Medieval Europe

Essay renaming era

Medieval

• Medium aevum→middle age

• Good things before and after, middle not so good

  • Germanic period, Germans disliked by French

Axial age

• Everything revolves around it

• About 800 BCE→200 CE

• Era humans started to realize difference from animals

• Social hierarchies developed, more urban

• Religious and philosophical thinking

  • Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, etc.

  • Hinduism and Judaism predate Axial age

Judaism

• Monotheistic

  • Oldest of three major 

    • Other monotheisms branch off of it

  • Ethical monotheism

    • Requires following set of codes in Torah

• Main ideas;

  • Monotheism 

  • Importance of Torah

  • Significance of Israel and its people

• Origins

  • Came from ancient Hebrew people, second millennium BCE

• Important figures

  • Abraham (originally Abram)

    • Lived in ancient Mesopotamia 

    • Considered to be first Jew (about 1800 BCE), also first monotheist

    • Believed to be first to receive direct revelations from God

      • Made pact (covenant) with God, in return for his trust and loyalty, he would be rewarded with homeland for descendants (become known as chosen people), and prosperity

    • New name Abraham means father of many nations

    • Wife Sarah

      • Wandered through eastern Mediterranean→fertile crescent, best place to live+most urban at time

      • Children and grandchildren enslaved in Egypt; book of Genesis

    • More loyal to God than anything

      • Willing to sacrifice son (Issac in Judeo-Christian, Ishmael in Islam)

  • Moses

    • About 1300 BCE

    • Prophet

    • Led Israelites out of enslavement in Egypt

      • Known as the Exodus; Book of Exodus

      • Traveled through Sinai peninsula to promised land (Canaan/Israel)

      • Guided by revelations from God

    • Formed commandments for for Jewish faith; ritual practice and ethics 

    • Accepted Tablets of the Law (included Ten Commandments) on Mt. Sinai

      • Seen as single most important event in foundation of Judaism

    • Talked to by burning bush, told to free Jewish people, parts sea to escape (Exodus)

    • Great lawgiver of Jewish people

    • Dies right before reaching holy land again

  • Joshua

    • Became leader after Moses’ death

    • Captured Israel

  • King David

    • Established kingdom of Israel

    • Son Solomon took throne after death, David built Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem 

      • David died before temple could be finished→got woman's husband killed on purpose, lust tragic flaw

      • Wailing/western wall→only part left of temple

      • Used to have priests, when temple destroyed had to turn to local scholars→rabbis 

      • Solomon led golden age→represents justice (baby cut in half to find real mother), morality, model monarch

      • After King Solomon death, Israel split into northern kingdom of Israel and southern of Judah

      • Both captured by Assyrian and Babylonian empires

• Israel

  • Promised land

  • Led by King David→founded

    • Taken over by son Solomon who built Temple of Solomon

      • Destroyed in 587 BCE by Babylonians

  • Split into two kingdoms after death of Solomon, Israel in north and Judah in south

    • Both conquered and controlled by Assyrians and Babylonians 

      • Sixth century BCE→Babylonians sent Jews into exile three times

        • Many Jews deported to Babylon

        • Known as Babylonian Captivity of the Hewbrews

        • Scattered Jews throughout empire→spread out, hoped they would absorb into general population

  • 539 BCE Persian king Cyrus the Great invaded Babylon, freed captive Jews

    • Returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt Temple of Solomon

  • Later came under Greek and Roman rule

    • Revolted against Romans, Romans burnt down Temple of Solomon, exiled all Jews throughout Mediterranean area 

• Three sects/interpretations

  • Orthodox

  • Conservative

  • Reformed

• Medieval/Renaissance 

  • Because of spread of Christianity, seen as inferior and dangerous

    • Exiled, persecuted, sometimes forced to convert, or killed

  • Golden Age for Jews

    • Muslim dynasties in medieval Spain

      • Sephardic Jews trace ancestry to Spain

      • Ashkenazim Jews trace to Germany

      • 14th century; Spain under Christian rule, if didn’t convert would be exiled 

• Torah

  • Means Law or Teaching

  • First five books of Bible (Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses)

    • Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

    • Contains creation of world, stories of early prophets, enslavement and liberation in Egypt, Moses receiving commandments, journey to Israel (Exodus)

      • Migrated to Egypt, and were enslaved

  • Other sacred texts include Misnah and Talmud; legal and ritual obligations, Midrash commentary on ancient Hebrew writing

    • Talmud and Midrash do not carry over to Christianity 

• Practices

  • Following rules of Kosher food

  • Going to synagogue for communal prayer and readings from Torah

  • Observing holy day on Saturday (Sabbath)

    • Also observing holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah 

• Egypt

  • Jews enslaved, pharaoh refused to let them go

  • Lamb's blood over door keeps angel of death from killing oldest son in Jewish house→Passover (liberation from slavery)

    • Last of plagues

  • Locust swarms

    • Eat grain

  • Nile River run red

  • Rains frogs

  • Hale

  • Liberated by Moses

  • After Exodus, at Mt. Sinai, built golden calf to scare the Egyptians

    • Moses throws rocks at the calf, breaks it

• Philistines 

  • Want to invade ancient Hebrews

    • Hebrews so bad at fighting, decided to have a one on one fight→David (Hebrew) and Goliath (Philistine soldier)

      • David defeated Goliath with a sling

      • David punished to be shepard→have to protect sheep, so became very good with sling

      • Becomes savior for people→messiah (translates to christos in Greek)

      • Leads Jews to peak of power

Christianity 

• Began under Roman Empire as form of Judaism

• Became large and powerful in late ancient/medieval times

• Important figures

  • Jesus (of Nazareth)

    • Lived in time of Augustus, province called Judaea

    • King Herod had all newborn babies killed→Jesus not because in stable rather than inn

    • Escapes massacre of innocents because had to go to Roman Census→Augustus Caesar ordered census

    • Became carpenter 

    • Cleansed of sins by John the Baptist→wash away original sin

    • Many Jewish sects looking for prophet to lead them

    • Taught form of Judaism with focus on ethical+moral purity

    • Jesus not Christian

    • Teachings got him in trouble with Jewish and Roman leaders→seen by Jews to challenge social and religious order, Romans saw as disturbing the Jews; not seen by most as prophet

    • Arrested and crucified in 33 CE as enemy to Roman state→rose from the dead three days later, appeared to followers, then ascended to heaven

    • Believed to be son of God→came to earth to redeem sins of humans

    • Miracles; walks on water, heals the blind, replicates bread/fish, water into wine, healed leprosy, raises the dead

    • Very eloquent speaker, gives very good sermons→Sermon on the Mount, most popular ideas, “love thy neighbour as thyself”, poorer/more generous people>rich people

    • 12 apostles, at Last Supper, split bread and wine (communion), “love one another as I have loved you” →Holy Thursday

    • Arrested and interrogated by Roman governor Pailet (thought messiah meant like David), decided to execute Jesus, had someone else do it

    • Execution became public spectacle→took clothes, made him carry cross, put crown of thorns on his head→execution on cross uses own body weight to slowly strangle you, weight pulls on lungs→ “Forgive them Father, they know not what to do” said when being nailed to cross→earthquake+eclipse when he dies, became martyr

    • After death, disciples spread through Roman Empire and told story

  • Saint Peter and Saint James

    • Led early Jewish/Christian movement in Jerusalem

    • Peter would deny Jesus three times→nickname for Simon, popularly believed he was chosen to be successor→seen by Catholics as most important apostle→denied being follower of Jesus three times, became bishop of Rome/Pope→killed on upside down cross

  • Saint Paul

    • Converted non-Jews (Gentiles) to Christianity 

      • Very few Jews converted in beginning

      • Poor, enslaved, and women most interested in Christianity→mothers taught religion in Roman households

      • During time of Pax Romana 

    • Wrote letters to people in different parts of area/Mediterranean

    • Improves God’s image→emphasized forgiveness

  • Constantine

    • Legalized Christianity in 300 BC

    • Moved capital of Rome to Byzantium (Constantinople) →birthplace of Orthodox Christianity

