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Medieval EuropeSocial Studies 7

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The Landscape Europe is a large landmass that today is formed by many

political boundaries or bordersborders. This means that there are many countries that make up Europe. It is fairly “easy” to get from one place to another. Not many obstacles arise on the European horizon but for a

few things. One of these natural boundaries is the Alps, a series of large

mountains. 3 current countries border these groups of mountains: France,

Italy and Switzerland. Europe developed into an area rich in people, cultures and

languages. Two of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations arose in

Europe, The Greeks and the Romans.

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The Landscape continued… After the Roman Empire fell, the continent was left in

disarray. This ushered in the era of the Middle or Dark Ages. This

is also referred to as Medieval Europe. Much of the history during the early middle Ages was not

recorded. The governments and people in control were not equippedequipped

with the ability to record actions and occurrences during their reigns.

This is why the era is often referred to as the Dark Ages. Education was not a priority. People would spend time learning because only those

born into privilege were given the opportunity to learn and study something.

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Education in Medieval Europe Most of the learning would occur in monasteriesmonasteries. Monasteries are where religious people would study about

their religion. In Europe, Christianity would spread a lot during this time. Ordinary people or peasantspeasants did not have the ability to

study or be taught. The majority of the people did not know how to read and

write. Knowledge is powerKnowledge is power. So if the common people did not

have the ability to communicate and spread whatever word they felt was necessary, they would easily be taken advantage of.

This is precisely what happened to the peasants of different areas of Europe.

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Education in Medieval Europe continued… Meanwhile, in the monasteries, people would study

about Christianity to become monks, priests, etc. As you well know, in order to study, you need to

know how to read and write. Peasants had no real chance at this.

So, in a sense, when schooling and an education were not a priority to governments, they were priorities to the Christian church.

Because the peasant people would notice that those working in the church were the educated ones, the peasants began to follow the church.

Christianity would soon see a large “boomboom” (growth).

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Religion in Medieval Europe People think of the Middle Ages as a very religious time

period. The Christian church was considered to be the most

important institutioninstitution. Followers of the church, which was just about every

peasant, felt that they should pray all the time. This made peasants feel a lot closer to God. This feeling led the peasants to act always with the church

in mind. It is during the Middle Ages that the great cathedrals of

Europe were built. It also marks a point in history when education was to

become a focal pointfocal point once more for people.

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Education, Religion and Politics Because of the education factor, the church would

begin investing time, effort, and money in building some of the world’s greatest universities.

The church supervised the construction of the universities in Paris, Tubingen, Cambridge and Oxford.

They are all major universities and still in existence today, but these schools came later in time.

The medieval period was also a time when the church was perhaps at its most powerful.

This was a time when the popepope might excommunicateexcommunicate a king.

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Education, Religion and Politics continued…

As you should know, a king leads a nation and people so for a pope to remove a king from the church would be a major act of power.

In the Middle Ages, both the political world and the religious world were very, very powerful.

They were so powerful that there was a riftrift, a split, between the religion and politics in Europe.

This was a power struggle to determine loyalty from the people.

But there was no rift within the people’s beliefs. The people felt that everyone should believe in the same

things, mainly Christianity. Peasants would begin to take matters into their own

hands…

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Peasants want more… Christianity is controlling Europe. The land is in a

religious fervorfervor. Recall, the Muslims have taken almost complete

control of the Middle East. If you recall, the Muslims, in their Five Pillars,

have the Hajj, a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the city of Mecca.

During the Middle Ages, Christians, mostly Catholics, had become fully entrenchedentrenched in their beliefs.

Just like the Muslims with Mecca, the Christians also have a holy city of their own.

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Peasants want more continued… The city of JerusalemJerusalem, in modern day Israel, was important to the

Christians and the Christian faith. The reason for the Christians wanting Jerusalem was for the fact that

Jesus Christ was preaching and converting people there. Jesus had lived and died there.

The city of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas were and are still considered to be the Holy LandHoly Land.

