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The Protestant Reformation:

Martin Luther disagreed with what the Catholic church was doing, specifically, its corrupt nature, lavish decorations, and selling of indulgences (paying money to be forgiven for your sins). He disliked indulgences because he believed that sins could only be forgiven by God, not handed out by the church. He wrote a paper (named the Ninety-Five Theses) outlining what had to be changed in the Catholic Church and posted it on the front of every church in the area, famously nailing it to the door of one. He also sent it to his friends to have a scholarly talk, but because of the printing press, it became an overnight sensation. In arguments with Pope Leo X, he said that the Pope had no real authority as God never gives the Pope authority in The Bible. He and his followers eventually broke of off Catholicism and formed the Protestant Church. They only kept 2 of the sacraments instead of 7 because the believed in the Sola Scriptura (word of God/ The Bible). Their churches were simpler and they believed that people could only be forgiven by God.

Early Middle Ages (dark)

-decline in trade -decline in urban life -development of monasticism and feudalism -monks preserve some learning -few written sources

- The Late Middle Ages:

-divisions within church -black death -warfare (100 yrs war) -consolidation of royal power -learning, roots of scientific rev

Charlemagne

768; Charles the Great, King of Franks, Grandson of Charles Martel, conquered Italy, Germany, and France. He was known as Charlemagne. He reunited much of the old Western Roman Empire, fighting Muslims in Spain, Saxons, and Italian Lombards over 46 years. Charlemagne strove towards a unified Christian empire, working with the church to convert Saxons and Slavs.

Feudal Chivalry

A knightly military code. Becoming a knight was very expensive, as most knights required substantial fiefs to afford armor and a horse. At the age of 7, they were sent to the castle of their father's lord and learned how to ride, fight, and handle weapons and armor. No laziness was tolerated, and discipline was very strict. Once the training was completed, the young man was knighted in a public ceremony by his lord or his knight master, and began to fight alongside the other knights. They usually fought on horseback with weapons such as swords, axes, and lances (long poles). They wore lots of heavy armor in addition to carrying a shield for protection. Some knights fought on foot, with daggers, spears, and bows (crossbows and longbows). Along with real battles, knights also fought in mock battles for reputation and prestige known as tournaments. The knight was expected to die instead of ever retreating or surrendering. They were expected to be courteous, treat prisoners well, not try to escape if captured, fight by the rules of battle, and to be generous to visitors and give gifts to friends. Peasants were disregarded and seen as a separate race, so they were not respected like knights were.

-Manorialism and Feudalism:

A system of government where powerful, local lords divided their land up among less powerful lords (vassals) in exchange for a pledge of service and loyalty from the vassals. Feudal Contract: A "contract" or exchange of pledges between the feudal lord and his vassal in which the feudal lord granted his vassal a fief (estate) as well as peasants to work on the fief and any pre-existing towns or buildings encompassed by the land. In exchange, the vassal pledged loyalty to his lord, as well as some money payments, advice, and 40 days of military service per year. Vassals could pay a "scutage"to avoid military duties.

-The Crusades

Began in 1096, Christians battled Muslims for control over lands in the Middle East. In 1070, the Seljuk Turks had overrun most Byzantine lands in Asia Minor, and they also extended power over the Holy Land. This prevented pilgrims from reaching the Holy Land. The Byzantine emperor asked Pope Urban II for Christian knights to fight the Muslims, and despite the rivalry between the pope and Byzantine emperor, Urban agreed. The Council of Clermont in 1095 was called, where Urban incited bishops and nobles to action to reclaim the holy land. Regular armies inspired by preachers went to fight too. Many knights hoped to gain land there. The pope hoped to heal the schism and increase power in Europe through the crusades, and hoped that Christians would come together to defeat a common enemy. Crusaders eventually divided the land they conquered into 4 small states, called the crusader states. Muslims sought to destroy these states later in time, prompting more future crusades.

Beowulf

Beowulf is an epic on the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from monsters. The text indicates the presence of oral law ("Heorot was the name he had settled on it, whose utterance was law"), the usage of gifts to maintain the support of followers ("doled out rings and torques at the table"), division of land into clans who paid tribute to a king (Shield Sheafson), the usage of mead halls as strongholds of warrior chieftains, and reverence for treasure, the sea, and God. It was written in the 9th-10th century. Sutton Hoo is a burial ground that contained a ship burial adorned with artifacts, armor, and a sword and indicated a blending of cultures. The ship burial closely resembles the sea burial in Beowulf.

