1. Augustus's settlement (31 B.C.-A.D. 14)
   1. Augustus's was the first true emperor, and began the Pax Romana.
      1. Augustus created a constitutional monarchy but did not give the senate power equal to his own.
      2. Augustus became princeps civitatis, "the First Citizen of the State," and held other offices, particularly that of magistrate.
      3. His control of the army was the main source of his power.
         1. Augustus controlled deployment of the soldiers and paid their wages.
         2. He founded colonies of soldiers, which helped unite the Mediterranean world and spread GrecoRoman culture.
   2. Augustus's administration of the provinces
      1. Augustus encouraged selfgovernment and urbanism.
      2. The cult of Roma et Augustus gave the empire unity.
   3. Roman expansion into northern and western Europe
      1. Augustus continued Caesar's push into Europe.
         1. In Gaul he founded towns and built roads.
         2. He extended Roman rule into Spain, Germany, and eastern Europe.
         3. The city of Lyons in France is an example of how Romans used expensive building projects to bring about a merger of Roman and native culture and government.
         4. Romans did not force their culture on others.
      2. The Romans' relations with barbarians varied from cooperation to hostility.
   4. Literary flowering
      1. The Augustan Age was a golden age of Latin literature.
      2. Roman writers celebrated the dignity of humanity and the range of its accomplishments.
         1. Virgil wrote about the greatness and virtue of Rome in his masterpiece, the Aeneid.
         2. Ovid's poems tell of festivals, religious rites, and other aspects of popular religion.
         3. Livy's history of Rome is one of Rome's great legacies to the modern world.
         4. Horace praised the simple life and the pax Romana.
   5. By sharing power with his adopted son, Augustus created a dynasty.
2. The coming of Christianity
   1. Roman rule in Judaea caused a climate of hostility and anxiety for many Jews.
   2. The colony of Judaea suffered during the Roman civil wars, and Jewish resentment of Rome increased.
   3. Hatred of King Herod and Roman taxes, harsh enforcement of the law, and religious interference led to civil war in Judaea.
   4. Two antiRoman movements existed: Zealot extremists, who fought Rome, and militant believers in the apocalypse, who believed that the coming of the Messiah would end Roman rule.
   5. Pagan religious cults were numerous, including the official state cults, the old traditional cults, and the new mystery cults, which met the needs of the people for security and emotional release.
3. The life and teachings of Jesus
   1. Jesus was raised in Galilee--which was exposed to many peoples, ideas, and trade.
      1. People have long disagreed as to who Jesus was and what he intended to do.
         1. The main records of his life are the four gospels of the New Testament.
         2. But they were written long after his death and do not agree.
   2. Jesus was a teacher who claimed to be the Messiah of a spiritual kingdom.
      1. His teachings were in the Jewish tradition, but he refused to preach rebellion against Rome.
      2. Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect, was worried about maintaining civil order, so he sentenced Jesus to death.
   3. Jesus's followers claimed that he had risen from the dead--to promise immortality to Christians.
      1. His followers met in congregations to discuss the meaning of the life of Jesus.
   4. Paul of Tarsus transformed the Jesus cult and made it applicable to all.
      1. He broadened Christianity's appeal to nonJews ("Gentiles") and women.
      2. He taught that Jesus died to save sinners.
      3. Paul taught that Jesus was sent to save Gentiles, not Jews.
      4. The catacombs, or cemeteries, near Rome testify to both the toleration of Christianity and how it spread.
   5. The appeal of Christianity
      1. Christianity was attractive for many reasons.
         1. It was open to common people.
         2. It held out the promise of salvation and forgiveness.
         3. It gave each person a role and a sense of importance in working for God's plan.
      2. Christianity gave its followers a sense of community, and it stressed the importance of the individual.
4. The JulioClaudians and the Flavians (27 B.C.-A.D. 96)
   1. For fifty years after Augustus's death, all emperors of Rome came from the JulioClaudian dynasty.
      1. Claudius created a system of imperial bureaucracy so he could delegate power.
      2. The army, especially the Praetorian Guard, began to interfere in politics. The Year of the Four Emperors proved the Augustan settlement a failure.
   2. The Flavian dynasty
      1. Vespasian created a monarchy and suppressed rebellions, destroying the state of Judaea in the process.
      2. Domitian won additional new territory for the empire.
5. The Age of the "Five Good Emperors" (A.D. 96-180)
   1. The age of the Antonines was one of unparalleled prosperity--ushered in by very able emperors..
   2. The Antonines were emperors in fact as well as theory--the emperor became an indispensable part of the imperial system.
      1. The emperors were the source of all authority in the empire.
      2. Hadrian reformed the bureaucracy by making it more professional and organized.
   3. Changes in the army
      1. Under the Flavians the boundaries of the empire became fixed.
      2. More and more soldiers came from the provinces closest to the frontiers.
6. Life in the "golden age"
   1. Imperial Rome
      1. The city was huge, and fire and crime were ongoing problems.
      2. The government provided the citizens of Rome with free grain, oil, and wine to prevent riots.
      3. Free, often brutal, entertainment was provided, but the most popular entertainment was chariot racing.
      4. Most Romans worked hard and lived average lives.
   2. Rome and the provinces
      1. Life in the provinces was a new mix of the indigenous people mixing their language and culture with that of Rome--and most people became bilingual.
      2. Roman cultural influence was limited to urban areas while its influence in rural areas was largely economic.
      3. Agriculture flourished on large tracts of land cultivated by free tenant farmers.
      4. Romans left rural native culture alone.
      5. The biggest impact on provinces was the growth of manufacturing.
7. Civil wars and invasion in the third century
   1. Commodus's reign led to civil war; over twenty emperors ascended the throne between 235 and 284.
   2. Migrating barbarians on the frontiers found gaps in the Roman defenses.
      1. In A.D. 258, the Goths burst into Europe.
      2. The Alamanni, Franks, Saxons, and other tribes invaded the empire.
   3. Turmoil and impoverishment in farm and village life
      1. The breakdown of the system led to crime and corruption.
      2. Much of the damage was done by officials and soldiers.
8. Reconstruction under Diocletian and Constantine (A.D. 284-337)
   1. The end of political turmoil under Diocletian's reign
      1. Diocletian claimed that God had chosen him to rule; his power became absolute.
      2. Because the empire was too big for one person to govern well, Diocletian reorganized it.
         1. Imperial authority was split between two emperors--Diocletian in the east and an augustus in the west.
         2. Each emperor was assisted by a caesar.
         3. The power of the provincial governors was reduced.
         4. Diocletian's division between east and west became permanent.
   2. Inflation and taxes
      1. The monetary system was in ruins and highly inflated.
      2. Diocletian attempted to curb inflation through wage and price controls.
      3. The new imperial taxation system led to a loss of freedom as people became locked into their jobs.
   3. The decline of small farms
      1. Worsening conditions fostered the growth of large, selfsufficient villas.
      2. Small farmers turned to big landlords for protection, in exchange for their land.
   4. The acceptance of Christianity
      1. The emperor Constantine legalized Christianity--he died a Christian in 337.
      2. Scholars today believe that the Christians exaggerated the degree of pagan hostility to them and that most of the stories about martyrs were fictitious.
      3. Many Romans misunderstood Christianity, thinking, for example, that Christian rejection of their gods would harm Rome or that Christians engaged in cannibalism.
         1. They thought the Christians were atheists because they denied the existence of pagan gods.
         2. Because Roman religion was linked to the state, a token ritual to pagan gods was expected.
         3. Hostility to Christians decreased; Emperor Trajan forbade hunting down Christians.
      4. The desperation and stress of the third century caused a short-lived upswing in persecutions.
         1. In 380 Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire; henceforth the Christians began to persecute the pagans for their beliefs.
   5. The construction of Constantinople
      1. Constantine built a new capital for the empire at the site of Byzantium.
      2. The focus of the empire shifted to the east.
9. From the Classical World to Late Antiquity (ca. A.D. 200-700)
   1. Did the Roman empire ever really "fall?"
      1. The historian Edward Gibbon pursued the question--but historians today think in terms of transition, not a question of ending.
   2. By A.D. 500 the Mediterranean world had split between the Greek East and the Latin West.
      1. The Latin West fell into disarray and only the Christian Church remained to fill the organizational void.
      2. The Roman East evolved into the Byzantine Empire.
      3. Throughout the Mediterranean there was a merging of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity--as seen in the works of writers such as Augustine of Hippo and Eusebius of Caesaraea.

 

1. The growth of the Christian church
   1. Christianity was a syncretic faith--that is, one that absorbed and adapted many ideas from other religions.
   2. While the Empire declined, the church grew. The word church can mean several things, but at this time it was often applied to the officials, or papa, who presided over all Christians.
      1. The church adopted the Roman system of organization and succeeded in assimilating many peoples.
      2. Bishops were elected by the people and possessed preaching, administrative, and leadership skills.
   3. The church and the Roman emperors
      1. Constantine supported and legalized Christianity in 312.
         1. He helped settle theological disputes.
   4. Theodosius increased the power of the church and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.
   5. The emperors were important in enforcing theological uniformity in the church.
      1. Constantine summoned the Council of Nicaea in 325 to combat the Arian heresy, which denied that Christ was divine.
      2. The council produced the Nicene Creed--the doctrine that Christ was of the same substance as God, and this became the orthodox position, supported by the state.
      3. Bishop Ambrose formulated the theory that the church was supreme over the state.
   6. Inspired leadership in the early church
      1. Many talented Romans, such as Ambrose, became administrators and workers in the church.
         1. The church adopted the empire's system of dioceses.
         2. Bishops came to preside over dioceses.
      2. The bishop of Rome eventually became the "Patriarch of the West," while other patriarchs sat at Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople.
      3. Because the position of emperor disappeared in the West, the Roman bishop became the chief civil authority in Italy.
         1. It was said that Pope Leo I saved Rome from Attila.
         2. Pope Gregory acted as civil authority.
   7. The missionary activity of the early Christians
      1. The Roman soldier Martin of Tours brought Christianity to Gaul, while Saint Patrick brought Christianity and Roman culture to Ireland.
