western civilization

In my last lecture, I told you that by the fifth century CE, the Roman Empire as it had been

known for the past almost 1000 years fell apart. It had been in decline for a couple centuries

before, and one of the tell-tale signs of this was the growing divide in the Empire between the

East and the West. In this lecture, we’re going to talk about the civilizations that emerged from

the two sides of the former Roman Empire, and we’re also going to discuss another invading

group that came to form a pillar of medieval Europe. More specifically, we’re going to discuss

the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Civilization of Western Europe, and Islamic Civilization, all of

which became big players in the Western World between 500 and 900 CE. These three

civilizations are also important because they form they foundation of modern civilization. It was

during this time period between 500 and 900 that the Western World began to look a little bit

closer to how we see it today.

[SLIDE] We have a few questions to ask about this time period and the three civilizations that

go with it. We’re going ask: 1 What were the primary goals of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian

in the 6th century CE? 2. What was the Iconoclastic Controversy? 3. Why was the spread of

Islam so successful? And 4. How did Charlemagne influence the geography, politics, and culture

of the Franks in Gaul?

[SLIDE] By 450 CE, most of the western provinces of the Roman Empire had fallen to

Barbarian invaders. The Romans held on to Italy for a while longer, but in 476, the Italian

Peninsula also fell to Barbarians. Consequently, most historians designate the year 476 as the end

of the Roman Empire in the West. Only the eastern part remained of the Roman Empire. This

eastern part of the former Roman Empire is colored yellow on the map on your screen. This

reduced form of the Roman Empire was called the Byzantine Empire, or Byzantium.

Interestingly, the residence of the Byzantine Empire still thought of themselves as Roman, as the

heirs of the former glorious empire. They also retained the same imperial government with one

emperor. As we'll see in this lecture and in the coming lectures, the Byzantine Empire would

continue to change over the centuries, but it would remain in existence until the 1400s.

[SLIDE] One of the most important emperors of the Byzantine Empire was Justinian. Justinian

defied convention in a couple of different ways. First, he was the last emperor to speak Latin as

his native language. In addition, he married a former actress named Theodora. [SLIDE] Here's

an image of Justinian and Theodora as depicted in a mosaic from the time period. Today, we

tend to think of acting as a pretty respectable profession. But at this time, acting, and particularly

actresses, were connected with prostitution and had less than pristine reputations. Making

Justinian's choice for a wife even more controversial, Theodora had a very strong personality,

and she wasn't afraid to voice her opinions on politics and religion. She wasn't the stereotypical

subdued and silent empress.

[SLIDE] One of Justinian's primary goals as emperor was to unify the Byzantine Empire and

demonstrate his authority as emperor. He did this by creating the Corpus Juris Civilis in 534 CE.

Prior to Justinian, most emperors had allowed conquered people to retain their own laws and

customs. While this encouraged less revolts and uprisings from conquered people, in the long

run, it created a lot of confusion. Consequently, Justinian ordered his lawyers to sort through all

the laws of his empire and determine which of them should be enforced. What Justinian's

lawyers kept became came the Corpus Juris Civilis. And he enforced this single law code

throughout his territories. Justinian's other major goal was to take back the Western Roman

Empire from the Barbarian invaders. In 533, Justinian's army succeeded in retaking parts of

North Africa and Southern Spain from the Vandals without much effort. Encouraged by this easy

victory, Justinian set his sights on Italy in 537, which was currently under the control of the

Ostrogoths. But retaking Italy did not prove as easy as Justinian had anticipated. The main

obstacle he faced was that the Ostrogoths had been pretty nice to the Romans living in Italy.

Consequently, many former Romans supported the Ostrogoths in resisting Justinian. Justinian

eventually regained Italy. [SLIDE] This is what the Byzantine Empire looked like under

Justinian once he finished his conquest. On the map, the Byzantine Empire is colored pink.

Justinian's conquest of Italy, however, took over 20 years, and it did not produce good results.

The first year of fighting devastated crops and livelihoods in Italy, which upset residents. And it

was a huge financial drain for the Byzantine Empire, which upset the Byzantines back home.

