the Constitution of Clarendon
• Becket's Murder
• Unfortunately for the king, these knights and maybe even he, as well,
underestimated the influence of Thomas Becket.
• In fact, Canterbury Cathedral, the very place in which he was killed,
soon became a destination for Christian pilgrims throughout
England.
• Making matters even worse for King Henry II, the Pope himself
declared Thomas Becket a saint.
• In the end, King Henry II did not rejoice in his friend-turned-opposition's
death.
• Instead, he found himself forced to publicly apologize for the role he
played in his murder.
• Ironically, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, remained a
revered saint for years and years to come.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• The Magna Carta
• King Henry II was succeeded in reign by his oldest son King Richard, known as
Richard the Lionheart.
• Richard died while fighting abroad in the Crusades, leaving England in the
hands of his younger brother John.
• Peasants, under the feudal system, faced heavy taxes.
• The stress of the economic climate in England weighed on John.
• To add to his problems, he also got into a fight with the current pope
(Pope Innocent III), who excommunicated John.
• Hoping to build his funds, John demanded money from barons who had
fought in the Crusades.
• He levied harsh taxes and duties on the barons.
• The barons rebelled, and a civil war broke out in 1215.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• The Magna Carta
• John couldn't compete with the baron's forces.
• He entered into negotiations with them, and they presented
their terms for compromise.
• John had no choice but to accept the terms that the barons set forth.
• The terms created would be formally issued as the Magna Carta, a
document that limited the king's authority.
• The civil war continued, and John died in 1216.
• He was succeeded by his son Henry III, who allowed the Magna
Carta to be reissued with several significant omissions related to
safeguards of national liberties and restrictions on taxation.
• The document was written in Latin.
• The Latin words 'Magna Carta' mean 'great charter.'
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• The Magna Carta
• It was basically the first Constitution in Europe.
• It contained clauses that addressed property rights of
barons and other nobles.
• The charter required the king to seek the agreement of
barons before issuing taxes.
• Also, it prevented the king from imprisoning or executing a
person without due process.
• Further, a group of barons would be responsible for
ensuring the king followed the terms of the charter.
• In issuing this document, the king was basically putting himself under
legal restrictions and allowing the barons more power.
• Future generations would use this document as a basis to further political
freedom.
* The French and English- Let the Feuding Begin
• The Magna Carta
• Americans even used the Magna Carta as justification for their claims to
freedom from England in 1776.
* The First Crusade
• A Plea for Help
• In 1095, the Byzantine Empire was in trouble.
• A recent invasion of Turks had seized control of the Byzantine holdings in
Asia Minor and was beginning to threaten the city of Constantinople itself.
• The Byzantine emperor, Alexius Comnenus, wanted to reconquer this lost
territory, so he wrote a letter to the pope asking for help.
• Comnenus probably just wanted the pope to send him some Western
mercenaries to help with the fighting.
• It is unlikely he ever imagined the repercussions of his letter.
* The First Crusade
• A Plea for Help
• The emperor's plea for help was received by Pope Urban II. Unfortunately
for Comnenus, Urban had a very different response in mind.
• Pope Urban II
• Rather than a band of mercenaries fighting for cash, Urban would send the
Byzantine emperor a horde of Crusaders fighting the infidel for the glory of God.
• However, Urban's plan, probably inspired by the Spanish Reconquista, was
more about increasing the authority of the Church and pope than it was
about helping the Byzantine emperor.
• Indeed, one major incentive for the First Crusade was the Pope's
desire to bring the Greek Orthodox Christians of the East under the
control of the Roman Catholic Church in the West.
• By helping Byzantium reclaim its territory, Urban hoped to make the
Byzantines dependent upon the West and bring its people back into
the fold of Western Christendom.
* The First Crusade
• Pope Urban II
• Yet Urban was not just interested in expanding his power in the East. He also
wanted to reinforce his power back at home in the West.
• The recent Investiture Conflict & Gregorian Reforms had shaken up
Western Europe and challenged the pope's authority.
• The papacy was being challenged by the lay nobility, especially the Holy
Roman emperor, Henry IV, whose growing military power had driven the
Pope from Italy to France.
• The First Crusade can be seen as the Pope trying to reassert his power and
authority in Europe.
• All of these reasons seem very practical and only marginally related to religion.
• Though it is tempting to view medieval history through this cynical lens, it
is also important to remember that this was a very religious time.
• The Pope may have had a number of religious reasons to call this crusade.
* The First Crusade
• Pope Urban II
• The most likely religious reason for the First Crusade was Urban's desire to
establish peace in Western Europe.
• This whole concept may seem odd, since the Crusades were,
essentially, a call to arms.
• Yet Urban had made his peaceful intentions clear earlier in the year.
• Urban had already given papal approval to several peace-minded
policies, including the Peace of God, which protected noncombatants, and the Truce of God, which forbade warfare on
certain holy days.
• Yet Urban knew that warfare was an integral part of medieval
society.
• As we've noted in other lessons, the entire feudal system was set up to
build feudal armies.
* The First Crusade
• Pope Urban II
• Yet as Europe became fully settled with territorial borders established
and the last heathen barbarians driven from Europe, the armies of
Christian lords had no one to fight but one another.
• Urban did not mind Christians killing Muslims; he just didn't want
Christians killing Christians.
• Urban hoped to redirect the warlike tendency of Europe in a
more productive vein and assert his power unto both Eastern
and Western Europe all in one fell swoop.
• The Pitch: Clermont
• Urban delivered his sales pitch for the First Crusade at a council of clergy in the
French town of Clermont.
• There, Urban gave a speech calling on the people of France to rescue
Jerusalem from the hands of the infidel.
* The First Crusade
• The Pitch: Clermont
• The speech exaggerated the threat of Islam in apocalyptic terms.
• Listening to Urban, one would think that all of Christendom faced the
imminent threat of annihilation from Muslims.
• To rile up the crowd, Urban accused Muslims of committing
horrible atrocities against Christians.
• It is worth noting that these claims were almost all false.
• Islam displayed a religious tolerance that was remarkable for its time.
• In the years to come, the real religiously motivated atrocities
would be committed by Christians against Muslims, not the other
way around.
• Though Urban played upon the French reputation for piety and bravery, he also
offered incentives for those with more selfish motivations.
• He promised papal protection of Crusaders' property and family.
* The First Crusade
• The Pitch: Clermont
• He hinted at the opportunity to carve out new kingdoms in the Holy Land.
• Most importantly, he offered indulgences for those who could take the
Crusader's oath.
• Essentially, this meant that anyone who went on Crusade would have
all their sins forgiven and go directly to Heaven upon their death.
• Though these get-out-of-Hell free cards would cause the Church a
great deal of trouble in the centuries to come, at the time, it proved
an incredibly powerful motivation for lords and peasants alike.
• The People's Crusade
• Urban's speech at Clermont was copied and recited across Europe.
• It is unlikely that even the Pope anticipated the scope of Europe's
response.
• One of the most surprising effects was the People's Crusade.
* The First Crusade
• The People's Crusade
• Urban's speech at Clermont was copied and recited across Europe.
• It is unlikely that even the Pope anticipated the scope of Europe's
response.
• One of the most surprising effects was the People's Crusade.
• Extemporizing on Urban's speech, the local priests of Europe whipped
up lots of poor city folk into a religious frenzy.
• Estimates on the People's Crusade vary, but an army of anywhere
from 40-100 thousand unskilled peasants marched east from
Northern Europe to cleanse the world of nonbelievers.
• Unfortunately, this included their Jewish neighbors.
• As this mob worked its way east, it engaged in vicious acts,
wiping out entire Jewish populations wherever it passed.
* The First Crusade
• The People's Crusade
• Like a swarm of malignant locust, they scoured the countryside,
causing havoc and terror, which seems terribly at odds with their
own religious convictions.
• When this horde arrived at Constantinople, the terrified
Byzantine emperor quickly shipped them across the Hellespont,
where they were slaughtered to the man by the Turks.
• Religious Motivations
• Such suicidal religious fervor on the part of peasants highlights the desperate
state of city peasants in the 12th century.
• It also draws our attention to the power of religious piety in this age.
• Scholars have offered a variety of explanations for this religious fervor.
• Some point to the apocalyptic energy of the Millennials, who thought
the world would end in the year 1000.
* The First Crusade
• Religious Motivations
• In the disappointment that followed, this energy was redirected
towards religious fervor.
• Other scholars have suggested a far more secular cause.
• One of the most entertaining is the notion that the increased
cultivation of rye and ignorance on how to store this grain
resulted in an outbreak of ergotism.
•
When rye rots, it creates a poison, which causes convulsive
movements and even hallucinations.
• The fact that these ergot-driven spells came on so suddenly
must have seemed demonic to the people of Europe.
• The fact that this affliction could be relieved simply by
stopping the consumption of rotten rye from dank
basements may well have given rise to a new wave of
religious conviction.
* The First Crusade
• Religious Motivations
• This explanation also helps us to understand the popularity
of pilgrimages in this age.
• As Europe began to stabilize, pilgrimages to holy sites
became ever more popular.
•
Though many factors contributed to the popularity of
these pilgrimages, the rise of ergotism might have
played its own part.
• A man struck with ergot poisoning might well go
on a pilgrimage to attain healing.
• People who went on pilgrimages stopped eating
rotten rye from dank cellars and thus returned
healthy.
• In many respects, the Crusades can be seen as an armed pilgrimage to the Holy
Land.
* The First Crusade
• Secular Motivations
• While the peasants who participated in the People's Crusade were clearly
inspired by religious fervor and perhaps by the desperation of their plight in
Europe's overcrowded cities, the motivations of the French aristocrats who
went on the first legitimate Crusade are harder to pin down.
