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Fashion of The Middle Ages
Fashion of The Middle Ages
Alexander Worley
Photo by Slejven Djurakovic at @slavudin
Fashion is a topic that has reigned on for centuries, from simple ideas such as elongating and loosening clothing to appeal a more comfortable stature, to more extreme or even permanent forms such as piercings or tattoos.
This can be shown indefinitely during the Middle Ages, where authors such as Rebecca Rissman expresses that this period of time “saw the rise of a new social order that included knights, nobles, and powerful monarchs” (28). She also conveys that despite the cultural and social changes that occur during this time, there was one constant view that remained the same: The Roman Catholic Church being an dominate influence (Rissman, 28).
The church’s strong ideologies during the early middle ages forced men and women to dress in a humble fashion, as displays of skin were considered a “sign of poor morals” (Rissman, 30). This restricted forms of clothing that many wore, having to be long-sleeved and flowing; this caused for the usage of belts, vests, and cloaks, which gave shape to much of the mess that these lengthy clothes made, and provided warmth during the winter (Rissman,30).
Photo by AnnMarieThomas on Pixabay
Portrait of a Carthusian by Petrus Christus, 1446
For the men of these times, Rissman explains that “beards, mustaches, and long, flowing hair for men were discouraged by the church”(32). Clergymen instructed that majority of faithful Christian men were to keep their faces clean-shaven and their hair short (Rissman, 32). She also gives out two popular styles that these men typically wore due to these demands, which include the bowl cut and the Pageboy, worn with bangs and parted down the middle of the hairline (Rissman, 32).
Men of the clergy, tended to cut their hair into a Tonsure, which generally means any religious or ceremonial cutting of hair (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tonsure). Debra Kelly, a reporter for an online news feed called Grunge, tells that early monks styled themselves this way to be “Slaves of Christ,” and the main purpose of the tonsure was to demonstrate their respect and devotion to the divine (Kelly, Lines 14-15).
Saint Anthony of Padua by Maso di Banco, 1340
Within the Middle Ages, there were three main tonsures worn: The Coronal, or Roman Tonsure, which was the most common, consisting of a shaved middle upon the head; the Pauline, or Saint Paul Tonsure, which was simply an entire shaved head, showing devotion to Saint Paul; then, there was a Celtic, or Simon Magus Tonsure, which was common in the British Isles and Ireland (Kelly, Lines 8-9 & 24-29).
Exact characteristics of the Celtic tonsure has been unknown in recent times, as no known image of it has been found and was outlawed in 664 (Kelly, Lines 33-34). Through ancient writings of the middle age and general research, Daniel McCarthy, a scholar in Dublin, suggests that the tonsure had a shaved front from ear to ear, alongside a “fringe across the front” (Kelly & McCarthy, Lines 30-33).
Video by Vox, narrated by Phil Edwards.
Other than the hair, what differed between knights and the clergy, besides their duties, was clothing that fit their purpose. Bishops, Cardinals, and other ranking members wore embroidered robes and tunics, while priest were affixed to a common black rope (Rissman, 36); this is a following that still is in practice today. Knights, however, wore suits of armor for battles, various ceremonial events, and eventful tournaments (Rissman, 36). Early pieces of armor were simply linked chains of metal called Chainmail, yet later down the line, full plates of armor were used to protect the knights from harsh weaponry such as arrows, axes, and spears (Rissman, 36).
Alongside the knight’s armor, to profoundly identify themselves in battle, family crests, or a Coats of Arms, were used to give out a more defined heraldic status. Beast of Battles or other imagery were held up on flags by servants named Heralds, which accompanied the knight into battles (Rissman, 37). Rissman tells that such crests were shown on clothing, banners, and shields, which became an “important part of noble fashions” (37).
Video by Royal Armouries, 2017. Demonstrating the clothing of 11th century armor.
Clip from Netflix's The King, 2019. This showcases the usage of armor from around 13th to 14th century.
Madonna and Child by Paolo di Giovanni Fei , 1370
Women during these times had a slightly different context to fashion on the other hand, where Rissman conveys that a “women’s hair was long, often tied up in braids or a low knot called a Chignon” (31). The most vibrant thing these women could do with their hair was thread it with colorful ribbons, if they owned any. Any usages of makeup were “considered immortal” (Rissman, 30) and the ideal look for a woman, as Rissman states, was a “pale face with very thin, almost invisible eyelashes and eyebrows” (30). To achieve this ideal looks, women applied leeches to their face to drain the blood, making their skin paler, and often plucked, shaved, and bleached their brows and lashes (Rissman, 31).
Video by CrowsEyeProductions, narrated by Martha Milne.
Now with a social order in the Middle Ages, comes hierarchy and wealth. Throughout the times of the 1200s and 1300s, the major distinction of a peasant from the wealthy was generally reflected in how they were dressed. Peasants were laborers and farmers, which means they wore what they could receive, which was mostly tough and durable material such as wool, linen, sheepskin, and other furs (Rissman,34). Rissman tells that the common colors of these types of clothing were naturally grey, brown, or colored green or blue with plant-based dyes (34).
For the wealthy, they were able to afford much more colorful silks and velvets, which Rissman tells were brought to Europe due to the Crusades that started in 1095, where soldiers were “exposed to eastern traditions and fashions” (30). Europe’s exposure to the east also introduced new articles of clothing, such as the Wimple, a headscarf that draped under the chin, influenced by the headscarves that Muslim women wore (and still wear) in the Middle East (Rissman, 30).
Professional tailors began showing in the 1300s, allowing for the first time, the usage of lacing and buttons to fasten clothing (Rissman, 34), physical appearances in women such as a high forehead became an ideal (Rissman, 31), and most importantly, partial-colored looks were established as highly fashionable, contrasting on each half of the individual garments worn (Rissman, 33).
Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1342
Physician and patient wearing Crawkows by Guido da Vigevano, 1345
Further down the 1300s of the Middle Ages, in 1347, the well-known epidemic of the bubonic plague struck Europe, claiming over 75 million to 200 million lives; through these times however, fashion became a well-sought distraction for both peasants and the wealthy (Rissman, 33). Clothing was finally becoming more fitting to the human shape and less conservative, as “extreme fashions” started showing in times of despair.
Long pointed shoes called Crakowes, or Poulaines, were worn as an inspiration to Asian slippers (Rissman, 33). These oddly oversized shoes could extend from a few inches to upwards of two feet (Rissman, 33).
As for women, a new headdress came into their lives called a Hennin, a veiled hat that was popular in 1400s France; towering version of this headdress could be worn up to four feet (1.2m) in height (Rissman, 33).
Isabella of Portugal by Rogier van der Weyden, 1450
In modern times, our fashion is far more influenced by the global economy, with inventions such as social media and the internet bringing distance closer to home. From viewing these articles of clothing from an era far behind us, we can still see that the direction of influence is in correlation with cult-like behaviors, forcing ourselves to fit a certain ideology. However, what seems to impact us into more creative and open-minded ideals is drastic events that require distraction, placing ourselves into a new view that might be ever-so changing or even common.
Work Cited
Rissman ,Rebecca. History of Fashion. Minneapolis, Minnesota, Essential Library: 2015.
Kelly, Debra. “The Real Reason Monks Had That Haircut”, Grunge, 2018. https://www.grunge.com/141698/the-real-reason-monks-had-that-haircut/
Tomasz Filipek @tombrand on Unsplash
The Peasants' Revolt or Wat Tyler's Rebellion
The Peasants' Revolt or Wat Tyler's Rebellion
Hayden Kammer & Gordon Harman-Sayre
The Peasants Revolt of 1381, otherwise known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, exemplifies the persistent exploitation of the laboring classes, but the motivations behind this rebellion (and the complexities within its formation and execution) were far different than the rebellion’s modern counterparts.
By @valentinsalja on Unsplash
What, When, and Where?
What, When, and Where?
By 1380, tensions in medieval England were high. Excess taxation had been imposed both due to a shortage of labor from the bubonic plague and the continuing hundred-years war between England and France. Funds for the war needed to be maintained, so in 1380 the third tax in a series of poll taxes was instituted, which is cited as the catalyst for the rebellion as a whole, “The Peasants Revolt of 1381 was, without a doubt, triggered by the third poll tax issued in 1380. This fact has been corroborated by both current historians and the authors of the chronicles. This poll tax was issued to raise funds for the Hundred Years War England had been fighting intermittently with France from 1337 to 1453” (Vosti, 11). The rebellion was semi-organized, but it was not a systematic and collective effort to overthrow established authority. Due to slow communications, revolts in specific areas in regards to taxation did not all occur at once. A series of separate revolts took place in different locations, and the collective peasantry banded together at certain points to form a larger force.
Where the revolt as a whole began is often attributed to Essex county, specifically the town of Fobbing against a tax collector by the name of Thomas Brampton, “the people of Fobbing were summoned before him, and in answer to his remonstrances, they declared that they could not pay one penny more than they had done, upon which the commissioner, Thomas de Bampton, sternly and rudely threatened them . . . the people offered a stout resistance, and drove him and his men-at-arms back to London” (Vericour, 81). Villagers then promptly spread news of their small uprising, and encouraged other neighboring towns and villages to do the same. In the town of Kent, revolt flared as well, and insurgent villagers marched to nearby Maidstone where they, “appointed Wat the Tyler their captain, and then took out of prison, and had for their chaplain or preacher, a priest called John Ball, who had been several times in confinement for his having preached rebellion” (Vericour, 82). John Ball would go on to serve as a primary figure in the rebellion, often preaching in denouncement of the current establishment and its excessive greed and serving as an ideological compass for the rebellion. From there, led by Tyler, rebels stormed Canterbury where they forced townsmen and elites to swear fealty to King Richard II and ‘deposed’ the Archbishop (who was absent).
