HIS 3423

EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Traces the political, economic, social, intellectual and religious changes in western Europe from the Late Roman Empire of the 4th century A.D. to the apex of the area's first advanced civilization, c. 1300 A.D.
Prerequisite: HIS 1113 or consent of instructor

Instructor Harlie Kay Gallatin, Ph.D.

Offered during June, 2001, on the Bolivar Campus.
It is offered as a directed study, not a scheduled offering this semester.

Go to the Table of Contents.

What follows is the June 2001 hypertext Syllabus for this course.
Student's wishing a hard copy of the Syllabus and the Directed Studies Policies document may print this document.

• They should also log to URL http://users.sbuniv.edu/~hgallatin/hgdirstud.html and print out that Directed Studies Policies document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Course Description
• General Objectives
• Curriculum Objectives
• Resource Materials and Assignments
• Basis for Course Grade.
• Unit Synopses

• Assignment Details for Outside Reading
  • Approval Procedure (Regular Semester Only)
  • Preparing your Reports
• Assignment Details for Map Assignments
  • Assignment for Map One
  • Assignment for Map Two
  • Assignment for Map Three

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

Since history is, by broad definition, the art of identifying, comprehending and describing the various relationships among the innumerable existing evidences of past events, a student does not prove his competence in history merely by recognizing or reciting "facts." To be sure, without the facts, history is impossible; but we must remember that most so-called "facts" are only assumptions based on a reasonably clear convergence of existing evidence. Furthermore, the certainty of such "facts" is often beclouded not only by conflicting evidence but by the doubts of many thoughtful scholars. Given the best facts we have, history is never anything more than an imaginative reconstruction, a provisional mental image of process and change that makes some sense of the surviving evidence of previous human activity.

The two basic objectives of advanced level university history courses are:

1. The student shall acquire increased competence for the analysis, understanding, and communicating of historical knowledge.
2. The student shall acquire in-depth knowledge of a particular limited period in history and thus learn, indirectly, something of himself and of mankind in general.

Therefore, this course will provide the student with an opportunity to develop competence in history by utilizing the following intellectual skills to analyze and understand historical data.

1. Utilize in the art of analyzing and describing historical time frames as many of the major categories of historical abstraction--e.g. political, social, economic, cultural, institutional, intellectual, etc.--as can logically be synthesized by the student's historical imagination.
2. View individual historical "facts" not as isolated phenomena that have a single dogmatic meaning, but as the results of the convergence of many different lines of causal development. Just as there are many causes for a single fact there are, correspondingly, a number of quite diverse results deriving from it; a single "fact" is a common link in many different chains of cause and effect. Hence, the historical "fact" may have as many meanings as there are chains of causal continuity converging in it.
3. Identify and/or categorize the significant types of causes leading to an event or development as an aid to the interpretation and understanding of the event.
4. Utilize in the art of analyzing and describing historical processes as many of the major lines of causal continuity --i.e. a series of events in a given category related both logically and chronologically in an interactive process involving cause and effect--as can be chronologically and logically interwoven by the student's historical imagination.

Even though the historical narrative must, by definition, lack the scientific accuracy which the twentieth century has come to appreciate in so many aspects of knowledge, this does not detract in the least from the value of history as a dimension of the total knowledge essential to sound judgment and civilized behavior. To be content with ignorance about the earlier phases of our civilization and other civilizations on this planet is as absurd as it would be to assume that the adults living today had never experienced infancy, childhood and adolescence, or that mankind somehow "knows" all that is needed without undergoing any "learning" and "maturational" experiences. Indeed, it is widely recognized that the effective citizen in today's world needs to be informed both with current events and with a "healthy historical perspective."

With a broadened understanding of the past, an individual's ability to comprehend the deeper significance of the present is thereby enhanced. The following comparisons, among others, provide the basis for such insight.

