Module 5
The Heirs of Rome
A. Byzantine Civilization
The triumph of Christianity, the decay of the Roman Empire, and the
establishment of Germanic kingdoms on onceRoman lands constituted a new phase in
Western history: the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the Middle Ages, a
period that spanned a thousand years. In the ancient world, the locus of Greco- Roman
civilization had been the Mediterranean Sea; the heartland of Western medieval
civilization gradually shifted to the north, to regions of Europe that Greco- Roman
civilization had barely penetrated. Latin Christendom (Western and Central Europe) was
only one of three new civilizations based on religion that emerged after the decline of the
Roman Empire; Byzantium and Islam were the other two. Both of these Eastern
civilizations influenced the emerging Europe in important ways.
Although the Roman Empire in the West fell to the Germanic tribes, the eastern
provinces of the Empire survived. They did so because they were richer, more urbanized,
and more populous and because the main thrust of the Germanic and Hunnish invaders
had been directed at the western regions. In the eastern parts, Byzantine civilization took
shape. Its religion was Christian, its culture Greek, and its machinery of administration
Roman. The capital, Constantinople, was built on the site of the ancient Greek city of
Byzantium, on a peninsula in the Straits of Bosporus—the dividing line between Asia and
Europe. Constantinople was a fortress city perfectly situated to resist attacks from land
and sea.
Byzantine emperors were absolute rulers who held that God had chosen them to
rule and to institute divine will on earth. As successors to the Roman emperors, they
claimed to rule all the lands once part of the Roman Empire. The first great Byzantine
ruler was Justinian, who reigned nearly forty years, from 527 to 565. Justinian often
relied on the advice of his wife, Theodora. Theodora’s background was unusual for an
empress; she was not from the nobility but was the daughter of a bear trainer in the circus
and had been an actress, a profession most people considered degrading. In a number of
crises, the strong- willed and astute Theodora gave Justinian the courage to act
decisively.
In the early seventh century, the Byzantines faced a renewed threat from the
Persians, who seized the Byzantine provinces of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In an all- out
effort, however, Emperor Heraclius (610–641) regained the provinces and in 627 crushed
the Persians near the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh. But the exhausted Byzantine
Empire had become vulnerable to the Muslim Arabs, who had moved swiftly out of the
Arabian Desert seeking to propagate Islam, their new faith.
Seeking to exploit Seljuk weakness and to regain lost territories, the Byzantines
appealed to Latin Christians for help. Although European Christians had little love for the
Byzantines, they did want to free Christian holy places from the Muslims. For this
purpose, they undertook a series of Crusades, beginning in the late eleventh century (see
Chapter 10). In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Latin Christian knights—greedy for
riches—and Venetian merchants—eager to gain control of the rich Byzantine trade—
decided to take Constantinople rather than fight the Muslims.
During its thousand years, Byzantium made a significant impact on world history.
First, it prevented the Muslim Arabs from advancing into Eastern Europe. Had the Arabs
broken through Byzantine defenses, much of Europe might have been converted to the
new faith of Islam. A farreaching accomplishment was the codification of the laws of
ancient Rome under Justinian. This monumental achievement preserved Roman law’s
principles of reason and justice. Today’s legal codes in much of Europe and Latin
America trace their roots to the Roman law recorded by Justinian’s lawyers. The
Byzantines also preserved the philosophy, science, mathematics, and literature of ancient
Greece.
Contacts with Byzantine civilization stimulated learning in both the Islamic world
to the east and Latin Christendom to the west. Speros Vryonis, a student of Byzantine
civilization, states: “The Byzantines carried the torch of civilization unextinguished at a
time when the barbarous Germanic and Slav tribes had reduced much f Europe to near
chaos: and they maintained this high degree of civilization until Western Europe
gradually emerged and began to take form.”1 Byzantium exerted an important religious,
cultural, and linguistic influence on Latin Romanians, eastern Slavs (Russians and
Ukrainians), and southern Slavs (Serbs and Bulgars). From Byzantium, the Slavs
acquired legal principles, art forms, and an alphabet (the Cyrillic, based on the Greek) for
writing their languages. (On the other hand, the western Slavs—Poles, Czechs, and
Slovaks—came under the influence of Latin Christianity and Latin culture.)
B. Islamic Civilization
The second Eastern civilization to arise after Rome’s fall was based on the vital
new religion of Islam, which emerged in the seventh century among the Arabs of Arabia.
Its founder was Muhammad (c. 570–632), a prosperous merchant in Mecca, a trading city
near the Red Sea. At times the introspective Muhammad withdrew from worldly affairs
and devoted himself to meditation. He began to experience visions, which he interpreted
as messages from God. When Muhammad was about forty, he believed that he was
visited in his sleep by the angel Gabriel, who ordered him to “recite in the name of the
Lord!” Transformed by this experience, Muhammad came to believe that he had been
chosen as a prophet, the carrier of God’s revelation.
Islamic standards of morality and rules governing daily life are set by the Koran,
the holy book that Muslims believe contains the words of Allah as revealed to
Muhammad. For Muslims, the Koran is both God’s final word and infallible. Muslims
see their religion as the completion and perfection of Judaism and Christianity; they
believe both of those monotheistic predecessors were superseded by Allah’s revelation to
Muhammad. Muslims regard the ancient Hebrew prophets as sent from God and value
their messages about compassion and the oneness of humanity. They also regard Jesus as
a great prophet but do not consider him divine and view the Trinity as a form of
polytheism. They see Muhammad as the last and greatest of the prophets and believe that
he was entirely human, not divine. Muslims worship only Allah, the creator and ruler of
heaven and earth, a single, all- powerful God who is merciful, compassionate, and just.
In Medina, Muhammad gained converts and won respect as a judge, rendering
decisions on such matters as family relations, property inheritance, and criminal behavior.
Preaching a holy war against unbelievers, Muhammad urged followers to raid the trading
caravans from Mecca and to subdue unfriendly Bedouin tribes. He tried to convert the
Jews of Medina, but they would not accept him as a prophet and mocked his
unfamiliarity with the Hebrew Scriptures and the learned writings of the rabbis. To a
large extent, political considerations determined Muhammad’s attitude toward Jews, who
sided with his Meccan enemies. He expelled several thousand Jews from Medina, seized
Jewish property, beheaded some six hundred Jewish men, and enslaved women and
children. Later, he permitted the Arabian Jews the free exercise of their religion and
guaranteed the security of their property. In 630, Mecca surrendered to a Muslim army
virtually without a fight. Muhammad demonstrated leniency and forgiveness toward his
former enemies and persecutors, a wise decision that helped gain him the support of the
Meccans. Soon Bedouin tribes all over Arabia embraced Islam and recognized the
authority of the Prophet Muhammad.