Following the success in Canterbury, the rebels consolidated from multiple locations for an assault on the capital, London, “them of Kent, of Essex, of Sussex, of Bedford and of the countries about, that they rose and came towards London” (Froissart, 63). The rebels stormed London and managed to capture the tower, where they beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury whom they had missed earlier, “Wat Tyler, Jack Straw and John Ball and more than four hundred entered into the Tower and brake up chamber after chamber, and at last found the archbishop of Canterbury . . . These gluttons took him and strake off his head” (Froissart, 73). Richard, however, was elsewhere during the storming of London. He had elected to meet a band of the rebel force at nearby Mile End to listen to their demands: “1st, The total abolition of slavery for themselves and their children for ever; 2nd, The reduction of the rent of good land to fourpence the acre; 3rd, The full liberty of buying and selling, like other men, in all fairs and markets; 4th, A general pardon for all past offences” (Vericour, 87). The meeting did not incite any violence, and Richard agreed to release the peasants from their servitude and, according to one source, even granted them a pardon unprompted (Froissart, 75).
After this meeting, Richard then met directly with Tyler and a band of rebels at the town of Smithfield, where Tyler made a different (more pronounced) list of demands for the peasantry. Tyler addressed Richard while on horseback after riding close to the royal party. Tyler’s arrest was ordered by the king after he ‘rudely’ delivered his demands, and shortly after a member of the royal party struck him with a sword, ending his life. The rebels, stunned by this act, began to prepare for an attack on the royal party, “their captain and guide had been basely murdered; the foremost among them began to put their arrows on the string” (Vericour, 89). Richard, however, convinced them otherwise and mustered a militia at Smithfield to disperse the rebel forces. In the following days, “The King let at once the villains know that all his royal charters meant nothing, and that they must return to their old bondage” (Vericour, 91). Wat Tyler’s death is often considered to be the end of the Peasants’ Revolt, as the movement lost their most prominent leader at a crucial position for making demands of the monarchy. The fallout of the Peasants’ Revolt spread across Britain, with multiple smaller uprisings taking place across Northern, Eastern, and Western England as news of Tyler’s Rebellion reached peasant populations.
A depiction of Wat Tyler (center) and other peasants killing the Archbishop of Canterbury (right) at London Tower (Image from Manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles)
A depiction of priest and revolutionary John Ball (center) speaking to peasants (Image from Manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles)
A depiction of Richard II (center) calling for Tyler's (second from left) arrest at Smithfield, shortly preceding his death (Image from Manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles)
Motivational Factors
Motivational Factors
The inciting incident of the revolt was, as most scholars agree, the third poll tax put in place around 1380, but why was this tax so important to the movement? Why was this the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’? The answer lies in a number of different factors, including religious motivation, economic empowerment, and a general social unrest of the time.
Martin Jernberg - Unsplash
Johnathan Bean - Unsplash
Medieval religion in Western Europe was, by en large, dominated by the Catholic Church, with religious matters often seeping into conflicts both political and on the battlefield. There were key figures who criticized and openly denounced the Catholic Church and its conduct. One notable example was a leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, John Ball. Ball was a priest who had been excommunicated from the church altogether for, “having preached rebellion, and who was now under persecution by the Archbishop for irregularity of doctrine” (Vericour, 82). By ‘irregularity of doctrine’, it means a sympathetic view towards the peasant population, who had suffered in either pseudo-slavery or indentured servitude for generations. Ball took particular issue with the wealth of many clergymen currently under employ from the church, “Connecting demands that no one should pay priests if they are richer than the parishioners and the archbishop of Canterbury raising the wages of, quite possibly some of those very same priests, shows that the churches greed did not go unnoticed by the common people of England” (Vosti, 15). Ball’s religious direction was only a manifestation of public distress. The church could sometimes be an oppressive force to the peasantry, and with the added knowledge that the church had been increasingly possessed by avarice, the popular opinion on the function of the church in society was changing.
The economic conditions in which peasants and working-class serfs were subject to were equally to blame for the rebellion. The direct cause of the revolt was, of course, the third poll tax instituted by the crown in response to the heightening costs of the hundred-years war. Tax collectors in 1381 were becoming more aware of the high levels of tax evasion taking place in rural and peasant communities, specifically as a result of the outrageous increase in the new tax, “ This final poll tax was issued because of a desperate need for money in the war budget and was—by far—the most expensive poll tax of the three. It required that all persons over the age of fifteen (instead of fourteen) pay one shilling, three times the amount of the original poll tax” (Vosti, 17). Tax collectors were then, like in the case of Thomas Brampton, compelled to motivate the paying of this tax through force and threat which only increased the frustration of peasants. In addition to this, the class consciousness of the peasant and working population was becoming increasingly more apparent. There was a noticeable shift in economic power towards a more growing “middle class” of skilled laborers and guildsmen, many members of which were driving forces in the urban attacks on London and Canterbury by other poor workers. Working-class and peasant populations were beginning to realize the economic leverage they possessed, and this in turn led to a heightened consciousness and confidence in their ability to make demands of the crown.
Peasant revolts, whether they be widespread or relatively localized, tended to be conservative in their revolutionary nature. They often advocated not for an entirely different system, but rather a return to an older version of subsistence, where oppression was ‘not as bad’. This often came in response to new taxation, legislation, or technology, forcing the peasants to either shill out more money or adopt more strenuous labor practices to appease their lords. In this way, Tyler’s Rebellion was no different, and there are specific characteristics from sources that can identify the conservative nature of this rebellion. This can be seen first in the peasants’ list of demands at Mile End, wherein they advocate specifically for, “abolition of slavery . . . reduction of rent” and “full liberty of buying and selling . . . in all fairs and markets” (Vericour, 87). While the abolition of slavery may seem like a relatively revolutionary stance for the peasants, it must be considered that this did not mean the abolition of the feudal system. The peasants, in this instance, are seeking compensation for their efforts, and abolishment of unfree labor. This is further supported by the “reduction of rent” - the peasants do not demand that “rent be free”, but rather call for its reduction. Additionally, their ability to buy and sell in markets had been hindered, and they desire to participate in normal economic activities for “other men”. This is not an advocation for the overthrow of a system, but rather a series of amendments to a currently existing system, wherein the peasants are enfranchised to make more profit independent from lords and are compensated fairly for their labor. All of these demands stem from a single catalyst, new taxation, which caused a heavy burden to be carried by the working poor. In response to this, they advocate for a return to a previous system where they are not being taxed as heavily. Additionally, a telling remark is uttered by Tyler upon the storming of Canterbury, “After terrifying the monks and clergy of the cathedral, he forced the mayor, aldermen, and commons to swear to be true to Richard and to the lawful commons of England” (Vericour, 83). If the goal of this revolution was to create an entirely new system, Tyler would not be threatening townspeople to swear fealty to Richard, the king who imposed this taxation upon them in the first place. The system that the peasants live under is not at all in question, but rather it is the way the system is being run, and in conjunction with church greed this fact compounded upon itself. The rebels here are not wishing to create a new system of government or even a new monarchy, but rather to return to a previous time where the conditions and opinions of the peasantry are taken into account.
Jukka Heinovirta - Unsplash
Markus Winkler - Unsplash
Sources, Subtance, and Summation
Sources, Subtance, and Summation
Inconcistencies
The largest, and most glaring, issue with primary sources detailing Tyler’s Rebellion is ownership - was it Tyler’s Rebellion? A name that often pops up either alongside Wat Tyler’s, or even sometimes takes the place of, is that of Jack Straw. Depending on the source, Wat Tyler and Jack Straw are often confused to be the same person, and among scholars there is contention on whether this is the result of the use of pseudonyms and it is very likely that Tyler went by the name of Jack Straw colloquially (Brie, 111).
Additionally, inherent bias in primary sources often confuses the narrative. The only written records of this revolt are by those who are both literate and have access to libraries in which to store these scribal documents, neither of which would be peasant farmers or working-class citizens. Due to this, bias from an elite point of view is often conveyed through primary sources, such as the characterization of peasants as “ungracious people” and a heading in Froissart’s Chronicles even reading, “THE EVIL DEEDS THAT THESE COMMONS OF ENGLAND DID TO THE KING'S OFFICERS” (Froissart, 79, 65). This bias can easily misrepresent events, with Froissart’s Chronicles even taking the liberty that the king granted the group of peasants at Mile End a pardon without being prompted, as he would appear much more generous and benevolent for doing so (Froissart, 74).
What does it mean?
Analysis of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 may appear to have very real, concrete lessons on our modern world. What we must remember, however, is how the aims of this revolt differ from our modern understanding of revolution. When compared to events such as the French Revolution, American Revolution, and the Russian Revolution, there is a striking difference between these modern revolutions and the Peasants’ Revolt. As has been mentioned earlier, Tyler’s Rebellion was primarily a conservative revolt, one that did not seek to change the establishment of the time or even abolish the feudal system. The only aim of the revolution was to allow peasants and working class peoples to more effectively contribute to their local economies and therefore make more profit. Modern revolutions, on the other hand, are mainly based on a radical change of the current establishment and a replacement of a system, one where the revolting class is not oppressed. This is a defining characteristic of revolutions in the industrial or enlightenment ages, where dissemination of thought, rhetoric, and means of production is more freely available and is more condusive to a liberal society.
