The Middle Ages

The Early Popes

700

The early Popes were based in the city of Rome. While they were technically the leaders of the Latin Church the early Popes' power was rarely acknowledged.

Charlemagne

773

Charlemange was the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. He got this power by conquering and controlling most of the old Western Empire. He got used the Pope as a way to grow both his power and the power of the church. He made all who were in his empire convert to Christianity and got the consent from the Pope that he was the rightful ruler. While he was an excellent leader he never set up a stable government. This meant after he died Europe once again became splintered.

Invaders of Europe

800

Europe was in even more trouble post-Charlemagne due to the invasion of the Vikings. They were adept at sneaking into villages and efficiently pillaging them by using their longboats on the rivers. This left much of Europe in fear.

Europe was Ruled Locally

950

Through this time there were many lords who held local power of the people near them but did not have power outside of their immediate area. This led to Europe being very split. The only thing holding it together was Christianity.

The Crusades

1095

The Crusades were the battle to win back the holy lands. While the intentions were originally good, they quickly became corrupt. The warriors realized that it would be easy to extract the wealth from the holy lands. This allowed the church to gain a lot of wealth from these expeditions. The original cause of winning back the holy land was a failure.

Monestaries

1100

Monasteries were the places where monks and nuns would live. They devoted themselves fully to God. They took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Because of these vows they did painstaking work and made no money off of it for themselves. This led to the church gaining a lot of money as a whole from the monasteries.

Corruption in the Church

1110

The Church used other tactics to become more powerful that may not have been completely correct. They held education inside the confines of the church so the mass public was not allowed to learn. The priests also started setting marriages so their sons and daughters would also marry wealthy landowners.

The 100 Years War

1328

The 100 years war was a war between the French and English. The war was mainly small skirmishes with large battles occurring years apart. The English used this war to gain wealth by sending smaller pillaging parties to attack the much larger and more powerful French.

The Black Death Struck Europe

1348

The Black Death was a very deadly disease that hit. Historians estimate it killed half of Europe's population. This extreme death toll was because the Europeans were malnourished and had very little medical knowledge. They mainly attempted to pray the disease away.