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History 330 (Spring 2006): Seminar. Revolution and Rebellion in Twelfth-Century Society

This course will examine the revolutionary changes that occurred in all facets of life in twelfth-century Europe. The twelfth century represents one of the most important eras of European history, characterized by many historians as the period that gave birth to Europe as both idea and place. It was a time of economic growth, religious reformation, political and legal reorganization, cultural flowering, intellectual innovation, and outward expansion. Yet the twelfth century had a dark side, too. Crusades and colonization, heresy and religious disputes, town uprisings and mob violence also marked the century. Students will study the internal changes to European society as well as the expansion of Europe into the Mediterranean and beyond, paying close attention to the key people behind the transformations.

Books
The following books are available for purchase:
      R. I. Moore, The First European Revolution
      R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages
      Otto of Freising, The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa
      Suger, The Deeds of Louis the Fat
      Guibert of Nogent, Memoirs

E-reserves

Many primary source texts can be found as e-reserves.  Please bring printed copies of the source readings to class.

 

Students who require additional historical background may wish to buy or consult a textbook, such as Cook and Herzman, The Medieval World View or R. H. C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe

Requirements and Grading

You will be graded based on the following components:

      Four Short Response Papers (2-3 pages) (25%) (various due dates)

      A Research Paper (20 pages) (50%) (due 5/19)

            On-time completion of assignments (bibliography, outline, and rough draft) (10%)

            Final draft of paper (40%)

      Class Participation (25%)
 

Readings

(Please check History 330 Course Conference for changes to reading assignments)

 

2/1             Introduction

 

2/8             Religious Reform

                  Primary Sources:

                        The Letters of Gregory VII and Henry IV (e-reserve)

                        Otto of Freising, Book I, chapters 1-2; Book II, chapters 6, 8, and 10

                        Suger, chapters 10 and 27

                        Guibert of Nogent, chapters 12-13 and 18 (pp. 173-81, 199-212)???                       

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Southern, Introduction and pp.118-54

                        Moore, Introduction and chapter 1

                        Kathleen G. Cushing, Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century, pp. 29-38

                           (e-reserve)

                  Additional Readings (all available as e-reserves):

                        Kathleen G. Cushing, Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century, pp. 91-110

                        Dyan Elliott, “The Priest’s Wife: Female Erasure and the Gregorian Reform”        

                        H. E. J. Cowdrey, "The Papacy, the Patarenes, and the Church of Milan," in

                           Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser. XVIII (1968), 25-48 

                 

2/15           Urbanization, Colonization, and Economic Growth

                  Primary Sources:

                        Guibert of Nogent's description of the uprising in Laon, pp. 144-73

                        Otto of Freising's description of Italy, Book II, chapter 13  

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Southern, chapter 1

                        Moore, chapter 2

                        Marshall Sahlins, “The Original Affluent Society”               

                        Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe, Introduction and chapter 12 (e-reserve)

                  Additional Readings:

                        Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe, chapters 1-11 (Knapp reserve)

                  Background Reading:      

                        N. J. G. Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, pp. 90-122, 223-54

 

2/22           Law and Order: The Revival of Roman Law

                  Primary Sources:

                        Otto of Freising, Book II, 42-44 and 47

                        Guibert of Nogent, pp. 181-98

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Moore, chapter 3

                        Frederic Cheyette, "Giving Each His Due" (e-reserve)

            Thomas Head and Richard Landes, The Peace of God, pp. 1-18 (e-reserve)

      Additional Readings (all available on Knapp reserve)

            Edward Peters, Inquisition, pp. 1-58

                        M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, pp. 1-8 and chapters 2 and 9

                        Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal, chapters 3-5

3/1             From Feudal Anarchy to Centralized Monarchy: France under Capetian Rule

                  Primary Sources:

                        Suger, Life of Louis the Fat

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Southern, pp. 74-98

                        Elizabeth Hallam, Capetian France, chapter 1 and pp. 145-78

                  Additional Readings: Hallam, pp. 203-21 or 239-57 (Knapp reserve)

                 

3/8            Germany, Italy, and Frederick I Barbarossa's Roman Empire

                  Primary Sources:

