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

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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. tens of thousands of Europeans made and Julian of Norwich) contact with the Islamic world e. but opportunities for religious women e. Europeans developed taste for luxury were also curtailed goods of the East 8. new ideas about masculinity: from warrior f. Muslim scholarship and Greek learning to “provider” flowed into Europe E. Europe Outward Bound: The Crusading g. hardened cultural barriers between Tradition peoples 1. medieval expansion of Christendom after V. The West in Comparative Perspective 1000 A. Catching Up a. occurred at the same time that 1. the hybrid civilization of Western Europe Byzantium declined was less developed than Byzantium, b. clearance of land, especially on eastern China, India, or the Islamic world fringe of Europe a. Muslims regarded Europeans as c. Scandinavian colonies in barbarians Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland b. Europeans recognized their own d. Europe had direct, though limited, backwardness contact with East and South Asia by 2. Europeans were happy to exchange thirteenth–fourteenth centuries with/borrow from more advanced 2. Crusade movement began in 1095 civilizations to the east a. wars at God’s command, authorized by a. European economies reconnected with the pope, for which participants the Eurasian trading system received an indulgence (release from b. Europeans welcomed scientific, penalty for confessed sins) philosophical, and mathematical b. amazingly popular; were religious wars concepts from Arabs, classical Greeks, at their core and India 3. most famous Crusades aimed to regain c. the most significant borrowing was Jerusalem and holy places from China a. many waves of Crusaders to the Near 3. Europe was a developing civilization like East others of the era b. creation of four small Christian states 4. by 1500, Europe had caught up with (last fell in 1291) China and the Islamic world; surpassed c. showed Europe’s growing them in some areas organizational ability 5. 500–1300 was a period of great 4. Iberian Peninsula Crusade innovation 5. Baltic Crusade a. agriculture 6. attacks on Byzantine Empire and Russia b. new reliance on nonanimal sources of 7. Crusades had little lasting political or energy religious impact in the Middle East c. technological borrowing for warfare, 8. Crusades had a significant impact on with further development Europe d. Europe developed a passion for a. conquest of Spain, Sicily, Baltic region technology 222 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

B. Pluralism in Politics 6. no similar development occurred in the 1. Europe crystallized into a system of Byzantine Empire competing states a. focus of education was the humanities 2. political pluralism shaped Western b. suspicion of classical Greek thought European civilization 7. Islamic world had deep interaction with a. led to frequent wars and militarization classical Greek thought b. stimulated technological development a. massive amount of translation in 3. states still were able to communicate ninth–tenth centuries economically and intellectually b. encouraged a flowering of Arab 4. rulers were generally weaker than those to scholarship between 800 and 1200 the east c. caused a debate among Muslim a. royal-noble-ecclesiastical power thinkers on faith and reason struggle allowed urban merchants to d. Islamic world eventually turned against win great independence natural philosophy b. perhaps paved the way for capitalism VI. Reflections: Remembering and Forgetting: c. development of representative Continuity and Surprise in the Worlds of institutions (parliaments) Christendom C. Reason and Faith A. Many features of medieval Christendom have 1. distinctive intellectual tension between extended into the modern era. faith and reason developed 1. crusading motivated Spanish and 2. intellectual life flourished in the centuries Portuguese explorers after 1000 2. merchants’ freedom and eagerness to a. creation of universities from earlier borrow technologies helped lead to cathedral schools capitalism and industrialization b. scholars had some intellectual freedom 3. endemic military conflict found terrible at universities expression in twentieth century 3. in the universities, some scholars began to 4. ongoing “faith and reason” controversy emphasize the ability of human reason to 5. Eastern Orthodox/Roman Catholic understand divine mysteries division of Christianity remains a. also applied reason to law, medicine, 6. universities were a medieval creation and world of nature 7. as was the concept of a separation b. development of “natural philosophy” between religious and political authority (scientific study of nature) B. But knowing outcome of story can be a 4. search for classical Greek texts (especially disadvantage for historians. Aristotle) 1. historical actors do not possess such a. were found in Byzantium and the knowledge Islamic world 2. few in 500 C.E. would have predicted that b. twelfth–thirteenth centuries: access to Europe would be the primary center of ancient Greek and Arab scholarship Christianity 5. deep impact of Aristotle 3. or that Christian communities in Africa a. his writings were the basis of and Asia would wither away university education 4. or that Western Europe would overtake b. dominated Western European thought Byzantium between 1200 and 1700 5. or Europe’s rising importance after 1500 C.E. CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 223

CHAPTER QUESTIONS Europeans to travel to the eastern Mediterranean and even led to the sack of Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204 C.E. Following are answer guidelines for the Big Picture • In terms of the wider world, Byzantium and Questions, Seeking the Main Point Question, Margin Western Europe were both part of the Eurasian long- Review Questions, Portrait Question, and Documents distance trade network. Byzantium participated and Visual Sources Feature Questions that appear in actively throughout the period, while Western the textbook chapter. For your convenience, the Europe did so increasingly after 1000 C.E. questions and answer guidelines are also available in • Both interacted with the Islamic world through the Computerized Test Bank. military conflict, trade, and the exchange of ideas. • Both had a profound impact on Eastern Europe, especially through their promotion of rival Big Picture Questions versions of the Christian faith.

1. What accounts for the different historical 3. In what respects was the civilization of the trajectories of the Byzantine and West European Latin West distinctive and unique, and in what ways expressions of Christendom? was it broadly comparable to other third-wave civilizations? • The survival of a powerful imperial state in the Byzantine Empire resulted in greater state control • The book argues strongly that the Latin West over the Orthodox Church. shares many of the same features of other third-wave • Cultural differences also played a role. For civilizations, especially in its willingness to borrow instance, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Greek and then modify and improve upon ideas, business became the language of religious practice instead of practices, and technological innovations. Therefore, the Latin used in the Roman Catholic Church. it is broadly comparable to other third-wave Moreover, more so than in the West, Byzantine civilizations. thinkers sought to formulate Christian doctrine in • That said, the book also makes the point that terms of Greek philosophical concepts. the Western European experience had distinctive • The Eastern Orthodox faith expanded into features, including a fragmented political structure, Eastern Europe when the Byzantine Empire was at unusually independent towns, and an acceptance of its height, but it was driven from other regions, the study of natural philosophy, which ultimately particularly in North Africa and the Near East, by the helped to define a distinctive Latin West. expansion of Islam. After 1000, the Roman Catholic tradition became the more expansive of the two 4. Looking Back: How does the evolution of expressions, as its influence spread into Islamic the Christian world in the third-wave era compare Spain, non-Christian northern Europe, and Orthodox with that of Tang and Song dynasty China and of the Eastern Europe. Islamic world? • The Western Catholic Christian world was less 2. How did Byzantium and Western Europe developed in comparison to Tang and Song dynasty interact with each other and with the larger world of China and the Islamic world in that the former had the third-wave era? smaller cities, weaker political authorities, a more • Byzantium and Western Europe interacted fragmented political structure, a less commercialized frequently; for instance, in the 500s C.E., the economy, and inferior technology. It also, possessed Byzantine emperor Justinian succeeded in more privileged cities and a more favorable conquering parts of Western Europe in his effort to environment for merchants. By 1500, however, reconstitute the Roman Empire. Western Europe had come a long way in catching up, • The two societies were both Christian, which though it depended more on borrowing than did its led to frequent interactions, disputes, and ultimately Chinese or Islamic counterparts. a schism between the two confessions. • The Orthodox Christian world was more • The revival of Western Europe after 1000 C.E. similar to Tang and Song dynasty China and the brought it into a closer trade relationship with Islamic world in that it possessed comparable cities, Byzantium. a powerful emperor, a unified government, a • The crusading movement in Western Europe professional bureaucracy, a commercialized inspired hundreds of thousands of Western economy, and a technologically advanced society. 224 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

