Topic 6: Early Medieval Europe
Overview and Reading Assignment
With this new topic the world of late antiquity is left behind as the course moves into the study of a new European civilization that retained many ideas and institutions of Rome. Nonetheless, foundational changes occurred as the Roman classical world was transformed into a very different culture. In contrast to late antiquity, in the early medieval era, one observes that: 1) the Roman commercial economy was reduced to a strictly agrarian economy; towns dwindled, as their populations shrank, while nobles lived off the labor of peasants and serfs. 2) Infantry-based armies were superceded by cavalry-based armies, i.e., from Roman legions to medieval knights. 3) Much simplified administrations replaced Rome’s bureaucracy; a king’s personal household also constituted the government. 4) An intellectual and ethical revolution took place in terms of attitudes, i.e., from humanist classical values to Catholic Christian morality and ethics, which also involved a major change in education. And 5) political decentralization and fragmentation supplanted centralization. The imperial administration was disbanded as German chiefs and kings took over the administration of provinces, and their authority was severely limited. Out of these dramatic and long-term changes, one German tribe surpassed all other German tribes that had invaded Rome’s frontier: that tribe was the Franks.
In conjunction with Topic 6, one should read in the textbook, Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, Vol. I: To 1740, 2nd ed., pp. 268-70, 292-99, 326-27, 331-38.
VI. Early Medieval Europe
A. The Franks. The Franks were among the Germanic nations of people encroaching upon Roman borders in northern Europe [see textbook map.] Eventually, the Franks gained control of the Roman province of Gaul (giving their name to modern-day France). For sometime Frankish nobles had intermarried with Gallic-Romans. Together they formed a new ruling class. They became the great landowners, the nobles, who exploited the labor of peasants. Although the central Roman administration was gone, the Frankish leaders collected taxes and maintained a semblance of order.
1. Clovis (d. 511). The Frankish king, Clovis, through his military power and with support of the Catholic church, defeated all his rivals. He was a ruthless leader, before and after he converted to Catholic Christianity, ca. 496. Although converted, Clovis did not give up his aggressive tendencies; he battled, plotted, connived, and murdered his way to the top. The Catholic church won a major coup with the conversion of Clovis. Where Clovis ruled, churches and monasteries were built. He established a new line of kings over the Franks, the Merovingian dynasty.
2. Carolingians. By the eighth century, the Merovingian line of Frankish kings had been replaced by a new family dynasty, known as the Carolingians. The last of the Merovingian kings was weak; the Frankish kingdom was divided among two and sometimes three kings. Gradually, greater power was obtained by the man known as "Mayor of the Palace," the king's lieutenant and spokesman for the great landowners of the realm. Through this office the Carolingian dynasty came to power. Among the Carolingian rulers to hold the office of mayor of the palace was Charles Martel, "the Hammer" (d. 741). He formed a powerful cavalry and with it repulsed the Spanish Muslims in 732 at the Battle of Poitiers. His victory over a rather small Muslim force inexplicably halted the Muslim advance in western Europe. The Byzantine empire provided a buffer in the east.
Charles's victory also signified the superiority of the mounted warrior on horseback, the feudal knight. In order to compete with Spanish Muslims, the Franks became convinced that they too must mobilize their forces. Plus, the Frankish knights learned the usefulness of the stirrup. Adding stirrups to saddles revolutionized medieval weaponry, tactics, and strategy. The mounted knight, adept at shock tactics, became the most important piece on the battlefield. He had to train many hours, and he had to own enough land to supply him with several horses. This military innovation also had social consequences as a greater chasm separated the knights, whose business was warfare, and the peasants, whose business was working the land.
Charles's son, Pepin III, “the Short” (d. 768), further increased the power and prestige of the Carolingian family. In 751 with papal blessing, Pepin was proclaimed King of the Franks, usurping the position held by the Merovingian dynasty which began with Clovis. The last of the Merovingian kings died with no close relative to succeed him. Pepin did not think his position strong enough in the Frankish nation to oust the cousin to the king. He made overtures to church leaders to see if they would sanction his rule. It was not at all certain that the church would cooperate. Charles Martel had ransacked monasteries and treated the church shabbily. Nevertheless, the pope accepted Pepin's bid for the Frankish throne.
Elsewhere, the papacy faced its own problems with the Lombards, another German tribe that was aggressively acquiring more authority in Italy. Pope Stephen requested that the newly crowned Pepin free the papacy from interference by the Lombards. An alliance was cemented between the Franks and the papacy as Pepin defeated the Lombards (755) and granted to Pope Stephen the lands surrounding Rome. This territory became known as the Papal States, a band of land cutting Italy in half.
B. Charlemagne (768-814). Pepin's surviving successor was his son, Charles the Great, or Charlemagne. This extraordinary Frankish ruler continued the expansionist program of his father. He forced conquered German tribes to become Catholic Christians even when he had to massacre thousands, e.g., the Saxons in northern Germany; war with the Saxons lasted thirty-three years. Charlemagne’s empire eventually extended over modern day France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, western Germany and most of Italy [see textbook map].
