Test

Today in Western Civ class, we took a test which was quite easy i thought. i got an 87% and a lot of people didn't do as well so i was pretty happy with that. The rest of class Mr. Schick graded them and then we ran out of time. The bell was a lot shorter today due to the senior assembly this morning. so each class was only about 30 minutes long.

Test Tomorrow

Today in Western Civilization Class, we were reviewing for the test that will take place tomorrow. We reviewed by having Matt and Phil teach the class.  There review was pretty funny and Mr. Schick told us what some of the test questions will be and some of the ideas for the test.

Test ideas:

• France comes from the Franks
• Clovis has a battlefield conversation- he and his warriors become Christians, he prayed to God and they won the battle 
• Clovis and the Church works together- people liked this 
• Church + Frankish Rules = rise in Christianity 
• 520- Benedict wrote the rules for monks 
• vows of poverty 
• chastity 
• obedience 
• Scholastica writes the rules for the nuns 
• operate schools 
• Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads, and raise armies
• This is a THEOCRACY
• CHRISTENDOM- Christians in the Kingdom
• Most of the rest of Europe consists of smaller kingdoms (7 in England alone) 
• Charles the Hammer 
• Charles the Hammer defeats a MUSLIM raiding party 
• if he did not do this, we could be muslim 
• PEPIN THE SHORT- Charles the Hammer's son
• Pepin has two sons 
• Carolman- dies in 771 
• Charlemagne (Charles the Great) - 6"4 
• CHARLEMAGNE 
• built the greatest empire since Rome
• fought the Muslims in spain 
• Fought the Germanic Tribes
• spread Christianity 
• Reunited Western Europe 
• Became the most powerful king in western Europe 
• Pope Leo III crowned his emperor 
• this signaled the joining of Germanic powerful Church and the heritage of the Roman Empire 
• Limited the authority of the nobles 
• regularly visited his kingdom 
• kept close watch on his huge estates 
• cultural revival 
• learning
• ordered monasteries to open schools 
• opened a palace school 
• His son- Louis the Pious (ineffective) 
• Louis has 3 sons 
• Lothair 
• Charles the Bald 
• Louis the German 
• Split up the kingdom at the TREATY OF VERDUN- 843 AD

More Notes

Today in Western Civilization Class, we went over the notes again for the people who were not here yesterday.  Then we had the rest of the class to basically do nothing. Mr. Schick said we can work on our homework but everyone was talking so we did not really do anything else.

Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

Setting the Stage

• Middle Ages - medieval period
• 476-1453 AD Exact Dates (from the end of the Roman Empire to the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks) 
• Medieval Europe of fragmented 

This is a new society

This new society has its roots in: 

• Classical heritage of Rome
• Beliefs of the Roman Catholics 
• customs of various Germanic tribes 

5th Century Germanic Invaders 

Overrun the western half of the Roman Empire causing

• disruption of trade
• downfall of cities
• population shifts to rural areas 

Russian is not a romance language

Germanic warriors' loyalty is to the lord of the manor, he provides with them with food, weapons, treasure

• Result: 
• No orderly government

Theocracy- Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads and raise armies, 

Charles the Hammer- Battle Of Tours

Charles the Hammer's son is Pepin the Short

Middle Ages-

A European Empire Evolves

• Franks control largest European Kingdom
• the Roman Province formerly known as Gaul
• Ruled by Clovis- the Merovingian Dynasty
• Major Domo- mayor of the palace- rule the kingdom 
• Charles Martel- Charles the Hammer
• Extended the Franks' reign to the north, south and east
• Defeated a Muslim army from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732- historic battle
• Charles the Hammer's son- Pepin the Short
• possibly named for his unusual hair cut
• working for and with the Pope, Pepin fought for the Lombards
• Pope Stephen II named Pepin "king by the grace of God"- the beginning the Carolingian Dynasty- 751-987 AD
• Pepin the Short had two sons- Carolman and Charles
• Carolman died, leaving Charlemagne 

Charlemagne takes the stage

• Charlemagne aka Charles the Great
• 6'4 height
• built the greatest empire since Rome
• Fought the muslims in Spain
• Fought Germanic tribes
• Spread christianity 
• Reunited Western Europe 
• Became the most powerful king in western Europe
• Pope Leo III crowned him emperor in 800 AD after her defended him from an unruly Roman mob
• this signaled the joining of Germanic power, the church, and the heritage of the Roman Empire 
• Charlemagne's government 
• He limited the authority of the nobles
• he regularly visited every part of the kingdom
• kept close watch on his huge estates
• cultural revival 
• encouraged learning 
• ordered monasteries to open schools
• opened a palace school
• but his heirs
• his son- Louis the Pious was ineffective 
• Louis' three sons - Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German- split up the kingdom at the Treaty of Verdun- in 843 AD

Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

Main Idea: 

• Many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire were reunited under Charlemagne's empire

Why is matters now? 