The Hundred Years War:

Between 1337 and 1453, England and France engaged in a series of conflicts called the Hundred Years' War. England wanted to expand further into France (already occupying some of what is today south-western France), and France wished to keep its territory. King Edward III of England, who was the son of a French princess, claimed the French crown in 1337, sending the 2 countries into war for the next 116 years.

cathedrals

Bishops, higher up on the command chain than parish priests, managed larger and more important churches called cathedrals. By the 1100s, cathedrals were very ornate and built in buttressed form, or Gothic style. They got grander and taller, and they were a source of pride and unity to the communities that built them.

Castles in the High Middle Ages

By the 12th century, there were as many as 10000 castles in Germany alone. Before 1000, castles were wooden and primitive. HMA castles, which were operated by many officials, had a keep, an outer village, surrounding farmland, an open area for knights to exercise, and the "lists" where tournaments and drills were held. A drawbridge over a moat led into the castle proper, which was protected by a portcullis. The wall was strengthened at intervals, and archers could shoot from there. They served as shelters for peasants as well, and were key targets during wars.

The Early Church:

By the late 6th c. the entirety of Western Europe had become a Christian civilization. For many, the only connection the average person had with God was through the local Church and its Parish priest. They celebrated mass and performed sacraments, which they believed led to salvation. Priests explained the Bible, which was only available in Latin, and they offered assistance to those in need.

Centralization of power in France:

Capetian kings established inheritance to the throne, added to their own lands by playing nobles, and used taxes and royal law, which all increased royal power. Philip Augustus paid middle-class officials to be loyal to him into govt positions, rather than nobles. He also introduced a national tax and expanded royal lands. Louis IX sent out travelling courts, expanded royal courts, outlawed private wars, and ended serfdom, which undermined nobles who relied on serfs.

Education

Charlemagne used education as a means to unify the kingdom. He needed educated and literate officials to keep accurate records and write clear reports. He revived the learning of Latin and encouraged local schooling. He instituted the Palace School near his court at Aachen to attract the best scholars.

Charlemagne's Govt.:

Charles appointed nobles to rule regions of his empire, and he sent out missi dominici to keep checks on these provincial rulers by scouting the area, checking roads, listening to grievances, and seeing that justice is done.

Religious Chivalry:

Churchmen helped invest knights and lords, crowned kings, and even offered them military support. The church sponsored the crusades and established three orders of warrior priests, one example being the Knights Templar. These orders attracted many members and wealth. Knights were expected to defend their faith.

The Fall of Feudalism In England

Common law and travelling courts were used to enforce the laws determined by court rulings and customs. This undermined feudalism by making the law uniform over England, called common law, shifting away from the dominance of local customs. The Magna Carta was a charter that held that nobles and citizens had certain rights, and that the king had to respect them. Furthermore, the king was subjected to the law, and the idea of habeas corpus, which held that punishments had to be justified in court before a jury, was introduced. Extra taxes needed to be approved by the people, and no arbitrary taxes or arrests could be made. It protected people from the abuse of power, which shifted away from the feudal idea that political jurisdiction is "personal property". Parliament was a council that had to approve the king's decisions, and checked the powers of the king. William the Conqueror's exchequer was a treasury that allowed him to impose a royal tax, which didn't go through the feudal lords and led to the development of a bureaucracy, as opposed to a personal, feudal system.

Guilds:

Craftsmen in towns organized themselves into guilds, which regulated economic life and played a social and political role within those towns. The earliest form was the Guilds Merchant, which ensured that all trade of a town was in the hands of the residents. Members enjoyed benefits. Craft guilds in the 13th century were restricted to members of certain trades-- every trade had a specific craft guild. Prices of goods were usually fixed by the craft guild, meaning there was little competition. Crafting masters had to be a member of the guild and had to follow regulations. The way a young person became a master was regulated by the guild too.

Economic Impact:

Crusaders brought home fabrics, spices, perfumes. Trade expanded and Venetian fleets carried cargo to and from the Middle East. They encouraged a money economy because nobles needed money to finance their journeys to the holy land.

fourth crusade

Crusaders, instead of heading the the holy land, captured and looted Constantinople after helping Venetian merchants defeat Byzantine trade rivals (the same people they had worked with to some extent in all the previous crusades).

religion

During the High Middle Ages, there was a rise in religious devotion among ordinary people, and people went on pilgrimages to the saint parts or to the holy land. People tried to reform the church to fight corruption, and new religious orders arose, including the Carthusians and Cistercians. Every order had its own interpretation of St. Benedict and everyday life. The Carthusians wanted purist monastic observance (hermits, removing communities from the material world). The Cistercians were also hermits, but lived in more closely knit communities, engaged in manual labor, copied manuscripts, and rarely left the monastery. Both of these groups wanted to detach from normal society. The Friars, which included the Franciscans and Dominicans, embraced urban life, on the other hand. They preached to people in the cities

third crusade

Europeans failed to retake Jerusalem, but after negotiations, Saladin reopened the city to Christian pilgrims.

