The Late Middle Ages

1
The Late Middle Ages

• Plague and Crisis

2
Black Death

• Famine of 1315-22
• flagellants
• sumptuary laws
• How did people try to account for the Black
  Death?
• How did the higher clergy (popes and bishops) try
  to temper people's reactions to the plague?

• What were the economic consequences of the Black
  Death? What were the social consequences? How did
  authorities try to control these effects? To what
  extent were they successful?

3
Hundred Years War

• peasant/worker revolts
• Joan of Arc

4
Institutional and Intellectual challenges

• Avignon "Babylonian Captivity"
• Great Schism
• Conciliarist movement
• Council of Constance
• Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges

• nominalism
• William of Ockham
• potentia ordinata/potentia absoluta

• How did the papacy try to increase its income
  during the 14th century?
• What were the effects on the institutional church
  of the events of the 14th and early 15th century?
  
• Why did the events of this period lead to an
  increased importance of mysticism?

5
Questions

• Judging from Ralph of Shrewsbury's letter, did
  people in the Late Middle Ages see the natural
  world as predictable, and/or governed by natural
  law? How would you compare his discussion with
  that of Thomas Aquinas?
• According to the letter of the City Officials of
  Cologne, whom did many suspect as being
  responsible for the plague and why? What fears
  did they have? What were some of the explanations
  of the Black Death in circulation at this time?

6
Questions (cont.)

1. To judge from the Statute of Laborers, how did
   the Black Death affect the economy in the West,
   wages and prices in particular? What were the
   goals of the document? Who produced it, and how
   does your answer account for what the Statute
   attempts? How might such attempts have
   contributed to unrest among the lower orders?
2. Looking at the English Statute of 1363 on Food
   and Clothing, what kinds of people had greater
   wealth than in the past? Why is there so much
   concern about dress? Map out the various social
   groups which appear in the document's
   regulations. Where do women fit into these social
   categories?