WHAT WAS “MEDIEVAL” ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES?

1. ECONOMIC: Agriculture had such low productivity that no more than 10% of the population could live in cities. Most people were “peasants” or handicraft artisans.

2. DEMOGRAPHIC: Very high birth rates, high mortality rates, and short life expectancy.

3. POLITICAL: Poor communications and transport promoted decentralization.

4. RELIGIOUS: The “catholic” (universal) church claimed everyone as a member, supported itself through compulsory tithes, and suppressed heresy.

5. Intellectual: Most people were illiterate. Scholars and the clergy spoke Latin and answered most scientific questions by referring to a few ancient authorities.

Pieter Breughel the Elder, “The Harvesters” (1565):Most peasants lived in villages, surrounded by fields where strips of land were owned privately but worked collectively.

An open-field village in England

around 1300:The “demesne” and “glebe” are

set aside for the lord and

priest

The peasant economy allowed for much leisure time:Pieter Breughel the Elder, “The Peasant Dance” (1568)

AUGSBURG in 1493(most cities were small and walled)

THE THREE ESTATES OF SOCIETY:Those who pray, those who fight, and those who

work

In France the “Estates General” represented these groups:

1st Estate (clergy)= about 1% of pop.

2nd Estate (nobility)= about 2%. 3rd Estate (commoners)=97%.

Peasants relied for protection on professional armored knights, such as these Normans in chain mail

at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Steel armor for man &

horse, Nuremberg,

1548

A virtually impregnable

castle:Burg Eltz, built around 1200

on a cliff overlooking the Mosel

River

Europe in the year 1000; Germany conquered Rome in 962

The “Roman” Emperor Otto III (reigned 980-1002) receives tribute from all of Europe

But the foundations

of royal power were

weak:10th-century Germany,

with the royal domain in dark gray

MEDIEVAL CATHOLICISM’S MOST BELOVED SAINT

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)•Renounced his inheritance and even his clothes.•Began his ministry by rebuilding a ruined church.•Founded the itinerant order of the Friars Minor and the cloistered Poor Clares.•Received the stigmata of Christ in 1224.•Sainted in 1228.

Pope Innocent III endorses the

rule of St. Francis, 1209(painted by Giotto in the

Upper Basilica of Assisi, 1290s)

St. Dominic of Castile

(1170-1221):Painted around 1500as judge during the

ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE

in southern France.

“The Church Militant and Triumphant,” 1365-68(Dominican cloister of Santa Maria Novella, Florence):

domini canes=“hounds of the Lord”

“Augustine of Hippo refutes a heretic”(13th-century illuminated manuscript)

The Ptolemaic, geocentric

theory of the universe

Angels turning the

wheels of the universe

(14th-century manuscript)

A European map of the world, ca. 1464

CATASTROPHES OF THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

1348/49: The Black Death

Bubonic plague sweeps through Europe, killing at least 1/3 of the population

1309-1377: “Babylonian Captivity” of the Church

The king of France compels the pope to reside in Avignon

1378-1417: The Great Schism

Rival popes in Rome and Avignon excommunicate each other

1339-1453: Hundred Years’ War

Devastating conflict between the kings of France & England

The arrival of bubonic plague fromCentral Asia

“The Triumph of Death”(fresco from the Campo Santo, Pisa, ca. 1350)

During the Great Schism, each Pope excommunicated all supporters of his rival

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “Triumph of Death” (1562)

Many Europeans yearned for a powerful state to maintain peace and order:

Frontispiece for Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)