germanic societies & the emergence of the christian west

Chapter 9

GermanicSocieties &

the Emergence

of the Christian

West

The Germanic Peoples• The Germanic peoples lived north and northeast of the

Roman World, most speaking languages belonging to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. • Including: The Franks, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Alemanni (AH-

luh-MAH-nee), Vandals, and Goths.

• These were tribal warrior societies, ridiculed by the Romans as the ”Barbarians”, but began to overwhelm the Roman Empire before they would bring Christianity westward into northern continental Europe, and shape what would one day be known as Western Civilization.

• The early Germans were pastoral nomads, that lived in northern Europe by herding, hunting, and fishing.• Using the herded cattle for meat, milk, and cheese, while making

clothes from the hides. Hunting was another method of collecting food, but the spoils of war was achieved through the use of iron weaponry cast from the abundance of iron ore in north central Europe.

• These societies were based on kinship ties and loyalty. The common ancestry and heritage and thus were not considered complex societies. These tribes were male dominated with women serving in more supportive roles.

• They were not interested in commerce, and as they moved around a great deal, goods were typically scavenged from pillaging.

2 Ch. 9: Germanic Societies & the Emergence of the Christian West, 100-1100 C.E.

Germanic Migrations & Their Threat to Rome• Throughout the final several centuries BCE the Germanic began

moving south and into western Europe as the Roman continued to extend their domination throughout the Mediterranean basin.

• By the first century CE the Germans pushed out the Celtic speaking farming peoples living in this region.

• The Celtic tribes resettled in regions to the north, known today as Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Brittany ( north western France).

• The Germans then began moving steadily towards the Roman frontiers, where they began to farm and interact with the Roman world.

• The German tribes as a whole became a settled people with an agricultural base, but still maintained their warlike mentality.

• Women did much of the field work and most household chores.

• Men helped with planting & harvest, but also herded and hunted; and also made war against other tribes and staged raids on Roman towns.

• The Romans fought back against this Barbarian invasion, but also moved to recruit them into Roman Armies. Subsequently Germans became a large portion of these armies and responsible for maintaining the Roman border lands.

• Over time, the Romans became overwhelmed with internal issues and by the third century CE the Romans were unable to control the Germans and their continued raids on Roman lands.

• By the late 3rd century the Roman Empire was in serious danger.


The Decline of the Western Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Eastern Empire

• 4th Century, moves the Capital from Rome Constantinople.Strengthening the East.

• 4th & 5th Century Christian Conversion

• Trade with East Asia Increases, and Christianity strengthens the unity of the territories.

Western Empire

• Capital transfer cost the West financially

• 4th & 5th Century Christian Conversion

• Germanic Invasions dominate the West, causing intense financial burden, and leading to the fall of the Western Roman Empire

• The Late 3rd century brought a growing crisis to the leaders of Rome. Roman rulers divided the empire into eastern and western sectors in the hope of making it easier to manage and defend.• However, the split ultimately did not make things easier, it just made things

more complicated for the west.


The Triumph & Transformation of Christianity • The Roman Emperor Constantine I (aka Constantine the Great) is known

as the Emperor that brought Christianity to the Romans. (b. 280-337 CE)• He was the first Roman Emperor to profess Christianity, revolutionizing the empire

in that move alone. • Rome had actively persecuted the early Christians far and wide.

• Constantine became an avid support of the Christian faith. As Emperor of Rome, he was the head of the Polytheistic Roman religion, and thus he did not immediately turn to the faith, but merely recognized it and legalized its practice in 313 CE. He formally became a Christian in 337 with his baptism on his deathbed, preparing the way for Christianity’s later adoption as the Empire’s official religion.

• The Traditional Polytheistic religion of Rome was loosing it’s support amongst Roman citizens during this time. (Correlating with Rome’s continued anguish against the Barbarians and political upheavals)

• Christianity was during this time gaining influence, it’s ideologies were appealing to the Roman peoples, especially the potential salvation of all (despite birth or social status), attracting converts from all walks of life, both rich & poor.

• Constantine’s military success demonstrated what faith in the Christian faith could achieve, the legalization of the faith thus met little opposition (it was a common practice of merging outside gods with the roman gods). But, these acts help legitimize the faith to others.

• Emperor Theodosius the Great (r. 379-395 CE) then declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.


