World History I – Ms. Fitz
Europe After
the Fall of
Rome
This is our last unit of study together this year.  This packet contains the handouts for most of
the rest of the year, as well as your calendar all the way to final exams.
DO NOT LOSE THIS PACKET!!!
Name: __________________________
Block: __________________________
Table of Contents
Title Page
…1
Table of Contents
…2
Essential Question and Objectives
…3
Calendar (incl. Final Exams)
... 4
Unit Vocabulary
…5
Feudalism and Manorialism
…6–7
…8
Peasant’s Life
**Monasteries: The Benedictines
… 9 – 11
**Charlemagne
… 12
Lay Investiture
… 13 – 15
**Church and Conflict in the 11th Century
… 16 – 18
The Crusades
**The Success of the Crusades
Development of Towns
**The Protestant Reformation
**The Renaissance
…19
…20 – 22
…23
…26 – 29
…30
** indicates a homework assignment. Any classwork not completed in class will become
additional homework.
PLEASE NOTE: The calendar, assignments, and homework are subject to change should it
be necessary. You are responsible for any and all changes so please pay attention in class and
check the website regularly.
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Europe After the Fall of Rome
Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation
Essential Question: How does the interaction between religious and secular authorities
influence society?
Objectives:
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Describe Europe after the fall of Rome.
Describe feudalism.
Evaluate how religious and secular authorities interacted in feudal society.
Explain how secular and religious leaders used each other to maintain legitimacy.
Explain how monasteries increased the legitimacy of the church.
Describe the conflict between the Pope and King Henry IV.
Evaluate how the church’s increased power led to the Schism of 1054.
Explain how the increased church power led to the Crusades.
Evaluate the political, economic, and religious effects of the Crusades.
Evaluate the political, economic, and religious effects of the Plague.
Identify the causes of the Protestant Reformation.
Describe the actions of Martin Luther and John Calvin.
Describe how Luther challenged the church.
Describe the role of the printing press during the Reformation.
Explain Luther’s effect on Christianity.
Define the values of the Renaissance: humanism, individualism, and secularism.
Explain how art communicated the values of the Renaissance.
Describe how Machiavelli used the idea of individualism in The Prince to advise
secular authorities.
Vocabulary:
Secular
fief
knight
clergy
lay investiture
black death
Benedict
95 Theses
monastery
lord
serf
pope/papacy
Pope Urban II
indulgences
printing press
humanism
feudalism
vassal
peasant
sacrament
Crusades
guild
Martin Luther
individualism
manor
tithe
Charlemagne
canon law
Schism 1054
Protestant Reformation
Renaissance
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Calendar for the Rest of the Year
Week of
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Monday
B, E – Tuesday
C, F – Wednesday
E – Wednesday
B, C, F - Thursday
Friday
5/25 – 5/29
No School
Memorial Day
6/1 – 6/5
Due: Church and Conflict in the
11th Century
MCAS Week
Split C/B Wed In-Class: The Crusades
HW: Effects of the Crusades
In-Class: Peasant Life and
Feudalism
Due: Monastery
Due: Charlemagne
In-Class: Monastery Day
In-Class: Lay Investiture
HW: Charlemagne
HW: Finish Lay Investiture &
Start Church and Conflict
Due: Protestant Reform.
Due: Preview of Renaissance
In-Class: Reformation
In-Class: Renaissance
HW: Preview of Renaissance
Introduce Project + Group
Assignments
HW: Monastery
Split C/B Wednesday
Due: Effects of the Crusades
In-Class: The Plague!
HW: Protestant Reform.
HW: ABC – CLIO Article
6/8 – 6/12
Due: ABC – CLIO Article
Due: Work on Project
Due: Finished Presentation
Due: Active Studying
In-Class: Work on Project
In-Class: Finish Project
In-Class: Presentations,
Reflections
In-Class: Begin Social
Studies Review
HW: Finish Presentation
HW: Active Studying
6/15 – 6/19
Review and
Final Exams
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Review Day 1 Review Day 2
A1
C1
E1
G1
B2
D2
F2
H1
Wednesday- Finals
Thursday- Finals
Friday- Finals
8:30am – English
8:30am – Math
8:30am – Science
12:00pm – History
12:00pm – World Lang
12:00pm – Make-Ups
Vocabulary
Secular
Fief
Vassal
Manor
Tithe
Serf
Feudalism
Clergy
Peasant
Monastery
Canon Law
Sacrament
Lay Investiture
Schism
Black Death
Indulgence
Reformation
Humanism
Individualism
Renaissance
Feudalism
Objective: Explain how feudalism worked and describe its benefits and drawbacks.
Part I: Read about feudalism (political) and manorialism (economic) and fill in the chart.
King
Farmer
Peasants
Vocabulary
Loyalty
Protection
Knights
Nobles
Fiefs (large tract of land)
Benefits
Serf
Land
Vassals
Drawbacks
Lords &
Kings
Knights &
Vassals
Serfs
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Manorialism and Feudalism
Manorialism was an economic system that was common in medieval Europe. Sometimes equated
with feudalism, manorialism describes peasants' and serfs' relations to the manor that controlled
the land on which they lived and worked. (In general, feudalism describes the law, politics, and
society of the whole of medieval Europe and specifically, vassals' relations to their lords.) There
was considerable variation in manorial practices across Europe. In some cases, free peasants
worked most of the land, while in others, serfs did. Some areas formed manors late, and others
never formed them at all.