A more timely lesson modern audiences can draw from this revolt is the fundamental truths of oppression in any society. The only result from long-term oppression of a people is eventual revolution, whether it be conservative or liberal in nature. For example, the same revolutionary rhetoric that was conveyed by African American leaders such as Malcolm X and James Baldwin in the 1950s and 60s is once again coming into the public consciousness. The evidence of oppression speaks for itself in places like Minneapolis, Kenosha, and the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone. And, like in 1381, ‘scribal’ authorities with an inherent bias denounce these protesters and rioters as ‘non American’, similar to how primary sources during the rebellion recounted peasants’ demeanor as “ungracious”. Modern politics and fears of voter suppression resonate with the same concerns that English Peasants had in 1381, where their voice was consistently being unheard and disregarded as rabble.
Clip Taken from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, depicting a class-concious revolutionary peasant at odds with King Arthur
“Help help I’m being repressed!”
Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, or the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, serves as an ultimate example of oppressive forces pushing a people to a breaking point. Consigned into slavery, repeatedly suppressed, and bought and sold as a mere attachment to land, English peasants put their mark on England in a way that could not be ignored. For the majority of peasant lives, however, their contributions, struggles, and dreams will often be forgotten to history. The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 is a stark reminder to elites, both modern and medieval, that attempts to erase a people only serves as motivation to put an even more lasting mark on the world.
Works Cited
Vericour, De. “Wat Tyler.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 2, 1873, pp. 77–93. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3678002. Accessed 7 Sept. 2020.
Friedrich W. D. Brie. “Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.” The English Historical Review, vol. 21, no. 81, 1906, pp. 106–111. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/549422. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Vosti, D. (2017). Concerning Peasants: The Underlying Cause for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (Unpublished master's thesis). Western Oregon University. Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=his
Froissart, J. (1994). The Chronicles of Froissart. Froissart, Jean; translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners (920289747 722715368 L. Berners & 920289748 722715368 J. Bourchier, Trans.). Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/index.asp.
Friedrich W. D. Brie. “Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.” The English Historical Review, vol. 21, no. 81, 1906, pp. 106–111. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/549422. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Vosti, D. (2017). Concerning Peasants: The Underlying Cause for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (Unpublished master's thesis). Western Oregon University. Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=his
Froissart, J. (1994). The Chronicles of Froissart. Froissart, Jean; translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners (920289747 722715368 L. Berners & 920289748 722715368 J. Bourchier, Trans.). Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/index.asp.
Expulsion of the Jews 1290
Expulsion of the Jews 1290
Jackson Garrett
Photo by Giulia Gasperini The Jewish memorial for all the murdered Jews in Europe
In the year 1290, Jews were forced out of England and from other European countries. The living conditions of the Jews dwindled drastically over the 11thand 12th centuries, before the reigns of King Henry III and his father. There was an economic crisis’ that caused the expulsion of the Jews from England. King Edward I was starting to take his reign and no longer found a use for Jewish payments. There were greater sources of income that were more valuable to him. There were also religious reasons the Jews were expelled from England.
One of the main causes for the expulsion of the Jews was the economic crisis that occurred. The Crown saw the Jews as ready money. The Jews had to pay the Crown sums of money for loans and tallages. Tallages are essentially a land tax the Jews paid to the Crown (Elman 145). The Jews paying the Crown eventually become the source of income for the royalty and the Jews were not traders of the time. There is no evidence of the Jews being traders, although there was a possibility of them granting sale credits on wool and corn (Elman 148). This was when Jews were at the hands of the King. The King was able to know the exact amount the Jewish people were making and be able to tax heavier (Singer 121). The Jewish economy slowly began to be pushed out by the widening activities of the Italians, by the time the reign of Edward I had begun. This began in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He had given up a source of income that his father and grandfather had derived from the Jews during their reigns. Since the widening activities of the Italians pushed out the Jewish economy and meaningfulness to the Crown, they were banished (Singer 127). As mentioned before, the living conditions of the Jews was horrendous. They had no source of income to support their living. They lived in their own little sections of the town and were forced out of England. They were all alone and had no one else. This occurred in the 11th and 12th centuries (Singer 77). The other reason for the Jews expulsion from England were religious ones. The Jewish religion does not follow along the lines of Christianity which was predominately in England. All of the food, religious services, and ceremonies are not custom to Christianity. This became very hard for the Englishman and Jewish people to get along (Abrahams 77). Judaism and Christianity emerge from the same monotheistic roots. Judaism does not acknowledge that there was a human God the way Christianity does. This little variation is what separates Judaism and Christianity.
How does this apply to what we are seeing today? We are still seeing the discrimination amongst people across the world. For example, African Americans in the United States, Native Americans, and even people from China when the Coronavirus hit the United States. The Holocaust was a huge event in the 20th century that negatively impacted Jews. They were being eliminated from exisistance. There were six million Jews killed during this time and another five million poeple that were non-Jewish. They were expelled and tried to be wiped out. The expulsion of the Jews has not been a one-time thing. Anti-Semitism still exists to this day. The Jewish religion is looked at very differently. This has been a reoccurring event throughout history. Everyone has been looked at or see as different throughout history.
Works Cited
Abrahams, B. Lionel. “The Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 7, no. 1, 1894, pp. 75–100.
Elman, P. “The Economic Causes of the Expulsion of the Jews in 1290.” The Economic History Review, vol. 7, no. 2, 1937, pp. 145–154
Singer, Sholom A. “The Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 55, no. 2, 1964, pp. 117–117.
Medieval Women Writers
Medieval Women Writers
Henry Egan
Medieval history is often saturated with the stories and accomplishments of men. Therefore, many accounts of women’s participation in society were either not recorded or have been erased and ignored by scholars. This is especially important to combat when it comes to the field of medieval studies and literature. Women had little agency outside their roles as wives and mothers. Despite their limited agency there are a few notable women writers from the Middle Ages. The three I will discuss in this article include Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. These women were able to push past their roles and challenge the patriarchal system. They wrote about motherhood, sexuality, and religion. They applied their own feminine take on the Christian cannon that ruled their lives. This article should serve as a brief introduction to these women, their lives, and their work. I also want this article to illustrate how these women managed to challenge their roles and express their experiences.
First, we have Marie de France. Unfortunately, very little is known about Marie’s life. We really only know her name and that she was from France because she often opened her works by stating these facts “My name is Marie/I am from France” (Ferrante, 64). Her three known works, which were likely very popular, include The Lias, St. Patrick’s Purgatory, and The Fables (Ferrante, 64). Her writing was known to challenge the social constraints that people faced at the time and the heroes in her stories must find creative means to escape their binds (Ferrante, 65). One example of this is “Bisclavret” in which a woman escapes her husband, who happens to be a werewolf, by hiding his clothes and forcing him to remain in his beastly form. She is eventually found out and banished as punishment (LePan, 211). This story shows a woman trying to escape the binds of her unhappy marriage through unorthodox means. Although she is ultimately punished for her efforts, it is likely that Marie is using this, like her other stories, to illustrate the limitations women faced at the time.
Next, we have Julian of Norwich. Julian of Norwich was a theological mystic who wrote about her sixteen visions of God and Jesus. The only known work attributed to her is Revelations of Divine Love which details her visions in which she dissociated from her own body and became one with God. She was likely very educated which was rare for women at the time (Jones, 269). Julian’s writings are especially compelling because of her emphasis on sensual connotation when in her visions of religious figures. One example of this is her account of a vision of Jesus in which she says, “I saw him and sought him [Jesus], and I had him and wanted him.” (Heffernan, 42). In the same article, Heffernan also calls upon another of Julian’s visions in which she compares going inside Jesus’s spear wound from the crucifixion as a sensual, rebirthing experience as she became one with him: “Thus, for Julian, the site of Christ’s side wound is comparable to the female womb, a spiritual site which is concretely erotic with its blood and water, pain and suffering, and desire and love.” (50-51). Julian also describes becoming one with God as “…fully satisfying with feeling, smelling, and even swallowing.” (Heffernan, 45). Catherine Jones points out how Julian emphasized a feminine image of God and the trinity. She points out how Julian considered Jesus as a feminine force and the mother of the trinity (274). Julian also met our next writer, Margery Kemp. (Jones, 270).
Finally, we have Margery Kempe. Kempe is often considered as having written the first autobiography in the English language, The Book of Margery Kempe (Pavlinich). Kempe was likely illiterate and had to dictate her autobiography to scribes. Because of this there is some dispute as to whether the work should be attributed to her (Williams, 529). There is also a possibility that the scribes changed aspects of Kempe’s visions as they were transcribing them which makes the text possibly somewhat unreliable (Provost, 297). Like her contemporary, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe was a mystic who had many visions of religious figures. She would have fits of crying in which she reported having communication with figures such as God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, saints, and the devil (Provost, 297). The first of these visions, which often included sensory inputs such as sound and even smell, occurred after the birth of her first child which makes it unsurprising that motherhood was a heavy focus for her writings (Provost, 298). After giving birth to her other thirteen children, Kempe swore off sexual intercourse with her husband and began to go on many pilgrimages. During these pilgrimages, she would experience more visions (she even had fourteen in one day) (Provost, 299). As I mentioned before, motherhood was a huge focus for Kempe. Tara Williams argues in her essay, Manipulating Mary: Maternal, Sexual, and Textual Authority in The Book of Margery Kempe, that this aspect of Kempe’s writing is often overlooked by scholars. She argues that Kempe brings in aspects of religious motherhood, such as the model provided by Mary, and combines them with a certain kind of sensuality (Williams, 529). Williams Argues that, “Margery reshapes this concept of motherhood by drawing on a wide variety of maternal experiences and images while exploiting the relationship between physical and spiritual motherhood.” (Williams, 532). This aspect of Kempe’s writing is especially important because of how it challenges the traditional roles of women and motherhood at the time.