1. Identify and analyze the relationship between contemporary ideas and institutions and their counterparts in the time frame under investigation;
2. Identify and evaluate the challenges and obstacles which men and women in the Medieval European period faced and the means by which they sought to overcome them in their progress toward achievements in the realm of civilization. These challenges and obstacles include their geographic setting and their cultural heritage;
3. Identify and evaluate the several diverse expressions of man's religious thought and action exemplified by specific religious developments in specific geographic regions during the Medieval period.
4. Analyze and compare the various ways in which Medieval people in various western European regions organized themselves to attain economic, social, political, military, cultural and religious goals.
5. Analyze and trace, logically and chronologically, the major stages in the development of regionalized variations in western civilization during the period, noting the characteristic components of the several regions as well as the conflict and cross fertilization of cultural components; and finally
6. Identify and know the historical significance of the leading figures--i.e., what he or she was instrumental in causing to occur--introduced by the study of this period.

Finally, since the study of history is inescapably involved in the study of literary sources there are four objectives that pertain to this ancillary activity of the historical discipline; namely, to bibliography and documentation.

1. The student shall be able to identify by author and title some of the major historical courses for the period of history being studied;
2. The student shall be able to identify some of the major present-day scholars whose research has contributed to our knowledge of the period being studied, and identify the key published works of these scholars by title;
3. The student shall be able to properly utilize historical sources and scholarly authorities in written assignments thus avoiding plagiarism; and lastly
4. The student shall be able to identify and utilize the author's bias, that is his perspective or point-of-view and motivation, in analyzing and evaluating both historical source materials and scholarly authorities.

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SPECIFIC CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES

HIS 3423/HIS 5423, Europe in the Middle Ages, is designed to provide an in depth study of the historical achievements of the European peoples, broadly defined, between the fourth and the thirteenth centuries. The following courses offered regularly at SBU cover historical developments in those geographic areas whence the roots of Western Civilization have emerged in the time preceeding the period covered by the present course. HIS 3313/HIS 5303, The Near East From Ancient Sumer to Classical Greece, and HIS 4313/HIS 5313, Ancient Near East From Cyrus to Pompey, together trace the historical achievements of the eastern Mediterranean peoples from earliest times down to the middle of the first century B.C. The achievements of the western Mediterranean and European peoples from earliest times down to the fourth century A.D. is surveyed by HIS 3323/HIS 5323, History of Rome and the Empire. HIS 4413/HIS 5413, Roman Imperial Civilization and the Early Church, focuses in depth on the cultural and religious developments in the time frame beginning in the middle of the first century B.C. and extending through the fifth century A.D. Since HIS 3513/HIS 5513, Europe in the Renaissance and Reformation, examines western European peoples in the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, it is something of a continuation of the present course. Another related course is HIS/THE 3463, The History of Christianity I, which deals in survey fashion with the history of the Christian movement from New Testament Times until the dawn of the Reformation in Europe.

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RESOURCE MATERIALS AND ASSIGNMENTS

The Class Syllabus

The Syllabus contains all the rules, regulations, directions, assignments and scheduled due-dates for this course. Each student is responsible for the work assigned in the syllabus even when the instructor does not say anything about it in class. Changes in schedule involving the whole class will be announced in class. Individuals with scheduling problems should discuss these with the instructor as far in advance as possible.

Course Outline

The instructor's unit content outlines (last revised in 1999) for each unit in the course will be available from the instructor during the semester for the cost of photocopying.

Required Textbook

The undergraduate textbook listed below is required for this course and the reading assignments for each unit are given in the Unit Synopses.

C. Warren Hollister. Medieval Europe: A Short History. Eighth Edition. McGraw Hill, 1998.

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Library Materials

The value of library resources for this course can scarcely be over stressed. Although the University Library cannot claim anything unique about its collection of materials in support of this course, considerable information has been made available through selective acquisitions over several years. The student should understand, however, that our present knowledge of the Medieval Period depends both directly and indirectly on the scholarly labors of many generations who have endeavored with tenacious devotion to untangle, clarify, explain and communicate the secrets of the past. Serious study of this period of history has, in recent centuries, been carried out by scholars whose works appear in German, French, Italian, Russian and half-a-dozen other modern languages in addition to English. It would be reasonable to assume that no more than a dozen libraries in the whole world have Medieval collections that are more than fragmentary. Students in this course will certainly not be expected to read the works of foreign scholars or of the Medieval texts in Latin or the vernaculars except as they may be available in modern English translations.

