The Middle Ages. Учебное пособие
.pdfLatin West, brought with it new views of life and the world that rejected the traditions and learning of the ancient world.
During this time, the Roman Empire slowly fragmented into many smaller political entities. The geographical boundaries for European countries today were established during the Middle Ages. This was a period that heralded the formation and rise of universities, the establishment of the rule of law, numerous periods of ecclesiastical reform and the birth of the tourism industry. Many works of medieval literature, such as the Canterbury Tales, the Divine Comedy, and The Song of Roland, are widely read and studied today.
The visual arts prospered during Middles Ages, which created its own aesthetic values. The wealthiest and most influential members of society commissioned cathedrals, churches, sculpture, painting, textiles, manuscripts, jewelry and ritual items from artists. Many of these commissions were religious in nature but medieval artists also produced secular art. Few names of artists survive and fewer documents record their business dealings, but they left behind an impressive legacy of art and culture.
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ADDITIONAL READING
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Why Are the Middle Ages Often Characterized as Dark or Less Civilized?
Tim O’Neill, M.A. in medieval literature
It’s clear that there was a collapse in learning and much technical capacity as a result of the fragmentation and chaos that followed the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. In places such as southern Gaul or northern Spain, this collapse was a slow decline over several hundred years. In others, such as Britain, it was much more sudden and catastrophic. Modern surveys of archaeological and documentary evidence, such as those summarized by Bryan Ward-Perkins in The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization show that this means a clear decline in material culture and technical capacity between the later Roman era and the seventh century.
Factory-made, mass-produced ceramics that had been exported to the outermost corners of the empire were replaced with rough, homemade pottery. Evidence of luxury goods traded over long distances disappears from the record in all but the most elite gravesite finds. Learning was not extinguished completely thanks to the church’s teaching that “pagan” philosophy was valuable for its own sake and to be preserved. But much was lost in the turmoil. We have, for example, some
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correspondence between two monks from the ninth century discussing mathematical problems that, to modern eyes, look totally elementary but which were cutting-edge at the time.
This was not due to any lack of “intelligence”. People in the early Middle Ages were every bit as intelligent as their Roman-era forebears and also just as smart as we are. But when the whole infrastructure of the earlier culture falls apart under a complex combination of economic and political failures and your region is assailed on all sides from successive waves of invaders and wracked internally by political division and warfare, there tend to be more important things to apply that intelligence to than building aqueducts or translating Aristotle from the Greek. If our civilization collapsed, we would still have the intelligence to design computer games or decorate loft apartments, but we would be using it to grow food, protect our crops, and survive.
The myth of the Middle Ages as a “dark age” does not lie in the fact that things declined markedly after the fall of Rome — they did. It lies in the idea that this situation persisted until the dawning of something called “the Renaissance”, which somehow rescued Western Europe from the clutches of the Catholic Church, revived ancient Greek and Roman learning, reinvented “good” (i.e. realistic) art and made everything OK again.
This is the part of the story that is the myth.
The revival of material culture came long before the so-called “Renaissance”. It began as early as the eighth century and was driven by the needs of early medieval farmers to achieve more with less. With long-distance trade at a low ebb, European farmers had to be far more self-sufficient, and with populations lower, they had to be more labor-effective. Technologies and farming techniques that reduced labor and increased yields became increasingly required and saw an adoption of changes in the period between 500 and 1200 that revolutionized agrarian production. The adoption of the horse collar and horseshoes made plowing more effective, and the wider use of the heavy mouldboard plow meant that heavy, fertile Northern European soils could be brought under production for the first time. Watermills began to proliferate through Europe, mechanizing not just flour production but also a range of other processes once done manually. This mechanization spread to use of tidal mills and, eventually, to the invention of lateral windmills. The range of processes driven by these new machines increased to include sawing masonry, driving trip hammers, automated forge bellows, and more.
The resultant rise in production levels and standards of living from these technologies, combined with the end of the waves of invasion and greater political stability, paved the way for an upswing in the later Middle Ages. Contact with Jewish and Muslim scholars in Spain saw lost works by Aristotle, Ptolemy, Archimedes, and
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many others translated into Latin and returned to the West. In the same period, universities began to appear across Europe, setting up a network of scholarship. This medieval revival also saw further technological innovation, with major inventions such as the mechanical clock, eyeglasses, effective gunpowder weapons, and the printing press.
