HISTORY V57.0114.001
THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
Instructor:
Email:
Telephone:
Office:
Michael Stoller
michael.stoller@nyu.edu
(212) 998-2566
1M-13 Bobst Library
Office Hours: Friday 4:30-6:00
By Appointment
Class:
MW 2:00-3:15
Location:
This course covers the period roughly from the late 11th century to the close of the 14th
century. Major topics and themes: the explosion of energy in the 12th century and the
expansion of Europe on all levels, geographic (including the Crusades) as well as
intellectual; development of agriculture and cities; the diversity that gave rise to our
university system; movements of reform and dissent; and the waning of the Middle Ages.
Reading:
Malcolm Barber, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050-1320. 2nd edition (Routledge,
2004).
The Bible – Any unabridged edition will do. The Bookstore has copies of the New Oxford
Annotated Bible on hand.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook – Links are given to specific texts.
Brian Tierney, ed., The Middle Ages, volume 2: Readings in Medieval History. 5th edition
(McGraw-Hill, 1999).
Requirements:
There will be a term paper, due on April 7, and a final exam, scheduled by the registrar.
The final exam will cover all material treated in the class. The final grade will also reflect
a student’s attendance and participation in class discussion.
The term paper will be on a topic relevant to the subject matter in the course. You should
choose your topic early in the semester. The instructor will be happy to make suggestions
or to offer advice on shaping a topic. The paper will be 14-16 pages, including footnotes
(or endnotes) and a bibliography. You may use footnotes or endnotes, but citation style
must follow the guidelines set out by Kate Turabian in the 1996 edition of A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, which can be found in the Reference
Room of Bobst Library.
Discussion sessions each week will address any questions you have about the lectures
and readings but will be primarily devoted to the primary texts read that week.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
JANUARY 23:
Course Introduction – The Medieval World up to the 11th Century Europe
JANUARY 28-30:
The Fundamental Concepts: The Biblical Context, The Augustinian Polity, The
Benedictine Vision, Feudal Society
Read:
Barber, Chapters 1, 2 & 16
Tierney, Chapters 8-10
The Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 1 & 2 Samuel,
Daniel, Matthew, John, First Corinthians, Revelation
Selections from Augustine of Hippo, The City of God –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-city1.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-city2.html
Selections from Pope Gregory I, On Pastoral Care –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/590greg1-pastoralrule2.html
Feudal Texts –
Agreement between Count William V of Aquitaine & Hugh IV of Lusignan
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/agreement.html
Charter of Homage and Fealty, 1110
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/atton1.html
FEBRUARY 4-6:
The Neighbors – The Byzantines, Islam, the Jews
Read:
Barber, Chapter 19
Tierney, Chapters 27, 34 & 35
Theodoros Skoutariotes: The Emperors of the 11th Century, from the Synopsis
Chronika, translated by Nikos Koukounas http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/skoutariotes1.html
Job,
Michael Psellus, Chronographia, bk 7, ed. E.R.A Sewter (Yale, 1953) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/psellus-chrono07.html
Selections from Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/muhammadi-sira.html
The Qu’ran, Surahs 1& 47
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/koran-sel.html
The Qu’ran, Surahs 2 & 4 http://web.archive.org/web/20000229204333/http://www.humanities.ccny.cuny.edu/histo
ry/reader/koranonwomen.htm
A Rabbinic Responsum: The Shabbat Goy –
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8ccid10.txt
Royal Grants to the Jewish Community of Barcelona, 1241-1271 –
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8ccid10.txt
Gilbert Chrispin, Disputation of a Jew with a Christian about the Christian Faith (before
1096) –
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8ccid10.txt
FEBRUARY 11-13:
The Church – Monastic Culture, The Church in Society, Ecclesiastical Reform, The
New Orders (Cluniacs & Cistercians)
Read:
Barber, Chapters 4 & 6
Tierney, Chapters 15-17
Guibert of Nogent, Autobiography –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/guibert-vita.html#intro
The Foundation Charter of Cluny, 910 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chart-cluny.html
The “Constitution” of the Cistercians, written by St. Stephen Harding & approved in
1119 – http://www.osb.org/cist/charta.html
February 18-20:
The Growth of Papal Authority & the Investiture Controversy, The Ongoing
Struggle of “Church & State”
Read:
Decree of 1059 On Papal Elections –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/papal-elect1059.html
Pope Gregory VII, Decree of 1073 Prohibiting Lay Investitures –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-reform2.html
Emperor Henry IV, Letter to Pope Gregory VII, Jan. 24, 1076 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/henry4-to-g7a.html
Documents on the Struggle of Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III, 1160-1177 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/henry4-to-g7a.html
Decree of the Lateran Council of 1179 Concerning Papal Elections –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lat3-elect.html
Pope Innocent III, Letters on Papal Policies –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/innIII-policies.html
FEBRUARY 25-27:
The Church – The Mendicants, The Mystical Tradition, The Pursuit of Heresy
Read:
Barber, Chapter 7
The Testament of St. Francis –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-test.html
The Rule of the Franciscan Order –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-rule.html
The Primitive Constitutions of the Order of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) –
http://www.domcentral.org/trad/domdocs/0011.htm
Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 3 on Heresy, 1215 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lat4-c3.html
The Inquisition Record of Jacque Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers, 1318-25 –
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/Fournier/jfournhm.htm
MARCH 3-5:
