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The Middle Ages (adjectival form: medieval, mediaeval or mediæval) is a period of European history, encompassing the period from the 5th century to the 15th century. Historians traditionally mark the beginning of the Middle Ages with the loss of Rome by the Roman Empire in 476 and the end with the loss of Constantinople and death of the last Roman emperor in 1453. It is followed by the Early Modern Era and is the middle period of the traditional three-period division of Western history into Classical, Medieval and Modern.

In the Early Middle Ages depopulation, deurbanization, and barbarian invasion, all of which had begun in Late Antiquity, continued and strengthened. The barbarian invaders formed their own new kingdoms in the remains of the Western Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire survived and even expanded during the 6th century. In the 7th century North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the eastern empire, became Islamic after conquest by Mohammed's successors. Although there was a large amount of change in society and political structures, the break was not as extreme as once put forth by historians, with many of the new kingdoms incorporating as many of the existing Roman institutions as they were able to. Christianity expanded in western Europe and monasteries were founded. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty established an empire that covered much of Western Europe, but this empire broke up in the 9th century under pressures from new invaders.

During the High Middle Ages which began after 1000, the population of Europe grew greatly as new technological and agricultural inventions allowed trade to flourish and crop yields to increase. Manorialism - the organization of peasants into villages which owed rents and labor service to nobles - and feudalism - a political structure whereby knights and lower status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rents from lands and manors - were two of the ways of organizing medieval society that developed during the High Middle Ages. Kingdoms became more centralized after the decentralizing effects of the breakup of the Carolingian Empire. The Crusades, which were first preached in 1095, were an attempt by western Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims, and succeeded long enough to found some Christian kingdoms in and around Jerusalem. Scholasticism and the founding of universities marked intellectual life, while the building of Gothic cathedrals was one of the outstanding achievements of artistic life.

The Late Middle Ages were marked by difficulties and calamities. Famine, plague and war decimated the population of western Europe, with the Black Death alone killing approximately a third of the population between the years 1347 and 1350. Controversy and schism within the Church was echoed by warfare between states as well as civil war and peasant revolts inside kingdoms. Heresies developed and added to difficulties within the Church.

Etymology and periodization

The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analyzing European history: classical civilization (or Antiquity), the Middle Ages, and the modern period. It is "middle" in the sense of being between the two other periods in time. Humanists in the Renaissance argued that their scholarship restored direct links to the classical period, thus bypassing the Medieval period. The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas (middle times). In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum (Middle Age), first recorded in 1604, and media scecula (Middle Ages), first recorded in 1625. English is the only major language that retains the plural form.

Start and end dates

The most commonly given start date for the Middle Ages is 476, first used by Bruni. For Europe as a whole, date of 1500 is often used for the ending of the Middle Ages as a whole. In contrast, English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485) to mark the end of the period. For Spain, the death of King Ferdinand II (1516), of Queen Isabella I of Castile (1504) or otherwise the conquest of Granada (1492) is often used.

Subdivisions

Historians in the Romance languages tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High" and "Late". Belgian historian Henri Pirenne and Dutch historian Johan Huizinga popularized the following subdivisions in the early 20th century: the Early Middle Ages (476–1000), the High Middle Ages (1000–1300), and the Late Middle Ages (1300–1453). In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the "Dark Ages". But with the creation of these subdivisions use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians.

Timeline

The later Roman Empire

The Roman empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD with the following two centuries witnessing the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressures on the frontiers combined to make the 3rd century unstable politically, with a number of different emperors coming to the throne and then being replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the need to defend against the renewed war with Sassanid Persia, which began in the middle of the 3rd century. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in the number the curial landowning class, with increasing numbers of the members of that class being unwilling to shoulder the burdens of office holding in their native towns.

In the late 3rd and early 4th century, the Emperor Diocletian split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286, although the empire was not considered divided, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other. After a period of civil war, in 330 Constantine refounded the city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople. Diocletian's reforms created a strong governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army. These reforms bought the Empire time, but did not completely solve the problems the empire was facing, which included excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on the frontiers. Civil war between different emperors became common in the middle of the 4th century, and the need for military forces to fight against rival emperors led to a weakening of frontier forces, with barbarian forces penetrating past the frontiers.

In 376, the Ostrogoths, fleeing from the Huns, received permission from the Roman emperor Valens to settle in the Roman province of Thracia. But the settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, they began to raid and plunder Thracia. Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed in battle with the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. Besides the barbarian threat from the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused troubles. In 400, the Visigoths, invaded the western empire, and although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 they were able to sack the city of Rome. While the Visigoths were invading, in 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul and over the next three years, they crossed across Gaul and in 409 arrived across the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. Other groups of barbarians took part in the movements of peoples in this time period. The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians eventually all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled in Britain. In the 430s, the Huns were added to the mix, with their king Attila leading invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, into Gaul in 451, and into Italy in 452. With Attila's death in 453, the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. All of these invasions by the varied tribes totally redid the political and demographic face of what had been the western Roman empire.

By the end of the 5th century, the western empire was divided into smaller political units ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476, making this year the traditional date of the ending of the western empire. The Eastern Roman Empire (conventionally referred to as the "Byzantine Empire" after the fall of its western counterpart) had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. Even though Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, and no "barbarian" king dared to elevate himself to the position of Emperor of the West, Byzantine control of most of the West could not be sustained; the renovatio imperii ("imperial restoration", entailing reconquest of the Italian peninsula and Mediterranean periphery) by Justinian was the sole, and temporary, exception.

