Kingdoms

After the fall of the Roman Empire, new Germanic kingdoms arose and became known as Latin Christendom blending Latin and Germanic traditions. Discuss examples of these traditions and how they evolved during this time. What unified these new kingdoms?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Levack, B., Muir, E., & Veldman, M. (2011). The west encounters & transformations. (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 264-269). Upper Saddle: Pearson. DOI: www.pearsonhighered.com

(Levack, Muir & Veldman, 2011)

No wiki, dictionary.com or plagarism

 

264 CHAPTER 9 Medieval Empires and Borderlands: The Latin West

was followed by a period of anarchy as Europe faced
further incursions of hostile invaders. During the
eleventh century, however, the Latin West recov-
ered in dramatic fashion. By the end of the century
the Latin kingdoms were strong enough to engage
in a massive counterassault against Islam, in part in
defense of fellow Christians in Byzantium. These
campaigns against Islam, known as the Crusades,
produced a series of wars in the Middle East and
North Africa that continued throughout the Middle
Ages. But the ideals of the crusaders lasted well into
modern times, long after the active fighting ceased.
The transformations in this period raised this ques-
tion: How did Latin Christianity help strengthen
the new kingdoms of the Latin West so that they
were eventually able to deal effectively with both
barbarian invaders and Muslim rivals?

THE BIRTH OF LATIN
CHRISTENDOM
• H o w d i d L a t i n C h r i s t e n d o m — t h e new

k i n g d o m s of western E u r o p e — b u i l d o n
Rome’s legal and governmental legacies
and h o w d i d C h r i s t i a n i t y spread i n these
new kingdoms ?

By the time the Roman Empire collapsed in the
West during the f i f t h century, numerous Germanic
tribes had settled in the lands of the former
empire. These tribes became the nucleus for the
new Latin Christian kingdoms that emerged by
750 (see M a p 9.1).

Germanic Kingdoms on Roman
Foundations
The new Germanic kingdoms of L a t i n Christen-
dom created a new kind of society. They bor-
rowed f r o m Roman law while establishing
government institutions, but they also relied on
their o w n traditional methods of rule. Three ele-
ments helped unify these kingdoms. First, i n the
Germanic kingdoms personal loyalty rather than

legal rights unified society. Kinship obligations to
a particular clan of blood relatives rather than
citizenship, as in the Roman Empire, defined a
person’s place in society and his or her relation-
ship to rulers. Second, Christianity became the
dominant religion i n the kingdoms. The common
faith hnked rulers w i t h their subjects. A n d
t h i r d , L a t i n served as the language of worship,
learning, and diplomacy in these kingdoms.
German kingdoms based on Roman foundations
appeared in Anglo-Saxon England, Prankish
Gaul, Visigothic Spain, and Lombard Italy.

A N G I O – S A X O M ENGLAisSD Roman civilization
collapsed more completely i n Britain during the
f i f t h century than it did on the European conti-
nent, largely because of Britain’s long distance
f r o m Rome and the small number of Romans
who had settled there. A b o u t 400, the Roman
economic and administrative infrastructure of
Britain fell apart, and the last Roman legions left
the island to fight on the continent. Raiders f r o m
the coast of the N o r t h Sea called Angles and
Saxons (historians referred to them as Anglo-
Saxons) took advantage of Britain’s weakened
defenses and launched invasions. They began to
probe the island’s southeast coast, pillaging the
small villages they found there and estabhshing
permanent settlements of their o w n .

Because the small bands of Anglo-Saxon
settlers fought as often among themselves as they
did against the Roman Britons, the island
remained fragmented politically during the first
few centuries of the invaders’ rule. But by 750,
three warring kingdoms managed to seize enough
land to coalesce and dominate Britain: Mercia,
Wessex, and N o r t h u m b r i a .

FRANKSSH G A U L Across the English Channel
from Britain lay the Roman province of Gaul.
From the t h i r d to the seventh century the
kingdom of the Franks, centered in Gaul, p r o –
duced the largest and most p o w e r f u l kingdom i n
western Europe. One family among the Franks,
called the Merovingians, gradually gained pre-
eminence. A crafty Merovingian war chief
named Childeric ruled a powerful band of

The Birth of Latin Christendom 265

,̂ ,;-x ĵltbTs ;̂ Worth ^ -̂;.\ u r ^ A ;
IRISH ! S e a f ‘ l V BALTIC

KINGOOMSJ S ; M – r i j ô a T O I D C < :

Europe, ca. 750

IRISH

I M ^ – K U TRIBES

• ” ‘ W A L E S KINGQQMS –V ‘̂O -̂’V–”
1 f

/• ,;–v ANGLO-SAXON

ATLANTIC , • \
OCEAN BRITTANY^

FRANKISH,,
• KINGDOM ‘

t Poitiers

SLAVS

AVAR KINGDOM ;

KINGDOM OF
/AQUITANE; – THELOMBAMS

BASQUES

STEPI STEPPE PEOPLES ‘ / ‘ ^ \

BULGARS , /

Black Sea

U M A Y Y A D C A L I P H A T E , ^ • • ^ * ^

Mediterranean Sea

•••-If” – ‘”‘K}

-1

0 400 Itm
I H 1
0 400 mi

MAP 9.1
Europe, ca. 750
By about 750 the kingdom of the Franks had become the dominant power in western Europe. The Umayyad
caliphate controlled Spain, and the Lombard kingdom governed most of Italy. The Byzantine Empire held power
in Greece, as well as its core lands in Asia Minor.

Franks f r o m about 460 u n t i l his death in 4 8 1 .
W i t h the support of his loyal soldiers, Childeric
laid the foundation for the Merovingian
kingdom. His energetic and ruthless son Clovis
•r. 481-511) made the Franks one of the leading
powers in the western provinces of the old
Roman Empire. Clovis aggressively expanded his
father’s power base through the conquest of
northern Gaul and neighboring territories.
He miurdered many of his relatives and other
Frankish chieftains w h o m he considered rivals.
In 486 Clovis overcame the last Roman strong-
bold in northern Gaul.