• There clearly was at least some degree of religious motivation, since there
was no guarantee that a Crusader would see any return on his investment
besides a shallow grave in Palestine.
• Yet some segments of medieval society clearly saw a chance to improve
their status and power by crusading.
• As I mentioned earlier, the stabilization of realms left the nobles of Europe few
opportunities to carve out new estates.
• This problem only grew worse as the practice of primogeniture became
more prevalent.
• Primogeniture passes the entire estate to the first son.
* The First Crusade
• Secular Motivations
• This left the younger sons of the nobles with no estates to work with
and no chance of conquering something new.
• The Holy Land offered a new place for these younger sons to earn
glory and perhaps even establish kingdoms of their own.
• The Norman Italians especially hated the Byzantines and wanted to carve out
territories in the Middle East at the emperor's expense.
• And the Northern Italian cities, especially Venice, probably saw the Crusades as
another step in their economic penetration of the Mediterranean.
• They hoped to gain seaports in the eastern Mediterranean and to seize sea
trade from the Arabs.
• Yet not everyone was motivated by religious fervor or by Earthly greed.
• Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy and incompetent son of William
the Conqueror, thought he could regain some prestige and power by going
on Crusade.
* The First Crusade
• Raymond of Toulouse and Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, both went on crusade
simply because they were bored, and Count Stephen of Blois went on
crusade because his ambitious wife would not stop bothering him until he
did so.
• The Success of the First Crusade
• Whatever their reason, the nobles of Europe assembled an army of several
thousand armored knights and foot soldiers to assault the Holy Land.
• Though this tiny force should have been destroyed easily by the superior
forces of the Arabs, the Arabs themselves were still reeling from the
invasion of the Turks and disorganized, as each local lord tried to carve out
his own kingdom.
• In the midst of this chaos, the Western crusaders had remarkable success.
• They conquered pretty much the entire eastern coast of the
Mediterranean and carved out four new kingdoms known today as the
Crusader states.
* The First Crusade
• The Success of the First Crusade
• The County of Edessa was conquered in 1098.
• The same year, the Principality of Antioch was claimed by Norman
Italians.
• After a month-long siege, Jerusalem fell, and the Kingdom of
Jerusalem was founded in 1099.
• And five years later, the County of Tripoli was established in
1104.
• The amazing success of the First Crusade was surpassed only by the cruelty
of the Crusaders.
• Like the People's Crusade before, the crusaders murdered Jews along
their way, and once they reached the Holy Land, they slaughtered
every Muslim they got their hands on: men, women, and children.
• When Jerusalem fell, the Crusaders murdered every Muslim in the
city.
* The First Crusade
• The Success of the First Crusade
• One crusader would boast 'In Solomon's Porch and on his temple, our men rode
in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of their horses.‘
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The First Crusade had accomplished a miracle of sorts.
• A few thousand knights had taken the Holy Land by storm and established a
series of Crusader states.
• These were The County of Edessa, The County of Tripoli, The Principality of
Antioch, and The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• Yet, if the Crusaders believed their miraculous success during the First Crusade would
set the tone of all future crusades, they were sadly mistaken.
• Every subsequent crusade would prove a dismal failure.
• Those counted as successes by western kings and popes achieved little more
than a maintenance of the status quo.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• One by one, the Crusader states would fall back into the hands of the infidel, and the
hard won city of Jerusalem was in constant need of rescue.
• As Christian Crusaders grew ever more frustrated with their failure against their
Muslim foe, they began to turn the crusading spirit against their fellow Christians.
• In the Fourth Crusade, they conquered the Orthodox Christian city of
Constantinople.
• And by the turn of the 13th century, Popes were sending Christian kings on
crusade against other Christian kings.
• The Failures of Crusaders
• So, how do we explain the failure of the later Crusades?
• Well, to begin, we must remember that the success of the First Crusade
was something of a fortuitous fluke.
• It was not won by the superior arms and tactics of the Crusaders, but
rather by the disorganization of the Arabs
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The once-united Arab nations had recently been shattered by invading
Turks and internal strife.
• The Crusaders were able to take advantage of this chaos in the First Crusade.
• In the later Crusades, the Holy Land was prepared for the Crusaders, and
the many failings of the crusading movement led to a series of unmitigated
disasters.
• The gross ignorance of the Crusaders combined with their lack of clear
leadership and failure to commit all combined to doom the later Crusades.
• The Crusaders had no real notion of the geography, climate, or
political structure of the Near East.
• Crusaders often failed to even make it to the Holy Land.
• Northern Europeans, in their full armor, sweltered in the heat of
Mediterranean summers.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The shifting political power of the Middle East meant that a
Crusader would sign a peace treaty with one leader, only to have
that peace treaty violated by another.
• The Crusaders also had no clear leadership.
• Lords and kings squabbled among themselves, and popes
struggled to keep the crusading armies pointed in the right
direction.
• The Crusaders never seem to have made a real commitment to retaking
the Holy Land.
• The kings of Europe had more important matters to deal with, like
expanding their territory and maintaining the dynasties at home.
• Had Europe turned its full power on the Middle East, they very well
might have held on to the Holy Land.
• Instead, the efforts of Western kings in the Holy Land became ever
more half-hearted.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• Going on crusade became something of a moral obligation.
• It was just something one was expected to do.
• Many leaders simply went through the motions, bringing a small
fraction of their armies on a sort of armed pilgrimage to the Holy
Land.
• They'd engage in some minor skirmishes, slaughter a few
handy Muslims, and then head back to Europe, to bask in
unearned praise for their piety and bravery.
• So, let us take a look at the tales of incompetence and treachery that made up
the later Crusades.
• Crusades to the Holy Land
• The Second Crusade
• The Second Crusade seemed off to a good start.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• Unlike the First Crusade, which was led by a few lords, this crusade
was led by two kings: Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany,
who led their armies east to rescue Jerusalem.
• Though neither of these kings were particularly great leaders,
and though neither had very large armies at their disposal, they
must have set out with a fair expectation of success.
• Louis even brought his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, with him.
• Louis and Conrad never even made it to Jerusalem.
• Their armies were cut to pieces in Asia Minor.
• With what remained, they attempted a failed siege of
Damascus, before finally heading home with their tails
between their legs.
• By the end of this crusade, the county of Edessa had
fallen from Christian hands, never to be reclaimed.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Third Crusade
• Thinking that perhaps three kings would succeed where two kings had failed,
three monarchs led the Third Crusade: Barbarossa of Germany, Philip Augustus
of France, and Richard the Lionhearted of England.
• This was an uneasy alliance of old rivals.
• Nevertheless, these three kings might have enjoyed some degree of
success, if the Middle East had not been united under the rule of the
powerful Sultan of Egypt: Saladin the Great.
• Though Barbarossa could not even stay on his horse and died early in the
crusade, and Philip Augustus seemed simply to be going through the
motions, Richard the Lionhearted was fully committed to the crusading
spirit.
• However, this crusading spirit was not enough to accomplish much.
• After a few skirmishes and some inconclusive battles, the Third
Crusade ended with no real progress made.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Third Crusade
• Richard's strange combination of blood thirst and piety made him
unpopular among his fellow rulers.
• The three kings squabbled almost the entire trip, and Richard
managed to antagonize his allies to such a degree that he found his
return trip to Europe blocked by hostile Germans, who captured
Richard and held him for ransom.
• The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)
• The Fourth Crusade marked Europe's first real victory since the First Crusade.
• However, it was a victory over Christians, rather than Muslims.
• Though Pope Innocent III had called this crusade to rescue Jerusalem, the
Venetian traders who provided the funding and ships for this crusade had a
different idea.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)
• Hoping to undermine one of their greatest trading rivals, the Venetians
persuaded the Crusaders to attack Constantinople, the capitol of the
Byzantine Empire.
• In 1204, Constantinople, which had stood up to countless Eastern
invaders and served as Europe's shield in the East, was betrayed and
sacked by misguided Crusaders.
• The Crusaders would hold Constantinople for about 60 years before
the Greeks finally took their kingdom back.
• Nevertheless, the deathblow had been dealt to the Byzantine Empire,
though it would take the massive Byzantine bureaucracy another two
centuries to realize it.
• The Children's Crusade (1212)
• As if the Byzantine betrayal were not bad enough, the next crusade, or
Children's Crusade, was a truly shameful affair.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Children's Crusade (1212)
• Thousands of young people from across Europe tried to make their way to
the Holy Land, thinking that their youthful innocence would succeed where
their elders had failed.
• Many died trying to cross the Alps, but most never made it further than
Marseilles, where they were sold as slaves.
• The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)
• Realizing that this abuse of crusading was beginning to make Christianity look
really bad, Innocent III called the fourth Lateran council, and redirected the
Crusaders toward Egypt, which he considered to be the heart of Muslim
resistance.
• Though the Crusaders were able to take a town or two, they were forced to
surrender their gains after a devastating defeat at the hands of Sultan Al-Kamil,
who had succeeded Saladin as Sultan of Egypt.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)
• The last crusade to end with something vaguely resembling of victory was the Sixth
Crusade.
• Yet, it was a victory of diplomacy rather than a victory of warfare.
• Unlike previous crusading kings, Frederick II of Germany actually bothered
to learn Arabic.
• This allowed him to negotiate the return of Jerusalem with the
Egyptian Sultan Al-Kamil.
• Unfortunately, this peace was short lived, and by 1244, Jerusalem was
once again in the hands of Muslims.
• The Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Crusades barely deserve mention.
• They were unmitigated failures.
• For the Seventh and Eighth Crusade, Louis IX of France led his armies in a
suicidal attack on Africa.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• The Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)
• His soldiers sweltered in the African heat, and were neatly defeated at
every turn.
