Serfs Up – Catch a Wave to the Middle Ages. Middle Ages – Dark Ages – Feudalism – What’s...
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Transcript of Serfs Up – Catch a Wave to the Middle Ages. Middle Ages – Dark Ages – Feudalism – What’s...
Serfs Up –
Catch a Wave to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages –
Dark Ages –
Feudalism –
What’s in a name?
What ever we call it –
Fall of Rome – 500 A.D.
Feudalism – a political and economic way ofgoverning land
Roughly between 500 - 1500
Powerful warlords
United areas of land
Restored peace
Imposed his law/will
All at a price
Understanding – between warlord and peasant
Land for protection
Give up land and live or die and still lose land
“Serf” – one who works the land
Protector - “lord”
For protection you owe-
Taxes –
Service –
Homage -
“Divine Right of Kings”
Biggest, strongest
Birth right
Father to son
UnquestionedUnchallenged
Eldest son gets it allname, land, power
Other sons – still nobility
knightclergy
Born to Serf
Part of the land
Could gain freedom
Gained ‘power’ – after the plague
Governing the land “Fief” –land given as a gift
“Vassal”- person receiving the land
Contract blessed by the Church
“Contract” between lord and hispeople
Vassal- lord of his land
Owes- service, taxes, homage
“Manor house” – lord’s home
Subinfeudation
Vassal becomes a lord
Subdivides fief
Contract with new vassal
Acquiring landwealth, power
How younger sons gain wealth
Role of the Catholic Church
Kings- vassals to the Church
Part of nobility
Early monks and nuns were wealthy
Monasteries had considerable wealth
Monks lived apartfrom society –
Priests lived within
Benedictine Rule
Mix of manual and intellectual work
Manuscripts, hospitals,schools
Major religious orders
Benedictines – St. Benedict
Franciscans – St. Francis
Dominicans – St. Dominic
Importance of the Bible
Education
Laws
Latin
Start of the university system
University of Bologna- 1088
University of Paris- 1150
University of Oxford- 1096
University of Cambridge- 1209
Bologna students hiredand paid for the teachers Paris teachers were paid bythe church
Oxford and Cambridgepredominantly supported
by the crown and the state
Universities evolved from mucholder monasteries
Concerned with performingthe liturgy and prayer;
Relatively few could boasttrue intellectuals
Classes were taught wherever
space was available
A university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together
Cannon law, business administration, logic, speech, theological discussion and accounting to more effectively control finances
University studies took six years for a Master of Arts degree a Bachelor of Arts degreecould be awarded along the way
The studies for this were organized by the faculty of arts where the seven liberal arts were taught: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric
At Bologna the students ran everything a fact that often put the teachers under great stress
In Paris, teachers ran the school; thus Paris became the premiere spot for teachers fromall over Europe. main subject matter was theology
In Bologna students chose more secular studieswith the main subject being law
Students were afforded the legal protection of the church
No one was allowed to physically harm them;they could only be tried for crimes in a church court, and were thus immune from any corporal punishment
This gave students free rein in the cities to break the laws with impunity, a fact which produced many abuses: theft, rape and murder were not uncommon among students who did not face serious consequences
Not So Dark Ages
Banking
Universities
Common Law
Middle class
Rise of town life
Revived economicallytrade grewpopulation boomsocial improvements
Expansion of old townsbuilding increasedmore jobsextra cash to spend
Three social classesthe clergythe nobilitythe peasantry
Creation of an artisan or merchant class
In time they became the middle class or bourgeoisie
Trade and travel safer
Culture and ideas were exchanged
World began to grow
Merchant class engaged in manufacturing and trade
Hopes of independence of lord’s jurisdiction
Towns people - represented radicalforce for change
Demanded larger rolein political matters
Larger role in politicsNew business techniquesInvest surplus money
Commercial revolution
From rural and farmto urban and industrialsociety
Middle Class Wanted
Medieval Courts of Law
Punished criminalsreduced violenceincreased royal income
Weakened feudal baronsstrengthen royal authority
Increased respect forlaw itself
Royal Courts of Law
Lords will borrow money from merchants – begin to lose power
1215 Magna Carta
Lord no longer all powerful
English Common Law and the Jury System became key players in Anglo-American law
English Common Law
Unfair to treat similar facts differently ondifferent occasions Court looks to past rulings in past similar cases
The body of similar examples is called "common law“
Binds future decisions of relevant courts
Early English methods of proclaiming guilt or innocence
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting him to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience
Classically, the test is one of life or death
and the proof of innocence is survival
Ordeal of fire typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, usually nine feet, over red-hot coals or holding a red-hot iron
Wound was bandaged and re-examined three days later,
If innocent, the wound was healing, if festering taken as a sign from God of guilt and suspect executed
Ordeal of boiling water required the accused to dip his hand in a kettle of
boiling water and retrieve a stone.
Wound was bandaged and re-examined three days later
If innocent, the wound was healing, if festering taken as a sign from God of guilt and suspect executed
The ordeal of cold water has a precedent in the Code of Hammurabi
A millstone was tied to the neck of the accused and thrown into a body of water
If he surfaced he was innocent for the waters did not suck him down since the weight of the crime did not press upon his soul
Trial by Combat settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight
was proclaimed to be right.