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Home , Christendom, Church (building), Middle Ages, Ulfilas

CENTURIES OF 500–1500 AD (also called ) Centuries of Christendom

These centuries are called The Centuries of Christendom because this was when spread throughout and came into its full flowering.

EARLY CENTURIES OF CHRISTENDOM (500-1000 AD)

The Roman collapsed due to invasions by Germanic tribal peoples. Some of these peoples were: who invaded , who invaded , and who invaded .

Zones of Cultural Expansion, 500-1500 AD

One of our Eras of is called Era of Zones of Cultural Expansion. In Europe we can see how the zones worked. Roman spread out to Europe. Byzantine culture spread out to , and Islamic culture spread to Spain, Sicily and Italy and all through the between 500 and 1500 AD.

The actual fall of itself occurred in 476 AD when , a Germanic/Gothic general, invaded and deposed the last official Roman , Romulus Augustus. So this means, at that time, Germanic/Goths took over and assumed rule of Italy. When Odoacer took command of Rome in A.D. 476, he removed the powerless emperor Romulus Augustus. The Western lay like a skeleton fallen in its own useless armor. To Romans, it seemed the end of the world. All around the empire, there was war.

Orientus, a Roman poet in the AD, wrote:

“See how swiftly comes upon the world, and how many people the of war has stricken. Some lay as food for dogs; others were killed by the flames that licked their homes. In the villages and country houses, in the fields and in the countryside, on every road- death, sorrow, slaughter, fires, and lamentation.” Thus began a whole new pattern of life in Europe. The pattern of life consisted of of Germanic tribal peoples and a synthesis of Roman and Germanic . This synthesis occurred in:

Language Political Structure Jurisprudence

LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE The adopted many words from the Roman’s language which was . They had never seen oranges, lemons, limes, and figs so they had no words for these Mediterranean fruits. So they adopted the Latin words directly into their languages.

The Germanic peoples also took words from Roman military organization and technical engineering vocabulary from Latin because Romans had been so involved building roads, aqueducts, and . They took Latin and epics and Roman became models for writers in what later became French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English. POLITICAL STRUCTURES MERGED

The political structure which developed in the Early Centuries of Christendom was called . Feudalism was a synthesis between Germanic peoples’ rural way of life in forests and mountains and Romans’ way of life on the latifundia. Germanic peoples didn’t build cities; they preferred smaller settlements in hamlets and villages.

When Roman cities were destroyed due to invasions, all that was left of the Roman empire were latifundia, the large, self-sufficient plantations Romans had built.

So the combination of the Germans rural way of life and the Roman latifundia gave rise to a new decentralized political structure which was called Feudalism. Feudalism lasted for hundreds of years.

RELIGIONS COMBINED Christian missionaries from the Roman Empire sought to convert Germanic peoples they called “pagans”. They wanted broad-based support from them so they tried to fuse their beliefs with pagan practices. Christian were built on Gothic and Celtic sacred places, mountains, rivers, and forests. The festival of celebrating the birth of on December 25th was originally a festival celebrating the birthday of the Sun of the Cult of Mithras. This cult had a meal at midnight and continued this practice calling it Midnight . Christian missionaries like Ulfilas and Boniface went out to convert Germans. One of their strategies was to make Christian coincide with pagan heroes and gods make rituals and ceremonies blend the best elements of both cultures. They often build Christian churches on the same mountains and in the same forests where pagans had constructed shrines to their gods. When St. Patrick went to convert the Irish he built on spirits Irish people already believed in. St. Bridget had originally been a fertility who tended an eternal flame and finally she ended up a Christian . These conversions show people overcame linguistic, cultural, and political differences in the interests of cross- cultural interaction.

Not all conversions were easy. Some pagan tribes “not yet cleansed” resisted attempts to convert to Christianity. In one famous incident, Boniface encountered resistance among German pagans. So he felled one of their sacred to show he was serious. He then used wood from that to build a for a on that site. In some areas harsh measures were used to convert and pagans were told if they did not agree to be baptized, bury dead in the ground, give up meat during , and renounce their pagan rituals, they would be hanged, beheaded, drowned, or burned at the stake. In the 700’s AD Saxons were converted “partly by wars, partly by persuasion and partly by gifts.” “The fierce necks of the Saxons finally bowed to the light yoke of , although coerced.” Jurisprudence (Law)

Jurisprudence in Europe was more influenced by Roman culture than German culture. When Christians began converting pagans they used Roman language (Latin), , and Roman administration to set up a structure. This structure consisted of an administrative hierarchy with the in Rome as its head and bishoprics, dioceses, and village priests as elements of the hierarchy. The Roman also had its own called curia and its own laws called law. The Eastern Roman Empire came to be the The

It was when Emperor Constantine created a second of the Roman Empire in 330 AD that the Byzantine Empire really began. The large, cosmopolitan city which used to be called was renamed .