Under manorialism, life was centered around a manor, a local jurisdiction or geographical area,
owned by a nobleman. The manor was located near a town or village inhabited by peasants. The
lord of the manor was the de facto ruler of all the peasants in his village; he held legal authority
over them and was in charge of administering the law and holding court. The peasants provided
him tribute in return for his protection. In addition, the lord might control a number of serfs,
workers who were legally tied to the land. For most serfs and peasants, the manor constituted
their entire universe. They were born there, lived there, and died there without ever leaving its
boundaries.
The manorial system evolved out of the collapsed Roman Empire around the fifth and sixth
centuries CE. Without the centralized government that the Romans had provided, people had to
organize themselves in some other way. For lack of anyplace better to go, former slaves settled
on the land of their former owners. Gradually their status changed: they were no longer owned
by their masters but were now tied to the land; whoever owned the land also owned their labor.
A manor could include several categories of land. There was the lord’s own private area for his
family that might include a manor house or fortified castle, a private garden, stables, and other
facilities. Surrounding that would be the lord's holdings, lands that the lord owned but that were
inhabited by peasants (who rented the land) or serfs (who were tied to the land). Most manors
also included common lands, which the peasants and serfs used to graze animals or hunt and fish.
In addition, a manor could have acres of forest land, which the lord could use for his own
hunting or charge fees to others who wanted to hunt on it.
A small manor might house 12 families, while a large one might have as many as 60 households.
A very prosperous nobleman could control hundreds of manors, each with its own lord who paid
him tribute. At any size, however, a manor was an expensive undertaking. Usually, smaller
manors did not have many serfs because it was too expensive for a lord to take care of them;
instead, the lord would rent his lands to peasants.
Serfs were not exactly slaves because the lord could not sell them, but they were required to
work for the lord by providing specific services or crops and livestock. The status and
relationship to the land were hereditary; when a serf died, another member of his family would
take over the payments to the lord and continue occupying the land.
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BBC- Peasants Video
Why was being a peasant the
worst job ever?
Why was being a peasant not
so bad?
What were the causes of the
Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381?
8
Monasteries: The Benedictines
Directions: Read the following article about the Power of the Church & Benedictine
Monasteries. As you read, annotate and find evidence to support the claims.
Goal:
Explain the power of the Church in Medieval Europeu
Analyze the religious and secular roles of the Church
Part I. Define Vocabulary
Sacrament
Canon Law
Excommunication
Interdiction
Part II. Provide specific evidence to support each claim. Use vocabulary in your evidence
The Church was a dominant and important force in the lives of Medieval Europeans.
The Church’s religious authority enabled it to influence secular authorities.
Monasteries increased the power of the Church.
Power of the Church & Benedictines
Part I.
Read about the power of the Church during the Middle Ages
Church Power
With the central governments of Europe weak, the Church became the most important force
unifying European society. An early pope had said that God had made two areas of influence in
the world—religious and political. The pope was in charge of spiritual matters, so the emperor
would bow to the pope. The emperor and other rulers were in charge of political affairs, and in
turn the pope would bow to the emperor. Over the years, though, the difference was not so clear.
Popes often tried to influence the actions of rulers, who clashed with them in a struggle for
power.
The Middle Ages was an Age of Faith, when people were bound together by their belief in God
and the teachings of the Church. Though life was hard, the peasants hoped that by obeying God
and doing their work they would earn the reward of being saved and taken to heaven after death.
Priests and other religious officials administered the sacraments, or important religious
ceremonies. These rites paved the way for achieving salvation. For example, through the
sacrament of baptism, people became part of the Christian community and through confirmation
you publicly acknowledge membership with the Church.
The Church also developed a body of law called canon law. It set standards for the conduct of
people and officials of the Church. These laws ruled over such issues as marriage and religious
practices. They applied to all Christians, from kings to peasants. The Church also set up courts
that took charge when people broke these laws.
Two punishments were especially harsh. If the Church excommunicated someone, he or she
was banished from the Church. The person was denied the chance for eternal life in heaven.
Popes often used this power as a threat to try and force rulers to do what they wanted. The other
punishment was interdiction. When a ruler refused to obey the pope, the Church leader could
place the land under interdiction. That meant that no sacred actions of the Church could
officially take place in that land. The people deeply feared this because it meant they were
doomed for eternal suffering.
Part II. Benedictine Monasteries
A monastery is a place where a community of monks lives under religious vows.
Read about the role of the Benedictine Monks.
The Benedictines were a group of monks that devoted their life to God. Benedict’s original group
of followers were not members of the clergy but sought to escape the secular world. The monks
made vows of stability, reformation of life, and obedience. A daily routine was fixed for the
monks, with a balance between work and prayer and moderation in all things as its guiding light.
Benedict, the founder of the group, intended for the monastery to be self-supporting in order to
minimize contact with the outside world.
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New Benedictine monasteries throughout Europe sought to convert pagans. Although each
monastery followed the Benedictine Rule, each was independent. Their roles also changed as
society became more feudal. People began to view the monks as defending them from evil and
the monks' prayers as providing spiritual salvation for the general population. The monks were
expected to work not just for their own salvation, but for everyone's.
For many people a local monastic church offered the only practical opportunity for them to take
part in religious services. Monks patiently and persistently served the needs of rural populations,
and over the decades and centuries they helped to instill Christian values in countless generations
of European peasants.