So why is any of this relevant today? Women’s agency, voice, sexuality, and roles continue to be controlled and suppressed by patriarchal systems. These women I have just introduced all challenged the roles they were prescribed by a patriarchal society and were able to make a lasting impact and legacy of work today. We need to be especially careful when we look back at history to include the voices and perspectives of women, especially in fields like medieval studies, which are so often male dominated.
Works Cited
Heffernan, Carol F. “Intimate with God: Julian of Norwich.” Magistra, vol. 19, no. 1, Summer 2013, pp. 40–57. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=89586162&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Jones, Catherine; Ferrante, Joan M.; Provost, William; Wilson, Katharina, Wilson M., editor. Medieval Women Writers. University of Georgia Press, 1984. pp 64-69, 269-276, 297-302.
LepPan, Don, et al., editors. The Broadview, Anthology of British Literature: The Medieval Period. 3rd ed., Broadview Press, 2015. pp. 210-218.
Pavlinich, Elan J., “Re: Medieval women writers question.” Received by Henry Egan, 3 Sep. 2020.
Williams, Tara. “Manipulating Mary: Maternal, Sexual, and Textual Authority in The Book of Margery Kempe.” Modern Philology, vol. 107, no. 4, May 2010, pp. 528–555. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1086/652270.
The Crusades
The Crusades
Jonah Shillings & Alexander Washlock
Introduction
Introduction
The crusades were multiple religious military campaigns between the European Christians and Middle Eastern Muslims. The military campaigns were about who would have ultimate control over the Holy Land and its religious sites. These sites were considered sacred and of the utmost importance for both sides. The Holy Land is located in Israel and is sacred to Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Baha'is. It is important to them due to Jesus ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection in the Holy Land. These battles were bloody, violent, and ruthless conflicts that devastated both sides. There were a total of nine crusades that happened over a 177-year period. Below is a brief overview of how each Crusade was organized, what the goals were, and what was the outcome of each individual crusade.
Crusaders departing for the Holy Land, chromolithograph of a 15th-century illuminated manuscript.© Photos.com/Thinkstock
First Crusade
First Crusade
1095 marked the start of the First Crusade. It would be a long and bloody war before its end in 1099. It was an attempt by European Christians to reclaim Jerusalem from the control of Seljuk Turks who claimed the city. Both the European Christians and Muslim Turks claimed the city as their Holy Land. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (CEE) states, “It is estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 heeded the call and took up the cause of the First Crusade.” The European Christians were optimistic about the things that they could attain from the Crusades. As is common with Medieval Europe, power was the main thing that drove them to start the wars. The CEE writes, “The chief factors that contributed to this enthusiastic response were the increase in the population and prosperity of Western Europe; … the prospect of territorial expansion and riches for the nobles, and of more freedom for the lower classes; the colonial projects of the Normans; … the desire, particularly of the Italian cities, to expand trade with the East; and a general awakening to the lure of travel and adventure” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Power was the main thing that was up for grabs for all those involved in the Crusades. The pope wanted his power back, and the European Christians wanted to gain power in the Middle East.
Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade lasted 1147-1149 CE. It was a military campaign organized by the Pope and European nobles to recapture Edessa in Mesopotamia. Edessa had fallen in 1144 CE to the Muslim Seljuk Turks. They had an invasion army of 60,000 and two western kings. The crusade was not successful in the Levant and caused further tension between the Byzantine Empire and the West. There were also many attacks in the Iberian Peninsula and the Baltic. These attacks were against the Muslim Moors and pagan Europeans. Both secondary campaigns were mostly successful but the main goal was to free the Latin East from the threat of Muslim occupation. This mission was a failure.
The Loss of the True Cross, from the Histoire d’Outremer, Bruges, c. 1479–c.1480, Royal MS 15 E I, f. 433v
Third Crusade
Third Crusade
This particular Crusade happened around 1189 and lasted until 1192. This crusade happened as a response to the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslim Sultan Saladin. The Second Crusade had multiple leaders and was encouraged by Pope Gregory VIII. The CEE states, “The crusade was preached by Pope Gregory VIII but was directed by its leaders—Richard I of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). These leaders were responsible for reclaiming Jerusalem and all the territory that had been lost or destroyed by the Muslim opposition. The Holy Land was captured by the Christians in July of 1191. The city could have been captured sooner if two of the leaders on the Christian side weren’t too busy squabbling over who would control the power in Jerusalem. The CEE writes, “The city had been besieged since 1189, but the siege had been prolonged by dissensions between the two chief Christian leaders, Guy of Lusignan and Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, both of whom claimed the kingship of Jerusalem.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). This last quote shows that the second Crusade was based more off of power and personal glory. It shows that the reasoning behind recapturing the holy land wasn’t based off of Christian values, or because God had declared it. It was about the power that the European Christians wanted in the region.
Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade lasted 1202-1204 CE. It was initiated by Pope Innocent III to retake Jerusalem from its current rulers the Muslim overlords. Due to many unfortunate incidences, including financial problems and trading constraints, the new target became Constantinople. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and the greatest Christian city in the world. Constantinople was stripped of its riches, relics, and artworks. The Byzantine Empire was divided up between Venice and its allies. This was known as the most cynical and profit seeking crusade out of all of them.
Scenes from the First Crusade (People's Crusade), illustration by Sebastian Marmoret, c. 1490.© Photos.com/Thinkstock
Children's Crusade; Doré, Gustave
The Children's Crusade of 1212, engraving by Gustave Doré.Gustave DoréThe Children’s Crusade
The Children’s Crusade
One of the most shameful and sad parts of the Crusades is the effect that they had on children. The Children’s Crusade followed after the Fourth Crusade. It was an attempt by an overzealous boy from France to take part in the Crusades. The CEE writes, “Led by a visionary French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes, children embarked at Marseilles, hoping that they would succeed in the cause that their elders had betrayed.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Many of the kids were taken advantage of and were either sold into slavery or died horribly. The facts of the children’s crusade are horrible and one of the darker stains on the Crusades. The CEE writes about what happened to those unfortunate children, “According to later sources, they were sold into slavery by unscrupulous skippers. Another group, made up of German children, went to Italy; most of them perished of hunger and disease.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Children are one of the most unfortunate casualties of war. However, they are usually bystanders, not participants in the war.
Frederick II
Frederick II with a falcon, miniature from his treatise De arte venandi cum avibus; in the Vatican Library (MS. Palat.lat.1071)The Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was from 1217 –1221. Pope Innocent III and Honorius were sponsoring the Crusades. They wanted to reclaim the Glory and the land that they had lost, due to the Muslim powers in the region. The CEE writes, “King Andrew II of Hungary, Duke Leopold VI of Austria, John of Brienne, and the papal legate Pelasius were among the leaders of the expedition, which was aimed at Egypt, the center of Muslim strength” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Clearly the Crusades were no longer about reclaiming Jerusalem and being for the glory of God. They were clearly about power and territory.
Sixth Crusade
Sixth Crusade
The Sixth Crusade lasted 1228-1229 CE. It was said by many that this was just the delayed final chapter of the fifth crusade. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II arrived with his army in the Holy Land. He stated for a long time that he was going to and he finally did. Jerusalem had been out of Christian hands since 1187 CE but was finally won back by Muslim’s due to Frederick’s skills at diplomacy rather than any actual fighting. In February 1229 CE a treaty was agreed with the Sultan of Egypt and Syria to hand over the Holy City to Christian rule. The sixth crusade was achieved with only democracy and no bloodshed.
The Seventh Crusade
The Seventh Crusade
A treaty had made things peaceful once more. However, that treaty did not even last a year. The CEE states, “but in the same year the Egyptian Muslims and their Turkish allies took Jerusalem and utterly routed the Christians at Gaza” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). This timeline of events is what would cause the Seventh Crusade in little less than a year’s time. The leader of the Seventh Crusade was King Louis IX of France. The CEE writes that the seventh Crusade was, “due solely to the idealistic enterprise of Louis IX of France” (Columbia Electronic encyclopedia). This Crusade once again provides us with evidence that the land and power was the main goals of the Crusade in the first place.
Scenes from the Seventh Crusade, 15th-century illustration.© Photos.com/Thinkstock
Eighth Crusade
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was in 1270 CE, and was led by the French King Louis IX. The plan was to attack the Muslims in Egypt and then reconquer or negotiate control of key Christian sites in the Levant, which included Jerusalem. They had to attack Tunis to then attack Egypt. The plan was dealt a fatal blow after the death of Louis IX from illness. The campaign was abandoned before it had even properly begun.
Ninth Crusade
Ninth Crusade
The Ninth Crusade was from 1271-1272. This was a rather uneventful final Crusade. The whole Crusade was for a truce between Prince Edward and the Muslim powers. The CEE writes, “He landed at Acre but retired after concluding a truce.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Just like the eighth crusade, it was over before it even started. The CEE gives a little more history about what happened to Christian Strongholds in the region, after the treaty was signed. It reads, “In 1289 Tripoli fell to the Muslims, and in 1291 Acre, the last Christian stronghold, followed” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). After the treaties were signed and the dust settled, the Christian strong holds slowly fell into the Control of the Muslim majority.
Crusades; Krak des ChevaliersKrak des Chevaliers, Qalʿat al-Ḥiṣn, Syria.© Shawn McCullars
Conclusion
Conclusion
These bloody battles did nothing but strengthen the tensions between Christians and Muslims in the area. The anti-Muslim sentiment was spread to the European Christians by Pope Urban II in the very beginning of the Crusades. A quote from the CEE says, “Exaggerating the anti-Christian acts of the Muslims, Urban exhorted Christendom to go to war for the Sepulcher…” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). This would breed years of hatred and anti-Muslim sentiment. Today we can still see that there is still fighting over the city of Jerusalem, and we can also see that the anti-Muslim sentiment that developed hundreds of years ago. The fallout over power in the Middle East has had lasting repercussions for hundreds of years.
