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EDWARD PETERS
EUROPE
The World of the Middle Ages
A distinctively European civilization
emerged from the worlds of Mediterranean
antiquity, the nomadic cultures of western
and central Eurasia, and forms of early
technology and communications. The set¬
tlement of Europe and the formation of a
material and spiritual culture that lasted,
at least in some respects, until the nine¬
teenth and early twentieth centuries, are
the subjects of this book. This enduring
culture had profound and lasting effects
upon the shaping of the-Modern World.
The history of any civilization is a vast
and intricate subject. The chapters in this
volume are selected and designed to clari¬
fy and highlight the complex, interwoven
factors that produced the first European
civilization.
One of the most interesting periods in
European intellectual history lies in the
shifting meaning of the term “Middle
Ages” as it applies to the early settlement
and culture of Europe. For this volume,
the world of the Middle Ages is bounded
by Greenland and the Urals, Norway and
the Northern Sahara, and the valleys of
the Shannon and the Euphrates. Its time
span is between the establishment of
Roman colonies in southern Gaul and
Spain in the late second century B.C. and
the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
A.D.
(continued on back flap)
of the Middle Ages
EDWARD PETERS
University of Pennsylvania
PRENTICE-HALL, INC., ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NEW JERSEY 07632
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Peters, Edward (date)
Europe, the world of the Middle Ages.
Bibliography: p. 586
Includes index.
1. Middle Ages—History. 2. Civilization,
Medieval. I. Title.
D118.P45 940.1 76-20673
ISBN 0-13-291898-6
© 1977 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
in any form or by any means,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 987654321
Prentice-Hall International, Inc., London
Prentice-Hall of Australia Pty. Limited, Sydney
Prentice-Hall of Canada Ltd., Toronto
Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi
Prentice-Hall of Japan, Inc., Tokyo
Prentice-Hall of Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore
TO MY CHILDREN
Nicole Marie Peters
Moira Anne Peters
Edward Murray Peters III
CONTENTS
Preface xiii
Introduction:
The Discovery and invention of the Middie Ages 1
1
PART ONE; EUROPE AND THE ANCIENT WORLD 9
A Map of the Medievai Environment:
The Geography and Ciimate of Mediterranean
and North Temperate Europe 11
Physical Europe: Lands and Waters 11
The Climate of North Temperate and Mediterranean Europe,
500 B.C.-1850 A.D. 16
2
Society and Environment in Early Europe 18
The First Europeans 23
The Celtic World 23
Mediterranean Societies to the Second Century A.D. 27
3
The Early Germans 31
The Transformation of the Eurasian Worid,
200-400 A.D. 34
The Imperial Crisis of the Third Century 34
The World beyond the Empire, 150-375 A.D. 42
The Intellectual and Spiritual Worlds of Late Antiquity 47
4
viii CONTENTS
The Fourth Century 56
The Empire and the Triumph of Christianity 56
The Structure of the Church in the Fourth Century 59
Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century:
Learned and Popular Culture 65
The Second Rome and the Old Empire, 330-395 74
PART TWO; THE LEGACY OF MEDITERRANEAN ANTIQUITY 77
5
East and West Rome and the invasions, 395-530 79
Emperors and Churchmen 79
The World of Galla Placidia:
Visigoths and Romans in the West 86
The Breaching of the Rhine Frontier:
Vandals, Burgundians, and Huns 89
Romania: The Impact of the Invasions
on East and West Rome 81
6 The Barbarian West 96
The Tragedy of the “Good” Barbarians: Ostrogothic Italy 96
The Franks in Gaul 102
From Frontier Provinces to Barbarian Kingdoms:
Britain, Spain, and Africa, 450-550 106
Monasticism and Culture in the Barbarian West 110
7
The Making of Byzantium 117
The Emperor Who Never Sleeps 117
Constantinople: The Eye of the World 125
After Justinian:
Avars, Slavs, and the Flowering of Sasanid Persia 129
Heraclius and the Defense of the Empire 132
8
Germanic Kingdoms and the Church in the West,
565-700 135
Lombard Italy and the First Rome 135
God’s Consul 139
Roman and Celtic Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England 145
Visigothic Spain 148
Frankish Gaul under the Successors of Clovis, 511-683 151
9
The New Mediterranean World: The Rise of Islam 158
The Imperial African Provinces 158
The Arab World and the Revelations of Mohammed 160
Mohammed’s Successors and the Spread of Islam to 750 163
The Abbasid Dynasty
and the Divisions of the Islamic World 165
