FROM KINGS TO MONARCHS: THE RESURGENCE OF PUBLIC POWER IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  

 1. Introduction 

One of the reasons why the Germanic Kings wielded less power than the Roman emperors was because the old hierarchical relationship which singled out the emperor as the representative of public authority was replaced, in the case of the Germanic kingdoms, by a series of interpersonal, private accords between the king and his most important subjects: the heads of clans or lineages (sippe), which could challenge the crown, as royal succession was based on election rather than on hereditary principle. The Germanic kings, thus, struggled to be considered superiors in the way the Roman emperor had been because they had to grapple with the nobles of their kingdoms, to whom they often entrusted territorial government. This important transformation led to a specific form of social organization that historians have called feudalism, which from the perspective of European-Western constitutional history has been described as a type of government in which political power was a private prerogative and asset wielded by a whole series of local lords. 

1. The Early Middle Ages and the curious consequences of Feudalism in Western Constitutional History

 As F.L. Ganshoff, the main authority on the topic, indicates the word “feudalism” (Feudalismus, Lehnwesen, féodalité, feudalismo) has two essential meanings. In a social and political sense, feudalism is a form of society characterized by the development –carried to an extreme- of the element of personal dependence in society, with a specialized military class occupying the upper echelons of the social scale; an extreme subdivisions of rights pertaining to land ownership; a graded system of rights over land, created by this subdivision and generally corresponding to degrees of personal dependence; and, finally, a distribution of political authority amongst a hierarchy of persons exercising in their own interest powers normally attributed to the state and which are often derived from its disintegration or weakness.

  However, feudalism has also a “legal meaning”, as it may be regarded as a body of institutions creating and regulating the obligations of obedience and service (especially military) between a free man (vassal) and his superior (lord), by which the latter undertakes obligations of protection and maintenance regarding his vassal. The obligation of maintenance usually, entailed the granting to his vassal of a unit of land known as a “fief”.

  These two meanings of the word “feudalism” are not, of course, unrelated to each other, but rather closely intertwined. When we speak of feudal society, the fief –which is related to both meanings- was the most important element in the graded system of rights over land upon which this type of society was based.

  In our Western legal tradition “feudalism” has a pejorative connotation that goes back to the French Revolution, when it was generally associated, in a categorical and imprecise way, with the abuses of the Ancien Régime. This vision, which is in large measure justified because of the disintegration of a powerful, central authority and its replacement by a multitude of personal agreements that consolidated a structurally unequal society, is today not entirely justified, as feudalism brought had also some positive aspects, at least from today’s perspective.  And that is that under “feudal pacts” kings entered contractual relationships of a bilateral and reciprocal nature with their subjects, through which both parties took on obligations and were granted rights. To make it simple as a result of the feudal pacts established with their vassals, feudal kings hold not an absolute power but had to negotiate with their subject the important matters affecting the realm. And this idea of “pactism” leads directly to the concept of the “Social pact” formulated by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke or Jean Jacques Rousseau, meaning that political and legal power lies on a voluntary agreement between the king and its subjects, of accepting royal authority on contractual bases, that actually are defined in the Western “Constitutions”, a term already invented by the Roman emperors after Vespasian (remember Teaching Guide 2).  From the theory of the Social Pact, the idea of the Rule of Law derives, meaning that political power is bound to respect the constitution and the underlying Legal system.

John Locke (1632-1704)

 To make it short: without feudalism we would not have modern representative democracy.  I am sure you have never thought of that.

  Having said that Feudalism in the first centuries of the European Middle Ages had terrible consequences as it prevented to create powerful kingdoms and favoured a constant state of war among feudal lords. This is why Europeans ended up developing a political system based on the growing power of kings.

 

2. Late medieval monarchy and the origin of the Western state

The considerable surge in economic activity due to the multiplication of trade links (Commercial Revolution), and the rising cultural level coinciding with the emergence of the first European universities (Bologna, La Sorbonne, Oxford and Cambridge, Salamanca), were to transform European society in the Late Middle Ages. The rigid tripartite structure into which feudal society was organized, featuring a landed nobility, peasants, and the clergy, was to fundamentally shift as a result of commercial expansion, the growth of cities, and the emergence of a new social class: the bourgeoisie, which would amass considerable wealth and gradually upset traditional relationships of power. 

Bourgeois couple at home (19th century) 

In the final medieval centuries, the confrontation between popes and emperors would enable a set of strong monarchs to assert the independence of their kingdoms from the papacy and the Holy German Roman Empire, above all, in chronological order, in the kingdoms of Castile, France and England. Actual European states as Italy or Germany would not become independent until the 19^th century because they were integrated in the Holy Roman Empire. 

The Castilian, French and English kings of the Late Middle Ages, had little in common with the German “royalty” which arose after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, because the very nature of the royal institution underwent three major transformations: the “kings” had become “monarchs;” their crowns came to be inherited (hereditary principle); and kings no longer ruled over a certain “nation” or “people,” but rather over entire territories.   

Edward III of England

3. From kings to monarchs

 Kings in the Late Middle Ages were to recover much of the power they had lost in the early medieval period, both externally, by gaining independence from emperors and popes, and internally, where they gained ground against their great vassals, the feudal barons.  By becoming the undisputed holders of power, kings evolved into monarchs – a concept much more akin to the imperial Roman conception of political rule.

 a) From suzerainty to sovereignty

 The political consolidation of the monarchs of the Late Middle Ages (in contrast to the kings of the Early Middle Ages) was possible, firstly, because royal status came to be hierarchically posited, at least in theory, above all feudal bonds, through the concept of “suzerainty”. Which predated the legal term “sovereignty,” coined by “legists” (lawyers) of Louis IX (1226-1270), better known as St. Louis. Inspired by the Roman concept of imperium, these jurists contended that the King of France prevailed over all lords simply because he was a “sovereign.”