A r o u n d 500 the polytheist Clovis converted
to L a t i n Christianity. A b o u t 3,000 warriors, the
core of his army, joined their king i n this change
to the new faith. Clovis had a practical reason to
convert. He intended to attack the Visigothic
kingdom in southern Gaul. The Visigoths f o l –
lowed A r i a n Christianity, but their subjects, the
Roman inhabitants of the region, were Latin
Christians. By converting to L a t i n Christianity,
Clovis w o n the support of many of the Visigoths’
subjects. W i t h their help, he crushed the Visig-
othic king Alaric I I in 507. Clovis now controlled
almost all of Gaul as far as Spain.

266 CHAPTER 9 Medieval Empires and Borderlands: The Latin West

I n the eighth century, however, the M e r o v i n –
gian kings became so ineffectual that real power
passed to the man in charge of the royal house-
hold called the ” M a y o r of the Palace.” One
of these mayors, Charles M a r t e l “the H a m m e r ”

(r. 719-741), estaU’isWd Vis personal power by
regaining control over regions that had slipped
away f r o m Merovingian rule and by defeating a n
invading M u s l i m army at Poitiers i n 7 3 2 .
M a r t e l ‘ s son, Pepin the S h o r t (r. 7 4 1 – 7 6 8 ) , suc-
ceeded his father as M a y o r of the Palace, but
dethroned the last of the Merovingian monarchs
and in 7 5 1 made himself king of the Franks.
Pepin relied on the pope to legitimatize his coup,
and i n exchange the Franks guaranteed the pope’s
safety. Thus, began the vital aUiance between the
Frankish monarchy and the popes i n Rome.

VisiGOTHiC SPAIN The Franks were never able
to conquer Spain, where a Visigothic kingdom
emerged. As in all the Germanic kingdoms,
religion unified the kingdom. Originally Arians,
Visigoth kings converted to L a t i n Christianity i n
the late sixth century, and Visigothic Spain
became a L a t i n Christian kingdom. The kings
began to imitate the Byzantine emperors w i t h the
use of elaborate court ceremonies and frequent
church councils as assemblies that enforced their
w i l l . Thus, the key to their success was the abihty
to employ the spiritual authority of the Church
to enhance the secular authority of the ki ng.
However, the autocratic instincts of the Visigoth
kings alienated many of the substantial landown-
ers who were easily lured by the promises of
M u s h m invaders to treat them more favorably.

I n 7 1 1 invading armies of Muslims from
N o r t h Africa vanquished the last Visigothic ki ng.
As a result, most of Spain became part of the
Umayyad caliphate. Many Christians from the
upper classes converted to Islam to preserve their
property and offices. Some survivors of the Visig-
oth kingdoms held on in the northwest of Spain,
where they managed to keep Christianity alive.

LOMBARD JX^LY Between 5 6 8 and 7 7 4 , a Germanic
people k n o w n as the Lombards controlled most
of northern and central Italy. They were called

Langobardi, or ” L o n g Beards,” f r o m which the
name Lombard derives. The Lombard king,
Alboin (r. ca. 5 6 5 – 5 7 2 ) , took advantage of the
weakness of the Byzantine Empire and invaded
Italy i n 569. Alboin’s army contained soldiers of
diiferent ethnic backgrounds. That lack of unity
made it impossible for Alboin to build a strong,
lasting kingdom.

The Lombard kings also faced t w o formida-
ble external enemies—the Byzantine forces w h o
remained in the Exarchate of Ravenna and the
Franks. I n 7 5 1 the Lombards’ ruler defeated the
Exarchate, leading to the Byzantine abandon-
ment of Ravenna. Internal political disputes,
however, prevented the Lombards f r o m capital-
izing on their victory over the Byzantines. Just
t w o decades later the Frankish king Charle-
magne invaded Italy and crushed the Lombards.

Different Kingdoms, Shared Traditions
W i t h the exception of England, where Anglo-
Saxon invaders overwhelmed the Roman popu-
lation, the leaders of the new Germanic
kingdoms faced a common problem: H o w
should the Germanic m i n o r i t y govern subject
peoples who vastly outnumbered them? These
rulers solved this problem by blending Roman
and Germanic traditions. For example, kings
served as administrators of the civil order in the
style of the Roman emperor, issuing laws and
managing a bureaucracy. They also served as
war leaders i n the Germanic t r a d i t i o n , leading
their men into battle i n search of glory and loot.
As the Germanic kings defined new roles for
themselves, they discovered that Christianity
could bind all their subjects together into one
community of believers. The merging of Roman
and Germanic traditions could also be traced in
the law, which eventually erased the distinctions
between Romans and Germans, and in the abil-
ity of women to o w n property, a right far more
common among the Romans than the Germans.

Civ!L AUTHORITY: T H E ROMAN LEGACY I n imita-

tion of Roman practice, the monarchs of Latin
Christendom designated themselves the source of

all law a
approval
c i v i l , m i l
by troop;
traveled
tice, colli

Fran
of how
Roman i
Visigoth:
Roman i
that had
authorit]
rulers i n
useful to
and kep
instance,
and coui
problems
ate and h
on the Ic
Based i n
law court
for the ki
f r o m the
f o r m i n g
aided the
soming 1
enemy w ;
ing socia
attention
w h o m w
commanc
patrons (
religious
responsit
but m i l i t j

W A R LE/

LEGACY

developec
chieftains
land and
enues ski
created p
their fam:
these folJ

I k

which the
bard Icing,
tage of the
nd invaded
soldiers of

ck of unity
d a strong,

0 formida-
forces w h o
na and the
efeated the
: abandon-
1 disputes,
3m capital-
itines. Just
i g Charle-
Lombards.

raditions
ere A n g l o –
man popu-

Germanic
em: H o w
:rn subject
:m? These
ng Roman
iple, kings
rder i n the

laws and
served as

in, leading
‘f and loot.

roles for
ihristianity
: into one
of Roman
; traced in
istinctions
11 the abil-
t far more
Germans.