• The Orthodox Christian world was similar to • It can also be seen in Byzantium’s pursuit of the Islamic caliphates in that both did not distinguish the long-term Roman struggle with the Persian as clearly between religious and state authority as in Empire. Western Europe. • Byzantium diverged through the development • Western Catholic Christendom was a more of a reformed administrative system that gave militarized society than Tang and Song China. appointed generals civil authority in the empire’s provinces and allowed them to raise armies from the landowning peasants of the region. It also diverged Seeking the Main Point Question through the new ideas encompassed in caesaropapism that defined the relationship between Q. In what different ways did the history of the state and the Church. Christianity unfold in various parts of the Afro- Q. How did Eastern Orthodox Christianity differ Eurasian world during the third-wave era? from Roman Catholicism? • Christianity contracted sharply in Asia and • Unlike Western Europe, where the Catholic Africa. Church maintained some degree of independence • It expanded in Western Europe and Russia. from political authorities, in Byzantium the emperor • Christian Byzantium flourished for a time, assumed something of the role of both “Caesar,” as then gradually contracted and finally disappeared. head of state, and the pope, as head of the Church. • The West followed an opposite path, at first Thus the Byzantine emperor appointed the patriarch contracting as the Roman Empire collapsed and later of the Orthodox Church, sometimes made decisions expanding as a new and blended civilization took about doctrine, called church councils into session, hold in Western Europe. and generally treated the Church as a government department. • In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Greek Margin Review Questions became the language of religious practice instead of the Latin used in the Roman Catholic Church. Q. What variations in the experience of African • More so than in the West, Byzantine thinkers and Asian Christian communities can you identify? sought to formulate Christian doctrine in terms of • In much of Arabia, the Near East, and coastal Greek philosophical concepts. North Africa the arrival of Islam led to widespread • The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic voluntary conversion of Christians to the Muslim churches disagreed on a number of doctrinal issues, faith. including the nature of the Trinity, the relative • For the most part the surviving communities in importance of faith and reason, and the veneration of these regions were guaranteed the right to practice icons. their religion with restrictions on some activities. • Priests in Byzantium allowed their beards to • Christianity did spread into new regions, grow long and were permitted to marry, while priests including China, Nubia, and Ethiopia. But only in in the West shaved and, after 1050 or so, were Ethiopia did it ultimately survive and thrive. supposed to remain celibate. • In Egypt and Nubia Christians experienced • Orthodox ritual called for using bread increased oppression from the thirteenth century leavened with yeast in the mass, but Catholics used leading to a decline in the Egyptian Coptic church unleavened bread. and the disappearance of the Nubian church. • Eastern Orthodox leaders sharply rejected the growing claims of Roman popes to be the sole and Q. In what respects did Byzantium continue the final authority for all Christians everywhere. patterns of the classical Roman Empire? In what ways did it diverge from those patterns? Q. In what ways was the Byzantine Empire linked to a wider world? • Continuance can be seen in Byzantium’s roads, military structures, centralized administration, • On a political and military level, Byzantium imperial court, laws, and Christian organization. continued the long-term Roman struggle with the Persian Empire. CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 225