Justinian got Italy back, but no one was happy about it. Even worse, the Byzantine emperors

after Justinian didn't have the money or the armies necessary to maintain control of the territories

he reclaimed. By the early 600s, North Africa, Spain, and Italy were lost again to Barbarian

invaders.

[SLIDE] The loss of Italy also meant the loss of the city of Rome. In the place of Rome, the city

of Constantinople became the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople had been founded

by, and was named after, Constantine in 324 CE. [SLIDE] On the map on your screen, the city

of Constantinople is marked with a red box. The city was strategically located where the Black

Sea meets the Sea of Marmara, which benefited the city economically. [SLIDE] Consequently,

between 450 and 700 CE, Constantinople was the richest and largest city in the world. Perhaps

the most brilliant jewel of Constantinople was the Hagia Sophia. This was a church, and it still

stands today, although it was converted into a mosque when the Ottoman Turks conquered the

city in the 1400s. [SLIDE] The Hagia Sophia was built by Justinian. He hired a whole crew of

architects and over 10,000 workers to build it. [SLIDE] The dome of the Hagia Sophia was a

significant accomplishment for architects, who had to figure out how to keep such a large

structure from crashing down.

[SLIDE] Religion in the Byzantine Empire remained a central aspect of daily life. The city of

Constantinople boasted so many churches and sacred relics, that by 600 CE, the Byzantines had

begun to think of it as a holy city, protected by God and under the special care of the Virgin

Mary. Due to the loss of the West to barbarian tribes, Christians in the western and eastern parts

of the former Roman Empire began to develop different religious ideas and customs. Eventually,

the Byzantines created their own church, the Orthodox Church. This was a different church than

the Roman Catholic Church, which we'll talk more about in a few minutes. The Orthodox

Church of the Byzantine Empire had a distinct hierarchy. At the top was the chief bishop of

Constantinople, who was known as the patriarch. The patriarch was appointed by the emperor

and he worked closely with the emperor in directing and supervising the other bishops and

priests and monasteries of the Byzantine Empire.

[SLIDE] For much of the history of the Byzantine Empire, the Orthodox Church represented a

unifying element for the Byzantines. But it wasn't always free from internal conflict. One

conflict in particular threatened to tear the Orthodox Church and its members apart. This was the

Iconoclastic Controversy of the 8th century. The word "iconoclastic" comes from the word

"icon." An icon is a visual representation of a saint, religious figure, or a divine figure that

people look at to pray and worship. It was, and still is today, intended to be a religious tool.

[SLIDE] Here are two examples of icons from the modern era. But in the 8th century, some

Byzantines saw all the Barbarian in the West and as we’ll talk more about in a few minutes, there

were new Muslim invaders in the East. Well, some Byzantines began to think that perhaps God

was angry with the Empire for its use of icons. They claimed that the use of icons had gone too

far, that people were worshipping the icons themselves, instead of what they represented, and

that this action was a form of idolatry, a very grave sin indeed. On the one hand, defenders of the

icons claimed that the icons were important because they helped people better relate to and

worship God. In other words, the paintings made the unimaginable imaginable. On the other

hand, critics responded that uneducated Christians couldn't tell the difference between using an

icon as a tool to worship and worshipping the icons itself. Well, in 726, the Byzantine Emperor

Leo came down on the side of the critics and he ordered the destruction of all icons throughout

the empire. The destruction of icons is known by the term "iconoclasm." Remember, the

Byzantine emperor, like the former Roman emperors, continued to play an important role in the

church. Upon Emperor Leo's orders, officials stormed into churches, monasteries, and private

homes seizing icons and burning them in big bonfires. But we have to remember that people had

been using icons for centuries to worship. So many people resisted Emperor Leo's order to

destroy all the icons, often by rioting or hiding their icons. The Iconoclastic Controversy

continued until the year 843 CE. [SLIDE] In 843, after years of turmoil, Empress Theodora put

an end to iconoclasm in the empire and allowed people to freely use icons again.