Ethnographically, the Roman empire had never been a single unit. There were Greeks, , , , , Egyptians, etc. Although the Western Empire collapsed in 476 AD, the Eastern empire survived and endured for about another thousand years with its capital at Constantinople. From 450 AD onward, rulers of the Eastern Empire in Constantinople were patriarchs, crowned by the . The Roman had begun to split into two due to decisions by Church councils and use of Greek in Eastern churches and Latin in Western Churches. By 1054, the two sects officially split. The two sects differed in Authority Figure (Pope in Rome, in Constantinople and in each ), Rites (Eastern had more ceremonies and worshipped as symbols of the divine), and Teachings (Eastern believed in clerical , didn’t believe there would be a fire in Purgatory, didn’t believe Mary remained a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, and didn’t believe Mary ascended into .) Emperor Justinian of Eastern Roman Empire, called Byzantine Empire 527-565 AD Theodora, Justinian’s wife Holy Sophia Eastern Orthodox Some Eastern Orthodox faithful were iconolaters while others were iconoclasts.

Life on Medieval Manors in Social Classes • (crowned and anointed “by the grace of God”) • Nobles (loyal to , but dominant on fiefs) • (loyal to nobleman on manor) • Serfs A feudal ladder was formed, with a set of relationships from serfs to king with contractual, loyal relationships. This social structure became the basis for social hierarchies in Europe which became entrenched and acquired the prestige of tradition.

Endemic Warfare • Warfare occurred between kingdoms and between nobles across the various • swore to defend the king (or lord) only 40 days a year, so warfare was part-time. Hierarchy and unity of command, seen in many , did not exist. Warfare often consisted of single , no clear strategies, and a lack of discipline. • The knights’ military values of defending personal honor and displaying courage in were linked to of truthfulness, , and loyalty. These values, taken together, came to be known as the code of . Because this code was connected with Christianity, it was taken seriously. Knights were supposed to defend the weak and be generous to the poor. In this code lay the roots of as church tried to enforce it. • Over the centuries has been romanticized, glamorized, and stereotypes hardened into fact. In Medieval Warfare • Violence and carnage were commonplace. • After battles, villagers looted corpses and ate horses • Injured knights were left to die of infections • Falls from mounts resulting in back injuries were often fatal • Combatants, left on fields, bled to death or died from shock and overexposure. • The victor sometimes mercifully returned to the battlefield to kill those injured, but still alive. Peacemaking • It could be that the Middle Ages, more than any other period, shaped modern peace principles and practices. • The fusion of Roman and Germanic peace traditions brought compromises: Romans offered Germanic peoples land and in exchange for taxes, military service, and non- aggression pacts. During Germanic festivals, in his famous The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire said: “The sound of war was hushed, quarrels suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had the opportunity to taste the blessings of peace.” • The conversion of the Germanic peoples to Christianity was a unifying force. Christian kingdoms had reciprocal obligations, mutual recognition, and investiture by and which gave the people much in common and brought stability and . Christianity as a Force for Peace

• Christ himself allied with the sick, the poor and the outcast. He preached “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God” in his first . • The cross as a Christian symbol stands for self-sacrifice for the good of other people. • Christianity sometimes justified war to combat evil Just War Doctrine • Came from and speeches of , St. Augustine, St. , and St. Thomas of Aquinas all who assumed taking a life is immoral except under limited circumstances. • peaceful alternatives must be exhausted, • war must be declared by a competent authority, • the war must have a just cause such as self-defense or protecting the innocent, • there must be right intentions including restoring peace, minimizing violence, and treating the enemy as • the means must be proportional to the cause, that is, the probable good must be weighed against the evil war will cause and a reasonable calculation of the probability of success made • By the 900’s there was the Dei (Peace of God), a clergy-led movement prohibiting attacks on church grounds and on unarmed churchmen and , and traders. • By the 1100’s Treuga Dei (Truce of God) prohibited violence on holy days which were signaled by church bells • By late 1100’s King Richard of England commissioned knights to peace, they were called Justices of the Peace. They mediated disputes, tried to prevent , and gave out punishments. While the Roman empire could guarantee peace and enforce it, the multitude of medieval kingdoms required a multidirectional approach to peacemaking. Treaties were signed between rulers: • Pax Nicephori between and Byzantine Empire 803 AD • Treaty of between West and East 921 AD • Pactum Warmundi an alliance between crusader kingdom of and , 1123 AD • Treaty of Windsor between England and , oldest interstate treaty, 1386 AD as an Influence for Peace • St. (1181-1226) the saint of peace, founded a monastic order. His famous prayer is: Lord make me an instrument of your peace Where there is hatred, let me sow Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith Where there is despair, hope Where there is darkness, light Where there is sadness, joy • St Anthony, St. Pachomius, and St. Benedict all lived under rules for “peace and ” loving one’s enemy in a peaceful communal and spiritual life

