8.How did Christian monks help Western civilization survive? 9.Why do we say the Bible has shaped Western culture more decisively than anything else ever written? DIVISION THREE THE MIDDLE AGES I.General Introduction In European history,the thousand-year period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century is called the Middle Ages.It is so called because it came between ancient times and modern times. In the latter part of the fourth century the Huns swept into Europe from central Asia,robbing and killing as they came along, and large numbers of the half civilized Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths,the Franks,the Angles and Saxons,and the Vandals fled their homelands in northern Europe and were pushed to cross the Danube river into the territory of the Roman Empire.In A.D.476 a Germanic general killed the last Roman emperor and took control of the government.While the Eastern Roman Empire continued,the power of ancient Rome was gone.In its place mushroomed a great many Germanic kingdoms,which in a few hundred years were to grow into the nations known as England,France,Spain,Italy,and Germany.Between the fifth and eleventh centuries,western Europe was the scene of frequent wars and invasions.The political unity had given way to widespread destruction and confusion.Hunger and disease killed many lives;towns and villages fell into ruin and great areas of land lay waste. 90 91 网用军
During the Medieval times there was no central government to landless peasants and their families.Besides,war had destroyed lots keep the order.The only organization that seemed to unite Europe of towns,trade and business had declined,more and more was the Christian church.It continued to gain widespread power and townspeople fled to the countryside to seek protection from those influence.In the Late Middle Ages,almost everyone in western powerful landowners.In this way,the large landowners came to own Europe was a Christian and a member of the Christian Church. more and more and while the peasants ended up giving the lords not (hristianity took the lead in politics,law,art,and learning for only their land but their freedom as well.Most of them became serfs, hundreds of years.It shaped people's lives.That is why the Middle bound to the land where they had been born.Only very few peasants Ages is also called the "Age of Faith". were freemen,they were usually the workers who made the ploughs, Whatever names we may give to this span of time,this is a shod the horses,and made harnesses for oxen and horses. period in which classical,Hebrew and Gothic heritages merged.And Then in 732 Charles Martel,a Frankish ruler gave his soldiers it is this fusion and blending of different ideas and practices that estates known as fiefs as a reward for their service.They granted the paved the way for the development of what is the present-day right to govern large sections of land as fiefs to great lords.These uropean culture. lords known as vassals in turn promised to fight for the king.And they themselves further granted parts of their fiefs to lesser vassals. Thus,a complicated system of government developed.After 800, Ⅱ.Manor and Church the kings in Europe were usually very weak.Without a strong central government the kingdoms of Western Europe were divided into thousands of feudal manors or farming communities,each as big as an 1.Feudalism ancient polis.Some nobles grew more powerful than the king,and Feudalism in Europe was mainly a system of land holding-a became independent rulers.They had the right to collect taxes and to system of holding land in exchange for military service.The word make their own laws.Many of them coined their own money and "feudalism"was derived from the Latin "feudum",a grant of land. raised their own armies.Therefore feudalism was also a system of government-a form of local and decentralized government. a.Growth of Feudalism When the western Roman Empire grew weak,people lived in b.The Manor constant danger of attacks from invaders and robbers.They had to The centre of medieval life under feudalism was the manor. find ways to protect their families and homes.Owners of small farms Manors were founded on the fiefs of the lords.Some lords owned sought protection from large land-owners,by giving them land and only one manor;others owned many.They lived in a manor house. services.In return the large landowners promised to protect the The manor house originally consisted of one big room with a high 92 93
ceiling and a straw-covered floor.There nobles met with vassals, carried the laws and said their prayer.By the twelfth century manor 2.The Church houses were made of stone and designed as fortresses.They came to Christianity had spread throughout the Roman world and the be called castles.Medieval Europe was dotted with castles.For Church had set up its own government by the time the Western instance in Germany alone there were as many as 10 000 castles. Roman Empire fell.As time went by differences in practices as well Near the manor stood a small village of wood and dirt cottages as in beliefs arose between the Church in the western Mediterranean with thatched roof.The village was surrounded by forests, areas and the Church in the eastern Mediterranean area.They even meadows,pastures,and fields.Most village had a church,mill, did not use the same language.After 1054,the Church was divided bread oven,and wine press.At the centre of the manor stood the into the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. church. In order to develop a civilization based on Christianity,the Catholic Church made Latin the official language and helped to preserve and c.Knighthood and Code of Chivalry pass on the heritage of the Roman Empire. Almost all nobles were knights in the Medieval days.But no one was born a knight-knighthood had to be earned.The training was a.The Organization of Church both long and hard.A noble began his education as a page at the age In the medieval "age of faith",almost all Europeans belonged to of seven.He was taught to say his prayers,learned good manners the Christian (Catholic)Church.Religion was of great importance in and ran errands for the ladies.At about fourteen,the page became a virtually every phase of daily life.The word "catholic",meant squire or assistant to a knight who became his master.He was taught "universal".The Catholic Church was a highly centralized and the duties of a knight and practised using a sword,lance and shield. disciplined international organization,as was pointed out in the He went into battle with his master.If the squire proved to be a good following: fighter,he would be made a knight at a special ceremony known as dubbing.As a knight,he was pledged to protect the weak,to fight "We are compelled,out faith urging us,to believe and to for the church,to be loyal to his lord and to respect women of noble hold-and we do firmly believe and simply confess-that birth.These rules were known as code of chivalry,from which the there is one holy catholic and apostolic Church,outside of which western idea of good manners developed. there is neither salvation nor remission of sins....In this Knight trained for war by fighting each other in mock battles Church there is one Lord,one faith,and one baptism.There called tournaments.The contestants and their horses often got killed was one ark of Noah,indeed,at the time of flood,symbolizing and injured.Yet in spite of the cost these tournaments were festive one Church;and this being finished in one cubit had,namely, occasions that drew all the people around. one Noah as helmsman and commander.And,with the 94 95 提 释周野常不子
