What do you think? Article

The people of the Middle Ages had different opinions on life and how they went about. There were five basic classes in the Middle Ages. They were Knights, Kings and noblemen, slaves and serfs, merchants, and Clergy. They all had different opinions on life because of how each class lived their lives. The Kings would have completely different view and lifestyles than say the slaves or serfs. All of the people should have been equal in the Middle Ages and Social Classes should not have existed.

In the eyes of the Knights and Noblemen Social Classes were the best. The knights were hired for one reason to protect and guard (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/nlife.html). They would protect the noble families from the serfs and slaves who were revolting (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/nlife.html). They would eat meat, bread, and vegetables with salt and pepper seasoning. Many people did not have this luxury of eating any of these things, especially the seasonings. They wear clothes made out of silk and velvet. They wore jewelry, but only with uncut jewels because they had not invented stone cutting yet. They did not have to lift a finger because their slaves and serfs would do all of the housework and chores. It was the equivalent of being a celebrity in the Middle Ages. They got everything they wanted when they wanted it. (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/nlife.html). In the Knight’s Tale of the Canterbury Tales it says “And thus, in victory and with melody, Let I this noble duke to Athens ride” (http://canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html). This is basically saying that the duke of Athens got everything he wanted at that time. This was true for most of the Lords and Dukes of that time. Noblemen and Knights thought that Social Classes were the best way of life.

On the other side of this were the slaves and serfs. Let’s just say that they had a bit of a different opinion about this matter. The serfs had to do all the dirty work in the fields and the slaves had to wait on every need of the Kings and Lords. Not only did the slaves have to do all the dirty work but they also got tortured. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html). The Lords and Noblemen got enjoyment out of the tears and suffering from their slaves. So the slaves got the shortest end of the stick out of everyone in the Middle Ages. There was a story about a slave who fell in love with a nobleman’s daughter and got married. When the girl’s father found out about this he was not happy. He went to the priest and told him to split them up. The priest refused and made the father take an oath that he would never separate them as long as he lived. The father was so infuriated in this that he had his daughter and the slave executed. He buried them in the same coffin so that he would not violate the oath that he made with the priest (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html). This proves that the slaves and serfs had a negative view on Social Classes.

The last class had a little bit of both worlds. The merchants were more in the middle than anyone else of that time. The tale of the Merchant says that “Praying Our Lord to grant to him that he might once know something of that blissful life”. Earlier in this tale it talks about how he was going to a Knight’s wedding to see what it was like to find love and hope that that would one day happen to himself. This is clearly showing that he wants the life of a Knight and to find true love. He is saying himself that he does not want to be a merchant because that is not the life that people wanted to live back in the Middle Ages. Social Classes were only supported by higher and more important classes. This proves that merchants wanted to have better lives even though they are not the worst of all the classes. (http://canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html)

Social Classes were a thing of the past. We do not follow by this anymore for a reason. The only people who found having Social Classes a good thing was the noblemen and Kings. Everyone else had a negative opinion about this. Even the merchants envied the Knights and wanted to be like them. You could not move up in life so if you got the short end of the stick than you lived the rest of your life like that. Social Classes were a terrible thing and everyone is created equal in the eyes of God, and that is why we are all equal today.

Citations: "File:Germansalute.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Germansalute.jpg>.

"Noble Life." Web. 01 May 2010. <http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/nlife.html>.

"Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ~ Presented by ELF." Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ~ Presented by The Electronic Literature Foundation. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. <http://canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html>.


"Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory of Tours: Harsh Treatment of Serfs and Slaves, C."FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html>.

Videos Daily

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Citations: Wikimedia Commons. Web. 01 May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: Crisis, Recovery, Feudalism?" FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 01 May 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html>.

