a. main idea...v. the early middle ages e. the franks 3. in 732 ce, charles the hammer martel stops...

A. Main Idea: from 500 CE to after 1,000 CE, Europe is largely cut off

from the more advanced civilizations to the East. Europe enters a Dark

Age with little to no trade were few cultural advancements are made.

B. Medieval is Latin for “Middle Age”

1. from roughly 500 CE (the Fall of Rome) to 1450 and the Renaissance (the

Modern Era)

C. Geography of Western Europe

1. frontier territory: outside Rome’s control and sparsely populated

2. thick, dense northern forests

3. richer, more fertile soil and more mineral deposits than southern Europe

4. many rivers for transportation and power (water mills)

Germanic Barbarian Kingdoms

cultural blending

Economic and Social Life of “Dark Age” Western Europe

Byzantine Empire

Greek-speaking “Romans”; Christian but NOT Catholic

Medieval Christian Doctors of the Christian Church

monasticism

Islam’s Relationship with the “West”

Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire

Viking Invaders and European Feudal Society

…the slow emergence out of the dark!

VII. The Byzantine Empire A. The Main Idea: While Western Europe entered the feudal Medieval

Dark Ages (NO TRADE!!!), the eastern, Greek-speaking Romans

continued for 1,000 years as the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople

as its capital.

VII. The Byzantine Empire B. Remember:

1. in 284 CE, Diocletian divides the Roman Empire in to an eastern and

western half

2. Emperor Constantine moves capital from Rome in west to

Constantinople in East

VII. The Byzantine Empire C. Constantinople

1. located on existing trade routes on Bosporus Strait

a. connects Mediterranean and Black Seas

2. in the middle of a huge east/west trade route

3. excellent natural harbor

VII. The Byzantine Empire C. Constantinople

4. had impenetrable defenses

a. the Golden Horn

b. Roman walls

c. Greek fire

5. looked, smelled, tasted and sounded like Rome

a. except they spoke Greek instead of the traditional Roman language of Latin

VII. The Byzantine Empire D. A Blending of Cultures

1. Roman, Greek, Hellenistic,

and Christian culture all

blended within the Byzantine

Empire

VII. The Byzantine Empire E. Age of Emperor Justinian

1. ruled from 527 to 565 CE

2. extended the borders to its largest extent

3. dreamed of uniting the whole former Roman Empire with

Constantinople as its capital

4. temporarily conquered N. Africa, Italy and Southern Spain

a. will lose nearly all of this territory to Muslim armies within 200 years.


5. Hagia Sophia

a. built by Justinian in 6 years; Church of Holy Wisdom

b. most beautiful Church in all of Christendom

i. largest domed structure in Europe


6. Justinian’s Code of Laws (Corpus Juris Civilis)

a. Justinian collected, organized, and revised the laws of the ancient Roman Republic and

Empire

b. laws become the model for western European monarchs and the Roman Catholic

Christian Church when the information eventually reaches western Europe.


7. Absolute Power

a. Justinian used law and Christianity to unify his

subjects/people

b. ruled as an autocrat – a ruler with sole and complete power

c. controlled both the government and the Eastern Orthodox

Christian Church

i. the 5 patriarchs took orders from him whereas,

ii. in the west, the Pope tells kings what to do

VII. The Byzantine Empire F. Changing Fortunes

1. withstood attacks from Persians, Slavs, Magyars, Mongols, and Vikings

2. served as a buffer zone to western Europe

a. without Constantinople and Byzantine armies, invaders would have easily conquered

western Medieval kingdoms

3. Muslim armies overrun Byzantine lands by 700s

4. Byzantine Empire reduced to Balkans and Asia Minor, and then to just

Constantinople and the immediate surrounding lands

VII. The Byzantine Empire G. The Crusades

1. eventually, Christian armies from western Europe try to capture

Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims

VII. The Byzantine Empire G. The Crusades

2. in one crusade, the Western Christians attack Constantinople and the

Byzantines on their way to the Holy Land

a. creates bad blood; the last straw

b. western Christians realize the Byzantines are way more advanced and become curious

like cats for new knowledge

VII. The Byzantine Empire H. Constantinople Falls

1. finally, in 1453 CE, the last Byzantine city of

Constantinople is defeated by Muslim Turks

2. by this time, the western Christian kingdoms have

become powerful modern European nations like

France, Spain and England

D. Germanic Kingdoms

1. the Germanic tribes that were forced into Roman territories were

farmers and herders

2. these various Germanic tribes had a drastically different culture than the

Romans

a. no written laws / instead relied on unwritten customs

b. no cities

c. kings elected only in times of war

V. The Early Middle Ages E. The Franks

1. from 400-700 CE, the Franks conquered the former

Roman province of Gaul (modern-day France)