His imperial vision was officially recognized in the title he received on Christmas Day 800. Pope Leo III (795-816) crowned him, “Emperor of Rome,” a title without occupant since 476. The eastern Byzantine emperor acknowledged Charlemagne's title and accomplishments.
Some physical notes about Charlemagne. He appears to have been exceptionally tall for his time, six feet, three inches. He loved to swim; at his capital, Aachen (or Aix-la-Chappelle), he had pools and baths. Sometimes a hundred guests were hot-tubbing. Although a great ruler, he was illiterate. He attempted to learn to write, but his biographer, Einhard, said he began too late in life [see SWT Readings].
1. Charlemagne's administration. Charlemagne's empire was vast. Not until the time of Charles V, emperor 1519-55, would a kingdom be as large as Charlemagne's. His government had to contend with enormous distances and poor communications. Therefore, he ruled his empire through counts, about 250. The counts governed a district for Charlemagne. A count was usually a high nobleman loyal to Charles. Their income was derived from land grants bestowed on them by Charlemagne. The counts began to look upon the land grants as hereditary possessions to be passed on to heirs upon their death. Counts intended to rule their grants autonomously.
To thwart this fragmentation, Charlemagne was forced to travel constantly, holding court, hearing cases, and inspecting the work of the counts. He also commissioned special royal agents, missi dominici. These were lay and clerical officials (counts and bishops) sent out by Charlemagne on annual visits to ensure his policies and laws were enforced. Their effect on system, however, was marginal. Charlemagne was unable to maintain a loyal, efficient bureaucracy.
In an attempt to train a better bureaucracy, Charlemagne initiated a significant educational reform. He hoped to educate nobles' sons and daughters (his own daughters were educated), and he was seriously concerned about the intellectual shortcomings of the clergy. Charlemagne invited (or kidnaped) the best scholars of Europe to his court. Led by the renowned Anglo-Saxon scholar, Alcuin of York (England, 735-804), this group of scholars began a reform of education later known as the Carolingian Renaissance.
Among their accomplishments, they maintained a school providing instruction in the basic liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music theory. Heretofore, practically all education was handled by monasteries and some private tutors. Charlemagne's school, which also devised a beautiful and standardized handwriting (Carolingian minuscule), was formed to instruct nobles’ sons and clerics in administrative skills. They revitalized interest in classical literature through collecting and editing ancient manuscripts. Also, they worked on Biblical texts. Actually, the educational reforms of Charlemagne affected a very few.
2. Disintegration of Charlemagne's Empire. Charlemagne's sole surviving son, Louis the Pious (814-40), received the empire intact. He had two wives and four sons. He intended to violate custom and pass on the majority of the kingdom to his eldest son and give the rest substantial but not equal holdings. Dissension arose between father, wives and sons; war ensued amongst them. The final outcome in 843 was the Treaty of Verdun. The empire was divided into three areas: roughly France in the west, Germany in the east and the in-between section fought over (through most of European history) by east and west. The great empire of Charlemagne was gone, and Europe was as fractured as it had been when the Roman empire collapsed in the west.
C. Islam: Shaping the Map of Europe. It may seem far-fetched to credit a religion of the Middle East for forming the contours of medieval European civilization; nevertheless, the rise of Islam did indeed for a time establish the boundaries which Europeans did not exceed. Surely some trade existed along the border regions, but in the early stages, Muslim expansion did not open trade routes and the exchange of ideas; rather, it forced Europeans to draw more heavily on their resources—material and intellectual.
1. Expansion. The founder and greatest prophet of Islam was Mohammed, born sometime ca. 570-71. He received his call as a prophet at about age forty, in the Western dating scheme, the year 610. He claimed that he was visited by the angel Gabriel who recited to him the words in Arabic from a single, all-powerful "Allah." These recitations, according to Mohammed, were the final words of revelation coming from Allah through Gabriel, which superceded all previous revelation as given to Moses and Jesus. By 622 the people of Mecca had rejected his message, and Mohammed was forced to leave that city with a small band of followers and move to Medina. This move is known to Muslims as the Hegira (or Hiigra), and it represents year 1 in the Muslim calendar. In Medina, Mohammed and his followers were able to integrate religion and politics, for they became the political and religious leaders of the community. Religious and secular authority was not distinguished or separated. The teachings of Mohammed, later written in the Qu'ran (also spelled "Koran"), relate not only to individual salvation but also provide a model for a just society.
By 630, Mohammed and his followers had reclaimed Mecca. Mohammed died two years later, but his movement continued full force. Mohammed and the religion of Islam united the Arabic tribes. Unified and zealous, the Arabs stormed across the Middle East; the older empires and powers in the region were weak owing to conflicts internal and external. By 634 Muslim armies conquered the Arabian peninsula. By 640 Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were occupied and ten years later Persia belonged to the Muslims. North Africa was won to Islam, and in 711 the Muslims crushed a Visigothic army and claimed Spain as a Muslim conquest. Charles Martel stopped the Muslim advance in the West in 732, but the Muslims won victories over Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, as well over towns in Southern Italy, which they held into the tenth century. Stunning territorial expansion!
