Medieval Agrictulure

Before the Agricultural Revolution

The majority of the work done on farms was by the serfs. All the manor's were self sufficient because they were cut off from one another, which hindered the spread of ideas. Because of this, there was also a lack of farming innovations. Serfs used a scratch plow developed for the dry land of the Mediterranean. It wasn't suited well for the wetter, deeper soils of Northern England. These plows were pulled with oxen if they could be afforded. If not, they were pulled by the serfs themselves.

Two Field System

Serfs during this time used a two field system. Using this system farmers let half of their farm let be grazed on my cattle while the other one was being farmed. This only left 50% of the farmland to be available at any one time. As a result of this system, crop productions were extremely low. 

Beginnings of the Revolution

Around the 800's, Europe's climate began to get warmer. That meant longer growing seasons and more abundant harvests. Despite the plagues during this time, the better-fed population was able to fight off the infections.With the rise of the feudal system that gave even the serfs more stability, people began to get healthier and produce much more crops.

                                                       The Agricultural Revolution

One of the first changes of the revolution was the progression to the three field system. With this, the farmers simply rotated their crops and animals to the next field.  Farmers also decided to alternate crops to keep the soil rich in nutrients. During the winter they planted rye, and legumes (or beans) during the spring. Next, the heavy plow was invented that was able to cut through the deep, wet, soils of most of Europe.The heavy plow needed many oxen to pull it which the individual serfs didn't have. They would often share oxen and take turns plowing the land. One of the last major innovations of the Agricultural Revolution was the plow horse. This led to the invention of the horse shoe and the horse collar. The horse collar protected the horses neck so it wouldn't hurt it pulling the heavy plow. Although the horse couldn't pull any more than the ox, it could pull faster and work longer. With farming at an all time high, cities were able to grow bigger and prosper..

Citations
Info:
http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/10/FC63

Pictures:

http://www.irisyorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/medieval-agriculture.jpg
http://medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/horseplow.html

Monks In the Monastery and Nuns in a Convent


History of a Monastery:


Monastery of the Middle Ages

In 529AD St. Benedict established the Benedictine Rule. The very first Monastery in the Middle ages was established based on the Benedictine Rule. Different orders of Monks were also established during the middle ages. There were the Benedictines, Cistercians, and the Carthusians. The rules, restrictions, and details of the different monastic religions seperated them from one another. Slowly over a few centuries the monasteries of the middle ages dissolved to only a few.



Monastery Community:

Many Monasteries and Convents were used as hospitals for the sick.

Each monastery was like its own community. The monks that lived in the communities didn't need to travel beyond the walls for any necessities. Over time the monastery would grow and the people living inside looked like a small town. They grew to be very wealthy and held some power. A monastery also had its own form of a feudal pyramid. At the top were the Pope, then the Bishop, Arch Bishop, Arch Deacon, then the Abbot. The Abbots had some form of obligation to a higher authority or Lord. After the Abbots you have the Prior, who ran the monastery when the Abbot was absent, the Dean and then finally the Monks. Any Monks in the monastery could move to a higher position.

Monks in the Monastery
Monks were very clean shaven men. A monk was distuinguished by their partly shaven hair. They were bald except for a strip of hair around their head, called a Tonsure. The monks Tonsure's indicated that they had recieve clerical status. They spent the day worshipping, reading their sacred text, and laboring. Each day was divided into eight parts, or sacred offices. An average day began with worship in side the church and ended with worship or service inside the monastery church. The began the day as early as two o' clock in the morning, and finished around sun set. Many hours of the day were spent in meditation, prayer, and reading the sacred text. Aside from the spiritual side of the monastery, Monks did a lot of labor and working with their hands. Such as, washing clothes, cooking, raising grain and other necessary supplies needed to keep the monastery running.


