Download The Early Middle Ages: The Formation of Europe

The Early Middle Ages: The Formation of Europe
I. Europe and the Ancient World
A. The Ancient world’s perception
1. No Europe (as a distinct cultural region) in ancient times
2. The Ancient world was made up of the;
a. Mediterranean world of the Latin West & the Greek East
b. The West inc. parts of Africa & Europe
c. Europe was divided by the Rhine-Danube frontier
1. South & west were the civilized frontiers of the Empire
2. North & east were populated by barbarians
d. Africa to the Romans was Tunisia-Algeria
e. Asia meant the Asia Minor Peninsula
3. Europe would emerge as a distinct regional culture from the 5th-10th
centuries.
1
II. The Disintegration of the Roman Empire
A. The Division of the Empire came with the founding of Constantinople in A.D.
330
1. Emperor Constantine adopts Christianity in hopes of strengthening the
empire
2. He moved the capital to Constantinople in the east b/c this area was
the center of trade & culture
3. The Empire had two capitals Rome & Constantinople
a. administered as two halves
b. east & west grow further & further apart
B. Barbarians (so called b/c they did not speak Greek or Latin) threaten the
Empire
1. West
-threatened by wild Celts in Wales & Scotland
-Germans in the European heartland
2. East
-Persians in the East
-Arabs in the Southeast
C. How did the Empire try to protect itself?
1. Romans drew a line beyond which they rarely ventured
2. would not allow barbarians to cross this line
a. barbarians filtered in anyway
b. in the 3rd century Roman Empires were recruiting bands of
barbarians to serve in the Roman armies
c. some men of barbarian birth reached high positions in the
Empire
D. The West falters
1. Roman cities decayed & trade declined
2. taxes became a paralyzing burden
3. free farmers gathered debts & became bound to the soil
2
4. army increased in political power unseating Emperors
5. rival generals fought for power
6. barbarian attacks increased
a. as a result of increased pressure on them from Asia
7. by 476 a barbarian chieftain deposed the last Roman Emperor in the
West
a. the Huns of Asia invaded Europe in 450 under the leadership of
Attila
8. Arabs inspired by the new faith in Islam conquered Syria,
Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and eventually took Roman Africa
& Spain by 711 A.D.
E. Greco Roman Worlds unity divides into three types of Civilizations
1. Byzantine-Christian in religion Greek in culture
2. Arabic-under Islam
3. Latin Christendom
III. The Byzantine, Arabic World and Latin Christendom 700 A.D.
A. Byzantine Empire
1. made up of the Asia Minor Peninsula, Balkan Peninsula, & part of
Italy
2. believed they were the truest heirs of early Christianity & of the
Golden Age of Greece
3. vigorous commerce & trade continued
4. learning was more rigid than during the classical age due to
Christianities intolerant nature
5. Emperor of the East was the Supreme ruler of Christians &
Constantinople was the finest city
B. Arabic Islamic World
1. empire included the Middle East, Spain and Roman Africa
2 Arabic was the lang. of the empire
3. Its leader was a caliph who was considered a religious & military
successor of Muhammad
3
4. recognized the prophets of Judaism & Jesus as a prophet but not son
of God as Christians believed
5. Mohammad was the last & greatest prophet
a. Koran replaced the Old Testament of the Jews & the New
Testament of the Christians (which was flawed)
6. Rejected the Christian trinity b/c there was only one true God
7. saw Christians as dangerous infidels
8. commerce and learning flourished
a. Arab scholars built on Greek learning
b. Algebra and Arabic numbers adv. Math
C. Latin Christendom
1. inc. part of Italy, France, Belgium, the Rhineland & Britain
2. Barbarian kings ruled small kingdoms
3. govmt. for the most part had collapsed
4. Most Germanic invaders of the empire were not Christians
a. lang. was spoken but had no written form
b. could farm, work iron, and had some knowledge of Roman
crafts
c. govmt. was tribal & allowed more personal freedom than the
Roman Empire-no sense of state or universal law
d. settled disputes by rough means such as the ordeal
e. could not control the Roman territories they conquered in a
central manner
f. gave rise to feudalism as towns sought protection from local
lords
5. Feudalism
1. relationships governed by status each rank possessing duties
2. Towns became self-sufficient & trade stopped
3. money went out of circulation
4. Roman roads fell into disrepair as they were cut up to build
shelters
4
5. the West becomes isolated from the East as Europe fell into
what some historians call the Dark Ages in 500 A.D.
