DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
HI127
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
HANDBOOK 2008-09
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/medievalworld
1
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD (HI127)
CONTENTS
Aims and Objectives
1
Assessment
2
Key Texts
3
Seminar Preparation
3
Sources of Help
4
Timetable
5
Seminars
Feudalism
7
The Manor and Peasant Protest
8
The Western Economy: Revival or Revolution?
9
Economy and Society After the Black Death
10
The Medieval Church I
11
The Medieval Church II
13
The Medieval Family
15
Intellectual and Cultural Life
16
European Contact with Others: The Crusades
20
European Contact with Others: Expansion and Exploration
21
Glossary
23
2
Appendix: The Mark Scale for First Year Students
39
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The module is designed to provide a thematic introduction to European history of the
later medieval and Renaissance periods, to broaden understanding of the European
World core module, and to provide background for the more specialised work of the third
year for those in the Renaissance stream. Original documents and electronic resources
form integral parts of the module, enabling students to further develop their analytical
and IT skills. Second-year students, for whom the module is an option, are expected to
cover themes in somewhat greater depth than those in their first year.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students should be able to:
 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the Medieval World between c.800
and c.1500.have gained a further development of study, writing, and
communication skills
 assess critically a wide range of secondary material and a selection of primary
sources
 formulate and test concepts and hypotheses
 demonstrate the ability to access and use the wealth of information and resources
on the World Wide Web.
ASSESSMENT
First Years
 3 x 2,000-word essays. These are to be submitted by noon on the Fridays of
eighth week of the first term, eighth week of the second term, and fifth week of
the third term. Non-submission of the third essay will result in a deduction of 5%
from the total mark for the module.
 1 x 4,500-word essay to be submitted by noon on the Friday of the fourth week
of the third term.
 1 x two-hour examination in the middle of the second term.
The two best 2,000-word essays count for 40% of the total mark; the 4,500-word essay
for 40%; and the examination for the remaining 20%.
Second Years
 3 x non-assessed 2,000-word essays. These are to be submitted by noon on the
Fridays of eighth week of the first term, eighth week of the second term, and fifth
week of the third term.
 either 1 x three-hour examination
 or 1 x two-hour examination (50%) and 1 x 4,500-word essay (50%). The
4,500-word essay is to be submitted by noon on the Wednesday of the fifth week
of the third term.
Mark Scales
For details of the mark scale for first years, see the Appendix. For details of the mark
scale for second years, see the Second Year Handbook.
KEY TEXTS
3
General texts to be bought
** Please buy at least one of the following**
Barber, Malcolm, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050-1320 (London, 2004) (NB The
Library has a NetLibrary copy)
Bartlett, Robert, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change
950-1350 (Harmondsworth, 1993)
Power, Daniel, The Central Middle Ages (Oxford, 2006)
Waley, Daniel, Later Medieval Europe, 3rd ed. revised by Peter Denley (Harlow, 2001)
Other suggested general texts
** These texts do not have to be bought**
Collins, Roger, Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000, 2nd ed. (Basingstoke, 1999)
Cook, William, and Herzman, Ronald, The Medieval World View (New York, 1983)
Hay, Denys, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 2nd ed. (London, 1989)
Holmes, George, (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1988)
Jordan, W.C., Europe in the High Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 2002)
Le Goff, J., Medieval Civilization (Oxford, 1990)
Linehan, Peter, and Janet Nelson (eds), The Medieval World (London, 2001)
McKitterick, Rosamund (ed.), The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000 (Oxford, 2001)
Mundy, John H., Europe in the High Middle Ages, 1150-1309, 2nd ed. (Harlow, 1991)
Nicholas, David, The Evolution of the Medieval World (Harlow, 1992)
SEMINAR PREPARATION
***NB*** For each seminar, each student is expected to prepare one seminar question
and one document. These are to be chosen in consultation with the seminar tutor. The
documents are available via the module website. For each seminar, please bring a copy
of the document with you.
Advice on Analysing Documents
When you prepare a document, it may be useful to bear the following questions in mind.
1.
Title.
What is the correct and full title of the document?
2.
Author.
Who wrote the document?
3.
Date.
i.
When was the document written?
ii.
Is the date significant? Why?
4.
Form.
i.
What form does the document take? (E.g. letter, treatise, etc.)
ii.
Why was that form chosen?
iii.
How does the form affect the way the views are expressed by the author?
5.
Language.
i.
In which language was the document written originally?
ii.
Why was that language chosen?
6.
The addressee.
i.
To whom is the document addressed?
ii.
Who is/are that person/those persons?
4
iii.
Why does the author address that person/those persons?
iv.
Is the way the document is written influenced by whom it is addressed to?
How? Why?
7.
Reference to event or situation.
i.
Does the document refer or react to a particular event or situation? If so,
discuss the context and nature of the event or situation in detail.
ii.
What is the attitude of the author to the event or situation?
iii.
Why does the author take that attitude?
8.
Reference to people.
i.
Does the document mention a particular person or group of people? If so,
discuss that person or group of people in detail.
ii.
What is the attitude of the author to that person or group of people?
iii.
Why does the author take that attitude?
9.
Reference to text.
i.
Does the document mention a particular text? If so, discuss that text in
detail.
ii.
What is the attitude of the author to that text?
iii.
Why does the author take that attitude?
10.
Reference to existing belief, idea or practice.
i.
Does the document refer or react to an existing belief, idea or practice? If
so, discuss the context and nature of the belief, idea or practice in detail.
ii.
What is the attitude of the author to the belief, idea or practice?
iii.
Does the author support it or challenge it? How? Why?
11.
Expression of new belief or idea.
i.
Does the document express a new belief or idea? If so, discuss the belief
or idea in detail.
ii.
How is the belief or idea new?
iii.
How did the author arrive at the new belief or idea?
iv.
Why does the author express it now?
12.
Diction.
How does the choice of words reflect the author’s attitude?
13.
General Views.
Do the particular views expressed in the document relate to general views held by
the author? How? Why?
14.
Implications.
What are the implications of the views expressed in the document?
15.
Consequences.
What were the consequences of the views expressed in the document?
SOURCES OF HELP
Module Tutors
If you are having problems with the module (e.g. essay details, finding books, etc), you
should first contact your seminar tutor.
Module Director
If there are other matters, you should contact the Module Director, Jonathan Davies
5
([email protected])
Finding Module Material
Amidst the lecture and seminar schedule which follows are bibliographies on the
particular topics we will be examining. Seminar reading consists of the primary
documents available via the module website, introductory reading, and further reading.
Most of these are books, however there are also some articles and essays. Some of the
books in the introductory reading section you may wish to purchase - see Key Texts. All
of the books, articles, and essays cited are available in the Library. Some of them are
also available online and these are indicated by weblinks.
Please be considerate of other students taking the module and promptly return books
that are in high demand. Photocopying is a good method of alleviating demand. In the
event you cannot find a reading don't despair: the bibliographies are provided to offer
other suggested reading material as well as a guide to finding other material for
seminars and essays. More generally, if you are finding it difficult to locate books, you
should consult Library staff. If you are running into real difficulties, then you should go
back and talk to your seminar tutor. He or she should be able to provide suggestions for
alternative reading on most topics.
Primary Sources
Unless otherwise stated all sources are drawn from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Electronic Resources
Electronic resources are listed for each seminar. These include documents, images,
radio programmes, videos, and websites providing other useful information.
Hopefully you will also look for electronic resources yourself. There are numerous sites
containing information on Medieval Europe. Many offer worthwhile opportunities for
research on primary materials and in depth bibliographies on particular subjects. While
these sites are beneficial for study there are plenty of non-academic or personal interest
websites which explore modern depictions of Medieval Europe which are not necessarily
accurate. The sites listed below contain vetted academic information on Medieval
Europe.






Internet Medieval Sourcebook
The Labyrinth
Netserf
ORB
Euratlas
TEAMS Middle English Texts
TIMETABLE
Week
Lecture 1: Tuesday,
Lecture 2: Friday, 11.00
1.00
Seminar Topic
The Middle Ages: An Overview
(PR) This lecture will be
held at 11.00 on Friday 3
October in Library 1.
Term 1,
Week
1
Week 2
'Feudalism': Definitions
The 'Decline' of Feudalism (PR)
and Debates (PR)
Week 3
The Manorial 'System':
Fact or Fantasy? (PR)
Feudalism
6
Week 4
The
Decline
of
Manorialism
and
Peasant Protest (PR)
Week 5
The Rise of the Cities
(JD)
Week 6
Reading Week
Week 7
The
Commerical
No lecture
Revolution (JD)
Week 8
The Black Death (JD)
Week 9
Religion and Religious
The Divine Autocracy:
Life in the Medieval
Papacy c.900-c.1300 (JD)
West (JD)
The
Manor
Peasant Protest
and
The
Western
Economy: Revival or
Revolution?
Recession or Resilience? The
European Economy after the
Black Death (JD)
the Economy and Society
After the Black Death
Heretics and Saints:
Week 10 the Cathars and the No lecture
Friars (JD)
The Avignon Papacy,
Term 2,
the Great Schism, and Lollards and Hussites (JD)
Week 1
the Councils (JD)
Week 2
Medieval Women (PR)
Week 3
Sex and Marriage in
No lecture
the Middle Ages (PR)
Week 4
The Medieval
(PR)
Week 5
The
Rise
of
Universities (JD)
Week 6
Reading Week
Week 7
The
Italian
No lecture
Renaissance (JD)
Week 8
The Hundred
War (JD)
Week 9
The Government of
England and France No lecture
1453-1500 (JD)
Week 10
Byzantium and
Rise of Islam
Term 3,
The Crusades
Week 1
The
Church: I
Medieval
The
Church: II
Medieval
No lecture
Family The
Twelfth-Century
Renaissance (JD)
the
No lecture
The Medieval Family
Intellectual
Cultural Life
and
Government
Warfare
and
Years The Conduct of Warfare in the
Middle Ages (JD)
the
No lecture
No lecture
Week 2
Europe and Asia 1200No lecture
1400
European
Contact
with
Others:
The
Crusades
Week 3
Christopher Columbus,
Vasco da Gama, and No lecture
the Age of Discoveries
Europeans
with
Expansion
Exploration
Contact
Others:
and
7
SEMINARS
FEUDALISM
Lectures
 'Feudalism': Definitions and Debates
 The 'Decline' of Feudalism
Seminar Questions
 Given the regional differences of feudalism, can the term be used by historians to
adequately describe the political / military relationships governing medieval
European society?
 How dependent was feudalism on fractured and isolated societies in the early
Middle Ages?
Documents
 Annals of Xanten, 845-853.
 The Truce of God - Bishopric of Terouanne, 1063.
 Magna Carta, 1215. [Preamble plus sections 1-5, 12-14, 38-41]
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 36-41
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 45-47, 50-59, 85-96
Cheyette, Frederic L., 'Review of Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals', Speculum 71
(1996), 998-1006.
Hyams, Paul R., 'The End of Feudalism? Review of Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals',
Journal of Interdisciplinary History 27 (1997), 655-62.
Reuter, Timothy et al., 'Debate: The Feudal Revolution', Past and Present 155 (1997),
177-225.
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe. No readings.
E-resources
 Halsall, Paul, 'Feudalism?'. A discussion of the historiography with reviews and
documents.
Further Reading
Bailey, Mark, The English Manor, c.1200-c.1500 (Manchester, 2002)
Bennett, H.S., The Pastons and their England, 2nd ed. (London, 1968)
Bisson, Thomas N., 'Medieval Lordship', Speculum 70 (1995), 743-59.
Bisson, Thomas N., 'The "Feudal Revolution"', Past and Present 142 (1994), 6-42.
Black, Antony, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge, 1992)
Bloch, Marc, Feudal Society, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1965)
Brown, Elizabeth, 'The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval
Europe', American Historical Review 79.4 (1974), 1063-88.
Brundage, James A., Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (Chicago,
1987)
Contamine, Philippe, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones (Oxford, 1984)
Duby, Georges, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from
the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (Ithaca, NY, 1974)
Duby, Georges, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (Chicago, 1980)
Ganshof, F.L., Feudalism, trans. Philip Grierson (London, 1952)
Head, T., and R. Landes (eds), The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response
in France Around the Year 1000 (Ithaca, NY, 1992)
Hicks, Michael A., Bastard Feudalism (London, 1995)
Hilton, R.H., Bond Men Made Free (London, 1973)
Hilton, R.H., Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism (London, 1985)
Keen, Maurice, Chivalry (New Haven, 1984)
8
Reynolds, Susan, Fiefs and Vassals (Oxford, 1994)
Reynolds, Susan, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900-1300, 2nd ed.
(Oxford, 1997)
White, Lynn, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford, 1966)
Woolgar, C. M., The Great Household in Late Medieval England (New Haven, 1999)
THE MANOR AND PEASANT PROTEST
Lectures
 The Manorial 'System': Fact or Fantasy?
 The Decline of Manorialism and Peasant Protest
Seminar Questions
 What was the role of the manor in the medieval economy?
 Why did the manorial system begin to break down in the later middle ages?
 To what extent was manorialism responsible for the English Rising of 1381?
Documents
 A Dispute Over Exaction of the Corvée, 1081.
 An Account of the Manor of Alwalton, Huntingdonshire from the Hundred Rolls of
1279.
 Anonimalle Chronicle: English Peasants' Revolt 1381
Introductory Reading (see also Feudalism readings)
Barber, The Two Cities, 43-46
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 106-166
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 90-105
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has a section on rural life.