Gregory VII and Henry IV:

Gregory was a pope admired for his church reforms, but his policies aroused contempt. He wanted to make the church independent from secular rulers, and banned lay investiture, or installing bishops into office as a layman. Henry IV, the German king, argued that bishops held their land as royal fiefs and that he was entitled to grant them symbols of office. Rebellious princes undermined Henry by siding with the pope, and Gregory excommunicated Henry in 1076, freeing his subjects from his allegiance. In 1077, Henry sought forgiveness, and Gregory had to forgive him. Henry later took revenge by forcing the pope into exile. The struggle over investiture extended for 50 yrs until the Concordat of Worms in 1122, which said that the church had the sole power to elect and invest bishops with spiritual authority, while the emperor could still invest them with fiefs.

The Papal Schism:

In 1309, the corrupt church and Pope Clement V moved the papal court to Avignon in southern France. They maintained a lavish court for 70 years in France, leading to the growth of anticlerical sentiment. Reformers worked for change in and out of the Church. In 1378, reformers elected their own Pope to rule from Rome. The French cardinals chose another pope. This split, or schism, went on for decades, where 2-3 popes all claimed to be the true Vicar of Christ. In 1417, a Church Council in Constance, Germany ended the crisis by removing all 3 popes and electing compromise pope Martin V, who returned it to Rome.

Church power reaches its peak:

In the 1200s, the church reached its height in political power. Reformers like Gregory VII claimed the right to depose kings and emperors. In 1209, Pope Innocent III launched a brutal campaign against the Albigensians, who were regarded as heretics. Innocent excommunicated kings who did things without his permission, and extended the papal states, reformed church courts, and changed how church officials were selected.

-Chivalry

In the High Middle Ages, knights began to adopt a code of chivalry. They were required to be brave, loyal, true to their word, and also had to fight fairly. They also had to treat other captured knights well. However, this code of conduct only applied to the medieval knightly class, not commoners. The knights were supposed to protect the weak, generally meaning women and children. Troubadours helped to pass along the tales of the brave deeds of chivalrous knights through song. It was divided into three aspects: feudal chivalry, religious chivalry, and the tradition of courtly love.

origins and spread

In the autumn of 1347, a fleet of infected Genoese ships set sail for Messina, Sicily, bringing the disease to Europe. By 1348, it had spread to Spain and France, ravaging the rest of Europe from there. The strand originated in Mongolia, and spread to Europe when the Mongols conquered the Eurasian steppe. People paid no mind to the rats that spread the disease, and the disease spread quickly.

The Carolingian Renaissance:

It was a small revival of learning and scholarship limited to Charlemagne's court and some monasteries, led by Alcuin of York. As the head of the Palace School, he introduced and encouraged the 7 Liberal Arts and systematized education into the Trivium and Quadrivium. The Trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. One can go further and study the Quadrivium, which consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These 2 curriculums prepared one for the study of philosophy and theology. A major innovation coming out of this Renaissance was Carolingian Miniscule, a neat form of handwriting that starkly contrasted with the almost illegible scrawl that came before, or Merovingian script. Many ancient texts were copied in miniscule, and these are some of the only accounts we have of the middle ages.

village church

It was the centerpiece of every medieval village, being the largest building, a social center and a place of worship. Life revolved around the church, as it housed celebrations of Christian holidays like Easter and major events in a Christian's life, like marriage. The dead were buried in the churchyard. Later, prosperous communities built stone churches instead of wooden ones, and they housed relics that were possessions of saints. Many made pilgrimages to pray before the relics. Villagers had to pay a tithe, or tax equaling to 1/10 of their income, to support the Parish priest.

Growth of towns and cities:

Merchants would wait in towns to wait out bad weather before progressing along trade routes. These settlements attracted artisans, and these small centers of trade and handicraft became the first medieval cities. The richest cities emerged in North Italy and Flanders, the two ends of the north-south trade route. To protect their interests, merchants of the town asked the local lord/king for a charter, which set out the rights and privileges of the town and made the town more autonomous. In return, the merchants paid the king a fee. Most charters included terms for freedom of unfree men as well, such as serfs. Manors became overcrowded and people moved to towns, undermining the feudal system.