         1. Under Saint Columba, Iona in Scotland became an important Christian center.
         2. In 597, Pope Gregory I sent a delegation of monks to Britain, under the leadership of Augustine, to convert the English.
      2. Two forms of Christianity--Roman and Celtic--clashed, but the Roman tradition won out at the Synod of Whitby in 664.
      3. Between the fifth and tenth centuries, most people living in Europe were baptized.
         1. Religion influenced tribal life.
         2. Participating in religious observances was a social duty.
      4. Because of the Germans' warlike customs and different culture, their assimilation into Christianity was slow.
         1. The Christian emphasis on poverty, universal brotherhood, and love of enemies was difficult for German warriors to accept.
         2. The Christian concepts of sin and repentance were also hard for them to understand.
   8. Conversion and assimilation
      1. The missionaries pursued a policy of preaching and assimilating pagan customs and beliefs into Christianity.
      2. Penitentials--manuals used to examine one's conscience--were used by priests to teach people Christian virtue.
         1. The penitentials tell about the ascetic ideals of early Christianity and about crime in Celtic and Germanic societies.
         2. The penitential system helped religion become a private, personal matter.
2. Christian attitudes toward classical culture
   1. Adjustment: Despite early hostility, the Christians eventually adjusted to Roman culture.
      1. Early Christians believed that Roman culture was useless, immoral, and that the end of the world was near.
      2. They hated the Romans because they had crucified Christ and persecuted his followers.
   2. Nevertheless, Christianity compromised and adjusted to Roman culture.
      1. Saint Paul and Saint Jerome and others incorporated pagan thought into Christianity.
         1. Early Christians encouraged adjustment to the existing social, economic, and political establishment.
         2. Christians adopted the views of their contemporary world.
         3. Jesus had regarded women as equal to men but other (often later) influences were to cause Christianity to view women as inferior and sexual intercourse as undesirable.
         4. Early Christians treated homosexuality no differently than heterosexuality; objections came later, as GrecoRoman urban culture gave way to rural medieval culture.
   3. Saint Augustine and the synthesis of pagan and Christian thought
      1. Augustine, one of the most brilliant thinkers of Western culture, had a major impact on Christian thought.
         1. His autobiography, The Confessions, describes his conflict between spiritual self and sensual/material self.
         2. He set forth what became a basic Christian belief: that all humans have an innate tendency to sin.
         3. In City of God, Augustine argued that the state is a necessary evil, but it can work for the good by providing the peace, justice, and order that Christians need to learn to live according to their religion.
         4. Contrary to the Donatist Christians, Augustine believed that Christians should live in and transform society and that the church was not simply for an elite.
         5. Augustine believed that the function of the state is to protect people, and that ultimate authority in society lies with the church.
3. Christian monasticism
   1. With the growth of Christianity as a city religion, materialism, sexual promiscuity, and political corruption caused some Christians to become nonconformists and escape urban life.
      1. Monks took the place of martyrs as those who could speak for God.
   2. Western monasticism: Early monasticism began in Egypt with people called hermits (from the Greek word eremos).
      1. When this eremitical life spread to Western Europe, it faced some problems:
         1. The climate discouraged isolated living.
         2. Church leaders feared and distrusted eremitical life.
      2. Communal monasticism, first set forth by Pachomius in Egypt, was a way to overcome these objections; many experiments in communal living, which the church encouraged, followed in the fifth and sixth centuries.
         1. John Cassian established monasteries in Gaul; the abbey of Lerins encouraged extremely ascetic behavior, such as fasting and selfflagellation.
         2. Cassiodorus started the association of monasticism with scholarship and learning.
   3. The Rule of Saint Benedict became the guide for all Christian monastic life.
      1. The Rule outlined a life of regularity, discipline, and moderation applicable to varying physical and geographical conditions.
         1. Monks made a vow of stability, conversion of manners, and obedience.
         2. The Rule is an expression of the assimilation of the Roman spirit into Western monasticism.
      2. The Benedictine form of monasticism succeeded because it was balanced and it suited the social circumstances of early medieval society.
         1. It provided for both intellectual and manual activity.
         2. Benedict's twin sister adapted the Rule for the use of her community of nuns.
         3. It provided local young people with education.
         4. It generated great wealth and made substantial contributions to agricultural development.
   4. Eastern monasticism was influenced by the Long Rules of Saint Basil.
      1. Severe asceticism was discouraged, and urban monasteries were encouraged.
         1. Seventy abbeys were erected in Constantinople.
         2. Monasteries grew wealthy from gifts and from engaging in industry and agriculture.
         3. Revenues were spent on social services, such as food, hospitals, homes for the mentally ill, and so on.
      2. This eastern (Greek Orthodox) monasticism differed from that of the West in that each house developed its own rules, called typikon.
         1. Monks often moved from one monastery to another.
         2. Unlike in the West, monasteries never became a central feature of Greek monastic houses.
4. The migration of the Germanic peoples
   1. The idea of the barbarian was invented by Greeks and Romans.
      1. "Barbarian" originally meant one who lives outside the Roman empire--people, to Greeks and Romans, who had no history.
      2. "Kernel families" were barbarians who brought others into a new culture that was based on assimilation.
      3. Another view (model) is that barbaric ethnic formation derives from Central Asian steppe peoples, such as the Huns.
      4. Another view is that barbarians came from Alamanni and Slavic peoples.
   2. Celts and Germans
      1. Celt and German are linguistic terms for groups of Indo-Europeans who settled in Europe.
      2. The migrations of the Germanic peoples were important in the decline of the Roman Empire and the making of European civilization.
      3. Germanic tribes had been pushing against the Roman Empire's frontiers since about 150.
      4. The Germans migrated into Europe not because they were overpopulated, but because of war and the attraction to Roman wealth and work.
   3. Romanization and barbarization
      1. From the third century, the Roman army was the chief agent of barbarization.
   4. Laeti, Foederati, Gentes
      1. Barbarian people entered the empire as army recruits, as laeti (refugees or prisoners of war), or as foederati (free barbarian units).
      2. The arrival of the Huns in the West in 376 caused the entry of entire peoples, the gentes, into the empire.
      3. The Visigoths crushed a Roman army at Adrianople in 376, making further invasions possible.
      4. Except for the Lombards, barbarian conquests on the continent ended about 600.
      5. The Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and other tribes established a number of kingdoms.
         1. Theodoric, an Ostrogoth king, established control over Italy and Sicily and pursued a policy of assimilation between the Germans and the Romans.
      6. The kingdom of the Franks was the most important.
         1. These Germanic-speaking people settled at Rome's northeast Rhine frontier.
         2. The Salien Franks issued a law code; Chlodio's wife founded the Merovingian dynasty.
         3. The era of Clovis saw Franks conquer much of Gaul and adopt Gallo-Roman culture.
         4. The conversion of Clovis to Roman Christianity was crucial for Frankish power.
5. Germanic society
   1. Kinship, custom, and class
      1. The basic Germanic social unit was the tribe, or folk.
         1. Law was unwritten custom, handed down orally from generation to generation.
         2. Tribes were bound by shared peace and led by kings or chieftains.
      2. The comitatus, or war band, fought with the chieftain; gradually, a warriornobility evolved.
   2. Law
      1. In the sixth century, during the process of Christianization, Germanic law began to be written down.
      2. Under Salic Law each person had a wergeld, or monetary value, and each offense had a fine.
      3. German law aimed at the reduction of violence; it was not concerned with abstract justice.
   3. German life
      1. Germans lived in small villages.
         1. German males engaged in animal husbandry.
         2. The women raised grain and were responsible for the weaving and spinning.
         3. The number of cattle a man possessed indicated his wealth and determined his social status.
         4. German society was patriarchal.
      2. Ironworking was advanced, but the goods were produced for war and the subsistence economy, not for trade.
      3. Warfare constituted the main characteristic of Germanic society.
      4. The law codes show that women were regarded as family property and fines existed to protect women from rape and abduction.
      5. Widows had considerable power and wealth; women were regarded as being spiritually inferior.
      6. Some women exercised considerable influence; some used their beauty and their intelligence to advance their positions.
   4. AngloSaxon England
      1. The Romans conquered Britain, built towns, and brought their religion.
      2. Celtic people were fully assimilated into Roman culture.
      3. When Rome withdrew from Britain in 407, the island was open to plundering Picts, Saxons from Denmark, and Germans, and the Britons fled to Wales.
         1. The period 500-1066 is the "Anglo-Saxon" era.
         2. The AngloSaxon invasion gave rise to the Arthurian legends; Roman culture disappeared.
         3. By the seventh and eighth centuries there were seven Germanic kingdoms, which were united under Alfred of Wessex in the ninth century.
6. The Byzantine East (ca. 400-788)
   1. Justinian's failed wars against the Ostrogoths led to conquest of Italy by the Lombards.
      1. Despite Hun, Slav, Avar, Persian, and Greek attacks, the eastern Roman-Byzantine empire survived.
         1. One reason was strong military leadership under Priskos and others; another was the strength and position of the city of Constantinople.
      2. This Byzantine empire survived and grew rich under Greek rule--and protected ancient culture, often with great fortifications.
   2. Byzantine east and Germanic west: The western and eastern halves of the empire drifted apart.
      1. In the West, civic functions were performed first by church leaders and then by German chieftains; the church grew away from the empire.
         1. The popes were too preoccupied with conversion of the Germans and issues of classical culture to concentrate on church organization.
         2. Disputes developed between church officials and secular officials over administration of the church; Gelasius claimed that sacred authority was greater than secular authority.
      2. In the East, the emperor's jurisdiction over the church was fully acknowledged.
         1. Religion was seen as a branch of the state in the East.
      3. Much of the difference between the Eastern and Western churches was how each received classical culture.
         1. Classical culture was condemned in the West; in the East, apologists, or defenders, of Christianity demanded harmony between classical culture and Christianity.
      4. In 1054, a theological dispute led the bishop of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople to excommunicate each other--the two churches split apart.
      5. Despite religious differences, the Byzantine Empire protected the West against invasions from the East.
      6. The Byzantines civilized the Slavic people and converted them to Christianity.
         1. The Byzantine missionary Cyril invented a Slavic alphabet using Greek characters (the Cyrillic alphabet).
         2. Byzantine art and architecture became the basis of Russian forms.
   3. The law code of Justinian
      1. The law codes of the emperors Theodosius and Justinian are among the most important contributions of the Byzantine Empire.
