The Rise of European Civilization from the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The fall of the Western Roman Empire opened room for the rise of several Germanic kingdoms: The Ostrogoths, The Visigoths, and the Franks. Of these Kingdoms, only the Frankish Kingdom proved long-lasting (Spielvogel 131). The Frankish king Clovis found an ally in the growing Catholic Church which would remained closely tied to the Frankish Kings. It is in this mix of Roman and Germanic Cultures, and the growing influence of the Catholic Church that the foundation of European civilization was laid.

The Decline of the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire had ruled Western Europe and the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, but during "the third century, the Roman Empire came near to collapse" (Spielvogel 119). Invasions, civil wars, and the plague caused the population to decline drastically causing a labor shortage and massive economic decline (Spielvogel 119).

Civil War

From 235 to 284, there was continual civil war as would-be emperors fought for the throne (Spielvogel 119). In these fifty years, "there were twenty-two emperors, only two o whom did not meet a violent end" (Spielvogel 119). Continuous civil war left the Empire open to invasion by Germanic tribes. At the end of the third century the Roman Empire was given a second chance "through the efforts of two strong emperors, Diocletian and Constantine, who restored order and stability" (Spielvogel 119). These two emperors greatly enlarged the army and the civil service to revive the empire but drained the treasuries in the process. This restored empire "limped along for more than a century" when in 395 it divided into two independent states (Spielvogel 119). This very week Western Roman Empire would fall to invading Germanic tribes in less than a century.

Invasion

In the fourth century, ferocious warriors from Asia, know as the Huns, moved into Eastern Europe causing the Germanic Visigoths to move southwest into Roman territory (Spielvogel 125). In 410 and 455, Rome was sacked by invading Germanic tribes and in 476 the western emperor was deposed and a series of Germanic Kingdoms replaced the Western Roman Empire. Of these Germanic Kingdoms is as only the Frankish kingdom that would prove long-lasting (Spielvogel 131).

Growth of Christianity

Christianity was an outlawed religion until the fourth century when Constantine became the first Christian emperor (Spielvogel 125). It was the predominant religion of the Roman Empire and "as the official Roman state disintegrated, the Christian church played an increasingly important role" in the new European Civilization (Spielvogel 134).

The Papacy

Early Christian churches were independent and Christianity lacked an official doctrine. But in the fourth century, churches organized a system of government in which "the Christian community in each city was headed by a bishop" (Spielvogel 135). Of these bishops, the bishop of Rome came to be regarded as the head of the church. Pope Gregory the Great, of the sixth century, "expanded the influence and prestige of the pope, maintaining that the pope was by divine designation head of all churches" (Cram 151). This led to the papal power that would be characteristic of the medieval period. "Gregory was the last of the four great Latin Fathers, and first of the medieval prelates, a link between the classical Greco-Roman tradition and the medieval Romano-German" (Cram 151). Gregory was also responsible for founding several monasteries and used them to convert "the pagan peoples of Germanic Europe" to Catholic Christianity (Spielvogel 136).

Monasticism

"A monk was a person who sought to live a life divorced from the world, cut off from ordinary human society, in order to pursue an ideal of godliness or total dedication to the will of God" (Spielvogel 136).

A New Spiritual Ideal. Achieving "spiritual life through denial, asceticism, and mystical experience of God" became the new Christian ideal, replacing the model of the martyr (Spielvogel 137). Although monasticism originated in Egypt with the model of the spiritual hermit, European monasticism became based on a communal life in which "a group of brothers lived together under the direction of an abbot" (Bouchard 628).

The Carriers of Roman Culture. Monasteries were tied to Roman Christianity and because of that carried Roman culture to the Germanic peoples and into the Middle Ages. Benedictine monasticism became the most common form. Benedictine monks spent many hours in study and "copied Latin works and passed on the legacy of the ancient world" to European culture (Spielvogel 138). Some monasteries grew to become the largest landowners in their region and spread Roman culture through these large, agriculturally oriented communities (Bouchard 628).

The Rise of the Frankish Kingdom

In the later 3rd century and throughout the 5th, the Franks, Germanic inhabitants of the middle and lower Rhine, "constantly tested Roman defenses along the Rhine" (Fanning 386). During the decline of the Western Roman Empire of the fifth century, the Franks rose to power.

The Merovingians

Clovis, a Frankish king, "subdued both the Visigoths and Burgundians, and was founder of the first French dynasty, the Merovingians" (Wagner 29). He married a Burgundian Christian princess, Clotilde, and converted to Christianity (Wagner 29). His conversion to Christianity in 496 won him papal support in his conquests of the Arian German peoples (Cram 147). The Roman Catholic Church regarded the Arian Christians as heretics and was "eager to obtain the friendship of a major Germanic ruler who was a Catholic Christian" (Spielvogel 132). Clovis' successors earned the "nickname of 'fainéants' or 'do-nothing kings'" (Wagner 29). It was the "mayor of the palace" who ruled in lieu of the Merovingian kings, the most famous of these was Charles-Martel, who stopped the Saracen advance in 732 and preserved "the entire Christian world from Moorish domination" (Wagner 31). Charles-Martel's son, Pepin-the-Short, became king of France in 741 founding "the second French dynasty, the Carolingians" (Wagner 32).

The Carolingians

Pepin-the-Short was crowned and anointed with holy oil by a representative of the pope in imitation of the Old Testament practice (Spielvogel 152). Later in his reign, Pepin would make a donation of lands to the Pope, creating the Papal States (Langer 153). Both the anointment and donation of Pepin establish the Franks as allies of the papacy.

Pepin's son, Charlemagne, "ruled over vast territories which he continually extended" in his fight against "all foes of Christianity" (Wagner 32). Charlemagne is also known for his "legacy of peace, order and culture, known as the Carolingian Renaissance (Wagner 32). "He most zealously cultivated the liberal arts
Although the Carolingian Empire began to disintegrate soon after Charlemagne's death, his legacy as a Germanic king, crowned Roman emperor by the spiritual leader of Western Christendom would live on (Spielvogel 155). This combination of Germanic, Roman, and Christian traditions epitomized by Charlemagne's rule would be a defining trait of the western European nations that would rise after the fall of his empire.

Bibliography

Monographs

Einhard. The Life of Charlemagne. Trans. Samuel E. Turner: The University of Michigan, 1994.

Spielvogel, Jackson. Western Civilization: A Brief History. [Comprehensive Volume] 2^nd Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press, 2002.

Wagner, Monique. From Gaul to De Gaulle. Revised Edition ed. New York: Peter Land Publishing, Inc., 2003. 6-58.

Collections

Bouchard, Constance B. "Monasticism." Medieval France an Encyclopedia. , William W. Kibler et al., eds. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. 627-631.

Cram, Paul. "Western Europe in the Middle Ages." An Encyclopedia of World History. Ed. William L. Langer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press. 1960. 141-159.

Fanning, Steven. "Franks." Medieval France an Encyclopedia. , William W. Kibler et al., eds. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. 368-369.

Periodicals

Rigby, Stephen Henry. "Historical Materialism: Social Structure and Social Change in the Middle Ages." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34.3 (2004): 473-522.

Internet Sources

"American Council of Learned Societies History E-Book Project". 2002. University of Michigan. June 18 2005. .

Harbin, Beau A.C. "Netserf: The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources". 1995. June 18 2005. .