The monasteries also prospered under the feudal system and became landlords as time went by.
Feudal commitments, such as the need to provide knights for greater lords, drew the monasteries
into more secular affairs. As the general level of learning declined, Benedictines often filled such
roles as clerks, financial officers, and architects.
As more monasteries appeared in Europe, they provided a variety of social services. They
served as inns for travelers and places of refuge for individuals suffering from natural or other
calamities. They served as orphanages and provided medical treatment for the ill and injured.
Benedictine monasteries provided centers of learning for much of the Middle Ages. On a
practical level, the monasteries soon developed schools for young monks and for the children of
the local nobility. Large monasteries provided more advanced instruction for those preparing for
the priesthood or high ecclesiastical positions. Some monasteries maintained libraries and
scriptoria, where monks copied works of classical literature and philosophy as well as the
scriptures and other Christian writings. Almost all works of Latin literature that have come
down to the present survive because of copies made by medieval monks. Finally, monasteries
served as a source of literate, educated, and talented individuals, whose secretarial and
administrative services were crucial to the survival of feudal government in early medieval
Europe.
Beginning around 1200, the move away from purely spiritual concerns to more worldly cares
caused a decline in the spirituality in the monasteries. Servants and an aristocratic lifestyle were
common among Benedictine monks by 1000. Before that date, the children of the poor were
often admitted to the order. By the High Middle Ages, membership was most often limited to
members of the nobility who could pay an expensive dowry for admission. Many of the causes
were economic. Incomes declined, while expenses remained high. Besides the aristocratic
lifestyle of the monks, costs included such charitable work as distributing bread to the poor.
Building programs to enhance the beauty of the monasteries proved to be a drain on resources as
well. The individual monasteries resisted efforts to centralize the order and reform many of its
practices. Competition from growing numbers of educated laymen, as well as advances such as
the printing press, reduced the monks’ ability to compete economically.
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Charlemagne
Objective: Explain how religious and secular leaders interacted with each other to
maintain their legitimacy.
Directions: Watch Khan Academy video about Charlemagne (about 8 minutes)
Google ‘Khan Academy Charlemagne’ or use link on my website.
Who was
Charlemagne? How
was he a bridge
between the Roman
Empire and Napoleon?
In what ways did
Charlemagne interact
with the Church?
How did each
gain/maintain
legitimacy?
Why did Leo &
Charlemagne need
each other?
What was the
Carolingian
Renaissance? How did
this connect the
Church and the State?
Write an argumentative claim that responds to the objective (1 sentence):
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Lay Investiture Controversy
A Conflict between Religious and Secular Authority
Introduction
Under feudalism, kings and nobles tried to influence the church. Kings claimed the authority to
appoint church officials through a process called lay investiture. The Investiture Controversy
began in the 11th century C.E. as a conflict between the papacy (the Pope) and the Holy Roman
Empire, which ruled over present-day Germany. Over the next 50 years, the struggle evolved
into a larger battle over whether the emperor would be able to continue to dominate the Catholic
Church at the expense of the papacy. By the time the controversy ended in 1122, both the
German aristocracy and the pope had increased their power, the German people had endured a
long civil war, and the papacy had become more interested and involved in secular affairs than
ever before.
Directions:
Read the story below about the conflict between the Pope & Henry IV.
Draw a comic strip that describes the conflict. You must use color and each frame
should describe the events of one paragraph, six frames in total.
When you are done with the comic strip, you should answer the questions.
The conflict that became the Investiture Controversy began when Holy Roman emperor Henry
IV came to the throne in 1056 with the desire to assert even more control over the election of
Church officials. Under Henry IV, the incidents of lay investiture in Germany increased, but the
new pope was not a relative or ally of the monarchy. Gregory VII was pope from 1073 to 1085
and had been a protégé of the energetic reformer Pope Leo. In order to continue the Church
reforms, Gregory condemned lay investiture in 1075.
With the encouragement of the large number of nobles who did not want to lose their power to
control local Catholic Church officials, Henry defied the pope's order. Henry also had the
support of many members of the German clergy who were angry with Gregory for his earlier
efforts to discourage clergy marriage and who were also nervous that the pope's reforms would
jeopardize their lucrative landholdings and state offices. Henry sent a powerfully-worded letter
to the pope in 1076 denouncing the decree and told Gregory to step down as the pope. Henry
continued to invest clergy in Germany and even invested bishops in places in Italy where the
pope had already invested someone else. That resulted in the pope excommunicating Henry and
his bishops in 1076, which freed the German nobility of their obligation to the emperor and
encouraged them to rebel against him.
In January 1077, Henry journeyed over the snowy Alps to the Italian town of Canossa. He
approached the castle where Pope Gregory was a guest. Gregory later described the scene:
“There, having laid aside all the belongings of royalty, wretchedly, with bare feet and clad in
wool, he [Henry IV] continued for three days to stand before the gate of the castle. Nor did he
desist from imploring with many tears the aid and consolation of the apostolic mercy until he had
moved all of those who were present there.” The Pope was obligated to forgive any sinner who
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begged so humbly. Still, Gregory kept Henry waiting in the snow for three days before ending
his excommunication. The meeting in Canossa was one of the most dramatic confrontations of
the Middle Ages. Yet it actually solved nothing. A triumphant Henry rushed home to punish the
nobles who had rebelled against him. The pope had gained an even greater victory by
humiliating the proudest rule in Europe. The key question of lay investiture, however, remained
undecided.