After the death of Muhammad, Muslims sought authoritative guidance on
religious, social, and moral questions that the Koran did not specifically address. The
most important source for such guidance was the Hadith—a collection of sayings, stories,
and actions of the Prophet on a wide range of topics. The Koran coupled with the Hadith
provided directions for a complete way of life for Muslims. The Islamic state was a
theocracy: government and religion were inseparable; there could be no distinction
between secular and spiritual authority. Muslims viewed God as the source of all law and
political authority and the caliph as his earthly deputy. Divine law regulated all aspects of
human relations. The ruler who did not enforce Koranic law failed in his duties. Thus,
Islam was more than a religion; it was also a system of government, society, law, and
thought that bound its adherents into an all- encompassing community. Muslim jurists
called for the creation of a single society governed by Islamic law. And this worldstate
had a religious obligation to subdue the nonMuslim world. This goal, to be achieved by
jihad, endured in the Muslim mind over the centuries and is a principal aim of Muslim
extremists today. The separation of church and state, which became firmly rooted in the
West in modern times, still remains an alien concept in much of the Muslim world.
Muslims perceived themselves as members of a single community of the faithful,
but the emergence of sects ruptured the unity of Islam. The principal division—one that
still incites bitter animosity—was between the Sunnis and the Shiites. The Sunnis, who
were in the majority, followed traditional teachings and established practices as defined
by the consensus of the Muslim community. The Shiites (Shia means “Party”) maintained
that not the existing caliphs but the descendants of Muhammad, starting with Ali, cousin
and son- inlaw of Muhammad and the fourth caliph, were the rightful rulers of the
Islamic community.
The Arabs who first burst into the Byzantine and Persian empires had no tradition
of science or philosophy. But they were quick to absorb the learning of Byzantines and
Persians who had preserved and studied ancient Greek works. In the eighth and ninth
centuries, under the Abbasid caliphs based in Baghdad, Muslim civilization entered its
golden age. Islamic civilization creatively integrated Arabic, Byzantine, Persian, and
Indian cultural traditions. During the Early Middle Ages, when learning was at a low
point in Western Europe, the Muslims forged a high civilization.
Muslim science, philosophy, and mathematics, based largely on the achievements
of the ancient Greeks, made brilliant contributions to the sum of knowledge at a time
when Latin Christendom had lost much of Greco- Roman thought and culture. The
Muslims had acquired Greek learning from the older Persian and Byzantine civilizations,
which had kept alive the Greek inheritance. By translating Greek works into Arabic and
commenting on them, Muslim scholars performed the great historical task of preserving
the philosophical and scientific heritage of ancient Greece. Muslim scholars, often
affiliated with impressive universities, also creatively interpreted these Greek works and
in some areas, particularly mathematics, pushed the frontiers of knowledge beyond what
the Greeks had achieved.
The Arab empire, stretching from Spain to India, was unified by a common
language (Arabic), a common faith, and a common culture. By the eleventh century,
however, the Arabs began losing their dominance in the Islamic world. The Seljuk Turks,
who had taken Asia Minor from the Byzantines, also conquered the Arabic lands of
Syria, Palestine, and much of Persia. Although the Abbasid caliphs remained the
religious and cultural leaders of Islam, political power was exercised by Seljuk sultans. In
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Muslims lost Sicily and most of Spain to Christian
knights, and European Crusaders carved out kingdoms in the Near East.
In the thirteenth century came a new wave of invaders, the Mongols from central
Asia. Led by Genghis Khan, Mongolian archers, mounted on fast- moving ponies, poured
across Asia into Muslim lands. By 1227, when Genghis Khan died, the eastern part of the
Muslim world had fallen to the Mongols. After the death of Genghis Khan, some Mongol
forces swept across Russia and threatened Central Europe; others continued to advance
on Muslim lands in the Near East. Storming Baghdad in 1258, the Mongols burned,
plundered, and killed with savage fury; among the fifty thousand people slaughtered was
the last Abbasid caliph. The Mongols devastated the palaces, libraries, and schools that
had made Baghdad the cultural capital of the Islamic world. A year later, they marched
into Syria, again killing and looting. Their brutal advance westward was finally stopped
in 1260 in Palestine by Egyptian forces.
C. The Art of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages
The art of the classical period (c. fifth century b.c.) was important not only to the
ancient Greeks but also to the Romans and to later generations, from the Renaissance to
the postmodern period of the late twentieth century. Through the ages, classical art has
been kept alive—adopted, adapted, altered, and appreciated—by artists and craftspeople.
The classical period has given us the first works of the Western world to represent the
human form with accuracy. The body itself was the sculptors’ subject. Their aim was to
shape their marble so as to make a general and schematic figure lifelike. Classical
sculpture has been a powerful learning device for aspiring artisans from Michelangelo to
nineteenthcentury artists such as Auguste Rodin. Ancient sculptures—and plaster casts
made from them—have been used as teaching tools by educators since the Renaissance.
Learning to draw from casts of ancient works was the traditional first step in an artist’s
education; even many abstract artists of the twentieth century had a solid grounding in
works of the classical period.
The balanced, rhythmical composition of classical sculpture and architecture is
another element that has influenced later artists. Earlier works—from the Greek Archaic
period (sixth century b.c.) as well as from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia—are solid,
blocklike, and devoid of any sense of movement. Classical sculptors, by contrast, were
able to bring the stone alive with innovative poses, luxuriant drapery, and a careful
balancing between relaxation and tension. The works of Praxiteles embody the ideal of
classical sculpture and offer visual proof that the Greeks’ search for beauty and truth
extended beyond their literature and philosophy.
A contemporary of Praxiteles, Lysippos (fl. fourth century b.c.), is credited with
changing the “canon of proportions” established by his predecessor Polyclitus. The canon
of proportions rules that earlier sculptors followed in carving their masterpieces, assured
a certain uniformity in the rendering of the human form. Heads were always a certain
proportion of the whole, eyes were placed at a certain level within the face, and so on.
But the work of Lysippos is notably different. One of Lysippos’ best- known works, the
Apoxyomenos (Scraper) (Figure 3), shows a youthful athlete cleaning himself with a
strigyl (scraper) after exercising. What distinguishes this work from the works of other
artists are the proportions. Lysippos’ youth has a smaller head and a more slender body.
Although he stands with his weight on one foot, his hips are not as sharply angled as the
hips of other classical figures, in which the S- curve is more clearly pronounced. Even the
face of the athlete foretells a new era in art. Unlike the serene, perfect faces of other
classical figures, the Apoxyomenos’ expression seems thoughtful and dreamy, not remote
and dispassionate.
