Download Chapter 10

Chapter 10 (Including Class Notes)
Written on Board | possible fill-in-the-blank answer | listed as a key term on paper
Section 1 (Politics as a Family Affair)
 Gothic – style of architecture with stone springers and vaults and lots of open space
 Peter Parler – greatest architectural genius of 14th century – impl. new design ideas
o Emperor Charles IV – used Parler to build Bohemian capital
o created sculptural heads of important people
o with his students, spread Gothic architecture across Europe
 Families:
o Luxembourg – family of Charles IV – Rhineland
o Wittelsbachs – Bavaria
o Hapsburgs – allies of Luxembourgs – capital in Black Forrest area, strong in Austria – Rudolf I
 When they got HRE office in 1440 they built a multinational empire in Europe that
survived until 1918
o Premsyl family – Bohemia, Austria, etc. – rich – family of Otakar II
o Anjou – from Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX
 Teutonic orders – used military to spread Christianity – monk-knights
 grain – principal export of German/Baltic agrarian areas
 silver and copper mines – Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary
 eastern nobles – married western nobles to gain influence and inject themselves into western politics;
western nobles weren’t strong enough to do it other way around
 Charles IV – used Peter Parler, took active role in cultural renewal, founded U in Prague, wrote perhaps 1st
autobiography
o inspired future movements by Jan Hus against Roman Catholic Church’
o gradually ended up dismantling HRE
o “Golden Bull” edict – German princes are autonomous
 also, emperor chosen by 7 princes, not pope
 HRE fragmented into kingdoms, Germany didn’t become nation-state until 1800s
 Estates – political units knights, burgers and clergy - inhabitants of land organized into estates for a united
front to deal with the king/emperor/prince, who was often a foreign sovereign rules.
 Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married to form unified Spain
 Hundred Years’ War – three conflicts
o rights to Gascony in S. France – English held Gascony and no one was happy
o English and Flemish cloth towns – artisans rebelled against aristocratic cloth dealers in Flanders,
and England sided with artisans
o Charles IV in France died without an heir, and King Edward III of England was next in line,
but aristocrats didn’t want united kingdoms so they made Philip VI king; English declared war
 King Edward III of England vs. Philip VI of France
 Valois – royal line of Philip VI
 King Arthur (and the Knights of the Round Table) – fascinated Edward III
 Order of the Garter – select group of nobles, organized by Edward III of England
 war was one of only ways to maintain chivalry and noble honor
 France was bigger and richer than England, but Philip VI couldn’t harness wealth
 Parliament – helped England harness wealth for war
 also, English were hardened by Welsh and Scottish enemies and had effective and professional longbow men
and foot soldiers
 Battle of Crécy –1346 - 1st “Real” battle of 100yrs war - French outnumbered and surrounded English, but
English used archers and defeated French, inflicting huge casualties as French used poor tactics
 Poitiers – John II (Philip’s successor) attacks English here and is captured in 1356
 English raids on French countryside devastated French
 Pope Benedict XII – sent papal agents to assess aid for Northern France – sent a tremendous amount of
money – equal to 1/3 of British annual royal income, but farmers probably needed 7 times that amount
 French economy ruined
 French kings were powerless to control their country, so nobles carved out autonomous kingdoms
o Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy allied with English, profited a lot, became most powerful
ruler in Europe after Hundred Years’ War
 Joan of Arc – French peasant who claimed to have heard messages of hope from God – boosted French
morale at Orléans so French won that battle – rode on white horse - kidnapped and burned at the stake for
heresy after king of France didn’t do anything to save her
 The dauphin – heir to French throne
 Calais – only English holding left in France in 1452 after war of roses
 Formigny – last major battle btwn Fr. and Eng. in 100-yrs-war – French used gunpowder to drive British
out
