Changes+in+Medieval+Society

Changes in Medieval Society

VOCAB:
 * 1) Three Field System: Villages began to organize their lands into three fields instead of two. Two of the fields were planted and the other lay fallow (resting) for a year. Under this new three-field system, farm- ers could grow crops on two-thirds of their land each year, not just on half of it.
 * 2) Guild: An organization of individuals in the same business or occupation working to improve the economic and social conditions of its members.
 * 3) Commercial Revolution: The expansion of trade and business is called the Commercial Revolution.
 * 4) Burghers: merchant-class or town dwellers.
 * 5) Vernacular: T he everyday language of their home- land.
 * 6) Scholastics: Aquinas and his fellow scholars who met at the great universi- ties were known as schoolmen, or scholastics.

Key People: Thomas Aquinas- Argued that the most basic religious truths could be proved by logical argument.

Ideas/Events:

A GROWING FOOD SUPPLIE:
 * Expanding civilization required an increased food supply. A warmer climate, which lasted from about 800 to 1200, brought improved farm production.
 * Around A . D . 800, some villages began to organize their lands into three fields instead of two. Two of the fields were planted and the other lay fallow (resting) for a year.
 * The first guilds were merchant guilds. Merchants banded together to control the number of goods being traded and to keep prices up. They also provided security in trading and reduced losses.
 * Skilled artisans, such as wheel- wrights, glassmakers, winemakers, tailors, and druggists, began craft guilds. In most crafts, both husband and wife worked at the family trade.
 * By the 1000s, artisans and craftspeople were manufacturing goods by hand for local and long-distance trade. More and better products were now available to buyers in small towns, in bigger cities, and at trade fairs

COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION:
 * Just as agriculture was expanding and craftsmanship changing, so were trade and finance. Increased availability of trade goods and new ways of doing business changed life in Europe.
 * Cloth was the most common trade item. Other items included bacon, salt, honey, cheese, wine, leather, dyes, knives, and ropes. Such local markets met all the needs of daily life for a small community. No longer was everything produced on a self-sufficient manor.
 * Increased business at markets and fairs made merchants willing to take chances on buying merchandise that they could sell at a profit. Merchants then reinvested the profits in more goods.
 * As traders moved from fair to fair, they needed large amounts of cash or credit and ways to exchange many types of currencies. Enterprising merchants found ways to solve these problems.
 * Letters of credit between merchants eliminated the need to carry large amounts of cash and made trading easier. Trading firms and associations formed to offer these services to their groups.
 * Merchants looked for new markets and opportunities to make a profit. Merchants first had to purchase goods from distant places. To do so they had to borrow money, but the Church forbade Christians from lending money at interest, a sin called usury.
 * The changes brought about by the Commercial Revolution were slow, yet they had a major effect on the lives of Europeans.

URBAN LIFE FLOURISHES:
 * Scholars estimate that between 1000 and 1150, the population of western Europe rose from around 30 million to about 42 million. Towns grew and flourished. Compared to great cities like Constantinople, European towns were unsophisti- cated and tiny.
 * As trade grew, towns all over Europe swelled with people. The excitement and bustle of towns drew many people. But there were some drawbacks to living in a medieval town.
 * Most people never bathed, and their houses lacked fresh air, light, and clean water. Because houses were built of wood with thatched roofs, they were a constant fire hazard.
 * Even though legally bound to their lord’s manor, many serfs ran away. According to custom, a serf could now become free by living within a town for a year and a day.
 * The merchants and craftspeople of medieval towns did not fit into the traditional medieval social order of noble, clergy, and peasant.

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING: >
 * During the Crusades, European contact with Muslims and Byzantines greatly expanded. This contact brought a new interest in learning, especially in the works of Greek philosophers.
 * In the 1100s, Christian scholars from Europe began visiting Muslim libraries in Spain. Few Western scholars knew Greek but most did know Latin. So Jewish scholars living in Spain translated the Arabic ver- sions of works by Aristotle and other Greek writers into Latin. All at once, Europeans acquired a huge new body of knowledge
 * The word university originally referred to a group of scholars meeting wherever they could. People, not build- ings, made up the medieval university.
 * Most students were the sons of burghers or well-to-do arti- sans. For most students, the goal was a job in government or the Church.
 * Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy (1308–1314) in Italian. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales (about 1386–1400) in English. Christine de Pisan wrote The Book of The City of Ladies (1405) in French.
 * Christian scholars were excited by the ideas of Greek philosophers. They wondered if a Christian scholar could use Aristotle’s logical approach to truth and still keep faith with the Bible