Early Middle Ages

New societies

Although the political structure in western Europe had changed, the break was not as extensive as historians have claimed in the past. The emperors of the fifth century were often controlled by military men - such as Stilicho, Ricimer, Gundobad, or Aspar - and when western emperors ceased to be, many of the kings who replaced the emperor were from the same background as the military strongmen who had previously controlled the emperors. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of the Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies which led to a direct influence of more of the free male tribal members in political society. Material remains of the Romans and the invaders were often similar, with the tribal items often being obviously modeled on Roman items. Similarly, much of the intellectual culture of the new kingdoms was directly based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference, however, was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer provided for their armies with tax revenues, but instead allocated lands or rents from lands to support the military forces. This change meant that there was less need for large tax revenues which meant that taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply declined and society became more rural.

Between the 5th and 8th centuries in western Europe, new peoples and powerful individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralized government. The Ostrogoths settled in Italy in the late fifth century under Theodoric and set up a kingdom marked by its cooperation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier kingdom was destroyed by the Huns in 436 they formed a new kingdom in the 440s between modern-day Geneva and Lyons. This grew to be a powerful kingdom in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. In northern Gaul, the Franks and Britons, set up small kingdoms. The Frankish kingdom was centered in northeastern Gaul and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric, who died in 481. Under Childeric's son Clovis, the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. The Britons, related to the natives of Britannia, settled in what is now Brittany, which took its name from their settlement. Other kingdoms were established by the Visigoths in Spain, the Suevi in northwestern Spain, and the Vandals in North Africa. In the 6th century, the Lombards settled in northern Italy, replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected a king to rule over all of them. By the late 6th century this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy.

Byzantine survival

At the same time that western Europe was witnessing the formation of new kingdoms, the eastern section of the Empire remained intact and even enjoyed an economic revival that lasted into the early seventh century. There were less invasions of the eastern section of the empire, with most of those occurring in the Balkans. Peace with Persia, the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of the 5th century. The eastern empire was marked by a much closer relationship between the political state and the Christian church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in eastern politics that they did not have in western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law known as the Theodosian Code. Under the emperor Justinian (reigned 527–565), a further compilation took place, known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. Justinian also oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths. But the conquest of Italy was not complete, and a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 meant that the rest of Justinian's reign was concentrated on defensive measures rather than further conquests.

A further complication for the eastern empire was the slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs, originally small invasions but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium, defeating an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube River. By the end of the 6th century they were the dominant power in Central Europe and were routinely able to force the eastern emperors to give them tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. Further complications were the involvement of the emperor Maurice in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute. This led to a period of peace but when Maurice was overthrown in turn, the Persians invaded and during the reign of the emperor Heraclius (reigned 610–641) managed to control large chunks of the empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. Heraclius was eventually able to secure a peace treaty with the Persians in 628 that restored the earlier boundaries of the empire.

Religious ferment and Islam

Religious beliefs in the eastern empire and Persia were in flux during the late 6th and early 7th century. Judaism was an active missionary faith in this time period, with at least one Arab political leader converting to Judaism. Christianity also had active missions that competed with the Persian's Zoroastrianism in seeking to gain converts, especially amongst the residents of the Arabian peninsula. All of these strands came together in emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad. After Muhammad's death in 632, Islamic forces went on to conquer much of the eastern Empire as well as Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635 and extending to Egypt in 640–641, Persia in between 637 and 642, North Africa in the later 7th century, and Spain in 711. By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean, with trade between the Franks, the Arabs, and the Byzantines replacing the old Roman patterns of trade. Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves to the Arabs in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals.

Church and monasticism

Christianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe prior to the Arab conquests, but the conquest of North Africa sundered the connections. Increasingly, the Byzantine Church, which became the Orthodox Church, differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the western Church, which became the Catholic Church. The eastern church used Greek instead of the western Latin language. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm, clerical marriage, and state control of the church had widened enough that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities.

The ecclesiastical structure of the Roman empire survived the barbarian invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, with few of the western bishops looking to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and eastern theological concerns. The register, or archive copies of the letters, of Pope Gregory the Great, (pope 590–604) survives, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of western Europe where the papacy had influence was in Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Other missionary efforts were led by the Irish, who between the 5th and the 7th centuries were the most active missionaries in wester Europe, with missionaries going first to England and Scotland and then later onto the continent. Irish missionaries, under such monks as Columba and Columbanus, not only founded monasteries but also taught in both Latin and Greek and were active authors of both secular and religious works.

The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism within the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. The style of monasticism that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism, was pioneered by the saint Pachomius in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Anthony. Saint Benedict wrote the Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot. Monks and monasteries had a deep effect upon the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, bases for mission, and proselytization. In addition, they were the main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Roman classics were copied in monasteries in the early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, which were written by authors such as Bede, a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th century.

Carolingian Europe

The Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul developed into kingdoms called Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy during the 6th and 7th centuries, under the Merovingians who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of civil wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by Pippin of Landen the powerful Mayor of the Palace, who became the power behind the throne. Later members of his family line inherited the office, acting as advisors and regents. One of his descendents Charles Martel won the Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees. Muslim armies had earlier conquered the Visigothic kingdom of Spain, after defeating the last Visigothic king Ruderic at the Battle of Guadalete in 711, finishing the conquest by 719. Across the English Channel in the British Isles, the island of Britain was divided into small states which were dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and East Anglia, which were descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the original native British and Picts. Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, which were under the control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance.