 War of the Roses – Yorks (white rose) vs. Lancasters (red rose) after 100-yrs-war
o Henry Tudor of Lancasters won ->became Henry VII of Tudor dynasty
Section 2 (Life and Death in the Later Middle Ages)
 By end of 13th century, almost all arable land was used, but nobles increased taxes to keep funding
extravagant lifestyles, so a poor harvest would be deadly
 Famine from 1315-17 killed 1000s of people, especially undernourished urban workers
o Ypres – town of 20,000 where 2794 paupers’ corpses were buried in 2-yrs in 1300s
o Pistoia – prosperous Italian city - recorded 16 famines in 14th and 15th centuries
 Disease spread easily because towns were crowded and filthy, armies moved around, and the countryside
was overpopulated
 Black Death – plague arrived @ Messina, Sicily in October 1347 on a merchant vessel
o septicemic – attacked blood
o bubonic – transferred person-to-person or by flea bites
o pneumonic – spread by the air, infects lungs
 buboes – swellings in lymph nodes of groin or armpits – what plague was named for
 preachers said it was punishment, people blamed Jews for poisoning water (and killed Jews) or blamed
misalignment of planets
 some people adopted saintly lifestyles while others retrogressed to lives of pleasure only
 “Bring out your dead” – rueful symbolic call heard throughout Europe
 Last major outbreak – Moscow in 1771
 Dance of Death – corpses dancing with living, popular artistic imagery
 Giovanni Boccaccio – Decameron was set in Florence during black death
 Changed socioeconomic structures because it hit nobles and peasants alike, family members abandoned
each other, people lost hope, ethics + morals decayed
 “the plague of insurrection” – coined term referring to breakdown of moral codes and civil obedience
 Labor surplus was eliminated, peasants were in high demand and could negotiate
 However, lords counteracted this with laws restricting peasants
 Fewer people = less demand
 Governments added more taxes to take advantage of wealthier people, people revolted
 Jacquerie – peasants in Beauvais in France revolted when French government increased taxes and nobles
raised rents and demands
o Peasants brutally killed and raped nobles and clergy
o Jacques Bonnehomme – archetypal French peasant
o Etienne Marcel – wealthy Parisian cloth merchant – led uprising of merchants too, who later joined
Jacquerie













o Eventually put down by aristocratic armies
Great Rebellion – 1381 English peasant revolt against hated taxes
Peasant’s Revolt of 1524 – biggest revolt in Spain and Germany
Most people who rebelled were not destitute poor – they were artisans and independent craftsman and
laborers
Ciompi Revolt of 1378 – Florence – wool workers rioted and got 2 guilds of laborers created to go with
guilds of masters; workers control government until they were slaughtered in 1382
Bardi and Peruzzi – Florence’s greatest banking houses
Hanseatic League – monopolized northern grain trade in Baltic in 14th century
o hansa - company
charity – donations – traditionally, a religious act primarily to benefit of soul of giver rather than recipient
confraternities – religious organizations of lay people and clergy who minister to poor and sick
hospitals – religious institutions housing pilgrims, elderly, and ill
pesthouses –isolated plague victims
Antwerp – established central relief system where worthy recipients got badges to receive food
Confraternity of Strasbourg Beggars – blind beggars organized a guild
Breaking on the wheel – victim’s bones and back are broken on a wheel and he’s left to die
Section 3 (The spirit of the later middle ages)
 1305- College of Cardinals elected Bishop of Bordeaux, Clement V, as Pope, and Clement moved to papal
land @ Avignon because he was friends with King Philip IV
o This meant effective French control of Church, annoying non-French people
o Petrarch - coined the Avignon Papacy as the Babylonian captivity
 Popes became like other medieval lords and sought financial stuff and lost sight of their role as spiritual
leader
 Pope John XXII – tried to block election of HRE Louis of Bavaria, but Louis defied him and claimed he
didn’t need papal confirmation
 curia – court of the pope – pope turned this into money-making bureaucracy
 penance - sinners who repented would go to hell unless they did penance, which could be fasting, prayer,
good deeds, etc.
