The Middle Ages. Учебное пособие

element, called the fief (usually land), which the vassal received from his lord in order to enable him to fulfill the obligations of vassalage; and (3) a governmental element, meaning the private exercise of governmental functions over vassals and fiefs. The roots of these three elements run back to late Roman and early Germanic times.

By the fifth century the Roman emperor was no longer able to protect his subjects, and citizens had to depend on the patronage system, by which a Roman noble organized a group of less powerful men as a personal bodyguard and in return looked after their wants and interests. A similar arrangement existed among the Germans — the war band or comitatus, described by Tacitus. Vassalage, the personal element in feudalism, arose from the combination of the use of patronage and the comitatus.

The origin of the property element, the fief, also derives from Roman practices. In the late Roman Empire the owners of great estates (latifundia) added steadily to their already extensive holdings. Unable to manage their large tracts directly, the nobles granted the temporary use of portions to other people in exchange for dues and services. Such land was called a beneficium, or benefice (literally, “a benefit”). As an example, in late Merovingian times, when mounted warriors rather than old-style foot soldiers were needed to deal effectively with Muslim raiders from Spain, Charles Martel granted numerous benefices to compensate his followers for the added expense of maintaining horses. During the civil wars and foreign invasions of late Carolingian times, the competition among Charlemagne’s successors for the available supply of mounted knights led not only to the wholesale granting of benefices but also to making the benefice hereditary. On the death of the vassal, the benefice passed to an heir instead of reverting to the king. Hereditary benefices were commonly called fiefs.

The third basic element, the exercise of governmental power by private individuals, also had antecedents in late Roman times. As the imperial government weakened, the powerful Roman landowners organized their own private armies to police their estates and fend off governmental agents, particularly tax collectors. The emperors also favored certain estates with grants of immunity from imperial authority, a practice the Germanic kings often followed and that became the rule with Charlemagne’s successors in their competitive efforts to fill their armies with mounted fief-holding vassals. And where immunity from the king’s authority was not freely granted, it was often usurped.

With the combining of these three elements, a definable, although highly complex and variable, governmental pattern emerged in the West by the end of the ninth century.

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Unit 3

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“The period in which craft guilds dominated or influenced the economic regime of the towns is also that in which urban protectionism reached its height. However divergent their professional interests might be, all industrial groups were united in their determination to enforce to the utmost the monopoly which each enjoyed and to crush all scope for individual initiative and all possibility of competition”.

Pirenn

TYPES OF JOBS AND THE GUILD SYSTEM

The most common job in the medieval economy was that of a peasant farmer who worked in the manors of their lords. Each manor was made up of a number of acres in which the peasant farmers would work in to produce food for their villages and lords. In addition to farming, the farmers also kept sheep and the women were in charge of shearing the sheep, spinning the wool and sewing the clothes. Women were able to seek jobs such as seamstresses and laundresses.

Other middle ages occupations included artisans who produced commodities made from glass, wood, clay and iron. The artisans included weavers, shoemakers, masons, blacksmiths, tailors and carpenters. Other common jobs included working as bakers, beer brewers, millers and vintners. As trade increased toward the end of the medieval times, merchants became very important.

The rise of the merchants boosted the development of towns and cities in the middle ages. Other important professionals included dentists, barbers, teachers and surgeons who focused on the human services sector.

The 12th and 13th century saw significant growth and expansion in the middle ages economy. Agriculture remained the mainstay of the economy but there was proper management of the manors and farms. This increased productivity and allowed the economy to diversify away from agriculture. Other economic activities such as mining and forestry were adopted in many medieval societies.

Importantly, this economic expansion led to the growth of retail trading which the merchants dominated. Even though the merchants were despised by most of society, they can be credited as having boosted the state of middle ages economics. Merchants travelled across countries sourcing for goods and products that they would trade in other countries. They brought with them cloth, food, spices, and jewelry.

The growth of retail trade led to the development of towns and cities. More and more peasant farmers were able to purchase commodities from the merchants. The

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merchants took significant control over the regulation of the medieval economy. They not only became influential in the local politics but also formed powerful guilds. Through these guilds, the merchants were in a position to influence economic policies including aspects of taxation and levies.