      2. The corpus juris civilis--based on the Code, Digest, and Institutes--is the foundation of European law.
   4. Byzantine intellectual life
      1. The Byzantines kept scholarship alive, especially history.
      2. They passed GrecoRoman culture on to the Arabs.
      3. Although they made no advances in science or mathematics, they did make contributions to medicine and military technology.
7. The Arabs and Islam
   1. The Arabs
      1. The Hejaz Arabs were urban and commercial, while the Bedouin Arabs were nomadic and rural.
      2. All Arabs, however, were tribal and followed similar religious rules.
   2. Muhammad and the faith of Islam
      1. Muhammad was a merchant who became a preacherprophet.
         1. He described his visions in verse form--his Qur'an (prayer recitation).
         2. After Muhammad's death, scribes organized these revelations into chapters.
      2. Muhammad was a reformer of the Old Testament--the religion he reformed is called Islam.
      3. The Qur'an outlines the monotheistic theology of Islam.
         1. Islam means "submission to the word of God," and its central idea is the Day of Judgment.
         2. Islam is a strict religion that condemns such things as immorality, alcoholic beverages, and gambling; it insists on regular prayer and alms giving, and condemns usury.
         3. Muslims believed that following their religion's basic rules would automatically gain them salvation, as would dying for their faith in battle.
         4. The Qur'an sets forth austere sexual morality; it allowed polygamy.
         5. Muslim women were more emancipated than women in the West.
         6. It was believed that salvation is by way of God's grace, which is predestined; there are many similarities between the Muslin, Jewish, and Christian faiths.
         7. Muslims thought that Jesus was only an apostle and that those who called Jesus divine committed blasphemy.
      4. The doctrines of Islam superseded tribal ties and bound all Arabs.
   3. When the caliph Ali (successor to Prophet Muhammad) was assassinated in 661, Islam split into the Shi'ite (or Shi'a) and the Sunni factions.
      1. The Shi'ites claimed to be the blood descendants of Ali and to possess divine knowledge.
      2. The Sunnis, the majority of the faith, claimed that the Sunna was a source of truth.
   4. The expansion of Islam
      1. Islam united the Arabs and encouraged expansion and conquest; much of the old Roman Mediterranean empire came under Muslim control.
      2. Spain was held until the reconquista of the tenth to the fourteenth centuries.
      3. The Muslims were stopped at Tours in 733, but successfully carried their conquest to India and Africa.
         1. But a Muslim kingdom was established in Spain under the Umayyad dynasty.
         2. In Spain and elsewhere the Muslims had enormous impact on agricultural development--through new crops and new agricultural techniques.
         3. They established intellectual centers such as at Toledo.
         4. They advanced the use of algebra and made other contributions to mathematics, such as the concept of zero.
         5. They excelled in medical knowledge and preserved Greek philosophical thought.
   5. MuslimChristian relations
      1. It was in southern Spain (Andalusia) that Christians who assimilated to Muslim culture (moszarabs) were still regarded as infidels.
      2. By about 1250 most of Muslim Spain had returned to Christian control through the reconquista.
      3. Muslim assault on Christian Europe and Christian intolerance and misunderstanding of Muslim teaching created a barrier between the two peoples.
      4. Muslims and Christians shared the belief that the state existed to allow its people to find God.
         1. But Muslims did not regard the state as a territorial entity.
         2. They saw the world in terms of the House of Islam and the House of War.
         3. The jihad was the struggle to spread Islam--by war if necessary.
      5. By the thirteenth century, Western literature regarded the Muslims both sympathetically and as the worst enemies of Christian society.
      6. Muslims rejected European culture and avoided going to Europe; they viewed Christianity as a flawed religion.
      7. All in all, Muslim expansion meant that Mediterranean civilization would be divided into three spheres of influence: Byzantine, Arabic, and Western.

 

1. The Frankish kingdom and the rise of the Carolingians
   1. The Franks, under Clovis
      1. Acquired Roman Gaul, defeated other tribes, and won over the church.
      2. The Frankish kingdom included most of France and southwestern Germany.
      3. Clovis divided his kingdom among his four sons.
   2. After Clovis's death in 511, the Merovingians fell into a long period of civil war.
      1. Civil war was caused by unsure succession to the throne and desire for booty (land) and plunder.
      2. Queen Brunhilda encouraged war.
   3. How did the Merovingians rule?
      1. The civitas ruled over by the comites served as the basis of rule in the Frankish kingdom.
      2. Royal income came from royal estates, taxes, new lands, plunder, fines, and minting coins.
      3. Kings traveled to check on their estates, but also relied on their duxs (dukes) to defend the land.
      4. Capitularies--or laws--to regulate the kingdom
         1. These related to property, robbery, arson, etc.
         2. Capitularies were influenced by Roman law and the Roman idea of effective central rule.
      5. The king also used and consulted his aristocracy in the form of a royal court.
         1. The aristocratic Carolingian family emerged to replace the Merovingians.
         2. Pippin I had been the head (mayor) of the royal palace.
         3. Pippin II, Charles Martel, and Pippin III acquired great land and wealth, and defeated other contenders and outside tribal threats such as the Saxons and the Arabs.
      6. The Carolingians acquired the support of the church by their support of missionary activity, including that of Boniface.
         1. Pippin III's acquisition of the kingship was aided by Pope Zacharias.
         2. Pippin created strong ties between the church and the Carolingian dynasty.
         3. Pippin was anointed by Saint Boniface and Pope Stephen II.
         4. The pope Leo III regarded Pippin's son Charles as emperor.
2. The imperial coronation of Charlemagne
   1. The church supported Charlemagne, and in 800 the pope crowned him the emperor.
   2. Charlemagne consciously perpetuated old Roman imperial notions while at the same time identifying with the new Rome of the Christian church.
   3. The coronation gave rise to theories of both imperial and papal supremacy.
3. The empire of Charlemagne
   1. The warriorruler Charlemagne is described in Einhard's biography as both an intellectual and a strong, brutal man.
   2. Territorial expansion
      1. Charlemagne continued the Carolingian tradition by building a large European kingdom.
      2. He checked Muslim expansion by establishing marches (strongly fortified areas) and conquered the Saxon German tribes.
      3. He incorporated Lombardy into the Frankish kingdom.
      4. He added northern Italy to his kingdom, but his Spanish campaign failed, inspiring the Song of Roland.
   3. The government of the Carolingian Empire
      1. The empire of Charlemagne was mainly a collection of agricultural estates.
      2. The political power of the Carolingians depended on the cooperation of the Frankish aristocracy.
      3. Charlemagne divided his empire into counties, ruled by counts and viscounts.
      4. Charlemagne appointed missi dominici as links between local authorities and the central government.
      5. Margraves ruled in the frontier regions.
4. The Carolingian intellectual revival
   1. The revival of learning began with IrishCeltic influence in AngloSaxon Britain.
   2. Northumbrian culture in Britain
      1. Under Saint Benet Biscop and others, IrishCeltic culture permeated Roman Britain and Europe, partly by way of monastic missals and other books.
      2. The Lindisfarne book, in a Celtic script, is a high point in the Northumbrian artistic renaissance.
      3. The noblewoman Hilda and others established "double monasteries" that were governed by women and were intellectual centers.
      4. The monk known as the Venerable Bede wrote a history--The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation--that is the chief source of information about early Britain.
      5. However, most monks spend their lives as farmers or administrators.
      6. The epic poem Beowulf was written in vernacular Anglo-Saxon.
      7. The physical circumstances of life were grim.
         1. Learning took place in an atmosphere of violence.
         2. Food was not scarce, but the climate was harsh and disease was frequent.
   3. The Carolingian Renaissance
      1. A new culture based on Christian sources emerged. Its purpose was primarily the promotion of Christianity.
      2. Charlemagne fostered an intellectual revival that centered on his court at Aachen.
      3. His scholars (the most important being Alcuin) encouraged interest in the classics and preserved Greek and Roman knowledge.
      4. Basic literacy was established among the clergy, and Christianity was spread.
5. Health and medical care in the early Middle Ages
   1. Drug and prescription therapy was common.
      1. Various herbs and oils were used to treat everything from choughs to eye troubles.
      2. Standards of personal hygiene were frightfully low.
      3. The value of dieting was recognized, although pregnant women were advised to not eat meat.
   2. Mid-wives possessed pharmaceutical information about fertility, contraception, pregnancy, and childbirth--but many women and newborns died in childbirth.
   3. The Italian school at Salerno was an important medical center, and several female physicians played a key role in medical writings.
   4. Most people had no access to physicians; death came early and most people had a fatalistic acceptance of death.
6. Aristocratic resurgence
   1. Charlemagne left his empire to his son, Louis the Pious.
   2. Louis was tough and ruthless but he could not retain the loyalty of the warrioraristocracy.
      1. He drew up the Arrangement of the Empire to divide his empire.
      2. The huge empire lacked an efficient bureaucracy.
      3. Lothar received the crown.
         1. Dissatisfied with their portions, Louis's sons--Lothair, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald--fought bitterly.
         2. Finally, in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, they agreed to divide up the empire.
   3. But fratricidal warfare among Charlemagne's descendants was not the main reason for disintegration of the empire.
      1. The strength and self-interest of the greedy aristocrats (magnates) were the main cause of disintegration.
      2. Many count's holdings had become hereditary--thereby weakening the crown.
7. Feudalism and the historians
   1. "Feudalism" is a confusing term that appears to have come into use only recently; no current definition is satisfactory.
      1. Much discussion of feudalism revolves around the terms fief, lord, and vassal.
      2. The historian Bloch defines feudalism as a whole system of life--economic, political, cultural, and even religious.
      3. However, the political-legal explanation seems to be the most useful.
         1. Earls and counts exercised power as if they operated independent states.
   2. The origins of feudalism
      1. The alternative to Bloch is to see feudalism as a political and legal system.
      2. Feudalism was a type of government in which power was considered private and was divided among many lords, and was the main type of government in Europe from 900 to 1300.
