Western European Social & Cultural Life During the Middle Ages

1. Western EuropeanSocial & Cultural LifeDuring the Middle Ages Presented By: Alan, Diana, Sarah, Jared, Dan, Jeremy, Charles

2. Status of Western Europe during the Middle Ages • Middle ages: 500-1000 C.E. • Western Europe was filled with violence and disorder during the beginning of the middle ages. • Political organization and economic growth brings W. Europe into world stage after Roman Empire collapse. Opens trade as far as China for luxury goods. • W. Europe became a center for Christianity. Military and political leaders expand Christendom to pre-dominantly Muslim areas. (Spain, Palestine through Jerusalem)

3. Agriculture and Economic Growth • Expansion of Land • Cause: population pressure • Effect: Yielded higher tax rates led to increased wealth • Improved Agricultural Techniques • New Tools & Technologies • Use of watermills and plows • Invented items: horseshoe, collar

4. Agriculture and Economic Growth • New crops • Meat, dairy, fish, vegetables • Population growth • Cause: improved human diets • 800 CE – 29 Million • 1000 – 36 Million • 1300 – 79 Million • Increased Population = increased trade

5. Revival of Towns and Trade • Urban opportunities • Manufacturing • Revival of Urban Society • Improvement in Business Techniques

6. Social Changes in the Middle Ages • The Three Estates • “Those who worked, those who prayed, and those who fought.” • Western European society was socially and economically unequal. Those who fought and prayed enjoyed rights and honors that were denied to workers. • Chivalry • Troubadours • Independent Cities • Guilds • Urban Women

7. Popular Religion in the Middle Ages • Europeans believed strongly in the Roman Catholic Church. • Christianity was a set of beliefs and rituals that gave meaning to lives of communities • Roman Catholics practiced the observance of the sacraments • recognized baptism, matrimony, penance, and the Eucharist • believed that a sacrament would protect them from sudden death and advance their worldly interests.

8. Popular Religion in the Middle Ages • They also practiced devotion to the saints recognized by their church. • Believed that saints could cure diseases, relieve toothaches, and guide sailors through storms through a port • Virgin Mary was the most popular saint who personified the Christian ideal of womanhood, love, and sympathy • The churches also made relics of clothes, locks of hair, teeth, and bones of famous saints

9. Education during the Middle Ages • Early Middle Ages • - Western European societies were poor and unstable • - Bible • High Middle Ages • wealth increased • educated people were needed • 11th century • Cathedrals set up schools • Boys only

10. Education during the Middle Ages • 12 century • strict curricula were founded • Latin grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music • Latin was important! • no women • no desks • had to use bones to take notes • Mid-12th century • cathedral schools were transformed into universities • students could obtain degrees in law, medicine, philosophy or theology • Universities were founded in Paris, Rome, Oxford, Cambridge

11. The Crusades • Holy war Latin word crux meaning "cross" • 1095 - Pope Urban II • The First Crusade 1096-1099 • Gave blessing to recapture Jerusalem or "Holy City" • Peter the Hermit • 1099 Christians recapture Jerusalem from Muslims • The Second Crusade 1147-1149 • Saladin • 1187 Muslims recapture Jerusalem • Battle of Hattin • The Third Crusade 1189-1192 • Pope Gregory VIII • Orders to regain the Holy City • Led by Richard the "Lionheart"

12. The Crusades • The Fourth Crusade 1201-1204 • The Fifth Crusade 1218 -1221 • The Sixth Crusade 1228 -1229 • The Seventh Crusade 1248 -1254 • The Eighth Crusade 1270