• For the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward of England, who was supposed
to join Louis on the Eighth Crusade to Africa, instead led his armies on
a failed invasion of Syria.
• Crusades in Europe
• Meanwhile, back in Europe, various popes had called for more crusades, not
against the infidel in the East, but against their Christian enemies at home.
• At first, these crusades were called against heretics.
• In 1208, Pope Innocent III led a crusade against the Heretical Cathars
of France.
• In 1232, Pope Gregory IX declared a crusade against Dutch peasants
who refused to pay their tithes to the church.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• Crusades in Europe
• And no fewer than five crusades were declared against the heretical
followers of Jan Hus.
• As the Crusader movement grew, soon popes were declaring crusades
against Christian kings.
• A crusade was called against King Peter III of Aragon.
• Two crusades were called against Henry III of England, and no less
than three popes would call for crusades against Frederick II of
Germany and his successors.
• Though these domestic crusades were couched in religious terms, in truth
they were just a case of the Pope declaring a crusade against his political
enemies.
• Why did the papacy, which had struggled for centuries to keep Christians from
killing one another, reverse its position?
• We're not sure.
* The Failure of the Later Crusades
• Crusades in Europe
• Perhaps the morality of the papacy had slipped.
• Perhaps the popes hoped to play a larger political role in Europe.
• Whatever the reason, the misuse of crusades at home, combined with
their failure abroad, led to a steady decline in the power and authority of
the papacy.
• This decline would come to a head in the protestant reformation of the
16th century.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• The Many Repercussions of the Crusades
• The Crusades had a profound impact on Western civilization.
• Western society had to come to terms with its clear inferiority to the advanced
cultures of the East, even as it wrestled with the implications of religiously
sanctioned violence.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Western Europe's economy exploded as the Venetians expanded their trade
networks and Europe's monarchs spent lavish sums on campaigns, castles and
luxuries.
• Medieval politics were transformed under the pressure of shifting alliances and
a politically active papacy.
• Social Impact of the Crusades
• The social repercussions of the Crusades began with the very First Crusade.
• Perhaps the most obvious of these repercussions involved the role of violence in
Christianity.
• Christianity was, at its inception, an intensely pacifistic religion.
• Christianity did not come to dominate the Roman Empire through strength
in arms, but through the strength of their example.
• It was Christians' willingness to suffer horrible violence in the name of their
God that inspired so many to convert to Christianity.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Once Christianity became the state religion of Rome, it adapted to allow
for the violence necessary to build and maintain an empire.
• Though Church fathers, like St. Augustine, had laid groundwork justifying
violence in the name of faith, their attitudes towards violence seem more
like an apology for a necessary sin, rather than an endorsement of holy
warfare.
• This concept of violence as at best, a necessary evil, seems to have been
the attitude of medieval Christians before the Crusades.
• Indeed, Pope Urban II may well have called the First Crusade in an attempt
to reduce violence among Christians, by redirecting that violence toward
Muslims.
• Unfortunately for the Pope, his plan backfired.
• Whatever his intentions, Urban had not only justified violence, he'd
commanded it.
• Holy warfare became the will of God, the duty of every Christian.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Did the Pope actually make the kings of Europe violent?
• No. They were plenty violent to start with.
• Pope Urban was clearly playing to the violent tendencies of his
audience when he called for the First Crusade.
• However, by promoting divinely sanctioned violence, the Pope had
removed whatever restraint Christianity had held over the warlike
kings of Europe.
• Rather than feeling guilty about murdering people, Crusaders came to
expect heavenly rewards for murdering people.
• The indulgences, or get-out-of-hell-free cards, that the Pope granted
to crusading knights can be seen in much the same light as the 72
virgins promised to suicide bombers on Jihad.
• Yet, in many ways, the medieval crusades were far worse than anything
attempted by modern religious terrorists.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Rather than being carried out by a small sect of extremists, like
today's suicide bombers, the religiously fueled murderous rampages
of the Crusades were carried out by lords, kings and emperors,
leading entire nations in centuries of futile, suicidal, senseless
bloodshed.
• If Urban had hoped to bring about peace in Europe by promoting
xenophobia, or the fear and hatred of foreigners, he must have been
sorely disappointed, for in the years that followed, Europe became an ever
more violent place, while at the same time, it became much more
cosmopolitan.
• Compared to the ancient and advanced civilizations of Constantinople
and the Middle East, Western Europeans must have felt rather
primitive.
• That's certainly how the Greeks and Arabs saw them; illiterate,
degenerate, unwashed, uncivilized barbarians.
• Western Europe's literacy rate was dismal compared to the highly
literate Greeks.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Western European culture was primitive and violent compared
with the refined civilizations of the East.
• Arabs and Greeks could relax in heated baths or shower
beneath running water, while Western Europeans rarely
bathed at all.
• Constantinople was one of the largest cities on Earth. Its
population was greater than Paris, London and Rome combined.
• Though the Westerners berated the Easterners as decadent and
soft, it's clear that the Westerners wanted what those Eastern
cultures had.
• They wanted running water, they wanted massive wealth,
they wanted to command huge armies, they wanted to wear
silks, eat spiced foods and smell perfumes.
• Europeans returned from the Crusade full of new desires and ambitions.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Western aristocrats developed a taste for Eastern luxuries, and
Western scholars began to embrace a philosophical tradition, which
had begun with the Greeks and had flourished under Islam.
• These impressions from the East would be instrumental in shaping the
civilization of the West.
• Economic Impact of the Crusades
• The trade of ideas and luxuries with the East had already been underway for a
century or two before the Crusades even began.
• Italian city-states, like Venice and Florence, were making a killing bringing
Eastern goods to the Western market.
• With the Crusades, the West's appetite for these luxuries grew
exponentially.
• To meet this demand, the Italian city-states had to overcome several
obstacles.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• The first was the Arab dominance of the Mediterranean.
• Yet, the Arabs were not a great naval power, and by the end of
the First Crusade, they had been essentially driven from the seas,
and the Italians had established trading outposts along the coast
of the Eastern Mediterranean.
• Yet, between Italy and their new Eastern marketplaces lay the ancient
and powerful Byzantine Empire.
• The Byzantines had an excellent navy, and for centuries they had
thwarted the efforts of the Italians to gain a stranglehold on
Mediterranean trade.
• The Venetians solved this problem by leading the crusaders to
sack Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine Empire, in the
Fourth Crusade.
• With the Byzantines out of the way, the Italians, and especially the
Venetians, enjoyed unchallenged power over the Mediterranean Sea.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• As if the lucrative trade in luxuries were not enough, the Italian city-states
enjoyed another huge windfall from the Crusades.
• European monarchs did not just want to bring Eastern luxuries to the
West; they wanted to bring Western armies to the East.
• They wanted to establish colonies in the Holy Land.
• They needed to build huge castles to defend their colonies, and
they needed to keep their forces supplied with arms and
provisions.
• Wealth began moving across the Mediterranean at a dizzying
rate, and at the heart of all this exchange were the Italian citystates, making money hand over fist.
• The massive wealth amassed by the Italian city-states would
eventually give rise to the Italian Renaissance.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Political Impact of the Crusades
• These massive expenditures on the part of European monarchs had a profound
effect on European politics.
• As kings struggled to deal with the logistics of moving thousands of soldiers
across thousands of miles, and the incredible expense of maintaining
military outposts, like Acre in the Holy Land, systems of bureaucracy and
taxation were perfected, and Western Europe's first nation states began to
emerge.
• Europe's kings began to wield ever-greater power.
• Yet, the concentration of power into so few personalities led to
growing international tensions, as family grudges came to determine
the courses of entire nations.
• The shifting alliances, emotional strain and crippling expense of the
Crusades served only to exacerbate these problems.
• Louis VII divorced his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the Second
Crusade.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Political Impact of the Crusades
• She got her revenge by marrying Henry II of England.
• This gave England, which already had a foothold in
Normandy, power over some of the richest lands in
Southern France.
• This, in turn, laid the groundwork for the 100 Years War.
• The conflict between European monarchs was made even worse by
the Third Crusade, in which Henry's son, Richard the Lionhearted,
antagonized the nobility of France and Germany to such a degree that
he was held hostage for an incredible sum.
• This ransom, combined with the already massive expenses of the
Crusade, crippled the English crown for many years, and forced
Richard's successor, his Brother King John, to sign the Magna
Carta to keep his lords from rebellion.
• While Europe's monarchies were growing stronger, the Papacy grew ever
weaker.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Political Impact of the Crusades
• Though Pope Urban II greatly increased the power and prestige of the
Papacy with the stunning success of the First crusade, his successors had
far less luck in the crusading game.
• Their failure results from a couple factors.
• At the simplest level, the constant, devastating failure of each
subsequent crusade led to a steady decrease in papal prestige.
• Yet the real deathblow to the Papacy came from the abuse of crusading by
Popes.
• Once Popes began using Crusades against their political enemies, the
Papacy began to lose the moral high ground it had held for centuries.
• The fact that Popes were offering people indulgences in exchange for
killing off their political rivals, or even just for charitable donations to
armies killing off their political rivals, further eroded the Papacy's
credibility.
* The Impacts of the Crusades on Medieval Society
• Political Impact of the Crusades
• The plummeting power and prestige of the Papacy would eventually
result in the Protestant Reformation.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• The State of the Medieval Economy from 750-1050
• With the collapse of the Roman Empire, trade in Europe ground to a halt.
• Cities were abandoned.
• Craftsmen and merchants all but disappeared from the European
landscape.
• Money fell out of use and trade was conducted by means of barter.
