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  1. Home
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  3. The New Cambridge Medieval History
  • Cited by 1
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2008
Print publication year:
2004
Online ISBN:
9781139054027
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521414104
Subjects:
Area Studies, European History 1000-1450, British History: General Interest, History, European Studies
Collection:
Cambridge Histories - British & European History
Series:
The New Cambridge Medieval History (4)
Information

Book description

The fourth volume of The New Cambridge Medieval History covers the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which comprised perhaps the most dynamic period in the European middle ages. This is a history of Europe, but the continent is interpreted widely to include the Near East and North Africa as well. The volume is divided into two parts of which this, the first, deals with themes, ecclesiastical and secular, and major developments in an age marked by the expansion of population, agriculture, trade, towns and the frontiers of western society; by a radical reform of the structure and institutions of the western church, and by fundamental changes in relationships with the eastern churches, Byzantium, Islam and the Jews; by the appearance of new kingdoms and states, and by the development of crusades, knighthood and law, Latin and vernacular literature, Romanesque and Gothic art and architecture, heresies and the scholastic movement.

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'… one is … left impressed by the scope and ambition of the volume, especially when it is viewed as one element in a larger and hugely impressive enterprise … the essays … serve their purpose in being informative and authoritative.'

Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement

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Contents

Contents
  • 1 - Introduction
    pp 1-10
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in this book. The book presents a broad view of what mattered in the relationships between western and eastern Europe, and also between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It focuses on themes in economic, social governmental, ecclesiastical and cultural history, and discusses the government on a territorial or institutional basis. Governmentally, the period is broadly one of progress within western Europe in the sense that many lordships and kingdoms grew together in solidarity and developed a stronger sense of community. Royal government in France and England was immeasurably stronger at the end of the eleventh century, but in Germany, the position of the monarchy was more ambiguous and complex. The eleventh and twelfth centuries are the time when Romanesque art and architecture reached their zenith in all parts of western Europe; the twelfth is the century when the Gothic style began to flourish in the north.
  • 2 - The Rural Economy and Demographic Growth
    pp 11-46
  • View abstract

    Summary

    For a deeper understanding of the interlocking phenomena of the years between 1050 and 1190, one would obviously need to turn one's attention to the towns, to long-distance exchanges, to the various social strata, and to both their spiritual and their economic interrelations. This chapter focuses on the dramatic increase in population and then unprecedented surge in agricultural production. South and north, Atlantic littoral and central Europe offer many contrasts in rhythm, in scale or even in the underlying causes determining the development of particular systems for the cultivation of the soil. Cereals may well be the main feature of the rural economy in regions characterised by a sedentary mode of existence and yet by no means all the soil in Europe was given over to the production of grain. Demographic increase, and the development of pack-animals, whether saddled or yoked, exerted considerable pressure upon natural resources.
  • 3 - Towns and the Growth of Trade
    pp 47-85
  • View abstract