Prior to the guild system, merchants and artisans would organize themselves into a lose conglomerate. The trade regulations were few if any, and because these people sold their merchandise close to each other, squabbles over price emerged. The guild system thus symbolized a mature and more organized economic system in which prices were highly regulated as well as the conduct of guild members. The strict guild system also helped the local government in the collection of tax and the inspection of the quality of merchandise sold by the artisans and merchants.

Just as the middle ages economy was at its peak, the Great Famine and one of the worst plagues, the Black Death hit the medieval society. The Great Famine of 1315 caused havoc upon the agrarian system and brought with it the decline of entire villages and towns. The Black Death also dealt another blow to the agrarian system as millions of peasants were killed thus affecting the productivity in the manor. However, this decline led to the rise of new economic systems in almost every area of society including agriculture, trade and taxation.

Ex. 1. Answer the questions.

1.What was the most common job in the Medieval economy?

2.What was each manor made up of?

3.What did peasant farmers and women also do in addition to farming?

4.What were other Middle Ages occupations?

5.What was the economy like in the 12th and 13th centuries?

6.Why did merchants become very important toward the end of the medieval times?

7.What was the result of the economic expansion?

8.How did the merchants boost the state of the Middle Ages economy?

9.Why did the merchants take significant control over the regulation of the medieval economy?

10.What did the gild system symbolize?

11.What led to the decline of the agrarian system?

Ex. 2. Give the appropriate Russian variant of the words and expressions given below.

1.shear the sheep

2.spin the wool

3.sew the clothes

4.seamstresses and laundresses

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5.artisan

6.produce commodities

7.merchant

8.boost the development

9.mainstay

10.diversify

11.retail trading

12.to be despised

13.mature

14.havoc

15.affect the productivity

Ex. 3. Demonstrate the proper text reading and translate the text. Pay special attention to the words in bold.

Guilds were voluntary cooperatives. No one was forced to join, and no one had to be admitted. Guilds admitted sons of members as a matter of course, while requiring other applicants to serve apprenticeships, pay entry fees, and demonstrate the skills necessary for the profession. These practices limited entry into occupations because individuals seldom entered industries without joining the relevant guilds. Guild membership had advantages. Master craftsmen accumulated knowledge and taught it to journeymen and apprentices. Reputations regarding the quality of merchandise mitigated the adverse selection that inhibited long-distance trade. Business contacts and ongoing relationships with suppliers, distributors, and consumers simplified the tasks of purchasing inputs and distributing outputs. The sharing of risk and costs encouraged investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. These advantages gave individuals an incentive to join guilds and discouraged outsiders from entering lines of work before becoming guild members.

Ex. 4. Find the proper prepositions in the text to fill in the gaps.

1.to be ……… charge ……… shearing the sheep

2.commodities made ……… glass, wood, clay and iron

3.the mainstay ……… the economy

4.to be adopted ………. many societies

5.merchants were despised ………. most ……….. society

6.lead ………. the growth ………. retail trading

7.take control ………… the regulation ………. the economy

8.the conduct ………… guild members

9.squabbles ………… price

10.collection ………… tax

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11.the inspection …………. the quality

12.to be ………… the peak

13.havoc ………… the agrarian system

Ex. 6. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words derived from the ones given in brackets.

One important role of a guild was the _____________ (force) of standards upon its own members. There are lots of documented stories about __________ (crafts) using trickery or __________ (deceit) in order to improve their profits. Some examples of this could be putting sand or dirt in bags of wheat or flower to make them _________ (heavy) (thus selling for a higher price). Bakers could bake stones or weights into their loaves to make them heavier. Ale sellers would put false bottoms in their ___________ (contain). There were all sorts of tricks that craftsmen could use and it was the job of the guild to minimize and punish this __________ (trick).

And they would often employ some type of ___________ (punish) which could be a fine. Public __________ (grace) was also an oft used tool and a baker who had baked weights in his bread, if caught, could possibly be punished by having to walk through the town with a loaf tied around his neck. This gave his customers the

____________ (opportune) to throw garbage at him! A _________ (sell) of bad wine could be made to drink some of the bad wine and have the rest poured over his head as punishment.

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Ex. 7. Match the parts of the sentences to create the text.

Ex. 8. Translate the text and give the principal idea of it.

