Chapter Five
Fiefdom, Monastery, and Romanesque
•
After the Romans left England in 406, Germanic and Norse tribes—
Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians—invited as mercenaries by
Romanized British leaders, began to operate on their own
•
Their Anglo-Saxon culture, steeped in Germanic and Norse values and
traditions, came to dominate cultural life in Britain
•
Christianity almost completely disappeared
•
Feudalism, in which a stronger patron provided protection to a weaker
client in exchange for his loyalty, became the dominant system
•
First excavated in 1939, Sutton Hoo, near the modern city of Ipswich,
England, yielded a burial mound containing the remains of a wealthy
and powerful Anglo-Saxon man, probably a seventh-century king
•
A 90' long and 14' wide treasure-filled ship had been used as the final
resting place of the man
•
An elaborate burial ceremony, which included cremation—forbidden by
Christianity—and apparent human and animal sacrifice
•
Only two objects discovered at the site show any evidence of a Christian
culture—two silver spoons inscribed with the names Saulos and Paulos
in Greek lettering
Note the symmetrical design, the combination of interlaced organic and geometric shapes, and
the animal motifs of this cloisonné purse lid. In the burial site, it contained gold coins and ingots.
•
After the Romans withdrew from Britain in 406, Christianity had
survived only in the westernmost reaches of the British Isles—Cornwall,
Wales, and Ireland
•
Around 563, monasteries began to be established, marking beginning of
the “re-Christianization” of Britain
•
The Celtic Christian church differed from Roman Christianity by
celebrating Easter on the vernal equinox, believing Mary was exempt
from original sin, and placing authority with the abbots and abbesses
instead of the bishop. It invented private confession
•
The task of Christian missionaries in England was to transfer the
allegiance of the people from their king, or thane, to God
•
They could not offer gold, or material wealth, but only salvation, or
spiritual fulfillment
•
They illuminated their manuscripts with a rich decorative vocabulary,
adorning Christianity in gold and silver, jewels and enamel, and
placing it within the architecture of the most magnificent kind
•
The carpet page of the
Lindisfarne Gospels is an
example of a Celtic cross,
supposedly created by St.
Patrick when he made the
mark of a Latin cross through
an ancient pagan stone
monument
•
The corner designs of the
page recall the decorations on
the Sutton Hoo purse cover
•
Made in the monastery on the
Scottish island of Iona in the late 8th
century
•
The Greek letters chi, rho, and iota,
an abbreviation of Christi , form the
basis of this page’s design, which
illustrates one of the most beautiful
capitals
•
So great was the renown of this book
that in 1066 it was referred to as “the
chief relic of the Western world”
•
The Franks were one of the many Germanic tribes that had moved
westward beginning in the 4th century CE
•
By 732 Christianity was firmly established in France
•
Under the leadership of Charlemagne, the Frankish kingdom grew to
include all of modern-day France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and
almost all of Germany, Northern Italy and Corsica, and Navarre in
Northern Spain
•
Charlemagne brought one
after another pagan tribe to
submission, forcing them to
give up their brand of
Christianity and submit to
Rome’s Nicene Creed
•
On Christmas Day 800 in
Rome, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne emperor,
creating what later would be
known as the Holy Roman
Empire
•
The monastery was a central part of Carolingian tradition, arguably its
most important institution
•
Monastic life, as developed by Benedictine of Nursia (ca. 457-547),
was to be a community of like-minded people in the pursuit of
religious perfection who possessed nothing of their own and were
never to marry
•
The Swiss monastery of St. Gall, near Lake Constance, was
Charlemagne’s ideal monastery. Laid out in modules, or standard
units of 2½', its functional, orderly plan was used in many Benedictine
monasteries
•
The nave and the transept of
the church, each 40' wide, are
composed of 16 modules. Each
monk’s bed was to be 2½
modules. The width of each
garden path was 1¼ modules
•
This systematic arrangement
reflects an increasing tendency
in medieval thinking to regard
Christianity as a logical and
rational philosophy of life
•
Religious life offered women, generally the daughters of aristocrats, an
alternative to life as a housewife or worker
•
One of the foremost women of the age was Hildegard of Bingen (10981179), who ran the monastery at Bingen, near Frankfurt, Germany
•
Although she wrote tracts on natural science, medicine, and the
treatment of disease, an allegorical dialogue between the vices and
virtues, and a significant body of devotional songs, she is best known as
the first in a long line of female Christian visionaries and mystics
•
The Capetian dynasty was begun by Hugh Capet in 987. Their
most contentious relationship was with the dukes of Normandy,
an area that had been claimed by Viking raiders
•
In 1066, William of Normandy (later William I, the Conqueror)
claimed the English throne on the death of the heirless English
king Edward the Confessor on January 5, 1066
•
Bayeux Tapestry, commissioned by William’s half-brother, the
Bishop Odo of Bayeux, narrates the Battle of Hastings and
William’s ascension to the throne. Thus England and northern
France became one country with one king
Below, Harold swears allegiance to
William, his right hand on the altar
between them, and his left on a
chest presumably housing sacred
objects from the Cathedral at Bayeux
This, the first section of the tapestry,
depicts Edward the Confessor talking
to Harold, earl of Wessex, his wife’s
brother. He is sending Harold on a
mission to France, ostensibly to tell
William, duke of Normandy, that he
will be Edward’s successor
Having returned to England just before
Edward’s death and having assumed the
throne, Harold is disturbed by the arrival
of Halley’s Comet, visible in the top
border. The comet would have been
seen by the Anglo-Saxons as a portent of
disaster and resulting, the tapestry
implies, from his having broken his oath
Harold, with the green shield,
receives an arrow to the eye at
the Battle of Hastings.
Immediately to the right, a
Norman soldier slays him

