THE MIDDLE AGESLIFE IN THE WEST

3 March 2010

Outline: Life in the West Institutions in the West

After the Carolingians: Decentralization of Empire

Church Reform○ European Crusaders

Debunking the Dark Ages○ Revitalization○ Feudal System○ Crisis○ Revival ○ Learning

Europe, 1000 AD

After the Carolingians

Dependent on alliance between king and nobility, the Carolingian empire decentralized It stopped expanding local rulers began independently administering their territory

○ Development of towns surrounding castles/monasteries Personal loyalty became the key to ruling Lords could be religious or secular figures

Otto the Great (936-973), crowned king in Aachen, Holy Roman Emperor in Rome (962).  Goals

○ ○ ○

Weakness○ ○ ○

After the Carolingians

New social spaces for warrior and clergy in France○ the adoption of “primogeniture” in order to keep

larger holdings in family hands

○ This kind of political, economic, and social organization can be applied to England and central and eastern Europe, as well

In cities in Italy political communities developed around “family corporations○ ○

Church Reform

Reform came in institutional changes (often begun in monastic settings) Clerical celibacy Better treatment of the poor Ended buying of church offices

○ HRE Henry III refused to accept money or gifts for church appointments (1039-1056 c.e.)

○ Came to conflict with Gregory VII and Henry IV ○ Investiture Conflict (1074-1122) ○ Concordat of Worms (1122) 

The Church won the Investiture Struggle, weakening the Holy Roman Empire

permits growth of “feudalism” and greater power for the feudal lords.

Henry III

Church Reform Goals of the Popes

○ ○ ○ ○ Election of popes

○ Stress importance of mass and sacraments in daily life –

○ Schism of 1054: Leo IX excommunicates Patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch excommunicates Pope’s emissaries

Under Innocent III (1198-1216), the power of the medieval papacy reached its height.  ○ launched crusades against

European heretics such as the Albigensians (south of France) and to the Holy Land. 

○ In 1215, he called the Fourth Lateran Council

○ Other Popes followed his lead. 

- Efforts of the Church to assert itself

lead to clashes with secular kings.  Until the end of the 13th century, the Popes usually prevailed. 

Crusades

Factors making the Crusades possible For centuries, Christians had been making

pilgrimages to the Holy Lands because of military victories by the Moslem

Turks, access to the Holy Places was threatened.

Christians and Moslems had been at war for centuries, and the Church had supported these wars. 

numerous Europeans, especially knights, hungering for adventure, wealth, and land, not to mention trading advantages. 

The Crusades In 1095, Pope Urban II (1088-

1099) launched the First Crusade at the Council of ClermontCall echoed by Peter the Hermit

over 100,000 people, from commoners to great nobles, set out for Jerusalemmost with religious motives, mercenary troopsOrganized as separate militias

○ often accompanied by commoners, men, women, and children going for a variety of reason

Urban II, 1095 Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite

your minds to manly achievements; the glory and greatness of king Charles the Great, and of his son Louis, and of your other kings, who have destroyed the kingdoms of the pagans, and have extended in these lands the territory of the holy church. Let the holy sepulchre of the Lord our Saviour, which is possessed by unclean nations, especially incite you, and the holy places which are now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with their filthiness. Oh, most valiant soldiers and descendants of invincible ancestors, be not degenerate, but recall the valor of your progenitors.

European Crusades

The Crusades

Once militia went on a “People’s Crusade” and attacked some Jews in the community of Worms

Albert of Aix: “Breaking the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands. They killed the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever age and sex. The Jews, seeing that their Christian enemies were attacking them and their children, and that they were sparing no age, likewise fell upon one another, brother, children, wives, and sisters, and thus they perished at each other's hands. Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats of nursing children with knives and stabbed others, preferring them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised.

From this cruel slaughter of the Jews a few escaped; and a few because of fear, rather than because of love of the Christian faith, were baptized. With very great spoils taken from these people, Count Emico, Clarebold, Thomas, and all that intolerable company of men and women then continued on their way to Jerusalem”

Great military successes were enjoyed at Antioch (1098) and elsewhere, and Jerusalem was taken in 1099. 

The Europeans established four Crusader kingdoms○ Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem under Baldwin of Flanders.  ○ To protect these conquests, orders of crusading kings, such as the

Templars and the Knights Hospitalers were founded○ over the next 200 years, seven more crusades were launched as the Turks

sought to regain their lost lands○ 1291 the last of the Crusader kingdoms fell.