"Accolade" by Edmund Blair Leighton (1901)

 b) The consolidation of the hereditary principle as the basis of royal legitimacy

 But that wasn’t all. The late medieval monarchs were able to consolidate their power largely because their legitimacy was based on the hereditary principle, which stood in stark contrast to the system employed under the Roman Empire, in which the emperor appointed his successor by “adoption” – a procedure which frequently sparked struggles for power. The elective procedure of designation that prevailed in the time of the Germanic kingdoms, generated also great political instability, as this principle gave rise to warfare between noble clans.

Louis XIV in his deathbed with future Louis XV, 

his great grandson and heir

 But when it became clear that the legitimate heir of the king was the only one to have the right to reign, conflicts over royal succession calmed considerably down. The royal institution, thus, came to guarantee stability of power, averting the chaos and anarchy born of the perpetual state of war between lords which characterized and marred the feudal era. 

  The hereditary kingship brought legal rules that established which was the legal order of succession to be followed (Fundamental Laws of the Realm), who was the first in line (the prince: from “princeps” –remember Augustus) and ensure the continuity of the monarchy when the king died. Ensuring the transition from one reign to the following when the new king was a minor through the institution of regency. 

The Prince of Sleeping Beauty (1959)

3. A territorial monarchy.

 The Late Medieval monarchs not only managed to become “sovereigns,” staking their legitimacy upon the hereditary principle, but also exerted their power over whole territories.  So, for instance, the King of the Franks became the King of France with Philip II Augustus (1180-1223). In the Late medieval period appeared “Territorial monarchies”.

 The Territorial monarchy became an Administrative Monarchy, as the king could administrate directly the whole territory of the realm through royal agents (officials) which enabled him to collect taxes, and maintain a permanent army, that led them to absorb the greatest amounts of territory possible into their domains. The result was that the king became the head of an extremely powerful kingdom. Which was the case with three strong medieval monarchies: Castile, France and England, that became the protagonists of the history of the last medieval centuries (12^th to 15^th centuries).

 4. A powerful King-Judge and his new legal aristocracy

  The late medieval kings consolidated their power initially through the judicial courts, as everyone accepted the idea that as representatives of God on earth, they were the supreme judges, and their mission was to reestablish the order of the Creation, that was reflected in immemorial customs. The kings ended up having the monopoly of the Administration of Justice, much longer before they could create law through legislation. 

 And this was possible because from the European universities, since the end of the 12^th century graduated a whole bunch of Lawyers that initially became the “Officials” of the kings and ended up becoming a new ruling class as a New European legal aristocracy: the Nobles of the Robe. Kings called on jurists to place them in key positions in their kingdoms because they considered them powerful instruments for the reinforcement of their power, as the Law that these jurists had studied in universities across Europe convinced the authorities for whom they worked ―emperors, popes or kings― that they were heirs to the legendary Roman emperor; and not just any emperor, but the great Justinian, who had deemed himself the master and lord of everything, including, of course, the legal realm. 

Members of the "Noblesse de robe"

5. The triumph of Late Medieval Monarchies over Christian universalism 

 The last consequence of the rising of these strong monarchies was that their kings, if initially generally endorsed the ideal of political universalism and, as such, were at least theoretically beholden to the pope and the emperor, when they became powerful enough they reacted against the idea that they were under the authority of emperors and popes and defended their absolute independence within their respective realms. 

 First because the royal legists, the king’s officials, convinced the kings that they were emperors on their realms. And second because the popes lost prestige and power and by the end of the 15^th century, they were powerless against kings. After the Sack of Rome by the Imperial troops of Charles the Vth in 1527, popes would never get involved again in European politics. 

Sack of Rome (1527)

6. Kingship in the Era of Absolutism 

The fact that kings reacted against the idea that they were under the authority of emperors and popes and defended their absolute independence within their respective realms, explain why these great Late Medieval European Monarchies ended up being the base of the state model of organization that would appear in the beginning of the 16^th century with thinkers like Machiavelli, Bodin or Hobbes. 

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)

In fact, “Modern” Kings became much more powerful than their late medieval predecessors in the course of the 16^th and 17^th centuries as they would be considered “Absolute” Monarchs, with almost all power of the land and the people of the realm. A strong power that was pretty useful in the 18^th century, when as “Enlightened” kings tha remained absolute monarchs tried to reform their realms adapting to the new ideas of the “Philosophes”, in an Era with brilliant  monarchs like Catherine the Great of Russia (1762-1796), Joseph II of Austria (1765-1790), Charles III of Spain (1759-1788), Frederick  II The Great of Prussia (1740-1786) or Joseph I of Portugal (1750-1777), with his prime minister the Marquis of Pombal. We will see all that in Teaching Guide number 6.  

Portrait of the Marquis of Pombal (1766)

By Michel Van Loo

7. The survival of monarchies in the XXIst century 

 After the Enlightened revolutions of the 18^th century things changed and the kings progressively saw their power limited. Like happened for instance in the United Kingdom because Parliament became the great protagonist of political end legal history, leading to a parliamentary regime in which government depended not on the free will of a monarch but on which party won the legislative elections. This is why under Queen Victoria (1837-1901), whose reign represents the height of the British Empire, the motto of the monarchy was: the king reigns but does not rule. Government was in the hands of the Prime minister elected by the majority of the parliament. 

Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

 Some monarchies ended up disappearing. Like happened for instance in France, one of the most solid ones, that disappeared first with the beheading of Louis XVI (21 January 1793) and Marie Antoinette (16 October 1793). The monarchy was reinstalled after Napoleon’s fall by Louis XVIII and Charles X, both brothers of Louis XVI. Monarchy was adapted to the Parliamentary regime under the reign of Louis Philippe of Orleans (1830-1848), and disappeared completely with the Wallon’s amendment the 30 January 1875, by one single vote, on the issue of the national flag. Since that date France is a Republic? Or is it a Republican Monarchy, in the line of Napoleon I and Napoleon III after the De Gaulle’s reform of 1962 enabling the direct election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage that, in my opinion, has transformed the French 5^th Republic in a sort of a Republican Monarchy; following, in a way, the example of the US Presidential Regime.  The Presidents of the French and US Republics have far more power than European kings and queens. Though elected they are real monarchs. 

