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The Severing of Eastern and Western Christian Civilizations
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by A. J. Andrea
World History Center, Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts
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| | Abstract
Note: Please be advised that these teaching units were created prior to the course revisions implemented in the 2011-12 academic year. However, the units still address topics central to the revised course.
This unit studies the evolution of the schism between the Western European (Roman Catholic) and Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) branches of Christendom. This schism evolved over the course of centuries and culminated in 1204 with the sack of Constantinople by the army of the Fourth Crusade.
The lessons address the characteristics of Byzantine Christian civilization and the emergence of the Latin West; the emerging cultural differences separating Byzantium from the West; the distinction between imperial Constantinople and papal Rome; the myth of 1054 and why this date does not mark the final separation of Byzantine and Western Christian civilizations; and the impact of the first four crusades (1096-1204) on the division of Christendom.
Student activities include analysis of maps, discussion of text documents, commentary on two versions of a key speech by Pope Urban II, a debate on the events of 1204 in Constantinople, and writing assignments. These lessons suggest numerous out-of-class and in-class projects. The teacher should selectively choose those assignments and exercises that best suit his/her objectives and teaching style.
The unit includes an appendix with six essays that provide historical background information not normally found in world history textbooks, keyed to the relevant lessons.
Main Points of the Unit
Big Questions
Best Practices
Lesson Summary
Assessment Overview
AP World History Course Description Connections
Objectives
Materials
Big Questions
- How did differences grow to separate Byzantine Christianity from Western Christianity?
- What were the hopes of Pope Urban II when he launched the First Crusade?
- How did the crusades help sever Christendom?
Best Practices
Best Practices are teaching strategies that are interactive and involve high-level thinking skills (see AP World History Best Practices Guide, eds. P. Manning and D. S. Johnston). The appropriate Best Practices vary widely with teacher strengths, school environment, student population, and experience. But all student populations will benefit from experience with strategies showing that world history is much more than lectures, and more than a survey of facts and dates. This unit, within its individual lessons, includes the following examples of Best Practice teaching strategies:
- Analyze primary text documents
- Analyze visual documents
- Participate in role-playing debate
Lesson Summary
Lesson 1. Byzantium and the West: A Geographic and Cultural Overview
Through study of primary documents and class discussion, students learn about several of the essential attributes that differentiated Eastern and Western Christian civilizations.
Lesson 2. Byzantium and the West: A Love-Hate Relationship?
Students read additional text documents and analyze images of artifacts, and in class discussion identify specific aspects of the growing rift between these two Christian cultures in the tenth century. Through use of documentary and artifactual sources students can see signs of this growing schism that neither side of the family was then aware of. Students may also view a video segment on the grandeur of early Byzantine civilization.
Lesson 3. Imperial and Papal Beacons of Christian Leadership
Students read primary documents and watch a video to explore the missionary roles of each culture as each introduced its distinctive forms of Christian culture to its pagan neighbors. Here we see Constantinople and Rome creating two great, multiethnic cultural blocs.
Lesson 4. Byzantium, the West, and the First Crusade
Students study the Crusades, the series of holy wars launched by the West that were intended, in part, to offer aid to Byzantium. Students prepare diagrams of the arguments of Pope Urban II in launching the Crusades, and discuss the differences between two reports on his speech. Students will begin to perceive the ironic reality that the Crusades were, from their origin, a phenomenon that divided rather than united Eastern and Western Christians.
Lesson 5. Byzantium, the West, and the Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade, instead of recapturing Jerusalem, wound up capturing and sacking Constantinople. Students read primary sources from the viewpoint of both sides and conduct a debate. The argument of this lesson is that the events of 1204 were the factor that caused a complete and, until now, irrevocable schism between these two Christian civilizations. In conclusion, students write an essay on the origins of the schism.
Assessment Overview
In Lesson 1, teachers can assess student skills in analyzing text documents and images. In Lesson 4, students can assess their peers' work in diagramming two accounts of a single speech. In Lesson 5, teachers can assess student responses to essay and multiple-choice questions.
AP World History Course Description Connections
Themes
- Cultural and intellectual developments
- Change and continuity
- Interactions in economy and politics
Habits of Mind
- Using texts and other primary documents
- Assessing change and continuity
- Comparing within and among societies
Major Developments, Comparisons, and Snapshot
AP World History Course Description, Major Developments, 600-1450: 3 -- Interregional networks and contacts; 5 -- Developments in Europe; 8 -- Diverse interpretations.
Objectives
Content Objectives
- Learn the basic geographic outlines of the culture area of the Latin West circa 1100; the Byzantine empire; the Slavic areas influenced by Byzantium (e.g., Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia); the areas of the Eastern Mediterranean in which the crusades were fought
- Trace the routes of the first and fourth crusades
- Understand the basic cultural differences separating Byzantium and the West
- Understand the centrality of the crusade mentality to the culture of the West from the late eleventh century onward
- Understand the crucial role played by the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) in severing Byzantium and the West
- Be able to define the following topics: Byzantium, Byzantine civilization, the Latin West, the Carolingian empire, the Roman papacy, the Holy Roman Empire, cultural syncretism, ecumene, schism, crusade, the orthodox faith
Skill Objectives
- Analyze primary and secondary text documents
- Analyze maps
- Conduct a role-playing debate
Materials
- J. Andrea and J. H. Overfield, The Human Record, 4th ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), vol. I. chapters 7 and 10 (hereafter THR).
- J. Andrea, The Medieval Record (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), chapters 3, 10, and 11.
- Any good historical atlas (e.g., the paperback atlas by Colin McEvedy, The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History).
- Outline maps of Western Eurasia that include all of the regions and sites listed in the first content objective above.
- Assorted essays and source handouts prepared by A. J. Andrea. All rights reserved, but they may be reproduced for educational purposes.
- Recommended but not required: the 200-minute, four-part video program Byzantium: The Lost Empire, written and narrated by John Romer (see the annotated bibliography).
General Editors: Patrick Manning and Deborah Smith Johnston; World History Center, Northeastern University
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