Crisis & Chaos in the West• Christianity's triumph coincided with the

empire’s disintegration. • Constantine's successors were not able to preserve

unity or protect the West from the Germanic invasions.

• Constantine died in 337 CE, his sons divided the empire and fought themselves in sporadic civil wars and leadership squabbles, the Empires unified a few times, but it did not last long.

• By the beginning of the 4th century the East & West Empires were two separate entities, an Eastern & Western Roman Empire with separate rulers.

• Both Empire’s were under siege:

• Though more challenging, the Persians had specific lands and borders to defend that they intended on maintaining.

The Eastern Roman Empire warred

with Persia.

• The Germanic tribes were difficult, their nomadic roots made their location flexible and mobile, allowing them to move on and attack elsewhere quickly.

The Western Roman Empire

warred with the Germanic Tribes.


• Stability became the main goal of subsequent rulers during this time of chaos.

• Emperor Valentina I, of the Western Roman Empire (r. 364-375 CE) ruled ruthlessly by imposing & collecting heavy taxes for Imperial defense, leading large armies north into Gaul (France) and Germany to crush the Germanic forces.

• Other Emperors tried a less hostile approach by trying to assimilate the Germans into Roman culture, giving farmlands on the Roman frontiers or employing their greatest fighters in the Roman military itself.

• This was a great period of movement of peoples through Europe, creating a chaotic period in which Rome reinvented itself.

• Rome had been saved from the Huns, but the position of the Western Roman Empire continued to deteriorate while the northern Germanic tribes continued to invade, meeting little resistance elsewhere north of Rome as those peoples moved further north to avoid the threat (into Britain, Gaul, Spain, and NW Africa, and even Italy itself). The only ones to stand up to the Germans was the Romans.

• This chaos resulted in commercial disorder and economic despair.

• Thus the Germans forced the last Western emperor to abdicate in 476 CE, but the Popes continued to dominate the west. In the Eastern Empire continued.

The Fall of Rome Overview


Rise of the Church• Christianity’s triumph helped transform the

world.• Christianity itself transformed, from a persecuted

popular movement with little power & wealth, to a powerful & wealthy institution widely known as the Church.

• The Christian Church structured itself on imperial lines, under a pope in Rome, serving as the head of the Church and hierarchy over seeing the growing institution of Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and Laity (people of the congregation).

• The first actions of the church was to identify and destroy paganism. • Remember, that like their Jewish brethren, the Christians are

very unyielding to other religions, because they believe themselves to be the one true religion.

• The Banning of pagan worship began by closing temples to the Roman & Greek gods, and even ending the Olympic games that had been staged to honor Greek gods for over a thousand years.

• The Church then became the pillar of the Roman state, calling on Christians to support the Roman Empire and its leaders.


Early Medieval Europe: Germanic & Christian Connections• The end of the Western Roman Empire gave rise to

Medieval Western culture. • From the fall of Rome to the 14th century CE (1300’s).• Also known as the Middle Ages—The Medieval Era.

• Throughout the early part of this era the Germanic Tribes dominated the civilization of Europe, creating a society of tribalism & localism.• Roman roads, trade, and money fell into disuse. • Learning & literacy declined.• Trade networks dwindled. • Central administrations virtually disappeared. • Complex societies established by the Roman Empire

regressed back to their tribal foundations.

• From the fall of the Western Empire, new connections emerged despite these fragmentations into a society complexly unimpeded by past societies. • A new European culture developed, blending Germanic

customs with Celtic customs and Christian beliefs left behind by the Romans.

• That world was short lived…• As a new nomadic invasion & series of raids from the north,

east, and south began again.

• However, by the 11th century, led by warrior nobility & energized Christian Church, European society re-emerged experiencing a political & cultural revival.


The Emergence of Germanic Kingdoms • At the beginning of the Medieval Era the German’s were still

divided in Tribes, united on a basis of kinship & customs. Typically ruled by chieftains elected from the strongest warriors of the tribe.

• Most tribes by this point had settled into an agricultural life, dwelling in villages while tending their crops & herds.

• Families remained patriarchal, dominated by male heads of household, and women served in “supportive roles.”

• Men typically tended cattle and raised grains (e.g. wheat & barley).

• Women ground the grain, baked bread, and helped work the land.

