The Middle Ages begin with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and end around the 15th - 17th centuries. The Middle Ages are characterized by two opposing stereotypes. Some believe that this is a time of noble knights and romantic stories. Others believe that this is a time of disease, dirt and immorality...
Story
The term “Middle Ages” was first introduced in 1453 by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo. Before this, the term “dark ages” was used, which currently denotes a narrower period of time during the Middle Ages (VI-VIII centuries). This term was introduced into circulation by a professor at the University of Galle, Christopher Cellarius (Keller). This man also divided world history into antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.
It is worth making a reservation, saying that this article will focus specifically on the European Middle Ages.
This period was characterized by a feudal system of land tenure, when there was a feudal landowner and a peasant half dependent on him. Also characteristic:
- a hierarchical system of relations between feudal lords, which consisted in the personal dependence of some feudal lords (vassals) on others (lords);
- the key role of the church, both in religion and in politics (Inquisition, church courts);
- ideals of chivalry;
- the flourishing of medieval architecture - Gothic (in art as well).
In the period from the X to the XII centuries. The population of European countries is increasing, which leads to changes in social, political and other spheres of life. Since the XII - XIII centuries. There has been a sharp rise in technology development in Europe. More inventions were made in a century than in the previous thousand years. During the Middle Ages, cities developed and became richer, and culture actively developed.
With the exception of Eastern Europe, which was invaded by the Mongols. Many states in this region were plundered and enslaved.
Life and everyday life
People of the Middle Ages were highly dependent on weather conditions. So, for example, the great famine (1315 - 1317), which occurred due to unusually cold and rainy years that destroyed the harvest. And also plague epidemics. It was the climatic conditions that largely determined the way of life and type of activity of medieval man.
During the early Middle Ages, a very large part of Europe was covered with forests. Therefore, the peasant economy, in addition to agriculture, was largely oriented towards forest resources. Herds of cattle were driven into the forest to graze. In oak forests, pigs gained fat by eating acorns, thanks to which the peasant received a guaranteed supply of meat food for the winter. The forest served as a source of firewood for heating and, thanks to it, charcoal was made. He introduced variety into the food of medieval man, because... All kinds of berries and mushrooms grew in it, and one could hunt strange game in it. The forest was the source of the only sweetness of that time - honey from wild bees. Resinous substances could be collected from the trees to make torches. Thanks to hunting, it was possible not only to feed themselves, but also to dress up; the skins of animals were used for sewing clothes and for other household purposes. In the forest, in the clearings, it was possible to collect medicinal plants, the only medicines of that time. Tree bark was used to mend animal skins, and the ashes of burnt bushes were used to bleach fabrics.
As well as climatic conditions, the landscape determined the main occupation of people: cattle breeding predominated in the mountainous regions, and agriculture in the plains.
All the troubles of medieval man (disease, bloody wars, famine) led to the fact that the average life expectancy was 22 - 32 years. Only a few lived to the age of 70.
The lifestyle of a medieval person depended largely on his place of residence, but at the same time, the people of that time were quite mobile, and, one might say, were constantly on the move. At first these were echoes of the great migration of peoples. Subsequently, other reasons pushed people on the road. Peasants moved along the roads of Europe, individually and in groups, looking for a better life; “knights” - in search of exploits and beautiful ladies; monks - moving from monastery to monastery; pilgrims and all kinds of beggars and vagabonds.
Only over time, when the peasants acquired certain property, and the feudal lords acquired large lands, then cities began to grow and at that time (approximately the 14th century) Europeans became “homebodies.”
If we talk about housing, about the houses in which medieval people lived, then most buildings did not have separate rooms. People slept, ate and cooked in the same room. Only over time did wealthy townspeople begin to separate the bedroom from the kitchens and dining rooms.
Peasant houses were built of wood, and in some places preference was given to stone. The roofs were thatched or made of reeds. There was very little furniture. Mainly chests for storing clothes and tables. They slept on benches or beds. The bed was a hayloft or a mattress stuffed with straw.
Houses were heated by hearths or fireplaces. Stoves appeared only at the beginning of the 14th century, when they were borrowed from the northern peoples and Slavs. The houses were illuminated with tallow candles and oil lamps. Only rich people could purchase expensive wax candles.
Food
Most Europeans ate very modestly. They usually ate twice a day: morning and evening. Everyday food was rye bread, porridge, legumes, turnips, cabbage, grain soup with garlic or onions. They consumed little meat. Moreover, during the year there were 166 days of fasting, when eating meat dishes was prohibited. There was much more fish in the diet. The only sweets were honey. Sugar came to Europe from the East in the 13th century. and was very expensive.
In medieval Europe they drank a lot: in the south - wine, in the north - beer. Instead of tea, they brewed herbs.
The dishes of most Europeans are bowls, mugs, etc. were very simple, made of clay or tin. Products made of silver or gold were used only by the nobility. There were no forks; people ate at the table with spoons. Pieces of meat were cut with a knife and eaten with their hands. The peasants ate food from the same bowl as a family. At feasts, the nobility shared one bowl and a wine cup. The dice were thrown under the table, and hands were wiped with a tablecloth.
Cloth
As for clothing, it was largely unified. Unlike antiquity, the church considered glorifying the beauty of the human body sinful and insisted that it be covered with clothing. Only by the 12th century. The first signs of fashion began to appear.
Changing clothing styles reflected the public preferences of the time. It was mainly representatives of the wealthy classes who had the opportunity to follow fashion.
The peasant usually wore a linen shirt and trousers that reached his knees or even his ankles. The outer clothing was a cloak, fastened at the shoulders with a clasp (fibula). In winter, they wore either a roughly combed sheepskin coat or a warm cape made of thick fabric or fur. Clothes reflected a person's place in society. The attire of the wealthy was dominated by bright colors, cotton and silk fabrics. The poor were content with dark clothes made of coarse homespun linen. Shoes for men and women were leather pointed shoes without hard soles. Headdresses originated in the 13th century. and have changed continuously since then. Familiar gloves acquired importance during the Middle Ages. Shaking hands in them was considered an insult, and throwing a glove to someone was a sign of contempt and a challenge to a duel.
The nobility loved to add various decorations to their clothes. Men and women wore rings, bracelets, belts, and chains. Very often these things were unique jewelry. For the poor, all this was unattainable. Wealthy women spent significant amounts of money on cosmetics and perfumes, which were brought by merchants from eastern countries.
Stereotypes
As a rule, certain ideas about something are rooted in the public consciousness. And ideas about the Middle Ages are no exception. First of all, this concerns chivalry. Sometimes there is an opinion that the knights were uneducated, stupid louts. But was this really the case? This statement is too categorical. As in any community, representatives of the same class could be completely different people. For example, Charlemagne built schools and knew several languages. Richard the Lionheart, considered a typical representative of chivalry, wrote poetry in two languages. Karl the Bold, whom literature likes to describe as a kind of macho boor, knew Latin very well and loved to read ancient authors. Francis I patronized Benvenuto Cellini and Leonardo da Vinci. The polygamist Henry VIII spoke four languages, played the lute and loved the theater. Is it worth continuing the list? These were all sovereigns, models for their subjects. They were oriented towards them, they were imitated, and those who could knock an enemy off his horse and write an ode to the Beautiful Lady enjoyed respect.
Regarding the same ladies, or wives. There is an opinion that women are treated as property. And again, it all depends on what kind of husband he was. For example, Lord Etienne II de Blois was married to a certain Adele of Normandy, daughter of William the Conqueror. Etienne, as was customary for a Christian then, went on crusades, while his wife remained at home. It would seem that there is nothing special in all this, but Etienne’s letters to Adele have survived to this day. Tender, passionate, yearning. This is evidence and an indicator of how a medieval knight could treat his own wife. One can also recall Edward I, who was destroyed by the death of his beloved wife. Or, for example, Louis XII, who after the wedding turned from the first libertine of France into a faithful husband.
When talking about the cleanliness and level of pollution of medieval cities, people also often go too far. To the point that they claim that human waste in London was poured into the Thames, as a result of which it was a continuous stream of sewage. Firstly, the Thames is not the smallest river, and secondly, in medieval London the number of inhabitants was about 50 thousand. So they simply could not have polluted the river in this way.
The hygiene of medieval man was not as terrible as we imagine. They love to cite the example of Princess Isabella of Castile, who vowed not to change her underwear until victory was won. And poor Isabella kept her word for three years. But this act of hers caused a great resonance in Europe, and a new color was even invented in her honor. But if you look at the statistics of soap production in the Middle Ages, you can understand that the statement that people have not washed for years is far from the truth. Otherwise, why would such a quantity of soap be needed?
In the Middle Ages there was no such need for frequent washing as in the modern world - the environment was not as catastrophically polluted as it is now... There was no industry, food was free of chemicals. Therefore, water and salts were released with human sweat, and not all those chemicals that are abundant in the body of a modern person.
Another stereotype that has become entrenched in the public consciousness is that everyone stank horribly. Russian ambassadors to the French court complained in letters that the French “stinked terribly.” From which it was concluded that the French did not wash, they stank and tried to drown out the smell with perfume. They actually used perfume. But this can be explained by the fact that in Russia it was not customary to perfume yourself heavily, while the French simply doused themselves with perfume. Therefore, for a Russian person, a Frenchman who reeked heavily of perfume was “stinking like a wild beast.”