Throughout the Middle Ages it was customary for Christians to do
penance by going on a religious pilgrimage

The most popular (and also most difficult and hence potentially most
rewarding) sites for these pilgrimages were Jerusalem, Rome, and
Santiago de Compostela, in the northwest corner of modern Spain,
where the body of Saint James the Greater lay at rest

Specific routes soon developed that allowed pilgrims to visit other
sacred sites that housed relics—bones, clothing or other possessions
of Christian saints and martyrs—along the way
•
Pilgrimage sites were quick to capitalize on the sometimes massive
visitations
•
From 1050 to 1200 so-called pilgrimage churches arose in France
and Spain
•
Their architecture and decoration define a period called the
Romanesque, “in the manner of the Romans,” because they
incorporated elements of Roman architectural style—the basilica
tradition, portals modeled after Rome’s triumphal arches
•
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy is one of the oldest of the pilgrimage
churches
•
With wide aisles and a two-story gallery, it was built to accommodate
large numbers of visitors
•
The space created by the barrel vault, a distinctive feature of
Romanesque architecture, was designed to raise the worshipping
pilgrims’ eyes and thus direct their thoughts to heaven
•
Saint Foy (Saint Faith) was a
child who was martyred
in 303 for refusing to
worship pagan gods
•
Her skull was contained in
an elaborate jeweled
reliquary that stood in the
choir of the church

Portals of Romanesque churches were
of special importance as they were the
first thing the visitor would see; they
also marked the boundary between
secular and sacred space

All elements of the Romanesque portals
were subject to decorative relief—the
tympanum (the space under the arch),
the lintel jambs (the vertical elements
on both sides of the door), the trumeau
(the column or post in the middle of the
door), and the archivolt (the curved
molding formed by the voussoirs
making up the arch)

Cluny, founded in about 910, was a reformed Benedictine
monastery that controlled most of the pilgrimage churches

In 1088, Abbot Hugh de Semur began work on a new church for
the abbey

The entire arrangement reflects the ideal Carolingian monastery
at Saint-Gall. In the twelfth century, it was described as
“something of the likeness of the paradise of God”
"Third Abbot Cathedral”
Video will play automatically.
From Cluny: A Light in the Night (length: 4:33). Item #8636 © 1995
from FMG

The Crusades were four attempts (1096-1204) to retake the holy lands
from Muslim control

On November 25, 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II (pope
1088-1099) preached the First Crusade

The First Crusade was motivated by several factors: religious zeal, the
desire to reduce conflict at home by sending off Europe’s feuding
aristocrats, defending Christendom from barbarity, the promise of
monetary reward, and the nobility’s hot blood and sense of adventure

Of all the medieval castles of Europe and the Middle East, none
survives that is as impressive as Krak des Chevaliers in northern Syria

Krak des Chevaliers was modeled on the castle-fortresses built by the
Normans in England and northern France

First occupied by Crusaders in 1109, it was used beginning in 1142 as
a hospital for the sick and wounded. Twelve times it withstood siege
before finally falling to Berber invaders in 1271

One of the greatest beauties in Europe, Eleanor of Aquitaine was wife
to two kings—Louis VII of France and King Henry II of England

From 1170 to 1179 Eleanor and her daughter by Louis VII, Marie, lived
in Poitiers and established the city as the center of a secular culture
and literary movement that celebrated the art of courtly love

Troubadour poets, most of them men but a few women (trobairitz),
can be said to have “invented” romantic love as we know it today:
longing for a woman of higher status, suffering, lying sleepless at
night, losing one’s appetite, willing to perform any deed to win his
lady’s favor

At the left, a lady listens as a
troubadour poet expresses his
love for her

In the center is a knight, sword
in one hand and key to the
lady’s heart in the other

On the right the knight kneels
before the lady; the rope
around his neck, held by her,
signifies his fidelity to her