Byzantine Empire and Beginnings of the Medieval Period

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Byzantine Empire and Beginnings of the Medieval
Period
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Brief History

• 4th C. CE Roman Empire divided into halves
  (Diocletian)
• Moved capital to Constantinople (Constantine)
• W. Roman Empire fell to Barbarians, Eastern half
  survived for another 1000 years-until 1453 (fell
  to Ottoman Turks)
• Mostly Middle Eastern and Greek culture

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Justinian (527-565)

• Byzantine Empire reached greatest extent
• Tried to restore former Roman Empire
• Set up secondary capital at Ravenna, Italy
• Conquered N. Africa, S. Spain, Italy
• Married to Theodora
• actress and dancer
• Pushed for womens rights
• Made Justinian put down the Nike Rebellion

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More Justinian

• Justinians Code
• Codified the old Twelve Tables
• Religious and Secular ruler
• Made Greek official language
• Constructed public works
• Hagia Sophia
• Rebuilt Constantinople

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Byzantine Culture

• Trade
• Between Asia and Europe
• Smuggled silk worms out of China
• Thriving silk trade
• Glassware, linen, jewelry, gold
• Political, cultural, and intellectual center
• Greek Fire weapon used against ships

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EAST vs. WEST
The Great Schism of 1054
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The Great Schism of 1054 C.E.

• Background
• Byzantine Christianity developed in tension with
  the Christian Faith of Western Europe
• During centuries following Constantines
  legalization of Christianity, church leaders in
  Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople,
  and Rome became centers of power and controlled
  the whole Christian community
• With the Islamic conquest of large areas in
  Southwest Asia, the influence of Jerusalem,
  Antioch and Alexandria was lost leaving only two
  principle centers of Christian authority, Rome
  and Constantinople

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Pope vs. Patriarch
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The Great Schism of 1054 C.E.

• Causes
• Rome and Constantinople fought over legitimate
  religious power
• Rome Papal Supremacy
• Founded upon an Apostle
• Power transcended from Peter to the Pope
• Constantinople Imperial Power
• Founded as a result of expanding empire
• Home to the Emperor
• Filioque And the son
• Added in 589 C.E. to the Nicene Creed
• Defines 3 entities in the Holy Trinity (RC)
• EO believe that the Son is an agent of the Holy
  Spirit

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The Great Schism of 1054 C.E.

• Azyma Controversy
• Communion ceremony Leavened vs. Unleavened bread
• Popes argument (West) Mass is a replication of
  the Last Supper held during Passover - Matza
• Constantinople (East) The night before Passover
• EO priests can marry
• Pope and Patriarch excommunicate one another
• Messenger of the Pope walks into the Hagia Sophia
  in the middle of Mass
• A counter excommunication by the Patriarch follows

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The Great Schism of 1054 C.E.

• Legacy
• Historians refer to the eastern Christian church
  after 1054 C.E. as the Eastern Orthodox church
  and its western counterpart as the Roman Catholic
  church
• the Eastern Orthodox version of Christianity is
  mainly practiced in Greece, Eastern Europe, and
  Russia
• the Roman Catholic version of Christianity is
  practiced in much of Europe, the Americas, Africa

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Differences

• Eastern Orthodox

• Roman Catholic

• Services in Greek or vernacular
• Patriarch head of Church
• Emperor claims authority over Patriarch
• 2 Dimensional Icons
• No Purgatory

• Services in Latin (Changed in 1962-5)
• Pope has supreme authority
• Pope descended from Peter
• Statues as Icons
• Priests cannot marry

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The Slavic Peoples

• Who are the Slavs?
• Originally, a unified culture of central Eastern
  Europe
• Eventually, they migrated to different parts of
  Eastern Europe and became separate sub-groups
  (between the 400s -600s CE)
• Western Slavs Poles, Czechs, Slovaks
• Eventually converted to Catholic Christianity via
  influence from neighboring Germanic Peoples
• Southern Slavs Slovenes, Serbs, Croats,
  Bulgarians, Bosnians
• Eventually converted to Orthodox Christianity via
  influence (or domination) by the Byzantine Empire
  