I n imita-
s of Latin
; source of

all law and believed that they ruled w i t h God’s
approval. Kings controlled all appointments to
c i v i l , military, and reUgious office. Accompanied
by troops and administrative assistants, they also
traveled throughout their lands to dispense jus-
tice, collect taxes, and enforce royal authority.

Frankish Gaul provides an apt example
of how these monarchs adopted preexisting
Roman institutions. When Clovis conquered the
Visigoths i n Gaul, he inherited the nearly intact
Roman infrastructure and admmistrative system
that had survived the collapse of Roman imperial
authority. Merovingian kings (as well as Visigoth
rulers in Spain and Lombards in Italy) found i t
useful to maintain parts of the preexisting system
and kept the officials w h o ran them. For
instance, Frankish kings relied on the bishops
and counts in each region to deal w i t h local
problems. Because Roman aristocrats were hter-
ate and had experience i n Roman administration
on the local level, they often served as counts.
Based in cities, these officials presided i n local
law courts, collected revenues, and raised troops
for the king’s army. M o s t bishops also stemmed
f r o m the Roman aristocracy. I n addition to per-
forming their religious responsibihties, bishops
aided their king by providing for the poor, ran-
soming hostages w h o had been captured by
enemy warriors f r o m other kingdoms, and bring-
ing social and legal injustices to the monarch’s
attention. Finally, the kings used dukes, most of
w h o m were Franks, to serve as local military
commanders, which made them important
patrons of the community. Thus, the civil and
rehgious administration tended to remain the
responsibihty of the Roman counts and bishops,
but military command fell to rhe Frankish dukes.

W A R LEADERS AND WERGILD: T H E GERMANIC

LEGACY The kingdoms of L a t i n Christendom
developed f r o m war bands led by Germanic
chieftains. By rewarding brave warriors w i t h
land and loot taken in war, as well as w i t h rev-
enues skimmed f r o m subject peoples, chieftains
created political communities of loyal men and
their families, called clans or k i n groups. Though
these followers sometimes came f r o m diverse

The Birth of Latin Christendom 267

backgrounds, they all owed m i l i t a r y service to
the clan chiefs. Because leadership in Germanic
society was hereditary, networks of loyalty and
kinship expanded through the generations. The
various political communities gradually evolved
mto distinct ethnic groups led by a k i n g . These
ethnic groups, such as the Lombards and the
Franks, developed a sense of shared history,
kinship, and culture.

Kinship-based clans stood as the most basic
unit of Germanic society. The clan consisted of
all the households and blood relations loyal to
the clan chief, a w a r r i o r w h o protected them and
spoke on their behalf before the king on matters
of justice. Clan chieftains i n t u r n swore oaths of
loyalty to their kings and agreed to fight for h i m
in wars against other kingdoms. The clan leaders
formed an aristocracy among the Germanic peo-
ples. Like the Roman elites before them, the
royal house and the clan-based aristocracy con-
sisted of rich men and women who controlled
huge estates. The new Germanic aristocrats
intermarried w i t h the preexisting Roman elites
of wealthy landholders, thus maintaining control
of most of the land. These people stood at the
very top of the social order, w i n n i n g the loyalty
of their followers by giving gifts and parcels of
land. Under the weight of this new upper class,
the majority of the population, the ordinary
farmers and artisans, slipped into a deepening
dependence. M o s t peasants could not enter into
legal transactions i n their o w n name, and they
had few protections and privileges under the law.
Even so, they were better off than the slaves who
toiled at society’s very lowest depths. Valued sim-
ply as property, these men, women, and children
had virtually no rights in the eyes of the law.

T h o u g h this social hierarchy showed some
similarities to societies i n earlier Roman times,
the new kingdoms’ various social groups were
defined by law i n a fundamentally different way.
Unlike Roman law, w h i c h defined people by
citizenship rights and obligations, the laws of
the new kingdoms defined people by their
w e r g i l d . A Germanic concept, wergild referred
to what an individual was w o r t h in case he or
she suffered some grievance at the hands of

268 CHAPTER 9 Medieval Empires and Borderlands: The Latin West

another. If someone injured or murdered some-
one else, wergild was the amount of compensa-
t i o n i n gold that the wrongdoer’s family had to
pay to the victim’s family.

I n the wergild system, every person had a
price that depended on social status and perceived
usefulness to the community. For example, among
the Lombards service to the king increased a
free man’s worth—his wergild was higher than
that of a peasant. In the Frankish kingdom, if a
freeborn woman of childbearing age was
murdered, the killer’s family had to pay 600 pieces
of gold. Noble women and men had higher
wergild than peasants, while slaves and women
past childbearing age were w o r t h very little.

UNITY THROUGH LAV*,? AND CHRSSTIANITY W i t h i n
the kingdoms of Latin Christendom, rulers tried
to achieve unity by merging Germanic and
Roman legal principles and by accepting the
influence of the Church. Religious diversity
among the peoples in their kingdoms made this
unity difficult to establish. As discussed i n
Chapter 7, many of the tribes that invaded the
Roman Empire during the f i f t h century practiced
A r i a n Christianity. They kept themselves apart
f r o m the L a t i n Christians by force of law. For
example, they declared marriage between A r i a n
and Latin Christians illegal.

These barriers began to collapse when Ger-
manic kings converted to the Latin Christianity
of their Roman subjects. Some converted for rea-
sons of personal belief or because their wives
were L a t i n Christians. Others decided to become
L a t i n Christians to gain wider political support.
For instance, when Clovis converted about 500,
laws against intermarriage between Arians and
L a t i n Christians i n Gaul disappeared. M o r e and
more Franks and Romans began to marry one
another, blending the t w o formerly separate
communities into one and reinforcing the
strength of the L a t i n Church. By 750 most of the
western European kingdoms had officially
become L a t i n Christian, though substantial
pockets of polytheist practice survived and
communities of Jews were allowed to practice
their faith.