  • Judas

    • Betrayed Jesus to Romans

    • Took thirty pieces of silver→threw it away and hung himself

    • One of twelve apostles→still twelve after him, replaced him

  • Mary Magdalene

    • Supposed to have committed adultery, forgiven by Jesus→story used to discredit women in Catholic church; only men become clergy

    • Actually rich widow who sponsored early Christians

    • Her and Mary (Jesus mom) find Jesus empty tomb→Easter

  • The Good Samaritan

    • Rich person and priest keep going past hurt person

    • Stopped to help them

    • Samaritans usually bad people

• Main ideas

  • Belief in Jesus as son of God+redeemer of human sins

  • Love your neighbor

  • Practice kindness 

• Central text

  • Bible→Old and New Testament

    • Old→Jewish text

    • New→arose in third century CE 

      • First four books about Jesus life→Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, called four Gospels (God Spell)

      • Not part of Judaisim at all

• Persecution

  • Romans interpreted belief as them being atheist and disloyal→wouldn’t worship state gods 

  • Those who died and were tortured called martyrs→believed to go straight to heaven+were God’s favorites 

• Spread

  • Constantine--Roman emperor--converted to Christianity 

    • Started to pay Christian communities, made pagan gods less important

• Crusades

  • Called to by Pope Urban II→1095

  • Redirect aggression to be army under Pope

  • Goal→capture Holy Land from Muslims

  • Greek Orthodox faced most brutality 

• Rise in literacy

  • Cathedral schools+universities 

  • Better access to scripture→people made opinions, increased fear of heresy (people called heretics)

    • Did not like all the money collected by the churches→led to many smaller crusades 

• Seven sacred rituals/sacraments

  • Baptism

    • John the Baptist baptized Jesus

  • Communion

    • Bread and wine→body and blood, recreation of Last Supper

  • Reconciliation/penance

    • Admit sins, forgiveness in return

  • Conformation

    • Become adult in church

  • Marriage

  • Extreme unction/last rites

    • Anointed for the last time

  • Holy orders

    • Becoming a priest

Government/politics

• Lots of invading groups in Europe

  • Visigoths, Franks

• Frankish empire

  • France did not exist; neither did Germany, but same ethnicity

  • Clovis→first Frankish leader to convert to Christianity; encouraged others to convert

    • Married non-Frank when converted; marrying Germans to Roman expanded his subjects→removes people from previous groups, trying to fuse together, remove divided loyalties

    • Tutored by Aristotle

• Battle of Tours/Poitier →732

  • Moors try to invade Spain/Gaul

  • Franks painted themselves as protects of innocent to promote Christianity over Islam

  • Charles Martel (hammer)

    •  Led battle

• Charlemagne (Charles the Great)

  • Both French and German political lineage→Emperor of both

  • Makes deal with pope→in exchange for promoting church, 12/25/800 Pope crowns Charlemagne emperor of Romans

  • Closest in 400 years to uniting Europe like Romans

  • Forced all other Germans to convert to Christianity

    • Killed if refused to convert

  • Controlled political/military power as well as Christianity

    • Sword and ball with cross in photo

  • Revived trade and literacy

    • Built schools

  • Invaded, but did not conquer, Spain

    • Conquered around Barcelona→modern day Catalan speaking people

  • Did not pass land/titles to one kid, his son decided to split empire into three parts for each of his three kids

    • Charles and Louis split up land of younger brother Lothair

• Norse (vikings)

  • Scandinavians from North

  • Germanic people

  • Very cold in their land, cannot grow stuff easily

    • Had to trade, but didn’t have much to trade

    • Turned into raids

  • Made longboats to trade

    • Sinked less, went faster

    • Could still carry a large amount of items

    • Could roll to different rivers on trees

  • Conquered Normandy, England

    • Normans later conquered England too

    • Built Dublin→trading port

  • Discovered Greenland and possibly North America

High Middle Ages

• Feudalism

  • Political and military

    • Count pronounces Dukes to fight in army, gives them fief (land)