Scholastic method

Method of critical thinking that involved a question, antithesis, and thesis with points to support it. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican master in Paris who wrote the Summa Theologica, which was entirely written in the scholastic method.

The Franks:

One of the first tribes to fill Rome's power vacuum. They were a Germanic tribe; they were mostly farmers and Herders, they had no cities or written laws. They lived in small towns with unwritten customs. Frankish Govt.: Kings were elected by tribal councils, warriors swore loyalty to the king in exchange for weapons and a share in booty. It gave rise to the feudal system.

First Crusade

Only crusade that came close to achieving its goals. Knights captured Jerusalem in 1099, massacring Muslim and Jewish residents.

Peasant Life:

Peasants were forced to work from sundown to sunup, meaning their living conditions were very harsh. Hunger was common and disease killed many. They mostly ate black bread and vegetables, sometimes with fish if they lived near a river. They rarely had meat because that was reserved only for the lord, and poachers risked very harsh punishment. At night, the whole family slept in a hut with their livestock. However, peasants sometimes found ways to celebrate, including holidays, marriages, and births. They would then butcher an animal, play rough sports, and dance.

Relationship Between Peasants and Lords:

Peasants worked several days of the week farming their lord's lands as well as fixing his roads, bridges, and fences. They also had to ask their lord for permission to marry, and pay small fees whenever they inherited their fathers' acres, used the local mill, or on holidays such as Christmas and Easter. These fees were rarely paid with money, as the peasants had very little opportunity to use money in their day-to-day lives. They instead paid with goods such as grain, honey, eggs, or chicken. In return, the peasants got small amounts of land to farm as their own, as well as protection from raids or warfare. They could also not be forced off of the manor, guaranteeing them shelter, food, land, and protection (in theory)

Political Impact:

Rulers won new rights to collect taxes to support the crusades. Crusade enthusiasm brought papal power to its peak, but did not resolve the schism.

Monastic Life:

Some people withdrew from worldly life to a more spiritual, monastic life, becoming monks and nuns in isolated monasteries. Benedictine Rule: In 530 AD a monk named Benedict organized monastic life by making rules that were used in monasteries all across Europe. Monks and nuns took vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty. They worked in fields, cleared and drained land and experimented with crops within their monastery. They helped improve the farming technology of the middle ages. Services: Many monasteries provided basic health and educational services to the surrounding village. They acted as inns, basic hospitals, and schools. One of the greatest achievements of the Monks was their preservation of ancient Greek and Roman texts by copying them into Latin as part of their daily duties. If not for the monks, the Renaissance might have never happened because none of the old texts would have survived. Educated monks taught Latin.

Hundred years war synopsis

The English got off to a great start, winning a string of battles starting from Crecy in 1346 to Agincourt in 1415. Their victories were very decisive and deadly due to the very lethal and innovative longbow. However, in 1429, Joan of Arc (a 17 year old peasant) appeared before French King Charles VII as a godsend, and she was given an army. She won many important battles, but she was taken captive by the English and executed. The French saw her as a martyr, and with a renewed gusto the French took the offensive and drove the English back across the English Channel. The only French territory the English got to keep was the port of Calais in 1453, losing their initial grip on southern France and helping to establish England as a strictly island nation.

Economy Suffers:

The European economy slowed to a crawl, as production declined as workers died. People demanded higher wages, and inflation occured as well as a result of the rising cost of labor. Landowners started to produce things that required less manpower to create in order to keep costs low. Serfs took their talents to towns and their guilds, undermining the manor economy and the feudal system even further. Peasant and artisan revolts went on through the 1300s and 1400s, by which time the old feudal system had been very well eroded.

The First Holy Roman Emperor

The First Holy Roman Emperor: After helping Pope Leo III with some rebellious Roman nobles in 799, the Pope crowned Charlemagne HRE on Christmas day of 800 with a huge ceremony. He crowned a Germanic king an heir to Rome, reviving the ideal of a unified Christian Empire (Christendom). However, he also planted the seeds for power struggles between the HRE and the papacy, as Pope Leo III asserted dominance over monarchy with this act. It also infuriated the Eastern Byzantine Empire, deepening the East-West Christian Schism.

The Impact of The War:

The French sense of nationality grew, allowing the King to expand his power. The English relied on the Parliament more than ever for funds, giving them the power of the purse. The entire English government also began to swing towards parliament. This war also saw the fading away of heavily armored knights, as they could not stand up to cannons and longbows and more mobile ranged units. Monarchs needed their own large armies, not feudal lords, to fight their wars. They turned to hired soldiers and mercenaries, and for the first time standing armies begun to arise.

