Chapter Introduction
Section 1: Peasants, Trade, and
Cities
Section 2: Medieval Christianity
Section 3: Culture of the High
Middle Ages
Section 4: The Late Middle Ages
Visual Summary
Peasants, Trade, and Cities
How do advances in agriculture affect both farmers
and city dwellers?
Content Vocabulary
• carruca
• patricians
• manor
• guilds
• serfs
• apprentice
• money economy
• journeymen
• commercial capitalism
• masterpiece
• bourgeoisie
Academic Vocabulary
• technology
• crucial
People and Places
• Venice
• Flanders
The New Agriculture (cont.)
• The European population doubled in size
between 1000 and 1300.
• The large population increase in Europe was
due in part to a more peaceful environment
and changes in technology.
• Food production was increased by using
scythes, axes, and hoes.
The New Agriculture (cont.)
• A new plow called the carruca led to the
growth of farming villages. People had to
work together to buy the iron needed to
make the plow and share the team of
animals needed to pull the plow.
• Europeans also started using three-field
rotations, harnessing wind and water, and
using animal power to save labor and
produce more crops.
The Manorial System (cont.)
• The manor was an agricultural estate run by
a lord and worked by serfs.
• Serfs provided labor services, paid rents,
and were subject to the control of the lord.
• The life of European peasants was very
simple. They lived in wood framed cottages,
generally consisting of one or two rooms.
The Manorial System (cont.)
• The seasons of the year dictated peasant
activities.
• Religious holidays provided peasants with
time away from work and brought them into
contact with the Church.
• Peasant women had to work in the field,
raise children, and manage the household.
The Peasant’s Wheel of Life
The Manorial System (cont.)
• Grains were used for making bread, the daily
food of peasants, and ale. Vegetables,
cheeses, and sometimes meat
supplemented the meals of peasants.
• Water was not easy to obtain, so wine was
the drink of the upper classes and ale was
the drink of the poor.
The Revival of Trade (cont.)
• Cities in strategic locations, such as Venice
and Flanders, grew in size and wealth.
• Trade fairs were initiated by cities to
encourage more trade.
The Revival of Trade (cont.)
• As trade increased, demand for gold and
silver coins increased. Eventually, a money
economy replaced the barter system.
• New trading companies and banking firms
led to the economic system of commercial
capitalism.
The Growth of Cities (cont.)
• The revival of trade led to a revival of cities.
• Merchants and artisans moved into these
newly revitalized cities and became known
as bourgeoisie.
• The people in the cities and towns slowly
gained their independence from local lords.
The cities created their own governments,
and patricians were elected legally or
illegally.
Medieval Trade Routes
The Growth of Cities (cont.)
• Medieval towns were surrounded by stone
walls and were cramped and dirty. Pollution
and the threat of fire plagued the city
inhabitants.
• People began to organize themselves into
business associations. These guilds played
a leading role in the economic life of cities.
The Growth of Cities (cont.)
• A person who wanted to learn a trade went
through a series of steps.
• People started as unpaid apprentices,
earned wages as a journeyman, and could
become a master by producing a
masterpiece.
Medieval Christianity
What happens when there is no separation
of church and state?
Content Vocabulary
• lay investiture
• heresy
• interdict
• relics
• sacraments
Academic Vocabulary
• pursue
• remove
People, Places, and Events
• Papal States
• Hildegard of Bingen
• Pope Gregory VII
• Franciscans
• Henry IV
• Dominicans
• Concordat of Worms
• Saint Francis of Assisi
• Pope Innocent III
• Assisi
• Cistercians
• Inquisition
The Papal Monarchy (cont.)
• The popes of the Catholic Church had
political and religious power since they
controlled the Papal States.
• Pope Gregory VII wanted to free the Church
of political interference from lords and kings
and ended the practice of lay investiture.
• Gregory claimed that the pope had authority
over the entire Christian world including its
rulers. If rulers did not accept this, they
would be removed.
The Papal Monarchy (cont.)