In conclusion, we can say that the real Middle Ages were very different from the fairy-tale world of chivalric romances. But at the same time, some facts are largely distorted and exaggerated. I think the truth is, as always, somewhere in the middle. Just as always, people were different and they lived differently. Some things, compared to modern ones, really seem wild, but all this happened centuries ago, when morals were different and the level of development of that society could not afford more. Someday, for future historians, we will find ourselves in the role of “medieval man.”
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I would like to write an article myself about the daily life of a city, village, castle - but what do we know about this? Only what books and special studies tell us, but we (in Russia) don’t even have access to real medieval European books. Therefore, whatever one may say, we will have to quote the masters.
Chapter 2. Society of feudal lords and knights
Presenting the social structure of society at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries in a few lines is a rather difficult task. This topic is very extensive in itself, and in certain aspects, such as the relationship between nobility and knighthood, it represents one of the most controversial areas of modern research in medieval history. Note that the highest flowering of what is called “feudal society” occurred in the first half of the 12th century, while the last decades of this century and the first of the following already testify to its slow but inexorable decline. In the period between the dates that limit the chronological scope of our book, accelerated changes in society took place that determined the future of the West. However, it is hardly appropriate to dwell on this here. We will try to imagine only the general appearance of the various social categories, paying special attention to what had a primary influence on the daily lives of people from an economic, social or legal point of view. Our review will be deliberately brief, not very comprehensive and not particularly detailed. We need it only to make it easier for the reader to understand the remaining chapters.
General characteristics of society
The society of the 12th century was, first of all, a Christian society: to enter it, you had to be a Christian, because tolerance towards pagans, Jews and Muslims still left them outside of society. The West lived in a single rhythm of a single faith. Any lordship, any city, any political entity formed a part of world Christianity rather than a specific kingdom. Hence the intensity of exchanges, the transparency of borders, the absence of the concepts of “nation” and “nationalism,” as well as the universalistic nature of not only morals and culture, but also social structures and even public institutions. There was no French or English society. Life, people, things were the same in Burgundy and Cornwall, in Yorkshire and Anjou. The only thing that distinguished these territories was the climate and geographical conditions.
The society of that time was purely hierarchical. Even if at first glance it seems anarchic to our contemporaries, since there was no concept of “state”, and some rights and powers - money, justice, the army - were distributed among several branches of government, upon closer examination it is clear that it was built around two main centers : king and feudal pyramid. In the era we are interested in, the king strives for absolute dominance. This is exactly how everything developed in England, starting from the reign of Henry II, and in France at the end of the reign of Philip Augustus.
On the other hand, all levels of society sought to form various groups and associations, from city guilds to craft guilds, from the league of barons to rural communes. People rarely acted on their own behalf; they did not perceive themselves as separate from society. They had not yet been finally distributed among the classes, but were already widely organized into “states” ( State (etat) - in feudal France, a group community based on social status, preceding the formation of estates. (Note per.) ). Finally, in many respects an almost class society had already emerged, even if these classes did not yet play any role from a political-legal point of view or in the distribution of rights and responsibilities. They did not yet have clear outlines and remained wide open. For example, the son of a serf, Guillaume of Auvergne, became the bishop of Paris at the beginning of the 12th century. Nevertheless, this is already a real class society. But everyday life distinguishes not so much between clergy, nobles and commoners, as between rich and powerful people, on the one hand, and poor and powerless people, on the other.
Feudal Europe was a rural world, all its wealth was based on the land. Society was ruled by landowners who enjoyed both political and economic power—the lords. The feudal system can be represented primarily by a system of relations of interdependence of these lords among themselves, based on two main “pillars”: vassal obligation and the provision of a fief ( Feud (feodum, (eiiiit, lat., flhu, fehu, other german. - estate, property, livestock, money + od - possession) - land ownership that the vassal received from his lord under fief law (the same as fief ), that is, subject to service (military), participation in court, fulfillment of monetary and other duties, in contrast to the beneficiary, it was hereditary and could be taken away from the vassal only by court (Note per.) )..
A vassal could be a more or less weak lord who devoted himself to serving a more powerful lord out of obligation or because of material interest. The vassal promised to remain faithful, and this promise became the subject of an agreement that already determined mutual obligations. The lord provided his vassal with protection and maintenance: protection from enemies, assistance in judicial matters, support with his advice, all sorts of generous gifts, finally, maintenance at his court or, more often, providing him with land that would ensure the life of himself and his vassals - feud. In exchange, the vassal was obliged to perform military service in favor of the lord (its varieties were fixed in the contract), provide him with political support (various councils, missions) and legal assistance (help administer justice, participate in his judicial curia ( Curia (curia, lat.) - in the Middle Ages - a council or court under the lord, consisting of his vassals. (Note per.) ), sometimes perform household errands, treat him with unfailing respect and, in some cases, provide financial assistance. Four such cases were recognized in France: ransom, equipment for the Crusade, the wedding of the eldest daughter, and the solemn knighting of the lord's eldest son.
The vassal agreement was rarely enshrined in writing, with the exception of large seigneuries. It served as the occasion for a ritual ceremony, almost the same in all areas: first, the vassal on his knees pronounced the text of the oath (“I become your servant...”); then, standing, he swore on sacred books or relics allegiance to his lord; finally, the lord himself granted him a fief, handing over an object symbolizing future possession (a branch, grass, a lump of earth) or the power granted (scepter, ring, staff, glove, flag, spear). This ceremony was accompanied by genuflections, exchange of kisses, and liturgical gestures; sometimes it was done only once and forever, sometimes it was repeated periodically.
At first, the fief was granted personally and for life; however, the principle of inheritance gradually took root. At the end of the 13th century it spread throughout France and England. When the owner changed, the lord was content with the right to receive inheritance tax. Often the fief was not passed on to the eldest son, but was divided between the brothers. Hence the fragmentation of land ownership and the impoverishment of vassals.
On the territory of his fief, the vassal exercised all political and economic rights, as if it really belonged to him. The lord retained only the right to take away the fief if the vassal neglected his duties. And, conversely, if the vassal considered himself insulted by his lord, he could, having retained the land, take back his obligation and turn to the overlord ( Suzerain (Suzerain, French) - in the feudal era - the highest lord in relation to vassals; The king was usually considered the supreme overlord. (Note per.) ). - it was called a “challenge”.
The feudal system really looked like a kind of pyramid, where each lord was simultaneously a vassal of a more powerful lord. At its top stood the king, who, however, sought to occupy a separate position in relation to the general system; at the lowest levels are the most insignificant vassals, heroes of chivalric romances, demonstrating examples of loyalty, courtesy and wisdom. Between them there was a whole hierarchy of large and small barons - from dukes and counts to the owners of the most modest castles. The power of a lord was judged by the extent of his lands, the number of his vassals, and the size of the castle or castles.
Señoria: the setting of everyday life
Seignoria was a collection of lands on which the lord, whatever his condition and power, exercised property rights and sovereignty. It served as the basic political and economic unit of a society that was almost entirely agricultural. A seigneury could have different shapes and sizes: a typical seigneury was a district subordinate to a seigneur, not very large, but sufficient to include several villages, a fortified castle and fiefs necessary to support its own army.
Duchies, counties and large ecclesiastical fiefs were also divided into a number of districts subordinate to the lord. Feudal geography is characterized by extreme fragmentation, since seigneuries were rarely integral due to the existence of many ways to obtain them (inheritance, gift, purchase, conquest), and in addition, due to the need to produce everything that was needed themselves. Internecine wars often arose due to the fact that some lord wanted to unite his two separate possessions into one by annexing the territory of his neighbor.
In general, without taking into account the small fiefs granted by the lord to his vassals, the lordship was divided into two parts: the land used by dependent peasants, and the master's land on which the feudal lord's economy was conducted. The first is small plots of land provided by the lord to the peasants in exchange for part of their production (depending on the case, paid in kind or in money, and in different places in different ways), and all kinds of work on his land: that is, corvée (this included plowing, haymaking, grape harvest, various transportation). The lord's land was the property directly used by the lord. It included: a castle and outbuildings (outbuildings, services), arable land cultivated by domestic servants or peasants who were in corvee labor, pastures, forests and rivers. All residents of the seigneury could use the waters and forest more or less freely.
Throughout the territory of the seigneury, the seigneur represented state power: he administered justice, performed police functions, and provided military protection. In addition to political power, he also had economic power, associated with his position as an owner. He levied taxes on all types of trade (bridge, fair, market duties); and also owned several production workshops and structures (a forge, a mill, a grape press, a bakery), they had to be used by all residents, who, accordingly, paid a certain tax. This monopoly, called “banality,” even extended to animals: on the farm of some lords there was a bull or boar, to which the peasants were obliged to bring their cows or pigs under pain of incurring a heavy fine.
The peasants who were provided with plots were legally divided into two groups: villans(Villanus (lat.) - resident of a village, estate (villa) ). And servo(Servus (lat.) - slave. (Note per.) )..
The villans had complete personal freedom; politically dependent on the lord, they could move freely, live where they wanted, and even sometimes change their lordship. The servant, on the contrary, was attached to his allotment, lacked legal capacity and was burdened with duties. He paid heavier taxes than the villan; could not testify in court against a free man, become a priest and fully enjoy public benefits. However, his position had nothing in common with that of a slave in antiquity: he enjoyed some legal rights and could own inherited property; The lord who protected and patronized him had no right to beat, kill, or sell the serf.