Middle Ages Review Notes

• 1066 - Normans invade England in the Battle of Hastings
• 1086 the doomsday book was written
• 1087 to 1100 is the rule of William Rufus
• He invades Wales and builds lot of castles all along the borders
• In 1100 Henry, Rufus's brother, becomes king
• From 1135 to 1154 King Stephen was king. He is the nephew of Henry the first
• Pope Urban the second supports and persuades the crusades to happen
• In 1118 the Knights Templar founded
• 1147 - Second Crusade
• 1154-1189 - The reign of King Henry the second grandson to King Henry the first
• The Kremlin is built in Russia
• 1184 - The Inquisition begins. The Jews and Heretics were tortured till they admitted they were Heretics and then were killed
• 1189-1199 - Richard the Lion Hearted became King. He never got back to England.
• 1190 - the third Crusade begins. Saladine recaptures Jerusalem and kick out the Europeans
• 1199-1216 - The reign of King John. In 1200 he starts the fourth crusade. This winds up in the SACK of Constantinople
• 1212 - The child's crusade
• 1214 - people revolt
• 1215- the signing of the Magna Carta
• The King came under the power of the law when this was signed
• This is the beginning of Democracy. The king had to play by the same rules as everyone else.
• 1216-1272 - the reign of King Henry the third. He established a new form of government
• There became distrust of the Kings.
• 1272-1307 - The reign of King Edward the first
• 1273 - Rudolph the first of Germany is elected the Holy Roman Empire
• 1274 - Thomas Aquinas publishes the book Summa Theologiae
• 1295 - Marco Polo publishes his tales of China
• 1297 - William Wallace emerges as the leader of the Scottish resistance
• 1307-1327 - the reign of King Edward the second
• The knights Templar were gathered up and murdered with the backing up of the Pope
• 1311-1315 - Europe gets hit with a great famine and the crops die
• 1327-1377 - The reign of King Edward the third
• The Hundred Years' War starts now
• Italy remains city-states after this war
• The Pope rises up in Italy
• Three parts of the Hundred Years' war
• The Edwardian War 1337-1360
• The Caroline War 1369-1389
• The Lancastrian War 1415-1429
• 1346 - The battle of Crecy
• 1347 - The Black Death breaks out
• 1356 - Battle of Poitiers
• 1377-1399 - reign of King Richard the second
• 1380 - Chaucer begins to write The Canterbury Tales
• 1381 - Peasants revolt in England
• 1382 - The Bible is translated into English by John Wycliffe
• 1399-1413 - reign of King Henry the Fourth
• 1413-1422 - reign of King Henry the fifth
• Henry the fifth defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt
• Joan or Arc lifts the siege of Orleans
• 1434 - The Medici family rises to prominence in Florence

12th Century Renaissance Daily

The 12th century was a boom in technology and knowledge. There was also a lot of trading and commercing. This time period was also bountiful for the Church and the transition to the language of Latin. The architecture for this period was mostly of the Gothic. Gothic architecture was mostly made out of thin walls with a lot stain glass windows. In this time period buildings were built for worship and not for protection. The main inventions for this time period were windmills and rudders. The main philosopher of this time period was Aristotle. He did a lot with logic and made people think why do things happen and not just stating what happened.

Citations: "Renaissance of the 12th Century." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_of_the_12th_century>.

"The Twelfth Century Renaissance." University of Wisconsin - History Department. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20112%20renaissance.htm>.

"File:Adoration of the Magi St.michael Toronto.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adoration_of_the_magi_st.michael_toronto.jpg>.

Picture Comparison Daily

These crosses are similar because they both have to do with the Christian faith and they both are religious symbols.

These are similar because they are both stained glass windows and they are from the same period which is Gothic.

4/26/10 The Crusades Notes

• They started in the 11th century
• The children's crusade failed miserably and many were killed
• France becomes France in this period
• In England the Normans rule to 1154 which they are then taken over by Plantagenet
• There is a lot of Gothic architecture in England
• Morocco is Muslim
• The Muslims rule the country for 700 years
• Library burns, Constantinople is taken over by Islams
• The goal of the crusades was supposed to be to get Jerusalem back
• They made the Muslims their enemies
• The Islamic people are going through a Renaissance
• The Europeans realize that when they have been losing knowledge, the Moors in Spain have vast knowledge of all this stuff
• Aristotle introduced that logic defeated superstition
• The Anglo-Saxon spoke Anglo-Saxon, not English
• You mix Anglo-Saxon and Old French and you get English
• They Europeans also brought Christianity and the Latin language

Horror Story

The date was July 7, 2012, my birthday. It was a sunny day and I was with my family at our community pool. I was looking at my mom and she was looking back at me. She had just recovered from an open heart transplant. She was so brave through all of it and I was proud to be her son. I climbed the ladder to the diving board to do a cannonball with my good friend Luke. We both went up to the edge and got ready to jump. I made a huge splash and I came up and saw Luke's splash. The strange thing about this though was he didn’t come up. I looked around to see if he was pretending to drown or play a joke on me. I realized after five minutes that he wasn’t coming back up.

