The High Middle Ages: The Church, Knighthood, and The Crusades
After this period of backward thinking and general decline, emerges the High Middle Ages, named fittingly for its negligible, yet marked improvement from these first five centuries. The period of the High Middle Ages saw the emergence of the states and kingdoms which evolved into the leading European powers over following centuries: Germany, France, England, and the Spanish and Scandinavian kingdoms. The mentioned states managed to achieve the stability required for economic growth and to consolidate their power which resulted in the territorial expansion. Feudalism became the predominant social system in most parts of Europe and Asia by the end of the 11th century. The land as the source of survival and wealth came in the possession of feudal landowners or lords. They gave their land as a fiefs to the vassals who in return provided military service. At the same time the few remaining free peasants became serfs, lost their land and personal freedom. The High Middle Ages saw the weakening of the central royal authority and the rise of power of the local feudal lords who could count on their loyal vassal and eventually became absolutely independent rulers on their territory. However, administrative changes in the 11th and 12th centuries forced the monarchs to be more active in control of their territories which increased the royal incomes and military power and eventually strengthened the monarchical authority. It is also in this period where we see great influence of the Christian principles in all aspects of life of all medieval social classes. Under Pope Innocent III (c. 1161-1216) the Papacy reached its height but the High Middle Ages also saw the conflict between the Church and European monarchs known as the Investiture Controversy. Despite its influence and power the Catholic Church felt threatened by the heretic movements and desperately tried to root them out mostly with propaganda of newly established mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans) as well as with inquisitorial trials. The period of the High Middle Ages was also marked by the final separation between the Latin and Orthodox Church with mutual excommunication in 1054 which came to be known as the East-West Schism or the Great Schism. The relations between both
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Christian Churches were afterwards hostile. Among the most important events of the High Middle Ages were the Crusades. The First Crusade was launched by Pope Urban II to help the Byzantine Empire against the Seljuk Turks and to free the Holy Land from the Muslims in 1096. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character fought from 1096 to 1291 by most of the Christian Europe against the Muslims in the Middle East. However, the Crusades were also launched against the pagan Slavs, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Albigenses, Hussites as well as against political enemies in Europe (such as the Crusade against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II). The appeal of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Comnenus to the Pope for military assistance against the Seljuk Turks resulted in the convocation of the Council of Clermont by Pope Urban II in November 1095. At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the Crusade against the Muslims who had occupied the Holy Land and were attacking the Byzantine Empire and gave a cloth crosses to the knights to be sewn into their armor which gave the Crusades their name. This brings us to the next topic at hand, Knights and their code of Chivalry; which are one of the most famous developments of the middle ages. Medieval knights were mounted warriors who held land in return for military service. Originally, the title of a knight could have been earned exclusively through military achievements and some knights originated from the lower classes of medieval society. However, eventually the knights could became only male descendants of knighted men, while knightly families became regarded as noble. Despite that the title of a knight could not be inherited and every noble had to go through a long process before becoming a knight. The process of becoming a knight started in early childhood usually around age of 7 or 8 years when a boy was sent to his lord’s household where he started his training to become a knight. The boy served as a page, kind of waiter and personal servant to his elders from about of 7 to 14 years of age. Page was also taught knightly virtues and conduct as well as battle techniques. Page became a squire, a personal servant of the knight at about 14 years of age and followed the knight in the battles when old enough. Some squires were knighted for their outstanding performances on the battlefields but they were usually knighted by their lord when latter considered the training to be completed which was usually at 21 years of age. Knighthood was formally conferred with a ceremony known as the accolade performed by the king or overlord with a stroke with the flat of the sword on the neck or shoulder of the future knight. Accolade was usually preceded by religious ceremony which featured praying, fasting, blessing the weapons, bad of purification and keeping vigil after the 12th century. After being formally knighted the knights served the mightier lords or were hired by them. Some knights held land and castles, while the others were landless and joined various military orders. However, rules
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were often broken and some knights even turned to organized crime. Besides the so-called robber knights or robber barons some knights did not swore alliance neither to a liege lord nor to a military order. They were known as the knights-errants wandering the land and searching for adventures to prove themselves as knights. Chivalry is more or less associated with the medieval institution of knighthood and renowned for its dominant role in the battlefields already during the period of the Early Middle Ages. The cavalries or knights became regarded as special elite forces after the 9th century and usually consisted of wealthy knights and noblemen who could afford expensive armor, horses and weapons . Chivalry is more or less associated with the medieval institution of knighthood and renowned for its dominant role in the battlefields already during the period of the Early Middle Ages. The cavalries or knights became regarded as special elite forces after the 9th century and usually consisted of wealthy knights and noblemen who could afford expensive armor, horses and weapons. The word chivalry derives from the French word chevalier meaning the one who rides and fights on a horse. The term in the Medieval Times also encompassed a system of ethnical ideals associated with knightly virtues, conduct and courtly love. Today, the terms chivalry and chivalrous are often used to describe a behavior of men towards women.
