CHA PT E R

10
The Worlds of Christendom:
Contraction, Expansion,
and Division
500–1300
CHAPTER LEARNING B. In 500s and 600s, Christianity also had
flourishing communities across large regions
OBJECTIVES of Afro-Eurasia.
• To examine European society after the breakup 1. but over next 1000 years African and
of the Roman Empire Asian communities largely vanished,
• To compare the diverse legacies of Rome in declined, or were marginalized
Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire 2. Christianity became a largely European
• To explore medieval European expansion phenomenon
• To present the backwardness of medieval C. By 1300 C.E. Christianity provided common
Europe relative to other civilizations, and the steps ground for third-wave societies in western
by which it caught up Eurasia.
1. but Christendom was deeply divided:
Byzantine Empire and West
CHAPTER OUTLINE 2. Byzantium continued the traditions of the
Greco-Roman world until conquered in
I. Opening Vignette
1453 C.E.
A. Over the past 30 years millions have
a. Eastern Orthodoxy evolved within this
converted to the Christian faith in East and
third-wave civilization
South Asia.
3. Roman imperial order disintegrated in the
1. similar process in non-Muslim regions of
West
Africa
4. Roman Catholic Church of the West
2. 60 percent of Christians today live in
established independence from political
Asia, Africa, and Latin America
authorities; Eastern Orthodox Church did
not

103
 5. Western Europe emerged, at an increasing 3. Christianity taking shape in fifth and sixth
pace after 1000, as a dynamic third-wave centuries in the kingdoms of Nubia
civilization a. thrived for a time, but largely
6. Western Europe was a hybrid civilization: disappeared by 1500 C.E.
classical, Germanic, Celtic 4. Ethiopian Christianity an exception
D. The story of global Christendom in the era of a. rulers of Axum adopted Christianity in
third-wave civilizations is one of contractions the fourth century
and expansions. b. geography protected from surrounding
1. sharp contractions in Asia and Africa Muslim world
2. expansion in Western Europe and Russia c. developed distinctive traditions in
3. Christian Byzantium contracted and isolation
ultimately disappeared III. Byzantine Christendom: Building on the
4. Western Europe contracted but later Roman Past
expanded A. The Byzantine Empire has no clear starting
II. Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa point.
A. Islam’s spread was a driving force in the 1. continuation of the Roman Empire
contraction of Christianity. 2. some scholars date its beginning to 330
B. Asian Christianity C.E., with founding of Constantinople
1. within a century or so of Muhammad’s 3. western empire collapsed in fifth century;
death, Christianity almost disappeared eastern half survived another 1,000 years
from Arabia 4. eastern empire contained ancient
2. Islamic forces seized Jerusalem and its civilizations: Egypt, Greece, Syria, and
holy sites Anatolia
3. in Syria and Persia many Christians 5. Byzantine advantages over western
converted voluntarily empire
a. those that didn’t were granted the right a. wealthier and more urbanized
to practice their religion for payment of b. more defensible capital
a special tax (Constantinople)
b. experiences of individual communities c. shorter frontier
varied d. access to the Black Sea; command of
4. Nestorian Christians or the Church of the eastern Mediterranean
East survived but shrank in size in Syria, e. stronger army, navy, and merchant
Iraq, and Persia marine
a. Nestorians had some success in Tang f. continuation of late Roman
China, before ultimately withering infrastructure
b. brief revival under Mongols g. conscious effort to preserve Roman
C. African Christianity ways
1. coastal North African Christians largely B. The Byzantine State
converted to Islam 1. Arab/Islamic expansion reduced size of
2. in Egypt Coptic Church survived Byzantine state
a. tolerated by Muslim rulers 2. politics centralized around emperor in
b. until the Crusades and Mongol threat Constantinople
when repressed 3. territory shrank after 1085, as western
c. most rural Coptic Christians convert, Europeans and Turks attacked
survived in urban areas and remote a. fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks
monasteries
C. The Byzantine Church and Christian 3. Byzantium was a central player in long-
Divergence distance Eurasian trade
1. the Church was closely tied to the state: a. Byzantine gold coins (bezants) were a
caesaropapism major Mediterranean currency for over
a. Byzantine emperor was head of both 500 years
the state and the Church b. Byzantine crafts (jewelry, textiles,
b. emperor appointed the patriarch, purple dyes, silk) were in high demand
sometimes made doctrinal decisions, 4. important cultural influence of Byzantium
called church councils a. transmitted ancient Greek learning to
2. Orthodox Christianity deeply influenced Islamic world and West
all of Byzantine life b. transmission of Orthodox Christianity
a. legitimated imperial rule to Balkans and Russia
b. provided cultural identity E. The Conversion of Russia
c. pervasiveness of churches, icons 1. most important conversion was that of
d. even common people engaged in Prince Vladimir of Kiev
theological disputes 2. Orthodoxy transformed state of Rus;
3. Eastern Orthodoxy increasingly defined became central to Russian identity
itself in opposition to Latin Christianity 3. top-down conversion meant that many
a. Latin Christianity was centered on the common people still practiced pagan
pope, Rome rituals and held traditional beliefs
b. growing rift between the two parts of 4. Moscow finally declared itself to be the
Christendom “third Rome,” assuming role of protector
c. sense of religious difference reflected of Christianity after fall of Constantinople
East/West political difference IV. Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the
d. with rise of Islam, Constantinople and Wake of Roman Collapse
Rome remained as sole hubs of A. Western Europe was on the margins of world
Christendom history for most of the third-wave
e. important East/West cultural millennium.
