Important Announcement

Unfortunately the audio of the week 7 lectures have not been recorded. The slides are available, however, on both MULO and Blackboard. I am very sorry for the inconvenience, but sometimes technology does fail. I know that some of you have clashes and need to rely on the recordings. I would urge, however, those of you who can attend the lectures to do so, because that is the only absolutely guaranteed way that you have of hearing the material
Cheers, Clare

Crusades and Crusade Historians

  [Edit: spellings corrected. Thanks to JJ for noticing.]

Truce between Christians and Saracens.

Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, Parker MS 16II, f.139v.

In lectures during week 7 Clare raised the issue of thinking about where historians are coming from when they write. I'd like us to try and incorporate this into our discussions in this week's virtual tutorial. I've provided some links that give you other people's perspectives on Christopher Tyerman, author of the chapter on the Meaning of the Crusades, and his work. There are reviews of one of his recent books by Jonathan Philips - another well-known historian of the Crusades - and Dame Janet (a.k.a. 'Jinty') Nelson, a prominent early medievalist. I've also given you a link to an interview with Dr Tyerman himself. If you can, I recommend reading through these after you've looked at Tyerman's chapter. Address the questions in the reading pack, but also consider whether Tyerman's view seems to represent a consensus; and how his views differ from or relate to those of others who have written and thought about the Crusades.





Urban II preaching at Clermont


• Review of God's War by Jonathan Phillips in The Telegraph, September 2006.
• Review of God's War by J.L. Nelson in the London Review of Books, 2007.
• Interview with Christopher Tyerman about his book God's War.

In this interview, Tyerman talks about how it is misleading and ahistorical to draw direct connections between modern wars in the Middle East and the medieval crusading movement. I agree with him on this point, and it brings me to a general matter I forgot to mention in class, which is: while modern parallels and experiences can be useful tools for helping us think about the past, we should never confuse them with historical argument itself, which always has to be based in the evidence and context of the period. I'm sure you knew this - but especially following our discussions about ANZAC cove and Canterbury it seemed a good time to remind ourselves of this point...



Urban II preaching the crusade



But back to the Crusades! The Institute for Historical Research in London runs a monthly seminar about the Crusades, so clearly there's no shortage of opinion and debate on the topic.



The same was true at the time of the very first crusade. As Megan told us a couple of weeks back, pope Urban's sermon was recorded in different versions by a range of observers. Does applying similar principles of interpretation to these reports help you think about how and why they differ? Where were these medieval writers coming from, do you think? Why were they writing? Who was in their assumed audience?
Post your thoughts and responses to these readings below by Monday evening. Then we'll be moving on to St Francis and Co.!

Gender Roles

This week in Medieval Europe we will look at the establishment of women within Canon Law, as well as women's place in society. Juxtaposing women such as; Eve, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and Joan of Arc are all important figures during this period. 

The role of women in Christianity is emphasised through Mary, mother of Jesus and how she - virginal - gave birth to not only the saviour but to a new age of believers and life.

What other female figures outside of the readings can you identify as being important in Medieval Culture? And what were your thoughts on the roles of such women aforementioned before? Were women in Christianity simultaneously revered and considered subordinate?

--Lauren

These readings cover medieval attitudes to women by revealing attitudes towards important women in Christian theology. Women were defined by their gender and sexual status – as maiden, wife or widow.  The power, sexuality and worth of women was both treated with suspicion and suppressed, and the authority of men emphasised. However, some women did manage to overcome these conditions. 

Bible:

• Woman (Eve) created for man, out of man, to be a helper to man…before ‘betraying’ him and getting them both kicked out of Eden
• Mary as the Mother of Jesus, worked with God and was ‘giver of life’ – opposite to Eve, who defied God and became the ‘giver of death’ (st Jerome). Virginity and purity emphasised
• Mary Magdalene a sinner who reformed, became a leader amongst her Christian community in Marseilles, converting the local governor and performing miracles. Later lived in wilderness, saw angels etc.

Sexuality:

• Abelard unsurprisingly is pro-sex…shows that the ideas he counters were common at the time of his writing the  letter (eg sex is not sinful just because it is enjoyable).
• Augustine of Hippo very negative towards sex – marriage and procreation ‘makes something good out of the evil of lust’, defending marriage: good for creating children and companionship, lust, fornication, infidelity and adultery are all temptations of Satan.
• St Jerome prizes virginity very highly – equates loss of virginity with Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. Only acceptable states for women (makes no mention of men) are to be virgins or to be married.