                        Otto of Freising, Book II       

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Horst Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, chapter 5 (e-reserve)

                        David Abulafia, Italy in the Central Middle Ages, chapter 1

                        Benjamin Arnold on ministeriales

 

3/15           The New Monasticism: Cistercians, Carthusians, and the Flowering of Mysticism

                  Primary Sources:

                        Life of Bernard of Clairvaux (e-reserve)

            Life of Hildegard of Bingen (e-reserve)

            Life of Christina of Markyate, pp. 31-48, 69-79, 89-101, 107-9 (e-reserve)

            Guibert of Nogent, pp. 24-34, 69-91, 93-108

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Southern, 154-69; 219-40

                        McGinn, The Growth of Mysticism, pp. 149-68

                  Additional Readings:

                        Carolyn Bynum, Jesus as Mother, chapter 4

                        Constance Berman, “Were There Twelfth-Century Cistercian Nuns?”

                        M. D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, chapters 6-7

                        Stephen White, Custom, Kinship, and Gifts to Saints, chapters 1-2

 

3/29           The New Aristocracy: Banal Lordship and the Birth of Primogeniture      

                  With guest professor Dr. Richard Barton, University of North Carolina

                  Primary Sources:

                        Guibert of Nogent, pp. 3-13, 21-24, 34-47 (chapters1-3, 7, 12-14)

                        Orderic Vitalis on Robert of Rhuddlan, vol. 4, 135-147

Orderic Vitalis on Henry I

                  Secondary Source Readings:

                        Moore, chapter 4

                        Southern, chapter 2

                  Additional Readings:

                        Constance Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, chapters 1 and 3

Timothy Reuter, “Nobles and Others: the Social and Cultural Expressions of Power

    Relations in the Middle Ages”   

                        Amy Livingstone, “Diversity and Continuity: Family Structure and Inheritance in   

   the Chartrain, 1000-1200”   

                        Alexander Murray, Reason and Society, chapter 4

                        Georges Duby, “Youth in Aristocratic Society”
 

3/31           Research Questions and Bibliographies Due

 

4/5             The Crusades: Religious Fervor and European Expansion

                  Primary Sources:

The Council of Clermont, various accounts (e-reserve)

            Albert of Aachen on the Peasant’s Crusade (e-reserve)

            Solomon bar Samson: The Massacre of the Jews (e-reserve)

      Secondary Sources:

                        Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History, chapters 1-2

                        Jean Flori, “Ideology and Motivations in the First Crusade” (e-reserve)

                  Additional Readings:

                        Christopher Tyerman, The Invention of the Crusades, pp. 1-29

                        Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Crusading as an Act of Love”

                        Michael Signer & John Van Engen, Jews and Christians in Twelfth-Century Europe,

                             Introduction and chapters 1-3

 

4/12           The Fourth Lateran Council: Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Judaism

                  Primary Sources:

                  Documents on Henry of Le Mans, Arnold of Brescia, and Peter Parenzo

                     (e-reserve and Otto of Freising, Book I, chapters 48-61)

                        Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, canons 1, 3, 5-6, 12-22, 42-54, 62, 69-71

                           (www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/LATERAN4.HTM)           

                  Secondary Sources:

                        Moore, chapter 5

                        R. I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent, Introduction

                        Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, chapter 2

                        R. I. Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society, chapter 1

                  Additional Readings:

                        Moore, Origins of European Dissent, pp. 63-81, 82-101, or 115-36

                        André Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, pp. 13-57

                        Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, chapter 4

                        Christine Caldwell Ames, “Does the Inquisition Belong to Religious History?”

                                               

4/14           Revised Research Questions and Bibliographies Due, with a Preliminary Outline

 

4/19           Student Presentations

 

4/26           Student Presentations

 

4/28           Rough Drafts Due

 

5/10           The Twelfth Century Renaissance

                  Reading Assignments TBA

 

5/19           Final Papers Due


  • Valerie Ramseyer vramseye@wellesley.edu
  • Created: November, 20, 2004
  • Expires: November, 20, 2007
  • Last Modified: November 15, 2007