• Serfs struggled to feed themselves, and their lords enjoyed none of the
luxuries we associate with aristocrats these days.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• For three centuries, Europe languished in an economic slump.
• Then, around 1050, the European economy started turning again, slowly at first,
but quickly accelerating.
• Trade began to flow across Europe's roads and waterways.
• Urban centers that had been all but abandoned began to grow again.
• Old trades re-emerged, and new trades were invented.
• The change was nothing short of an urban revolution.
• In the course of a couple centuries, Europe went from a continent of farmers,
an economic dead end, a cultural backwater, to a land of merchants and
craftsmen, living in bustling cities, generating culture at an unprecedented level.
• The Scope of the Urban Revolution
• The scope and speed of Europe's urban revolution is rather startling,
considering its stagnation during the Dark Ages.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• The Scope of the Urban Revolution
• The old Roman cities, which had never been more than fortified outposts to
start with, became the centers of growing urban sprawls.
• Paris, London and Cologne doubled in population between 1100 and 1200,
and doubled again between 1200 and 1300.
• Outside the old empire, new towns were established.
• 12th century Germany witnessed the founding of such prominent cities as
Freiburg, Lubeck, Munich and Berlin.
• The height of this urban explosion was Italy.
• Venice, Genoa and Milan already had populations of over 100,000 in
the 12th century.
• These populations would triple in less than two hundred years.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• Factors Behind the Urban Revolution
• Several factors made this urban revolution possible.
• New lands were being opened up for agricultural development.
• A decline in Viking raids, combined with the development of stable central
governments, at last allowed Europeans to stop huddling around feudal
manors and start taming the great wilderness of the north.
• New agricultural technologies and techniques were producing
unprecedented surpluses in European farms.
• The heavy plow was breaking up the rich soils of northern Europe.
• The three field crop rotation system was allowing farmers to wring the
most from each acre.
• These agricultural surpluses would be essential to feed Europe's
growing urban population.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• Factors Behind the Urban Revolution
• Meanwhile, labor saving technologies were freeing up human beings from
many time consuming tasks.
• By the 12th century, Europeans had harnessed horses, the wind and
rivers to do work that people used to do.
• This meant that it took far fewer people to run a farm.
• Instead of digging in the dirt with sticks or grinding grains by
hand, people could pursue skilled trades in Europe's growing
cities and leave the grinding and digging to horses and mills.
• These agricultural shifts were having an impact on the European
aristocracy as well.
• Feudal lords were beginning to realize that they could make a lot
more profit by charging rents on free peasants than they could
by manning their own fields with serfs.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• Factors Behind the Urban Revolution
• Freed from the land at last, many of these free peasants left their
farms to find fortune in the city.
• The Resurgence of Trade
• Yet, the greatest factor in the urban revolution was the resurgence of trade in
Europe.
• This probably started locally in most of Europe as free peasants made their
way to market towns to trade their small surpluses: a sack of grain here, a
few dozen eggs there.
• The availability of basic foodstuffs emboldened some farmers and lords to
specialize in specific goods that had a greater market value.
• Wine and cotton began to be traded across hundreds of miles.
• With this trade, land and sea routes were reopened.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• Europe entered a frenzy of road building that might have even given the
Romans pause.
• And at sea, the Italian city states of Genoa, Pisa and Venice had re-opened
the Mediterranean for trade, reestablishing Europe's link with the East.
• For the first time in centuries, Europeans had access to oriental
luxuries, like gems, spices, perfume and silk.
• European aristocrats began developing ever more expensive tastes,
which drove them to further increase the economic output of their
estates.
• Market towns boomed, and local market days gave way to huge trade fairs,
bringing goods from all over Europe.
• At a trade fair in the French region of Champagne, you could find
Flemish cloth, French wine, Italian olives and Eastern spices.
• And, even these trade fairs faded to insignificance when the Italian
trading states expanded their shipping routes past the strait of
Gibraltar, establishing trade centers across the Atlantic seaboard.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• As international trade accelerated, coinage returned to the scene.
• The old barter system would not work in the world market.
• Merchants don't carry silk a thousand miles to trade it for a pig.
• They wanted cold hard cash, if you please, or failing that, a hunk of gold
would do nicely.
• Yet, even coins of precious metals could not keep up with the dizzying pace
of international trade.
• To overcome these limitations, Italians established business contracts
and letters of credit to move wealth around without the trouble of
dragging coins around in a chest.
• These enterprises, undertaken solely for the purpose of profit, made
the merchants of Italy Europe's first commercial capitalists.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• The Beating Heart of a Growing Economy
• These socioeconomic factors combined to make European cities possible.
• The surpluses in food from new lands and new agricultural technologies
were essential to keep the cities fed.
• The surplus in labor brought about by labor saving devices and the growing
trend among the nobility of freeing their serfs, provided cities with a
steady flow of free peasants to amplify their populations.
• The resurgence of trade brought these growing cities everything they
needed, from food to raw materials, and carried finished goods from the
urban craftsmen to the world market.
• In return, cities provided a market for those agricultural surpluses,
encouraging them to grow even greater.
• Cities provided a place for excess labor and free peasants to flock to.
• Cities provided finished goods for merchants to take to the open market.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• The Beating Heart of a Growing Economy
• So you see, these cycles were self-propagating; farmers, merchants, feudal lords
and city dwellers supported one another's endeavors in a series of positive
feedback loops that would drag Europe from the Dark Ages back to the
forefront of cultural and technological development.
• Implications of the Urban Revolution
• The urban revolution would have sweeping implications for European history.
• The clearest change was economic.
• Before the urban revolution, each lord's manor was designed for selfsufficiency.
• They made their own food, forged their own iron, and wove their
own fabric.
• By trying to do everything, these feudal manors ended up doing
everything rather poorly.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• By contrast, as the European economy expanded, cities began to
specialize and carve out their respective niches on the international
market.
• University towns, like Paris and Bologna, became centers of
science and scholarship.
• London, Genoa, Venice and Cologne became the long distance
trade centers of their respective regions.
• And manufacturing cities like Milan, Ghent and Bruges began
laying the foundations for the large scale factories of the
Industrial Revolution.
• With specialization came sweeping advances as like-minded scholars,
merchants and craftsmen worked together to explore new questions,
open new markets and develop new products and tools.
• Cities became the intellectual hearts of their regions.
• With all these great minds together, intellectual experimentation
expanded at a rate not seen in Europe since classical Athens.
* The Reemergence of Towns and Commerce
• With the growth of cities and revitalization of trade, a wealthy middle
class of merchants and craftsmen began to emerge.
• Though these profit-minded individuals at first received the scorn
of both nobles and the clergy, they soon demonstrated the
incredible potential of free enterprise.
• Some of these merchants became even richer than the
aristocrats who scorned them.
• In certain Italian cities, it became almost impossible to
distinguish a lord from a merchant, as both lived in town in
opulent palaces.
• These political shifts brought about new forms of government as cities
experimented with ruling themselves.
• Even the Church, which for so long had condemned the behavior of this
middle class as detestable, shameful and insatiably greedy, began to sing a
new tune and acknowledge that the necessary evils of merchants and
money-lenders were, perhaps, more necessary than evil.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• Heresy
• What exactly is a heresy?
• The word has been applied to different groups, but our main concern is its
meaning in Christianity.
• Among Christians, heresy meant a disagreement with the current
Christian doctrine.
• A person who consistently held this disagreeable opinion was called a
heretic.
• Before the High Middle Ages, between the 11th and 13th centuries, heresy
had mostly occurred infrequently.
• But, beginning in the 11th century there were a lot more urban cities.
• The cities did not hold the same religious values as the rural areas,
and heresy became a common accusation.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• The Church's Power
• During this time, the popularity of Christianity spread.
• It reached areas like Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Serbia,
Bulgaria and Russia.
• Groups, like the Danes and the Vikings, were also moving to areas that
were already predominantly Christian, like Normandy and England.
• These groups began to adopt Christian ideals and practice Christian rituals.
• As Christianity's popularity grew throughout the world, the power of the
Catholic Church increased.
• At this time, Christian churches were Catholic.
• Protestant churches, like Lutherans, Presbyterians and Baptists, didn't
exist until after the Reformation in the 16th century.
• All of these churches across Europe reported to the same governing power:
the pope.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• The Church's Power
• Because the pope was so powerful, the clergy held a strong influence
in the secular world with nobles and royalty.
• In the 11th century, the pope called for a crusade.
• A crusade is a holy war.
• This particular holy war was in the interest of gaining control of the Holy
Land in the Near East.
• When crusaders flocked to this area, they discovered ancient manuscripts left
by the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
• Classical knowledge is knowledge of philosophy, science and astronomy in
the ancient cultures around the Mediterranean Sea.
• Until the Middle Ages, classical knowledge was reserved for those
who could read and write.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• The Church's Power
• This means that knowledge was heavily limited to the clergy and
monks, who copied these texts to preserve them as treasures,
but not to spread knowledge.
• As the population increased in Western Europe due to advances in technology
and agriculture, there was a higher need for literate people to help keep
records.
• Churches could no longer handle the growing need for education, and
schools began to develop.
• School masters taught science and philosophy based on the classical
manuscripts to many people.
• Students were encouraged to discuss this knowledge and exchange
ideas.
• Although some scholars, like Thomas Aquinas, attempted to link classical
philosophy with church doctrine, the spread of classical knowledge led to a
deeper understanding of the church's place in society.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• The Church's Power
• There was a growing dislike of the church's power in secular matters,
as well as the immense wealth and the corruption it created.
• The Cathars
• Sometimes heretical beliefs became popular enough to see the formation of
sects.
