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| (pontificate 590-604): He was the most powerful pope of the early Middle Ages. To bring political stability to Italy, he established the Papal States. He also wrote advice on how bishops should perform their duties in his work The Book of Pastoral Care. He is also noted for his use of monastic orders to spread Christianity to pagan areas of northern Europe |
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| (ruled 717-741): He was the Byzantine emperor in the early 8th century. He became embroiled in the controversy over the use of icons. In 730, he outlawed the use of icons and used this dispute to assert the independence of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the control of the popes. |
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| Hagia Sophia (aka Santa Sophia) |
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| : This was the great cathedral of the Holy Wisdom located in Constantinople. It was built in the years between 532 and 537 by the emperor Justinian. This was the greatest achievement of Byzantine architecture. The massive dome that is the major feature of this building is 184 feet in height. |
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| This was the name for the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. It occurred on September 24, 663 and is the date used to begin the Islamic calendar. It is considered one of the most holy days in the Islamic religion. |
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| (570-632): He was an Arabian merchant who founded the religion of Islam. He is considered to be the most important prophet of Islam, and it was believed that the final will of God (Allah) had been revealed to him in the Koran. |
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These are the central tenants of Islam. It is believed that it is necessary to follow these to gain access to paradise. The five pillars are:
1) Belief in Allah and Muhammad,
2) Prayers five times daily and public prayers on Fridays,
3) Fasting during Ramadan,
4) Pilgrimage to Mecca, and
5) Alms giving to the poor. |
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| This is the holy book of Islam. Muslims believe that this book contains the final revelations of Allah as revealed to Muhammad. It set forth the rules by which Muslims are supposed to live. |
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| (980-1037): He was an Arabic doctor who made major contributions in the field of medicine. He wrote a medical textbook that came to be widely used in European universities. He contended that diseases were contagious and made a connection between poor sanitation and the spread of diseases. |
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| This was the Germanic tribe that established control over Italy in the 490s. Under their king Theodoric, the Ostrogoths established a government and a culture that was a fusion of German and Roman institutions. There was, however, tension between the Ostrogoths and the native Italians because of religious differences. After the reign of Theodoric, the Ostrogoths struggled to maintain control of Italy, and they, eventually, lost control of the peninsula to the Byzantines. |
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This was the Germanic tribe that settled in the Roman Empire in the late 4th century. As the Roman Empire collapsed in the west, they established a Germanic kingdom in Spain. Their kingdom was a fusion of Roman and German institutions and because of their conversion to Roman Catholicism, the Visigoths were accepted by Romans in Spain. Their kingdom collapsed in the early 8th century because of problems of succession and because of the Islamic invasion of Spain.
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| (ruled 493-526): He was the leader of the Germanic tribe the Ostrogoths. He conquered Italy (from its previous German ruler Odoacer) while serving as an agent for the Byzantine emperor Zeno in the early 490s. Instead of returning Italy to Zeno as promised, he kept it as his own kingdom. While he ruled Italy, he maintained a dual system of government as the Romans and Germans maintained separate governments and laws. After his death, the eastern Roman (Byzantine) empire conquered his old Ostrogothic kingdom. |
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| (ruled 482-511): He was the king of the Germanic tribe the Franks. Under his leadership, the Franks gained control of Gaul and established a strong kingdom. He became a Christian in 500. This led to the conversion of the Franks to Christianity and gained the support of the Roman Catholic Church for Clovis. After his death, his kingdom fragmented into smaller units. |
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| (ruled 714-741 as mayor of the palace): He was a strong Frankish leader who became a powerful leader in the early 8th century. In 714, he became the major leader of the Franks when he became the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. In 732, he defeated an invasion of Spanish Moors at the Battle of Tours. This victory stopped the spread of Islam into other areas of Western Europe. |
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| (ruled as mayor of the palace 741-751, as king 751-768): He was the son of Charles Martel who became the primary leader of the Franks in 741 when he followed his father as the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. In 751 he became the official king of the Franks. He was anointed king in a ceremony sanctioned by the papacy. He and his successors established an alliance with the popes and created a strong Frankish kingdom in the late 8th century. |
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| (ruled 768-814, as emperor of the Romans after 800): He was the powerful king of the Franks who created a huge western European empire. He was involved almost constantly in wars and campaigns to add territory to his empire. He relied on counts, margraves and missi dominici (messengers of the king) to help him rule the local territories within in his empire. He also reformed and strengthened the Catholic Church in his lands, worked to spread Christianity, and protected the papacy. In return for this service, he was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800 A.D. Although he had a large empire and was powerful himself, his empire did not have a strong governmental system and after his death it began to rapidly decline. |