In 1080, the pope excommunicated Henry again and formally deposed him as emperor. Henry
slowly gathered allies among his nobles and clergy, and by 1085, he had enough power to march
on Rome. Before Henry's forces arrived, Gregory fled to southern Italy, where he died in exile.
The emperor did not, however, have enough power to appoint a new pope, so his struggle against
the papacy continued. The new pope, Urban II, who served until 1099, tried to resolve the
conflict, but given Henry's open hostility toward the papacy and both sides' unwillingness to
compromise, he failed.
Henry also faced opposition from his son and heir to the throne. His son thought that Henry was
ruining his inheritance and the authority of the German Crown with his long-term intransigence
in his dispute with the papacy. He openly challenged his father and fought him until Henry died
in 1106.
By 1122, both sides were willing to compromise. After long negotiations, Henry V and Pope
Calixtus II signed the Concordat of Worms, which was named for the German town in which the
talks took place. The agreement was not a total victory for the papacy, but it did decrease the
king's power. The Concordat of Worms temporarily solved the problem of lay investiture. The
German nobles used the weakness of the German emperors to seize more autonomy for
themselves and to make the king more dependent on their good will. The papacy became more
interested in secular affairs and more successful at competing with the rulers of Europe for
wealth and power.
Source: "Investiture Controversy." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 20 May
2011.
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Lay Investiture Questions
1. What is lay investiture?
2. What was the
Investiture Controversy
about? Who was it
between?
3. Why was Henry IV
excommunicated?
4. After Henry was
excommunicated the 1st
time, describe what
happened between him
and Pope Gregory.
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5. What were the
outcomes and effects of
the controversy?
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Church and Conflict in the 11th Century
Objective:
Evaluate the political, religious, and social power of the Medieval Church.
Directions:
Read the following passages and answer the questions.
PART I. The Great Schism
What were the causes of the Great Schism? How did the power of the church lead to conflict?
PART II. Pope Gregory
You’ve already read about the Lay Investiture Controversy and the Benedictine Monasteries. Why would
Gregory’s reforms (improving by correcting errors) grow the church’s social power?
PART III. The Seljuk Turks
Why were the Seljuk Turks a political threat to the Byzantine Empire? Why were they a religious threat to
Western Europe?
PART IV. Alexius and the Byzantines
Why did Alexius stress religious rather than political motives for Western Europe’s nobles to fight? Why did
Alexius write to nobles rather than kings (consider the social structure of Feudalism)?
PART V. Pope Urban II
Why did Emperor Alexius write to Pope Urban II even though he was in exile? What does this say about the
political power of the church?
PREDICTION
Why would Urban II be willing to use the power and influence of the church to support a Crusade to
Jersusalem? Explain one political, one religious, and one social motivation.
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PART I. The Great Schism
In the early centuries of Christianity the Church was governed by local bishops. Each community over
which a bishop presided was juris-dictionally independent from the rest, but they were all regarded as
part of a single, united body of Christ. The five most important episcopal sees were in Rome,
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, with the bishops of these cities taking on the title
of patriarch. After the spread of Islam in the eighth century the balance of ecclesiastical power was
upset: the churches of North Africa and the Middle East lost much of their influence, and only the
patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople remained as great centers of Christendom. When
Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 the situation became more polarized. Not
only were there two religious centers within the Christian world, but two rival empires as well. The
political tension between eastern and western Christendom emerged from this polarity….
A new controversy arose in the early eleventh century, when the Normans of southern Italy began
forcing the Byzantine churches there to adopt Latin (Catholic) practices. The (Greek) Patriarch of
Constantinople…responded by demanding that the Latin-rite churches of Constantinople should
conform to local usage. When the Latin churches refused, the Patriarch ordered them closed, leading
the Roman Pope to dispatch legates to settle the controversy. The attempt at reconciliation was a
failure; in the end the leader of the papal legates…placed a bull of excommunication on the high altar
of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, prompting the Greek Patriarch to respond with
excommunications directed at the West. This event is sometimes referred to as the Great Schism, and
the year 1054 is traditionally taken to mark the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches.…
"The East-West Schism." World Eras. Ed. Jeremiah Hackett. Vol. 4: Medieval Europe, 814-1350. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 392-393. World History in Context.
Web. 25 May 2015.
PART II. Pope Gregory
The church in Rome was coming off a long run of bad publicity when Gregory was made pope in
1073. The ninth and tenth centuries had marked an all-time low for the papacy; a whole succession of
pontiffs had used the office to build their personal wealth as they openly kept mistresses and fathered
children. In 1054 the Roman Church formally split from the Eastern Church. Simony, the practice of
selling church offices to the highest bidder, had become commonplace. Gregory was associated with a
group of reform-minded clergy…and, upon becoming pope, set about putting [reform] theory into
practice. For Gregory, church authority always trumped secular authority, a view that put him into
conflict with the powerful Holy Roman emperor, Henry IV (1050–1106). His stance against simony
and clerical marriage made him unpopular with many of his own priests and bishops….
"Pope Urban Calls for Crusades: November 27, 1095." Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Vol. 4: Europe.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. World History in Context. Web. 25 May 2015.
PART III. The Seljuk Turks
… The Byzantines gave the name "Turk" to the people who occupied a large area in central Asia. The
Turks were primarily a nomadic people…who belonged to any one of a number of tribes or clans. In
the tenth century they converted to the Islamic faith and became part of the Muslim empire.