• One of these sects was known as the Cathars, or Albigensians.
• This group was popular in the 12th and 13th centuries in Italy and
parts of southern France.
• Cathars were dualistic, meaning they believed in good and evil.
• They associated good with things that were spiritual and
intangible, while they associated evil with things that were
tangible.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• The Cathars
• Cathars didn't acknowledge the sacraments performed by the
Catholics, and didn't accept the physical birth and death of Jesus.
• They were very dissatisfied with the wealth of the Catholic
Church and the large cathedrals they built.
• Inquisition
• As we learned previously, heresy before the Middle Ages wasn't a huge
problem, so the church didn't have a formal procedure for dealing with heretics.
• Because the popularity of the Cathars had grown so huge in the 12th century,
the church had to form a formal position against heretics.
• They even began military assaults against Cathars.
• Pope Innocent III declared a crusade, or a holy war, against the Cathars in
1209 and succeeded in dissolving much of the group in France.
* Heresies and Inquisitions in the High Middle Ages
• Inquisition
• Afterwards, the Inquisition occurred to root out any other Cathars and
eliminate their practices.
• The Inquisition was the Catholic Church's weapon against heresy.
• There were two main actions of the Inquisition.
• The first was to publish a list of books that were considered
heretical, which Christians were forbidden to read.
• The second was to prosecute people who they believed
were guilty of heresy.
• Those found guilty could be sentenced to execution,
which usually meant to be burned alive.
• The Inquisition was a danger to anyone accused of heresy.
* Mendicants: St. Francis and Church Reform
• Middle Age Catholicism
• During the High Middle Ages as Christianity became more and more popular,
the Pope and clergy gained more power and authority.
• Additionally, the Catholic Church amassed more wealth.
• As ancient knowledge and literature was brought by crusaders from the east,
monks copied many of these texts in order to preserve them but not to spread
knowledge.
• The population increase in Western Europe led to a demand for an increase in
literacy to help with record-keeping.
• The Church could no longer meet the educational needs of the times, and
learning moved into the secular community.
• Access to education and to the classics grew quickly.
• As people learned to reason and exchange ideas with each other, the
Church saw a decline in its influence over them.
* Mendicants: St. Francis and Church Reform
• Middle Age Catholicism
• Some scholars tried to merge classical knowledge with Church
doctrine.
• However, many people recognized the abundance of wealth and
power held by the Church as corruption.
• Some groups began to call for reform within the Church.
• Monastic orders during this time created their own independent communities.
• Monasteries owned large tracts of land and had a tendency to become
very wealthy.
• Monasteries received gifts and donations from those hoping to be granted
salvation from the monks.
• Early Mendicants
• The wealth of the Church caused people to feel as though they were becoming
separated from the clergy.
* Mendicants: St. Francis and Church Reform
• Early Mendicants
• Urban cities began developing more quickly, creating larger numbers of
homeless and sick people.
• Numbers became so large that the parish churches were no longer able to
deal with them.
• In response to the growing number of needy and a distaste for the wealth
accumulated by churches and monasteries, mendicant orders began to form.
• Mendicants were monks who wanted to emulate the life and suffering of
Jesus by living without any possessions.
• Mendicants gave up their homes in monasteries and all their possessions
to live in the streets.
• From the street, they would hear confessions of people and preach.
• Many who felt distant from the Church formed a new connection with
the mendicants in their area.
* Mendicants: St. Francis and Church Reform
• Francis of Assisi
• One of the most well-known mendicants is named Francis of Assisi.
• Francis was born into a wealthy family and had an extravagant childhood.
• Around 1205, he was moved to give up everything he owned.
• He began rebuilding churches that had been destroyed.
• Around 1210, Francis met with Pope Innocent III to share his beliefs and
ask for his blessing.
• Although he didn't receive formal approval for his efforts, the Pope
did encourage him.
• The Order of the Franciscans received the formal approval of Pope
Honorius III in 1223.
* Mendicants: St. Francis and Church Reform
• Franciscans and Dominicans
• Franciscans were known for their emphasis on poverty.
• Although their actions weren't a major cause for reform within the Church,
people felt the order held certain credibility without the power attained
through wealth.
• Franciscans also took vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity.
• Eventually, the issue of poverty would cause conflicts within the Franciscan
order.
• In 1322, the Pope even condemns the doctrine of poverty as heresy, in
conflict with established doctrine.
• Another major order of mendicants called the Dominicans was founded by
Dominic Guzman of Spain.
• Dominic was experienced in preaching and, although he did place
emphasis on poverty, the main goal of his order was to preach.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• In large part because of the Crusades, the High Middle Ages also experienced a
rediscovery of classical knowledge.
• When using the term classical, we are generally referencing Ancient Greece,
especially Ancient Greek scientists or philosophers like Aristotle.
• The Spread of Classical Knowledge
• People living in Ancient cultures were curious.
• They wondered about the stars and the human body.
• They developed mathematical practices.
• People who lived near the Mediterranean Sea (like the Greeks) studied
mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.
• Essentially, they were studying wisdom.
• Romans wrote about literature, history and politics.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• One of the most important means of preserving and spreading knowledge was
the development of paper and books.
• Text was originally kept on stone tablets, but eventually parchment was
developed.
• Parchment was made from stretched animal skin.
• Early books made from this material were expensive.
• In the eighth century, Asians developed a cheaper writing material: paper.
• Creating paper became popular and spread through Africa and
Europe.
• Books became more accessible and more abundant.
• Prior to the 11th century, knowledge in Western Europe was somewhat limited.
• Many books and manuscripts were being preserved by the church.
• They would be copied by monks to ensure their continued survival.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• Although classical knowledge could be found in these texts, it was not
studied because they were seen as a treasure and not something to
spread knowledge.
• Outside of the church, there were a limited number of people
with the ability to read.
• Those who could read and write focused on creating poetry and
romance stories rather than focusing on reason and science.
• Classical knowledge spread throughout Western Europe after the
discovery of works of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
• During the Crusades, there was a large amount of people
traveling to the East to join the movement.
• Classical manuscripts could be found in places like Armenia,
Constantinople, Syria and Alexandria.
• Many manuscripts were obtained and brought back to Europe.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• Many intellectuals would hunt for these manuscripts and work to
translate them from Greek into Latin, a language more wellknown in Western Europe.
• As they worked to study ancient wisdom, they opened a door to
modern learning.
• As growth developed in trade and administration, a growing need for literacy
also developed.
• People who were able to keep records, like clerics and scribes, were highly
in demand.
• Church educators could not meet the needs of education for the time.
• Schools began to develop around the 12th century.
• Rather than focusing on the ability to simply copy letters, town
schools taught children in a way that encouraged discussion and the
exchange of ideas.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• When Christianity began to spread through Ancient Rome, the Romans looked
for ways to link philosophy with Christian teachings.
• People in the Middle Ages pondered the same questions as the Ancient
Romans:
• how can a person balance reason without questioning faith?
• Greek philosophers were not Christians, so their ideas lost some
of their credibility.
• One of the most famous writers who considered this problem
was Thomas Aquinas.
• Aquinas wrote about what he believed to be truth, faith and
reason.
• He attempted to find a way to utilize the classical
philosopher Aristotle's method of reasoning while still
remaining true to Christian doctrine.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• When Christianity began to spread through Ancient Rome, the Romans looked
for ways to link philosophy with Christian teachings.
• People in the Middle Ages pondered the same questions as the Ancient
Romans:
• how can a person balance reason without questioning faith?
• Greek philosophers were not Christians, so their ideas lost some
of their credibility.
• One of the most famous writers who considered this problem
was Thomas Aquinas.
• Aquinas wrote about what he believed to be truth, faith and
reason.
• He attempted to find a way to utilize the classical
philosopher Aristotle's method of reasoning while still
remaining true to Christian doctrine.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• Classical Learning and the Church
• In the Middle Ages, Catholicism was the dominant religion of Western Europe.
• Catholic nations were expected to follow the law of their land as well as
the law of the pope.
• Up until the Middle Ages, the church served as the basis of knowledge for
most people.
• As we learned earlier, many people couldn't read or write and had to rely
on clergy for interpretation.
• This gave the church officials immense power over the ever-increasing
number of laypeople.
• With the increasing literacy rates and growing accessibility to various types of
texts, people were no longer left to be completely reliant on the church for
answers.
* The Spread of Ancient Knowledge and its Impact on the Church
• Classical Learning and the Church
• The pope would have felt immense pressure while he encouraged military
campaigns for the Crusades and saw his power decline as knowledge
spread throughout all social classes in Europe.
• There was a growing sense of distrust among the people in regards to the
church.
• Hence the development of the mendicant orders and heretical sects
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Meet St. Thomas Aquinas
• Meet St. Thomas Aquinas.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Meet St. Thomas Aquinas
• He may not look like much; in fact, his school mates called him the Dumb Ox.
• Yet, a teacher of his knew that young Thomas was destined for great
things.
• 'We call him the dumb ox,' his teacher said, 'but in his teaching, he
will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout
the world.'
• While Thomas was busy studying at seminary, an old threat to the church had
reemerged in Europe, an ancient evil that would bring the church to the brink of
crisis: logic.
• Dangerous Ideas
• In the 13th century, a dangerous new form of thinking was quickly spreading
across the universities of Europe.
• The ideas of Aristotle (long lost to the West) had been reintroduced to
Europe by an Islamic scholar named Ibn Rushd.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Europeans did not know how to pronounce this name, so they called him
Averroes and the 'new' ideas he'd introduced Averroism.
• Averroes claimed that there were two paths to the truth: one through
divine revelation, like religion, and the other through the more
mundane truths of logic.