 Grantchester: A Medieval Village
 Medieval manors and their records
 Generic plan of a medieval manor: open-field strip farming, some enclosures,
triennial crop rotation, demesne and manse, common woodland, pasturage and
meadow.
 "The Peasants' Revolt" Voices of the Powerless. BBC Radio programme, Thursday
25 July 2002.
 'The Peasants' Revolt'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 16
November 2006.
Further Reading (see also Feudalism readings)
Aston, T.H., and Philpin, C.H.E., (eds.), The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure
and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe (Cambridge, 1985)
Bailey, Mark (ed. and trans.), The English Manor c. 1200-c.1500 (Manchester, 2002)
Balestracci, Duccio, The Renaissance in the Fields: Family Memoirs of a FifteenthCentury Tuscan Peasant, trans. Paolo Squatriti and Betsy Merideth (University Park,
1999)
Bloch, Marc, French Rural History, trans. Janet Sondheimer (London, 1966)
Cohn, Samuel Kline, Jr., (ed. and trans.), Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe: Italy,
France and Flanders (Manchester, 2004)
Duby, Georges, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (Chicago, 1980)
Hanawalt, Barbara, The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (Oxford,
1986)
Herlihy, David, Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass., 1985)
Hilton, R.H., English and French Towns in Feudal Society (Cambridge, 1992)
Hilton, R.H., The English Peasantry in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford, 1975)
9
Mollat, Michel, The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History (New Haven,
1986)
Postan, M.M., (ed.), Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 1: Agrarian Life of the
Middle Ages, 2nd rev. edn. (Cambridge, 1966)
Rösener, Werner, Peasants in the Middle Ages, trans. Alexander Stutzer (Champaign,
1992)
THE WESTERN ECONOMY: REVIVAL OR REVOLUTION?
Lectures
 The Rise of the Cities
 The Commercial Revolution
Seminar Questions
 Why were some areas of medieval Europe more urbanised than others?
 In what sense was there a commercial revolution in the thirteenth century?
Documents
 Pope Innocent III: License to Venice to Trade With The Saracens, 1198.
 Privileges Granted to German Merchants at Novgorod, 1229.
 Giovanni Villani's Florence. [Final section beginning 'Since we have described the
income and expenditure of the commune of Florence...']
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 48-79
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 167-196, 233-235, 280-288
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 57-90.
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 15-21, 90-92
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on the rise of towns and the
commercial revoultion.
 The Burghal Hidage
 'The Viking Way'. BBC radio series, November 2005.
 The Viking Age in Ireland
 Novgorod Online
 Medieval Coventry
 Map showing the main trade routes of late medieval Europe. The black lines show
the routes of the Hanseatic League, the blue Venetian and the red Genoese
routes. Purple lines are routes used by both the Venetians and the Genoese.
Overland and river routes are stippled.
 The Carta marina of the Baltic Sea region (1539)
Further Reading
Bautier, R.-H., The Economic Development of Medieval Europe (London, 1971)
Brundage, James A., 'Usury' in Joseph R. Strayer et al. (eds.), Dictionary of the Middle
Ages, 13 vols. (New York, 1982-89), vol. 12, pp. 335-9.
Day, John, The Medieval Market Economy (Oxford, 1987)
Duby, Georges, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from
the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (Ithaca, NY, 1974)
Hanawalt, Barbara, Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in
History (Oxford, 1993)
Holt, Richard, and Rosser, Gervase, (eds.), The English Medieval Town: A Reader in
English Urban History 1200-1540 (London, 1990)
Hunt, Edwin S., and Murray, James M., A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 12001550 (Cambridge, 1999)
10
Le Goff, Jacques, Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages, trans. Arthur Goldhammer
(Chicago, 1980)
Lopez, Robert S. et al. (eds. and trans.), Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World
(1955; rept. 2001) [An important collection of documents]
Lopez, Robert S., The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages 950-1350 (Cambridge,
1976)
Mollat, Michel, The Poor in the Middle Ages, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New Haven,
1986)
Nicholas, David, Medieval Flanders (London, 1992)
Nicholas, David, The Growth of the Medieval City (Harlow, 1997)
Nicholas, David, The Later Medieval City (Harlow, 1997)
Pirenne, Henri, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (Princeton, NJ,
1952)
Postan, M.M., et al. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 2: Trade and
Industry in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1987)
Pounds, N., An Economic History of Medieval Europe, 2nd ed. (London, 1994)
Spufford, Peter, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988)
Spufford, Peter, Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (London, 2002)
ECONOMY AND SOCIETY AFTER THE BLACK DEATH
Lectures
 The Black Death
 'Recession or Resilience?': the European Economy after the Black Death
Seminar Questions
 Is it feasible for historians to use the Black Death as a 'turning point' in European
history or was it a catalyst for a latent social and cultural 'revolution'?
 How did such an event shape European ideas about religion and economics,
social mobility and luxuries?
 Was medieval Europe 'depressed' economically and culturally after the events of
the later fourteenth century?
Documents
 The Famine of 1315.
 The Onset of the Black Death as Described by Boccaccio (1313-1375).
 The Ordinance of Labourers, 1349
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities. No reading
Bartlett, The Making of Europe. No reading.
Bolton, B., 'Plague as an Agent of Economic and Social Change', in M. Ormrod and P.
Lindley, eds, The Black Death in England (Stamford, 1996), pp. 17-78.
Cohn, Samuel K., Jr., The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early
Renaissance Europe (London, 2003) [Introduction]
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 90-111
Ziegler, Philip, The Black Death, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth, 1998) [Chapters 1 and 15].
E-resources
 'The Black Death'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme. Thursday, 22 May
2008.
 The Plague
 The Statute of Labourers, 1351.
 The Dance of Death [A collection of 400 images]
Further Reading
11
Bowsky, William, The Black Death: A Turning Point in History? (New York, 1971)
Bridbury, A.R. , Economic Growth: England in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1962)
Brown, Judith, 'Prosperity or Hard Times in Renaissance Italy?' Renaissance Quarterly
42 (1989), 761-80.
Campbell, Bruce (ed.), Before the Black Death (Manchester, 1991)
Cipolla, Carlo M., 'The Economic Depression of the Renaissance?', Economic History
Review, 2nd ser., 16 (1964), 519-24.
Cohn, Samulel Kline, Jr., (ed. and trans.), Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe
(Manchester, 2004)
Dyer, Christopher, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in
England, 1200-1520, rev. ed. (Cambridge, 1998)
Epstein, S.R., 'Regional Fairs, Institutional Innovation, and Economic Growth in LateMedieval Europe', Economic History Review, 2nd ser. 47 (1994), 459-82.
Goldthwaite, Richard A., Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy 1300-1600 (Baltimore
and London, 1993)
Hatcher, J, 'England in the Aftermath of the Black Death', Past and Present 144 (1994),
3-35.
Hatcher, J, Plague, Population and the English Economy 1348-1530 (London, 1977)
Herlihy, David, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, ed. Samuel K.
Cohn, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass., 1997)
Horrox, Rosemary (ed. and trans.), The Black Death (Manchester, 1994) [A collection of
documents]
Hunt, Edwin S., and Murray, James M., A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 12001550 (Cambridge, 1999)
Jordan, William C., The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century
(Princeton, NJ, 1996)
Kershaw, Ian, 'The Great Famine and Agrarian Crisis in England, 1315-1322', Past and
Present 59 (1973), 3-50.
Le Roy Ladurie, E., Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History of Climate since the Year
1000, trans. Barbara Bray (London, 1972)
Lopez, Robert S. et al. (eds. and trans.), Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World
(New York, 1955; rept. 2001) [A collection of documents]
Lopez, Robert S., 'Hard Times and Investment in Culture', in Anthony Molho (ed), Social
and Economic Foundations of the Italian Renaissance (New York, 1969), pp. 95-116.
Lopez, Robert S., and Miskimin, Harry A., 'The Economic Depression of the
Renaissance?', Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 16 (1964), 525-27.
Lopez, Robert S., and Miskimin, Harry A., 'The Economic Depression of the
Renaissance', Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 14 (1962), 408-26.
Meiss, Millard, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (New York, 1964)
Nightingale, Pamela, 'England and the Economic Depression of the Mid-Fifteenth
Century', Journal of European Economic History, 26:3 (1997), 631-56.
Platt, Colin, King Death: The Black Death and its Aftermath in Late Medieval England
(London, 1996)
Twigg, Graham, The Black Death: A Biological Reappraisal (London, 1984)
Ziegler, Philip, The Black Death, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth, 1998)
THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH: I
Lectures
 Religion and Religious Life in the Medieval West
 The Divine Autocracy: the Papacy c.900-c.1300
 Heretics and Saints: Cathars and Friars
Seminar Questions
 Should we talk of 'Christendom' within medieval Europe both at the institutional
level and at the 'popular' level or rather of various 'Christianities'?
12

How did the church resolve these tensions and define orthodox and heterodox
beliefs and practices?
Documents
 Tales of Relics
 Raynaldus on the Accusations against the Albigensians.
 Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, 1302
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 25-35, 83-176
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 243-269, 270-280
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 121-148
Swanson, R.N., 'The Pre-Reformation Church' in A. Pettegree, ed., The Reformation
World (London, 2000), pp. 17-24
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 41-43
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on the medieval church and the
papacy.
 Nelson, Lynn H., The Owl, the Cat, and the Investiture Controversy
 The Holy See
 The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
 Documenta Catholica Omnia (includes English translations of important texts
such as the full text of Unam Sanctam)
 Cathar castles (interactive map)
 'Greyfriars and Blackfriars'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 10
November 2005.
 The Franciscan Archive
 Dominican Central
Further Reading
General
Gorski, Philip S., 'Historicizing the Secularization Debate: Church, State, and Society in
Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 1300-1700', American Sociological Review 65
(2000), 138-67.
Head, T., and R. Landes (eds), The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious
Response in France Around the Year 1000 (Ithaca, 1992)
Lynch, Joseph H., The Medieval Church: A Brief History (Harlow, 1992)
Oakley, Francis, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1980)
Ozment, Steven, The Age of Reform 1250-1550 (New Haven, 1980)
Southern, Richard, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970)
Tellenbach, Gerd, Church, State, and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture
Contest (Toronto, 1991)
Van Engen, John, 'The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem', American
Historical Review 91 no. 3 (1986), 519-52.
Religion and Religious Life
Barber, Malcolm, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple
(Cambridge, 1994)
Bossy, John, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985)
Brooke, C.N.L., and Brooke, R.B., Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe
1000-1300 (London, 1984)
Brown, Peter, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
(Chicago, 1981)
Bynum, Caroline Walker, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle
Ages (Berkeley, 1982)
13
Hamilton, Bernard, Religion in the Medieval West (London, 1986)
Lawrence, C. H., Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the
Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Harlow, 1989)
Le Goff, Jacques, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (London, 1984)
Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1984)
Swanson, R.N., Religion and Devotion in Europe c.1215 - c.1515 (Cambridge, 1995)
Vauchez, Andre, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1997)
Vauchez, Andre, The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices
(Notre Dame, 1993)
The Papacy
Barraclough, Geoffrey, The Medieval Papacy (London, 1968)
Burns, J.H., and Thomas Izbicki (eds. and trans.), Conciliarism and Papalism
(Cambridge, 1997)
Duffy, Eamon, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (New Haven, 1997)
Morris, C., The Papal Monarchy: the Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (Oxford, 1989)
Partner, Peter, The Lands of St Peter (London, 1972)
Robinson, I.S., The Papacy 1073-1198: Continuity and Innovation (Cambridge, 1990)
Sayers, Jane, Innocent III: Leader of Europe 1198-1216 (London, 1994)
Ullmann, Walter, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (London, 1974)
Ullmann, Walter, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (London,
1970) [2nd ed online]
Heresy
Barber, Malcolm, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages
(Harlow, 2000)
Biller, Peter, 'Through a Glass Darkly: Seeing Medieval Heresy', in Peter Linehan and
Janet Nelson (eds), The Medieval World (London, 2001), pp. 308-326.
Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium, rev. ed. (London, 1993)
Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose, trans. William Weaver (London, 1984)
Hamilton, Bernard, The Medieval Inquisition (London, 1981)
Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision (New Haven, 1998)
Kieckhefer, Richard, Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century
(University Park, 1998)
Kieckhefer, Richard, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989)
Kors, Alan, and Edward Peters, eds., Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: A Documentary
History (Philadelphia, 1972)
Lambert, Malcolm, The Cathars (Oxford, 1998)
Lambert, Malcolm, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to
the Reformation, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1992)
Leff, Gordon, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages, 2 vols (Manchester, 1967)
Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Montaillou, trans. Barbara Bray (London, 1978)
Wakefield, W, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100-1250 (London,
1974)
Wakefield, Walter L., and Evans, Austin P. (eds. and trans.), Heresies of the High Middle
Ages (New York, 1969) [An important collection of documents]
The Friars
Armstrong, Regis J., and Brady, Ignatius C. (eds.), Francis and Clare: The Complete
Works (New York, 1982)
Armstrong, Regis J., et al. (eds. and trans.), Francis of Assisi: Early Documents: The
Saint (Hyde Park, NY, 1999)
Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose, trans. William Weaver (London, 1984)
Hamilton, Bernard, The Medieval Inquisition (London, 1981)
Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision (New Haven, 1998)
Lawrence, C.H., The Friars (Harlow, 1994)
14
THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH: II
Lectures
 The Avignon Papacy, the Great Schism, and the Councils
 Lollards and Hussites
Seminar Questions
 Was the papacy strengthened or weakened during its residence in Avignon?
 Was 'Conciliarism' ever a feasible option for governing the medieval church?
