1. a.) Visigoths: was a Germanic tribe western branch of a Goths. b.) Significance: in 377Visigothshave lifted revolt against the Romans and got a permission to settle down on the Balkan Peninsula. Made attacks on Constantinople and Italy, in 410 invaded and sacked Rome. Visigoths founded the first barbarous kingdom in the territory of the Roman Empire.
2. a.) “DarkAges”: is a term introduced by the Francesco Petrarch to refer the period of European history since the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance. b.) Significance: Great Migration - from the periphery to the center of the Roman Empire. The art, science, religion, and diplomacy were in decline in comparison with antiquity.
3. a.) Feudalism: is a social system in which peasants can conduct independent economy, but are personally and economically subordinate to the ruling class. b) Significance: feudalism was an important step in the development of society; the system did not justify its existence and was replaced by the capitalist system.
4. a.) Charlemagne: was the King of the Franks (768-814) and the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire since 800.b.) Significance: his victories contributed to the consolidation of the German, Romanesque, Christian culture in general and the formation of the foundations of European civilization.
5. a.) Ostrogoth’s: was a Germanic tribe, the eastern branch of a Goths. b.) Significance: formed a vast tribal union and occupied the territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The tribe seized the Italy and established their kingdoms there.
6. a.) Pope Gregory I: was the pope from 590 to 604.b.) Significance: he contributed to the formation “Patrimony of Peter”, was the initiator of the Christian mission in Britain, carried out the reform of the liturgy and church music.
7. a.) Vandals: were the union of East German tribes of Siblings and Asdingi. b.)Significance: waged brutal wars with Rome, founded the early feudal kingdom in the North Africa. In 455-sacked Rome, destroyed a huge number of monuments of ancient culture.
8. a.) Alfred the Great: was the king of Wessex in 871-899.b.) Significance: has used the title of the king of England, brought together a number of neighboring Wessex Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Implemented the first general English law code, created a regular police.
9. a.) Vikings: pirates and traders who operated in the coastal waters and at the shores, mostly natives of modern Scandinavian countries. b.) Significance: conquered the lands in Scotland, Ireland, northeast England and northern France, reached Sicily, colonized Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
10. а.) Anglo – Saxons: the nation formed by the merger of the Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians with the remains of the Gallo-Roman population at the British islands. b.) Significance: the adoption of Anglo-Saxons to Christianity was the most important event in the history of medieval Britain. Subsequently, the territory occupied by Anglo-Saxons became England.
4. Vikings were a medieval Scandinavian sailors and conquerors, who became famous as invincible warriors and skilled shipbuilders. Vikings ruthlessly plundered and seized the lands of the British Isles, France, Spain, Italy and North Africa. In some cases, they settled down in the conquered countries and became their rulers (Scotland and Ireland). Vikings usually enslaved people that survived after their raids; they took out precious stones of the holy relics, set fire to the cities, and went into the sea. Abroad, the Vikings were the robbers, conquerors and traders, and at home mostly worked at the land, hunted, fished and raised cattle.
3. The son of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious divided his father’s empire among his sons, keeping the supreme authority for himself. His sons went to war against him, and after his death against each other. Charles the Bald, Louis the German and Lothar I, who received the imperial crown in 843, have concluded an agreement on the division of the empire between them. The eldest of them, Lothar I formally retained his imperial title. However, the lands of the empire were divided into three parts by lines extending from north to south. Western lands that later became known as France became the possession of Karl, eastern lands that later became Germany became the possession of Louis, and Lothar I got lands from the mouth of the Rhine to the mouth of the Rhone, modern Italy. Since the new boundaries corresponded to boundaries of the settlement of the French, German and Italian nationalities, Treaty of Verdun, in fact, marked the existence of three modern states of Western and Central Europe - France, Germany, and Italy.
2. Christianity became the core of European culture and ensured the transition from antiquity to the Middle Age. Christianity created a single ideological worldview field of medieval culture. The Christianity offered to a medieval person the system of knowledge about the world and person, about the principles of the device of the universe, its laws, and forces. Moreover, the Christianity has created a single confessional faiths space, a new spiritual community of people brothers in faith. Church destroyed temples and idols, severely punishing those who were engaged in fortune telling, oracles, spells, or simply believe in them. The church has established a monopoly in the field of culture and education. The main place in the medieval culture took theology, within which church spread the ideas of Christianity. The rest of the spheres of culture in one way or another were intended to serve theology. The culture of the Middle Age marked the assertion of Christianity not only as a religious doctrine but also as a new outlook and attitude that had a significant impact on all subsequent cultural epochs.
Essay question
The medicine of medieval Europe was developing under the influence of Christian culture. Biblical texts contained a variety of hygienic regulations, mentions of diseases and epidemics, disease prevention methods and health maintenance recommendations. The medicine has been closely associated with magic, religion. The medieval treatment paid much attention to the magical and astrological ceremonies on overcoming of an illness by means of some charms. With the XI-XII century, was widespread the cult of the saints and their relics, as well as emerged monasteries, hospitals and medical schools with them.
The most common diseases were tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, whooping cough, scabies, various injuries, nerve disease. However, the scourge of the Middle Age was bubonic plague; the most common recipe from this disease was to run from the infected area. Often doctors visited patients at home. Patients were sent to hospital only in case of an infectious disease or when there was nobody to look after them; in other cases, patients were usually treated at home. The astrology was considered as a necessary complement to the use of medicines. The doctor asked the patient under what constellation that was born, as concrete drugs were associated with certain planets, medication should be taken only when the Moon was in a favorable phase (Wallis, 318). The most strongly developed brunch of medicine, was practical medicine of the bathhouse attendants and barbers. They did bloodlettings, set joints, and were engaged in amputations. The majority of the medicines were herbal plants although sometimes mixed with highly aggressive substances - urine, secretions of animals, crushed worms etc.
In the Middle Age, zealous Christians treat to the sex not like to the source of pleasure, but as to an annoying obligation. The celibacy was the ideal way to meet sexuality. Furthermore, the church dictated how exactly people have to have sex. All poses except "missionary" were considered as a sin and were forbidden. It is obvious that the medieval understanding of the sexual relations was primitive. Sex was allowed only in marriage, and only for a reproduction (Brundage, 5). Since the church allowed sex only for reproduction, it categorically rejects the use of contraception. Premarital or illegitimate sex not only was not welcomed, it was equivalent to suicide. All Catholics regularly confessed and reported to the priest about all sins of the flesh that they were involved in, and, therefore, got the punishment from public humiliation and a penance to death. The Medieval knowledge of the birth and hygiene, of life and death, physiology and sexual human desires very much differed from today's.
Works Cited
Brundage, James A. “Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe”. University of
Chicago Press, 2009. Web. Accessed 15 Mar 2016 at https://books.google.com/books?id=SiGe-Zf0nTIC&hl=uk&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Wallis, Faith. “Medieval Medicine: A Reader”. University of Toronto Press. Web. Accessed
15 Mar 2016 at https://books.google.com/books?id=xqS1wz_0_DUC&hl=uk&source=gbs_navlinks_s