In some areas (Brittany, Normandy, Anjou) serfdom is rare, in others, on the contrary, almost the entire peasant population consisted of serfs (Champagne, Nivernet). In addition, the servitude of the peasants differed depending on where they lived - in a feud or seigneury. As a rule, at the end of the 12th century the difference between free and dependent peasants was weakly felt. Servs and villans led the same daily life, and there was a tendency to unite them into one social category with certain restrictions and obligations inherent only to servs at first: such, for example, as the “fore-marriage” - a special tax paid by a peasant for marrying a woman from another country. seigneury, or “menmort” (the right of the “dead hand”), which had to be paid for the right to inherit the property and land of relatives. So the difference is more economic than legal.
The difference was not so much between free and dependent peasants, but rather between rich farmers, who owned working animals and tools, and the poor, whose wealth consisted only of their hands and diligence. Everywhere one could meet poor villans and more or less wealthy serfs.
The peasant class already had its own noble persons, who were in the service of the lord, his “officials,” and who were appointed, often against their will, to govern the rural community. This community, consisting of the heads of families, played an important role in the life of the village: it managed the lands and the common herd, resolved issues of crop rotation, and distributed the quitrent that should have been paid to the lord by all commoners living in the lordship.
Cities were often essentially just large villages. However, starting from the 11th century, their steady growth has been observed throughout the West, associated with the revival of trade and trade relations, the development of crafts and some forms of production, and the increase in the number of municipal and professional associations. Cities attracted new residents, gained weight in society, and expanded their territory. It became more and more difficult for their population to endure the power and arbitrariness of the local lord. Therefore, uprisings arose, called the “communal movement.” This did not manifest itself in the same way in different cities, but everywhere it was a question of either by force or by peaceful agreement to achieve privileges in the form of exemption from taxes and the right of self-government, enshrined in communal charters.
Cities became increasingly different from the countryside; Having received some freedoms, they sought to leave the feudal system. And although the political situation - the organization and status of the city - developed in different ways, social development proceeded the same way almost everywhere. Traders and artisans united into professional communities (future guilds and workshops), which had an increasingly significant influence on the life of the city. These communities formed monopolies, set wages, working hours, and conditions of employment, suppressed strikes, checked the quality of goods, severely punished fraud and shoddy work, and, in the end, began not only to completely control trade and production, but also took over their own hands and the entire municipal leadership. And just as in the village, the hierarchy was established not on a legal basis, but according to economic criteria: on the one hand - patricians, wealthy merchants, master craftsmen, rentiers, who had political power, distributed and collected taxes, owned houses and lands, which brought them a certain income; and on the other, “little” people - artisans, workers, apprentices, apprentices of all kinds - poor people, such as those weaving workers freed by Yvain in the novel “The Knight with the Lion”, who could only complain about their fate:
“We weave silk fabrics all the time and yet we will never dress better. We will always be poor and naked; we will be hungry and thirsty. We never earn enough to improve our food (...). Since one who earns twenty sous a week cannot get out of poverty (...). And while we are in need, the one for whom we work is enriched by our work..."
The society of clergy looked rather motley and did not have clear boundaries with the laity. A cleric was a man who received one of the lowest church positions; he should have shaved the tonsure on his head and wear a long robe in accordance with his position. The status of the clergy is rather unstable, and among them there were many who occupied an intermediate position between secular people and the clergy.
Being a cleric was considered prestigious, as it provided significant privileges. Indeed, the clergy answered only to the ecclesiastical court, which was more lenient than the secular; they were exempt from military service and payment of most taxes to the lord; their property and personality were under special protection; finally, they had the right to enjoy church benefits ( Beneflicium (lat.) - benefit - in the early Middle Ages - land ownership granted by a feudal lord to his vassal for a certain service, without the right of inheritance, but with the right to collect duties from the peasants; an ecclesiastical office in the Roman Catholic Church associated with a certain income. (Note per.) ).. But they were forbidden to take part in worldly affairs, and first of all, engage in trade; anyone who became a clergyman could not marry, and monks who took a vow of poverty lost the right to own patrimony ( Patrimonium (lat.) - hereditary, ancestral property (Note per.) )..
The clergy owned property, on the income from which they lived - a benefice. There were small (church parishes, priories, churches at castles) and large benefices (archdioceses, dioceses, abbeys). In both France and England, the Church, as the richest owner of the kingdom, provided part of its possessions to those who were in its service. The size of the benefit depended proportionally on the importance of the function performed by the person.
The bishop was usually elected by the priests of the cathedral: the canons. Sometimes they turned to parishioners for advice. However, quite often a powerful lord, king or pope would impose their candidate. At the end of the 12th century, the activities of the bishop were increasingly controlled by the Holy Papal See, which sought to limit his judicial competence and monitor how exactly he governed the diocese. Innocent III even made it a rule to summon every bishop to Rome at least once every four years.
The rector of the archdiocese was called an archbishop. In France there were eight of them (Rouen, Reims, Sane, Tours, Bordeaux, Bourges, Narbonne and Auch), in England there were two (Canterbury and York). The archbishop was an extremely influential person who attracted the close attention of both the king and the pope. Because of this, there were frequent conflicts over appointments. such as, for example, the discord that lasted six years (1207-1213) between John the Landless and Innocent III, when the pope, instead of the royal candidate, made his friend Stephen Langton archbishop of Canterbury, and thus the main clergyman in England.
Appointments to minor benefices within the diocese were made by the bishop, although the lords retained the right to present their candidate for service in the churches they founded, and if he complied with the canonical rules, the bishop approved his candidacy. Nevertheless, even here there were misunderstandings and conflicts.
The vast majority of priests were those who served in village parishes. They were chosen according to their place of residence, and this choice was often far from perfect. It was believed that a priest should live only on income from the beneficiary and perform divine services and services free of charge. But almost everywhere there was a practice of simony ( Simony (on behalf of Simon the Magus) - sale of church positions for money. (Note per.) ), and almost everywhere it became the custom to pay for baptism and funeral services. In addition, the vow of celibacy was not always observed: in some parishes the vicar lived with a “priest” - a cohabitant or, so to speak, even a “legal” wife. However, this practice should not be exaggerated; in many places it, in general, completely disappeared under the influence of prelate reformers ( Praelatus (lat.) - preferred, placed above someone - in the Catholic and Anglican churches - the name of the highest spiritual dignitaries. (Note per.) ).. And even if literature is replete with examples of selfish, arrogant and depraved priests, and the entire Middle Ages was permeated by an invariably aggressive anti-clerical movement, it cannot be unconditionally stated that there were more bad priests than good ones.
Chivalry was a social institution that emerged in the feudal system around the year 1000. In the strict sense of the word, a knight is any man who owns a weapon and has undergone a special initiation ceremony. But to be merely initiated is not enough for a true knight; You still need to follow certain rules and lead a special lifestyle. Thus, knights are not a legal class, but a specific social category or, in modern language, a community of “professionals” of equestrian combat (the only effective method of military action until the end of the 13th century), who knew how to lead that special life, which was the life of a knight.
Theoretically, knighthood was considered available to everyone who received baptism: any knight had the right to make a knight someone whom he considered worthy of being one, regardless of origin and social status. Epic songs, the so-called "gestures", are replete with examples of commoners (peasants, foresters, swineherds, merchants, jugglers, cooks, gatekeepers, etc.) being knighted as a reward for services rendered to the hero. Sometimes even simple servos are mentioned. Thus, in the song “Ami and Amil,” two of them receive knighthood from the hands of their lord, to whom they remained faithful, despite the fact that he fell ill with leprosy:
“On this occasion, Count Ami (...) did not forget his two servants: on the day of his recovery, he knighted them both.”
However, in reality the situation was different. From the mid-12th century, knights recruited their ranks almost exclusively from the sons of knights and thus formed a hereditary caste. The knighting of commoners, if not completely disappeared, then became an almost unique event. There are two reasons for this phenomenon. The first of these was that the process of admitting new members inevitably led to the assignment by one class - the landed aristocracy - of the privilege of forming knighthood, which was not subject to any legal norms. The second, perhaps more important, relates to socio-economic requirements: horses, military equipment, the ceremony and festivities of knighthood were expensive; and the very lifestyle of the knight, which consisted of pleasure and idleness, presupposed the presence of some wealth, which in that era was based only on the possession of land. Knighthood did bring honor and glory; but at the same time one had to live either on the generosity of a rich and powerful patron (which was still quite easy at the beginning of the 12th century, but much more difficult a century later), or on income from the patrimony. Many, however, preferred receiving even the smallest fief to the court generosity of the lord.
By 1200, knights were mostly lords or sons of lords. In France, this phenomenon took on a particularly pronounced character during the 13th century, so that the knighthood was practically no longer considered as a personal one, but became a hereditary quality, accessible only to the highest strata of the aristocracy. From this time on, the process of merging knighthood and aristocracy began.
The concept of chivalry was primarily associated with a certain way of life. It required special training, solemn dedication, and activities different from those of ordinary people. Epic and courtly literature gives us a fairly detailed picture of this, although perhaps somewhat misleading due to its ideologically conservative nature and requiring some correction, for which we will use narrative sources and archaeological data.
The life of the future knight began with a long and difficult training, first in his parents' house, and then, from the age of ten or twelve, with a rich godfather or powerful patron. The purpose of primary, family and personal education is to teach the basic skills of horsemanship, hunting and weaponry. The next stage, longer and more complex, already represented a real professional and esoteric initiation. It took place in a group. At each rung of the feudal pyramid, the lord was surrounded by something like a "knightly school", where the sons of his vassals, his protégés and, in some cases, his less wealthy relatives, were trained in military skills and knightly virtues. The more influential the lord was, the more students he recruited.
