From What/Who’s perspective is this video created?

From What/Who’s perspective is this video created?

• From What/Who’s perspective is this video created?

• Explain the different time periods of the Middle Ages.

• Explain why the Middle Ages were NOT actually Dark.

• Explain the relationship between the Roman Empire and the Christian church during the Middle Ages.

• Who was Charlemagne? Explain his role, character, and influence.

• Why was his coronation as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire a significant event?

• Explain the papacy and its role in the Medieval world?

• What were the economic, cultural, social, and political motivations for the Crusades?

• What role did the Church play in the daily life of Europeans?

• What types of disease epidemics occurred during the Middle Ages and what were the impacts of those diseases?

• Explain the term monarchy. What role did they play in the Medieval world?

• Explain the structure and functions of the feudal system?

• What are some advancements that came out of the Medieval period in Europe?

I. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

• I. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

• A. Asian Christianity

• 1. The challenge of Islam, yet many cases of tolerance: While Christianity had spread through much of North Africa and the Middle East, the unexpected rise of a new monotheistic faith meant the end of some Christian communities, especially in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the treatment of Christians was not uniform and was very much dependent on the attitude of local Muslim rulers. In Syria, Jerusalem, and Armenia, Christian leaders negotiated agreements with the Islamic forces and the communities survived.
• 2. Nestorian Christians in the Middle East and China: In Syria, Iraq, and Persia, a Church of the East, the Nestorians, found accommodation with Islamic rulers by not preaching to Muslims and by abandoning their sacred image as offensive to Islam’s rules against idolatry. In China, the Nestorian Christians adapted to Chinese culture and used familiar terms to communicate the message of Jesus. From the 600s to the mid 800s, this church survived thanks to state tolerance; however, this changed when the dynasty moved against all foreign faiths, including Islam and Buddhism.
• 3. Mongols and Christians: The Mongols were tolerant in regards to issues of religion, and some even saw Jesus as a strong shaman and converted. Others preferred Christianity to Buddhism and Islam as they wanted to eat meat and drink alcohol. It is unclear what impact Jesus’ message of peace had on these fierce warriors of the steppes.

I. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

• I. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

• B. African Christianity

• 1. Coptic Church in Egypt: Christians in Egypt developed their own interpretations of the life of Jesus and their own Coptic language for worship. They were tolerated by Arab rulers until violent campaigns against them in the mid-fourteenth century (related to the Crusades and the Mongol invasion). In the good years, Copts preferred Arab rule to Byzantium as the Greek Orthodox Church viewed them as heretics.
• 2. Nubia: Further south in Nubia, Christianity flourished for some 600 years. Many political leaders also held religious office. Yet by 1500, pressure from Egypt, conversions, and Arab migrations spelled the end of this community.
• 3. Ethiopia: In the highlands of Ethiopia, a unique form of Christianity developed and survives until this day, where 60 percent of the population are Christian. Isolated from its Islamic neighbors by geography and protected by memories of the Ethiopians’ shelter of Muslim refugees from Mecca during the prophet’s life, the faith followed its own course without contact with other Christian churches. Ethiopians developed a fascination with Judaism and Jerusalem.

II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• A. The Byzantine State

• 1. A smaller but more organized Roman Empire: Byzantium was really the eastern section of the Roman Empire, becoming the sole heir to Rome after it fell in 476. While Byzantium never regained control over the western Mediterranean (except for a brief period under Emperor Justinian, 527–565) and was much smaller in terms of territory, it had a strong administration and could mobilize its wealth for warfare.
• 2. Wealth and splendor of the court: Sitting astride the trade routes between the East and West, the empire was extremely wealthy. The empire had a decidedly Greek character but also influences from Persian court ceremonies, such as high officials in silk robes. Political power was centralized in the figure of the emperor who was celebrated in the court with a mechanical throne that rose above his visitors and mechanical lions that roared.

