Medieval Europe and the Judeo-Christian Tradition

1. Medieval
Europe
and the
Judeo-
Christian
Tradition

2. Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
• Judaism is the oldest monotheistic faith.
• ~ 12-14 m. Jewish people in the world today live
in Israel or U.S.

3. Fundamental beliefs:
• One, all-powerful God, who created the
universe
• God has a special relationship with Jews =
covenant
• Authority = Tanakh (Torah, Nevi’im, and
Ketuvim), Talmud and traditions
Torah:
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

4. • Place of worship = synagogue
• Religious leader of a Jewish community = rabbi (teacher)
Belz Great Synagogue , Jerusalem, Israel, opened 2000
Rabbi Regina Jonas, the world's
first female rabbi, ordained in
1935, was killed in the
Holocaust in 1944.

5. Abraham:
• “Father of many nations”
– Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam
• ~ 2000-1500 BC: born
in Ur, Mesopotamia
• Moved to Canaan

8. Moses, 1391-1271 BC?
• Founder of the Jewish
people and religion
• Led Jewish ancestors
(Hebrews) away from
slavery in Egypt
• Formed covenant with
God
• Author of the Torah
and established Jewish
law

9. Kingdom of Israel
• Founded by Saul, c. 1020 BCE; later led
by David then Solomon
• Conquered by:
• 722 BCE: Assyrians
• 586 BCE: Babylonians
• 332 BCE: Greeks
• 63 BCE: Romans

10. Christianity
• Monotheistic Abrahamic religion
based on veneration of Jesus of
Nazareth
• Jewish teacher and healer
from Roman Judea
• earliest followers were Jewish
• believed he was their
prophesized messiah, or
Christ
• executed by the Romans by
crucifixion around 30 CE
Castelfiorentino Madonna
(c. 1283-1284), Cimabue
The Crucifixion (c. 1420-
1423), Fra Angelico

11. Christianity
• Paul  Greece and Asia Minor
• Peter  Rome

12. Anti-Semitism
• 66-70 CE: The
Great Jewish
Revolt
• 132-136 CE:
Bar Kochba Revolt
• Inclusion of non-
Jewish Gentiles
and the Roman
destruction of the
Jewish Temple in
70 CE caused a
schism between
Judaism and
Christianity

13. Anti-Semitism
• Refugees fled Judea during
the Jewish Diaspora
• Sephardic Jews: Spain,
Portugal, N. Africa and
Mideast
• Ashkenazic Jews: France,
Germany, and Eastern
Europe

14. Christianity
• Early Christians refused
to worship Roman
emperors and were
persecuted as martyrs
• 313 CE: Constantine
ended Christian
persecution and offered
religious toleration
• 380 CE: Theodosius
made Christianity the
official state church of
the Roman Empire

15. Anti-Semitism
• 300-400s CE: Christianity
spread; Jewish persecution
increased.
• Early Christians blamed
Jews for Jesus’ death.
• Execution was by Roman
authorities at insistence of
conservative Jewish
political and religious
leaders
• Political spin: Christians
wanted Roman converts 
blame Jews, not Romans

16. Anti-Semitism
• “Christ killers” and “children of the devil.”
• Accusations of “blood libel” ritual
murder and desecration of the host.
From the Hortus Deliciarum, 1175.
Two of a series of six panels
depicting the Desecration of
the Host by Paolo Uccello,
Italy, 1465

17. Anti-Semitism
Anti-Jewish Laws stripped citizenship and prohibited:
• intermarriage with Christians
• having Christian servants and slaves
• holding public office
• owning land or joining craft guilds
From 600s AD on:
• forced conversion
• ghettos
• expulsion
• travel permits
• property confiscation
Negative stereotype emerged:
• cheating merchants
• exploitative money-lenders
Jewish Ghetto
Venice, Italy
Tommaso da Salo,
1567.