• Economically, the Byzantine Empire was a and more productive division of labor into European central player in the long-distance trade of Eurasia, society. with commercial links to Western Europe, Russia, • Women found substantial new opportunities Central Asia, the Islamic world, and China. because of economic growth and urbanization, but • Culturally, Byzantium preserved much of by the fifteenth century, many of these opportunities ancient Greek learning and transmitted this classical were declining. heritage to both the Islamic world and the Christian • Territorial states grew in this period and West. established more effective institutions of • Byzantine religious culture spread widely government, commanding the loyalty or at least the among Slavic-speaking peoples in the Balkans and obedience of their subjects. Russia. • The Roman Catholic Church expanded the area in which Roman Catholicism was practiced into Q. How did links to Byzantium transform the Eastern Europe and Islamic Spain. new civilization of Kievan Rus? Q. What was the impact of the Crusades in • Kievan Rus borrowed Byzantium architectural world history? styles, the Cyrillic alphabet, the extensive use of icons, a monastic tradition stressing prayer and • They marked an expansion of the influence of service, and political ideals of imperial control of the Western Christendom at the same time that Eastern Church. Christendom and Byzantium were declining. • They stimulated the demand for Asian luxury Q. What replaced the Roman order in Western goods in Europe. Europe? • They also allowed Europeans to learn • Politically, the Roman imperial order techniques for producing sugar on large plantations collapsed, to be replaced by a series of regional using slave labor, which had incalculable kingdoms ruled by Germanic warlords. consequences in later centuries when Europeans • But these states maintained some Roman transferred the plantation system to the Americas. features, including written Roman law and the use of • Muslim scholarship, together with the Greek fines and penalties to provide order and justice. learning that it incorporated, flowed into Europe. • Some of the larger Germanic kingdoms, • The Crusades hardened cultural barriers including the Carolingian Empire and the empire of between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Otto I of Saxony, also had aspirations to re-create Moreover, Christian anti-Semitism was exacerbated. something of the unity of the Roman Empire, • European empire building, especially in the although these kingdoms were short-lived and Americas, continued the crusading notion that “God unsuccessful in reviving anything approaching wills it.” Roman authority. • The Crusades have also on many occasions • In the West, a social system developed that proved politically or ideologically significant when was based on reciprocal ties between greater and the worlds of Europe and Islam have collided over lesser lords among the warrior elites, which replaced the past two centuries. the Roman social structure. Q. Summing Up So Far: How did the historical • Roman slavery gave way to the practice of development of the European West differ from that serfdom. of Byzantium in the third-wave era? • The Roman Catholic Church increased its influence over society. • Western Europe collapsed politically in the fifth century never to come together again as a single Q. In what ways was European civilization political entity, whereas Byzantium survived as a changing after 1000? single political entity until its conquest in 1453 C.E. • The population grew rapidly. • The Byzantine emperor exerted greater control • New lands were opened for cultivation. over the Orthodox Church than political authorities • Long-distance trade was revived and in Western Europe did over the Catholic Church. expanded. • The Byzantine Empire maintained a prominent • The population of towns grew and attracted role in the long-distance trade networks of Eurasia new professional groupings that introduced a new throughout the period, whereas Western Europe’s role declined precipitously following the collapse of 226 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION the Roman Empire in the fifth century, only to was applied primarily to theology, but increasingly it reengage with those trade networks after 1000. was also applied to the scientific study of nature, • After 1000, Western Europe’s influence in the known as “natural philosophy,” which ultimately Mediterranean and in Eastern Europe expanded, became a foundation for the Scientific Revolution. while the influence of the Byzantine Empire • In the Byzantine Empire, scholars kept the contracted (especially in the Mediterranean basin) classical tradition alive, but their primary interest lay after 600 C.E. in the humanities and theology rather than in the natural sciences or medicine. The Orthodox Church Q. In what ways did borrowing from abroad had serious reservations about classical Greek shape European civilization after 1000? learning, sometimes persecuting scholars who were • Borrowing from abroad played a critical role too enamored with the ancients. Those who studied in establishing a significant tradition of technological Greek philosophy and science did so in a innovation that allowed Europe by 1500 to catch up conservative spirit, concerned to preserve and with, and in some areas perhaps to surpass, China transmit the classical heritage rather than using it as a and the Islamic world. springboard for creating new knowledge. • A more efficient horse collar, which probably • The Islamic world undertook a massive originated in China or central Asia, contributed to translation project in the ninth and tenth centuries European efforts to plow the heavy soils of northern that made many Greek texts available in Arabic. This Europe. contributed to a flowering of Arab scholarship, • Gunpowder from China, combined with especially in the sciences and natural philosophy, cannons developed in Western Europe, gave between roughly 800 and 1200 C.E., but it also Europeans a military edge over other civilizations. stimulated debate among Muslim thinkers about faith • Improvements in shipbuilding and and reason. Unlike church authorities in Western navigational techniques, including the magnetic Europe, learned opinion in the Islamic world did not compass and sternpost rudder from China and come to regard natural philosophy as a wholly adaptations of the Arab lateen sail, enabled legitimate enterprise. Because of this, the ideas of Europeans to build advanced ships for oceanic Plato and Aristotle, while never completely voyages. disappearing, receded from Islamic scholarship after the thirteenth century, and natural philosophy did not Q. Why was Europe unable to achieve the kind become a central concern for Islamic higher of political unity that China experienced? What education as it did in Western Europe. impact did this have on the subsequent history of Europe? • Geographic barriers, ethnic and linguistic Portrait Question diversity, and the shifting balances of power among Europe’s many states prevented the emergence of a Q. In what ways did class, family, gender, and single European empire like that of China. As a natural catastrophe shape Cecilia’s life? result, European nations engaged in many conflicts • In terms of class, being born into the peasantry and Europe was unable to achieve domestic peace rather than serfdom allowed her greater freedom, but for many centuries. living as a commoner rather than a noblewoman or nun ensured that she owed deference to social Q. In what different ways did classical Greek superiors. philosophy and science have an impact in the West, • Her large and prosperous family gave her in Byzantium, and in the Islamic world? important advantages, helping her to acquire • In the West after 1000 C.E., a belief in the property and providing her with support and ability of human reason to penetrate divine mysteries protection. and to grasp the operation of the natural order took • Her decision not to marry gave her greater shape, and that in turn stimulated a renewed interest independence than most women. in Greek philosophy and science. During this period, • Her gender meant that she could not hold European scholars obtained copies of Greek texts office in her community, was paid about one-third from both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic less than men when she worked as an unskilled day world. At first this new confidence in human reason laborer, and could not serve as an official ale taster. 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• She also suffered from the sexual double support to the faith (see Chapter 4). What message standard and may have chosen not to marry in order did Gregory seek to convey in making this implied to keep control over her property. comparison? • She lost her parents during the famine years of • By modeling his account of Clovis’s 1315 to 1322 which dramatically changed her life. conversion on that of Constantine, Gregory linked • She also profited from the famine buying land Clovis’s life story with that of a powerful Roman at favorable prices. emperor, enhancing his status. • During the famine years she experienced • Gregory attributed to Clovis and his tensions with her neighbors over scarce resources. successors the position of patron and supporter of the church that Constantine represented. • He linked Clovis to the Roman Catholic Using the Documents and Visual tradition rather than the rival form known as Sources Features Arianism. Q. How might a modern secular historian use Following are answer guidelines for the headnote this document to help explain the spread of questions and Using the Evidence questions that Christianity among the Franks? appear in the documents and visual sources essays located at the end of the textbook chapter. • A modern historian would point out that conversion began at the royal court and then spread. Headnote Questions Clotilda played a significant role in introducing Christianity into the Frankish kingdom and in Document 10.1: The Conversion of Clovis inspiring Clovis’s conversion. Q. According to Gregory, what led to the • The conversion of Clovis immediately led to conversion of Clovis? the conversion of much of his army, and military victory over the Alamanni was an important catalyst • Queen Clotilda encouraged Clovis to convert for the conversion. and baptized their son. These actions made Clovis more fully aware of the Christian faith but did not Document 10.2: Advice on Dealing with “Pagans” persuade him to convert. • Clovis made the decision to convert on the Q. What can we learn about the religious battlefield because he believed that his Gods had practices of the Anglo-Saxons from Bede’s account? abandoned him. • The Anglo-Saxons worshipped idols in • Shortly after winning this battle he was temples, and they ritually sacrificed oxen. baptized. Q. In what specific ways did the pope urge Q. What issues are evident in the religious toleration? And why did he advocate accommodation discussions of Clovis and his wife, Clotilda? or compromise with existing religious practices? • Clotilda believed the gods of Clovis possessed Keep in mind that the political authorities in England magical powers rather than being the true God. at the time had not yet become thoroughly Christian. Clovis believed his gods to be the creators of the • Pope Gregory urged toleration by asking world; in his view the Christian God was not one of missionaries to alter their pagan custom of ritually the family of traditional gods, and therefore had no sacrificing oxen in the temples at their feasts, and power. instead celebrating the day of the dedication of the • Clotilda understood baptism to be critical to church or the nativities of the holy martyrs whose the salvation of her son’s soul when he died shortly relics are deposited in the new church. By reshaping, after being baptized. Clovis saw the death of their rather than banning feasting, the people might be less son after his baptism as a sign of the lack of the opposed to conversion. Also, offering sacrifices to Christian God’s power. the true Christian God was acceptable and did not Q. Notice how Gregory modeled his picture of need to be forbidden. Clovis on that of Constantine, the famous Roman • He advocated compromise by urging emperor whose conversion to Christianity in the missionaries to occupy temples rather than destroy fourth century gave official legitimacy and state them, because it would make conversion easier for 228 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION the population to embrace; they would adore the Documents 10.4 and 10.5: The Persistence of Christian God in the places where they were Tradition accustomed to worshipping. Q. What practices of the Hessians conflicted • The pope believed people are better able to with Boniface’s understanding of Christianity? How embrace change by degrees rather than all at once. did he confront the persistence of these practices? Q. What implication might Gregory’s policies • Boniface objected when Hessians continued to have for the beliefs and practices of English offer sacrifices to trees and springs; inspect the converts? entrails of victims; practice divination, legerdemain, • The retaining of their temples and the and incarnation; and pay attention to auguries, alteration, rather than outright banning, of some of auspices, and other sacrificial rites. their ceremonies made Christianity potentially more • To confront these practices, he cut down a appealing. holy oak revered by pagans with miraculous results • These policies made the new religion more and built an oratory out of its wood; and he familiar to the English and therefore easier for them addressed the elders and chiefs of the people. to convert. Q. What do these documents reveal about the • However, the policies may have led to process of conversion to Christianity? converts who did not fully understand or were less committed to their new faith. • The experiences of Saint Boniface indicate that newly converted Christians sometimes continued Document 10.3: Charlemagne and the Saxons to also practice older religious traditions. • The Leechbook reveals that elements of Q. What does this document reveal about the Christian practice were integrated into traditional kind of resistance that the Saxons mounted against medical remedies. their enforced conversion? • People perceived power in Christian beliefs, • Saxons looted and burnt churches; failed to but did not immediately reject the usefulness of other follow the Lenten fasting rules; murdered clerics; remedies. and continued to believe in witches. • Saxons also burned bodies of the dead and Q. How might Pope Gregory (Document 10.2), committed human sacrifice. Charlemagne (Document 10.3), and Boniface • They conspired in groups against the Christian (Document 10.4) have responded to the cures and faith; failed to observe the Lord’s day; and failed to preventions described in the Leechbook? baptize their infants. • Pope Gregory would be more likely to tolerate • They continued to make vows at springs, trees, at least some of the Leechbook remedies, since these and groves. remedies relied on the Christian God for their supernatural power to heal. Q. How did Charlemagne seek to counteract that • Pope Gregory might see these remedies as a resistance? positive step toward full conversion, one that • Charlemagne counteracted with harsh allowed the people to adopt Christian elements punishments and by relying on Christian clerics to through the continued use of familiar remedies. oversee and police their flocks. • From the evidence provided, Boniface would be likely to reject this mixing of Christian and Q. What does this document suggest about traditional remedies as he did the Hessians who Charlemagne’s views of his duties as ruler? mixed pagan with Christian practices. • Charlemagne was committed to supporting the spread and universal practice of Christianity in his Visual Source 10.1: Christ Pantokrator realm. Q. What differences can you notice in the two • He was committed to suppressing other sides of Christ’s face? (Pay attention to the religious practices in his realm. eyebrows, the irises and pupils, the hair, the • He viewed the state as having an important mustache, and the cheeks. Notice also the difference role to play in the protection and promotion of in color between the face and the hands.) Christianity. CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 229