Had abundant agricultural surpluses, supported large number of crafts workers, participated in trade

• Had abundant agricultural surpluses, supported large number of crafts workers, participated in trade

• Large class of free peasants who owned small plots of land was good

• Wealthy owning large estates was bad because of tax loopholes and lack of recruits for military

In spite of this problem, still wealthy

• In spite of this problem, still wealthy

• Crafts= glassware, linen and woolen textiles, gems, jewelry, gold and silver work, silk

• Connected lands of the Black Sea with lands of the Mediterranean Sea, dominated trade

• Collected customs duties

• Banks and partnerships

Constantinople had no rival

• Constantinople had no rival

• “the City”

• Imperial palace, palaces of aristocrats

• Women often were not at parties

• Apartments, tenements

• Baths, taverns, restaurants, theatres, stadiums, chariot races

Local inhabitants spoke Greek

• Local inhabitants spoke Greek

• Scholars didn’t learn to read Latin, read New Testament and Greek philosophy

• Private tutors for the rich, others had state school system that taught Greek philosophy and literature

• Basic literacy was widespread

• School of higher learning in Constantinople

• Focused on humanities

• Saw themselves as direct heirs of classical Greece

II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• B. The Byzantine Church and Christian Divergence

• 1. Caesaropapism: While in Western Europe there was an intense competition between political and religious authority, in the east, the Byzantine emperor was head of the church and the state.
• 2. Intense internal theological debates: Within the Orthodox faith, there were intense and complicated debates over the nature of Jesus and his relationship to the Trinity and whether or not icons should be used as representations of God and Jesus. Many of these disputes resulted in violence within Byzantium.
• 3. Impact of the Crusades: When the Crusades started in 1095, things went from bad to worse as Catholic troops behaved poorly, if not violently, in Byzantine lands. The Fourth Crusade of 1204 plundered Constantinople and held the city for several decades. Thus, the Crusades marked an irreparable divide between east and west.

Emperors participated in theological debates, more than just government leaders

• Emperors participated in theological debates, more than just government leaders

• 325 C.E. Constantine calls Council of Nicaea

• Church and state not separate

• Patriarch of Constantinople

• Iconoclasm= the veneration of icons in Byzantium- the breaking of icons in the West

• St. Basil of Caesarea, patriarch of Constantinople, rules for monastic life, devotion, piety, provided for the needs of the laity(people of the church)

• While both Western and Eastern Europe were Christian and had many similarities stemming from a shared faith, they each interpreted the faith in their own manner and were extremely suspicious of and hostile to the other faith

Constantinople and Rome were the centers of Christian authority

• Constantinople and Rome were the centers of Christian authority

• They did not see eye to eye on all issues including iconoclasm, shaving of beards, jurisdiction of the papacy of Rome and Constantinople

• In 1054, the patriarch and the pope excommunicated each other, thus saying that the other faith was not truly Christian.

• This schism created two churches, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic

• Crusades further seal the divide

II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• C. Byzantium and the World

• 1. Conflicts with Persians, Arabs, and Turks: Byzantium continued the Roman Empire’s conflict with the Persian Empire, which in turn weakened both of them and allowed the Arabs to seize Persia. Byzantium held out against the Arab attacks, using such technology as “Greek fire,” an early form of flamethrowers. The empire finally fell to the Turkish advance in 1453 by the Ottomans, thus allowing Islam into southeastern Europe.
• 2. Long-distance trade, coins, and silk production: Sitting at one of the key hinges of trade, the empire became very wealthy. Its coins were used as currency and even jewelry throughout the Mediterranean for some five centuries. The Byzantines also produced much silk for both domestic and external consumption.
• 3. Preservation of Greek learning: Byzantine libraries preserved Greek texts from the golden age of Hellenic thought at a time when such learning was lost in the West. These texts would later be introduced to the West.
• 4. Slavic world and Cyrillic script: Blocked to the south and east by the Islamic world, the Byzantines spread their culture northwards into Slavic lands. In the ninth century, two Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, developed a writing system for the Slavs based on Greek letters. This allowed for the translation of the Bible and the spreading of the faith.