CONTENTS ix
PART THREE: THE BOOK AND THE SWORD, 650-950 169
10 The World of Bede and Boniface, 650-750 171
Bede: “The Light Within the Church” 171
The English Continental Mission and Saint Boniface,
Exul Germanicus 176
Ecclesiastical Reform and the New Rulers of the Eranks 177
From Frankish Kingdom to Christian Empire 182
Erankish Kingship, the Church, and the Institutions of Royal
Governance under Pepin and Charlemagne, 751-800 182
The Expansion of Erankish Power in the
Eighth and Ninth Centuries 195
Byzantium, Lombard Italy, and the Papacy 199
The Carolingian Renaissance 204
.Frankish King and Imperator Romanorum 210
Politics, Society, and Economy
in Ninth-Century Europe 220
■^From Respublica Christiana to Separate Kingdoms,
814-888 220
Population and Forms of Settlement 226
The Distribution of Wealth and Power 230
Trade and Communication 231
Byzantium and the Crisis of the West, 802-950 235
Central and Eastern Europe to 900 235
Crisis and Recovery in Byzantium, 802-904 238
The New Invasions of Europe:
Arabs, Magyars, and Vikings 241
The Macedonian Dynasty
and the Flowering of Byzantine Civilization 247
Rome, the Papacy,
and the Fragments of the Carolingian Ideal 249
PART FOUR: CHRISTENDOM:
MATERIAL CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE, 950-1150 255
The Social and Economic Transformation
of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 257
Population Growth and New Patterns of Settlement 257
Sustenance and Surplus: European Agriculture 262
Market, Town, and City in an Agricultural World 268
Communication and Trade, Technology and Industry 276
X CONTENTS
15 Power and Society 282
Lordship and Political Communities 282
The New German Monarchy and the Imperial Revival 287
Christendom and the East:
The Byzantine Sphere and Kievan Russia 292
Royal Lordship in the Eleventh Century 297
16 Spiritual Reform and the Concept of Christendom 306
Lordship: Power and Culture in the Eleventh Century 306
Imperial Reform and the Eleventh-Century Papacy 315
The Pontificate of Gregory VII and the Imperial Conflict 322
Christianitas: The Consequences of Reform and Conflict 327
17 Christendom East and West, 1025-1150 330
Christianitas: The Acculturation of an Idea 330
The Crisis of the Byzantine Empire
in the Eleventh Century 335
Holy War and Sinful Society:
Pope Urban II and the “Pilgrimage” to Jerusalem 339
Byzantium, Islam, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,
1099-1144 345
PART FIVE: CHRISTENDOM:
AUTHORITY AND ENTERPRISE, 1150-1300 351
18 The Materials of a New Learning 353
Schools, Curricula, and Objects of Study 353
Readers, Books, and Libraries: The Materials of Literacy 358
Language and Culture 362
The Market for Learning and Letters:
Education and Careers in the Twelfth Century 369
19 The Content of the New Learning 374
Anselm and Abelard: Erom Dialectic to Philosophy 374
The Invention of Theology 379
The Professions: Law 383
The Medieval University 388
20
The Church and the World, 1098-1250 392
Monasticism and Civilization 392
New Eorms of Devotion, Order, and Dissent 397
The New Pastoralism, Heretics, and Jews 410
Christendom as Polity: Papacy and Empire, 1123-1250 418
CONTENTS xi
The Road to the World 431
Courtly Society and Secularization 431
The Flowering of Vernacular Literature 434
Arsitotle, Aquinas, and the Place of Nature 439
Secularization of the Active Life 442
Temporal Authority: From Territorial Principality to
Territorial Monarchy 448
The King and the Kingdom 448
Traditional Status in a Changing Political World 463
The Conflict between Spiritual and Temporal Authority 466
Latin Christendom and Beyond 475
Byzantium, Outremer, and the Latin West, 1144-1261 475
Kingdom and Community in Central and Eastern Europe 480
The Alongol Empire, 1227-1350 487
Geography, Travel, and Commerce:
The Opening of China and the Atlantic 491
PART SIX: THE HUMAN CONDITION 495
The Individual and Society in the Thirteenth Century 497
Birth and Death, Diet, Sickness and Health 497
Marrying and Giving in Marriage, Friendship,
Love, and Plate, 501
5
Ceremony and Festival: The Human Year 506
The World of Dante 512
Italy and the Italian City-Republics 512
Civic Culture 516
6
Exul Immeritus 520
Material Civilization in Crisis:
The Fourteenth Century 523
Famine, Plague, and Warfare 523
The Financial Crisis 530
The Problems of the Social Order 541
The Roots of Traditional Europe 546
Spirituality and Secularism 546
Power and Order 558
The Shape of Europe and the New World 574
The Frames of Time: Visions of a New Past and Present 582
Bibliography I General Bibliographies 587
H Selective Bibliography 601
Index 617
