Conclusion

The commercial revolution and the building boom it spurred profoundly changed Europe. New trade, wealth, and business institutions became common in its thriving cities. Merchants and artisans became important. Mutual and fraternal organizations like the guilds and communes expressed and reinforced the solidarity and economic interests of city dwellers. The countryside became reorganized for the market.

Sensitized by the commercial revolution to the corrupting effects of money and inspired by the model of Cluny, which seemed to “free the church from the world,” reformers began to demand a new and purified church. Under Pope Gregory VII, the reform asserted a new vision of the church with the pope at the top. But many people—especially rulers—depended on the old system. Henry IV was particularly affected; for him the Gregorian reform meant war. The Investiture Conflict, though officially ended by a compromise, in fact greatly enhanced the power of the papacy and weakened that of the emperor.

The First Crusade was both cause and effect of the pope’s new power. But the crusades were not just papal projects. They were fueled by enormous popular piety as well as by the ambitions of European rulers. They resulted in a ribbon of crusader states along the eastern Mediterranean.

Apart from the emperor, rulers in the period after the Investiture Conflict gained new prestige and, with the wealth of the commercial revolution, the ability to hire civil servants and impose their will as never before. The Norman ruler of England is a good example of the new-style king; William the Conqueror was interested not only in waging war but also in setting up the most efficient possible taxation system in times of peace. The successes of these rulers signaled a new era: the flowering of the Middle Ages.