Chapter 8 Medieval Society: Hierarchies, Towns, Universities, and Families (1000–1300) Chapter 8...

Chapter 8Medieval Society: Hierarchies, Towns,Universities, and Families (1000–1300)

Chapter 8Medieval Society: Hierarchies, Towns,Universities, and Families (1000–1300)

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Traditional Social Order:

Those who fight on horseback (landed nobility)

Those who pray (clergy)

Those who work in fields & shops (peasantry & artisans)


New Social Group Rising with Towns from 11th c.:

Long-distance traders & merchants: anomalous, because often wealthy but owned no land; “middling classes”; rise causes crack in old order


NoblesLarge hereditary landholders or warrior knights with accumulated fiefs Late medieval distinction between higher & lower nobility:

Higher: long-established large landownersLower: small landowners, descendants of minor knights, merchants able to buy country estates, wealthy farmers risen from serfdom

Distinguishing feature: lived off labor of others; neither worked the land nor engaged in commerce


Nobles (cont.)Warriors: war was sole occupation

Wealth required to maintain horses, arms & armor

Celebrated strength, courage, glory in combat; bored by peace

Contemptuous of peasants & merchants

Knighthood: comparable to ordination as a priest

Sportsmen: favorite peacetime pursuits: hunting & tournaments

Courtly love: evolution of “courtesy,” or behavior at court

Noblemen formed broad spectrum from minor vassals to princes with many vassals


ClergyTwo basic types:

Regular clergy: orders of monks set apart from the world in cloistersSecular clergy: lived & worked directly among laity

Separate “first estate”: collected church taxes; under jurisdiction of ecclesiastical, not secular, courts; churches & monasteries free from secular taxation & legal jurisdictionHeld powers of excommunication & interdictionLate Middle Ages saw growing resentment of clerical privilege


PeasantsLargest & lowest social group; many lived & worked on noble manorsOrganized own labor, with lord of manor getting a cut of all produce and requiring various other types of service - banalitiesTwo types of manors:

Free: peasants original landowners who swapped their land for the protection of a lord (milder serfdom)Servile: tenants had no original claim to land (serfdom)

Lord had judicial & police powers


Changes in the Manor, early to late Middle Ages

Breakup into single-family farms; nuclear family replaces clan as basic family unit

Conversion of dues payment with crops to payment with money—brought about by revival of trade & rise of towns

Noble resistance to change leads to 14th-c. peasant revolts (crushed)


Towns and TownspeopleThe Chartering of Towns

11th & 12th cs.: only about 5% of western European population in townsMost towns under 1,000 peopleTowns created by lords granting charters to those agreeing to live & work there

• Original purpose was to concentrate skilled laborers who could manufacture finished goods for lords & bishops

• Residents had more freedom there than on the land• Manorial society created its own urban challenger

Rise of merchants: eventually formed protective associations to challenge lords, esp. over tolls & tariffs


New Models of Government

Around 1100, old urban nobility (inherited wealth) merged with new burgher upper class (commercial wealth) aristocratic town council

Guilds: protective associations of small artisans & craftspeople; eventually gained voice in government


Towns and Kings

Towns come to ally with kings against rural lords, becoming a major force in transition from feudal societies to national governmentsTowns provided bureaucrats and lawyers who knew law, necessary to run kingdomTown’s interest served by having king as protector against nobles


Jews in Christian Society

Urban centers attracted Jews by choice and for safetyThe Church forbade much interaction between Jews and ChristiansAnti-Jewish sentiment fueled by:

Kings’ desire for Jewish wealth and propertyChurch’s determination to assert spiritual hegemony


Schools and Universities12th c.: Islamic scholars preserve & make available works of classical learning (Aristotle on logic, Euclid & Ptolemy on astronomy, Greek medicine, Arab mathematics, Roman law)—translated into Latin

Rise of universities: modeled on trade guilds; protection from church authorities, townspeople; students hired teachers, set pay scales, drew up lists of lecture topics; no physical campus yet, so could move relatively easily

Liberal arts program: language arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic) & mathematical arts (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music)

University of Bologna: 1st important Western university, founded by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa; 1st formal organizations of students & masters, 1st degree programs; famous for revival of Roman law


Schools and Universities (cont.)

Cathedral Schools: before universities, liberal arts taught in cathedral & monastery schools to train clergy; later open to laity (merchants, etc.)

University of Paris: grew out of cathedral school of Notre Dame; originated college system—fixed structures; Sorbonne most famous, founded for theology students around 1257


The CurriculumScholasticism: based on premise that truth is already available, just has to be organized, explained, and defended; logic & dialectic initial curricular focus; commentaries written on authoritative texts (Aristotle, Church Fathers)Students learned grammar, rhetoric, and elementary geometry and astronomyThe “renaissance” of the twelfth century made many Greek and Arabic texts availableFew books existed, so memorization and fast-thinking were essential


Philosophy and Theology

Scholastic quarrels over squaring Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology

Abelard & HéloïseHe was first popular scholar

Their affair led to a painful conclusion


Women

Image and StatusTheoretically weaker than and subordinate to men; practically, in most cases, worked side by side with men

Treated as superior to men in purity

Germanic law, unlike Roman law, recognized basic rights of women


Women’s Life Choices

Nunnery an option for single women from higher social classes b/c dowry was required

Never more than 3,500 women in cloisters

9th c.: Carolingians made monogamy official policy

Wife’s labor increased


Working Women

Could be apprenticed, appeared in most blue-collar trades, belonged to trade guilds

Could not be scholars, doctors, lawyers


Children30–50% mortality rate from birth to age 5Infancy: birth to 6 months up to 2 years—period of speechlessness & breastfeedingHigher level of infancy: to age 7Childhood proper considered to start at 7: child can think, speak, act decisively; ready for schooling, private tutoring, or apprenticeshipChildhood extended to end of physical growth—up to 21; till then, under control of parents


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