18. Division of Rome
• 476 CE: collapse of the
Western Roman Empire;
the Eastern Roman
Empire, or Byzantine
Empire survived until
1453 CE

19. Division of Rome
• 1054 CE: Roman
Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox
Churches split in
the Great Schism
• Latin Christendom:
all parts of western
Europe united by
Christianity and use
of Latin

20. Christianity
• Bible: Jewish Old Testament and Christian
New Testament (four Gospels and letters)
• 325 CE: Council of Nicaea clarified basic
Christian doctrine.
• Nicene Creed: a monotheistic God coexists as
the Holy Trinity of three distinct persons:
1. Old Testament Creator, Father, and Judge
2. Jesus Christ, God’s only son who lived
among humans and was resurrected upon
his death
3. Holy Spirit
Constantine I and bishops of the First Council of
Nicaea (325) holding the Nicene Creed of 381

21. Christianity
• Clergy: Church officials who
performed religious services
• Bishops: high-ranking clergy with
authority over a local area, or diocese
• Pope: bishop of Rome, head of the
Roman Catholic Church
• Patriarch: bishop of Constantinople,
head of the Eastern Orthodox Church
• Laymen: ordinary Church members

22. Christianity
Local priests performed religious rites,
or sacraments:
1. baptism
2. confirmation of Church membership
3. commemoration of the Last Supper
4. confession and forgiveness of sins
5. anointing of the seriously ill or
injured
6. commissioning of ministers
7. marriage

23. Christianity
• Inquisition: church court to root out heresy (1184)
• Excommunication: religious exile and refusal of sacraments
• Interdict: refusal of sacraments to a whole diocese or region

24. Christianity
Universities taught theology, law, and medicine:
Bologna (1088), Paris (1150), and Oxford (1167)
Scholasticism: medieval school of thought
(Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, c. 1274)
reconciling contradictions between ancient Greek
philosophy and Christian theology

25. Christianity
Romanesque cathedrals:
used Roman construction
techniques
Gothic cathedrals: let in
more light by incorporating
rib-vaulted ceilings and tall,
thin walls with large stained
glass windows supported by
flying buttresses; Chartres
(1252), Cologne (1322), and
Notre-Dame de Paris (1345)

28. Gloucester Cathedral, England was
built between 1089 and 1499 CE.
The stained-glass windows date
from 1350 CE.

29. cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral, England

31. Sedlec Ossuary,
Czech Republic
40,000-70,000 skeletons!

34. Invasions
• Muslims took Spain but were stopped at the Battle of Tours, France in 732.

35. Invasions
• Norse Vikings explored the Atlantic and
raided western Europe beginning in 793.

36. Invasions
• Those who settled in northwestern France
were known as Normans. William of
Normandy conquered England (1066).

37. Invasions
• Magyars migrated from
Asia in the late 800s
and settled the Great
Hungarian Plain.
• Stephen I converted to
Catholicism and was
crowned King of
Hungary in 1000.

38. Feudal Society
• Invasions and a lack of
a centralized imperial
government led to the
development of
feudalism.

39. Feudal Society
• The universe was believed to exist
in a hierarchical Great Chain of
Being descending from God to
angels, demons, nobles,
commoners, animals, plants, and
earthly minerals. Humans bridged
the spiritual and earthly realms.

40. Feudal Society
Stratified feudal society was divided
in three classes, or estates:
1. Church clergy
2. nobles
3. commoners (peasants, serfs,
townspeople).
A 13th century French representation of the tripartite
social order: "those who pray", "those who fight", and
"those who work".

42. Feudal Society
• Under feudalism, political authority was
decentralized and rested on complex
relationships and obligations.
• A lord provided a vassal with a fief in
exchange for loyalty and military service.

43. Feudal Society
• Knights were guided by chivalry. They
jousted and practiced mêlée combat in
tournaments to win riches and glory.
tournament of knights from the Codex Manesse

44. Feudal Society
• The basis of wealth was
landownership. Aristocratic nobles
ran manors. Manors were mostly self-
sufficient.
• Medieval serfs were required to work
manorial fields, mines, and forests
and received the lord’s protection,
justice, and the right to farm for their
own subsistence.
Serfs preparing fields for winter from
The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, c.1410

45. Invasions
• Seljuk Turks defeated the
Byzantine Empire at the
Battle of Manzikert (1071)
and settled in Asia Minor.

46. The Crusades
• 1096–1400s: The Crusades brought
the Christian and Islamic worlds into
conflict.
• Europeans failed to regain permanent
control of the Holy Land.