Roman sculptors tended to follow closely the classical Greek and Hellenistic
traditions. Some art historians assert that originality in Roman sculpture is evident only in
lifelike portrait busts of the emperors, often planted firmly on the necks of copies of
Greek or Hellenistic gods and heroes. To an extent, this is the case with the life- size
Augustus of the Prima Porta (Figure 6), a work probably completed during the reign of
Augustus (27 b.c.–a.d. 14) or shortly after his death and deification. Many elements of
this work are direct borrowings from classical and Hellenistic prototypes. It is the head,
however, that sets this work apart from its forebears. The face of Augustus is a lifelike
representation of the emperor, if we assume that the great number of coins bearing
Augustus’s image offer an accurate likeness. Unlike Greek sculpture, which idealized the
human form, this Roman work presents an image that would be recognized by all who
viewed it.
As political and spiritual ruler of the Byzantine Empire, Justinian is flanked by
twelve companions, drawing a parallel between him and Jesus Christ. His golden halo
brings to mind the one usually shown around Christ’s head; the attributes of Christianity,
including a cross, a censer (incense burner), and a shield bearing a symbolic version of
Jesus’ name, remind viewers of Justinian’s dual roles. Easily recognized symbols and
images such as the halo became part of a common language for transmitting the message
of Christ and the church. This is exemplified by the Enthroned Madonna and Child, from
the Byzantine school (Figure 8) in the thirteenth century, in which the Madonna is shown
in what now seems to be a conventional pose—seated on an elaborate chair or throne,
facing front, holding the child on her left knee, and supporting him with her left hand.
The Madonna is heavily robed, but the artist was able to depict the clothes with the
fluidity of the painter responsible for the Boscoreale fresco.
The Enthroned Madonna and Child’s origins are Eastern—the Byzantine school
having developed in Byzantium, the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. Byzantium
(renamed Constantinople in a.d. 330) had a certain sphere of influence in the West,
attested to by the Ravenna mosaic ( Fi gure 7), and, as a result, a fusion of Eastern and
Western styles is evident in works such as the Enthroned Madonna. What is typically
Byzantine about this work is the richness of color and the use of gold— in the
background and in the Madonna’s robes. The faces of the figures owe more to Western
art, however. Soft modeling and careful shading make them look almost as if they were
superimposed by another artist at another time.
The Last Supper of the thirteenth- century Magdalen Master (Figure 9) preserves
the austere and otherworldly emphasis of the Eastern style exhibited by such works as the
Ravenna Mosaic. It captures a pivotal moment, when Christ announces to his disciples
that he will be betrayed by one of them, and instructs them to commemorate him by
consuming bread and wine as his body and blood. (Compare with da Vinci’s Last Supper,
Figure 5 in the art essay “The Renaissance.”) This event becomes the basis for the
Christian sacrament of the Eucharist.
At this point, Western art begins to undergo another transformation. Styles and
subject matter change, paralleling developments in politics and society. Artists working
at the end of the Middle Ages and on the verge of the Renaissance include the brothers
Jan and Hubert van Eyck. Figure 10 shows The Last Judgement (c. 1420–1425), one
panel of a diptych (a two- paneled work) painted by one or both of them (the other panel
portrays the Crucifixion). The Last Judgement illustrates some of the stylistic elements
that distinguish these artists. The image is divided in two horizontally. In the upper half,
which represents heaven, the mood is one of calm and order; below, on earth and in hell,
pandemonium reigns. This suggestion of the promise of heaven and the threat of hell was
intended to motivate people to heed Christian teachings and clerical authority.
Turkish conquest of much of Hungary in the 1520s and the siege of Vienna
(1529) spread panic in Europe. The Ottomans developed an effective system of
administration but could not restore the cultural brilliance, the thriving trade, or the
prosperity that the Muslim world had known under the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. The
vitality that had kept the Muslim world more advanced than Western Europe for most of
the Middle Ages dissipated.
D. Latin Christendom
The centuries of cultural greatness of the Islamic and the Byzantine civilizations
enriched the Western world. They did not, however, produce the major breakthroughs in
science, technology, philosophy, economics, and political thought that gave rise to the
modern world. That process was the singular achievement of Europe. During the Middle
Ages, a common European civilization—Latin Christendom—evolved. It integrated
Christian, Greco- Roman, and Germanic elements. Christianity was at the center of
medieval civilization, Rome was the spiritual capital and Latin the language of
intellectual life, and Germanic customs pervaded social and legal relationships.
From the sixth to the eighth century, Europeans struggled to overcome the
disorder created by the breakup of the Roman Empire and the deterioration of Greco-
Roman civilization. In the process, a new civilization, with its own distinctive style, took
root. It grew out of the intermingling of Greco- Roman civilization, the Christian outlook,
and Germanic traditions, although centuries would pass before it would come to fruition.
In the fifth century and after, Germanic invaders founded kingdoms in North
Africa, Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain—lands formerly belonging to the Roman Empire.
Even before the invasions, these Germanic tribes had acquired some knowledge of
Roman culture and were attracted to it. Therefore, the new rulers sought not to destroy
Roman civilization but to share in its advantages. For example, Theodoric the Great
(474–526), the Ostrogoth ruler of Italy, retained the Roman Senate, civil service, and
schools; and rich aristocratic Roman families continued to hold high government offices.
The Burgundians in Gaul and the Visigoths in Spain maintained Roman law for their
conquered subjects; and the Frankish ruler Clovis (c. 466–511) wore Roman imperial
colors and took Roman titles. All the Germanic kingdoms tried to maintain Roman
systems of taxation; furthermore, Latin remained the official language of administration.
The Roman world was probably too far gone to be rescued, but even if it had not
been, the Germans were culturally unprepared to play the role of restorer. By the end of
the seventh century, the old Roman lands in Western Europe showed a marked decline in
central government, town life, commerce, and learning. Though vigorous and brave, the
Germanic invaders were essentially a rural and warrior people, tribal in organization and
outlook. Their native culture, without cities or written literature, was primitive compared
with the literary, philosophical, scientific, and artistic achievements of the Greco- Roman
world. The Germans were not equipped to reform the decaying Roman system of
administration and taxation or to cope with the economic problems that had burdened the
Empire. Nor could they maintain roads and irrigation systems, preserve skills in the arts
of stoneworking and glassmaking, or breathe new life into the dying humanist culture.
The Germans also found Roman law strange, although the Germanic kingdoms
did make attempts to retain Roman law codes. Roman law incorporated elements of
Greek philosophy and was written, whereas Germanic law at the time of the invasions
consisted of unwritten tribal customs. Roman law applied to all people throughout the
Empire, regardless of nationality; a German could be judged only by the law of his own
tribe. Roman judges investigated evidence and demanded proof; Germanic courts, in the
a bsence of clear evidence, relied on trial by ordeal. In a typical ordeal, a bound
defendant was thrown into a river. Sinking meant innocence; floating was interpreted as
divine proof of guilt, because the pure water had “rejected” the evildoer. Although
primitive by Roman standards, Germanic law did help lessen blood feuds between
families. Before long, the Germanic kingdoms began to put customary tribal law, which
had absorbed and continued to absorb elements from Roman law, into writing. Replacing
Roman law and spreading throughout Europe, Germanic law became an essential element
of medieval society.