In addition to the literary records from the past there are other sources of information which scholars have studied to gain a fuller understanding. Numismatics, the study of coins, is one such historical science. Other scholars study art forms and architecture. Still others study the common place artifacts that are produced by the processes of everyday life: tools, weapons, utensils, clothing, furniture, and such items. The science of historical archaeology incorporates all these studies of the physical remains of the past and more. Monuments and inscriptions found through excavation often add literary evidence to the fund of knowledge archaeologists discover and record for future scholars.

The local academic resources for this course include many types of writings: journal articles, reference books, textbooks, sources in translation, collections of sources, collections of articles, and monographs on a variety of specialized facets of the period being studied. These traditional printed sources may now be supplemented and enriched by various media available via electronic transmission.

In addition there are vast resources available in hypertext over the internet. As a beginning place, the student may refer to the Medieval Resource links listed on the Department's home page at URL: http://www.sbuniv.edu/~hipo/hipores.html#MH.

Historical Imagination and the Study of History

Communicating historical knowledge is more than merely reciting memorized facts lifted verbatim from some source. Knowledge must involve understanding, or if you prefer, analytic explanation. Moreover, historical understanding is an exercise of the imagination based upon and limited by the surviving recorded facts. The imaginary scenario supplies the necessary matrix of assumed background information to relate and explain as many of the known facts as possible. By constructing with his imagination the most reasonable, consistent, coherent and completely life-like context for all the surviving historical data, the historian is attempting rather awkwardly to put himself back in time to the scene of the events. This is as close as any historian can come to experiencing the past for himself! Just as ten eye-witnesses to a traffic accident will all tell slightly different accounts of what happened, so ten historians could not be expected to agree to any greater extent after having studied identical data. Communicating historical knowledge is, in one sense, a performing art. Every performing artist has his own unique style, his strengths and weaknesses as well as his tastes and preferences to say nothing of the level of his skill and experience. No one expects two artists to give identical renditions of the same piece of music. And the artist knows that every time he plays the same piece it is different! So the publication or the lecture of the 'performing artist-historian' is also unique and highly subjective; that is, he communicates from the point of view of his personal historical understanding of the facts.

Student Involvement and Learning

So students learn about the facts and understandings of history from text books, lectures, documents, pictures, and dramatic productions, but they begin to learn what it is to be an historian as they give expression to their own personally synthesized understanding of the historical events and developments which they have drawn from such sources. This art of understanding and narrating and/or explaining one's personal experiences is commonly developed beginning in early childhood. In the study of history this common ability is extended, amplified and focused on events in historical time.

Examinations: Four Units and a Final

Basis for Course Grade

The final course grade will be based on the accumulated total score earned by completing 100% of the examinations and assignments except as provided in this paragraph. A course grade of F will automatically be given to the student who does not complete examinations and assignments totaling at least 60% of the total possible points. The student who completes examinations and assignments totaling more than 60% but less than 100% will have his accumulated score calculated with 0 score(s) for each assignment or examination that was not completed.

The determination of final grade in this course utilizes the accumulation of points related to performance on various instruments of evaluation listed above and discussed below. Click here to view Directed Study Policies regarding special needs, subscore breakdown for Individualized and Map assignments, and the explanation of the translation of scores into letter grades.

Individual Assignments: Reading, Research and Writing

Because no single textbook can possibly reflect all the tremendous richness of the variety and texture of Medieval Studies, each student will have the opportunity through three individualized reading and writing assignments to enjoy a taste of the literature addressing the many aspects of this period.

These individualized reading and writing assignments are explained in the Assignment Details, below. The due dates are listed in the Unit Synopses

Several valuable purposes are achieved by means of individualized reading and writing assignments. For example:

1. The student gains a more detailed knowledge of a limited historical period o r topic.
2. The student has the opportunity to deal more directly with historical source materials and scholarly authorities.
3. The student's historical imagination is stimulated and exercised by the increased familiarity with his chosen topic.
4. The student's faculties of analysis and judgment are exercised and, hopefully, sharpened through the consideration of the conflicting and sometimes confusing data provided by historical sources as well as the varied interpretations offered by scholarly authorities.
5. The student has an opportunity to refine his skills of communicating historical data both as regards composition and scholarly format.