Germanic kings adopted Latin Christianity,
but they had no intention of abandoning their
own Germanic law, w h i c h differed f r o m Roman
law on many issues, especially relating to the
family and property. Instead, they offered their
Roman subjects the opportunity to live under the
Germanic law that governed the k i n g . Clovis’s
Law Code or Salic Law, published sometime
between 508 and 5 1 1 , illustrated this develop-
ment. The Law Code applied to Franks and to
any other non-Roman peoples in his realm who
chose to live according to Frankish law. Because
the Romans dwelling i n the Frankish kingdom
technically still followed the laws of Byzantium,
Clovis did not presume to legislate for them.
Romans could f o l l o w their o w n l a w if they
wished, or they could f o l l o w his laws and
become Franks. By 750, however, most Romans
had chosen to abandon their legal identity as
Romans and live according to Frankish law, and
the distinction between Roman and Frank lost
all meaning. A similar process occurred in the
orher Germanic kingdoms. This unification of
peoples under one law happened w i t h o u t
protest, a sign that various groups had blended
politically, religiously, and culturally.

W O M E N AND PROPERTS’ Roman law influenced
more than just local administration in Latin
Christendom. It also p r o m p t e d Germanic rulers t o
reconsider the question of a woman’s right to
inherit land. I n the Roman Empire, women had
inherited land without difficulty. Indeed, perhaps as
much as 25 percent of the land in the entire empire
had been owned by women. In many Germanic
societies, however, men coidd inherit land and prop-
erty far more easily than women. Attitudes about
female inheritance began to shift when the Ger-
manic settlers established their homes in previously
Roman provinces—and began to marry Roman
women who owned property.

By comparing the law codes of the new
kingdoms over time, historians have detected the
impact of Roman customs on Germanic inheri-
tance laws. By the late eighth century, women in
Frankish Gaul, Visigothic Spain, and Lombard

I

Italy coi
restrictic
their son
trans forr
received
indepenc
died, anc

The Sp
New Ki
As Latin
gion thrc
decided t
convert a
beyond. ‘
the religic
worship c

Meat
directed j
moral an
through s
such as B.
traveled f
land, Eng
Germanic
became c(
replaced i
books anc

T H E G R O V

Byzantine
ity over tf
lands duj
strapped i
rulers p r o ‘
the city fr
the result
stepped i:
became, ir
significant

Gregoj
as the mc
pragmatic
Constantin
that never

The Birth of Latin Christendom 269

istianity,
ng their
Roman

I to the
:ed their
nder the
Clovis’s

ometime
develop-
s and to
d m w h o
Because

cingdom
zantium,
)r them.

if they
iws and
Romans
entity as
law, and
ank lost
:d in the
:ation of

w i t h o u t
blended

:ifluenced
in Latin
rulers to
right to

men had
erhaps as
re empire
Germanic
and prop-
des about

I the Ger-
previously
ry Roman

• the new
stected the
nic inheri-
women in
Lombard

Italy could inherit land, though often under the
restriction that they had to eventually pass i t on to
their sons. Despite these hmitations, the new laws
transformed women’s hves. A woman who
received an inheritance of land could live more
independently, support herself if her husband
died, and have a say i n the community’s decisions.

The Spread of Latin Christianity in the
New Kingdoms of Western Europe
As Latin Christianity spread as the official reli-
gion through the new kingdoms, churchmen
decided that they had a moral responsibility to
convert all the people of these kingdoms and
beyond. They sent out missionaries to explain
the religion to nonbelievers and challenge the
worship of polytheist gods.

Meanwhile, bishops based in cities
directed people’s spiritual hves, instilling the
moral and social conventions of Christianity
through sermons delivered in church. Monks
such as Boniface, who introduced this chapter,
traveled f r o m their home monasteries in Ire-
land, England, and Gaul to spread the faith to
Germanic tribes east of the Rhine. Monasteries
became centers of intellectual life, and monks
replaced urban aristocrats as the keepers of
books and learning.

T H E G R O H ‘ T H C-I- THE PAPACV I n theory, the
Byzantine emperors still had political author-
ity over the city of Rome and its surrounding
lands during this violent time. However,
strapped for cash and troops, these distant
rulers proved unequal to the task of defending
the city f r o m internal or external threats. I n
the resulting power vacuum, the popes
stepped in to manage local affairs and
became, in effect, princes who ruled over a
significant part of Italy.

Gregory the Great (r. 590-604) stands out
as the most powerful of these popes. The
pragmatic Gregory wrote repeatedly to
Constantinople, pleading for military assistance
that never came. Without any relief from the

Byzantines, Gregory had to look elsewhere for
help. Through clever diplomacy, Gregory success-
fully cultivated the good w i l l of the Christian com-
munities of western Europe by offering religious
sanction to the authority of friendly kings. He
negoriated skillfully w i t h his Lombard and Frank-
ish neighbors to gain their support and establish
the authority of the Roman church. He encouraged
Chrisdan missionaries to spread the faith in
England and Germany. In addition, he took steps

P O P E G R E G O R Y T H E G R E A T A N D T H R E E S C R I B E S

In this tenth-century ivory depicting the influential sixth-
century Pope Gregory, writing symbolizes his power and
influence. During early Middle Ages, the church alone
kept literacy and writing alive in the West.
Source: St. Gregory writing with scribes, Carolingian, Franco-German
School, c. 850-875 (ivory). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,

U Auslria/Bridgeman Art Library

306 CHAPTER 10 Medieval Civilization: The Rise of Western Europe

security and trading monopolies—necessary
because of the weakness of the German imperial
government.