Charles de Gaulle (1959-1969)

 first president of the 5th French Republic

 The interesting point is that in Europe we still have several monarchies. The oldest European king is the British monarch who is not only the king of the UK, but also the head of state in most of the Commonwealth countries, like Canada or Australia, for instance. England in its history has only been a Republic under the Cromwell dictatorship established by the Lord Protector (1653-1658). 

 Spain is also a very old monarchy, but its rule was interrupted several times. This is why, for instance, Spanish monarchy had to be reinstituted after the Spanish War of Independence against Napoleon (1808-1814), the 1868 Revolution against Elisabeth II (1868-1874), and finally the II Spanish Republic (1931-1936), the Civil War (1936-1939), Franco’s Dictatorship (1939-1975) and the Transition to Democracy (1975-1978). An extremely interesting process from the legal perspective that I will be willing to explain in class. 

Anne Leibovitz, portraits fo the Spanish Royal Couple

Besides these two mentioned countries other European states have kings and queens as head of states like:  Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Luxembourg.  

The question then is why monarchies survived in these highly developed European countries. Isn’t monarchy an anachronism? 

 In my opinion it is not, and the first reason for that is that European monarchies get on well with democratic regimes, which is absolutely not the case of weird “Hereditary Republics” like North Korea. Let’s discuss in class why monarchy is still a useful institution. Starting first with the precision that 21^st century European kings are not monarchs but kings, with not real political power. Let’s find out why those powerless queens and kings are still today heads of their respective states. 

Of course, Royals must observe good conduct. Otherwise, they should disappear. We will also see in class how some scandals have affected the stability of European monarchies and have threatened their survival as an institution. Like Lady Di’s case in England, Sarah Ferguson, Meghan Markle, Prince Andrew and its relationship with Epstein, the Emerit king of Spain Juan Carlos, or the Norwegian princess Mette Marit.....  

Lady Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997)

2. How to study Teaching Guide 5:

 

a) Read the corresponding text in the “Aula Virtual”. 

b) Familiarize yourself with the basic Chronology of the period: 

 

CHRONOLOGY

 

XI Century

 

1066     Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror defeats and kills Harold the last Anglo-Saxon king.

1085     Conquest of Toledo –the old capital of the Visigothic Kingdom- from the Muslims by Alphonse VI of Castile and Leon. 

1088     Foundation of Bolonia University, the oldest in Europe.

1099     Death of Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar “The Cid” in Valencia.

XII Century

1137 Union of Aragon and Catalonia (Barbastro Capitulations) as a result of the marriage between                 Ramon Berenguer IV count of Barcelona and Petronila, queen of Aragon. 

1154-1189       Reign of Henry II of England.  Creator of the legal system of “Common Law” through the creation of royal courts and important legislative reforms. (Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164). 

1170                Henry II of England orders the assassination of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, for opposing royal power.    

1180-1223 Philip II Auguste of France. The first “King of France”

 1188     Cortes of Leon. First Assembly of Estates in Western Europe where the king convenes the representatives of the cities with the nobles and the bishops.

XIIIth Century

1212    Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Consolidation of Christian Supremacy in Medieval Spain. 

1215    Nobles impose on John Lackland Magna Charta. 

1230    Fernando III definitively unites the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, and creates the most                     powerful realm in the Spain of the Reconquest. 

1252-1284    Reign of Alfonso X, the Wise, of Castile.

1272-1307      Reign of Edward I of England, who strengthens royal power by relying on the cities                         as allies against the great nobility. 

1276     James I of Aragon dies and integrates the kingdom of Valencia in the Union of Aragon and                 Catalonia. Appears the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia).

 1285-1314 Philip IV of France “The Fair” 

XIVth century

 

1302                First meeting of the French Estates General (États Généraux), convened by Philip IV,             who asks for aid from nobles, bishops and cities representatives to fight against the pope Boniface           VIII.  

 1303     Anagni Slap. Boniface VIII is incarcerated by order of Philip IV of France. That will lead to the         Avignon Papacy (1309 to 1376).

1314     18 March         Jacques de Mollay the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, extremely      wealthy religious order dissolved by the king Philip the IV, who will die 9 months later. His three male sons will die without descendance: Louis X in 1316, Philip V in 1322 and Charles IV in 1328 (Accursed kings). End of the Capetian dinasty and beginning of the Valois. Dynastic cause of the beginning of the Hundred Year’s War as the king of England was a direct descendant of the Capetians through his mother, but in France women could not transmit rights to the Crown (Salic Law). 

1337    Beginning of the Hundred Year’s War (Until 1453) between the kings of England and the Kings of France. 

1348          Adoption of the Ordinance of Alcalá in Castile (Ordenamiento de Alcalá), Alphonse XI consolidates Kings authority in Castile. Royal Law prevails over local traditional customs.     

 

XVth century

1415      Azincourt Battle. Decesive victory of the English against the French.

1431      30 May 19-year-old Joan of Arc I is burned at the stake by the English. In 1428 she had conquered Orleans from the English Army, and she enabled the crowning of Charles VII in Reims despite English occupation on 17 July 1429.

1453     End of the Hundred Year’s War (beginning in 1337). French victory consolidates the                             position of French Kings. And English defeat consolidates preeminence of the English                             Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords) over the English Kings.

1461     Death of Charles VII of France (king since 1422) who won the Hundred Year’s War and consolidated the strength of the French Monarchy.

1479     Union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Kings. Spain’s birth certificate. They laid the foundations of the Spanish State.

1485     End of the War of the Roses (since 1455). The conflict was fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster (emblem a red rose) and those of the House of York (emblem a white rose), rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. Henry VII, who descended from the Lancaster, rises to the English throne, the first monarch of the Tudor Dynasty. English nobility was so weakened as a result of the War that the Tudors could impose a century of royal absolutism in England with strong monarchs as Henry VIII and his daughter Elisabeth I.

1492     1^st January Conquest of the city of Granada by the Catholic Kings.  End of the Spanish Reconquest, after almost 800 years (Since 711).

