Download WH 1 Lesson 47 Instructional Resource 1

The High Middle Ages
continued
Those who pray: The Clergy
 The clergy was
considered the
highest in the
hierarchy of humans
because they stood
“closest to God.”
The Catholic Church in the High
Middle Ages

The Catholic Church was very important to the lives
of medieval people.

Monks were considered “heroes” and were
supposed to live a life of poverty, chastity, and
obedience.

The bishop of Rome (the pope) was the head of the
Catholic Church and was becoming more powerful.
Church vs. State
(Powerful Popes Began to Rule the Medieval World)

Winner of the conflicts
between state and church
came out to be the Church.

Pope Innocent III, the most
powerful pope ever.

He controlled not only the
Church, but also secular
politics.
Christians on the March: The Crusades
(1095-1291)
 Crusades were a series of wars undertaken by
European Christians between the 11th and
14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the
Muslims.
The Crusades - Events

Invasion of Constantinople by the Seljuk Turks.

Pope Urban’s call for a Crusade (1095)

First crusade recaptured Jerusalem (1099)

Subsequent Crusades
– Richard the Lionheart (3rd Crusade)
– Disastrous 4th Crusade sacked Constantinople

The Crusades: a massive failure
Criticism of the Church
 As the Church became more powerful and the
Crusades more crazy, heresies began to
emerge and the Church fought back.
 Excommunication – exclusion from the Church
as a penalty for refusing to obey Church laws.
 The Inquisition - tribunal of the Roman
Catholic Church established for the
investigation of heresy and punishment of the
heretics.
The Revival of Towns and Trade


The High Middle Ages saw an increase in
trade and commerce, resulting in the
creation of new towns or the expansion of
the old ones.
A new class emerged: townspeople, who
were outside the traditional 3-tiered order
of medieval society.
Medieval Towns: Guilds

Guilds were something like
medieval trade unions.

Each craft had its own guild
(e.g. Blacksmiths, artists,
bakers, and etc.)

Guilds protected craftsmen,
regulated commerce, and
set prices.
The Widening Web of Trade

Connected to the wealth
accumulated as more
food was produced,
trade increased in the
High Middle Ages.

Fairs were frequently
held that attracted
traders from all over
Europe.
Medieval Universities
Scholasticism – combining faith and
reason.
In the 12th cent., Bologna and Paris
become centers of a new educational
movement called “universitas.”
These guilds of students were
ancestors of modern universities.
Scholasticism: St. Thomas
Aquinas (1225-1274)

Thomas Aquinas
attempted to
reconcile faith with
reason and the
works of Aristotle
with Holy Scripture.

Wrote Summa
Theologica