The Worlds of Christendom: Contraction, Expansion, and Division 500–1300
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CHAPTER 10 The Worlds of Christendom: Contraction, Expansion, and Division 500–1300 CHAPTER LEARNING B. In 500s and 600s, Christianity also had flourishing communities across large regions OBJECTIVES of Afro-Eurasia. • To examine European society after the breakup 1. but over next 1000 years African and of the Roman Empire Asian communities largely vanished, • To compare the diverse legacies of Rome in declined, or were marginalized Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire 2. Christianity became a largely European • To explore medieval European expansion phenomenon • To present the backwardness of medieval C. By 1300 C.E. Christianity provided common Europe relative to other civilizations, and the steps ground for third-wave societies in western by which it caught up Eurasia. 1. but Christendom was deeply divided: Byzantine Empire and West CHAPTER OUTLINE 2. Byzantium continued the traditions of the Greco-Roman world until conquered in I. Opening Vignette 1453 C.E. A. Over the past 30 years millions have a. Eastern Orthodoxy evolved within this converted to the Christian faith in East and third-wave civilization South Asia. 3. Roman imperial order disintegrated in the 1. similar process in non-Muslim regions of West Africa 4. Roman Catholic Church of the West 2. 60 percent of Christians today live in established independence from political Asia, Africa, and Latin America authorities; Eastern Orthodox Church did not 217 218 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 5. Western Europe emerged, at an increasing 3. Christianity taking shape in fifth and sixth pace after 1000, as a dynamic third-wave centuries in the kingdoms of Nubia civilization a. thrived for a time, but largely 6. Western Europe was a hybrid civilization: disappeared by 1500 C.E. classical, Germanic, Celtic 4. Ethiopian Christianity an exception D. The story of global Christendom in the era of a. rulers of Axum adopted Christianity in third-wave civilizations is one of contractions the fourth century and expansions. b. geography protected from surrounding 1. sharp contractions in Asia and Africa Muslim world 2. expansion in Western Europe and Russia c. developed distinctive traditions in 3. Christian Byzantium contracted and isolation ultimately disappeared III. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the 4. Western Europe contracted but later Roman Past expanded A. The Byzantine Empire has no clear starting II. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa point. A. Islam’s spread was a driving force in the 1. continuation of the Roman Empire contraction of Christianity. 2. some scholars date its beginning to 330 B. Asian Christianity C.E., with founding of Constantinople 1. within a century or so of Muhammad’s 3. western empire collapsed in fifth century; death, Christianity almost disappeared eastern half survived another 1,000 years from Arabia 4. eastern empire contained ancient 2. Islamic forces seized Jerusalem and its civilizations: Egypt, Greece, Syria, and holy sites Anatolia 3. in Syria and Persia many Christians 5. Byzantine advantages over western converted voluntarily empire a. those that didn’t were granted the right a. wealthier and more urbanized to practice their religion for payment of b. more defensible capital a special tax (Constantinople) b. experiences of individual communities c. shorter frontier varied d. access to the Black Sea; command of 4. Nestorian Christians or the Church of the eastern Mediterranean East survived but shrank in size in Syria, e. stronger army, navy, and merchant Iraq, and Persia marine a. Nestorians had some success in Tang f. continuation of late Roman China, before ultimately withering infrastructure b. brief revival under Mongols g. conscious effort to preserve Roman C. African Christianity ways 1. coastal North African Christians largely B. The Byzantine State converted to Islam 1. Arab/Islamic expansion reduced size of 2. in Egypt Coptic Church survived Byzantine state a. tolerated by Muslim rulers 2. politics centralized around emperor in b. until the Crusades and Mongol threat Constantinople when repressed 3. territory shrank after 1085, as western c. most rural Coptic Christians convert, Europeans and Turks attacked survived in urban areas and remote a. fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks monasteries CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 219 C. The Byzantine Church and Christian 3. Byzantium was a central player in long- Divergence distance Eurasian trade 1. the Church was closely tied to the state: a. Byzantine gold coins (bezants) were a caesaropapism major Mediterranean currency for over a. Byzantine emperor was head of both 500 years the state and the Church b. Byzantine crafts (jewelry, textiles, b. emperor appointed the patriarch, purple dyes, silk) were in high demand sometimes made doctrinal decisions, 4. important cultural influence of Byzantium called church councils a. transmitted ancient Greek learning to 2. Orthodox Christianity deeply influenced Islamic world and West all of Byzantine life b. transmission of Orthodox Christianity a. legitimated imperial rule to Balkans and Russia b. provided cultural identity E. The Conversion of Russia c. pervasiveness of churches, icons 1. most important conversion was that of d. even common people engaged in Prince Vladimir of Kiev theological disputes 2. Orthodoxy transformed state of Rus; 3. Eastern Orthodoxy increasingly defined became central to Russian identity itself in opposition to Latin Christianity 3. Moscow finally declared itself to be the a. Latin Christianity was centered on the “third Rome,” assuming role of protector pope, Rome of Christianity after fall of Constantinople b. growing rift between the two parts of IV. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Christendom Wake of Roman Collapse c. sense of religious difference reflected A. Western Europe was on the margins of world East/West political difference history for most of the third-wave d. with rise of Islam, Constantinople and millennium. Rome remained as sole hubs of 1. it was far removed from the growing Christendom world trade routes e. important East/West cultural 2. European geography made political unity differences (language, philosophy, difficult theology, church practice) 3. coastlines and river systems facilitated f. schism in 1054, with mutual internal exchange excommunication 4. moderate climate enabled population g. Crusades (from 1095 on) worsened the growth situation B. Political Life in Western Europe h. during Fourth Crusade, Westerners 1. traditional date for fall of western Roman sacked Constantinople (1204) and Empire is 476 C.E. ruled Byzantium for next 50 years 2. with Roman collapse: D. Byzantium and the World a. large-scale centralized rule vanished 1. Byzantium had a foot in both Europe and b. Europe’s population fell by 25 percent Asia, interacted intensively with neighbors because of war and disease 2. continuation of long Roman fight with c. contraction of land under cultivation Persian Empire d. great diminution of urban life a. weakened both states, left them open to e. long-distance trade outside of Italy Islamic conquests shriveled up b. Persia was conquered by Islam; f. great decline in literacy Byzantium lost territory 220 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION g. Germanic peoples emerged as the b. right to appoint bishops and the pope dominant peoples in West was controversial (the investiture h. shift in center of gravity from conflict) Mediterranean to north and west D. Accelerating Change in the West 3. survival of much of classical and Roman 1. a series of invasions in 700–1000 hindered heritage European development a. Germanic peoples who established new a. Muslims, Magyars, Vikings kingdoms had been substantially b. largely ended by 1000 Romanized already 2. weather improved with warming trend that b. high prestige of things Roman started after 750 c. Germanic rulers adopted Roman-style 3. High Middle Ages: time of clear growth written law and expansion 4. several Germanic kingdoms tried to a. European population in 1000 was recreate Roman-style unity about 35 million; about 80 million in a. Charlemagne (r. 768–814) acted 1340 “imperial” b. opening of new land for cultivation b. revival of Roman Empire on Christmas 4. growth of long-distance trade, from two Day 800 (coronation of Charlemagne); major centers soon fragmented a. northern Europe c. another revival of Roman Empire with b. northern Italian towns imperial coronation of Otto I of c. great trading fairs (especially in Saxony (r. 936–973) Champagne area of France) enabled C. Society and the Church exchange between northern and 1. within these new kingdoms: southern merchants a. highly fragmented, decentralized 5. European town and city populations rose society a. Venice by 1400 had around 150,000 b. great local variation people c. landowning warrior elite exercised b. still smaller than great cities elsewhere power in the world 2. social hierarchies c. new specializations, organized into a. lesser lords and knights became vassals guilds of kings or great lords 6. growth of territorial states with better- b. serfdom displaced slavery organized governments 3. Catholic Church was a major element of a. kings consolidated their authority in stability eleventh–thirteenth centuries a. hierarchy modeled on that of the b. appearance of professional Roman Empire administrators b. became very rich c. some areas did not develop territorial c. conversion of Europe’s non-Christians kingdoms (Italian city-states, small d. most of Europe was Christian (with German principalities) pagan elements) by 1100 7. new opportunities for women 4. Church and ruling class usually reinforced a. a number of urban professions were each other open to women a. also an element of competition as rival b. widows of great merchants could centers of power continue husbands’ business CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 221 c. opportunities declined by the fifteenth b. Crusaders weakened Byzantium century c. popes strengthened their position for a d. religious life: nuns, Beguines, time anchoresses (e.g., Hildegard of Bingen d.