      3. Feudalism existed at two social levels, that of armed retainers (knights) and of royal officials such as counts.
         1. The adoption of the stirrup made the cavalry a potent weapon, and armed retainers became very valuable.
         2. Retainers took an oath of fealty, and some, called vassals, were given estates by their lords.
         3. Counts held power at the local level and came to rule independently.
      4. Because of the premium placed on physical strength, women were subordinate to men, although they occasionally held positions of power.
   3. Manorialism, which was the economic and social side of feudalism, centered on the relationship between peasant (or serf) and the lord's estate.
      1. Peasants exchanged their labor and land for protection from the lord to become serfs.
      2. The free farmers became serfs--bound to the land and to the lord.
      3. By 800 perhaps 60 percent of the population had been reduced to serfdom.
8. The great invasions of the ninth century
   1. Disunity in Europe after Charlemagne's death was an invitation to aggression from the outside.
   2. Assaults on western Europe
      1. The Vikings from the north overran Europe.
         1. Their superb seamanship gave them an overwhelming advantage.
         2. Reasons for their attacks include overpopulation, crop failures, and trade.
         3. They did not take slaves, but held powerful people for ransom.
         4. Between 876 and 954 their control extended from Ireland to France, and perhaps even New York.
   3. The Magyars, or Hungarians, pushed into Europe from the east, and the Muslims pushed up from the south.
   4. These invasions accelerated the growth of feudalism.
   5. The invaders brought with them some important advances in agriculture, law, and industry.
9. The Vikings and the Kievan principality
   1. The Slavs lived as a single people until the mass migrations of the late Roman times, when they moved in different directions--splitting into three groups, the Ukrainians, the Russians, and the White Russians.
      1. Their lands were great forests and prairie grasslands on which they lived by the "slash and burn" method.
   2. Vikings from Scandinavia moved up and down Slav lands and linked Scandinavia to the Black Sea and Constantinople; the Slavs became "slaves."
   3. The Viking Ruirik founded the Varangian dynasty, and then his successor Oleg made Kiev the center of a confederation of Slavic territories--the Kievan state.
      1. The Vikings and the Slavs were converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity; trade was the major interest of the rulers.
      2. The Slavified Vikings had no way to pass power from one generation to the next; therefore, much strife occurred.
      3. To avoid chaos, Kiev was divided into competing units (beginning in 1054)--the result was a system of estates worked by slaves called kholops and princely owners, and a warrior class called boyers.

 

1. Political revival in western Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries
   1. The decline of invasions and civil disorder
      1. Medieval France was an area of diverse languages and cultures, with the northern counties being the center of French feudalism, and with the king of France king in name only.
   2. In French Normandy the dukes Rollo and William made Normandy a strong territory.
      1. Rollo was given more land in return for allegiance to the king; Rollo and his men became Christianized.
      2. Duke William, his successor, was successful in defeating King Henry, united his Norman nobility, and built many castles at his frontier.
      3. The nobles elected Hugh Capet king in 987, laying the foundation for future political stability.
   3. In England, the victory of Alfred of Wessex over the Danes in 878 slowly led to English unity.
      1. The Dane Canute became King of England and made England part of a large Scandinavian empire.
      2. Danish-Viking assimilation with Anglo-Saxon culture in England was furthered by King Edward the Confessor.
   4. Germany and Italy
      1. The German king Otto halted the Magyars in 955.
      2. The base of Otto's power was his alliance with the church, which he used to weaken the feudal lords.
      3. Otto's coronation in 962 laid the foundation for the future Holy Roman Empire.
      4. Otto relied on the Church to help break the power of the great German lords.
      5. The Italian cities of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa broke Muslim control of Mediterranean trade and experienced great economic growth
      6. The economic importance of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa became a reason for power struggles between the pope and the German Empire.
   5. The Peace of God was the idea and the practice of the church in ending many forms of local violence.
      1. By way of church councils the bishops acted to provide armed protection against thuggish lords and protect peasants, clerics, and merchants.
      2. The "truce of God" was the practice of limiting the number of days when fighting was permitted to 80 days--but this was less effective than the Peace of God.
2. Population, climate, and mechanization
   1. The decline in war and plague meant a rise in population.
   2. The warmer climate meant better agricultural production--hence, improved diet and an increase in female fertility.
   3. An ancient energy system, the water mill, was used on a more widespread basis for food production and industry.
   4. Windmills also came into use.
3. Revival and reform in the Christian church in the eleventh century
   1. The monastic revival
      1. Monastic activity had declined as the Carolingian Empire disintegrated.
      2. The abbey of Cluny led the way in a tenthcentury monastic revival.
         1. Cluny provided strong leadership for reform of abuses such as simony, for high religious standards, and for sound economic management.
         2. The Cluniac reform spread throughout Europe.
         3. But many monasteries became very rich and lost their spiritual fervor.
      3. To initiate monastic reform, the Cistercians (beginning in 1098) isolated themselves from laymen and elaborate ritual at Citeauz monastery.
         1. Their reform movement centered on high ideals, farming and a simple communal life.
         2. Inspired by the abbot Bernard, the Cistercians founded 525 new monasteries in the twelfth century and had a profound influence on European society.
   2. The reform of the papacy
      1. The tenthcentury papacy was corrupt and materialistic and provided little leadership to the people of Europe.
         1. Pope John XII was appointed pope by his father and concentrated on expanding church land holdings.
         2. Factions in Rome sought to control the papacy for their own gain.
         3. There were many married priests. They were known as nicolaites.
      2. Leo IX made the first sweeping reforms.
      3. Later reforms stipulated that the college of cardinals would henceforth elect the pope.
4. The Gregorian revolution in church reform
   1. Pope Gregory VII's ideas for reform of the church
      1. Gregory (Cardinal Hildebrand) believed that papal orders were the orders of God.
      2. He believed in the "freedom of the church"--meaning the end of the practice whereby kings and other secular authorities appointed bishops and other church officials (investiture).
      3. This controversy over investiture provoked a terrible crisis.
      4. Gregory also believed that priests should not marry.
   2. The controversy over lay investiture
      1. The church outlawed the widespread practice of lay investiture (the appointment of church officials by secular authority) in 1075.
      2. Kings disliked this new rule because they used church officials, like monks and bishops, to run state government for free.
      3. Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire protested Pope Gregory's stand on investiture.
         1. Gregory claimed that disobedience to the pope was disobedience to God.
         2. In 1076, Gregory excommunicated Henry.
         3. Powerful nobles favored the excommunication because it released them from obedience to Henry.
      4. Henry scored a temporary victory by submission to the pope at Canossa in 1077.
      5. In 1080 Gregory again excommunicated Henry; in return, Henry invaded Rome.
      6. In 1122, the lay investiture controversy was finally settled in a conference at Worms.
         1. The emperor surrendered the right to choose bishops.
         2. However, lay rulers retained a veto over ecclesiastical choices.
      7. In the long run, the investiture crisis perpetuated the political division of Germany.
         1. In so doing, it encouraged the rise of a very strong noble class.
         2. It also had the effect of emphasizing the distinction between priests and laypeople and between priests and nuns.
   3. The papacy in the High Middle Ages
      1. Pope Urban II laid the foundation for the papal curia, which henceforth administered the church and was its court of law.
         1. The papal curia developed into the court of final appeal for all of Christian Europe.
         2. Most of the cases involved property disputes, ecclesiastical elections, and marriage and annulment.
      2. By the early thirteenth century, papal reform had succeeded, but in the following decades the papal bureaucracy became greedy and indifferent.
5. The Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
   1. The Crusades reflected papal influence in society and the church's new understanding of the noble warrior class.
      1. The Crusades, or holy wars, to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims grew out of the ChristianMuslim conflict in Spain.
      2. Many knights participated in the Crusades, which manifested both the religious and chivalric ideals of medieval society.
   2. Background
      1. The papacy saw a holy war as a way to increase its power and influence--at home and in the East.
      2. The Crusades began with Pope Urban II's plea in 1095 for a crusade to take Jerusalem from the Turks.
   3. Motives and course of the Crusades
      1. The Crusades offered a variety of opportunities for many people.
         1. Religious convictions inspired many.
         2. The lure of foreign travel and excitement was also strong.
         3. The Crusades also gave kings an opportunity to get rid of troublesome knights.
         4. The Crusades encouraged prejudice against European Jews.
      2. The First Crusade (1096) was marked by disputes among the great lords and much starvation and disease.
         1. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.
         2. Crusader kingdoms were founded in Jerusalem, Edessa, Tripoli, and Antioch.
      3. There were eight papally approved expeditions to the East between 1096 and 1270, but none of the later ones accomplished much.
         1. The Third Crusade was precipitated by the recapture of Jerusalem in 1187.
         2. The Fourth Crusade made the split between the Western and Eastern churches permanent when the Crusaders sacked Byzantium.
      4. Crusades were also fought against the heretical Albegensians and against Emperor Frederick II.
      5. A crusading religious order, the Knights Templars, waged war against pagans in eastern Europe and established a Christian Prussia.
      6. Some women, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, went on Crusades, while many found that the Crusades brought new economic opportunities.
   4. Cultural consequences
      1. The Crusades brought few cultural changes, since strong economic and intellectual ties with the East had already been made.
      2. The long struggle between Christians and Muslims left a legacy of deep bitterness.
      3. However, the Christian West benefited from commercial contact with the Middle East.
      4. As the West's first colonizing movement beyond Europe, the Crusades shaped the identity of the West.
      5. In addition, the Crusades caused the West to dehumanize the enemy--Muslims were described as "filth" and Muslims called Europeans "infidels" and "barbarians."
      6. The Crusades created the notion of European Jews as inhuman monsters--and regularized anti-semitism was born.
         1. But Jewish culture, particularly in urban areas, flourished.
         2. They worked as tradesmen, craftsmen, money changers, and long-distance traders.
         3. Jews became important scholars and physicians.
         4. Spain became the center of a golden age of Jewish culture.
6. The expansion of Latin Christendom
   1. Between 1000 and 1300 the frontiers of Europe were populated by peoples of Europe--including many restless knights looking for land.