 To what extent were medieval heresies popular movements?
Documents
 Petrarch: Letter Criticising the Avignon Papacy
 Reply of John Wycliffe to his Summons by the Pope to come to Rome, 1384
 Council of Constance: Sacrosancta, 1415.
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 108-111
Bartlett, The Making of Europe. No readings.
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 112-131, 235-238
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on the problems of the papacy,
ecclesiastical disarray (the Great Schism and conciliarism), and heresy.
 A medieval map of Rome from a manuscript of the period (Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale, MS Ital. 81, folio 18). The illustration shows Rome personified as
widow grieving the loss of the papacy.
 Map showing support for Avignon (red) and Rome (blue) during the Great
Schism (before 1409).
 A map of Lollard influence in England and Scotland.
 The Lollard Society
 'Anticlerical Poems and Documents' from James M. Dean , ed., Poems of Political
Prophesy (Kalamazoo, MI, 1996)
 The Hussite Museum in Tabor
 The Acts of the Council of Constance
 The Acts of the Council of Basel, Ferrara, and Florence
Further Reading (See also reading for The Medieval Church: I)
General
Crowder, C.M.D. (ed. and trans.), Unity, Heresy and Reform, 1378-1460: the Conciliar
Response to the Great Schism (London, 1977)
Thomson, J., Popes and Princes 1417-1517: Politics and Polity in the Late Medieval
Church (London, 1980)
The Avignon Papacy
Menache, Sophia, Clement V (Cambridge, 1998)
Mollat, Guillaume, The Popes at Avignon, 1305-1378 (New York, 1965)
Renouard, Yves, The Avignon Papacy, 1305-1403, trans. Denis Bethell (London, 1970)
Wood, Diana, Clement VI: The Pontificate and Ideas of an Avignon Pope (Cambridge,
1989)
The Great Schism and Conciliarism
Tierney, Brian, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (Cambridge, 1955)
Ullmann, Walter, The Origins of the Great Schism (London, 1948)
The Lollards
Lutton, Robert,
Lollardy
and
Orthodox
Religion
in
Pre-Reformation
England
15
(Woodbridge, 2006)
Rex, Richard, The Lollards (Basingstoke, 2002)
The Hussites
Bartos, F.M., The Hussite Revolution 1424-1437 (Boulder, 1986)
THE MEDIEVAL FAMILY
Lectures
 Medieval Women
 Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages
 The Medieval Family
Seminar Questions
 How restricted was the role of women in medieval society?
 How and why did attitudes towards marriage change in the middle ages?
 Was there any place for affection in medieval family life?
Documents
 Christine de Pizan: Of the wives of artisans and how they ought to conduct
themselves
 The Paston Letters: A love-match in defiance of parents, 1469
 The Questioning of John Rykener, A Male Cross-Dressing Prostitute, 1395
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 41-43
Bartlett, The Making of Europe. No readings.
Herlihy, David, Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe (New York, 1995),
Chapters 4, 7, and 11.
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 47-54
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 295-309
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has a section on sex and gender.
 See the module HI391 'Gender in Europe, 1350-1650' for gender and sexual
culture, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, widows and widowers.
 Medieval Women's Studies: A Guide to Online Resources
 Other Women's Voices: Translations of women's writing before 1700
 Salisbury, Eve, ed., The Trials and Joys of Marriage (Kalamazoo, MI, 2002)
 The Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century. Searchable e-text.
 The Paston Letters (1422-1509)
Further Reading
Alberti, L. B., The Family in Renaissance Florence, trans. R.N. Watkins (Columbia, SC,
1969)
Ariès, Philippe, Centuries of Childhood, trans. Robert Baldick (London, 1962)
Atkinson, C. W., The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Middle Ages (Ithaca,
NY, 1991)
Bennett, H.S., The Pastons and their England, 2nd ed. (London, 1968)
Brooke, Christopher, The Medieval Idea of Marriage (Oxford, 1989)
Brown, Judith C., and Davis, Robert, (eds), Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy
(Harlow, 1998)
Brucker, Gene, Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence
(Berkeley, 1986, 2nd ed 2005)
Chojnacki, Stanley, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice (Baltimore, 2000)
Cohn, Samuel K., Jr., Women in the Streets: Essays on Sex and Power in Renaissance
16
Italy (Baltimore and London, 1996)
de Pizan, Christine, Selected Writings, ed. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski (New York,
1997) [A useful collection of primary sources]
Dean, Trevor, Crime in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550 (London, 2001)
Dronke, Peter, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from
Perpetua (d. 203) to Marguerite Porete (d. 1310) (Cambridge, 1984)
Duby, Georges, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages, trans. Jane Dunnett (Cambridge,
1994)
Duby, Georges, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest, trans. Barbara Bray (London,
1983)
Ennen, Edith, The Medieval Woman (Blackwell, 1989)
Goldberg, P.J.P. (ed. and trans.), Women in England c. 1275-1525 (Manchester, 1995)
[A useful collection of documents]
Hadley, D.M. (ed.), Masculinity in Medieval Europe (Harlow, 1999)
Herlihy, David, and Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, The Tuscans and their Families (New
Haven, 1985)
Irigaray, Luce, This Sex Which is Not One (Itaca, NY, 1985)
Karras, Ruth Mazo, and David Lorenzo Boyd, '"Ut cum muliere": A Male Transvestite
Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London', in Louise Fradenburg and Carl Freccero (eds),
Premodern Sexualities (London,1996), pp. 99-116
Kent, F.W., Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1977)
Kirshner, J., and S. Wemple (eds.), Women of the Medieval World (Oxford, 1985)
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy (Chicago,
1985)
Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Montaillou, trans. Barbara Bray (London, 1978)
Leyser, H., Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England, 450-1500 (London,
1995)
Macfarlane, Alan, The Origins of English Individualism (Oxford, 1978)
McCarthy, Conor, (ed. and trans.), Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A
Sourcebook (London, 2004)
Paterson, Linda, 'Gender Negotiations in France during the Central Middle Ages: The
Literary Evidence', in P. Linehan and J. Nelson (eds), The Medieval World (London,
2001), pp. 246-66.
Rocke, Michael, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance
Florence (New York, 1996)
Shahar, Shulamith, Childhood in the Middle Ages (London, 1990)
Shahar, Shulamith, The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages, rev. ed.
(London, 2003)
Strozzi, Alessandra, Selected Letters, ed. and trans. Heather Gregory (Berkeley, 1997)
Ward, Jennifer C., English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1992)
INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL LIFE
Lectures
 The Twelfth-Century Renaissance
 The Rise of the Universities
 The Italian Renaissance
Seminar Questions
 In what sense was there a Twelfth-Century Renaissance?
 Why was education important in the Middle Ages?
 Why was there a revival of antiquity in the Italian states between 1250 and
1500?
Documents
1. Abbot Suger, On what was done in his administration
17
2. Rupert, Count Palatine: Foundation of the University of Heidelberg, 1386
3. Battista Guarino, Concerning the order and the method to be observed in
teaching and in reading the classical authors.
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 399-444
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 198-220, 288-291
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 149-177
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 153-171, 192-205
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on intellectual life and on the
Renaissance.
 Art History Resources on the Web
 Art and Architecture
 Web Gallery of Art
 Images of Medieval Art and Architecture
 Gothic Artists
 The Online Medieval and Classical Library
 Turning the Pages. Leaf through medieval and Renaissance books (including the
sketches of Leonardo da Vinci)
 Digital Scriptorium
 'Abelard and Heloise'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 5 May
2005.
 'Ockham's Razor'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 31 May 2007.
 Goliardic Verse
 Gaudeamus Igitur. The Goliard song performed by Norwegian choirs.
 Codex Buranus (Carmina Burana) Wheel of Fortune (Schicksalsrad)
 Carmina Burana. Latin texts and English translations.
 Carl Orff, 'O Fortuna' from Carmina Burana. The BBC National Orchestra and
Chorus of Wales are the performers.
 Early Renaissance Artists.
 Renaissance Studies. Warwick Library links
Further Reading
General
Bolgar, R.R., The Classical Heritage and its Beneficiaries (London, 1973)
Colish, Marcia L., Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400
(New Haven and London, 1997)
Gombrich, Ernst, The Story of Art, 14th ed. (Oxford, 1984)
Huizinga, J., The Waning of the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 1955)
Le Goff, Jacques, Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, trans. T.L. Fagan (Cambridge, Mass.,
1993)
Murray, A., Reason and Society in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1985) [2002 ed online]
Panofsky, E., Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (London, 1972)
Piltz, A., The World of Medieval Learning, trans. David Jones (Oxford, 1981)
Price, B.B., Medieval Thought: An Introduction (Oxford, 1992)
Sekules, Veronica, Medieval Art (Oxford, 2001)
Southern, Richard, Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (Oxford, 1970)
The Twelfth Century Renaissance
Benson, Robert, et al. (eds.), Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century (Oxford,
1982)
Haskins, Charles Homer, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, Mass.,
1927)
Swanson, R.N., The Twelfth-Century Renaissance (Manchester, 1999)
18
The Universities
Cobban, Alan B., The Medieval Universities (London, 1975)
de Ridder Symoens, Hilde (ed.), A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1,
Universities in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1992)
Thorndike, Lynn (ed. and trans.), University Records and Life in the Middle Ages (New
York, 1944; rept. 1972)
Wine, Women, and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students' Songs, ed. and trans. John
Addington Symonds (London, 1884)
The Italian Renaissance
Black, Robert (ed.), The Renaissance: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies, 4 vols
(Abingdon, 2006)
Black, Robert (ed.), Renaissance Thought: A Reader (London, 2001)
Brown,
Alison,
The
Renaissance,
2nd
ed.
(Harlow,
1999)
Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, with an introduction by
Peter
Burke
(Harmondsworth,
1990)
[Online
edition
here]
Cassirer, Ernst et al. (eds. and trans.), The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (Chicago,
1948)
Davies, Jonathan, Florence and its University during the Early Renaissance (Leiden,
1998)
Findlen, Paula (ed.), The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Readings (Oxford, 2002)
Goldthwaite, Richard A., Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy 1300-1600 (Baltimore
and
London,
1993)
Hale, J.R., The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (London, 1994)
Hartt, Frederick, History of Italian Renaissance Art, 4th ed. revised by David G. Wilkins
(London, 1994)
Kristeller, P.O., Renaissance Thought, 2 vols. (New York, 1965) [A collection of key
articles
and
essays]
[vol.
1
online]
Martin, John Jeffries (ed.), The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad (London, 2003)
Porter, R., and Teich, M. (eds.), The Renaissance in National Context (Cambridge, 1992)
Vasari, Giorgio, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston de Vere,
with an introduction by David Ekserdjian, 2 vols. (London, 1996) [Online translation
here]
Welch, Evelyn, Art and Society in Italy 1350-1500 (Oxford, 1997)
GOVERNMENT AND WARFARE
Lectures
 The Hundred Years' War
 The Conduct of Warfare in the Middle Ages
 Recovery or Innovation? The Government of France and England 1453-1500
Seminar Questions
 Is it accurate to describe medieval Europe as 'a society organised for war'?
 Why were the English successful for so long in the Hundred Years War?
 'For the monarchies of France and England the period 1450-1500 was one of
recovery and consolidation rather than of innovation'. Discuss.
Documents
 Jean Froissart, Chronicles. [The Battle of Cressy]
 Jean Froissart, Chronicles. [The Prince of Wales' revenge on Limoges]
 Philippe de Commynes: Portrait Of Louis XI (c. 1498)
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities. No readings.
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 24-105
19
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 3-28, 48-63, 132-149, 172-217, 314-317
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on warfare, the Hundred Years'
War, and late medieval governments.
 De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History. The website includes a
series of resources (primary sources, articles, and essays) relating to the
Hundred Years' War.
 Tales from Froissart
 'Agincourt'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 16 September 2004.
 The Royal Armouries
Further Reading
General
Anderson, M.S., and M. Smith, The Origins of the Modern European State System,
1494-1618 (London, 1998)
Black, Antony, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge, 1992)
Cohn, Samuel Kline, Jr., (ed. and trans.), Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe:
Italy, France and Flanders (Manchester, 2004)
Contamine, Philippe, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones (Oxford, 1984)
Davies, Rees, 'The Medieval State: The Tyranny of a Concept?' Journal of Historical
Sociology 16 no. 2 (2003), 280–300.
Hale, J.R., War and Society in Renaissance Europe (Stroud, 1998)
Jones, Philip, The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria (Oxford, 1997)
Keen, Maurice, (ed.), Medieval Warfare: A History (Oxford, 1999)
Kirshner, Julius (ed.), The Origins of the State in Italy 1300-1600 (Chicago, 1995)
[These essays are also available online here]
Mallett, Michael, Mercenaries and their Masters (London, 1974)
Nicholson, Helen, Medieval Warfare: Theory and Practice of War in Europe, 300-1500
(Houndmills, 2004)
Reynolds, Susan, 'There were States in Medieval Europe: A Response to Rees Davies',
Journal of Historical Sociology 16 no. 4 (2003), 550–55.