The Carolingian dynasty, as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III. A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II. Pippin's takeover was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers and exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 783, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles and Carloman. When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's minor son and installed himself as the king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. This Charles, known to his contemporaries as Charles the Great or Charlemagne, embarked in 774 upon a program of systematic expansion that would unify a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony. In the wars that lasted just beyond 800, he rewarded loyal allies with war booty and command over parcels of land.

The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day of 800 is regarded as a turning-point in medieval history, marking a return of the western Roman empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the western emperors. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with the Byzantine empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalency to the eastern empire. However, there were a number of differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older western Roman empire and the concurrent Byzantine empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with few cities, and what cities existed were very small. Farming techniques were not advanced, and most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that was with the northern realms of the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman empire which had its trading networks centered on the Mediterranean.

Carolingian Renaissance

Charlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of a cultural revival that is sometimes referred to as the "Carolingian Renaissance". This period witnessed an increase of literacy, developments in the arts, architecture, and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin was invited to Aachen, and brought with him the precise classical Latin education that was available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery made use of a new type of script known as Carolingian minuscule, providing a common writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe. Charlemagne also sponsored changes in the church liturgy, imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains as well as the Gregorian chant in the churches. An important activity for scholars during the Carolingian period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on both religious and secular topics, in order to further learning. New works on religious topics as well as new textbooks were also produced.

Breakup of the Carolingian empire

While Charlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, this came to nothing as only one son, Louis the Pious, was still alive in 813. That year, Charlemagne crowned Louis as his successor as king and co-emperor, and died in 814. Louis's long reign of 26 years was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, numerous civil wars between various alliances of father and sons against other sons to determine how the empire would be divided. Eventually, the final result was that Louis recognized his eldest son Lothair I as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald, his youngest son. Lothair received East Francia, which comprised the empire on both banks of the Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia, which comprised the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German, the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was not undisputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine, the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine, while Louis the German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis died in 840, with the empire still in chaos.

A three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognized. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles the Bald got the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost.

The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by the invasions, migrations, and raids of external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings, who also raided the British Isles and settled in both Britain and Ireland as well as the distant island of Iceland. A further settlement of Vikings was made in France in 911 under the chieftan Rollo, who received permission from the Frankish king Charles the Simple to settle in what became Normandy. The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under constant Magyar assault until their great defeat at the Battle of the Lechfeld in 955. The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty in the Muslim world meant that the Islamic world was fragmented into a number of smaller political states, some of whom began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over the Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms.

Efforts by local kings to fight back the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Britain, King Alfred the Great in the late 9th century came to a settlement with the Viking invaders, with Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of the southern part of the island of Britain. In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany, and the Ottonians were engaged in driving back the Magyar invaders. Their efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I as emperor. Italy was drawn into the Ottonian sphere by the late 10th century, after a period of instability. The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented and although a nominal king remained theoretically in charge, much of the political power had devolved down to the local lords.

Missionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms there. Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian kingdoms gained power and territory in the course of the 9th and 10th centuries, and some of the kings converted to Christianity, although the process was not complete by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonized throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia as well as in Iceland. Swedish traders and raiders ranged down the rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and in 907. Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León in the process.

Art and architecture

Few truly large stone buildings were attempted between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, but many smaller stone buildings were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian empire revived the basilica form of architecture. One feature of the renewed basilica was the use of a transept, or the "arms" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave. Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church, usually at the west end of the building.

In the decorative arts, Celtic and Germanic barbarian forms were absorbed into Christian art, although the central impulse remained Roman and Byzantine. High quality jewellery and religious imagery were produced throughout Western Europe; Charlemagne and other monarchs provided patronage for religious artworks such as reliquaries and books. Some of the principal artworks of the age were the fabulous Illuminated manuscripts produced by monks on vellum, using gold, silver, and precious pigments to illustrate biblical narratives. Early examples include the Book of Kells and many Carolingian and Ottonian Frankish manuscripts.

High Middle Ages

Society and economic life

The High Middle Ages saw an expansion of population. Rough estimates of the population increase from the year 1000 until 1347 indicate that the population of Europe increased from 35 million to 80 million. The exact cause or causes of this growth remains unclear, although improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate, and the lack of invading outsiders have all been put forwards as reasons for the population increase. As much as 90 percent of the European population remained rural peasants. Many of them, however, were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages. These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism. There remained, however, a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond.

Other sections of society were the nobility, the clergy, and townsmen. Nobles, which included both titled nobility and the simple knights, were the exploiters of the manors and the peasants, although they did not own the lands outright, rather being granted the right to the income from a manor or other lands by an overlord in the system known as feudalism. During the 11th and 12th centuries, these lands, or fiefs, came to be considered hereditary and in most areas they were no longer divisible between all the heirs as had been the case in the early medieval period. Now, instead, most fiefs and lands went to the eldest son. The clergy was divided into two types - the secular clergy who lived in the world, and the regular clergy, or those who lived under a religious rule and were usually monks. Most of the regular clergy were drawn from the ranks of the nobility, the same social class that served as the recruiting ground for the upper levels of the secular clergy. The local parish priests were often drawn from the peasant class. Townsmen were in a somewhat unusual position, as they did not fit into the traditional three-fold division of society into nobles, clergy, and peasants. But, during the 12th and 13th centuries, the ranks of the townsmen expanded greatly as existing towns expanded and new towns were founded.