Rise in agriculture and trade

The agricultural revolution, when peasants adopted new farming techniques that increased field productivity such as iron plows and the three-field system (rotation of crops), resulted in a population boom during the High Middle Ages. In the 1100s, feudal warfare and foreign invasion declined, which led to an increase in trade and travel. Crusaders brought to Europe luxury goods from the Middle East, and more nobles and peasants demanded goods/resources. Traders travelled across Europe along trade routes to meet this new demand for goods, as well as along sea shipping routes. Traders brought in Chinese silk, Byzantine jewelry, and Asian spices. In the 1200s, German towns along the Baltic sea formed the Hanseatic League, a trading association that dominated trade in north Europe for 150 years.

Symptoms:

The black death spread through a bacteria that was transmitted from rats. Fleas would suck the infected blood of the rats and then expel that poison blood from their own systems into the bloodstream of the humans they bit. After a person was infected with the plague they would transmit it to others by coughing and breathing on other people. Symptoms of the plague included fevers, as well as dark boils that covered people from head to toe.

The Black Death:

The bubonic plague ravaged through all of Europe, killing a third to a half of all Europeans. It left a deep mark in European history and affected its dynamics, swinging it into a new age.

Manor:

The manor was the name for the lord's estate, and was the center of the medieval economy. The manors included a central manor house and its surrounding lands. Labor was done by the peasants who lived on these lands. Most of these peasants were serfs, meaning they belonged to the land, and could only leave it with the lord's permission. If a new lord were to take possession of the lands they worked on, they would transfer their loyalties to this new lord.

Noblewomen:

The noblewomen took over the duties of the manor when their sons and husbands were off at war. Sometimes she even had to go to war to protect her estate. A few women also played roles in politics, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, who (sometimes) held power and was involved in European politics for over 50 years. The feudal system restricted almost all women from inheriting fiefs, although a few did. Widows kept their land, however. Daughters of nobles were trained to know how to spin and weave and complete household tasks before they were married, and some knew how to read and write.

Its Effects on Society:

The plague brought about a period of chaos and turmoil in Western Europe. There was no cure for the plague, and people turned to witchcraft and superstition. Others believed it was god's curse, and they repented by whipping themselves in public. Normal life broke down, as people fled trying to avoid contracting the disease. Jews caught the blame and were executed.

The Commercial revolution

The revival of trade meant the use of money increased. The need for capital (money for investment) stimulated the growth of banks. Merchants began to extend credits to each other, and groups of merchants joined in partnerships, pooling their funds to finance large ventures. This meant there was reduced risk for the individual partners, and made capital more easily available. Merchants developed systems of insurance to reduce business risk, and adopted some advanced Muslim business practices.

Manor Economy:

The serfs who lived in a manor produced all the necessary items such as food and clothing. Since they never really left the manor, they did not know anything about the larger world. A typical manor consisted of a small group of cottages close to a local mill and church and well as their lord's house. The fields were divided into long strips to make plowing easier and families had multiple strips in different areas, making the distribution between good land and bad more random. There were also pastures for animals, and beyond, there were forests which was reserved only for the use of the lord.

Universities:

There were monastic schools and cathedral schools, and teachers would form guilds of learning. Universitas is latin for guild, and the guilds established a curriculum, along with testing standards. For noble boys, learning started at the age of 7, starting with Latin grammar and logic (grammar school). 7 years of study followed, which included the quadrivium, the trivium, the liberal arts, classical reading and writing. Students had to produce a masterpiece, or a writing of one's own. They then obtained a masters, which gave them the option to teach. There were two main methods of teaching: lectio and disputatio. Lectio involved filling out a blank book with texts the teacher read, while disputatio involved two teachers debating with each other. Disputatio gave rise to the scholastic method.

Structure of the Society:

Under the monarch were the powerful lords, such as dukes and counts, and under them were vassals, who in turn had their own vassals, and so on. The relationships between lord and vassal grew extremely complicated as the vassals began to pledge loyalty to multiple feudal lords, meaning that they had to have one liege lord whom they were most loyal to, and therefore a few others who weren't getting all that they had paid for.

Courtly Love:

Until the 11th century, women were largely disregarded. Courtly love was popularized by troubadours in France who spread poems about heroes being inspired by their ladies. In the 12th century, Eleanor of Aquitaine spread the tradition of courtly love across Western Europe. This code involved rules for "proper" love.

The High Middle Ages (1050-1250)

agricultural rev at the end of early MA set the stage for the high middle ages -not only regional trade, but international -increase in urban life -learning and scholarship -crusades -gothic cathedrals -universities -chivalry -powerful papacy