47. The Crusades
• Europeans recovered lost ancient knowledge preserved by Muslims.
• Mediterranean trade between Europe and western Asia was revived.

48. Late Medieval Economy
• 1100s–1300s: The growth of late
medieval trade led to the rise of
market towns, often along rivers.
Merchant capitalism developed.
The first joint-stock companies
were founded.
• Cities were few and small
• Largest in 1400 = Paris with
around 250,000 people
• Fewer than 10 cities had over
100,000 people

49. Late Medieval Economy
• Towns and cities were centers of
commerce, princely courts,
churches, government, and military
offices.
• The most important commercial
cities in Western Europe were
Genoa, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and
London.
• The Crusades led to the growth of
of Italian city-states, including
Venice and Florence.

50. Late Medieval Economy
• Most urban dwellers were artisans and free
laborers. Artisans organized craft guilds
to ensure quality and regulate prices.
• Many serfs escaped to urban centers and
were considered free after a year and a
day.

51. The Crusades
• Venetians sacked Constantinople during
Fourth Crusade (1204), accelerating the
Byzantine Empire’s decline.

52. Anti-Semitism:
• 1095-1291: Jewish pogroms during the Crusades
• 1200s: the Church required Jews to wear special
yellow markings or a “Jew hat”
Bible illustration; France, 1250.
Jewish Couple from Worms,
Germany, 16th century
"Jew Hat“, Holy Sepulchre Chapel,
Winchester, England, 13th century

53. Anti-Semitism
• 1290: expulsion from England
• 1291: prohibition of settlement in France
• 1298: massacre of 100,000 Jews in Germany
Expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt in 1614.
According to the text, "1380 persons old and
young were counted at the exit of the gate.”
“Jews being persecuted” from the Chronicles of Offa,
England, 13th century

54. Roman Catholic Church Decline
• 1305–1377: Pope Clement V moved the
papacy to Avignon, France, during the
Babylonian Captivity.
• 1378–1417: Pope Gregory XI returned the
papacy to Rome, but the French elected a
second pope causing the Great Western
Schism. Papal prestige fell as European
loyalties were divided.

55. Roman Catholic Church Decline
• 1300s–1400s: Reform efforts by English
John Wycliffe and Czech Jan Hus were
violently suppressed.
Jan Hus is considered the first Church reformer. He
was burned at the stake for heresy against
the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

56. Late Medieval Demographics
• Cold summers made for
shorter growing seasons and
periodic famine during the
Little Ice Age (c. 1300–c.
1850).
• Expanding glaciers wiped
out Alpine villages, and
Norse colonies in Greenland
failed.

57. Late Medieval Demographics
• Millions starved during the
Great Famine (1315–1322).
• 10%–25% of population died.
The elderly voluntarily
starved to save young family
members. Cannibalism was
widely reported.

58. Late Medieval Demographics
• Italian merchants imported the Black
Death (1346–1353) from Crimea. It spread
by 1350 to almost every corner of Europe,
killing 40%–50% of the population. Some
Mediterranean areas, especially cities,
suffered 75%–80% losses.
• Bubonic plague was endemic until 1721.
• It reduced the labor force offering serfs
new opportunities and allowing bargaining
for improved conditions.

59. Anti-Semitism
• 1348-1352: Jewish communities
were blamed for the Black Death
and destroyed
• Remaining Jews were expelled from
Western Europe and fled to Poland.

60. Late Medieval Law
• English common law
blended Roman law,
Church canon law,
and Germanic legal
customs. It was
applied throughout
England by royal
judges who toured
provincial towns. In
contrast, provinces
were governed by
local laws in France,
Germany, and Italy.
Common law countries are in several shades of pink, corresponding to variations in
common law systems.

61. Late Medieval Law
• 1215: Nobles forced King John of
England to sign the Magna Carta.
It declared the king be subject to the
rule of law and stipulated subjects
had basic rights, including due
process. It also established the first
English Parliament.
• English Parliament determined taxes,
heard grievances, and developed
legislation. Nobles and bishops served
in the House of Lords. Knights and
prominent citizens served in the
House of Commons.