II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• II. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• D. The Conversion of Russia

• 1. Kievan Rus: This was a state in present Russia and the Ukraine. Composed of diverse people including Finns, Vikings, and Balts as well as Slavs, the area engaged in long-distance trade networks along its rivers that linked Scandinavia to Byzantium. The region had a diverse religious make-up with various nature gods and small numbers of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
• 2. Prince Vladimir of Kiev: In the tenth century, this leader decided the state needed a religion that would link it to the outside world. According to chronicles, he decided against Islam as his people were fond of drinking—perhaps a little too fond, some might say. Eastern Orthodoxy was attractive as the Byzantine state was wealthy and powerful and a marriage alliance sealed the decision. Importantly, this conversion was a free decision made without a military invasion, and the faith made deep inroads into the people of the region.
• 3. Doctrine of a “third Rome”: The Rus borrowed extensively from Byzantium, including the use of icons, architectural style, a monastic tradition, and imperial control of the church. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Rus declared that they were the “third Rome” as the first Rome had abandoned its faith and the second fell to the Muslims.

III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse

• III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse

• A. Political Life in Western Europe, 500–1000

• What was lost with the fall of Rome? With overthrow of the last Roman emperor in the West by the German general Odoacer in 476, Rome officially fell. However, this was merely a moment in a long-term decline of central authority and civilization in the West.
• Central political authority collapsed, cities shrunk and decayed, literacy was lost, roads fell apart, trade broke down, barter replaced a standard currency, and diseases spread among desperate people.
• 2. What aspects of Rome survived? While things fell apart in the Mediterranean, aspects of Rome survived in northwest Europe. Germanic peoples, once viewed as barbarians by Romans, adopted Roman law and military organization.

3. Charlemagne as a Roman emperor, 800: The survival of the dream of Rome is best seen in the crowning of King Charlemagne

• 3. Charlemagne as a Roman emperor, 800: The survival of the dream of Rome is best seen in the crowning of King Charlemagne
• (r. 768–814) as a new Roman emperor by the Pope in 800.
• Rulers provided protection for the Church in return for religious legitimacy.
• Charlemagne opposed all non-Christian movements, ordering the death penalty to those who did not convert
• As king of the Carolingian Empire, he sought to re-establish a standard imperial infrastructure, bureaucracy, and system of weights and measures.
• Later Otto I of Saxony (r. 936–973) would take the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

• III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

• B. Society and the Church

• Feudalism and Serfdom: When Roman authority collapsed, an ad hoc political and military system developed as the political, economic, and social power of isolated land estates or manors fell into the hands of wealthy warriors.
• Role of the church: The Roman Catholic Church, with its hierarchical organization of priests, bishops, and cardinals, was the only surviving institution of the Roman past. Its organization allowed it to administer the faith, in Latin, and also to amass wealth via taxation.
• Spreading the faith: The church worked to convert pagan Europeans to Christianity in a long and sometimes slow process. Often pagan practices, sites, and holidays were remade as Christian rituals, churches, and sacred days. On occasion, force was used to spread the faith.
• Conflicts between church and state: With the church being the only pan-European institution and relatively weak kings eager to build power within their realms, secular-sacred tensions flared over wealth and the right to appoint bishops.

III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

• III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

• C. Accelerating Change in the West

• 1. New security after 1000: After centuries of Muslim, Viking, and Magyar attacks, security settled into Europe. Invaders gradually assimilated into civilized society.
• 2. High Middle Ages (1000–1300): This era of economic, political, and demographic growth is known as the High Middle Ages.
• 3. Revival of long-distance trade: Essential to economic growth was the revival of trade routes. Regional routes connected the British Isles to the coast and onto the Baltic Sea, rivers connected the coasts to the interior, and the cities of the Mediterranean established circuits of commerce.
• 4. Urbanization and specialization of labor: Substantial growth in the cities saw a specialization of labor and professions. Guilds served as a method of organizing and monitoring specific professions.
• 5. The rise of cities: Major trading cities like Venice, Genoa, and Florence rose in Italy. Trade good such as silks, drugs, stones, and spices were valued.
• - Trade caused a shift from self sufficiency of feudalism to commercialism across Europe

6. Territorial kingdoms, Italian city-states, and German principalities: With the new security and economic growth, the states became more powerful. Some kingdoms in the northwest developed large land bases while commercially vibrant city-states characterized Italy and numerous small states dominated the German lands.