When I realized this I dived down to see if he was conscious and went to go get help. The lifeguard performed CPR and tried to bring him back to life. They took his dead corpse to the medical examiner to be checked out. This was a routine check-out but what the medical examiner discovered would change the world forever. When they opened up Luke's body they found a lot of cyanide and a material that they could not identify as something from this planet. When the medical examiner detected this in Luke's bloodstream he sent an email out to the head of security for the United States of America. When the medical examiner pressed send on the keyboard he heard someone scream and the door open. He tried to get a glance at the dark figure in the center of the room but all he could see were red eyes that were evil and glowing with negative energy.

The next moment the medical examiner was on the ground dead from head trauma. When the police got there it was too late. The man was face down with blood dripping out of his head but no sign of a hole or penetration wound. This intrigued the police officers but at that moment the two on duty police officers dropped dead with him. When the hazardous waste men got there to clean up the mess they discovered that the same poison that was found in Luke's body that was in the air in the room. They put this gas through a machine to see what kind of connection it had to the chemicals found in Luke's dead body. Turns out that these chemicals can kill in under 10 seconds if inhaled. The next day there were thousands of people dying with the same gas. The whole nation was under a red alert of this type of gas. People were panicking and committing crimes to try to get supplies and medication. The United States at this point was in complete chaos. The gas was spreading fast and there was no way of stopping it. After a short period of time the gas had spread to China and Europe from travelers from the U.S. that were trying to get away from this plague. Each day the gas was killing more and more people and nobody knew how to stop it. Some proclaimed it was the end of the world and some people turned to the Church to help them. When the Church could not help them they started rioting and burning down the Churches.

Soon after there were hundreds of thousands of people dying every day. Two weeks after the gas had first revealed itself to us everyone was dead but me. There was no hope no company and no salvation. I couldn’t take it anymore I had to do something. I was immune to the virus so I had to commit suicide, there was no other way. I got a gun which I had had for my protection from people that could infect me. I put it up to my head and right before I pulled the trigger I saw something in the sky. It was round yet not from this earth. The object landed and picked me up. Turns out I wasn’t the only still alive. When I got into the object I saw big figure about the size of two humans. Then I couldn’t remember anything. When I woke up there were people all around me. If was if the disease never happened. It was like God wanted this to happen. It was the second flood. Now when will the third happen?

Social Classes Article

Back in the Middle Ages they had a thing called Social Classes. Although some people did not see it, there were many faults in this way of living. Social Classes basically went like this: if you were born a slave you died a slave and if you were born an Aristocrat then you live a better life than the serfs. There are so many things wrong with this, that it is hard to list just a few things. These are some things that should have been done to better the Middle Ages. These are the rights of each and every individual person, the treatment of these people, and the fact that there is no way to move up in life.

The first thing wrong with this is that there are no or very few rights is that not everyone is considered equal then. Back in the 1600’s they did not have the Constitution but they did have the Bible and in the Bible it says that every man is unique and God loves everyone the same. If this period was so into the Church and the Church was the center of teaching why would they put people in different categories based on where they came from (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1u.html)? The serfs and servants had barely any rights and no chance to be higher than their current position (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1u.html). There were no promotions in the Middle Ages. Whatever you are born you die. This is why Social Orders violated the rights of humans.

The next flaw in the use of Social Classes was that the treatment of lowers in this society was cruel and terrible. The Council of the Worms says, “If any one shall kill his own slave without the knowledge of the judges---a slave who has committed such thing as may be worthy of death---he shall emend the guilt of blood by excommunication or by a penance for two years” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/876Worms.html). This is pretty much saying that you will go to hell if you kill your serf or slave. This is on the side of the serfs and slaves because knowing this the owners would not likely kill or mistreat their slaves. The Council of the Worms also says, “If any woman incensed by a fit of jealousy should beat her slave, so that within three days she [the slave] should die in torment, so that it be uncertain whether she killed her intentionally or by accident, she shall do lawful penance for five years, if it be by chance, but for seven years if she do it intentionally” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/876Worms.html). This is pretty much saying that if a woman beats her slave so much that she dies from torture she has to spend five years doing lawful penance. If she beats the slave on purpose than it is seven years of penance. On the other side of this is Gregory of Tours’s “Harsh Treatment of Serfs and Slaves” it lists some punishments that slaves and serfs were given for doing nothing wrong. When the slaves and serf would not do something or do something wrong they would do certain torture measures to them. This document says, “For if, as was customary, a slave held a burning candle before him at dinner, he caused his shins to be bared, and placed the candle between them until the flame died; and he caused the same thing to be done with a second candle until the shins of the torchbearer were burned. But if the slave tried to cry out, or to move from one place to another, a naked sword threatened him; and he found great enjoyment in the man's tears” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html). This is just one of the cruel punishments that slaves were given if they did not obey the needs of the owners. In modern life these would be cruel and unusual punishments that are considered illegal. This is why we got rid of slaves and treat everyone equally now.