 main sources of Papal revenue
o sale of indulgences –saints had done more penance than required, so church had a Treasury of
Merit and could sell excess “penance”
o sale of benefices – known as simony - pope had right to appoint to all church offices and often
charged “Tax” to be appointed
 pluralism – people acquired multiple church offices across Europe with multiple streams of
income, but they couldn’t do a good job and serve in all offices so they left work to local
clergy
 The Great Schism –2 popes claim authority (Rome and Avignon), and local parishes are divided
o Pope Gregory XI went from Avignon to Rome in 1377 and died shortly
o Cardinals met in Italy to elect new pope; Italians demanded Italian pope
o Pope Urban VI – elected by cardinals under duress
o Cardinals moved back to Avignon, and elected Pope Clement VII
o Urban refused to resign, so there are now two popes – Avignon and Rome
 Cities had to decide which pope to follow
o France invaded Italy twice but failed
o University of Paris people said both popes should abdicate
o When popes died, each appointed successor













o Council of Pisa – 1408s – cardinals in Pisa decided both popes should leave and appointed a
third Pisa pope (supposed to be the only one), but neither old pope stepped down, so there were
now 3 popes
1414 – Council of Constance met to resolve crisis and reform church to prevent it from happening again
o Conciliarism – final religious authority in church lies with the people, not the pope
o Pope Martin V (a neutral cardinal) was elected
Everything began to focus on individualism
Magic/Spirituality
o Alchemists and astrologers – honored
o Peasant practitioners of folk religion, medicine, superstition condemned
o Witches – made contract with devil (and had intercourse with devil so were no long virgins)
 Witches’ Hammer – handbook for inquisitors – started witch fever
o Many people looked beyond the Church to find personal relationships with God
o Beguines and Beghards - lay men and women respectively – continued to follow ChurchNorthern Europe – formed towns-within-towns without formal religious orders
o Eucharist – communion wafer that church taught was body of Christ
o Pope John XXII – condemned radical poverty
o church became richer and more luxurious and people didn’t like this
o mystic women devoted themselves to the Eucharist + often fasted
Brethren of the Common Life – Rhineland – preaching, charity, pious life
o Imitation of Christ – book written by a member
Brethren of the Free Spirit – believed God was all things and all things returned to God - Pantheism
o contradicted sin->punishment->salvation cycle,
Church officials often confused other, more conventional orders with radical sects
Catherine of Siena – subsisted on Eucharist, water, and bitter herbs – female Christian mystic
o Babbo – child’s name for father
John Wycliffe – theologian at oxford - criticized Church and said that individuals have spiritual authority
too, attacked wealth of Church and its involvement in secular matters – said that value of sacraments
depends on worthiness of priest
o nobles liked his ideas and limiting power of Church so he was protected and not executed; also,
peasant popular opinion protected him
 also, he was in England and out of church’s main control
o Lollards – his followers, persecuted by Henry V
o Teachings spread among Czech professors in Prague
Jan Hus – Prague – supported Wycliffe that indulgences=bad (but disagreed about sacraments)
o Exiled and excommunicated in Bohemia, went to Council of Constance under false promise of
safety by emperor, was burned when he refused to recant his teaching
o Touched off revolt in Bohemia that had wide support, revolutionaries wanted communal state,
eventually new moderate government went in
o Martin Luther – declared himself follower of Jan Hus
William of Ockham – Franciscan - excommunicated by Pope John XXII, moved to court of Louis IV and
supported emperor – created ideas that a government’s power lies in the people and that government should
be elected and fully secular – denied absolute authority of pope and believed that church should be governed
be a council of clergy and lay people
Universals – general concepts analyzed through logic
o Ockham’s nominalism – universals are just names with no connection to reality, and no learning
can be derived from them
Vernacular literature – written in local languages – rose as poets wrote in native languages
Italian poets who made Italian (versus Latin) a literary language and composed great literature
o Dante Alighieri – born in modest Florentine family but exiled from Florence;



 wrote The Divine Comedy, where someone travels through hell (Inferno), purgatory
(Pergatorio), and heaven (Paradiso)
 Dante’s summary of what’s good and bad in medieval politics
o Francesco Petrarch
o Giovanni Boccaccio
English poetry rose after domination by the French language
o William Langland – Piers Plowman - life from perspective of peasantry
o Geoffrey Chaucer – born into English merchant family, served king and aristocrats as courtier
 Canterbury Tales – pilgrims on way to Thomas à Becket’s tomb tell stories of their
lives – subtly comments on backgrounds and influences for each person
 The Wife of Bath – character who argues that married life is better than celibacy, esp.