differences (language, philosophy, 1. it was far removed from the growing
theology, church practice) world trade routes
f. schism in 1054, with mutual 2. European geography made political unity
excommunication difficult
g. Crusades (from 1095 on) worsened the 3. coastlines and river systems facilitated
situation internal exchange
h. during Fourth Crusade, Westerners 4. moderate climate enabled population
sacked Constantinople (1204) and growth
ruled Byzantium for next 50 years B. Political Life in Western Europe
D. Byzantium and the World 1. traditional date for fall of western Roman
1. Byzantium had a foot in both Europe and Empire is 476 C.E.
Asia, interacted intensively with neighbors 2. with Roman collapse:
2. continuation of long Roman fight with a. large-scale centralized rule vanished
Persian Empire b. Europe’s population fell by 25 percent
a. weakened both states, left them open to because of war and disease
Islamic conquests c. contraction of land under cultivation
b. Persia was conquered by Islam; d. great diminution of urban life
Byzantium lost territory
 e. long-distance trade outside of Italy a. also an element of competition as rival
shriveled up centers of power
f. great decline in literacy b. right to appoint bishops and the pope
g. Germanic peoples emerged as the was controversial (the investiture
dominant peoples in West conflict)
h. shift in center of gravity from D. Accelerating Change in the West
Mediterranean to north and west 1. a series of invasions in 700–1000 hindered
3. survival of much of classical and Roman European development
heritage a. Germanic tribes and Central Asian
a. Germanic peoples who established new Huns had invaded the Roman Empire
kingdoms had been substantially b. Muslims, Magyars, Vikings
Romanized already c. largely ended by 1000 as invaders
b. high prestige of things Roman repelled or absorbed into society
c. Germanic rulers adopted Roman-style 2. ecological changes, 1000–1300
written law a. warming trend that started after 750
4. several Germanic kingdoms tried to b. marshes drained and land reclaimed
recreate Roman-style unity from the seas
a. Charlemagne (r. 768–814) acted c. forests reduced to 20% of land area
“imperial” (deforestation)
b. revival of Roman Empire on Christmas d. fresh water sources start to see signs of
Day 800 (coronation of Charlemagne); pollution
soon fragmented 3. High Middle Ages: time of clear growth
c. another revival of Roman Empire with and expansion
imperial coronation of Otto I of a. European population in 1000 was
Saxony (r. 936–973) about 35 million; about 80 million in
C. Society and the Church 1340
1. within these new kingdoms: b. opening of new land for cultivation
a. highly fragmented, decentralized 4. growth of long-distance trade, from two
society major centers
b. great local variation a. northern Europe
c. landowning warrior elite exercised b. northern Italian towns
power c. great trading fairs (especially in
2. social hierarchies Champagne area of France) enabled
a. lesser lords and knights became vassals exchange between northern and
of kings or great lords southern merchants
b. serfdom displaced slavery 5. European town and city populations rose
3. Catholic Church was a major element of a. Venice by 1400 had around 150,000
stability people
a. hierarchy modeled on that of the b. still smaller than great cities elsewhere
Roman Empire in the world
b. became very rich c. new specializations, organized into
c. conversion of Europe’s non-Christians guilds
d. most of Europe was Christian (with 6. growth of territorial states with better-
pagan elements) by 1100 organized governments
4. Church and ruling class usually reinforced a. kings consolidated their authority in
each other eleventh–thirteenth centuries
 b. appearance of professional c. showed Europe’s growing
administrators organizational ability
c. some areas did not develop territorial 4. Iberian Peninsula Crusade
kingdoms (Italian city-states, small 5. Baltic Crusade
German principalities) 6. attacks on Byzantine Empire and Russia
7. new opportunities for women 7. Crusades had little lasting political or
a. a number of urban professions were religious impact in the Middle East
open to women 8. Crusades had a significant impact on
b. widows of great merchants could Europe