The third problem with Social Orders is that there is no way to move up in life. If you are born a slave, serf, or a peasant you pretty much get the short end of the stick and that is how it will be the rest of your life. In the Middle Ages there was no such thing as a promotion. The slaves and serfs sometimes got angry at this and revolted against the noble families. In Gregory of Tours’s “Enslaving Noble Families it states, “But Theoderic and Childebert entered into a treaty and each took an oath that neither would wage war upon the other. They took hostages so that they might the more firmly adhere to what they had promised. Many sons of senatorial families were thus given but when a new quarrel broke out between the kings they were reduced to servitude on the fiscal domains. And those who had taken care of them now made slaves of them” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/511Noblslav.html). This says that the kings were reduced to slaves and they had a flip flop of power with the slaves. The people they had owned now owned them. We have no slaves today because there were so many revolts that they could no longer control the mass populations of slaves.

There are more flaws than advantages in the use of Social Orders. 90% of the people are unhappy with this because they could not move up from being serfs. The Lords were ok with this because for them it was a great life twenty-four hours a day. We no longer abide by these rules and now we have a Constitution where we know all men are created equal. In modern day life every man is created equal and we are leaning towards a new tomorrow.

Citations: "Medieval Sourcebook: Council of Worms: On the Murder of Slaves, 876." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 03 May 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/876Worms.html>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory of Tours: Harsh Treatment of Serfs and Slaves, C."FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 03 May 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory of Tours: Enslaving Noble Families, 511." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 03 May 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/511Noblslav.html>.


"File:Germansalute.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Germansalute.jpg>.

4/21/10 The Black Death Notes

• The Black Death was in the 14th century
• This plague claimed over 20 million lives in only 2 years
• It was carried in the bloodstream of black rats
• They would throw bodies to their enemies
• They hurled these plague infected bodies over Catha's walls
• These people began to die within days
• This encounter in Sicily was not enough for the black death to be exposed in Europe
• Churches were the places of learning without questions
• Since nobody knew where this came from they turned to the Church for answers
• Black Blisters would appear on his body and grow
• They would be dead within four days
• They thought this was God paying them back for all the sins of the world
• They would have plague pits because there was no more room to bury people
• The entire town would be exposed after a couple days of an infected ship docking
• In 1345 on March the 20th three planets lined up which signifies death
• They arranged big fires so the Pope would not be infected
• No rat or flea could penetrate this intense heat
• Shiliak gave a correct prognosis of the disease
• This killed a third of Europe's population
• There is a nursery rhyme for the Black Death

Church and Monasteries Daily

The Monasteries and Church became the center of learning because they became so powerful. This age was during the uprising of Christianity and monotheism. The Church became powerful so therefore this became the center of learning in the middle ages. The middle ages were the ages of missionary work in the Church. They started translating the books into different languages like Latin. There goal was to preserve the classical knowledge so that the events and people would not die with the knowledge. They were teaching people about their past by translating the history books into different languages. During the whole Middle Ages the Churches were the place of learning.

Citations: "Christianity, The Church In The Early Middle Ages." World History International: World History Essays From Prehistory To The Present. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. <http://history-world.org/churchmiddleages.htm>.

"File:Thann Church - Full View of Portal of West Façade.jpg - Wikimedia Commons." Main Page - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thann_Church_-_full_view_of_portal_of_west_fa%C3%A7ade.jpg>.

