UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK: Department of History
First Year Progress Test: Spring 2005
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
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Time allowed: 2 hours
Candidates should answer both questions
Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and make sure that the particulars required are entered on each book
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1. Identify or locate any SIX of the following, and comment in about 100 words on the significance of each for the period
Feudal aids
Scutage
Liege homage
Fuggers
Waldensians
Bernard of Clairvaux
Sharecropping
Manorial court
Cottar
Innocent III
Utraquism
Council of Pisa
Lübeck
Peruzzi
Fairs of Champagne
Pneumonic plague
Realism
Cognate kinship
Courtly love
Primogeniture
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2.. Comment on any FIVE of the following passages, with particular reference
to the attitudes expressed or the information presented and to the historical context
(a) At this same time, as no one can mention or hear without great sadness, the
Mother of all the churches, the basilica of the apostle Peter, was taken and plundered by the Moors, of Saracens......
(The Annnals of Xanten, 845-853
(b) If, however, the heir of any of the aforesaid has been under age and in wardship,
let him have his inheritance without relief and without fine when he comes of age.
(Magna Carta, 1215)
CONTINUED

(c) Let all know that we have manumitted and liberated from all yoke of servitude
William, the son of Richard of Wythington whom previously we have held as our
born bondman, with his whole progeny and all his chattels.....
(Manumission of a villein, 1278)
(d) Beyond this, there was no citizen, Popolano or Grande, who had not built or was
not building a large and rich estate in the countryside, with an expensive mansion
and other buildings even better than those in the city.
(Giovanni Villani’s Florence)
(e) The dearth began in the month of May and lasted until the feast of the nativity of
the Virgin [September 8]. The summer rains were so heavy that grain could not
ripen.
(The famine of 1315)
(f) First it is to be known that the heretics held that there are two Creators; viz. one of invisible things, whom they called the benevolent God, and another of visible things, whom they named the malevolent God.
(Raynaldus: on the accusations against the Albigensians)
(g) Nor have they the prudence to consider that all jurisdiction is denied to them over
the clergy- over both the persons and goods of ecclesiastics.
(BonifaceVIII, Clericis laicos 1296)
(h) It first declares that this same council, legitimately assembled in the Holy Ghost,
forming a general council and representing the Catholic Church militant, has its
power immediately from Christ.......
(Council of Constance: Sacrosancta, 1415)
(i) A woman who is not under the headship of the husband violates the condition
of nature, the mandate of the Apostle, and the law of Scripture....
(Peter of Blois: letter 154 to Queen Eleanor 1173)
(j) Wherefore I say to you, lady, take not for your husband the man who would fain
take your money and not yourself.........
(St Bernardino of Siena: excerpts from a sermon on wives and widows)
END