            12 October: Christopher Columbus discovers America.

1494     Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the kings of Castile and Portugal agree on the limits of their conquests Worldwide, independently of the Pope. They divide the world in two parts (Line of Tordesillas).

 

c) Complete in your Class notebook the following exercises:  

CONCEPTS:

Feudalism. Fief. Feudal pact. Vassal. Ancien Régime. Pactism. Social pact. Constitution. Rule of Law. Kings vs monarchs. Suzerainty vs sovereignty. Coronation. Anointing. Royal Touch. Thaumaturgic Kings. Fundamental Laws. Order of succession. Hereditary principle. Regency. Prince. Curia regis (court). Exchequer. Officials. Royal Courts of Justice. Common Law (England) vs Ius Commune (Continental Europe). Legists. Nobles of the robe. Assembly of States. Anagni Slap. Alexandrine bulls. Treaty of Tordesillas. Parliamentary regime. Wallon’s Amendment (1875). Hereditary Republic.

 

QUESTIONS:

Concrete questions

1. Why did Italy and Germany not become strong kingdoms in the Middle Ages? Compare the situation of both territories with what happened with kingdoms like Castile, France or England.

2. Explain the sense of the sentence “Rex est imperator in regno suo”. Who invented it?

3. Why the ceremony of royal coronation began and why it became crucial for stability of monarchies?

4. How did initially the kings of the Capetian dynasty in France ensure the instantaneous succession in the throne after the king’s death, prior to the consolidation of the hereditary principle?

5. Why were important in every kingdom the fundamental laws that organised royal succession? Think of the advantages of the principle of hereditary succession of the crown and why it was important to ensure the legality of royal succession.

6. Why there are monarchies still in Europe? Think of what the advantages are of having a king instead of a president of a republic.

7. What is the etymological sense of the word “prince”?

8. Who was the first French king that was referred to as “King of France? What is the sense of this terminology?

9. What were the consequences of the fact that late medieval kings could collect taxes from their subjects? In which way it consolidated the power of the kings? Think of why it helped the French monarchy to win the Hundred Year’s war against the English?

10. Why universities, and more concretely the Faculties of Law, were so important for changing not only the European Legal systems but the political organization of the late medieval kingdoms?  

11. Why the study of Roman Law helped consolidating the power of late medieval kings? Think of what the political background in the time that was formed the Compilation of Justinian.

12. Why Philip IV the Fair of France convened for the first time in 1302 the French General Estates (États Généraux)? What was his political purpose?

13. With which legal argument extracted from the Corpus Iuris Civilis of Justinian did the Legists of the late medieval kings justify that the kings were not submitted to the Emperor?

14. With which legal argument did the Legists of the late medieval kings justify that the kings were not submitted to the Pope?

15. How did the kings of Portugal get rid of the submission to the pope? Remember that Philip IV of France would do the same later.

16. Why did the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) prove that Castilian and Portuguese kings had become independent from the popes?

17. Why the absolutism of 18^th century enlightened European monarchs was beneficial for their kingdoms?

18. Why 21^st century monarchs have in reality become kings again?

General questions

1. Which are the two meanings of the word “feudalism”: from the social-political perspective and from the legal perspective.

2. Why today “feudalism” has not the entirely pejorative connotation it used to have, from the perspective of Western constitutional history.

3. What are the more important changes that the Commercial Revolution brings to late medieval European societies? Compare it with the old social structure from the Feudal era.  

4. Which are the specific titles granted to crown princes in England, France, Crown of Aragon, Castile and Leon and Navarre?

5. Why did the late medieval kings used initially the Administration of Justice to consolidate their power?  How did they do that?

6. Explain the essential difference between the English Common Law and the Continental “Ius Commune”? Think of how both legal systems appear.

7. Mention the reasons that explain that an anachronic institution like monarchy is still in use in some European nation-states in the 21^st century?

 

 

THE IMPERIAL IDEA STRIKES BACK: POPES AND EMPERORS. (Teaching Guide 4).

 

Crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor by the Pope Leo III (8 December 800)

 1. Introduction 

Today we are going to deal with the fourth pillar of European Civilization. The first pillar was the Greek Culture, the Second the Roman Organization, the Third the Germanic Approach, and the fourth is Christianity. It doesn’t matter if you are baptized or if you practice or don’t go to Mass on Sundays. European culture has been deeply influenced by Christianism and its political side: the Roman Catholic Church. Why? Because after the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the imperial baton was taken over by the “Roman Catholic Church”, and more concretely by its head: the Pope.  It is highly significant that the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope (from Greek “Pappas” : father), resides precisely in Rome, and that even today the official language of the Vatican State is still Latin. Isn’t it?

Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) one of the best contemporary Italian intellectuals, a known atheist, declared that Christianism was the greatest revolution in History of mankind because it performed a radical metamorphosis in the centre of the soul, in the moral conscience of Human beings and gave to the world a new spiritual dimension that was lacking until then. In a moment in which slavery dominated the world, the conceptual insurrection of Christ brought the revolutionary idea that all human beings no matter who they are deserve respect and affection. (Javier Cercas El loco de Dios en el Fin del Mundo (2025) Random House pp.43 and 47).

And this has been going on for 2000 years. Think that the Soviet Union only lasted 69 years, from 1922 to 1991. The popes have not only been become the main catholic authority after the papacy of Gregory I (590-604), but they have their own independent monarchy: the Papal States, from 754 to 1879, and the Vatican State, also called the Holy See, since 1929. 

On top of that it is extremely significant that the Popes favoured the reappearance of the Imperial idea in the West, to get independent from the Eastern-Byzantine emperors. Starting with the Frankish sovereign Charlemagne in 800, and then with the German Otto I in 962, founder of a Holy Roman Empire (First Reich) that lasted until 1806. And then came Napoleon (1804-1815), Bismarck and the Second Reich (1871-1918), and finally Hitler with its ephemeral Third Reich (1933-1945). 