• 6. Territorial kingdoms, Italian city-states, and German principalities: With the new security and economic growth, the states became more powerful. Some kingdoms in the northwest developed large land bases while commercially vibrant city-states characterized Italy and numerous small states dominated the German lands.
• 7. Rise and fall of opportunities for women: Initially, economic growth opened up opportunities for women in both the labor force and the church.
• High Middle Ages brought economic opportunities for women as trades opened and women could be trained apprentices. (Result of Epidemics)
• Technological changes limited women to weaving!
• - However, men reasserted control and either removed women from certain trades or downgraded their role. (482-485)
• *Story of Cecilia – Page 484-485

III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

• III. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of the Roman Collapse

5. Iberia(Spain), Baltic Sea, Byzantium, and Russia: These regions also experienced attacks from crusading knights. The Christians fought against Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Orthodox communities. The regions became permanently joined to the Western world of Christendom.

• 5. Iberia(Spain), Baltic Sea, Byzantium, and Russia: These regions also experienced attacks from crusading knights. The Christians fought against Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Orthodox communities. The regions became permanently joined to the Western world of Christendom.
• 6. Less important than Turks and Mongols: For the Middle East, the Crusades were much less important than the invasions from Turkic peoples and the Mongols. It was not until the era of 19th and 20th century western imperialism that the Crusades were widely discussed in the Islamic world.
• 7. Cross-cultural trade, technology transfer, and intellectual exchange: The Crusades did give Europeans exposure to new goods such as sugar and spice and ideas from Islamic technology to Greek learning.
• 8. Hardening of boundaries: While trade did come from the Crusades, they also hardened the divisions between Roman Catholics and Muslims, Jews, and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Egyptians rejected Christianity and began persecuting them because of the stories of brutality by the Crusaders.

IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• A. Catching Up – Borrowing and Advancements

• 1. Backwards Europe: In all measures of comparison, Western Europe was behind the great civilizations of Eurasia. Visitors to Europe saw them as barbarians, and Europeans who went abroad realized their poverty.
• 2. New trade initiatives: Thanks to the exposure to the outside world, new trade missions reached out to the rest of the world. When the Mongols conquered the entire Silk Roads, European merchants such as Marco Polo ventured all the way to China and brought back tales of wealth and sophistication.
• 3. Agricultural breakthroughs: The foundation for Europe’s growth lay in its agricultural revolution. New plows, horse harnesses, and crop rotation techniques increased grain production, which allowed for population growth, developed of a surplus, and labor specialization.
• 4. Wind and water mills: Europeans used wind and water mills to grind grain but also power the production of crafts goods from tanned hides to beer.
• 5. Gunpowder and maritime technology: A variety of technologies came from China, India, and the Arab world, and Europeans incorporated and built upon them. This is clearly seen in the development of cannons and the use of magnetic compasses, shipbuilding, advances in sails and rudders, and navigations techniques that allowed Europeans to start to project power overseas.

IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• B. Pluralism in Politics

• 1. A system of competing states: As there was no overall power in Europe, there was a system of competing states that struggled with each other for centuries. These long-term conflicts created a militarized society with a warrior elite at its head, in contrast to China where the scholar-gentry ruled.
• 2. Gunpowder revolution: This interstate competition led to increased innovations in technology and military organization, as well as systems of state taxation to pay for warfare.
• 3. States, the church, and the nobility: A three-way political conflict developed between the heads of state, the international reach of the church in Rome, and nobles who jealously guarded their wealth and right against their kings.
• Rationalism and Secularism of Greek thought was used to explain religious doctrine in Western Europe
• Greek Philosophical concepts influenced Eastern Orthodox Christianity
• 4. Merchant independence: The three-way political struggle allowed merchants a great deal of independence and autonomy.

Analyze similarities and differences in Christian and Muslim imagery from the 6th century to the 16th century. Explain what kind(s) of additional document(s) would help you analyze similarities and differences in Christian and Muslim imagery in this era.