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Individualized Assignments: Map Study

Map study assignments are designed to assist the student in becoming familiar with the major geographic features of the region being studied along with special attention to the particular features having greatest significance in the time-frame being studied.

Each student will complete three map study assignments and turn them in on the appropriate due dates shown in the Unit Synopses. These assignments are explained in the Assignment Details section below.

Unit Synopses for HIS 3423/5423

UNIT I:

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD, THE LATE ROMAN EMPIRE,

ITS TROUBLES AND TRANSFORMATIONS

(c. 375 A. D. to c. 600 A.D.).

EXAMINATION ESSAY TOPICS FOR UNIT I

The student should be prepared at examination time to write a well organized essay discussing the pertinent aspects of the question as signed by the instructor at that time. There is a 25% penalty for writing on a question other than the one assigned.

1. The Roman social, political and economic structure had been absorbing and "Romanizing" millions of "foreign" peoples over the centuries since the third century before Christ. During that time Roman power and policies always proved adequate to the task. What were the more important factors that, in your estimation, can help explain the unexpected and undesirable results the Empire experienced in their relations with barbarians inside Imperial frontiers in the fourth and fifth centuries.

2. Compare the role of the Huns in the fourth and fifth centuries with the early role of the Avars in the sixth century as to origin, the geographic center and extent of their power, the nature of their domination of subject peoples, and their relationships with the Roman Empire.

3. Discuss the long term results in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries of the Roman government's economic policies in the effort to maintain economic support for all the government's rising fixed costs and increasingly expensive diplomatic and military activities over the centuries. What did this mean for various classes of Roman citizens such as senatores, curiales, coloni, colleagiati and corperati?

4. Describe your community as though you were a common farmer some where (pick a place) in western Europe in the sixth century. Who might your neighbors be? What kinds of obligations or responsibilities would you and your neighbors have and to whom? Which members of the community were the richest? the poorest? Who do you know in your community that represents the government?

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UNIT II:

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES:

MOHAMMED, CHARLEMAGNE AND THE EUROPEAN DARK AGES

(c. 578 A.D. to c. 1000 A.D.).

EXAMINATION ESSAY TOPICS FOR UNIT II

The student should be prepared at examination time to write a well organized essay discussing the pertinent aspects of the question as signed by the instructor at that time. There is a 25% penalty for writing on a question other than the one assigned.

1. Trace the emergence and changes of vassalage customs and usages from before Charlemagne's day through the Dark Age in Frankland. Be sure to distinguish between vassalage institutions and those of seigneurialism where there are parallels and/or interactions between them.

2. Discuss the raids of Scandinavians, Saracens and Magyars in the ninth and tenth centuries. Compare these various operations in terms of such considerations as motivation, geographic region most effected, intensity and duration of activity, immediate and long range results, psychological effects on Europeans, reasons for the cessation of raiding activity, and possible effect of these raiding activities on the Scandinavians, Saracens, and Magyars themselves?

3. What were the social and economic conditions that came to prevail in western Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries and what were the forces, developments and changes that produced these conditions? Be sure to deal with such topics as commerce, merchants, markets, urban populations, coinage, craft production, slavery, free labor, and wealth as well as food and necessities of life. Consider how these conditions could effect ongoing institutions such as state and church.

4. Discuss the nature and results of the Arab conquest of nearly half the territory of the Roman Empire. How did this compare in significance and effect with the Slavic "conquest" of east central Europe, the Balkans and Greece? Contrast the two developments in terms of effect on the civilization of the area conquered, and effect of the conquest on adjacent areas.

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UNIT III:

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES:

THE DAWN OF PRE-MODERN EUROPE.

(c. 900 A.D. to c. 1300 A.D.)

EXAMINATION ESSAY TOPICS FOR UNIT III

The student should be prepared at examination time to write a well organized essay discussing the pertinent aspects of the question as signed by the instructor at that time. There is a 25% penalty forwriting on a question other than the one assigned.