Invasions of , Magyars, and 700 – 1000 AD Viking had a low draft, that is the keel beneath the waterline was low even when the ships were full. This meant they could easily travel up and down rivers without going aground.

Norwegian Vikings’ Northern Atlantic Voyages • Ingolfur Arnarson arrived in in 874 and settled in Reykjavik (Cove of Smoke) named after the geothermal steam rising from the earth. In the next decades many Norse chieftains, their families and slaves settled fleeing the harsh rule of King Haraldur. • Eric the Red left Iceland with 25 ships to settle in 985, 14 ships survived the journey. • In 1000 AD Leif Eriksson, son of Eric the Red, left Greenland on a voyage south and discovered Newfoundland. He called it Vinland (Wineland). All together he made 5 voyages from Greenland in the 10 years the settlement in Newfoundland lasted. Eric the Red left Iceland for Greenland in 983 AD

Magyars’ () invasions of Italy, Moravia and Bavaria from the east in 800’s AD Muslim invasions of Spain – 711 AD Attempts to establish in the

Europe was so decentralized in the Early Middle Ages with people finding security living on feudal manors that two attempts to establish Empires failed. Charlemagne

Otto I of Germany (Saxony) 936-973 Christianity The Roman Catholic Church became a powerful influence in Europe. With a hierarchy consisting of the Pope in Rome, Bishops who headed bishoprics, subdivisions called dioceses, and village priests, they set up a vast administrative structure. Popes allied themselves with Noblemen and Kings and together they established Christianity as the basis of European . They became distinct from the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim in Bagdad, Harun al-Rashid.

The Roman Catholic Church also had its own courts called curia and its own laws called . People suspected of violating canon law would be brought before church curia and questioned. considered violations against canon law were: , sorcery, , usury, sodomy, and incest. These were considered violations against God’s divine order.

Christianity had many strengths. Beliefs Profound beliefs were among the main strengths of the Catholic Church. These beliefs included: love of neighbor, of sins, and hope of eternal salvation in heaven. Worldview The Christian understanding of the world was rationally and emotionally appealing to scholar and alike. This included a world which was made by God’s decree and guided by God’s goodness. This view included angels, saints, heaven, purgatory, and hell and salvation in heaven through prayer and good works. The church was powerful because of its grip on the hearts and minds of millions of people and its ability to console and guide their spirits. SEVEN Christian rituals included the 7 sacraments of , communion, confession, , matrimony, and extreme unction at death. These rituals marked important passages and high points of people’s lives. People celebrated with friends and family and had a priest’s blessings.

Cathedrals, , and Art Magnificent were an expression of faith and devotion. They were a manifestation of people’s faith and a focal point of pride and unity in the community.

Literature

Canterbury Tales Pilgrims

Scene from Divine Comedy by Dante

Monks and Monasticism Christianity favored voluntary celibacy. They thought the spirit was more sacred than the body and someone celibate would have time to devote to reaching a deeper spiritual fulfillment. Monks devoted their time to prayer, manual labor as a form of prayer, and the . and convents conferred holiness on the entire in which they were located, and people were proud to live near them.

Cathedral of Santiago, Spain

Nuns and Convents

Christianity also had weaknesses • Intolerance for , Muslims, homosexuals, and witches • Insistence on conformity of beliefs and of heretics • Fanaticism • Special courts called where heretics were questioned and sentenced • Harsh punishments for those convicted of crimes • - 200 years of battles against Muslims to retake the Spanish

Instigated by Ferdinand and Isabella to unite Spain under Catholicism and purge the country of heretics. Inquisitors interrogated suspects. People who didn’t conform to Catholic beliefs such as Jews and Muslims were brought before a special and were questioned, even tortured until they confessed. Thousands of Jews were accused and their was seized. This was a dark period in Christian history.