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| This was the treaty in 843 that divided Charlemagne’s empire among his three grandsons. It ended a period of civil war among these grandsons and gave Charles the Bald control of present-day France, Louis the German control of the eastern German lands, and Lothair control of the middle region. It signaled a political division and disintegration. |
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| These were the warlike raiders from Scandinavian who attacked and invaded parts of Europe in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. Although the Vikings were eventually assimilated into European civilization, the instability caused by their invasions helped contribute to the political breakdown in Western Europe and the development of feudalism. Some of the more famous Vikings included Erik the Red, who discovered Greenland, and his son Lief Erikson, who explored part of North America. |
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| These were a warlike people from western Asia who migrated into central Europe in 9th century. They established a kingdom in Hungary and conducted numerous raids in the late 9th and early 10th centuries into areas of Western Europe. Although they were defeated in 955 at the Battle of Lechfeld and assimilated into European civilization, the instability caused by their invasions helped contribute to the establishment of feudalism. |
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| (ruled 936-973): He was the strongest of the Saxon kings of the 10th century in Germany. He stopped the Magyar invasions. He also helped spread Christianity to Slavs and Scandinavians, and in 962 he gained the title emperor of the Romans, thus reviving the old title that Charlemagne had held. He also got involved in religious disputes and even helped depose Pope John XII because of the pope’s immoral conduct. |
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| (pontificate 1073-1085): He was the reform-minded pope who became embroiled in the investiture controversy. To strengthen the papacy and give the Catholic Church more independence from secular rulers, Gregory began to claim that only religious authorities (specifically the pope) had the power to invest clerical officials with the power of their offices. This contention led to a major conflict between Gregory and the German king Henry IV. In this struggle, Pope Gregory VII was initially successful, but he was later forced into exile by Henry IV and the issue over who had the authority to invest religious officials with their positions and powers continued to rage between popes and German kings. |
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| (pontificate 1088-1099): He was a strong pope at the end of the 11th century. He greatly increased the efficiency and power of the papal curia (government); thus, he helped make the papacy stronger. He also played a significant role in the Crusades as he called the First Crusade in 1095 to liberate the Holy Land from Islamic control. |
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| (pontificate 1198-1216): He was the most powerful of all the medieval popes. He was not only a spiritual leader, but also served as the ruler of the Roman Catholic Church government. In addition, he was the most powerful political leader of his day as he used his religious authority to dominate secular kings and princes in various parts of Europe. |
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| This monastic order, founded in Europe at the end of the 11th century, became one of the most influential monastic orders in Europe during the High Middle Ages. For its members, it emphasized strict discipline and self-sufficiency. During the course of the 12th century, this order became very wealthy and played an important role in calling for Crusades against the Muslims. |
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| (1090-1153): He was one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 12th century. A devout member of the Cistercian order, Bernard played a major role in both political and religious affairs. For example, he called for the Second Crusade of the 1140s, and, in his religious teachings, he encouraged Christians to seek a more personal relationship with Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the saints. |
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| (1182-1226): He was an Italian who, after an intense religious experience, gave up his worldly possessions and founded the Order of Friars Minor (better known as the Franciscan Order). He emphasized the need for members of this order to take vows of poverty and live a simple, Christ-like life. |
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| (1170-1221): He was a Spanish priest who founded the Order of the Preachers (better known as the Dominicans) to fight heresy. Due to his efforts, this order emphasized the need for its members to be well educated and to preach against the heretical movements that had developed by the early 13th century. |
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| This was an unorthodox Christian movement in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries. Also known as Albigensianism, after a French city where many of the Cathars lived, this movement advocated a dualistic approach to life that emphasized the goodness of spiritual things and the evil of materialistic, worldly items. The beliefs of this movement led the Cathars to adopt many unorthodox views; for example, they denied the divinity of Jesus, they thought that it was evil to have children, and they refused to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of these beliefs, Cathars were persecuted by Church officials who used Crusades and the Inquisition in an attempt to eradicate this movement. |
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(ruled England from 1066-1087): He was the Duke of Normandy who claimed the throne of England when his cousin Edward the Confessor died in 1066. He invaded England and defeated the Saxon army of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. As King William I, he greatly increased the power of the English monarchy. He did this by bringing feudalism to England from France but manipulating feudalism to his benefit. He also gained power by requiring all sub vassals to take an oath of loyalty to him and by carefully controlling the sheriffs of the English counties. In addition he established a curia regis (in essence a royal government) made up of barons and church officials to advise him and to solve legal disputes. To increase his tax revenue he commissioned a census of all property in England. All of these things gave his monarchy greater power.