    Summary

    During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, most of Europe was distinctly backward and peripheral by comparison with areas south of the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, which were highly commercialised and urbanised and under Muslim control. There were two distinctive core areas for urban growth: northern Italy and the territories bordering the southern part of the North Sea and the English Channel and extending up the Rhine. The most fundamental stimulus to urban and commercial growth was that of rural development and population increase. The interaction between local resources and lordship shaped patterns of urban growth, especially for small towns. Some of the largest and most populous cities owed their standing to their handling of a transit trade and to their role as centres for collecting and redistributing goods. The rapid growth of towns promoted commercial solutions to the basic problems of supply, and this in turn encouraged specialised agriculture.
  • 4 - Government and Community
    pp 86-112
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter presents an overview of government and community in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Government at every level, from that of kingdoms down to villages or estates, depended on a great deal of collective activity. Ideas about justice, public welfare and good government did not, however, start from the individualist and egalitarian premises that have developed since the seventeenth century. Individuals were born into gentes as they were born into families, and they were born under the authority of the ruler or rulers of their gens. During the twelfth century, the word commune came into use to describe city governments but it does not seem to have had particularly revolutionary overtones. The mark of a commune is sometimes thought to have been the collective oath taken by its members, which turned a local community into something closer, more united, and therefore more revolutionary.
  • 5 - The Development of Law
    pp 113-147
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The eleventh century can be seen as a time of rupture and crisis in European history. Although law before the eleventh century consisted mainly of oral tradition, written law also carried some weight, especially church (canon) law. The eleventh century saw the beginnings of an economic transformation in Europe which recent researchers have dubbed the commercial revolution of the middle ages. The commercial revolution inevitably created a demand for a rational law of contract and a reliable credit system; and this could only happen on the basis of secure and generally accepted legal texts. The transformation and new development of law was impelled not only by economic, but also by religious factors. The end of the eleventh century, the time of the Gregorian reform, saw the rediscovery of the Digest and the first attempts to teach Roman law. During the Gregorian reform, the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals were much consulted, and this aroused interest in the procedural rules for ecclesiastical courts.
  • 6 - Knightly Society
    pp 148-184
  • View abstract

    Summary

    During the twelfth century, the knights were regarded as a professional group. By the end of the century, there was undoubtedly 'a warrior order', that is, the knights. In the technical domain, a number of innovations profoundly modified the art of war and conferred on the knights a greater pre-eminence. All these factors created or accelerated the trend towards the formation of a knightly society which was aware of it and produced its own ideology. Knightly society included all who, at different levels, participated in the ban within the framework of the political seigneurie, of which the castle constituted both the symbol and the base. During the thirteenth century, that the feudal and knightly model penetrated the empire and there assumed aspects of an ideological veneer. The knightly class formed was distinguished from the other warriors by equipment, methods of fighting and training, the way of life and manners and an ethic and an ideology, known as 'chivalric'.
  • 7 - War, Peace and the Christian Order
    pp 185-228
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 'Latin' Europe went through a period of growing social differentiation, in which the function of each class became more clearly defined. The king was seen as the holder of an office, the discharge of which must answer to a basically Christian ordering of affairs. War was conceived as a way to maintain the world order, to keep the peace. In 1038, the emperor Conrad II went from Basel to Friesland pacem firmando, to strengthen the peace. That is how Wipo, his biographer, sums up his account of the emperor's final acts. The Peace of God movement took religious rules which applied to all lay people and adapted them into regulations which affected only warriors. The policy of the reforming papacy led to a further clarification of how warlike activity might be reconciled with the Christian life.
  • 8 - The Structure of the Church, 1024–1073
    pp 229-267
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter discusses the structure of the Latin church during the mid-eleventh century, and deals with the secular church, the church of popes, bishops, lesser clergy and laity. It focuses on the structure of the mid-eleventh century church through evidence which is characteristic of the period. The structure is illustrated by examples from the liturgy and from the older canon law. The Litany that it contained began by invoking Christ himself, as saviour of the world. In the south, the organisation and structure of the church were even less settled, largely on account of political factors such as the vicissitudes of the Lombard principalities, the Norman incursions and settlement, and the existence until the fall of Bari in 1071 of a Byzantine catapanate. The diocesan and provincial structure of the French church in general followed the organisation of Roman Gaul. All over Latin Christendom, leading sees were vying to claim their place in the ecclesiastical structure.
  • 9 - Reform and the Church, 1073–1122
    pp 268-334
  • View abstract