In central and northern Italy and in Flanders, the rise of towns that were, to some degree, self-governing, stimulated the economy and created an environment for new types trade associations. Trading cities on the shores of the Baltic entered into agreements known as the Hanseatic League, and Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, and Pisa expanded their trade throughout the Mediterranean. Besides new trading opportunities, the agricultural and technological improvements enabled the increase in crop yields, which in turn allowed the trade networks to expand. Rising trade required new methods of dealing with money, and gold coinage was once more minted in Europe during the High Middle Ages, at first in Italy and later in France and other countries. New forms of commercial contracts emerged, allowing risk to be shared amongst merchants. Accounting, including double-entry bookkeeping, advanced and letters of credit were invented to allow the easy transmission of money through the trading networks.

Political states

The High Middle Ages marks a formative one in the history of the Western state as we know it, for kings in France, England, and Spain consolidated their power during this period, setting up lasting institutions to help them govern. Also new kingdoms like Hungary and Poland, after their conversion to Christianity, became Central-European powers. The papacy, which had long since created an ideology of independence from the secular kings, first asserted its claims to temporal authority over the entire Christian world. The entity that historians call the Papal Monarchy reached its apogee in the early 13th century under the pontificate of Innocent III. Northern Crusades and the advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic region and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European identity.

During the early part of the High Middle Ages, Germany was under the rule of the Saxon dynasty, who struggled to control the powerful dukes who ruled over territorial duchies that traced back to the Migration period. In 1024, the ruling dynasty changed to the Salian dynasty, who famously clashed with the papacy under Emperor Henry IV over church appointments. His successors continued to struggle against the papacy as well as the German nobility. After the death of Emperor Henry V without heirs, a period of instability arose until Frederick I Barbarossa took the imperial throne in the late 12th century. Although Barbarossa managed to rule effectively, the basic problems remained, and his successors continued to struggle with them into the 13th century.

France, under the Capetian dynasty, began to slowly expand it's power over the nobility, managing to expand out of the Ile de France and to exert control over more of France as the 11th and 12th centuries. They faced a powerful rival, however, in the Dukes of Normandy, who in 1066 under William the Conqueror, conquered England and created a cross-channel empire that would last, in various forms, throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. Under the Angevin dynasty of King Henry II and his sons, the kings of England ruled over not just England, but large sections of France as well, but King John lost Normandy and the rest of the northern French possessions. Dissension amongst the English nobility over this loss and John's financial exactions to pay for his unsuccessful attempts to regain Normandy led to the nobility forcing John to concede Magna Carta, a charter that confirmed the rights and privileges of free men in England. Under John's son, further concessions were made to the nobility, and royal power was diminished. The French monarchy, however, continued to make gains against the nobility during the late 12th and 13th centuries, bringing more territories within the kingdom under their personal rule and centralizing the royal administration.

Crusades

The Crusades were wars intended to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control. The first Crusade was preached by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095 in response to a request from the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos for aid against further advancement. Urban promised indulgence to anyone who took part. Tens of thousands of people from all levels of society mobilized across Europe, and captured Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade. The Crusaders consolidated their conquests as a number of Crusader states During the 12th century and 13th century, there were a series of conflicts between these states and surrounding Islamic ones. Further crusades were called to aid these states, or to try to regain Jerusalem, which was captured by Saladin in 1187. Military religious orders such as the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller were formed and went on to play an integral role in the Crusader states. In 1203, the Fourth Crusade was diverted from the Holy Land to Constantinople, and captured that city in 1204, setting up a Latin Empire of Constantinople and greatly weakening the Byzantine Empire, which finally recaptured Constantinople in 1261, but the Byzantines never regained their former strength. By 1291, the Crusader states had all been either captured or forced off the mainland, with a titular kingdom of Jerusalem surviving on the island of Cyprus for a number of years after 1291.

Popes called for crusaders to take place other than the Holy Land, with crusades being proclaimed in Spain, southern France, and along the Baltic. The Spanish crusades became fused with the Reconquista, or reconquest, of Spain from the Moslems. Although the Templars and Hospitallers took part in the Spanish crusades, Spanish military religious orders were also founded in imitation of the Templars and Hospitallers, with most of them becoming part of the two main orders of Calatrava and Santiago by the beginning of the 12th century. Northern Europe also remained outside Christian influence until the 11th century or later; these areas also became crusading venues as part of the Northern Crusades of the 12th through the 14th centuries. This too spawned a military order, the Order of the Sword Brothers. Another order, the Teutonic Knights, although originally founded in the Crusader states, focused much of its activity in the Baltic after 1225, and in 1309 it moved its headquarters to Marienburg in Prussia.

Intellectual life

During the 11th century, developments in philosophy and theology began to stimulate intellectual activity. The debate between the realists and the nominalists over the concept of "universals", or the qualities that all things that are the same share. These philosophical discussions were fueled by the rediscovery of Aristotle's works, which also stimulated theological thought. Scholars such as Abelard and Peter Lombard introduced Aristoltelian logic into theology. The late 11th and early 12th century also saw the rise of cathedral schools throughout western Europe, which signaled the shift of learning from monasteries to cathedrals and towns. Cathedral schools were then in turn replaced in the late 11th century by universities, that were established in major European cities. Philosophy and theology fused in scholasticism, an attempt by 12th and 13th century scholars to reconcile Christian theology with itself, which eventually resulted in the a system of thought that tried to systemic approach to truth and reason. This culminated in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, who wrote the Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology.

