Castle, Cathedral and Crusade

Castle, Cathedral and Crusade:
Europe in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1300
HIST 535
3 Credits

“The Siege of Constantinople, 1204” from the Grandes Chroniques de France, 14^th Century
Bibliothèque nationale MS FR 2813, fol. 245^v

Dr. Dawn Marie Hayes
Department of History
429 Dickson Hall
(973) 655-7939
Dawn.Hayes@Montclair.edu
Office Hours for Spring 2005: Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 – 10:00 AM and by appointment

Description
Guided by the organizing principle that some medieval people themselves used, this course will approach the High Middle Ages through the eyes of those who fought (nobility), worked (peasants), and prayed (clergy). Social, political, economic, religious and cultural aspects of the medieval European experience will be explored through the investigation of topics such as the rise of the nation-state, the expansion of trade, the rise of the university, the launching of the Crusades, the development of Gothic architecture and the intensification of religious belief. A trip to The Cloisters Museum on a Saturday, April 23 is a requirement of this course; I will collect the $14.00 fee the museum charges for its guided tour on March 21 (please bring the exact amount in cash).

Books

Constance Brittain Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble: Chivalry and Society in Medieval France (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998).

Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).

Christopher Brooke, The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages (Mahwah, N.J.: HiddenSpring, 2003).

Medieval Panorama, edited by Robert Bartlett. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001).

Medieval Culture and Society, edited by David Herlihy. (Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1993).

In addition, each student will read individually one book, which s/he will discuss with the class. Depending on the book, it may be purchased, borrowed from Sprague or obtained through interlibrary loan (if Sprague owns a copy, I’ve included the call number at the end of the reference). Whatever method you choose, please be sure to leave yourself enough time to obtain the book.

Recommended for Background
William Chester Jordan, Europe in the High Middle Ages (New York: Viking Press, 2003).

Course Requirements and Grading Criteria
Students will be required to (1) participate in class discussions, including presenting a critique of a secondary source at some point in the term, (2) deliver a 15-minute oral presentation on a topic that challenges students to investigate closely one of the topics we cover more broadly as a class (see suggestions below), (3) write a critical analysis of the movie Sorceress and (4) write a take-home final exam essay. Each of these four requirements will contribute 25% to your term grade. Regular attendance is required.

Course Objectives
1. Develop an appreciation of medieval European civilization with various media.
2. Engage in critical thinking exercises directed at images as well as primary and secondary sources.
3. Improve writing skills through informal in-class writing assignments and two papers.
4. Hone speaking skills through the preparation and delivery of two presentations (one on a secondary source, the other on a medieval person).

Academic Dishonesty
All students should read Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: A Student Guide. Please familiarize yourself with the policies of MSU regarding plagiarism and other kinds of academic dishonesty under the heading "I. Violations/A. Academic Dishonesty" at: http://www.montclair.edu/pages/deanstudents/regulations1.html

Course Outline

Week One (January 24): Introduction
Distribution of Syllabus, Discussion of Course Requirements, and Assignment of Oral Presentations

Those Who Fought

Week Two (January 31): Nobles, Knights and Society
Lecture: The Nobility in the High Middle Ages

Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, Chapters 1 and 2

Presentations:
1. David Douglas, William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact upon England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964). DA197.D6
2. Charles Coulson, Castles in Medieval Society: Fortresses in England, France and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). DA660.C635

Week Three (February 7): Noble Family Life and Chivalric Culture
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, Chapters 3 and 4
Herlihy, Medieval Culture and Society, 229-281

Presentations:
1. Georges Duby, The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). HQ623.D8313
2. Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984). CR4513.K44
3. Sidney Painter, William Marshal: Knight-Errant, Baron, and Regent of England (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966). DA209.P4P3

Week Four (February 14): The Nobility and the Church & Concluding Thoughts
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, Chapters 5 and “Conclusions”

Presentations:
1. Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986). D161.2.R48
2. Joseph Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades (New York: Dial Press, 1971). DC83.3.S87
3. John France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999). D160 .F73

Reflect on and bring to class:
Bartlett, Medieval Panorama, 92-127 and 232-257

Those Who Worked

Week Five (February 21): Blood Ties and Physical Environment
Lecture: The Peasantry in the High Middle Ages

Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Hanawalt, The Ties that Bound, Chapters 1 and 2

Presentations:
1. Paul Freedman, Images of the Medieval Peasant (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999). PN682.P35 F74
2. David Herlihy, Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1985). HQ611.H46

Week Six (February 28): The Domestic Economy and the Stages of Life
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Hanawalt, The Ties that Bound, Chapters 3 and 4
Herlihy, Medieval Culture and Society, 176-189 and 282-291

Presentations:
1. Norman John Greville Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, 2d ed. (London and New York: Longman, 1994). HC240.P64
2. David Herlihy, Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe (New York McGraw-Hill, 1990). HD6134 .H47
3. Ronald Finucane, The Rescue of the Innocents: Endangered Children in Medieval Miracles (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000). RJ39 .F55

Week Seven (March 7): Economic Surrogate Families and Concluding Thoughts
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Hanawalt, The Ties that Bound, Chapter 5 and Epilogue

Presentations:
1. Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 3d ed. (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002). BT1319.L35
2. Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). BR270.C6
3. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (New York: G. Braziller, 1978). DC801.M753L4713

Reflect on and bring to class:
Bartlett, Medieval Panorama, 158-191

Those Who Prayed

Week Eight (March 21): The Monastic Tradition
Lecture: Secular and Regular Clergy in the High Middle Ages

Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Brooke, The Age of the Cloister, Chapters 3-7

Presentations:
1. Xavier Barral I Altet, Romanesque: Towns, Cathedrals, Monasteries (Köln and New York: Taschen, 1988). INTERLIBRARY LOAN
2. Otto von Simson, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, 3d ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). NA4830.S5

***Tonight I will collect the $14.00 fee for the trip to The Cloisters on Saturday, April 23. Please have the exact amount in cash.

Week Nine (March 28): Monastic Orders and the Rise of Scholasticism
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Brooke, The Age of the Cloister, Chapters 8-12
Herlihy, Medieval Culture and Society, 190-228 and 292-341

Presentations:
1. C.H. Lawrence, The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Medieval Society (London and New York: Longman, 1994). INTERLIBRARY LOAN
2. Penelope Johnson, Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). BX4220.F8 J64
3. John Baldwin, The Scholastic Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000-1300 (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1971). AZ321 .B34

Week Ten (April 4): The Church’s Contribution to Medieval Life
Discussion (read in advance and bring to class):
Brooke, The Age of the Cloister, Chapters 13-14

Presentations:
1.Richard Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (New York: Viking, 1990). BR252.S6
2. Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050-1250 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). BR270 .M64
3. Christopher Dawson, Religion and the Rise of Western Culture (New York: Image Books, 1991). Chapters 7 – end. BR115.C5D37

Reflect on and bring to class:
Bartlett, Medieval Panorama, 128-157

Week Eleven (April 11): A Look at the Three Orders in Conflict
Movie and Discussion: Sorceress (Sprague videotape #364)

Print, read and bring to class
1. On St. Guinefort at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/guinefort.html
2. A review of the movie that I will either distribute in class or e-mail.

Week Twelve (April 18): Oral Presentations on General Topics in the Central Middle Ages
1. Jews
2. Kingship
3. Conversion of Pagans within Europe (Slavs and Scandinavians)
4. al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia)
5. Byzantium
6. Merchants
7. Law (Roman, Canon, & Common)

***Also . . . Meet for a Guided Tour of The Cloisters on April 23 at 9:30 AM
Familiarize Yourself with the Museum at: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=7

Week Thirteen (April 25): Oral Presentations on Noble Life in the Central Middle Ages
1. Hunting
2. Food and Banquets
3. Tournaments
4. Knighthood (Apprenticeship, etc.)
5. As Patrons of the Arts
6. Life at the Court
7. As Law Enforcer

Week Fourteen (May 2): Oral Presentations on Everyday Life in the Central Middle Ages
1. Birth
2. Childhood
3. Diet
4. Village Life
5. Medicine
6. Popular Piety
7. Death

Week Fifteen (May 9): Oral Presentations on Religious Life in the Central Middle Ages
***Please note that this class will be held during the scheduled final exam period. Your take home final exam essay is due by this class at the latest, though you may hand it in earlier.
1. The Gregorian Reform
2. Fourth Lateran Council
3. Beguines
4. The Papal Inquisition
5. The Trial of the Knights Templar
6. Anchoritism
7. Waldensians