• On the right side (as compared to the left) of at the top. What other elements of the biblical story Jesus’ face, his hair sweeps down the side of his neck of Jesus’ birth can you identify in the image? rather than the back; his eyebrow is raised further; • Jesus is behind the Virgin Mary and is his pupil is focused further to the left; his cheek is swaddled, and animals are present. gaunter; and his mustache swoops more directly • Joseph is represented to the lower left with downward. either a shepherd or Satan (see last question). Q. How does this image portray Jesus as an all- • The angels above the scene are glorifying the powerful ruler? nativity, as is the shepherd to the right. • To the left the three wise men are shown, who • Jesus is wearing a dark purple robe; has a halo have come bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. of light over his head; is holding the gospels; and is • In the lower right is a depiction of the blessing the viewer. Ablution of the Infant Jesus. This story of the washing of Jesus is not found in the gospels or other Q. How does this depiction of Jesus differ from written sources, but is commonly depicted in the others you may have seen? Russian iconic tradition. • The image differs markedly from depictions of Jesus as a baby, Jesus performing acts recorded in Q. The figure in the bottom left is that of a the gospels, and Christ suffering on the cross. contemplative and perhaps troubled Joseph, Mary’s • It differs from but is closer in nature to husband-to-be. What do you imagine that Joseph is depictions of Christ seated in judgment. thinking? Why might he be troubled? • Joseph is most likely concerned about the Q. Which features of this image suggest Christ’s pregnancy of his wife. humanity and which might portray his divinity? • He is likely troubled by the news of the virgin • Images suggesting Christ’s humanity are his birth. depiction in human form; the two unextended fingers on his right hand, symbolizing his dual nature; and Q. Facing Joseph is an elderly person, said by the gospels held in his left hand, which recount his some to represent Satan and by others to be a time in human form on earth. shepherd comforting Joseph. What thinking might lie • His divinity is represented by the halo of light; behind each of these interpretations? the two unextended fingers on his right hand, • If the figure represents Satan, then he could be symbolizing his dual nature; the gospels held in his present as the tempter casting doubt on the virgin left hand, which recount his resurrection; and the birth and seeking to turn Joseph against Mary. differing features of the two sides of his face, which • If he represents an elderly shepherd, then he also represent his dual nature. may represent wise counsel for Joseph during this difficult time—symbolically shepherding him toward Visual Source 10.2: The Nativity accepting Mary’s virgin birth, and toward his role as Q. Why do you think Mary is pictured as facing protector and earthly father of Jesus. outward toward the viewer rather than focusing on her child? Visual Source 10.3: Ladder of Divine Ascent • Mary’s pose may suggest that she is offering Q. How does this icon portray the spiritual her maternal assistance to the viewers, rather than journey? focusing exclusively on her own child. Such a • The spiritual journey is portrayed as a climb reading would represent her role as an important up a ladder, while surrounded by demons sympathetic intercessor for the faithful in the representing the dangers of sins, including lust, Christian tradition. anger, and pride. • Her posture may suggest a contemplative attitude, perhaps reflecting Luke 2:19, “But Mary Q. What sources of help are available for the kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” monks on the ladder? Notice the figures in the upper left and lower right. Q. Notice the three rays from heaven, symbolizing the trinity—God the Father, the Son, • Potential sources of help include the figure, and the Holy Spirit—represented by the three figures most likely Jesus, at the top of the ladder; the angels 230 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

