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Transforming the Roman
World
Chapter 9-1
The New Germanic Kingdoms
By the third century Germanic
peoples had begun to move
into the Roman Empire
The only German state that
survived was that of the Franks
which was located in present
day France
This state was expanded &
established by Clovis who had
converted to Christianity
This conversion was important
as it won him the support of
the Roman Catholic Church or
the Christian Church
After his death the kingdom
was divided by his sons &
Germans & Romans began to
intermarry
The New Germanic Kingdoms
When it came to crimes the Romans regarded crimes as offenses against
society while Germanic peoples regarded them as personal offenses
against the family
This Germanic view often led to feuds between families
To avoid this a system based on fines was created called the Wergild or
“money for man”
This system required the wrongdoer to pay the family of the victim the
value of that person in money
One way to determine guilt was the ordeal (such as holding a red hot iron)
It was believed that divine forces would intervene & not allow any innocent
person to be harmed during a physical trial
By the end of the fourth century Christianity was the supreme
religion of the Roman Empire
The bishop of Rome claimed the he was the leader of the entire
Roman Catholic Church & took the title of Pope
Gregory I, who was pope from 590 to 604 was also the leader of
the city of Rome & its surrounding areas
He strengthened the power of the papacy and the Roman
Catholic Church
The Role
of the
Church
The Role of the Church
The backbone of the Christian movement were
the monks
A monk is a person who gives up all worldly
goods & dedicates himself totally to God
This practice is called monasticism
St. Benedict founded a community of Catholic
monks who followed a set of strict obedience
rules that he wrote
Benedicts rule broke the day into activities that
were mainly prayer & physical labor
All monks took a vow of poverty
The
Carolingian
Empire
Charlemagne ruled from 768 to
814 expanding the Frankish
kingdom as well as creating
the Carolingian Empire
By 800 he was crowned the
emperor of the Romans
Charlemagne had a strong
desire to promote learning in
his kingdom
This desire stemmed from his
own curiosity as well as the
need to educate the Catholic
clergy & government officials
This is often referred to as the
Carolingian Renaissance or
rebirth
This rebirth emphasized the
classic works of the Greeks &
Romans
The monasteries & monks
played a crucial role in the
renaissance as they copied
manuscripts