[SLIDE] I want to switch now to talk about another civilization that emerged in the East in the

early Middle Ages. This was the Islamic Civilization. Islamic civilization began in the Arabian

Peninsula in the 7th century CE before it spread outwards. To understand how the religion of

Islam took hold in Arabia and created a new civilization, we need to know a little more about the

history of the region. Much of the Arabian Peninsula is desert, which made farming and the

development of cities difficult. But in the 500s, a group of Arab tribes allied together and began

to establish urban centers along the western coast of the peninsula, near the Red Sea, which is

where the land was fertile. If you look at the map on your screen, the Red Sea is located to the

left of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs living there became wealthier, and new trade routes

appeared, connecting people there to the outside world. [SLIDE] Cities like Mecca and Medina

grew into prominent centers of trade. You'll find these two cities located on the left side of the

Arabian Peninsula, near the Red Sea. [SLIDE] As you'll see on the map on your screen, the

Arabian Peninsula is near the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire. And in fact, Arabia

often served as a sort of buffer between these two empires. But neither Christianity, nor

Zoroastrianism, the religion of Persia, ever took hold in Arabia. [SLIDE] Instead, prior to the

early 600s CE, most Arabs were polytheistic, worshipping many gods and goddesses. The city of

Mecca possessed a famous temple called The Ka'aba. And throughout the year, many people

from around Arabia traveled to Mecca to worship at this temple. Records from the 5th and the

6th centuries note that the Ka'aba housed shrines for 360 different gods and goddesses. And

amidst all of these shrines, at the center, was a sacred black meteorite. In the 500s and the early

600s, the Byzantines and the Persians were the primary superpowers of the East, and they

considered themselves to be the pinnacle of civilization. In contrast, the Byzantines and the

Persians saw the Arabs as backwards and ignorant. And if you surveyed Byzantines and Persians

about Arabs at this time, the Byzantines and the Persians would have made three basic

assumptions. They would have said that the Arabs as a people would never amount to anything;

that Arabia would be conquered by the Byzantine or Persian empires; and that the Arabs would

eventually become Christian or Zoroastrian. Well, the complete opposite occurred.

[SLIDE] Around 610 CE, Muhammad, a middle-aged merchant from Mecca, began to have

religious visions. An angel appeared to him and ordered him to "recite in the name of thy lord,

who created man. Recite in the name of thy lord, who taught man what he knew not."

Muhammad, fearing that he was being attacked by an evil spirit, fled down the mountain in

terror. The voice called after him, "Oh, Muhammad, you are the messenger of God, and I am the

angel Gabriel." After a while, Muhammad began to accept these visions, and the angel told

Muhammad to spread God's message. Central to this message was the idea that Allah alone is

God. In other words, this was strict monotheism. According to the religion that would become

known as Islam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad were all prophets of Allah. So

followers of Muhammad accepted the historical truth and legitimacy of Judaism and Christianity,

but Muslims believed then and now that the revelations of Muhammad were the final stage of

God's plan. And they view Muhammad as God's final prophet. Muhammad's religious visions,

which took place over a period of about 23 years, were recorded in a text known as the Qu'ran.

Muslims regard the Qu'ran as the most important religious text. And the Qu'ran lays out basic

principles or directions, which are known as the five pillars of Islam. [SLIDE] The five pillars

are: acknowledge that there is only one God and Muhammad is his prophet. State this belief in

prayer five times a day. Fast between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan, which is the ninth

month of the Muslim calendar. Donate money and food to the needy. And make a pilgrimage to

Mecca at least once in your life. By performing the five pillars of Islam, Muslims demonstrate

what they believe is obedience to the will of God.

[SLIDE] When Muhammad began to teach others about Islam, he started with his own family

and then spread outwards Soon, Muhammad attracted a following. This, however, made the rich

and powerful merchants of Mecca angry. Remember, the city of Mecca was home to the Ka'aba,

and this temple attracted people from all over who wanted to worship at it. These visitors spent

money on food, lodging, and entertainment when they came to Mecca, which went into the

pockets of the local merchants. The merchants of Mecca were afraid that if Muhammad

succeeded in spreading his new religion, it would discourage people from coming, and it would

hurt their businesses. So, in 622 CE, the merchants of Mecca threatened Muhammad and his

followers, who were forced to flee for their lives Muhammad and his followers fled to the city of

Medina. This flight is known as Muhammad's Hijra. Muhammad and his followers stayed in

Medina for six years. During this time, he gained more followers and more power, and soon he

created an Islamic community, at the center of which stood the mosque. The mosque was the

place where his followers gathered to pray and hear Muhammad speak about his visions and

God's law as he had received them. By 628, Muhammad had gained so many followers that he

was able to re-enter Mecca at the head of an army of 10,000 men. According to tradition, when

Muhammad entered Mecca, he proceeded directly to the Ka'aba and ordered it to be converted

into a sanctuary of the Islamic religion. [SLIDE] Today, the Ka'aba shrine is still considered by

Muslims to be the most sacred spot on earth.

