Page 33 - 2024-bfw-wiesner-hanks-ahws14e-proofs

13–145
Looking Back / Looking Ahead
The penetration of laymen into the higher posi-
tions of governmental administration, long the pre-
printing press in response to the increased demand for
reading materials.
serve of clerics, also illustrates rising lay literacy. With
growing frequency, the upper classes sent their daugh-
ters to convent schools, where, in addition to instruc-
NOTES
tion in singing, religion, needlework, deportment, and
1. Christos S. Bartsocas, “Two Fourteenth Century Descriptions of the
household management, they gained the rudiments of craftsmen would develop the new technology of the 37
‘Black Death,’ ” Journal of the History of Medicine (October 1966): 395.
reading and sometimes writing. 2. W. P. Barrett, trans., The Trial of Jeanne d’Arc ( London: George
The spread of literacy represents a response to Routledge, 1931 ), pp. 165–166 .
the needs of an increasingly complex society. Trade, 3 . James Harvey Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. 1
commerce, and expanding government bureaucracies (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1904), pp. 375–376 .
required an increasing number of literate people. Late 4. Quoted in Katharina M. Wilson, ed., Medieval Women Writers
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984 ), p. 245 .
medieval culture remained a decidedly oral culture. 5. Quoted in R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Coloniza-
But by the fifteenth century the evolution toward a tion and Cultural Change, 950–1350 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
more literate culture was already perceptible, and University Press, 1993), p. 239 .
LOOKING BACK LOOKING AHEAD
he fourteenth and early fifteenth centu- The plague did not destroy the prosperity of
Tries were certainly times of crisis in western the medieval population, however, and it may in
Europe, meriting the label calamitous given to them fact have indirectly improved the European econ-
by one popular historian. Famine, disease, and war omy. Wealthy merchants had plenty of money to
decimated the European population, and tradi- spend on luxuries and talent. In the century after
tional institutions, including secular governments the plague, Italian artists began to create new styles
and the church, did little or nothing or, in some of painting, writers to pen new literary forms, edu-
cases, made things worse. Trading connections that cators to found new types of schools, and philos-
had been reinvigorated in the High Middle Ages ophers to develop new ideas about the purpose
spread the most deadly epidemic ever experienced of human life. These cultural changes eventually Looking Back, Looking
through western Asia, North Africa, and almost all spread to the rest of Europe, following many of the Ahead conclusions and
of Europe. No wonder survivors experienced a sort same paths that the plague had traveled.
COVID-19 pandemic. It is easy to note differences between these two, but what this sample. to consider connections
of shell shock and a fascination with death. Make Connections
Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Worth Publishers.
Make Connections questions challenge you
Think about the larger developments and continuities within and across chapters. and comparisons across
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
1. The Black Death has often been compared with later pandemics, including the chapters and time
Uncorrected proofs have been used in
similarities do you see in the course and responses to these two diseases? In their periods.
social and cultural consequences?

2. Late medieval society was dramatically affected by climate change. How would you
compare the impact of unstable climate in that era with the impact of climate change
in today’s world?
3. Of all the people who shaped European society in the later Middle Ages, Joan of Arc is
the best known. Why do you think her story is so compelling?
38 CHAPTER 1 | The Later Middle Ages by Bedford, Freeman & 13–145
REVIEW & EXPLORE
Little Ice Age ( p. 10 ) Copyright ©
Distributed
Identify Key Terms
Identify and explain the significance of each item below.

conciliarists ( p. 25 )
Black Death ( p. 12 ) Great Schism ( p. 24 ) The Review & Explore
flagellants ( p. 15 ) confraternities ( p. 26 ) section at the end of each
Hundred Years’ War ( p. 18 ) Jacquerie ( p. 28 ) chapter allows you to
representative assemblies ( p. 22 ) English Peasants’ Revolt ( p. 29 ) review the main ideas by
Babylonian Captivity ( p. 24 ) Statute of Kilkenny ( p. 35 )
providing key terms from
Review the Main Ideas the chapter and repeating
Answer the section heading questions from the chapter. the major section heading
1. How did climate change shape the late Middle Ages? ( p. 10 ) questions as Review the

2. How did the plague affect European society? ( p. 12 ) Main Ideas prompts.
3. What were the causes, course, and consequences of the Hundred Years’ War? ( p. 18 )

4. Why did the church come under increasing criticism? ( p. 24 )
5. What explains the social unrest of the late Middle Ages? ( p. 28 )

Suggested Resources
BOOKS
Allmand, Christopher. The Hundred Years War: England of essays by historians and scientists that contains the
and France at War, ca. 1300–1450, rev. ed. 2005. newest research on the plague and its impact. xxxiii
Designed for students; examines the war from political, Harrington, Joel. Dangerous Mystic: Meister Eckhart’s
military, social, and economic perspectives, and compares Path to the God Within. 2018. An illuminating biogra-
the way England and France reacted to the conflict. phy and study of Eckhart’s spiritual ideas.
Campbell, Bruce M. S. The Great Transition: Climate, Karras, Ruth M. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing
Disease, and Society in the Late Medieval World. 2016. unto Others, 3d ed. 2017. A brief overview designed
Brings together economic and environmental history. for undergraduates that incorporates the newest
01_howsap14e_48443_fm_i_HTS-18.indd 33 17/10/23 3:15 PM
Cohn, Samuel K. Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social scholarship.
Revolt in Medieval Europe. 2006. Analyzes a number McGinn, Bernard. The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism,
of revolts from across Europe in terms of the aims of 1350–1550. 2012. A comprehensive survey that
their leaders and participants. demonstrates how this period gave rise to mystical
Dunn, Alastair. The Peasants’ Revolt: England’s Failed Rev- writers who remain influential even today.
olution of 1381. 2004. Offers new interpretations of the Swanson, R. N. Religion and Devotion in Europe,
causes and consequences of the English Peasants’ Revolt. c. 1215–c. 1515. 2004. Explores many aspects of
Epstein, Steven A. An Economic and Social History of spirituality.
Later Medieval Europe, 1000 – 1500. 2009. Examines Tanner, Norman. The Church in the Later Middle Ages.
economic realities and social conditions. 2008. A concise survey of institutional and intellectual
Fagan, Brian. The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made issues and developments.
History 1300–1850. 2019. A broad overview of cli- Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous
mate change in this era, written for general readers. Fourteenth Century. 1978. Written for a general audi-
Green, Monica. Pandemic Disease in the Medieval ence, it remains a vivid description of this tumultuous
World: Rethinking the Black Death. 2015. Collection time.