   2. Northern Europe
      1. An Anglo-Norman takeover of Ulster led to English towns and a new type of church in Ireland.
      2. Similarly, immigrant knights entered Scotland and established feudal society.
      3. Bishoprics were organized in Scandinavian and Baltic regions, by Otto I and others.
   3. Eastern Europe
      1. Pagan peoples (the Balts) in the east and north were conquered and christianized by Otto I and Albert the Bear.
      2. Albert the Bear founded a dynasty in Brandenburg and carried out Ostiedlung to the east.
      3. He pushed his kingdom eastward to the Oder River--ruled by his knights with castles to crush the Slavs.
      4. German knights and monks moved east including Silesia under Duke Boleslaw I.
         1. From Prague in Bohemia missionaries moved to convert Poland.
         2. Many German settlers accompanied these knights and missionaries, and many towns (e.g., Cracow) grew.
   4. Spain
      1. Caliph Rahman III's descendents fell into civil war, thus making a Christian reconquista easier.
      2. Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon conquered Toledo and brought French monks and knights to settle the meseta.
         1. Alfonso VIII crushed the Muslims in 1212 and James of Aragon captured Valencia and turned the chief mosque into a cathedral.
         2. Ferdinand of Castile and Leon captured Cardoba and Seville and converted mosques to churches.
      3. By 1299 Spain had 51 bishoprics and many Cistercian monasteries for military and religious use.
         1. Foreign businessmen came to Spain to take over the many former Muslim towns. Spain became the most urbanized part of Europe.
         2. Huge migration of people accompanied the reconquista.
   5. Toward a Christian society
      1. Cultural unity of new and old parts of Europe came about through and by the Roman papacy.
         1. One religious rite took place in all of Europe.
         2. Europeans identified themselves first and foremost as belonging to the "Christian race."

 

1. Those who worked
   1. The condition of the peasantry varied according to geographic location, and there were many levels of peasantry.
   2. Slavery, serfdom, and upward mobility
      1. The church did not take a strong stand in opposing the enslavement of Christians.
      2. The distinction between slave and serf was not always clear. Although serfs could not be bought and sold, they were property of the lord.
      3. Serfs had to perform labor services on the lord's land.
         1. Serfs often had to pay fees to the lord.
         2. Serfs were tied to the land, and serfdom was a hereditary condition.
         3. Serfs could obtain freedom in several ways: from their lord, by purchase by a third party, or by being in a town guild for a year and a day.
      4. Settlement on new land meant opportunities for social mobility and freedom.
   3. The manor--the estate of the lord--was the basic unit of medieval rural life.
      1. Manors varied in size.
      2. A manor usually contained a village.
      3. All the arable land of the manor was divided into strips.
      4. The demesne was cultivated for the lord. The peasantry held the other part.
      5. Each manor usually had pastures and forests.
   4. Agricultural methods
      1. The land was usually divided into two or three fields--with fields being divided into strips assigned to individual peasants.
         1. Usually one of the two fields was left fallow.
      2. Animal manure was the major form of fertilizer.
      3. The increase in iron production after 1100 meant better tools.
      4. In light soil areas the development of the padded horse collar led to the use of horses in agriculture and thus a great increase in productivity.
      5. Yields were low, but they improved from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries; the amount for sheer survival was thought to be three times the amount sown--the average thirteenth century manor got a 5 to 1 yield.
   5. Life on the manor
      1. Medieval village life was provincial and dull but secure.
      2. Most peasant households consisted of a nuclear family.
      3. Women worked the fields, managed the household, and dominated in the production of beer and ale.
      4. Diet included vegetables, some fruit, grains, beer, cheese, some fish, and wild meat--with possibly a great increase in meat consumption by the midthirteenth century--but the mainstay was bread.
      5. Children helped with the family chores.
   6. Health care
      1. People who survived to adulthood were generally strong and tough.
      2. Midwives were non-professionals who occasionally performed Cesarean births.
      3. Hospitals were established in the twelfth century.
      4. Urban people had greater access to doctors--who were usually men.
   7. Popular religion
      1. The Christian religion infused and regulated daily life.
      2. Religious ritual and practice synthesized many elements--Jewish, pagan, Roman, and Christian.
      3. The church was the center of village social, political, and economic life.
      4. Popular religion consisted largely of symbolic rituals and ceremonies.
         1. In the twelfth century a sacramental system of religion emerged--under the control of the priest who alone could deliver the seven sacraments
         2. The sacraments were baptism, penance, eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, orders, and extreme unction.
         3. The sacraments were believed to bring grace and salvation
      5. In the eleventh century a great emphasis on the devotion to Mary evolved.
      6. Peasants believed that God intervened directly in human affairs, and that sin was caused by the Devil.
      7. Few peasants lived beyond the age of forty; pilgrimages offered adventure and hope in a world of gloom.
         1. The church granted indulgences (remissions of penalties for sin) to those who visited the shrines of great saints.
         2. Indulgences and pilgrimages came to be equated with salvation.
2. Those who fight
   1. The nobility strongly influenced all aspects of medieval culture.
      1. The social structure of Europe varied from region to region; overall the nobility was an elite, selfconscious social class.
         1. Nobles held political power and had a special legal status.
      2. Nobles were professional fighters.
         1. Their function was to protect the weak, the poor, and the churches.
         2. Nobles were supposed to display the chivalric virtues of courage, courtesy, loyalty, generosity, and graciousness.
      3. The medieval nobility developed independently of knighthood--all nobles were knights, but not all knights were noble.
         1. In France and England, the term knight connoted moral values, consciousness of family, and participation in a superior hereditary caste.
         2. In Germany, a large class of non-noble knights, or ministerials, existed.
      4. The nobility regarded peasants in a contradictory manner--usually with contempt, as stupid, and condemned to labor by God, or, at other times, as virtuous and beloved by God.
   2. Infancy and childhood in aristocratic families
      1. Ignorant medical care contributed to the high infant mortality rate.
      2. Infanticide probably decreased during this period, but abandonment of infants, which was socially acceptable, increased.
      3. Children were often sold or given to monasteries as oblates.
      4. Other familyplanning strategies, such as primogeniture, late marriages, and birth control, were used to preserve family estates.
      5. Most young aristocratic children had a great deal of playtime and freedom.
      6. At about age seven, aristocratic boys served in a lord's household and received formal training in arms.
         1. Learning to read and write was not common until the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
         2. Formal training concluded at age twentyone with the ceremony of knighthood.
   3. Youth in aristocratic families
      1. Unless a young man's father was dead, he was still considered a youth and could not marry.
      2. Knighted men whose fathers were alive had to find activities, such as travel, tournaments, and carousing, to occupy themselves.
      3. Aristocratic women married early; their families provided large marriage portions, or dowries.
      4. Generational disputes were common in aristocratic families in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
      5. Sexual tensions arose from aristocratic marriage practices, which brought together young wives, older husbands, and young, unmarried men.
   4. Power and responsibility in the aristocracy
      1. A male member of the nobility became an adult when he came into possession of his property.
      2. Aristocrats saw lavish living as a sign of status and power, but it often meant debt.
      3. As a vassal, a noble was required to fight for the lord or for the king when called on to do so.
      4. He was also obliged to attend his lord's court on important occasions.
      5. He had to look after his own estates, which usually required frequent travel.
      6. Holding the manorial court was one of his major duties.
      7. Women played an important role in running the estate--partly because men were frequently away.
         1. Because of frequent warfare, many women became widows, and thus came to control land and exercise great authority.
      8. All in all, the constant warfare among the nobility was a constant source of trouble for the monarchy--causing the monarchy to turn to the middle classes for support; the Crusades eliminated some the most dangerous problems for the monarchs.
3. Those who pray
   1. Prayer was a vital social service performed by monks; they also performed other important cultural and economic services.
   2. Recruitment
      1. Many who became monks did so because of their parents' decision to give them to the church as oblates.
      2. Monasteries provided careers for aristocratic children.
      3. In the later Middle Ages the monasteries recruited from the middle class.
   3. The nuns
      1. Convents were established for women of the noble class.
         1. The abbess or prioress was customarily a woman of high social standing.
         2. Some abbesses achieved national prominence.
      2. The duties of a nun varied from religious duties, to administration, to sewing and perhaps manuscript copying.
         1. Hildegard of Bingen represents the scholarly life of many nuns.
         2. Isabella of Lancaster represents the type of prioress who was active in court life and travel.
   4. Prayer and other work
      1. Daily life in the monasteries centered on the liturgy.
         1. The need to praise God justified the spending of a great deal of money on objects to enhance the liturgy.
         2. The liturgy thus inspired a great deal of art.
      2. Aristocratic monks, or choir monks, did not till the land, but relied on lay brothers supervised by a cellarer for this.
      3. The almoner took care of the poor; and the novice master, the training of recruits.
      4. Law and medicine were studied and practiced--sometimes in the royal court.
      5. Raising and breeding of horses were undertaken, as was the conversion of wasteland to agriculture.
      6. The Cistercians were important in agricultural developments in the Low Countries, Germany, France, and England.
      7. Some monasteries got involved in iron and lead mining.
      8. Most monasteries were involved in providing social services such as schools, hospitals, and hostels for travelers.
   5. Economic difficulties
      1. By the late Middle Ages many monasteries, such as Cluny, did not have enough income to support their lavish lifestyle.
      2. Many fell into debt and agricultural recession led to less endowment.

 

1. The medieval origins of the modern state
   1. England
      1. England's seven kingdoms were united under one king under the pressure of the Danish (Viking) invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries.
         1. England was divided into shires, each under the jurisdiction of an unpaid sheriff appointed by the king.
         2. All the English thegns (local chieftains) recognized the central authority of the king.
      2. William the Conqueror replaced the AngloSaxon sheriffs with Normans.
      3. Sheriffs, the writ, the Norman inquest, and the Domesday Book were used to centralize royal power.
      4. The Angevin dynasty began with William's grandson, Henry II.
   2. France
      1. In the early twelfth century, France consisted of virtually independent provinces; the king's goal was to increase the royal domain and extend his authority.
      2. Philip II began the process of unifying France.
      3. By the end of the thirteenth century, most of the provinces of modern France had been added to the royal domain through diplomacy, marriage, war, and inheritance, and the king was stronger than his nobles.