Для того, чтобы подмастерье получил звание мастера, ремесленные цеха выработали свои правила, которым молодой претендент на почётный титул обязан был неотступно следовать. В первую очередь по универсальному средневековому регламенту соискатель высокого звания должен был произвести на свет так называемый «шедевр» (чаще употреблялся термин немецкой традиции Meisterstück), которым тот доказывал свои профессиональные способности и обоснованность своих претензий на звание самостоятельного мастера. Помимо «шедевра», образцового изделия, качество которого оценивалось членами специального «жюри», состоявшего из признанных и наиболее авторитетных мастеров соответствующего цеха, подмастерье должен был начать карьеру путешественника. Он был обязан посетить определённое количество торговых городов (в немецкой традиции Vagabundsmeister), входивших в состав Ганзейского союза.

Тем не менее, даже если желающий получить более высокий социальный статус успешно справлялся с первыми испытаниями, то в некоторых случаях предполагалось третье «испытание»: за свои средства новоиспечённый мастер был обязан «выставить» всем участникам церемонии цеховой обед, что определённо не могло не ударять по кошельку испытуемого. Поэтому до нас дошли сведения о нескольких крупных беспорядках, спровоцированных восстаниями подмастерьев, выражавших закономерное недовольство дискриминационными нормами получения статуса.

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ADDITIONAL READING

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Guild Chronology and Impact

Gary Richardson, University of California, Irvine

Reconstructing the history of guilds poses several problems. Few written records survive from the twelfth century and earlier. Surviving documents consist principally of the records of rulers — kings, princes, churches — that taxed, chartered, and granted privileges to organizations. Some evidence also exists in the records of notaries and courts, which recorded and enforced contracts between guild masters and outsiders, such as the parents of apprentices. From the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, records survive in larger numbers. Surviving records include statute books and other documents describing the internal organization and operation of guilds. The evidence at hand links the rise and decline of guilds to several important events in the history of Western Europe.

In the late Roman Empire, organizations resembling guilds existed in most towns and cities. These voluntary associations of artisans, known as collegia, were occasionally regulated by the state but largely left alone. They were organized along trade lines and possessed a strong social base, since their members shared religious observances and fraternal dinners. Most of these organizations disappeared during the Dark Ages, when the Western Roman Empire disintegrated and urban life collapsed. In the Eastern Empire, some collegia appear to have survived from antiquity into the Middle Ages, particularly in Constantinople, where Leo the Wise codified laws concerning commerce and crafts at the beginning of the tenth century and sources reveal an unbroken tradition of state management of guilds from ancient times. Some scholars suspect that in the West, a few of the most resilient collegia in the surviving urban areas may have evolved in an unbroken descent into medieval guilds, but the absence of documentary evidence makes it appear unlikely and unprovable.

In the centuries following the Germanic invasions, evidence indicates that numerous guild-like associations existed in towns and rural areas. These organizations functioned as modern burial and benefit societies, whose objectives included prayers for the souls of deceased members, payments of weregilds in cases of justifiable homicide, and supporting members involved in legal disputes. These rural guilds were descendents of Germanic social organizations known as gilda which the Roman historian Tacitus referred to as convivium.

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During the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, considerable economic development occurred. The sources of development were increases in the productivity of medieval agriculture, the abatement of external raiding by Scandinavian and Muslim brigands, and population increases. The revival of longdistance trade coincided with the expansion of urban areas. Merchant guilds formed an institutional foundation for this commercial revolution. Merchant guilds flourished in towns throughout Europe, and in many places, rose to prominence in urban political structures. In many towns in England, for example, the merchant guild became synonymous with the body of burgesses and evolved into the municipal government. In Genoa and Venice, the merchant aristocracy controlled the city government, which promoted their interests so well as to preclude the need for a formal guild.

Merchant guilds’ principal accomplishment was establishing the institutional foundations for long-distance commerce. Italian sources provide the best picture of guilds’ rise to prominence as an economic and social institution. Merchant guilds appear in many Italian cities in the twelfth century. Craft guilds became ubiquitous during the succeeding century.

In northern Europe, merchant guilds rose to prominence a few generations later. In the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, local merchant guilds in trading cities such as Lubeck and Bremen formed alliances with merchants throughout the Baltic region. The alliance system grew into the Hanseatic League which dominated trade around the Baltic and North Seas and in Northern Germany.