2. in 486, Clovis converts to Christianity

a. by default, all Franks convert to Christianity

b. forms a powerful alliance between the Germanic Franks and the Roman Catholic

(Christian) Church/Pope in Rome


3. in 732 CE, Charles the Hammer Martel stops the invading Muslim armies

at the Battle of Tours

a. Muslims are creating a huge empire stretching from the Middle East all the way to the

Iberian Peninsula

b. beginning of conflict between Muslims and Christians that lasts even today


4. Charlemagne (Charles the Magne or Charles the “Great”)

a. grandson of Charles the Hammer Martel

b. a 7’ giant who fought off Muslim advances during his 46-year reign

c. briefly unifies western Europe into a single Christian nation

d. becomes the 1st Holy Roman Emperor

i. coronation held on Christmas Day in the year 800 CE

ii. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne 1st Holy Roman Emperor


4. Charlemagne (Charles the Magne or Charles the “Great”)

d. becomes the 1st Holy Roman Emperor

- significant because a Latin-speaking Pope is naming a non-Roman, Germanic Frank

as Emperor of all Romans

iii. Eastern Greek-speaking Romans (Byzantines) are outraged by 2 things: (especially the

Byzantine Emperor)

- the barbarian Pope telling them what to do

- election of a German to the position of Roman Emperor

iv. Charlemagne’s coronation widens a growing gap between eastern (Greek/Eastern

Orthodox) and western (Latin/Roman Catholic) Christians


4. Charlemagne (Charles the Magne or Charles

the “Great”)

e. builds the new city of Aachen as a “second Rome”

i. appoints Alcuin of York to create a curriculum based

on Roman knowledge – a formal course of study

ii. collects surviving books and begins hand-copying

them to preserve lost knowledge


5. After Charlemagne

a. Germanic custom requires fathers to split their inheritance evenly

b. Charlemagne divides his large empire amongst his three sons...who fight over it

i. within years, only a portion of his great Christian empire survives as the Frankish

Kingdom

V. The Early Middle Ages F. New Waves of Invasion

1. Muslim forces are always trying to invade Europe via Spain and Italy

2. Magyars invade from East (Hungary) by 900 CE

V. The Early Middle Ages F. New Waves of Invasion

3. Vikings

a. expert sailors and warriors

from Scandinavia (Norway,

Sweden, and Denmark)

b. looted and burned both

Christian and non-Christian

coastal and river communities

c. helps reestablished trade

routes between northern Europe

and Mediterranean world

d. settle in England, Ireland,

northern France, and parts of

Russia

i. also create a small

temporary settlement in

North America

VI. Feudalism and the Manor Economy A. The Emergence of Feudalism

1. because of constant invasion and war, kings were not powerful enough to

maintain law and order over large areas

a. monarchs could not protect their people

2. feudalism evolved because of this need for protection

a. feudalism is a loosely organized system of rule in which local lords divide their land

among lesser lords in exchange for loyalty and service


3. Feudal Contract

a. feudal relationships and social hierarchies were extremely complex

b. explains a warrior society

c. lords protected and gave fiefs (lands) to their vassals in exchange for loyalty

d. vassals were protected and lived on a fief in exchange for services


4. Social Structure:

VI. Feudalism and the Manor Economy B. The World of the Nobles

1. Knights fought each other for power; participated in tournaments

(jousting etc.)

a. mounted warriors who were trained from birth

2. Castles

a. fortified homes of the noble lords

b. usually with high stone walls and a surrounding moat with draw bridges

c. usually guarded an important Roman road, river, harbor or mountain passage

d. built to withstand long sieges (by Vikings, Muslims, or other Christian lords)

VI. Feudalism and the Manor Economy C. Chivalry

1. a code of moral

conduct

2. required knights to be

brave, loyal, and truthful

(to fight fair)

3. placed women on a

pedestal to be protected

and cherished

4. applied to nobles only,

not commoners

(majority of population)

VI. Feudalism and the Manor Economy D. Peasants and the Manor System

1. a manor was the lord’s estate

a. usually one or more villages and all the lands, buildings and people in it

2. common people were mostly serfs

a. bound to the land they were born

b. not exactly slaves; could not be bought or sold

c. were not free to leave their assigned their lord’s lands

3. both common people and serfs gave labor and produced goods for their

lords in exchange for protections and land to farm as their own


4. was a self-sufficient world

a. the manor system produced everything the people needed; did not rely on traded

goods

b. peasants produced everything they needed (food, clothing, tools, etc.)

c. people had little access to knowledge of the “outside” world


5. A Peasant’s Life

a. life was extremely harsh

b. most people lived and died within a few miles

c. worked from sun up to sun down during work seasons

d. average life expectancy was 35

e. simple diet and susceptible to diseases

f. Christian holidays only days of “fun”

VIII. The Roman Catholic Church in Medieval Times

A. Main Idea: Without powerful secular

governments to check their power and because

the majority of Europe had been converted to

Christianity by the end of Charlemagne’s lifetime,

the Roman Catholic Church became the most

powerful force in all of Western Europe.