1. Discuss the various causes of the economic change or "revolution" in the period between c. 900 and c. 1300 A.D. This might involve such developments as: population, towns, commerce, guilds, money, etc.

2. Discuss the various results‚ of the economic "revolution" in the period between c. 900 and c. 1300 A.D. This might involve such developments as: agricultural expansion, commutation of labor services; emancipation of serfs, changes in taste, changes in life style, chivalry, etc.

3. Identify and discuss the various popular expressions of religious fervor seen in the period between c. 1000 and c. 1300 A.D. On the basis of this observable religious behavior on the part of large numbers of people, compare their understanding of the basic essence of Christianity and the Christian life with your own or with a typical contemporary understanding.

4. Discuss the relationship between the Papacy and the Germanic Emperor between c. 900 and c. 1254 A.D. Include in your discussion some treatment of the general aims and strategy of each office as well as the specific tactics employed to attain their ends. What were the results by the conclusion of this period for the Papacy, the Church, the Imperial office, the Empire?

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UNIT IV:

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES:

THE GOLDEN AGE OF

MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION.

(c. 1050 A.D. to c.1300 A.D.).

EXAMINATION ESSAY TOPICS FOR UNIT IV

The student should be prepared at examination time to write a well organized essay discussing the pertinent aspects of the question as signed by the instructor at that time. There is a 25% penalty for writing on a question other than the one assigned.

1. Discuss the development and organization of scholarly activity in western Europe in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Mention the areas of scholarship where advancement was being made; the areas of conflict and controversy; key individuals and their contributions; and the emergence of universities.

2. Discuss the several limitations on their power which the kings and other rulers of France and England faced in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Would it be more correct to say that these rulers and kings developed their effective power by using vassalage and so-called "feudal" customs to their advantage, or by rejecting, combating and ultimately overcoming vassalage and "feudal" customs?

3. Discuss the changing statis of the nobility in the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. Note the obvious refinements of life that appear, contrasting them with the continued legacy of violence. The rise of chivalry, the improved status of women, the changes in life-style, and the development of leisure activities are some of the issues to consider.

4. Name and discuss at least four or five significant cultural achievements of Europeans in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that you believe continued to play formative roles on into modern times. In what degree, if any, were these uncreative imitations of past achievements, and in what way, if any, may they be considered revolutionary innovations?

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ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

INDIVIDUALIZED READING ASSIGNMENTS

During the first three weeks of the semester each student is to schedule a conference with the instructor to discuss the individualized assignments in general and make some preliminary decisions. The content of these assignments will vary according to the individual's interests and the choices. The assignments may be related to each other or deal with completely separate aspects of the course. See further discussion of the types of assignments/reports, below.

Each individual assignment will consist basically of reading and research (from 200 to 400 pages reading each). A separate report on each assignment written in acceptable form--following the Writing Guidelines provided--is to be completed. The due dates for each of these assignments are listed in the Course Prospectus, above.

All individual selections/topics must be initially approved by the instructor in order to receive full credit. The student is responsible for securing this initial approval at least two weeks prior to submitting the written report. Two of the selected topics/readings must deal with original source materials for the Medieval time period. One selection/topic must deal with a historiographic problem relative to Medieval Europe.

Characteristics of Various Assignment Options

An assignment may take any one of several forms as discussed briefly below.

Approval Procedure

(Not applicable for Winterfest or Summertimes!)

The student is responsible for developing a proposal for each reading assignment and getting the instructor's approval. See due dates at the Unit Synopses.

The student's proposal must be made in writing and handed to the instructor. If the student is uncertain or having difficulty identifying a project, then initiate a preliminary conference with the instructor to discuss the problems before submitting the written proposal. The proposal will be returned to the student in about a week with the instructors recommendations and approvals.