One of these nomadic clans, the Seljuks, was large and powerful…. In 1055 they seized Baghdad, the
capital of modern-day Iraq but at that time in the nation of Persia. They then gained power over Syria
and the rest of Persia. They also launched an invasion of the Byzantine nation of Armenia, located east
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of Turkey and north of modern-day Iran. Finally, in 1071, a little more than two decades before the
start of the Crusades, they overthrew the Fatimids, the name of the Egyptian Muslim dynasty that ruled
Jerusalem. Once again, control of the Holy Land was in different hands.
People in Europe were alarmed by these developments for two reasons. First, they were worried that
the Seljuk Turks would deny Christians access to Jerusalem, a holy city. At a time when Europeans
identified so strongly with the church and believed that one way to win salvation in heaven was by
making a pilgrimage (a journey to a sacred place) to the Holy Land, this was a troubling
development…. They were partly correct. While the Seljuks did not officially cut off pilgrim traffic
from the West, their presence made the journey far more difficult than it had been. Pilgrims passing
through the region often needed armed escorts because of bandits. In nearly every small town along the
way, the local ruler would demand money for safe passage. Pilgrims to the Holy Land returned to
Europe with tales of great danger and enormous expense. Danger and expense had always been part of
the penance, or atonement for sin, of a pilgrimage, but the Seljuks made matters worse….
"Origins of the Crusades." The Crusades Reference Library. Ed. Neil Schlager, et al. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2005. 48-68. World History in
Context. Web. 25 May 2015.
PART IV. Alexius and the Byzantines
In 1081…a new [Byzantine] emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, was crowned…. Under his leadership, the
Byzantines were able to stop the advance of the Seljuks. He knew, though, that he would never be able
to drive them out entirely and reclaim Byzantine lands without help from the West….
Accordingly, Alexius wrote letters to lords and nobles in the West, asking for assistance. As a good
politician, he knew that his appeal would be ignored if he based it entirely on a desire to regain his own
empire. Instead, he appealed to western Europe's Christian feelings. He described Muslim violence
against Eastern Christians. He painted a picture of Christians in the East needing to be delivered from
the tyranny, or domination, of Muslim overlords. He argued that it was not acceptable that the holy
places of the East should be in the hands of Muslims and Turks, who were not Christians and therefore
were considered "infidels," or unbelievers. He raised the image of Muslims denying Christian pilgrims,
whether from East or West, access to those holy places.
"Origins of the Crusades." The Crusades Reference Library. Ed. Neil Schlager, et al. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2005. 48-68. World History in
Context. Web. 25 May 2015.
PART V. Pope Urban II
[A few years after Pope Gregory,]…a French nobleman…became pope as Urban II (c. 1035–1099) in
1088. He had served under Gregory and shared his aims. During the first part of his reign, Urban
attempted to consolidate Gregory’s reforms and fought against Henry IV and the Clement III. Still in
exile, he managed to win the support of many influential leaders, including the Norman rulers in
France, who had recently conquered England, and the Spanish rulers and clerics, who were warring
against Islamic forces in the south of Spain. It was in March 1095…that Urban likely received an
envoy from Byzantine emperor Alexius I…who delivered a message that was to change the course of
history…. It was a unique opportunity to revive Gregory’s proposal of a Christian military expedition,
and Urban seized upon it. He spent the next eight months developing his ideas, which he then
delivered in his famous speech at Clermont.
"Pope Urban Calls for Crusades: November 27, 1095." Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Vol. 4: Europe.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. World History in Context. Web. 25 May 2015.
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The Crusades
Reasons to join the Crusades
Part I:
Listen to Pope Urban II’s speech as your assigned social class
What is the Pope asking you to do? Why?
Will you join? Why or why not?
Part II:
Complete the chart as groups share out their reasons to join the Crusades.
Don’t forget to fill in your own reasons to join the Crusades.
Social class
Reasons to join the Crusades
Kings
Nobles
Knights
Peasants & Serfs
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The Success of the Crusades
Objective: Evaluate the success of the Crusades.
Directions: Read & annotate the article. Then complete the chart below. After completing the
chart, predict the ways the Crusades changed life during the Middle Ages.
Political
Military
Religion
Goals
What were the
political, military,
and religious goals
of the Crusades?
Were the Crusades a
political success?
Were the Crusades a
military success?
Were the Crusades a
religious success?
Outcomes
Predict: How do you think the Crusades changed life in the Middle Ages?
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The Success of the Crusades
Background of the Crusades
In the eleventh century the papacy had strong reasons for wanting to launch an expedition against
Muslims in the East. It had been involved in the bitter struggle over church reform and lay investiture.
If the pope could muster a large army against the enemies of Christianity, his claim to be leader of
Christian society in the West would be strengthened. Moreover, in 1054 a serious theological
disagreement had split the Greek church of Byzantium and the Roman church of the West. The pope
believed that a crusade would lead to strong Roman influence in Greek territories and eventually the
reunion of the two churches.
In 1071 at Manzikert in eastern Anatolia, Turkish soldiers defeated a Greek army and occupied much
of Asia Minor. The emperor at Constantinople appealed to the West for support. Shortly afterward, the
holy city of Jerusalem fell to the Turks. Pilgrimages to holy places in the Middle East became very
dangerous, and the papacy claimed to be outraged that the holy city was in the hands of unbelievers.