• Wealth was a measure in cattle and land, usually obtained by warriors that began the first form of rural nobility.

• Thus, the Germanic peoples set up kingdoms, ruled by dynastic monarchies as food stores grew and a supportive population expanded to include several groups of peoples.

• Kingdoms were large units of territory ruled by monarchs.

• National monarchies that later grew from these kingdoms eventually became Europe's leading governances.


The Early Medieval Church : Expansion & Adaptation• During the Medieval period, the governments (Kings & Kingdoms) were not the central

authorities: The Christian Church reigned above all.

• They were the moral authority, beyond anything earthly.

• The Church had aligned themselves with the reining German & Celtic Kingdoms, allowing them to maintain Christian learning from the Roman era, as well as to care for the poor & sick, and to provided religious unity despite political upheavals.

• The Goal of the Church was to convert or Christianize as many Germans & Celts as they could, typically by winning over their Tribal chiefs or Kings.

• In the mid 5th century, Bishop from Britain named Patrick, that spent his youth as a slave in Ireland, returns back to Ireland with this approach to convert the islands Celtic Tribes.

• History knows him as St. Patrick!

• This approach was useful, converting their leadership and then the rest of the peoples would follow.

• In adopting Christianity, the Celts & Germans DID NOT abandon their traditional ways. Instead, the Church approved these practices to be merged into the Christian practices.

• Converting old shrines into Christian churches and modifying their festivals into Christian holy days.

• Medieval Europe transformed into a more urban society with an emphasis on Christian learning, bringing monasteries into existence where the devout men (monks) and women (nuns) could fully embrace their faiths as they withdrew from society. • These men & women took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

• They lived in communities based on equality and hard work, despite social status or upbringing.

• They worked in communities, promoting their Christian faith and learning, setting up schools, worked to maintain libraries, writing books, and copying religious manuscripts.

• Primarily focusing on learning, farming, and prayer.


The Franks & Their Effort to Reunite the West• Frankish rulers expanded their realm and

helped to spread Christianity. • Frankish King Clovis (481-511 CE) accepted

Christianity and also expanded his domain to include most of what is modern day France and Western Germany.

• His heirs were not great leaders as Clovis, instead relying on regional officials or mayors to run the affairs.

• One mayor, was Charles Martel, who defended the Frankish Kingdom against Muslims (that had just conquered Spain).• This gained Charles considerable fame.

• He supported English monks that anointed his son King of the Franks in 751 CE, seizing the throne from an ineffective ruler.

• His descendants are known to history at the Carolingians (kar-uh-LIN-jun) dynasty.


Charles The Great or Charlemagne (SHAR-luh-MANE)• Charles the Great (768-814)

• Was six feet tall (most men during this time were much shorter), known for his boundless energy, and the most commanding of all the early medieval warrior-kings.

• He conquered the Saxons in the North of Germany, the Lombard's in north Italy, and other Germanic groups, taking land from the Muslims in Northeast Spain and the Byzantines in east central Europe. Thus, uniting most of western and central Europe for the first time since the fall of Rome.

• In 799 CE Pope Leo III was attacked by his enemies in Rome, he escaped and found refuge in northwest Germany with Charlemagne, who then restored the Pope to the papacy (the official office of the pope).• Leo soon found a dramatic way to thank Charlemagne when he next visited Leo

in Rome. Charlemagne knelt in prayer on Christmas Day in the year 800 CE the Leo III suddenly crowned him “Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans.”

• It looked as if the Roman Empire had been revived in the west.

• This was seen by the rest of the world as a very real threat.

• Charlemagne strove to consolidate and educate his “backwards” empire, as most of the known world saw them as uneducated. • He succeeded in compelling the Saxons and other polytheistic groups to

adopt Christianity.• Under the leadership of scholarly monks, scholars copied manuscripts,

founded libraries, and set up schools at monasteries and cathedrals throughout Europe. The Latin language uniting the peoples across the Empire.

• Establishing new curriculum’s of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music (setting a standard for Medieval European education).


• In 814 CE, Charlemagne died his Empire did not endure much longer, as his 3 grandsons began fighting amongst themselves and dividing the Empire into 3 regions.