[SLIDE] By the year 631, almost all people in the Arabian Peninsula had become Muslim and

Muhammad was more than just a religious leader. He became a political leader, as well, and he

created instruction for all aspects of society. This wasn't unusual. For most civilizations, at this

point, Church and State were deeply connected. We saw this with the Romans- both pagan and

Christian. We saw this with the Byzantine emperors. And now we see this with the Muslim

leaders. The Qu'ran came to include laws about all aspects of Islamic society. And it was the

Qu'ran that became the bases of all law governing Muslim communities. After Muhammad died

in 632 CE, Muslim leaders who succeeded him were known as caliphs. "Caliph" literally

translates to "successor," and like Muhammad, the caliphs served as both political and religious

leaders of the Islamic community. You can think of caliphs as Muslim kings.

[SLDIE] During his life, Muhammad was focused on converting the people of the Arabian

Peninsula to Islam. After his death though, the caliphs began to look outwards to conquered

territory and convert conquered people to Islam. The swiftness of the Muslim advance and the

decisiveness of their military victories was stunning. Muslim armies invaded the Persian and

Byzantine Empire, but these two empires couldn't seem to get their act together in response to

this invasion. In an effort to stop the Muslim armies, the Byzantine and Persian emperors allied

together in 636 CE, and they agreed that they would meet up and combine their troops in the city

of Yarmuk, near Syria and Jordan. Unfortunately, the Persian troops never showed up, and the

Byzantines were forced to face the incoming Muslim armies by themselves. By all accounts, this

was an all-out massacre of the Byzantines. 40,000 soldiers died in the battle. And many

Byzantine soldiers tried to flee, but they fell to their deaths in a nearby ravine. The Battle of

Yarmuk ended Byzantine rule in Syria, and Muslim armies continued on to the rest of Palestine.

Most of the cities of Syria and Palestine surrendered without struggle, especially since the

Muslim armies promised not to sack any city that did not resist. Jerusalem finally fell in 637 CE.

That same year, the Muslims crushed the Persian army, it captured the Persian capital. By 651

CE, Muslim forces completed their conquest of all of Persia. Muslim armies took Egypt and

continued through North Africa. They reached the Atlantic Ocean in 670 CE. By the year 711,

they had taken most of Spain and were threatening a Barbarian people called the Franks, in what

is today, southern France. In 732, at the Battle of Tours, the Frankish king, Charles Martel,

stopped the advance of Muslim armies. This created a western border for the Islamic Empire.

Muslim armies also moved into the Byzantine Empire, and in 669, they reached the gates of

Constantinople. They failed to take Constantinople because of its solid walls, and because the

Byzantines had recently discovered an incendiary substance known as "Greek Fire." [SLIDE]

Greek Fire was a flammable liquid that was similar to the napalm used in 20th century warfare.

All in all, within a century, the people of the Arabian Peninsula- those people who the Byzantine

and Persian Empires had considered so inferior- they had upended the entire organization and

way of life of the known world. [SLIDE] By the middle of the 8th century, the Western world

was completely different from the way it had been before. The Persian Empire was gone. The

kingdom of the Franks in Northwestern Europe had a new aggressive neighbor. And the

Byzantine Empire had been further reduced. The map on your screen shows Islamic territory

marked in purple. For the next 400 years, this Islamic territory would remain pretty much the

same.

