Summary A Short History of the Middle Ages Rosenwein

A Short History of the Middle Ages:
summarized
Summary of A Short History of the Middle Ages by Barbara Rosenwein, 5 t h edition
Marleen Westeneng


An arrow () indicates a causality. The headings and sub-heading correspond to those in the
book.

Contents
1 ONE: Prelude: the Roman world transformed (c.300-c.600)...............................................................2
1.1 The Provincialization of the empire (c.250-c.350)........................................................................2
1.2 The Barbarians..............................................................................................................................2
EIGHT: Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-1500)...................................................................................2
1.3 The new order..............................................................................................................................3
2 TWO: The Emergence of Sibling Cultures (c.600-c.750).......................................................................5
2.1 Saving Byzantium..........................................................................................................................5
2.2 The rise of the ‘Best community’: Islam........................................................................................6
2.3 The making of Western Europe....................................................................................................7
3 THREE: Creating new identities (c.750-c.900)....................................................................................10
3.1 Byzantium: From turning within to cautious expansion.............................................................10
3.2 The shift to the east in the Islamic world....................................................................................11
3.3 An Empire in spite of itself..........................................................................................................12
4 FOUR: Political Communities Reordered (c.900-c.1050)....................................................................14
4.1 Byzantium: The strengths and limits of centralization................................................................15
4.2 Division and development in the Islamic world..........................................................................16
4.3 The West: fragmentation and resilience.....................................................................................17
5 FIVE: New Configurations (c.1050-1150)...........................................................................................21
5.1 The Seljuks and the Almoravids..................................................................................................22
5.2 Byzantium: bloodied but unbowed.............................................................................................23
5.3 The quickening of the European economy.................................................................................23
5.4 Church reform and its aftermath................................................................................................24
5.5 Rulers with clout (power/influence)...........................................................................................26
5.6 New forms of learning an religious expression...........................................................................27
6 SIX: Institutionalizing aspirations (c.1150-1250)................................................................................29
6.1 The Islamic and Byzantine worlds in flux....................................................................................29
6.2 The institutionalization of government in the West...................................................................30

, 6.3 Culture and institutions in town and countryside.......................................................................33
6.4 European aggression within and without...................................................................................36
7 SEVEN: Tensions and reconciliations (c.1250-1350)..........................................................................37
7.1 The Islamic World Transformed..................................................................................................37
7.2 A global economy.......................................................................................................................39
7.3 Xenophobia.................................................................................................................................40
7.4 Strengthened monarchs and their adaptations..........................................................................41
7.5 The church militant, humiliated, and revamped.........................................................................44
7.6 The scholastic synthesis and its fraying......................................................................................44
7.7 Harmony and dissonance in writing, music and art....................................................................45
7.8 An age of scarcity?......................................................................................................................46
8 EIGHT: Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-1500)..............................................................................47
8.1 Crisis and consolidations.............................................................................................................47
8.2 The church divided.....................................................................................................................51
8.3 Defining styles............................................................................................................................53
8.4 New horizons..............................................................................................................................54

1 ONE: Prelude: the Roman world transformed (c.300-c.600)
1.1 The Provincialization of the empire (c.250-c.350)
THE SOURCES OF GOD’S GRACE
- Priests and bishops had the powers of imposing penance on and forgiving sinners.
 Based on Matt 16:18-19
- Eucharist (Mass): central liturgy. Very important and associated with imperial power.
- Saints:
 In the early church martyrs
 Greatly admired, holy
 Healing people of illnesses and disputes
o Spiritual, physical and civic peace
 When you had relics, you had the power of the saints


1.2 The Barbarians
- Barbarians:
 Visigoths
o Sack of Rome 410
 Franks
 Burgundians
  some were called Germans by Romans (Gemania: beyond the Rhine)
o Had been settled for a long time before entering the Empire
-Example of Germanic group: Wijster
 150-400 AD
 large wooden houses
 cultivated grain and raised cattle (also horses)
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EIGHT: Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-1500)

