Submitted to: Pius Malekandathil

Submitted by: Faizan Ahmed

Medieval World
Crisis, continuity and transformation in the making of early
medieval Western Europe.

Crisis, Continuity and Transformation are three interrelated phenomenon in the process of
formation and disintegration of any state or civilization that is why it does not allow us to see
this element independently, and for our period we find that each phenomena represent distinct
character but in the historical process one is linked to the other one. Early Western
historiography on the period i.e., second century to the eight century saw the period in the
catastrophic events; dark age that shattered the Roman civilization and propelled the classical
world into disarray. But recent scholarship on the early medieval period argued that it was a
historical process that was very dynamic and it did eventually brought the medieval age to the
surface.

Crisis was evident from the Antonine period as it brought drastic changes that were to bring a
new epoch in the history of Europe. It is imperative to see these three elements in every sphere
of life in the early medieval age: rural and urban landscape, secular and religious domain and
importantly in the socio cultural tradition that got a new dimension in this turbulent period.
Rome found itself threatened on several front: internal and external pressure paralyzed the
very structure of the great empire and to avert the danger late roman emperor tried to
assimilate the Germanic tribe which over the course of time transformed the whole society1. In
between this transformation lie the continuity which was manifested in the attempts made by
the Germanic ruler to maintain the Roman edifice; seek of grandeur or wealth on the part of
the barbarians was itself a Roman way that they wanted to replicate . But the hope of
stabilizing the empire by inducting the Germanic went into vain because it was this very force
that would topple imperial power in the West. Senatorial representation of aristocracy went
into oblivion and success of the individual was marked by their military prowess.

1
Perry Anderson, Passage from Antiquity to Feudalism, (Carlisle Street, London, 1974), 73.
Roman empire was an a expansionist state which was based on slavery, booty and plunder of
the expedition but after the third century the frontier of the empire no more expanded due to
many reason. This disruption in the expansion precipitated many changes that had many
consequences: the shortage of slave that caused the disintegration of the slave mode of
production and the ruin of the cities that was to come along with the shortage of slave. This
political crisis, where the empire was itself divided into West and East would precipitate many
changes in the other component of state i.e., agrarian. The continual flow of slave into the
empire strengthened the state by enriching the ruling class, which in return secure the
allegiance of the subject but this ceased to happen and state had to depend on internal
resources which meant increase in agrarian taxation.

The crises were internal but traditional historian saw it other way and argued for the barbarian
invasion that dismantles the whole edifice of the empire. Though invasion was the undoing of
the state but the collapse was closely related to the contradiction within the empire; class
upsurge increased because ruling class had started to migrate to the countryside to find solace
and peace amid the chaos of the cities2. Rome state was a city based state with flourishing
urban sector but it didn’t have the rural economy and the crisis in the urban sector greatly
affects the countryside. Shift to the countryside was to have a drastic impact on history of the
early medieval period as it was both crises and transformation that endangered the new mode
of production that would have more regression upon peasant: landed magnates no more
provide resources to the slave for his sustenance, instead salves were provided plot of land to
cultivate but correspondingly, the small peasant land got submerged into the larger estate of
big landlord. This transformation of slaves into colloni (peasants) and binding the peasant to the
land by the decree of Constantine in 332 A.D. initiated the feudal mode of production.

Shift to the countryside was not only an economic and demographic phenomenon but was at
same time a social phenomenon which was shaping the medieval society. Hunger perpetuated
bondage of peasant to the bread giver: which in turn caused serf like status of peasant in the
post Roman period3. The changes brought drastic result as there emerged three distinct classes
viz, dependent rural producer, landlord and the state in these turbulent times which ushers the
history of Europe into medieval times. It was this provincialization that will embark upon the
new age viz, feudal, as the most unique transformation of the medieval history. Ruling class
found to banks itself upon the land rent and over the time become feudal lords; military
people, clergy and landed magnates evolve out of non-producing people.

2
Jacques Le Goff, Medieval Civilization,400-1500, (Oxford, 1998), 21.

3
Ibid., 19.
It is indeed clear that the crises in the aristocracy had effects on the countryside, Latifundia of
Roman times become vulnerable due to the peasants’ insurgency, popularly known as
Baguadae. Large villa of the classic antiquity died as landed magnets become crystalized and
underlying grid of village settlement come up around parishes’ churches with attach
cemeteries4. The small settlement also sprang in the hill top of the province of Gaul, Spain, Italy
in the sixth century which was the sign of the retrieve of the aristocracy away from the chaotic
city and the changes in the temperature also dictate the movements of the people form one
landscape to the other. Urban demography declined because cities were no more
administrative and political centers as population started to cluster in the small pockets around
major churches.

Apart from the crisis and transformation one could see the continuity in the late Roman which
was present in our period and as said earlier it is very difficult to separate the three element
form each other so it viable to scrutinize same continuity within our framework. The surge in
economic activity because of transcultural trade of Mediterranean had a very good impact on
the late Roman time, market developed to facilitate this trade and although provincial trade
decline but trading activities of Vikings and Muslim provide a revivalism of urban milieu5.
Administrative collapse was most manifest in the dereliction of senatorial class in the Principate
times but it was not universal in the empire: the same traditional class dominated politics,
besides a new but partly Romanizing Gothic or Ostrogothic military elite. According to the Chris
Wickham, a notable later historian on medieval period, ‘after so much turmoil in the west a
substantial stability or continuity was seen’.

