Continuity & Change in Europe & Western Asia

Constantinople

• Had secure walls that kept invaders out

• Women were inferior & lived in separate apartments

• Had so many laws, they were almost unusable

• Byzantines valued education, invented Greek fire, & were informed about medicines 

Continuity & Change in Europe & Western Asia

Hermits, temptresses, & pagan rituals

Emperor Justinian

• Organized the laws & made them usable

• New format = Justinian’s Code

• Foundational laws for almost every European country

Diocese

• Roman Empire divided into dioceses in 280

• Each diocese headed by a bishop

• Center of bishop’s authority was the cathedral 

• Bishops felt that Rome had a special place in Christianity

  • St. Peter was the 1st bishop & papacy stemmed from that

Bishop Ambrose of Milan

• Roman aristocrat who converted to Christianity & became bishop

• Church supreme in spiritual matters & state in secular

  • First idea of separation of church & state

• Popes expanded secular authority by charging taxes, organizing army, etc

Church in the East

• Head of Eastern church = the Patriarch

• Didn't have same amount of powers at the Pope

• East bishops & emperors didn’t like Rome’s claim of superiority

• Caused a split & created the Orthodox Church

• Religion as a branch of the state

Christian Asceticism 

• People withdrew from cities & lived in the Egyptian desert

• Sought God through prayer

• Men were monks & women were nuns

• Church leaders did not approve of the solitary life

  • Why? 

Christianity Changes

• 1st century Christians saw no interest in education

• 2nd century saw apocalyptic thought diminish 

  • Greek & Roman philosophy included in Christian teachings 

• 3rd & 4th centuries - Christian documents brought together to form New Testament

• St. Jerome translated Hebrew Bible into the vernacular

Christian Attitudes towards Gender & Sexuality 

• First challenged then adopted views of the contemporary world 

• Jesus said men & women were equal, so women were nuns, martyrs, virgins, etc.

  • Romans saw virginity as dangerous

• Christian teachings on sexuality led to hostility towards the body even though God sanctioned marriage

Women as Temptresses

• Mind superior to body & nothing should distract from spirituality

• Clergy were celibate but women were their temptresses & devil’s gateway

• Many early church writings are very misogynistic 

Saint Augustine

• Strong role in shaping church views on sexuality

• Adam ate the forbidden fruit & committed original sin

  • That sin passed down to all through sexual intimacy

• That sin is tied to sexual desire, so sexual desire became even more sinful 

• People sin because their will is weak but they can be redeemed through grace & penance

Iconoclastic Controversy

• Orthodox Church thought icon veneration had gone too far

• Byzantine Empire & Roman papacy severed relations

• Pope then made an alliance with the Franks, a Germanic tribe

Barbarians

• Barbarians =  those who lived beyond the northeastern boundary of Roman territory

• Migrated in search of dependable land 

• Celts (Gauls to Romans) & Germans (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, & Burgundians)

Barbarian Migrations

• Celts that were conquered by the Romans often assimilated 

• Celts clashed with Germans (Angles & Saxons) but some intermarried

• Central Asia drought caused the Huns to move West

• Hun leader, Attila, attacked the Byzantine Empire in the 440s

• Pope Leo asked him not to attack Rome

• Attila didn’t because of dwindling food & disease

Barbarian Society

• Patriarchal & some wealthy men had more than one wife

• Polytheistic with gods devoted to different aspects - nature, war, etc

• Tribes led by chieftains that sometimes became kings 

• Personal injury crimes subject to the wergeld

Missionaries 

• Missionaries sent to convert barbarians

• Focused on kings & chiefs since their religion determined the tribes’

• Germanic kings sometimes accepted Christianity because thought the Christian God was stronger than pagan ones

Assimilation to Christianity

• Transmutation - conquering religions adopting existing holidays/practices to make the conversion less shocking

• Pagan customs into Christian ones

  • Christmas in mid winter and Easter with eggs & rabbits

• Penance & confessing sins gave new converts a Christian path to follow

• Veneration of saints - why would this be helpful?

Franks

• Allied with Romans in 4th & 5th centuries 

• Merovingian reign started with Clovis 

• Clovis converted to Christianity & conquered other Germanic tribes

• Gained support of the bishop of Gaul - called him a Christian defender

Carolingians

• Mayor of the Palace, at the king’s court, supervised other officials

• In 7th century, that position became increasingly powerful & Carolingians became ruler of Frankish kingdom

• Carolingian authority cemented when they defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Poitiers 

Charlemagne

• Most powerful of the Carolingians

• By 805, Frankish kingdom included all of central & western continental Europe besides southern Italy & Spain

• Kingdom divided into 600 counties each governed by a count

• Weak central government held together by family alliances & sexual relations

• Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 by Pope Leo III

• Some Byzantines saw his crowning as rebellious & it caused another break between Rome & Constantinople

After Charlemagne

• Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious, tried to keep empire intact

• After Louis’ death, his 3 sons signed the Treaty of Verdun

• Charles the Bald got the western part; Lothair got the middle & the title of emperor; Louis got the eastern part & later, the title of “the German”

• These boundaries are still in Europe today