• Analyze similarities and differences in Christian and Muslim imagery from the 6th century to the 16th century. Explain what kind(s) of additional document(s) would help you analyze similarities and differences in Christian and Muslim imagery in this era.

• Document 1: “Christ the Almighty”, Byzantine Empire, 6th century, Document 10.1, p. 509

• Document 2: “God the Divine Engineer”, Byzantine Empire, 13th century, Image, p. 491

• Document 3: “Muhammad and Gabriel”, Persia, 14th Century. Document 9.1, p. 456

• Document 4: “The First Crusade”, France,14th century,. Image, p. 488

•  

• Document 5: “The Nativity”, Russia, 15th century. Document 10.2, p. 510

•  

• Document 6: “Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and Abraham”, Persia, 15th century. Image on p. 415

• Document 7: “A Muslim Observatory”. Turkey, 16th century. Image on p. 439

• Document 8: “The Battle of Badr”. Turkey, 16th century. Document 9.3, p. 459

• Document 9: “In the Face of Catastrophe”. England, 15th century. Document 11.4, p. 556

Similarities in Christian and Muslim art: Battle scenes (Docs 4 and 8); Angels (Docs 3, 5, 9); Science (Docs 2 and 7); Jesus appears in both forms of art (Docs 1 and 6)

• Similarities in Christian and Muslim art: Battle scenes (Docs 4 and 8); Angels (Docs 3, 5, 9); Science (Docs 2 and 7); Jesus appears in both forms of art (Docs 1 and 6)

• Differences in Christian and Muslim art: Muhammad does not appear in any of the Christian paintings (Docs 1, 2, 4 & 5); Christian art shows Jesus/God with a halo, Muhammad is not depicted with a halo (Docs 1, 2, 3, 6, & 9)

• POV: Perhaps the Muslim artist painted Muhammad, Jesus and Abraham to show that Islam, Christianity and Judaism to convince all three religion’s followers that they share the same spiritual roots.

• Missing Doc: A painting by a Christian artist showing where he thinks Muhammad fits into the Christian view of religion would help us compare it to the Muslim painting of Jesus in Doc 6.

Contextualization Group Discussion:

• Contextualization Group Discussion:

• Read pages 493-496

• Answer the following questions through discussion

• List the main reasons why the tension between faith and reason developed in the medieval context.

• Discuss which medieval factors are still part of the modern faith and reason debate

• Discuss any modern factors that you personally have an opinion on.

IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• IV. The West in Comparative Perspective

• C. Reason and Faith

• 1. Connections to Greek thought: In the early years of Christianity, Greek philosophy was part of the explanation and understanding of faith. However, with the post-Roman decline, access to these texts and ideas was lost.
• 2. Autonomous universities: Stemming from the tradition of church schools, universities were established in various cities. Importantly, they maintained a high degree of independence and intellectual freedom.
• 3. A new interest in rational thought: With the growth of universities came a new interest in applying reason to explain the world and to explain the Christian faith. This was first seen in subjecting theology to critical inquiry, and later rational inquiry was applied to the natural world.
• 4. Search for Greek texts: As contact with the Byzantine and Arab world grew with the Crusades, there was a growing desire to get to the original source material. Scholars got ahold of texts from centers of learning in these cultures. Direct access to these texts spurred further study and the development of philosophical activity.
• 5. Comparisons with Byzantium and the Islamic World: While the Byzantines had many Greek texts, they were not interested in natural philosophy and focused more on the humanities. They were also suspicious of the pagan roots of much of this learning. In the Muslim world, many Greek texts were translated into Arabic, but debates arose regarding whether reason was an aid or a threat to faith.

IV. Remembering and Forgetting: Continuity and Surprise in the Worlds of Christendom

• IV. Remembering and Forgetting: Continuity and Surprise in the Worlds of Christendom

• Christendom’s legacies: Many of the features of the modern world can be traced back to the period between 500 and 1300.

• Misleading history? Yet, as we know the end of the story, it is sometimes too easy to write Europe’s rise back into the history. We can in this misconstruction claim that Europe was destined for world power.