62. Late Medieval Law
• 1302: The Estates-General,
a French national assembly
of the clergy, nobility, and
commoners, first met to
discuss King Philip IV’s
conflict with Pope Boniface
VIII.
• It convened only periodically
until 1614, and then only
one final time in 1789. Unlike
the English Parliament, it
had no real power and only
advised the king.
The Estates-General in Tours, May 14, 1506, oil on canvas by Jean-Louis Bézard

63. The Hundred Years’ War
• 1337–1453: The English Plantagenet and
French Valois dynasties engaged in a series
of conflicts for control of the French throne.
• These conflicts gave rise to English and
French national identities.

64. The Hundred Years’ War
• Feudal armies were replaced by professional
soldiers. Though outnumbered, English
longbow archers killed 1,500 knights (nearly
half of the French nobility) at Agincourt
(1415). The age of knights and chivalry was
ending.

65. The Hundred Years’ War
• 16-year-old Joan of Arc led
the French to victory over the
English at Orleans (1429),
boosting French morale and
turning the tide of the war.
Joan of Arc depicted
on horseback in an
illustration from a
1504 manuscript

66. Late Medieval States
• 1328–1453: The French
Valois dynasty defeated the
English Plantagenet claim
to the throne of France in
the Hundred Years’ War.
• Louis XI the Spider (r.
1461–1483) absorbed the
Duchy of Burgundy.

67. Late Medieval States
• 1455: English defeat in the
Hundred Years’ War led the
House of York (white rose)
to battle the House of
Lancaster (red rose) for the
throne in the War of the
Roses.
• 1485: Henry Tudor was
crowned Henry VII (r.
1485–1509) and established
the Tudor dynasty.

68. Invasions
• The Mongols advanced to Hungary
(1242) but fell back to Kievan Rus.
The Mongol Golden Horde ruled
from Sarai on the Volga River.
• Eastern Slavs were semi-isolated
from western Europe for over 200
years. Alexander Nevsky and
later princes of Moscow served the
Mongols and turned Muscovy into
a powerful state.

69. Late Medieval States
• Grand Prince Ivan III the Great of Moscow
(r. 1462–1505) stopped paying Mongol
tribute, tripled the size of Muscovy, and laid
the foundations of a centralized, autocratic,
orthodox Russian state.
• Ivan IV the Terrible (r. 1533–1584) was
crowned the first tsar of Russia.

70. Late Medieval States
• Wladyslaw II Jagiello
founded the
Jagiellonian dynasty
(1386), which ruled in
Poland, Lithuania,
Hungary, and
Bohemia until 1572.

71. Invasions
• Osman I founded the Ottoman Turkish
Empire (1299). Murid I expanded the
Ottomans into the Balkans.

72. Invasions
• After 1389, the Ottomans defeated Serbia,
and encircled Constantinople.
• The last great Crusade failed to stop the
Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria at the Battle
of Nicopolis (1396).
Nicopolis, the last
great battle of
the Crusades

73. Late Medieval States
• 1453: Mehmed II conquered
Constantinople’s walls with a
massive cannon that was able
to fire 600-pound stone balls
over a mile.

74. Late Medieval States
• 1400s: The Iberian
Peninsula was divided
between the Christian
Kingdoms of Portugal,
Castile, Aragon, and
Navarre, and the Muslim
outpost of Grenada.
• 1469: The marriage of
Isabella I of Castille and
Ferdinand II of Aragon led
to politically unified Spain.

75. Anti-Semitism
• 1492: the Christian
Reconquista of Spain was
completed.
• 800,000 were Jews exiled;
conversos spread through
the Spanish and Portuguese
empires but faced the
Inquisition.

76. Late Medieval States
• Otto I established the Holy Roman
Empire in 962.
• The empire lacked unity. It was a
decentralized collection of small
kingdoms, bishoprics, republics,
and Free Imperial Cities.
• The population was primarily
German.
• The Austrian Hapsburgs were weak,
elected emperors after 1438.