Until the age of sixteen to twenty-three, these young men played the role of a household servant or squire of their patron. By serving him at table, accompanying him on hunts, and participating in entertainment, they acquired the experience of a socialite. And by taking care of his horses, maintaining his weapons and, later, following him on tournaments and battlefields, they accumulated the knowledge necessary for a military man. From the first day of performing these duties until the moment they were knighted, they bore the title of squire. Those of them who did not manage to become knights due to lack of wealth, merit or a suitable opportunity, retained this title for life, because one could be called a knight only after initiation.
During the period under study, the ritual of knighting was not yet firmly established, and this ceremony could take place according to the tastes of the participants, both in real life and in literary works. The difference in the rite of knighting primarily depended on when the ceremony was held - in wartime or in peacetime. In the first case, the ceremony took place on the battlefield before the battle began or after a victory, and then it was covered with glory, although everyone uttered the traditional words and made the same ritual gestures. The ceremony usually consisted of the laying of a sword and a symbolic "strike on the neck" (colee). Dedication in peacetime was associated with major religious holidays (Easter, Pentecost, Ascension) or with important civil events (the birth or wedding of a ruler, the reconciliation of two sovereigns). This almost liturgical event could take place in the courtyard of the castle, in the church vestibule, in a public square or on the grass of some meadow. The future knight required special sacramental preparation (confession, communion) and a night of reflection in a church or chapel. The initiation ceremony was followed by days of feasting, tournaments and entertainment.
The ceremony itself also had a sacred character. It began with the consecration of weapons, which the “godfather” of the person being knighted handed over to his “godson”: first the sword and spurs, then the chain mail and helmet, and finally the spear and shield. The former squire put on them, while reading several prayers, and swore an oath to observe the rules and duties of knighthood. The ceremony ended with the same symbolic gesture of a “blow to the neck,” its origins and meaning remain controversial to this day. There were different ways of “hitting the neck”: most often, the one who performed the ceremony, standing, struck the initiate hard on the shoulder or back of the head with his palm. In some English counties and areas of Western France, this gesture was reduced to a simple hug or a firm handshake. In the 16th century, the “blow to the neck” was no longer performed with the hand, but with the blade of a sword and was accompanied by ritual words: “In the name of God, St. Michael and St. George, I knight you.” Although there are various explanations, historians today are more likely to see this practice as a remnant of the German custom in which a veteran passed on his valor and his experience to a young warrior.
However, initiation, the main stage in the knight's career, did not change his daily life at all. It still consisted of horse riding, battles, hunting and tournaments. The lords, who had vast estates, played the main role in it, and the vassals with poorer fiefs had to be content with grains of glory, pleasure and booty. The example of William Marshal, the youngest son of the family and not very wealthy, who was given the honor of knighting Henry the Young, the eldest son of Henry II of Plantagenet, probably remains exceptional: “On that day, by the will of God, the Marshal had a great honor: in the presence of many lords and representatives of noble families, he, who did not have even the slightest part of the feud, who did not own anything except the knighthood, laid the sword on the son of the king of England. Many envied him for this, but no one dared to show it openly.”
While having equal rights, the knights were not actually equal. Among them there were many who constituted something like a “knightly proletariat”; they received means of living, horses and even weapons from the powers that be (kings, counts, barons), at whose expense they were forced to live. These poor knights, rich in vain hopes, but poor in land, were, as a rule, young men who expected their father's inheritance or, possessing nothing, were in the service of some patron. Often they united in dashing companies under the leadership of a prince or count's son and looked for adventure, offering their services from tournament to tournament, from estate to estate. They were the first to go on Crusades or distant expeditions, beckoning with their uncertainty. Like William Marshall, they sought to seduce a wealthy heiress who could bring them the fortune that neither their exploits nor their origins could provide. This explains the late marriage, even if the matrimonial and land search did not bring the same luck as befell the future regent of England.
Perhaps it was precisely this community of young knights, greedy for love and military exploits, that chivalric novels and courtly literature were addressed. In it they found an image of a society that did not exist in reality, but one that would undoubtedly appeal to their taste. A society where the qualities, activities and aspirations of the knightly class were revered as the only possible and true ideals.
Chivalric ideals and virtues
Chivalry implied not only a certain way of life, but also a certain etiquette. Even if the moral obligation assumed by a young warrior on the day of initiation is considered historically irrefutable, it must nevertheless be recognized that only literature testifies to the existence of a real code of chivalry. And everyone knows the distance between a literary model and everyday reality. And, finally, the rules of this code are not the same in different works, and their spirit changes significantly throughout the century. The ideals of Chrétien de Troyes are no longer the ideals of The Song of Roland. Let's listen to how Horneman de Gur teaches young Perceval the duties of a knight:
“Dear friend, when you happen to fight with a knight, remember what I will tell you now: if you win (...) and he is forced to ask you for mercy, do not kill him, but show him mercy. On the other hand, don't be too chatty and too curious (...). He who talks a lot commits a sin; beware of this. And if you meet a lady or girl in trouble, I ask you to do everything in your power to help her. I will end with advice that especially should not be neglected: visit the monastery more often and pray to the Creator there that He will take pity on you and preserve you in this earthly age as His Christian.”
In general, the code of chivalry is based on three basic principles: loyalty to one’s word, decency in relations with people; generosity; helping the Church and protecting its good.
In the 12th century, neither Perceval nor, of course, Gilead, in the form in which they both appeared in 1220 in the Quest for the Holy Grail, had yet become the model of the perfect knight. Neither was Lancelot, whose love affairs with Queen Guenievre have some features incompatible with knightly virtues. “The sun of all chivalry” was considered Gauvin, the nephew of King Arthur, one of the participants in the Round Table, who possessed all the qualities necessary for a knight - sincerity, kindness and nobility of heart; piety and moderation; courage and physical strength; contempt for fatigue, suffering and death; self-esteem; pride in belonging to a noble family; sincere service to the lord, compliance with the promised fidelity; and, finally, the virtues, in Old French called “largesse” (“breadth of soul”) and “courtoisie” (“courtiness, sophistication, delicacy, refinement”). This cannot be fully conveyed by any term in the modern language. The concept of "largesse" included generosity, magnanimity and extravagance at the same time. It implied wealth. The opposite of this quality is stinginess and the search for profit, characteristic traits of merchants and philistines, whom Chrétien invariably presents in a funny light. In a society where most knights lived very poorly and precisely on the means that their patrons favored, literature naturally praised gifts, expenses, extravagance and displays of luxury.
The concept of "courtoisie" is even more difficult to define. It includes all of the above qualities, but adds to them physical beauty, grace and desire to please; kindness and ageless soul, refinement of heart and manners; sense of humor, intelligence, refined politeness, in a word, some snobbery. Among other things, it presupposes youth, lack of attachment to life, a thirst for battles and pleasures, adventure and idleness. It is opposed to “baseness, meanness, masculinity” (vilainie) - a defect inherent in villans, louts, people of low birth and especially poorly brought up. Since noble birth alone was considered not enough for courtliness, natural gifts had to be ennobled by special education and improved by daily practice at the court of an influential lord. In this regard, King Arthur's court seemed exemplary. It was there that the most beautiful ladies, the most valiant knights were located, and the most courtly manners reigned.
Formation and evolution of medieval civilization
The Middle Ages in historical science
Lecture 3. State and society in the Middle Ages
1. The Middle Ages in historical science. The concept of “Middle Ages” arose in the 15th century, when Italian humanists, realizing the past as history divided into periods, identified the era of Antiquity (antiquity) and their era - Modern Time, and the millennium lying between these two eras, they called the “Middle Ages”. century." The first systematic presentation of the history of the Middle Ages in Western Europe as a special period of history was given by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo in his work “History since the Fall of the Roman Empire.”
The baton was taken over from the humanists educators. It was during this era that the “sentence” of the Middle Ages took shape. The hostility towards the Middle Ages was most clearly expressed by Voltaire. “The history of this time,” he says, “needs to be known only in order to despise it.” Thus, for the humanists of the Renaissance and the leaders of the French Enlightenment, the concept of the Middle Ages was synonymous with savagery and gross ignorance, and the Middle Ages - a time of religious fanaticism and cultural decline. Nevertheless, it was during the Enlightenment that a special branch of historical knowledge emerged - “medieval studies”. The term itself is etymologically of Latin origin, as is the expression “Middle Ages”; it comes from the combination "medium aevum". Morphologically it is of French origin: medievistique, medieviste.
Historians so-called "romantic" school beginning of the 19th century They called the Middle Ages the “golden age” of humanity, sang the virtues of chivalric times and the flowering of cultural Christian traditions. An interesting example of an attempt to synthesize the historical concept of romanticism and the ideas of the Enlightenment and thereby reconcile them is the work of the great German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. The history of the Middle Ages for Hegel is a period of dominance of contradictions and “endless lies.” But, understanding the world-historical process as an endless dialectical development, he believed that “...change, which is death, is at the same time the emergence of new life.” Before us is a philosophical justification for the regularity and fruitfulness of the existence of the medieval period.
With distribution in historical science Marxist theory formations, the Middle Ages were increasingly identified with the concept of feudalism. Moreover, for Marx himself, the pre-capitalist formation assumed the parallel development of slave, feudal and Asian modes of production. Late Marxists introduced the term “socio-economic formations” as a definition of individual stages of human history. In accordance with this theory, a tradition of understanding the Middle Ages as an antagonistic class feudal socio-economic formation developed in Soviet historiography.
