Professor Myers’s PowerPoint Review

 

Lessons:

German/Latin Melding

Feudalism and manorialism

States

High Medieval culture

Charlemagne

Towns

Papacy

 

 

Civ. 1 Outlines: Unit 2

Sanders

 

 

Deep Roots of "Western Culture": German/Latin "Melding," and Contrasts with Cultural "Others"

 

Byzantine culture: Roman hierarchy and the Greek tradition

  • Roman survivals
  • New elements
    • Greek styles (letters, architecture [Hagia Sophia])
    • Slow, steady loss of territory (expansion of Islam)
    • Split with the West (Orthodoxy and 1056; Fourth Crusade, 1204)

 

Islamic culture: A new force, and Arab-Greek"melding"

  • Islam
    • Origins: old and new?
    • Muhammad and the nature of the Qur'an
    • The Five Pillars (plus one)
  • Political and cultural expansion
    • Expansion by conquest, 632-732
    • Cultural flowering, ca. 800-ca. 1200
    • The late medieval/early modern "decline"

 

Germanic culture: "Barbarian" inroads, and the "melding" of Roman, Christian, and Germanic cultures

  • Conditions after the “Wanderings of the Peoples”
    • Italy = Ostrogoths
    • Gaul = Franks
    • Spain = Visigoths
    • North Africa = Vandals
    • Britain = Angles, Saxons
    • "Sub-Roman" state of things: cultural "melding" by intermarriage, law, religion, etc.
  • Character of Germanic culture
    • Decentralized political organization: chieftains and their counts (comites)
    • Social organization: blood feud and wergild; legal procedures (compurgation, ordeal)
  • Process of Christianization
    • Trinitarian (Catholic) Romans and Arian Germans
    • The great importance of monasticism
    • Preserver of Roman culture
      • Benedict (ca. 480-547)
      • Cassiodorus (ca. 490-575)
    • Spreading of the faith
      • Gregory I (590-604)
      • Augustine of Canterbury, 597
      • Boniface (ca. 680-754)
  • Origins of a new culture?

Charlemagne:

A Single Culture and the Revival of Empire

 

Frankland: A Success Story

·         Merovingian dynasty, 482-751

o        Clovis, 482-511

o        Subkingdoms

·         Carolingian dynasty, 751-911

o        Mayors of the Palace (Austrasia)

§         Pepin of Heristal (679-714)

§         Charles Martel (714-741); Battle of Tours, 732

§         Pepin the Short (741-751)

o        Kings

§         Pepin the Short (751-768); Frankish-Papal alliance; Donation of Pepin

§         Charlemagne (768-814)

 

Charlemagne and His World

·         Territorial expansion (Spain, Italy, Saxony)

·         Administrative reforms:

o        Counts

o        Missi dominici

o        Capitularies

·         Cultural renascence:

o        Palace school (Alcuin of Northumbria, 735-804)

o        Handwriting reforms

o        Education of the clergy

·         The Carolingian empire:

o        Imperial crowning, Christmas day 800

o        The decline of the empire:

§         Civil War: Charlemagne's heirs

§         Louis I, the Pious (814-840)

§         Lothair I (d. 855)

§         Louis the German (d. 876)

§         Charles the Bald (d. 877)

§         Treaty of Verdun, 843

§         Invasion: Vikings and Magyars

·         Charlemagne's legacy


Feudal Society and Manorialism

 

Medieval hierarchy: origins and characteristics

·         Roman patrons and German kings

·         Warrior aristocracies

·         Failure of freedoms in uncertain times

·         An evolving distinction: noble and base; concept of lordship

·         Place of the Church

·         Absence of a "middle class"

 

Feudalism vs. manorialism

·         Feudalism

o        "A set of social and political practices, relationships among nobles (roughly equals)"

o        Firmly established only ca. 900-ca.1050

o        Based on land possession (the fief)

o        Not so dependent a relationship

·         Manorialism

o        "A set of social and economic practices, relationships among nobles and commoners (not equals)"

o        Originated in late Roman period, possibly earlier (freemen and coloni becoming serfs)

o        Based on hierarchy, exploitation, need for protection

o        A dependent relationship

 

Feudal relations

·         Origins: comitatus; ninth-century chaos

·         The process of vassalage

o        Commendation

o        Fealty

o        Homage

o        Fief

·         A reciprocal relationship

o        Lord to vassal

§         Fief

§         Physical supports

§         Justice

o        Vassal to lord

§         Military field service (generally forty days)

§         Castle-guard

§         Hospitality

§         Counsel and Honor

§         Aids

§         Marriage

§         Knighthood

§         Ransom

§         Relief ("inheritance tax")

·         "Feudal hierarchy"

o        Subinfeudation

o        Liege homage

·         "Feudal culture"

o        Chivalry

o        Courtly love

 

Manorial relations

·         Origins: ancient practice; coloni; protection

·         Necessary dependency: no social or economic "escapes"

·         A relationship between unequals

o        Lord to serf

§         Protection

§         Justice

o        Serf to lord

§         Dues (e.g., capitation, taille, heriot)

§         Banalities (lord's wine-press, mill, ovens)

§         Services (robot, boon, corvée)


The Revival of Towns in Western Europe

 

Traditional medieval society: collective legal identities

·         Collective legal identity versus individual

·         Noble versus common

·         The Three Estates: function and divine order in theory

o        Church (pray, provide "social services")

o        Nobles (fight, keep order)

o        Commoners (work; = everyone else)

·         "Right": associated with order, = particular legal status (monopoly)

 

Revival of town life

·         Limited early medieval town life

·         The revival and extension of trade

o        The Mediterranean, the Baltic, the North Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean

o        Trade centers

o        A second Pirenne thesis: trade and towns (geography and protection)

·         The evolving autonomy of towns (a new legal and social group)

o        Feudal interference: services, taxation, marriage, courts, movement

o        Solutions: