Transcript Lecture Notes: What Changed in the Middle Ages?

What Changed in the Middle
Ages?
I. Urban to Rural
• Urban cities decline due to over-taxation
and invasion and people migrating to the
country side. Still they needed protection
from invaders and thieves. The local lord
would offer protection in return for their
work in his fields as Serfs. Often a serf
would be born, live and die on the manor.
II. From Freedom to Serfdom
• In exchange for protection, rights were
given up. Often the serfs had no true
rights and few privileges connected to the
lord they served. A serf is not slave but is
bound to the land in which they work.
III. Public Policy to Family Law
(rule of law to family politics)
• Under the Romans, laws were public and
created by representatives of the people. Laws,
such as the Twelve Tables were posted in the
forum for all to see and follow. In the early
Middle Ages, judgments were made by the local
lord who settled all disputes on his property or
fief. Disputes between nobles were settled by
judgment by their king/peers, trial by combat or
trial by ordeal. Instead of laws, there were
codes (chivalry and courtly love) that guided the
behavior of the nobles.
IV. Multiple Religions/
Philosophies to one International
Church
• Germanic religion focused on many gods and forms
associated with naturalism. All Hallows Eve [Halloween]
is based on an ancient pagan ritual. The Romans also
had multiple gods and deities until Christianity became
the official religion of the empire. At that point,
Christianity and the kings that supported it began to
conquer more and more territory and institute Christianity
as the only religion of the land. The Catholic Church
was the dominant control of European society.
V. Centralized Government to
Decentralized Authority
• The Romans exercised control over the
empire (from Spain to Persia) from a
central authority revolving around the
emperor. As the empire fell authority was
decentralized to the local lords of the land
who protected and maintained justice in
their fiefdoms.
VI. Manufacturing/Trade to SelfSufficient, Agricultural-Based
Units
• The trading empire established by the Romans soon
fell apart as the empire could no longer protect their
trade routes and the urban workers disappeared into
the rural area. Manorialism (economic system based
on self sufficient, agricultural units) guides the
economics of the day. Only the Jews (who were
unable to own land and considered outcasts)
continued to trade.
VII. Monetary System to Barter
System
• Roman coinage disappears and is replaced with
the trade of goods and services of equal value,
which is known as bartering. Money (Medium
of Exchange) ceases to be a part of the daily
lives of the people. Only Byzantine coins were
in circulation and most all forms of banking or
money lending were a thing of the past. The
Middle Ages saw the development of local
markets and trade days.
VIII. Jury System to Trial by
Combat/ Ordeal
• Crimes against the state are replaced by
crimes against individuals. In the Roman
World, if you committed a crime or
transgression, it was considered that you did
it to the whole community and the community
acted to put you on trial and punish you
accordingly. Crimes in the Middle Ages were
personal and individualized.
IX. Cultural, Artistic and Philosophical
Flourishing to Cultural Semi-Stagnation
• The Greco – Roman world ushered in a new ideal of
art and architecture and wrote political philosophies,
created dramas and comedies for the theater. The
Middle Ages saw sporadic pieces of inspiration, such
as the architecture of cathedrals and writers like
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales but for the
most part, little was added to our cultural growth in
the Middle Ages, especially the first 300-400 years.
X. Pax Romana to Continual
Warfare
• Starting well before the Fall of the Roman Empire,
warfare becomes one of the driving forces of the
Middle Ages. Invaders, such as the Vandals, Huns,
Visigoths, and Ostrogoths, and later the Vikings and
Muslims, kept western Europe in a near constant state
of war. The political system of Feudalism was created
to contract for warriors to serve a lord’s needs.
Castles, or defensive fortifications, become symbols of
military and political power.
Vocabulary Card Example
Vocabulary
• Lord – in feudal Europe, a person who controlled land
and could therefore grant estates to vassals
• Vassal – in feudal Europe, a person who received a
grant of land from a lord in exchanged for a pledge of
loyalty and services
• Fief – an estate granted to a vassal by a lord under the
feudal system in medieval Europe
• Manor – a lord’s estate in feudal Europe
• Chivalry – a code of behavior for knights in medieval
Europe, stressing ideals such as courage, loyalty, and
devotion