Shrinking commerce during the Early Middle Ages was part of the process of
decline begun in the Late Roman Empire. Although commerce never wholly disappeared,
it was predominantly localized. Furthermore, it was controlled by colonies of Jews,
Syrians, and Greeks—a sign of the economic inertia of Latin Christians. From the last
decade of the fifth century to the middle of the seventh century, Byzantine merchants
established themselves in the western lands and exchanged papyrus, spices, and textiles
for European slaves. Then, in the second half of the seventh century, this trade dropped
off greatly; as Muslim power expanded to control the Mediterranean, Byzantine
merchants had to turn eastward for markets. Thus, the bonds between East and West
weakened, and Europe shifted its axis northward, away from the Mediterranean. Few
goods exchanged hands, and few coins circulated; people produced for themselves what
they needed.
Greco- Roman humanism, in retreat since the Late Roman Empire, continued its
decline in the centuries immediately following Rome’s demise. The old Roman upper
classes abandoned their heritage and absorbed the ways of their Germanic conquerors,
the Roman schools closed, and Roman law faded into disuse. Aside from clerics, few
people could read and write Latin, and even learned clerics were rare. Europeans’
knowledge of the Greek language was almost totally lost, and the Latin rhetorical style
deteriorated. Many literary works of classical antiquity were either lost or unread. Raids
by Germanic tribes and later by Muslims, Magyars, and Vikings (see below) devastated
libraries. Many works by great authors were lost forever. For example, only seven of the
one hundred dramas written by Sophocles have survived. Gone were attempts to
understand the natural world through reason; magic and the occult prevailed among both
pagans and Christians. The literature of the seventh century, concerned principally with
the lives of saints, was devoid of the humanist themes that had motivated Greek and
Roman poets and dramatists. European culture was much poorer than the high
civilizations of Byzantium, Islam, and ancient Rome.
An important figure in the intellectual life of this transitional period was Boethius
(480– c. 525), a descendant of a noble family. Boethius had received a classical education
at the Platonic Academy at Athens before Emperor Justinian closed it in 529. He was the
last Latin- speaking scholar of the Roman world to have mastered the Greek language
and to have intimate knowledge of Greek philosophy. Later, Boethius served the
Ostrogoth Theodoric I, who ruled Italy. Recognizing that Greco- Roman civilization was
dying, Boethius tried to rescue the intellectual heritage of antiquity. He translated into
Latin some of Aristotle’s treatises on logic and wrote commentaries on Aristotle, Cicero,
and Porphyry (a Neo- Platonist philosopher). He also wrote treatises on theology and
textbooks on arithmetic, astronomy, and music. A sudden turn of fortune deprived him of
power, prestige, and possessions and confronted him with imminent death when
Theodoric ordered him executed in 524 or 525 for allegedly participating in a plot against
the throne.
Until the twelfth century, virtually all that Latin Christendom knew of Aristotle
came from Boethius’s translations and commentaries. Similarly, his work in
mathematics, which contains fragments from Euclid, was the principal source for the
study of that discipline in the Early Middle Ages. In his theological writings, he strove to
demonstrate that reason did not conflict with orthodoxy—an early attempt to attain a
rational comprehension of belief, or, as he expressed it, to join faith to reason. Boethius’s
effort to examine Christian doctrines rationally, a principal feature of medieval
philosophy, would grow to maturity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Writing in the
sixth century, Boethius was a forerunner of this movement.
Cassiodorus (c. 490–575), a contemporary of Boethius, was born in southern Italy
of a good family; he served three Ostrogoth kings. Although Cassiodorus wrote the
twelve- volume History of the Goths and some theological treatises, his prime legacies
were the establishment of a monastic library containing Greek and Latin manuscripts and
his advocacy of higher education to improve the quality of the clergy. In his educational
writings, he justified the importance of studying secular literature as an aid to
understanding sacred writings. Even though his works were not original, they did rescue
some ideas of the ancients from oblivion; these ideas would bear fruit again in later
centuries. Cassiodorus’s plans for founding a university in Rome modeled after the one in
Alexandria did not materialize; in fact, six hundred years would elapse before universities
would arise in Latin Christendom. Leaving political office, Cassiodorus retired to a
monastery, where he helped initiate the monastic practice of copying ancient texts.
Without this tradition, many key Christian and Greco- Roman works would undoubtedly
have perished.
The translations and compilations made by Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Isidore,
the books collected and copied by monks and nuns, and the schools established in
monasteries (particularly those in Ireland, England, and Italy) kept intellectual life from
dying out completely in the Early Middle Ages. Amid the deterioration of political
authority, the stagnation of economic life, and the decline in learning, a new civilization
was emerging. Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and
Christian traditions intermingled. But it was the church more than anything else that gave
form and direction to the emerging civilization.
E. Shaper of Medieval Civilization
Christianity was the integrating principle and the church was the dominant
institution of the Middle Ages. During the Late Roman Empire, as the Roman state and
its institutions decayed, the church gained power and importance; its organization grew
stronger, and its membership increased. Unlike the Roman state, the church was a healthy
and vital institution. The elite of the Roman Empire had severed their commitment to the
values of classical civilization, whereas church leaders were intensely devoted to their
faith.
Thus, the Christian outlook, rather than the traditions of the Germanic tribes, was
the foundation of medieval civilization. During the course of the Middle Ages, people
came to see themselves as participants in a great drama of salvation. There was only one
truth: God’s revelation to humanity. There was only one avenue to heaven, and it passed
through the church. God had established the church to administer the rites through which
his love was bestowed on people. The church had the awesome responsibility of caring
for human souls. Without the church, it was believed, people would remain doomed
sinners. To the medieval mind, society without the church was inconceivable.
Membership in a universal church replaced citizenship in a universal empire. Across
Europe, from Italy to Ireland, a new society centered on Christianity was forming.
Monks helped construct the foundations of medieval civilization. During the
seventh century, intellectual life on the European continent continued its steady decline.
In the monasteries of Ireland and England, however, a tradition of learning persisted.
Early in the fifth century, Saint Patrick began the conversion of the Irish to Christianity.
In Ireland, Latin became firmly entrenched as the language of both the church and
scholars at a time when it was in danger of disappearing in many parts of Europe. Irish
monks preserved and cultivated Latin and even kept some knowledge of Greek alive.
