European Medieval History

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses European medieval history from the years 400-1200. It particularly focuses on the influence of the church and the way that religious orders began to have a more and more important role in the political and social life of the surrounding villages or cities. It discusses the changing role of religion on the surrounding communities over these centuries.

From the Paper:

"The monasteries of females were in a more delicate position. The nuns could not turn into good knights, their abbesses had less influence in the Church councils and being their ally was not as valuable. In the centuries under scrutiny, the number of newly founded monasteries for women was in a constant decline . Nonetheless, the existing monasteries, as well as the new ones, were seldom poor, and this for various reasons. First, the convents were built on the lands or from the donations of rich noble women, daughters, wives or widows, who were involved in the charitable activity. Second, uncomfortable wives or mothers of kings or of other members of nobility could be easily sent to the convent, together with a generous donation, to live a peaceful and silent life. Third, donating money to a nuns' community led by a women born and belonging to one family, could represent, for that particular family, a way to make a temporary investment which would return to the donors after a certain interval of time. "As part of the general strategy to maintain control over their proprietary foundations, the founders installed family members as abbesses, guardians or advocates of the monasteries and required that in the future these positions be held by their heirs"."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cantor, Norman F., "The Crisis of Western Monasticism, 1050-1130", The American Historical Review, 66 (1), Oct. 1960, pp. 47-67
• Lawrence, C.H., "Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages", New York: Longman Inc
• Miller, Maureen C., "Donors, Their Gifts and Religious Innovation in Medieval Verona", Speculum, 66 (1), Jan. 1991, pp. 27-42
• Miller, Timothy S., "The Knights of Saint John and the Hospitals of the Latin West", Speculum, 53 (4), Oct. 1978
• Roehl, Richard, "Plan and Reality in a Medieval Monastic Economy: The Cistercians", The Journal of Economic History, 29 (1), Mar. 1969, Pp. 180

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