Transcript The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages
Steve Wood
TCCC
The “Middle” Ages
• To understand the Middle Ages, let’s
start with the name itself.
• What exactly were these ages in the
middle of?
The “Middle” Ages
• The Middle Ages is a period of time
lasting for roughly 1000 years, from
approximately AD 500-1500.
• They were called “Middle Ages”
because they were between the Classical
world of ancient Greek and Roman
civilization and the modern world
beginning with the Renaissance.
The “Dark” Ages
• Unfortunately, the name often gives rise
to the belief that the Middle Ages are a
cultural valley between the two peaks of
Roman culture and the European
Renaissance.
• That is why some refer to the Middle
Ages, especially the first few centuries,
as the Dark Ages.
The “Dark” Ages
• The reality is that the Middle Ages was a
time of great change in Western Europe.
• Some of those changes were positive,
some negative, while most of them were
painful and disruptive.
Filling the Void
• The Roman Empire, which had dominated the
region for several centuries, had begun to
dissolve.
• Because Nature abhors a vacuum, the void left
by the Romans was eventually filled by a
number of social, political, and religious
institutions.
• It is these institutions – such as chivalry,
feudalism, and the church -- that we most often
think of when we think of the Middle Ages.
Dating the Middle Ages
• Precise dates for the beginning and end
of any historical period can be difficult;
however, there are two dates that serve
as convenient markers for the Middle
Ages – A.D 476 and A.D. 1453.
• Both dates are associated with the fall of
the Roman empire.
The Roman Empire
• At the zenith of their power, the Romans
ruled the world from Britain to the
northern Africa, from Spain to the Holy
Land and beyond.
A Divided Empire
• The Roman Empire had been split in two since
the late 200s (the reign of Diocletian).
Subsequent emperors, especially Constantine,
had tried to reunite the halves, although
pressure from various groups of barbarians
had shrunk the empire in the west.
• Finally, in 395, Theodosius formally split the
empire in two parts – the western Roman
empire centered on Rome and the eastern
Byzantine empire centered on Constantinople.
Foundations of Empire
• Humanitas (social heroism) – subordination of
the individual to the social good
• Pietas (piety) – subordination of the human
will to the divine
• Gravitas (self-restraint) – intellectual integrity
• Virtus (masculine virtue) – strength, courage,
military prowess
Pax Romana
• The Romans pacified much of the world by
ruling fairly, but also brutally.
• “The Pax Romana was not totally peaceful, but Rome
itself was largely safe and orderly even though the
question of succession rose again and again.
Relatively speaking, Pax Romana was the most
peaceful two centuries of human history. Human
frailty brought this period to an end; it is still with us.”
Harry Rosenberg, here.
A.D. 476
• In 476, the last emperor of the western Roman
empire, a boy named Romulus Augustulus, is
deposed by the barbarian king Odacer.
Odacer then sent word to the eastern Roman
Emperor Zeno that no replacement emperor
was needed.
• This date is often used as the beginning of the
Middle Ages as various forces struggled to fill
the cultural, political, military, and social void
left by the Romans.
The Example of Law
• For example, the Roman concept of law, to
which the English and American systems owe
a great deal, had once help tie together an
empire of disparate cultures.
• Roman law was founded on three principles:
– Single sovereignty – law should come from a single
source
– Universality – all citizens are under the same laws
– Equity – circumstances should alter the individual
application of laws
The Example of Law
• This system was replaced by the
Germanic trial by combat or the trial by
ordeal.
• Trial by combat meant that the two
parties in a legal dispute fought, and the
winner was the legal victor. In some
cases, a representative of the king would
fight.
The Example of Law
• Trial by ordeal involved various forms of
physical torture. For example, someone
accused of stealing would be forced to grasp a
red-hot iron bar. Based on how the wound
healed, the accused was declared innocent or
not.
• Both of these trials were based on the belief
that the gods would insure the just outcome.
Filling the Void
• Three of the forces that eventually filled
the void left by the Romans were:
– Feudalism
– Chivalry
– Christianity
Feudalism
from Britain Express.com
• “Feudalism in practice meant that the country was
not governed by the king but by individual lords, or
barons, who administered their own estates,
dispensed their own justice, minted their own money,
levied taxes and tolls, and demanded military service
from vassals. Usually the lords could field greater
armies than the king. In theory the king was the
chief feudal lord, but in reality the individual lords
were supreme in their own territory. Many kings
were little more than figurehead rulers.”