Impact of the Crusades on Western Europe

Demonstrated religious vitality and growing self-confidence of western Europe

gave Europeans an opportunity to learn new military tactics

increased the power of kings  

opened the old Middle East and Asia to the west

put Europeans into direct contact with the civilizations of the ancient world and with works of unknown classical authors

Europe, 1300 CE

Feudal Politics What is feudalism? Does it exist? at the most basic level feudal systems

existed in medieval Europe and lasted well into the 19th century Fief Vassal LordFeudalism came from the inability to control a

centralized government in the period following the fall of the Carolingian Empire

Oaths of fidelity I: An Anglo Saxon Form of Commendation [from Schmidt: Gesetze der

Angelsachsen, p. 404] Thus shall one take the oath of fidelity: By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is holy, I will to N. be true and faithful,

and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns, according to the laws of God and the order of the world. Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him, on condition that he will hold to me as I shall deserve it, and that he will perform everything as it was in our agreement when I submitted myself to him and chose his will.

II: Acceptance of an Antrusian, 7th Century [from Roziere: Collection de Formules, No. VIII, Vol I, p. 8] It is right that those who offer to us unbroken fidelity should be protected by our

aid. And since such and such a faithful one of ours, by the favor of God, coming here in our palace with his arms, has seen fit to swear trust and fidelity to us in our hand, therefore we decree and command by the present precept that for the future such and such above mentioned be counted with the number of antrustions. And if anyone perchance should presume to kill him, let him know that he will be judged guilty of his wergild of 600 shillings.

Urban Growth Twelfth Century re-

civilizationWhat leads to

urban revitalization?○ Peace○ Religion?○ Fairs and

Commerce?○ Cottage industry?

Cultural Revitalization “Medieval” and “Dark Ages” are

terms that now carry much different connotations than before.

The Middle Ages was far from a period of stagnant intellectual and cultural development

○ Gothic cathedral building, supported by bishops, nobility and commercial class

Learning Increase in literacy

1% in Florence in 1050 to about 40% in 1340 had some association with the Church.  Interest in learning led to the founding of schools

and universities in major cities and towns. Seven Liberal Arts

the Trivium [grammar, rhetoric, and logic] Quadrivium [arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,

and music].  Language of instruction was Latin.   Some universities specialized; medicine:

Salerno Roman and Church law: Bologna.  Oxford and Paris specialized in theology.

Aquinas, Whether Law is Something Pertaining to Reason (ca. 1265)

Law is a rule and measure of actions through which one is induced to act or restrained from acting. Lex, "law," is derived from ligare, "to bind," because it binds one to act. The rule and measure of human activity is reason, however, for it is the first principle of human acts. Indeed, it is the function of reason to order to an end, and that is the first principle of all activity according to Aristotle. That which is the first principle in any genus is the rule and measure of that genus, e.g., unity in the genus of number or first movement in the genus of movement. Thus it follows that law is something pertaining to reason.

Aquinas, Whether Law is Always Ordered to the Common Good

Law pertains to that which is the principle of human acts because it is a rule and measure. Just as reason is the principle of human acts, however, there is something in reason which is principle of all the rest. It is to this that law principally and mostly pertains. The first principle in activity, the sphere of practical reason, is the final end. The final end of human life is happiness or beatitude. Thus law necessarily concerns itself primarily with the order directing us toward beatitude.

Furthermore, since each part is ordered to the whole as imperfect to perfect, and since each single man is a part of the perfect community, law necessarily concerns itself particularly with communal happiness. Thus Aristotle, in defining legal matters, mentions both happiness and the political community, saying, "We term 'just' those legal acts which produce and preserve happiness and its components within the political community." For the state is a perfect community, as he says in his Politics.

In any genus, that which is called "most of all" is the principal of everything else in that genus, and everything else fits into the genus insofar as it is ordered to that thing…since law is called "most of all" in relation to the common good, no precept concerning action has the nature of law unless it is ordered to the common good.

The Burgher Class Who are they?