exception of this ark,all things existing upon the earth were,as lonely places.This movement developed into the establishment of we read,destroyed." monasteries and convents for monks and nuns.Some of the hermits (Pope BonifaceⅧ，1302) were great scholars known as "Father of the Church",whose work is generally considered orthodox. POPE A notable champion of early monasticism was St.Jerome,who (supreme head) translated into Latin both Old and New Testaments from the Hebrew ARCHBISHOPS and Greek originals.His translation work,the Vulgate,became the COLLEGE OF RELIGIOUS (province) official Latin Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church of this day. CARDINALS ORDERS The most important of all the leaders of Christian thought was 1. elected pope BISHOPS 1.military monastic Augustine of Hippo who lived in North Africa in the fifth century. 2.served as advisors (diocese) 2.lived in monasteries “The Confession”and“The City of God”by him are masterpieces of 3.next in power (abbeys）governed PRIESTS world renown.The former is a vivid picture of his early life.He was to pope by abbots (parish) a Christian but left Christianity at age 17 when he went to school at Carthage,during which time he fathered an illegitimate son.After years of mental disquietude he met St.Ambrose,who influenced him LAY MEMBERS OF CATHOLIC CHURCH to return to Christianity.In "The City of God",he defended Christianity against those who claimed that Rome would not have fallen to Germanic invaders if it had not accepted Christianity.He b.Church Fathers and Early Monasticism argued that Rome's fall was a punishment for having become rich and With the intimate relations between church and empire at last corrupt and for having persecuted Christians. established,differences and rivalries within the church now came to Another great early monk was St.Benedict who founded the surface.In the beginning the controversy was mainly over the Benedictine Rule about 529 A.D.He first studied in Rome,then place of Christ in the trinity-Power (the Father),Wisdom (the withdrew to live as a hermit,highly reputed for his holiness.The Son)and Love (the Holy Spirit).This led to the council of bishops monks who followed Benedict's rule promised to give up all their summoned by the emperor,the purpose of which was to determine possession before entering the monastery.They wore simple clothes whether certain specific theological novelties were orthodox or and ate only certain simple foods.They could not marry and had to heretical. obey without question the orders of the abbot.They had to attend Heeding the spiritual message of Christianity,between 300 and service seven times during the day and once at midnight.In addition 500 A.D.many men withdrew from worldly contacts to deserts and they were expected to work five hours a day in the fields surrounding 96 97
the monastery. The Medieval Church was the centre of daily life in the country From this we can see in the formative period of feudalism the and town alike,and it had a part in all important events.The bishops and abbots were themselves feudal lords.But the church Church taught that all people had sinned and had to rely on God's played an important role,because as the only literate section of the favour to get to heaven.The only way to get this favour was by community,the Christian monks did a lot to help preserve and taking part in sacraments.Shortly after a child was born,he was transmit a large part of the traditional heritage of the western baptized,and thus became a member of the Church.Later he was culture. married by a priest.On Fridays meat should not be touched and on 17: Sundays everybody went to the church to worship God.One of the c.The Power and Influence of the Catholic Church most important sacraments was holy communion,which was to Under feudalism,people of western Europe were mainly divided remind people that Christ had died to redeem man. into three classes:clergy,lords and peasants.The highest was the As most people living on the manors were poor and enjoyed few clergy,the lowest,the peasants and a small number of townspeople. pleasures,they turned to the Catholic Church for comfort and In the late Middle Ages only Catholics were considered members of guidance.Apart from being a place of worship,the church building society.Kings,nobles and church officials worked together to rule was a place for recreation and the centre of trade and community the people.Since most of the kings and nobles could not read and activity. write,they used clergymen to carry out important government duties.And for centuries,the clergymen were the only teachers,as 3.The Crusades they were the best-educated men in their day. To express their religious feelings,many people in the Middle People had to pay heavy taxes to their parish churches,part of Ages went on journeys to sacred places where early Christain leaders which passed on to the Pope in Rome,In addition,nobles and kings had lived.The most important of all was Jerusalem.But in 1071 often gave lands,crops or cattle to support the church.As a matter Palestine fell to the armies of the Turkish Moslems who unlike the of fact,many high church officials were themselves big landowners Arabs attacked the Christain pilgrims,killing many of them and sold and influential nobles.The pope not only ruled Rome and parts of many others as slaves.News of this kind roused great indignation Italy as a king,he was also the head of all Christian churches in among Christains in western Europe.The result was a series of holy western Europe.Those who opposed the Pope lost their membership wars called crusades which went on about 200 years.All the soldiers in the Church and their political right.Some Popes had the right to going to Palestine wore a red cross on the tunics as a symbol of remove any emperor who refused to accept the authority of the pope. obedience to God.There were altogether eight chief Crusades: The Church even set up a church court-the Inquisition to stamp First Crusade-1096-1099 out so-called heresy. Second Crusade-1147-1149 98 99