Split 673the north. From then the history and culture of the
peninsula followed several courses of development.
Running through its history from about 1031 was the
struggle between the Christians and the Muslims for con-
trol or the RECONQUEST. This reunification was not not
won by the Christians until 1492 with the conquest of
GRANADAby the Catholic Monarchs, FERDINANDII and
ISABELI, who also finally united all the petty Christian
kingdoms into one state, or Spain. Its amalgamation of
Christianity, ISLAM, and JUDAISM had lasted in various
forms throughout the Middle Ages. All these religious cul-
tures developed impressive and mutually influenced forms
of art, architecture, literature, learning, and thought.
See also ALMOHADS;ALMORAVIDS; AL-ANDALUS;
ARAGON;ASTURIAS-LEÓN;BARCELONA;BASQUES;CASTILE,
KINGDOM OF;CATALONIA;CÓRDOBA;LEÓN;NASRIDS;
NAVARRE, KINGDOM OF;PORTUGAL;SANTIAGO DE COM-
POSTELA;SEVILLE, CITY AND KINGDOM OF;TOLEDO;
UMAYYADS OFCÓRDOBA; VALLADOLID; INDIVIDUAL NAMES
OF KINGS, MONUMENTS, PEOPLE, AND CALIPHS.
Further reading:Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in
Christian Spain,2 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society of America, 1961–1966); Roger Collins, Early
Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400–1000(London:
Macmillan, 1983); Thomas F. Glick, Islamic and Christian
Spain in the Early Middle Ages(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1979); Gabriel Jackson, The Making of
Medieval Spain(London: Thames and Hudson, 1972);
Angus MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to
Empire, 1000–1500(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977);
Joseph O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain(Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1975); John P. O’Neill, ed.,
The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200(New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993).
spices and spice trade The word spicehad a much
wider meaning in the Middle Ages than today encom-
passing condiments, drugs used in the medieval pharma-
copoeia, perfumes, colorants, exotic fruits, sugar, honey,
and even the ingredients and materials of craftsmanship,
such as cotton, wax, PAPER, or pitch. Many spices were
products commonly used in the medieval pharmacopoeia
and were derived from the three natural kingdoms, ani-
mal, vegetable, and mineral. Others were industrial prod-
ucts for dyeing such as alum, yellow arsenic, or Brazil
wood. The most familiar to us are pepper, cinnamon, gin-
ger, and cloves, among others. They were the objects of a
great long-distant TRADEsystem from China, India, the
Indian Ocean, and Indonesia to the Mediterranean,
through the commercial activities of Hindu, Arab, and
then Western MERCHANTS. Many were also produced in
IRAN, Central Asia, the Near East, EGYPT, AFRICA, and the
coastal regions of the Mediterranean.
The spice trade was a lucrative part of the commer-
cial renaissance of the 12th century centered in the
Mediterranean and dominated by GENOA, PISA, and
VENICE. Ginger, SAFFRON, and sugar became commodities
traded in the later Middle Ages. The search for spices was
one of the motivations for the European expansion car-
ried out by Prince HENRY THENAVIGATOR, Christopher
COLUMBUS, and VASCO DAGAMAthat began in the 15th
century.
Further reading:K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civi-
lization in the Indian Ocean(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1985); Robert S. Lopez and Irving W.
Raymond, eds., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean
World: Illustrative Documents with Introductions and Notes
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1995); Robert S.
Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages,
950–1350(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971).Spiritual Franciscans(Spirituals) They were a
group of FRANCISCANSwho advocated a life of absolute
VOLUNTARY POVERTY. They were particularly strong in
three different regions, the March of Ancona, TUSCANY,
and southern FRANCE. They were particularly influenced
by three friars: Angelo Clareno (d. 1337), UBERTINO DA
CASALE, and Peter John OLIVI. They espoused several
themes: the attachment to absolute poverty for the order
itself, the inviolability of a rule and the Testamentof
FRANCIS, criticism of the worldliness of the church and of
the MENDICANT ORDERS, and a vague belief in a special
role to be played by certain friars in the days leading up
to the LASTJUDGMENT. After the Second Council of Lyon,
the Spirituals were persecuted and some were expelled
from Europe. A papal decree in 1312 by CLEMENTV
ordered them to obey their superiors. Michael of Cesena
(ca. 1270–1342) tried to control them, but several left the
order to form a splinter group, the FRATICELLI. Their
ideas about poverty in the church were deemed highly
dangerous by the ecclesiastical authorities, who perceived
the necessity of wealth for the church so that it might
carry out its mission in the world.
See alsoBONIFACEVIII, POPE; CELESTINEV, POPE
AND THECELESTINES;JOACHIM, ABBOT OFFIORE;JOHN
XXII, POPE.
Further reading:David Burr, The Spiritual Francis-
cans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint
Francis(University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 2001); Malcolm D. Lambert, Franciscan Poverty:
The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apos-
tles in the Franciscan Order, 1210–1323(London: S.P.C.K.,
1961); John R. H. Moorman, A History of the Franciscan
Order from Its Origins to the Year 1517(Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1968).Split (Spalato) Medieval Split was a city in DALMATIA,
founded in 615 on the ruins of the ancient palace of DIO-
CLETIANat Salona, which became a Byzantine stronghold
in Dalmatia and on the Adriatic Sea. In the ninth century