Besides the universities, royal and noble courts became centers of a different type of culture, that of chivalry and the ethos of courtly love. This culture was in the vernacular languages, not Latin, and was composed of poems, stories, legends, and popular songs spread by troubadors. Often these stories were written down in the chansons de geste, or "songs of great deeds", examples of which are The Song of Roland or The Song of Hildebrand.

Legal studies also advanced during the 12th century. Both secular law and canon law, or ecclesiastical law, were studied in the High Middle Ages. Secular law, or Roman law, was advanced greatly by the discovery of the corpus iuris civilis in the 11th century and by 1100 Roman law was being taught at Bologna. This teaching of Roman law led to the recording and standardization of legal codes throughout western Europe. Canon law was also studied, and around 1140 a monk named Gratian, a teacher at Bologna, wrote what became the standard text of canon law - the Decretum.

Among the results of the Greek and Islamic influence on this period in European history was the replacement of Roman numerals with the decimal positional number system and the invention of algebra, which allowed more advanced mathematics. Astronomy also advanced, with the translation of Ptolomey's Almagest from Greek into Latin in the late 12th century. Medicine also was studied, especially in southern Italy where Islamic medicine influenced the school at Salerno.

Science and technology

During the 12th and 13th century in Europe, there a number of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the invention of the windmill, the first mechanical clocks, the first investigations of optics and the creation of crude lenses, the manufacture of distilled spirits, and the use of the astrolabe.

One major agricultural innovation during this period was the development of a 3-field rotation system for planting crops as opposed the 2-field system that had been used previously. Further, the development of the heavy plow allowed heavier soils to be farmed more efficiently, an advance that was helped along by the spread of the horse collar and the horseshoe, both of which allowed horses to be used as draught animals in place of oxen. Horses were faster than oxen as well as needing less pasture, both of which helped the utilization of the 3-field system.

Building technology also advanced, with the need to construct the cathedrals and castles spurring on the development of the ability to build large buildings in stone. Besides the large-scale buildings such as cathedrals or castles, other buildings were built in stone, including new town halls, houses, bridges, and tithe barns. Shipbuilding also improved, with the use of the rib and plank method rather than the old Roman system of mortice and tenon. Other improvements to ships included the use of lateen sails and the stern-post rudder, both of which increased the speed at which ships could be sailed.

Art and architecture

At this time, the establishment of churches and monasteries, and a comparative political stability, caused the development of a form of stone architecture loosely based upon Roman forms and hence later named Romanesque. Where available, Roman brick and stone buildings were recycled for their materials. From the fairly tentative beginnings known as the First Romanesque, the style flourished and spread across Europe in a remarkably homogeneous form. The features are massive stone walls, openings topped by semi-circular arches, small windows, and, particularly in France, arched stone vaults. Manuscripts continued to be illuminated in scriptoriums across Europe, and many of the new churches were painted with large murals, some of which survive.

Beginning in the early 12th century, French builders began to experiment with the Gothic style. This architectural style was marked by the use of rib vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and large stained glass windows. The Gothic style was mainly used in churches and cathedrals, and continued in use until the 16th century in much of Europe. Classic examples of Gothic architecture include Chartres Cathedral and Reims Cathedral in France as well as Salisbury Cathedral in England.

Church and society

Monastic reform became an important issue during the 11th century, when elites began to worry that monks were not adhering to their rules with the discipline that was required for a good religious life. The monastery of Cluny, founded in the Mâcon in 909, was founded as part of a larger movement of monastic reform in response to this fear. It was a reformed monastery that quickly established a reputation for austerity and rigour. Cluny sought to maintain the high quality of spiritual life by electing its own abbot without advice from laymen, and maintained an economic and political independence from local lords by placing itself under the protection of the papacy.

The monastic reform inspired change in the secular church, as well. The ideals that it was based upon were brought to the papacy by Pope Leo IX on his election in 1049, providing the ideology of clerical independence that fuelled the Investiture Controversy in the late 11th century. This involved Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who initially clashed episcopal appointments and turned into a battle over the ideas of investiture, clerical marriage, and simony. The emperor saw the protection of the Church as one of his responsibilities as well as wanting to preserve the right to appoint his own choices as bishops within his lands. The papacy, however, insisted on the Church's independence from secular lords These issues themselves remained unresolved after the compromise of 1122 known as the Concordat of Worms. The conflict represents a significant stage in the creation of a papal monarchy separate from and equal to lay authorities. It also had the permanent consequence of empowering German princes at the expense of the German emperors.

The High Middle Ages was a period of great religious movements. Besides the Crusades and monastic reform, other groups sought to participate in new forms of religious life. New monastic orders were founded, including the Carthusians, the Cistercians, and the military orders such as the Templars. These new orders were formed in response the feeling of the laity that Benedictine monasticism no longer met the needs of the laymen. Laymen and those wishing to enter the religious life wanted to return to the simpler hermetical monasticism of early Christianity or to live an Apostolic life. In the 13th century, mendicant orders - the Franciscans and the Dominicans - who swore vows of poverty and earned their living by begging, were approved by the papacy. Besides the recognized orders, other religious groups such as the Waldensians and the Humiliati attempted to return to the life of early Christianity in the middle 12th and early 13th century, but they were condemned as heretical by the papacy. Others joined the Cathars, another heretical movement which was condemned by the papacy. In 1209, a crusade was preached against the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade, which in combination with the medieval Inquisition, finally eliminated the Cathars.

