Western Europe: * *
2 out of 5 stars
Western Europe, though great during some time periods, was an incredibly hard place to live in during the Middle Ages. After the fall of the great Roman Empire, civilization as it once had been greatly declined. Visogoths started the first of many raids and sacks of Europe. Goths, Vandals, Angles, Brittons, and Saxons come next, making the once great empire a place of destruction. All of the many public works that once had been, such as the aqueducts and sewers, were beginning to break down. Their amazing feat of architecture, the Coliseum, was wrecked by desperate civilians looking for spare building materials. It soon became a dumping ground for the waste of the people around it. Another aspect of life that made it incredibly hard was disease. In this time, the bubonic plague came to Europe and wiped out nearly half the population. It tore apart families, and neighbors were no longer friends. It seemed that the very things that make us human were lost. A saving grace in this terrible time, though, was the new religion of Christianity...or so one would think. But, many Christians would take these views to the extreme and make life even harder for some. An example of this is from the The Breviary of Eberhard of Bamberg , a primary source from this time period:
Then let him thus address the one who is to undertake the ordeal: I command
thee, N., in the presence of all, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by
the tremendous day of judgment, by the ministry of baptism, by thy veneration
for the saints, that, if thou art guilty of this matter charged against thee, if
thou hast done it, or consented to it, or hast knowingly seen the perpetrators
of this crime, thou enter not into the church nor mingle in the company of
Christians unless thou wilt confess and admit thy guilt before thou are examined
in public judgment.
This primary source shows the extremist Christian views that could lead to terrible things such as the Ordeal, a harsh punishment for criminals, before they were deemed guilty or not guilty. The culture of this vast land ceased to grow due to the unfair feudalist system, the raids by attacking foreigners, the destruction of many things that made Rome great, and the diseases that spread across the nation, making this city one that was terrible to live in.
The Breviary of Eberhard of Bamberg ed. Zeumer in MG.LL. Sec V,
Formulae, p. 650. translated in University of Pennsylvania Translations and
Reprints , (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898), Vol 4:,
no, 4, pp. 7-9
2 out of 5 stars
Western Europe, though great during some time periods, was an incredibly hard place to live in during the Middle Ages. After the fall of the great Roman Empire, civilization as it once had been greatly declined. Visogoths started the first of many raids and sacks of Europe. Goths, Vandals, Angles, Brittons, and Saxons come next, making the once great empire a place of destruction. All of the many public works that once had been, such as the aqueducts and sewers, were beginning to break down. Their amazing feat of architecture, the Coliseum, was wrecked by desperate civilians looking for spare building materials. It soon became a dumping ground for the waste of the people around it. Another aspect of life that made it incredibly hard was disease. In this time, the bubonic plague came to Europe and wiped out nearly half the population. It tore apart families, and neighbors were no longer friends. It seemed that the very things that make us human were lost. A saving grace in this terrible time, though, was the new religion of Christianity...or so one would think. But, many Christians would take these views to the extreme and make life even harder for some. An example of this is from the The Breviary of Eberhard of Bamberg , a primary source from this time period:
Then let him thus address the one who is to undertake the ordeal: I command
thee, N., in the presence of all, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by
the tremendous day of judgment, by the ministry of baptism, by thy veneration
for the saints, that, if thou art guilty of this matter charged against thee, if
thou hast done it, or consented to it, or hast knowingly seen the perpetrators
of this crime, thou enter not into the church nor mingle in the company of
Christians unless thou wilt confess and admit thy guilt before thou are examined
in public judgment.
This primary source shows the extremist Christian views that could lead to terrible things such as the Ordeal, a harsh punishment for criminals, before they were deemed guilty or not guilty. The culture of this vast land ceased to grow due to the unfair feudalist system, the raids by attacking foreigners, the destruction of many things that made Rome great, and the diseases that spread across the nation, making this city one that was terrible to live in.
The Breviary of Eberhard of Bamberg ed. Zeumer in MG.LL. Sec V,
Formulae, p. 650. translated in University of Pennsylvania Translations and
Reprints , (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898), Vol 4:,
no, 4, pp. 7-9