    Summary

    William's idea of the return to the golden age recalls the words in which Peter Damian had described the reform of the papacy forty years before:' the golden age of the apostles is now restored'; 'the golden age of David is renewed'. To supporters of the reform papacy the golden age of the church was that ancient period in which the faithful had built and endowed churches and showered their wealth on the clergy. The Pauline idea of reform influenced the early medieval monastic conversion to religion and played a significant part in the monastic reform movements of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The ideal of the regular canonical life for the secular clergy was championed by the principal figures of the papal reform movement. The Gregorian reform was an attempt to restore not only the spirituality and standards of conduct of that golden age but also the material conditions and even the physical appearance of the churches.
  • 10 - Religious Communities, 1024–1215
    pp 335-367
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Religious communities were considered a necessary and active part of Christian society. In addition to praying on behalf of individuals and of society as a whole, they performed many functions which are now the responsibility of public institutions. Religious communities embodied the highest ideals of medieval society, and their members must be seen in relation to the hopes and needs of people living in the world. The new forms of religious life and types of religious communities must be seen against a broader background of changes, which contributed to the atmosphere of personal isolation and uncertainty. The men and women who entered religious communities in the eleventh and twelfth centuries came from all walks of life. The reformers liked to emphasise the breadth of their appeal. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, thousands of women entered religious communities and some of them lived on terms of spiritual and intellectual equality with men.
  • 11 - The Institutions of the Church, 1073–1216
    pp 368-460
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Descriptions of the structure of the church in the period 1073-1216 often drew an analogy with secular government. Bernard of Clairvaux, the most influential writer on papal authority in the twelfth century, eschewed monarchical language but expressed the supremacy of the Roman church through a range of alternative images. The Roman church is 'the head of the world through whom the keys and judgement-seats are granted to all bishoprics'. Huguccio concluded that the Roman church instituted all prelates, whatever their ecclesiastical dignity or office. The years 1073-1216 saw the pope firmly established as supreme judge not only of all men but also of the law itself. The holy Roman church confers right and authority on the sacred canons, but she herself is not bound by them, because she has the right of making the canons. The pope's right to confer privileges on ecclesiastical institutions and his right to cancel such privileges equally revealed his dominion over the law.
  • 12 - Thought and Learning
    pp 461-498
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter focuses on the structured, formal patterns of teaching and learning, which impinged less closely on the lives of the many than of the few. The schools and their supporting institutions owed much to lay patrons, at least before the 'Gregorian reform'. In both monastic and non-monastic schools the curriculum of study had a common foundation. Central to monastic studies were the Bible and supporting aids including the liberal arts and biblical glosses, and these were approached in a context of regular prayer, meditation and liturgical practice. The growth in numbers of students in urban schools during the eleventh and twelfth centuries reflects the rise of career expectations. However, explaining the changing fortunes of particular schools is difficult, as is the task of explaining why or to what extent some schools gained a particularly high reputation in certain subjects.
  • 13 - Religion and the Laity
    pp 499-533
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Since the Carolingian age Catholic Christianity had spread from its heartland in the British Isles, France, the empire, Italy and northern Spain, to become the official religion of Bohemia, Poland and Hungary. A uniform though sparse church organisation existed throughout this huge area. The Christian west was divided into dioceses, though they varied considerably in size; but the provision of parishes was very uneven. All towns had at least one church while some had more than a hundred, but even in parts of the west which had been Christian for centuries many rural areas, were still served by the clergy of a central minster. The growth of parishes increased the possibility of conflict between clergy and laity. The cost of maintaining churches and priests was largely met from tithes, theoretically levied on all sources of income, but normally on the principal grain crops, but tithes were frequently impropriated by lay patrons, and this was a source of litigation.
  • 14 - The Crusades, 1095–1198
    pp 534-563
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The proclamation of the First Crusade at Clermont by Pope Urban II on 27 November 1095 was marked by the flamboyance which was a feature of his year-long journey through France. The goal of Jerusalem made the First Crusade a pilgrimage. In synthesising the traditions of war and pilgrimage Urban gave the idea of penitential warfare, which had emerged in embryo in the past decade or so, substance by linking it to the most charismatic penance then known, pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Many of the earliest crusaders lived within reach of the stages on the pope's itinerary through France, but many more did not, and it is not clear how the news of his message spread in a form that was sufficiently appealing to encourage men to join up. The Spanish crusade was discussed at a council at Compostela in January 1125, presided over by Archbishop Diego Gelmìrez, who issued a call to arms.
