The Worlds of Medieval Europe

Clifford R. Backman9780195121681, 0-19-512168-6, 0195121694

The Worlds of Medieval Europe updates and revises traditional textbook representations of the Middle Ages by balancing the conventional focus on political affairs, especially those of northern Europe, with equally detailed attention to medieval society as it developed in the Mediterranean. The result is a nuanced portrayal of a multifarious western world that was sharply divided between its northern and southern aspects. By also integrating the histories of the Islamic and Byzantine world into the main narrative, the text brings new life to the continuum of interaction–social, cultural, and intellectual, as well as commercial–that existed among all three societies. In addition, it describes ways in which the medieval Latin West attempted to understand the unified and rational structure of the human cosmos, which they believed existed beneath the observable diversity and disorder of the world. This effort to re-create a human ordering of “unity through diversity” provides an essential key to understanding medieval Europe and the ways in which it regarded and reacted to the worlds around it. The Worlds of Medieval Europe is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in medieval history, Western civilization, the history of Christianity, and Muslim-Christian relations. It also serves as an excellent supplement for courses on the history of a specific country in the medieval period, the history of medieval art, or the history of the European economy.

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Table of contents :
CONTENTS……Page 8
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……Page 14
INTRODUCTION: WHY THE MIDDLE AGES MATTER……Page 18
PART ONE: THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES: THE THIRD THROUGH NINTH CENTURIES……Page 22
The Geography of Empire……Page 24
The Role of the Military……Page 27
Roman Society……Page 29
Roman Government……Page 31
The Challenges of the Third Century……Page 34
Reform, Recovery, Persecution, and Favor……Page 36
Suggested Reading……Page 38
2 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY……Page 40
Before Christ……Page 41
The Growth of the New Religion……Page 44
The Problem of Persecution……Page 49
The Problem of Heresy……Page 51
Constantine and Theodosius: An Imperial Church……Page 53
Responses to Imperialization……Page 57
Suggested Reading……Page 63
3 EARLY GERMANIC SOCIETY……Page 65
Germanic Life……Page 66
Migrations and Invasions……Page 71
Europe’s First Kingdoms……Page 74
Germanic Christianity and the Fourth “Doctor of the Church”……Page 81
Suggested Reading……Page 84
The Rise of Monasticism in the East……Page 86
The Rise of Monasticism in the West……Page 90
Cultural Life in the West: Cassiodorus, Boethius, and St. Benedict……Page 95
Suggested Reading……Page 101
Continuity and Change in Northern Europe……Page 103
Continuity and Change in the Mediterranean……Page 109
The Rise of Islam……Page 116
A Tripartite World……Page 123
Suggested Reading……Page 124
6 THE CAROLINGIAN ERA……Page 126
The “Do-Nothing” Kings and the Rise of the Carolingians……Page 127
The Carolingian Monarchy……Page 131
Carolingian Administration……Page 137
Carolingian Society……Page 142
The Carolingian Cultural Renewal……Page 146
Suggested Reading……Page 150
PART TWO: THE CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES: THE TENTH THROUGH TWELFTH CENTURIES……Page 152
Internal Disintegration……Page 154
Trouble from the North……Page 158
Trouble from the East……Page 161
Trouble from the South……Page 162
The End of the World?……Page 166
Suggested Reading……Page 170
8 REVOLUTIONS ON LAND AND SEA……Page 172
Changes on the Land……Page 173
A Peasant Society Emerges……Page 177
Changes on the Sea……Page 184
A Maritime Society Emerges……Page 187
Suggested Reading……Page 190
9 A NEW EUROPE EMERGES: NORTH AND SOUTH……Page 192