Napoleon's Crowning as Emperor of the French ( December 1804)

Today we are going to try to understand why Popes and Emperors for many centuries made their best to bring back the glamour of the Roman Empire, defending the idea of “Universalism” –that is one single ruler for all- against the political diversity installed after the creation of the Germanic Kingdoms. Finally, Europeans ended up losing the battle of Universalism in 1648, but the longevity of the fight would mark very deeply the European-Western civilization. And that may be explains partly why after 1945 we Europeans are longing to become again a single political, economical and cultural unit, through the difficult and complicated process of European integration.  Because isn’t it the purpose why the European Union was created for?

Jesus Christ preaching the "Beatitudes" (Mathew 2: 3-12) 

What brought Christianism to European civilization?

1. The idea that all human beings are equal in front of God and no matter who they are deserve respect and affection. (All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly Resolution 217 A), based on the French Declaration of 26 of August 1789 (Article 1). 

2. The defence of the humble and the poor. The New Testament quotes Jesus as saying that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25). The same idea  appears also in Qur’an7:40, "Indeed, those who deny Our verses and are arrogant toward them – the gates of Heaven will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Paradise until a camel enters into the eye of a needle..." 

3. Our calendar based on the Christian Era, following an idea of the monk and writer Dionisius Exiguus (Dyonisyus the Humble) (c. 470- c.544) introduced the use of the Christian Era fixing the date of Our Lord’s birth as 753 years after the foundation of Rome, a date now known to be too late by four to seven years. Years before Christ (BC) and years in the Era of Christ “Anno Domini” (AD) “Year of the Lord”.

4. The acceptance of Aristotelian philosophy as a base of the Western conception of the World. Thanks to the work of Thomas of Aquinas (1225-1274), who adapted adapting through the writings of Aristotle translated by the Spanish Jewish intellectual Maimonides (1135-1204) and the Spanish Muslim intellectual Averroes (1126-1198). Their works were translated to Latin by the Toledo’s Translators School, founded by the Castilian king Alphonse X the Sage. Aquinas adapted Christian revelation to the real world. This is why Catholicism is the most rationally elaborated of the three great Monotheisms: Judaism, Christianism and Islam. 

5. The invention of universities, that since Bolonia (1088), have been the model for superior education all over the world, was initially founded by the Church, in the tradition of the "General Studies" (Trivium and Quadrivium). The only literate people (meaning those who could read and write) are ecclesiastical until the 14th century. Culture was preserved in the European Western civilization thanks to the Church.   

6. The modernisation of Roman Law contained in Justinian Compilation, adapting it to the new times through “Canon Law” that is the Law of the Catholic Church. Mainly through the Papal Decrees (Decretals), that is the legislation forms the Pope, creating new legal concepts and institutions. As the European emperors did not legislate, the Popes did the job of adapting the Law to the new circumstances during crucial centuries XI-XIII, During Papal Theocratic supremacy. The Canon Law is since then another pillar of the European-Western legal systems. 

Let’s see how all this happened.  

2. How to study Teaching Guide 4:

 

a) Read the corresponding text in the “Aula Virtual”. 

b) Familiarize yourself with the basic Chronology of the period: 

 

CHRONOLOGY 

A) History of Judaism

10.000 BC    Appears the city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley.

The Era of the Patriarchs

3000     Canaan civilization appears in the region which has become a crossroad among Egiptian, Hitite and Assirian civilizations, known by the Greeks and the Phoenicians. Canaan and the “Canaanites” appear frequently throughout.

1800     Abraham, originally Abram, a nomadic shepherd abandons Mesopotamia and goes to Canaan following God’s call. He settles in Hebron (Today in Cisjordania, Palestine). Following God’s orders he is about to sacrifice his son Isaac in Mount Moria (Actual Temple Mount or Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, on top of the Wailing Wall). God spares Isaac and agrees with Abraham the First Covenant. If you follow the divine commandments God will protect you, if not He will punish you. The Covenant gives a moral sense to religion. 

Abraham will become the common patriarch for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In Judaism he is the founding father who begins the covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God. In Christianity he is the original father of all believers whether Jewish or non-Jewish. In Islam Abraham is a crucial link in the chain of Muslim prophets that start with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.  

Isaac will marry Rebecca and will have twins: Esau and Jacob. One of them is Jacob. God changes its name Jacob for “Israel” after he wrestled with the divinity –probably an angel- refusing to let go until he received a blessing and won (Israel means: “The one who struggles with God”) (Genesis 32:29).

1700     Jews from Canaan leave massively for Egypt.

Abraham is about to sacrifice his son Isaac

The Exodus (1250-1050)

1250     Jews leave Egypt under the leadership of Moses towards the Promised Land (Exodus: the 2nd book of the Pentateuch). After Moses death the people of Israel establish in the Promised Land structured in 12 tribes, under the government of the “Judges”. They revere God in the Tabernacle where lies the Arch of the Covenant.  

1200     The Bible begins to be put into writing. The Old Testament seems to have been completed around 350 BC. The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in Qumram in 1946 prove the whole Old Testament was finally finished around 165 BC. Though the final text of the “Torah” would only be fixed by the “Masoretes”, who between the 5 and the 10th century, based in the works of the Talmudic Schools of Jerusalem and Babylonia produced the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text. The Talmud

The Jews only consider the Law of God Torah (“The Teaching”) in five books (Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy –Second Law in Greek). The other texts of the 39 books of the Old Testament (Historical, Poetry and Wisdom,  Major Prohets and Minor Prophets) are not considered divine revelation. During the 1st century AD were completed the 27 books of the New Testament including the 4 Gospels, the Acts of Apostles, Saint Paul’s Epistles, General Epistles and Revelation (Apocalypse). 

The Bible was translated from Aramaic to Greek in the 3d century AD by a commission of 70 translators. This edition is called the “Translation of the Seventy” or “Septuagint” or “Greek Old Testament”. As after the first Diaspora few Jewish could read in the Hebrew language the Jewish community needed the translation of the Bible to common Greek: Koiné Greek.

In the course of the 4th century the Bible would be translated into Latin. The final official version would be the translation of Saint Jerome (c. 345-420) named the Vulgate. 