Feudalism
from Britain Express.com
• “Feudalism was built upon a relationship of
obligation and mutual service between
vassals and lords. A vassal held his land, or
fief, as a grant from a lord. When a vassal
died, his heir was required to publicly renew
his oath of faithfulness (fealty) to his lord
(suzerain). This public oath was called
"homage".”
Feudalism
from Britain Express.com
• “The vassal was required to attend the lord at
his court, help administer justice, and
contribute money if needed. He must answer
a summons to battle, bringing an agreed
upon number of fighting men. As well, he
must feed and house the lord and his
company when they travelled across his
land.”
Feudalism
from Britain Express.com
• “This last obligation could be an onerous
one. William the Conqueror travelled with a
very large household, and if they extended
their stay it could nearly bankrupt the lord
hosting them. In a few days of Christmas
feasting one year William and his retinue
consumed 6,000 chickens, 1,000 rabbits, 90
boars, 50 peacocks, 200 geese, 10,000 eels,
thousands of eggs and loaves of bread, and
hundreds of casks of wine and cider.”
Feudalism
from Britain Express.com
• “On the lord's side, he was obliged to protect
the vassal, give military aid, and guard his
children. If a daughter inherited, the lord
arranged her marriage. If there were no heirs
the lord disposed of the fief as he chose.”
Important Feudal Terms
• Fief – or “feodum” – the land itself that was
the basis for the feudal system
• Homage – the ceremony in which a vassal
would swear an oath of fealty to his lord
• Fealty – the two-way obligation between lord
and vassal
• Primogeniture – the inheritance of the fief and
the attendant oaths by the eldest son
• Perfidy – oath-breaking
Chivalry
• The warrior codes of the tribes who
replaced the Romans in western Europe
eventually became the practice known as
chivalry.
Chivalry
• The term “chivalry” comes from the French
“chevalier,” which meant “Horseman.”
• Thus, originally, “chivalry” referred to the
military tactics of the mounted soldier or
knight.
• Along the way, though, a whole series of social
and religious conventions were attached to the
process.
Chivalry
from Britain Express.com
• “After the lord on the social ladder came the knight.
The path to knighthood began at the age of seven,
when a vassal sent his son to the lord's house to
become a page. For seven years a page was cared for
by the women of the house, who instructed him in
comportment, courtesy, cleanliness, and religion.At
14 the page became a squire, a personal attendant to
a knight. From the knight he learned riding and all
the skills of war, as well as hunting, hawking, and
other sports.”
Chivalry
from Britain Express.com
• “When he was judged ready (generally
between the ages of 18 and 21) the squire was
knighted in a religious ceremony after
spending the night guarding his armour
before a church altar. He had to swear to the
knightly code which asked him to ‘protect the
weak, defenseless, and helpless, and fight for
the general welfare of all.’”
The Duties of a Knight
from John of Salisbury
• “But what is the office of the duly
ordained soldiery? To defend the
Church, to assail infidelity, to venerate
the priesthood, to protect the poor from
injuries, to pacify the province, to pour
out their blood for their brothers (as the
formula of their oath instructs them),
and, if need be, to lay down their lives.”
Christianity
• The third force will helped fill the void
left by the Roman Empire is Christianity,
which also had a great impact on the
other two forces.
• From its beginnings in Jerusalem,
Christianity had begun to spread
throughout the Roman Empire.
Christianity A.D. 185
Christianity in the Roman
Empire
• AD 303 Emperor Diocletian tries to
purge Christianity from the empire – the
Great Persecution.
• AD 312 Emperor Constantine converts
to Christianity.
Christianity in the Roman
Empire
• AD 313 Emperor Constantine issues
Edict of Milan, which declares toleration
of all religions in the empire.
Christianity in the Roman
Empire
• AD 361 Emperor Julian tries to abolish
Christianity in the empire, but Christians
revolt.
• AD 391 Emperor Theodosius makes
Christianity the official religion of the empire,
and all pagan religions are outlawed.
• AD 395 As the empire splits upon the death of
Theodosius, so, in effect, does the church.
Christianity A.D. 600
Filling the Void
• As Christianity spread through what had
been the Roman empire and gained
footholds with the various Germanic
tribes in western Europe, it came to
fulfill many important social functions,
including education, historical recordkeeping, and local political structure.
A.D. 1453
• The date generally given as the end of
the Middle Ages is 1453, which is the
date of the fall of Constantinople and of
the eastern Roman Empire.
• This fall is significant because many
scholars and texts made their way from
Constantinople to the west, thus helping
to touch off the Renaissance.