7. THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

AN OVERVIEW 1100 to the Late 1300s

The High Middle Ages: Something of a
        timeline

During the 11th century (1000s) the Vikings or Northmen settled themselves into European society – the part they had been able to conquer –  bringing needed defense against further intrusions of outsiders into Christian Europe.  The Crusades (1100s and 1200s).  Indeed, things quickly reversed course when Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comenus came to the Christian Council of Clermont in 1095 to request assistance from the Christian West against the Seljuk Turks who had taken over the Holy Lands ... and blocked Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Sites ... something the Arabs had not themselves done.  The response of the West was immediate and strong ... and by the year 1100, the Holy Land had fallen (actually most cruelly) into the hands of Western Christian crusaders ... to the point that some of the crusaders were able to establish "Norman" monarchies in parts of the region. Ultimately, the Kurdish Muslim warrior Saladin would push most of them out ... but would allow then to return to the area in peace ... and in trade – as the West found itself dazzled by the material wealth of the Muslim world ... and the Muslim world was in need of the basic or raw materials (wool, lumber, cloth) possessed by the West.  And this trade ... first taken up by the Italian coastal cities of Venice and Genoa – which had originally fired up as points of departure by sea from continental Europe by the early crusaders – turned these cities very rich.  Soon other coastal cities, even reaching along the Atlantic and into the North Sea, joined in the economic boom.  But Italy benefited the most ... especially Florence – and even papal Rome – drawing great financial wealth from this new East-West commerce. All this new wealth would of course also change deeply the power and also the social-cultural structure of Christian Euriope.  In the political realm it boosted considerably the power of numerous monarchs ... most notably the Hohenstaufen in Germany, the Capetians in France, and the Plantagenets in Normandy and England.  But it also strengthened the spirit of independence within a growing urban Europe ... with the Flemish city-states growing very wealthy and thus self-supporting from the East-West trade.  But London, Paris, Bremen and other cities would also experience much of this same dynamic. And morally, intellectually and spiritually this new dynamic would stir hearts to look higher than ancient ritual in understanding life and its ways.  Christianity itself took advantage of this new spirit to dig deeper into its own philosophical foundations ... the mechanical view of life of Aristotle having a big impact on how scholars (usually of the Dominican Order) wanted to programmatize the Christian religion along even more rational lines.  But the high spirit of the times also had a way of bringing quite different approaches to this same matter of the Christian faith ... and what it was all about.  The sheer rationalism that captured Christian scholarship soon became challenged by skeptics, doubting that absolute Truth was to be found simply in the questionably reliable process of human reason.  Others became even quite mystical in their approach to higher things ... finding God simply through spiritual questing.  Some of that so deeply shocked the church authorities that they worked hard to stamp out anything that looked heretical – which ended up being quite a lot. At the same time, poets and writers began to look at life more simply, just through ordinary human emotions ... exploring the meaning and purpose of human life simply in the way it was being lived out in the world around them.  Thus "Humanism" became quite central in the growing world of literature. But in the middle of this all, the certainty of such a prosperous life began to take deep hits ... with dynastic infighting troubling that world ... at least in France.  Then there was the horrible Great Plague of "Black Death" which came back to Europe from China in the mid-1300s by way of the new East-West commercial connections ... not exactly what Europeans expected from this opening world.  But the Plague was devastating ... killing over half of most of Europe's population and leaving many others crippled – not only physically but also spiritually.  Somehow God seemed to have stepped out of the picture. And then Christian Europe – at least in the southeast – began to be hit by a new Muslim force, the Ottoman Turks ... Christian societies falling quickly in the hands of these Muslim conquerors. The final blow to the era came with the  papacy losing dignity on multiple fronts ... undergoing a "Babylonian Captivity" when it was relocated to France  (1309) and then splitting among political contenders when it was restored to Rome (1377).  Christian Europe was not looking very good at this point. >THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES:  SOMETHING OF A TIMELINE 1.  New stirrings (second half of 1000s / first half of 1100s) Popes Leo IX (1049-1054) and Gregory VII (1073-1085) discipline the church Monk Anselm of Canterbury writes Proslogion (1077) and  Cur Deus Homo (1094 - 1098) Peter Abelard teaches a form of Christian  humanism ... inspired by his love for Heloise Aristocratic-born monk Bernard of Clairvaux tightens up monastic discipline ... strongly opposing Abelard (1139) ... and others; a big supporter of the crusades; declared a saint (1153) 2.  The crusades (1100s and 1200s) Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus, in visiting the Council of Clermont (1095), inspires Pope Urban and the nobles to liberate the East from the Muslims; the First Crusade (1096-1099) thus takes place in response to that call Crusader kingdoms are established in the Eastern Mediterranean coastal areas: Tyre, Ascalon, Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Tripoli (first 25 years) Crusaders form religious orders of crusading monks:  the fighting-monks, Knights Templar (1118) ... which grow quite rich (and envied by European monarchs) and the caretaking-monks, Knights Hospitaller (actually formed earlier) Another crusade is launched in the Spanish peninsula, with Barcelona and Lisbon taken from the Umayyad Muslims (mid-1100s) But Sunni Kurd leader Saladin takes control of Fatamid Egypt (1171) ... blocking crusader efforts there (1182); then pushes the crusaders out of much of Syria (1187) 3.  