Works Cited
Cartwright, Mark. “Second Crusade.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 3 Sept. 2020,
www.ancient.eu/Second_Crusade/.
Cartwright, Mark. “Fourth Crusade.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 4
Sept. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Fourth_Crusade/.
Cartwright, Mark. “Sixth Crusade.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 5
Sept. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Sixth_Crusade/.
Cartwright, Mark. “Eighth Crusade.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 5
Sept. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Eighth_Crusade/.
“Crusades.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, Feb. 2020, pp. 1–4.
EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=134510649&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Heretics and Heresies
Heretics and Heresies
Willie Kadel and Dylan Torbush
A heretic, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “One who maintains theological or religious opinions at variance with the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, that of any church or religious system, considered as orthodox. Also transferred with reference to non-Christian religions.” Essentially if you were someone in the Middle Ages living in Western Europe then you were most likely a conforming Christian. No matter if you wanted to be or not the repercussions for not conforming to social norms was often death. Not following Christianity is not the only way to commit heresy though. Any act going against the social norm in an area is considered heresy. This can be in areas that follow Islam, or any other religion. However, in Europe most people were Christians.
Fb78, . "Jan Hus Being Burnt at the Stake." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 01 Jul 2019. Web. 08 Sep 2020.
One of the most extreme punishments for heretics would be death by fire. Barbezat explains how a heretic could be tried and convicted for being a demon and helpers to the devil. In a case such as this, a monk explains the death as a gruesome burning of human flesh. Due to their deception to the church the only viable mean of punishment was to get rid of them altogether. “They were taken outside the town, and were together put into the fire near the Jewish cemetery. After the flames had taken hold of them, in the sight and hearing of a great crowd, Arnold placed his hands on the heads of his dying disciples, and exhorted them” (Barbezat 1). This is ironic in many ways; the fact people who claim to be servants of God could go about this type of murder the way they did is very heartless and cold. They did not give these people the benefit of the doubt, as they sometimes did in certain situations. In a way, however, this sends a very strong message to anyone who opposes the Church and their teachings. Anyone who goes again their word is subject to extremely harsh penalties.
Although heresy was often punished very harshly there was more sympathy shown by the Europeans than expected. One of the first know times in the middle ages that heresy was punished came during the reign of King Roger around the late 1100’s and into the early 1200’s. (Lea, pp 235) King roger was the King of Nepal, he was “the first to apply the Roman practice by decreeing confiscation for all who apostatized from the catholic faith-whether to the Greek church, to Islam, or to Judaism, does not appear.” (Lea, pp 236) As the first to punish people for heresy King Roger was not overly harsh with his judgement. He did not convict people who were innocent recklessly. He also was sympathetic towards the kin of a heretic. If one's parents were convicted of heresy but their children were proven to be orthodox then the child would recieve a normal inheritance, including things such as property and houses. People were also not often sentenced to death but instead they would have things taken from them such as money or land or their home.
Cplakidas, . "Massacre of the Paulicians." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 01 Jul 2019. Web. 09 Sep 2020.
As we have seen so far people who commit heresy are often subject to scrutiny and punishment. Heresy though is not always a bad thing. Many social movements in the modern era could be considered heresy. For example, when America enforced public schooling to be open to any and all people despite their faith. This is an example of heresy because it is a movement that goes against the social norms of the area. Back in the middle ages though people were not as keen on the idea of going against the norm. Heresy is described by L.J Sackville to be something that people do to go against things that are “influenced by the function of the text and the genres in which they were developed.” (Sackville, pp 180) This source also talks about the legal issues that came along with committing heresy. For much of the 11th, 12th and 13th century heresy was punishable by law. Sometimes administering the death penalty and others less harsh. Overall, this source shows us that by the 13th century heresy was still punishable and not accepted in society.
All throughout history we see people go against the grain by stepping outside of the normal sphere of everyday life. People like this are labeled heretics and by thinking differently and looking at things from different perspectives it causes them to face severe scrutiny as a result by institutions that rule certain geographical locations. Branches of religions such as Christianity and Islams are among the ones who used law and order, excessive force, and sometimes even death to those who spread “false teachings” and offered their own different interpretations of texts/ scriptures to other people. Generally accepted ideals and philosophies have proven to need somewhat of an upgrade or renovation in its core belief's as time has evolved. In a way, it takes someone with the mindset of a heretic to create change in society; by questioning things and beginning to try to understand the true meaning is the first step anyone should be taking when it comes to try to make change on a big scale. However, not everything needs to be changed but it does deserve to be talked about and analyzed from different perspectives.
Jjensen, . "First Council of Nicaea." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 05 Feb 2019. Web. 09 Sep 2020.
Works Cited
Barbezat, Michael D. “Burning Bodies: Communities, Eschatology, and the Punishment of Heresy in the Middle Ages”. Vol. 1st edition, Cornell University Press, 2018. (pp. 1-2). EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1727987&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Sackville L.J. “Heresy and Heretics in the Thirteenth Century: The Textual Representations.” Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages 1. York: York Medieval Press, 2011. ( Pp 180-185) doi:10.1017/S0009640712002624 (2020)
Lea Henry. “ Confiscation for Heresy in the Middle Ages” (Vol. 2, No. 6) Oxford University Press, April 1887, (pg. 235-240. http://www.jstor.com/stable/546477) 2020
The Fourth Lateran Council
The Fourth Lateran Council
Michael Dane Smith
The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) by Cesare Nebia
In the year 1213, Pope Innocent III of Gavignano, Italy, convoked the Fourth Lateran Council, a watershed moment that comprised the largest and most representative assembly of Christian faith, up until that time. The Council was assembled with 71 patriarchs, those who lead a region with multiple churches, 412 bishops, those responsible for implementing the Pope’s programs of reform at the local level, and roughly 900 abbots and priors, those who lead a single parish or church (Wayno, 611). Rich with culture and emotion, the Fourth Lateran Council left a lasting impact on Catholicism as an entity.
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III succeeded Pope Celestine III after his death in 1198, and became, what records indicate, the 176th Pope of the Catholic Church. For the first time in history, the Pope was elected per scrutinium, meaning that cardinals of the church went out to find a candidate for election (The Deeds of Pope Innocent III, Powell). As a leader, he initiated several activities, policies, and strategies of the papacy and curia during arguably the most important periods in the history of the medieval church. Significantly, his decision to call together the Fourth Council with an agenda that encompassed change and modernization was important. Additionally, his reliance on oral history recounts proved the strategy of effective communication skills that bishops and abbots had to utilize.
The Lives and Times of the Popes (1842) by Chevalier Artaud de Montor
The Council
The Council
Developed in April of 1213 and convened on 11 November 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council served as the largest, to date, gathering of church leaders and representatives. It is important to understand that Pope Innocent fostered the idea of the council in 1213 but did not call it order until November of 1215, providing a two year span of communicating and planning the agenda and logistics. The council, Roberto Brentano once wrote, “was the secular church’s official announcement of a general change in the way that educated or enthusiastic ecclesiastics looked at their world and more specifically their jobs.” (Wayno, 613) The council’s agenda went as such: A new crusade to the Holy land; Church doctrine and the rise of heresy; Jewish-Christian relationships; a wide array of Christian reforms; and, most importantly, measures for improving pastoral care. Specifically, pastoral care is the ability to "lead God's people, by the word of God's grace, into eternity with God" (McDonald). In other words, using the word of God to lead followers of Christianity into eternity, or endless life after death. In response of these deliberations, the council constructed seventy-one constitutions that reflected clerical debate and thought of the ideas presented within the agenda. These constitutions were later referred to as canons for development and progress, in which were oftentimes referred to in the coming years of the church.
Constitutions, or Canons
Constitutions, or Canons
Jeffrey Wayno argues that the cannons have become the hallmark of this event, as they provide construct details for the development of Church ideologies. For centuries, “seminal works ranging in different areas have frequently cited the canons, and the ideas that underpinned them, as some of the most ambitious, significant, and even revolutionary of the Middle Ages (Wayno, 612)." Significant to serving the needs and wants of the Church, the canons constructed a new way of thinking and articulating ideas and conceptions of Catholicism.
Canon 1:
The 1st Canon constructs the idea of transubstantiation, or the process of bread being changed by the divine power into the body and wine into the blood. There is one Universal Church of the faithful, where Jesus Christ is the sacrifice with his body and blood truly containing the sacrament of the altar. Ever since the development of this constitution, the Church has considered the sacrament of Jesus Christ to be performed through Eucharist Prayer (The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, Schroeder). Prayer that commemorates the Last Supper where Jesus was recalled having split bread and served wine as the consecrated elements of his body.
Canon 11:
The 11th Canon developed the guideline that every church must have a member dedicated to the education and development of the youth, or anyone in need of assistance. The Third Lateran Council is credited for the development of this idea, but the Fourth Lateran Council is known for implementing it and making it a requirement (The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, Schroeder). The improvement for pastoral care has allowed for more members of clergies to be educated within the Gospel and the Church. Pope Innocent III believed in having someone dedicated to education that way generations to come could embody the ideologies set forth through Catholicism.
Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
Significant for its structural integrity and everlasting rhetorical impact, the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran served as the gathering place for the Fourth Lateran Council. With the title “Archbasilica,” it is the oldest and highest ranking of the four papal major basilicas. The oldest church in the city of Rome, it holds the cathedra – the raised seat, or throne, of the Roman Bishop. Being outside of the Vatican, it serves as one of the most sacred geographical sites of the Catholic faith.