• This sort of separation may seem natural to you and me, but we
grew up in a world that distinguishes between scientific facts and
religious beliefs.
• There was no such distinction in 13th century Europe.
• So, what were these two paths to truth? And why did the church find
this concept so alarming?
• Two Forms of Truth: Plato vs. Aristotle
• To understand their concern, we need to take a quick trip back in time (about
1,500 years) to classical Athens.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• There, two great thinkers had put forward very different views of the
universe.
• On the one hand, there was Plato, the father of Western philosophy.
• On the other hand was Aristotle, Plato's upstart student.
• Their conflict centered around the nature of truth.
• For Plato, the truth was something abstract.
• Plato insisted that if something is true, it must always be
true.
• You could not find truth in the world because the world is
full of change and chaos.
• For Plato, truth resided in another place altogether - a place
he called the Realm of Forms, a place where everything is
perfect and nothing ever changes.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• There, you might find the perfect cat forever napping in
the branches of the perfect tree.
• According to Plato, everything in our world is just a
poor copy of that perfect place.
• Every cat we see is a just an imitation of the
perfect form of cat.
• All the different varieties of trees we see are the
result of imperfect matter trying to fill the perfect
form of tree.
• Therefore, whatever truth we might find in the world is
bound to be just as imperfect as the world itself.
• Aristotle begged to differ.
• For Aristotle, truth was something concrete.
• Something doesn't always have to be always true to be
true in a particular.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• For example, when a person says, 'I'm hungry,'
he's telling the truth.
• He's not telling the truth for all time. He's not
always hungry. But at that particular place and
that particular time, that particular person is
hungry.
• This sort of truth wasn't in some abstract realm of
forms, it was right here in the world all around us.
• Where Plato wanted big truths - like the perfect form of
cat or the perfect form of justice, or even the perfect
form of goodness - Aristotle preferred to collect little
truths - like I fell out of bed, the cat fell out of the tree,
or the rock fell down the mountain.
• Then, Aristotle could use those little truths to come up
with bigger truths, like things fall.
• So, what does a spat between two Athenian philosophers have to do with the
church's crisis centuries later? Everything
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Christianity's Obsession with Plato
• You see, when early Christians were establishing their own philosophical
grounding, they borrowed heavily from Plato.
• The idea that the truth was something inaccessible to the senses had
obvious religious applications.
• Plato's distaste for the material world was well-suited to the Christian
mindset, while the realm of forms must have sounded kind of like heaven.
• And so the church bound itself tightly to Platonic philosophy at an early
age.
• To give you some concept of how entwined Platonism had become with
Christianity, let's have a look at the scholarship of medieval Christians.
• If you were to ask a medieval scholar, why is the rose red and why
does it have thorns, the scholar would reply that the rose is red for
the blood of Christ and the thorns are there to remind us of our Lord's
crucifixion.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Christianity's Obsession with Plato
• Here we can kind of see how the Christians co-opted Plato's
notion of perfect forms being reflected in the material world.
• They'd just replaced perfect forms with perfect Jesus.
• The Aristotelian Threat
• Now, let's throw Aristotle back into the world as Ibn Rushd did.
• How would Aristotle answer our questions about the rose?
• He'd tell us to use our heads.
• The rose is red for the same reason all flowers are brightly colored: to
attract bees.
• The thorns are there to keep predators away. Duh!
• Imagine the fear the church must have felt at the return of this practical, no
nonsense way of looking at the world.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• The church had been in charge of the truth for centuries.
• They were the sole authority on what was true and what was not.
• And then, here comes Aristotle back from the dead, telling people that the
truth is all around them.
• If they just take the time to observe and reflect on the little truths,
they can reach higher truths all on their own.
• The church was not just frightened, it was terrified.
• What if Christian doctrine could not stand up to the scrutiny of Aristotelian
logic?
• Worse yet, what if someone used this new sort of logic to prove that God
didn't exist?
• Aquinas Saves the Faith from Reason
• These were the questions that kept church fathers up at night.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• They need not have worried, for Thomas Aquinas was there to save them.
• Aquinas believed that just because Aristotle was incompatible with Plato
didn't mean that Aristotle had to be incompatible with Christianity.
• Aquinas knew that the same logic that could be used to prove that God
didn't exist could also be used to prove that God did exist.
• Rather than trying to refute Aristotle's logic, Aquinas used it. In fact, he
improved it.
• Aquinas wasn't intimidated by Aristotle's logic. Indeed, Aristotelian
logic was rather shoddy by Aquinas' standards.
• Aquinas came up with several improvements to Aristotelian logic,
including the theory of supposition and the theory of
consequences.
• These theories laid the foundations for the first order logic
we use today.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• With this new, refined logic at his disposal, Aquinas went about
proving the existence of God, as well as defending many of the
most contested aspects of Christian faith, including the divinity of
Christ and the nature of the Trinity.
• Aquinas' two greatest works, the Summa Theologica (the Collection of Things
Theological) and the Summa Contra Gentiles (the Collection of Arguments
Against Nonbelievers) became the new pillars that held Christianity above the
challenges of skeptics and scholars.
• We haven't the time to explore all of Aquinas' logical defenses of
Christianity. However, a single example should suffice.
• In his Summa Contra Gentiles, Aquinas makes an argument regarding
the gradation of intellect.
• He notes that stupid people often doubt what intelligent people
say is true, not because the stupid people have arguments to the
contrary but because they do not understand what the intelligent
person is talking about.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Aquinas compares this to mortal men talking about God; just as
an intelligent person is much smarter than an idiot, so too, God is
vastly more intelligent than even the smartest man.
• Just as it would be incredibly foolish for an idiot to insist that
what an intelligent person proposes is false simply because he
cannot understand it, so too, it is the acme of stupidity for a man
to call divine revelation false simply because he cannot
understand it.
• In the first part of his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas developed
his five arguments for God's existence.
• These arguments are grounded in an Aristotelian ontology and
make use of the infinite regression argument.
• Aquinas did not intend to fully prove the existence of God as he
is orthodoxly conceived (with all of his traditional attributes), but
proposed his Five Ways as a first stage, which he built upon later
in his work.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• Aquinas' Five Ways argued from the unmoved mover, first
cause, necessary being, argument from degree, and the
teleological argument.
• The unmoved mover argument asserts that, from our
experience of motion in the universe (motion being the
transition from potentiality to actuality) we can see
that there must have been an initial mover.
• Aquinas argued that whatever is in motion must
be put in motion by another thing, so there must
be an unmoved mover.
• Aquinas' argument from first cause started with the
premise that it is impossible for a being to cause itself
(because it would have to exist before it caused itself)
and that it is impossible for there to be an infinite chain
of causes, which would result in infinite regress.
• Therefore, there must be a first cause, itself
uncaused.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• The argument from necessary being asserts that all
beings are contingent, meaning that it is possible for
them not to exist.
• Aquinas argued that if everything can possibly not
exist, there must have been a time when nothing
existed; as things exist now, there must exist a
being with necessary existence, regarded as God.
• Aquinas argued from degree, considering the
occurrence of degrees of goodness.
• He believed that things which are called good,
must be called good in relation to a standard of
good—a maximum.
• There must be a maximum goodness that which
causes all goodness.
* How Thomas Aquinas Saved the Faith From Reason
• The teleological argument asserts the view that things
without intelligence are ordered towards a purpose.
• Aquinas argued that unintelligent objects cannot
be ordered unless they are done so by an
intelligent being, which means that there must be
an intelligent being to move objects to their ends:
God.
• With arguments like this at hand, the church didn't need hot irons and
pincers to convert the nonbeliever.
• Aquinas' arguments were so thorough, so logical, so convincing
that any quarrelsome scholar with a logical bone to pick could be
handed a copy of Aquinas and emerge fully convinced of the
error of his ways.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Background: Henry Versus Gregory
• In order to really understand our subject, Frederick II, we need to recall the
investiture controversy between Pope Gregory and Henry
• Germany After the Investiture Controversy
• After the investiture controversy, Germany saw the authority of King Henry IV
and his successor Henry V decline.
• Two families were becoming more powerful in Germany at the time: the
Welfs and the Hohenstaufens (Duke Rudolph's family).
• The Welfs supported Pope Gregory and his authority while the
Hohenstaufens supported the authority of the German king.
• When Henry V died without an heir, the two families began to fight for the
throne.
• After a weak ruler named Lothaire (supported by the Welfs) died in 1138,
nobles chose Conrad III (of the Hohenstaufens) as their leader.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Conrad was the first of several rulers of the Hohenstaufen family. After
his death in 1152, his nephew, Frederick I, became king.
• Frederick was a strong leader and tried to increase the power of the
German king both in Germany and Italy.
• To do this, he supported the growth of urban centers with their own
administrative government.
• He also gained the loyalty of nobles and the pope.
• He reigned until he named his son Henry VI as his king and went
abroad to fight in the Crusades.
• Frederick died in 1190.
• Henry tried to build allegiance for the succession of his son, Frederick
II but died after a Sicilian revolt in 1197.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Who Was Frederick II?
• Frederick II would be one of the most powerful rulers the empire would ever
see.
• Frederick was born in Italy in 1194 and was the son of the emperor Henry
VI.
• He was named the successor of the German kingship in 1196.
• He was also crowned king of Sicily in 1198 after the death of his father.
• Frederick's mother, Constance, acted on his behalf while he was a baby.
• Frederick's brother, Philip of Swabia, also claimed he had rights to the
kingship.
• He invaded some of Frederick's lands and gained the support of
others in his quest.
• Philip gained control of Sicily and Frederick in 1201.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Who Was Frederick II?
• Frederick remained under control of Philip's successor, William of
Capparone, until he was old enough to rule.