The Rise of Feudal Society……Page 193
The First German Empire……Page 198
The Rise of Capetian France……Page 204
The Anglo-Norman Realm……Page 206
The Spanish Kingdoms……Page 213
The Italian Scene……Page 218
Suggested Reading……Page 223
10 THE REFORM OF THE CHURCH……Page 225
The Origins of the Reform……Page 227
The Papal Revolution……Page 233
Christendom and the East……Page 236
Monastic Reforms……Page 244
Suggested Reading……Page 246
11 THE RENAISSANCES OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY……Page 248
Aristotle, Anselm, Abelard, and ‘Ibn Rushd……Page 249
Law and Canon Law……Page 254
The Recovery of Science……Page 258
The Rise of the Universities……Page 264
Courtly Life, Love, and Literature……Page 269
Suggested Reading……Page 277
12 THE PAPAL MONARCHY……Page 279
Church against State Once More……Page 280
The Consolidation of Papal Authority……Page 284
The Revival of Heresy……Page 290
The Albigensian Crusade and the Origins of the Inquisition……Page 294
Suggested Reading……Page 296
PART THREE: THE LATE MIDDLE AGES: THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES……Page 298
13 POLITICS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY……Page 300
The Rise of Representative Institutions……Page 301
England and France……Page 303
Germany, Italy, and the Papacy……Page 310
The New Mediterranean Superpowers……Page 313
Byzantium and Islam in the Thirteenth Century……Page 316
Suggested Reading……Page 319
14 ART AND INTELLECT IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY……Page 321
Scholasticism……Page 322
The Gothic Vision……Page 326
Science and Technology……Page 333
Aspects of Popular Culture……Page 338
Suggested Reading……Page 342
15 DAILY LIFE AT THE MEDIEVAL ZENITH……Page 344
Economic Changes……Page 346
Peasants’ Lives……Page 350
Townsfolks’ Lives……Page 354
The Question of Literacy……Page 362
Sex Lives of the Not-So-Rich and the Not-So-Famous……Page 363
Suggested Reading……Page 367
16 CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS LIFE……Page 369
The Importance of Being Penitent……Page 370
The Importance of Being Poor……Page 373
The Humanization of Christ and the Cult of the Virgin……Page 378
Mysticism……Page 381
Suggested Reading……Page 384
17 THE CRISES OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY……Page 386
Economic Difficulties……Page 387
The Great Famine……Page 390
The Black Death……Page 391
War Everywhere……Page 398
Challenges to Church Unity……Page 404
Suggested Reading……Page 411
William of Ockham……Page 412
Marsilius of Padua……Page 415
Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer……Page 417
Christine de Pizan……Page 424
Suggested Reading……Page 425
PART FOUR: TWO EPILOGUES……Page 428
19 CLOSINGS IN, CLOSINGS OUT……Page 430
The Last Years of Byzantium……Page 432
The Search for a New Route to the East……Page 434
Closing In on Muslim Spain……Page 437
The Expulsions of the Jews……Page 439
Closing In Forever: The Forced Cloistering of Women Religious……Page 441
Suggested Reading……Page 442
20 THE RENAISSANCE IN MEDIEVAL CONTEXT……Page 444
Economies New and Old circa 1400……Page 445
The Meaning of Humanism……Page 447
The Canonization of Classical Culture……Page 448
The Rejection of the Middle Ages……Page 452
Suggested Reading……Page 453
APPENDIX A: THE MEDIEVAL POPES……Page 455
APPENDIX B: THE CAROLINGIANS……Page 460
APPENDIX C: THE CAPETIANS……Page 461
APPENDIX D: FRANCE: THE VALOIS……Page 462
APPENDIX E: ENGLAND: THE NORMAN AND PLANTAGENET DYNASTIES……Page 463
APPENDIX F: ENGLAND: THE LANCASTRIAN AND YORKIST DYNASTIES……Page 464
APPENDIX G: GERMANY: THE OTTONIAN, SALIAN, AND HOHENSTAUFEN DYNASTIES……Page 465
APPENDIX H: GERMANY: THE LATE MEDIEVAL EMPERORS……Page 466
APPENDIX I: THE SPANISH KINGDOMS, 1000–1250……Page 467
APPENDIX J: THE SPANISH KINGDIMS, 1250–1500……Page 468
A……Page 470
C……Page 471
E……Page 472
H……Page 473
J……Page 474
M……Page 475
P……Page 476
S……Page 477
V……Page 478
Z……Page 479