The Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages
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Time Period

• Generally, the term Middle Ages applies to the
  period of European History dating from the
  collapse of Rome to the Renaissance.
• Sometimes referred to as The Dark Ages the
  general impression is one of stagnation in
  culture, economy and scientific advancement.

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Breakdown in Authority

• Settlement of Germanic peoples
• Brought no written laws
• Built no cities
• Mainly farmers and herders
• Small communities elected kings
• Kings led them in war
• Warrior nobles swore allegiance to the kings
• Awarded land
• Received weapons

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Feudalism

• Government credited to William I when he
  conquered England in 1066.
• William divided the land into plots, or fiefs,
  given to the nobles who fought for him.
• William still owned the land.
• The nobles were divided into lords and lesser
  lords.
• Vassal A person under the protection of a
  feudal lord to whom he has vowed homage and
  fealty

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Responsibilities of the Lords

• Swear allegiance to William
• Collect taxes for the king in their own regions
• Provide soldiers to the king when needed
• This land was further divided and given to loyal
  knights who
• Swore allegiance to the Nobles
• Collect taxes
• Provide soldiers when needed

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Villeins means serf.
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The Conquered

• At the bottom of the ladder were the English who
  had been conquered.
• The English had no rights
• The conquered were expected to do what they were
  told or pay the consequences.
• The serfs were responsible for working the land.

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The Church
The one thing that held European together was the
Church. The power in the Church was held by the
bishops.
In the West, the Bishop of Rome was held in high
regard because he held the Chair of St. Peter, to
whom Christ had given the Keys of the Kingdom.
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• The Church was the social center of the village.
• Education
• Marriage
• Burial
• The Church was supported through the tithe.
• Women were held in high regard with Mary as the
  example of the perfect woman.

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• The Church taught that salvation was gained
  through the observance of the sacraments
• Confirmation
• Baptism
• Penance
• Marriage
• Holy Eucharist (Communion)
• Holy Orders
• Extreme Unction (Last Rites) (Annointing of the
  Sick)

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Patriarchs

• As Christianity spread some bishops were awarded
  greater authority because their cities were more
  important. Five bishops were granted the title
  of Patriarch. These bishops were located in
• Rome
• Constantinople
• Antioch
• Jerusalem
• Alexandria, Egypt

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• Following the death of Charlemagne, Duke Otto I
  took the title of King of Germany (936)
• Otto I worked closely with the Church, taking an
  army into Italy to suppress rebellious Roman
  nobles.
• In 962, Pope John XII crowned Otto emperor.

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• Ottos successors took the title Holy Roman
  Emperor
• Holy, because they were crowned by the pope
• Roman, because they saw themselves heirs to the
  emperors of ancient Rome

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Background

• When Constantine became emperor, he found a
  dispute raging between Alexander, Bishop of
  Alexandria, and his presbyter, Arius.
• The dispute was over the relationship between God
  the Father and God the Son
• Arius maintained that the Son was created by the
  Father and therefore could not be divine.

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• Alexander excommunicated Arius and called for
  Constantine to mediate.
• Constantine called the Council of Nicaea, the
  first ecumenical council, and proposed that the
  Father and the Son were of one essence, one
  substance.
• The controversy continued after Constantines
  death.
• The Eastern churches followed Arius while the
  Western churches accepted the Nicaean solution.

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• It was generally accepted in the East that the
  emperor was above the Church.
• He was considered to be the living image of
  Christ, the head of the Church
• He presided over Church Councils
• He approved all candidates for the post of
  Patriarch of Constantinople (the equivalent of
  the Bishop of Rome)
• He set religious policy
• The emperors position was never challenged in
  the East.

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In the West

• Western bishops gradually asserted the idea that
  God put the affairs of the state in the hands of
  the emperors, but the affairs of the Church were
  in the hands of the Church leaders.
• render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars
  and unto God the things that are Gods.

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• St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (Carthage)
  taught that man should disobey the government if
  that government ordered him to commit an act that
  was against his own conscience.
• A Christian was subject to a higher authority.
• The alternative to living in a sinful world was
  to withdraw and seek union with God away from the
  temptation of sin.

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Reforms

• Benedictine Rule6th Century
• Benedict organized the monastery of Monte Cassino
  in southern Italy
• Benedicts rules were adopted by monasteries and
  convents across Europe
• Monks and Nuns vowed
• Poverty
• Chastity
• Obedience to the abbot or abbess

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• Cluniac Reforms10th Century
• As the wealth and power of the Church grew,
  discipline weakened
• Some clergy ignored the vow of poverty.
• Priests ignored their responsibilities and
  focused on their own families.
• Some priests treated the bishopric as a family
  inheritance
• Abbot Berno of Cluny revived the Benedictine
  Rule.
• Berno denied nobles the right to interfere in
  monastery affairs
• Set the example for monasteries across Europe

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• Preaching orders
• Established by Saints Dominic and Francis of
  Assisi
• Friars were to travel around Europe, preaching to
  the poor
• Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan order.
• Dominic founded the Dominican order.