Photo by Fineas Anton @fineas.anton
Video by WorldSiteGuides, 2011. Demonstrating the architecture and significance of the St John Lateran in Rome.
Significance
Significance
The Fourth Lateran Council called for change within the Church and the mindsets of its followers. We see a significant reliance on memory and effective communication skills, as the seventy-one constitutions were to be implemented right away without copies being administered abundantly. The reliance of communication is important because without it, the individual churches would not have been able to embody the changes. Canons one and eleven are significant as they have had a lasting impact on multiple generations of Catholic followers and influencers. The sacred Eucharist prayer combined with the body and blood of Jesus Christ serves as a Universal commonality among all Christians and can be relied on in many instances. We see a call for action during this time, significantly a nudge for more complex educational services and pastoral care. All of which have impacted our modern world in more ways than meets the eye.
Works Cited
Jones, Andrew W. “The Preacher of the Fourth Lateran Council.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, vol. 18, no. 2, 2015, pp. 121–149. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/log.2015.0011
McDonald, Dave. “Pastoral Care (1): Definitions and Background - The Gospel Coalition: Australia.” The Gospel Coalition | Australia, 31 Dec. 2015, au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/pastoral-care/.
Powell, James M. The Deeds of Pope Innocent III. Catholic University of America Press, 2011. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&AN=2015832268&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Schroeder, H.J. “The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project, sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/lateran4.asp.
Bestiaries
Bestiaries
Andrew Gawrisch
Dragons, unicorns, gargoyles, bears, lambs, and birds. What do these all have in common? Well they were all put into a book called a bestiary. A bestiary is a book containing both real and mythological animals created in the medieval time period. Within the book there’s normally a picture, description, and a Christian allegory (The British Library). These pictures can make the animals within them look friendly or nightmarish depending on how the scribe depicts them. For example a scribe could’ve made a bird eating an animal but someone petting a leopard. Along with that most bestiaries are unique texts. Some books could have 150 animals while another might have 50, this doesn't mean that the bestiaries were better or worse based on the number of animals but more so the fact that vellum was expensive. Along with that there’s still the description, drawing, and allegory each record.
A bestiary has allegories within them; an allegory is a poem or story that has an underlying meaning. In the context of a bestiary, allegories were used to teach Christian morals and “help to define humanity’s special difference and closeness to God”(44 Crane). This is because animals were considered uncivilized and not the same form as God compared to humans. A prime example of this is from “The Priest and the Wolf” (44 Crane), here the story is about a priest who teaches a wolf the alphabet and asks him what comes to mind, “The wolf answers and says to him, “Lamb!” The priest says he spoke truly: As in the mind, so in the mouth” (45 Crane). Here the wolf reveals he’s thinking only about lambs instead of learning the alphabet, the moral is that the words you think about will come out instead of the ones you’re supposed to say.
Bestiaries also gave traits that were used to define the animals. Many animals had traits or were given some (mythical animals). A few of these traits are still prevalent when we see the animal, "the lion 'noble and brave and high-bred', the fox 'mischievous and wicked'” (74 Crane). When most people think of a lion they think of a majestic and mighty animal and with a fox most think of a sly and greedy. After that the animals would be put into certain categories. Animals would put into groups based on if they were tamed or wild. Within those groups the animals would be put into smaller groups based on if the animal was nice or evil. For example a dog that always bites would be an evil tamed animal but a mountain goat would be a nice wild animal.
Bestiaries aren’t well known today nor are they still being made, but they still have concepts that are used today. A common example many know is from Pokémon. In Pokémon there’s a device called a Pokedex, in this device every time a person encounters or captures a Pokémon they can look at the device and find out what Pokémon it is along with other various things. The Pokedex has a picture of the creature along with some facts and brief description just like a bestiary. The most commonly known Pokémon is probably Pikachu, the Pokedex would show a picture of it and the description could be a lightning type mouse Pokémon from the mountains.
Aberdeen Bestiary Owl from the 12th centuryPhoto from Wikimedia
Works Cited
“A Bestiary’s Taxonomy of Creatures.” Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain, by Susan Crane, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, pp. 69–100. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhm62.7. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
The British Library. Early Illustrated Bestiary (2019). Print.
The British Library. How To Capture An Antelope, In A Bestiary (2008). Web.
“Wolf, Man, and Wolf-Man.” Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain, by Susan Crane, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, pp. 42–68. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhm62.6. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Arabic Philosophy
Arabic Philosophy
Alex Goodnight & Derek Miller
Socrates and his Students, illustration from ‘Kitab Mukhtar al-Hikam wa-Mahasin al-Kilam’ by Al-Mubashir, Turkish School, (13th c) Photo by Bridgeman
Introduction
Introduction
What do math, ancient Greek philosophers, and old English literature have in common? The answer to this question is fairly simple, but its implications are much deeper than a short phrase or brief explanation of what happened long ago. The common factor between those three topics traces its origins all the way back to the vast lands of the Middle East. These lands are credited with being the birthplace of civilization itself, so it is hardly surprising that this region is known to be a well of knowledge that deeply influenced the way people viewed the world around them for centuries. One of the most notable examples of this impact on the world is that of the Arabic philosophers and their doctrines. These profound thinkers borrowed concepts from the Islamic religion and the teachings of Hellenic philosophers, like Aristotle and Plato, and introduced them to the West. In fact, "the introduction of Arabic philosophy into Latin Europe led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines" (Hasse). The purpose of this brief and introductory article is to explore the thoughts of these forerunners, highlight important examples in medieval English writings, and why the discussion of Arabic Philosophy is important in the midst of the twenty-first century. By bringing these topics of discussion into light, it is hoped that scholars of medieval history and general knowledge seekers alike will obtain a better understanding of the origins of particular views that span continents, seas, and time itself.
Scholars in a library from the Maqama of Hariri manuscript. Courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale/Wikipedia
Al-Kindi
Al-Kindi
One of the most influential people to be classified as a medieval Arabic philosopher would be Al-Kindi, that lived in eighth century Iraq. He was born into a wealthy family in the Kinda tribe, which has great significance to the founding of the Islamic faith (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/). This livelihood exposed him to a variety of perspectives on the world around him and Islam itself. According to Frank E. Smitha, a historian, Al-Kindi "has been described as the first of the Muslim philosophers influenced by Aristotle" (Smitha). Smitha describes Al-Kindi as attempting to combine the teachings of the Islamic faith with the teachings of the famed Greek philosopher that lived before his time. Al-Kindi's interests in Aristotle inspired him to dabble in topics involving the human soul, mathematics, and music theory. One of Al-Kinbi's most profound ideas appears in the text known as On First Philosophy, and it states that a "true One" exists in the universe. He is also known for founding and overseeing the the group of followers of his teachings, called "Kindi Circle". (stanford Al-Kindi) This group of philosophers and scholars were heavily focused on translating Greek works into Arabic. From there, as information trickled from Arabia to the European continent, Al-kindi's influence started to take shape. A major source of the spread was concentrated in Spain since the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Islam around the tenth century. This civilization was quite prosperous and it attracted scholars from the British Isles that worked tirelessly to find relevant texts on science and philosophy (Streetman). The influence of Al-Kindi is felt in The Miller's Tale by Chaucer because of its subtle mentions of astrolabes and arithmetic. This is intriguing because this story told through the perspective of a drunken miller in a tavern, so it seems as if the works of Al-Kindi were commonplace in medieval England. Although there are many other philosophers of Arabic origin, Al-Kindi is one of the greatest contributors to the diffusion of Greek philosophy to the West.
Ibn Sīnā
Ibn Sīnā
Another important figure to note is Ibn Sīnā. You may also see him referred to as "Avicenna", which is his Latinized name. This thinker was born in the tenth century, so he came slightly after Al-Kindi. He is an influential component in the story of Arabic philosophical works because he was credited with making Aristotelian thought compatible with the Islamic faith (Gutas, Dimitri). For a brief point in time, Aristotle was considered to be problematic in the eyes of Muslims because it clashed with their ideas of creationism. Before Ibn Sīnā, the most widely accepted views were almost exclusively Platonic. Many scholars of the subject suggest that Ibn Sīnā was able to turn the tide in favor of Aristotle because he was able to "synthesize and to extend the many intellectual trends of his time" that included approaches to Islamic thought and Hellenic teachings of the ancient world (McGinnis). This is significant because, without Ibn Sīnā, the ideas of Aristotle would have never been brought into the realm of Arabic philosophic thought and spread westward as history tells. Much like Al-Kindi, Ibn Sīnā's works were mostly concentrated in Islamic Spain and diffused outward to the rest of Europe.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/574842339908970730/
Food for Modern Thoughts
Food for Modern Thoughts
A contemporary perspective on Arabic philosophy that started in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, called the "Critical period", is heavily focused on looking through a lens of thought that asks philosophers to be critical of both the previous phases of doctrines and the modern West. This is important when examining English literature from the Middle Ages because it allows people to think critically about where the ideas came from and whether or not they are conducive for engendering productive conversations about the difference and similarities between the east and west. It is also important to note that people are deserving of respect no matter where and when they are from because there are influential ideas and practices that encompass more than a singular group. Laying out these distinctions could help people get to the core of what it means to coexist in a world with people with a variety of perspectives and accept that humanity does not fit into a mold. As these discussions get increasingly more profound and productive, Arabic philosophical thought can finally move on to a new and official third wave. The reason why Arabic philosophy is not in a new era already is because this Critical period is simply extrapolating on what was already established. In other words, no "new philosophical positions" have been produced since the twentieth century. In order to continue further, Arabic philosophy needs to figure out "the unsolved question of the relation between western modernity and the traditional Islamic view to the world" (Bayram). Moving forward, people should be willing to take a stand for what they believe to be important and helpful for the greater good. People should be willing to peer into the ideas of other cultures so that they are able to better understand that innovation can come from anywhere regardless of what the practice is. Having a firm understanding of philosophy in the modern era is also important because it can assist humanity through a world that is full of struggle and violence so that the world is a more hospitable place for all that call it home. This onset of the third wave of Arabic thought will hopefully be one that includes a wide range of perspectives so that input and information can be heard on multiple levels, from the Scholar to the "everyday" person (Rizvi) .
