Daily Life in the Middle Ages

1. Daily Life in the Middle Ages Warm Up: December 10, 2007 List five activities of peasants during the middle ages. Also you DO YOU HAVE A QUIZ TODAY!!!!!

2. Major population increase in the High Middle Ages from 38 to 74 million people. Farmers would farm 2/3 of their land (1/3 planted in the fall, 1/3 in the summer, the other lie fallow)

3. Manorial System • Manor was an estate run by a lord and worked by peasants (serfs). By 800, 60% of the people of western Europe were serfs. • Serfs had to work their lord’s land (3 days a week) • Dig ditches, build barns, paid rent, paid a tithe, and pay for their flour being ground in the lord’s mill • Could not leave the manor without permission, could not marry anyone outside the manor without permission • Lord’s had political authority on their lands • Even though serfs were restricted in the manor, they were not slaves

5. The Church in the Manorial System • Religious feast days, Sunday mass, baptisms, marriages, and funerals all brought peasants into contact with the village church. • During feast days or holidays were the only times the peasants did not have to work the land.

6. Daily life of peasantry • Seasons of the year determine peasant activities • Women were expected to work in the fields and at the same time bear children. Their ability to manage the household determined if they would starve or survive. • Bread was their main food supply, but also ate milk, cheese, berries, fruit, eggs, and little meat. It was hard to obtain pure sources of water, so for upper class the drink of choice was wine, for the poor was ale.

7. Growth of the cities • Improvement of trade, causing the creation of a money economy- economy based on money instead of barter. This lead to the development of commercial capitalism: economic system in which people invested in trade and goods in order to make profit. • More rights for the people: right to buy/sell property, freedom from military service, and a written right to freedom in general.

8. Medieval cities were narrow, winding streets, houses were crowded, dirty, smelled of animals • Danger of fire was great: built out of wood and candles/wood fires were used for light and heat. • Pollution: • Air pollution from cheap grades of coal • Water pollution from tanning and animal slaughtering industries

9. Rise of Universities • Bologna, Italy: taught • Roman law • Theology was the most highly regarded area of study; study of religion and God. • Aristotle started a new way of thinking because he arrived at his conclusions by rational thought-not by faith. His teachings were very controversial to the church. • Starting in the 12th century literature was being written in the vernacular.

10. Processor • Go to page 318 in your textbook and draw the Peasant’s Wheel of Life on the right side of your notebook.

11. Warm Up • 3rd hour: I NEED YOUR NOTEBOOK!!!! Hailey Brewer, LazGrayson, • You need to take your quiz: Laz Grayson, • 4th hour: NOTEBOOKS!!!!! Dwayne Barnett, Cassie Govreau, • Quiz: JustynBougeno, Cassie Govreau, Aaron Pepper.

12. Rise of Universities cont. • Classes • Liberal arts, theology, medicine, law • Learn by listening & rehearsing out loud (no supplies) • Learned in the rented rooms of teachers The most popular vernacular literature was troubadour poetry, chiefly the product of nobles and knights. It told of a knight’s love for a lady who inspired him, usually from afar, to be a braver knight. The chanson de geste, or heroic epic was another type of vernacular literature. Heroic epics describe battles and political contests. The epic world was one of combat. Women played little or no role in this literature.

13. Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Monk from U. of ParisWrote Summa Theologica • Dante Alighieri, Poet • Wrote The Divine Comedy • Story of a trip through heaven, hell and purgatory

14. Geoffrey Chaucer, English WriterWrote the Canterbury TalesMade English of London the standard language • Roger Bacon, Franciscan Monk from Oxford Experimental scientist Predicted that self-propelled machines would run over land air, & sea.

15. Medieval Architecture • 11th and 12th centuries saw an explosion of building, especially in churches • They were built in the Romanesque style in the basilica shape. • Was topped with a long, round, stone-arched structure called a barrel vault • Because stone roofs were so heavy, the • churches needed • massive pillars and had • little space for windows. The • Romanesque churches, • therefore, were dark and • resembled fortresses.

16. Gothic style churches started in 12thcentury. The Gothic cathedral is one of the artistic triumphs of the High Middle Ages. Two innovations made it possible. • They replaced the barrel vault with ribbed vaults and pointed arches. The Gothic cathedrals rose higher, therefore, creating an impression of the building reaching towards God. • The other innovation was the flying buttress-a heavy, arched, stone support on the outside of the building. This distributed the weight of the church’s vaulted ceilings and eliminated the think heavy walls of the Romanesque style. Since Gothic cathedrals had fairly thin walls, they could have windows, which were filled with magnificent stained glass. The windows also created a play of natural light inside the cathedral; natural light was believed to be a symbol of the divine light of God.

17. Processor: DUE TOMORROW • WORKSHEET