Splitting the Empire:

•Kingdom of Charles the Bald

•Kingdom of Lothar

•Kingdom of Louis the German


Invasions and Connections• Christian Europe after Charlemagne also

experienced a series of new invasions. • 9th-10th century: Europe was assaulted by outsiders

• First by sea, from invaders north and the south.

• Then by land from the east.

• The invaders pillaged and ravaged towns and the countryside, but they also helped create new connections between Europe and other cultures.

• Many settling along the coast and beginning trade networks with other cultures, including the Muslims and Byzantine’s.

• Eventually these invaders also adopted Christianity.

• Some invaders, or Norsemen called Normans, settled in a region of northwestern France called Normandy, and their successors went on to conquer England in 1066 CE.

• Other Norsemen, called Varangian's (vuh-RAN-junz) settled in Eastern Europe and served as early rulers of Kievan Rus (KEY-ev-un ROOS), or the first Russian state.

• Other Norsemen pushed out into the north Atlantic, founding settlements in Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland, while still others pushed out and reached the North American continent for the first time.


Saracens and Germanic Kings• In the mid-9th century Muslim’s arrived on the seas from the

south to Europe, also known as the Saracens.• They were seaborne marauders from Islamic North Africa, staging

periodic raids, going up against Charles Martel (Charlemagne’s great grandfather), coming to plunder and pillage.

• Striking Rome in 846 CE.• But helping to establish sea routes between Europe and North Africa,

linking the Christian world to the Islamic world.• Like the Norsemen, the Saracens plundered but some also settled,

established trade routes and eventually adopted Christianity. Many of which then claimed connection with the Papacy in Rome.

• Germanic warriors came later after the disasters of the 9th & 10th centuries CE, helping Europe to recover, but relying on warlords rather than powerful monarchs.

• Europe thus looked more to warrior nobles to protect their society.

• An aristocracy was created with noblemen serving to fend off threats and foes alike. These were the days of noblemen serving on horseback known as knights, armed mounted warriors whose code of conduct entailed strict devotion to their overlords and the Christian Church.

• This aristocracy established a comprehensive system called feudalism, beginning as individual agreements, of oaths to service. Each member of society was obliged to serve his master, be it the landholder, or the landholder to the king. Thus, a medieval King, despite status, was not an absolute ruler, but rather dependent on the support of his people.


Economy & Society of Medieval Europe: Manors, Lords & Serfs

• The nobles, occupied with military duties did not raise their own food. • Instead their manors, or landed estates, were worked by

peasant farmers.

• Most nobles had at least one manor, some large with massive cattle and vast acreage of farmland and forests, others were smaller. But even the lowest noble was the lord of his manor (in control over all: master).

• The Peasants lived on the manor in a village and cultivated the surrounding fields or served at the manor house. • Typically they were then required to give the lord a portion of their

crop and labor several days a week on land set aside to feed just the lord and his family.

• Thus the Lord, provided security from invaders and other threats.

• Peasants made up 80-90% of the Population.

• Some peasants were free, but few prospered.

• Most became serfs, bound to the manor and under the control of its lord, not necessarily slaves, because serfs had rights.• i.e. Peasants didn’t have to serve in the military and could not be

bought or sold, and the lord had to provide them land on which to farm.


Changes and the Church:• After the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the

invasion of the Norsemen & Saracens, Europe became fragmented by territorial kingdoms and politics became largely a reginal and rural affair dominated by warlords.

• Serfdom took over placing peasant farmers in the fields to work for their Lords & Masters of the nobility, effectively forcing peasants to give up their freedoms in exchange for security and protection.

• The Christian Church during this time maintained their headquarters in Rome despite the collapse of the Roman Empire.• The church administrative structure helped to preserve

authority in the west, while the Church’s monasteries helped sustain Latin learning.

• The absence of other strong centralized leadership in Europe allowed the Christian Church to dominate Europe’s religious and cultural practices, with the Pope’s leading the way politically and religiously.

• The Pope’s insistence of incorporating local traditions into the Church from the Germanic West, ultimately made its Western churches unable to mesh with these new ideas. Thus, eventually Christianity split into 2 churches:

• Western Christian Church:• Warrior nobles and manorial economy, restored and

energized the papacy's authority over the West.

• Eastern Western Church:• Survived these changes, developing new institutions and

ideals, forming the basis of what would later be called the Byzantine World.


Questions?


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