3 March 2010
Outline: Life in the West

Institutions in the
West
 After the Carolingians:
Decentralization of
Empire
 Church Reform
○ European Crusaders
 Debunking the Dark
Ages
○ Revitalization
○ Feudal System
○ Crisis
○ Revival
○ Learning
Europe,
1000 AD

Dependent on alliance between king and nobility, the
Carolingian empire decentralized
 It stopped expanding
 local rulers began independently administering their territory
○ Development of towns surrounding castles/monasteries
 Personal loyalty became the key to ruling
 Lords could be religious or secular figures

Otto the Great (936-973), crowned king in Aachen,
Holy Roman Emperor in Rome (962).
 Goals
○
○
○
 Weakness
○
○
○
After the Carolingians
 New social spaces for warrior and clergy in France
○ the adoption of “primogeniture” in order to keep
larger holdings in family hands

○ This kind of political, economic, and social
organization can be applied to England and central
and eastern Europe, as well
 In cities in Italy political communities developed around
“family corporations
○
○
After the Carolingians

Reform came in institutional changes
(often begun in monastic settings)
 Clerical celibacy
 Better treatment of the poor
 Ended buying of church offices
○ HRE Henry III refused to accept money or gifts
for church appointments (1039-1056 c.e.)
○ Came to conflict with Gregory VII and Henry IV
○ Investiture Conflict (1074-1122)
○ Concordat of Worms (1122)
 The Church won the Investiture Struggle, weakening the
Holy Roman Empire
 permits growth of “feudalism” and greater power for the
feudal lords.
Church Reform
Henry III
Church Reform
 Goals of the Popes
 Under Innocent III (1198-1216), the
○
power of the medieval papacy
reached its height.
○
○ launched crusades against
○
○ Election of popes


○ Stress importance of mass and
sacraments in daily life –
○ Schism of 1054: Leo IX
excommunicates Patriarch of
Constantinople, Patriarch
excommunicates Pope’s
emissaries
European heretics such as the
Albigensians (south of France) and
to the Holy Land.
○ In 1215, he called the Fourth
Lateran Council

○ Other Popes followed his lead.

-
 Efforts of the Church to assert itself
lead to clashes with secular
kings. Until the end of the 13th
century, the Popes usually
prevailed.
Crusades
Factors making the Crusades
possible
For centuries, Christians had been making
pilgrimages to the Holy Lands
 because of military victories by the Moslem
Turks, access to the Holy Places was
threatened.
 Christians and Moslems had been at war
for centuries, and the Church had
supported these wars.
 numerous Europeans, especially knights,
hungering for adventure, wealth, and land,
not to mention trading advantages.

The Crusades

In 1095, Pope Urban II
(1088-1099) launched the
First Crusade at the Council
of Clermont
 Call echoed by Peter the
Hermit

over 100,000 people, from
commoners to great nobles,
set out for Jerusalem
 most with religious motives,
 mercenary troops
 Organized as separate militias
○ often accompanied by
commoners, men, women,
and children going for a variety
of reason
Urban II, 1095

Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite
your minds to manly achievements; the glory and
greatness of king Charles the Great, and of his son
Louis, and of your other kings, who have destroyed
the kingdoms of the pagans, and have extended in
these lands the territory of the holy church. Let the
holy sepulchre of the Lord our Saviour, which is
possessed by unclean nations, especially incite you,
and the holy places which are now treated with
ignominy and irreverently polluted with their
filthiness. Oh, most valiant soldiers and descendants
of invincible ancestors, be not degenerate, but recall
the valor of your progenitors.
European Crusades
 Once militia went on a “People’s Crusade” and attacked some
Jews in the community of Worms


Albert of Aix
: “Breaking the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred in
number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands. They killed the women,
also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever age and sex. The Jews, seeing
that their Christian enemies were attacking them and their children, and that they were sparing
no age, likewise fell upon one another, brother, children, wives, and sisters, and thus they
perished at each other's hands. Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats of nursing children with
knives and stabbed others, preferring them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be
killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised.
From this cruel slaughter of the Jews a few escaped; and a few because of fear, rather than
because of love of the Christian faith, were baptized. With very great spoils taken from these
people, Count Emico, Clarebold, Thomas, and all that intolerable company of men and women
then continued on their way to Jerusalem”
 Great military successes were enjoyed at Antioch (1098) and
elsewhere, and Jerusalem was taken in 1099.
 The Europeans established four Crusader kingdoms
○ Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem under Baldwin of Flanders.
○ To protect these conquests, orders of crusading kings, such as the
Templars and the Knights Hospitalers were founded
○ over the next 200 years, seven more crusades were launched as
the Turks sought to regain their lost lands
○ 1291 the last of the Crusader kingdoms fell.
The Crusades
Impact of the Crusades on
Western Europe
Demonstrated religious vitality and
growing self-confidence of western
Europe
 gave Europeans an opportunity to
learn new military tactics




increased the power of kings



opened the old Middle East and
Asia to the west


put Europeans into direct contact
with the civilizations of the ancient
world and with works of unknown
classical authors
Europe,
1300 CE
Feudal Politics


