history 22
Yemima Amanuel 
WorldHistoryIChapter10TheworldsofChristendom600-1450.pptxThe worlds of Christendom 600-1450
World History I Chapter 10
Changing Religions
Often when a religion rises in popularity in one area, it means another religion is falling out of favor in that area. For example, as Islam grew to be the majority religion in Arabia, Christians there found themselves becoming the minority, and a sometimes-persecuted one at that.
Within only a hundred years after Mohammad’s death, few Christians remained in Arabia and Christian cathedrals had been demolished.
Remains of a 900-year old church in Saudi Arabia
The Siege of Jerusalem, 638
In 638, Muslims took control of Jerusalem, a city that is sacred to both the Jewish and Christian religions.
In some cases, Christians were persecuted by the new rulers, their fields were burned, their churches destroyed, and the Christians themselves made to wear clothing that identified them as Christians.
In other areas they were tolerated, and in places such as Syria they could flourish, get jobs in the government, in education and even serve in the Syrian army.
"The Sack of Jerusalem by the Romans" by François Joseph Heim is licensed under CC0 1.0
The Ethiopian Exception
Churches in Africa, like the middle east, also were in the decline as Islam was on the rise there.
One interesting exception was Ethiopia, whose mountainous geography prevented Muslim invaders from taking over, and which remained Christian.
Ethiopian lore eventually connected their royal line with King Solomon, making the resulting line of kings descendants from Jesus.
In the 1100s, the Ethiopians built eleven or twelve churches in the ground (see at right), hewn from rock and invisible from a distance (no doubt to keep Muslim invaders from attempting an attack), which were all connected underground- quite an engineering feat even today.
"Carved Church" by JSpencerUNC is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Diocletian Split
In the 200s, Roman Emperor Diocletian, faced with a massive empire that had grown too large for one government to rule effectively, split the empire in half, with an eastern and western half.
This Diocletian Split not only split the empire, it split the Christian Church as well. The Eastern half included Egypt, Greece, Syria, and Anatolia (Turkey), and became known as Byzantium.
The Western half included Rome and was continued to be called the Roman Empire, although both halves were controlled by Rome.
The capital of Byzantium was Constantinople, a walled city often known as the Jewel of the East.
Byzantium
The Byzantine empire lasted a thousand years longer than the western half of the Roman Empire. It was more urban, wealthier, better situated for defense from the barbarians who constantly attacked and eventually helped destroy the western portion of the empire.
The people of Byzantium still referred to themselves as Romans, even after the rest of the empire had crumbled away.
Despite Islam’s conquering of much of the Byzantine empire, the empire still held together, especially in the Mediterranean. Eventually, though, it slowly succumbed to the same things that killed the Roman Empire: an ineffective system for replacing dead rulers, and periodic invasions from other civilizations. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire finally captured Constantinople, and changed its name to Istanbul.
Ceiling in the Chora Church, Istanbul
"Istanbul, Chora / Kariye Cami Müzesi , narthex intérieur , le Christ ( coupole )" by cercamon is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Differences in Church Dogma
Before the Turks came, Byzantium, unlike the rest of the empire, did not separate church and state- instead, the emperor was the ruler, or Caesar of the state, and was also the leader of the church, appointing someone beneath him to actually run it. The Church ran more like a governmental bureau. This resulting CAESAROPAPISM was unique in Christianity at the time.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity, as it was known, disagreed with the beliefs in the Latin form of Christianity being practiced in Rome.
Both believed in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, the basic hierarchy of the church, the sacraments, etc. but differed on other, smaller matters to the point of animosity.
The Western, Latin church used Latin as their language, but the Eastern Orthodox church used Greek. The two disagreed about the Trinity, the doctrine of original sin, the role of faith in salvation, and other areas.
Western priests shaved their beards and were supposed to remain celibate, while Eastern priests grew beards and could have wives.
Western Catholics used unleavened bread in communion, Orthodox used yeast in their communion bread.
Most importantly, Catholics recognized one person, the pope, as the supreme leader of the church, but Orthodox leaders did not recognize the supremacy of the papacy.