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| This was the report commissioned by William of Normandy in 1086. It was based on census reports of England taken by governmental officials. William used this report to better tap the taxable resources of England. This work is also very valuable as a source of English history in the High Middle Ages. |
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| (ruled 1154-1189): He was the strong English king in the 12th century. He extended the power of monarchy by strengthening the curia regis by having permanent governmental advisors that handled finances, correspondence and the law. He also increased the power of the monarchy by increasing the scope of the royal courts. He did this by issuing the Assizes of Clarendon that created finding juries in each of the various sections of English counties. Theses finding juries would then report criminal activities or property disputes to the royal courts, which came to try these cases. As a result of these efforts the royal courts became more powerful and a body of common legal practices began to develop in England (English common law). Henry II also got involved in disputes with the Catholic Church in England as he tried to place clerics under the authority of the royal courts. His efforts made the English monarchy stronger. |
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| (1116-1170): He was the archbishop of Canterbury in the 1160s who came into conflict with Henry II over the question of whether or not church officials could be tried in royal courts and whether or not they could appeal royal court decisions to papal courts. Becket had originally been a friend and political ally of Henry II, but after he became archbishop, the two began to quarrel over these issues. In 1170, Becket was murdered by a group of Henry II's knights. This made Becket a martyr and forced Henry II to compromise with the Catholic Church by giving clerics tried in royal courts the right to appeal to papal courts. |
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| (ruled 1189-1199): Known as the Richard the Lionheart, he was the son of Henry II whose reign began a period of decline in the power of the English monarchy. He was an excellent military commander and was the primary leader of the 3rd crusade. As such, he became a huge hero. Despite his fame, he was absent from England during much of his reign and was more concerned about liberating the Holy Land than about governing England. Because of this neglect, the monarchy lost power in England. |
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| (ruled 1199-1216): He was the son of Henry II who faced major problems during his reign as English king. He lost territory to the French king Philip II, was humiliated by Pope Innocent III, and faced opposition from the barons of England because of his efforts to increase their taxes. In 1214, these nobles, in coalition with church officials and townsmen, revolted against John. In 1215, they forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which protected them from undue control by the monarchy. John’s reign represented the beginning of a period when the English kings lost power in the 13th century. |
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| (ruled 1272-1307): He was a powerful English king who reversed the trend toward a weaker monarchy in England in the 13th century. He did this by curbing the power of local nobles, strengthening his royal government and most importantly summoning a national legislature (the English Parliament). Nicknamed Long shanks, because of his tall size, he also gained control of Wales and tried to gain control of Scotland for the English monarchy. |
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| (ruled 1108-1137): Also known as Louis the Fat, he was the French king in the early 12th century who increased the power of the French monarchy. He did this by gaining more effective control over his lands (the Ile de France) in the vicinity of Paris. He also played a role in settling disputes between the great lords of France, played his powerful vassals off against one another and came to the defense of his vassals when possible. He also arranged for the marriage of his son and the daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine thereby giving his royal family more territory. |
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| (ruled 1180-1223): He was the French king in the early 13th century who greatly increased the power of the monarchy. He did this by conquering English held territory in northwestern France. He then administered this new territory by allowing nobles to have local political autonomy, but at the same time he superimposed a system of bailiwicks administered by bailiffs in these regions. These bailiffs had military, political and judicial authority. This divided administrative system allowed Philip II to extend his royal power, but prevented outright noble revolts by allowing nobles to keep some power. |
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| (ruled 1226-1270): Known as Saint Louis because of his piety, he was the king of France in the mid 13th century. Building on the efforts of earlier French monarchs, he increased the power of the French monarchy and led France during an era of economic strength and political power. He was also extremely devout from a religious standpoint and participated in a number of the 13th century Crusades. This same religious piety, however, led him to persecute the Jews of his kingdom. Louis IX also patronized artistic, architectural, and educational activities. |
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| (ruled 1285-1314): He was the strong French king who created a stronger royal government made up of a council of advisors, a chamber of accounts and a royal court known as the Parlement of Paris. He also established a national legislature (the estates general) to approve his legislation. He also tried to gain more effective control over the Catholic Church. This led to a showdown between Philip and the Pope Boniface VIII in which the French king humiliated the pope. |
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| (ruled 1152-1190): He was the German king in the late 12th century. He was also known as Frederick Barbarossa or Redbeard. A member of the Hohenstaufen family, he was elected king in 1152 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1155. In this capacity of Holy Roman Emperor, he tried to increase his control over the economically rich area of northern Italy. This led to fighting between Frederick I and a coalition of northern Italian towns, the papacy and the Norman kings of Sicily. Despite some setbacks, Frederick was able to gain a degree of control over northern Italy and he was able to put down rebellions in Germany. Late in his reign, he arranged the marriage of his son to the heiress of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, thus giving his son Henry VI the opportunity to rule over an empire that included both Germany and Italy. Frederick I died in Turkey while participating in the 3rd crusade. |
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| (ruled 1212-1250): He was the grandson of Frederick I. Known as Frederick the Great, he- like his grandfather- worked to establish a unified empire of Germany and Italy. He was raised in the court of pope Innocent III and was one of the best-educated monarchs in Europe. In 1212, he gained the throne of Germany primarily with Innocent III’s help. Later in 1220, he gained the title Holy Roman Emperor. In this capacity, he worked to control both Italy and Germany, but he failed because he faced a strong coalition of determined enemies-northern Italian towns, German nobles and popes. When he died in 1250, the Hohenstaufen dream of a unified German-Italian empire died with him. |
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| (1137-1193): He was an Islamic sultan from Egypt who began to establish a stronger Islamic state in the late 12th century. In 1187, his forces were able to recapture Jerusalem and re-establish Islamic power throughout much of the Holy Land. This spurred the 3rd and 4th crusades to try to liberate the Holy Land from Islamic control. Saladin is considered the most powerful of the Islamic rulers in the high Middle Ages. |
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| This was a major intellectual and theological movement of the high Middle Ages. Essentially, it was an attempt to reconcile reason and faith. Followers of this line of thought came to contend that both reason and faith were paths that could be used to come to know God. Later as western Europeans gained more familiarity with and devotion to Aristotle, this movement also attempted to reconcile the teachings of Aristotle and other classical Greek thinkers and the doctrines of the Christian church. |
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| (1079-1142): He was a major theologian of the early 12th century involved in the development of scholasticism. As a teacher at the cathedral school (which later evolved into the University of Paris), he advocated the use of reason or logic to settle disputes in regard to Christian doctrine. In his most famous work Yes and No he advocated the use of the dialectical method as a way to settle contradictions and gain religious truth. |
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| (1225-1274): He was a 13th century theologian whose most brilliant work was his Summa Theologica. In this work he contended that there were two paths to the truth: revelation and reason. By advocating that reason was one way to gain access to the truth, Aquinas was able to reconcile the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian theology. He is considered the greatest of the scholastics. |
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| (1265-1321): He was one of the major literary figures in Italy during the transitional period from the High to the Late Middle Ages. His most famous work was his poem The Divine Comedy. This poem deals with the progression of the soul from hell to heaven and as such reflected the medieval period’s emphasis on religion. It was, however, written in the vernacular and also made reference to classical Latin literature and as such was a break with traditional mediev |
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