Shennan, J.H., Origins of the Modern European State, 1450-1725 (London, 1974)
England
Allmand, Christopher, The Hundred Years' War (Cambridge, 1988)
Allmand, Christopher, Society at War: The Experience of England and France During the
Hundred Years War (Edinburgh, 1973)
Carpenter, Christine, The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England,
c.1437-1509 (Cambridge, 1997)
Curry, Anne, The Hundred Years War (Basingstoke, 2003) [also online]
Froissart, Jean, Chronicles, ed. and trans. John Jolliffe (Harmondsworth, 1978) [The
most important contemporary history of the Hundred Years' War]
Gunn, S., Early Tudor Government (Basingstoke, 1995)
Hicks, Michael, English Political Culture in the Fifteenth Century (London, 2002)
Keen, M.H., England in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1973)
Lander, J.R., Conflict and Stability in Fifteenth-Century England (London, 1977)
Lander, J.R., Government and Community: England, 1450-1509 (London, 1980)
McFarlane, K.B., England in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1981)
Ormrod, W.M., Political Life in Medieval England, 1300-1450 (Basingstoke, 1995)
Ormrod, W.M., The Reign of Edward III (New Haven, 1990)
Saul, Nigel (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England (Oxford, 1997)
Wolffe, B.P., Yorkist and Early Tudor Government (London, 1969)
France
Allmand, Christopher, The Hundred Years' War (Cambridge, 1988)
Allmand, Christopher, Society at War: The Experience of England and France During the
20
Hundred Years War (Edinburgh, 1973)
Commynes, Philippe de, Memoirs: the Reign of Louis XI, ed. and trans. Michael Jones
(Harmondsworth, 1972)
Curry, Anne, The Hundred Years War (Basingstoke, 2003) [also online]
Froissart, Jean, Chronicles, ed. and trans. John Jolliffe (Harmondsworth, 1978)
Knecht, Robert, The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France, 1483-1610, 2nd ed. (Oxford,
2001)
Lewis, P.S., Later Medieval France: The Polity (London, 1968)
Lewis, P.S., The Recovery of France in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1971)
Potter, David, France in the Later Middle Ages 1200-1500 (Oxford, 2003)
Vaughan, Richard, Charles the Bold: the Last Valois Duke of Burgundy (London, 1973)
Vaughan, Richard, Philip the Good, the Apogee of Burgundy (Harlow, 1970)
EUROPEAN CONTACT WITH OTHERS: THE CRUSADES
Lectures
 Byzantium and the Rise of Islam
 The Crusades
Seminar Questions
 Were the motives of the crusaders primarily religious or economic?
 Why were the later crusades so much less successful than the first?
Documents
 Fulcher of Chartres' Account of Urban II's Speech at Clermont, 1095.
 Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): Autobiography, excerpts on the Franks
 The Fourth Crusade, 1204. The Capture of Zara (recorded by Geoffrey of
Villehardouin) and the Summons to Alexis (recorded by Robert de Clari).
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 112-30, 352-372, 445-458.
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 85-105, 260-268, 308-309
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 200-206
Tyerman, C. 'What the Crusades Meant to Europe' in P. Linehan, and J.L. Nelson (eds),
The Medieval World (London, 2001), pp. 131-145.
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 251-262, 275-276
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on Byzantium, Islam, and the
Crusades.
 Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet
 Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
 Crusades Encyclopedia
 De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History. The website includes a
series of resources (primary sources, articles, and essays) relating to the
Byzantine Empire and the Crusades.
 The Long View. BBC Radio programme, Tuesday, 22 October 2002. Discusses
the war against Iraq in the light of the Crusades.
 'The First Crusade'. Talk of the Nation. NPR Radio programme, 16 September,
2004.
 'The Siege of Constantinople, 1453'. In Our Time. BBC Radio programme,
Thursday 28 December 2006.
Further Reading
Byzantium
Angold, Michael, The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context (Harlow, 2003)
21
Herrin, Judith, Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Harmondsworth,
2007)
Haldon, John, Byzantium: A History (Stroud, 2002)
Mango, Cyril (ed.), The Oxford History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2002)
Nicol, Donald, The Last Centuries of Byzantium (London, 1972)
Norwich, John Julius, Byzantium, 3 vols (London, 1988-1995)
Robert of Clari, The Conquest of Constantinople, trans. and ed. Edgar Holmes McNeal
(Toronto, 1996)
The Rise of Islam
Ettinghausen, Richard, and Oleg Grabar, The Art and Architecture of Islam: 650-1250
(New Haven, 1987)
Kennedy, Hugh, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from
the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, 2nd ed. (Harlow, 2004)
Lapidus, Ira M., A History of Islamic Societies (Cambridge, 1988)
Lewis, D.L., God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 (New York,
2008)
The Crusades
Angold, Michael, The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context (Harlow, 2003)
Asbridge, Thomas, The First Crusade: A New History (London, 2004)
Christiansen, Eric, The Northern Crusade: the Baltic and the Catholic Frontier, 11001525, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth, 1997)
Hillenbrand, Carole, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh, 1999)
Housley, Norman, The Later Crusades, 1274-1580 (Oxford, 1992)
Joinville and Villehardouin, Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. M.R.B. Shaw
(Harmondsworth, 1963)
Maalouf, Amin, The Crusades through Arab Eyes, trans. Jon Rothschild (London, 1984)
Madden, Thomas F. (ed.), The Crusades: The Essential Readings (Oxford, 2002)
Mayer, H.E., The Crusades, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1988)
Phillips, J.R.S., The Medieval Expansion of Europe, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1998)
Riley-Smith, Jonathan (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades (Oxford,
1995)
Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The Crusades: A Short History (London, 1987)
Robert of Clari, The Conquest of Constantinople, trans. and ed. Edgar Holmes McNeal
(Toronto, 1996)
Setton, Kenneth M. (gen. ed.), The Crusades, 6 vols. (Madison, 1969-89)
Strickland, Debra Higgs, 'Monsters and Christian Enemies', History Today 50 (2000),
45-51.
Tyerman, Christopher, God's War: A New History of the Crusades (Harmondsworth,
2006)
Tyerman, Christopher, The Invention of the Crusades (Basingstoke, 1998)
EUROPEANS CONTACT WITH OTHERS: EXPANSION AND EXPLORATION
Lectures
 Europe and Asia 1200-1400
 Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and the Age of Discoveries
Seminar Questions
 What were the main objectives of overseas explorers in this period?
 Why was overseas exploration in the fifteenth century so successful?
 What part did fantasy play in encouraging Europeans to explore the wider world?
Documents
 'The Discovery of North America by Leif Ericsson, c. 1000' from The Saga of Eric
22


the Red, 1387. ['Leif the Lucky Finds Men Upon a Skerry at Sea'and 'Of the
Wineland Voyages of Thorfinn and His Companions']
Marco Polo: The Glories Of Kinsay [Hangchow] (c. 1300) [Description of the
Great City of Kinsay and Further Particulars Concerning the Great City of Kinsay]
Christopher Columbus, Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, 14 March 1493
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 458-461
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 236-242, 269-314
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 280-291
E-resources
 The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has a section on exploration. The Internet
Modern Sourcebook has a section on the Age of Discovery.
 Silk Road Seattle (an extensive collection of documents and images as well as an
interactive map)
 The Miami University Silk Road Project (includes films)
 Genghis Khan In Our Time. BBC Radio programme, Thursday 1 February 2007.
 'Swimming Dragons'. BBC Radio programme, Friday 3 June 2005. See also The
'1421' Myth Exposed.
 Medieval monsters
 Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga
 Vinland Archeology (includes films and audio recordings of the Vinland sagas)
 The Vinland Map
 The Fra Mauro Map, c. 1450
 The European Voyages of Exploration
 Colombus' notes on Marco Polo's Le Livre des Merveilles, Bibliotheca Colombina,
Seville.
Further Reading
General
Arnold, David, The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600, 2nd ed. (London, 2002)
Parry, J.H. (ed.), European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents (London, 1968)
Phillips, J.R.S., The Medieval Expansion of Europe, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1998)
Asia and Africa
Abulafia, David, 'Asia, Africa and the Trade of Medieval Europe', in M.M. Postan et al.
(eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 2: Trade and Industry in the
Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 402-473.
Amitai-Preiss, Reuven, and David O. Morgan, (eds), The Mongol Empire and its Legacy
(Leiden, 2000)
Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities, trans. William Weaver (London, 1974) [A novel inspired
by the travels of Marco Polo]
Franke, H., and Twitchett, D. (eds.), Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes
and Border States 907-1368 (Cambridge, 1994)
Franke, H., China under Mongol Rule (Aldershot, 1994)
de Hartog, Leo, Genghis Khan: Conqueror of the World (London, 2004)
Larner, John, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World (New Haven, 1999)
Levathes, Louise, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne
(New York, 1994)
Menzies, Gavin, 1421: the Year China Discovered the World (London, 2002) [See also
The '1421' Myth Exposed]
Polo, Marco, The Travels, trans. Robert Latham (Harmondsworth, 1965)
Russell, Peter, Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life (New Haven, 2000)
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama (Cambridge, 1998)
Turnbull, Stephen, The Ottoman Empire, 1326-1699 (London, 2003)
Wood, Frances, Did Marco Polo Go to China? (London, 1995) [See also Igor de
23
Rachewiltz, 'F. Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical Appraisal']
The Americas
Columbus, Christopher, The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, ed. and trans. J. M.
Cohen (Harmondsworth, 1969)
Cunliffe, Barry, Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples (Oxford, 2001)
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonisation from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492 (London, 1987)
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, Columbus (Oxford, 1991)
Flint, V.I.J., The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (Princeton, NJ, 1992)
Forte, Angelo, et al., Viking Empires (Cambridge, 2005)
Sawyer, Peter (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (Oxford, 1997)
The Vinland Sagas: the Norse Discovery of America, trans. and ed. Magnus Magnusson
and Hermann Pálsson (Harmondsworth, 1965)
European Views of the Wider World
Allen, John L., 'Lands of Myth, Waters of Wonder: The Place of the Imagination in the
History of Geographical Exploration', in Geographies of the Mind: Essays in Historical
Geosophy, ed. David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden (New Yorks, 1976), pp. 41-61.
Boas, George, 'The Noble Savage', in George Boas, Essays on Primitivism and Related
Ideas in the Middle Ages (Baltimore, 1997), pp. 129-153
Campbell, Mary B., The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing,
400-1600 (Ithaca, NY, 1988)
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, 'On Saracen Enjoyment: Some Fantasies of Race in Late
Medieval France and England', Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31 no. 1 (
2001), 113-46.
Flint, V.I.J., The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (Princeton, NJ, 1992)
Friedman, John Block. The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge,
Mass., 1981) [pp. 178-196 online]
Larner, John, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World (New Haven, 1999)
Lomperis, Linda, 'Medieval Travel Writing and the Question of Race', Journal of Medieval
and Early Modern Studies 31 no. 1 ( 2001), 147-164.
Mandeville, Sir John, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, trans. C.W.R.D. Moseley
(Harmondsworth, 1983)
Mandeville, John, The Book of John Mandeville, ed. Tamarah Kohanski and C. David
Benson (Kalamazoo, MI, 2007)
Polo, Marco, The Travels, trans. Robert Latham (Harmondsworth, 1965)
Strickland, Debra Higgs, 'Monsters and Christian Enemies', History Today 50 (2000),
45-51.
Wittkower, Rudolf, 'Marvels of the East: A Study in the History of Monsters', Journal of
the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (1942): 159-197.
Wood, Frances, Did Marco Polo Go to China? (London, 1995) [See also Igor de
Rachewiltz, 'F. Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical Appraisal']
GLOSSARY
The following is based on NetSerf's Medieval Glossary.
Abbey A monastic community of either monks or nuns. Ruled by an (m.) Abbot or (f.)
Abbess Usually founded by a particular monastic order and bound by their rules. Abbeys
many times owe some form of feudal obligation to a lord/lady or higher organization.
Basically they are self contained with all basic function performed by the residents and
needs from the local area.
Abbot / Abbess Superior of a monastery or nunnery.
Abjuration
A renunciation, under oath, of heresy to the Christian faith, made by a
Christian wishing to be reconciled with the church.
Absenteeism
Holders not residing in the benefice or performing the duties attached
24
to the benefice though still collecting the income from the benefice. An absentee priest
would appoint a substitute (vicar) to perform the duties of the parish and pay him a
small stipend.
Acre A day's ploughing for one plough team. Now 200 X 22 yards. 120 were reckoned
to be the average which would support one family, but the acre varied in real size
according to local conditions and soil.
Adulterine Castle A castle build with out a person's liege lord's approval.
Advent The penitential season leading up to Christmas
Advowson
1) The right to appoint a priest to a parish church. Advowsons could be
held by laymen and were treated as real property which could be inherited, sold,
exchanged, or even divided between co-heiresses (one appointing on one occasion,
another on the next, and so on. 2) The right of presentation to a church or benefice 3)
Patronage of a church living; the legal right to present a candidate for installation in a
vacant ecclesiastical office.
Aid
1) A special obligation of a vassal to provide money for such occasions as his
lord's ransom, the marriage of his daughter, the knighting of his son, or for going on
Crusade. 2) Payment to the king on specified occasions - his own ransom, the knighting
of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest daughter once - or to meet a special
emergency.
Alb A kind of suplice, with close sleeves.
Alderman Derived from O.E. ealdorman and surviving in urban usage to describe the
holder of a senior civic office. Two main usages are (I) the chief officer of a guild: occurs
in the earlier Middle Ages and later in surviving merchant guilds; (II) the member of a
town council, particularly an upper council: increasingly common in the later Middle
Ages, probably under London influence.
Almoner Offical appointed to distribute alms.
Amercement 1) A financial penalty inflicted at the MERCY of the king or his justices
for various minor offences. The offender is said to be "IN MERCY" and the monies paid to
the crown to settle the matter is called "amercement".2) Sum paid to the lord by a
person "in mercy" for an offense 3) A pecuniary punishment or penalty inflicted at the
"mercy" of the king or his justices for misdemeanours, defaults, breach of regulations,
and other minor offences. The offender was said to be "in mercy", he was "amerced",
and paid an "amercement". To be distinguished from damages (compensation to an
injured party) and from fine.
