European Christendom

500-1300Ms. Jerome

Emperor Diocletian • Vast empire as ungovernable• Split the Roman Empire in half • Created two equal emperors to rule under the

title of Augustus.• Created the Western Roman Empire and the

Eastern Roman Empire.

Persecution of Christians under

Diocletian 284-305

Constantine • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlnJRyZTfEo&f

eature=related

• Under Constantine, the Christians are the favored group in the empire

• Becomes Augustus in the West• Signs the Edict of Milan, together with Augustus

in the east, Licinuso Edict offers tolerance to the Christians

Constantine—Sole Ruler

• Licinus later returned to persecutions • Defeated by Constantine at the Battle of

Adrianople • Constantine becomes sole ruler of entire Roman

Empire• Rome in the west was in decay• Constantine created a new center in the east

Byzantium • Constantine founded the Constantinople, the cite

of the old Greek city Byzantium

Byzantium• Mediterranean and

Black seas connected through the Bosporus Strait

• As the West collapsed the East prospered

• The Byzantine Empire was the heir to the Roman Empire

Center of Trade• Geographic location made Constantinople center

of trade, linking Asia with Mediterranean • Became a rich and powerful city• Peaked under rule of Justinian

The Old Rome—the three siblings of Rome• The Old Roman Empire was under three

influences by 700o The west: Political disintegration –the Medieval story (Feudal Pumpkin)o Eastern Roman Empire –wielded authority over the Balkans, Asia,

Middle East, Egypt (Byzantine Empire) o South: a new power—Islam

• Would become the greatest of the three civilizations

Byzantine Culture• Mostly Greek culture• Always considered themselves Roman• Completely disregarded Latin• Grew to have little regard for the Pope• Read a Greek Bible in the east

Byzantium• Took religion form Christianity• Took its culture form the Greeks• Governmental structures were largely Roman

Justinian (527-565)• The last of the Roman

emperors• Driven to revive the

old Roman Empire by recovering lost Western provinces

• Co-ruled with his wife Theodora

• Together, they had three major accomplishments

1. Construction of Hagia Sophia

• One of Byzantium’s foremost works of art• Gold, silver, ivory and dazzling mosaics in the

interior

2. Corpus Juris Civilis • The “body of civil law” • Served as the basis of law in Western Europe and

Byzantium• Law code favored autocratic law over popular

sovereignty• Absolute rulers found much to admire in

Justinian’s precept that “the emperor’s decree should be the unquestioned law”

3. Resurgence of Imperial Rome

• Wanted to relive “imperial Rome”• Attempted to recover all of the lost provinces in the

West• For a short time, Justinian succeeded in bringing

almost all of the Mediterranean coastline under the domination of his “Roman authority”

• “For a few glorious years, the Mediterranean was again a Roman sea.”

• Campaigns were the “Gothic Wars”o Drained the Roman treasuryo Bankrupted the Byzantine Empireo Barbarians would reconquer the land (save the Southern Italian coast)

shortly after Justinian’s death

Eastern vs. Western Christianity

• Byzantine Christians rejected the Pope’s claim to authority over all Christians

• Byzantine clergy married• Greek not Latin was the language of the

Byzantine Church• The Church divides largely over the issue of icons• In 1054 there was a break and the East no longer

recognized the Pope as the church Authority• Byzantine Church—the Eastern or Greek Orthodox• West became: Roman Catholic Church

Biblia Pauperum, the "Bible of the Poor”

Byzantine Heritage• Although the Byzantine Empire would fall to

Ottoman Turks (Muslims) the Ottomans would adopt much of its culture

• A blend of Greek science, Christian religion, philosophy, art, literature, engineering, law

• Preservation of classics• Culture of Byzantine Empire would later influence

the West in what becomes known as the Renaissance.