Power of women/women in power:

• Ancien Riwel demands nuns essentially hear no evil, speak no evil – modesty and demureness required.
• Saint Scholastica apparently had the power of influencing nature – but used it for a petty purpose (to force her brother stay with her), a very negative portrayal. Her brother Benedict was nevertheless a good person, and gave her a good Christian burial.
• Radegund may have established a convent, but was reliant on help and support of men to finance her convent, and for protection; women must be ‘taken under ward’
• St Clare writes that women are weak and fragile of body, but willing to take on the same hardships as her male counterparts.
• Joan of Arc first thought to be ‘deranged and deluded’ for boasting she could accomplish what the princes could not. Had to fight to be heard and taken seriously. Wore men’s clothing, suit of armour and rode with the men.
• Christine de Pisan clearly outlines dominant thought at the time: that women were subordinate to men, and prevented men from being all they could. The minds of women were thought to be inferior, and not worth an education. Nevertheless challenges all these notions by use of reason.

--Sian

Women and the family 

In the Medieval era gender roles played a major role in society.  The Klapisch article is divided into four main categories the role of women, marriage, children and the church. 

1. Women:

Society granted no specific place for them in the hierarchy. As they were not knights or could they be religious leaders. Women were defined by their body, gender and her relationships with family groups.

The role of women:

• Be obedient to their husband, father or care giver.
• Used to reconcile families and groups in society.
• Responsible for maintaining the alliance between the two clans.
• Husband comes first and her choices and opinions come second.
• To produce children and start the family line.
• Order and punish servants if they could be afforded.

Women had little rights:

• A widow a right to one third of her husband’s estate.
• Loss of rights and possessions when their husband died.
• Less control over their wealth as they were under the control of their husband.
• They must be obedient to their husband.
• Women could be kidnapped or forced into marriage or the convent.

2. Marriage:

Marriage was used as a way to end rivalry as two families joined together, forming a peace pact. A woman may be given to a man as a way to offer reconciliation. An example of marriage being used as a peace treaty, is in the eleventh century when the king of France Henry I married a bride in Kiev to form an alliance.  In Florence in 1300 the party of whites formed an alliance with the blacks as a man of the Cerchi family married to an Adimari bride. 

It was not uncommon for marriage to occur between blood relatives. At times brothers and sisters would marry if fortunes required it.

When women got married it involved two transfers the transfer of the bride to the new family and the transfer of wealth. Goods or money were given by the husband or his family to the family of the bride in exchange for the loss of their daughter. Later these gifts were given to the bride herself to assure she was maintained after her husband’s death.

By the twelfth century the dowry value from the wife’s family overcame the value of the husbands.  Women after their husband’s death would often loose what she had bought and what her husband had given her.

The age of marriage varied between social classes.  In 1200 the aristocracy tended to marry their girls young at 12 and 13 at which Cannon law permitted. Rural classes tended to marry their daughters of at 17 or 18. In Florentine bourgeoisie between 1340 and 1530 136 brides were married at the average age of 17.2.  Whereas young men tended to get married even later with an average age of 27.

3. Children:

Children were necessary in marriage in order to establish the male line. After the birth of their first child other children would follow at a rapid place. In 1461 one wife become a widow at 29 after having 12 children in her 13 years of marriage. Pregnancies occupied more than half a woman’s life before 40. Families would have between 10-12 children. However not many of them lived long, a child had a 1 in 2 chance of making it to adulthood.

4. The Church:

The Church had a great influence on marriage and the role of women in the Medieval era. The Church was against blood relation marriage however in 1215 the fourth Lateran Council lowered the requirement for marriage in the family from seven degree to four. The church also forbids the use of contraception as it would prevent new life.

Duties of the wives in the Medieval era range from forming alliances, to keeping the peace to raising the family to obeying the husband. Although women from different classes have different roles and needs they have one thing in common they are both seen as below men.

-- Steph D. & Erika

Marriage Making

In the high Middle Ages, marriage was matter of diplomacy and wealth, not love or mutual attraction. Marriage forged an alliance between two lineages, reinforced by the exchange of money, goods and property and the creation of offspring. The wife's job was to maintain peace between the two families and have as many children as possible.

Women often married into families of a lower social status, bringing with them a dowry for their new husband’s family. Women became a burden on the men of their family, who had to come up with a dowry in order to marry them off. Boys brought money into the family by way of marriage and girls took money away from it.

In addition, the control of any property a women inherited was transferred by default to the closest male relative, then to their husband when they married. Women were financially worth less than their husbands, in spite of any superiority of lineage and the inheritance they brought into the marriage. Their lack of financial worth could be equated with their lack of personal worth at the time, except for when it came to procreation. IN contrast, men could run businesses, own land and be self-sufficient.

Due to this dependency on men, girls were known to be married off, at the guidance of their fathers or brothers, as early as twelve. Men got married later, at an average age of twenty seven, when they had reached a certain social standing and level of power. Girls in lower classes got married an average of five years later than those coming from wealthy families or the aristocracy.

Marrying earlier meant that a women could have more children which, at a time where child mortality was very high, was very important, especially in ensuring that the lineage carried on.

