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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
T h e A r t i o s H o m e C o m p a n i o n S e r i e s
Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
T e a c h e r O v e r v i e w
THE HOLY Roman Empire was marked by struggles for power, between pope and emperor, between emperor and nobles, and between nobles themselves. Emperors after Otto exerted increasing authority over the Church until a pope named Gregory VII fought back, demanding repentance on the part of the Emperor.
The German Emperor, Louis the Child
Vocabulary
Lesson 1: Lesson 2: conglomeration investiture feebleness impenitent visionary relented allegiance absolution subjugated inexorable
antipope
Key People , Places , and
Events
Louis the Child King Henry Otto I Henry III Pope Gregory VII Henry IV Conrad of Franconia Frederick II
Imperial Coat of arms of the German Emperor
Reading and Assignments
In this unit, students will:
Complete two lessons in which they will learn about Saxon emperors, and struggles between the Pope and emperors, journaling and answering discussion questions as they read.
Define vocabulary words.
Be sure to visit www.ArtiosHCS.com for additional resources.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
Leading Ideas
God orders all things for the ultimate good of His people.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
— Romans 8:28
God has a plan, and in the end He will be exalted.
Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
— Psalm 46:10
Pray for those who lead us. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
— 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Romanesque stained glass depiction of Otto I
Holy Roman Emperor;
Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, France
Emperor Henry III in the company of two other people
sees the newly risen star over the city rooftops Tyburnia
(Tivoli) and points to it.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
L e s s o n O n e
H i s t o r y O v e r v i e w a n d A s s i g n m e n t s
The Saxon Emperors
SINCE THE time of the Tower of Babel, men have sought to rule the whole world. This desire was reborn with great zeal at the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. With the division of Charlemagne’s empire and the invasion of Hungarian tribes, great confusion and chaos drove the German nobles to gather power around a new king, named Otto I.
Henry II was the end of the Saxon (or Ottonian) emperors, as he had no children
Reading and Assignments
Review the discussion questions and vocabulary, then read the article: The Holy Roman Empire – Saxon Emperors. Take careful note of the rulers leading up to the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of Otto I.
Narrate about today’s reading using the appropriate notebook page. Be sure to answer the discussion questions and include key people, events, and dates within the narration.
Define each vocabulary word in the context of the reading and put the word and its definition in the vocabulary section of your history notebook.
Be sure to visit www.ArtiosHCS.com for additional resources.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
Vocabulary
conglomeration feebleness visionary allegiance subjugated
Key People ,
Places , and
Events
Louis the Child Conrad of
Franconia King Henry Otto I
Discussion Questions
1. From this article, trace the rulers of Germany leading up to the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. Be sure to include the accomplishments or downfalls of each ruler.
Adapted for Middle School from the book:
The Story of Europe by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
The Holy Roman Empire — Saxon Emperors
The fortunes of the three countries
carved out of the Charlemagne’s empire
were widely different. France slowly but
surely became welded into a nation, but
Germany remained merely a
conglomeration of independent states. For
while France struggled toward unity,
Germany chased after the phantom of world
dominion, claiming with the title of
emperor the right to rule over Italy. This
claim brought great evil to Italy; it brought
scarcely less evil to Germany. It produced
endless wars and strife with the Church, it
was a constant hindrance to the real
progress of Germany, and for nine hundred
years it prevented Italy from becoming a
united nation.
Feebleness of Later Carolingians
The family of Charlemagne died out in
feebleness. Of that feebleness we get some
idea from the names borne by the last rulers
of his house, such as “the Bald,” “the Fat,”
“the Simple,” “the Child.” In Germany the
line came to an end in 911 A.D. with Louis
“the Child”; in France it lasted a little longer,
and came to an end in 987 with Louis “the
Fainéant” (“idle”). In both countries upon
the death of the last Carolingian the nobles
met together and chose a successor from
among their number. But whereas in France
the monarchy at once became hereditary,
and remained so until the Revolution, in
Germany an elective monarchy continued,
in name at least, until the eighteenth
century.