Since the Muslims had held Palestine since the eighth century, the papacy actually feared that the
Seljuk Turks would be less accommodating to Christian pilgrims than the previous Muslim rulers had
been.
In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a great Christian holy war against the infidels. He urged Christian
knights who had been fighting one another to direct their energies against the true enemies of God, the
Muslims. At the same time Crusaders could acquire spiritual merit and earn themselves a place in
paradise. Ideas about pilgrimage, holy warfare, and the threat to Christendom were not new; Urban tied
them all together.
The Course of the Crusades
Thousands of people of all classes joined the Crusades. Although most of the Crusaders were French,
pilgrims from many regions streamed southward from the Rhineland, through Germany and the
Balkans. Of all developments of the High Middle Ages, none better reveals Europeans; religious and
emotional fervor and the influence of the reformed papacy than the extraordinary outpouring of
support for the First Crusade.
The First Crusade was successful, mostly because of the dynamic enthusiasm of the participants. The
Crusaders had little more than religious zeal. They knew little of the geography or climate of the
Middle East. Although there were several counts with military experience, the Crusaders could never
agree on a leader. Lines of supply were never set up. Starvation and disease wracked the army, and the
Turks slaughtered hundreds of noncombatants. Nevertheless, convinced that “God wills it” the war cry
of the Crusaders, the army pressed on and in 1099 captured Jerusalem. Although the Crusaders fought
bravely, Arab disunity was a chief reason for their victory. At Jerusalem, Edessa, Tripoli, and Antioch,
Crusader kingdoms were founded on the Western feudal model.
Between 1096 and 1270, the crusading ideal was expressed in eight papally approved expeditions to
the East. Despite the success of the First Crusade, none of the later ones accomplished very much.
During the Fourth Crusade (12021204), careless preparation and inadequate financing had disastrous
23
consequences for Latin Byzantine relations. In April 1204 the Crusaders and Venetians stormed
Constantinople; sacked the city, destroying its magnificent library; and grabbed thousands of relics,
which were later sold in Europe. The Byzantine Empire, as a political unit, never recovered from this
destruction. The empire splintered into three parts and soon consisted of little more than the city of
Constantinople. Moreover, the assault of one Christian people on another when one of the goals of the
crusade was reunion of the Greek and Latin churches made the split between the churches permanent
and discredited the entire crusading movement.
Much of medieval warfare consisted of the besieging of towns and castles. Help could not enter nor
could anyone leave; the larger the number of besiegers, the greater was the chance the fortification
would fall. Women swelled the numbers of besiegers. Women assisted in filling with earth the moats
surrounding fortified places so that ladders and war engines could be brought close. In war zones some
women concealed their sex by donning chain mail and helmets and fought with the knights.
In the late thirteenth century Turkish armies gradually conquered all other Muslim rulers and then
turned against the Crusader states. In 1291 their last stronghold, the port of Acre, fell in a battle that
was just as bloody as the first battle for Jerusalem two centuries earlier. Knights then needed a new
battlefield for military actions, which some found in Spain, where the rulers of Aragon and Castile
continued fighting Muslims until 1492.
Consequences of the Crusades
The Crusades provided an outlet for nobles' dreams of glory. Wars of foreign conquest had occurred
before the Crusades, as the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 illustrates (see page 377), but for
many knights migration began with the taking the cross. The Crusades introduced some Europeans to
Eastern luxury goods, but immediate cultural impact on the West remains debatable. By the late
eleventh century strong economic and intellectual ties with the East had already been made. The
Crusades were a boon to Italian merchants, however, who profited from outfitting military expeditions
as well as from the opening of new trade routes and the establishment of trading communities in the
Crusader states.
The Crusades proved to be a disaster for Jewish-Christian relations. In the eleventh century Jews
played a major role in the international trade between the Muslim Middle East and the West. Jews also
lent money to peasants, townspeople, and nobles. When the First Crusade was launched, many poor
knights had to borrow from Jews to equip themselves for the expedition. Debt bred resentment.
Hostility to Jews was then enhanced by Christian beliefs that they engaged in the ritual murder of
Christians to use their blood in religious rituals. Such accusations led to the killing of Jewish families
and sometimes entire Jewish communities, sometimes by burning people in the synagogue or Jewish
section of town.
Legal restrictions on Jews gradually increased. Jews were forbidden to have Christian servants or
employees, to hold public office, to appear in public on Christian holy sites, or to enter Christian parts
of town without a badge marking them as Jews. The Crusades also left an inheritance of deep
bitterness in Christian-Muslim relations. Each side dehumanized the other, viewing those who
followed the other religions as unbelievers. Whereas Europeans perceived the Crusades as sacred
religious movements, Muslims saw them as expansionist and imperialistic. The ideal sacred mission to
conquer or convert Muslim peoples entered Europeans’ consciousness and became a continuing goal.
24
Growth of Towns in the European Middle Ages.