Scholars in a library from the Maqama of Hariri manuscript. Courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale/Wikipedia
Works Cited
“Arab Thinkers and Philosophers.” Arab Philosophers - Arab Thinkers and Philosophers, www.arabphilosophers.com/English/philosophers/philosophers.htm.
Bayram, Aydin. Modernity and the Fragmentation of the Muslim Community in Response: Mapping Modernist, Reformist and Traditionalist Responses. Istanbul University, 2014. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7eb7/6b4bce2130bf4e025f88a08b834460050899.pdf
Bertolacci, Amos, "Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/arabic-islamic-metaphysics/>.
“Geoffrey Chaucer.” Chaucer, Geoffrey (C.1343–1400) - The Canterbury Tales: III; The Miller's Prologue and Tale, www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/CanterburyTalesIII.php.
Gutas, Dimitri, "Ibn Sina [Avicenna]", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/ibn-sina/>.
Hasse, Dag Nikolaus, "Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta
McGinnis, Jon, and David C Reisman. Classical Arabic Philosophy : An Anthology of Sources. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Company, 2007. (ed.), URL <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/>.
McGinnis, Jon, "Ibn Sina’s Natural Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/ibn-sina-natural/>.
Rizvi, Sajjad. “Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (c. 980—1037).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, iep.utm.edu/avicenna/.
Smitha , Frank. Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 2015, www.fsmitha.com/h3/phil- muslim02.htm.
Streetman, Heidi. (2002). Islamic Influences in Literature of Medieval England And Representations of Muslims in Middle English Texts. 10.13140/RG.2.1.3336.4882.
Castles
Castles
Castles come in all different shapes, forms, and styles. Currently Castles can be found as Tourist attractions, ruins, overly priced homes in beverly hills, however during medieval times castles served a different purpose. According to Mark Cartwright’s “Medieval Castle” an article published may 17th 2018, (Cartwright,Medieval Castle).
Castles were originally built in order to fortify the living units of Knights and Noblemen. Certain architectural features were designed within castles to serve as defensive mechanisms and help fend off attacks by opposing kingdoms or other threats. Castles during Medieval times was a sign of power. The more power someone had the higher and bigger they would be able to build their castle.According to the article by The National Archives’s “Medieval Castles”, Originally castles were made of timber, but if attacked the timber Castles were susceptible to burning down if fire was used during an attack. The timber castles were soon replaced by their stone counterparts as stone is stronger and is less inclined to burn.( The National Archives, Medieval Castles).
“Toosie slide” Drake published April 3rd,2020.
The first castles were Ringwork Castles. Ringwork castles were enclosed living spaces that were surrounded by a wooden wall and a moat. A moat is a ditch that serves as the first line of defense for the castle. Moats can be filled with water to make it harder for opposers to attack. The next type of castles that began to be built were motte and bailey castles. The motte is the man made hill that the keep sits on to look over the bailey. The bailey is simply the courtyard where people reside.( The National Archives, Medieval Castles).
The keep is where people would fight from and seek refuge in the case of an attack. Keeps consisted of a curtain wall which is the wall like structure with the various recurring open spaces along the structure which were designed for arrows to be shot or for cannons to be fired through. Some medieval castles had other features such as drawbridges and portcullis. Draw bridges were released in order to allow people access to the bailey’s when they were trapped on the opposite side of the moat. Portcullis were the vertical sliding doors that could be moved up and down through the use of a pulley system.
Taylor Swift “Blank Space” November 10th, 2014
Eltz Castle, Germany
Castles have influenced modern day architecture and pop culture. Architecturally castles made fortified manor houses popular as rich men purchase these manors so they can become kings of their own castles. The portcullis works very similar to a garage as it is a structure that allows access in and out through the vertical movements of a door. There are a plethora of other influences medieval castles have had on modern day architecture. Medieval castles have affected pop culture indirectly through video games and music entertainment. One of the games that has become extremely popular over the years is fortnight. In fortnight gamers try to eliminate one another with weapons similar to most shooting mes, however it differs because fortnight allows players to build safe havens and keeps of their own while playing. Finally castles have impacted the music industry, as many music videos are recorded in fortified manor homes which are derivatives of castles. Castles represented power and wealth so musicians use the fortified manors in their videos in a manner to depict their worth and status.
Works Cited
Cartwright, Mark. “Medieval Castle.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 5 Sept. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Medieval_Castle/.
Ghidrai, George. “Motte and Baileys, a Decisive Factor in the Norman Conquest of Britain.” Motte and Bailey Castles, The World of Castles, www.castlesworld.com/tools/motte-and-bailey-castles.php.
“Medieval Castles.” English Heritage, www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/medieval-castles/.
The Cult of the Saints
The Cult of the Saints
Andrew Williamson
Agnolo Gaddi: “Resurrection of Drusiana”“Resurrection of Drusiana,” scene from the fresco Legend of the True Cross by Agnolo Gaddi, c. 1380; in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence.SCALA/Art Resource, New York
The largely 5th-century interior of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. By Lalupa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4267471
Introduction
Introduction
The Cult of the Saints began in the early Christian Church to commemorate victims of persecution. “The Cult of the Saints first emerged in the 3rd century and gained momentum from the 4th and 6th century” (Stefon, Spencer, et. Al). Barbara Abou-El-Haj describes the cult as “not a private sphere of spirituality but a public orchestration of ceremony.” (Abou-El-Haj, 3). This is because the saints wanted to provide proof of God’s power at work in the world in order to spread Christianity. The Cult of the Saints believes in Martyrs, or someone who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny his religion by any word or deed. These martyrs were glorified and their remains were included in ceremonies and were thought to be “points of contact between earth and heaven” (Stefon, Spencer, et Al.).
Beliefs
Beliefs
One foundational point of the Cult of the Saints is the belief in relics. Relics are simply artifacts either from the life of Christ or the life of one of the saints. The saints believed that the location of relics was revealed to them through dreams or visions. One example of this is the discovery of the True Cross (the cross that Jesus was crucified on) by St. Helena, mother of Constantine. Legend says that Helena made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 320’s, and a dream prompted her to the location where the cross lay buried (Stefon, Spencer, et. Al). One point of debate centered around this discovery is the dating. Since the event is so old, it is extremely difficult to verify an exact date, but many accounts say that the True Cross was discovered in 335 or 326. This discovery is one of the most popular legends from the Middle Ages.
As mentioned above, the space for the Cult of the Saints was a public one, and this was never more prevalent then at the Peace Assemblies in late 10th century Aquitaine in France. These assemblies occurred in the wake of the disorder following Viking and Magyar invasions. These ceremonies were a good example of the importance of the remains of martyrs. During the peace assemblies, the “clergy faced the living with the dead, warriors and their victims with the relics and bodies of saints, in liturgical postures backed by hierarchical splendor” (Abou-El-Haj). They believed that these dead martyrs walked among the living, and performed miracles. This belief in the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, and the high status accorded those who had died for the faith, and who, through their remains, remained physically present among the living. Although these assembly groups were generally seen as unstable, it displays the public nature of the Cult of Saints and it’s ability to bring people from all walks of life together.
Works Cited
Barbara Abou-El-Hai. “The Audiences for the Medieval Cult of Saints.” Gesta, vol. 30, no. 1, 1991, pp. 3–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/767005. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.
Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints : Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Stefon, Matt, and Ernst Wilhelm Benz. “Relics and Saints.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Aug. 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/Relics-and-saints.
The Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic Plague
Matthew Stephan Troy and Logan Wayne Smith
Photo by Anton Darius
Bubonic Plague statistics
(according to US National library of Medicine)
Infections: N/A
Deaths: approx 25 million people (⅓ of Europe)
Longevity: approx 1347-1351
Covid-19 statistics as of 9/9/2020
(according to John Hopkins University)
Infections: 27,688,801
Deaths: 899,932
Longevity: declared pandemic on March 11, 2020 currently it is September 9, 2020, almost 6 months
The plague of the Medieval era, also known as the bubonic plague, is known as one of the deadliest diseases in the history of the world. The name bubonic plague comes from the actual symptoms of the disease. The disease causes swelling in the lymphatic glands and a swollen gland is labeled as a bubo, thus creating the “bubonic” plague (Wyman, 445). This process often took less than a week before the lymphatic glands would be so swollen that they would grow into large lumps on the person it afflicted and it became lethal for the sick person. This swelling often came with delirium and fever which would continue to get worse as the disease progressed in the week the unlucky soul typically had to live (Wyman, 445). There were also times where those affected by the plague would not even live long enough to have visible swelling in their glands, but upon post mortem examination the glands would be found with slight swelling and traces of the plague that killed the patient. What makes the plague even more deadly is the fact that it is so easily transferable from one person to another. Forms of transmission include contact with an external wound, breathing in the plague, or by eating food contaminated with the plague (Wyman, 447). This made it extremely dangerous for nurses or caretakers of the sick as they were more than likely going to end up in the same position as their patient once they were treated or dead. And it also made it very dangerous for communities that lived tightly together and shared water sources. This placed low income areas at risk to get the plague and spread it to the people in the surrounding areas. The other threat to spread the plague at high rates was the carnivorous animals that came with the towns and cities. Creatures like beetles, dogs, flies, and especially mice and rats were known to transfer the plague to all living creatures around them, and it was typically a sign that the plague was coming once animals like these started to die off in large numbers (Wyman, 448).