A few observations about this amazing success story are warranted. As the religion of Islam spread, major centers of Christianity fell—Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Muslims practiced a unique form of subjugation and tolerance. Jews and Christians were taxed, but not treated as enemies of the state. According to the teachings of the Qu'ran, they were termed, "Peoples of the Book." Tolerance enabled the Muslims to assimilate parts of other cultures.
Islam grew extensive and deep roots. The cultures of the areas conquered were radically changed whereas Europe, if ever, was not christianized until after the thirteenth century through the work of the Franciscans, Dominicans and other orders dedicated to preaching. Muslim conquest has been maintained to this day. Only Sicily, Spain, and Portugal have slipped from the Muslim grasp. According to some statistics, there are presently in the world about an equal number of those who profess Christianity and those who profess Islam.
The major Muslim cities, among them Cordova, Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad were thriving cosmopolitan cities. The Muslim religion respected the business community (Mohammed had been a merchant). These cities contained libraries, hospitals, and market places. Muslim scholars translated the Greek authors into Arabic, the universal language of the Muslim world from Spain to India. Their advancements in mathematics (the word and concept of zero is Arabic-Hindu), in algebra, astronomy, medicine and optics are especially noteworthy. Their finished goods in steel, leather, and textiles cotton and silk were valued and imitated in Europe.
2. Islam, Submission to Allah. The basics of Islam the religion may be explained as follows: 1) God is Allah. Allah gave Mohammed his mission and Allah gives every Muslim their mission in life. That mission is realized through submission to Allah, submission to Allah whereby He will be glorified. The word 'Islam' means 'submission.' 2) The holiest book is the Qu'ran. It was compiled after Mohammed's death probably 651 to 652. The writings of the Qu'ran are not from the mind of Mohammed, but he related them as given to him by the angel Gabriel. In some Muslim circles, it is believed to be so divine that even its letters in Arabic are divine. Therefore, technically only Arabic versions are orthodox. All knowledge about Allah, his power, majesty, wisdom, justice and mercy are contained in the Qu'ran as well as the precepts for the Muslim way of life. The Qu'ran has prescriptions for diet, marriage, etc. It exudes a rigorous morality. In addition to the Qu'ran which became the authoritative text in all schools, a collection of stories about Mohammed and his sayings were also recorded and known as the Hadith. While these writings were not considered divine, they carried great weight.
3) Islam is monotheistic. "There is only one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger." Progressive revelation has been given through Moses, Jesus (a prophet, not the son of God) and finally through Mohammed. Images, relics, representations are strictly forbidden. 4) The individual Muslim is to lead a life in pursuit of the will of Allah which is realized on two different levels, both connected to struggle. One, is the internal struggle to conform individually to the precepts of the Qu'ran, and the other is to conform one’s community to those same precepts. Both levels of struggle are referred to as jihad, "greater" and "lesser" respectively. 5) Emphases on prayer, giving, and fasting. Muslims should pray five times a day, bowing towards Mecca. Frequent prayer is part of the mentality that one lives constantly before Allah. Giving begins with widows and orphans. Prescribed fasting, known as the time of Ramadan, is performed to promote inner discipline. 6) Make a pilgrimage at least once in one's lifetime to Mecca.
3. Muslim rulers. Mohammed died without a son. This was not a problem for several years, as the Muslims were constantly expanding. However in 655, a split occurred among the Muslims. The leadership of the Muslims, the caliphate (ca-li-feit), was disputed between Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed (married to his only surviving offspring, a daughter, Fatima) and the Umayyads (u-mai-jads), a prominent merchant family of Mecca. In 661, the Umayyads defeated Ali in battle; subsequently, he was assassinated. The victors seized control over the Muslim peoples. They moved the Islamic center from Mecca to Damascus. Ali's followers, though defeated, were not eradicated, and from their descendants a dissenting movement arose known as Shi'ism. The Shiites insisted that true caliphs had to be direct descendants of Mohammed through Ali and Fatima. The majority of Muslims, the Sunnais (or Sunnis), accepted the leadership of the Umayyads, and the expansion commenced again; this dynasty lasted till 750.
The Abbasids (a-bae-sid), a family of Persian origin, overthrew the Umayyads and transferred the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The Abbasids were willing to assimilate the cultured Persian people. The capital, Baghdad, was a marvel city. In the tenth century, Muslim was power was decentralized as the rulers over Spain and Egypt no longer acknowledged Baghdad's authority. The Abbasids retained the title, caliphs, but other groups held real power. In 1055, the Seljuk Turks, previously a nomadic tribe, seized Baghdad; their leader ruled as sultan. The city remained the capital of the Muslim empire until 1258 when a Mongolian army destroyed it.
The eminent historian, Henri Pirenne, argued that the Muslim conquest over the Mediterranean isolated the west from east. The Mediterranean became a Muslim lake. Trading dwindled to nothing, Henceforth, the Carolingians had to rely completely on their own to succeed. They lost contact with the Mediterranean area and the remnants of the late Roman empire. They began to form a truly European civilization.