Climate became
warmer around
800-1200
New type of
harness for
horses invented
Three field
system
introduced
Farming
possible in
more places
Farmers
harvest crops
twice a year
More protein
in people’s
diets
Crusaders
returned home
New goods
introduced
Crusaders visited
libraries in
Islamic Empires
Increased
Commercializatio
n
Allowed more
forested land
to be cleared
More peas, beans,
and lentils grown
Money used more
often
translate
Arabic books
into Latin
Money-lending
more common
Jewish
scholars
More food
produced
Larger, healthier
population
Towns
Increased
trade
Town dwellers
(burghers)
demanded more
rights from the
lords
Serfs ran away
from manors to
live with more
freedom
Guilds controlled
wages, prices,
and standards of
quality for goods
produced
Universities
established;
scholastics
studied law,
science,
philosophy
26
The Plague
Part I:
 Go to the website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/plague/DS00493
 Or google “Mayo Clinic” and search for “plague”, select the first result
Definition of Plague
Symptoms
Causes
Risk Factors
Why do you think the Plague spread during the late Middle Ages? Why do you think that?
Part II
Be brave and do a Google image search for “Bubonic plague”. What do you see? What are your
reactions?
Be brave and do a Google image search for “black death”. What do you see? What are your
reactions?
Why do you think another name for the Plague is the “Black Death”?
Part III:
27


Go to the website:
http://www.wadsworth.com/history_d/templates/student_resources/0534627218_spielvogel/spi
elvogel_maps/swfs/map11_1.html
Use the arrows to track the spread of the Plague from December 1347 – Areas spared. Read
the descriptions under the map as you click the arrows.
The Plague had affected people in Asia earlier than 1347. Why were Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica
the first places in Europe to fall victim to the Plague?
As time went on what do you notice about the spread of the Plague? Why does this occur?
Part IV:
o Go to the website:
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/socialstudies/in_motion_08/jat/p_366.swf
o Click on the various boxes for the Spread of the Disease (top left).
What do you notice about the areas “partially or totally spared” from the disease? What do they
have in common? Why is that important?
What do you notice about the cities “seriously affected” by the disease? What do they have in
common? What does that tell you about the plague?
Predict: Do you think the Plague strengthened or weakened the power of the Church? Why?
Analyze: Many historians have said the plague was the major catalyst for social and economic
change in Europe; some have even given the Black Death the major credit for ending feudalism.
Why would that be the case?
28
The Protestant Reformation
Goal:
Explain the consequences of the Protestant Reformation.
Directions:
Read and annotate the article. Answer the summary question. Focus your annotations on:
●
●
differences between Catholics & Protestants
political, social, religious and intellectual consequences of the Reformation
The Globalization of Christianity
Despite its Middle Eastern origins, Christianity was largely limited to Europe at the
beginning of the early modern era. In 1500, the world of Christendom stretched from Spain and
England in the west to Russia in the east, with small and beleaguered communities of various kinds
in Egypt, Ethiopia, southern India, and, Central Asia. Internally, Christianity was seriously divided
between the Roman Catholics of Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern
Europe and Russia. Externally, it was very much on the defensive against an expansive Islam.
Muslims had ousted Christian Crusaders from their toeholds in the Holy Land by 1300, and with the
Ottoman seizure of Constantinople in 1453, they had captured the prestigious capital of Eastern
Orthodoxy. The Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 marked a Muslim advance into the heart of Central
Europe. Except in Spain, which had recently been reclaimed for Christendom after centuries of
Muslim rule, the future, it must have seemed, lay with Islam rather than Christianity.
Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation
As if these were not troubles enough, in the early sixteenth century the Protestant
Reformation shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity, which for the previous 1,000 years
had provided the cultural and organizational foundation of Western European civilization. The
Reformation began in 1517 when a German priest, Martin Luther, publicly invited debate about
various abuses within the Roman Catholic Church by posting a document, known as the Ninety-five
Theses, on the door of a church in Wittenberg. In itself, this was nothing new, for many people were
critical of the luxurious life of the popes, the corruption and immorality of some clergy, the Church’s
selling of indulgences (said to remove the penalties for sin, and other aspects of church life and
practice.
What made Luther’s protest potentially revolutionary, however, was its theological basis. A
troubled and brooding man who was anxious about his relationship with God, Luther recently had
come to a new understanding of salvation, which held that it came through faith alone. Neither the
good works of the sinner nor the sacraments of the Church had any bearing on the eternal destiny
of the soul, for faith was a free gift of God, graciously granted to his needy and undeserving people.
To Luther, the source of these beliefs, and of religious authority in general, was not the teaching of
the Church, but the Bible alone, interpreted according to the individual’s conscience. All of this
challenged the authority of the Church and called into question the special position of the clerical
hierarchy and of the pope in particular. In sixteenth-century Europe, this was the stuff of revolution.
Contrary to Luther’s original intentions, his ideas ultimately provoked a massive schism
within the world of Catholic Christendom, for they came to express a variety of political, economic,
and social tensions as well as religious differences. Some kings and princes, many of whom had long
29
disputed the political authority of the pope, found in these ideas a justification for their own
independence and an opportunity to gain the lands and taxes previously held by the Church. In the
Protestant idea that all vocations were of equal merit, middle-class urban dwellers found a new
religious legitimacy for their growing role in society, since the Roman Catholic Church was
associated in their eyes with the rural and feudal world of aristocratic privilege, For common
people, who were offended by the corruption and luxurious living of some bishops, abbots, and
popes, the new religious ideas served to express their opposition to the entire social order,
particularly in a series of German peasant revolts in the 1520s.