What is feudalism? Does it exist?
at the most basic level feudal systems
existed in medieval Europe and lasted
well into the 19th century
 Fief
 Vassal
 Lord
Feudalism came from the inability to control a
centralized government in the period
following the fall of the Carolingian Empire
Oaths of fidelity

I: An Anglo Saxon Form of Commendation [from Schmidt:
Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p. 404]
 Thus shall one take the oath of fidelity:
 By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is holy, I will to N. be true and
faithful, and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns,
according to the laws of God and the order of the world. Nor will I ever
with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing
to him, on condition that he will hold to me as I shall deserve it, and that
he will perform everything as it was in our agreement when I submitted
myself to him and chose his will.

II: Acceptance of an Antrusian, 7th Century [from Roziere:
Collection de Formules, No. VIII, Vol I, p. 8]
 It is right that those who offer to us unbroken fidelity should be protected
by our aid. And since such and such a faithful one of ours, by the favor of
God, coming here in our palace with his arms, has seen fit to swear trust
and fidelity to us in our hand, therefore we decree and command by the
present precept that for the future such and such above mentioned be
counted with the number of antrustions. And if anyone perchance should
presume to kill him, let him know that he will be judged guilty of his
wergild of 600 shillings.
Urban Growth

Twelfth Century recivilization
 What leads to urban
revitalization?
○ Peace
○ Religion?
○ Fairs and
Commerce?
○ Cottage industry?
Cultural Revitalization


“Medieval” and “Dark Ages” are
terms that now carry much
different connotations than
before.
The Middle Ages was far from a
period of stagnant intellectual and
cultural development
○ Gothic cathedral building,
supported by bishops,
nobility and commercial
class
Learning

Increase in literacy
 1% in Florence in 1050 to about 40% in 1340
 had some association with the Church.
 Interest in learning led to the founding of
schools and universities in major cities and
towns.

Seven Liberal Arts
 the Trivium [grammar, rhetoric, and logic]
 Quadrivium [arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,




and music].
Language of instruction was Latin.
Some universities specialized; medicine:
Salerno
Roman and Church law: Bologna.
Oxford and Paris specialized in theology.
Aquinas, Whether Law is Something
Pertaining to Reason (ca. 1265)

Law is a rule and measure of actions through
which one is induced to act or restrained from
acting. Lex, "law," is derived from ligare, "to
bind," because it binds one to act. The rule and
measure of human activity is reason, however,
for it is the first principle of human acts. Indeed,
it is the function of reason to order to an end,
and that is the first principle of all activity
according to Aristotle. That which is the first
principle in any genus is the rule and measure of
that genus, e.g., unity in the genus of number or
first movement in the genus of movement. Thus
it follows that law is something pertaining to
reason.
Aquinas, Whether Law is Always Ordered to
the Common Good
Law pertains to that which is the principle of human acts because
it is a rule and measure. Just as reason is the principle of human
acts, however, there is something in reason which is principle of all
the rest. It is to this that law principally and mostly pertains. The
first principle in activity, the sphere of practical reason, is the final
end. The final end of human life is happiness or beatitude. Thus
law necessarily concerns itself primarily with the order directing us
toward beatitude.
 Furthermore, since each part is ordered to the whole as imperfect
to perfect, and since each single man is a part of the perfect
community, law necessarily concerns itself particularly with
communal happiness. Thus Aristotle, in defining legal matters,
mentions both happiness and the political community, saying, "We
term 'just' those legal acts which produce and preserve happiness
and its components within the political community." For the state is
a perfect community, as he says in his Politics.
 In any genus, that which is called "most of all" is the principal of
everything else in that genus, and everything else fits into the
genus insofar as it is ordered to that thing…since law is called
"most of all" in relation to the common good, no precept
concerning action has the nature of law unless it is ordered to the
common good.

