Back to Index of Lecture Notes Medieval Europe II - Cities, Churches, and Education I. reation of cities in Europe

• A.Remember that Europe had been a mostly agricultural, mostly rural society
  • 1.breakdown of Rome meant breakdown in trade
  • 2.fragmentation meant that towns lost there importance to the manor
• B.In 1000s, Egypt and Byzantine Empire started to trade with Europe (again), which helped to revive Italian towns and merchants.
• C.yet the strength of the feudal system, manorial system, and new technology helped to create wealth
  • 1.new villages could be set up from cleared forest that were less tradition bound and more likely to accept technological, agricultural innovation
  • 2.towns and cities grew up (or simply grew) as places to do trade, industry, arts, etc.
  • 3.in the 900s local lords had taken control of towns and taxation
  • 4.except for the Jewish merchants, who were under special legal status under the king
• D.towns therefore wanted to become incorporated; to have a direct legal relationship to the king rather than to local lords
  • 1.paid for this right
  • 2.but gave townsmen (read: merchants) the power to direct their own affairs and to tax themselves in ways that would not hurt trade
  • 3.this was done through the town charter, which became increasingly important by the 1200s
  • 4.Famous trade towns grew throughout Europe: In Flanders and Italy mostly, but also in France and German principalities (Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, Venice, Genoa, etc.)
  • 5.inside the town: guilds, like unions, controlled their trades and merchant groups, trained youth, set prices, and fought for political power in the town
    • a. three levels: apprentice, journeyman, master
    • b. apprentices studied with a master for several years
    • c. journey had more privileges, but could not own a business
    • d. journeymen prepared a masterwork for approval of masters
    • e. if approved, he became a master, and could open own business
• E.All of this (manorial system plus towns) illustrated the growing wealth of the high middle ages (1000-1400) and set the stage for later growth and development in Europe

II. Church vs. State in Europe

• A.Church had become a very powerful entity in European life, especially through monasticism
  • 1.brought civilization (Roman and Judeo-Christian ideas) to Europe
  • 2.spread Christianity and therefore unified Europeans under one faith
• B.powerful lords offered to start monasteries on their own land
  • 1.provided the security, land, for monks
  • 2.monasticism was, after all, quite attractive
  • 3.provided social welfare, a place to live, a warm place to sleep, food to eat
  • 4.monastic rules were somewhat laxer than in the east (ie. Egypt)
  • 5.monks brought some trade, wealth, learning to a lord's land
• C.helped monasticism to grow, but the question of control: would monks be under the lord's supervision, the bishop's, or the pope's?
• D.beginning of monasteries directly under papal control
  • 1.a way to circumvent local control
  • 2.a way to make sure that monasteries were independent
  • 3.helped to create even more monasteries
  • E.Cluny, Cistercians orders sprung up around Europe
    • 1.extremely popular
    • 2.expanded until there were hundreds of houses across Europe

III. Question of Papal authority versus that of Holy Roman Emperor

• A.Monastic groups found that papal see was in bad shape
• B.desire therefore to reform the papacy
  • 1.made it independent of emperor and kings
  • 2.made sure that bishops and popes were picked by church rules, not for political reasons
  • 3.no longer had bishops and pope swear loyalty to the lords or kings
  • 4.tried to give the papacy more power by itself vis a vis the emperor or other secular authority
  • 5.strong monastic groups would help strengthen papcy
• C.created problem of control--known as the investiture controversy
  • 1.HRE (especially Henry IV in mid 1000s) wanted to control bishops and popes
  • 2.those lords who wanted to limit Henry's power sided with the reformers
  • 3.led to the creation of many claims to the papal throne
  • 4.finally fixed in 1122
• D.created two basic theories of authority
  • 1."Gregorian" system (1073-85) called for the preeminence of Rome in all matters because salvation in heaven was more important than politics on earth
  • 2.versus a "separate spheres" theory that said that pope should have spiritual authority and emperor should have political authority
  • 3.would be a major question throughout European history
  • 4.result--papacy became more independent of politics (ie. the college of cardinals who picked the next pope, not the emperor) but the emperor wanted more control over all political affairs

IV. Monasticism begat education

• A.monks became known as great teachers
  • 1.especially in the field of theology and logic
  • 2.began from re-introduction to Aristotle and theories of natural observation
  • 3.started by Anselm (1035-1109) who taught that one's intellect could observe the world and understand God and His existence logically
  • 4.we can perceive of a greater being, so He must exist, since a lesser being could not conceive of a greater being unless it did exist
  • 5.important theory of medieval theology--how to know God--was very intellectual pursuit, not a mystical nor an emotional pursuit
    • a.Bernard of Clairveaux, who taught that logic was only important as it enhanced spirituality and helped to gain the kingdom of heaven
    • b.Abelard (c. 1070-1141; cf. Heloise), who taught that logic could be used in its own right, independent of divine revelation
    • c.this meant there would be a fight between learning as God's revelation and learning as human discovery
• B.This sort of teaching was extremely popular, and led to the growth of monasteries and the growth of universities!
  • 1.remember that there had been a Carolingian renaissance in learning too
  • 2.now, however, young men would swarm to the great teachers
  • 3.provided basis for our present-day universities
  • 4.creation of textbooks
  • 5.creation of logical methods of study
  • 6.Paris, Padua, other centers of learning began to grow

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