The Political Landscape – The Empire (Germany, Burgundy, Italy), The French
Space
Read:
Barber, Chapters 8-11
The Decree of the Emperor Henry IV concerning a Truce of God, 1085 (from the Avalon
Project at Yale Law School) –
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/dechenry.htm
The Chronicles of the Counts of Anjou, c. 1100 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anjou.html
Rigord’s “Deeds of Phillip Augustus” (from Paul Hyams, Cornell) –
http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/408/texts/Rigindex.html
St. Louis (King Louis IX), Advice to his Son –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stlouis1.html
March 10-12:
The Normans, England, Spain & the Reconquista
Read:
Barber, Chapters 12-14
Tierney, Chapter 28
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Domesday Book, 1086 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1186ASChron-Domesday.html
The Domesday book of 1086, Instructions and Extract –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/domesday1.html
Roger of Hoveden, The Chronicle, On the Disputes between Thomas Becket, Archbishop
of Canterbury and King Henry II of England –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hoveden-becket.html
The Chronicle of the Cid (from Project Gutenberg) –
http://omacl.org/Cid/
MARCH 17-19: SPRING BREAK
MARCH 24-26:
The Crusades – Pilgrimage, Urban II & the First Crusade, Bernard of Clairvaux &
the Second Crusade, The Crusader States, The Gradual Failure
Read:
Barber, Chapters 5 & 15
Tierney, Chapter 14
Annalist of Nieder-Altaich, The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064-65 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1064pilgrim.html
Fulcher of Chartres, History of the Expedition to Jerusalem –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulcher-cde.html
Pope Eugenius III, Summons to a Crusade, Dec. 1, 1146 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/eugene3-2cde.html
Fulcher of Chartres, The Latins in the East (Chronicle, Bk. III) –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk3.html
Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood (the Templars) –
http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html
Ludolph of Suchem, The Fall of Acre, 1291 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1291acre.html
MARCH 31-APRIL 2:
Culture & Society - Rhetoric, Logic & the Growth of Philosophy, Rise of the
Universities
Read:
Barber, Chapters 17-18
Tierney, Chapters 15-17
Anselm of Canterbury, On God’s Existence (Proslogion) & Gaunilo’s Reply –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.html
Peter Abelard, From Sic et Non –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1120abelard.html
John of Salisbury, Policraticus, Book IV, Selections –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salisbury-poli4.html
Statutes of Pope Gregory IX for the University of Paris, 1231 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/UParis-stats1231.html
April 7-9:
Culture & Society - Evolution of the Law, Scholasticism, The Emergence of
Vernacular Culture
TERM PAPER DUE – APRIL 7
Read:
Tierney, Chapters 18, 26 & 31
Gratian, On Marriage (dictum post c. 32.2.2) –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gratian1.html
Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis, The Institutes (535 CE) , Selections –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/535institutes.html
Ibn Rushd (Averroës), On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, c. 1190 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1190averroes.html
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Selections –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas1.html
Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot (Selections), c. 1170 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1170chretien-lancelot.html
APRIL 14-16:
Economic Life – The Rural Order
Read:
Barber, Chapter 3
Tierney, Chapters 11, 19 & 32
Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, Remission of a Day’s Service, 932 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/932Remissio.html
The Dialogue Between Master and Disciple, On Laborers, c. 1000 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1000workers.html
Domesday Book, Manors of the Abbey of St. Peter, Winchester, 1086 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1086Winchestermanor.html
Abbey of Stavelot, Corvée of Labor, 1126 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1126Corvee.html
Manorial Management and Organization, c. 1275 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1275manors1.html
APRIL 21-23:
Economic Life – Emergence of the Cities, Trade & Commerce
Read:
Tierney, Chapters 12-13
Declaration of the Powers of the Count of Toul over the City of Toul, 1069 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1069Toulgild.html
John I, King of England, Charter Granted to the Citizens of Cambridge, 1201 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1201cambridge.html
The Regulations of the Garment Cutters’ Gild of Stendal, 1231 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1231Weavers3.html
Frederick I Barbarossa, Grant of Two Fairs at Aachen, 1166 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1166aachenfair.html
Memorandum of Arbitration Concerning a Freight Charge, 1230 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1230freight-abrit.html
APRIL 28-30:
Breakdown of the “Medieval Synthesis” – The Battle for France, The Breakdown of
Italy, The Collapse of Ecclesiastical Unity & the Rise of Conciliarism
Read:
Tierney, Chapters 36-39
Jean Froissart, On the Hundred Years War –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/froissart1.html
The Trial of Joan of Arc, 1431 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1431joantrial.html
Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, 1302 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html
Marsilius of Padua, Defensor Pacis (Selections), 1324 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html
Raimon de Cornet, Poem Criticizing the Avignon Papacy –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/14Ccornet.html
The Council of Constance, Sacrosancta, 1415 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/constance1.html
The Council of Constance, Frequens, 1417 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/constance2.html
Pope Pius II, The Decree Excecrabilis, 1459 –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/p2-execrabilis.html
MAY 5: REVIEW