That civilization, however, was eventually reintroduced to the Muslim world and consequently gained much knowledge, technology, as well as spices and luxury goods. The Muslim economy and the latitude of most of its leaders permitted scholarship to flourish and ideas to rebound across its regions. The Muslims preserved and commented on the extensive corpus of classical Greek philosophical, scientific and medical texts, as well as Hindu. Through contact in southern Italy, Spain and refugees from Constantinople, literate Europeans gained access to stimulating ideas and texts. Scholastic philosophy owes much to Arabic commentators of Aristotle. European merchants were allowed to establish trading bases in many Muslim towns. They acquired goods but also business and banking techniques. The Europeans of the High Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1200) and of the early Renaissance (1300s) owe an incalculable debt to Muslim merchants and intellectuals.
Topic 7: Invaders, Feudalism, and Manorialism: Europe ca. 800-950
Overview and Reading Assignment
The ninth century and the first decades of the tenth were certainly a terrible time for many western Europeans. Charlemagne's empire proved to be an illusion. In little more than a generation after his death, it was divided among three rivals. European kingdoms and communities suffered further harm at the hands of the Vikings. Otherwise known as the Norsemen, these sea-faring warriors from modern-day Denmark, Norway, Sweden ravaged Europe.
Partially in response to the invaders and in response to the breakdown in authority, the medieval political organization known as feudalism developed, resting, so to speak, on the economic system called manorialism.
In conjunction with Topic 7, one should read in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, Vol. I: To 1740, 2nd ed., pp. 336-47.
VII. Invaders, Feudalism, and Manorialism: Europe ca. 800-950
A. The Vikings. While it has become fashionable in some circles to refer to the Vikings as ‛traders, not raiders,’ this designation does not reflect how many Europeans thought about these Baltic brigands. The Viking incursions into Europe were unexpected and unprecedented. The English, Irish, Scots, Franks, Saxons, and other people knew about the Vikings from commercial contacts, but beginning in the late eighth century and through the course of the next century, groups of Vikings as often as not came to plunder first and seek trade agreements second.
They were a most effective and ruthless fighting force. They traveled on the seas in their agile oared boats and struck without warning. Their thin-skinned ships ‛snaked’ through the water rather than having to cut through it like modern vessels. Not until the tenth century did many of them convert to Catholicism; thus, Vikings felt no guilt as they ransacked monasteries and churches. Often communities bribed the Vikings in order to be spared armed conflict. The group of Vikings that signed the original contract left, but because there was no central government in Norway, Denmark, nor among the settled groups of Vikings on the continent, a beleaguered community might well face another band of Norsemen in a few months or years.
Vikings captured northern England and eventually a line of Danish kings ruled over England (Canute and sons: 1016-42). Norsemen made deep raids into France, and to buy them off in 911, the French king granted a parcel of land that became the duchy of Normandy to a Viking chieftain, Rollo. The Norsemen also carried out extensive raids into northern Germany and Russia [see textbook map].
A multitude of factors explain what sparked the Viking expansion. In their native lands excessive population, and climatic changes which adversely affected agricultural production induced the Norsemen to supplement their incomes and despoil Europeans. Moreover, Charlemagne’s conquest of the Saxons altered relations among the peoples of northern Europe and allowed new peoples to expand, e.g., the Danes.
Interestingly, practically all male members of the Danish royal family could claim kingship. Those who lost in their attempts to gain power in Denmark tried to maintain and, if possible, enlarge their following by collecting plunder elsewhere in Europe. Besides tribute, the Vikings were especially keen on confiscating war victims for ransom and seizing people to sell for slaves. Their religion supported the ideals of warriors: to die in battle ensured entrance into heaven.
In the East, Europe was beset by the Magyars, horsemen from the plains of Central Asia. They drove the Slavs in front of them against Germans. Their advance in the west was finally halted by Otto I of Saxony at Lechfeld (955). Like Charles Martel's victory in 732, this battle, too, was a turning point in European history.
B. Feudalism. Life in the Middle Ages must have been extremely difficult. The absence of effective central government; the threat of invasions, and the scourge of rampaging warlords plundering and murdering with little fear of reprisal, except from other knights, made life perilous. Besides human foes, peasants were beset by harsh weather, crop failures, and famine. Towards the end of the early Middle Ages, these conditions prompted the great landowners to devise a system of governing that developed into feudalism. The term denotes the social and political organization existing throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. In simple terms it is a client/patron relationship based on the exchange of a grant, usually of land, for stipulated services. The client, known as the vassal (i.e., one who serves), places himself in the personal service of another, his superior, his lord, who promises protection for his vassal.
This form of governing had roots in the reign of the Franks. The constant struggle among the Frankish warriors led the leaders to organize defense leagues. The Frankish kings and leaders of clans retained the services of warriors in mutual protection arrangements. The tribal leaders rewarded warriors with weapons, horses, and parcels of land. The land was needed to support the stable of horses and the lifestyle necessary to train as a knight.