The Crusades Begin (More Later)
Relations between the two forms of Christianity deteriorated even more during the Crusades, which were begun in 1095 by Pope Urban II as an attempt to restore Jerusalem and the holy lands back to Christian control.
Faithful (and some not so faithful) Crusaders from Europe marched towards the Middle East, but often attacked and looted towns in Byzantium, which they considered to be heretical because it did not follow the same dictates as the Roman Catholic Church.
During one crusade in 1204, Crusaders even accepted money to attack and loot Constantinople, raping and pillaging as they went, and ruling Byzantium for 50 years, thus cementing the break between the two churches.
A Crusader Helmet
"Helmet" by DBduo Photography is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Byzantine Influences
Besides the more or less constant conflict with the Catholic church, Byzantium fought off various invaders during its existence, including the Persians, some of the most fearful warriors of the time.
Through the invention of Greek Fire, a mixture of oil, lime and Sulphur that could be shot from bronze tubes like a flamethrower (and which was quickly appropriated by other armies), the Islamic incursion into the empire was held at bay for centuries.
The Byzantines became prosperous through their own silk industry, jewelry making, textiles, a special purple dye, and other goods.
Because of its emphasis on the knowledge of the ancient Greeks, especially philosophy, the empire helped to spread much of this classical knowledge further east. Russia, the Balkans and other Slavic areas eventually became Christianized through Byzantium.
Western Christendom: Collapse of the Roman Empire
We often refer to the fall of the Roman Empire as if it were a sudden and resounding crash, but really it was a crumbling that took centuries to happen.
Because the empire had never figured out a systematic way to solve the succession to power, whenever a ruler died, a period of chaos often followed with civil wars erupting as one group tried to overpower another and put their own chosen leader on the throne.
The empire had gotten too big to govern effectively, and split as we saw earlier, under Emperor Diocletian. In the western portion, various Germanic tribes continually attacked the empire, eating away portions of it piece by piece.
In 476 the last Roman emperor was overthrown by barbarians and although Rome continued as a city, the empire itself finally dwindled away.
The Vandals Sacking Rome
Roman Legacy Continues
Interestingly, these Germanic peoples- barbarians, as the Romans called them- often adopted Roman laws, education and aspects of Roman culture. Even though the empire had finally collapsed, it was recognized as a supreme achievement for having lasted as long as it did and been so wildly successful at its height.
The relative orderliness of Western Europe under the Roman Empire gave way, leaving buildings and roads to crumble, and trade suffered accordingly. Warfare, famine and disease were common. Less land was cultivated, cities lost population as people began to align themselves with leaders wherever they could be found. Smaller kingdoms sprang up overnight and ended nearly as quickly.
Ruins along the Roman Appian Way
Charlemagne
Some kingdoms and even empires did arise, although most came and went quickly. One of the more successful was the Carolingian Empire, under the rule of CHARLEMAGNE.
He conquered the areas of modern-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Germany and Italy. The pope at the time crowned him the new emperor of Rome.
Even though this empire didn’t last as long by far as the Roman Empire (which lasted over 1000 years), it did provide an interesting way to administer a bureaucracy that subsequent rulers built upon: the use of the Missi Dominici, or little spies.
The Missi Dominici
Charlemagne knew it was vital to have the support of the Catholic church in order to continue as the ruler of his empire. The Catholic Church by this time was very powerful- much more so than any single ruler.
In order to know whether the government was being run efficiently and loyally, Charlemagne regularly sent out auditors whose job it was to check the records of the local bureaucrats and make sure they were being honest in their tax collection records, recording of fines, etc.
He also sent out members of the Church – the Missi Dominici - to go along with the bureaucrats, so that the Church could likewise be sure Church rules and canon laws were being followed.
The Church, in return, granted Charlemagne the title of New Emperor of Rome, which will eventually become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From Charlemagne’s example, wise rulers learned to do anything they could to keep the backing of the Church: whether or not the church supported a ruler could make or break his power.
Monarchy and Clergy Working Together
After the Empire: Feudalism
Unfortunately, Charlemagne did not solve the question of the succession of government any better than the Romans had. When he died, he split the empire up among his three sons, who then turned on each other, causing the empire to collapse.