• Frederick Becomes a Leader
• Frederick had promised Pope Innocent III that if he was crowned Holy Roman
Emperor, he would break Sicily from the rest of the empire.
• He didn't follow through on this promise, however.
• Instead, he made arrangements to ensure his son Henry would be
king of Germany, securing his imperial rights.
• Frederick was formally crowned king of Germany in 1212.
• His competitor for the Holy Roman Empire, Otto of Brunswick, held a large
following in northern Germany.
• Although Frederick ruled the entire country, he was mainly only recognized
in the southern regions.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Otto's fight to gain power in Germany was unsuccessful, and he died in
1218.
• Before Otto's death, the German princes again chose Frederick as
their king.
• It was several years later that he finally succeeded in being crowned
Holy Roman Emperor in 1220.
• The Crusades and After
• One of the promises Frederick made in his negotiations with the popes at his
election was to join the Crusade.
• However, he also backed out on this promise.
• Rather than joining the Fifth Crusade in 1217, he sent soldiers to
Egypt without his leadership.
• The forces were welcomed, but Frederick was expected to arrive at
some point, too.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Negotiations stopped in anticipation of his arrival, and eventually, the
crusade failed.
• Frederick took the blame for this disaster.
• The pope excommunicated Frederick for this reason.
• The pope invaded Frederick's lands in Italy with a papal army.
• Frederick defeated them and passed legislation that provided each
province to have a local administrating government.
• He did this in both Sicily and Lombardy.
• Lombardy did not like the new system and fought back against
the king.
• Frederick encouraged commerce and trade, helping urban centers grow.
• In turn, agriculture and and industry in general were fostered.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• Although these actions helped with economic growth and expansion,
Frederick continued to battle with small rebellions in Germany and
Lombardy until he died in 1250.
• During his reign, Frederick II succeeded in re-establishing authority over much
of the empire, but he remained in constant battle with the pope and parts of his
empire throughout his reign.
• The Empire after Frederick II
• Frederick had successfully gained control over the Holy Roman Empire in
Germany and Italy, but after his death in 1250, the empire collapsed.
• Frederick's son ruled unsuccessfully for a short amount of time before
dying.
• The papacy's apparent victory over Frederick's successors cost the church some
of its credibility.
• The pope had abused his spiritual power when he battled against Frederick
and the Hohenstaufens.
* Frederick, II: King and Emperor
• The actions of the pope mirrored those of the princes and aristocrats.
• The Holy Roman Empire never again reached the height it did under Frederick I
Barbarossa.
• Future emperors avoided conflict with the volatile Italian city states.
• They also stopped seeking the imperial crown from the pope.
• German monarchs slowly ceased their attempt to gain power over German
nobles.
• Germany fell into political disunity that would last until the late 19th
century.
• The position of King and Holy Roman Emperor never again meant a control
over those lands, and became more of honorary titles than effective power
bases.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Marco Polo
• Most Westerners are familiar with the story of Marco Polo, the young, Venetian
explorer who went on a grand adventure to China in the late 13th century.
• There he met the Great Khan, Kublai, and entered his service.
• During his years under Kublai's patronage, Polo introduced the Great Khan
to European civilization, and the Great Khan, in return, introduced Polo to
Chinese civilization.
• Like a shrewd merchant, Marco Polo got the best out of that bargain.
• Chinese civilization had long since surpassed Europeans in technology
and refinement.
• Marco Polo returned to Venice 24 years later with a vast fortune as
well as maps of lands that hadn't seen a European in centuries and
tales of technologies that few Europeans had ever imagined, like coal
and paper money.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Marco Polo
• Marco Polo's epic journey to the Far East would forever change the course
of European history.
• His maps would help later Europeans follow the Silk Road, a path not
tread by Westerners since the collapse of the Roman Empire.
• The Impact of Chinese Technologies on Europe
• The impact of Chinese technologies on Europe cannot be overstated.
• Unlike Europe, China's technological and cultural progress had not been
disrupted by centuries of dark ages.
• In fact, China would provide still more technologies to Europe,
including the compass, the noodle, the printing press, and of course,
gunpowder.
• Each of these technologies would be instrumental in reshaping Europe with perhaps the exception of the noodle.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Coal would power the Industrial Revolution, while paper money
would revolutionize economics.
• The compass would make Columbus' transatlantic expedition possible.
• The printing press was instrumental in the propagation of ideas from
the Renaissance to the Reformation to the Enlightenment to the
Industrial Revolution.
• Gunpowder would change warfare forever, leading to the steady
decline of feudalism and the formation of nation states.
• Traditionally, Western historians have tended to describe the voyage of Chinese
technologies to Europe as a purely European and Chinese affair.
• Like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, European adventurers found
their way to China and brought Chinese technology home with them.
• Yet this account overlooks a very important fact.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• None of these world-changing Chinese technologies would ever have
made it to Europe were it not for the Mongols.
• The Mongols reopened the Silk Road, connecting Europe to
China for the first time since the collapse of the Roman Empire.
• More importantly, the Mongols conquered China before Marco
Polo and his ilk ever got there.
• Kublai, the Great Khan of China, who introduced Marco Polo
to Chinese culture, was not Chinese at all but rather a
Mongolian conqueror.
• Thus, it is misleading to think that European adventurers took
Chinese technology from China.
• It is much more accurate to say that the Mongols gave
Chinese technology to Europeans.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Mongol Empire
• When Westerners hear 'Mongols,' we tend to think of uncivilized barbarians horse peoples from the steppes of Central Asia whose raids across the Eurasian
continent were marked by their speed and brutality.
• Much of this picture is true.
• The Mongols were horse peoples, followers of a pastoralist lifestyle
separated from the agrarian civilizations that had developed in much
of the world.
• The Mongols were horse peoples, followers of a pastoral lifestyle that
had persisted in the Eurasian Steppe for thousands of years.
• Like all horse peoples, from the Scythians to the Huns, the
Mongols were uncivilized.
• That means that they did not live in cities but rather led a
nomadic lifestyle, following their flocks.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Mongol Empire
• And, like their predecessors, these Mongols conducted
quick and brutal raids on civilized cultures, stealing their
livestock, their treasures, and even their people.
• Yet the Mongols were by no means barbarians.
• In the 13th century, the Mongols ruled over the largest
empire the world had ever seen, ruling over a dizzying array
of civilizations from the South China Sea all the way up to
the Baltic.
• For nearly two centuries, the Mongol Empire was the most
technologically advanced, religiously tolerant, culturally
diverse society on Earth.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Great Khans
• This all started with Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.
• Genghis realized that there was a way to steal from civilized people
without all the work of seasonal raiding.
• You raid them just once, quickly and brutally: you massacre their
people and burn their cities to the ground - you know, really scare the
heck out of them.
• Then you tell them to pay you, or you'll do it again.
• And as long as they keep paying you, they're under your
protection, in much the same way as someone pays the Mafia for
protection.
• Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors, the
Mongols expanded this extortion racket, demanding tribute from
cities across Asia and Eastern Europe.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Great Khans
• Yet the Mongols did more than demand tribute.
• Genghis and his successors recognized the value of civilization beyond
a mere storehouse of treasure to be raided.
• The Khans realized that there were some treasures, like knowledge,
science, and art, that could not be easily taken in a raid nor demanded
in tribute.
• So they proactively absorbed the cultures they raided by taking
craftsmen, priests, mathematicians, doctors, poets, and anyone
who could write and putting them into the service of the
Mongolian Empire.
• Even as the Mongols absorbed the cultures they conquered, they
were, in turn, absorbed by those cultures.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Great Khans
• A prime example of this is Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai
Khan, who gave up the Mongol raiding life to rule China as a
Chinese emperor just in time to meet Marco Polo in the late
13th century.
• When Kublai sent a letter to the Pope, the Great Khan
did not demand gold or jewels from the leader of
Christendom - he asked for 100 Christians acquainted
with the Seven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic,
geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy).
• In their pursuit of empire and its fruits, the Mongols showed a level of
religious tolerance and secularism that was remarkable for its age.
• Their own native religion was a sort of animism and was considered a
strictly personal affair.
• This established a system of religious tolerance that would later
embrace Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• The Great Khans
• The Mongols did not care where an idea came from, so long as it was
useful.
• The same went for people.
• A person's standing in the Mongol Empire depended on their
abilities, not their race or lineage.
• The Mongols knew that the best people to administer China
were Chinese bureaucrats - just as they knew that a peasant
craftsman was at least as useful as his lord, if not more so.
• Mongol Brutality
• Yet, lest we idealize the Mongols, we must remember that this enlightened
civilization was nevertheless one of the most brutal, horrifying forces in the
world.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Mongol Brutality
• Their empire was not held together by common belief or common cause
but by people's terror of what the Mongols would do to them if they ever
rebelled.
• This is the face that the Mongols wear in most accounts of Western
Civilization.
• At most, we hear about how Genghis's grandson, Batu Khan,
conquered Russia in 1237.
• We hear the terrifying tales of how his Golden Horde controlled
Russia for two centuries with a campaign of savagery and
treachery.
• Pax Mongolica
• The most positive portrayal we normally hear of the Mongols is in reference to
the Pax Mongolica, or 'Mongol Peace.'
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Pax Mongolica
• Such accounts focus on how the vast Mongol Empire enabled trade
between Europeans and Chinese along the Silk Road for the first time in
almost a thousand years.
• Though many historians have rightly emphasized the importance of the Pax
Mongolica, this account reduces the role of the Mongols to mere
peacekeepers, passively manning the roads and allowing the 'real'
civilizations to talk to each other.
• But in truth, Europe did not have to wait for European explorers to bring
Chinese technology back to Europe; the Mongols did that for them.