The Late Middle Ages: Reforming the Church, and the Black Death
The Black Death, widely considered to be the most devastating pandemics in recorded human history, more correctly referred to as the Bubonic Plague, struck during the Late Middle Ages. The outbreak of the Black Death in the 1340’s greatly affected medieval European cities. The cities were more densely inhabited and for that reason the mortality from the plague was higher than in the countryside. The diseases symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:
The vector of the disease came from fleas who had been infected with the virus. The epidemic itself, coupled with unsanitary living conditions and negligible medical science made for a terrible scenario, in which an estimated half of Europe's population was wiped out due to the Black Death. Many measures, albeit ineffective, were implemented to stop the spread of the plague. However, there were methods that did work. "Cities were hardest hit and tried to take measures to control an epidemic no one understood. In Milan, to take one of the most successful examples, city officials immediately walled up houses found to have the plague, isolating the healthy in them along with the sick. Venice took sophisticated and
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stringent quarantine and health measures, including isolating all incoming ships on a separate island. But people died anyway, though fewer in Milan and Venice than in cities that took no such measures. Pope Clement VI, living at Avignon, sat between two large fires to breath pure air. The plague bacillus actually is destroyed by heat, so this was one of the few truly effective measures taken. This widespread trepidation created fear in the general public for quite sometime after a general inoculation, and there were some positive effects; increased medical knowledge and secularization in the thoughts of the populous after failed attempts of the Church to rid those infected of the ailment. Which, in turn leads to the usurpation and reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Close collaboration between the Church and the highest political and military officials was followed by occasional struggles for supremacy. The tensions between the Church and secular authorities became evident already in the 9th century and reached their height with the Investiture Controversy, the dispute between Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Gregory VII over appointments of church officials in the 11th century. Besides struggles for supremacy with secular rulers the Church also put a lot of effort to prevent priestly marriages and simony (purchase of church offices). First major step towards introduction of celibacy of the clergy was made by Pope Gregory VII by publishing an encyclical which absolved the people from their obedience to bishops who allowed priestly marriages. However, the compulsory celibacy of the clergy and ban of priestly marriages was formally introduced with the First Lateran Council in 1123. That way the Roman Catholic Church avoided an eventual division of the land and heritable offices in case if married clergymen produced heirs. The Christian and church doctrine had an absolute “monopoly” over mentality of all classes of feudal society during the period of highly developed feudalism. Any theological or religious opinion which opposed to the official churchly doctrine was considered heretic and was persecuted, while religious believes dominated in all aspects of a life of a Christian. However, the Papacy slowly lost its power to the national monarchs by the 14th century which became obvious after the influence of many reformers, some even priests themselves. One such notable contrary individual is Martin Luther, a priest who posted his Ninety-Five Thesis on the walls of the castle-church in Wittenburg, Germany. This created separation in the thoughts of the people and the Roman Catholic Church, eventually leading to the Protestant Reformation; setting the stage for the Renaissance.