The collapse of Charlemagne’s empire was not an uncommon scenario. The fall of the centralized government of the Roman Empire left a power vacuum in Europe, especially.
Without a large and powerful central government, Western Europe devolved into a mass of smaller estates, ruled by the land-owners, in a system called FEUDALISM.
Feudalism: Serfs
Under feudalism, peasants, known by now as serfs, worked to cultivate the crops and create the trade goods of lords or knights who owned the land and the means of production.
The serfs were not slaves, but also had very few rights of their own. They were bound to the land and had to pay certain taxes and services to the lord of the manor, but in return they got the protection of the lord, and the use of his land and typically a house to live in.
Feudalism: Knights and Lords
These lords or knights in turn served as vassals to richer, more powerful lords and kings, swearing fealty, or loyalty, to them. If war should break out, these vassals were expected to provide soldiers, weapons and horses to their liege lord, under their own command, typically.
In return, the vassals got the protection of their liege lord, and often received land and a share of any money, etc., gained through warfare.
A knight
swears
fealty to
his king. Leige
lords stand
behind the
king.
After the Empire: Religion & Politics
The Roman Catholic Church managed to flourish after the empire collapsed, possibly because it was the one thing that didn’t change markedly in people’s lives and provided them with a sense of security and continuity.
Christianity spread in Western Europe until by 1100 it was the major religion of Europe.
The Church prospered and became so wealthy that many in the church itself began to call for reforms, since the officers of the church seemed to be in danger of forgetting that their purpose was to save souls, not gather up riches.
Eventually trade began to pick up again, and trade routes to widen.
By the 1100s, feudalism had expanded the power of certain lesser kings so that they became increasingly more powerful and by the 1300s, we were beginning in many areas of Europe to see actual kingdoms that were roughly the size of the nations we know today, led by men (and occasionally women) who held absolute power.
Each of these states had their own distinct language and customs. Europe entered the Medieval ages around this time, when Western Europe continued to grow in power and prosperity, while Eastern Europe seemed not to expand much. Western traders began to explore trade contacts with India, China and Mongolia, widening both trade systems and cultures.
The Crusades
The Crusades began in Western Europe around this time, also. Crusaders who fought these ‘holy wars’ did it with the promise of indulgences- forgiveness of their sins, a sort of get out of hell free card given by the Church.
Crusades were joint operations between the Roman Catholic Church and various kingdoms. The Church would target an area that needed to be disciplined or brought back into the Church, and the kings would happily send peasants, which were usually in great supply and nobles, which were also usually in too great a supply according to most kings, to fight the wars on behalf of the Church.
How the Crusades Changed the World
The most well-known crusade involved attempting to push Muslims out of the holy city of Jerusalem and return it to Christian control.
Other crusades were called to wrest other lands out of the hands of non-believers and to convert the heathens there.
The Crusades didn’t accomplish much of permanence in the mid-east; lands were won and lost again, Crusader kingdoms rose and fell with regularity.
In Europe, the changes were more profound. Muslims were pushed out of Spain, Sicily and the Baltics, all of which became strongly Christian forever after.
The constant warfare in and around Constantinople weakened the Byzantine Empire, and left Constantinople open to the Turk invasion that will eventually wrest the city from Christian control for good.
Crusaders brought back Asian goods with them and the market for them sprang up that would eventually lead explorers to find the New World in an attempt to find shorter trade routes to the Asian markets.
Europeans also learned how the Asians grew sugar (using slave labor) during the Crusades, and would duplicate this in the New World, eventually changing the entire history of the world.
How the Crusades Affect Us Today
The Crusades also deepened divides between some of the worlds’ major religions. The split in Christianity between Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Roman Catholicism solidified and exists today.
Anti-Semitism increased, as Jews came to thought of by Crusaders as “Christ-killers” and were often attacked in certain cities in Europe (especially in Germany) although these religiously-motivated attacks, or pogroms, weren’t sanctioned by the Church.
The idea of peaceful co-existence between Christianity and Islam was damaged nearly beyond repair by the Crusades and serves even today to provide an excuse for continued violence between the two cultures.