to the top left of the image; and the clerics, who most unify their kingdom; traditions from the later Roman likely represent the church, at the bottom right. Empire that bolstered the prestige of their rulers; and a more powerful God to support them in battle. Q. What message might beginning monks have • For ordinary people, Christianity provided an taken from this image? alternative source of divine help; a religion with a • The path to spiritual union with God in heaven focus on the afterlife. Because of the manner in is fraught with dangers. which it spread, Christianity often allowed adherents • The path is a long one that needs to be taken to keep much of their older religious tradition, if in step by step. an altered form. • Satan and his demons actively sought to derail • The documents in this feature emphasize how efforts by believers to reach this spiritual union. flexible the Christian message was as it spread, • At times, Satan and his demons succeed, and allowing for prevailing practices and beliefs to some who begin this quest for spiritual union end up persist wherever they did not directly contradict damned instead. Christian teachings. • The path to spiritual union with God is 3. Defining a concept: The notion of undertaken individually, but the support of the angels “conversion” often suggests a quite rapid and and the church is of some help. complete transformation of religious commitments based on sincere inner conviction. In what ways do Using the Evidence Questions these documents support or challenge this understanding of religious change? Documents: The Making of Christian Europe • Boniface’s statement that some Hessians had 1. Describing cultural encounters: Consider converted, fully abandoning their pagan practices, the spread of Christianity in Europe and China from supports this understanding of conversion. the viewpoint of those seeking to introduce the new • Clovis’s conversion was rapid and sincere, religion. What obstacles did they encounter? What even if his motivations on the field of battle may not strategies did they employ? What successes and be considered purely religious. failures did they experience? • However, Charlemagne’s law code indicates • The obstacles they faced included societies that many Saxons only converted slowly and that already possessed vibrant religious traditions; reluctantly. difficulties explaining Christian ideas in very • Gregory felt that full conversion was best different cultural traditions; and the active hostility achieved in stages and with the maintenance of as of some portions of society. many local customs and traditions as possible. • Pope Gregory’s strategy was to develop, • The Leechbook provides evidence that whenever possible, compromise and assimilation of Christian practices did not supplant traditional local cultural and religious traditions. practices after the conversion of Anglo-Saxon • Charlemagne employed the coercive power of society; rather, traditional practices assimilated his state. Christian beliefs. • Boniface confronted and rejected persistent pagan practices, and pressured local elites in an 4. Noticing point of view and assessing effort to end pagan activities. credibility: From what point of view is each of the documents written? Which statements in each 2. Describing cultural encounters…from document might historians find unreliable and which another point of view: Consider the same process would they find most useful? from the viewpoint of new adherents to Christianity. • Document 10.1 was written by a Christian What were the motives for or the advantages of bishop a century after it occurred, so many aspects of conversion for both political elites and ordinary the story may be unreliable, including the people? To what extent was it possible to combine motivations of major characters and the exact prevailing practices and beliefs with the teachings of wording of their exchanges. Moreover, its modeling the new religion? on the conversion of Emperor Constantine might • For political elites, Christianity brought leave one skeptical as to its historical accuracy, legitimacy; a Christian clerical establishment to especially those features that most closely parallel support their rule; a single religion under which to Constantine’s experience. It is most likely to be CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 231 reliable on the public events recounted and the form and supernatural remedies mixed freely during this of Christianity adopted by Clovis. period. • Document 10.2 was written by the Venerable Bede, an eighth-century monk who lived in what is Visual Sources: Reading Byzantine Icons now the north of England. Written over a century 1. Viewing icons from opposing perspectives: after the fact and far from Rome where Gregory How might supporters and opponents of icons have resided, it may be unreliable in the exact wording of responded to these visual sources? Gregory’s letter. It might also misrepresent or not fully understand the pagan rituals described. If • Supporters of icons might argue that they are Bede’s account was drawn from a copy of Gregory’s useful because they serve as pedagogical tools; they letter, then the pagan practices attributed to the are able to inspire piety among those who see them; Anglo-Saxons may not be correct because Gregory and because of their aesthetic beauty. was writing from Rome. It is most likely to be • Opponents of icons might note God’s accurate in its account of the general message of the prohibition against false idols in the Ten letter, which encouraged compromise and Commandments, found in Exodus 20:4 “You shall assimilation of local traditions and sacred sites rather not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of than rejection of local practice. In its descriptions of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the the occupation of pagan temples and of early earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Christian feasts it is likely to be accurate, because • Opponents might also warn of their potential Bede would have been able to observe the results of to be worshipped as sources of magic or divine aid. missionaries in promoting these policies in the religious sites and practices of the eighth century. 2. Identifying religious ideas in art: What • Document 10.3 was issued by Charlemagne in elements of religious thought or practice can you the ninth century. Its depiction of pagan practices identify in these icons? In what ways were these that the law seeks to end is not likely to be accurate, religious ideas represented artistically? since there would be an incentive to represent the • The Trinity is represented in Visual Source practices in the worst possible light in the laws. It 10.1 by the three upright fingers in the blessing may also be inaccurate in representing the offered by Jesus’ right hand, and in Visual Source motivations of Saxons. It is most accurate in 10.2 by the rays coming down from on high. identifying those activities in the Saxon lands that • The dual nature of Christ is represented in most concerned Charlemagne and in providing a Visual Source 10.1 by the differences between the sense of how Charlemagne sought to force his Saxon two sides of his face and the two unextended fingers subjects to convert. on his right hand. • Document 10.4 was written by Willibald, one • Visual Source 10.3 represents in a literal of Boniface’s followers. Its account of the fashion the pathway to spiritual salvation as mapped miraculous felling of the oak tree might be out by Saint John Climacus. unreliable, since it was written by a committed missionary who had a pedagogical role in inspiring 3. Comparing images of Jesus: In what others to convert. It is likely to be accurate in its different ways is Jesus portrayed in the three icons? account of Boniface’s movements, the problems with What similarities can you identify? persistent pagan practices among the Hessians, and • In Visual Source 10.1, Jesus is portrayed as a the decision by Boniface to fell the tree in an effort powerful ruler in adult human form. to dissuade pagans that their gods were powerful. • In Visual Source 10.2, Jesus is portrayed as a • Document 10.5 was written by an anonymous baby. Anglo-Saxon author or authors. It is not clear from • In Visual Source 10.3, Jesus is portrayed as this text that the spells recounted were in widespread the gateway to spiritual union with God and as a use, and therefore may not be representative of gatekeeper of heaven. beliefs and practices in Anglo-Saxon England. The • All three figures depict Jesus in human form. document’s strength is in showing how traditional • Visual Sources 10.1 and 10.3 both present remedies in Anglo-Saxon society had taken on Jesus in adult form and as a powerful ruler or Christian components following the arrival of mediator. Christianity. It also provides a sense of how natural 232 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