Source: Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, 'Women and the Family', in Jacques Le Goff, ed. The Medieval World, (London: Parkgate, 1990), pp. 285-312.

--Jenn

Some questions to think about :

1. Do you think sexuality was understood in a positive or negative way?
2. What impediments does Klapisch-Zuber see to studying the lives and experiences of medieval women?
3. How does Klapisch-Zuber describe the duties of the wives in the Middle Ages?

Easter Week

Hi everyone,
I hope you're having a nice break - but not too much of a break, because essays are looming! Use time off lectures and tutorials to get ahead on your research if you can. In the meanwhile, here's some medieval Easter music to pass the time...

Resurrexi, Music for Easter Sunday, British Library, Crowland Gradual, c.1240.

The image shows a manuscript called a Gradual, which is a collection of musical items for the Mass. There are two musical pieces on the page. The decorated capital R is the beginning of the introit for Easter Sunday. An introit, as you might guess from the name, is sung at the beginning of the Mass. This one comes from Psalm 138, and reads, in Latin:

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum, alleluia. Posuisti super me manum tuam, alleluia. Mirabilis facta est scientia tua, alleluia. Domine probasti me et cognivisti me. 

[I rose up and am still with thee, alleluia. Thou hast laid thy hand upon me, alleluia. Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me, alleluia. Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me]

Listen to a performance of a medieval setting of this psalm by Schola Cantorum here

Then, with the large black "h", begins another psalm, no. 118:
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea

[This is the day that the Lord made: let us be glad and rejoice in it.]

Listen to a performance of a later (16th century) setting of this psalm by The King's Singers here

Can you make out any of the words, now that you know what it should say?

See you on Monday week,
Kathleen

The Passion

The Passion, for those who don't know, is a term for Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday. In medieval times one of the symbols of this was the pelican. A widespread story, often illustrated in Bestiaries, related how the pelican fed her starving young with her own blood; this was taken as a metaphor of Christ's sacrifice. The Pelican in her Piety, as this story was called, became a common artistic motif in medieval religious architecture, and in encyclopaedic books. The image here shows the Pelican in her Piety represented in a misericord at St Mary's Abbey, Beverley, in Yorkshire, a famous example of 14th century English Gothic style. She is pecking her own breast to release the blood and feed the chicks. (They weren't shy of graphic images in those days!)

Pelican in her Piety, St Mary's, Beverley. By awmc1 @ flickr

A misericord is a little folding seat in the quire (i.e. choir) area of churches that the monks or canons could lean on during long services. It comes from the Latin for mercy, because allowing a tired singer to sit down was like taking mercy on him! In the medieval period the underneath of misericords, like the one shown here, came to be decorated in marvellous carvings, since this was the part of the seat most often visible to those moving about the church between services. Some had religious images, and others had very surprisingly secular ones, like illustrations from tales of knightly deeds and the rescue of fair maidens, or images of monsters.

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Week 6 tutorial blog follows below...

Library Tutorial Week

Hi everyone,

A reminder that our week 6 tutorial will take place in the Mattheson library in the ground floor Training Room 1 (a library floor plan is here). It's compulsory to attend this class and complete a worksheet based on what you learn. The aim is to give you the skills you will need to research your essay and reference it properly using the expected footnote style. It's a very important week for setting you up to study history in general as well as specifically to prepare for your essay in this unit. To get ready for next week, first use Monash's Search system to try and identify any book about Charlemagne that was published in the last 10 years and is available in the Mattheson library. Then try to find a journal article about Carolingian law written in the same period. Write down all the publication details you can find for these two items. Try to articulate what strategies you used to find the two items, and any difficulties you encountered. Come prepared with your results and any post any questions or problems that want solving below. In addition...

Love and Devotion is on at the State Library of Victoria

if this is your first year at Uni: Try to define these terms for yourself:

• reference
• citation
• primary source
• footnote
• plagiarism
• secondary source
• bibliography

if none of this is new to you: Think about your experience of researching and writing an essay. What are your top tips for finding relevant books and other sources? What problems have you encountered when referencing essays? What useful feedback from tutors have you gained? Be ready to share your expertise with the rest.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

And since there is no required reading, here are some links you might want to peruse to keep you thinking medieval!

• For those of you fascinated by the difference between the East and West in the medieval period, you might want to look at the exhibition currently showing at the State Library of Victoria, Love and Devotion, which is a lavish display of Persian manuscripts from the 11th century onwards. It looks at Eastern literature on its own terms, and in relationship to contemporary and modern Western society. It's free and it's on until the 1st of July.
• For those interested in the weird and wonderful world of religious relics, you might be interested in this review of Treasures of Heaven, a recent exhibition of reliquaries (i.e. containers for relics) that was held at the British Museum in 2011.

You can watch the official introduction to the Treasures of Heaven exhibition here: