欧洲文化入门2PPT.ppt

The Middle Ages and Germanic Culture;General Introduction;The popular picture of the Middle Ages is colored by knights in shining armor, hooded monks, walled castles, and bloody crusades. In reality, the era had a powerful impact on the evolution of Western values, beliefs and practices. The geographic contours轮廓 of modern European states and the basic political, religious, and linguistic traditions of Western Europe took shape during the Middle Ages. The prototypes of nation-states, cities, and universities emerged at this time, and the Roman Catholic Church reached its peak as a powerful political and spiritual institution. The vernacular languages used in the West today appeared.;In the latter part of the fourth century the Huns swept into Europe from central Asia, and large numbers of the half civilized Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths西哥特人, the Franks, the Angles and Saxons and the Vandals fled their homelands in northern Europe and were pushed to cross the Danube river into the territory of the Roman Empire. In A.D.476 a Germanic general killed the last Roman emperor and took control of the government. ;While the Eastern Roman Empire continued, the power of ancient Rome was gone. In its place mushroomed a great many Germanic kingdoms, which in a few hundred years were to grow into the nations known as England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Between the fifth and eleventh centuries, western Europe was the scene of frequent wars and invasions.;Germanic Law a collection of customs passed orally from generation to generation severe, uncompromising, and directed toward publicly shaming the guilty ;The Charlemagne Empire;In 768, when Charlemagne was 26, he and his younger brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of the Franks. In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne became sole ruler of the kingdom. In 799, when Pope Leo III was expelled by the Roman aristocrats and turned to Charlemagne for help, the latter sent troops into Rome and helped to recover the Pope’s