continue husbands’ business a. conquest of Spain, Sicily, Baltic region
c. opportunities declined by the fifteenth b. Crusaders weakened Byzantium
century c. popes strengthened their position for a
d. religious life: nuns, Beguines, time
anchoresses (e.g., Hildegard of Bingen d. tens of thousands of Europeans made
and Julian of Norwich) contact with the Islamic world
e. but opportunities for religious women e. Europeans developed taste for luxury
were also curtailed goods of the East
8. new ideas about masculinity: from warrior f. Muslim scholarship and Greek learning
to “provider” flowed into Europe
E. Europe Outward Bound: The Crusading g. hardened cultural barriers between
Tradition peoples
1. medieval expansion of Christendom after V. The West in Comparative Perspective
1000 A. Catching Up
a. occurred at the same time that 1. the hybrid civilization of Western Europe
Byzantium declined was less developed than Byzantium,
b. clearance of land, especially on eastern China, India, or the Islamic world
fringe of Europe a. Muslims regarded Europeans as
c. Scandinavian colonies in barbarians
Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland b. Europeans recognized their own
d. Europe had direct, though limited, backwardness
contact with East and South Asia by 2. Europeans were happy to exchange
thirteenth–fourteenth centuries with/borrow from more advanced
2. Crusade movement began in 1095 civilizations to the east
a. wars at God’s command, authorized by a. European economies reconnected with
the pope, for which participants the Eurasian trading system
received an indulgence (release from b. Europeans welcomed scientific,
penalty for confessed sins) philosophical, and mathematical
b. amazingly popular; were religious wars concepts from Arabs, classical Greeks,
at their core and India
3. most famous Crusades aimed to regain c. the most significant borrowing was
Jerusalem and holy places from China
a. many waves of Crusaders to the Near 3. Europe was a developing civilization like
East others of the era
b. creation of four small Christian states 4. by 1500, Europe had caught up with
(last fell in 1291) China and the Islamic world; surpassed
them in some areas
 5. 500–1300 was a period of great b. twelfth–thirteenth centuries: access to
innovation ancient Greek and Arab scholarship
a. agriculture 5. deep impact of Aristotle
b. new reliance on nonanimal sources of a. his writings were the basis of
energy university education
c. technological borrowing for warfare, b. dominated Western European thought
with further development between 1200 and 1700
d. Europe developed a passion for 6. no similar development occurred in the
technology Byzantine Empire
B. Pluralism in Politics a. focus of education was the humanities
1. Europe crystallized into a system of b. suspicion of classical Greek thought
competing states 7. Islamic world had deep interaction with
2. political pluralism shaped Western classical Greek thought
European civilization a. massive amount of translation in
a. led to frequent wars and militarization ninth–tenth centuries
b. stimulated technological development b. encouraged a flowering of Arab
3. states still were able to communicate scholarship between 800 and 1200
economically and intellectually c. caused a debate among Muslim
4. rulers were generally weaker than those to thinkers on faith and reason
the east d. Islamic world eventually turned against
a. royal-noble-ecclesiastical power natural philosophy
struggle allowed urban merchants to
win great independence
b. perhaps paved the way for capitalism
c. development of representative
institutions (parliaments)
C. Reason and Faith
1. distinctive intellectual tension between
faith and reason developed
2. intellectual life flourished in the centuries
after 1000
a. creation of universities from earlier
cathedral schools
b. scholars had some intellectual freedom
at universities
3. in the universities, some scholars began to
emphasize the ability of human reason to
understand divine mysteries
a. also applied reason to law, medicine,
and world of nature
b. development of “natural philosophy”
(scientific study of nature)
4. search for classical Greek texts (especially
Aristotle)
a. were found in Byzantium and the
Islamic world