The Formation of Western Europe
Ch. 14.1
Monastic Revival and Church Reform
• Beginning in the 1000’s, a spiritual revival spread across Europe.
• Many problems troubled the church at that time.– Village priests were marrying– Simony– Lay Investure
Church Reforms
• Reforms begin at Cluny.– Monks there followed Benedictine rule– Cluny’s reputation grew and inspired over 300
monasteries
• Pope Leo IX vows to stamp out simony and marriage of priests
• Gregory and future popes extend these reforms.
• The Church collected tithes (10%).
• Because of these new reforms and added taxes, the church grew and so did the Pope’s power.
• Friars spread the message
• Many famous Friars, including St. Francis of Assisi.
• St. Francis of Assisi• Started the Franciscan order of friars, who were
traveling preachers (as opposed to monks cloistered in monasteries).
• Was the son of a very wealthy businessman who didn’t think of much of Francis’s resolution of his spiritual crisis.– Francis eventually renounces his father and his
fortune (even some of the clothes he was wearing) and strikes out for a life of poverty.
• Gained approval from the pope for his order after the pope has a dream of a poor man holding up a crumbling church.
St. Francis, aka Dr. Doolittle
• From the Greek καθέδρα – seat – indicating the building is the seat of the resident bishop or archbishop
• The grand churches of Europe.
• Often very large, very ornate, very beautiful, and very amazing.
• Meant to reflect the glory of God and inspire awe in the observer
• Usually funded by wealthy merchants and nobles who wanted to leave their mark and maybe improve their chances with God.
Cathedrals
• While you might think the form of the cathedral would have borrowed from Roman temples, you’d be wrong.
• Roman temples weren’t built to be large meeting places like churches needed to be. So cathedrals borrowed from the Romans’ large meeting places instead.
• The early cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. These appeared massive and heavy.
• That’s because they had to be. The large buildings had large heavy roofs that required thick walls with few small windows in order to handle the weight.
• The later Gothic style, though, introduced architectural innovations to distribute the weight through other means, opening up large spaces in the walls for amazing windows.
• The two big innovations were ribbed vaults and flying buttresses.
• Vaults
• A vault is the arched shaped that helps hold up the roof. The Romanesque cathedrals used barrel vaults. These were simple arch-type structures.
• The ribbed vault provides what literally looks like a rib. This is more efficient and does a better job of distributing the weight to the wall.
• Here’s a comparison of the barrel vault of the Romanesque Saint-Sernin Cathedral in Toulouse with the ribbed vault of the Gothic Amiens Cathedral
• Flying buttress
• The flying buttress was an external structure – a bit like an external half-arch. The weight of the roof and walls was distribute outwards to these buttresses. This took the weight-bearing responsibility away from the walls themselves and allowed for the big open spaces for windows.
• Compare these cross-sections of Saint-Sernin and Amiens.
• Here’s the difference it makes to the interior lighting:
• The later Gothic cathedrals also tended to have tall spires on the towers and pinnacles on top of the buttresses.
• Here is a comparison the floor plans of Saint-Sernin and Amiens.
• And finally, here’s a comparison of the exteriors.
Here are other examples of Romanesque styles.
• Now, Gothic:
• Cathedrals were usually oriented along an east-west axis. The main entrance was on the west end while the liturgical stuff (altar, bishop’s throne, etc.) was located in the east end. They had the shape of a Latin cross.
NaveNarthex
Aisles separated by arcades Transept
ChoirApse
• Here’s an assortment of pictures of the most well-known Gothic cathedral: Notre Dame de Paris
The Crusades
• Pope Urban II issues a decree for a holy war to gain control of the Holy Land.
• The Crusades (1-4) were aimed at recovering Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks.
• Urban’s call brought a tremendous outpouring of religious feeling and support for the Crusades.
• Over 60,000 knights became crusaders.
• “God wills it!”
• There were some ulterior motives to the Crusades, though (surprise!!!)
• Kings and the Church saw the Crusades as an opportunity to get rid of quarrelsome knights who fought each other.
• Many sons who had no opportunity to gain land volunteered.
• Knights who died during the Crusade were assured a place in heaven.
• VERY bloody and VERY costly, but hey, spare no expense for Jesus…
1st and 2nd Crusades
• 1st
– Hugely unorganized– Only 25% of the Crusaders actually made it to
Jerusalem– Still managed to take the Holy City
• 2nd
– Fought to recapture some off the cities lost to the Muslims
– Saladin ends up taking Jerusalem during the 2nd Crusades.
Saladin: Muslim Hero of the 2nd Crusades
Richard the Lionhearted: European Hero of the 3rd Crusades.
3rd Crusade
• Both Richard and Saladin respected each other tremendously.
• After many battles, called a truce.– Jerusalem stayed under Muslim control– Pilgrims of any religion had free access to Jerusalem
FYI: Saddam Hussein thought of himself as a new Saladin, i.e. protector of Islam and the Middle-East. Ironically, though, Saladin was Kurdish, a people who Hussein oppressed during his tyranny.
4th Crusade
• Pope Innocent III (sure he was…) called for a 4th Crusade.
• However, religious fervor for Crusading was diminishing.
• 4th Crusade ended in the pillaging and plundering of Constantinople (not a Muslim city)
• Caused a further breach between Eastern and Western Catholicism
Reconquista
• The Spanish version of the Crusades
• Tried to rid Spain of Muslims
• Finally pushed out in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella.
• Led to the Inquisition
• There was a general Inquisition movement in Europe, but the Spanish version was especially ugly.
• It was motivated by anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim feelings.
• The goal was to search out fake Christians, i.e. those who had converted but weren’t sincere.
• People were given a grace period to come forward and confess. If they did, they had to implicate others. The others would be imprisoned, property confiscated and put on trial. They would be tortured for a confession. If confessing, they could be released, punished, or burnt at the stake.
The Inquisition
• The estimates of the executed range anywhere from 2,000 to 35,000.
• It winds up being a secret police fear weapon since anybody could anonymously accuse anyone else. Things got ugly.