Social status? Rights

○ Property○ Courts & government

Communes Socio-economic role

○ guilds

Rural Growth and Crisis In 1200 the majority of

the population of western Europe were serfs and very poor

○ ○

Europe was on the brink of starvation when in 1347, the Black Death struck, killing ¼ - ½ of Europe’s population

The Plague

From Gabriele de’Mussis “the whole army was affected by a disease which overran the Tartars and killed

thousands upon thousands every day. It was as though arrows were raining down from heaven to strike and crush the Tartars’ arrogance. All medical advice and attention was useless; the Tartars died as soon as the signs of disease appeared on their bodies: swellings in the armpit or groin caused by coagulating humours, followed by a putrid fever.”

“soon the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army. Moreover, one infected man could carry the poison to others, and infect people and places with the disease by look alone. No one knew, or could discover, a means of defense.”

From Herman Gigas “In 1347 there was such a great pestilence and mortality throughout almost the

whole world that in the opinion of well-informed men scarcely a tenth of mankind survived.”

“Some say that it was brought about by the corruption of the air; others that the Jews planned to wipe out all the Christians with poison and had poisoned wells and springs everywhere. And many Jews confessed as much under torture: that they had bred spiders and toads in pots and pans, and had obtained poison from overseas.”

The Black Death, 1347 Two main forms of plague

The bubonic plague was the most common form during the Black Death○ ○ ○ ○

Pneumonic plague was the second most commonly seen form during the Black Death○ ○ ○

The Role of Trade Routes

Urban Revival The Positives of

Plague WHY? Better economic

conditions

25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352. Estimated population of

Europe from 1000 to 1352. 1000 38 million ○ 1100 48 million ○ 1200 59 million ○ 1300 70 million ○ 1347 75 million ○ 1352 50 million

Urban Revival Trading cities allowed for

socially mobile and religiously diverse populations (the beginnings of the wealthy, merchant-banker class emerged) antisemitism remained a

significant factor in European life○

Trade associations dominated the political and economic life○

“Charter to the Jews of the duchy of Austria” Frederick, by the grace of God Duke of Austria and Styria and lord

of Carniola, offers greetings at all times to all who will read this letter in the future. Inasmuch as we desire that men of all classes dwelling in our land should share our favor and good will, we do therefore decree that these laws, devised for all Jews found in the land of Austria, shall be observed by them without violation. I. We decree, therefore, first, that in cases involving money, or

immovable property, or a criminal complaint touching the person or property of a Jew, no Christian shall be admitted as a witness against a Jew unless there is a Jewish witness together with the Christian. [The Jewish witness was a guarantee of fair play.]

II. Likewise, if a Christian should bring suit against a Jew, asserting that he had pawned his pledges with him and the Jew should deny this, and then if the Christian should not wish to accord any belief in the mere statement of the Jew, the Jew may prove his contention by taking an oath upon an object equivalent in value to that which was brought to him, and shall then go forth free. [Money-lending on pledges was the leading Jewish business at this time.]

“Charter to the Jews of the duchy of Austria” III. Likewise, if a Christian has deposited a pledge with a Jew, stating that he

had left it with the Jew for a smaller sum than the Jew admits, the Jew shall then take an oath upon the pledge pawned with him, and the Christian must not refuse to pay the amount that the Jew has proved through his oath.

IV. Likewise, if a Jew says that he returned the Christian's pledge as a loan to the Christian, without, however, the presence of witnesses, and if the Christian deny this, then the Christian is able to clear himself in this matter through the oath of himself alone.

V. Likewise, a Jew is allowed to receive all things as pledges which may be pawned with him-no matter what they are called without making any investigation about them, except bloody and wet clothes which he shall under no circumstances accept. [Such garments presuppose murder and theft.]

VI. Likewise, if a Christian charges that the pledge which a Jew has, was taken from him by theft or robbery, the Jew must swear on that pledge that when he received it he did not know that it had been removed by theft or robbery. In this oath the amount for which the pledge was pawned to him shall also be included. Then, inasmuch as the Jew has brought his proof, the Christian shall pay him the capital and the interest that has accrued in the meantime. [Then the Christian takes back his property.]

VII. Likewise, if a Jew, through the accident of fire or through theft or violence, should lose his [own] goods, together with the pledges pawned with him, and this is established, yet the Christian who has pledged something with him nevertheless brings suit against him, the Jew may free himself merely by his own oath. [TheJew loses the money advanced and the Christian, his pledge.]

Europe, 1400 CE

Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death (1562)