      4. Philip Augustus devised a system of royal agents called baillis and seneschals to help enforce royal law.
      5. Unlike England, where administration was based on unpaid local officials, royal administration in France rested on a professional bureaucracy.
   3. Germany
      1. Unlike England and France, Germany moved toward multiple independent principalities--or landesherrschaft.
      2. The emperor shared power with the princes, dukes, archbishops, etc.--built great castles.
      3. Frederick Barbarossa tried to unify Germany by creating royal officials, called ministerials, to enforce his will.
         1. He supported local judicial authority by way of the landfrieden.
         2. He tried to subdue Italian cities but was defeated at Legnano in 1176.
   4. Finance
      1. Growth of territory and authority led medieval kings to seek new sources of revenue and better systems of administration.
      2. Henry I of England established a bureau of finance called the Exchequer to keep track of income.
      3. French kings relied on royal taxes, mostly from the church, the tallage, and the conversion of feudal dues to cash payments.
      4. Medieval people believed that royal taxation should be imposed only in times of emergency.
      5. Sicily is a good example of an efficient financial bureaucracy.
         1. Roger de Hauteville introduced feudalism to the island.
         2. Frederick II Hohenstaufen centralized royal power in Sicily by taxing regularly, building bureaucracy, controlling local government, founding a university, and regulating the economy
         3. He granted huge concessions to the local rulers in Germany.
   5. Law and justice in medieval Europe
      1. The legal system by the twelfth century was a hodgepodge of customs practices--very often differing from one locale to another. Medieval kings sought to blend these into a uniform system under their control.
      2. Louis IX's legal reforms made him famous.
         1. A system of royal justice, founded by Louis IX, unified France.
         2. He established the Parlement of Paris as a kind of supreme court.
         3. He sent royal judges to all parts of the country.
         4. He was the first French monarch to publish laws for the entire kingdom.
      3. In England, beginning with Henry II, the English kings developed and extended the common law, which was accepted by the whole country.
         1. Henry II established a jury system and improved procedure in criminal justice.
         2. Courts sought witnesses and evidence--but sometimes judged guilt or innocence by trial by ordeal.
      4. Becket and Henry II quarreled over legal jurisdiction.
         1. Becket claimed that crimes by clerics should be tried in church courts ("benefit of clergy").
         2. He was assassinated by the king's friends in 1170.
         3. Henry gave up his attempt to bring clerics under the authority of the royal court.
      5. King John's conflict with church and barons led to the Magna Carta (1215), which claims that everyone, including the king, must obey the law.
         1. Its original intent was to protect the barons, but it was later used to protect all others, including widows and orphans.
         2. It includes the origins of the idea of "due process of law."
      6. In the German empire, justice was administered by local and regional authorities.
         1. Crimes were first seen as acts against the individual, but later as acts against the public interest.
      7. English common law systemvs. continental (Roman) law
         1. The common law relied on precedents and thus was able to evolve.
         2. The Roman law tradition used the fixed legal maxims of the Justinian Code.
      8. Marginal groups
         1. The extension and centralization of the law, along with economic and agricultural competition and fear of foreigners, led to discrimination and pressure for social conformity.
         2. Many towns in Europe had a small Jewish population; they were forbidden to own land and hence became important in finance and commerce; they even managed the papal affairs.
         3. By the late twelfth century, antiSemitism was on the rise; the king of France used hostility against Jews to raise royal revenue.
         4. Likewise, the king of England expelled Jews in order to gain new revenues from parliament.
         5. It may be that some of this discrimination resulted from the general xenophobia that spread across Europe and that grew out of the Crusades.
         6. Homosexuality, which had been accepted for centuries, had (by 1300) been declared illegal.
         7. The early Christians displayed no special prejudice against homosexuals; some important church leaders and kings were publicly known homosexuals.
         8. It is probable that the Crusades resulted in raising fears of minorities and that the centralization of the law and the state led to intolerance of religious and sexual distinctiveness.
2. Towns and economic revival
   1. The rise of towns
      1. Some historians believe that towns began as fortifications (boroughs).
      2. The historian Henri Pirenne claimed that towns resulted from trade and commerce.
      3. Others believe that towns sprang up around religious centers.
      4. All towns had a few common characteristics: a town wall, a central market, a court, and a monetary system.
      5. The bourgeoisie, or townspeople, became a new class in medieval society.
   2. Town liberties
      1. Townspeople worked hard to acquire social, political, and legal liberties, or special privileges.
         1. The most important privilege a medieval townsperson could gain was personal freedom.
         2. The liberty of personal freedom that came with residence in a town contributed greatly to the emancipation of the serfs in the High Middle Ages.
      2. Merchant and craft guilds evolved to provide greater economic security; they bargained with kings and lords for political independence.
      3. Women played an important role in the household, the guilds, and the town economy.
   3. Town life
      1. Medieval towns served as places of trade and protection.
      2. The place where a product was made and sold was also usually the merchant's residence.
      3. Towns grew without planning or regulation.
      4. Air and water pollution, lack of sanitation, and danger of fire were constant problems.
   4. The revival of longdistance trade in the eleventh century
      1. Groups of merchants would pool capital to finance trading expeditions.
      2. Italian and Flemish cities dominated the trade market.
         1. Venice led the West in trade and controlled the Oriental market.
         2. Flanders controlled the cloth trade.
      3. England was the major supplier of wool for Flanders.
         1. Wool was the cornerstone of the English medieval economy.
         2. Eventually cloth manufacture was taken up in English towns.
   5. The commercial revolution of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries
      1. Huge new supplies of silver led to increased trade in consumer products.
         1. This led to new business practices and a "road revolution."
      2. The Hanseatic League developed new trade routes and established new "factories" (foreign trading centers) and business techniques such as the business register.
      3. The commercial revolution meant a higher standard of living and new opportunities.
      4. Kings allied with the middle classes to defeat feudal lords and build modern states, while many serfs used the commercial revolution to improve their social position.
      5. The slow transformation of European society from rural isolation to a more urban sophistication was the commercial revolution's greatest effect.
3. Medieval universities
   1. Origins
      1. Prior to the twelfth century, only monasteries and cathedral schools existed, and there weren't very many of them.
      2. During the twelfth century, cathedral schools in France and municipal schools in Italy developed into universities.
         1. The first universities were at Bologna and Salerno in Italy.
         2. Bologna became a law school, while medicine was studied in Salerno.
         3. The cathedral school at Notre Dame in Paris became an international center of learning.
   2. Instruction and curriculum
      1. The Scholastic method of teaching was used.
         1. In this method of reasoning and writing, questions were raised and authorities cited on both sides of the question.
         2. Its goal was to arrive at definite answers and provide a rational explanation for what was believed on faith.
         3. Arabic thought encouraged people to study Aristotle.
         4. By asking questions about nature and the universe, Scholastics laid the foundations for later scientific work.
         5. Scholastic philosophers dealt with many theological issues.
         6. They published summa, or reference books, on many topics, the most famous of which--Aquinas's Summa Theologica--became the fundamental text of Roman Catholic doctrine.
      2. The standard method of teaching was the lecture accompanied by a gloss, or interpretation.
      3. Oral examinations came when students applied for their degree.
4. Gothic art
   1. The term "gothic" was a negative term, implying barbaric and destruction of classical buildings of the Roman empire.
   2. Prior to Gothic and after 1000, church building increased greatly; most churches were in the Romanesque style, with thick walls, small windows, and rounded arches.
   3. From Romanesque gloom to "uninterrupted light"
      1. Political stability and the increase in church wealth led demands for better buildings.
         1. The Gothic style was created by Suger, the abbot of St. Denis, who reconstructed the abbey church at Saint Denis beginning in 1137.
         2. The Gothic style has several distinct features: the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, flying buttresses, and interior brightness.
         3. The Gothic style spread rapidly throughout Europe--with French architects invited to design new churches in places such as Canterbury in England.
   4. The creative outburst of cathedral building
      1. Bishops, nobility, and the commercial classes supported cathedral building.
      2. Cathedrals became symbols of bourgeois civic pride, and towns competed to build the largest and most splendid church.
      3. Cathedrals served many purposes, secular as well as religious.
      4. The architecture of the cathedrals was a means of religious instruction.
      5. Colored glass pieces were placed in designs and leaded together to become the leading form of religious painting.
      6. Tapestry making and drama were first used to convey religious themes to ordinary people, then emerged as distinct art forms.
         1. Early tapestries depicted religious themes, but the later ones, produced for the knightly class, bore secular designs.
         2. Mystery plays, which combined farce and serious religious scenes, were very popular.
      7. In music, the organum style of singing began; counterpoint was introduced, and the system of notation evolved.
         1. Also, new instruments came into use: stringed instruments such as the lute and clavichord; and reed and brass instruments (the trumpet).
   5. Troubadour poetry
      1. In southern France a new art of singing poetry blossomed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
         1. This was known as "troubadour" music and poetry--and it took up a great variety of themes, including courtly love, bawdy experiences, and beauties of nature.
         2. Troubadours often focused on love affairs within the noble courts; however, the idea and practice of courtly love is hotly debated among modern scholars.
         3. Troubadours were greatly shaped by HispanoArabic influences--perhaps by way of slave girls who brought sung poetry to France from Andalusia.
         4. In northern France this music influenced the epic poems of the trouvères who wrote in the Old French language.
         5. Overall, troubadour music and verse stimulated vernacular languages in Europe, such as in Germany with the "Minnesangers" (love singers).
5. Heresy and the friars
   1. Heresy flourished most in the most economically advanced and urbanized areas.
      1. Neither traditional Christian theology nor the isolated monastic orders addressed the problems of mercantile society.
      2. Townspeople desired a pious clergy who would meet their needs.
   2. Heresy, originally meaning "individual choosing," was seen as a threat to social cohesion and religious unity.
      1. The Gregorian injunction against clerical marriage made many priests vulnerable to the Donatist heresy, which held that sacraments given by an immoral priest were useless.
      2. Various heretics, such as Arnold of Brescia, Peter Waldo, the Albigensians, and others denounced wealth, the sacraments, and material things.