The written proposal needs to include the following items:

1. Step One: A concise description of what your propose to do, and why. For example: "I want to read and review a book about some military hero from the Middle Ages because I enjoy reading about military activities." "I want to research about conditions in the cities in Medieval times because I expect to work in urban administration when I graduate." "Since I plan to be a social worker when I graduate, I want to do a project relating to everyday life and families in Medieval times."
2. Step Two:
   • If you are proposing a research and synthesis project of either type you will need to formulate a thesis or topic statement together with a tentative outline of subtopics to be covered. The statement must define the chronological period and the geographic region from which your topic is drawn.

   • If you are proposing a research and synthesis problem where there are several opposing views, include a tentative statement defining the problem as you currently understand it.

   • In proposing a monograph or source review be sure to define in general what you are expecting to learn from the reading so that the instructor will know something specific enough to judge the books you list as per Stage Three below.

3. Stage Three: Identify some sources/authorities you propose to use in completing the assignment. Using the extensive bibliography provided by the instructor select and examine (hands on) several books that might serve your purposes. List on the proposal the authors and titles of the ones that seem best to you. The instructor will approve or reject those that you have listed, and perhaps add others to your list that he knows about. The final choice among the approved titles is up to you.
   • In proposing a monograph or source review list two or three books (by title and author) you have identified as possible selections. The instructor may be able to suggest others based on the information provided in Stages One and Two-3 above.

   • For a research and synthesis report, the proposal should list (by author and title) at least six suggested possible sources and/or authorities. The instructor will list others that in his judgment would be appropriate. Additional non-approved authorities can be used provided the approved authorities are utilized in substantiating the major facets of the report.

   • Problem analysis projects (Research and Synthesis, B) require wide selective reading and analysis. The most convenient resources are collections of readings focusing on a controversial topic. These are not available on all controversial topics. In most cases where no such edited collection is available a problem analysis project is typically not feasible at the undergraduate level.

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Preparing the Report

In completing this assignment you are referred to the instructions found in the booklet, Writing Guidelines for Individualized Reading Assignments, provided by the instructor. Although the instructor will accept a neat handwritten report that follows the same general format required for typed papers, it is preferable to present your paper in typewritten form. You will need to instruct your typist on the format of the paper, the layout of the cover page, etc., found in the Writing Guidelines.

Failure to follow these instructions will detract from your score. The author must always take the responsibility for the finished product. It is the author's responsibility to PROOF READ his or her own work. Mistakes in typing will be charged to the author, unless the author has corrected them neatly with a pen. Please refer to evaluation guidelines in the Directed Study Policies.

The general recommendations on the length of the written report given in the Writing Guidelines should be followed where ever practical. Superfluous length caused by poor organization and redundancy detracts from the value of any writing.

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MAP STUDY ASSIGNMENTS

Procedures

Each of the following assignments is scheduled to be handed in on or before the date indicated in the Unit Synopses above. Neatness, accuracy, readability and completeness are evaluated (See the Directed Study Policies). While the student may draw the outline map free hand, it is usually more convenient to utilize a copy of the appropriate printed outline map provided by instructor and fill in the details required. Be sure the map legend includes the title of the assignment. Reference maps in textbooks and in historical atlases listed in the Library Materials handout should be consulted as references. Some of those with the greatest utility have been placed on Library Reserve.

Map Study Assignment Number One:

HEIRS OF THE ROMAN WORLD.

Locate and label the following rivers:

Label the location of the following cities:

Using Colin McEvedy, ed. Penguin Atlas of Medieval History , map entitled "A. D. 476", draw in the boundaries and label the following territories in western Europe.

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Map Study Assignment Number Two:

EUROPE'S DARKEST HOURS.

Label the location of the following mountains:

Locate and label the following rivers:

Using Colin McEvedy's Penguin Atlas of Medieval History, map titled "A.D. 888", draw in the boundaries and label the following political subdivisions:

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Map Study Assignment Number Three:

EUROPE ABOUT 1200 A.D.

Draw in boundaries and label the following areas:

Label the location of the following cities:

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URL: http://users.sbuniv.edu/~hgallatin/hi3423ds01.html

© 2001
All Rights Reserved, by

Harlie Kay Gallatin, Ph.D.

Department of History and Political Science

Departmental Web Pages
Harlie Kay Gallatin, Departmental Webmaster

Last modified 1 June 2001.
Links modified 14 May 2004.