Chapter 13: European Middle Ages Review Sheet

Tithe

one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the church and clergy.

serf

peasant ; an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord's estate.

lord

landowner ; someone or something having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler.

Vassal

a holder of land by feudal tenure on conditions of homage and allegiance.

Holy Roman Empire

A major political institution in Europe that lasted from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries. It was loosely organized and modeled somewhat on the ancient Roman Empire. It included great amounts of territory in the central and western parts of Europe. Charlemagne was its first emperor.

Describe the impact of Charlemagne's empire on the development of early Europe.

Charlemagne's empire encompassed much of Western Europe, and he had also ensured the survival of Christianity in the West. Today, Charlemagne is referred to by some as the father of Europe.

Describe the spread of Christianity

Christianity as a religion emerged from Judaism. The Christianity that was spread across Europe during the middle ages was based on the scriptures that recounted the life of the Christ and his disciples. The rise of Christianity during the Roman Empire was seen as a threat against the Empire. This led to the persecution of Christians but this harassment ended when Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire took the throne. Most of Constantine's successors were Christians and gradually Christianity replaced the Roman religion, as the authorized religion. When the Roman Empire began to fall in the 5th century, Germanic barbarian tribes took over Rome. This triggered what is known in history as the Dark Ages, which saw the establishment of the Christian Catholic Church as the sole source of moral authority. The term Catholic comes from the English term catholik, the old French term catholique and the Latin term catholicus, all of which mean universal. Throughout most of the medieval era, any religion outside of Christianity was as considered heretical. The Christian Church had its own lands, laws and taxes. The Church was so influential that it too collected taxes from its followers. The Church also accepted different types of gifts from nobility and anyone who was looking for divine favor. As the role of the Church grew, bishops archbishops, and the pope bore great influence on the reigning kings in Europe. Those who spoke negatively of the church or opposed it were excommunicated so that they were not eligible for communion or to attend services in the church.

Analyze the Church's influence and relationship with the Holy Roman Empire.

God had created two symbolic swords. One sword was religious. The other was political. The pope held a spiritual sword. The emperor wielded a political one. Gelasius thought that the pope should bow to the emperor in political matters. In turn, the emperor should bow to the pope in religious matters. If each ruler kept the authority in his own realm, Gelasius suggested, the two leaders could share power in harmony. In reality, though, they disagreed on the boundaries of either realm. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church and various European rulers competed for power.

Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV duke it out

Henry IV and Gregory VII have a strong disagreement about power and authority. In the 11th century Pope Gregory VII excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV. Their disagreement was about who had the right to appoint church officials.Henry was only twenty-five. He was passionate and ill-balanced, and little calculated to cope with a pope of overweening pride and terrible severity. He was in no mood to yield up any of his authority, and he deposed the pope. But Gregory was no German pope, ready to bow to the commands of a German king.

Franks

In the Roman province of Gaul (mainly what is now France and Switzerland), a Germanic people called the ________________ held power. Their leader was Clovis.

What were the invasions in Western Europe like?

In the fifth century, Germanic invaders overran the western half of the Roman Empire. Repeated invasions and constant warfare caused a series of changes that altered the economy, government, and culture. - Disruption of Trade - Merchants faced invasions from both land and sea. -Downfall of Cities - With the fall of the Roman Empire, cities were abandoned as centers of administration. -Population Shifts - As Roman centers of trade and government collapsed, nobles retreated to the rural areas. -The Decline of Learning - The Germanic invaders who stormed Rome could not read or write. -Loss of a Common Language - As German-speaking peoples mixed with the Roman population, Latin changed.

Crowning of Charlemagne

Pepin the Short died in 768. He left a greatly strengthened Frankish kingdom to his two sons, Carloman and Charles. After Carloman's death in 771, Charles, who was known as Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, ruled the kingdom. An imposing figure, he stood six feet four inches tall.

Describe the Church's structure

Power was based on status. Church structure consisted of different ranks of clergy, or religious officials. The pope in Rome headed the Church. All clergy, including bishops and priests, fell under his authority. Bishops supervised priests, the lowest ranking members of the clergy. Bishops also settled disputes over Church teachings and practices. For most people, local priests served as the main contact with the Church.

Monastery

To adapt to rural conditions, the Church built religious communities where Christian men called monks gave up their private possessions and devoted their lives to serving God called ___________________. Women who followed this way of life were called nuns and lived in convents.

Code of Chivalry

The methods of training and standards of behavior for knights in the Middle Ages. The code of chivalry emphasized bravery, military skill, generosity in victory, piety, and courtesy to women. (Compare courtly love.)

What were the roles and status of women in medieval times?

Throughout the Middle Ages, the place of women in society was often dictated by biblical texts. The writings of the apostles emphasized men's authority over women, forbidding women from teaching, and instructing them to remain silent. In the church, women could hold positions of great responsibility as abbesses of convents. In some instances, such as monasteries that housed communities of men and women, the abbess had seniority over monks.

How does Feudalism work?

With feudalism, all the land in a kingdom was the king's. However, the king would give some of the land to the lords or nobles who fought for him. These presents of land were called manors. Then the nobles gave some of their land to vassals.

knight

a man who served his sovereign or lord as a mounted soldier in armor.

Manor

a unit of land, originally a feudal lordship, consisting of a lord's demesne and lands rented to tenants.

Fief

an estate of land (especially one held on condition of feudal service) that was given to a vassal.

Excommunication

an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular receiving of the sacraments.

Feudalism

social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.

Canon Law

the body of laws and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members.

Lay Investiture

the most important conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.

Manorialism

the organization of the economy in the Middle Ages. The economy relied mainly on agriculture. __________________________ describes how land was distributed and who profited from the land. A lord received a piece of land, usually from a higher nobleman, or from the king.

Charlemagne

was a Frankish prince with great skill and success in different countries. He reigned for forty-seven years. He united a large part of Europe during the early Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern France, Germany and the Low Countries.