In the second half of the nineteenth century. century there is some reconciliation of different points of view. This became possible thanks to the already ingrained idea that history is not a kaleidoscope of events, but is subject to certain laws, which are possible and necessary to know. The regularity and fruitfulness of the feudal period of European development was proven and the first attempts were made to create a universal, i.e. a global picture of human history.
The developing evolutionism, that is, the idea of development as a gradual quantitative change without abrupt transitions. Evolutionism took a more balanced approach to the history of the Middle Ages than previous points of view. The Middle Ages are considered a time of development, although it was characterized by slowness, traditionalism and the corporate structure of society.
The conditions of rapidly developing capitalism stimulated the interest of historians in economic and social issues. As a result, a number of theories appear that are directly related to medieval studies. One of them - Markov (community) theory, the main provisions of which explain the specifics of the Middle Ages through the concept of brand. Its supporters believe that the social (mark) system, based on private land ownership, was preceded by a system based on collective ownership of land and collective cultivation of the land. Private land ownership and social inequality arise in the countryside due to the gradual decline of communal land ownership. After the collapse of the Roman Empire and the cessation of the movements of the Germanic tribes, a transition was made to the constant cultivation by individual families of the plots of communal land allocated to them, while maintaining jointly used undivided land. During the process of social differentiation of free community members that has begun, a fiefdom develops. The main problem of the entire socio-economic history of the Middle Ages is the problem of the relationship between the fiefdom and the community-mark. While the mark system maintained its position as a counterweight to the patrimonial system, harmony of interests of various classes was maintained in society, while the state played an important mediating role in the relationship between the patrimonial estate and the village.
Patrimony theory reveals the essence of the Middle Ages through the concept of “patrimony”. According to it, feudalism is a society in which subsistence farming dominated. The patrimony arose in the conditions of the disintegration of the primitive communal organization. The patrimony developed through the seizure of communal lands and peasant allods and the enslavement of peasants. Within the framework of the estate until the XIII - XIV centuries. There was a general harmony of interests between feudal lords and peasants. It was the activities of patrimonial owners that contributed to the improvement of agricultural technology, the development of crafts and the emergence of medieval cities.
All trends in medieval studies of the 19th century. were also typical for the first half of the twentieth century. The views of the Belgian historian had a very great influence on historians of that time Henri Pirenna. Since 1922, he developed and propagated a unique theory, called the “Pirenne thesis.” Pirenne did not deny the qualitative change between antiquity and the Middle Ages and the natural nature of the economy of the early Middle Ages, but suggested looking for it at a different time. From his point of view, the economic and social life of Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire for a long time proceeded in the rhythm of the ancient world. The “Great Migration of Peoples” and the settlement of Germans on Roman territory did not change anything in the previous order. The Germans appropriated rather than destroyed Roman civilization. The kingdoms they founded, such as the Frankish one, were a direct continuation of the empire. Therefore, according to Pirenne, the transition to the Middle Ages in Western Europe occurred only in the 8th century. The advent of Islam changed everything. The Arabs, who essentially captured three of the four shores of the Mediterranean Sea, changed the direction of the Mediterranean economy, generally destroyed the unity of Mediterranean ancient culture and created a new economic and cultural world, opposite and hostile to the Roman-Christian one.
The French historian also belonged to the circle of medievalist historians who left a deep mark on science Mark Block. In his classic work “Apology of History,” he advocated the objective reality and knowability of the historical past, defended the idea of the natural development of society and called for studying not only the actions of people, but also the socio-economic and natural conditions of their lives. He considered the economic categories themselves as a reflection of certain views of people and therefore called feudalism “a set of ideas and images.” M. Blok proclaimed the requirement for a comprehensive study and understanding of feudal society as an integral social type.
Thus, the question of understanding the essence of the Middle Ages is closely related to the problem of periodization of this era.
The problems of periodization of the Middle Ages have long been of concern to medievalist historians. J. Le Goff, one of the largest researchers of European history until the 80s. XX century defined the concept of “Middle Ages” as the period from the 5th to the 15th centuries, from the birth of the barbarian kingdoms in Europe to the crisis and transformation of medieval Christian civilization. In the 1970s Fernand Braudel put forward the idea of a “long Middle Ages,” which was later shared by Jacques Le Goff. The “Long Middle Ages” covered history from the first centuries of the Christian chronology until the end of the 18th or even the beginning of the 19th century, when the mentality of medieval society was completely destroyed.
Soviet historians dated the “Middle Ages” (feudal formation) from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) to the English bourgeois revolution (1640), which opened the way to the formation of capitalism.
Modern foreign and domestic experts most often understand the “Middle Ages” as the era from the Great Migration of Peoples, which gave birth to many civilizations of the West and East, to the Great Geographical Discoveries, which contributed to the formation of a global oceanic civilization and the interpenetration of Eastern and Western cultures.
The famous orientalist L.S. Vasiliev notes that the concept of the “Middle Ages” is more suitable for Europe. In the East, the development of societies and states until the 19th century. retained significant traditional features. Only the colonial policy of Western states set in motion a stable and largely static system of civilizations in the East.
2. Formation and evolution of medieval civilization. Barbarians who settled in the 5th century. According to the Roman Empire (the era of the “Great Migration”), they were not wild tribes that had just emerged from their forests and steppes. By the 5th century They have come a long way of evolution, have seen a lot and learned a lot. Directly or indirectly, most European peoples were influenced by Asian cultures, the Iranian world, as well as the Greco-Roman one, especially its eastern, Byzantine provinces. In the IV–V centuries. Christianity spread among the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Lombards, Franks and other tribes. Already at the beginning of the 5th century. The first early states were created in Europe. The island of Britain was conquered by the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who created several states there; Clovis created the Frankish kingdom on the territory of Gaul, Germany and Burgundy (486); the kingdoms of the Vesti and Suevi were located on the Iberian Peninsula (418); in Italy in 493 the Ostrogothic kingdom of Theodoric arose, etc.
Initially, European states were characterized by mixed, Western and Eastern, development features. The state was built on the principles of a strict hierarchy. The king had the highest military, legislative, administrative and judicial power, and sought recognition of the religious and sacred nature of his power. The Catholic Church began to play a major role in all spheres of society (Catholicism is the Western branch of Christianity). Meanwhile, in economics and property issues, in the V-VII centuries. The influence of Roman traditions was obvious. According to the laws of the Visigothic, Ostrogothic and Frankish kingdoms, land, other movable and immovable property was sold, bought, given and bequeathed. Thus, private property existed and developed freely.
In the VIII–X centuries. medieval European civilization enters the next period of development. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne with the imperial crown. The emperor became a symbol of the unity of German traditions, the Roman imperial past and Christian principles. The ideas of unifying the Christian world became decisive for several generations of Europeans. Charlemagne created a huge power, which, in addition to Gaul, included the Spanish March, Northern and Central Italy, the territories of Bavaria and Saxony, Pannonia (Hungary). The existence of the Carolingian state (mid-8th – early 10th centuries) was the time when a number of social institutions and the main features of the cultural and historical type inherent in medieval European civilization were formed.
Land plots of free communities and monasteries gradually, as a result of direct seizures, violence, purchases, etc. passed into the hands of the nobility. This is how the feudal form of land use is formed. Feud or flax - a special hereditary form of land ownership associated with mandatory military or civil service. A feature of feudal land ownership is its conditional nature. The property of the feudal lord was not private and depended on a system of personal citizenship, which was hierarchical in nature. The feudal lord's ownership of the land and the dependence of the peasants on him was expressed in feudal rent (corvée, tribute, food or cash dues). Private property was represented by a narrow circle of large landowners (princes, dukes, counts, barons), with whom the state (the king) waged a constant struggle, trying to bring them under control and limit their independence.
The social system of medieval civilization was based on the principles vassalage. A free lord had the right to respond to an insult from the king by declaring war. Vassal relations provided for mutual rights and obligations. Vassalage implied some decentralization of power by delegating a number of powers to the lord to the vassals. The set of certain rights of vassals and the territories in which these rights were valid was called “immunity”. Vassal relations and their inherent immunity are a feature of medieval European civilization.
The village was the center of economic and social life. Land was revered as the main value, and peasants were the bearers of the main spiritual and cultural traditions. Medieval Europe was distinguished by its communal-corporate structure: guilds, guilds, knightly orders, church and rural communities. Corporations of the same level were united into an estate. The complex social structure of feudal society, in which there is both class and estate division, serves as one of its characteristic features. The fact of class division, conceptualized in medieval ideology already at the turn of developed feudalism, was associated with the difference in social functions. In the triple scheme of society, developed at the beginning of the 11th century, each class - praying (oratores), fighting (bellatores) and working (laboratores) - was declared to be part of a single body, and the service of each was a condition of the service of the other. At the same time, the workers were called servas, destined for the sake of the common good to work and suffering.
VIII-X centuries became a period of Europeans repelling the onslaught of the Vikings, Scandinavian warrior-seafarers, and nomads (Avars, Turkic Bulgarians, Hungarians, Pechenegs, Polovtsians). In northern France, the Vikings created the virtually independent Duchy of Normandy. People from this duchy conquered Anglo-Saxon England in 1066. Nomads seize the southwestern territories of Europe and found the Bulgarian and Hungarian states. A feature of such conquests was the assimilation of the invaders with the indigenous peoples and, in fact, their “dissolution” in the common European cauldron of peoples.
In the middle of the 10th century. Otto I the Great attempted to recreate a single powerful state in Europe. In 962, he captured Italy and declared himself emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire.” For some time, peace was established in Europe.
The third period of development of medieval civilization in Europe, the 10th–13th centuries, was full of very important and internally contradictory events. Let us highlight the main factors in the development of civilization at this time.
-Agrarian revolution and demographic rise. The peace that followed a long period of conquest led to the settlement of the nobility on the land and the encouragement of agricultural production. The spread of three-field crop rotation made it possible to increase the sown areas and change crops. The use of an asymmetrical wheeled plow with a moldboard and iron tools ensured deeper plowing. Increased yields and the production of a variety of products improved nutrition and contributed to an increase in population. In the period between the X and XIV centuries. the population of Western Europe more than doubled (from 22.5 million by 950 to 54.4 million by the mid-14th century).
–Internal and external expansion of the Christian world. The demographic boom was critical to the expansion of Christendom. The feudal mode of production, based on extensive methods, required expansion of areas to meet the growing needs of the population. Internal expansion consisted of the development of new virgin European lands and drainage of swamps. In parallel with internal expansion, the Christian world also resorted to external expansion. By the XI–XIII centuries. became a period of aggressive crusades in the Muslim countries of the East and pagan European states.
–The rise of European medieval cities. In the Roman world, cities were primarily political, administrative and military centers and only then economic. Europe's medieval cities were born of reawakening trade and the rise of Western agriculture, which better supplied urban centers with supplies and people. Migration from rural areas to cities between the 10th and 14th centuries. was one of the most important factors in the development of the Christian world. It was the city, consisting of various social elements, that created the new society. And although it was still feudal, in its depths the seeds of the future were born - commodity-money relations, division of labor, specialization of crafts. In the X–XIII centuries. cities are turning into cultural centers. Evidence of the growing political and economic influence of cities in Medieval Europe was the appearance in the 11th–13th centuries. communal movement, as a result of which the townspeople gained freedom and self-government rights.
– Formation of modern states. The most important element of the civilizational development of Europe in the X-XIII centuries. became the formation of modern states. On the way to the formation of unified national states there was a period of fragmentation. Among the reasons for feudal fragmentation, the following can be identified: the dominance of subsistence farming; expansion of large land ownership and vassal immunity; internal cohesion and external isolation of the feudal nobility, living by the principle: “The vassal of my vassal is not my vassal”; the growth of cities and their political influence.
The formation of national states in Europe began at the end of the 11th–13th centuries, and in a number of cases ended in modern times. A feature of the formation of national states was the emergence of estate-representative institutions. So in England in 1215 the first constitution was adopted - the Magna Carta, and in 1265 a parliament appeared. In France, under Philip the Fair (1285–1314), the Estates General, endowed with legislative functions, was first convened, in Germany under Maximilian I in the 15th century. The Imperial Diet - Reichstag was created.
In the XIV–XV centuries. medieval Europe entered the last period of its existence, which meant a crisis in the Christian world, mutation and transformation of the foundations of civilization.
By the end of the 13th century. The internal and external expansion of European nations ended. Plowing and development of new land ceased, and even the outlying lands, cultivated under the pressure of population growth and in the heat of expansion, were now abandoned because they were unprofitable. Crusades towards the end of the 13th century. practically ceased, and in 1291 Acre fell, the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the East, and the history of Christian states in Palestine ended. On the other hand, the invasions of nomads also stopped. Mongol invasions 1241–1243 left terrible traces in Poland and Hungary, but they were the last.
Along with these major general phenomena, in the XIV - XV centuries. other events occur that clearly indicate the beginning of the crisis. Firstly, coin devaluation and deterioration began almost everywhere in Europe. Secondly, a whole series of speeches, city riots, uprisings against the feudal and urban nobility struck Europe (in Rouen, Orleans, Provence in 1280, in Toulouse in 1288, Reims in 1292, Paris in 1306, Belgium in 1302). Thirdly, in 1315–1317. inclement weather led to poor harvests, rising prices, and famine. Fourthly, the decrease in the physical resistance of the human body due to constant malnutrition played a role in the devastation that the Great Plague caused from 1348. Fifthly, feudalism, struck by the crisis, resorted to war as a means of alleviating the situation of the ruling classes. The most significant example of this is the Hundred Years' War of 1337–1453. between France and England over the County of Flanders and English claims to the French throne.
Meanwhile, the wars did not solve the problems of feudal society, but created new ones. The alliance of the king with the cities made it possible to create and maintain a permanent mercenary army, and the need for serving knighthood disappeared. And with the advent of firearms and artillery, knighthood lost its monopoly on military affairs. The events of the Hundred Years' War demonstrated the advantages of mercenary troops, which undermined the authority of the entire class system.
To summarize, we note: the medieval society of Europe was traditional, because The agricultural sector predominated in the economy, manual labor was used everywhere, strict adherence to tradition and Christian commandments was observed, in society there was a desire for internal unity and external isolation, corporatism. Meanwhile, civilization developed by the end of the 15th century. approached a certain point, behind which unknown horizons were hidden.
3. Phenomenon of medieval culture. Everyday life of a person in the Middle Ages. The most important feature of the culture of the Middle Ages is the question of its roots. By type of production, Antiquity and the Middle Ages represent one, agricultural culture. But in other spheres of culture there was a break with the ancient tradition: urban planning technology deteriorated, the construction of aqueducts and roads stopped, literacy fell, etc. Thus, the Middle Ages, developing its historical cultural tradition, selectively refers to the culture of Antiquity, including the culture Roman civilization.
Medieval European culture had many sources, but the most important of them were those springs that emerged from its own, still barbaric, soil. French researcher J. Le Goff noted that the consciousness of the Middle Ages was “anti-technical.” And the ruling class, chivalry, is to blame for this. Knighthood was interested in the development of military technology, and not in its productive application. But the working population was not interested in using technology. The surplus product produced by the farmer came at the complete disposal of the feudal lord, who was not interested in the equipment of labor. And the farmer did not have enough time or knowledge for the technical re-equipment of agricultural production.
The eclecticism of the culture of the Middle Ages is its characteristic feature and the second important problem.
Here two cultures coexist, struggle, influence each other:
1. The dominant culture of the elite: church and secular nobility. This culture is Christian, biblical, it was mainly widespread in the church, monastic environment, and at the court of the king and in the castles of feudal lords. She used Latin.
2. Another culture - folk, lower society - pagan, preserved since barbarian times, using their native language - the dialect of this or that people.
The aesthetic and artistic taste of that time was rough in some ways and subtle in others. Everyday “criteria” of beauty are naively spectacular: shine, bright color, rich sound (especially the ringing of bells). Physical beauty, however, was rather hidden. It was the Middle Ages that gave birth to the so-called “frame” type of clothing, which did not emphasize the shape of the body, did not open it and did not free it for movement, but created artificial forms.
The art of the Middle Ages was almost entirely crafts and applied, closely related to life. His task was to fill the forms in which life took place with beauty, and also to help strengthen the Christian faith. As art, in our understanding, it has not yet been realized and appreciated.
The first sprouts of love for art itself appeared at that time among the nobility, in connection with the increase in artistic production, already “useless” but valuable objects, luxury items, and in connection with the complication of forms of everyday communication and entertainment of the nobility. Among the common people, however, something similar was observed in line with the so-called “folk art”, with songs, dances, and farcical performances.
Among the types of art in the Middle Ages, in addition to purely applied ones, architecture, along with sculpture and icon painting, as well as literature, developed especially actively. The architecture of the Middle Ages began to develop powerfully sometime after the year 1000. In any case, by the 11th–12th centuries. refers to the flourishing of her “Romanesque” style. This very epithet “Romanesque” appeared in the 19th century, when connections between medieval architecture and ancient Roman architecture were discovered. Romanesque architecture developed when Europe entered a period of relatively stable life, when feudal relations, the Christian Church had already strengthened, and some economic revival had occurred. The influence of the church during this period was enormous. She has accumulated large financial resources. She acted as the main customer of architectural structures.
Romanesque temple buildings were distinguished by thick walls made of stone or brick, reinforced on the outside with special devices (buttresses). The shape of the temple was simple, rectangular in outline, and the roof was gable. Narrow window openings were made in the powerful walls. The temple was massive, dimly lit from the outside, with a modest interior. Everything created the impression of majesty, severity, often to the point of severity.
Secular architecture of this period was even more modest. Castles and city buildings adopted something from church buildings.
On the walls of Romanesque churches, with an abundance of free surfaces, monumental fresco painting and sculpture in the form of reliefs developed. The subjects of the images were religious and instructive, for the edification of those entering the temple. The artists did not strive to create the illusion of the real world, did not look for verisimilitude in the depiction of figures, placed events from different times side by side, and made very little use of three-dimensionality. But there were correctly captured, artistically expressive details. Although in general the images were distinguished by naive spontaneity.
A fundamental change in style, not only architecture, occurred in the 13th–14th centuries, when “Gothic” flourished. The term, again, is conditional, arose when this art seemed barbaric (the art of the Goths). But this style, northern in origin, had nothing to do with the real tribe.
The main distinctive features of Gothic architecture were the presence of pointed arches in the building and the uncontrollable upward thrust of all forms and structural elements. Gothic architecture (and not only it, but also the fashion in clothing of the period) expressed the feeling of the religious impulse of the era, which survived the mass fanaticism of the crusades for the possession of the sacred land. The huge windows of these cathedrals were filled with light stone frames, at intervals of which colored glass was inserted. It was like a stone lace formed. Streams of differently colored light poured into the building through the stained glass windows.