Upon the death of Louis the Child the
German nobles chose Conrad of Franconia
as their ruler. But his power was visionary.
The great princes ruled like kings in their
own domains, quarrelling among
themselves and flouting imperial authority.
Still, small although his power was,
Conrad kept the empire from being broken
up into absolutely independent states. He
saw, however, how slight his influence was,
and at his death he prayed the princes to
choose as his successor, not one of his own
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
family, but Henry of Saxony (known as
“Henry the Fowler” because of his love of
hunting with hawks).
Henry the Fowler being brought the crown,
after a painting by Hermann Vogel
The Saxon Emperors
The nobles followed Conrad’s advice,
and Henry became the first of the Saxon
emperors who held the regal power in
Germany for more than a hundred years
(918-1024). For although the crown was
elective in theory, it very often descended
from father to son, the son being chosen and
crowned as successor in his father’s lifetime.
Conrad had kept the empire from falling
asunder. Henry gave it a sort of unity, the
effect of which lasted long after his death.
He wrought peace within the empire,
forcing the great princes to own him as
overlord, so that before the end of his reign
there were no German-speaking people who
did not give allegiance to the empire. He
quelled the fierce Hungarians who were a
constant menace to the German states. He
built towns, encouraged industries and
agriculture, and colonized many eastern
parts of Germany which had before been
almost bare of inhabitants, starting an
eastward-bound pattern that would
continue in later generations.
Henry’s devotion was to building up his
power among the nobles of Germany, so he
did not trouble about Italy, or the phantom
glory of the imperial title, and therein lay
much of his success. Toward the end of his
life, though, when his work for Germany
seemed done, he felt the fatal lure, and
made up his mind to go to Rome to be
crowned. But he died before his purpose
was accomplished.
Henry was succeeded by his son Otto I,
the Great. Otto (also called “the Illustrious”)
was only twenty-four when he came to the
throne, and the powerful nobles who had
bowed to his father refused to bow to him.
So his reign began with civil war, the chief
among the rebels being members of his own
family. His reign, indeed, was full of wars at
home and abroad, but in the end he was
victorious everywhere. He subjugated the
Bohemians, he forced the Danes to own him
as overlord, and in the great battle of
Lechfield in 955, he so thoroughly defeated
the Hungarians that they ceased to be a
menace to Germany and began to settle
down in a civilized manner in the country
which is still called by their name.
Otto I —
Dreams of World Dominion
By all these wars Otto strengthened and
consolidated his kingdom, and Germany
took first place among the states of Europe.
But unfortunately for the future of Germany
Otto’s ambition did not end there. Germany
was not everything to him, as it had been to
his father. His thoughts turned to world
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
dominion, and when the Princess Adelheide
of Italy implored him to come and release
her from the oppression of King Berenger,
he eagerly marched over the Alps and
answered her call.
Otto defeated Berenger, married the
Princess Adelheide, and took the title of
King of Italy. Then he marched to Rome and
received the imperial crown at the hands of
the Pope, to whom he, like Charlemagne
before him, had granted protection from the
Roman nobles.
Statues of Otto I, right, and Adelheide in Meissen
Cathedral. Otto and Adelheide were married after his
annexation of Italy. (By User:Kolossos - Own work, CC BY-SA
3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2447069)
For more than sixty years no German
king had held the title of emperor, and
during that time Germany had made strides
towards unity. The title meanwhile had not
lapsed, but it had been held by petty kings
who had little power and who were of no
account in the politics of Europe. In theory
the holder was the secular lord of the world;
in theory he was overlord of every king or
prince in Europe, but having been held by
princes of no real power, men had grown to
regard it little. Now Otto, already a great
and powerful ruler, pulled the imperial title
out of the mud and made it great again.
From his reign, in fact, we may date the true
beginning of the Holy Roman Empire,
named so because of its association with the
Pope of Rome. He had revived the Empire
of Charlemagne, with less territory indeed,
but with no less splendor.
