-
400
The Fall of Rome
The Early Middle Ages comes after the fall of Rome, about 400 AD.
Reason why Rome felt are the following:
Invasions by Barbarian tribes
Economic troubles and overreliance on slave labor
The rise of the Eastern Empire
Overexpansion and military overspending
Government corruption and political instability
The arrival of the Huns and the migration of the Barbarian tribes.
Christianity and the loss of traditional values
Weakening of the Roman legions -
Period: 400 to Dec 31, 1000
Early Medieval Era
-
440
Pope Leo I
-Reigned from 29 September 440 to his death in 461. He was an Italian aristocrat.
-The first pope to have been called "The Great".
-Condemned Monophysitism, believed in Rome's supremacy. -Negotiated with Huns not to sack Rome. -
451
Monophysitism
Heresy in Church, believed that the human and divine in Christ were inseparable and totally intermingled. Basically the idea was One Nature in One Person. -
520
Childeric II
Vandal king from 520s; he drew closer to Constantinople, cut back on suppression of Catholics. -
May 8, 632
The Rise of Islam
Meanwhile, the Islamic world was growing larger and more powerful. After the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, Muslim armies conquered large parts of the Middle East, uniting them under the rule of a single caliph. At its height, the medieval Islamic world was more than three times bigger than all of Christendom. -
Oct 10, 732
Battle of Tours
-Battle in Poitiers in 732.
-Charles Martel stopped Muslim penetration into France.
-a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe. -
May 8, 1000
The Crusades
-toward the end of the 11th century, the Catholic Church began to authorize military expeditions.
-they expel Muslim “infidels” from the Holy Land.
-Crusaders, who wore red crosses on their coats to advertise their status
-believed that their service would guarantee the remission of their sins and ensure that they could spend all eternity in Heaven. -
Pope Gregory I
-Born into a noble Roman family in 540
-In 574, he left secular life to become a monk
-From 579-85 he lived in Constantinople as Rome's ambassador, returning to Rome to help in Church administration.
-In 590 he became Pope
-Upon building churches or monasteries, rulers would appoint priests, and tried to control Christian hierarchies. Gregory stood against this. Commanding priests not to marry, he hoped to end the familial alliances that produced Frankish control over clerics -
Charlemagne
-Known as Charles the Great or Charles I.
-King of the Franks who united most of Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
-Charlemagne rule is related with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church.