Amice A square of white linen, folded diagonally, worn by the celebrant priest, on the
head or about the neck and shoulders.
Anathema A condemnation of heretics, similar in effect to major excommunication. It
inflicts the penalty of complete exclusion from Christian society.
Annates
First year's income paid to the papacy by the incumbent of a benefice to
which he had been papally provided.
Annuity An annual cash payment, granted for life or a term of years as stipulated in a
contract between a lord and a retainer.
Ansange
Plot of land to be cultivated by compulsory service of the tenant for the
benefit of the master.
Antiphon Small line of text used in worship in response to a larger prayer, or reading
Apostate
The term used to describe one who leaves religious orders after making
solemn profession. It is considered a serious crime in the eyes of the church, being not
only a breach of faith with God but also with the founders and benefactors of their
religious house.
Apostolic Succession The doctrine that the authority of Jesus was passed down in an
unbroken line from the apostles to their successors, the bishops.
Apse 1) Part of a building semi-circular in plan. 2) Semicircular or polygonal end to a
building.
Arbalest A crossbow with a steel box stave.
Archbishop A Bishop responsible for the oversight of several bishops
Archdeacon
A high Catholic Church official, serving more-or-less as executive
secretary to a bishop.
25
Argent White or silver (heraldic).
Arianism
View defended by Arius, a fourth-century priest in Alexandria, that Jesus
was not the same as God, but was the greatest of all creatures; Arianism was the
version of Christianity held by important Germanic kingdoms, including the Visigoths and
the Lombards, between the fifth and seventh centuries.
Armor
Helmets: Armet, Bascient, Cabacete, Cerevelliere, Close-Helmet, Coif, Kettle
Hat and Sallet. Shields: Buckler, Heater Shield, Pavise and Targe. Types of Armor:
Brigandine and Scale Armour. Parts of Armor: Ailette, Aketon, Aventail, Bavier,
Besagues, Bevor, Bracers, Burgonet, Byrnie, Couter, Cuisses, Fauld, Gambeson, Gorget,
Greaves, Habergeon, Haketon, Haubergeon, Hauberk, Jack, Jupon, Pauldron, Poleyn,
Pourpoint, Rerebrace, Sabaton, Sollerets, Spaudler, Surcoat, Tabard, Tassets and
Vambrace.
Arrow Loop A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired
from inside.
Arts The lowest faculty of the university, taught natural philosophy.
Assize 1) The meeting of feudal vassals with the king it also refers to decrees issued
by the king after such meetings. 2) A) Rule or regulation; B) procedure in legal actions
concerning land. See darrein presentment, mort d'ancestor, Novel Disseisin, utrum; C)
itinerant court in which such actions were tried. 3) A rule, regulation, or law, enforced on
the authority of the Crown, though with the assent of the barons, which modified or
changed the customary law. By tranference the term came to be applied to legal
procedures under assize law (e.g., the "assize" of novel disseisin), and eventually to the
courts which entertained such actions and the justices who administered them.
Asylum, Right of: (also called Right of Sanctuary)
The right for a bishop to protect an
fugitive from justice or to intercede on his behalf. Once asylum is granted the fugitive
cannot be removed, until after a month's time. Fugitives who find Asylum must pledge
an oath of adjuration never to return to the realm, after which they are free to find
passage to the borders of the realm by the fastest way. If found within the borders after
a month's time they may be hunted down as before with no right of asylum to be
granted ever again.
Attainder
Conviction of treason or felony and resulting in forfeiture of rights and
property.
Attorney Person accepted by a manorial court to stand in the place of another.
Augustinian Canons
Religious/monastic rules based on love of God and neighbor,
respect for authority, care of the sick, and self-discipline.
Azure Blue (heraldic).
Bailiff: (or bailie, bailo)
1) Manorial official, overseer of the manor, chosen by the
lord. 2) Chief representative of a lord on a manor (usually an outsider appointed by the
lord).
Ban 1) A King's power to command and prohibit under pain of punishment or death,
mainly used because of a break in the King's Peace. Also a royal proclamation, either of
a call to arms, or a decree of outlawry. In clerical terms, an excommunication on
condemnation by the church. 2) Power originally wielded by the king, but later assumed
by counts and castellans to exploit men and levy dues and services in return for
protection. Hence ban inférieur, seigneurie banale, etc. 3) A ruler or governor of a large
province, usually a subordinate of the King of Hungary (or historically so). The title was
used in the western Balkans in Bosnia, Croatia, Slavonia, and Macva. On occassion a
banship became hereditary. Sometimes bans were able to achieve considerable, if not
complete, independence.
Banneret
1) A military rank, superior to that of a knight. Bannerets bore square
banners, rather than long pennons. 2) Lord entitled to have a banner, and drawing
higher wages of war than an ordinary knight.
Baptism Christian initiation sacrament consisting of ritual washing
Barber-Surgeon Monastic who shaves faces/heads and performs light surgery.
Baron Lowest English feudal lord
Baronage The leading members of the landed elite, above the bannerets. The title of
baron carried no specific duties or rights, though most were treated as peers.
26
Barony 1) Name given to administrative divisions of certain counties. 2) Land held as
a grant directly from the king.
Beadle Manorial official, usually assistant to reeve.
Beguines / Beghards Since the twelfth century, a name for pious women who lived
in small voluntary groups for religious purposes, but did not take religious vows. They
were free to own property, to leave the group and to marry. Beghards were men who
lived the same sort of life. They were prominent in Low Countries and the Rhineland;
sometimes suspected by church authorities of heresy.
Benedictine Order
Monastic order founded by St. Benedictine. Monks take vows of
personal poverty, chastity and obedience to their abbot and the Benedictine Rule.
Benefice: (L. beneficium)
1) A grant of land given to a member of the aristocracy, a
bishop, or a monastery, for limited or hereditary use in exchange for services. In
ecclesiastic terms, a benefice is a church office that returns revenue. 2) The grant made
by a lord, usually of land. 3) An endowed church office. 4) An ecclesiastical office, such
as a parish church or prebend, to which specific duties and revenues are assigned. 5)
Ecclesiastical appointment, with cure of souls, usually held by rector or vicar of parish
church. 6) Normally referring to the income, endowments and rights (or the living) of a
parish church, but generally used of any church with income. Derived from beneficium,
the feudal land given in return for service.
Bishop
A church officer consecrated to the highest of the holy orders; usually the
head of a diocese with spiritual authority over the other clergy and laity in that diocese;
believed to be a successor to the apostles; word derived from the Greek episcopos,
"overseer".
Black Canon A common name for Augustinian Canons, derived from the color of their
robes.
Black Death
Bubonic plague that ravaged Europe and Asia in the mid-fourteenth
century and reappeared periodically in Europe for generations.
Black Monks A common name for members of the Benedictine Order derived from the
color of the habits.
Bombard Heavy cannon used in siege warfare, firing gunstones or metal cannon balls
of up to 1,000 lb.
Bondman Serf; villein.
Book of Hours Devotional text of prayers for the saying of the hours
Borough: (also O.E. burg, burgh, burh; or L. burgus)
1) A town with the right of self
government granted by royal charter. 2) Originally a defended farm or residence but
usually used in the meaning current from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, namely an
urban settlement, normally fortified.
Bull An authoritiative papal letter, sealed with the lead seal, or bulla, of the pope.
Burgher A townsman.
Burgonet A steel cap with chin-piece; a feature of sixteenth-century armour.
Buttery: (M.E. botelerie)
1) Room for the service of beverages. 2) Storeroom for
wine and other beverages.
Buttress Projection from a wall for additional support.
Bylaws Rules made by open-field villagers governing cultivation and grazing.
Cabacete
A tall narrow helmet, with a turned-down brim which was drawn up to a
point at front and rear, worn by Spanish infantry in the late fifteenth century.
Caliph Muslim ruler, descendant of the Prophet Muhammed; both secular and spiritual
ruler.
Caliphate Principality of a Caliph
Camera Chamber, private bed-sittingroom.
Candlemass The feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, Feb 2, used as one of the
four year marking dates for social, religious and economic dues, payments and rents.
Canon Law 1) The body of rules governing the faith, morals and organization of the
church. 2) A body of rules administered by courts of the Church.
Canon, Regular A clerk who was not a monk but who lived in a community governed
by a rule and belonged to one of the religious orders of canon regulars.
Canon, Secular
1) A clergyman who belonged to a cathedral chapter or collegiate
27
church. Those who observed a written rule, often the Rule of St Augustine, were called
regular canons. Those who held personal property and lived in their own houses were
called secular canons. 2) A prebendary of a cathedral or collegiate church.
Canton Small division of territory in Switzerland, similar to the English parish.
Caparison
Fabric or leather horse covering reaching to the fetlocks and ususlly
entirely covering the animal except for openings for eyes and muzzle.
Capitular Relating to a chapter.
Cardinal Member of the Pope's inner administration, usually a bishop. Responsible for
oversight of church's interests, either ecclesiastical or secular
Cardinal Virtues Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice.
Carrack Large square rigged sailing vessel of Genoese origin, clinker built.
Cartulary The record of a landowner's (usually monastic) possessions in book form.
Carucage Tax on ploughland.
Castellan
1) Governor of a castle. 2) A captain of a castle. For example, a Catalan
castellan commanded/held a castle of second rank.
Catapult Stone-throwing engine, usually employing torsion.
Cathars
Dualist heretics active in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, mostly in
southern France; the word derives from the Greek word catharos, "pure".
Cathedra The Bishop's throne
Cathedral Church
The church of the diocese where a bishop has the throne
(cathedra) and where he presides. Simplified to Cathedral.
Catholic Church Derived from the Greek word catholicos, "universal"; adpoted in the
second century by one group of Christians to distinguish themselves from their rivals,
particularly the gnostic Christians; more generally, "Catholic" describes those Christian
groups which accept the ancient creeds, including Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics
and Anglicans.
Cavalcade See Chevauchée
Celibacy The state of being unmarried; required of western clergy in the major orders
(bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon) since the twelfth century.
Cerevelliere Simple, globular steel cap originally worn under the coif and helm as an
additional protection for the head, but evolving into the bascinet at the beginning of the
fourteenth century.
Cesspit The opening in a wall in which the waste from one or more garderobes was
collected.
Chamber Part of the king's household which dealt with his expenditure.
Chamberlain 1) An officer of the royal household. He is responsible for the Chamber,
meaning that he controls access to the person of the King. He is also responsible for
administration of the household and the privates estates of the king. The Chamberlain is
one of the four main officers of the court, the others being the Chancellor, the Justiciar,
and the Treasurer. 2) Household official in charge of the lord's chamber.
Chambres des Comptes
Accounting office for French royal finances at Paris or for
Norman ducal finances at Caen.
Champion Officer charged with defending his lord's cause in trial by battle.
Chancellor The officer of the royal household who serves as the monarch's secretary
or notary. The chancellor is responsible for the Chancery, the arms of the royal
government dealing with domestic and foreign affairs. Usually the person filling this
office is a bishop chosen for his knowledge of the law.
Chancery Part of the king's household and responsible for writing his writs and other
instruments of government.
Chantry
1) An institution, often endowed by will or supported by subscriptions
through a guild, to pay for the regular saying of masses for the souls of the founder(s)
and of friends and relations. 2) Endowments of masses, or of chaplains to say masses,
for the souls of deceased testors and their nominees.
Chapel of Ease A subsidiary chapel of a mother church founded to ease the difficulties
of parishioners in worshipping, especially where the parish was very large.
Chapter
The governing body of an ecclesiastical corporation, whether monsatic
community or cathedral clergy.
28
Charter Official document, usually deed or grant of privilege.
Charter of Franchise Documents granting liberty to a serf by his lord. The term also
applies to the freedom granted to the inhabitants of a town or borough. the issue of a
Charter of Franchise frees the town from servitude to feudal lords.
Châtelet Principal criminal court at Paris.
Chattels Movable goods, personal property.
Checker Accounts department.
Chevage
1) Payment, typically in kind, owed annually by villein living outside the
manor. 2) An annual payment made to a lord by each of his unfree tenants. 3) Poll tax,
or personal charge due from dependants.
Chevauchée: (also Cavalcade)
1) Feudal duty to accompany the lord on a minor
expedition or as an escort. 2) Mounted raid into hostile territory. 3) Fast-moving
campaign, inflicting damage on countryside, partly in the hope of obtaining the
allegiance of its inhabitants.
Chevaux-de-Frise
Plank or beam covered with iron spikes projecting at all angles,
originally designed as a defence against cavalry.
Choir
A group of lay clerks or priests (men), sometimes boys attached to the
cathedral or collegiate school responsible for singing services. Also the place in the
church in which the choir sits, usually in front of the altar.
Chrism
A mixture of oil and balm, used for sacramental rituals, and distributed
annually among the churches. The receipt of chrism from a particular authority reflected
a jurisdictional relationship between the issuer and the recipient church.
Christendom
The collective name for those territories inhabited primarily by
Christians.
Christmas Yearly commemoration of the Birth of Christ
Church Place of Christian worship, a building containing an altar
Churching The ritual cleansing of a woman forty days after childbirth
Cinque Ports Originally "Five Ports" like Sandwich on the southeast coast of England
with special privileges.
Cistercians A variety of Benedictine monks, who appeared as a reform movement in
1098 and flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; they advocated a return to
the strict, literal observance of Benedict's Rule; name derives from Cîteaux, the first
monastery of the order; also called white monks because of the undyed wool in their
garments.