  • 15 - The Eastern Churches
    pp 564-598
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The eastern churches remained lively in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whatever the vicissitudes they experienced. The Byzantine emperors, in the eleventh century, continued to operate within the tradition of the elimination of heresy. The great churches, which had been turned into mosques became cathedrals once more; the number of churches grew, Christian populations were attracted into the reconquered lands. The Latins dispossessed the Greek prelates of their cathedrals and the Greek communities of their pre-eminent position in the sanctuaries. However, they very quickly adapted to the situation of the eastern churches, and made space for each alongside the Latin church, refraining from the harassment which the Byzantines had inflicted on other confessions. The Franks adopted the devotions of the eastern Christians, and the monasteries of each confession were able to prosper. The Latin church of the Maghreb continued to use Latin as its liturgical language and in funerary inscriptions, although the Christians increasingly used Arabic.
  • 16 - Muslim Spain and Portugal: Al-Andalus and its Neighbours
    pp 599-622
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The frontiers of al-Andalus were free from major outside threats: to the north the Christian kingdoms and counties had been repeatedly raided and their armed forces worsted in battle, culminating in the humiliating sack of Santiago de Compostela in 999. The removal of the Fatimids from Tunisia to Egypt in 969 meant that there was no threat to al-Andalus from the Muslim east. With the collapse of the caliphate, al-Andalus broke up into a number of different states, each with its own court and capital. By 1083, the Almoravids had reached the Straits of Gibraltar and were in undisputed control of Morocco. By 1148, only Granada and the Balearic islands remained under Almoravid control: Granada fell to the Almohads in 1155, but the Balearic islands remained in the hands of the Almoravid Banu Ghaniya and the base for repeated raids on Almohad North Africa.
  • 17 - The Jews in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin
    pp 623-657
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The eleventh and twelfth centuries, for Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, were characterised, above all else, by diversity and flux. Jews were spread across vast and heterogeneous area in enclaves that differed considerably from one another in size, antiquity, economic foundations, political and social relations with the non-Jewish majority, and religious and intellectual creativity. The foundations for Jewish existence lay, of course, in the realm of economic activity. By the eleventh century, the arrangements governing the existence of the Jews as a minority grouping in Muslim and Christian societies were already well worked out. Throughout Europe and the Mediterranean basin, the locus of power within the Jewish world lay in the local Jewish community. By the early thirteenth century, much had changed in Jewish life, for both good and ill. A vigorous and creative two centuries left a mixed legacy for the subsequent history of the Jews.
  • 18 - Latin and Vernacular Literature
    pp 658-692
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The twelfth-century Renaissance eluded the English language, which came last in the triad of languages that were commonly used in England; but the century left an ample deposit in Anglo-Norman French and Latin literature. To understand the linguistic and cultural situations in twelfth-century Europe entails examining relationships not only between Latin and vernaculars but also among various vernaculars. Some vernacular literatures have vanished forever, like stones hurled into a deep lake. To recover the contours of these lost literatures, it is necessary to consider the ripples they left in the literature that does survive, namely, the Latin literature. It is not surprising that the literature of the greater twelfth century has played a pivotal role in revivals of interest in the middle ages, and it is probable that it will continue to attract well-deserved attention, even as neglected later and earlier centuries receive more of their due.
  • 19 - Architecture and the Visual Arts
    pp 693-731
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The gap between history and art history is enshrined in the stylistic labels that art historians still use for the subdivisions of their subject. This chapter discusses Romanesque and early Gothic. Romanesque was the creation of a later age. It emerged in the early nineteenth century as the main French candidate in a competition to find an adequate name for the sort of architecture which preceded Gothic. The rise of architecture to parity of esteem with the so-called minor arts, which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was the truly momentous event in the art history of the middle ages. The image of the church became a compound of all the visual arts. It brought together architecture, sculpture and painting at their highest levels of attainment, and projected them upon the attention of the world at large with the single-mindedness of a marketing exercise.

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