The grants of land parceled out by kings and great nobles to his clients/vassals were known as fiefs (German). Technically, the land given still belonged to the grantor, the lord. The vassal received it as a tenement, meaning he was given temporary control over the land and its resources. Later, the fiefs became hereditary. Think of the organization of these parcels of land as a pyramid with the king at the pinnacle.
Starting from the top, a king grants a tract of land, a fief to his vassal. The vassals immediately beneath the king are typically the great peers of the realm, in title, dukes. They in turn subinfeudated their lands to earls, counts, on down to smallest division on the noble scale—a knight. The knight's parcel of land was to be of sufficient size to maintain the knight's household and a stable of horses. The practice of subinfeudation would therefore provide the king with a set number of knights; it was intended to instill loyalty among his close peers, who have received land from their king. Vassals on down the social ranks received land and also support and protection from their respective patrons in the feudal network.
In exchange for the fief, a vassal swore that he would be his lord's man; he would do nothing that would in any way harm his lord, and he would do everything stipulated in their mutually consented oral contract. His primary responsibility to his lord was military service. Typical scenario: The English king prepares to battle the French king. He requires from Duke Giles two hundred knights. Duke Giles out of his own household and immediate attendants cannot come up with two hundred knights, but he has arranged that he will bring one hundred knights and he will obtain fifty each from his vassals Earl Smith and Count Hitchcock, and so on down the subinfeudated arrangements.
Vassals were required to provide offensive military service for forty days out of the year. In a defensive campaign, there was no limit to service. Other duties: 2) Castle service. Vassals were required to spend so many days of the year at the lord's fortifications complex. 3) Vassals were obliged to appear at court on behalf of his lord. The lord might also appear in court on behalf of his vassal. 4) Vassals were bounden to host their lords when the latter came calling.
By the tenth century a special ceremony had been devised in which an exchange of vows between vassal and lord were pronounced. On bent knee the vassal placed his hands in the hands of his lord and swore oaths of fealty (loyalty) and homage (transaction of property and services) often while in contact with a relic or sacred writing at hand to sanctify the occasion. Feudalism could become very complex as vassals made arrangements with more than one lord. This development led in the ninth century to the use of the title, "liege lord," the lord to whom the vassal owed final obedience, even to the detriment of his other lords.
Vassal/lord relationship spilled over into church and state affairs. The Carolingian rulers employed high church officials (among the few people who could read and write) in their households and as their representatives throughout their kingdoms. By the ninth century, secular lords, beginning with the emperor Louis the Pious, bestowed upon spiritual leaders, bishops and abbots, the ring and staff, symbols of their spiritual office, the practice known as lay investiture. Secular lords expected the churchmen to be loyal royal servants. Moreover, when a bishop died the secular lord could put his choice in the office since a bishop should not have heirs.
The effect of feudalism on the medieval church was devastating. In the New Testament church, clergy were chosen by congregations and their incomes came from their own work or obtained through congregation offerings (tithes). Under feudalism, church officials were not paid directly by congregations. Tithes were collected by local magnates, i.e., secular lords or spiritual landowners (bishops or abbots). A lord then paid a stipend, a benefice, to the cleric. A benefice could be a grant of land (bishopric/diocese) or some fixed income to a parish priest. Clergy tended to regard benefices as their property rather than as an offering given voluntarily by the community they served. Thus, ecclesiastical positions were seen as less of an office of service and duty, but as sources of income, possibly to be passed on to relatives.
Bishops were paid by land grants from a king or other great noble not from the pope. They were treated like secular counterparts, and many acted like their secular counterparts; they spent much time hunting, or managing their fields, or holding court. Their allegiance was towards the grantor of the benefice (local noble or king) rather than a far-off pope.
C. Manorialism was the economic system composed of landowners and those who worked the land and their means of production. Whereas the feudal system centered on the nobles and knights, manorialism refers to the organization on the manors and villages.
The medieval peasantry was composed of tenant farmers (coloni) from the Roman rural environment, of freed slaves given small plots of land and limited rights, of actual slaves, and of indigenous peoples who had escaped the jurisdictions of Roman administrators and German overlords. In medieval peasant society there were many gradations of status, each with their own particular set of rights. In broad terms, one should distinguish three basic groups of peasants: 1) freemen, 2) serfs, and 3) slaves. A peasant’s status was often determined by where he/she lived.
1. Free Peasants. In the frontier regions where the feudal network was weakest, there existed more free peasants. Not all peasants were located on manors, a term that signifies the residence of a feudal lord and his/her zone of authority. The free peasants had some rights. They might own more strips of land which they could pass on to their heirs, while paying an inheritance fee.
2. Serfs. These were the peasants working on manors, more closely supervised by landlords, secular and ecclesiastical; it did not make any difference if one was a serf on a manor owned by monks or by a duke. Serfs owned little, sometimes no land of their own. They were much more at the mercy of the lords of manors. Serfs were required to spend more time working the lord's strips in the fields, etc. Serfs were organized into groups and managed by manor stewards and bailiffs. Some were designated to plough the lord's land or strips (the lord’s demesne); others might work with hoes, tend the vines or gather berries.