when woman is in charge - knight is given choice of his wife being ugly and faithful or
beautiful but free, and he leaves the choice to the woman, so he gets a beautiful and
faithful wife
French - continued to be language of courtly romance
o Christine de Pisan – widowed, decided to make living as an author, a new idea for a 14th
century woman – she became very successful
 Argues that women could be virtuous and countered common antifeminist idea;
encouraged women to develop free will and independence from men
 Wrote Hymn to Joan of Arc, praising her contemporary
o Duke of Orléans – organized poetry contest when city was under siege
 his poetry was good and focused on sufferings of love
 François Villon – in Duke’s prison: criminal who lived on streets
 Wrote poetry about physical suffering of downtrodden
 Duke was moved and released him from prison
King Charles VII and Pope Calixtus III– posthumously investigated Joan of Arc and absolved her of sins
Class Notes
 Feudalism declined because:
o rise of towns and serfs could escape
o New weaponry made knights obsolete
 Longbow – 6ft bow with lots of tensions that fired fast and far and could pierce armor, < accurate, > range
o Used by English
 Crossbow – high-tension bow that takes 2 hands to string and can pierce armor, more accurate but less range
 Page – young boy who served knight, before he became a squire
 Squire – knights assistant who usually became knight later
 Knight – at age 20 (when he stopped growing), squires often became knights
 Knights took 15-20 years to trains well, but longbow men only took one year
 Pike – 10-15ft wooden stick with sharp metal point that could impale and de-horse knights from a safe
distance
 Nobility realized that it was cheaper and more efficient to train freeman as army rather than nobles
 Gunpowder – came from china – first applied to canons and artillery that could breach castles
o Castles are no longer impenetrable and kings become more powerful as lords decline; townsmen
become more important
 Battle of Agincourt – 1415 – 1500 nobles and 3000 soldiers from France are killed because knights can’t
move in thick mud
 Plague – people saw cats in town (because more rats meant more food for cats, and rats are harder to find),
so people in towns killed cats cause they thought cats spread plague – killing cats meant more rats:
counterproductive








1.
2.
3.
4.
5.











HIV (virus) / AIDS (condition) – modern day plague; deadly and fatal; people didn’t know why it spread –
primarily affected (at first):
o Intravenous drug users
o Gay men
o Magic Johnson – not gay – got HIV/AIDS
Pope John Paul II - went on record to say that it was punishment from god for immoral lifestyle –
acknowledged that church was wrong and Galileo was right
Romanesque – style of architecture – cathedrals had big heavy roof and thick walls to support the roof –
looked like a cross from above – had few windows cause windows were weak – candles provided light for
dark interiors
Gothic – many windows – 1100s on – bright inside, vibrant
o vaulted [ceilings] – “arms” crisscrossed ceiling to support the weight
o flying buttresses – structure on outside of church that supported walls and pressured ceiling
Hagia Sophia – byzantine style – had full dome – Constantinople
Gargoyles – at tops of churches, mouths drained water from roofs
Iconoclast controversy - Roman Catholic Church said icons in churches were OK, but Byzantines stuck to
non-portrayal art because then thought worshiping pics was worshiping idols
Chartres – beautiful gothic cathedral in Chartres, France
Pope – the highest rep of god on earth – selects cardinals
Cardinals – pick the pope
Archbishops – in charge of archdiocese, a collection of diocese
Bishops – in charge of diocese, or a collection of parishes
Parish Priests – assignment by bishop, in charge of parish
Most Americans are Christian, and Catholic is the most common single denomination (though total
Protestants outnumber Catholics)
Archdiocese of Los Angeles – biggest archdiocese in US
o Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels – HQ
 Cathedral of Saint Vibiana – former HQ
o Roger Mahony – archbishop of L.A. and cardinal
Pope Benedict XVI – current pope – was political advisor to previous pope
tithing – you give 10% (the tithe) of your income to the church
nepotism – getting special privileges because of family ties, not merit
Pope John XXIII – called for Vatican II
o Reformed church and permitted services in vernacular languages
Sistine Chapel – Pope’s private chapel; where cardinals pick the new pope
John Paul I – elected as a compromise – Reigned for only 33 days because he died of heart attack
John Paul II - Polish, 1st non-Italian pope since schism
Bohemia – area in Czech republic in HRE with Prague as its capital
o Great center of learning and had some of oldest Jewish cemeteries and temples
St. Vitus cathedral – in Prague – had monument to Jan Hus – gothic cathedral – designed by Peter Parler