07: Europe: New Growth

New Growth: Schools, Courts, Cities, Church Reform

Narratives: first half of course

  • Roman society expands, faces internal and external crises, becomes Christian
  • Roman world splits into 3 main segments:
    • Greek/Latin (eastern and western Roman Empire)
    • Muslim or Arabic: spread of Islam in south, east
  • Regions still look back to Roman society (Learning: legitimacy of rule)
  • Our focus: Northern half of Western Roman Empire (plus never-Roman regions)
    1. Learning: legacies from Bible, Greeks, Latin; Latin as sole language of learning
    2. Especially in north: learning and letters associated with Church, clergy. Yet they preserve Latin letters

Second half of course: Europe takes shape

Turning point: ca 1000 CE.

  1. Last big migrations of peoples; they settle in
  2. Christendom and European role of Pope
  3. Byzantines move to periphery

The year 1000: before and after

Social locations of writing after ca. 1000

  • courts
  • monasteries
  • cathedral schools
  • cities
  • universities

    private lay people as writers and readers

Political development before and after 1000

  •   pre-1000: Migrations (last wave): Slavs; Magyars; Norse
  •    post-1000: Stronger rulers, more stable regimes
  •    Papacy-emperor: a troubled axis

      Otto (and Ottonians): eastern Carolingian regions

  •         Otto I defeats Hungarians, 955; king of Italy, Crowned emperor 962 by pope
  •           new name develops: Holy Roman Empire

The Emperor Otto I (912–73) presents a model of his church at Magdeburg to the Enthroned Christ with Saints Peter and Mauritius (?) and other Saints, 962–968; Ottonian. Made in Milan(?) Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ivory; 5 1/8 x 4 7/16 x 5/16 in. (13 x 11.3 x .8 cm)

    Ottonian reforms of papacy

    Reformed popes turn to reforming Church

        Better clergy: schools

   Later 11th c: Power struggles between emperors, papacy

Papacy: increased power 1100-1300

  • political leader of Rome and papal regions in Italy
  • Across Europe: more governance
  • strong pyramid model of authority
  • moral vision for nobles: chivalry, Crusades

Standard set of expectations about Pope

  • residence: St. John Lateran
  • elected: College of Cardinals
  • Regulation of lay religious behavior as well as clergy
  • diplomatic center, international mediator
  • moral leader of Crusades
  • regional political power

How does a strong papacy affect kings:

  • positive
    • morality and violence: chivalric ideals, lay piety
    • papal recognition of legitimacy
    • diplomacy
  • negative
    • bishops act like powerful nobles but are not subject to same legal controls
    • bishops may have divided loyalties

The crisis: central Europe

Holy Roman Empire

  • Germany: post investiture regional control;
  • Italy: recognition of city-states 1190s

South: Normans 1053

Staufen (HRE dynasty)family marries into Normans

Frederick II 1194-1250

Museo Civico, Barletta

  •  HRE, Sicily, Jerusalem
  • no heir; wars of succession
  • Ghibelline (pro Staufen) versus Guelf (supported papacy)

1266: Defeat of Manfred at Battle of Benevento: Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, king of Naples and Sicily.

1312: Henry VII (house of Luxemburg); d. 1313 Successor Ludwig d. 1347

 ca 1200 
 ca 1300
  • Papacy

Boniface VIII (1294-1303)

  •  Unam sanctam

Benedict XI (1303-04)

Clement V (1305-14): Avignon

John XXII (1316-34)

Avignon, Papal palace

New Schools: cathedrals, monasteries

Sylvester II 999-1003

          liberal arts:

  • trivium
    • grammar, logic, rhetoric
  • quadrivium
    • arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music

            Foundational subject: grammar

New texts:

  • religious works of all kinds
  • textbooks
  • correspondence, official and private
  • legal documents at all levels
  • copying and circulation of old works

 “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century”