Late Middle Ages

Famine and plague

The first years of the 14th century were marked by a number of famines, culminating in the Great Famine of 1315–1317. The causes of the Great Famine were not just related to the ongoing climatic change that was taking place but also had causes in overspecialization in single crops, which left the population vulnerable when bad weather caused crop failures. Other troubles included an economic downturn and the aforementioned climate change - which resulted in the average annual temperature for Europe declining 2 degrees Celsius during the 14th century.

These troubles were followed in 1347 by the Black Death, a disease that spread throughout Europe in the years 1348, 1349, and 1350. The death toll was probably about 35 million people in total in Europe, about one-third of the total population. Towns were especially hard-hit because of the crowded conditions. Large areas of land were left sparsely inhabited, and in some places fields were left unworked. Because of the sudden decline in available labourers, the price of wages rose as landlords sought to entice workers to their fields, but the lower rents were balanced out by the lower demand for food, which cut into agricultural income. Urban workers also felt that they had a right to greater earnings, and popular uprisings broke out across Europe. Conditions were further unsettled by the return of the plague throughout the rest of the 14th century, and continued to strike Europe throughout the rest of the Middle Ages.

State resurgence

The Late Middle Ages also witnessed the rise of strong, royalty-based nation-states throughout Europe, particularly in England, France, and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (Aragon, Castile, and Portugal). The long conflicts of the later Middle Ages strengthened royal control over the kingdoms, even though they were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare by gaining land and extended royal legislation throughout their kingdoms. Paying for the wars required that the methods of taxation become more efficient and the rate of taxation often increased. The requirement to obtain the consent of those taxed meant that representative bodies such as the English Parliament or the French Estates General gained some power and new authority.

Throughout the 14th century, French kings sought to expand their influence throughout the kingdom at the expense of the territorial holdings of the nobility. This ran into difficulties when they attempted to confiscate the holdings of the English kings in southern France, leading to the Hundred Years' War, which lasted until 1453. The stresses of this war almost caused the disintegration of the French kingdom during the early years of the war. In the early 15th century, France once more teetered on the brink of dissolving, but in the late 1420s military successes led by Joan of Arc led to the eventual victory of the French kings over the English with the capture of the last of the English possessions in southern France in 1453.

In modern-day Germany, the Empire continued, but the elective nature of the imperial crown meant that there was no strong dynasty around which a strong state could form. Further east, the kingdoms of Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia grew into powerful kingdoms. The Iberian Peninsula kingdoms continued to gain land from the Muslim kingdoms of the peninsula, with Portugal concentrating on expanding overseas during the 15th century while the other kingdoms were riven by difficulties over the royal succession and other concerns throughout the 15th century. England, after losing the Hundred Years' War, went on to suffer a long civil war known as the Wars of the Roses, which lasted into the 1490s.

Controversy within the Church

The troubled 14th century saw both the Avignon Papacy of 1305–1378, also called the "Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy" (a reference to the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews), and then the Great Schism that lasted from 1378 to 1418, when there were two, then later three, rival popes, each supported by a number of states. In the early years of the 15th century, after a century of turmoil, ecclesiastical officials convened in Constance in 1414, and in 1415 the council deposed one of the rival popes, leaving only two claimants. Further depositions followed, and in November 1417 the council elected Martin V as pope.

Besides the schism, the western church was riven by theological controversies, some of which turned into heresies. John Wyclif, an English theologian, was condemned as a heretic in 1415 for teaching that the laity should have access to the text of the Bible as well as holding views on the Eucharist that were contrary to church doctrine. Wyclif's teachings influenced two of the major heretical movements of the later Middle Ages - Lollardry in England and Hussitism in Bohemia. The Bohemians were also influenced by the teaching of Jan Hus, who was eventually burned at the stake in 1415 after being condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance. The Hussite church, although subject to a crusade being called against it, survived past the end of the Middle Ages.

Modern image

The medieval period is frequently caricatured as supposedly a "time of ignorance and superstition" which placed "the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity."

Others argue that reason was generally held in high regard during the Middle Ages. The historian of science Edward Grant, writes that "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed , they were only made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities". Also, contrary to common belief, David Lindberg says "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led".

The caricature of the period is also reflected in a number of more specific notions. For instance, a claim that was first propagated in the 19th century and is still very common in popular culture is the supposition that all people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. This claim is mistaken. In fact, lecturers in the medieval universities commonly advanced evidence in favor of the idea that the Earth was a sphere. Lindberg and Numbers write: "There was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge sphericity and even know its approximate circumference".

Notes

1. A reference work published in 1883 equates the Dark Ages with the Middle Ages, but beginning with William Paton Ker in 1904, the term "Dark Ages" is generally restricted to the early part of the Medieval period. For example, the 1911 edition of Britannica defines the Dark Ages this way. See Dark Ages for a more complete historiography of this term.
2. This system, which eventually encompassed two senior co-emperors and two junior co-emperors, is known as the Tetrarchy.
3. An alternate date of 480 is sometimes given, as that was the date when Romulus Augustulus' predecessor Julius Nepos died. Nepos had continued to assert that he was the western emperor while holding onto Dalmatia.
4. His grave was discovered in 1653 and is remarkable for the grave goods included, which included a number of weapons and a large quantity of gold.