But in doing this he linked the fortunes
of Germany with those of Italy, to the lasting
misfortune of both. Instead of
strengthening their own kingdom, from this
time on the German kings, driven by the
baleful enchantment, dreamed of world
power, and for nine hundred years poured
out blood and treasure in a vain endeavor to
subjugate Italy, thus keeping Germany
weak and Italy disunited.
From the beginning Otto ruled the
empire with a high hand. He even ruled the
Church, for by the middle of the tenth
century the papacy had fallen low, and the
lives of the popes had become a scandal.
Otto dethroned popes at will and imposed
others of his own choosing upon the Roman
people, and so asserted his power that by
the end of his reign he had pulled the
papacy, even as he had pulled the imperial
title, out of the mud in which he had found
it. But the Church was now under the state,
and the popes had to bow to the Emperor’s
will.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
L e s s o n T w o
H i s t o r y O v e r v i e w a n d A s s i g n m e n t s
The Struggle Between Pope and Emperor
THE HOLY Roman Empire was marked by struggles for power, between pope and emperor, between emperor and nobles, and between nobles themselves. Emperors after Otto exerted increasing authority over the Church until a pope named Gregory VII fought back, demanding repentance on the part of the Emperor.
Frederick II and his falcon
Vocabulary
investiture impenitent relented absolution inexorable antipope
Key People , Places , and
Events
Henry III Henry IV Pope Gregory VII Frederick II
Reading and Assignments
Review the discussion questions and vocabulary, then read the article: The Holy Roman Empire – The Struggle Between Pope and Emperor.
Narrate about today’s reading using the appropriate notebook page. Be sure to answer the discussion questions and include key people, events, and dates within the narration.
Define each vocabulary word in the context of the reading and put the word and its definition in the vocabulary section of your history notebook.
Be sure to visit www.ArtiosHCS.com for additional resources.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Henry IV repented to the Pope?
2. What was the root problem at the center of the Investiture Conflict?
3. Who was King of England during the German struggles described in this article?
4. In your opinion, was it right for popes to seek authority over political rulers?
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
Adapted for Middle School from the book:
Story of Europe by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
The Holy Roman Empire —
The Struggle Between Pope and Emperor
Three Saxon emperors followed Otto.
Then, with Henry II the line came to an end,
and with Conrad II that of the Franconian
emperors began, and lasted for a hundred
years. With the second of these emperors,
Henry III, the empire reached the height of
its power, and appeared more like a united
whole than ever before. For Henry was one
of the best and strongest rulers of the
Middle Ages.
The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
Conrad was crowned emperor on
March 26, 1027, by Pope John XIX
In nothing, perhaps, did Henry show
himself greater than in curbing private war
in Germany. In neighboring states the Truce
of God had been proclaimed. Henry
imposed upon his people the King’s Peace.
During the time of this peace the land
prospered as it had never done before.
Peasants tilled their fields in safety, and
merchants passed from town to town
unharmed.
Henry III and the Papacy
In the Church, too, Henry made his
power felt. The papacy had again sunk into
the slough from which Otto I had drawn it,
and three popes struggled for the papal
throne. Henry deposed all three and
installed as pope a German, a member of the
imperial house. Indeed, during his reign he
installed no fewer than four popes, all of
them Germans. Under them the papacy was
raised from its degraded position. But in
thus helping to purify and, in consequence,
strengthen the Church, Henry, all
unconsciously, laid the foundations for a
great struggle between the empire and the
papacy. For the time, however, the
Emperor’s triumph over the Church was
complete, and it seemed as if imperial
supremacy was firmly and enduringly fixed.
But in thus giving his time and thought
to things papal and Italian, Henry lost much
of his influence in Germany, and in the last
years of his life troubles gathered thick
about him. In the midst of these he died,
leaving a child of six to succeed him.