4. Comparing religious art cross-culturally: implication of Daoists in the fall of the Han How might you compare these icons to the Buddha dynasty is instructive. images in Chapter 4? Consider their purposes, their • the issue of hiring mostly Germanic religious content, and their modes of artistic mercenaries to staff the armies of Rome (note representation. that this was not a new phenomenon) • the theory that, as soon as the empire stopped • Christian icons are less naturalistic in their expanding, its fall began (which cannot be artistic style when compared to the Buddha images supported if one looks at a basic chronological in Chapter 4. chart) • The Christian icons are paintings, whereas a • the weakness of Roman bureaucracy (especially majority of the Buddhist works are sculpted. compared to that of Han China), with very few • Both sets of images served devotional bureaucrats and a system that was largely purposes; include iconographic features; and have militarized and that gave much of the pedagogical uses, particularly for the illiterate. responsibility for governance to unpaid members of the elite LECTURE STRATEGIES • the role of Germanic pressure in bringing down the empire, especially considering that Roman- trained armies could easily defeat Germanic Lecture 1: The fall of Rome and creation of the tribal forces Germanic successor states • the great Visigothic crisis of 375–378, with the Students tend to be very interested in the fall of the Visigothic defeat of Emperor Valens at (western) Roman Empire, and since exploration of Adrianople, and consideration of how badly the matter provides an excellent opportunity to look this issue really affected the empire more deeply at the factors that make empires fall, • the division of the empire into eastern and this is a topic that can be expanded very profitably western units, finalized in 395 C.E. from the textbook coverage. You may care to include, if you have time, some A good place to start is with two maps of sense of why the eastern empire survived (shorter Europe, ca. 300 C.E. and ca. 500 C.E. (excellent maps frontiers, higher population and thus larger tax base, of Europe for each century from year 1 to year 2000 military reforms). And of course you should include can be found at www.euratlas.com), which will show at least one of the “silly” reasons sometimes given more clearly than mere words could that the eastern for the fall of Rome. My personal favorite is that, Roman Empire survived but that the western empire thanks to lead-based glaze for storage containers, all was carved into a number of states labeled with of the Roman upper class suffered from lead various Germanic ethnic names (Kingdom of the poisoning. It is very important to note the ways in Franks, etc.). Then pose the question, “What which the Germanic peoples who eventually happened to change the picture between 300 and established successor states had already adopted 500?” People have written extensively on this topic, Roman ways and perspectives. It may be useful to so of course be selective. As much as possible, refer to the chapter’s Document feature during your though, compare what happened to the Roman lecture. Empire to circumstances in other empires (comparison to the fall of the Han dynasty is Lecture 2: Charlemagne and the last wave of particularly useful). Some issues to consider: “barbarian” invasions • Edward Gibbons’s classic argument that it was Recently, the historian Pierre Riché subtitled a book all the fault of the Christians, who drained top on the Carolingians (Charlemagne’s dynasty) “a talent from the administration and were too family who forged Europe.” Charlemagne, his fond of “turning the other cheek.” (It’s immediate predecessors, and his successors as kings important to note that a number of fourth- of the Franks do indeed stand out in the history of the century bishops, such as Ambrose, actually early Middle Ages for their bold efforts at state spent part of their career as administrators and building, creating an amalgam of Christian, that Christians in fact have always had an Germanic, and Roman practices to create a extremely poor track record when it comes to surprisingly strong state that influenced all later cheek-turning.) A comparison to the European states. This consolidated Kingdom of the CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 233

Franks suffered heavily under the onslaught of the Lecture 3: The medieval expansion of Europe last wave of invasions of Europe (by Vikings, This lecture examines in greater detail the Magyars, and Muslims), but much of what these remarkable expansion of French-influenced Western figures created survived. Christendom in the period after the year 1000. Begin Begin with a discussion of conditions in the with an examination of Europe’s “core lands” (most early Germanic successor states—low literacy, notably France) at the turn of the millennium. Be gradually dissolving vestiges of Roman sure to include the following points: administration, and a high degree of decentralization. From there, follow the story of the Carolingians, • the preeminence of heavy cavalry (“knights”) emphasizing that this was only the most successful • economic recovery example of a phenomenon that occurred elsewhere in • beginnings of significant population growth Europe (such as Mercia under King Offa or • religion around the year 1000 Visigothic Spain). Important points to include: Time is always limited in a world civilization class, • Charles Martel’s consolidation of power in so this lecture certainly would not be able to include Francia as protector of the Church and leader all the major expansion areas, such as: against Muslim invasions from Spain • the English conquest of Ireland and Wales • the role of Anglo-Saxon missionaries and an • Scandinavian efforts to conquer Finland alliance with the papacy in consolidating the • the Christian conquest of Spain (reconquista) Carolingian hold on power • the conquest of Prussia and much of the Baltic, • Pepin the Short’s usurpation of the Frankish especially by the Teutonic Knights and their throne allies • Charlemagne’s highly successful military • the maritime expansion in the Mediterranean campaigns, which made him so wealthy that he • the Holy Land Crusades and establishment of could experiment with governmental reform the Crusader principalities • the Carolingian renaissance: what it set out to • Western efforts to seize Byzantine territories do, its scope, and its impact on society • Charlemagne’s coronation as emperor on For a short lecture, a thematic approach may serve December 25, 800 you better. For example, consider a lecture using • Charlemagne’s efforts to build a Christian some of the following themes as your organizational empire modeled on that of Constantine base: • the civil wars during the reign of • the militarism of later medieval Europe Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious, including (including the high level of training of knights, both reasons for this centrifugal pull and its the social importance of knights, the integrated effects nature of medieval armies with heavy reliance • why Vikings liked to raid, what real damage on infantry) and comparison to the military they did, and why they were difficult to fight capability of their enemies • the effect of the larger-scale Viking attacks on • the role of political decentralization in England in encouraging centralization encouraging expansion by private • the effect of the large-scale Magyar raids on entrepreneurship (e.g., Strongbow’s original East Francia in encouraging the emergence of a plan to carve out a state in Ireland, the role of strong German state nobles in carving out states in the Near East, the • the role of Muslim raids on Italy in creating Teutonic Knights’ seizure of Prussia) and how strong Italian city-states kings could take advantage of this private • a comparison of this last wave of invasions with enterprise (most notably when the king of the Germanic invasions that brought the France gained control of Languedoc in the western Roman Empire to an end wake of the Albigensian Crusade) It may be useful to refer to the chapter’s Document • the role of a rising merchant class (essential to feature during your lecture. the story of the Italian trading states in the 234 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

Mediterranean, the Crusades, and the European 3. Contextualization (large or small group). expansion into the Baltic) “Faith or reason—the longest argument.” • the role of religion as a catalyst in the various crusading movements This chapter presents the development of tension between faith and reason in medieval Europe. Ask students to: THINGS TO DO IN THE • lay out the main reasons why this tension CLASSROOM developed in the medieval context • discuss which medieval factors are still part of the modern faith/reason debate Discussion Topics • discuss which factors are unique to the modern world 1. Comparison (large or small group). “Caesaropapism or ecclesiastical independence?” Classroom Activities This chapter presented two styles of Christian Church development—the caesaropapism of the 1. Role-playing exercise (small group). Byzantine Empire and the greater independence of “Converting Russia.” spiritual authorities in Western Europe. Choose two Most of the class consists of advisers to Grand Prince teams, and ask them to debate with each other which Vladimir of Kiev, who has decided that the time has system has the greatest advantages. Make sure they come to align his state with one of the dominant stay medieval as much as possible! religions of the tenth century. Select groups of students to enact delegations from the four religions 2. Misconception/Difficult Topic (large or small he is considering— Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, and group). “That the era of the Middle Ages in Eastern Orthodoxy. Europe was a ‘Dark Age.’” Let each delegation try to convince the class that Few things annoy scholars of medieval Europe more its religion is the best. Make sure that the students than calling their era a “Dark Age.” Yet one still performing the reenactment (1) do some research finds the term in the realm of popular history, no beyond the textbook and (2) remain true to their matter how hard we try to discourage it. The purpose tenth-century context (i.e., not presenting modern of this discussion is to consider what truth, if any, Reform Judaism or any other religious branch that there is in that old stereotype. had not yet been invented). Begin with a brief explanation of how the term “Dark Ages” came into use for Europe during the 2. Clicker question. period of third-wave civilizations. (It was invented Would you rather live in Song China or in later by Renaissance scholars who had a strong stake in medieval Europe? implying that nothing worthwhile had happened between antiquity and their own glorious time.) Then 3. Map-analysis exercise (large or small group). ask students to discuss the following: “A fragmented Europe.” • What are various reasons why a civilization If possible, display to the class a physical map of could be called “dark”? Europe that includes modern political borders. Ask • Using those criteria, are there any civilizations your students to: we have studied that fit the description? • Are there parts of the European Middle Ages • identify the geographical elements that that could be defined as “dark”? contributed to European political fragmentation • If you were to draw a timeline, which part of (mountains, major rivers, etc.—but be sure to the period covered in this chapter would fit remind them that rivers and bodies of water can your definition? often facilitate contact) • identify the regions where separate states formed for no clear geographical reason (look especially at Eastern Europe for this) CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 235