• Croats eventually came to follow Roman
  Catholicism
• Bosnians eventually adopted Islam
• Eastern Slavs Russians and Ukrainians

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• II. Major Slavic Kingdoms
• A. Bulgaria
• 1. Its peoples were a mix of
• Slavs and Bulgars (another
• group that migrated from
• central Asia)
• 2. Kingdom Develops between
• 600s 900s CE
• . Height under King
• Simeon I
• 3. Conquered by the Byzantines
• in 1018 CE
• 4. Bulgaria frees itself from
• Byzantine rule by the late
• 1100s CE
• 5. Conquered and ruled by the
• Ottoman Turks in the late
• 1300s

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• B. Serbia
• 1. By 1100s CE
• a. Formed a unified
• kingdom
• b. Accepted Eastern
• Orthodox Christianity
• c. Adopted the Cyrillic
• Alphabet
• 2. By the 1300s - Under
• Emperor Stefan Dusan,
• conquered territories
• from the Byzantines
• 3. Between 1355 and 1389 CE
• a. Political fragmentation
• b. Conquest by the
• Ottoman Turks (at the
• Battle of Kosovo)
• . Serbia controlled by the
• Ottomans for about the next

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• C. Kievan Rus (880 1169 CE)
• 1. Rise
• a. By the 800s CE, Eastern Slavic
  peoples had set-up trade
• routes and towns along the rivers
  of what is now Ukraine
• and Western Russia
• b. Supposedly, Rurik a Viking
  chieftain, was invited by the
• people of Novgorod (a town in the
  north of Russia) to
• rule their lands
• . These Slavs called the Vikings the
  Rus (possibly
• the origins of the name
  Russia)
• c. Oleg, Ruriks successor, conquered
  the city of Kiev, a
• prosperous trading village
  located on the Dniepper River,
• in 880 CE
• d. Soon, Olegs comes to dominate other
  towns along the
• Slavic trade routes creating a
  feudal Slavic kingdom,
• dominated by Kiev

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• 2. Government Structure kingdom split into
  Principalities
• (semi-independent, feudalistic
  city-states/territories)
• a. The Grand Prince of Kiev top of the
  system
• 1. Ruler of the city-state of Kiev
• 2. Received allegiance and tribute from
  the other
• Principalities
• b. In the Separate Principalities
• 1. Each Principality was ruled by a
  prince
• 2. Each Principality had a council to
  advise the prince
• a. wealthy merchants
• b. boyars land-owning nobles
• 3. Each principality had an assembly
  comprised of all
• free, male citizens
• a. Ran the day-to-day affairs of the
  Principality
• b. Had the ability to remove the
  prince from office
• . Later, Princes limited the
  powers of these
• 
  Assemblies

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• 4. The Golden Age of Kievan Rus (980 1054 CE)
• a. Adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
• 1. The Grand Prince of Kiev, Vladimir,
  married the
• sister of the Byzantine Emperor
• 2. He converted to Christianity in 988
  CE
• 3. He then ordered all of his subjects to
  convert
• (baptism in the Dniepper River)
• b. Infusion of Byzantine Cultural Elements
• 1. Cyrillic Alphabet
• 2. Byzantine Christian Art and
  Architecture
• churches, icons, etc,
• 3. Schools for the sons of the wealthy and
  noble
• 4. Grand Prince Yaroslav (Vladimirs son)
  adopts a
• legal code (modeled after The
  Byzantines Law
• System, Justinian Code)

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• 5. Decline and Fall of
• Kievan Rus
• a. After Yaroslav died,
• his sons fought for
• control over Kiev
• b. An alliance of princes
  captured and sacked
• Kiev in 1169 CE
• c. Mongol Invasion
• 1. Battle of Kalka
• River in 1223 CE
• 2. Mongols sack
• Kiev in 1240 CE