So the idea that there was no innovation in the Middle Ages is simply wrong— it was a period of remarkable inventiveness. And the idea that Greek and Roman learning was forgotten until the Renaissance is complete nonsense. It had always been preserved by the church, and when conditions in Europe stabilized in the later 11th century, Western Christian scholars went in search of the works that had been lost. The revival came in the 12th century, long before the Renaissance. What the scholars and artists of the Renaissance movement did do is elevate the idolization of the Greeks and Romans to a new and, at times, strangely regressive level. So they denigrated the beautiful and technically advanced architecture of the later Middle Ages as barbaric (it’s still called “gothic” to this day) and aped Greek and Roman styles. They also didn’t pay much attention to Greek and Roman science, logic, and philosophy, since that had already been revived in the Middle Ages, but they idolized Greek and Roman literature, drama, and history instead.
The idea of the whole Middle Ages as a “dark age” therefore actually comes from the early modern Renaissance and humanist movements and their denigration of their immediate forebears and idolization and idealization of the Greeks and Romans. Thus, the period between the Romans and this idealization in the early modern era became called the medium aevum — the “ages in the middle”, or the Middle Ages. They became traditionally characterized as a backward step, where art became “primitive” (because only realistic art could be “good” art), architecture was “barbaric” or “gothic”, and innovation was stagnant.
These false ideas are still current partly because historians have only begun to revise our understanding of the Middle Ages quite recently and this is taking some time to seep into popular consciousness. But the prejudice against the Middle Ages is also driven by some strong cultural currents in our own time. Those with an animus against Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular like to cling to the old idea of the Middle Ages as a “dark age” because it suits their preconceptions about religion and forms a neat little fable where modernity is “good” and the medieval period is “bad”. Historians avoid these simplistic value judgments and reject the assumptions on which they are made, but simple pseudo historical fairy tales are hard to budge.
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Unit 2
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“But what all the violence of the feudal institutions could never have effected, the silent and insensible operation of foreign commerce and manufactures gradually brought about”.
Adam Smith
ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY
In medieval Europe, rural life was governed by a system scholars call “feudalism.” In a feudal society, the king granted large pieces of land called fiefs to noblemen and bishops. Landless peasants known as serfs did most of the work on the fiefs: They planted and harvested crops and gave most of the produce to the landowner. In exchange for their labor, they were allowed to live on the land. They were also promised protection in case of enemy invasion.
During the 11th century, however, feudal life began to change. Agricultural innovations such as the heavy plow and three-field crop rotation made farming more efficient and productive, so fewer farm workers were needed — but thanks to the expanded and improved food supply, the population grew. As a result, more and more people were drawn to towns and cities. Meanwhile, the Crusades had expanded trade routes to the East and given Europeans a taste for imported goods such as wine, olive oil and luxurious textiles. As the commercial economy developed, port cities in particular thrived. By 1300, there were some 15 cities in Europe with a population of more than 50,000.
In these cities, a new era was born: the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of great intellectual and economic change, but it was not a complete “rebirth”: It had its roots in the world of the Middle Ages.
Ex. 1. Answer the questions.
1.What system governed rural life in medieval Europe?
2.What was characteristic of this system?
3.How did feudal life begin to change during the 11th century?
4.Why were more and more people drawn to towns and cities?
5.What contributed to the growth of cities?
6.What era was born in these cities?
7.What did the Renaissance have its roots in?
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Ex. 2. Give the appropriate Russian variant of the words and expressions given below.
1.feudal society
2.fiefs
3.landless peasants
4.harvest
5.promise protection
6.plow
7.three-field crop rotation
8.food supply
9.expand trade routes
10.luxurious
11.thrive
12.grant land to noblemen
13.meanwhile
Ex. 3. Find the synonym from the text.
crop yield —
serf villager farmer —
incursion intrusion encroachment raid — security safety defense prevention — enhance refine boost —
effective productive fruitful — commerce business commercial — flourish prosper succeed —
Ex. 4. Read the text and complete gaps with correct derivative of each word in capitals.
Territorial (1)_____________, innovations in agriculture, and the (2)______________ of cities and trade brought rapid (3)____________ change to medieval Europe. Changes in the (4)______________ and consumption of material goods and in (5)_____________ distribution radically altered European social (6)______________ and political (7)_____________. These changes created new, more (8)___________ classes. These classes competed against and balanced each other so that no one group gained absolute power.
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Ex. 5. Translate the sentences replacing the words in bold with: efficient, expand, invasion, landowner, rural, scholar, thrive
1.In April 1831 William took the command of a Dutch army for the intrusion of Belgium, and in a ten-days’ campaign defeated and dispersed the Belgian forces under Leopold I.
2.Burgesses could buy and possess property in towns, which knights were forbidden to acquire; and though they could not intermarry with the feudal classes, it was easy and regular for a burgess to prosper to knighthood.