The reason this area is known as the Holy Land is the fact that the 3 major religions of the world, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, all lay claim and feel that those respective religions should hold the city as its own.

The city of Jerusalem served as a convergence point for Christians. As Muslims would and do travel to Mecca, Christians would do the same to Jerusalem.

At this time in history, the trip was rather safe. Muslims controlled the Holy Land but were tolerant of different religious faiths. This basically meant that safe passage was guaranteed for Christian pilgrims.

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From Pilgrimage to Crusade… The Muslims who controlled Jerusalem gave safe passage for

Christians to the Holy Land to the Pilgrims from Europe. As stated in the book, from the 900’s Christians made the journey to

Jerusalem. After the year 1070, something happened. The Holy Land, the area surrounding Jerusalem had become

unstable. The safety and security of Christians making their pilgrimage to

Jerusalem was no longer as safe or guaranteed. The powers that be in Europe, namely Pope Urban II of the

Catholic Church, was prepared to take advantage of this fact. Pope Urban II incites followers of Catholicism to gain the Holy Land and take it away from the Muslims.

Pope Urban II and Christian (Catholic) followers referred to non-believers as infidels. The word infidel originally meant one who is not a Christian or opposes Christianity, but it now encompasses all religions.

The Crusades or the Christian Holy War, was about to begin…

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The Crusades As stated in your notes, the European Landscape was

caught up in a religious fervor. As the pope would soon find out, it would not take much to have all believers on his side and prepared to go to war for their religion.

Preparations for the war lasted about one year, from 1095 to 1096.

A new word was used to describe the Christian warriors about to embark on this holy mission: Crusaders.

Those that fought were known as Crusaders because it meant to “Take up the Cross”.

In Latin, the word ‘Crux’ means ‘Cross’, thus the spelling for the word ‘Crusaders’.

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The Crusades continued… The definition does not describe a person ‘Taking Up’ a

cross to any one place. What it means is that these warriors will defend

Christianity at any cost, including giving up their lives. The trip to the Holy Land was a lengthy one for the

Christian Crusaders. Since they are the ones who wanted to fight for the land,

they would obviously have to be the ones to make the approximate 1500 to 2000 mile trip to take it from the Muslims.

The Christians would set out to take over Jerusalem and the Holy Land in not one battle but a series of them…

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The Crusades continued… The first Crusade was an ideal war for the cause. That is, it

was fought with the intentions the pope had laid out. Those intentions were to remove the Muslims from the Holy

Land, capture Jerusalem and make the area a Christian stronghold.

Muslims were determined to maintain control of the area and fight back their Christian aggressors.

Thousands of Christian warriors, known as KnightsKnights, were fighting for their God, and the cross. Muslims had their own warriors fighting to retain the territory.

The initial round of fighting would go to the Christians as they overran Muslim defenses and gained control of Jerusalem from the ‘infidels’.

But this series of battles would eventually be a seesaw one…

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The Crusades continued… During the second Crusade, Muslim forces would regain

the Holy Land in very fierce fighting. They too fought for the glory of their religion and their

god, Allah. These initial crusades had the backing of religious beliefs,

meaning it was done to make people understand that Christianity, when it won, or Islam, when it won, were the best religions.

But subsequent Crusades would change that notion. For the Muslims, it was always a matter of defending the

territory they had always had control over. For the Christians, it would change from a way to make

Christianity great, to a way to gain more of the greatest ‘evil’ known to man; money…

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The Crusades continued… During the first two crusades, anything gained by the

Christians was seen as ‘religious wealth’, meaning it would make their religious lives better.

But many of the treasures gained were worth a lot of money. Artwork and crafts, many made of gold, were considered

sacred but expensive if ever sold. Needless to say, the Crusades would turn from a religious act,

to an act of greed. The Crusades, in later years, would be just as brutal and blood-

filled, but the killing was not done for a Christian God, but for the love of wealth.

The territory would change hands often and control of wealth and riches would change as well, but all would end up as it began, 200 years or so earlier… in the hands of Muslims.