         1. The Albigensian heresy grew strong in southern France and was the subject of a politicalreligious crusade.
         2. Heretical beliefs became fused with feudal rebellion against the French crown.
   3. As a response to heretical cults, two new religious orders were founded.
      1. Saint Dominic's mission to win back the Albigensians led to the founding of a new religious order of "Preaching Friars" (the Dominicans).
      2. Saint Francis of Assisi founded an order (the Franciscans) based on preaching and absolute poverty of the clergy.
      3. These new orders of friars were urban, based on the idea of poverty, and their members were drawn from the burgher class.
   4. The friars met the spiritual and intellectual needs of the thirteenth century.
      1. The friars stressed education and intellectual pursuit.
      2. Their emphasis on an educated and nonmaterialistic clergy won them the respect of the bourgeoisie.
      3. The friars successfully directed the Inquisition, and heresy was virtually extinguished.
   5. A challenge to religious authority
      1. Pope Boniface VIII refused to let King Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France tax the clergy to finance their war.
      2. In the Unam Sanctam (1302), Boniface declared that all Christians are subject to the pope, whereupon French mercenaries arrested him.

 

1. Prelude to disaster
   1. Poor harvests led to famines in the years 1315-1322.
      1. Fewer calories meant increased susceptibility to disease and less energy for growing food.
   2. Diseases killed many people and animals.
   3. Economies slowed down and population growth came to a halt.
   4. Weak governments were unable to deal with these problems.
      1. Starving people turned against rich people and Jews.
      2. English kings tried to regulate the food supply, but failed.
2. The Black Death
   1. Genoese ships brought the bubonic plague--the Black Death--to Europe in 1347.
      1. The bacillus lived in fleas that infested black rats.
      2. Some claim that it came from the east by way of the Crimea.
   2. Pathology and care
      1. The bubonic form of the disease was transmitted by rats; the pneumonic form was transmitted by people.
         1. Unsanitary and overcrowded cities were ideal breeding grounds for the black rats.
      2. Most people had no rational explanation for the disease, and out of ignorance and fear many blamed it on Jews, causing thousands of Jews to be murdered.
      3. The disease, which killed millions, recurred often and as late as 1700.
         1. It spread to central Europe and eastward--although its toll was less in Poland.
         2. In Hungary, type-D blood people may have been immune.
         3. Its last occurrence was in France in 1721.
         4. A vaccine was not developed until 1947.
   3. The social and cultural consequences of the Black Death
      1. Priests, monks, and nuns cared for the sick, and as the clergy were killed off even women performed the services of priests.
      2. In the towns the plague meant population decline, labor shortage, and high inflation. Wages increased and labor productivity increased as did per-capita wealth.
      3. The demand for slaves increased.
      4. The psychological consequences of the plague were enormous: pessimism, gross sensuality, religious fervor, and flagellantism.
         1. Society became divided and full of fear.
         2. Artists and writers became obsessed with death.
3. The Hundred Years' War (ca. 1337-1453)
   1. The causes of the war
      1. Edward III of England, the grandson of the French king Philip the Fair, claimed the French crown by seizing the duchy of Aquitaine in 1337.
      2. French barons backed Edward's claim as a way to thwart the centralizing goals of their king.
      3. Flemish wool merchants supported the English claim to the crown.
      4. Both the French and the English saw military adventure as an excuse to avoid domestic problems.
   2. The popular response to the war
      1. Royal propaganda for war and plunder was strong on both sides.
      2. The war meant opportunity for economic or social mobility for poor knights, criminals, and great nobles.
   3. The decline of medieval chivalry
      1. Chivalry, a code of conduct for the knightly class, enjoyed its final days of glory during the war.
      2. Chivalry and feudal society glorified war.
   4. The course of the war to 1419
      1. The battles took place in France and the Low Countries.
      2. At the Battle of Crécy (1346), the English disregarded the chivalric code and used new military tactics: the longbow and the cannon.
      3. The English won major battles at Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415) and had advanced to Paris by 1419.
   5. Joan of Arc and France's victory
      1. Joan of Arc participated in the lifting of the British siege of Orléans in 1429.
      2. She was turned over to the English and burned as a heretic in 1431.
   6. Costs and consequences
      1. The war meant economic and population decline for both France and England.
      2. Taxes on wool to finance the war caused a slump in the English wool trade.
      3. In England, returning soldiers caused social problems.
      4. The war encouraged the growth of parliamentary government, particularly in England.
         1. The "Commons" (knights and burgesses) acquired the right to approve all taxes and developed its own organization.
         2. In France, neither the king nor the provincial assemblies wanted a national assembly.
      5. The war generated feelings of nationalism in England and France.
4. The decline of the church's prestige
   1. The Babylonian Captivity (1309-1377)
      1. The pope had lived at Avignon since the reign of King Philip the Fair of France and thus was subject to French control.
         1. The Babylonian Captivity badly damaged papal prestige.
         2. It left Rome povertystricken.
      2. Pope Gregory XI brought the papacy back to Rome in 1377, but then Urban VI alienated the church hierarchy in his zeal to reform the church.
      3. A new pope, Clement VII, was elected, and the two popes both claimed to be legitimate.
   2. The Great Schism (1378-1417)
      1. England and Germany recognized Pope Urban VI, while France and others recognized the antipope, Clement VII.
      2. The schism brought the church into disrepute and wakened the religious faith of many.
   3. The conciliar movement
      1. Conciliarists believed that church authority rested in councils representing the people--not the authority of the pope.
      2. Marsiglio of Padua had claimed in 1324, in Defensor Pacis, that authority within the church should rest with a church council and not the pope and that the church was subordinate to the state.
      3. John Wyclif attacked papal authority and called for even more radical reform of the church.
         1. He believed that Christians should read the Bible for themselves, prompting the first English translation of the Bible.
         2. His followers, called Lollards, disseminated his ideas widely.
      4. Wyclif's ideas were spread to Bohemia by John Hus.
      5. An attempt in 1409 to depose both popes and select another led to a threefold schism.
      6. Finally, the council at Constance (1414-1418) ended the schism with the election of Pope Martin V.
5. The life of the people in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
   1. Marriage and the family
      1. Marriage usually came at 16 to 18 years for women and later for men.
      2. Legalized prostitution existed in urban areas and was the source of wealth for some women.
      3. Economic factors, rather than romantic love, usually governed the decision to marry.
      4. Divorce did not exist.
      5. Many people did not observe church regulations and married without a church ceremony.
   2. Life in the parish
      1. The land and the parish were the centers of life.
      2. Opportunities to join guilds declined in the fourteenth century.
         1. Strikes and riots became frequent.
         2. Women were increasingly excluded from guilds.
      3. Cruel sports, such as bullbaiting and bearbaiting, and drunkenness reflected the violence and frustrations of the age.
         1. The execution of William Wallace illustrated the violence in society.
      4. Because of the crisis within the church, lay people increasingly took over church management from the clergy.
   3. Furcollar crime
      1. Furcollar crime was crime committed by nobility--a phenomenon on the increase in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
         1. In England, nobles returning from war had little to do and were in need of income; thus they resorted to crime.
         2. Kidnapping, extortion, and terrorism by the upper classes were widespread.
      2. Because governments were not able to stop abuses, outlaws such as Robin Hood sought to protect the people.
         1. The popularity of the Robin Hood legends symbolized the deep resentment of aristocratic corruption and abuse.
   4. Peasant revolts
      1. Major peasant revolts against the nobility occurred in France in 1358 (the Jacquerie), 1363-1484, 1380, and 1420, and in England in 1381.
         1. French peasants were angry about taxes, food shortages, fur-collar crime, and other circumstances.
         2. One cause of the Revolt of 1381 was the lords' attempt to freeze wages.
         3. In general, peasants were better off; the revolts were due to rising expectations.
         4. The 1381 revolt in England was due to economic grievances, anti-aristocratic sentiment, and protest against taxes.
         5. King Richard II and his nobles tricked the peasants into ending the revolt.
      2. Workers in Italy (the ciompi), Germany, and Spain also revolted.
6. Race and ethnicity on the frontiers
   1. Earlier (twelfth and thirteenth century) migrations led to peoples of different ethnic-racial background living side by side.
      1. "Race" meant language, custom, and law--not biological anthropological classification.
      2. In the early period, newcomers were given separate but equal rights (legal pluralism).
         1. The great exception to this was Ireland, where the English practiced extreme racial discrimination.
         2. The Irish had no access to law courts and were considered unfree.
      3. In the later Middle Ages legal pluralism disappeared and emphasis on legal homogeneity, language, and blood descent led to ethnic tension.
         1. Language differences between clergy and people led to tension in Poland, Ireland, and elsewhere.
         2. The arrival of new monastic groups led to conflicts between language groups.
         3. Towns were dominated by immigrants while the countryside was dominated by natives.
         4. Famine and the Black Death led to ghettoization and racial savagery.
         5. Intermarriage was often forbidden and discriminatory laws were applied to certain language groups.
      4. This discrimination had its basis in the effort of privileged groups to protect their economic interests.
7. Vernacular literature
   1. The emergence of national consciousness is seen in the rise of literature written in national languages--the vernacular.
   2. Many literary masterpieces manifest this new national pride.
      1. Dante's Divine Comedy, a symbolic pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise to God, embodied the psychological tensions of the age and contains bitter criticism of some church authorities.
      2. Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales, depicted the materialistic, worldly interests of a variety of English people in the fourteenth century.
      3. Villon used the language of the lower classes to portray the reality, beauty, and hardships of life here on earth.
      4. Christine de Pisan's poems and books on love, religion, and morality celebrated the historical accomplishments of women and provided advice for all women.
      5. Vernacular literature emerged in eastern Europe, partly as a result of new national self-consciousness.
      6. Overall, the number of laypersons who could read and write increased but society continued to be based on oral culture.

 

1. The evolution of the Italian Renaissance
   1. Beginnings
      1. The Renaissance was a period of commercial, financial, political, and cultural achievement in two phases, from 1050 to 1300 and from 1300 to about 1600.