Cistern Storage tank for water.
Clergy
1) Term used to include all members of religious orders. The clergy are
generally exempt from jurisdiction of civil courts as well as from military service. 2) A
collective term for men having any of the holy orders of the Christian church, as
distinguished from the unordained members of the church, who were called the laity.
Cob 1) Wall made of unburnt clay mixed with straw.
Cog 1) A type of substantial sailing ship.
College
An ecclesiastical corporation having its own legal identity; not applicable to
monastic houses, but it does embrace academic - which were then ecclesiastical communities.
Common Bench
Court of common law, stationed at Westminster, to hear "common
pleas", i.e., actions between private individuals.
Common Council
A lower, or outer, town council in the later Middle Ages, or the
inner and outer councils meeting together.
Common Law
1) The term referring to the legal procedures that are becoming
universal. 2) Law, originally unwritten, administered in royal courts, as distinct from local
customary law, statute, or equity.
Common Pleas Legal cases concerning private rights, as distinct from criminal pleas.
Communion Reception of the Bread and Wine at the Eucharist
Compagnie d'Ordonnance du Roi Company of 500 mounted men, 15 of which were
formed by the king of France in 1445 to provide a standing army.
Compline The eighth hour of prayer, said before sleep
Compurgation The process of establishing innocence, or failing to, in an ecclesiastical
29
court, whereby six or usually a dozen men swear to the truth of the accused's assertion
of innocence.
Comuni A free city of northern Italy.
Concentric Castle A castle with at least two circuits of walls, one inside the other, the
outer wall lower than the inner one so that archers on the latter could fire over the
heads of the men on the outer wall. See also: Castle.
Conciliarism
The doctrine that the supreme authority in the church is vested in a
general or ecumenical council; conciliarism was extremely influential during and after the
Great Schism (1378-1414), especially at the Councils of Constance (1414-18), and Basel
(1431-49).
Condottiero Captain of a Compagnie di Ventura.
Confession The sacrament of confessing sins and receiving penance.
Confirmation Confirmation of baptism, held usual at the age of conscience
Congé d'Élire
The royal licence permitting a cathedral chapter to elect a bishop;
monastic houses which claimed the king as their patron or held their land directly from
him, in return for a now national feudal service, were also obliged to seek this licence
before they elected their superior.
Conquistadores Christians devoted to reconquering Muslim Iberia for Christianity
Conroi Squadron or detachment of cavalry.
Constable The title of an officer given command of an army or an important garrison.
Also the officer who commands in the king's absence.
Coppice The system of repeatedly cutting back a woody plant every 6-20 years. The
part which remains permanently is the coppice stool. From this coppice stool grow poles,
from between about three and eight in number. These economic poles are the product,
and are used for fencing, simple furniture, small timber for building, tool handles, etc.
Corpus Christi
The feast celebrating the Body of Christ, founded in the thirteenth
century
Corvée Labor owed by a serf to his landowner.
Cottager A peasant of lower class, with a cottage, but with little or no land.
Couchants et Levants Burgundian peasants bound to the soil.
Councils
Ecclesiastical meetings of several sorts, including a) a meeting of bishops
with their archbishop or metropolitan, called a provincial council; b) a meeting of a
bishop with his diocesan clergy, called a diocesan synod; c) a meeting of all (at least in
theory) bishops under the emperor or the pope, called an ecumenical council; almost a
synonym for "synod".
Count The continental equivalent of the English earl. Ranks second only to Duke.
County The English Shire.
Court of Common Pleas
A common law court to hear pleas involving disputes
between individuals. Almost all civil litigation is within its term of reference, as is
supervision of manorial and local courts.
Creed
A brief formal statement of belief; the most famous were the Apostles' Creed,
the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Crenel Open space in embattled parapet, for shooting through.
Crenelation
A notched battlement made up of alternate crenels (openings) and
merlons (square sawteeth).
Crest Heraldic device worn on helm.
Crosses Church lands within a liberty, exempt from the jurisdiction of the lord of the
liberty, and administered by a royal sheriff.
Crossier A bishop's staff, symbolising a shepherd's crook
Crouée Demesne furlong, arable.
Crown
French gold coin weighing 3.99 gm (though weight fluctuated), worth 20.5
sols.
Cruficix Cross commemorating Christ's death and resurrection
Cuisses Plate armour pieces protecting the thighs.
Curate
Priest who exercised the cure of souls in a parish or who held an office to
which it was attached in a cathedral; in parishes the curate could thus be the rector or
vicar or the senior chaplain acting for them in their absence.
30
Curia 1) Latin for a court - in both senses of that word, royal and legal; applied to the
king's court as well as the papal, but usually in this period chiefly with reference to the
papal court or household.
Curtana
The sword "curtana" was the pointless sword of mercy (as opposed to the
pointed sword of justice) borne before the English king at his coronation.
Customs 1) A) Unwritten law; B) levies on imported or exported goods.
Custumal
1) Written collection of manorial customs. 2) Document listing obligations
and rights of tenants.
De Heretico Comburendo The English statute of 1401 for the burning of heretics.
Deacon A clergyman holding the holy order just below the priesthood.
Dean
Head of a collegiate or secular cathedral chapter. Rural deans were diocesan
officers usually appointed from the local clergy.
Decretal 1) A papal letter or an excerpt from one which rules on a point of canon law.
2) A judicial decision made by or on behalf of the pope with reference to a particular
case, but often collected afterwards to provide or illuminate legal principles.
Decretum
A major collection of canon law texts arranged topically by the monk
Gratian in the 1140s; used in church courts and law schools from the twelfth century
onward. The formal title of the book was the Concordance of Discordant Canons.
Demesne
1) The part of the lord's manorial lands reserved for his own use an not
allocated to his serfs or freeholder tenants. Serfs work the demesne for a specified
numbers of days per week. The demesne may either be scattered among the serfs land,
or a separate area, the latter being more common for meadow and orchard lands. 2)
Lands exploited directly by the manorial lord (as distinct from lands rented to tenants).
3) Land devoted to the lord's profit, whether a manor, or a portion of land within a
manor, worked by peasants as part of their obligations. 4) Lands and rights retained for
direct exploitation by lord or king rather than being granted out to others. 5) That land
retained in the landlord's hand and cultivated by himself or leased out, as opposed to
tenant land held by hereditary peasant tenants. 6) The Dialogus de Scaccario defines
demesne lands as "those which are tilled at the cost or by labour of the owner, and
those held from him by villeins". Such lands were said to be "in demesne" (in dominico).
The demesne did not include estates which belonged to the lord but which had been let
by him as fiefs to vassals in return for services (such lands being said to be in servitio).
Demesne, Royal All land in the realm which had not been put into private hands, and
from which the Crown derived rents and other revenues through custodians or
"farmers".
Denarius
The English silver penny, hence the abbreviation "d" and the coin most
common circulation.
Denier A French coin of very small value, roughly equivalent to a penny.
Destrier Charger, warhorse.
Dexter Heraldic: on right hand of shield, i.e. on the spectator's left.
Diocese The geographical jurisdiction of a bishop
Dispensation A papally granted licence to do what is not permitted by canon law, or
at least by the human laws of the church; it cannot alter what is deemed to be divine
law, e.g. the Ten Commandments.
Divine Office
The religious services sung or red by priests and religious at the
canonical hours, i.e. seven fixed times during each day and once during the night.
Double Monastery Combined monastery for men and women but sexually separated.
Ruled by either an abbot or abbess.
Dualism
The theological view that the universe is divided between two radically
different powers, one good and one evil; groups holding dualistic views included Gnostics
in the ancient church and Cathars during the Middle Ages.
Duke A title from the Roman Dux, which has been held over from Roman time by the
ruler of a district called a duchy. In England the title is reserved for members of the
royal family.
Earl 1) The highest title attainable by an English nobleman who is not of royal blood.
2) Count; highest English title in the Middle Ages.
Easter The religious celebration of Christ's resurrection, held on the first Sunday after
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the first full moon on or after 21 March. It was the oldest and greatest annual Christian
religious feast.
Ecumenical
An adjective meaning "universal", derived from the Greek word
oikoumene, "the inhabited world" or "the whole world".
Electors The Six most powerful lords in the Holy Roman Empire who elected the next
Emperor. Three were Bishops, three were secular rulers.
Escheat 1) The right of a feudal lord to the return of lands held by his vassal, or the
holding of a serf, should either die with out lawful heirs or suffer outlawry. 2) Reversion
of property to feudal lord or Crown upon default of heir or upon conviction of treason or
felony. 3) The reversion to a lord of a fief for default of heirs or the outlawry of the
holders.
Estate The nature and extent of one's interest in land.
Estates
Consultative assembly of representatives of the three estates of nobles,
clergy and bourgeois.
Eucharist The sacrament of the holy meal prepared by the priest and commemorates
the last supper with Christ and His apostles.
Exchequer 1) The financial department of the royal government. The chief officers of
the Exchequer are the Treasurer, the Chancellor and the Justiciar. Sheriffs, in their role
as regional chief accountants, present reports to the exchequer at Easter and
Michaelmas. 2) A) Department for receiving and auditing Crown revenues; B) Court of
law, dealing particularly with actions involving such revenues.
Excommunication
1) Exclusion from the membership of the church or from
communion with faithful Christians. Those judged "tolerati" may still mingle with the
faithful, but those "vitandi" cannot and are exiled. 2) The formal suspension or expulsion
of a person from the communion of the church; in the Middle Ages, excommunication
had serious social and legal consequences. 3) Exclusion from communion of Church as
method of enforcing jusdgements of church courts. 4) A sentence (in various forms and
different degrees), pronounced in a court or by a bishop, which excluded the offenders to
whom it applied from the sacraments and church services, or in the case of greater
excommunication from law and society, until absolution was granted.
Extreme Unction The sacrament of anointing an individual near death. Also known as
last Rites.
Farm: (also Ferm; L. firma; Saxon feorme, food-rent)
1) A fixed sum, usually paid
annually, for the right to collect all revenues from land; in effect, rent. Lords may farm
land to vassals, receiving a fixed annual rent in place of the normal feudal obligation.
Many sheriffs farm out their shires, contracting in advance to pay a fixed annual sum to
the crown, thus obtaining the right to collect any additional royal revenues for their own
profit. 2) A fixed annual payment, a lease. 3) A fixed annual payment. The "borough
farm" or "fee-farm" (firma burgi) was the basic lump sum from a town which had to be
paid into the Exchequer each year either by the sheriff of the county or by the town's
own officials.
Fealty, Oath of 1) The oath by which a vassal swore loyalty to his lord, usually on a
relic of saints or on the Bible. 2) The fidelity of a feudal vassal to his lord; a promise
under oath to be loyal. 3) An oath of fidelity. Sometimes confounded with homage since
both were commonly performed together when a vassal received a fief from a lord. An
oath of fealty. however, could be performed to one from whom no land was held. Fealty
to the Crown overrode all other obligations even that of homage to a lesser lord.
Felony 1) In feudal law, any grave violation of the feudal contract between lord and
vassal. Later it was expanded in common law to include any crime against the King's
peace and has come to mean any serious crime. Example: Murder is now a Felony,
taking the burden off prosecution from the victim's family and giving it to the crown. 2)
A serious crime such as murder, arson, rape, highway robbery: the convicted felon
forfeits lands and goods and is sentenced to lose "life or member".
Feoffment A gift and grant of land by which the recipient acquires a freehold.
Feudalism 1) The system of governing whereby semiautonomous landed nobility have
certain well defined responsibilities to the king, in return for the use of grants of land
(fiefs) exploited with the labor of a semi-free peasantry (serfs). 2) Medieval social and
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political system by which the lord-vassal relationship was defined.
Fief: (also Fee or Feud)
1) A) Heritable lands held under feudal tenure; the lands of a
tenant in chief. Sometimes this can apply to an official position. Often called a Holding.
B) Normally a land held by a vassal of a lord in return for stipulated services, chiefly
military. Sometimes unusual requirements were stipulated for transferring a fief. For
example: Henry de la Wade held 42 acres of land in Oxfordby the service of carrying a
gyrfalcon whenever King Edward I wished to go hawking. 2) Land or revenue-producing
property granted by a lord in return for a vassal's service. 3) Property producing income;
a grant by a lord to a vassal to secure the services of the vassal. 4) An estate in land (in
England normally heritable): held on condition of homage and the performance of
services (both customary and specified, including, essentially, military service) to a
superior lord, by whom it is granted, and in whom the ownership remains.
Fletcher Arrow maker.
Franciscan A member of the Catholic Order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi.
Gabelle Tax on salt - a commodity which could only be bought at royal (in Normandy,
ducal) depots.
Gestum A guest's portion: an allowance of meat and drink.
Glebe 1) The landed endowment of a parish church. 2) Land assigned to support the
parish church.
Good Friday Yearly commemoration of the Crucifixion of Christ
Greek Fire Incendiary mixture used primarily in siege warfare.
Green An area of common grassland within a village used for grazing.
Haubergeon
Shortened version of the hauberk, worn by both infantry and mounted
men, those for the former usually having short sleeves.
Heresy Any religious doctrine inconsistent with, or inimical to, the orthodox beliefs of
the church.
Heretic
A person who obstinately holds to a view that is contrary to one or more of
the fundamental beliefs of the church; it is not mere error, but obstinate holding to the
error when instructed by a properly constituted authority.
Holy Orders: (also Major Orders)
Subdeacon, deacon and priest, to whom marriage
was forbidden.