• Charlemagne spread Christian civilization throughout northern europe, which is where many of us came from 

Setting the Stage

• middle ages- medieval period
• 500-1500 AD
• medieval europe is fragmented 

A.  Invasions trigger changes in Western Europe

     1. invasions and constant warfare spark new trends 

        a. disruption of trade 

           i. Europe's cities are not longer economic centers 

          ii. money is scarce 

       b. downfall of cities

          i. cities are not longer centers of administration 

       c. popular shifts

         i. nobles retreat to the rural area

         ii. cities don't have strong leadership

    2. decline of learning

            a. Germanic invaders are illiterate, but they communicate through oral tradition

            b. only priests and church officials could read and write

            c. knowledge of Greek (and literature, science, philosophy) is almost lost

   3. loss of a common language

            a. dialects develop in different regions

            b. by the 800s, French Spanish and other roman- based languages are evolving from Latin

***main language was Latin***

B. Germanic kingdoms emerge 

• the concept of government changes
• Roman Society- loyal to public government 
• Germanic Society loyal to family 
• Germanic chief led warriors 
• During peace, he provided food, weapons, treasure, a place to live (the Lord's hall) 
• During wartime, warriors fought for the Lord 
• They do not know or care for the king
• Franks live in the Roman province of Gaul - their leader is Clovis 
• The Franks under Clovis
• another battlefield conversion 
• Clovis and 3000 of his warriors are baptized by the bishop 
• The Church in Rome approves of this "alliance" 
• Clovis and the church begin the work together

Clovis' military expertise + the Church's support and money = a strategic alliance between two powerful forces!

collect tithes (like taxes)

 C. Germanic peoples adopt Christianity

• (Pope) Gregory I expands papal power
• papacy- pope's office 
• Secular Power - worldly power
• Papal power (power of the pope) is political power, presented from the Pope's palace) 
• the church can use church money to 
• raise armies 
• repair road
• help the poor
• Gregory the Great began to act as mayor of Rome, as head of an earthly kingdom (Christendom) 
• 511 AD- Clovis unites Franks into one kingdom 
• 600 AD- Church and Frankish rules convert many 
• Fear of muslims in southern Europe spur many to become christians 
• Monasteries and Convents
• 520 AD- Benedict wrote the rules for monks and monasteries 
• poverty, chastity, obedience, study 
• his sister Scholastica did the same for nuns in convents
• 731 AD- the Venerable Bede wrote a killer history of England 
• Monks opened schools, maintained libraries and copied books (Bibles, Greek texts) 

 

Middle Ages (feudalism)

Today in class, we went over the notes that we took on page 151. We learned about the time after the Roman empire. Mr. Schick told us that we should put all the notes in our own words so that we understood what we were righting. We talked about a couple of new vocabulary words.

• Christendom- combination of Christianity and Kingdom 
• Taxes/ tithe- tithing is that you have to give 10% of earnings to Church 
• Byzantine Empire- the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was called this

We also learned that in the Empire, they were speaking more Greek instead of Latin like... 

• Socrates 
• Plato 
• playwrights

Some people knew how to speak and write in Greek and Latin. Also, most of the Romans did not focus on education. They more focused on their welfare. 

This was known as the dark ages because, if they did not know how to read and write, they could not progress and learn how to do more things. 

Romans were no longer the center of social life, warfare, and trade

PowerPoint

• Feudalism- a political, military and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances
• In other words, the system is based on personal loyalty to people who can help you 
• Lord- "I own land; i need people to help me work it and defend it" 
• Vassals- "There are a lot of us, we can help the Lord hold on to their land", these people end up becoming knights 

The Feudal Pyramid 

King 

The most powerful Vassals (Nobles and bishops) 

Knights- mounted warriors who received Fiefs for defending their lord's land

Peasants (mostly serfs) Landless, powerless, moneyless, rights-less, just working the land for their lord

• Manor: the lord's estate 
• A lord's manor house
• a church 
• some workshops
• 15-30 families
• all on a few square miles 
• Good News: its a self sufficient community 
• Bad News: its harsh if you are a peasant, not learning about other parts of the world 

How harsh for the peasants? 

• Peasants are poor AND pay high taxes 
• tax on grain
• tax on marriage 
• Church tax (tithe = 10% of their income) 
• They live in crowded cottages 
• they live with animals and insects
• Eat VERY simply 
• the church says this is your lot in life
• God determines you place in society