Urban civilization, one of the major achieve-
ments of the Middle Ages, thrived f r o m the
commerce of the economic boom. From urban
civilization came other achievements. A l l the
cities built large new cathedrals to flaunt their
accumulated wealth and to honor God. New
educational institutions, especially imiversities,
trained the sons of the urban, commercial elite in
the professions. However, the merchants who
commanded the urban economy were not neces-
sarily society’s heroes. The populace at large
viewed them w i t h deep ambivalence, despite the
immeasurable ways i n which they enriched soci-
ety. Churchmen worried about the morality of
making profits. Church councils condemned
usury—the lending of money for interest—even
though papal finances depended on i t . Theolo-
gians promulgated the idea of a “just price,” the
idea that there should be a fixed price for any
particular commodity. The just price was anath-
ema to hardheaded merchants who were com-
mitted to the laws of supply and demand. Part of
the ambivalence t o w a r d trade and merchants
came f r o m the inequities created in all market-
based economies—the rewards of the market
were unevenly distributed, both socially and geo-
graphically, as St. Francis’s protest demon-
strated. T h e prosperous m e r c h a n t s symbolized
disturbing social changes, but they were also the
dynamic force that made possible the intellectual
and artistic flowering of the H i g h M i d d l e Ages.

THE CONSOLIDATION OF
ROMAN CATHOLICISM
• H o w d i d the Catholic C h u r c h consolidate

its h o l d over the L a t i n West?

The late eleventh t h r o u g h thirteenth centuries
witnessed one of the greatest periods of reli-
gious v i t a l i t y in the history of Roman Catholi-
cism. Manifest by the Crusades (discussed i n

Chapter 9), the rise of new religious orders,
remarkable intellectual creativity, and the f i n a l
t r i u m p h over the surviving polytheistic tribes of
northern and eastern Europe, the religious v i t a l –
it)’ of the era was due in no small part to the
effective leadership of a series of able popes.
They gave the Church the benefits of the most
advanced, centralized government i n Europe.

The Task of Church Reform
As the bishops of the Church accepted many of
the administrative responsibilities that in the
ancient w o r l d had been performed by secular
authorides, their spiritual mission sometimes
suffered. They became overly involved in the
business of the w o r l d . I n addidon, over the cen-
turies wealthy and pious people had inade large
donations of land to the Church, making many
monasteries, i n particular, immensely wealthy.
Such wealth tempted the less pious to corrup-
t i o n , and the Roman popes were unlikely to
eliminate the temptations f r o m w h i c h they bene-
fited. Even those popes w h o wanted to were slow
to assemble the administrative machinery neces-
sary to enforce their w i l l across the unruly lands
of Roman Catholicism. The impulse for reform
derived i n many respects f r o m the material suc-
cess of the Church and the monasteries.

The slow but determined progress of the
popes from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries to
enforce moral reform is the most remarkable
achievement of the medieval papacy. The move-
ment for reform, however, did not begin w i t h the
popes. It came out of the monasteries. Monks
thought the best way to clean up corruprion in the
Chiu-ch would be to improve the morals of indi-
viduals. If men and women conducted themselves
w i t h a sense of moral responsibility, the whole
institudon of the Church could be purified. Monks
and nuns, who set an example for the rest of the
Church, provided the model for self-improvement
for society at large. The most influential of the
reform-minded monasteries was Cluny in Bur-
gundy, estabhshed in 910. Cluny itself sustained
the reform movement through more than 1,500
Cluniac monasteries throughout Europe.

Drders,
e f i n a l
ibes of
s v i t a l –
to the
popes,
e most
ope.

lany of
i n the
secular
retimes
in the

he cen-
e large
; many
wealthy.
; o r r u p –
cely to
y bene-
re slow

From the very beginning Cluny was excep-
tional for several reasons. First, its aristocratic
founder offered the monastery as a gift to the
pope. As a result, the pope directed the activities
of the Cluny monastery f r o m Rome and kept i t
independent f r o m local polidcal pressures, which
so often caused corruption. The Rome connec-
t i o n positioned Cluniacs to assist i n reforming
the papacy itself. Second, the various abbots w h o
headed Cluny over the years closely coordinated
reform activities of the various monasteries in
the Cluniac system. Some of these abbots were
men of exceptional abihty and learning who had
a European-wide reputation for their moral
stature. T h i r d , Cluny regulated the life of monks
much more closely than did other monasteries,
so the monks there were models of devotion. To
the Cluniacs moral purity required complete
renunciation of the benefits of the material w o r l d
and a commitment to spiritual experiences. The
elegantly simple liturgy in which the monks
themselves sung the text of the mass and other
prayers symbolized Cluniac purity. The beauty of
the music enhanced the spiritual experience, and
its simplicity clarified rather than obscured the
meaning of the words. Because of these attractive
traits, the Cluniac liturgy spread to the far cor-
ners of Europe.

The success of Cluny and other reformed
monasteries provided the base f r o m which
reform ideas spread beyond the isolated w o r l d of
monks to the rest of the Church. The first candi-
dates for reform were parish priests and bishops.
Called the secular clergy (in L a t i n saeculum,
meaning “secular”) because they lived in the
secular w o r l d , they differed f r o m the regular
clergy (in Latin regula, those who followed a
” r u l e ” ) who lived in monasteries apart from the
w o r l d . The hves of many secular clergy differed
little f r o m their lay neighbors. [Laypeople or the
laity referred to all Christians who had not taken
religious vows to become a priest, monk, or nun.)
I n contrast to celibate monks, w h o were sexually
chaste, many priests kept concubines or were
married and tried to bequeath church property to
their children. I n contrast to the Orthodox
Church, in which priests were allowed to marry.

The Consolidation of Roman Catholicism 307

the Catholic Church had repeatedly forbidden
married priests, but the prohibitions had been
ineffective u n t i l Cluniac reform stressed the ideal
of the sexually pure priest. D u r i n g the eleventh
century bishops, church councils, and reformist
popes began to insist on a celibate clergy.

