You will write one essay from the two options listed below:
#1
The traditional date of the fall of the Roman Empire is 4 September 476 when Romulus Augustulus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer. The eighteenth century British historian Edward Gibbon argued that the Roman Empire indeed did fall and that its fall was due more to its moral decay from within (which was hastened, according to Gibbon, by the adoption of Christianity) and less to its military defeat by “barbarians.” More recent historians, however, have argued for a much greater degree of continuity and coherence between the Roman Empire before and after 476 and that the so-called “Dark Ages” were not really all that dark. When did Rome fall (if it indeed did fall) and what were the continuities and discontinuities between Rome and its successor kingdoms? In your answer, take into account the Byzantine (that is, eastern) Empire, the Ostrogothic, Visigothic and Frankish kingdoms; as well as the Holy Roman Empire from Charlemagne on and the claims made by the Papacy to be the legitimate heirs of Roman imperial rule in the West. Other issues to consider in your answer include the preservation and use of Classical authors.
St. Jerome: The Fate of Rome
Pope Gregory I: The End of Roman Glory
St. Augustine: The City of God
Cassiodorus: The Monk as Scribe
Einhard: Charlemagne’s Appreciation of Learning
Charlemagne: An Injunction to Monasteries to Cultivate Letters
Pope Gregory VII: The Dictatus Papae
Pope Innocent III: “Royal Power Derives Its Dignity from Pontifical Authority”
#2
One of the Western stereotypes of Islam is that it is a “warrior” religion that requires conquest and thus there is an inherent “Clash of Civilizations” between the “Islamic” and “Western Judeo-Christian” civilizations. One American writer in the early 20th century argued that
The system [i.e., Islam] is, indeed in essence military. The creed is a war-cry. The reward of a Paradise of maidens for those who die in combat, and loot for those who live, and the joy of battle and domination thrills [Muslims]. The discipline of prayer is a drill. The muezzin’s cry . . . is a bugle call. . . The Koran is army orders. . . [creating] men fused and welded by the fire and discipline into a single sword of conquest.
On the basis of what you have learned from the primary and secondary readings and from lecture, is this necessarily true? What are the similarities between Islamic and Christian “holy war” and is it possible to speak of an Islamo-Christian culture through the medieval period?
The Song of Roland
The Koran
Legal Texts and Decrees: Restrictions on Dhimmis
Avicenna: Love of Learning
Peter Abelard: Inquiry into Divergent Views of Church Fathers
St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica
Robert the Monk: Appeal of Urban II
William of Tyre: The Capture of Jerusalem
James of Vitry: The Remission of Sins and the Reward of Eternal Life
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