Most of the frontier was still manned by the Roman troops, Germanic tribes tried to match the
roman values which they did in large part: all barbarian king legislated their subject in a Roman
way and in very sense Gothia (Gothic culture) had really replaced Romania, but had done so in
large part by imitating Romans6. Currency was a creative adaption of Roman models; kings
taxed as the Roman did; their wealth was spent in Roman ways and more specific the Vandals
administration seem to have been close to the Roman administration. The stability and
prosperity of the East is a reminiscent that the Roman empire was by no means bound to break
so it is viable to see invasion and occupation as the main engine of change or crises to avoid
generalization.

4
Mathew Innes, Economic and Societies in Early Medieval Western Europe, (London, 2010), 22.
5
Jacques, Medieval Civilization, 17.
6
Innes, Economic and Society, 32-40.
The Roman code was also retained by the successive Germanic kings with some modification;
the most remarkable continuity in the so called chaotic period was the formulation of
Theodosian code in the fifth century. It was the customary laws of the classic antiquity that
remained throughout the medieval age in the European land which remain with slide
modifications and coming of the Roman Digest of the great Justinian all together provide an
stability.

But still the world was changing and would be inappropriate to argue for more continuity
because it was the series of change, listed above that laid the foundation of medieval age. The
socio culture development of the late Roman period shed great light on the remarkable
transformation; the tradition or kinship of tribal polity, that invaders brought with them was
very different form the Roman identities but it underwent radical change due to acculturation
of different society. Germanic kinship of fluidity, where kins and kith of the leader were given a
share in the exploits of the raids was changed in the Carolingian period7. Patriarchy emerged
out from the dominant war lordship in the Western military state and tribal values gave
precedent to the highly stratified society. This system didn’t arose out of relation between lord
and his men but from wider system of social dominance as lord were able to established formal
right of jurisdiction over all section of society .These people would pick up different identities
successively and they had brought with them the tradition of different sought that made them
belief in changeable belief8.

The dynamics of religion is very important for the study of the early medieval period and now
we will venture into discontinuity and continuity of the religious belief in the popular culture.
People had shifted their hope or their natal place i.e., Rome, in place for Christianity that give
them an escape from the turmoil of early medieval period. Church adoption of administrative
geography of Roman Empire was one of the main changes or transformation in the history of
early medieval Europe that’s shaped the structure of society and state in the high middle ages9.
This adoption meant that cities transited form centers of senatorial aristocracy to Episcopal
aristocracy. Roman’s along with Germanic tribe were pagan initially, worshiping their own god
and goddess but as state got engulfed into the crises, the Roman accepted Christianity as being
evident in the book of St. Augustine, ‘The City of God’, where it is written that ‘ Rome sake was
misfortune but not a Christian sin’. Augustine tried to provide the historical discourse in his
book on the difference between the sacred (Christianity) and the profane in the aftermath of
the sack of Rome in 410. The next development in the religious domain was the Council of
Nicea in the late Roman Empire which initiated the new era of heresy and a new sect got
Germanic patronage viz, Arianism.

7
Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome, (New York, 2009), 91.
8
Anderson, Passages, 87-90.
9
Ibid., 89.
Christianity shouldn’t been seen as the false ally for the Rome, as most early historiography see
it because Church although strengthen itself on the Roman structure and left the Roman
institution or structure alone in vain but it was the principal agency by which Roman civilization
was to be transmitted to the medieval west10. A new class of people got emerged, in the
concern period which took the ecclesiastical post, offered by the contemporary changes by
relegating their military obligation, and more importantly a division between celibate male
leadership (clergy) and laity become more distinct. The period was seen as the epitome
expansion of rural monasticism and the organization of manorial estates.

The above development gives us insight into the larger process of transformation in the
structure that governed the society i.e., religious apparatus; the period witness a dramatic
collapse in the literary tradition of the great classical antiquity for the brief span of time which
is major reason of the paucity of sources for the early medieval period. Apart from the religion,
culture and political tradition that witness crises, continuity and transformation, one find that
environment does play a crucial in the making of the medieval history. Change in the climate
was seen as the driving force for the major crisis and transformation: man had to constantly
fight against the natural force with the ineffective weapon, soil was infertile with low arable
land and average life of the individual was very low in the early medieval period 11. This process
laid to the creation of the two landscapes within the Roman Empire, first was the proper
Roman landscape with the presence of villa and Latifundia, and secondly the German landscape
of low productivity.

Thus to conclude, one could see that broadly there were many critical elements or
transformation in the making of the medieval world: relation between church and polity,
emergence of three distinctive classes i.e., nobility, clergy and tenant, and the tendency
towards servility of peasants. Crisis did grapple the state which had catastrophic effects but the
wounds were healed by the immediate development which is seen as the transformation or
change in the early medieval period. Continuity was seen in the very historical process as the
Roman Empire grandeur doesn’t allow the things to change drastically manifested in the code
and the court culture of the later kings. All these events shows that the changes
(transformation), continuity and discontinuity (crisis), all were present in the early medieval
period and are interrelated to each other.

10
Ibid., 104.
11
Georges Duby, The Early Growth of The European Economy,( New York, 1978), 15.
 Bibliography
1 Anderson, Perry, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, London, 1996
2 Duby, Georges, The Early Growth of the European Economy, New York,
1978, pp.1-36
3 Wickham, Chris, The Inheritance of Rome, New York, 2009, pp.76-170
4 Le Goff, Jacques, Medieval Civilization, 400-1500, Oxford, 1988, pp.3-56.
s