Frescoes and reliefs, for which there was no place on the walls, were replaced by sculpture that decorated both the interior of the temple and its facades. Each of the temples had a huge number of sculptures; in some - more than 2 thousand. The theme of the sculptural images remained religious with elements of mysticism and fantasy. But the role of secular subjects also increased, the verisimilitude of details increased, and the volume of sculpture was actively used.
Castle architecture began to adopt a lot from the Gothic cathedral with its main motive - aspiration to God, to heaven, upward. The verticality of medieval culture has finally found an adequate architectural, and generally stylistic, embodiment.
So, medieval culture manifested itself in the processing, design, ennoblement of both nature (the human environment) and man himself. As for nature, it took shape both in peasant labor (nature management) and in craft labor, which created a unique aesthetics of everyday life, in the construction of temples, castles (and other structures), and saturating them with works of art.
The processing of a person concerned his appearance, behavior, and spiritual world. The variety of clothes, hairstyles, jewelry, the development of personal hygiene towards the end of the Middle Ages - all this and much more were moments that civilized and cultivated life.
If the life of a man in the Middle Ages was more or less public and connected with his class, then the life of a woman is much less covered in literature. The position of women in medieval society was determined and regulated by existing law. In particular, canon law stated: “It is quite clear that wives must obey their husbands and be almost servants to them.”
The class hierarchy that existed in medieval society also applied to women. The social status of a woman, like that of a man, was determined by birth. It was believed that the blood flowing in the veins of the nobility was different from, for example, that of a peasant; a woman shared the status of father and husband, and therefore men of low birth were expected to show respect to a woman of higher social status. And yet the distance between the status of noble and ignorant men was much greater than between the status of noble and ignorant women.
A woman could not enlist in the military, serve as a priest, be a doctor, lawyer, judge, or engage in any other job requiring a university degree. Note that, not having the rights of a man, a woman did not have his responsibilities in the public sphere. Tax payments for a married city or peasant woman were paid by the husband (the nobility, as is known, were exempt from taxes altogether); the woman was not responsible for all services associated with land ownership; the husband was responsible for his wife's debts and for her unworthy behavior.
Question. Remember the main features of the daily life of peasants and townspeople during the Middle Ages.
The main features of the daily life of peasants and townspeople in the Middle Ages were as follows: agrarian economy, subsistence farming, sparse population, communalism, religious consciousness, adherence to customs and traditions.
Questions at the end of the paragraph
Question 1. Explain why the prayer of the French peasants began with the words: “Deliver us, Lord, from plague, famine and war.”
The everyday enemies of man at that time were plague, famine and war.
Constant wars gave rise to a feeling of uncertainty and fear among the population. Wars threatened ruin, robbery, violence, and murder. In those days, the war fed itself: the soldiers lived at the expense of defenseless townspeople and, above all, peasants who were deprived of the right to bear arms. Famine was a frequent visitor, mainly due to extremely low harvests. In Germany, for example, between 1660 and 1807. On average, every fourth year had a poor harvest. The plague, which was a scourge in the Middle Ages, did not leave people at the beginning of the New Age. At that time they did not know how to treat diseases such as smallpox and typhus. In the 18th century smallpox affected 95 people out of 100, and every seventh patient died.
Question 2. Explain the expression “centuries of a rare person.”
This expression means that the European population grew slowly, or even not at all. The average life expectancy was 30 years.
Question 3. Why in the 17th century. did people get sick often?
In the 17th century people got sick often because... hard work, low level of medicine, lack of personal hygiene
Question 4. How do you understand the expression: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are”?
This expression means that by the products a person can afford, one can determine his social status. For example, the nobles ate little vegetables, considering them the food of commoners, and, conversely, the peasants ate little meat.
Assignments for the paragraph
Question 1. Why couldn’t people be sure of the future in early modern times? What events caused them paralysis and uncertainty?
In early modern times, people were unsure of the future due to frequent wars, regular crop failures followed by famine, as well as frequent epidemics of plague, typhus and other diseases that were incurable for that time. These events caused fear and uncertainty among medieval people, because... he didn’t know when they might happen again and whether he could survive them.
Question 2. What reasons can you explain for the slow population growth in Europe in the 16th-17th centuries?
Slow population growth is associated with frequent malnutrition, which led to poor health, frequent epidemics, low levels of development of medicine and personal hygiene, high mortality, especially among children, and short life expectancy.
Question 3. Discuss in class whether changes occurred in the daily life of people in the 16th and 17th centuries. compared to the XIV-XV centuries.
In everyday life in the 16th-17th centuries. changes occurred compared to the XIV-XV centuries. Hygiene and medicine remained at a low level. Although the growing prosperity of individual townspeople forced them to take care of themselves, emphasizing their status. Everyday food remained coarse, consisting mainly of grains (barley, oats and millet). Meat and bread made from wheat remained a luxury for most of the population. Sewage systems only gradually appeared in cities. More radical changes in everyday life occurred in the 18th century.
Question 4. Prepare and conduct a tour of London in the 17th century. on one of the topics: “London in the 17th century. - the largest European city”, “London is a large shopping center”, “Visiting the London rich man”, “Visiting the London poor man”, “Entertainment of Londoners”. Use additional textbook materials and online resources.
Excursion around London on the topic “London in the 17th century. - the largest European city"
The most beautiful city in Europe in 1700 was London. The silhouettes of the temples erected by the architect Christopher Wren gave it special originality and charm. Among the church buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral stood out, the construction of which was not yet completed at that time. All that remained was to build the dome. The completion of the work was delayed, and people began to jokingly talk about slow people: “He is in a hurry, like a builder with a bucket of mortar on the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.”
The main waterway of Great Britain, its busiest thoroughfare, was the River Thames, dotted with thousands of points of pleasure, passenger and merchant ships.
The only London Bridge connected the north and south banks of the Thames. Down the river there was a port where ships arriving from all over the world with overseas goods were constantly unloaded.
The pretty little villages a few miles from the city centre, Hampstead and Highgate, were a striking contrast to the thriving capital. During the era in question, London played such a significant role in the life of the kingdom as never before or since. At least 530 thousand people lived here, which accounted for a ninth of the population of the entire state, while in the second largest city, Norwich, there were only 30 thousand inhabitants. London attracted people of different classes like a magnet. Representatives of the aristocracy and nobility flocked here, eager to be noticed at court. They sat in parliament, settled their cases in court, had fun, looked for profitable parties for their children, made purchases... London was a real paradise for shoppers, it was a huge shopping center that could satisfy any needs.
For newspaper publishers, the market became the city's coffee shops, where visitors spent hours on end discussing published materials. London was the center of publishing, theatrical and musical life in the country. Guests of the capital got acquainted with new trends in art here and spread opinions about them throughout the kingdom.
But this huge city could not provide itself with human resources. Mortality here has increased compared to the previous century. In London people were now more likely to be buried than to be baptized. Every third baby died before reaching two years of age. And only half of the remaining children lived to be fifteen years old. Adults, who had already become breadwinners for large families, very often passed away at the age of 30-40.
There were sewers along the streets of the capital; drinking water was contaminated; the stench of garbage dumps spread throughout the area; burials in overcrowded cemeteries took place uncontrolled; The dwellings of the townspeople had neither running water nor sewerage. In short, at that time in London there was not the slightest concept of public hygiene. There was nothing to breathe: the atmosphere was polluted by the smoke of thousands of small fires, harming both people and nature. Tuberculosis was widespread, and smallpox epidemics brutally decimated the inhabitants of the densely populated city. Medicines at that time were ineffective, and therefore even minor bodily injury to a person could lead to a dangerous disease that could be fatal. And this is not surprising, since native Londoners were characterized by poor health and, as a rule, suffered from a number of chronic diseases. Therefore, the capital needed a constant influx of migrants. Every year, approximately 8 thousand young people from all parts of the kingdom arrived in London to live, they were attracted by earnings that were 30 percent higher than the national average.
The Great Fire of 1666, or rather, the need to restore the city, gave impetus to the development of London, its territorial growth. The city has significantly expanded its borders. Situated on the south bank of the Thames, Southwark, famous for its metalworking industry and breweries, was close to the capital's agricultural lands. To the north, outside the City of London, there is the undeveloped area of Moorfield and Bunhill Cemetery. To the north-west of the City, the Clerkenwell area was inhabited by craftsmen engaged in the production of watches, and in the east from Spitalfields to Whitechapel there were weavers' villages, which were very quickly built up with brick houses and merged with the city.
Two roads led to the west, linking the City with Westminster. Open fields stretched north from the Oxford Road and approached the New Road, which connected the village of Marylebone in the west with St Pancras on. east. South of the Oxford Road was Soho, with its crowded streets and landscaped square; this area was inhabited mainly by artisans and luxury goods merchants.
The southernmost road led from the City along Fleet Street to the Strand and then past the statue of Charles I at Charing Cross to White Hall. White Hall Palace burned down in 1698, leaving only Banqueting House. After the restoration, when the royal entourage again occupied the palaces of White Hall and St. James, houses of the nobility were erected in the square near the latter. Piccadilly Circus ran from the north-eastern part of St James's and intersected with Portugal Street (named after the Queen, wife of Charles II, daughter of the King of Portugal), which led to Hyde Park.