[SLIDE] Let's turn now to look a little more closely at the rulers of this Islamic territory. When

Muhammad died in 632 CE, he didn't specifically name anyone to rule after him. Consequently,

Muhammad's death left a bit of a power vacuum in which people fought with each other to be the

caliph, the ruler of Islamic civilization. After Muhammad came a series of caliphs who ruled for

short periods of time, either because they died or were assassinated. Finally, in 661 CE, the first

Muslim dynasty was established under a man named Mu'awiyah. Remember, dynasties are

families of rulers who passed down control to members within that family. Mu'awiyah

established the Umayyad Caliphate. A caliphate refers to the dynasty ruling it, as well as the

territory they control and their government. So, if caliphs are Muslim kings, then you can think

of caliphates as Muslim kingdoms with Muslim governments. The Umayyad Dynasty continued

to expand Muslim territory, reaching all the way to India. [SLIDE] In 750 CE, a man named

Abu al-Abbas succeeded in overthrowing the Umayyad Caliph. Abu al- Abbas declared himself

the new caliph, and he created a new dynasty and a new government called the Abbasid

Caliphate. In order to submit his claim to power and prevent future rebellions, al-Abbas

slaughtered 82 members of the Umayyad family. The only remaining Umayyad fled to Spain,

where he established his own kingdom. In contrast to previous Muslim rulers, the Abbasid

Dynasty stopped trying to expand Muslim territory. As a result, Muslim society reached new

cultural heights in the 9th and 10th centuries. Greek documents, as well as Persian and Sanskrit

texts, were translated into Arabic during this period, introducing new knowledge. Trade was

encouraged, which brought in exotic products and riches. Islamic civilization reached its zenith

under the caliph named Harun al-Rashid, who was featured in the exotic tales of the Arabian

Nights. The Arabian Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern tales, and you probably actually

know some of the tales of this collection without even realizing it. The Disney character, Aladdin

and his magical lamp, are featured in these stories. Although, you might be interested to know

that there is no Jasmine. In Arabian Nights, Aladdin marries Princess Badroulbadour, which is

probably why Disney re-named her Jasmine. The Abbasid Dynasty ended in 1258, when the

Mongols destroyed Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph.

[SLIDE] There were a few reasons for the incredible success of Muslim armies in expanding the

Islamic Civilization. In terms of factors strengthening and motivating the Arabs, we can know

that the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula were, of course, unified under the Islamic religion, which

encouraged cooperation. In addition, some scholars have argued that the Arabian Peninsula was

getting progressively drier during the 7th and 8th centuries. This encouraged many Arabs to

move into surrounding territories in order to survive and make a living. Finally, we should not

discount the power of the Arab armies. Led by the caliphs and a series of brilliant generals,

Arabs put together a large and very zealous army. They were not only large in number and

unified through a religious and economic goal, but they were also skilled in combat. The Arab

cavalry excelled at speedy raids, surprise attacks, and elusive retreats. In any case, in Persia and

Byzantine, they encountered very little opposition. Sources from this time indicate that the

Muslim armies moved so quickly that most people in Persia and Byzantium had no idea who

they were. On the other hand, as we’ve talked about, the Byzantines and Persians had been

fighting for centuries. This constant fighting exhausted both sides so that when the Muslim

armies invaded, both the Byzantines and Persians were already economically and physically

exhausted. Finally, when Muslims conquered a region, they did not force Jews and Christians

and Persian Zoroastrians to convert to Islam. And this was because these religious groups were

monotheistic, and Muslim leaders believed that all of them were worshipping the same God,

even if they didn't recognize Muhammad as a prophet. Muslims gave conquered Christians,

Jews, and Zoroastrians a special protected status called a dhimmi. The term "dhimmi" means an

inferior protected group. This status meant that Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians were allowed

to keep practicing their religion, as long as they didn't do it loudly or offensively. In fact, at first,

Arabs actually discouraged Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians from converting to Islam because

these non-Muslims had to pay a special tax, called the jizya, to keep their protected status. This

tax provided another source of revenue for the caliphs. This sort of religious tolerance

encouraged many Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians living in conquered territory to acquiesce to

Muslim control. They may not have liked it, but it wasn't intolerable.