The clerical reform movement also tried
to eliminate the corrupt practices of simony
and lay investiture. Simony was the practice of
buying and selling church offices. Lay investiture
took place when aristocrats, kings, or emperors
installed churchmen and gave them their symbols
of office (“invested” them). Through this prac-
tice, powerful lords controlled the clergy and
usurped the property of the Church. I n exchange
for protecting the Church, these laymen con-
ceived of church offices as a f o r m of vassalage
and expected to name their o w n candidates as
priests and bishops. The reformers saw as sinful
any form of lay authority over the C h u r c h —
whether the authority was that of the local lord
or the emperor himself. As a result of this contro-
versy, the most troublesome issue of the eleventh
century became establishing the boundaries
between temporal and spiritual authorities.

T H E POPE BECOMES A MONARCH Religious reform
required tmity w i t h i n the Church. The most impor-
tant step in building unity was to define what it
meant to be a Catholic. In the Middle Ages, Roman
Catholicism identified itself in two ways. First, the
Church insisted on conformity in rites. Rites con-
sisted of the forms of public worship called the
hturgy, which included certain prescribed prayers
and chants, usually in Latin. Uniform rites meant
that Catholics could hear the Mass celebrated i n
essentially the same way everywhere f r o m Poland
to Portugal, Iceland to Croatia. Conformity of
worship created a cultural unity that transcended
differences i n language and ethnicity. When
Catholics from far-flung locales encountered one
another, they shared something meaningftil to them
all because of the uniformity of rites. The second
thing that defined a Catholic was obedience to
the pope. Ritual uniformity and obedience to the
pope were closely interrelated because both the rit-
ual and the pope were Roman. There were many

3 0 8 C H A P T E R 1 0 Medieval Civilization; The Rise of Western Europe
J I.

bishops in Cliristianity, but as one monk put it,
“Rome i s . . .the head of the w o r l d . ”

Beginning i n the late eleventh centtiry the
task of the popes became to make this theoretical
assertion of obedience real—in short, to make the
papacy a rehgious monarchy. Among the reform-
ers who gathered in Rome was Hildebrand (ca.
1 0 2 0 – 1 0 8 5 ) , one of the most remarkable figures
in the history of the Church, a man beloved as
saintly by his admirers and considered an ambi-
tious, self-serving megalomaniac by many others.
From 1055 to 1073 during the pontificates of
some four popes, Hildebrand became the power
behind rhe throne, helping enact wide-ranging
reforms that enforced uniformity of worship and
estabhshing the rules for electing new popes by
the college of cardinals. I n 1 0 7 3 the cardinals
elected Hildebrand himself pope, and he took the
name Gregory V I I (r. 1 0 7 3 – 1 0 8 5 ) .

Gregory’s greatness lay in his leadership over
the internal reform of the Church. Every year he
held a Chujch council i n Rome where he decreed
against simony and married priests. Gregory cen-
tralized authority over rhe Church itself by send-
ing out papal legates, representatives w h o
delivered orders to local bishops. He attempted
to free the Church f r o m external influence by
asserting the superiority of the pope over all other
authorities. Gregory’s theory of papal supremacy
led him into direct conflict w i t h the German
emperor, Henry TV (r. 1 0 5 6 – 1 1 0 6 ) . The issue was
lay investiture. D u r i n g the eighth and ninth cen-
turies weak popes relied on the Carolingian kings
and emperors to name suitable candidates for
ecclesiastical offices i n order to keep them out of
the hands of local aristocrats. A t stake was not
only power and authority, but also the income
from the enormous amount of property con-
trolled by the Church, which the emperor was in
the best position to protect. D u r i n g the eleventh
century, Gregory V I I and other reform-minded
popes sought to regain control of this property.
W i t h o u t the ability to name his o w n candidates
as bishops, Gregory recognized that his whole
campaign for church reform w o u l d falter. When
Pope Gregory tried to negotiate w i t h the emperor
over the appointment of the bishop of M i l a n ,

Henry resisted and commanded Gregory to
resign the papacy in a letter w i t h the notorious
salutation, “Henry, King not by usurpation, but
by the pious ordination of God to Hildebrand
now not Pope but false m o n k . ”

Gregory struck back i n an escalating con-
frontation now k n o w n as the Investiture Contro-
versy. He deposed Henry f r o m the imperial tlurone
and excommunicated him. Excommunication pro-
hibited the sinner f r o m participating in the sacra-
ments and forbade any social contact whatsoever
w i t h the surrounding community. People caught
talking to an excommunicated person or writing a
letter or even offering a drink of water could them-
selves be excommunicated. Excommunication was
a f o r m of social death, a dire punishment indeed,
especially if the excommunicated person were a
king. Both sides marshaled arguments from Scrip-
ture and history, but the excommunication was
effective. Henry’s friends started to abandon h i m ,
rebeUion broke out in Germany, and the most
powerful German lords called for a meeting to
elect a new emperor. Backed uito a corner, Henry
plotted a clever counterstroke.

Early in the winter of 1 0 7 7 Pope Gregory set
out to cross the Alps to meet w i t h the German
lords. When Gregory reached the Alpine passes,
however, he learned that Emperor Henry was on
his way to Italy. In fear of what the emperor w o u l d
do, Gregory retreated to the castle of Canossa,
w h e r e he expected to be a t t a c k e d . H e n r y surprised
Gregory, however, by arriving not w i t h an army,
but as a supphcant asking the pope to hear his con-
fession. As a priest Gregory could hardly refuse to
hear the confession of a penitent sinner, but he
nevertheless attempted to humiliate Henry by
making him wait for three days, kneeling in the
snow outside the castie. Henry’s presentation of
himself as a penitent sinner posed a dilemma for
Gregory. The German lords were waiting for Gre-
gory to appear in his capacity as the chief justice of
Christendom to judge Henry, but Henry himself
was asking the pope to act in his capacity as priest
to grant absolution for sin. The priest in Gregory
w o n out over die judge, and he absolved Henry.