      2. The northern Italian cities led the commercial revival, especially Venice, Genoa, and Milan.
         1. Venice had a huge merchant marine; improvements in shipbuilding enhanced trade.
         2. These cities became the crossroads between northern Europe and the East.
      3. The first artistic and literary flowerings of the Renaissance appeared in Florence.
         1. Florentine mercantile families dominated European banking.
         2. The wool industry was the major factor in the city's financial expansion and population increase.
   2. Communes and republics
      1. Northern Italian cities were communes--associations of free men seeking independence from the local lords.
         1. The nobles, attracted by the opportunities in the cities, often settled there and married members of the mercantile class, forming an urban nobility.
         2. The popolo, or middle class, was excluded from power.
         3. Popololed republican governments failed, which led to the rule of despots (signori) or oligarchies.
         4. In the fifteenth century, the princely courts of the rulers were centers of wealth and art.
   3. The balance of power among the Italian citystates
      1. Italy had no political unity; it was divided into citystates such as Milan, Venice, and Florence, the Papal States, and a kingdom of Naples in the south.
      2. The political and economic competition among the citystates prevented centralization of power.
      3. Shifting alliances among the citystates led to the creation of permanent ambassadors.
      4. After 1494 a divided Italy became a European battleground.
2. Intellectual hallmarks of the Renaissance
   1. Many, like the poet and humanist Petrarch, saw the fourteenth century as a new golden age and a revival of ancient Roman culture.
   2. Individualism
      1. Literature specifically concerned with the nature of individuality emerged.
      2. Renaissance people believed in individual will and genius.
   3. Humanism
      1. Italians collected ancient manuscripts and monuments, and copied the ancient Roman lifestyle.
      2. The study of the classics led to humanism, an emphasis on human beings.
         1. Humanists sought to understand human nature through a study of pagan and classical authors and Christian thought.
         2. The humanist writer Pico della Mirandola believed that there were no limits to what human beings could accomplish.
      3. Ancient Latin style was considered superior to medieval Latin.
   4. Secular spirit
      1. Secularism means a concern with materialism rather than religion.
      2. Unlike medieval people, Renaissance people were concerned with money and pleasure.
         1. In On Pleasure, Lorenzo Valla defended the pleasure of the senses as the highest good.
         2. In the Decameron, Boccaccio portrayed an acquisitive and worldly society.
      3. The church did little to combat secularism; in fact, many popes were Renaissance patrons and participants--and the church even gave up its opposition to usury.
3. Art and the artist
   1. The quattrocento (1400s) and the cinquecento (1500s) saw dazzling artistic achievements, led by Florence and Rome.
   2. Art and power
      1. In the early Renaissance, powerful urban groups commissioned works of art, which remained overwhelmingly religious.
      2. In the later fifteenth century, individuals and oligarchs began to sponsor works of art as a means of selfglorification.
      3. Wealthy people began to spend less on warfare and more on art and architecture.
         1. At first the bed chamber room was the most important, but later many other rooms were even more decorated.
         2. The home's private chapel was the most elaborate and expensive.
      4. As the century advanced, art became more and more secular, and classical subjects became popular.
         1. The style of art changed in the fifteenth century.
         2. The individual portrait emerged as a distinct genre.
         3. Painting and sculpture became more naturalistic and realistic, and the human body was glorified, as in the work of the sculptors Donatello and Michelangelo.
         4. A new "international style" emphasized color, decorative detail, and curvilinear rhythms.
         5. In painting, the use of perspective was pioneered by Brunelleschi and della Francesca.
   3. The status of the artist
      1. The status of the artist improved during the Renaissance; most work was done by commission from a prince.
      2. The creative genius of the artist was recognized and rewarded.
      3. The Renaissance was largely an elitist movement; Renaissance culture did not directly affect the middle classes or the urban working class.
4. Social change during the Renaissance
   1. Education and political thought
      1. Humanists were interested in education, particularly the training of rulers, and moral behavior.
         1. Vergerio wrote a treatise on education that stressed the teaching of history, ethics, and rhetoric (public speaking).
         2. Castiglione's The Courtier, which was widely read, described the model Renaissance gentleman as a man of many talents, including intellectual and artistic skills.
         3. Machiavelli's The Prince described how to acquire, maintain, and increase political power.
         4. Machiavelli believed that the politician should manipulate people and use any means to gain power.
         5. Machiavelli did not advocate amoral behavior but believed that political action cannot be governed by moral considerations.
   2. The printed word
      1. The invention in 1455 of movable type by Gutenberg, Fust, and Schöffer made possible the printing of a wide variety of texts.
      2. Printing transformed the lives of Europeans by making propaganda possible, encouraging a wider common identity, and improving literacy.
   3. Clocks
      1. By about 1320 some Europeans had learned how to quantify time by use of the mechanical "clock"--meaning "bells."
      2. Clocks were important for understanding and controlling urban-economic life.
   4. Women and work in Renaissance society
      1. Most women married, were responsible for domestic affairs, and frequently worked outside the home.
      2. Women worked in ship building, textiles, agriculture, as well as midwives and servants.
      3. Compared to women in the previous age, the status of upperclass women declined during the Renaissance.
      4. . The Renaissance did not include women in the general improvement of educational opportunities. Women were expected to use their education solely to run a household.
   5. Culture and sexuality
      1. With respect to sex and love, a double standard was applied as sex for women was restricted to marriage, while men could pursue sex outside of marriage.
      2. The rape of women by upperclass men was frequent and not considered a serious offense.
      3. Sex crimes occurred and were punished, but women appear to be victims in fewer cases than earlier.
      4. Homosexual practice appears to have been common, particularly based on relationship between men and boys.
      5. Some of this sexual activity seems to have evolved out of social-community needs of men.
      6. The frequency of anti-sodomy laws in the fifteenth century suggests that homosexuality was widespread, difficult to outlaw, and important in shaping masculine gender identity.
   6. Blacks and ethnicity in Renaissance society
      1. Enslavement of Slavic peoples in eastern Europe was common--as Germans and others enslaved and/or sold Polish and Bohemian people.
      2. Italians brought many white slaves to Europe by way of the Mediterranean.
      3. Beginning in the fifteenth century, black slaves were brought into Europe in large numbers.
      4. Black slavery in Europe appears to have been less harsh than that in America.
      5. Some black rulers in Africa adopted a European lifestyle and participated in selling their black people into European slavery.
      6. Africans, in fact, were of different ethnic groups and thus biracial.
      7. Blacks as slaves and freemen filled a variety of positions, from laborers to dancers and actors and musicians.
      8. The European attitude toward blacks was ambivalent--blackness symbolized both evil and humility.
      9. In the Renaissance, blacks were displayed as signs of wealth.
5. The Renaissance in the north began in the last quarter of the fifteenth century.
   1. It was more Christian than the Renaissance in Italy, and it stressed social reform based on Christian ideals.
   2. Christian humanists sought to create a more perfect world by combining the best elements of classical and Christian cultures.
      1. Humanists like Lefèvre believed in the use of the Bible by common people.
      2. Thomas More, the author of Utopia, believed that society, not people, needed improving.
         1. More was a Christian lawyer and minister of King Henry VIII.
         2. His Utopia was a socialistic society based on common ownership and social equality.
      3. The Dutch monk Erasmus best represents Christian humanism in his emphasis on education as the key to a moral and intellectual improvement and inner Christianity.
   3. The stories of the French humanist Rabelais were distinctly secular but still had a serious purpose.
      1. Like More, Rabelais believed that institutions molded individuals and that education was the key to moral life.
      2. His books on the adventures of Gargantua and Pantagruel were spoofs on French social life.
   4. Northern art and architecture were more religious than in Italy and less influenced by classical themes and motifs.
      1. Van Eyck painted realistic works with attention to human personality.
      2. Bosch used religion and folk legends as themes.
      3. The city halls of northern Europe were grand architectural monuments.
6. Politics and the state in the Renaissance (ca. 1450-1521)
   1. Fifteenthcentury rulers began the process of order through centralization of power.
      1. The result was the rise of many powerful and ruthless rulers interested in the centralization of power and the elimination of disorder and violence.
      2. Many of them, such as Louis XI of France, Henry VII of England, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, seemed to be acting according to Machiavelli's principles.
      3. These monarchs invested kingship with a strong sense of royal authority and national purpose.
      4. The ideas of the new monarchs were not entirely original--some of them had their roots in the Middle Ages.5. The ideas of the new monarchs were not entirely original--some of them had their roots in the Middle Ages.
   2. France after the Hundred Years' War
      1. Charles VII ushered in an age of recovery and ended civil war.
         1. He expelled the English, reorganized the royal council, strengthened royal finances, reformed the justice system, and remodeled the army.
         2. He made the church subject to the state.
      2. Louis XI expanded the French state and laid the foundations of later French absolutism.
   3. England also suffered from disorder.
      1. Feudal lords controlled the royal council and Parliament in the fifteenth century.
      2. Between 1455 and 1471, the houses of York and Lancaster fought a civil war called the Wars of the Roses that hurt trade, agriculture, and domestic industry.
      3. Edward IV and his followers began to restore royal power, avoided expensive war, and reduced their reliance on Parliament for funds.
      4. The English Parliament had become a power center for the aristocracy but was manipulated by Henry VII into becoming a tool of the king.
      5. Henry VII used the royal council and the court of Star Chamber to check aristocratic power.
      6. Henry VII and his successors won the support of the upper middle class promoting their interest in money, trade, and stability.
   4. Spain turned against its own cultural diversity
      1. The reconquista was the centurieslong attempt to unite Spain and expel Muslims and Jews.
      2. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella was the last major step in the unification and Christianization of Spain.
         1. Under their reign, however, Spain remained a loose confederation of separate states.
         2. They used the hermandades, or local police forces, to administer royal justice.
      3. Ferdinand and Isabella restructured the royal council to curb aristocratic power.
      4. The church was also used to strengthen royal authority.
      5. Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquista in 1492, but many Jews remained because they aided royal power.
         1. Jews were often financiers and professionals; many (called conversos) had converted but were still disliked and distrusted.
         2. Needing a scapegoat during the Black Death, Spanish mobs killed many Jews.
         3. Ferdinand and Isabella revived the Inquisition and used its cruel methods to unify Spain and expel the Jews.
      6. Spanish Christians rejected conversos on the basis of race--out of fear of conversos taking over public offices. Most Jews fled from Spain.