Download Early Medieval Europe

Early Medieval Europe
(ca. 300-900)
Western Europe

Barbarians!


What do you think of?
What images come to mind?
Western Europe

The Germanic Kingdoms


Farmers
Relations with Rome
 The Good





Served in Roman military
Imitated Roman customs
Trade and alliances
Settled in Roman territory
The Bad


Military conflicts
Sack of Rome (410)
Western Europe
Sack of Rome (410)
Western Europe

The Huns





Leo I and Attila
Nomadic fighters
Based in eastern Europe
 west!
ATTILA THE HUN (r. 443454)
Gaul and Italy (451-52)
 Approached Rome,
encountered Leo I
 Plague, eastern forces 
Hun withdrawal
Hunnic Empire
disintegrated (454)
Western Europe
2001
Western Europe

“Fall of Rome”


Romulus Augustulus
Last Western emperors
(455-476)
 Ruled fragments of
Western Europe
Romulus Augustulus (r.
475-76) deposed
Western Europe

The Germanic Kingdoms



The Visigoths
The Ostrogoths
THE FRANKS

Clovis (r. 481-511)


THE ANGLES AND
SAXONS


Founded Merovingian
dynasty
Raids  settled along
southeastern English
coast
The Vandals
The Germanic Kingdoms (ca. 530)
Western Europe

Questions?
Western Europe

The Papacy




Office of bishop of Rome
One of five “patriarchal” bishops in Roman
Christendom
Perceived as “first among equals” by eastern
bishops
Filled “power vacuum” left by imperial absence in
west…
Western Europe

Pope Gregory the Great
(r. 590-604)




“Servant of the servants of God”
Paradigmatic for medieval popes
Papal affairs in West
 Supreme spiritual leader
 Supervised papal lands
 In touch with western
monarchs
Temporal authority
 Loyal subject of eastern
emperor
 Sometimes had to act on his
own authority in Italy
Western Europe

Monasticism




Solitary asceticism as way of life away from
“world”
Began in Egypt
Reaction to worldliness of imperial church
Kinds of monks: hermits, communal monks
Western Europe

Benedictine Monasticism

Founder: Benedict of
Nursia (ca. 480-543)




Began as hermit, lived in
cave
Reluctant abbot
Established monasteries
Rule



Detailed
Very successful
For women too
Western Europe
Abbey of Monte Cassino,
above Cassino, Italy
Western Europe

Spread of Roman Christianity in Western Europe
 The Franks


Clovis converted  Franks followed
Ireland

Patrick (391? – 461?)


England



“I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much
grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God…”
(Confessio, 38)
Augustine of Canterbury sent
Angles and king converted
By 8th century western Europe was predominantly
Catholic, under spiritual authority of papacy
Western Europe

Questions?
Western Europe

Kingdom of the Franks



Dominant in western
Europe
Ruled originally by
Merovingians
Ruled later by
Carolingians
 Deposed last
Merovingian
 Allied with papacy
Western Europe

Charlemagne
(r. 768-814)


As king, ruled by God’s
will
Local rule: counts
 Regional governors




Implemented legislation
Collected taxes
Assembled armies
Missi dominici
 Supervised counts
Western Europe

Emperor Charlemagne


Pope faced hostility in
Rome  fled to
Charlemagne
To Rome




Pope returned with
Frankish escort
Charlemagne arrived soon
after
Crowned augustus
Christmas Day (800)
Emperor Charlemagne
and “new” Roman
Empire?
Western Europe
Western Europe

Questions?
The Byzantine Empire

The Eastern Roman
Empire lived on…


Based in
CONSTANTINOPLE
 “New Rome”
 Residence of emperor
Greek in culture
Constantine and Constantinople
The Byzantine Empire

Justinian and Theodora


Who were they?
 JUSTINIAN: emperor
(r. 527-565)
 Theodora: “Partner in
Counsel”
Justinian and Legislation:
Codex Iustinianus
 Committee collected all
imperial edicts 
update, edit, simplify,
codify them
The Byzantine Empire

Justinian and Religion



Emperor was directly involved in religion
Sought unified “orthodox” Christianity  divine favor!
Twilight of Paganism



Pagans had to become Christian  lose property, or exile
Closed Academy, Athens
Ordered construction of HAGIA SOPHIA (537)
The Byzantine Empire
Hagia Sophia
The Byzantine Empire

Reconquest of the West


Justinian’s dream: universal Roman Empire again
Conquest




North Africa (534)
Italy (540)
Southern Spain (552)
Ultimate failure


Bankruptcy
Roman forces were overextended
The Byzantine Empire

Mosaics


Common in antiquity
Bits of stone, glass  unified image
The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire

The Iconoclastic
Controversy



Emperors were hostile to
icons, ordered their
destruction (726)
Controversy: iconoclasts vs.
iconodules
Conclusions
 Iconoclasm first
condemned at Second
Council of Nicaea (787)
 Feast of Orthodoxy
(February 19, 843)


Response to resurgent
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm reversed for
good
Virgin and Child between
Sts. Theodore and George,
6th or early 7th cent.
The Byzantine Empire

Questions?
Early Medieval Europe

How was Europe different now from the
classical past?
 Politically?
 Religiously?
 Culturally?