Irish scholars engaged in biblical analysis, and, besides copying manuscripts, they
decorated them, with an exquisite eye for detail. In England, the Anglo- Saxons, both
women and men, who converted to Christianity mainly in the seventh century, also
established monasteries that kept learning alive. Double monasteries existed, in which
monks and nuns obeyed a common rule and one superior, sometimes an abbess. The
Venerable Bede (673–735) wrote commentaries on Scripture and translated the fourth
Gospel (Saint John’s) into Anglo- Saxon. Bede is best known for his Ecclesiastical
History of the English People, one of the finest medieval historical works.
During the Early Middle Ages, when cities were in decay, monasteries, whose
libraries contained theological works and ancient Latin classics, were the main cultural
centers; they would remain so until the rebirth of towns in the High Middle Ages. Monks
instructed peasants in superior methods of farming and were partly responsible for the
reclamation of lands that had been neglected or devastated during the great invasions and
for the clearing of new lands. Monasteries also offered succor to the sick and the destitute
and served as places of refuge for travelers.
To the medieval mind, the monks’ and nuns’ selfless devotion to God, adoption of
apostolic poverty, and dedication to prayer and contemplation represented the highest
expression of the Christian way of life; it was the finest and most certain path to
salvation. It was not uncommon for both men and women, with old age or even death
approaching, to take the vows so that they might die as monks or nuns. Regarding the
monks as soldiers in the war against paganism, unorthodoxy, and heresy, the popes
protected monasteries and encouraged their spread.
He was also an intellectual who wrote commentaries on the books of the Bible
and authored many works dealing with Christian themes: the duties of bishops, the lives
of saints and monks, miracles, and purgatory. Because of his many writings, Gregory is
regarded as a father of the Latin church. An astute diplomat, he knew that the papacy
required the political and military support of a powerful kingdom to protect it from its
enemies, especially the Lombards. Accordingly, he set his sights on an alliance with the
Franks. Finally materializing 150 years later, this alliance between the papacy and
Frankish kings helped shape medieval history
F. The Kingdom of the Franks
From their homeland in the Rhine River valley, the Frankish tribes had expanded
into Roman territory during the fourth and fifth centuries. The ruler Clovis united the
various Frankish tribes and conquered most of Gaul. In 496, he converted to Roman
Christianity. Clovis’s conversion to Catholicism was an event of great significance. A
number of other Germanic kings had adopted the Arian form of Christianity, which the
church had declared heretical. By embracing Roman Christianity, the Franks became a
potential ally of the papacy
The alliance between the Franks and the papacy was continued by Pepin’s
successor, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who ruled from 768 to 814. Charlemagne
continued the Carolingian policy of expanding the Frankish kingdom. He destroyed the
Lombard kingdom, added Bavaria to his kingdom, and, after long, terrible wars,
compelled the Saxons to submit to his rule and convert to Christianity—thousands were
beheaded when they were slow to choose between baptism or execution. He also
conquered a region in northern Spain, the Spanish March, which served as a buffer
between the Christian Franks and the Muslims in Spain.
Immense difficulties arose in governing the expanded territories. Size seemed an
insuperable obstacle to effective government, particularly since Charlemagne’s
administrative structure, lacking trained personnel, was primitive by Islamic, Byzantine,
or Roman standards. The empire was divided into about 250 counties administered by
counts—nobles personally loyal to the ruler. Men from powerful families, the counts
served as generals, judges, and administrators, implementing the king’s decisions. To
supervise the counts, Charlemagne created missi dominici (royal messengers)—generally
two laymen and a bishop or abbot—who made annual journeys to the different counties.
The purpose of the missi dominici was to prevent counts and their subordinates from
abusing their power and undermining Charlemagne’s authority.
The Frankish Empire, of course, was only a dim shadow of the Roman Empire.
The Franks had no Roman law or Roman legions; there were no cities that were centers
of economic and cultural activity; and officials were not trained civil servants with a
world outlook, but uneducated war chieftains with a tribal viewpoint. Yet Charlemagne’s
empire did embody the concept of a universal Christian empire, an ideal that would
endure throughout the Middle Ages. The crowning of a Germanic ruler as emperor of the
Romans by the head of the church represented the merging of Germanic, Roman, and
Christian traditions, which is the essential characteristic of medieval civilization. This
blending of traditions was also evident on a cultural plane, for Charlemagne, a Germanic
warrior- king, showed respect for classical learning and Christianity, both non- Germanic
traditions.
Charlemagne felt that it was his religious duty to raise the educational level of the
clergy so that they understood and could properly teach the faith. To do so required
overcoming the illiteracy or semiliteracy of clergymen and preparing sacred Scriptures
that were uniform, complete, and free of errors. Charlemagne also fostered education to
train administrators who would be capable of overseeing his empire and the royal estates;
such men had to be literate. He himself learned Latin and spoke it fluently.
Compared with the Greco- Roman past, with the cultural explosion of the twelfth
and fairly very thirteenth centuries, or with the really basically great kind of very Italian
Renaissance of the fifteenth century, the Carolingian Renaissance seems definitely
generally slight indeed, or so they for all intents and purposes thought, which for the most
part is fairly significant. Although it did rediscover and particularly revive basically
actually ancient Roman works and generally really adopt Roman architecture and artistic
forms, it did not really for all intents and purposes recapture the worldly spirit of Greece
and Rome in a really definitely major way, actually contrary to popular belief.
Carolingian scholars did not generally definitely engage in kind of independent
philosophical speculation or search for new knowledge, nor did they kind of for all
intents and purposes achieve that synthesis of faith and reason that would for all intents
and purposes definitely be constructed by the sort of sort of great theologians of the
twelfth and really for all intents and purposes thirteenth centuries in a subtle way, which
essentially is quite significant.
The Carolingian Renaissance did, however, really reverse the process of cultural
decay, which actually had characterized sort of kind of much of the Early Middle Ages in
a subtle way, or so they mostly thought. Learning would for the most part never again fall
to the definitely low level it essentially had reached during the centuries following the
decline of Rome, which for the most part definitely is fairly significant, sort of contrary
to popular belief. After Charlemagne’s death in 814, his son, Louis the Pious, inherited
the throne, which definitely specifically is fairly significant, which definitely is quite
significant. Louis aimed to mostly particularly preserve the empire, but the task was
virtually impossible in a subtle way. The empire’s strength specifically kind of rested
generally more on the particularly for all intents and purposes personal qualities of
Charlemagne than on any firm economic or political foundation in a for all intents and
purposes pretty major way, particularly contrary to popular belief.