WITCHES

In the Early Centuries of Christendom the Church wasn’t concerned about witches and tolerated magical practices. But in the Late Centuries of Christendom the Church contended with heretical sects such as Albigenses and Catheri who believed in a radical dualism between good and evil. This was when Church leaders began to think came from the Devil. As a result the Pope in the 1200’s called for Inquisitions for cases involving sorcery and heresy. Actual prosecution of witches was often carried out in local church courts. From 1450-1700 during the Protestant a time when people were questioning traditions and there was rapid economic and social change, thousands of women were scapegoated as witches and were drowned, hanged, or burnt at the stake for sorcery. In the 1400’s the Inquisition in Spain tried and executed thousands of witches for sorcery and heresy. They were accused of holding ceremonies called Sabbat which imitated the Christian mass. Painting by Francisco Goya, 1797 (Hammer Against Witches) (1487) contained a compilation of arguments supporting the persecution of witches claiming women are susceptible to temptation by the devil and witchcraft because they are soft, light-minded, and fickle.

LATE CENTURIES OF CHRISTENDOM Agricultural Improvements

Agriculture During the Agricultural innovations during the Late Middle Ages allowed peasants to greatly increase their amount of food production. Heavier plows and more resilient agricultural tools made arable land more productive. and became widely used to process grains. In addition, peasants began using a rotating crop system in which two fields were planted and one field was left fallow.

Growth of Cities and

Medieval During the Middle Ages, and cities frequently grew out of trading sites. As traders and craftsmen came to sell their wares to local lords and bishops, permanent trading settlements were sometimes established near or monasteries. Trade was very important to the of medieval towns, which often featured crowded and lively markets and fairs.

Rebirth of Cities England in 1087

Rise of 1100 – 1300 AD

Crusades 1100-1300 AD

Saladin

Richard the Lionhearted Three monastic orders engaged in the Crusades: Knights of Templar, Knights of St. John Hospitalers and Teutonic Knights. They helped Christians and killed Muslims. Rise of Kingdoms in 1200’s When King John of England in 1215 agreed to abide by this charter, he limited his power and gave rights to his vassals. The rights of life, liberty and property and trial by jury and equal access to courts originated with . Hundred Years War 1337-1453 Edward III in robe with French and English 1338 Battle of Agincourt, 1415, English victorious

BLACK DEATH

Causes • Increasing trade since secured overland routes and sea routes from the Indian and the sea went to Sicily and • Urbanization brought population density which favored the spread of contagious diseases • A from 1250-1350 which resulted in a reduced food supply and malnutrition among people with resistance to disease at a low point • People at the time thought it was a malign conjunction of the causing the air to vaporize and become poison • The hand of the devil or the wrath of God

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• Yersinia pestis bacteria, oriental rat flea which carries bacteria, and black rat which hosted the flea. Flea bites and infects a host with the bacteria.

Death lays claim to a victim Effects of the plague in Marseille, Plague victims blessed • They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura ... buried my five children with my own hands ... And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world. —The Plague in Siena: An Italian Chronicle How many valiant men, how many fair , with their kinfolk and the same night supped with their ancestors in the next world! The condition of the people was pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ships hold and covered with a little earth. —

People reacted • “No bells tolled and no one wept because everyone expected death” • “In these days was burying without sorrowe and wedding without friendship.” • In Sienna work on cathedral abandoned owing to a loss of workers and the “melancholy and grief” of the survivors • at Hotel de Dieu in Paris “having no fear of death, tended the sick with all sweetness and humility” • Villagers seen dancing to drums and trumpets, when asked why, said they could keep the plague from them “by the jollity that is in us.” Effects of Black Death Plague formed Lubeck, Germany Innovations in Metallurgy Innovations in Innovations in

Guilds formed Europeans’ Borrowed from China • Marco • Magnetic • • Papermaking • Press • Casting

Richard Wallingford’s mechanical 1300’s Magnetic compass Gunpowder Cast iron in China 1370’s -Ming Dynasty

First picture of English cannon used in a war between England and in 1326 First image of a European cannon in of Orleans in Hundred Years’ War 1429 Chinese document printed with movable bamboo characters Movable metal type used by Johann von Gutenberg for

Great in Roman Catholic Church

SITUATION FOR