Chapter 9: Recovery and Growth - The High Middle Ages
Reading Questions
1. How important were new agricultural practices to the production of food in the High Middle Ages? Give specific examples and the
results of new technology.
2. Discuss the structures and changes in daily life of the ordinary European medieval village. How did most Europeans live and what
were the factors shaping their behavior at the communal level?
3. Discuss the primary aspects of the nobility's lifestyle and explain how these characteristics positively and negatively affect your
entire society.
4. What burdens did medieval female aristocrats have to confront and what freedoms did they enjoy?
5. Discuss the life of a medieval peasant family, including work and non-work experiences.
6. What were some of the reasons for the revival of trade and the growth of cities in the Middle Ages?
7. A German proverb of the medieval period states: “The city air will set you free.” What reasons can you give to justify or to refute the accuracy of this proverb for ordinary medieval townspeople?
8. What were the advantages and what were the disadvantages of living in a medieval city?
9. What were the causes and what were the consequences of the development of the early medieval universities?
10. What were some of the reasons for the revival of classical antiquity in the High Middle Ages?
11. Discuss the fusion of Christian theology and classical logic in the High Middle Ages. Which thinkers and writers took active roles in achieving this synthesis and what did they contribute?
12. Compare and contrast Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
13. In what ways does the artistic and literary culture of the High Middle Ages reflect the religious preoccupations and problems of medieval society?
MAP EXERCISES
1. Medieval Trade Routes. MAP 9.1. What geographical features might explain why northern Italy and Flanders were the earliest centers of the revival of cities and commerce? (page 236)
2. Intellectual Centers of Medieval Europe. MAP 9.2. What were the causes, historic and geographical, which might account for France being the intellectual capital of late medieval Europe? Where else were there major university centers in Europe in the High Middle Ages? Why there? (page 243)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY SOURCES (BOXED DOCUMENTS)
1. “The Elimination of Medieval Forests”: What does Abbot Suger's search for wooden beams reveal about the environmental problems of the Middle Ages? What would the forests and timber be used for? What is the implicit explanation for the discovery of the necessary timber in the excerpt? What factors defined the relationship of medieval people to the earth? (page 229)
2. “Women in Medieval Thought”: What common assumptions about the nature of women underlie the arguments advanced in these two medieval documents? What role, if any, does religious belief play in the two documents? Is there anything unique in these in comparison to earlier civilizations and societies thus far studied? What does the document of the Paris merchant reveal about marriage in the late Middle Ages? (page 233)
3. “An Italian Banker Discusses Trading Between Europe and China”: What does the banker’s account suggest about trade between Europe and China? What are the challenges and difficulties that the journey presented? How would trade in China differ from trade in Europe? What would be similar and what would be different? What items of trade were involved between the two regions? Why did the banker comment on the use of paper as money in China? (page 235)
4. “A Communal Revolt”: What does this communal revolt reveal about new social and political problems in the High Middle Ages? How did the rise of cities and urban population concentrations change or complicate an older medieval balance of power between rich and poor, countryside and city? What does the passage suggest about the power of the Church and its bishops in the twelfth century? (page 239)
5. “Pollution in a Medieval City”: What does the king's command to Boutham illustrate about the physical environment of medieval cities? What factors or human habits contributed to degradation of the medieval urban environment? Was the royal government’s involvement in the environmental problems of Boutham unique, or just why did the royal government get involved? (page 241)
6. “University Students and Violence at Oxford”: What does this document reveal about the nature of ton and gown conflicts in the Middle Ages? What were some of the possible issues that divided “town” from “gown” in the Middle Ages? Do the same issues and conflicts divide students from the broader community today? Do institutions of higher learning, over time, work to reduce social violence or simply create new opportunities for and ways to express human violence? (page 245)
7. “The Dialectical Method of St. Thomas Aquinas”: What was Aquinas' view of women? How did Aquinas' argument develop through logical steps? Upon what sources or authorities does he rely? Why those? What are the differences, if any, between Aquinas’ attitude towards women and that of Gratian? What does this excerpt tell you about the educational training and habits of thought among high medieval intellectuals? What is Aquinas’ dialectical method? (page 247)
8. “The Song of Roland”: What does this excerpt reveal about the ideal qualities expected of a medieval knight? What broader purposes, social or political, do you think pieces of medieval literature like this were meant to serve? Are the ideals and practices found in “The Song of Roland” still to be found in the modern world? If so, where and why? (page 249)
Identifications:
1. carruca
2. horse collar
3. three-field system
4. chivalry
5. tournaments and “melees”
6. a castle keep
7. knighthood
8. “Truce of God” and “Peace of God”
9. Eleanor of Aquitaine
10. Blanche of Castile
11. annulment
12. Venice
13. Flanders
14. Champagne fairs
15. commercial capitalism
16. borough/burgh
17. London
18. communes
19. urban pollution
20. charters of liberty
21. craft guilds
22. the “putting-out” or domestic system
23. universitas
24. University of Bologna
25. Irnerius
26. Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis
27. Oxford and Cambridge
28. the liberal arts
29. artium baccalaureus
30. artium magister
31. town vs. gown
32. Aristotle
33. Averroes
34. Maimonides
35. “the queen of the sciences”
36. scholasticism
37. Peter Abelard and Heloise
38. “realists” vs. “nominalists”
39. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica
40. troubadours
41. vernacular
42. chanson de geste
43. The Song of Roland
44. Romanesque
45. barrel vault
46. Gothic
47. pointed arch and flying buttress
48. stained glass windows
40. Abbot Suger
50. Saint-Denis