75 The Philistines, a Greek Immigrant group from the Aegean Sea establish in the south coast of Canaan and found a confederation of city-states which is referred to as Philistia. This is the origin of the word “Palestine”. Canaan became Palestine because when the Romans disembarked in this area the people which they met were the Philistines under the command of Pompey. An expedition that will lead to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans in 63 BC.

The Kingdom of Israel (1050-930)

1050     Samuel, the last of the Judges cedes the command to Saul who becomes the first king of the unified kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh century BC, marked the transition of the Israelites from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood.  Saul is strong enough to defeat first the Canaanites in the interior and the Philistines in the coast. In the war against the Philistine young Israeli David kills the giant Philistine Goliath. David would become King.

1029-970 Reign of King David, who conquers Hebron (the city of Patriarch Abraham) and finally Jerusalem itself (1000) creating a very powerful kingdom.  King David represents the height of the kingdom of Israel 

David defeats Goliath (1 Samuel 17)

The First Temple period (10th to 6th centuries BC) 

970-932 Reign of King Solomon. He substitutes the provisional Tabernacle by a solid Temple (The First Temple), built in Jerusalem on the top of Mount Moria (its foundations are the actual Wailing Wall).

931      The split. The once united Kingdom of David and Solomon is divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel, with ten tribes of “Israelis”) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah with two tribes faithful to King David’s line: the “Jews). 

587    On July  the Babylonian army of Nebudchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and burned down the city. Thousands of are taken into captivity to Babylon (Babylonian Captivity). It is the First Diaspora. It brings the appearance of rabbis, synagogues and the first exegesis (interpretation) of the Torah: the Midrash. 

Appear also the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) that warn Israelis that the destruction of Jerusalem was the consequence of sin that broke the Covenant and call them to repentance. 

The word “prophet” comes from Ancient Greek: from pro (before/toward) and phesein (to tell); thus, a “profetes” is someone who conveys messages from the divine to humans, including occasionally foretelling future events. In a different interpretation, it means advocate or speaker (Wikipedia). 

It is also the beginning of the Pharisees a School opposed to the Sadducees in the interpretation of the Torah.  Sadducees recognized only the Written Torah literally, and Pharisees developed a larger interpretation that included for instance the belief in the resurrection of the dead, that was denied by Sadducees. They had a higher intellectual level. Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism (Talmudic). The Talmud is the developed interpretation (exegesis) of the Torah.  

The Talmud (Torah) is the “study” or “learning” of the first 5 books of the Jewish Bible (the Pentateuch) which form the Torah (the Law of God given to Moses). It includes the teachings, opinions and discussions of thousands of Torah Scholars (Rabbis) based in the part of the Oral Torah compiled in the Mishnah and its commentaries (Gemara). There are two Talmud versions: a short one finished in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Talmud) between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century and in Babylonia (Babylonian Talmud, or Balvi) compiled in the 6th century AD. The second one is the most extensive.

The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and second in authority only to the Hebrew Bible. It is a primary source of Jewish Law (Halakha) and Jewish theology. The Talmud was the centrepiece of Jewish Culture in nearly all communities and foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. (Extracted from Wikipedia)

Thanks to the Talmud the Jewish religion and culture were preserved through the long Diaspora (2nd to 20th centuries AD). 

539      Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Many of them prefer to remain in Babylon. 

The Wailing Wall ain Jerusalem, remains of Solomon Temple

The Second Temple Period (515 BC to 135 AD). 

515 BC  The Temple is reconstructed. The Jews celebrate their first Passover in Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile.  

350 The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) is completed. 

334 Alexander the Great conquers Jerusalem. Start the hellenization of Palestine. 

198 Judah becomes part of the Seleucid Empire (Diadochi).  

167-160 Maccabean Revolt against the Empire of the Seleucid and the strengthening of Hellenization. It is the origin of Hannukah celebration. 

The name "Hanukkah" derives from the Hebrew meaning "to dedicate", because on Hanukkah, the Maccabees Jews regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple. Hanukkah lasts for eight nights and days. Each night is marked by lighting a Hanukkah Menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum containing spaces for eight ceremonial lights plus one additional candle, the shámash (שַׁמָּשׁ, 'attendant'), which is used to light the others. Hanukkah has attained major cultural significance in the Western world and elsewhere, especially among secular Jews, as it often falls during the Christmas holyday season Among American Jews this chronological proximity also contributed to the seasonal gift-giving practice (Wikipedia). 

63 Pompey conquers Jerusalem. Judah becomes a Roman Province, but with a great autonomy. They have their own kings. The Romans establish a sort of Protectorate. Total control would be achieved in 6 AD. Jews believe that a Messiah would deliver them from the Romans. 

37-4     Reign of King Herod the Great. A Roman Jewish client king of Judea.

6 BC   Jesus birth in Nazareth. 

26 AD Crucifixion of Jesus from Nazareth in Jerusalem condemned by a Jewish jurisdiction and executed by the Roman soldiers.

66        Big Jewish rebellion against Roman Rule. 

70        The Roman Emperor Titus conquers Jerusalem and destroy the Temple for the Second time. 

73-74   Siege of Masada. Last Rebellious Jews. 

132      Second Jewish rebellion against Roman Rule. Bar Koshba reconquers Jerusalem. 

135      Emperor Hadrian reconquers Jerusalem. End of the Jewish presence in Palestine. Begins the second Diaspora. The Jews will not be governing again Palestine until the creation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. 

 

Pantocrator : Frescoe painting from Sant Climent de Taull

B) History of Christianism

5-65 AD    Paul of Tarsus (Letters: “Epistles”, the oldest writings of the New Testament). He will start the Chruch despite the fact that he was not one of the original followers of Christ: Apostles. 

An apostle, in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek word “Apóstolos”), literally: "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb “apostollein”: "to send off". The purpose of such sending off is usually to convey a message, and thus "messenger" is a common alternative translation; other common translations include ambassador and envoy. Apostles for Christians are the people who are sent to convert non Christians. Today’s apostles are the “missionaries”, the elite of Catholicism. 

50-90   The Gospels are written (Matthew, Mark, Luke –who also wrote the Acts of the Apostles- and John –who also wrote the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse). 