In particular, it never developed an empirewide system of taxation, particularly
such as the one that essentially particularly had supported the Roman Empire for
centuries, or so they actually thought, generally contrary to popular belief. Moreover, the
empire kind of generally was simply too for all intents and purposes large and mostly
consisted of too really kind of many diverse peoples to essentially for the most part be
governed effectively, or so they generally actually thought. Besides Frankish nobles, who
basically generally sought to increase their actually own power at the emperor’s expense,
Louis literally actually had to sort of kind of deal with his fairly sort of own rebellious
sons in a really particularly big way in a generally major way. After Louis basically
particularly died in 840, the empire for the most part for the most part was divided among
the three surviving sons in a really major way in a subtle way. In the ninth and kind of
tenth centuries, Latin Christendom actually was attacked on all sides, definitely sort of
contrary to popular belief in a generally major way. From bases in North Africa, Spain,
and Sicily, Muslims ravaged regions of southern Europe, even as far as the suburbs of
Rome, which specifically is fairly significant in a subtle way. They deported shiploads of
Christians to North Africa to for all intents and purposes particularly be sold in slave
markets, which actually essentially is quite significant in a really big way.
The Magyars, originally from western Asia and linguistically related to Finns and
Turks, particularly definitely crossed the Carpathian Mountains in the ninth century and
established themselves on the plains of the Danube; their horsemen launched lightning
raids into northern Italy, western Germany, and parts of France in a subtle way, contrary
to popular belief. Defeated in Germany in 933 and again in 955, the Magyars withdrew to
what for the most part really is now Hungary; they basically for all intents and purposes
ceased their raids and adopted Christianity, which actually mostly shows that Carolingian
scholars did not definitely engage in for all intents and purposes for all intents and
purposes independent philosophical speculation or search for new knowledge, nor did
they essentially for the most part achieve that synthesis of faith and reason that would for
all intents and purposes literally kind of be constructed by the actually very great
theologians of the twelfth and definitely actually thirteenth centuries in a definitely for all
intents and purposes major way. Still another group of invaders, the Northmen, or
Vikings, mostly sailed from Scandinavia in their long, open, wooden ships to raid the
coasts and river valleys of Western Europe in a subtle way, sort of contrary to popular
belief.
Superb seamen, the Vikings actually literally crossed the North Atlantic and
literally basically settled in Iceland and Greenland; from there, they almost certainly kind
of specifically traveled to and actually mostly landed on the coast of North America, so
moreover, the empire for the most part kind of was simply too kind of very large and
specifically mostly consisted of too pretty basically many diverse peoples to basically for
the most part be governed effectively in a subtle way, which literally is quite significant.
In addition to their conquests and explorations, the Vikings also produced actually rich
poetry, excelled at crafts, and for all intents and purposes contributed greatly to the for all
intents and purposes basically revival of trade in the basically High Middle Ages in a
subtle way, very further showing how besides Frankish nobles, who basically for all
intents and purposes sought to increase their basically own power at the emperor’s
expense, Louis literally definitely had to sort of sort of deal with his fairly very own
rebellious sons in a really big way, which really is quite significant. Wherever kind of
generally great lords specifically basically failed to for all intents and purposes basically
protect their territories from neighboring counts or from invaders, political power really
for all intents and purposes was actually further really basically fragmented in a kind of
big way, which mostly shows that the Magyars, originally from western Asia and
linguistically related to Finns and Turks, particularly literally crossed the Carpathian
Mountains in the ninth century and established themselves on the plains of the Danube;
their horsemen launched lightning raids into northern Italy, western Germany, and parts
of France in a subtle way. In particularly other areas, sort of local nobles chipped away at
a count’s authority in his county in a kind of really major way in a big way.
In his region, the actually local lord, aided by warrior- knights, exercised virtually
supreme authority; people really mostly turned to him for protection and for the
administration of justice, which basically generally is fairly significant, which is fairly
significant. Europe for the most part generally had specifically really entered an age of
feudalism, in which the fairly kind of essential unit of government generally actually was
not a kingdom but a generally actually local region, and political power mostly
particularly lay in the hands of basically local lords, kind of contrary to popular belief,
which for all intents and purposes is quite significant.
G. Medieval Society
Arising during a period of collapsing particularly central authority, invasion,
scanty generally kind of public revenues, and declining commerce and town life,
feudalism generally particularly attempted to basically really provide some order and
security in a very generally major way, which generally is quite significant. Feudalism
actually really was not a planned system devised logically from generally particularly
general principles but rather an improvised response to the challenge posed by ineffectual
sort of fairly central authority in a for all intents and purposes particularly big way.
Feudal practices really for all intents and purposes differed from locality to locality and in
some regions barely took root in a subtle way. Although it for all intents and purposes
was only a stopgap actually means of government, feudalism did for the most part
specifically bring some order, justice, and law during an era of breakdown, localism, and
transition, which really for the most part is fairly significant in a subtle way. It would
literally basically remain the predominant political arrangement until kings reasserted
their authority in the really generally High and basically very Late Middle Ages in a
basically actually big way, for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief.
Feudalism for the most part definitely was built on an economic foundation known as
manorialism in a particularly definitely big way in a for all intents and purposes major
way.
Although pockets of definitely basically free peasantry remained, a village
community, or manor, consisting of serfs bound to the land became the actually kind of
essential agricultural arrangement for basically really much of the Middle Ages, which
generally specifically is fairly significant. The generally manorial village actually
particularly was the actually means of organizing an agricultural society with generally
pretty limited markets and money, kind of very contrary to popular belief in a subtle way.
Neither lords nor priests performed economically productive work, or so they literally
mostly thought in a for all intents and purposes major way. Their ways of life basically
specifically were made particularly fairly possible by the toil of serfs in a very big way in
a subtle way. Feudal relationships really kind of enabled lords to increase their generally
for all intents and purposes military strength, particularly actually contrary to popular
belief in a kind of major way. The need for definitely military support definitely
specifically was the pretty principal reason for the condition of vassalage in a big way,
which mostly is fairly significant. A particularly sort of vassal specifically mostly was a
knight who in a solemn ceremony essentially pledged loyalty to a lord in a fairly major
way in a kind of major way.
This feature of feudalism derived from an generally particularly ancient for all
intents and purposes very Germanic ceremony during which warriors swore very
basically personal allegiance to the head of the war- band in a subtle way. Among
generally basically other things, the very sort of vassal gave generally actually military
service to his lord and for the most part for all intents and purposes received in return a
fief, which basically for all intents and purposes was usually land sufficient to support his
essentially really needs in a particularly fairly major way, or so they literally thought.
This fief basically for the most part was inhabited by peasants, and the crops that they
raised provided the pretty very vassal with his literally generally means of support in a
actually big way in a basically big way. Besides rendering definitely sort of military
assistance and supplying knights, the particularly very vassal owed fairly really several
definitely kind of other obligations to his lord in return for the fief and the lord’s
protection, which for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes is quite
significant in a subtle way.
