Marcus Aurelius designated his son Commodus to succeed him, but he was a poor ruler, snarky, and threw tantrums when he didn't get his way. This lead to the political atmosphere turning rancid in a way it had not been for a hundred years.
As many as 83 claimants to the throne--only a handful of whom died of natural causes. Nonstop war undermined the economy by disrupting farming and commerce. "warmongering" generals made matters worse by intermittently devaluing the currency so they would have more coinage on hand with which to pay their troops. This triggered runaway inflation and drove the hordes of laborers to the city in search of employment, causing the urban centers to become choked with homeless and desperately poor people.
A stern, no nonsense emperor who faced enormous problems: a wrecked economy, a restive army, Germanic and Persian Invasions, and a bloated, inefficient administration. He addressed the currency problem by withdrawing Rome's currency from Circulation and returning the empire to a barter economy. He recast the imperial army into separate civil and military divisions; border troops and palace troops. He is also best remembered for instituting the longest, most vicious of the state attacks on Christians.
Diocletian's successor after a civil war. He was the first Roman emperor to be Christian, and therefore Romanizes Christianity. This all started on the eve of the battle that would decide the civil war. A heavenly voice spoke to him and told him to embrace Christianity and put crosses on all his men's shields before the battle; he did so, and won.--Imperial success could only come so long as the empire served the Christian God.
Constantine Issued this to legalized Christianity and guaranteed religious freedom for all faiths within the empire. It also opened the imperial coffers in support of it. Constantine ordered that public funds be made available to compensate individuals whose property and cash deposits had been confiscated for religious reasons. It also granted Christians special tax privileges and showed personal preference for selecting Christians to serve in government offices.
Constantine the Great recognized no two Christian groups believed the same things, embraced the same values, worshipped the same way, read the same canon, or recognized the same authority. He also realized that the christianities risked continued fracturing and internal fighting unless something was done. He then summoned the leaders of every Christian community in the empire to come to Nicaea to meet and come to a compromise.
Constantine abandoned Italy and built a new capital city in the east, known as Byzantium. This is because it was where Europe and Asia met, which was the nexus of east-west trade, and the strategic node for overseeing the administration of the eastern empire.
The Byzantines regarded their eastern empire as "New Rome" that was now purged of its Pagan past and only dedicated to creating the Christian realm.
Odoacer was a German general who recognized that the trade between east and west had declined since the west didn't produce anything but slaves for the east, and therefore ended this. He "deposed the weakling ruler and declared the western empire dead."
His book 'Rule of Saint Benedict' was to guide the monastery the he had established, Monte Cassino, in southern Italy. His rule attracted so many adherents because it required relatively moderate discipline, but had also balanced focus on the monks' physical and intellectual, as well as their spiritual well being. Benedict's insistence on study had the most important consequences for medieval Europe, for monasteries virtually monopolized book production.
A Byzantine Emperor who tried to recapture the west in order to reconstitute the old empire. He completed the church of Hagia Sophia and completed the "Corpus of Law" which formed the basis of all jurisprudence in Byzantium until the 15th century and provided a model for the development of the Canon Law of the Catholic Church.
Originally belonged to the Hashim clan within the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. He received visions that summoned him to the role of the Final Prophet of Allah and they called upon him to unite the Arab people and bring God's message to all the nations on earth. Muhammad also saw the heavenly text of the Qur'an and read it aloud to his followers. Also, he preached to the crowds in Mecca. He described Islam as the final phase of the relationship between God in his covenant with Abram. This is because the Arabs were descended from Abram's liaison with Hagar, and Islam thus stands in an evolutionary relationship with Judaism and Christianity.
After twelve years of intense conflict, the Meccan's drove Muhammad and a small group of followers from the city, and Muhammad then traveled northward toward Medina. They ended up proving to be more receptive the Muhammad's teachings and within two years, he had command of the city.
Expansions in the west culminated with the conquest of Spain.
They originally wanted to win Gaul, but when they arrived they were repulsed by Charles Martel. The Muslims then retreated behind the Pyrenees and devoted their energies to furthering the spread of Islam among its subjects.
Generally regarded to as medieval Islam's Golden Age. They had a magnificent new capital in Baghdad. At the heart of Abbasid policy was an earnest but cautious welcoming of the involvement and tradition of the Malawi (non-Arab Muslims). Among the Malawi, the Persians were the largest single group; this lead to the first wave of transformation under the Abbasids which was to spread and promote Persian culture. To offset inevitable danger of decentralizing imperial power, the Abbasids increased the number and extent of the state-owned estates within each province, along with increasing fiscal contributions. With the new income they developed the city of Baghdad by improving the pay of the army, developing the infrastructure that held together the Islamic world, and withdrew viziers to appoint local judges.