,  different crafts: carpenters, ironworkers, spinners, weavers
 not egalitarian: wealthy few had access to Roman products
o trade (surplus)
 kings leading military retinues had the power over the communities: labor service and
percentage of crop yields
- Ethnic differences:
 differences in preferences that form identity
 tribes came together and broke apart (ethnogenesis) (Goths)
- Around 250: Black Sea Goths plundered parts of the Balkans and Anatolia (Turkey)
 many years of bitter fighting for Romans
 Ostrogoths (East) and Visigoths (West) emerged
o Mid-330s: Visigoths allies of the Empire and in their armies
o Late 4th century: Roman army units made up of whole tribes (i.e. Goths or Franks)
(federates)
-376: Huns invaded Black Sea region
 Nomadic people from steppeland of west-central Asia
 Visigoths were driven from their settlements and were let into the Empire in huge
amounts  famine, Romans mistreated Visigoths
o 378: Visigoths rebelled against Romans, killing emperor Valens at Adrianople
 weakened the Roman army, possible end of Roman Empire
 From 406: other barbarian groups entered the Empire (Gaul and Spain) with a ‘deal’ for
Rome:
o Alans, Vandals, Sueves, Ostrogoths, Rugi, Gepids
 410: sack of Rome under Visigoth leader Alaric, possible end of Roman Empire
 453: death of Attila the Hun  Hunnic empire collapsed  more barbarians in Roman
empire
 484: Visigoths had Gaul and most of Spain
-476: last Roman emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus deposed (afgezet) by Odoacer (a
barbarian leading Roman troops)
 Odoacer declared himself king of Italy, but Byzantine emperor Zeno authorized
Theodoric (king of the Ostrogoths) to attack Odoacer in 489
  Ostrogoths conquered Italy
  Franks conquered Gaul under Clovis (c.466-511)
-500: only the Eastern half of the Empire was intact (see map p. 24)

1.3 The new order
-West:
 Rise of barbarian kingdoms
 Decay of cities  liveliness of the countryside
 Increased dominance of the rich
 Quiet domestication of Christianity
-East:
 Continuation of the Empire
 An ill-fated bid to expand
 Byzantine Empire

THE RURALIZATION OF THE WEST
-The chief objection of the Romans to the new barbarian overlords was their Arian beliefs.

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EIGHT: Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-1500)

,  Franks under Clovis first converted to Catholicism
 Barbarians took over Roman institutions (i.e. laws, Latin language, education,
administrational system)
  not many objections by Romans for they were already used to barbarian leaders.
-Urban middle class disappeared
 New taxes 4th century impoverished curiales (town councilors, tax collectors), while rich
landowners did not pay
  tax burdens fell on the poor who escaped to the great estates of the rich
 7th century: barbarians no longer bothered to collect general taxes
-Cities
 Walled since 3rd century
 No longer thriving or populous: shift to rural settlements
o Active long-distance trade of the Mediterranean slowed down  regional
networks emerged
 Remained political and religious centers
-Wealth
 In the hands of great lay landlords, kings, queens, warriors, courtiers and bishops
 Based largely on land
-Monasteries
 Were becoming important corporate landowners
 Monks: giving up wealth, family and worldly offices, living in communities, praying
 Saint Benedict (d.c.550/560) wrote the most famous of the monastic rules, became
norm.
 became partners of the powerful because they were seen as models of virtue
 became perfectly acceptable alternatives to armies and schools

RETRENCHMENT OF THE EAST
-Emperor’s authority continued, towns continued to thrive, taxes were collected efficiently
 Emperor Justinian (r.527-565) was very wealthy
-‘Plague of Justinian’ (541-565) killed many people, decay of cities
-Codex Justinianus (529): imperial law code, huge impact
-Justinian sought to recapture the Empires former glory
 Took on the image of Persian kings (concentrated power)
 Exalted role in Christian church
 Reconquered Italy, took North Africa, southeastern Spain, Italy (disaster)
o All 534-572



-Crisis of the 3rd century:
 Demoted (gedegradeerde) old Roman elites
 Christianity came up  monotheism & shift of holiness from houses and temples to
relics, the Eucharist, priests, bishops, emperors and monks
-Romans invited the barbarians in, declined to recognize the needs of their guests
 barbarians became part of the Empire and took it over in the west.

See essential dates on p.37




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EIGHT: Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-1500)