Homage
1) The ceremony by which a vassal pledges his fealty to his liege, and
acknowledges all other feudal obligations, in return for a grant of land. 2)
Acknowledgement by feudal tenant in return for his land that he is his lord's man
(homme). 3) A ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself to be the vassal of a
lord; an act showing respect and deference, usually a preliminary step in the procedure
by which a lord grants a fief to a vassal.
Host: (or ost)
1) Feudal military service in the lord's army. 2) The consecrated bread
of the mass.
Hours The Canonical Hours of prayer during the course of day and night
Imam Muslim cleric
Indenture A contract, drawn up in two parts, one to be kept by each party. The two
were written on a single piece of parchment, which was then divided by a jagged or
indented cut.
Indulgence
A grant of remission of penance for sins, usually emanating from the
pope, but also, on a lesser scale of remission, from bishops; always in return for some
specifically required act and on the assumption of full contrition by the recipient.
Infidel Any one having a strong adversity to Christianity.
Interdict
The ecclesiastical banning in an area of all sacraments except for baptism
and extreme unction. In general it does not ban high feast days. Used to force
persons/institution/community or secular lords to a view dictated by the church/pope.
Investiture The act of formally putting someone into an office or a landholding; it was
a major occasion of dispute in the eleventh and twelfth centuries when reformers
opposed lay rulers who invested clergy with the symbols of their positions.
Islam
The religion founded by the Arab prophet Mohammed (570-632); an Arabic
word meaning "submission to the will of God".
Janissary
Derived from Yeni çeri, literally, the "new corps"; a member of a very
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effective Turkish infantry corps, armed with fire-arms. Its members were originally
drawn from the devsirme (the child) levy.
Journeyman
A wage-worker, generally assumed to be one who has served out an
apprenticeship.
Keep 1) The main tower of a castle, usually free-standing.
Knight The retainer of a feudal lord who owes military service for his fief, usually the
service of one fully equipped, mounted warrior. The ideals to which a knight may aspire
are notably prowess, loyalty, generosity and courtesy.
Laity
The unordained people of the church, as distinct from the clergy; derived from
the Greek word laos, "the people".
Lauds The second hour of prayer, said early morning
Law Graduate faculty teaching both secular and spiritual law
Legate: (L. legatus)
1) A papal representative. There were two distinct categories:
(I) legatus natus (literally "born legate"), a status accorded to the archbishops of
Canterbury and York ex officio to reinforce their supremacy within their provinces; (II)
legatus a latere ("legate from the side"), directly commissioned by the pope, always a
cardinal, and with powers which gave him quasi-papal status within the area of his
legation. 2) A representative or ambassador, usually a cardinal, sent by the pope to
represent him in a particular territory or for a particular purpose. 3) Normally refers to
the legate a latere, who was a papal plenipotentiary sent to reform the local church and
overriding archiepiscopal authority. The English archbishops had a courtesy title of legate
natus.
Lent
The forty days before Easter in commemoration of Christ's forty days in the
Judean wilderness
Liege Lord
The principal lord, or tenant-in-chief, to whom knights rendered their
service in exchange for land.
Liturgy
The formal prayers and rituals in the church, including such things as the
mass, the divine office and the anointing of kings.
Livery 1) To be given land as a gift from the king. Also means to be given the right to
wear a lord livery (modified form of his coat of arms). 2) The tunic worn by a servant or
follower of a lord, being in the colours of the lord's arms and bearing his badge.
Living The ecclesiastical benefice of a rector or vicar.
Mace A weapon used for smashing opponents, composed of a stick with a large head
of metal at one end.
Man-At-Arms
1) A soldier holding his land, generally 60-120 acres, specifically in
exchange for military service. Sometimes called a Yeoman.
Manichee A member of a dualistic religion (opposing light against darkness) based on
the teaching of a third-century Persian named Mani. Damned as a heresy by the
Christian Church. The term was frequently used for later medieval dualists and generally
as a term of abuse.
Manor 1) A small holding, typically 1200-1800 acres, with its own court and probably
its own hall, but not necessarily having a manor house. The manor as a unit of land is
generally held by a knight (knight's fee) or managed by a bailiff for some other holder.
2) Estate held by a lord and farmed by tenants who owed him rents and services, and
whose relations with him were governed by his manorial court. 3) An estate with land
and jurisdiction over tenants. Not necessarily a whole village, which might have several
manors, just as one manor might own land in more than one village. 4) Unit of rural
lordship, varying greatly in size.
March Borderland.
Mark
1) A measure of silver, generally eight ounces, accepted throughout western
Europe. In England is worth thirteen shillings and four pence, two thirds of one pound.
2) Money of account, worth thirteen shillings and fourpence, or two-thirds of a pound.
Market A place where goods may be bought or sold, established in a village or town
with the authorization of a king or lord. This noble extends his protection to the market
for a fee, and allows its merchants various economic and judicial privileges.
Marshal Household official in charge of the stables, later a royal officer.
Mass The common name for the Eucharist
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Matins The first hour of prayer, said before dawn
Maundy Thursday Yearly commemoration of the Last Supper
Mendicants
1) Beggars; the term referred to members of religious orders who were
forbidden to own personal or community property and were required to live on charity;
they sometimes sought their income by begging; mendicant is another term for such
friars as the Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites. 2) The orders of friars, especially
but not only the Franciscans, who lived by begging and not upon landed endowments
like the traditional monastic orders.
Metropolitan
1) Archbishop having jurisdiction over a province containing several
dioceses. 2) A major bishop, standing over a major diocese, ranking below the patriarch
and above the archbishops.
Michaelmas The feast of St Michael and All Angels, Sept 29, used as one of the four
year marking dates for social, religious and economic dues, payments and rents.
Mortmain
1) Applied to the way in which undying institutions, especially those
connected with the church, held real property, and thereby could not be liable for the
exactions which would be due to a lord at the death of an individual. 2) Literally "dead
hand", applied to property held by ecclesiastical corporations. 3) Literally "dead hand", a
term which was applied to land granted in perpetuity to the church; also the title of the
English statute of 1279 which barred all such grants.
Motet Piece of sung music at mass
Nones The sixth hour of prayer, said mid afternoon
Oblate
A child who was offered to a monastery by his/her parents; the practice was
already recognized in the sixth-century Rule of St Benedict, and was legislated out of
existence in the late twelfth century by the popes; often contrasted to a conversus, one
who entered monastic life as an adult.
Or Gold (heraldic).
Ordeal: (O.E. ordel, judgement)
1) A method of trail in which the accused is given a
physical test (usually painful and/or dangerous) which can only be met successfully if he
is innocent. 2) A form of proof in a court of law, by which a divine sign of guilt or
innocence was invoked. The person who was required to undertake the ordeal (usually
the accused but sometimes the accuser) performed some feat such as carrying hot iron
or plunging a hand into boiling water, and innocence was demonstrated if the wounds
healed cleanly. The ordeal of cold water was customarily reserved for the unfree, but
was the required ordeal for all those prosecuted under the Assize of Clarendon (1166).
Orders: (Minor/Major)
1) The grades or steps of the Christian ministry; the so-called
minor orders were acolyte, lector, exorcist, and doorkeeper; the so-called major orders,
which bound their holders to celibacy, were bishop, priest, deacon and subdeacon. 2)
Referring either to the grades of clerkship (holy or minor orders) or to the different
associations of religious.
Ordination The ceremony by which clergy are promoted through the various grades,
or orders, of clerkship. Also refers to the legal instrument by which a vicarage is
endowed and permanently established.
Orthodox
Correct belief. A term used for mainstream Church in East and West until
the Church split. Subsequently the term came to refer to the Eastern Churches in
communion with Constantinople, while the term Catholic, also originally used to refer to
the Church both in the East and West, came to refer solely to the Church of Rome.
Orthodox Church
The dominant form of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire and in
the Slavic lands converted from that empire. Its leaders were the patriarchs of
Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch; after 1054 the Orthodox churches
broke with the fifth patriarch, the bishop of Rome and refused to recognize his authority.
Orthodoxos is a Greek word meaning "right belief"..
Oyer and Terminer
Commissions issued to a panel of justices to "hear and
determine" specific complaints raised by individuals.
Palatinate
In England, a county in which the tenant in chief exercises powers
normally reserved for the king, including the exclusive right to appoint justiciar, hold
courts of chancery and exchequer, and to coin money. The kings writ is not valid in a
County Palatinate.
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Parish
Generally a subdivision of a diocese; administered by a resident priest who
might have other clergy as his assistants; it was the basic unit of ordinary church life in
western Europe.
Parlement Supreme court of appeal in the kingdom of France, situated at the Palais
de Justice in Paris.
Pavage A toll charged to pay for the paving of a town's streets, or some of them.
Peace of God
A movement that arose in southern France in the tenth and eleventh
centuries to place limits on fighting; it placed certain classes of people - noncombatants, women, clergy and the poor - under the protection of the church and
threatened those who used violence against them with excommunication.
Penitentiary The official of the papal court responsible for overseeing the processing
of the majority of dispensations.
Pike Long spear with small iron head.
Plenitude of Power
The plenitudo potestatis or the papal claim to sovereignty over
the clergy and church property.
Ploughland
Amount of potential arable land on an estate (that is, the number of
ploughs there was scope for) expressed as a tax assessment which varied according to
regional conditions and class of soil.
Pluralism 1) The holding by one person of more than one church office or benefice at
the same time; it was a favourite way for secular and church officials to support their
bureaucrats; in the later Middle Ages it was a widespread abuse. 2) The practice of
holding more than one benefice at a time, often leading to absenteeism. 3) The holding
of two or more benefices simultaneously, either within the limits approved by the law of
the church or without them (when it required a dispensation or was punishable).
Pontifical Anything to do with the Pope
Postern 1) Secondary gate or door.
Praemunire Name of the writ and of two English statutes (of 1353 and 1393) which
threatened severe penalties for those who sued in church courts on matters which were
deemed to be subject to the king's authority.
Prebend
1) Cathedral benefice set aside for support of member of chapter. 2) A
benefice in a cathedral chapter designed to support one of the members of the chapter
with income supplied by a manor belonging to the cathedral. 3) The endowment and
income of a cathedral or collegiate canonry; could be estates or parish churches and
their estates or even a fixed cash sum. Hence often a synonym for canonry, and a canon
was often referred to as a prebendary.
Prelate Archbishop, bishop or head of a religious house.
Priest: (or Presbyter)
A man who held the second highest of the holy orders, after
that of bishop and above that of deacon; term derived from the Greek word presbuteros,
"elder".
Prime The third hour of prayer, said mid morning
Primogeniture
1) The right of the eldest son to inherit the estate or office of his
father. 2) System of inheritance by which the first-born son succeeds to all his father's
landed property.
Prior In Benedictine monasteries, the second in command after the abbot; also a term
for the head of a religious house that did not have the legal status of a monastery.
Prioress Either the head of a priory, or in an Abbey the Abbess' deputy.
Priory Any religious house administered by a prior or prioress. If the prior was subject
to a resident abbot, the house is called an abbey or monastery. The title prioress is held
in certain religious houses for women.
Province
Usually referring to a group of bishoprics subordinate to a metropolitan or
archbishop; some religious orders, particularly the friars, were also organized into
provinces.
Provost
1) Feudal or royal magistrate. 2) Royal officer responsible for overseeing
administration of justice.
Quadrivium Arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music; the scientific subjects in the
seven liberal arts; the three literary subjects were called the Trivium.
Rebeck A musical instrument, having three strings, and played with a bow; an early
36
form of the fiddle.
Rector
1) The holder of a rectory. 2) Incumbent whose tithes have not been
alienated.
Reeve: (O.E. gerefa; L. praepositus, prepositus)
1) A royal official, or a manor official
appointed by the lord or elected by the peasants. 2) Manorial overseer, usually a villager
elected by tenants of the manor. 3) Officer responsible for the general management of a
manor (usually selected from among the manor's tenants). 4) The lord's official on the
manor who supervised labour dues and renders owed by peasants. 5) Principal manorial
official under the bailiff, always a villein.
Regular Clergy
Monks, canons, friars and other clergy who lived in communities
under a rule; word derived from the Latin word regula, "rule"; often contrasted with the
secular clergy, the bishops and priests who worked in the world.
Relic An object venerated by believers because it was associated with a saint; a relic
could be something owned by the saint, such as a piece of clothing or a book, but most
often was a part of the saint's body.
Relief: (relevium, from relevare, to take up)
1) The fee paid by the heir of a
deceased person on securing possession of a fief. Tradition determines the amount
demanded. 2) A fine paid by the heir of a vassal to the lord for the privilege of
succeeding to an estate. 3) Payment due to a manorial lord upon inheritance.
Romanesque
The architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Europe,
sometimes called Norman in England.
Rosary Sequence of prayers aided by the use of a beaded string.
Sacraments
Seven sacred acts which were deemed in medieval theology to confer
grace; the most esteemed was the celebration of the mass, sometimes simply referred
to as "the sacrament".
Saint Holy christian individual, immediately upon death enters heaven
Salut Lancastrian French equivalent of the gold crown.
Schism
A formal split in the church over a disagreement about a matter of practice;
distinct from heresy because the split is not over belief; the schism of 1054 marked the
formal break between Roman Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox church; the Great
Schism (1378-1414) was the split in the western church between those loyal to the pope
at Rome and those loyal to the pope at Avignon; derived from the Greek word schisma,
"split or tear".
