The Beginnings of the Feudal Age155women in religious orders in the Ottonian Empire (see
illustration 8.6). Abbesses of great convents such as Uta
of Niedermünster seem to have been even more power-
ful in Germany than elsewhere, and they took the re-
sponsibilities of patronage seriously. One of the
extraordinary figures to emerge from this tradition was
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179). The Scivias, a power-
ful record of her mystical visions, remains a classic of
devotional and apocalyptic literature. She also wrote a
treatise on medicine, at least one play, and the Physica,a
categorical description of the natural world.
Otto’s involvement with the papacy drew him and
his successors more deeply into the quagmire of Italian
politics. Their efforts to limit the growing power of the
north Italian towns and their bitter struggle with the
papacy over the issue of lay investiture (the imperial ap-
pointment of bishops) were among the most important
political conflicts of the Middle Ages (see chapter 9).
The issues were intertwined, and both required massive
investments of political and military capital. Emperors
could easily neglect German affairs or subordinate them
to the needs of their Italian policy. German nobles and
ultimately the German towns found it equally easy to
preserve their autonomy and to resist the development
of a feudal monarchy on the French or English model.
Germany, with its hundreds of small states, remained a
stronghold of feudal particularism until the beginning
of the modern age.
At their strongest, feudal monarchies such as Eng-
land and France could command impressive resources.
Their power was nevertheless limited. As long as fight-
ing men were supported with land or by payments in
kind, feudal lords could raise private armies and threaten
the integrity of the realm. Kings had prestige and the le-
gal advantages of sovereignty—their courts took theo-
retical precedence over all others, they could declareMediterranean
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VENICEAlpsMts.0 200 400 Miles0 200 400 600 KilometersKingdom of Sicily
Republic of Venice
Holy Roman EmpireMAP 8.3
The Holy Roman Empire