Nuns in a Convent:
A Nun in the middle ages spent a life of dedication. They were required to make three vows.
1. The Vow of Poverty

2. The Vow of Chastity

3. The Vow of Obediance

These vows were the basis of the life of a Nun in the middle ages. They gave up a life of worldly things and spent a life of strict rules and routines in a midevil Convent or Nunnery. Nuns were also established in 529AD by St. Benedict and the Benedictine rule. Many orders of Nuns were established during that period of time. There were the Benedictine Nuns, Dominican Nuns, Fransiscan Nuns, Ursaline Nuns, Augustine Nuns, Carmelite Nuns, Daughters of St. Paul., and a few others. The women of the middle ages were not provided with education. Becoming a Nun provided the only source of education to women. Their education was mainly focused on the church Hierarchy.

Daily life of a Nun:

A Nun spent most of the day in prayer and meditation much like a Monk. Aside from the prayer and meditation the Nuns of a convent also spent some time doing manual work for the monasteries, such as cooking, washing clothes, spinning or embroidery. The day centered around the Book of Hours. The Book of Hours was the main prayer book, and it was divided into eight parts. Each hour or part had a specific name. They started with the Laud around five in the morning. The Matins which was recited a little before the Lauds around two in the morning. After that they had the Prime as six in the morning, Terce at nine in the morning, Sext at noon, Nones at three in the afternoon, Vespers which was four to five PM, and Compline at six. Any work was completely stopped for these times of prayer.

The Book of Hours

FIND MORE INFORMATION AT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES:

http://www.buddhachannel.tv/portail/spip.php?article14550

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/daily-life-nun-middle-ages.htm
Blog by: Allison Bradburn and Lauren Lowe

Religious Orders

In the middle ages religion was an extremely important thing to the social strucutue. Mnay of thr rules and regulations present in the time were based on what the king wanted and what the church wanted.

 

Religios orders were men and women who wanted to lead lives devoted to christ. Many would bind themselves to the church either through publiacally decalring it or prvately making that decision

In the Roman Catholic church these associations are of several types. The religious Orders, narrowly defined, include monastic Orders (of which the largest is the Benedictines), mendicant Orders or Friars (such as the Franciscans or Dominicans), and Canons Regular (Priests living in a community attached to a specific church). All of these make solemn vows and say office in choir. In general they all have their origin in the Middle Ages

http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/orders.htm

The roman Catholic church was undoubtly the most important and influenecal theoligical center during the era. Many religions that orginated in that time came from with the church. The chuhrch had monks and nuns, people who devoted their lives to living a christ centered life. Nuns usually outwieghed monks in numbers. The two would rarely ever intermix with one another.

http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/orders.htm

The standards of living in the roman church were based upon the rules

and teaching of St. Benedict, a monk who devised a set of rules for living a chritian life.

As the years progressed the roman catholic spread all over Europe. Over the years the church becamelike God and started enforcing rules on its subjects that did not sit well with many people.

In 1517 there was a revolt in the chuhrch led by Martin Luther, a devote christina who did not beleive in everything the roman catholic church was teaching. His new Ideas of how church would be led in to the protestant reformation.

The churhc has cahnged alot since the middle ages to now. But many beliefs held dear by the church then are still held by many of us today.

Logan and Talita

The Black Death

A horrible disease struck Asia , Africa, and Europe in the 14th century. People called this disease the Black Death. In the 1340's it started in Asia and quickly spread throughout Africa and Europe. The signs of the illness were red ring shaped marks with dark center spots on the arms and neck, and high fevers. People died from this illness eventually after becoming even more ill from the disease.

25 million people died within only two years. The plaque had killed of 1/3 of Europe's population only in 10 years. People were trying to hide from the disease by locking doors trying to protect themselves. Flowers were carried to ward off the smell of the dead and dying. To contain and kill the disease, villages filled with the dead burned down. Nothing was seeming to work for the spread of the Black Death.

People thought the disease has come to an end, the outbreak came into a new cycle. A new rash of the illness would enter into the towns and move to villages. Rats and fleas carried the disease and people thought it was a punishment for being wicked. There was no sanitation in the towns, and that's where the disease hit the hardest.

Many people died from the disease. Peasants died young from malnutrition and simplest of the disease. For two years the outbreak of the Black Death continued. It wasn't discovered until the 20th century. It has a new name for today's world by the name of the bubonic plague. They now have a vaccine if the plague ever occurs again.