Scutage
1) The sum that the holder of a knight's fee may pay his lord in lieu of
military service. Sometimes used as a form of tax. 2) Shield-tax, a tax paid in lieu of
military service. 3) Feudal payment in place of knight service in the field. 4) Literally
"shield-money"; a payment in lieu of military service, paid in respect of the knights
which a tenant-in-chief owed to the Crown. The personal obligation to serve of the
tenant-in-chief himself could not be discharged by scutage, but only by fine.
Secular Clergy
1) The clergy who were not separated from the world by a written
rule or by life in a monastic community; it included the bishops and priests who worked
with the laity; often contrasted to the regular clergy who lived under a rule; word
derived from saeculum, "world". 2) Any cleric who was not a regular, but lived under no
rule and outside communities, in the world or in saeculo. The term applied to nearly all
the parish clergy, most collegiate clergy and the canons of the secular cathedrals.
Sede Vacante Vacant see (or bishopric).
Seignorial Jurisdiction The right of a lord of a manor to hold a court for the tenants
of the manor.
Seneschal: (or Steward)
1) Manager of an estate or a household. 2) Steward or chief
officer of lord.
Serf 1) A semi-free peasant who works his lord's demesne and pays him certain dues
in return for the use of land, the possession (not ownership) of which is heritable. These
dues, usually called corvée, are almost in the form of labor on the lord's land. Generally
this averages to three days a week. Generally subdivided into classes called: cottagers,
small holders, or villeins although the later originally meant a free peasant who was
burdened with additional rents and services. 2) Slave; property of the lord. 3) Peasant
burdened with week-work, merchet, tallage, and other obligations; bondman, villein.
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Sergeant
1) A servant who accompanies his lord to battle, or a horseman of lower
status used as light cavalry. Also means a type of tenure in service of a nonknightly
character is owed a lord. Such persons might carry the lords banner, serve in the wine
cellar, make bows/arrows or any other dozen occupations. Sergeants pay the feudal
dues of wardship, marriage, and relief but are exempt from scutage (nonknightly).
Sext The fifth hour of prayer, said at midday
Sheriff
1) The official who is the chief administrative and judicial officer of a shire.
Many of its jobs where taken over by the itinerant justice, coroner, and justice of the
peace. Collected taxes and forwarded them on to the exchequer, after taking his share.
Also many times responsible for making sure that the Kings table is well stocked while
king is in his county (I.e.. Royal Game Preserve). 2) Royal official in charge of a shire or
county.
Simony
1) The buying or selling of spiritual things, particularly church offices and
benefice. 2) The buying or selling of sacred things, such as sacraments and ecclesiastical
positions; owrd derived from Simon the Magician (Acts 8:18-24), who tried to buy
spiritual power from St Peter.
Sinister Heraldic; on left side of shield, i.e. on spectator's right.
Spiritualities: (L. spiritualia)
1) Ecclesiastical revenues, derived from tithes. 2)
Income or rights arising directly from the exercies of spiritual, sacramental or pastoral
authority and duties.
Squire 1) Knight-aspirant. 2) Apprentice knight, aged between 13 and 21, classes as
a man-at-arms in action.
Star Chamber Building erected next to the exchequer in Westminster where the royal
council met, probably called that because stars were painted on the ceiling.
Steward
The man responsible for running the day to day affairs of the castle in
absence of the lord.
Subinfeudation A Western feudal practice by which a vassal of a superior lord could
also have vassals of his own. In contrast, in the Orthodox lands all fiefs were held from
the crown and all service was owed the ruler.
Sub-Tenant Free tenant holding land of intermediate lord rather than directly of king.
Sultan Title of the Ottoman sovereign.
Suzerain
A feudal overlord. The king as suzerain was the highest feudal lord in the
kingdom.
Synod 1) An ecclesiastical meeting; see definitions under "council"; word derived from
Greek synodos, "a coming together".
Tabard
Short, loose garment, open at the side and having short, wide sleeves, worn
from c. 1425 by some knights.
Tallage 1) A tax levied on boroughs and on the tenants living on royal estates. 2) Tax
levied at the will of the lord on unfree tenants, or tax levied on towns at the king's
discretion. 3) Annual tax levied by lord on villeins. 4) Arbitrary levy, especially on
property of unfree tenants and ancient demesne of Crown. 5) An occasional direct tax of
a relatively arbitrary kind, taken from those who (like villeins) were personally unfree or
(like towns) had a customary obligation to pay; thus distinguished from aids, which were
regarded as more freely granted. In towns, used in two main senses: A) royal tallages,
i.e. lump sums levied by the king before they were superseded by parliamentary taxes;
B) town or borough tallages levied by town authorities for their own use.
Temporalities: (L. temporalia)
1) The non-spiritual holdings of the church such as
lands, markets and liberties. 2) Secular possessions of ecclesiastics. 3) Income or rights
arising from the possession of estates or the exercises of jurisdiction over, or in virtue
of, them.
Tenth
The common rate of clerical taxation, usually granted in multiples or fractions
(e.g. half or moiety) of tenths.
Terce The fourth hour of prayer, said late morning
Tithe 1) One tenth of a person's income given to support the church. 2) The payment
of a tenth of one's income to support the church and the clergy; based on texts in the
Old Testament books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and made mandatory in
the eighth century by the Carolingian kings Pepin and Charlemagne. 3) Tenth part of
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agricultural produce, owed for support of local clergy. 4) A tax of one-tenth levied by the
church on harvests and animals for the support of the parish priest.
Tonsure 1) The rite of shaving the crown of the head of the person joining a monastic
order or the secular clergy. It symbolizes admission to the clerical state. 2) A clipping of
hair or shaving the top of the head; tonsure was the ceremony that dedicated a person
to God's service; it was the first step of entry into the clergy.
Trebuchet
1) War engine developed in the Middle Ages employing counterpoise. 2)
Stone-throwing siege engine operated by means of a counterweight.
Trivium
Grammer, rhetoric and logic, the literary components of the seven liberal
arts; the other four subjects were called the quadrivium.
Truce of God A movement that began in the eleventh century which sought to forbid
fighting on Sundays and the chief religious seasons and feasts.
Ulema The doctors of Muslim religious law, tradition, and theology.
Usury The interest charged on a loan. Forbidden by church law (based upon biblical).
Commonly used by Knight Hospitallers and Knight Templars in later medieval times.
Vassal 1) A freeman who holds land (fief) from a lord to whom he pays homage and
swears fealty. He owes various services and obligations, primarily military. But he is also
required to advise his lord and pay him the traditional feudal aids required on the
knighting of the lords eldest son, the marriage of the lords eldest daughter and the
ransoming of the lord should he be held captive.
Vespers The seventh hour of prayer, said at sunset
Vestments Garments worn by a priest
Vicar 1) In its basic meaning, a person who substitutes for another; in many medieval
parishes the resident priest was not the legal holder of the parish. 2) Substitute for a
rector and holder of the vicarage.
Vill
1) Township, local district; small unit of lordship or fiscal assessment. 2) The
smallest unit of government covering the village, or township, and the surrounding
countryside. It was roughly equivalent to the parish, the smallest unit in ecclesiastical
administration.
Villein 1) The wealthiest class of peasant. they usually cultivate 20-40 acres of land,
often in isolated strips. 2) A non-free man, owing heavy labor service to a lord, subject
to his manorial court, bound to the land, and subject to certain feudal dues. 3) The
highest class of dependent peasantry, often holding between 30 and 100 acres; above
them were "freemen" and "sokemen". 4) Peasant bound to lord or estate; in England
regarded as unfree from about 1200. 5) English term for serf. 6) In England, the holder
of a villein tenement for which he usually owes agricultural services to his lord. The
villein's rights in his tenement are customary and not enforeceable against his lord by
medieval common law. Personally free against all men but his lord, the villein
nevertheless does not fully enjoy the rights of a free man. He is a tenant at the will of
the lord; he cannont serve on a jury dealing with the rights of a free man; he cannot
take ecclesiastical orders with emancipation; he cannot make a will; if he leaves his
duties on the lord's manor, the lord can use all necessary force to bring him back to
perform them.
Wardship 1) The right of a feudal lord to the income of a fief during the minority of its
heir. The lord is required to maintain the fief and to take care of the material needs of
the ward. When the ward come of age, the lord is required to release the fief to him in
the same condition in which it was received. 2) Right of guardianship exercised by lord
over a minor. 3) Right of feudal lord to act as guardian during minority of heir.
Writ 1) Sealed document, transmitting an order from the king or his courts. 2) A royal
order to a definite person; a mandate commanding something to be done, usually by the
sheriff of the county wherein an injury is committed or is supposed to be, requiring him
to command the wrongdoer or party accused, either to do justice to the complainant or
else to appear in court and answer the accusation against him.
Year Book Reports of legal arguments in courts, usually common bench or eyre, and,
with the invention of printing, published annually.
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APPENDIX
The Mark Scale for First Year Students
NB Second year students should consult the Second Year Handbook.
All undergraduate modules are marked using one overall system, which runs from 0100. Marks fall into different classes of performance:
70-100 First Class
60-69
Second Class, Upper Division (also referred to as "Upper Second" or "2.1")
50-59
Second Class, Lower Division (also referred to as "Lower Second" or "2.2")
40-49
Third Class
0-39
Fail
The department or lecturer running any particular module will be able to tell you what
specific marking criteria apply in the department or on the module.
With effect from first-year students in 2008-09 the University is making some
changes to how we use this overall scale. The standard required to achieve a
given class on any piece of work remains the same as before, so the borderlines
separating classes lie at the same standard. The following sections apply only
to first-year undergraduate students 2008-09; these students will have their
work marked as set out here throughout their courses.
More information is available from the Teaching Quality website:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/quality/categories/examinations/markscalesconven
tions/forstudents/
Within the overall system set out above, your assessed work and exams will be marked
on one of two scales, depending on certain characteristics of the assessment or exam.
The department or lecturer running any particular module will be able to tell you which
scale applies to the module. Students who begin their course of study in autumn 2008
will be assessed on all History essays and examinations on the 17-point marking scale
described below, part 2. (The marking scale for students in their second or subsequent
year of study remains unchanged from 2007-08):
1) Numerically based work, work with smaller questions (all points on 0-100 scale)
Where an assessment or exam is based on numerical work, or where there are a large
number of questions in an exam with small numbers of marks for each question, we can
use all of the points from 0 to 100. This is typical of many assessments and exams in
Science, some language work, some exams in Economics and the Business School and
so on.
You can find examples on the Teaching Quality website at
www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/quality/categories/examinations/markscalesconventions/f
orstudents/ug08/markscale/examplepapers/
2) Other work (17-point marking scale)
Where an assessment or exam is a single piece of work, or a small number of long exam
answers, work is marked using the following scale. This is typical for essay-based
subjects, dissertations and many pieces of work where there is no right answer and the
quality of your analysis and argument is particularly important. You can find examples
on
the
Teaching
Quality
website
at
www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/quality/categories/examinations/markscalesconventions/f
orstudents/ug08/markscale/examplepapers/
The descriptors in this table are interpreted as appropriate to the subject and the
year/level of study, and implicitly cover good academic practice and the avoidance of
40
plagiarism. Faculties and departments publish more detailed marking criteria.
With the exception of Excellent 1st, High Fail and Zero, the descriptors cover a range of
marks, with the location within each group dependent on the extent to which the
elements in the descriptor and departmental/faculty marking criteria are met.
Class
First
scale
descriptor
Excellent
1st
Exceptional work of the highest quality, demonstrating excellent
knowledge and understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy,
relevance, presentation and appropriate skills. At final-year
level: work may achieve or be close to publishable standard.
High 1st
Mid 1st
Low 1st
Upper
Second
(2.1)
Lower
Second
High 2.1
Mid 2.1
Low 2.1
High 2.2
Mid 2.2
Low 2.2
High 3rd
Third
Mid 3rd
Low 3rd
Fail
High quality work demonstrating good knowledge and
understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance,
presentation and appropriate skills.
Competent work, demonstrating reasonable knowledge and
understanding,
some
analysis,
organisation,
accuracy,
relevance, presentation and appropriate skills.
Work of limited quality, demonstrating
knowledge and understanding.
some
relevant
High
Fail Work does not meet standards required for the appropriate
(sub
stage of an Honours degree. There may be evidence of some
Honours)
basic understanding of relevant concepts and techniques
Fail
Low Fail
Zero
Very high quality work demonstrating excellent knowledge and
understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance,
presentation and appropriate skills. Work which may extend
existing debates or interpretations.
Zero
Poor quality work well below the standards required for the
appropriate stage of an Honours degree.
Work of no merit OR Absent, work not submitted, penalty in
some misconduct cases
For calculating module results, the points on this marking scale have the following
numerical equivalents:
Class
First
Upper
Second
Lower
Second
Point
scale
on numerical
equivalent
range of marks for work marked using
all points on 0-100 scale
Excellent
1st
96
93-100
High 1st
89
85-92
Mid 1st
81
78-84
Low 1st
74
70-77
High 2.1
68
67-69
Mid 2.1
65
64-66
Low 2.1
62
60-63
High 2.2
58
57-59
Mid 2.2
55
54-56
Low 2.2
52
50-53
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Third
Fail
Zero
High 3rd
48
47-49
Mid 3rd
45
44-46
Low 3rd
42
40-43
High Fail
38
35-39
Fail
25
19-34
Low Fail
12
1-18
Zero
0
0
You can see that marks for all work, whether marked using every point on the 0-100
scale (numerically based work and similar) or on the 17-point scale (essays,
dissertations etc), fall into the same categories. A piece of work given a mark of 81 has
reached the standard for "Mid 1st" whether it is a Mathematics exam or a History essay,
an oral language exam or a design project in Engineering.