Even after the deaths of Gregory and Henry,
the Investiture Controversy continued to poison

nomu
the p;
leges
ity.W
could
unsui
Gregc
kings

How
phshr
t h i r t a
confri
drum
V I I , t
Cathc
range
and ]
amon
ized u

C
of cas
dispui
to thi
touchi
the la
matin
w i d o v
disput
courts
could
ting tc
tory c(
law, C;
power
marry
t a r d , o
centur
The fu
i m p o r l
longer
very a

Th
the ad

The Consolidation of Roman Catholicism 309

y to
rious
I, but
)rand

con-
mtro-
irone
I pro-
:acra-
oever
lught
i n g a
hem-
1 was
deed,
ere a
icrip-

was
h i m ,
most
ig to
[enry

•y set
rman
isses,
IS on
‘ould
ossa,
•rised
irmy,
con-
se to
J t he
•I by
1 the
in of
a for
•Gre-
:ice of
imself
priest
egory
i r y .
lenry,
oison

I

relations between the popes and emperors until the
Concordat of Worms in 1 1 2 2 resolved the issue in
a formal treaty. The emperor retained the right to
nominate high churchmen, but i n a concession to
the papacy, the emperor lost the ceremonial privi-
leges of investiture that conveyed spiritual author-
ity. Without the ceremony of investiture, no bishop
could exercise his office. By refusing to invest
unsuitable nominees, the popes had the last w o r d .
Gregory W s vision of papal supremacy over all
kings and emperors persevered.

How THE POPES RULED The most lasting accom-
plishment of the popes during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries derived less f r o m dramadc
confrontations w i t h emperors than from the hum-
drum routine of the law. Begiiming w i t h Gregory
V I I , the papacy became the supreme court of the
Catholic w o r l d by claimmg authority over a vast
range of issues. To justify these claims, Gregory
and his assistants conducted massive research
among old laws and treatises. These were organ-
ized into a body of legal texts called canon law.

Canon law came to encompass many kinds
of cases, including all those involving the clergy,
disputes about church property, and donations
to the Church. The law of the Church also
touched on many of the most vital concerns of
the laity including annulling marriages, legiti-
mating bastards, prosecuting bigamy, protecting
widows and orphans, and resolving inheritance
disputes. M o s t of the cases originated in the
courts of the bishops, but the bishops’ decisions
could be appealed to the pope and cardinals sit-
ting together in the papal consistory. The consis-
tory could make exceptions f r o m the letter of the
law, called dispensations, giving it considerable
power over kings and aristocrats w h o wanted to
marry a cousin, divorce a w i f e , legitimate a bas-
tard, or annul a w i l l . By the middle of the twelfth
century, Rome was awash w i t h legal business.
The functions of the canon law courts became so
important that those elected popes were no
longer monks but trained canon lawyers, men
very capable in the ways of the w o r l d .

The pope also presided over the curia,
the administrative bureaucracy of the C h u r c h .

The cardinals i n the curia served as ministers i n
the papal a d m i n i s t r a t i o n and visited foreign
princes and cities as ambassadors or legates.
Because large amounts of revenue were f l o w i n g
i n t o the coffers of the C h u r c h , the curia func-
tioned as a bank. Rome became the financial
capital of the West.

I n addition to its legal, administrative, and
financial authority, the papacy also made use of
t w o powerful spiritual weapons against the dis-
obedient. A n y Christian w h o refused to repent of
a sin could be excommunicated, as the Emperor
Henry TV had been. The second spiritual weapon
was the interdict, the suspension of the sacra-
ments in a locality or kingdom whose ruler had
defied the pope. D u r i n g an interdict the churches
closed their doors, creating panic among the
faithful who could not bapdze their children or
bury their dead. The interdict, which encouraged
a public outcry, could be a very effective weapon
for undermining the political support of any
monarch who r a n afoul of the pope.

T H E PINNACLE OP THE MEDIEWM PAPACY: POPE INNO-

CENT 11! The most capable of the medieval
popes was Innocent I I I (r. 1 1 9 8 – 1 2 1 6 ) . To h i m ,
the pope was the overlord of the endre w o r l d .
He recognized the right of kings to rule over the
secular sphere, but he considered it his duty to
prevent and punish sin, a duty that gave h i m
wide ladtude to meddle i n the affaus of kings
and princes.

Innocent’s first task was to provide the
papacy w i t h a strong territorial base of support
so that the popes could act w i t h the same free-
dom as kings and princes. Historians consider
Innocent the founder of the Papal State in cen-
tral Italy, an independent state that lasted until
1 8 7 0 and survives today in a tiny fragment as
Vatican City.

Innocent’s second goal was keeping alive the
crusading ideal. He called the Fourth Crusade,
which went awry when the crusaders attacked
Constantinople instead of conquering Jerusalem.
He also expanded the definition of crusading by
calling for a crusade to eluninate heresy w i t h i n
Christian Europe. Innocent was deeply concerned

3 1 0 CHAPTER 10 Medieval Civilization: The Rise of Vi/estern Europe

about the spread of new heresies, which attracted
enormous numbers of converts, especially in the
growing cities of southern Europe. By crusading
against Christian heretics—the Cathars and
Waldensians (see the f o l l o w i n g discussion)—
Innocent authorized the use of mihtary methods
to enforce uniformity of belief.

The t h i r d objective was to assert the author-
ity of the papacy over political affairs. Innocent
managed the election of Emperor Frederick I I . He
also assumed the right to veto imperial elections.
He excommunicated K i n g Philip I I of France to
force h i m to take back an imwanted wife. A n d
Innocent placed England under the interdict to
compel King John to cede his kingdom to the

papacy and receive i t back as a fief, a transaction
that made the king of England the vassal of the
pope. Using whatever means necessary, he made
papal vassals of the rulers of Aragon, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and Ser-
bia. Through the use of the feudal law of vas-
salage. Innocent brought the papacy to its closest
approximation of a universal Christian monar-
chy (see M a p 10.2).

