Unit 10: Medieval Europe.
readings:
Hunt, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, ch. 10 (pp. 359-397) AND ch. 11 (pp. 399-433)
QUIZ will be on Key Terms in Hunt, p. 397 AND p. 433.
Questions on Hunt
Ch. 10 (pp. 359-397)
1. What was the "commercial revolution" of the 11th-12th centuries and what changes in business practices and in changes in society can be explained in connection to the expansion of commerce?
2. What were the main issues in the Investiture Conflict and how did its solution (and the Gregorian Reforms) change the status and authority of the Papacy and the clergy?
3. How and why did Emperor Alexis Comnenus of Byzantium, King William the Conqueror of England, and King Lois the Fat of France manipulate or use the aristocrats to strengthen royal power, and how did they "extract" wealth from their lands and subjects?
4. The Commercial Revolution, Church reforms, and the strengthening of royal power all contributed to changes happening in art, scholarship, and popular religious attitudes in this time period. What was the new approach to learning that developed in this period, and how was it related to new trends in religion and the the arts?
BIG QUESTION: Think about the entire chapter. Was European society becoming more secular (worldly) or more religious in the 11th and 12th centuries? Give examples to defend your answer!
Hunt, Ch. 11 (399-433)
1. What were the biggest differences between the ways kings ruled and the way they justified their own power in Germany and Italy under Fredrick Barbarossa, in England under Henry II/Richard I/John, and in France under Philip?
2. How did "vernacular" language poems and songs help aristocrats develop a distinct cultural identity (a sense of who "we" are in contrast to other people)?
3. In the 12th and13th centuries, how was the commercialization of the economy changing the ways people organized work in the towns and in the countryside? Were there changes in the ways laypeople (non-clergy) organized their own religious practices during this period, too? Explain.
4. In the 12th and 13th centuries, what groups of people did European Christians identify as "outsiders"? Why and what were the results?
BIG QUESTION: Think about the entire chapter. One way of looking at the period 1150-1215 is as an age of "institution building," when both rulers and their subjects created new institutions and practices to organize economic life, legal relations, education, religious life, etc. What evidence in this chapter would support this way of defining the time period 1150-1215?
Questions on Lualdi
We will focus on two documents for this unit, one from ch. 10 and one from ch. 11: Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII, "Letters of the Investiture Conflict" (pp. 171-173) and Thomas of Monmouth, "The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich" (pp. 197-201)
Answer the "Six Questions" for both documents:
Notice that there are two letters on the Investiture Conflict: one is from Henry to Gregory, and the other is Gregory's response.
OK. Here are the main discussion questions for these documents:
1. Based on their letters, how did Henry understand the source of monarchical (kingly and imperial) power and its relationship to the Church, and how did Gregory understand the source of Papal power and its relationship to monarchies?
2. Of what horrific crimes does Thomas of Monmouth accuse the Jews of Norwich and how do these relate to what we learned in Hunt, ch. 11, about the persecution of Jews in this time period?