[SLIDE] Let’s turn now to look at the third civilization- the Latin Civilization formed by the

barbarians that had invaded and taken over Western Europe. By 750 CE, barbarian tribes that

moved into Western Europe and the former Western Roman Empire had created their own

kingdoms. The four main barbarians groups were the Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths, Lombards, and

Franks, and each of these groups took a different approach to the Romans living in the territories

they conquered. [SLIDE] For example, two barbarian groups- the Angles and the Saxons-

invaded England separately before merging together into one group- the Anglo-Saxons. The

Anglo-Saxons pretty successfully squashed Roman civilization in England, they wiped out

Christianity almost completely, and kept their polytheistic religion for the first couple of

centuries. It wasn’t until the 600s, that the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Roman Catholicism.

[SLIDE] The Franks invaded the region called Gaul. Gaul is what today we know of as France

and Germany. France actually gets its name from the Franks that conquered that area. In contrast

to the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks adopted aspects of the Roman culture they conquered. One of

the first Frankish rulers was a guy named Clovis. Around the year 500, Clovis converted from

his native, polytheistic religion to Roman Catholicism. And when Clovis converted to Roman

Catholicism, most of his people did too. So by the early 500s most of the Franks were Roman

Catholics. Now Clovis may have converted for legitimate religious reasons. He may have

actually believed in the ideas of Roman Catholicism. But he also used his conversion as a

political tool. Clovis wanted to expand the territory of his kingdom, and he justified his

expansion by explaining that he was bringing Roman Catholicism to the people of the regions he

conquered. Clovis and his family started the first dynasty of the Franks called the Merovingian

dynasty. But this dynasty came to an end at the beginning of the 700's, when a guy named

Charles Martel took over. Charles created the second Frankish dynasty called the Carolingians.

And Charles Martel-- who was nicknamed the hammer-- was really important for Western

civilization because he defeated an invading army of Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732. If he

hadn't done this, the Muslim forces may have kept going and taken over all of Western Europe.

[SLIDE] As I mentioned a few minutes ago, by 750 CE, all of the Germanic groups of Western

Europe had converted to Roman Catholicism. Don’t forget that we now have two forms of

Christianity at this point in time in Western Civilization. We’ve talked about the Orthodox

Church in the Byzantine Empire. Remember, the Orthodox Church was lead by the patriarch,

who was appointed by the emperor. In the West, the Roman Catholic Church became the

dominant form of Christianity. In Roman Catholicism, the Pope is the leader of the church. The

pope became the leader based on what is known as the Doctrine of Petrine supremacy.

According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gave Peter-- one of his apostles-- the keys to the

kingdom of heaven. Peter thus became the first leader of the Christian church, and he went on to

become the first bishop of Rome. Based on this tradition, the bishops of Rome presented

themselves as the heirs of Peter and thus the heads of the Roman Catholic Church. The bishops

of Rome began using the title papa, or father, and the term papa evolved into the title pope. The

position of pope and the pope’s officials form an institution known as the papacy. Until the

1300s, the popes lived in the city of Rome. And from there he oversaw the rest of the Catholic

hierarchy- the archbishops, bishops, priests, and monks of Western Europe. In the 6th and 7th

centuries, the rulers of the Franks and the other barbarian groups relied heavily on the bishops

and archbishops to help them run their kingdoms. So, these church officials often had religious,

as well as political roles. They help to make sure the laws are being followed, they collected

taxes and raised armies for the kings. The reason why barbarian rulers relied so heavily on the

bishops and archbishops was because they were more likely to be able to read and write than any

other member of society. In addition, most people respected priests and bishops so it made sense

to put them in charge of local communities.

[SLIDE] Although many people converted to Roman Catholicism when their king did, other

people had to be persuaded. While the bishops and archbishops served primarily as community

leaders, the individuals who played the biggest role in converting the barbarians were the monks.

This represents a new development for monks. If you remember back to my previous lectures,

the monastic movement began in the 200s and 300s, when monks practiced asceticism in order to

gain a better relationship with God. Like St. Anthony, they often went out into deserts and

forests and lived there for decades by themselves. Eventually, monks and nuns began to live

together and they created rules and orders. Now, in the 6th and 7th centuries in Western Europe,

monks began to act as missionaries. They still had the same basic goal. They would avoid all the

unnecessary pleasures of life to build a relationship with God, but in this case, the avoiding of all

unnecessary pleasures meant putting themselves into danger by going out and converting people

who could be quite hostile to strangers and anyone who threatened their established way of life.

In essence, the monks went out knowing that they could be martyred anytime, and they accepted

and even welcomed this risk as God's will.