The first coup took place in Damascus, when the family Abbasids rebelled against eh Umayyad rulers of the Islamic Empire. This is because the Umayyad dynasty had never been popular-- they were seen as more interested in power than faith. They then made things worse by reserving all positions of leadership in the empire for ethnic Arabs. This caused severe economic and social trouble. The Abbasid clan began then to lay the groundwork for regime change. The presided over the opening of the Islamic world to non-Arabs. The second coup lead to the rise of the Carolingian family from northeastern Gaul.
He became the king of Franks by the acclaim of his people and the recognition of his title by Pope Stephen II. Him and his successors stressed practical needs of connecting their realm and building an independent empire. The Carolingians were dedicated to promoting the conversion of barbarian Europe. They then supported missionary work among the barbarians and attempted to develop an infrastructure of roads and bridges that would connect towns and villages.
"The cultural proliferation and ethnic egalitarianism of the Abbasids outraged many and inspired a predictable backlash." Two important developments coincided with this: 1) Muslims had become the majority in two or three generations. 2) The fracturing coincided with the breaking up of the Carolingian empire in Europe with in turn gave opportunities to the splinter states to expand their commerce.
The Umayyad's had fled as far as Spain where they officially seceded from the empire and declared an independent kingdom of their own.
Spent 40 years campaigning across Europe in order to expand his realm into northeastern Spain. eastern Germany, Italy, Bohemia, the Hungarian plain and northern reaches of the Balkans. His overall goal was to unite Latin Europe under a single government with a comprehensive legal system, network of churches and schools, a reliable basic infrastructure, and a regularized system of weights and measures. He viewed his power and status as commodities that he alone possessed and could parcel out at will. He delegated counts who represented him and exert power in his name. It was a primitive system of government that was meant to evoke the ruling style of the ancient Roman emperors.
She occupied Constantinople's throne, and she seized this power by organizing a coup against her ineffectual son Constantine VI. In order to keep her role as empress, when her son grew up she ordered her son be blinded and left to die. Charlemagne had offered to marry her in order to unite the eastern and western empires. But even considering this made Irene very unpopular in turn leading to her death in 805.
Charlemagne was crowned Augustus by Pope Leo III on Christmas day. The symbolic significance was the date, but the other significance was that it sent a message to Byzantium that the Carolingians established a way to pass on the imperial title in with the Byzantines had no role. It was basically a declaration of independence.
Carolingian luck ran out after his death, and his crown was passed on to his heir, Louis the Pious.
Louis had few of his father's gifts. He lacked charisma and quick wit, along with being intensely straitlaced and moralistic. He banished all the dancing girls and mistresses who kept his father company during his sleepless nights, along with not enjoying any luxuries. Also, in order to make up for his father's sexual libertinism he remained unnaturally faithful to his wife; this resulted in him only having 3 heirs, all of whom hated him.
Egypt broke away, but the rebels overthrew and succeeded by a new dynasty called the Fatimids.
He was an Arab scholar who developed a school that focused on philosophical, literary, and logical texts.
He was an Arab scholar who developed a school that emphasized the Greek scientific and medical writings.
This was a French dynasty that came to power in 987 with not much more than the city of Paris to its credit. It engaged in 5 generations of aggressive diplomacy. It did this through marriage that would in turn bring more and more of central and southern France into the family domain.
These were a series of large scale military campaigns that were to win back the Holy Land. They involved other factors, but the religious factor is what makes the Crusades unique. They were the only wars that were formally sanctioned by the church. These wars, to the church, pleased God and made one a better Christian. They preached them from the pulpit, formally inducted their leading fighters, and helped arrange their financing. These wars was a continuance of the struggle for the eastern Mediterranean shore. Big questions about justifying of warfare arose, and the reformed church needed to find ways to manage and restrain conflicts so they employed the Truth of God which was a solemn ban on warfare on holy days and on assaulting pilgrims. It was not a war on Islam; Christian trade with Muslims continued in the Mediterranean cities throughout the crusades.
This was a method for finding truth. Through its bishops, the church oversaw the universities of Europe emerge. It is defined as a curriculum rather than a philosophy. It was based on the conviction that all of the cosmos were rationally ordered. Also, Aristotle's work re-emerged and took 'center stage.' Scholars believed in the unity of truth in all areas of the human experience.