Citations

1. ^ Power Central Middle Ages p. 304
2. ^ Albrow Gllobal Age p. 205
3. ^ Robinson "Medieval, the Middle Ages" Speculum
4. "Middle Ages" Dictionary.com
5. Bruni History of the Florentine people p. xvii
6. See the title of Watts Making of Polities Europe 1300–1500 or Epstein Economic History of Later Medieval Europe 1000–1500
7. See the title of Saul Companion to Medieval England 1066–1485
8. Kamen Spain 1469–1714 p. 29
9. ^ Mommsen "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" Speculum
10. Cunliffe Europe Between the Oceans pp. 391–393
11. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 3–5
12. Heather Fall of the Roman Empire p. 111
13. ^ Collins Early Medieval Europe p. 9
14. Collins Early Medieval Europe p. 24
15. Cunliffe Europe Between the Oceans pp. 405–406
16. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 31–33
17. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 47–49
18. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 56–59
19. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 80–83
20. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 59–60
21. ^ Cunliffe Europe Between the Oceans p. 417
22. James Europe's Barbarians pp. 67–68
23. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 117–118
24. Wickham Inheritance of Rome p. 79
25. ^ Wickham Inheritance of Rome p. 86
26. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 116–134
27. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 95–98
28. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 100–101
29. Collins Early Medieval Europe p. 100
30. ^ Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 96–97
31. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 102–103
32. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 86–91
33. James Europe's Barbarians pp. 82–85
34. ^ James Europe's Barbarians pp. 77–78
35. James Europe's Barbarians pp. 79–80
36. James Europe's Barbarians pp. 78–81
37. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 196–208
38. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 81–83
39. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 200–202
40. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 206–213
41. James Europe's Barbarians pp. 95–99
42. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 140–143
43. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 143–145
44. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 149–151
45. Cunliffe Europe Between the Oceans pp. 427–428
46. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 218–233
47. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 170–172
48. Colish Medieval Foundations pp. 62–63
49. Lawrence Medieval Monasticism pp. 10–13
50. Lawrence Medieval Monasticism pp. 18–24
51. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 185–187
52. Hamilton Religion in the Medieval West pp. 43–44
53. Colish Medieval Foundations pp. 64–65
54. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 246–253
55. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 347–349
56. Bauer History of the Medieval World p. 344
57. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 158–159
58. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 164–165
59. Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 371–378
60. ^ Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 109
61. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 117–120
62. Colish Medieval Foundations pp. 66–70
63. ^ Bauer History of the Medieval World pp. 427–431
64. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 139
65. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 141–144
66. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 144–145
67. Bauer Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 147–149
68. Collins Early Medieval Europepp. 378–385
69. Collins Early Medieval Europe p. 387
70. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 394–404
71. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 435–439
72. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 439–444
73. Collins Early Medieval Europe pp. 385–389
74. Wickham Inheritance of Rome pp. 500–505
75. Stalley Early Medieval Architecture pp. 29–35
76. Stalley Early Medieval Architecture pp. 43–44
77. Cosman Medieval Wordbook p. 247
78. Stalley Early Medieval Architecture p. 45
79. Stalley Early Medieval Architecture p. 49
80. Adams History of Western Art pp. 171–175
81. Jordan Europe in the High Middle Ages pp. 5–12
82. ^ Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 156 Cite error: The named reference "Backman156" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
83. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 164–165
84. Barber Two Cities pp. 37–41
85. Hamilton Religion on the Medieval West p. 33
86. Barber Two Cities pp. 33–34
87. Barber Two Cities pp. 48–49
88. Barber Two Cities pp. 60–67
89. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 160
90. Barber Two Cities pp. 74–76
91. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 283–284
92. Barber Two Cities pp. 365–380
93. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 262–279
94. Barber Two Cities pp. 371–372
95. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 181–186
96. Jordan Europe in the High Middle Ages pp. 143–147
97. Jordan Europe in the High Middle Ages pp. 250–252
98. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 187–189
99. Jordan Europe in the High Middle Ages pp. 59–61
100. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 189–196
101. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 263
102. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 286–289
103. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 289–293
104. ^ Riley-Smith "Crusades" Middle Ages pp. 106–107
105. Payne Dream and the Tomb pp. 204–205
106. Lock Routledge Companion to the Crusades pp. 353–356
107. Lock Routledge Companion to the Crusades pp. 156–161
108. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 299–300
109. Lock Routledge Companion to the Crusades p. 122
110. Lock Routledge Companion to the Crusades pp. 205–213
111. Lock Routledge Companion to the Crusades pp. 213–224
112. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 232–237
113. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 247–252
114. Loyn "Scholasticism" Middle Ages pp. 293–294
115. Colish Medieval Foundations pp. 295–301
116. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 252–260
117. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 237–241
118. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 241–246
119. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 246
120. Barber Two Cities p. 68
121. Barber Two Cities p. 73
122. Adams History of Western Art pp. 181–189
123. Adams History of Western Art pp. 189–192
124. Adams History of Western Art pp. 195–216
125. ^ Rosenwein Rhinoceros Bound pp. 40–41
126. Barber Two Cities pp. 143–144
127. Barber Two Cities pp. 145–147
128. Barber Two Cities pp. 155–167
129. Barber Two Cities pp. 185–192
130. Loyn "Famine" Middle Ages p. 128
131. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 373–374
132. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe p. 370
133. ^ Schove "Plague" Middle Ages p. 269
134. Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 374–380
135. Watts Making of Polities pp. 201–219
136. Watts Making of Polities pp. 224–233
137. Watts Making of Polities pp. 233–238
138. Watts Making of Polities p. 166
139. Watts Making of Polities p. 169
140. Loyn "Hundred Years' War" Middle Ages p. 176
141. Watts Making of Polities pp. 180–181
142. Watts Making of Polities pp. 317–322
143. Watts Making of Polities pp. 170–171
144. ^ Watts Making of Polities pp. 173–175 Cite error: The named reference "Watts173" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
145. Watts Making of Polities pp. 327–332
146. ^ Watts Making of Polities p. 340
147. Thomson Western Church pp. 170–171
148. Loyn "Avignon" Middle Ages p. 45
149. Loyn "Great Schism" Middle Ages p. 153
150. Thomson Western Church pp. 184–187
151. Thomson Western Church pp. 197-199
152. Thomson Western Church p. 218
153. Thomson Western Church pp. 213–217
154. Lindberg "Medieval Church Encounters" When Science & Christianity Meet p. 8
155. Grant God and Reason p. 9
156. quoted in the essay of Ted Peters about Science and Religion at "Lindsay Jones (editor in chief). Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition. Thomson Gale. 2005. p.8182"
157. ^ Russell Inventing the Flat Earth pp. 49–58
158. Grant Planets, Stars, & Orbs pp. 626–630
159. Lindberg and Numbers "Beyond War and Peace" Church History