• Henry IV of Germany disagreed with the
pope’s view and a struggle known as the
Investiture Controversy ensued.
• Under the Concordat of Worms agreement
in 1122, a bishop in Germany was elected by
the Church, and then the bishop paid
homage to the king.
The Papal Monarchy (cont.)
• Papal power was strengthened under
Pope Innocent III who used the interdict to
get his way.
• People feared not receiving sacraments,
and pressured rulers to listen to the pope.
New Religious Orders (cont.)
• In 1098, a group of monks who were
unhappy with the lack of discipline at their
monastery started the Cistercian order.
• Women increasingly became involved in
religious orders. Intellectual women, such as
Hildegard of Bingen, found convents a
haven for their activities.
New Religious Orders (cont.)
• In the 1200s, the Franciscans were founded
by St. Francis of Assisi. Francis was a
wealthy merchant from Assisi who decided
to give up his worldly possessions and
preach to the poor.
• The Franciscans became popular for their
simplicity and devotion to the poor.
New Religious Orders (cont.)
• The Dominican order was founded by
Dominic de Guzmán.
• The Dominicans were dedicated to
defending Church teachings from heresy.
• To deal with heretics, the Church created the
Inquisition. This court had regular
proceedings to find and try heretics.
Religion in the High Middle Ages (cont.)
• The Church in the High Middle Ages played
a vital role in the lives of Europeans.
• Some people, because of their holiness,
were called saints and were revered by the
people.
• Relics were usually the bones of saints or
objects connected to saints.
• Worshipping relics and pilgrimages to holy
sites were important to European Christians.
Content Vocabulary
• theology
• vernacular
• scholasticism
• chanson de geste
Academic Vocabulary
• construction
• corporation
People, Places, and Events
• Bologna
• Paris
• Oxford
• Aristotle
• Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Summa Theologica
Architecture (cont.)
• In the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
churches were built in the Romanesque style.
• The construction of the Romanesque
churches was similar to the basilicas of the
Roman era, except that instead of flat roofs,
they had arched vaults.
Architecture (cont.)
• Romanesque churches required massive
pillars to hold up the stone roofs, and had
little light due to the lack of windows.
• A new style, called Gothic, utilized ribbed
vaults and flying buttresses to allow for
higher ceilings and thinner walls.
• Gothic cathedrals were spectacular churches
with stained-glass windows that symbolized
the spirituality of the people.
Universities (cont.)
• The High Middle Ages saw the rise of
universities.
• The first European university was
established in Bologna, Italy. Soon,
universities were set up in Paris, France,
and Oxford in England.
• Students could earn a doctorate in law,
medicine, or theology.
University Locations
Universities (cont.)
• Theology, the most highly regarded subject,
was influenced by scholasticism.
• Scholasticism attempted to reconcile
Christian teachings with the works of the
Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, who
reached conclusions by rational thought, not
by faith.
• In the 1200s, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote
his masterpiece Summa Theologica which
concluded that reason could not conflict with
truths arrived at through faith.
Vernacular Literature (cont.)
• Latin was the universal language used in the
Church and schools.
• New literature began to be written in
vernacular, or everyday speech.
• The most popular vernacular literature of the
twelfth century was troubadour poetry.
• Chanson de geste, or the heroic epic, was
also popular.
The BIG Idea
Devastation of War Disastrous forces overwhelmed
Europe in the fourteenth century with lasting
consequences.
Content Vocabulary
• anti-Semitism
• new monarchies
• taille
Academic Vocabulary
• abandoned
• consequences
People, Places, and Events
• Black Death
• Henry V
• Pope Boniface VIII
• Agincourt
• King Philip IV
• Joan of Arc
• Avignon
• Orléans
• Great Schism
• Isabella
• John Hus
• Ferdinand
The Black Death (cont.)
• During the 1300s, the Black Death killed
approximately one-third of the European
population.
• The plague generally followed trade routes. It
devastated urban centers, and villages in
Germany and England were wiped off the map.