3. Slaves. Slavery existed in early medieval Europe on the continent and in England. In the tenth century, perhaps ten percent of the English agricultural laborers were slaves. Towards the end of the eleventh century their numbers were dwindling.
The land of a manor was divided into three unequal parts. Peasants owned and worked their strips of land but also were responsible to work three days or so out of the week on the strips of land belonging to the lord known as the lord's demesne. There was usually some wild, forested land reserved for the lord to hunt on and another section for the peasants to gather wood or graze livestock, the commons area. Peasants and serfs were to be protected by their lord. The lord provided mills to grind wheat, ovens, and wells. In addition to working the lord's fields, serfs were responsible for a host of other duties. They transported goods for the lord. They paid taxes and fees in kind, i.e., produce, not coin. They were required to receive their lord's permission to marry someone outside the village. The lord served as judge and jury for peasant disputes. He led peasant militia levies. There was some specialization of labor: shoemakers, clothes makers, toolmakers, etc. on manors.
By the eighth century, German farmers were better farmers than the Romans. They had devised a heavier plow and a better harness in order to use oxen or teams of horses much more effectively. Some Germans in 763 were using a three-field crop rotation system instead of two-field (Roman practice) that allowed more land to be under cultivation.
Based on surviving records kept by a few monasteries in France, Carolingian families averaged 5.79 persons in a household, of which many included more than one family. Whereas, Roman families tended to produce few children, the Germans as a whole were prolific. Carolingian families seldom practiced female infanticide. Marriageable age for both boys and girls was as low as sixteen, but in reality most young adults did not marry until their late twenties, and this is true of both genders. The number of unmarried adults, male and female, was substantial (ca. 10 to 15%).
Peasants lived in timber-framed huts. They seldom ventured beyond their village. Farming was tough. Two bushels of seed in good years produced six to ten bushels of grain (the modern equivalent is over 60 bushels). There was not much variety in diet; corn and potatoes were unknown in Europe until the sixteenth century. Pork was the main source of protein. Probably the peasants could have produced more legumes and beans, but the significance of bread in the mass and general conservatism led to a monopoly of grain production (used for bread and ale).
The other feature to note in a village was the church. Its priest was appointed by the local lord, whether a bishop, knight, or abbot. The church was where the peasants were baptized, confirmed, took communion (on average once a year), confessed sins (once a year), married, and were buried in its cemetery. Eventually, a fourth of the days of the year were given over to religious observances or celebrations, the key festivities held in or around the church.
Topic 8: Medieval Women: ca. 400-1200
Overview and Reading Assignment
Attitudes of male Christian leaders in the third and fourth centuries towards women were ambiguous. These men aspired to create a spiritual revolution, not a social one. While they preached the spiritual equality of all, including women, they did not wish to scandalize their contemporaries by according women a position equal to men in leadership roles. On one hand, women were depicted as the weaker sex, requiring restriction and special support; religious women ought to be cloistered in a home or convent. On the other hand, because the Catholic Church assumed the mission to evangelize Europe, it expected much of Christian women, especially noble women.
In conjunction with Topic 8, one should read in the textbook, Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, vol. I: To 1740, pp. 264-65, 306-7.
VIII. Medieval Women: ca. 400-1200
A. Early Medieval Christianity and Women. By the seventh century, the Catholic Church could claim a series of successful conversions of kingdoms through the work of Christian queens and Christian missionaries. In the late fifth century, Clothilde, the wife of the Frankish king Clovis, persisted in her efforts to convert her husband despite his anger over the death of their first son after his Catholic baptism. Clothilde prevailed, and the Franks became the first German tribe to embrace Catholic Christianity. Many Frankish monastic foundations and churches owed their existence to her support. Pope Gregory I (590-604), corresponded with Bertha, Catholic wife of King Ethelbert of Kent in England, admonishing her to redouble her efforts to win her husband to the Catholic faith. Eventually her husband did convert, opening the door to further conversions.
In the disruption that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, monasticism proved singularly suited for the advancement of Catholicism and the spiritual careers of notable women. Sixth and seventh century monks and nuns became the chief agents in the civilizing/ christianizing of German tribes, the new rulers over former Roman lands. Although nuns, unlike monks, were never allowed to become bishops, they made substantial contributions to the establishment of monasteries in the wilderness. Monks and nuns alike preserved learning and counseled newly converted rulers. The lands abbesses controlled and the people they governed gave them a practical power equal to that of abbots and sometimes even bishops. Among secular women, only queens exercised comparable power. For example, Hilda of Whitby in England founded several monastic institutions. She acted as a consultant to her royal relatives and housed the great Synod of Whitby in 664 which decreed that England would adopt Catholicism. Five monks who received their training in her convent at Whitby later became bishops. Noble birth allowed women to exercise spiritual leadership. Noble women found opportunities to demonstrate their talents in religious houses, large and small. They established churches and monasteries. Thus the Catholic church empowered noble women, while Germanic society tended to demean them.
