High middle ages and medieval civilization: the rise of western Europe

1000-1300 ad

High middle ages

• Church and State

• Out of the dark ages

• Monarchies

• The University

High middle ages• 1: Church and State

– Period of great religious vitality: crusades, new orders (e.g. Franciscans and Dominicans), intellectual creativity, missionary work, papal leadership

– These factors lead to the Church being the most advanced centralized government in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages

– The basic problem from the point of view of the church reformers:• Bishops must be secular, so the spiritual realm suffers sometimes• Church is controlled by the state: $$$ talks (private donations of land to

monasteries, sale of offices, etc.)• Popes head progress to moral reform, but it begins with monasteries

– Reform begins with Cluny (Benedictine monastery, founded 910)• 1500 Cluniac monasteries throughout Europe• Demand high moral standard for clergy, including celibacy• Insist on separation of Church and State, including elimination of simony and

lay investiture

High middle ages

• Church and State– Pope is a monarch

• Church unity = gathering around what is universally practiced and believed (= “catholicism” and its evolution into what we know as “Roman Catholicism” from the 16th century to the present); unity in the high middle ages consisted of conformity in RITES and OBEDIENCE to the pope

• Hildebrand (1020-1085) = Pope Gregory vii (1073-1085)• Decreed against simony and married priests• Forwarded papal supremacy, most in the “investiture controversy” versus

Henry iv (German emperor 1056-1106)• Gregory deposes Henry and excommunicates him over failed negotiations

regarding the apptmt. of the Bishop of Milan• Leads to rebellion in Germany• Henry begs for absolution at Canossa• Investiture not resolved until 1122 Concordat of Worms (formal treaty):

Emperor has right to nominate bishops, but pope alone has privilege of ceremonial investiture

High middle ages

• Church and State– Papal rule

• Papacy becomes supreme court (canon law): rule over clergy, church property, donations, marriages and families, inheritance, etc.; papal dispensation was a way around canon law

• Popes gradually rise not from the monasteries but from training in canon law

• Curia (created under Gregory’s watch) served as bank of the West also (church had become financial capital of Europe)

• Pope holds sway with power of excommunication and interdict

High middle ages

• Church and State– Pope Innocent iii considers himself overlord of the world

• 1198-1216• Founder of the “Papal State,” the historic precursor to Vatican City

today• Called the 4th Crusade (bungled in Constantinople, 1204), also against

heresy in the West (Cathars and Waldensians): Inquisition and military method to enforce unity

• Assumed right to veto imperial election• Through excommunication and interdict, forced European kings to

become vassals of Rome• Codified Roman rites (liturgy) and dogma: 4th Lateran Council (1215)

– Papal monarchy fades with Boniface viii (1294-1303)

High middle ages

• Church and State– Lay society

• Saints and relics• Orders:

– Cluniac (frequent and lengthy church services)– Cistercians (private prayer and manual labor)– Mendicants (Dominicans: conversion of the Muslim and heretic

through argument; Franciscans: devotion to poor and abandoned)

• Christian piety: a life defined by the sacraments– Eucharist (concomitant)– Baptism– Penance

High middle ages

• 2: Out of the Dark Ages– Agricultural revolution• 600’s ad: 14 million people in Europe• 1300: 74 million• Watermills and windmills, metal horseshoes, horse and

ox collar, the heavy plow (6-8 horses or oxen)• 3-field system• Effects: villagers cooperated (plow teams and village

council), more and better food (population growth)• Leads to migration and growth of cities

High middle ages

• 2: Out of the Dark Ages– Cities

• Lords, bishops, and kings have trouble with newly expanding cities (why?)

• Create institutions and culture of self-rule• Rise of the new class: the merchant• Agricultural revolution and city growth contribute to economic

boom in the 12th and 13th centuries• Also: advances in transportation: new roads and repairs, luxury

trade (silk and spices)• Also: business technique: new minted coins, partnerships (banks),

fairs• All of this sets the stage for a change from feudal economy

High middle ages

• 3: Monarchies– France

• Centralized French government, king on top, new royal officials in court (the baillis): a powerful bureaucracy

• Louis ix 1226-1270 (St. Louis): renowned for piety• Philip iv (1285-1314): brings church under his control

– England• William kept 20% of the land for himself in 1066 and parceled out the rest• Centralization is based on everyone else in England holding a fief from the

king (all are vassals to the English crown)• Henry ii (1154-1189) reforms judiciary through use of sheriffs (cf. Robin

Hood stories)• Creates circuit courts, grand juries, and trial by jury, the basis for law in the

US, England, Canada today• Universal justice for all – even the clergy (backfired on him with the

assassination of Thomas à Becket 12/29/1170)

High middle ages

• 3: Monarchies– England and France• John (1199-1216) loses Normandy to Phillip ii of France• Barons of England, financing John’s losing wars, force

him to sign Magna Carta (1215)• Fundamental principle: even kings must respect the law• Beginning of English Parliament

– Holy Roman Empire (German states)• Subdivided and fragmented• Emperors rule through dukes (imperial vassals)

High middle ages

• 4: The University– New ideas flourished because of contact with the

ancient world (Roman law, Greek philosophy), Muslims (science, love poetry), and spread of education

– Western distinctive art and learning develops: drama, literature, music, architecture

– Literacy• 1050: 1% of population is literate (priests) • 1450: 40% of men in cities literate

High middle ages

• 4: The University– Literacy• 1050: only monasteries and cathedral schools are

educating (reading and writing, analysis)• 1100: curriculum of cathedral school expands: Roman

masters, the beginning of the Liberal Arts

– Scholasticism• Develops out of training in logic• Leads to use of Aristotle to interpret Bible and Fathers• Lectures and disputation provide framework for

modern debate• Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

High middle ages

• 4: The University– University begins from cathedral schools• Students (collected in guilds) bargain with professors

for education• Charters granted for the work the students and

professors do• Curriculum is basis for what we still do• Liberal arts: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic (trivium) and

Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music (quadrivium)• Principally training to become priests (therefore

women do not attend much till 19th century)

High middle ages

• 4: The University– 12th century Renaissance

• 1140-1260, new Latin translations of Greek classics from Sicily and Spain (Christian contact with Muslims and Jews)

• Muslims translated Greek philosophy and science into Arabic• Jews translated the Arabic into Latin• Some Latin catholic scholars translated Greek to Latin from Byzantium too• Greek philosophy raises questions about reasoning and faith – for the

Christian (Bible), Jew (Torah), and Muslim (Qu’ran)• Muslim Averroes (1126-1198): purpose of philosophy is to explain religious

revelation• Jew Maimonides (1135-1204): synthesized philosophy, science, and

Judaism• Christian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): draws distinction between natural

truth and revealed truth; start with faith and use reason to reach conclusions (begins systematic theology)