Medieval Europe

Salisbury Cathedral by John Constable

Fall 2000

This introductory lecture course is the first of three that cover the history of Europe from the middle ages to the contemporary period. This is a history of European politics, culture, ideas and institutions from roughly 1000 through 1520. Within a chronological framework we shall focus on the creation of nation-states and government, the growth and crises of papal-dominated Christianity--its crusades and its philosophy--the rise and role of the knight and chivalry, the crisis of the later middle ages, including the Black Death, heresy, and mysticism that contributed to the beginnings of the renaissance and the Reformation, events that ended the medieval period.

The course is open to students of all class years and is introductory in its generality not its complexity. The workload will consist of reading medieval books and documents, attending class, and writing of one term paper and three in-class tests.