B. Early Medieval Germanic Law and Social Realty. On the whole, the early Germanic law codes reflected a society that regarded women primarily as property belonging to their families. Typically, the highest bidder received a marriageable girl. Germanic laws conflicted with Catholic tenets in other ways. In questions of marriage, Catholicism placed the individual's choice over that of the family. Moreover, Germanic laws did not accept the church's view that virginity and widowhood were superior states to motherhood; these law codes put the highest cash penalties on the injury of a woman of childbearing age. The antagonism between Germanic custom and Christian convictions was never fully resolved, and at least through the ninth century, secular society and its values predominated.
Formal conversion to Catholicism did not change the everyday lives of these peoples for many generations. The sixth-century Franks were still very pagan in their practices. Typically the nobles had several wives. The heavy compensation legally demanded for the abduction or injury of the daughters and wives of the Franks did not deter violence and rape. Widows were forced to marry the victors who had slain their husbands, while daughters were betrothed to their fathers' murderers.
C. The Carolingian Age: Eighth and Ninth Centuries. 1. Renewed Religious Strictures. The apostle Paul's injunction that it was improper for women to teach men was ignored in early medieval Europe because of the demands of the frontier situation. Convents and monasteries monopolized education and instructed children of both sexes, whether or not they intended to enter the monastic life. Only in the late eighth and ninth centuries did an effort to introduce segregation of sexes in monastic education succeed.
Churchmen in Charlemagne's entourage reintroduced the principle that "the weakness of her sex and the instability of her mind forbid that [women] should hold the leadership over men in teaching and preaching." In his effort to restore monasticism to its pristine purity, Charlemagne invoked these prejudices against women. He legislated against too close an association of the sexes in monasteries. Nuns were to be strictly cloistered. No longer could they assist priests in the celebration of the mass and the administration of the sacraments. Abbesses were placed under the control of bishops. He prohibited nuns and abbesses from educating boys in their convents. This reform proved to be more detrimental for laymen than for laywomen because it became increasingly rare for the sons of the nobility to be educated in convents. The result was that certain noble boys received no literary education, while noble girls continued to be educated in convents until they reached marriageable age. For several centuries thereafter, it was not uncommon that a representative of the sex whose "instability" of mind made her unfit to teach boys might find herself wed to an illiterate husband.
2. Women and Property. While the church restricted women's roles in its administration, its value system was beginning to have a positive influence in society, specifically in regards to marital rights. By the ninth century, a number of legal and social reforms granted more protection and rights to noble women.
The custom of bride purchase practically disappeared. Instead of giving a purchase price to the bride's family, the groom endowed her directly with the bride gift, usually a tract of landed property over which she had full rights. To this present he frequently added the morning gift following the consummation of the marriage. In addition to the economic independence achieved through marriage, noble women of the ninth century enjoyed an increased capacity to share in the inheritance of property. Women had always been eligible to receive certain movable goods from either their own relatives or from their husbands, but, in the ninth century, law and practice allowed women to inherit immovables—land. As widows, women acquired increased status when they controlled their sons' and their deceased husbands' property.
3. Women Under the Carolingian Government. The Carolingian system of government barred women from top positions, but the rights of women as wives, in contrast, received formal recognition in the imperial period. Imperial documents were issued with joint signatures of emperor and queen. Ninth-century sources stipulate that the queen had the duty of running the royal estates, that is, the finances and domestic affairs of the realm, in order to leave the king free for military or other important duties. Charlemagne specifically endowed his queen with such power: "We wish that everything ordered by us or by the queen to one of our judges, or anything ordered to the ministers, seneschals or cupbearers . . . be carried out to the last word." The same division of responsibilities is seen in the ranks of the aristocracy, where competent and trained wives were expected to administer the affairs connected to the extended household.
The position of Carolingian women as wives gained further support from the introduction into secular legislation of the principle of marital indissolubility. The early church opposed ancient and Germanic custom that allowed divorce on account of a wife's barrenness or illness; the Catholic church refused to allow a husband to simply get rid of an unsuitable wife; only if she committed adultery could she be repudiated. But these principles lacked the power of enforcement in earlier times. The Carolingians, who depended heavily on church support to secure their power, worked steadily to bring their own laws into conformity with canon law. Thus, restrictions were placed on divorce, and women’s rights, particularly those who had been abused or defrauded, were protected.
While depriving noble women of some of the ecclesiastical authority they had exercised in the sixth and seventh centuries, the Carolingians strengthened the rights of women within the family. By enforcing the principle of marital indissolubility, the Church protected women from the caprices of their husbands. Moreover, women's right to share in their patrimonial inheritances and to enjoy the rewards of their own labor found protection under the law.