• The Black Death’s most common
form was the bubonic plague,
which was spread by fleas on rats.
Spread of Black Death
The Black Death (cont.)
• The disease was so lethal, that family
members often had to abandon one another.
• Effects of the Black Death:
– Approximately one-third to one-half of the
population killed
– Rise in anti-Semitism
– Decline in trade, labor shortages,
and decreased demand for food
Spread of Black Death
Decline of Church Power (cont.)
• In the 13th century, a struggle began
between Pope Boniface VIII and King
Philip IV of France over the king’s right to
tax the clergy.
• The struggle ended when Boniface VIII died
after fleeing Philip’s forces. Philip then
engineered the election of a French pope,
Clement V, in 1305.
Avignon
Decline of Church Power (cont.)
• Clement V moved to Avignon in southern
France. From 1305 to 1377 popes lived in
Avignon.
• The election of the Italian Pope Urban VI
was declared invalid by French cardinals,
who elected a French pope which began the
Great Schism.
Decline of Church Power (cont.)
• John Hus, a Czech reformer, was burned at
the stake for heresy for his attempts at
reforming the Church.
• Both the papacy and the Church lost political
and religious power due to the crises of the
fourteenth century.
The Hundred Years’ War (cont.)
• The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337
when the king of France seized the English
controlled duchy of Gascony in France.
• At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, English
archers using longbows devastated the
French knights.
Hundred Years’ War
The Hundred Years’ War (cont.)
• In 1415, the English king Henry V again
defeated the French at the Battle of
Agincourt and the English controlled
northern France.
• A peasant named Joan of Arc believed that
God had chosen her to save France. The
inspired French army seized Orléans.
• The French eventually won the war in 1453,
aided by the use of the cannon and
gunpowder.
Political Recovery (cont.)
• In the 1400s, a number of new rulers in
Europe attempted to centralize power and
establish new monarchies.
Political Recovery (cont.)
• The New Monarchies:
– France
• France became unified after the Hundred
Years’ War.
• There was a permanent royal income due to
increased taille.
• The monarchy relied on the lesser nobles and
middle class for royal power.
• Industry and commerce was promoted.
Political Recovery (cont.)
– England
• The Tudor dynasty was established when
Henry Tudor ended the Wars of the Roses.
• Henry VII abolished private armies.
• Henry VII became popular with his low taxes.
Political Recovery (cont.)
– Spain
• During the Middle Ages, Christian kingdoms
regained land from the Muslims.
• The Christian kingdoms were unified when
Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon
in 1469.
• Ferdinand and Isabella enforced strict
conformity to Catholicism.
Political Recovery (cont.)
• The Holy Roman Emperor was a position
held by the Hapsburg dynasty of Austria.
• Eastern Europe was unable to centralize due
to religious and political differences.
• In Russia, Ivan III overthrew the Mongols and
established a new Russian state by 1480.
Society in the HIGH MIDDLE AGES
• Farming inventions and
efficient use of land
contributed to
population growth.
• Under the manorial system,
serfs were legally bound to the
land they worked for the lord.
• Revival of trade changed the economy from a
barter system to one based on money.
• As trade grew, cities expanded and became
manufacturing and trade centers.
CATHOLICISM, INNOVATIONS, AND
INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL in the
Middle Ages
•
Political power of the Catholic Church
peaked during the papacy of
Pope Innocent III.
•
Religious fervor led to new
monastic orders.
•
Advances in technology allowed the
building of impressive
Gothic cathedrals.
•
Europe’s first universities were founded.
•
Popular troubadour poetry and heroic epic poems were
written in the vernacular.
Disruptive Forces of the LATE
MIDDLE AGES
• The Black Death spread
through Europe, devastating
societies and economies.
• The Great Schism damaged
the Church’s power and
divided Europe.
• In the Hundred Years’ War, peasant foot soldiers, not
knights, won the chief battles.
• Recovery began in the late 1400s as new
monarchies emerged in France, England, and Spain.