Medieval History Essay Topics

• arose in the late 3rd/4th c due to less persecution desert fathers such as St. Antony and anchorrites (original monks)
• attracted ppl seeking spiritual knowledge and structure

• Benedict of Nursia founded western monasticism (Benedictine monasticism) in early 500s.
• Org of monastic community, day, edu he wanted monks to be engaged with a community and knowledge rather than living as isolated hermits anyone could join.

• preserved classical culture after fall of rome.
• provided edu/supported scholasticism.
• Huge center of learning copied & wrote texts

Leo the Great Called himself Pontifex maximus (chief priest) alludes to aura/pwr of emperors. he got huns& vandels to leave Rome alone. he wrote “letters” that mimicked decrees of the emperor

Bishop Galasius – late 400s said there were 2 pwrs, rulers and bishops but relg authority >. b/c they answer to divine judgment

pope Gregory solidify role of papacy in Rome managed civil authority recruited monks as ambassadors and combined papacy& monasticism

conclusion – the combination of monastic organization and knowledge with church&state power gave leaders widespread influence would lead to church/state pol tension

• 284 – Diocletian came into reign and would divide empire into tetrarchy (future civil war)Byzaniten would go on to prosper until 1400s, w euro would fall into chaos
• political chaos in mid-late 200s wakened empire, allowed for invasions/new leaders
• beginning of secular vs. sacred w/ Constantine in 306 (no longer persecution)

• rom lang, law, and local gov institutions still continued even after Germanic influence, esp in byzaniten empire (Justinian's code in w euro)
• origins of feudalism - aristocrats, salves, ½ free pesants org around large estates
• dominance of latin as lang of law and greek as lang of commerce/ppl, no lang barrier for spread of trade/knowledge
• apologists combined elements of classical culture w/ relg relg ppl
• rome had fostered spirit of universal Human Institutions of early Christianity preserved and provided org of culture/practices and laid the groundwork for intellectual Christians of the late middle ages.

• Europe, contributing to agricultural stability and prosperity. The feudal system
• developed after the fall of the Carolingian dynasty as a form of social, political, and
• economic organization and stabilization. The major features of feudalism symbolized
• the characteristics of the Early Middle Ages. Its basic structure resembled a small
• kingdom, with the primary emphasis on the relationship between lords, vassals, and the
• peasantry. The lord, roughly defined as a nobleman, owned a large piece of land
• (comparable to an average present-day county). He would then grant parcels of land
• (called fiefs) to knights or vassals. The vassal, or Lord of the Manor, would then divide
• up his land further and allow peasants to live on it in exchange for their labor. This
• relationship formed the basic principles of manorialism, the major social and economic
• component of feudalism. Serfdom emerged during this same time as well, as the
• condition of bondage of peasants under manorialism specifically and feudalism more
• broadly.

Athens = Greek thought and philosophy Jerusalem = Christianity and its Biblical heritage

• Who were some of the important individuals involved in providing the answer(s)?
• Cappadocian fathers, Latin doctors in the west (Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the 1st) Augustine of Hippo maintained that the 2 cities Jerusalem and Babylon are bound together and are inseparable in his book the City Of God.

• Why was the answer that Late Antiquity worked out so important to Medieval Culture?
• apologists who incorporated classical culture preserved early Christianity.conversely, we know so much about classical culture b/c of the reconciliation b/w Christian & classical culture.