"Suffering From The Plague." Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE49&iPin=AMH217&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 5, 2010).

http://medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/plague.html

Jasmine and Brandy
 

Kings College, Cambridge University, UK

http://www.medieval-life.net/education.htm

    Education in the Middle Ages was primerally performed in the church. This was commanded by the ruler Charlamagne. He declared that every church and monastary would create a school that allowed all boys willing to work on getting an actual education for free. The classes included rhetoric, grammer, logic, Latin, astronomy, philosophy and math. However, students would sometimes learn more by simply touring the area they live in and talking to hunters, trappers, and poachers.

   

http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/ls201/medieval3.html

    During the 1300's both boys and girls attended school in Florence. Women from the upper classes had obligations that required literacy. The subject of education for women was a hotly debated issue throughout the middle ages. Medieval society, and particularly the powerful domains of church and state, clearly had no place for well educated women.

http://www.localhistories.org/cambridge.html

   
In 1068 William the Conqueror visited Cambridge and ordered that a castle be built there. At first it was of wood but in the 12th century it was rebuilt in stone. In the Middle Ages Cambridge had a weekly market and by the early 13th century it also had a fair. In the 13th century friars arrived in Cambridge. Friars were like monks but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach.The School of Pythagoras was founded in Cambridge in 1200. The university was founded in 1209.The first colleges of Cambridge university were founded in the Middle Ages.

 http://library.thinkquest.org/6105/Education.html  

    Monks taught school for boys where they learned to read and write Latin. It was very important to learn for church services. Bishops taught in cathedrals. Some students in school could choose to study law, medicine, philosophy or theology. Those who taught these were called doctors. The church not only encouraged learning, they encouraged artists and builders. Most women in the Middle Ages were homeschooled and were allowed to learn in an actual school.

   

Joan of Arc

         Joan of Arc, in French, Jeanne d'Arc, also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. She was born the third of five children to a farmer, Jacques Darc and his wife Isabelle de Vouthon in the town of Domremy on the border of provinces of Champagne and Lorraine. Her childhood was spent attending her father's herds in the fields and learning religion and housekeeping skills from her mother.

        When Joan was about 12 years old, she began hearing "voices" of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret believing them to have been sent by God. These voices told her that it was her divine mission to free her country from the English and help the dauphin gain the French throne. They told her to cut her hair, dress in man's uniform and to pick up the arms.

        By 1429 the English with the help of their Burgundian allies occupied Paris and all of France north of the Loire. The resistance was minimal due to lack of leadership and a sense of hopelessness. Henry VI of England was claiming the French throne. Joan convinced the captain of the dauphin's forces, and then the dauphin himself of her calling. After passing an examination by a board of theologians, she was given troops to command and the rank of captain.

        At the battle of Orleans in May 1429, Joan led the troops to a miraculous victory over the English. She continued fighting the enemy in other locations along the Loire. Fear of troops under her leadership was so formidable that when she approached Lord Talbot's army at Patay, most of the English troops and Commander Sir John Fastolfe fled the battlefield. Fastolfe was later stripped of his Order of the Garter for this act of cowardice. Although Lord Talbot stood his ground, he lost the battle and was captured along with a hundred English noblemen and lost 1800 of his soldiers.

        Charles VII was crowned king of France on July 17, 1429 in Reims Cathedral. At the coronation, Joan was given a place of honor next to the king. Later, she was ennobled for her services to the country.

In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English, in turn, handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen led by Pierre Cauchon, a pro-English Bishop of Beauvais, to be tried for witchcraft and heresy. Much was made of her insistence on wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told her to change, as well as for protection from sexual abuse by her jailors) was seen as defiance and finally sealed her fate. Joan was convicted after a fourteen-month interrogation and on May 30, 1431 she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace. She was nineteen years old. Charles VII made no attempt to come to her rescue.

In 1456 a second trial was held and she was pronounced innocent of the charges against her. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.


Joan of Arc

Brandon Anderson

Marissa Garcia

Life in the Middle Ages: Guilds

Life in the Middle Ages: Guilds