Social and religious guilds existed at this time, but few records survive. Small numbers of craft guilds developed, principally in prosperous industries such as cloth manufacturing, but records are also rare, and numbers appear to have been small.

As economic expansion continued in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the influence of the Catholic Church grew, and the doctrine of Purgatory developed. The doctrine inspired the creation of countless religious guilds, since the doctrine provided members with strong incentives to want to belong to a group whose prayers would help one enter heaven and it provided guilds with mechanisms to induce members to exert effort on behalf of the organization. Many of these religious associations evolved into occupational guilds. Most of the Livery Companies of London, for example, began as intercessory societies around this time.

The number of guilds continued to grow after the Black Death. There are several potential explanations. The decline in population raised per-capita incomes, which encouraged the expansion of consumption and commerce, which in turn necessitated the formation of institutions to satisfy this demand. Repeated epidemics decreased family sizes, particularly in cities, where the typical adult had on average perhaps 1.5 surviving children, few surviving siblings, and only a small extended

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family, if any. Guilds replaced extended families in a form of fictive kinship. The decline in family size and impoverishment of the church also forced individuals to rely on their guild more in times of trouble, since they no longer could rely on relatives and priests to sustain them through periods of crisis. All of these changes bound individuals more closely to guilds, discouraged free riding, and encouraged the expansion of collective institutions.

For nearly two centuries after the Black Death, guilds dominated life in medieval towns. Any town resident of consequence belonged to a guild. Most urban residents thought guild membership to be indispensable. Guilds dominated manufacturing, marketing, and commerce. Guilds dominated local politics and influenced national and international affairs. Guilds were the center of social and spiritual life.

The heyday of guilds lasted into the sixteenth century. The Reformation weakened guilds in most newly Protestant nations. In England, for example, the royal government suppressed thousands of guilds in the 1530s and 1540s. The king and his ministers dispatched auditors to every guild in the realm. The auditors seized spiritual paraphernalia and funds retained for religious purposes, disbanded guilds which existed for purely pious purposes, and forced craft and merchant guilds to pay large sums for the right to remain in operation. Those guilds that did still lost the ability to provide members with spiritual services.

In Protestant nations after the Reformation, the influence of guilds waned. Many turned to governments for assistance. They requested monopolies on manufacturing and commerce and asked courts to force members to live up to their obligations. Guilds lingered where governments provided such assistance. Guilds faded where governments did not. By the seventeenth century, the power of guilds had withered in England. Guilds retained strength in nations which remained Catholic. France abolished its guilds during the French Revolution in 1791, and Napoleon’s armies disbanded guilds in most of the continental nations which they occupied during the next two decades.

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Unit 4

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“A knight is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do.”

Haruki Murakami

MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS

Medieval knights were the professional warrior class of Europe, responsible for defending their feudal lord’s territory from rival lords and keeping the local serfdom in line with the lord’s rule. During the middle ages, the term knight referred to a mounted and armoured soldier. Originally, knights were warriors on horse-back, but the title became increasingly connected to nobility and social status, most likely because of the cost of equipping oneself in the cavalry. Knights used weapons such as the longsword, lance, dagger and various blunt weapons. Knighthood eventually became a formal title bestowed on those noblemen trained for active war duty.

In theory, knighthood could be bestowed on a man by any knight, but it was generally considered honorable to be dubbed knight by the hand of a monarch. Knights were frequently members of the noble class, with the title inherited through the father, but it was also a title granted as a reward for chivalrous deeds. In the late medieval period, noble and warrior classes became more static. They conducted themselves according to the Code of Chivalry, which stressed courtly etiquette and valor in battle as well as devout Christian faith.

Not only did knights protect their lords from attack by other lords, but they also served as a military force for the king of the country should he require it.

Contrary to popular belief, the king did not usually train boys to become knights. This was the responsibility of the king’s lords, barons and knights. Each of these men held stations, titles, lands and manors of his own. And it was to the lord’s manor that the boy would go to train under the knight of the king.

Over the centuries of the Middle Ages what a knight was expected to do changed dramatically and chivalry did not come into the picture until the late middle ages.

Ex. 1. Answer the questions.

1.What were medieval knights responsible for?

2.What was the equipment of a knight?

3.Why did the title of a knight become increasingly connected to nobility and social status?

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