Transcript Lecture 14 - Upper Iowa University

Hist 100
World Civilization I
Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer
Upper Iowa University
Lecture 14
Invaders of Europe: Saracens and Magyars


Starting in the 9th century Europe faced a
number of outside invaders who
disrupted medieval life
Saracens




Muslim marauders based in Africa, Spain,
and the Mediterranean
They were not conquerors, but raiders in
search of valuables
They preyed on shipping, plundered
coastal cities, even went up rivers to
attack inland

Raided Rome in 846
Saracens
Magyars (Hungarians)



Originated east of the Ural Mountains
Nomadic horseman who began
terrorizing Germany, northern Italy and
eastern and central France in the 9th
century
Eventually, the gave up raiding, settled
down in the Carpathian region, and
became just another European nationality
Magyars
Lecture 14
Invaders of Europe: Vikings
 The most famous and persistent of
the medieval invaders
Raided in Europe between the 9th and
12th centuries
 Came out of Scandinavia

 Reasons for raiding
Overpopulation in Scandinavia
 Centralization in the Viking kingdoms
 Improved ships: longboats

 Like the Saracens they tended to
raid from the sea, striking inland
along rivers
Their raids took them from the
Mediterranean to the Black Sea
 But England, northern France, and
Russia bore the brunt
 The Vikings colonized all these
places

Lecture 14
Revival and Recovery (1)
 After the invasions began to decline
starting about 1000, Europe
recovered and entered a period of
greater stability and recovery
 Urban revival
The revival of urban centers was very
much at the core of the revival
 Older Roman cities revived and were
joined by newer “cathedral towns”



These towns developed around
cathedrals that were the centers of
religious piety and pilgrimage
Commerce often developed around the
cathedrals
 Climate change and urbanism

A rise in agricultural productivity
spurred urban growth, made possible
a warming trend in Europe that lasted
from the 9th to the 12th century
A cathedral
town
Lecture 14
Revival and Recovery (2)

Characteristics of medieval towns



Tended to be walled for protection
Walls made the towns compact and
cramped
The revival of towns encouraged the
growth of a class of people outside
the feudal system


Artisans and merchants
Tolerated by feudal lords because
they were useful



A source of revenue and consumer
goods and services
Lords extended them “liberties”
New concepts



Citizenship
Self-government
Guilds
Lecture 14
Economic Decline and the Little Ice Age
 The prosperity of the European
recovery began to decline in the mid13th century
 Little Ice Age
Just as climate change had made
possible the greater prosperity, the
decline in temperatures that started in
the 13th century hurt the European
economy
 Likewise, by the 13th century farmers
had reclaimed most of the wetlands in
Europe



Without improvements in European
agricultural practices and technology,
farmers could not improve their
productivity
Indeed, the increasingly colder and
rainier climate tended to further lower
agricultural production
Lecture 14
The Black Death
 Perhaps the most famous pandemic
in history
Struck Europe in Oct. 1347
 Arrived in Europe from Asia aboard
trading ships
 Plague was carried by fleas
 Unhygienic conditions in medieval
Europe and malnutrition helped the
plague to spread

 Social effects

Almost caused a complete
breakdown in European society

People searched for preventives, cures,
and scapegoats
Killed about a third to a half of
Europe’s population, averaging
regional variations
 Survivors did benefit as the plague
increased real wages

Lecture 14
Religious-Secular Conflict (1)
 The Catholic Church not only had a
spiritual monopoly in the Middle
Ages, it also enjoyed significant
political power
 Papal Monarchy Theory
Europe was a Christian
Commonwealth in which kings and
barons accepted spiritual direction
from the clergy, headed by the Pope
 This meant that the spiritual power of
the Pope was greater than the
temporal power of any secular ruler

 Secular leaders, in reality, resisted
attempts by the Pope and other
clergy to impose their spiritual
authority on them

The struggle between the church and
secular rulers one of the great themes
of medieval politics
Medieval Illumination of Pope Leo
crowning Charlemagne
Holy Roman Emperor
Lecture 14
Religious-Secular Conflict (2)
 Secular leaders initially held the
advantage in the medieval religioussecular power rivalry
 Secular leaders sought to control
church leadership and power in their
realm to bolster their own authority
Some kings and barons even sold
church offices (“simony”)
 Bishops and even the Pope
sometimes acted more like medieval
princes than spiritual leaders

 Ecclesiastical reform
Begins in the mid-11th century
 Reformers sought to end simony,
enforce clerical celibacy, and improve
the morals of the clergy
 Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor takes
a lead role in cleaning up the papacy

Henry III
Holy Roman Emperor
Lecture 14
Religious-Secular Conflict (3)
 Lay Investiture Controversy
In 1075, Pope Gregory VII banned
secular leaders from appointing
church leaders in their domains
 Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
refused to comply with the order
 Gregory VII excommunicated Henry






He also absolved Henry’s nobles and
churchmen from obedience
Henry forced to humble himself at
Canossa
With the Pope’s forgiveness, Henry
returned home, consolidated his
position, and began appointing church
leaders again
Gregory again excommunicates Henry,
but Henry invaded Italy this time with an
army and drove Gregory out of Rome
Compromise: Henry V made a facesaving deal with the pope
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
at Canossa seeking the
Pope’s forgiveness
Lecture 14
Religious-Secular Conflict (4)


The power of the papacy was increased
for a time by the outbreak of the Crusades
in 1095
 The Pope’s power also increased
through Canon Law
Yet by the late 13th and early 14th century
monarchs again triumphant
 When Pope Boniface VIII got into
conflict with Philip IV of France, Philip
simply came with an army and
arrested Boniface
 He also installed a new pope,
Clement V, who moved the papacy
from Rome to Avignon in France


Babylonian Captivity (1309-1376)
Great Schism



Resulted after an attempt to move the
Papacy back to Rome
In 1378, Cardinals opposed to Clement
VII returned to Avignon and set up a
rival pope
Split didn’t end until 1417
Papal Palace in
Avignon, France
Lecture 14
Religious Dissent (1)
 The Church also had problems with
dissent in the Medieval period
 Cathars
Emerged out of southern France in
the 11th century
 Believed that matter was evil, and
that Christ could not have been both
God and man
 Albigensian Crusade launched in
1208, Cathars largely wiped out by
the 1230s

Expulsion
of the Cathars
from
Carcassonne
in 1219
 Waldensians
Founded by Peter Waldo in Lyon,
France in the 12th century
 Embraced poverty as the way to
perfection, rejected Church authority
 Never completely suppressed by
Catholics authorities, joined with the
Protestant movement in the 1500s

Public
execution of
Waldensians
Lecture 14
Religious Dissent (2)
 John Wyclif (1329-1384)
A professor at Oxford in England
 He asserted that papal claims to
temporal power had no foundation in
scriptures and that scriptures alone
should be the standard of Christian
belief and doctrine
 Wyclif believed that people should
read the Bible for themselves



Led an effort to translate the Bible from
Latin into English
His teaching tended to de-emphasize
the church’s role as a spiritual
intermediary
 Lollards
Name given to Wyclif’s followers
 Persecuted as heretics
 Their dissent foreshadowed the
Protestant reformation of the 1500s

John Wyclif
Execution
of a Lollard
(c. 1417)