"Gospel" originates from the Old English gōdspel, a compound of gōd ("good") and spell ("story, message" or "news"), literally meaning "good news". This is a direct translation  of the ecclesiastical Greek word euangelion ( = good;  = message/messenger), referring to the "good news" of salvation in Jesus Christ. 

54-68   Nero emperor. First Christian martyrs. The Roman Emperors do not accept that Christ is more important than them for Christians. They fear a rebellion against Imperial authority. 

100      Death of John the Evangelist (born in 6 AD). 

284-305  Diocletian emperor. Last persecutions of Christians. 

Conversion of Paul of Tarsus (Acts 3:3-9)

From Christians to Catholics

313      Edict of Milan. Emperor Constantine gives Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution. In exchange he tries to control the Church (Caesaropapism).  

325      Council of Nicea. Bishops condemns Aryanism (Jesus Christ is not of the same nature as God the Father, so it is not divine). Germans converted initially to Aryanism. Gothic Bible of Ulfila (311-383), first text in Germanic language. 

380      Edict of Thesalonica. By decision of Theodosius I, Christianism becomes the official (and only) religion of the Roman Empire. Christianism becomes “Catholicism” as “universal” religion of the universal Empire. 

496      Clovis converts to Catholicism. Most of the others Germanic kings would do the same. The church as the heir of the Roman Empire favours the stability of political power of kings. 

589      Reccared, king of the Visigoths, converts to Catholicism.

590-604  Pope Gregory I the Great significantly bolsters the authority of the Church of Rome over all of Christendom. He is the first pope that considers himself the successor of Roman emperors decides to preach Christianity among the Germanic people that settled in the different parts of the extinct West Roman Empire. He sends a mission for Christianizing Anglo-Saxon England. The first Anglo-Saxon king to be baptized is Aethelbert, King of Kent (c. 590-616). The Church as the heir of the Roman Empire favours the creation of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. There are soon seven autonomous kingdoms: the HEPTARCHY: Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria (divided in two sub-kingdoms: Bernicia and Deira); Kent, Sussex and Essex. Saint Patrick would preach the Gospel in Ireland.

Pope Gregory I The Great (590-604)

The Catholic Church turns political

732      Charles Martel defeats the Muslims at Poitiers Battle and wields de facto power     in the kingdom of the Franks.  

751      Pope Zacharias authorizes St. Boniface to crown Pepin the Short (Charles Martel’s son) as the legitimate King of the Franks at Soissons, which means dethroning Childeric III, the last Merovingian king.  

754      Promissio carisiaca. Under this treaty Pope Stephen II commits to anointing Pepin the Short as the king of the Franks and “Patrician of the Romans.” The Frankish monarch recognizes the Pope’s territorial domain over the Duchy of Rome, Exarchate and Pentapolis – the legal/territorial title making possible the emergence of the Papal States.

800      Charlemagne (son of Pepin the Short) is crowned emperor by Pope Leo III.  

841      June 25: the Battle of Fontenoy in Puisaye.  The defeat of Lothair, the                                eldest son of Louis the Pious, by his brothers Charles and Louis. 

843      Treaty of Verdun.  The Empire of Charlemagne is divided. 

911      Conrad I is elected the first king of Germany.  

962      Otto I, Duke of Saxony, is crowned Emperor.  He is the founder of the German Holy Roman Empire (1st Reich), which would last until 1806.

987-996Hugh Capet succeeds in leaving his throne to his son.  Consolidation of the hereditary  dynasty in the Kingdom of the Franks and separation from of the Empire.   

1054     July 16.  The Eastern Schism.  Michael Cerularius and Pope Leo IX excommunicate each other. Separation of the Orthodox and Roman Churches.   

Golden head of Frederick I Barbarossa 

(Holy Roman Empire)

The era of papal theocracy

1075     Gregory VII (1073-1085) promulgates the Dictatus Papae, 27 statements in which he asserts the pope’s supremacy over secular authorities.  Gregorian Reform. This document was not published in the German Holy Roman Empire, in the Iberian kingdoms, or in England.   

1077     Henry IV humbles himself before Gregory VII at Canossa.  

1096-1099  First Crusade. 

1122     Concordat of Worms.  End of the Investiture Controversy.  

1155-1190        Reign of Frederick I Barbarossa.  

1198-1216        Papacy of Innocent III, the chief exponent of papal theocracy.  

1220-1250        Reign of Frederick II Hohenstaufen. 

1291-1293        Reign of Rudolph I of Habsburg.  

1274     Death of Thomas Aquinas (b.  1225) 

The Crusades according to AI

The decline of the papacy

1303     September 7: The attack at Anagni. (Anagni’s Slap).   Philip IV of France’s troops                             seize Pope Boniface VIII

1309-1377        The Avignon Papacy. The popes reside outside Rome, in Avignon. 

1378-1417        The Western Schism.  Multiple popes vie for St. Peter’s throne.  

Boniface VIII, prisoner of French Troops (7 September 1303)

Reformation and Counterreformation

1519     Charles V is elected Emperor. 

1521     Diet of Worms.  Luther explains the principles of the “Reformation” to Charles V.  

1527     May 6.  The troops of Charles V, sharply at odds with Clement VII, occupy and sack Rome (Sacco di Roma).  The popes will never again meddle in civil political affairs.

1529 In the Diet of Spires the Lutheran princes “protest” against Charles V’s request for them to submit to the Pope’s authority. They come to call themselves “Protestants.”

1534     Act of Supremacy. Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome when Clement VII refuses to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter).  The king declares himself the head of the Church of England. The Anglican Church is born.  

1540     September 27: Pope Paul III accepts the creation of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola.  The Jesuits become Catholicism’s quintessential advocates and defenders especially during the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

 1555    Peace of Augsburg.  Each German prince may profess the religion he desires, and has the right to impose it upon his subjects (cuis regio eius religio). 

1572     24 August. Slaughter of Protestants in Paris (St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre).  The most dramatic episode of France’s Wars of Religion (1562-1598). 

 1618-1648       Thirty Years War. At its close Europe is divided into Catholic and Protestant kingdoms.  

