Introduction for Chapter 10

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Life in Villages and Cities of the High Middle Ages

1000–1300

Kings, emperors, nobles, and their officials created political and legal institutions that structured many aspects of life in the High Middle Ages, but ordinary people typically worked and lived without paying much attention to the political developments that took place at faraway centers of power. Similarly, the conflicts between popes and secular leaders were dramatic, but for most people religion was primarily a matter of joining with neighbors and family members in rituals to express beliefs, thanks, and hopes.

While the routines of medieval life followed familiar rhythms for centuries, this does not mean that life in the High Middle Ages was unchanging. Agricultural improvements such as better plows and water mills increased the amount and quality of food, and the population grew. Relative security and the increasing food supply allowed for the growth and development of towns and a revival of long-distance trade. Some urban merchants and bankers became as wealthy as great nobles. Trade brought in new ideas as well as merchandise, and cities developed into intellectual and cultural centers. The university, a new type of educational institution, came into being, providing advanced training in theology, medicine, and law. Traditions and values were spread orally and in written form through poems, stories, and songs. Gothic cathedrals, where people saw beautiful stained-glass windows and listened to complex music, were physical manifestations of medieval people’s deep faith and pride in their own community.

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Life in the High Middle Ages In this detail from a magnificent gold mosaic in the ceiling of the Basilica of Saint Clement in Rome, made in the twelfth century, a woman feeds her chickens. Scenes from everyday life often feature in the margins of paintings, mosaics, and books, and provide information about the lives of ordinary people that is unavailable elsewhere.
(Detail from the mosaic The Triumph of the Cross, Basilica of St. Clement, Rome, Italy/De Agostini Picture Library/Gianni Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images)

CHAPTER PREVIEW

Village Life

What was village life like in medieval Europe?

Popular Religion

How did religion shape everyday life in the High Middle Ages?

Towns and Economic Revival

What led to Europe’s economic growth and reurbanization?

Urban Life

What was life like in medieval cities?

Medieval Universities

How did universities serve the needs of medieval society?

Literature and Architecture

How did literature and architecture express medieval values?

Chronology

1050–1300 Steady rise in population; period of milder climate
ca. 1100 Merchant guilds become rich and powerful in many cities; artisans begin to found craft guilds
1100s Hospitals and other homes for the sick begin appearing
1100–1300 Height of construction of cathedrals in Europe
1160s Silver mines opened in Germany, allowing for more coinage
ca. 1200 Founding of first universities
1215 Fourth Lateran Council orders Jews and Muslims to wear distinctive clothing
1225–1274 Life of Thomas Aquinas; Summa Theologica
1241 Contract between Lübeck and Hamburg, first in the Hanseatic League
ca. 1300 Bill of exchange becomes most common method of commercial payment in western Europe
1300s Clocks in general use throughout Europe