B. As Christianity spread, two original

churches were established and still exist

today:

1. the Roman Catholic Church centered in Rome, Italy

○ lead by Popes

2. the Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine) Christianity

centered in Greece (Constantinople)

○ led by 5 patriarchs who share power, but who are under

the authority of the Byzantine emperor from 300s to 1453

CE


C. The Roman Catholic Church

and Medieval Life

1. “It is our task with the aid of divine

goodness, to defend the Holy Church

of Christ everywhere...and to

strengthen it within through the

knowledge of the Catholic (universal)

faith” – Charlemagne

2. from the time of the 1st apostles,

Christian missionaries have been

converting pagans to Christianity

○ a. pagans are non-Christians


C. The Roman

Catholic Church

and Medieval Life

3. every Medieval

manor included a

church with a parish

priest

○ a. some contained

relics – remains of

martyrs and

sometimes saints

○ b. all collected a tithe

– a tax collected by

the Church


C. The Roman Catholic Church and Medieval

Life

4. the parish priest

○ a. most immediate contact Christians had with the

“Church”

○ b. what the priests said, people believed

i. most Medieval Europeans could not read the Bible for themselves

○ c. provided sacraments necessary for salvation (going to

Heaven)

i. the sacred rights of the Church

○ d. conducted marriages, baptized people, buried the dead

in sacred ground

○ d. priests were the only educated people in Medieval

Europe

How is the priest supposed to lead his followers? Wyd was his parisshe,

and houses fer asonder,

But he ne lefte nat, for reyn ne thonder,

In siknesse nor in meschief to visite

The ferreste in his parisshe, muche and lite,

Upon his feet, and in his hand a staf.

This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf,

That first he wroghte, and afterward he taughte.

Wide was his parish, houses far asunder,

But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,

In sickness, or in sin, or any state,

To visit the farthest, regardless their financial state,

Going by foot, and in his hand, a stave.

This fine example to his flock he gave,

That first he wrought and afterwards he taught


D. Monks and Nuns

1. monks live in monasteries

2. nuns live in convents

○ a. some wanted to be there, many did not (remember,

there were no “prisons” in Medieval times


D. Monks and Nuns

3. Benedictine Rules

○ a. from Benedict, a monk from Monte Cassino, Italy in 530 CE

○ b. a set of rules that all monks and nuns had to follow (3 vows)

i. vow of obedience to abbot and abbess

ii. vow of poverty

iii. vow of chastity

iv. sometimes monks and nuns would take a vow of silence

Question: Why would these three vows be

important for being a good monk/nun?

So one focus on religious duties rather than things “of

this world”


D. Monks and Nuns

4. monasteries and convents were the only centers of

education and medicine

○ a. monks and nuns hand-copied important books of

ancient learning

5. many become missionaries themselves – ex. St.

Patrick who establishes the Church of Ireland


E. The Power of the Roman

Catholic Church Grows

1. the Roman Catholic Church becomes

the most powerful religious and secular

force in Medieval Europe

○ a. secular =worldly

2. popes claim papal supremacy –

authority to rule over ALL Christians

(including those in the eastern

Byzantine Empire)

3. bishops and priests are appointed to

high positions in feudal kingdoms

because they are the only ones with

education


E. The Power of the Roman

Catholic Church Grows

4. The Roots of the RCC’s Power

○ a. Medieval Christians believed

everyone was going to eternal hell

without the sacraments of the

Roman Catholic Church

○ b. only the Roman Catholic Church

could give these sacraments

○ c. ergo (thus) the Roman Catholic

Church has power over all Christian

souls (now that’s power)


E. The Power of the Roman Catholic

Church Grows

5. the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern

Orthodox (Byzantine) Church had cannon laws

○ a. cannon laws are laws that govern matters of the Church

○ b. excommunication – when someone is denied

sacraments = eternal damnation in hell!

○ c. interdict – when a pope excommunicates an entire

kingdom!!!

Question: Which of these laws, excommunication or

an interdict, gave members of the Roman Catholic

Church and the popes more power? Why?

○ Interdict; forces even powerful kings to submit to

RCC’s power


F. Reforming the Roman Catholic Church

1. “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Explain:



2. the wealthier and more powerful the Roman Catholic

Church gets, the more corrupt some become

3. Cluniac Reforms

○ a. no marriage for priests

○ b. no selling of Church offices (simony)

○ c. called for Church officials to appoint priests and bishops

instead of laymen (kings and lords)



4. friars – traveling monks who fight Church corruption

and heresy

○ a. Francis Assisi who later becomes a Saint

○ b. the Franciscans and Dominicans


G. Anti-Semitism

1. hatred of Judaism and Jews in general

2. though Jews became influential advisors in many

courts of lords, kings, and even the church, they were

often used as a scapegoat in times of trouble

○ a. a scapegoat is someone or something that is blamed for

a problem, though they probably are not the cause

a. main idea...v. the early middle ages e. the franks 3. in 732 ce, charles the hammer martel stops...

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