As the Carolingian empire collapsed under the blows of Vikings, Magyars and Saracens, religious women were particularly afflicted by these invaders. Convents with their wealth, their women, and their lack of protection, were favorite targets. A new generation of martyrs was in the making. Particularly dramatic is the story of the death of Ebba and all the nuns of her convent. In 870, an army of Danes landed in Scotland and proceeded south, murdering and pillaging. The Danish army headed for the nunnery at Coldingham. Seeing no hope of flight, Ebba took heroic measures to defend the honor of her sisters. As the Danes approached, the nuns gathered together and, following Ebba's example, slashed off their noses and upper lips to confront their would-be attackers with a line of ghastly, bleeding virgins. The horrified Danes burned the convent, and the sisters victoriously achieved the status of martyrs. The Magyars and Saracens similarly attacked women and ransacked monasteries.
D. The First Feudal Age: Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. Endowed with their own property and rights of inheritance, secure in their marital status, women were equipped to act with power in the fluid society of the first feudal age, which followed the collapse of the Carolingian empire in the late eighth century. Out of the ruins of the Carolingian state, the family emerged as the most stable and effective element in a troubled world. Profiting from the extensive resources of noble families, women for two centuries were able to play a vital political role. Since land had become the only source of power, by exercising their property rights, secured in the Carolingian period, a growing number of women appear in the tenth and eleventh centuries as châtelaines, mistresses of landed property and castles with attendant rights of justice and military command, proprietors of churches, and participants in both secular and ecclesiastical assemblies. Wherever one looks during this period one finds examples of women in key positions of authority. They appear as military leaders, although not depicted in actual battle, as judges, châtelaines, and managers of feudal estates.
E. Medieval Clergy versus 'Woman'. When one considers the expansion of noble women's rights and involvement in the feudal organization, perhaps one can better understand the extreme statements of some medieval clerics against women. Surely some of the rampant misogynist attitudes so prevalent in clerical writings of the tenth through the twelfth centuries can be attributed to concern about 'high and mighty' noble women. To further understand their animosity towards women, one needs to look back several centuries.
1. Influence of Classical Notions. As stated earlier, early Christian male writers did not know exactly what to make of their Christian sisters. The leaders' views about women were shaped by several intellectual currents, all of them misogynist. From the classical Greek and Roman authors, the Christian authors gathered their evidence against women. The classical writers basically equated women with nature, men with the state or culture. Furthermore, men were seen as primarily rational; women as a force of nature, namely passion. To early Christian male leaders, the equation was transposed into a 'spiritual key': man relates to the spirit; woman to the soul (emotions) but more likely to the body—the flesh.
Moreover, women's bodies were viewed as inferior, based on conceptions of Aristotle and Galen (see readings) . Their views, commented on by a host of Latin and Arabic writers, held sway through the Middle Ages and Early Modern era. Women were said to be of a colder and damper nature; therefore, Galen argued that in the fetus, human females did not produce enough heat to push out the reproductive organs, which were in his considered opinion, simply inverse male sex organs. Aristotle described the female human as a "deformed male." In the Middle Ages, women were thought to be sexually insatiable as a result of their colder nature. They could not 'get' enough of man, not because of their sexual appetites, but because of their lack of inner warmth. Women tended to be viewed as bottomless pits, draining men of vitality, of heat, and despoiling them of their virtue. Men, desperate to maintain their sanctity and chastity lashed out at 'woman.' As Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) declared (echoing Tertullian): "Woman was the author of man's fall, not man of woman's. . . . You are the Devil's entry way."
2. Woman as Eve, the Seductress. Five hundred years after Ambrose, medieval catholic clergy still blamed 'woman' for men's weaknesses. Odo, an abbot of the very influential monastery at Cluny (d. 942), upbraided his fellow clergymen to flee the snares of the flesh (read women): "Since we are loath to touch spittle or dung even with our fingertips, how can we desire to embrace such a sack of dung?" In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, monks still sought protection in sanctifying isolation and lashed out at the 'weaker' sex. Geoffroy of Vendôme, an abbot of the early twelfth century damns 'woman': "Woe unto this sex, which knows nothing of awe, goodness, or friendship, and which is more to be feared when loved than when hated!"
It is sometimes mentioned in defense of these clerics that not all women were condemned; in fact, one woman was highly praised, the Virgin Mary. Indeed, Mary was venerated as the giver of life, in contrast to the seductress Eve, who brought death into the world. It was not, however, until the twelfth century and beyond, that the Virgin Mary received such an exalted status by top church officials and theologians. The veneration of Mary does not seem to have really begun until the tenth century and then in only a few monastic communities, led by abbesses. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that absolutely no woman could achieve the status granted Mary. The Virgin Mother was not held up as a model for other mothers to emulate. She stood apart, miraculously so. For example, Hincmar of Rheims (d. 882) explained that in giving birth to Jesus both "vulva and uterus remained closed." Peter Damien (1007-72) repeated this assertion. The abbot Geoffroy, quoted earlier, insisted that Mary's virginity existed "before, during, and after delivery." In clerical circles, Mary was not the paradigm of maternity, but a peerless icon of virginity. She represented an example for holy monks to imitate, not for working mothers and daughters to follow. It seems that the denial of Christ’s physical birth, a messy occasion no doubt, reflects the misogyny of theologians towards 'woman' and their disparagement of the physical nature of humanity. Professing and striving to be 'spiritual' beings, they lost some of their humanity.