Growing European urbanization accompanying the crusades Venice and Genoa grow very wealthy simply from the business of transporting crusaders to the East ... and getting part of the wealth brought back Italy's Florence grows wealthy simply in offering banking business for this wealth Atlantic coastal cities Ghent and Bruges in Flanders, Paris and London with river access to the coast, and German cities in the Baltic north (the Hanseatic League) also sign in on this wealth in East-West trade 4.  Powerful monarchs Power always accompanies the flow of wealth ... bringing forward new long-reigning feudal monarchs and their dynasties:   German Hohenstaufen Conrad III (r. 1116-1152)   French Capetian Louis VII (r. 1137-1180)   German Hohenstaufen Frederick Barbarossa      (r. 1152-1190)   Norman-English Plantagenet Henry II (r. 1154-1189)   Norman-English Plantagenet Richard I      "The Lionheart" (r. 1189-1199)   French Capetian Philip II Augustus (r. 1180-1223)   German Hohenstaufen Frederick II (r. 1220-1250)   French Capetian "Saint Louis" IX (r. 1226-1270)   Norman-English Plantagenet Henry III (r. 1216-1272)   but rather weak Norman-English Plantagenet      Edward I (r. 1272-1307) 5.  Cultural-intellectual-spiritual stirrings begin to developin the second half of the 1100s and the 1200s The building of "Gothic" cathedrals with the Muslims' tall pointed arches; construction (or reconstruction) begun mostly in the later-1100s/early 1200s; for example: Paris (1163-  ); Chartres (1194- );  Reims (1211- ) Christian "refinement" begins in the 1200s Albigensians or Cathars incorporate a new Eastern-inspired spirituality ... condemned by the church (1184) Peter Waldo and his Waldensians attempt something of a Biblical reform of worship (1170s-1180s) ... also condemned by the church (1184) Dominic de Guzman (1172-1221) creates the Dominican Order (1217) to support Catholic orthodoxy in the face of such spiritual challenges Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) creates the Franciscan Order  (1210) which conducts works of charity among the poor and outcast An Augustinian Order develops more cautiously (papal authorization in 1255) ... simply to meet a growing spiritual hunger without upsetting the church Scholarship ("Scholasticism") takes off Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) –  a Dominican teacher of Aristotle's way Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) continues Magnus's teachings ... writing (over many years) his Summa Theologica – someting which becomes Catholicism's foundational work (still today) Duns Scotus (1265-1308) challenges such growing "Rationalism" William of Ockham (1285-1349) demands stronger proofs of "Truth" Mysticism grows as an alternative to Scholasticism Hildegarde of Bingen (1098 -1179) is an early mystical writer, musician Joachim of Fiore (1132-1202) sees in history an "Awakening" coming Johannes "Meister" Eckhart (1260-1328) invites followers to find the divine "spark" in them that unites them to God (thus suspected of heresy) Johannes Tauler (1300-1361) continues Eckhart's teachings ... impacting the German/Rhineland Mystics (1300s) who conduct worship along simpler lines... and eventually also the German Reformer Martin Luther (early 1500s) Humanism (mere interest in human life itself) also develops ... especially in Italy Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) – his religious art depicts people realistically rather than symbolically Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) writes not in Latin but in local Italian his poems about love and human concerns ... most notably his three-part Divine Comedy  (1308-1321) Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) writes historical-political studies based on his own life of political service ... and his awareness of the West's pre-Christian (Greco-Roman) origians Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) writes The Decameron, telling 100 stories (in local Italian) about lives lived simply by ten literary characters Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) in his Canterbury Tales tells 24 stories along a similar line ... except in English 6.  The close of the Middle Ages - the 1300s Marco Polo's long experience in China – narrated as The Travels of Marco Polo (1300) – awakens the West to yet an even larger world than its own The popes as head of Christendom lose considerable status ... now serving as as "guests" of the French Kings ... who move the papacy to Avignon France. (1309-1377) ... often characterized as another "Babylonian Captivity" Scottish rebels under Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) secure independence from England ... and alliance with France and the pope Fights between the French Valois kings and their supposed vassals, the dukes of Normandy (the Plantagenets ... but who themselves happen to be kings in England) – gets underway as the First Phase (1337-1360) of the brutal "Hundred Years' War" Edward III (r. 1327-1377) looks as if he is going to give England victory in this war ... as well as stable government But the Great Plague of the mid-1300s cripples his people ... and then a destructive hail storm (1360) devastates his army at Paris, forcing him to pull back to England Indeed, the Great Plague or Black Death (1347-1352) wipes out some 25 million people as it spreads from China to Europe ... killing over half of the population in most of Europe (even more in Italy) Meanwhile a new Muslim power is arising in the East: the Ottoman Turks ... bypassing Byzantine Constantinope as they take hold of the Balkan Peninsula against the Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, etc. ... in 1389, at the strategic Battle of Kosovo, crushing Christian defenses And a deep split among various contenders for the papacy (restored to Rome in 1377) weakens the status of the church even more Go on to the next section:  New Stirrings in the West   Miles H. Hodges