• The Mongol Empire did not just facilitate the trade of technology;
they proactively absorbed and spread technology.
• In their two centuries of dominance, the Mongols collected the best
that Asia had to offer and delivered it right to Europe's doorstep.
• Columbus got his compass just in time to discover the New
World.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Pax Mongolica
• The bankers of Italy and the Netherlands were introduced to
paper money and soon had kings and popes in their debt.
• The armies of Europe got a dangerous new weapon in
gunpowder, forever changing the face of European warfare and
politics.
• Gutenberg got his printing press, allowing Europeans to share
information at a much greater rate and scale, ushering in new
eras of science and technology.
• And pasta lovers, like myself, got one of our favorite foods in the
whole world: noodles.
• Yet this was not a total win for Europe.
• The same trade routes that brought these new goods and
technologies also brought disease.
* The Mongol Contributions to Western Civilization
• Pax Mongolica
• The Black Death was introduced to Europe from China by
the Mongols.
• This disease would wipe out nearly half of Europe's
population.
• It is ironic that even though the Mongols never invaded
Western Europe, they still managed to bring death and
destruction on an unprecedented scale.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Social Hierarchy in the High Middle Ages
• The life of a commoner in the High Middle Ages wasn't easy.
• In Western Europe, feudalism was the system of government.
• This means the higher classes were royals and nobles who owned
land, and the lower classes were those who worked on the land.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Social Hierarchy in the High Middle Ages
• The landowners were expected to be unquestioningly loyal to the king.
• In exchange, the noble was granted control over his land and the peasants
who lived and worked on it.
• Peasants worked to maintain the land and paid taxes and rent to their lord.
• Feudalism was not very beneficial to the lower classes, and there was little
chance a peasant would ever move up in the social ranks.
• In the High Middle Ages, taxes grew along with an increase in trade and
foreign military campaigns.
• No single peasant had much of a say about the oppression, but a group of
peasants with a common voice was more readily heard.
• The Birth of the Medieval Guild
• As peasants who shared commonality in the product they sold or made formed
into an organized group, they became known as guilds.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Social Hierarchy in the High Middle Ages
• Guilds created standards for their products and regulations for sale.
• Guilds provided a means for a person to move higher in the social class
system.
• The guild set standards for the products of its members, and also for
the means by which they were compensated.
• Guilds could grant protection to their members against high taxes or
rent forced upon them by their lords.
• A guild could fix the price of a product and prevent any advertisement or
price reductions to stop competition among craftsmen and merchants.
• In doing so, the guild not only provided protection to its members, but
also to consumers.
• Quality standards of the products offered also ensured
consumers would not be taken advantage of.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Social Hierarchy in the High Middle Ages
• Craftsmen and merchants weren't allowed to trade products with people
who were not members.
• Guilds also provided care for members who became sick and protected
them while they traveled.
• Similar to modern unions, they also petitioned for good working conditions
and reasonable working hours.
• Guilds also helped with the cost of funerals for its members, and helped
provide care for orphans and workers who became disabled.
• Some supported education for its members as well.
• At the time, most of the schools were held in monasteries and were
only used to educate clergy.
• As trade increased and the demand for literacy in commoners for
record keeping grew, church schools could no longer handle the
educational needs of the people.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Social Hierarchy in the High Middle Ages
• Some of the earliest secular schools were supported by guilds.
• In addition to caring for the sick and disabled, guilds also helped build
buildings and protective barriers around villages and towns.
• They provided military assistance against any foreign invaders, and
monitored the town for criminal activity.
• Different guilds, for this reason, were allowed to occupy certain
neighborhoods and areas of towns and cities so that you would
have to go uptown to purchase cloth, and downtown to purchase
meats, etc.
• The members were thought to have high ethical and moral standards
and expected to avoid any corruptive behavior.
• Merchant Guilds
• Each guild had its own official charter.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Merchant Guilds
• The charter was the legislative grant written by the government that
identified the group as a guild.
• In having official status, guilds were able to enforce rules on their
members.
• Merchant guilds controlled the way trade was conducted in a town.
• They enforced rules, like bans on trading with non-members.
• Some merchant guilds became very powerful, and their members
were able to obtain higher social positions in their towns.
• Some held office within their cities while also representing their
guild.
• As members could climb to the hierarchical ranks in a guild to
help their social status, membership consistently increased.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Merchant Guilds
• As the number of members in merchant guilds grew, so did
the number of guilds.
• The merchant guilds became so powerful that they
started to create regulations over unrepresented,
individual craftsmen and traders.
• The regulations created a need for the craftsmen to
create their own guilds to protect themselves.
• Craft Guilds
• Craft guilds were created to protect craftsmen and traders against merchant
guilds.
• They worked much in the way of the merchant guilds, shielding members
from excessive taxes and providing care and protection for its members.
• Guilds were formed by people who produced the same type of product.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Craft Guilds
• Some of the guilds formed at this time include the following:
• bakers, masons, painters, apothecaries, candle makers, clothiers,
tanners and cobblers.
• Although craft guilds attempted to regulate the number of members, the guilds
grew in number and size very quickly.
• A hierarchy developed to regulate members.
• The newest members of a guild were known as apprentices.
• Apprentices were developing skills within their craft and learning
the ways of business.
• They were given training by the guild along with food and shelter.
• If an apprentice was successful, he would then reach the second level
of the craft guild and be known as a journeyman.
* Guilds in Western Culture and Economics in the High Middle Ages
• Craft Guilds
• Journeymen were paid a small wage while they got better food
and a slightly higher quality of shelter.
• If a journeyman met with success, he could reach the highest level of
the hierarchy, the master.
• In order to become a master, a journeyman's work had to be
examined by other masters.
• If the masters approved of the journeyman's work, he could have
his own shop.
• This would give him the level of master in his guild.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• The Feudal Economic System
• In the Middle Ages, the king was considered to be at the top of the feudal
system, but the landowners were the direct administrators over their workers.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• The Feudal Economic System
• Peasants lived at the bottom of this system.
• They had to swear obedience to their masters, leaving them legally bound
to work for the landowner.
• Their lives were under the control of the farming season, and they were
punished harshly for disobedience.
• At this time, there were few rebellions, and the peasants had very little say
in the matter.
• The Obligations of a Peasant
• The peasants were forced to bear the heaviest tax burden.
• They had to pay money either in taxes or rent to their lord for the land they
worked.
• They also had to pay a tax to the local church, called a tithe.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• The Obligations of a Peasant
• The tax was valued at 10% of the worker's yearly produce.
• Though the amount seems small, peasants produced and kept so
little of their produce that this could break their ability to support
their families.
• In addition to their daily work, peasants also had to provide free labor
on their local church's land.
• This took time away from the peasant's work on their lord's land.
• The church taught, however, that neglecting this duty was a sin,
and those who did not provide free labor would be punished by
God.
• An added stress was the Domesday Book.
• You may recall that this book was a record of what each person owed to
the king in taxes.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• The Obligations of a Peasant
• The book was a creation of William I, who gained control of England in
1066.
• He ordered a book be made that would hold record of who owned
what land in his country.
• The book would also keep a record of what taxes were owed.
• Because this information was written in the book, there was no
allowance for disputing it.
• By creating this book, William lessened the ability of nobles (who
were also subject to these taxes) to fund private military expeditions
against him, but it also added an additional burden on the peasants.
• Once taxes were paid, peasants could keep whatever remained, which
was often very little.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• Peasants at Home
• A peasant's family lived in a cruck house.
• These houses were framed in wood and plastered with a mixture of mud,
straw, and manure.
• The straw helped insulate the house.
• The manure was used as a binding agent and held the mixture
together.
• The mixture would be dried in the sun and formed the building
material.
• Homes were small and cheap to construct and had thatched roofs.
• Floors were lined with straw, and there would be very few pieces of
furniture.
• Windows were holes in the wall, and doors may have only been
covered with fabric.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• Peasants at Home
• Animals, like pigs, chickens, or cattle, were very valuable to a peasant
family.
• To avoid the animals being stolen or killed by wild animals, the
livestock would be kept inside the house at night.
• As you might imagine, the animals brought with them filth and flies.
• There was no soap, running water, or bathrooms.
• The dirt and fleas from daily work and animal guests of the house
would have covered the human inhabitants of the home.
• The toilet would have been a bucket that was emptied into the
closest river every morning.
• Water for washing or cooking was collected from this same
river.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• Peasants at Home
• Water was usually gathered by a female in the household every
morning and carried in a bucket to the home.
• Bathing was unusual, even for the rich.
• Daily Schedule
• The daily life of a peasant would have been mostly work with very little time for
leisure.
• In summer months, work may have started as early as three am.
• Peasants would start the day with a small breakfast and proceed to work in
the fields or land by sunrise.
• Breakfast was likely a bowl of thick stew with ingredients like peas,
carrots, onions, oats, and herbs, called pottage.
• Work in the field could include several tasks.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• Daily Schedule
• Peasants would have been responsible for plowing the land and sowing
seeds.
• They would also have to reap crops for harvest.
• They would have also been required to make hay by cutting grass and
curing it.
• Workers would also beat stems and husks of plant to remove seeds from
straw.
• This process is called threshing.
• Peasants performed these duties until dusk, making summer workdays
especially long.
• Peasant women would start the same time as her husband, sometimes by three
am.
• The woman would be responsible for preparing breakfast.
* The Daily Life of English Peasants
• Daily Schedule
• She would also be responsible for preparing any other daily meals
while looking after small livestock like chicken.
• Other duties might include making or mending clothing and collecting
herbs and berries.
• Peasant women had to care for their children and often used herbs
medicinally.