Samenvatting Rosenwein: A Short History of the Middle Ages

Samenvatting Rosenwein



Chapter 1



The provincialization of the Empire (c.250-350)



A new religion

- Christianity
- A new doctrine
o Arianisme
o Church fathers

The Sources of God’s Grace
- Importance of the masses
- Models of Christian virtue




Art from the Provinces to the Centre




The Barbarians

- People who spoke Germanic languages
- Franks
- Goths
o Visigoths (Spain)
o Ostrogoths (Italy)
- Huns (East)

,The New Order

- Decay of cities > rise of barbarian kingdoms
- Continuation Byzantine Empire in the east
- Theodosian adopting Christendom



The Ruralisation of the West

- Divergent religious beliefs
- Adopting Roman institutions
- Disappearance urban middle class
- Monasteries becoming important landowners



Retrenchment in the East

- Theodosian code
- Justinian
- Focus on the East (Sassanids)



The Emerge of Sibling Cultures (c.600-c.750)

- Byzantine empire
- European
- Islamic



Saving Byzantium

- War with Sassanids then Arabs



Sources of Resiliency

- Strategiai (army) lead by strategoi (generals)



Invasions and Their Consequences

- Sassanids of Persia – 630 -> everything back to Byzantine Empire
- Slavs into Balkan



Decline of Urban Centres

- Greco-Roman culture fading away
- Ephesus

,Ruralisation

- Peasants free or semi-free
- Rural hinterlands controlled by the emperor



Iconoclasm

- God was angry
- Churchmen worried about losing control



The Rise of the “Best Community” Islam

- Submission to God



The Shaping of Islam

- “One Community”
- Sedentary -> military power expanding
- Mohammed
- 622 is year 1 (Mecca to Medina)



Out of Arabia

- Formidable fighters
- Weak enemies
- No forced conversion
- Conquest through diplomacy – not battles
- Well organised caliphate
- Heavy tax for Christians and Jews to practice their religion
- Muslims are minority in Islamic conquest



The Culture of the Umayyads

- Muhammad’s successors
- Caliphs
o Abu-Bakr
o Umar
o Uthman -> murdered -> civil war
 Umayyad’s
 Ali’s faction -> Ali murdered
 Followers of Ali -> Shi’ites
- Damascus is new capital
o Adopting existing cultural elements and institutions
o Employing former Byzantine officials
- Arabic is new official language

, The making of Western Europe

- Lacking identity and cohesion



Impoverishments and Its Variations

- Francia (was Gaul)
- Spain (was Visigoths), after 715 Muslims
- Italy -> divided by Pope, Lombards and Byzantines
- British Isles -> ¾ Celtic – ¼ Germanic (Anglo-Saxon)



Politics and Culture

- Francia
o Around 700 becoming 1 kingdom
 Line of Clovis – the Merovingians
 A lot of alliances with lay aristocrats
 Role of women important
o Jews lived amongst the Christians
- The British Isles
o Germanics influenced locals and vice versa
o Remained Christian
 St. Patrick
 Decentralised and local
 Augustine became archbishop of Canterbury
 No easy conversion to Roman Christianity
o Language of the people was used everywhere (Old-English)
- The South: Spain and Italy
o Spain
 Conversion to catholic
 Big Roman inheritance
 No stable dynasty -> Muslim takeover
 Berbers and Arabs
o Italy
 No united front
 Surviving of Roman institutions
 The pope
 Ambiguous position (dubbelzinnigheid)
o Secular power
o Spiritual leadership
 Greatest landowner in Italy
- Byzantium
o Losing authority
o Gap between Rome and Byzantium widened
 War against Muslims -> tax on papal property
 Iconoclasm