• discuss what other factors made for commoners, pagan priests, and so on. Then ask other fragmentation in regions where no physical members of the class to develop missionary reason is apparent strategies to convert their classmates. What techniques would they use? Which members of society would they target first? Would they use the Class Discussion for the approaches of Boniface or Gregory? Once they have come up with their strategies, ask the “missionaries” Documents and Visual present them to the Anglo-Saxon students. Sources Features Encourage the Anglo-Saxon role-players to research the society they come from in order to develop questions for the missionaries. What reasons would Comparison: Teaching Buddhism to Christians they find compelling when deciding whether to (large or small group) convert? To prompt students, you might ask them to An important thread in this feature is that conversion consider the potential dangers of converting for their to Christianity was often facilitated by the characters. You might also ask them to consider what assimilation of the holy sites, customs, practices, and the traditional religion of the region already religious language of the region in which accomplishes for them. missionaries sought converts. The purpose of this discussion is: • to strengthen student understanding of these Classroom Activities conversion strategies for the Documents and • to broaden student understanding of Buddhist thought. Visual Sources Features

Ask students to consider in broad terms the Comparison (large or small group): Religious similarities between Buddhism and Christianity as Art in the Buddhist and Christian Traditions universal missionary religious traditions. Review the techniques used by Christian missionaries in their Expand on Using the Evidence question 4 to efforts to spread their faith into Western Europe. compare the uses, stylistic conventions, and Then ask students which of these techniques might iconography in religious art from the Buddhist and productively be employed by Buddhist missionaries Christian traditions. Ask students to compare and if they had sought to convert pagan western Europe. contrast the Christian icons in these visual sources Would the Buddhist religious message likely receive with the depictions of Buddhist art found in the the same reception? Would the techniques of Visual Source feature in Chapter 4. Some specific Christian missionaries also work for Buddhist questions to consider include: missionaries? • What different stylistic conventions can one Finally, ask students to consider whether the identify? Buddhist message could be made comprehensible to • What role does iconography play in both Christians in a converted Western Europe. How traditions? might Buddha’s message be explained using • What from the essays accompanying the Christian concepts? Could you imagine a form of features can one discover about the uses of Buddha gospels (rather than Jesus sutras) being these religious images? composed in the West? You might also consider how • Which images do the students find most the stance of Charlemagne, as compared to Emperor engaging? Taizon, might impact the success or failure of • Which to they find most difficult to engage Buddhist missionaries. with? Role-Playing: Converting Western Europe to Make sure students consider which questions Christianity religious art can and cannot help historians to answer. Using the visual sources as guides, ask students to take on the personae of various members of Anglo- Saxon society: kings and queens, warriors, 236 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

Analysis: Religious Art in the Christian and site helped assure the city’s cultural and strategic Muslim Traditions importance for many centuries. (pron. con-stan- tih-NO-pul) Both the Christian and Muslim faiths have produced Crusades: Modern term meaning “ventures of the traditions that embrace art and traditions that reject cross,” used to describe the “holy wars” waged it. Explore the two traditions using the visual source by Western Christendom from 1095 until the end in this chapter and in Chapter 9, supplemented with of the Middle Ages and beyond; Crusades could other Persian Mughal and Ottoman miniatures. only be declared by the pope and were marked Ask students to compare the religious art of the by participants swearing a vow and receiving an two traditions and list the similarities and indulgence in return. differences. Prompt them by asking questions such Eastern Orthodox Christianity: Branch of as, if or how is God represented? How are Jesus and Christianity that developed in the eastern part of Muhammad represented? What other subjects are the Roman Empire and gradually separated, depicted? You may want to point out to students that mostly on matters of practice, from the branch of ultimately, the Christian faith proved more inclined Christianity dominant in Western Europe; noted to embrace religious art than the Islamic faith. for the subordination of the Church to political Conclude by asking students to consider what authorities, a married clergy, the use of leavened arguments exist in the Yahweh tradition against bread in the Eucharist, and insistence on church religious art. What do they think of these arguments? councils as the ultimate authority in Christian Do the critics have a valid concern? Because this belief and practice. activity is intended to act as a bridge between Ethiopian Christianity: Emerging in the fourth Chapters 9 and 10, be sure to emphasize the shared century with the conversion of the rulers of cultural tradition out of which both Christianity and Axum, this Christian church proved more Islam emerged. resilient than other early churches in Africa. Located in the mountainous highlands of modern Eritrea and Ethiopia, it was largely cut off from WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE? other parts of Christendom and developed traditions that made it distinctive from other Byzantine Empire: Term used by modern historians Christian Churches. to refer to the surviving eastern Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire: Term invented in the twelfth during the medieval centuries; named after the century to describe the Germany-based empire ancient Greek city Byzantium, on the site of founded by Otto I in 962 C.E. which the Roman emperor Constantine founded Icons: Holy images venerated in the Eastern a new capital, Constantinople, in 330 C.E. (pron. Orthodox Church. BIZ-an-teen) Jesus Sutras: The product of Nestorian Christians caesaropapism: A political-religious system in living in China, these sutras articulate the which the secular ruler is also head of the Christian message using Buddhist and Daoist religious establishment, as in the Byzantine concepts. Empire. (pron. SEEZ-ar-oh-PAPE-ism). Justinian: Byzantine emperor (r. 527–565 C.E.), Cecilia Penifader: An illiterate peasant woman noted for his short-lived reconquest of much of (1297–1344) from the English village of the former western Roman Empire and for his Brigstock, whose life provides a window into the codification of Roman law. conditions of ordinary rural people even if her Kievan Rus: State that emerged around the city of life was more independent and prosperous than Kiev in the ninth century C.E.; a culturally most. diverse region that included Vikings as well as Charlemagne: Ruler of the Carolingian Empire (r. Finnic and Baltic peoples. The conversion of 768–814) who staged an imperial revival in Vladimir, the grand prince of Kiev, to Orthodox Western Europe. (pron. SHAHR-leh-mane) Christianity in 988 had long-term implications Constantinople: New capital for the eastern half of for Russia. (pron. key-YEV-an ROOS) the Roman Empire, established by Emperor Nubian Christianity: Emerging in the fifth and Constantine in 330 C.E. on the site of the ancient sixth centuries in the several kingdoms of Nubia Greek city of Byzantium; Constantinople’s to the south of Egypt, this Christian church highly defensible and economically important thrived for six hundred years but had largely CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 237