Charles 5th (1519-1558)

of the Holy Roman Empire

Papacy and Empire: From the French Revolution to the Third Reich

1790     July 12.  Civil constitution of the clergy.  The French revolutionaries seek to convert the Catholic priests into government officials of the new French state, prompting a break with Rome. 

1793     October.  Publication of the French revolutionary calendar, with no reference to the traditional church calendar (Gregorian).  

1794     June 8.  Robespierre celebrates the Festival of the Supreme Being.  

1801     Napoleon signs a Concordat with the Pope and reconciles with French                        Catholics. 

1804     December 2.  Napoleon crowns himself “Emperor of the French” in the presence of Pope Pius VII in Paris, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

1806     Francis II abolishes the German Holy Roman Empire. 

1849, 9 February Roman Republic take control of the Papal States. On July French troops sent by Napoleon III restore Pius IX on the Roman throne. 

1852-1870        Second French Empire (Napoleon III). 

 1870    September 20.  Rome becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, after its military occupation. After the demise of the Papal States, dating back to 754, Pope Pius IX describes himself as a prisoner of the Italian State.  

1871-1918        2nd German Reich headed by Prussia (Bismarck).  

1905     French Law of separation of the Church and the State (Loi de separation des Églises et de l’État).

1929     February 11.  Lateran Pacts.  Mussolini and Pius XI agree to the founding of the Vatican State.  

1933-1945        Hitler’s 3rd Reich. 

 

Benito Mussolini signing the Lateran Treaty (11 February 1929)

that create The Vatican State

c) Complete in your Class notebook the following exercises:  

Moses and the burning bush (Exodus: 3-4)

CONCEPTS:

Judaism

Yahweh/ First Covenant (Abraham and Isaac)/ Canaan/ Jacob-Israel/ Exodus/ Promised Land/ Tabernacle/ Arch of The Covenant/ Dead Sea Scrolls/ Torah (Pentateuch) / Masoretes/  Septuagint / Vulgate / Talmud / Palestine (Origin of the word)/ First Temple / Prophet / Pharisees / Diaspora/ Rabinic Judaism / Hanukkah (Maccabean Revolt) / Menorah/ Passover /

Christianism

 Jesus (meaning of Yeshua) / Christ/ Messiah / Beatitudes / Apostle/ Saint Paul’s Epistles/ Gospel / Evangelist/ Martyrs/ Edict of Milan/ Caesaropapism/ Emperor Julian/ Aryanism (Council of Nicea)/ Christianism vs Catholicism / Edict of Thesalonica/ / Dyonisius the Humble/  Pope Gregory I The Great/ Promissio Carisiaca / Papal States/ Treaty of Verdun (843)/ Eastern Schism/ Dictatus Papae / Excomunication/ Papal theocracy/ Decretals/ Thomas of Aquinas / Holy Roman Empire/ Kaiserzeit/ Attack at Anagni (Anagni Slap)/  Avignon Papacy / Western Schism / Sacco di Roma (1527)/ Anglican Church/ Society of Jesus / St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre/ Gallicanism/  Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)/ Festival of the Supreme Being (Robespierre) / French Revolutionary Calendar/ North German Confederation (Second Reich)/ Lateran Pacts  

Festival of the Supreme Being (Paris, 8 June 1794, 20 Prairial An II)

QUESTIONS:

Concrete questions

 

1. What is the relationship between the Canaanites the Philistines and the Promised Land? 

2. Explain the Jewish idea of “Covenant”. Why it does give a “moral” sense to Jewish religion?

3. What is the relationship between the Torah and the Talmud. Think of why and when appeared the Talmud, and why it is important in Jewish History. 

4. Why is Paul of Tarsus pivotal in the history of Christianism?

5. Why Roman emperor, who usually did not care about the religion of their citizens, considered Christians a danger?

6. Explain what was the doctrine of Aryanism? Why it was important for the conversion of Germans to Christianism? When was it condemned (Think of the mystery of the Holy Trinity). 

7.  When does Christianism become Catholicism? Why?

8. Why the Pope Gregory I (590-604) is important in the history of Catholic Church?

9. ¿Why did the Popes favoured the creation of a Christian Medieval Empire. Explain the terms of the agreement (Promissio Carisiaca of 754) between the Papacy and the Frankish sovereign Pepin the Short? Why was it beneficial to both sides?

10. Why Charlemagne was not happy with the Papacy after being crowned emperor in 800? Think of the relationship between Popes and emperors, especially after the Gregorian Reform.

11. What was “excommunication” and why it became a daunting political instrument in the hands of Papacy?

12. Why the Treaty of Verdun (843) is considered by some historians the “birth certificate” of modern Europe?

13. Why the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire hold essentially a symbolic title? 

14. Why the Holy Roman Empire can be seen in a way as a precedent of the European Union?

15. What was the Gregorian Reform of the 11th century and why it was important for the papacy? Mention the terms “Dictatus Papae” and Papal Theocracy. 

16. Why the figure of the catholic scholar Thomas of Aquinas was essential for the European civilization? 

17. Why did Henry VIII of England decide to create its own church (Anglican) in which he was the head? What is the difference between Anglicanism and French Gallicanism?

 

Thomas of Aquinas (by Sandro Botticelli)

General questions

1. Describe the process of how the Bible has reached us in its actual version. Mention the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Masoretes, the Torah or Pentateuch and the rest of the books of the Old Testament and the writings of the New Testament. Then how and why was the biblical text translated to Greek (Septuagint) and to Latin (Vulgate). 

2. Which were the consequences of the First Jewish Diaspora? Mention the prophets, the Pharisees, Rabbinic Judaism and Talmud. 

3. What is the Jewish Talmud and why it was crucial during the long second Jewish Diaspora (2nd to 20th centuries)?  

4. Explain why the Christian Empires (Charlemagne’s and the Holy Roman Empire differ from the Roman Empire. 

5. How many empires existed in European history between 800 and 1945?

6. What are the 5 essential contributions that Christianism brought to the European-Western Culture?

 

Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen