Rise of Christendom and Early Medieval Russia: 476-1584
The Rise of Christendom
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476. Christendom emerged as a civilization. The crowning of Charlemagne by the pope completed the blending of two major ideas. One of these ideas was the concept of political unity, an idea that had been represented by the Roman Empire. The other was the idea of religious unity, represented by the Christian Church. The mixture of the two ideas resulted in a civilization best described as Christendom.
Christianity was the single most powerful force in a person’s life in the world of Christendom. People who lived in this world thought of themselves as Christians, not Romans. This religious unity lasted for more than 700 years.
Kiev Became the First Russian State
By the early 700s, the Eastern Slavs had settled between the Baltic and Black seas. The Slavs did not have a central government but were organized into city-states ruled by wealthy merchants.
The First Russian State
In 862, a Viking chief named Rurik became ruler of Novgorod, an important city in northwest Russia. Oleg, one of Rurik’s chieftains, captured Kiev. When Oleg took another city he formed the first Russian state, making Kiev its capital. The Vikings and Slavs merged their two cultures into one civilization later known as Russian.
Russia Adopted Byzantium’s Orthodox Christianity
Byzantine missionaries converted to Christianity Olga, Grand Princess of Kiev and the first female ruler in Russia. Olga did not try to convert the rest of Russia herself, leaving that to her grandson Vladimir. Vladimir sent out teams to observe the Muslim Bulgarians, the Catholic Germans, and the Orthodox Byzantines. Vladimir officially adopted the Orthodox faith for all his people, although it was several hundred years before Christianity was accepted by most of the Russians.
Through the Church, Byzantine culture influenced the literature, art, laws, and customs of Kievan Russia. By accepting Orthodox Christianity Russia was not part of the Roman Catholic Church; this choice started Russia toward eventual isolation from the Latin civilization of Western Europe (beginning of the separation between Russia and the Latins).
Yaroslav Established Russia as a European Power
Kievan Russia reached the height of its power during the rule of Vladimir’s grandson, Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled from 1019 to 1054. Kiev became the religious and cultural center of Russia. Everyone wanted to be connected with the kingdom by marriage. Yaroslav founded schools and libraries to support scholars and artists, and he issued the first Russian code of laws. He had a copy of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia built in Kiev. Yaroslav extended its domain by defeating Slavic neighbors to the north and west. Kiev was able to control its water access to Constantinople, safeguarding this vital trade route when he conquered the Pechenegs. Yaroslav is known as the New Charlemagne.
Like the empire of Charlemagne also, the Kievan state declined after the death of Yaroslav as Russian unity disintegrated into civil war among his heirs. Kievan Russia revived in the 1100s.
Autocrats Ruled Russia After Mongols
In the 13th century a serious threat appeared. Led by Genghis Khan, Mongol invaders overran parts of China, Persia, and Russia. In 1240 Batu, Genghis Khan, captured Kiev and other Russian states, forcing the Russians into subservience to Mongol overlords.
Mongol Tribes Ruled Russia
The Mongols were fierce horse riders who used terror as a weapon of war. They massacred most of the men they found and took women and children into slavery.
The destruction of Kiev was so widespread and so large was the tribute the Mongols required that some historians believe the Mongols held back the development of Russia (Mongols didn’t destroy Russia, they stopped the development of the Roman culture).
The Mongols made very few positive contributions to Russian civilization. Although they did not interfere with the Orthodox Church, they did force the clergy to support their rule. They deserve credit for introducing a postal system and a census to Russia, but they added nothing to the culture of the Russians.
Russian Princes Recovered Political and Trade Initiatives
Russia’s national hero during the years of Mongol rule was Prince Alexander of Novgorod. He led the Russians with Mongol permission from his capital to Vladimir. Daniel, Alexander Nevsky’s son, inherited the city-state of Moscow. Daniel and his successors built up Moscow’s strength and gained control of the river, which improved their trade on the Volga River. Moscow became the new center of the Russian Church when the head of the Church moved there in 1328.
As Mongol power began to disintegrate in the late 1300s, Russian forces under Moscow’s leadership attempted to overthrow Mongol rule. In the 15th century, the Mongols finally were beaten, allowing Moscow to take over leadership of Russian lands.
Two Russian rulers established autocratic government.
The beginnings of a Russian nation can be traced to two harsh but able rulers, both named Ivan. The first was Ivan III, called Ivan the Great; the second one was his grandson, Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible.
Ivan the Great ruled from 1462 to 1505. Ivan acquired one small state after another until he ruled most of the Russian people. Ivan challenged the Mongols by refusing to pay the annual tribute. Ivan the Great was Russia’s first independent ruler since the time of Kievan Russia. Because he married Zoë, niece of the last Byzantine emperor, he and his descendants claimed to be successors of the Byzantine emperors. He finally died in 1505.
Ivan the Terrible took over the government when he was 14. Under Ivan the Terrible, the Russians pushed far into the eastern steppes. They took Kazan, chief of the city of the Mongols, ending the Mongols’ power. In any event, he killed thousands of nobles and other Russians. The Russian people paid a terrible price for the growing power of the Moscow autocrats. Loyal nobles received new lands, but heavier taxes forced free Russian peasants into slave-like serfdom at the very time serfdom had died in Western Europe. By the year Ivan the Terrible’s death in 1584, Russia was tearing itself apart in another civil war.