[SLIDE] As we've discussed, the Roman Empire-- when it still existed-- was humongous. And

Roman emperors managed to expand the empire all the way to England, before the Anglo-

Saxons invaded and took it over. But the Roman emperors never managed to conquer Ireland. It

had remained under the power of the Celts, who practiced polytheism.

But eventually the Irish were converted by a famous missionary monk named St. Patrick. Now

St. Patrick was actually from England. If you remember, I told you that when the Anglo- Saxons

invaded in the 400s, they pretty much eradicated Christianity. But stories emerged about a few

people who held on to their Christian beliefs. According to the legend, Patrick was the son of a

Roman who held on to his Christian beliefs when the Anglo-Saxons invaded. So Patrick was

raised Christian, but he was kidnapped as a young man by Irish Raiders, and brought back to

Ireland to be a slave. Eventually, Patrick escaped from slavery and returned to England where he

became a monk. As a monk, he went back to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. Do you

know the legend about snakes in Ireland? According to one tradition, one of the ways Patrick

convinced the Irish to convert was by driving the snakes out of Ireland. In the legend, Patrick hit

the ground with his staff and all the snakes slithered off the island in fear. This story probably

isn't true. It is a fact that there are no native snakes in Ireland because it’s an island and the

snakes never found a way over there over the course of evolution. In reality, the story is more of

a metaphor for the Irish converting to Christianity. Patrick used his staff-- which in Christianity

represents the shepherd who guides his sheep-- to drive out the snake, which is a symbol for

Satan and evil. But Patrick was a real person. And he managed to convert a lot of people to

Christianity.

[SLIDE] One important thing to note is that because Ireland is an island and fairly isolated from

the European continent, the Irish developed their own Christian practices and ideas. In Ireland,

monks tended to act as religious and community leaders instead of bishops. Irish monks also

emphasized learning. They created beautiful books called illuminated manuscripts to pass on

information and learning. Remember, there is no printing press at this time. If you wanted a copy

of a book, you had to copy it by hand. And that's what these monks were doing. And because

books were so rare and so expensive at this time, monasteries were often the only places with

libraries. So if someone wanted an education, they often came to monasteries. These were the

first schools in Ireland, and through much of Western Europe monasteries were the only centers

of education available. Irish monks also emphasized missionary work, and they played a large

role in converting the Anglo-Saxons in England to Roman Catholicism in the 7th century.

[SLIDE] As I mentioned before, Charles Martel started the second Frankish dynasty, called the

Carolingians. But the most famous and influential Carolingian ruler was Charles the Great, also

known as Charlemagne. Charlemagne was a fierce warrior, as well as a supporter of learning and

knowledge, and a skillful political leader. When Charlemagne became King of the Franks he

decided to expand his kingdom. Over the course of his reign, he engaged in no less than 54

military campaigns. In 773, he led his army into Italy, crushed the Lombards, and added northern

and central Italy to his territory. [SLIDE] Eventually, Charlemagne's territory covered all of

Western Europe, except for Southern Italy, Spain, and the British Isles. The land shaded green on

the map on your screen represents Charlemagne's territory. So Charlemagne was King of this

giant empire.

[SLIDE] But he wanted more. He wanted to be the Roman emperor. Although barbarian tribes

had destroyed the Roman Empire in the previous centuries, many Germanic kings had dreams of

bringing it back together. Under their control of course. From Charlemagne's perspective,

presenting himself as the heir of the Romans would make him look more powerful. And it would

justify his control over most of Europe. The problem was that Charlemagne couldn't just

proclaim himself emperor. He needed a way to make it look valid and based on something real.

Charlemagne was a smart man. And he realized that the Roman Catholic pope could provide

valuable assistance in this regard. What better person to proclaim him emperor than the pope?

The office of the pope had been around for centuries. And it was connected to one of Jesus'

apostles. All Charlemagne had to do was convince the pope to proclaim him emperor. And his

opportunity for this came in the year 799 CE. The pope in 799 was Leo the third. And Pope Leo

had made some people in the city of Rome angry when he started meddling in local politics. In

retaliation for his meddling, when Pope Leo was riding his horse to church, a group of local men

pulled him off his horse, beat him, and locked him in a monastery. With some assistance, Pope

Leo managed to escape and fled to Charlemagne, the most powerful ruler in Europe for justice.