Innocent’s f o u r t h and greatest accomplish-
ment was to codify the rites of the liturgy and to
define the dogmas of the faith. This monumental
task was the achievement of the Fourth Lateran
Council, held in Rome in 1215. This council,
attended by more than 400 bishops, 800 abbots,

s
•–‘y Rome*
i ; 1215

^SGMMC ] n a ] ; ^ d v o Black Sea

KINGDOM
OF ; ‘ i,UriN;EMPmE,

• SICILY’ f; ; H
– |l197-n98| * 5 ‘ ^ > . ,

Constantinople

Universal Monarchy of Pope Innocent III

: . _ The Papal States under Innocent I

Vassal states of the Pope

|1200| Intervention by the Pope

Mediterranean
Sea

M A P 10.2
Universal Monarchy of
Pope Innocent I I I
Besides his direct control of
the Papal States in central
Italy, Pope Innocent III made
vassals of many of the kings
of Catholic Europe. These
feudal ties provided a legal
foundation for his claim to
be the highest authority in
Christian Europe.

and the
Europe
bration
Christi;
clergy,
election
heretics
sade. T
since g(
cspecia
more t
unifori

T H E I f
Innoce
single-]
of the
better
Cathol
h owe V I
less ab
the po
sors wi
embroi
betwee
and th
pope’s
ers coll
during
1294-1
combir
tude cc

I n
extrem
ity ove
turn, di
salvatii

•

I

107:
107i
119)
121i
129′

The Consolidation of Roman Catholicism 311

and the ambassadors of the monarchs of Cathohc
Europe, issued decrees that reinforced the cele-
bration of the sacraments as the centerpiece of
Christian hfe. They included rules to educate the
clergy, define their qualificadons, and govern
elections of bishops. The council condemned
heretical beliefs, and i t called for yet another cru-
sade. The council became the guidepost that has
since governed many aspects of Catholic practice,
especially w i t h regard to the sacraments. It did
more than any other council to f u l f i l l the goal of
uniformity of rites in Catholicism.

T H E TROUBLED LEGACY OF THE PAPAL MOMARCKY

Innocent was an astute, intelligent man who in
single-minded fashion pursued the greater good
of the Church as he saw it. N o one succeeded
better than he in preserving the unity of the
Catholic w o r l d in an era of chaos. His policies,
however, were less successful in the hands of his
less able successors. Their blunders undermined
the pope’s spiritual mission. Innocent’s succes-
sors went beyond defending the Papal State and
embroiled all Italy in a series of bloody civil wars
between the Guelfs, who supported the popes,
and the Ghibellines, w h o opposed them. The
pope’s position as a monarch superior to all o t h –
ers collapsed under the weight of immense folly
during the pontificate of Boniface V I I I (r.
1294-1303). His claims to absolute authority
combined w i t h breathtaking vanity and inepti-
tude corroded the achievements of Innocent I I I .

I n 1302 Boniface promulgated the most
extreme theoretical assertion of papal superior-
i t y over lay rulers. The papal b u l l , Unam Sanc-
tum, decreed that ” i t is absolutely necessary f o r
salvation that every human creature be subject

CHRONOLOGY: THE PAPAL MONARCHY
1073-1085 Reign of Pope Gregory VII
1075-1122 The Investiture Controversy
1198-1216 Reign of Pope innocent III
1215 Fourth Lateran Council
1294-1303 Reign of Pope Boniface VIII

to the Roman p o n t i f f . ” Behind the statement
was a specific dispute w i t h K i n g Philip I V of
France (r. 1285-1314), w h o was attempting to
t r y a French bishop for treason. The larger
issue behind the dispute was simdar to the
Investiture Controversy of the eleventh century,
but this time no one paid much attention to the
pope. The loss of papal m o r a l a u t h o r i t y had
taken its t o l l . I n the heat of the c o n f r o n t a t i o n ,
K i n g Philip accused Pope Boniface of heresy,
one of the few sins of w h i c h he was not guilty,
and sent his agents to arrest the pope w h o died
shortly after. W i t h Boniface the papal monar-
chy died as w e l l .

T H E RELIGIOUS O U T C A S T S : CATKARS AND W A L D E N –

5IAN3 I n its efforts to defend the f a i t h , the
Church d u r i n g the first half of the thirteenth
century began to authorize bishops and other
clerics to conduct inquisitions (formal inquiries)
i n t o specific instances of heresy or perceived
heresy. The so-called heretics tended to be f a i t h –
ful people w h o sought personal p u r i t y i n r e l i –
g i o n . D u r i n g the thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries, inquisitions and systematic persecu-
tions targeted the Cathars and Waldensians,
w h o at first had lived peacefully w i t h their
Catholic neighbors and shared many of the
same beliefs w i t h them.

The name Cathar derives f r o m the Greek
w o r d for p u r i t y . The Cathars were especially
strong in n o r t h e r n I t a l y and southern France.
Heavily concentrated around the French t o w n
of A l b i , the Cathars were also k n o w n as A l b i –
gensians. They departed f r o m Catholic doc-
trine, which held that God created the Earth,
because they believed that an evil force had cre-
ated all matter. To p u r i f y themselves, an elite
f e w — k n o w n as “perfects”—rejected their o w n
bodies as c o r r u p t matter, refused to m a r r y and
procreate, and in extreme cases gradually
starved themselves. These p u r i f i e d perfects p r o –
vided a dramatic contrast to the more w o r l d l y
Catholic clergy. For many, Catharism became a
f o r m of protest against the wealth and power
of the C h u r c h . By the 1150s the Cathars had