Project Worldseizer

In the Middle ages a new religion developed that was similar to the Manichean religion in Persia. This new religion was the Albigensian religion. Like the Manicheans they believed in two gods, a good god and an evil god. The good god was all things spiritual and the evil god represented materiel things. Because of this the Albigensians shunned all worldly possessions, and the “perfect” among the Albagensians ate no meat or animal products, were celibate and practiced lives of denial.

During the 13^th century a few new mendicant orders were made. Mendicant orders consist of people who have decided to live in poverty and travel and preach the word of God. They also might do good deeds such as building houses for the poor. The Franciscans were established by St. Francis of Assisi. Francis had given up all his worldly possessions in order to travel and preach the word of god only relying on what God might give him day to day. He soon had followers who he called them, “The order of Friars Minor.” The other one that developed during this time was the Dominicans. This order was founded by St. Dominic who wanted also to live a life of poverty and preaching but also to learn and become knowledgeable. St. Francis was of the opinion that you only needed the simple gospel and did not encourage more learning. Whereas the Dominicans became the professors at universities and taught schools.

Around this time in England the barons banded together and forced king John 1 to sign the Magna Carta. This is significant in the history of England because it meant that the king too was subject to the law. He was not allowed to do whatever he wanted and the beginnings of parliament were also made. The king had to have the consent of other people in order to place new taxes or make any major changes to the law. This was the beginning of more liberties in England.

There are many misconceptions regarding the crusades that exist in the mind of the average person. One of them is that the crusades were an unprovoked attack on the Muslims. This is about the opposite of the reality. At the time Muslims had taken over much of Saudi Arabia and had conquered North Africa and Spain and were a constant threat to the Byzantine empire and the rest of Europe. The next one is that the crusaders went on crusade for money. This is ridiculous since most of the crusaders were already wealthy but to go on crusade they would have to get mortgages or go bankrupt because of the enormous expense of going on crusade. One is that modern terrorism is the result of the crusades. The reality is that the crusades were so disastrous and unsuccessful that most Muslims didn’t even remember the crusades. The first Muslim to even mention the crusades in a book wasn’t until 1899. Another one is that the crusaders massacred in Jerusalem until the streets fan ankle deep in blood. This one is partially true since when the crusaders took over Jerusalem in the first crusade there was a big massacre. But this was because Jerusalem had resisted takeover of their city until the end and in medieval warfare it was common to put a city to the sword if they resisted takeover.

The great schism from eastern and western religion happened over a long period of time but finally came to a split in 1054. Over time the customs and they way of doing the religious practices in the east and the west changed. In the west their was strict celibacy whereas in the east you could become a priest even if you were married. These small changes alone were not enough to divide the east and the west but this along with all the other things just made the east side more foreign and odd to the westerners. Constantinople was the capitol of the eastern part of the roman empire that remained unconquered by the barbarians and over time the city of Rome diminished in its power and prestige whereas Constantinople grew more and more powerful. The people in the east wanted Constantinople to replace Rome as the center of the Catholic faith saying that Rome was now just a backwater place compared to the powerful city of Constantinople. They thought that Constantinople was the new Rome and should be more important or at least equal to the city of Rome. All of this and the pope excommunicating a popular priest and misunderstandings lead to the division of religion in the east and the west. Today we still see the Greek Orthodox church from the time of the great schism.

In the 9^th and 10^th centurys in France the power became very de-centralized due to the constant invasions from Vikings and Muslims the local lords took over protesting that towns people. The kings power decreased until in the late 10^th century the Carolingian dynasty died out and Hugh Capet became king only having control over Paris and some of the out skirting towns. But over the course of the Capetian dynasty the kings regained more control of their lands. In 1190 Phillip the second Augustus became king. He took back the French lands that had been ruled over by the king of England. Fiefs( small pieces of land that a lord would give to a vassal for his service) owned by Vassals who had no heir were taken by the king, as well as fiefs controlled by Vassals who ignored their feudal obligations. Under Phillip the second power in France became much more centralized and more like what we think the French monarchy was today.

By the 9^th and 10^th centurys the church had gradually become more and more controlled by the laity, who were the common non ordained people. Dukes and Lords often appointed bishops and abbots of monasteries, and if they built a monastery they considered it their property. Aristocratic families in Rome jockeyed for control over the papacy, which lead to some despicable popes such as pope John the 12^th who toasted to the devil. After this the Holy Roman Emperor king of what is now Germany appointed the popes to avoid this. When pope St Leo the 9^th began his papacy he began what is called moderate reform. He did away with heresy such as simony and clerical marriage but he did not go to the root of the problem which was laity appointing church officials. Instead he just thought that the laity should make sure to appoint good officials. But he did set up the system in which a college of cardinals appoints the pope which is still used to this day.

When pope St Gregory the 7^th was appointed pope he realized the reason that none of his reform bills were working was because he could not appoint his own officials to carry them out. He abolished laity investiture which is where the king would invest a bishop when they were ordained with the symbols of temporal authority but they would also invest them with the symbols of spiritual authority which should not come from a king. This was bad for the church since a non ordained figure was investing the bishops with spiritual authority. But Henry the 4^th king and Holy Roman Emperor of Germany persisted in doing this stating that it was a tradition even though it was an immoral one. This lead to pope Gregory excommunicating the king. Since this meant that all of his nobles would not listen to and rebel against him, he traveled to Canossa ,where the pope was staying, and waited three days in the snow to see the pope. Only after this the pope saw him and after the meeting the pope lifted Henry’s excommunication. Unfortunately directly after this Henry continued to invest bishops. The pope excommunicated him again but Henry this time exiled the pope from Rome where Gregory died in exile saying,” I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.” But soon after in 1122 the concordat of worms was signed mostly in the churchs favor and making laity investiture illegal.

The 9^th and 10^th centurys brought many different invasions to Europe. They were from three main different people groups, the vikings from Denmark, the Magyars which was an Asiatic group that we do not have very much information about and the muslims from Arabia. The Viking invasions were most detrimental to what we would now call France. They were so destructive that they added a prayer to Catholic mass asking God to, “Deliver us from the Norsemen.” The vikings preformed lightning fast raids on villages coming from the sea. They laid waste to the villages and monasteries they raided. The Magyars were primarily a problem for what we would call Germany and continued to lay waste to it until in 955 Otto the great defeated them at the battle of Lechfeld. The muslims were a terror for all of Europe. They first conquered North Africa and Spain, then proceeded to fight battles in the rest of Europe. This had the affect of creating a constant fear of invaders in the people of Europe.

In response to this the people looked to local strongmen for protection. This created the system of Feudalism and Manorialism. The local strongman, such as a duke or lord, would watch out for invaders but because his time was occupied doing this the people would have to work on his land for three days in the week. The rest of the week they would work on land that belonged to the lord, but they would be able to keep and sell the things they grew on the land. Manorialism is the process in which a knight swears to obey the lord and the lord would give him land called a fief. In this way the invasions changed the way the land was run.