4/16/10 The Capricians and the Crusades Notes

• The Capicians arise as the dynasty of France.
• The Capicians gained power through supporting the Church
• That is the key to being politically powerful
• In the Middle Ages they begin writing on animal hide
• This is what we refer to as manuscripts
• In 1095 the Pope orders the first crusade
• The Pope wants to kick out the Muslims
• Half the soldiers do not even make it to Jerusalem
• The only use of these were political powers throughout the trade routs where these crusades took place
• Romanesque is around the year 1000
• They built cathedrals strong so if they needed a place to hide from invaders they could go there
• The other period is the Gothic period
• This is the complete opposite as the Romanesque
• They did a lot of stain glass to let light in
• 
  

Innate Instinct Daily

I think that humans do have an innate instinct to be free. Why would God want us to live a life that is full of suffering and pain. God created all man equal so why was it not that way in the medieval ages? In the medieval times they had some weird torture practices of treating their slaves. Before dinner the slaves would have to hold a candle between their toes until the candle burned out dripping hot wax on their feet the whole time (Minge). There was a story where a slave and a nobleman's daughter were in love. Her father did not like this so they had to run away. They went to a priest and he bonded them. The nobleman had to take and oath to never separate them. So the nobleman had his daughter and the slave put in a wooden trunk and buried them alive. When he did this he said "I have not broken my oath and I have not separated them" (Minge). This shows how much some people of higher society would go through just to torture the slaves and make sure they know their place in life. This is why every man wants to be equal because of what happened to men who were not equal during these times. If you have been through it, you do not ever want to be through it again.


Citations: "Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory of Tours: Harsh Treatment of Serfs and Slaves, C." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/575Rauching.html>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: Social History." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1u.html>.

"File:Equal2 Plastfilm.PNG - Wikimedia Commons." Main Page - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Equal2_plastfilm.PNG>.

Medieval Equality Daily

Medieval equality and our equality today were completely different. Back in Medieval times they did not believe in promotions to different classes of life. There were even bills passed for the sales of slave girls (Blancard). In the year 1248 there was a slave girl by the name of Aissa who had a bill passed to sell her to John Aleman for only nine pounds and fifteen solidi (Blandcard). In England around the ear of 1080 there was a law passed that said you couldn't sell Christian slaves out of the country for a profit (Benjamin Thorpe). From those examples you can see that life back then was way different from life today. We do not even participate in slavery anymore in this country. Back in England they did not only do that, but they actually made a profit off of them. They would even sell their children just to make ends meat. Their perspective on equality is different from ours because back then you could not move up in society. If you were born a slave, you died a slave. Today we can move up in the social chain and if you are born into a poor family you can become rich and provide better for your family. These are the obvious differences between the social life in the mid 1000's and modern life. Good thing these changes happened because if we did not so many great minds and lives would be wasted doing mindless work instead of solving the problems and curing the diseases of today.


Citations: "Medieval Sourcebook: Bills of Sale for Saracen Slave Girls, 1248." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1248serfs5.html>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: William the Conqueror: Sale of Slaves in England, C. 1080." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1080england-slaves.html>.

"File:Hurrier Cobden 1853.jpg - Wikimedia Commons." Main Page - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hurrier_Cobden_1853.jpg>.

4/14/10 facts about Churches notes

• the churches have become the primes area for culture and learning
• They thought the year 1000 was going to be doomsday
• Only 5% of the population is literate
• 90% of the population is in the work of the aristocrats
• Social mobility does not exist. "Born a peasant, die a peasant"
• Children were put up for slavery and sold
• They didn't believe that there was equality
• The Clergies and the aristocrats made up 10% of the population
• The other 90% were serfs
• Three fixed classes or orders
• The third order worked
• They put their serfs in stocks

Gothic Architecture Daily

The Gothic architecture did not change the church theology. Even though they had different architecture in this age it did not change the way they thought about the church. The word Gothic actually means rude or barbaric (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture). This is showing that it did not change the way that the people thought of the Chruch, they simply thought had a different design for their churches. Most of these churches are still around today. These churches were so well built that they could survive centuries of erosion. This shows that the people wanted to make sure that they would have a place to worship for a long time and show their ancestors how they would worship God.

Citation: "Gothic Architecture - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture>.

Picture Citation: "File:Essay on Gothic Architecture Fontispiece Engraving by William Miller after Thomas Rickman.jpg - Wikimedia Commons." Main Page - Wikimedia Commons. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Essay_on_Gothic_Architecture_fontispiece_engraving_by_William_Miller_after_Thomas_Rickman.jpg>.