The Burgher Class

Who are they?
 Social status?
 Rights
○ Property
○ Courts & government
 Communes
 Socio-economic role
○ guilds
Rural Growth and Crisis

In 1200 the majority of
the population of
western Europe were
serfs and very poor



○
○
 Europe was on the brink
of starvation when in
1347, the Black Death
struck, killing ¼ - ½ of
Europe’s population

From Gabriele de’Mussis
 “the whole army was affected by a disease which overran the Tartars and
killed thousands upon thousands every day. It was as though arrows were
raining down from heaven to strike and crush the Tartars’ arrogance. All
medical advice and attention was useless; the Tartars died as soon as the
signs of disease appeared on their bodies: swellings in the armpit or groin
caused by coagulating humours, followed by a putrid fever.”
 “soon the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and
the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in
a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army. Moreover, one infected
man could carry the poison to others, and infect people and places with the
disease by look alone. No one knew, or could discover, a means of
defense.”

From Herman Gigas
 “In 1347 there was such a great pestilence and mortality throughout almost
the whole world that in the opinion of well-informed men scarcely a tenth of
mankind survived.”
 “Some say that it was brought about by the corruption of the air; others that
the Jews planned to wipe out all the Christians with poison and had
poisoned wells and springs everywhere. And many Jews confessed as
much under torture: that they had bred spiders and toads in pots and pans,
and had obtained poison from overseas.”
The Plague
The Black Death, 1347

Two main forms of plague
 The bubonic plague was the most common form
during the Black Death
○
○
○
○
 Pneumonic plague was the second most
commonly seen form during the Black Death
○
○
○
The Role of Trade Routes
Urban Revival

25 million people died
in just under five years
between 1347 and
1352.
 Estimated population of
Europe from 1000 to
1352. 1000 38 million
○ 1100 48 million
○ 1200 59 million
○ 1300 70 million
○ 1347 75 million
○ 1352 50 million



The Positives of
Plague
WHY?
Better economic
conditions

Urban Revival

Trading cities allowed for
socially mobile and religiously
diverse populations (the
beginnings of the wealthy,
merchant-banker class
emerged)
 antisemitism remained a
significant factor in European
life
○
 Trade associations dominated
the political and economic life
○
“Charter to the Jews of the duchy of Austria”

Frederick, by the grace of God Duke of Austria and Styria and lord
of Carniola, offers greetings at all times to all who will read this
letter in the future. Inasmuch as we desire that men of all classes
dwelling in our land should share our favor and good will, we do
therefore decree that these laws, devised for all Jews found in the
land of Austria, shall be observed by them without violation.
 I. We decree, therefore, first, that in cases involving money, or
immovable property, or a criminal complaint touching the person or
property of a Jew, no Christian shall be admitted as a witness against a
Jew unless there is a Jewish witness together with the Christian. [The
Jewish witness was a guarantee of fair play.]
 II. Likewise, if a Christian should bring suit against a Jew, asserting that
he had pawned his pledges with him and the Jew should deny this, and
then if the Christian should not wish to accord any belief in the mere
statement of the Jew, the Jew may prove his contention by taking an
oath upon an object equivalent in value to that which was brought to
him, and shall then go forth free. [Money-lending on pledges was the
leading Jewish business at this time.]
“Charter to the Jews of the duchy of Austria”





III. Likewise, if a Christian has deposited a pledge with a Jew, stating that he
had left it with the Jew for a smaller sum than the Jew admits, the Jew shall
then take an oath upon the pledge pawned with him, and the Christian must
not refuse to pay the amount that the Jew has proved through his oath.
IV. Likewise, if a Jew says that he returned the Christian's pledge as a loan to
the Christian, without, however, the presence of witnesses, and if the
Christian deny this, then the Christian is able to clear himself in this matter
through the oath of himself alone.
V. Likewise, a Jew is allowed to receive all things as pledges which may be
pawned with him-no matter what they are called without making any
investigation about them, except bloody and wet clothes which he shall under
no circumstances accept. [Such garments presuppose murder and theft.]
VI. Likewise, if a Christian charges that the pledge which a Jew has, was
taken from him by theft or robbery, the Jew must swear on that pledge that
when he received it he did not know that it had been removed by theft or
robbery. In this oath the amount for which the pledge was pawned to him shall
also be included. Then, inasmuch as the Jew has brought his proof, the
Christian shall pay him the capital and the interest that has accrued in the
meantime. [Then the Christian takes back his property.]
VII. Likewise, if a Jew, through the accident of fire or through theft or violence,
should lose his [own] goods, together with the pledges pawned with him, and
this is established, yet the Christian who has pledged something with him
nevertheless brings suit against him, the Jew may free himself merely by his
own oath. [TheJew loses the money advanced and the Christian, his pledge.]
Europe,
1400 CE
Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of
Death (1562)