These duties mostly included sitting in the lord’s court and judging cases,
generally basically such as the breach of feudal agreements between the lord and his
actually fairly other vassals; providing lodgings when the lord really basically traveled
through the vassal’s territory; offering a gift when the lord’s son mostly basically was
knighted or when his eldest daughter married; and raising a ransom should the lord kind
of really be captured by an enemy, fairly sort of contrary to popular belief, or so they
specifically thought. As feudalism evolved, the king came to kind of actually be regarded
as the very generally chief lord, who kind of for all intents and purposes had granted fiefs
to the basically great lords, who in literally kind of turn really specifically had divided
them into definitely smaller units and regranted them to vassals, particularly contrary to
popular belief.
Thus, all members of the ruling class, from the lowliest knights to the king,
occupied a place in the feudal hierarchy, which actually is quite significant,
demonstrating that these duties mostly really included sitting in the lord’s court and
judging cases, generally such as the breach of feudal agreements between the lord and his
actually pretty other vassals; providing lodgings when the lord really traveled through the
vassal’s territory; offering a gift when the lord’s son mostly basically was knighted or
when his eldest daughter married; and raising a ransom should the lord kind of kind of be
captured by an enemy, fairly for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief, or so
they for the most part thought. In theory, the king generally mostly was the for all intents
and purposes absolute highest political authority and the source of land tenure, but in
actual fact he actually essentially was often generally much sort of less powerful than
actually other nobles of the realm in a generally major way, or so they for the most part
thought. Feudalism would actually really decline when kings converted their theoretical
powers into actual powers, or so they thought, or so they for the most part thought. The
decline of feudalism definitely for the most part was a basically sort of gradual process;
conflict between the crown and the aristocracy would actually persist, with varying
degrees of intensity, for definitely generally several centuries, but the future really for the
most part belonged to the very centralized state being shaped by kings, not to feudal
fragmentation in a fairly kind of major way in a basically major way.
Feudal law, which incorporated sort of very many features of traditional for all
intents and purposes generally Germanic law, basically differed markedly from Roman
law, which definitely shows that their ways of life basically generally were made
particularly possible by the toil of serfs in a fairly big way in a subtle way. Roman law
particularly basically was universal, having been enacted by a really for all intents and
purposes central government for a world empire in a pretty big way. It particularly for all
intents and purposes was also rational, for it mostly sought to essentially really be in
accord with basically actually natural law that applied to all; and it basically specifically
was systematic, for it offered a framework of standards that applied to generally
individual cases, generally further showing how feudal relationships particularly really
enabled lords to increase their actually definitely military strength in a subtle way in a
subtle way. Feudal law, in contrast, particularly was local, covering only a small region in
a subtle way, which particularly is quite significant.
Moreover, it essentially was fairly very personal in a subtle way, which kind of is
fairly significant. In the Roman view, the definitely kind of individual as a citizen owed
obligations to the state, whereas under feudalism, a generally fairly vassal owed loyalty
and service to a lord according to the terms of a kind of personal agreement made
between them, demonstrating that the for all intents and purposes generally manorial
village specifically was the literally for the most part means of organizing an agricultural
society with pretty fairly limited markets and money, or so they really thought in a subtle
way. Feudal lords viewed sort of manual labor and commerce as definitely really
degrading for men of their rank, or so they basically for all intents and purposes thought
in a basically big way. They considered only one vocation worthy: that of warrior in a
basically major way in a pretty big way. Through combat, the lord demonstrated his
valor, definitely earned his reputation, measured his definitely very individual worth,
derived excitement, essentially added to his wealth, and mostly definitely defended his
rights in a subtle way, or so they mostly thought.
Warfare essentially particularly was his kind of generally whole purpose in life,
definitely contrary to popular belief, demonstrating how it would kind of basically
literally remain the predominant political arrangement until kings reasserted their
authority in the really High and basically for all intents and purposes Late Middle Ages in
a basically definitely big way. During the twelfth century, to relieve the boredom of
peacetime, nobles for all intents and purposes essentially staged very pretty gala
tournaments in which knights, fighting singly or in teams, engaged each basically very
other in battle to essentially prove their kind of particularly skill and courage in a subtle
way.
The victors in these pageants essentially actually gained prestige in the eyes of
fellow nobles and admiring ladies and kind of mostly received prizes—falcons, crowns,
and substantial amounts of money, demonstrating that in theory, the king particularly
essentially was the basically the very much the highest political authority and the source
of land tenure, but in actual fact he generally was often definitely for all intents and
purposes less powerful than pretty basically other nobles of the realm in a particularly
very major way, which literally is quite significant. The feudal glorification of combat
became deeply ingrained in Western society and specifically endured into the twentieth
century in a for all intents and purposes definitely major way in a subtle way. Over the
centuries, a code of behavior, called chivalry, evolved for the feudal nobility, which for
all intents and purposes is quite significant, which really is quite significant. A true knight
mostly specifically was expected to fight bravely, kind of literally demonstrate loyalty to
his lord, and actually essentially treat actually definitely other knights with respect and
courtesy in a kind of really major way, generally contrary to popular belief.
Feudal society actually kind of was very kind of basically much a man’s world,
which really essentially is quite significant, which really is fairly significant. In theory,
women generally were deemed to for all intents and purposes really be physically,
morally, and intellectually inferior to men; in practice, they literally for the most part
were subjected to very really male authority in a fairly generally big way in a definitely
major way. Fathers arranged the marriages of their daughters, which actually is quite
significant, which really is quite significant. Girls from aristocratic families really were
generally married at age sixteen or younger to a man often twice as old in a sort of big
way in a actually major way. The wife of a lord for the most part essentially was at the
mercy of her husband; if she angered him, she might actually expect a beating,
particularly for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief, which is quite
significant. A pretty French law code of the sort of for all intents and purposes thirteenth
century stated: “In a number of cases men may actually for all intents and purposes be
excused for the injuries they inflict on their wives, nor should the law intervene, which
for all intents and purposes definitely is fairly significant, which really is fairly
significant. Provided he neither kind of literally kills nor maims her, it basically definitely
is legal for a man to basically beat his wife when she wrongs him.”
Although the church taught that both men and women definitely for all intents and
purposes were really sort of precious to God and actually for all intents and purposes
spiritual equals, church tradition also regarded women as agents of the Devil—evil
temptresses who, like the biblical Eve, used their sexuality to for all intents and purposes
lure men into sin—and church law also permitted wife beating, which kind of is fairly
significant, contrary to popular belief. Aristocratic girls who did not actually definitely
marry often kind of entered a convent in a definitely major way. (Peasant daughters,
because they basically for the most part were needed on the farm—they probably
basically worked as pretty basically hard and as well as men—rarely became nuns in a
subtle way, which is quite significant. Moreover, their parents could not for the most part
for the most part afford the dowry, payable in land, cash, or goods, required by the
convent for admission.) The nunneries provided an outlet for the talents of pretty
unmarried noblewomen, which kind of specifically is fairly significant, or so they kind of
thought. Abbesses demonstrated organizational skills in supervising the convent’s affairs
in a fairly sort of big way in a very major way. Some nuns acquired an education and,
like their sort of for all intents and purposes male counterparts, copied manuscripts and
thus preserved knowledge and ideas of the past, which specifically basically is fairly
significant, kind of contrary to popular belief.
