Transcript EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE - Bishop Amat Memorial High School

EARLY MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
What new states grew in the western
Roman empire?
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Ostrogoths – Italy
Franks – parts of Germany, Switzerland,
northern France
Burgundians – central France
Visigoths – Spain
Vandals – north Africa
Angles, Saxons – England
How was Germanic society different
from Roman society?
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Tribal society
Warriors owed duty to the chief
Chief’s hall was the tribal center
How was Germanic society different
from Roman society?
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No written laws
Unwritten laws and customs
No public government service
No sense of citizenship
Society based on personal ties and loyalties
Pagan, not Christian
Who was Clovis?
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King of the Franks
496: Converted to Christianity – the first barbarian
invader to do so
511: Completed unification of Franks under his rule
Began alliance between Frankish kings and Catholic
church
Franks forced conquered peoples to convert
Where did Christianity survive in the
West?
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Christianity survived in pockets everywhere
Christianity survived in Italy
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Popes in Rome
Conversion of the Ostrogoths
Christianity continued among the Celts
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Britons, Scots, Picts on the north-west edge of the
Roman Empire
What is monasticism?
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Monasticism is the practice of men and
women living in communities away from
civilization
Devoted their lives to prayer and work
Began in Egypt in the 4th. Century
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St. Antony (c. 251-356)
Ideas and teachings brought west by St. John
Cassian (c. 350-435)
Who was St. Benedict?
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St. Benedict (c. 480-550) was an Italian who wrote a
Rule for monks living together in monasteries
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Became the basic model for the whole of western Europe
Benedictine monasteries became the main vehicle
for converting Germanic tribes
Acted as libraries and schools – preserved books
Pope Gregory the Great
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Established the medieval papacy
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Exerted religious control over western Europe
Took over the management of the city of Rome
Dealt and negotiated with Germanic tribes
Encouraged Benedictine monasticism
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Sent Benedictine monks as missionaries to England
The Islamic Invasion
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711-718: Arab armies conquered the Iberian
peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal)
Threat to the whole of Europe
732: battle of Tours
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Muslims driven back into Spain by Charles
Martel
How did the government of the Franks
change?
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Charles Martel was major domo of the Frankish king
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In charge of the royal household
The major domo came to be the real ruler of the Franks
His son was made king of the Franks by the Pope
His grandson was Charlemagne – Charles the Great
What were the main achievements of
Charlemagne?
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King of the Franks, 771-814
Conquered large parts of Germany and northern
Spain
Forcibly converted the conquered to Christianity
United most of western Europe within his kingdom
800: crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope
What were the main achievements of
Charlemagne?
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The encouragement of Benedictine
monasticism
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Common practices established for monasteries
across the empire
Encouragement of learning
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Alcuin, an English Benedictine, in charge of
schools
What was the Holy Roman Empire?
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Pope claimed to have re-created the Roman
Empire in the west
A Christian empire, with a Christian ruler
Holy Roman Emperor claimed to be the
overlord of other European rulers
Led finally to conflict between emperors and
popes, emperors and other rulers
How was Charlemagne’s empire
divided?
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Treaty of Verdun, 843, between
Charlemagne’s grandsons
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Charles the Bald took France
Louis the German took Germany
Lothair took a central kingdom including Italy;
and the title of Holy Roman Emperor