Realizing where Leo was going, the local men who had attacked the pope sent their own

representatives to Charlemagne to explain their actions. When the representatives came before

Charlemagne, they accused the pope of adultery and perjury. So Charlemagne had to give a

judgment on this conflict. To find out the truth, Charlemagne sent a commission of men to Rome

to conduct an investigation of the accusations against the pope. The report that the commission

sent back confirmed the major charges against Leo. With this in mind, Charlemagne saw an

opportunity for himself. Travel to Rome, and at the trial for Pope Leo, Charlemagne judged the

Pope Innocent of all accusations, and he charged the pope's accusers with treason. Charlemagne

received his repayment two days later on Christmas day of the year 800. After mass, in front of

St. Peters tomb in Rome, Pope Leo placed a crown on Charlemagne's head and proclaimed him

emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne's coronation as Roman emperor shows that even after 300

years, the persisting view of an enduring Roman Empire. Even if a Roman Empire no longer

existed, the ideal remains. Even more importantly, Charlemagne's coronations symbolized the

fusion of Roman, Christian, and German elements that constituted the foundation of European

civilization. This was an incredibly important moment in the history of Western civilization.

In addition to being a fierce warrior and a skilled politician, Charlemagne was a supporter of

learning and knowledge. Charlemagne had a strong desire to revive learning in his kingdom.

This stemmed from his own intellectual curiosity, as well as the need to provide educated clergy

for the Church, and literate officials for the government. His efforts led to a revival of learning

and culture called the Carolingian Renaissance. As part of the Carolingian Renaissance,

Charlemagne encouraged the establishment of more schools. Prior to this point, the only schools

available were in monasteries where the books were located. Charlemagne developed palace

schools. These were exactly as they sounded. They were classrooms set up in the royal castles

and palaces throughout the kingdom. Charlemagne brought in leading scholars from all over

Europe to these palace schools- scholars like the famous Anglo-Saxon monk, Alcuin. Of course,

only the most elite children of society attended the schools, but these schools produced the

desired outcome. More educated clergy and literate officials. As a result of Charlemagne's

cultivation of leaning and the arts, his royal court became a lively center of intellectual exchange.

[SLIDE] Let's return to our original questions. Our first question was what were the primary

goals of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century CE? And I explained that there were

two primary goals, expansion and unity. In terms of expansion, the emperor Justinian attempted

to return the Empire to its former glory by reconquering territories in the West. He succeeded in

retaking Italy and parts of North Africa and Spain, but these regions were lost to Barbarian tribes

again at the beginning of the 600s. In terms of unity, Justinian consolidated the laws of the

empire into one single law code called the Corpus Juris Civilis. This meant that everyone in the

empire lived according to the same laws.

[SLIDE] Our second question was what was the Iconoclastic Controversy? This was a conflict in

the Byzantine Empire about the use of icons that began in 726 when Emperor Leo attributed

foreign attacks to God's anger regarding idolatry. It lasted until 823, when they Empress

Theodora allowed the Byzantines to use icons again.

[SLIDE] Our third question was why was the spread of Islam so successful? First, and perhaps

most importantly, the Arabs were unified under Islam. Also, the increasingly dry climate of the

Arab peninsula encouraged them to move outwards. And the Arab armies were able to quickly

and effectively. In addition to these Muslim circumstances, the Persians and Byzantines had few

resources and little energy to fight off Muslim invasions due to the fact that they had been

fighting each other for centuries. And finally, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians were allowed to

continue to practice their religion as dhimmis, which discouraged conquered people from

fighting back as hard against the Muslim invasions.

[SLIDE] Question number four asked how Charlemagne influenced the geography, politics, and

culture of the Franks in Gaul. Charlemagne increased the size of his empire to include most of

Western Europe, except England, Spain, and southern Italy. He also took advantage of

accusations against the current pope to get himself crowned Roman Emperor, which brought

together the Germanic, Roman, and Christian elements that form the basis of Western European

culture. And finally, he encouraged learning and scholarship, which started the Carolingian

Renaissance.