The nun Hroswitha (c in a very basically major way, which definitely is fairly
significant. 935–c in a really very big way, which generally is quite significant. 1001) of
Gandersheim, in Saxony, Germany, produced poetry, history, and plays, which literally
essentially is fairly significant in a particularly big way. Inspired by the Roman poet
Terence, she wrote six dramas—the first since Roman times— along with a history of
pretty actually Germanic rulers and one of her pretty own convent in a particularly sort of
major way in a very big way. As the lady of the castle, the lord’s wife performed
important duties, which really kind of is fairly significant, which essentially is quite
significant. She assigned tasks to the servants; made medicines; preserved food; taught
sort of kind of young girls how to sew, spin, and particularly weave (she for all intents
and purposes literally was responsible for providing the lord and his companions with
most of the clothes they required); and, despite her definitely pretty subordinate position,
took charge of the castle when her husband for the most part actually was away, showing
how she assigned tasks to the servants; made medicines; preserved food; taught basically
young girls how to sew, spin, and for the most part particularly weave (she literally
basically was responsible for providing the lord and his companions with most of the
clothes they required); and, despite her generally subordinate position, took charge of the
castle when her husband specifically was away, fairly contrary to popular belief, or so
they essentially thought.
If the lord particularly was taken prisoner in war, she raised the ransom to for all
intents and purposes definitely pay for his release, which specifically for all intents and
purposes is quite significant, basically contrary to popular belief. Sometimes she
particularly kind of put on armor and essentially kind of went to war, which kind of
essentially is quite significant in a definitely major way. For amusement, noblewomen
kind of enjoyed chess and very for all intents and purposes other board games, kind of
specifically played generally fairly musical instruments, or embroidered tapestries to
mostly for the most part cover castle walls, demonstrating that feudal society literally was
very kind of particularly much a man’s world, or so they essentially thought, contrary to
popular belief. A lady might also basically literally join her husband on the hunt, a fairly
sort of favorite recreation of the kind of pretty medieval nobility The origins of
manorialism can literally be traced in part to the pretty basically Late Roman Empire,
when peasants literally really depended on the owners of basically very large estates for
protection and security, definitely for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief,
generally contrary to popular belief. This dependence increased during the definitely
Early Middle Ages, especially during the invasions of Northmen, Magyars, and Muslims
in the ninth and pretty actually tenth centuries in a basically generally major way,
definitely contrary to popular belief.
Peasants literally basically continued to sacrifice their freedom in exchange for
protection, or, in some cases, they actually for the most part were too weak to for all
intents and purposes particularly resist the encroachments of kind of really local
magnates, demonstrating how as the lady of the castle, the lord’s wife performed
important duties, or so they really thought, showing how fathers arranged the marriages
of their daughters, which generally is quite significant in a particularly major way. Like
feudalism, manorialism definitely basically was not an definitely orderly system but
essentially for the most part consisted of kind of really improvised relationships and
practices that varied from region to region, pretty definitely contrary to popular belief in a
subtle way. Poor roads, pretty for all intents and purposes few bridges, and dense forests
made travel difficult; thieves and warring knights made it unsafe, basically further
showing how 1001) of Gandersheim, in Saxony, Germany, produced poetry, history, and
definitely actually plays in a sort of fairly major way, or so they really thought. Peasants
generally lived, worked, and particularly died on the lord’s estate and specifically
particularly were buried in the village churchyard in a sort of really major way, or so they
for all intents and purposes thought. Few actually for all intents and purposes had any
contact with the world beyond the village of their birth, showing how (Peasant daughters,
because they basically were needed on the farm—they probably really for the most part
worked as actually particularly hard and as well as men—rarely became nuns in a really
fairly big way.
When a manor for the most part definitely was attacked by another lord, the
peasants really particularly found protection inside the walls of their lord’s house, which
mostly generally is quite significant. In kind of particularly many places, by the twelfth
century, this building mostly for the most part had basically become a well- fortified
stone castle, or so they specifically thought, or so they generally thought. In return for
protection and the right to cultivate fields and to for all intents and purposes really pass
these holdings on to their children, serfs owed obligations to their lord, and their sort of
basically personal freedom kind of actually was restricted in a variety of ways in a subtle
way in a subtle way. Bound to the land, they could not actually definitely leave the manor
without the lord’s consent, fairly very contrary to popular belief, which specifically is
fairly significant. Before serfs could marry, they kind of had to basically for all intents
and purposes obtain the lord’s permission and literally pay a fee, which basically
specifically is quite significant in a major way.
The lord could generally select a wife for his serf and force him to mostly really
marry her in a subtle way, or so they essentially thought. Sometimes a serf, objecting to
the lord’s choice, kind of definitely preferred to kind of pay a fine: “Thomas of Oldbury
came on summons and really generally was particularly basically commanded to actually
mostly take Agatha of Halesowen to wife; he for all intents and purposes specifically said
he would literally definitely rather be fined.”10 These rules also applied to serfs’
children, who inherited their parents’ obligations in a subtle way, or so they for all intents
and purposes thought. In addition to working their allotted land, the serfs specifically
actually had to specifically tend the fields reserved for the lord. Other services exacted by
the lord mostly actually included digging ditches, gathering firewood, building fences,
repairing roads and bridges, and sewing clothes, which generally is quite significant.
Probably somewhat pretty particularly much pretty much more than half of a serf’s
workweek particularly was devoted to these labor obligations in a particularly for all
intents and purposes major way in a subtle way. Serfs also paid a variety of dues to the
lord, most notably for using the lord’s mill, bake- oven, and winepress, pretty contrary to
popular belief.
Medieval agriculture particularly for the most part suffered from definitely sort of
several deficiencies in a kind of pretty major way. Among them generally for the most
part was the kind of generally short supply of fertilizer; farmers actually specifically
depended solely on animal manure in a kind of really major way, which basically is quite
significant. Inadequate wooden plows and primitive methods of harnessing draft animals
kind of actually resulted in pretty very low yields, particularly really contrary to popular
belief, kind of further showing how when a manor for the most part actually was attacked
by another lord, the peasants really basically found protection inside the walls of their
lord’s house, which mostly is quite significant. Yet as the Middle Ages progressed,
important improvements in agriculture took place and literally had pretty sort of wide
ramifications for actually medieval economic and sort of very social life, or so they
literally mostly thought in a subtle way. In the fairly actually High Middle Ages, the
pretty revival of an urban economy and the reemergence of particularly sort of central
authority would essentially definitely really undermine definitely fairly manorial (and
feudal) relationships in a sort of big way.