Established by Saint Francis of Assisi and approved by Pope Innocent III. They dedicated themselves to preaching and service to the urban poor. They would beg for food and money and donate whatever they collected to the destitute. They preached a simple message of love, forgiveness, and charity.
Established by Saint Dominic de Guzman and approved by Pope Honorius. The hopes were to bring the heretical back into the Catholic fold. He recognized that heresy was not the product of human evil or of satanic mischief but was simply a consequence of the church's failure to provide appropriate religious education. Therefore establishing schools across Europe that debated heretical ideas and preached tirelessly.
Mysticism was said to be a direct connection with God. Many hundreds to thousands of people claimed to have had either visions or otherworldly voices connected with God. These people included Carthusian Monks, courtly poets, and everyday peasants and town dwellers. However, women were the most common to experience this.
By this time, nearly every state in Latin Europe had some sort of representative assembly that possessed genuine power, usually by means of controlling the King's or prince's access to tax revenue. The King would consult the people for money, and in exchange for that money, he would give up some power.
It was the longest, yet not continuous, war in Western History. It was against England and France. It all started when England's King Edward III claimed the French throne for himself. Legally his claim was correct, but the French court wouldn't have it.
As a teenager he was the Holy Roman Emperor. He eventually holds the Diet of Worms which in turn leads to the outlaw of Luther.
It all started when a fleet of Genoese merchant ships returning fro the Black Sea arrived in the harbor at Messina Sicily. Unfortunately, upon that vessel was a pack of rats carrying the bubonic plague. The disease itself originated in eastern Asia and had worked its way westward along the trade routes. The people had no biological means of fighting it off and it took several centuries for the necessary antibodies to develop among the population.
This was a time of an efflorescence of arts that were primarily visual and less literary. The ideas of this coincided with the rediscovery of Greek and Roman culture. Religion and art were flourishing and then there was a rebirth of science. There was a lot of economic growth that was based off trade which in turn financed the arts. Basically, the Renaissance only affected the elite.
He was trying to fight reform and reaffirm Catholicism and rebuild St. Peters. This is when the Indulgences started being sold.
He was an Italian from Genoa, but sailed under the Spanish flag of Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1492 Colombo wanted to try and reach Asia by sailing westward rather than going around Africa to the south. However, he came into an unexpected 'speed bump,' the New World. There were no vast riches of China's silk and spice trade, but there was natural wealth available.
This war erupted soon after the Humiliating defeat of England in the Hundred Years' War. This war never involved large numbers of commoners, but it decimated the English nobility. Henry Tudor became king as King Henry VII and he ruled modestly and frugally.
A German Roman Catholic priest who sold indulgences for money. Which in Luther's eyes was very wrong which in turn starts the reformation.
He was a political philosopher that was a citizen of Renaissance Fluorence, He was a Christian but distrusted and disliked the clergy; he rejected the idea that popes were superior to kings. He also saw no need to reform the church and Christianity because his secular theory of the state was based on the notion that religion and faith was nothing more tan the cement which held society together.
A Renaissance scholar, a German/ Augustinian monk, and a professor of theology. He was best known for nailing his 95 theses to the Catholic church in Wittenberg that were in response to the church selling indulgences. He believed that faith, and not good works would lead to salvation. He also wanted to people to be able to read the bible so he needed to translate it into the vernacular. He started the Lutheran church. His view on Eucharist was that the flesh and blood of Christ was already there, and that the priests had nothing to do with it.
Was a Swiss reformer who disagreed with Luther's view and wanted to reform the Catholic church in his own way. He also believed that the Eucharist was entirely symbolic which vastly differed from Luther's view.
King of England who wanted to divorce his wife, the Catholic church said no, so he split from the church and started the Church of England and was the head of it.
In the Late Middle Ages, Jews had been pushed to eastern and southern Europe through expulsion orders from kings. Therefore when the economic center turned to the Atlantic seaboard, this hurt the Jews' ability to support their communities which led to messianic movements. Many Jews found solace in new messianic movements, especially in the Ottoman state. The Jews were relatively welcomed by the Ottomans.
He was born in France, but was chased out and ended up in Switzerland. He was also a reformer, but believed in, and made the Predestination Doctrine; God already decided from birth where you would end up. He was the founder of Calvinism.
In Germany, it included religious conflict, economic conflict, social conflict, and political conflict. This revolt served as a sort of prologue to other conflicts of the age.
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