disappeared by 1500 C.E. by which time most of • McKitterick, Rosamond, ed. The Early Middle the region’s population practiced Islam. Ages: Europe, 400–1000. Oxford: Oxford Prince Vladimir of Kiev: Grand prince of Kiev (r. University Press, 2001. Probably the most 978–1015 C.E.) whose conversion to Orthodox balanced among recent studies of the early Christianity led to the incorporation of Russia medieval centuries. into the sphere of Eastern Orthodoxy. (pron. vlad-IH-mir) Roman Catholic Church: Western European LITERATURE branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a A vast array of medieval primary sources is available major break in 1054 C.E.; “Roman Catholic” was in English translation; the works listed here were not commonly used until after the Protestant selected as particularly suitable for classroom use. Reformation, but the term is just because, by the eleventh century, Western Christendom defined • Burgess, Glyn S., trans. The Song of Roland. itself in centralized terms, with the bishop of Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990. Written about Rome (the pope) as the ultimate authority in the time of the First Crusade, this is widely matters of doctrine. regarded as the greatest of all medieval epics, Western Christendom: Western European branch telling of the defeat of Charlemagne’s rearguard of Christianity that gradually defined itself as at the Battle of Roncesvalles. separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major • Chrétien de Troyes. Ywain: The Knight of the break in 1054 C.E. that has still not been healed. Lion. Trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. A relatively short twelfth-century romance that illustrates the values of chivalry and courtly love particularly FURTHER READING well. • Comnena, Anna. The Alexiad. Trans. E. R. A. • France, John. The Crusades and the Expansion Sewter. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. A of Catholic Christendom, 1000–1714. London: Byzantine princess’s account of her father, Routledge, 2005. An interesting and ambitious Emperor Alexius Comnenus. This work is work by a leading historian of the Crusades. particularly interesting because it includes an • Halsall, Paul, ed. Internet Medieval account of the First Crusade from a Byzantine Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ perspective. sbook.html. A vast array of primary sources • Einhard and Notker the Stammerer. Two Lives available on the Internet. Many of them are of Charlemagne. Harmondsworth: Penguin, short excerpts that are well suited to use in the 1969. Einhard’s classic account of his hero classroom. Charlemagne provides an inside look at the • Jordan, William Chester. Europe in the High Carolingian renaissance and how Middle Ages. London: Penguin, 2001. A contemporaries regarded the great emperor. readable recent survey. Notker’s account, written two generations later, • Keen, Maurice, ed. Medieval Warfare: A shows the development of the Charlemagne History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, legend. 1999. A readable collection of essays that • Hamilton, Rita, and Janet Perry, trans. The covers just about anything you would want to Poem of the Cid. Harmondsworth: Penguin, know about medieval war. 1985. A magnificent tale of border warfare in • The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies, eleventh-century Spain; the hero of this tale is http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/. This site, the historic commander Ruy Díaz, better known sponsored by Georgetown University, is a as “the Cid.” comprehensive resource for material on • Magnusson, Magnus, and Hermann Pálsson, medieval Europe available on the Internet. trans. The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery • Links Related to Early and Medieval of America. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965. Christianity, http://faculty.fullerton.edu/bstarr/ Although not written until the thirteenth 345A.LINKS.htm. An interesting assortment of century, the two short sagas included in this primary sources, secondary articles, and volume provide valuable material about Leif artwork. 238 CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION

Eriksson’s attempt to establish a Scandinavian ADDITIONAL BEDFORD/ colony in America. • Procopius. The Secret History. Trans. G. A. ST. MARTIN’S RESOURCES Williamson and Peter Sarris. Rev. ed. London: Penguin, 2007. A racy, at times downright FOR CHAPTER 10 scurrilous contemporary account of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian and his PowerPoint Maps, Images, Lecture Outlines, notorious wife, Theodora. and i>clicker Content These presentation materials are downloadable from the Media and Supplements tab at bedfordstmartins FILM .com/strayer/catalog, and they are available on an Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM. They include ready- • Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire: made and fully customizable PowerPoint multimedia Christianity in the Seventh and Eighth presentations built around lecture outlines that are Centuries. Films for the Humanities and embedded with maps, figures, and selected images Sciences, 1999. 48 minutes. Compares from the textbook and are supplemented by more Byzantium to Western Europe during this detailed instructor notes on key points. Also critical period in which Islam spread across the available are maps and selected images in JPEG and Near East and North Africa. PowerPoint format; content for i>clicker, a • Byzantium from Splendor to Ruin. Films for the classroom response system, in Microsoft Word and Humanities and Sciences, 1989. 43 minutes. PowerPoint formats; the Instructor’s Resource Traces the rise and decline of Byzantium, from Manual in Microsoft Word format; and outline maps the founding of Constantinople to its conquest in PDF format for quizzing or handouts. All files are by the Ottoman Turks. suitable for copying onto transparency acetates. • Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1989. Documents and Essays from Worlds of History: 31 minutes. Examines the emergence of the A Comparative Reader, Fifth Edition Carolingian Empire in the eighth and ninth The following documents, essays, and illustrations to centuries. accompany Chapter 10 are available in the following • The Crusades. Discovery Channel, 2003. 50 chapters of this reader by Kevin Reilly: minutes. Examines the Crusades with an eye toward addressing the myths that surround the Chapter 9: phenomenon. • Ulrich von Liechtenstein, The Service of Ladies • The End of Rome, the Birth of Europe. Films • Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love for the Humanities and Sciences, 2002. 52 • Procopius, The Secret History minutes. Explores the conquest and settlement of Western Europe by Germanic peoples. Chapter 10: • The Feudal System. Films for the Humanities • Fulcher of Chartres, An Account of Pope and Sciences, 1989. 38 minutes. Explores the Urban’s Speech at Clermont economic and social foundations of medieval • Chronicle of Solomon bar Simson Europe. • Ibn al-Athir, Causes of the Crusade • The Luttrell Psalter: Everyday Life in Medieval • Anna Comnena, The Alexiad England. Films for the Humanities and • Fulcher of Chartres, The Siege of Antioch Sciences, 1998. 22 minutes. Uses the evidence • Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle in the richly illuminated Luttrell Psalter to • Raymond of St. Giles, Count of Toulouse, The reconstruct everyday life on an early Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders fourteenth-century English estate. The film also • Ibn al-Athir, The Conquest of Jerusalem includes details about how and why the Luttrell • Letter from a Jewish Pilgrim in Egypt Psalter was made. • The Middle Ages. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1996. 25 minutes. Provides a brief overview of the Middle Ages. CHAPTER 10 • THE WORLDS OF CHRISTENDOM: CONTRACTION, EXPANSION, AND DIVISION 239

Online Study Guide at bedfordstmartins.com/ Computerized Test Bank strayer This test bank provides over fifty exercises per The Online Study Guide helps students synthesize chapter, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, the material from the textbook as well as practice the short-answer, and full-length essay questions. skills historians use to make sense of the past. Each Instructors can customize quizzes, add or edit both chapter contains specific testing exercises, including questions and answers, and export questions and a multiple-choice self-test that focuses on important answers to a variety of formats, including WebCT conceptual ideas; a flashcard activity that tests and Blackboard. The disc includes correct answers students on their knowledge of key terms; and two and essay outlines. interactive map activities intended to strengthen students’ geographic skills. Instructors can monitor students’ progress through an online Quiz Gradebook or receive email updates.