References

• Adams, Laurie Schneider (2001). A History of Western Art (Third ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-231717-5.
• Albrow, Martin (1997). The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity. ISBN 0-8047-2870-4.
• Backman, Clifford R. (2003). The Worlds of Medieval Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512169-8.
• Bauer, Susan Wise (2010). The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-05975-5.
• Bruni, Leonardo (2001). Hankins, James (ed.). History of the Florentine people. Vol. 1.
• Colish, Marcia L. (1997). Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400–1400. New Haven, CT: Yale Univesity Press. ISBN 0-300-07852-8.
• Collins, Roger (1999). Early Medieval Europe: 300–1000 (Second ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-21886-9.
• Cosman, Madeleine Pelner (2007). Medieval Wordbook: More the 4,000 Terms and Expressions from Medieval Culture. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-7607-8725-0.
• Cunliffe, Barry (2008). Europe Between the Oceans: Themes and Variations 9000 BC-AD 1000. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11923-7.
• Eastwood, Bruce (2007). Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance. Brill.
• Epstein, Steven A. (2009). An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000–1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-70653-7.
• Grant, Edward (2001). God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Cambridge.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Grant, E. (1994). Planets, Stars, & Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos, 1200–1687. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Hamilton, Bernard (2003). Religion in the Medieval West (Second ed.). London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80839-X.
• Heather, Peter (2006). The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532541-6.
• James, Edward (2009). Europe's Barbarians: AD 200–600. The Medieval World. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-77296-0.
• Kamen, Henry (2005). Spain 1469–1714. ISBN 0-582-78464-6.
• Lawrence, C.H (2001). Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages (third ed.). Longman. ISBN 0-582-40427-4.
• Lindberg, David C. (1986). "Beyond War and Peace: A Reappraisal of the Encounter between Christianity and Science". Church History. 55 (3): 338–354. doi:10.2307/3166822. JSTOR 3166822. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthorlink= ignored (help)
• Lindberg, David C. (2003). "The Medieval Church Encounters the Classical Tradition: Saint Augustine, Roger Bacon, and the Handmaiden Metaphor". When Science & Christianity Meet. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Lock, Peter (2006). Routledge Companion to the Crusades. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-39312-4.
• Loyn, H. R. (1989). "Avignon". In Loyn, H. R. (ed.). The Middle Ages: A Concise Encyclopedia. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 45. ISBN 0-500-27645-5.
• Loyn, H. R. (1989). "Famine". In Loyn, H. R. (ed.). The Middle Ages: A Concise Encyclopedia. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 127–128. ISBN 0-500-27645-5.
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• "Middle Ages". Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
• Mommsen, Theodore (1942). "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'". Speculum. 17 (2): 226–242. doi:10.2307/2856364. JSTOR 2856364.
• Payne, Robert (2000). The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades (First paperback ed.). New York: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1086-7.
• Power, Daniel (2006). The Central Middle Ages: Europe 950–1320. The short Oxford history of Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925312-8.
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• Rosenwein, Barbara H (1982). Rhinoceros Bound: Cluny in the Tenth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-8122-7830-5.
• Robinson, Fred C. (1984). "Medieval, the Middle Ages". Speculum. 59 (4). JSTOR 2846695.
• Russell, Jeffey Burton (1991). Inventing the Flat Earth-Columbus and Modern Historians. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-95904-X.
• Saul, Nigel (2000). A Companion to Medieval England 1066–1485. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2969-8.
• Schove, D. Justin (1989). "Plague". In Loyn, H. R. (ed.). The Middle Ages: A Concise Encyclopedia. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 267–269. ISBN 0-500-27645-5.
• Stalley, Roger (1999). Early Medieval Architecture. Oxford History of Art. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-284223-7.
• Thomson, John A. F. (1998). The Western Church in the Middle Ages. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-60118-3.
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External links

• The Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies Academic peer reviewed articles
• The Labyrinth Resources for Medieval Studies.
• NetSERF The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources.
• De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
• Medievalmap.org Interactive maps of the Medieval era (Flash plug-in required)
• Medieval Realms Learning resources from the British Library including studies of beautiful medieval manuscripts

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