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WHAT WAS “MEDIEVAL” ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES?. ECONOMIC: Agriculture had such low productivity that no more than 10% of the population could live in cities. Most people were “peasants” or handicraft artisans. DEMOGRAPHIC: Very high birth rates, high mortality rates, and short life expectancy.
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WHAT WAS “MEDIEVAL” ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES? • ECONOMIC: Agriculture had such low productivity that no more than 10% of the population could live in cities. Most people were “peasants” or handicraft artisans. • DEMOGRAPHIC: Very high birth rates, high mortality rates, and short life expectancy. • POLITICAL: Poor communications and transport promoted decentralization. • RELIGIOUS: The “catholic” (universal) church claimed everyone as a member, supported itself through compulsory tithes, and suppressed heresy. • Intellectual: Most people were illiterate. Scholars and the clergy spoke Latin and answered most scientific questions by referring to a few ancient authorities.
Pieter Breughel the Elder, “The Harvesters” (1565):Most peasants lived in villages, surrounded by fields where strips of land were owned privately but worked collectively.
An open-field village in England around 1300:The “demesne” and “glebe” are set aside for the lord and priest
The peasant economy allowed for much leisure time:Pieter Breughel the Elder, “The Peasant Dance” (1568)
THE THREE ESTATES OF SOCIETY:Those who pray, those who fight, and those who work In France the “Estates General” represented these groups: 1st Estate (clergy)= about 1% of pop. 2nd Estate (nobility)= about 2%. 3rd Estate (commoners)=97%.
Peasants relied for protection on professional armored knights, such as these Normans in chain mail at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
A virtually impregnable castle:Burg Eltz, built around 1200 on a cliff overlooking the Mosel River
The “Roman” Emperor Otto III (reigned 980-1002) receives tribute from all of Europe
But the foundations of royal power were weak:10th-century Germany, with the royal domain in dark gray
MEDIEVAL CATHOLICISM’S MOST BELOVED SAINT • Francis of Assisi • (1181-1226) • Renounced his inheritance and even his clothes. • Began his ministry by rebuilding a ruined church. • Founded the itinerant order of the Friars Minor and the cloistered Poor Clares. • Received the stigmata of Christ in 1224. • Sainted in 1228.
Pope Innocent III endorses the rule of St. Francis, 1209(painted by Giotto in the Upper Basilica of Assisi, 1290s)
St. Dominic of Castile(1170-1221):Painted around 1500as judge during theALBIGENSIAN CRUSADEin southern France.
“The Church Militant and Triumphant,” 1365-68(Dominican cloister of Santa Maria Novella, Florence):domini canes=“hounds of the Lord”
“Augustine of Hippo refutes a heretic”(13th-century illuminated manuscript)
Angels turning the wheels of the universe (14th-century manuscript)
“The Triumph of Death”(fresco from the Campo Santo, Pisa, ca. 1350)
During the Great Schism, each Pope excommunicated all supporters of his rival
Many Europeans yearned for a powerful state to maintain peace and order:Frontispiece for Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)