    • Dukes keep some land to become their manors, give rest to their own vassals, end up with much larger army

    • Lowest noble still landlord

    • Dukes follow code of horseman (chivalry, from cheval), good fighters and Christian

    • Ladies→only upper class women

  • Similarity to chess

    • Squares like fiefs

    • Serfs like pawns→smallest, but support community 

    • Bishops→connection to Catholic church, don’t fight so move diagonally

    • Fortresses→very powerful can move anywhere

    • Knights→move same way they would in combat, break through enemy lines and turn back around them

    • Queen→do not marry because of love if noble, political alliance, could be great political power if right wife was chosen

    • Checkmate from Persian term shamat which means king is dead

• Manorialism→medieval manors

  • Economic and social

  • Most people peasants→serfs

    • Few specialized skills

    • Work on land they rent and the lord’s unrented land→called the lord’s domain

    • Farming→made advancements for horses (collars), later began to use oxen, could plow with animals to grow more food (moldboard/carruca plow), people decided to pool resources and work together to get equipment and produce more

    • Get strips of land when rent from lord, all work together in one field

    • One strip fallow, animals graze and re fertilize, rotate crops grown each year so only need to be fallow every two years→different crops use different nutrients from soil, so much grain now they need to sell it, value goes down, people leave and move to new towns

  • Primogeniture

    • First male in family inherits all wealth and titles

Not much economic advancement at the time

Hegemony

• Leadership or dominance by one group/person over another

• Church hierarchy

Believers (parish) > priests/monks > bishop, oversees multiple parishes/priests (dioceses) > archbishops > cardinals (archbishops, wear all red, vote fo Pope) > religious ruler (Pope) > God

Lay investiture

• Investiture→ power to appoint bishop

• Common people could choose bishop

• Gregory VII used excommunication on emperor Henry IV→out of church=out of communication with God, kicked out of church, cannot receive sacraments, start to build up sins but can’t receive penance, becoming unholy

Interdict

• Churches shut down, no sacraments, mass excommunication

• Innocent III imposed on all of England

  • King John suspected to be stealing tithe (10% of income goes to church), later became vassal of Innocent III→ Pope ruled over king of England

  • Most represents power of Pope in Middle Ages

  • Called crusade of his own

First Crusade→1095

• Called by Urban II

• Created an argument for why there should be holy war

  • Byzantine empire about to collapse, Turks to invade

Scholasticism

• Religion as light in a superstitious would

• Bring back ancient Greek logic

• Saint Thomas Aquinas→wrote Summa Theologica 1274; uses summa (device used by Aristotle, pro/con list), used Greek logic to show how Christianity could be logical→wanted church to trust people to think for themselves, church could not discount him because he wrote most logical reason God is real

End of Middle Ages

Monarchs triumph over nobles

• Replaced feudalism with system that doesn’t require nobles

• Hire more peasants

• Firearms and longbows→made knights obsolete

• Agriculture revolution→lots of food, don’t need as many serfs, migrated to cities, nobles don’t have control over cities 

100 years war

• Monarchs had succeeded in taking power from nobles

• ⅓ of French nobility wiped out in one battle→longbows

• Joan of Arc (Joan D’Arc) →peasant, had vision, talked to king of France, got sent out with army to be sort of cheerleader, inspired people and they won, captured by English, tortured, burned at stake, even they believed she was telling the truth, became symbol of French patriotism

Black Death

• Wiped out ⅓ to ¼ of people, ruined vassal/lord relationships

• Spread by fleas on cargo ships

• Not much money left in agriculture→manorial system let go of ⅓ to ¼ of people living on manors, so collapsed, followed by feudalism 

Rising middle class

Problems in Catholic church

Middle Ages PRIMES

P+M: Feudalism

• System between nobles who own land

• King or queen give fief to vassal

• Break it up, keep part, give fief to knight, continue passing on

• On land will be one or more manors, become lords in manorial system

E+S: Manorialism

R: Catholic church