There were few houses in the areas of St James's and Hyde Park, and deer roamed freely here. Mayfair was still in its infancy, and there were fairs that were so notorious that the city authorities were about to cancel them. Visitors to the new palace of the royal couple William and Mary, located in the village of Kensington, traveled there through Hyde Park along the Royal Road, which was popularly dubbed the Rotten Road. From White Hall it ran westwards to Westminster Abbey and to Horse Ferry, where carriages and saddle horses were ferried across the river. Beyond the river lay fields. To the west was the village of Chelsea with its garden and boarding houses for young ladies
Never before in the history of the state has there been such a large number of trade, industrial and craft enterprises in the capital. Writer Daniel Defoe called London “the heart of the nation.” Raw materials, products and goods from all regions of the country and from all over the world flocked to the capital; here they were processed and consumed or transported to other regions of the state.
The development of London stimulated the growth of other cities. Ships carried coal from Newcastle along the kingdom's rivers, and funds from the coal tax collection went to rebuild London after the Great Fire.
The fantastic clock on the town hall building on Old Town Square in Prague was created in 1410 by the university astronomer Master Hanusz. The clock mechanism was updated in the 16th century; the dial was painted in 1865-1866 by I. Manes. Roman numerals indicate astronomical time. Arabic numerals on the large outer ring show the time of the 24-hour Bohemian day, which began at sunset. A small ring in the center of the dial indicates the position of the Sun and Moon in the Zodiac. Every hour, mechanical figures - the Holy Apostles, allegories of the Virtues and Death - appear first in one, then in another window above the dial. The original is now in the Museum of the Main City of Prague, and in its place is a copy by E.K. Liszka.(768×1024)
IN THE MIDDLE AGES contraception was not practiced, so women usually had many children. But the high birth rate was also accompanied by high mortality - both female and child: medicine and hygiene were at the most primitive level. As a result, families were small: usually with two or three representatives of the next generation. It was a brutal struggle for survival: every second child died before the age of seven. And although the medieval world was full of children - more than half the population was under 14 years old - a lucky few lived to adulthood. Life expectancy in medieval Europe in those days was approximately 30 years in more successful periods, and even then not everywhere, but in unsuccessful periods, when there were epidemics and wars, it was only 20.
The demographic curve of the Middle Ages cuts off the abyss in the middle of the 14th century. Until that time, despite the high mortality rate, the population was growing slowly but steadily. New villages appeared in place of cut down forests and drained swamps; the size and total number of cities increased. But then came the Black Death - an epidemic of bubonic plague and similar diseases that raged in 1347-1350 and killed from a third to half of the entire population of Europe. The plague returned regularly in subsequent times, until the end of the 17th century it became part of the life of Europeans, but the scope of the epidemics gradually weakened. Dirty, overcrowded cities - the death traps of the Middle Ages - suffered the most. As a result, there were noticeably fewer Europeans in 1500 compared to 1300, and life expectancy also decreased.
Women married earlier than men. In Tuscany of the 13th-14th centuries, the bride was usually about 19 years old, and the groom almost ten years older, although the difference could be much greater and, conversely, insignificant. The poet Dante, born in Florence in 1265, was married by age 20, which was probably more typical. Due to the high mortality rate, one of the spouses could quickly become widowed and remarry. Therefore, the relationship of a child with his stepfather, stepmother, half-brothers and half-sisters was an important component in the life of a medieval family, reflected, in particular, in the plot schemes of fairy tales.
Women who did not die during childbirth could achieve the most independent position, becoming rich widows. They often had to remarry (noble widows in England often paid the king a lot of money for the right not to remarry). And if they managed to avoid marriage, then they gained independence, which is usually unattainable for a woman in any level of society. The 12th-century poets who created the ideal of courtly love extolled the “lady,” addressed as “my lady,” but in real life, a woman was almost always subject to the authority of her husband or male relatives.
Despite the general increase in the number and size of cities, the bulk of the population in the Middle Ages continued to live in villages. Even in lands rich in cities, such as Italy, the number of city dwellers never exceeded a quarter of the total population. In the rest of Europe, the share of the urban population was even less - about 10 percent. Most people were small peasants who lived and worked on the land. Their position was determined by the size of the plot and the conditions under which he owned it, that is, the degree of dependence on the feudal lord. Landless peasants and those who only had a vegetable garden made up the rural poor, working for others.
Rich peasants, on the contrary, could hire workers and, increasing production, sell surplus crops on the market. The degree of dependence also played an important role. Most peasants had their own master, sometimes just a landowner to whom they paid rent, but there could also be a master who had complete control over them. In the most severe form of dependence, peasants did not have the right to leave their village, were obliged to work half the week on the owner’s land, providing him with food and money, ask his permission even for marriage, and seek court only from him or his associates. It is not surprising that in times of economic or political crises, peasant uprisings often broke out, sometimes developing into real wars, such as the French Jacquerie (1358), Wat Tyler's uprising in England (1381), and the revolts of peasants in Catalonia, which resulted in the abolition of serfdom. (1486).
The windmill is one of the most useful inventions of the Middle Ages. But the peasants had to pay a constant fee for using the landowner's mill. Miniature. England, XIV century.
Depiction of peasants: a rare subject for stained glass painting. Cathedral in Ili. OK. 1340-1349.
The rural population was engaged in hard work all year round - be it on the clay fields of Central England, where barley was grown for bread and beer, or on the olive and grape plantations of Tuscany. Food and climate may differ from each other, but the endless backbreaking work to maintain life was the same everywhere. There was almost no technology in agriculture: the only mechanism - a mill for grinding grain - used the power of water or wind. Water mills existed in Europe even under the Romans, and windmills became the most important technical invention of the Middle Ages. They first appeared in the 12th century in England and France, and then quickly spread throughout Europe. However, people had to plow, sow, weed, thresh and harvest the crops manually or with the help of oxen, which were gradually replaced by work horses. In the Middle Ages, the fate of society directly depended on the vagaries of nature - crop failure meant hunger and death. Several lean years in a row, such as the Great Famine of 1315 - 1317, could sharply reduce the population.
Medieval cities, by modern standards, were small. In a medium-sized city, the population was only a few thousand people, and even in the largest ones, such as Venice, Florence, Milan and Paris, the number of inhabitants did not exceed 100 thousand. Despite this, a medieval city could not be called a “large village”: it usually had a certain legal status and performed special functions. The cities were centers of trade and manufacturing. Blacksmiths lived in villages (this is where the most common European surname Smith/Schmidt/Lefebvre and its derivatives came from), and the workshops of artisans who produced things necessary for everyday life - shoes, clothing, furniture, dishes and leather goods - were almost always located in cities . People of intellectual work also lived there: lawyers, doctors, teachers, as well as bankers and merchants. Although there were markets in many villages, the weekly trade fair was held in the city. A special place was certainly allocated for her on the outskirts, which then became the center of the city's public life. Merchants and artisans united in guilds - not only economic, but also social organizations. Guild members feasted together, prayed together, and provided dignified funerals for their deceased colleagues. The rules of the guilds stipulated who should conduct trade and how.
The rapid development of means of transportation gradually established strong connections between cities. We usually traveled by water - it was much cheaper. Italian merchants in the south and the Hanseatic League in the north established maritime trade routes from Egypt and the Black Sea to England and northern Russia. In 1277-1278, the Genoese first traveled directly to Northern Europe, and from 1325, caravans of ships began to depart annually from Venice to Flanders and England. Even though there was less travel on the land, the roads were not empty. On them one could meet merchants, pilgrims going to Santiago, and those moving to Rome and back on judicial or diplomatic business. During the Middle Ages, communications improved: new bridges and inns eased the burden of travel, but traffic speeds remained low.
The first thing that would strike a modern person if he were in the Middle Ages would probably be the silence and abundance of natural smells. It was a world of natural materials and non-standard forms. Both wooden, thatched houses and stone buildings, erected where there was a lot of stone, blended organically into the environment. Medieval cities and villages did not seem like foreign bodies, but a natural extension of nature. Instead of man-made noise, we would hear the voices of people and animals, and the absence of sewage systems and waste removal would immediately remind us of ourselves with specific smells. In small medieval dwellings, where peasants often lived with their livestock, there was no “personal” space left.
This is what Cologne looked like in the Middle Ages. The majestic choir of the unfinished cathedral rises above the city. To his left is the southwest tower, half erected, with a wooden crane hanging over it.
Jacques Coeur, a successful French merchant and banker, was engaged in mining, paper production and textiles. In 1451, his enormous fortune aroused the envy of Charles VII. A pretext was found to deprive the subject of his possessions. The luxurious house of Jacques Coeur in Bourges, where the royal court was then located, has been preserved. Its architecture is full of interesting curiosities, like these decorative figures above the fireplace, as if looking out from the windows.
In the Middle Ages, death was a natural part of everyday life. In a large village with a hundred houses, funerals took place on average every 18 days. Christians going to another world did not even take clothes with them - only bishops were buried in full vestments, and priests with a chalice in their hands. The dead were buried in coffins or in shrouds alone. Cemeteries were located interspersed with residential buildings (contrary to ancient and Islamic customs). It was important for the deceased, buried naked in a church cemetery, to be helped in the afterlife journey, which was served by funeral masses, which made it easier for the deceased to stay in purgatory. The rich could afford tombstones, but the monuments were more symbols of death and the frailty of the flesh than of the earthly power of the deceased. For many commoners, only bare ground or a crypt was accessible. The main thing that death gave after 20-30 years of hard life was “the beginning of peace, the end of labor.”