Photo by Conner Rabbett
Photo by Nick Fewings
The main effect on society is that both the plagues do not kill equally “The people at greatest risk were often those already marginalized—the poor and minorities who faced discrimination in ways that damaged their health or limited their access to medical care even in prepandemic times. In turn, the pandemics themselves affected societal inequality, by either undermining or reinforcing existing power structures”(Wade). This description of the times is describing what life was like in the Middle Ages, but it sounds similar to what we experience today. This claim can be backed up with statistics such as “Perhaps 27% of wealthy English landowners appear to have succumbed to plague, whereas counts of rural tenant farmers 40% to 70%”(Wade). This seems unjust to todays standards, but have many things changed for those who are marginalized? The marginalized according to Wade, are still dying at a higher rate due to a pandemic, "black and latinos living in New York City are twice as likely to die of Covid 19." There will be some outliers such as famous actors, but those with the funds can easily remove themselves from society and stay as safe as possible from the pathogens trying to kill us. However, after all of the many unequal deaths in the Bubonic Plague there was an opening for all of the marginalized. After all the death and the destruction there was another cultural awaking coming soon for the survivors, and a more equal society was on the way. Those that survived were valued more and made a better life for themselves and for generations to come. Hopefully after this pandemic marginalized people in our society can have the opportunity to rise up in society and live equally among those around them.
Comparisons between the Bubonic Plague and COVID-19
As far as the physical diseases go, the Bubonic Plague and COVID-19 are not alike in any way. The Bubonic Plague is a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis and it mostly affects the Lymphatic system, Lymph nodes, in the mouth, neck, armpits, etc. These lymph nodes become inflamed and cause skin to die and turn black due to rotting, this is how the term “The Black Death” came to be, but we chose not to use the term to avoid negative connotations with skin color. COVID-19 is a virus that attacks the respiratory system, and is only related to the bubonic plague because they both caused world wide death, and have different effects on society.
Photo by Issac Quesada
Works Cited
DeWitte, Sharon N. “Mortality Risk and Survival in the Aftermath of the Medieval Black
Death.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 7 May 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013036/.
“Home.” Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, coronavirus.jhu.edu/.
Unsplash. “Beautiful Free Images & Pictures.” Unsplash, unsplash.com/.
Wade, Lizzie, and Ann Gibbons. "An Unequal Blow." Science, vol. 368, no. 6492, 2020, pp. 700-703, https://login.wcproxy.palni.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=143239880&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Wyman, Walter. “The Black Plague.” The North American Review, vol. 164, no. 485, 1897, pp. 441–452. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25118799.
Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Mystics in the Middle Ages
Mystics in the Middle Ages
Sam Proctor and Micheal Lesch
Mysticism in the Middle Ages was not something that was thought of to be looked down upon. In fact, those that were called mystics were considered some of the wisest of men. They aimed to bask in the aura of God by attempting transcendence to a plane higher than most. Mysticism as a whole was created so that way people could feel closer to God himself, through study,worship, and their experiences. This practice really gained a voice around the time of the plague, as many thought it was a way to attempt to renew Christianity. This did cause some sort of issue though further down the road, as a few figure heads leading the charge of mysticism asked that followers abandon the common practices in favor of this isolated worshipping that encourages experiences.
Mystics though often went to great lengths to try and achieve enlightenment, which mostly lead to pain and no favorable outcome. Even more so there were mystics who faced scrutiny and mockery from society.
Julian of Norwhich was the first known women author to write a book in English. This is important because to this day she wrote the best book in English that survived the Middle Ages, that happened to be written by a mystic. According to the history she was healed from a very serious health problem in the 1370's and afterwards wrote two different books on this expereince. The books were decades apart but both covered the same ideas of the pain Christ Edured and Mary the blessed virgin.
"Richard Rolle was one of the more famous and remembered mystics of the Medieval ages. Rolle believed that the spiritual and mystical experience was a mix of both the body and the soul. Even though the predominant idea behind spirituality is that it lies in internal devotion within the soul, Rolle communicates his mystical experiences while still having a palpable grasp on the body, mainly, it's five senses. Combined with this though was also a rigid sense of asceticism in which Rolle frowned upon material desires. Rolle believed the way to become closer to God was by a denial of material temptation and desire. This belief was rooted in the idea that God lied in the "soul space" whereas the human body belonged to the "body space." It may seem like a bit of a oxymoron, but the way that Rolle included the senses into his mystical experiences, while still denying materialism was by insuring that his physically pleasing and sensual experiences were conducted in devotion to God. Rolle has actually recieved criticism as a mystic for including the physical into his mystic writing, as many other mystics seemed to attain a state of transcendence in which they were entirely in the soul space. Here is an example in which Rolle uses the senses to pray to Jesus and have a mystical experience while contemplating the Passion of Christ.
"But you, sweet Jesu, you who bring the dead to life and convert them to a good life from the death of sin, enliven me, lord Jesu, and give me the grace to detect some of that sweet taste and spiritual reverence. Send me, lord, the radiance of grace so that I may have some insight within my soul. (Rolle, 119)"
In this passage, Rolle mentions both the sense of taste(sweet taste) and sight(insight) in order to better communicate and understand his mystical experience."
Works Cited
“Ancrene Wisse: A Magnificent Exemplar of Early English Mysticism.” The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England, by Wolfgang Riehle and Charity Scott-Stokes, Cornell University Press, 2014, pp. 40–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt5hh289.8. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020.
Kroll, Jerome, and Bernard S. Bachrach. The Mystic Mind : The Psychology of Medieval Mystics and Ascetics. Routledge, 2005. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=161383&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
“Philosophy of Mysticism in the Middle Ages.” Highbrow, 3 Oct. 2017, gohighbrow.com/philosophy-of-mysticism-in-the-middle-ages/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Julian of Norwich.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Julian-of-Norwich.
Eleanor Rykener
Elan Justice PavlinichEleanor Rykener
Photo by Jorge Saavedra @_jorgesvd
London: December 1394
She told them her name is Eleanor, but the men who took her into custody called her John.
They scrutinized her dress, condemned her actions, and demanded a confession.
Eleanor obliged:
“John Britby approached me. He was eager to indulge behind the stalls. I simply requested financial compensation for my labor. I skillfully gratify men as any woman would. I learned my craft from others who are knowledgeable in this trade. Elizabeth Brouderer dressed me in women’s clothing and gave me my name: Eleanor. Her daughter would bed certain gentlemen. Then, Elizabeth would sneak her daughter out of the room and present me to the spent fellows, leading them to the realizations that they had exerted themselves with me instead. Recently, I was employed as an embroideress in Oxford, where I schooled three scholars. And while staying at the Swan, a few Franciscans and a Carmelite friar paid me pretty tokens for my entertainment. Yet, when it comes to Joan in Beaconsfield, and more than a dozen nuns, I met with them as a man. In London, I hosted a few chaplains in the alley behind the church. But I prefer to work for priests. The pay is better.”
(Thomas and Jones, Roll A34, membrane 2)
Rykener’s story was uncovered by Sheila Lindenbaum; it was publicized by David Lorenzo Boyd and Ruth Mazo Karras in 1995. Most of the records in Thomas’s calendar are detailed; however, his treatment of Rykener is suspiciously brief: “Examination of two men charged with immorality, of whom one implicated several persons, male and female, in religious orders (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/plea-memoranda-rolls/vol3/pp228-232#fnn2).” Boyd and Karras argue that Thomas deliberately obfuscates the nature of this immorality, specifically sex acts that are not easily reduced to heteronormativity (460).
Corporation of London Records Office, Plea and Memoranda Roll A34, m.2 (1395)
Rykener challenges essentialist notions of binary sex-gender categories (Karras and Linkinen 113-4). Male and female are neither stable, nor sufficient, identities for organizing the human experience. Rykener’s gendered performances and sexualities depend upon social context and desires (Butler 191). Nevertheless, Carolyn Dinshaw observes, Rykener participates in heterosexual models of desire, performing sex as a woman when her partner identifies as a man, and conversely, Rykener performs sex as a man when his partner identifies as a woman (Dinshaw 108). Gabrielle M.W. Bychoswki elaborates on the complexities of desire, consent, and collaboration between cisgender men and trans women’s bodies as Rykener navigates disparate power relations in her sex work (http://www.thingstransform.com/2018/06/the-transgender-turn-eleanor-rykeners.html). Furthermore, Rykener’s profession and clientele suggest the pervasiveness of sex work across medieval English communities. Her record is irrefutable evidence that our trans and gender-fluid kin have a long history that are sometimes obfuscated by dominant historical records.
We have always been here.
Works Cited
Boyd, David Lorenzo, and Ruth Mazo Karras. “The Interrogation of a Male Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London.” GLQ 1 (1995): 459-465.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Bychowski, Gabrielle M.W. “The Transgender Turn: Eleanor Rykener’s View of Eleanor Rykener,” Transliterature: Things Transform (27 June 2018). http://www.thingstransform.com/2018/06/the-transgender-turn-eleanor-rykeners.html
Dinshaw, Carolyn. Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.
Karras, Ruth Mazo, and Tom Linkinen. “John/Eleanor Rykener Revisited,” in Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies: Essays in Honor of E. Jane Burns, edited by Laine E. Doggett and Daniel E. O’Sullivan, 111-121. Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2016.
Thomas, A.H. and Philip E. Jones. Calendar of Select Pleas and Memoranda of the City of London, A. D. 1381-1412. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924-61.
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