3.As a scientist he devoted his attention almost entirely to Plato; and his Phaedrus (1868) and Gorgias (1871), with especially valuable introductions, still remain the standard English editions of these two dialogues.
4.In the agricultural areas, there was less concern with traffic, although an occasional farm dog forced him to practice his sprints.
5.As wealth increased the peasant-farmer gave way before the large landlord, who cultivated his property by means of slave-labour, superintended by slave-bailiffs.
6.Economic theory states that to the degree people or businesses factor these effects into their decisions, more effective outcomes happen.
7.And given that regional conflicts tend to escalate and extend, as long as those
conflicts exist, the very real threat of an unthinkable world war remains.
Ex. 6. Find the proper prepositions in the text to fill in the gaps.
……… a feudal society, the king granted land ………. noblemen and bishops. Landless peasants planted and harvested crops and gave most ………. the produce to the landowner. In exchange ……….. their labor, they were allowed to live ……….
the land. They were also promised protection ………… case of enemy invasion. Later agricultural innovations made farming more efficient and productive, so
fewer farm workers were needed–but thanks ……… the expanded and improved food supply, the population grew. As a result, more and more people were drawn
………… towns and cities. The Crusades had expanded trade routes ……….. the East and given Europeans a taste ……….. imported goods.
Ex. 7. Complete the text with one phrase that best fits into each gap.
The clearing of land and (1) _____ led to higher food production, a rise in population, and greater economic freedom. Agricultural tools, such as the heavy plow, along with new methods for harnessing animal power, such as the horse collar, enabled farmers to work the rich, dense soil of northern Europe using less labor. The three-field system replaced two-field crop rotation, (2) _______ of their land at once, while
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leaving one-third to rest. In the 12th century, energy-producing devices such as the windmill and tidal mill for grinding grain also increased productivity. Consequently, Europeans began eating better; (3) _______. Europe’s population almost doubled between 1000 and 1350; in some regions, it tripled. Surplus food and population meant that more people could devote their energies to new crafts and trade instead of to subsistence agriculture.
This increase in productivity from the 11th through the 14th centuries led to (4) ____. Townspeople bought foodstuffs and raw supplies from rural areas, and sold crafts made by local artisans as well as items imported from other regions. Towns and townspeople became independent of the landholding aristocracy and (5) _____
granted by kings. Coins became a convenient medium of exchange, and a moneybased economy, complete with banking, investing, and lending activities, emerged. European merchants and investors formed competing trade networks. The merchants of the older Italian city-states, such as Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, (6) _____ in exchange for Europe’s raw materials. In the 12th and 13th centuries, a group of northern German towns formed the Hanseatic League. The league monopolized the trade routes that transported raw goods, such as timber, furs, and metals, along the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and major rivers. In doing so, they linked Germany, England, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, and eastern European countries. Although
(7)_______, towns increasingly dominated the landscape.
A.allowing farmers to cultivate two-thirds, instead of half,
B.brought luxury goods from the east and from North African ports
C.new techniques in agriculture
D.the majority of Europeans still lived in rural areas
E.they lived longer and grew in number
F.urbanization, or the growth of market towns and cities
G.were able to regulate their own businesses through charters
Ex. 8. Read the text and fill in each gap with the appropriate word from the list.
Social Structure of the Middle Ages
An emergence of feudalistic society was eminent in The Middle Ages and the major reason behind this was the necessity of security for the society. The society was divided basically in two classes, the upper classes and the peasants or serfs.
The upper class was divided in two ………….. as the monastic monks and the aristocrats or nobles. The upper class wanted to secure their privilege of maintaining control over their spreading kingdoms. Power was in the hands of barons who owned
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and controlled large portions of King’s land. In return, barons used to offer fealty or
…………. to the king. They not only paid taxes whenever the king demanded, but also, they offered full support to the kings in securing their kingdoms by …………..
troops to fight for their kings whenever required.
The peasants or ………… were those who used to do work or to produce wealth. These serfs used to live in manors controlled by barons or lords. There were independent serfs who used to maintain their own …………. while offering taxes for their lords. In ……………, these independent farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, or bakers were also allowed to own indentured servants. They were given definite portion of land to till and grow food and other necessary things and they had a degree of control over this land as they could pass it on after their death through
……………. Independent peasants also had some political rights. Peasants accepted the ruling of lords and kings because of their want of security against marauders, looters and barbarians from surrounding lands. Invading armies were also a
…………… for peasants, but as they were taking care of lords’ lands, lords needed to protect them against threat within the kingdom and abroad.
addition business homage inheritance providing segments serfs threat
Ex. 9. Find the odd word out.