The Decline of the Roman Empire
The emperors in Rome had become so weak that they were puppets of the army. Many Roman soldiers were of German birth. One of them called Odoacer became commander of the Roman armies. In 476 he deposed the last of the puppet Roman emperors, a German boy named Romulus Augustulus. Odoacer was the first German ruler of Rome not officially approved by the Senate. Thus the date 476 is given as the date of the ‘fall’ of Rome, in a strict sense there was no ‘fall’; it’s the decline of the Roman imperial power. Several emperors at Rome had sensed the growing of weakness of the western empire. By the end of the 4th century, the Roman Empire had become permanently divided. One emperor ruled in the west and another in the east. The western part of the empire was breaking up, that’s why Diocletian kept the eastern part to rule himself (eastern stronger than western). By the year 476, when Odoacer became the Roman ruler, German kingdoms had been established in many former Roman provinces. The Anglo-Saxons were in England; the Visigoths ruled Spain; the Vandals were in Northern Africa; the Vandals established their own kingdom; the Franks controlled Gaul; and at last, Italy was the scene of much warfare, and in 493 it fell to the Ostrogoths. Italy, center of the mighty Roman Empire, would not be united again under one government until the 19th century. The eastern part did not collapse, which preserved its capital Constantinople during thousands of years.
The Church Became a Force in Preserving Civilization
As the Roman Empire declined, a new culture developed in its place; it combined elements of the old Roman culture and the energy of the conquering Germanic tribes. The Christian Church became the main force in shaping civilization.
Protection and Order
As the Roman government stopped providing services, people found security by working for powerful local landowners. However, as the farmers fell behind in rent payments, Roman law bound them to the land to work off their debt. Most people were unaware that more and more people were becoming property of their lords. When Germans moved in outnumbering the old inhabitants, the newcomers kept Latin as the official language, converted to Christianity, and supported the Church. When the emperors became weaker, the pope took some of the powers of the government (right to collect taxes, supervised the police, directed the generals of the army, coined money, and kept the all-important aqueducts or water carriers in repair).
Missionaries
Missionaries carried the teaching of Christianity beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire. One important missionary was Ulfilas; he preached among the Gothic peoples and converted them to Christianity; he invented a Gothic alphabet, which he used to translate the Bible into Germanic language. Another important missionary was a British named Saint Patrick born in the year 389; he converted the Irish who were Celtic people to the faith and founded many monasteries. At last we have Augustine; he converted the King of Kent, Ethelbert, to Christianity.
Monks and Nuns
During the years of Roman persecution, some Christians decided to live alone, they were called ‘hermits’; some hermits tormented themselves because they believe that by suffering or depriving themselves they could purify their souls. On the other hand, another decided to live in groups; they lived in monasteries where groups of monks or nuns lived apart from the world, they did farming and a lot of meditation.
About the year 520, Saint Benedict set up a monastery in Italy; the same year he established a series of rules that are still followed today.
At the time were libraries were neglected, monks wrote out the Scriptures and other works and preserved them in monasteries. Every important monastery had a writing room where monks copied manuscripts by hand. Monks also write chronicles that are historical records. For example, they wrote the chronicle of the British history in the early 700s.
An Alliance of Popes and Franks Helped Western Christendom Grow
In the 5th century the Franks began to develop a powerful empire in Gaul.
Clovis United the Franks and Extended the Power of Church
In 481 Clovis became ruler of Frankish kingdom. He was the first important Germanic king to become a Roman Catholic. All of the other Germanic rulers and their subjects -expect those in England- were Arian Christian, the pope consider all Arians to be heretics; this gave Clovis an excuse to attack his Arian neighbors. He defeated the Arians, extending his lands and the pope’s authority at the same time. In 511 Clovis died.
The Carolingian Family Won Control of the Franks
Charles Martel took total control of the kingdom and became ruler although he never took the title of king. In 732 he defeated Muslim invaders at the battle of Tours.
When Charles Martel’s son, Pepin, became Mayor of the Palace, he asked the pope to decide whether Pepin or a Do-Nothing King should be considered the legal ruler of the Franks. The pope decided in favor of Pepin and declared him king. In 756 Pepin turned over to the pope a part of the territory in Italy that the Lombards had controlled; this became known as the Donation of Pepin. The land involved became the Papal State.
Charlemagne Built an Empire that Preserved Roman Culture
In 771 Pepin’s son Charles inherited the throne. Charlemagne expanded the Frankish lands into a large empire; he also extended the bounds of Christianity. Charlemagne modeled his capital Aix-la-Chapelle on Roman cities. Aix-la-Chapelle was the center of a great revival of learning, the Carolingian Renaissance. The rebirth of learning during Charlemagne’s rule helped to preserve Greco-Roman culture and ideas in western-Christendom.
Charlemagne was Crowned Emperor by Both the Church and the State
In 800, Charlemagne traveled to Rome. On Christmas Day, the pope placed a crown on the king’s head and declared him Emperor of the Romans. The crowing of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans showed that the idea of the Roman Empire was still alive and that there was a strong desire to bring back its political unity; it also illustrated the struggle for power between Church and state. In those times, popes and rulers both claimed to have the highest authority, and major political arose over this issue.