Early Medieval Europe: Barbarians and Monks

Themes

• regional kingdoms
• "Christian society"
• otherworldly worldviews: relics

Environment and Development

• migration and ethnogenesis:
  • Europe, c. 526
  • Europe, c. 600
  • Europe, c. 800
• Early Middle Ages: settlement and conversion, circa 400-1050
  • Visigothic Spain, 6th-7th centuries
  • Franks, c. 5th-9th centuries
    • Clovis 481-511
    • Charlemagne 768-814
  • Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600-1066
    • Alfred the Great 871-899
  • Scandinavians: Vikings, Normans, 8th-9th centuries
  • Italy: papacy, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Byzantines
    • Benedict 480-547
    • Pope Gregory I 590-604
  • Germany: Otto I 936-73
• High Middle Ages: urbanization and centralization, circa 1050-1350
• Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, circa 1350-1500

European Cultures

• synthesis:
• social and economic (Germanic):
  • tribal, nomadic
  • animistic, polytheistic
  • heroic warrior values: early English warrior epics (Beowulf)
• conversion
  • taming the wildness: Angelcyn West Stowe site
  • converting the pagan: Bede; warmth of the hall
  • Bede's World
• political: kingship and conversion
  • popes, bishops, and monks:
    • Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), Letters; Life of St. Benedict
    • Rule of St. Benedict
  • Franks: Clovis and Clotilde (Gregory of Tours)
  • Anglo-Saxons: Edwin and Ethelberga (Bede)
  • Saxons and Scandinavians: Anglo-Saxon and Frankish strategies
    • Boniface
    • Ansgar
    • Vikings at the court of Charlemagne: monk of St. Gall
    • treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, 871
    • Rollo and the founding of Normandy, 911

"Christian Society"

• politics and religion
  • popes and emperors: Gelasius' "two swords" theory
  • bishops and kings: Visigothic war blessing 7th century
  • Franco-Papal Alliance, c. 751 the Pope and Pepin
  • Christian kingship:
    • Charlemagne (Einhard)
    • Alfred the Great 871-899
    • Otto I 936-73
• christianizing the landscape:
  • Celtic sites
  • Wharram Percy Church of St. Martin: photos; artist's view; plan
  • Escomb, northern England
  • Mont St. Michel
  • syncretism: Anglo-Saxon charms, Franks Casket *; *
• worldview
  • saints
  • miracles
  • pilgrimage
  • relics, Conques

Conclusions