Although large numbers of women were attracted to Protestantism, Reformation teachings
and practices did not offer them a substantially greater role in the church or society. In Protestantdominated areas, the veneration of Mary and female saints ended, leaving the male Christ figure as
the sole object of worship. Protestant opposition to celibacy and monastic life closed the convents,
which had offered some women an alternative to marriage. Nor were Protestants (except the
Quakers) any more willing than Catholics to offer women an official role within their churches. The
importance that Protestants gave to reading the Bible for oneself stimulated education and literacy
for women, but given the emphasis on women as wives and mothers subject to male supervision,
they had little opportunity to use that education outside of the family.
Reformation thinking spread quickly both within and beyond Germany, thanks in large
measure to the recent invention of the printing press. Luther’s many pamphlets and his translation
of the New Testament into German were soon widely available. “God has appointed the [printing]
Press to preach, whose voice the pope is never able to stop,” declared one Reformation leader. As
the movement spread to France, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere, however, it also splintered,
amoeba-like, into a variety of competing Protestant churches - Lutherans, Calvinist, Anglican,
Quaker, Anabaptists - many of which subsequently subdivided, producing a bewildering array of
Protestant denominations. Each was distinctive, but none gave allegiance to Rome or the pope.
Thus to the divided societies and the fractured political system of Europe was now added
the potent brew of religious difference, operating both within and between states (see Map 16.1).
For more than thirty years (1562-1598), French society was torn by violence between Catholics
and the Protestant minority known as Huguenots. On a single day, August 24, 1572, Catholic mobs
in Paris massacred some 3,000 Huguenots, and thousands more perished in provincial towns in the
weeks that followed. Finally, a war-weary monarch, Henry IV, issued the Edict of Nantes (1598),
which granted a substantial measure of religious toleration to French Protestants, though with the
intention that they would soon return to the Catholic Church. The culmination of European
religious conflict took shape in the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648), a Catholic; Protestant struggle
that began in the Holy Roman Empire but eventually engulfed & most of Europe. It was a
horrendously destructive war, during which, scholars estimate, between 15 and 30 percent of the
German population perished from violence, famine, or disease. Finally, the Peace of Westphalia
(1648) brought the conflict to an end, with some reshuffling of boundaries and an agreement that
each state was sovereign, authorized to control religious affairs within its own territory. Whatever
religious unity Catholic Europe had once enjoyed was now permanently broken.
The Protestant breakaway, combined with reformist tendencies within the Catholic Church
itself, provoked a Catholic Counter-Reformation. In the Council of Trent (1545-1563), Catholics
30
clarified and reaffirmed their unique doctrines and practices, such as the authority of the pope,
priestly celibacy, the veneration of saints and relics, and the importance of church tradition and
good works, all of which Protestants had rejected. Moreover, they set about correcting the abuses
and corruption that had stimulated the Protestant movement in the first place by placing a new
emphasis on the education of priests and their supervision by bishops. A crackdown on dissidents
included the censorship of books, fines, exile, penitence, and occasionally the burning of heretics.
Renewed attention was given to individual spirituality and personal piety. New religious orders,
such as the Society of Jesus Jesuits), provided a dedicated brotherhood of priests committed to the
renewal of the Catholic Church and its extension abroad.
Although the Reformation was profoundly religious, it encouraged an attitude toward
authority and tradition, for it had, after all, successfully challenged the immense prestige and power
of the pope and the established Church. Protestant reformers fostered religious individualism as
people were now encouraged to read and interpret the scriptures for themselves and to seek
salvation without the mediation of the Church. For some in the centuries that followed, that
skepticism and the habit of thinking independently were turned against revealed religion itself.
Thus the Protestant Reformation opened some space for new directions in European intellectual
life.
In short, it was a more highly fragmented but also a renewed and revitalized Christianity
that established itself around the world in the several centuries after 1500.
Snapshot Catholic/Protestant Differences in the Sixteenth Century
Catholic
Protestant
Religious authority
Pope and Church Hierarchy
The Bible, as interpreted by individual Christians
Role of the Pope
Ultimate authority in faith and doctrine
Denied the authority of the pope
Ordination of the
Clergy
Apostolic succession: direct line between original
apostles and all subsequently ordained clergy
Apostolic succession denied; ordination by individual
congregations or denominations
Salvation
Importance of church sacraments as channels of
God’s grace
By faith alone; God’s grace is freely and directly to
believers
Status of Mary
Highly prominent, ranking just below Jesus, provides
constant intercession for believers
Less prominent; denied Mary’s intercession on behalf
of the faithful
Prayer
To God, but often through or with Mary and saints
To God alone; no role for Mary and saints
Holy Communion
Transubstantiation: bread and wine become the
actual body and blood of Christ
Denied transubstantiation; bread and wine have a
spiritual or symbolic significance
Role of Clergy
Generally celibate; sharp distinction between priests
and laypeople; mediators between God and
humankind
Ministers may marry; priesthood of all believers;
clergy have different functions (to preach, administer
sacraments) but no distinct spiritual status
31
What was the most important consequence of the Protestant Reformation?
Write an “although” claim and defend with one piece of evidence and analysis.
32
The Renaissance
Objective:
Describe the major changes in people’s thinking
Directions: Read & annotate the article. Provide three or more specific pieces of evidence to
support each statement below. Then answer the questions below.
Italy had the political and economic power to support artists, scholars and musicians.
Renaissance thinkers thought about the world in new ways.
Summary Question: In what ways do you think the ideas of the Renaissance helped support
Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation?
Connection Question: Based on what you know about the Byzantines, the Islamic Empires, the
African Empires, and the Middle Ages thus far, is the Renaissance an accurate name? Explain.