1.baron — lord — nobleman — peasant
2.keep — hold — maintain — define
3.secure — ensure — guarantee — accept
4.offer — provide — suggest — use
5.riches — control — prosperity — wealth
6.military — troops — army — horde
7.accept — acknowledge — flee — recognize
Ex. 10. Match the beginning with the ending to create a text.
1.The centralization of the Carolingian state was not long
2.In those areas where the Carolingian Empire had little impact, and even in the regions
3.In circumstances that make strong central government impossible, individual security must be guaranteed by other means —
a)a source of political stability in western Europe in the early Middle Ages.
b)and varied from region to region.
c)to apply generally to these individual patterns of decentralized government.
d)usually through local custom and practice.
e)we are attempting a simplification of
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4.Historians have used the term feudalism
5.The diversity of political structure in the early Middle Ages was great,
6.We must be aware that in using the term to describe medieval political structures,
an extremely diversified and complex set of local practices.
f)which were at some time controlled by Carolingian rulers, personal safety and security were the primary concerns for most individuals.
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Ex. 11. Translate the texts.
A.In theory, feudalism was a vast hierarchy. At the top stood the king, and all the land in his kingdom belonged to him. He kept large areas for his personal use (royal or crown lands) and, in return for the military service of a specified number of mounted knights, invested the highest nobles — such as dukes and counts (in Britain, earls) — with the remainder. Those nobles holding lands directly from the king were called tenants-in-chief. They, in turn, in order to obtain the services of the required number of mounted warriors (including themselves) owed to the king, parceled out large portions of their fiefs to lesser nobles. This process, called subinfeudation, was continued until the lowest in the scale of vassals was reached — the single knight whose fief was just sufficient to support one mounted warrior.
B.Subinfeudation became a problem when a conflict of loyalties arose. Since the Count of Champagne, for example, was vassal to nine different lords, on whose side would he fight should two of his lords go to war against one another? This dilemma was partially solved by the custom of liege homage. When a vassal received his first fief, he pledged liege or prior homage to that lord. This obligation was to have top priority over services that he might later pledge to other lords.
Except for the knight with a single fief, a nobleman was usually both a vassal and a lord. Even a king might be a vassal; John of Britain was vassal to King Philip of France for certain French lands, yet he in no way thought himself inferior to Philip.
By maintaining a king at the head of the theoretical feudal hierarchy, custom kept the traces of monarchy intact. Although many feudal kings were little more than figureheads who might be less powerful than their own vassals, the institution of the monarchy was retained out of tradition.
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Ex. 12. Translate the text and give the principal idea of it.
В средние века было распространено учение, согласно которому все население Европы в соответствии с Божьей волей делится на три группы — три сословия (входящие в эти сословия люди обладают разными правами
иобязанностями). Служители церкви (священники и монахи) составляли особый слой населения — духовенство, считалось, что оно руководит духовной жизнью людей — заботится о спасении душ христиан; рыцари защищают страну от чужеземцев; крестьяне и горожане занимаются сельским хозяйством
иремеслом.
Первоначально сословия имели открытый характер. Особенно это касалась духовенства, которое принимало в свой состав младших сыновей из рыцарских семей, которые не имели права на наследство. Могли стать священнослужителями, конечно, самого низкого звена, часть горожан и свободных крестьян.
Рыцарское сословие могло принять в свои ряды наиболее выдающихся горожан, принадлежавших к облагородившемуся слою. Была возможность получить рыцарское звание за деньги или службу у свободного крестьянина, если его привлекали на военную службу.
Сословие горожан пополнялось за счет переселявшихся из земледельческой округи. Горожанами могли стать даже беглые несвободные крестьяне, если они проживали на территории города год и еще один день. После этого они превращались в свободных горожан. Но к XV веку все эти демократические послабления в сословной среде средневековья практически сошли на нет. Все сословия стали замкнутыми, и рыцарские особенно.
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ADDITIONAL READING
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Feudalism can be described as a type of government in which political power is exercised locally by private individuals rather than through the bureaucracy of a centralized state. It is seen as a transitional stage which may follow the collapse of a unified political system. The term has been used to describe political practices in various areas and times in world history — in ancient Egypt and in twelfth-century Japan, for example — but the most famous of all feudal patterns emerged in France following the collapse of Charlemagne’s empire.
In general, medieval political institutions involved three basic elements: (1) a personal element, called lordship or vassalage, by which one nobleman, the vassal, became the loyal follower of a stronger nobleman, the lord or suzerain; (2) a property
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