With a child upon the throne, the bands
by which Henry III had bound the empire
together loosened. The power of the
Emperor became less; the power of the
princes became far greater than it had ever
been since the time of Otto I. At times the
princes rose against the Emperor, at other
times they fought among themselves, and
before long the whole land was filled with
strife.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
Henry IV and Gregory VII
It was when the empire was thus
weakened that the monk Hildebrand, who
had already become a great power in the
Church, was elected pope. He chose the
name of Gregory VII, and under that name
he became even more powerful than he had
been as Hildebrand. Between him and
Henry IV a bitter struggle for supremacy
began.
Two years after his inauguration
Gregory issued a decree declaring that
henceforth bishops should not be chosen by
the Emperor nor by any lay person, but that
their investiture (selection and installation)
should be entirely in the hands of the
Church.
Medieval king investing a bishop with
the symbols of his episcopate
Emperor after emperor had tried to
strengthen the clergy in order to curb the
power of the nobles. And to do this emperor
after emperor had given them lands to hold
in fief, until at length a great part of the soil
of Germany was in their hands. If, then, the
Pope alone had power to appoint bishops,
all these lands would pass into his control,
and the imperial authority would be
seriously lessened.
Henry was at this time only twenty-five.
He was hot-tempered 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, so he deposed the Pope, calling
him a “false monk.” For had not his father
elected and deposed popes as he would? But
Gregory was no German pope, ready to bow
to the commands of a German king. Instead
of being cowed by this show of imperial
power, he replied to it by excommunicating
Henry and threatening to depose him if he
remained impenitent.
Never before had a pope dared to use
such arrogance towards an emperor, and
had Henry been surrounded by faithful
vassals, had he ruled over a united people,
the thunders of the Pope might have fallen
harmless upon him. But, because of that
dream of world dominion, Germany was not
united. There was little German loyalty to a
ruler who claimed the entire world as his
dominion. Every prince of the empire was
constantly seeking an opportunity to
become an independent ruler. Now many
saw their opportunity, for the Pope had set
them free from their allegiance, and Henry
found his empire filled with rebellion and
his authority vanishing into thin air.
Henry soon saw that only by submitting
to the Pope could he regain his authority
over his rebellious subjects, so he made up
his mind to submit at once. It was no
repentance for his deed which urged him to
this, but merely political necessity.
In midwinter he crossed the Alps, and
after incredible hardships reached Canossa,
where the haughty pope awaited him.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
There, one bitter winter morning, while the
snow lay on the ground, the proud emperor
appeared before the castle gates of the still
prouder pope. Clad in the garb of a penitent,
with head and feet bare, he humbly
knocked, begging admission. But the door
remained closed. A second and a third day
passed, and still Henry stood without the
gates, awaiting the pleasure of the stern old
man within.
Henry IV waiting barefoot in Canossa,
by Eduard Schwoiser
At length Gregory relented. The penitent
king was admitted to his presence, and
received absolution. Thus did the
inexorable priest uphold before the eyes of
all Christendom the papal right to judge
kings. Thus did he make good his claim to
loose and to bind in earthly as in heavenly
matters, “to give and to take away empires,
kingdoms, princedoms, and the possessions
of all men.” Without striking a blow,
without even having an army behind him,
this little, grey-haired priest had conquered
“the lord of the world.”
But the Pope, by his haughty measures,
had made an implacable enemy of Henry,
and as soon as he felt himself strong enough
he defied the Pope anew. Again he was
excommunicated, and again he replied by
deposing the Pope. This time he set up an
“antipope” and marching to Rome besieged
Gregory there.
After a siege of three years Henry
entered the city and received the imperial
crown at the hands of his own pope,
Clement III. Gregory’s day was over, and he
fled to Salerno. There he died, but even in
death he did not forgive the disloyal
emperor, and he died leaving his enemy still
under the ban of the Church.
Pope Gregory VII
Rebellion and civil war filled Henry’s
last days, and at length, deposed, betrayed,
and beggared, he died. But the Pope’s curse
followed him even beyond the grave, and
not until five years later was the ban
removed and the bones of Henry IV laid to
rest in consecrated ground.
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
Concordat of Worms
Gregory VII was dead, Henry IV was
dead, but the struggle over the investiture
continued. For succeeding popes clung to
the great powers Gregory had claimed,
succeeding emperors resisted them.
Henry V succeeded his father, Henry IV. He
had rebelled against his father during his
lifetime, and now the new pope, Paschal II,
hoped to find in him an obedient servant;
but he was mistaken, and the struggle
continued.
At length, however, at the Concordat of
Worms in 1122, Calixtus II now being pope,
an agreement was come to. It was agreed
that the Pope should have the right to invest
its bishops with due ceremony, but that the
bishops should be invested in the presence
of the Emperor or his representatives, and
that they should do homage to him for their
fiefs in the same way as laymen.
Thus the struggle of fifty years finally
ended. The Pope was, in the main,
victorious, for although he had not been
able to make good all his claims, he had won
much prestige, whereas the Emperor had
lost much. But although the question of
investiture might be settled, the rivalry
between pope and emperor, each arrogantly
claiming to rule the world, continued as
before. More and more the popes strove to
make good their claim to be not only the
chief priests but the chief princes of
Christendom. But it is not uninteresting to
note the difference in the treatment meted
out by them to Henry of Germany and
William of England.
England
In England the King was supreme over
both Church and state. There the people
alone could give or take away the crown,
there the King made and unmade bishops
without reference to the Pope. But in the
hope of making England a fief of the Church
the Pope, Alexander II, blessed the
enterprise of William of Normandy when he
set forth to conquer the kingdom from
Harold the Saxon. William, however, pious
a churchman he might have been, once
having conquered England, meant to rule
there as sole master.
William the Conqueror statue
Later, Pope Gregory VII also meant to
rule there as elsewhere, and after some
preliminary skirmishes in which William
yielded nothing, he sent a messenger to
demand from the King of England an oath,
probably of fealty, together with the
assurance that “Peter’s Pence” (an annual
payment made to the Pope which had begun
under Saxon kings) should be more
punctually paid.
William’s reply was very short, very
decisive. Bluntly he refused to own himself
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Medieval to Renaissance: Middle School Unit 11: The Holy Roman Empire
the Pope’s man. The kings of England who
had gone before him had never sworn fealty
to the Pope; neither would he. As to Peter’s
Pence, from ancient times it had been paid,
and he would continue to pay it. What was
lawfully due to the Pope the Pope should
have. The respect due to the chief priest of
Christendom he should also have, and
nothing more. The right of investiture, over
which pope and emperor had quarreled so
fiercely, was never even mentioned, and
whatever wrath Gregory may have felt at
William’s refusal of fealty, no thunders of
the Church were launched at the unruly
king. This was partly, doubtless, because
Gregory was otherwise occupied. His arch-
enemy the Emperor was again defiant and
had enthroned an antipope, and Gregory,
gathering his forces to combat him, had
little leisure to fight the King of England.
Germany
But if the popes were unsuccessful in
pressing their claims in England, in
Germany they were more successful. During
the reign of Lothaire the Saxon, who
followed Henry V as ruler of Germany, their
power increased. For Lothaire was weakly
fearful of arousing the Pope’s wrath, and he
even went so far as to acknowledge the Pope
as his overlord, in respect of some Italian
lands, of which he might have claimed
possession outright.
Italy
Struggles also continued between the
emperors and their nobles, spreading
feudalism among the empire as nobles
fought for power and sought protection.
Frederick I, called “Barbarossa,” or “Red
Beard,” tried to restore the Holy Roman
Empire’s glory by intervening in Italy’s
affairs, but his efforts largely ended in
failure. His grandson, Frederick II, was heir
to the throne of Sicily through his mother,
as well as heir to Germany’s throne. He gave
most of his attention to Italy, so the German
feudal princes ruled their lands largely
independently of him.
The death of Frederick II, in the year
1250, marked the close of the Holy Roman
Empire. Germany and Italy never truly
united, and centuries later they became
entirely separate nations.
Statue of Frederick II at the Palazzo Reale, Naples (By Neapolis 93 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26336385)
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