IV. The Church and the Rise of the Papacy
A. The Church was the institution that maintained ties w/ the civilized past
1. framework of Bishoprics remained intact except in England
2. monasteries were a new institution formed by the church
a. formed separate religious communities
b. usually left alone by rough neighbors who held them in awe
c. most monasteries adopted the rule of St. Benedict, which acted
as a unifying force btw monasteries
1. divided the day into a series of activities focused on
prayer (7 community prayers a day)
2. physical work was required by all monks “idleness seen
as the enemy of the soul”
3. strict obedience to the abbot was demanded
4. each monetary held land to make it self sufficient
5. monks took a vow of poverty w/ all property held in
common
6. monks became the new heroes of Christian civilization
-provided schools for the young
-hospitality for travelers
-hospitals for the sick
7. copied Latin works preserving works of the ancient
world
B. With no Emperor in Rome the Bishop of Rome assumed control of the govmt.
& Political Affairs of the city
1. the bishop of Rome had no secular power over him as the bishops of the
East who were dominated by the Emperor (Caesaropapism)
2. The Roman Bishop confirmed in practice the theory they held that
religious power superceded the power of secular political leaders
a. secured the Bishops power by various writings that
5
linked the Bishop of Rome or Pope with St. Peter
b. Pope had the power to open or close the doors of salvation
3. The growing authority of the Roman bishop was confirmed by
Emperor Constantine who charged him w/ the governance of the city
a. in the 15th “Donation of Constantine” was proved a forgery
b. Pope had used this to consolidate power
C. Pope tries to convert & Christianize barbarians
1. translated Bible into Germanic languages
2. 496 the King of the Franks, Clovis converted to Christianity
3. 597 the King of Kent in southeast England allowed the Christinization
of the Anglo-Saxons
4. by A.D. 700 the boarders of Christianity were about what they had
been in Roman times
5. retreated in 711 as the Arabs took Spain but stopped from
taking central Europe by Frankish armies in 732
V. The Empire of Charlemagne 800-814
A. Located
1. in what is now northern France & the German Rhineland
B. Frankish Kings political policies
1. cooperated w/ the Pope
2. Pope needed protection from Barbarians & competing claims of the
Byzantine Empire
3. in return for protection Frankish king’s won papal support
C. In 800 A.D. the pope crowns Charlemagne the holy Roman Emperor of the
West
1. conquered northeast corner of Spain for Christendom
2. created the Carolingian Empire covering much of western & central
Europe (first time Europe as a unit of society & culture was distinct
From Mediterranean antiquity)
3. capital became Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen near the mouth of the Rhine
4. Charlemagne est. contact w/ the Arab leadership in Baghdad & the
6
Emperor in Byzantium
5. northern capital became the center of western learning
6. revived ancient learning & founded schools that taught Latin
7. roots of the Western alphabet were est.
8. fostered commerce w/ the est. of a new coinage
9. empire starts to disintegrate soon after Charlemagne’s death
-843 divided into three sections by his grandsons
D. Ninth Century Invasions, Europe by 1000
1. in the 9th century the Magyars invaded Europe eventually settled along
the central part of the Danube
2. Tribes from Scandinavia; the Norse, Vikings, Danes invaded Russia,
discovered Iceland & America, & attacked cities & towns in Europe
a. settled in large #’s in Danelaw England, & Normandy France
3. Arabs raided the shores of Italy & occupied Sicily
4. 2nd wave of Barbarians would be incorporated into the empire by
conversion to Christianity
5. By 1001, the Pope sent a golden crown to the Magyars to crown St.
Stephen the first king of Hungary
6. the church had sought & converted the last of the heathens
E. The Great Schism of East & West 1054
1. West & East continued to drift apart
2. root of split was the refusal of the patriarchs of Constantinople to
recognize the claims of primacy of the pope
a. regarded the pope as a kind of Western Barbarian
3. The pope refused to acknowledge the political leadership of patriarchs
of Byzantium over the Western Church
4. 1054 the split became definite
a. The Greek Orthodox Church-took the east & would Christianize
the Balkans Slavs & Russia
1. recognize no pope
2. regard themselves as the most faithful form of
7
Christianity
3. saw the Western Church as unholy
b. The Roman Catholic Church of the West
1. headed by the Pope
2. likewise the West thought the Eastern church heretical
3. West diverges from Greco Roman Culture but still
is the lesser of the two remaining halves of the old
empire
8