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St. Dominic
St. Francis of Assisi
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The Dominant Position of the Church in the East

• Throughout the problems that plagued Europe, the
  one thing that held western Europe together was
  the Papacy.
• The Papacy satisfied the problem of authority,
  guidance and certainity.
• The Church was the sole provider of an education.
• Writing
• Illuminating manuscripts
• Interpreting law

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• Law
• Laws passed by regional rulers had to meet the
  standards of the church.
• Canon law regulated relations within the Church
  and between the Church and the laity.
• Church law governed family life
• Marriage
• Legitimacy
• Adultery
• Separation
• Church law influenced trade

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• The Church continued to enjoy exemption from
  taxation and the jurisdiction of secular courts
• The Church was also exempt from military service.

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Position of the Church in the West

• The Holy Roman Emperor was weak
• Elected from noble families
• No fixed capital
• No standing army
• No bureaucracy to run things.
• The pope was also elected but
• Had fixed capital
• Strong bureaucracy

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• The emperor had to be crowned by the pope
• The emperor was chosen by seven Electors
• Three ecclesiastical
• Archbishops
• Trier
• Mainz
• Cologne
• Four lay members
• The Duke of Saxony
• The Margrave of Brandenburg
• The Count Palatine of the Rhine
• The King of Bohemia

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Struggles Between Popes and Emperors

• Pope Nicholas II in 1059
• Claimed that the pope should be elected by a
  conclave of cardinals rather than by the clergy
  and nobility of Rome
• Forced the pope to look for secular defenders to
  his position.
• The Papacy began to act as a state, developing
  foreign policies and even recruiting armies

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• Pope Gregory VII11th Century
• Extended the Cluniac Reforms to the entire Church
• Forbade marriage for the clergy
• Prohibited simony
• Insisted the Church select bishops and other
  church officials
• A confrontation that had been brewing for
  centuries

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Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV

• Gregory was driven by the desire to subject all
  of Christendom to the authority of the Church of
  Rome
• He resurrected the doctrine of Papal
  infallibility and supremacy.
• The pope alone was the absolute ruler of the
  Universal Roman Church
• Only he could approve kings and emperors
• No one could judge the pope.

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• 1075 Investiture crisis
• Forbade any clergy to be invested by a layman
• The practice had been for kings and emperors to
  appoint bishops.
• Problem the vacancy of the bishopric of Milan
  (who was also the ruler of the city).
• Gregory and Henry backed different candidates.
• Gregory threatened to excommunicate Henry and
  summoned him to Rome
• Henry called a Synod of German Bishops and
  declared the pope deposed

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• Gregory declared Henry deposed AND excommunicated
  and freed Henrys subjects from their oaths of
  loyalty.
• Some of the German princes took advantage of this
  and revolted against Henry
• Solution
• Henry traveled to Canossa to do penance.
• He stood in the snow for three days before
  Gregory lifted the sentences of deposition and
  excommunication
• Victory for the papacy

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The Magna Carta-1215

• King John of England was forced to accept a
  Charter of Rights, the Magna Carta
• Features
• Limitation of royal powerno additional taxes
  could be levied without the consent of the
  council.
• Justice was decided by law, not the whim of the
  ruler.
• The charter was enforced by a committee of
  barons, who could wage war against the king.
• The law was supreme

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The Crusades

• The Seljuk Turks seized lands from which the
  Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus recruited
  his armies.
• Alexius appealed to Pope Urban II for help
• 1095Urban preached the First Crusade
• The West faced many local civil wars
• Urban drew attention away from local problems
• Promised remission of sins to all participants

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Results of the Crusades

• Although successful, at first, in taking
  Jerusalem, by 1291 the last Crusader state had
  fallen to the Turks.
• Trade expanded with the Italian states
  benefiting.
• Great resentment against Europeans flourished in
  the Turkish states.

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Life of Minorities

• Women
• Men and women were equal before God
• HOWEVER, women were considered weak and easily
  led into sin.
• The ideal model was Mary, the mother of Jesus

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• Jews
• Religious toleration existed under the Muslims in
  Spain and parts of Western Europe.
• Christian persecution of Jews increasted in the
  11th Century.
• Church laws limited Jews
• Could not own land
• Could not be involved in contact with Christians
  except in trade or moneylending
• Could not be known by a family name
• The Church blamed the Jews for
• Killing Christ
• Plague
• Famine

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Economic Expansion

• In Agriculture
• New technology
• Iron plows
• Three-field system
• Windmill
• Greater production of food led to greater
  population growth

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• In trade
• New routes developed
• Increased interest in products from Asia
• Trade goods were brought to Venice and Genoa by
  water
• Transferred to caravans to be transported over
  land
• Towns developed
• Guilds were organized
• Apprentices
• Journeymen