Social Organizations: Interaction Among Peoples

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Social Organizations: Interaction Among Peoples

Pilgrimages . Popular Christian pilgrimage sites outside Europe included the tomb of Thomas the Apostle in India, the column of Symeon the Stylite in northern Syria, the basilica of Thessaloniki, site of miracles of the martyr Demetrius, and the original tomb of Nicholas of Myra, the patron saint of sailors and travelers, in Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the shrines of Jerusalem, which commemorate the days of Jesus Christ’s life, were the most important. Jerusalem also houses sites of religious importance to Islam, such as the rock from which Muslims believe Muhammed ascended into heaven. The Dome of the Rock, which covers the site in Jerusalem, is one of Islam’s holiest shrines today. In Jerusalem medieval pilgrims of both faiths could strengthen their beliefs without the intermediary of textual accounts. The different Christian and Islamic religious groups of the medieval period competed, however, with each other in heated conflicts over control, protection, and use of the shrines of Jerusalem. Each group wished to impose its own regulations, revered leaders, and means of preserving the sanctuaries, cities, and treasures.

Expedition to Jerusalem . Throughout the Middle Ages, religious pilgrimages were undertaken by Christians, and if the pilgrim made it to the Holy Land any time after the mid seventh century when the Middle East came under Arab control, he would have encountered Muslim Arabs or Turks. Until the later eleventh century, religious faith was the major requirement for free passage and most of the interactions between Christians and Muslims were peaceful. The first Muslims in the area were open-minded about Christian pilgrims, whom they allowed to travel freely. The situation changed in 1071, when the Byzantines were defeated at Manzikert (Myriokeplalon) by the Seljuk Turks who then took over a lot of territory in Asia Minor (Turkey), and then further in 1076, when the Fatamids were overcome in the Holy Land, and most especially in 1085, when the Fatamids relinquished to the Seljuks the city of Jerusalem. As militant Muslims, the Turks were less tolerant than the previous rulers of the Holy Land and not open-minded about Christian pilgrims. Thus, in 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade or holy war against the Muslims who were persecuting Christian pilgrims.

Tourism . Of course, every Crusader became a traveler to a different land. Medieval men, women, and even children came together with a collection of European “foreigners,” to set off on foot and/or by ship only to encounter cultures even more strange, at least in terms of religion. In addition to Jerusalem, the successful First Crusaders saw Anatolia, Syria, and Palestine and the cities of Nicaea and Antioch. Those of the Fourth Crusade marveled at Constantinople. While most returned to Europe, those who stayed on to live in the new Christian Crusaders’ lands obviously had the most intense contact with local culture.

Crusader Trade . During the eleventh century the Crusades stimulated the development of trade. This meant some mercantile travel to and from the Near and Middle East, especially for the Italian traders who played a leading role in supplying the ships and equipment for the Crusading armies. Venice, Pisa, and Genoa, clearly having an eye on the advantages that would come when the Crusaders captured eastern cities, prepared for the possibility by breaking Muslim control of the eastern Mediterranean waterways. With Crusader victories, the way was indeed opened for much greater trade between the eastern Mediterranean and Europe, and the ensuing commercial development continued well into the thirteenth century.

Cultural Exchanges . There was also a cultural side to the commercial contacts. Crusader galleys loaded with cargo plied the Mediterranean. The eastern cities had already developed a trade along caravan routes with China, but now with Crusader ships bringing back silks, sugar, spices, and other luxuries from the Middle East, Chinese goods were to be seen in the courts and castles of medieval kings and nobles. Even after the Crusades, oriental goods came into Europe by way of Venice, Genoa, and other ports, in quantities unknown since the days of imperial Rome. Perfumes, rugs, and glass were brought to Europe from the Middle East. European ladies now used glass mirrors from the East instead of polished metal disks. All these goods improved life in Europe. The spices, for example, made food taste better. Ideas as well as products from eastern cultures also filtered in, such as bathing from the Islamic world.

Missionaries . Religious fervor was often displayed by those who traveled extensively within Europe itself. For those whose purpose of religious travel was not specifically to visit pilgrimage sites, it was probably to carry out the missionary journey Jesus admonished his followers to assume. The experience of the wandering preachers, canonical and dissident alike, was not to see, but to be seen and heard, truly to interact with peoples of different regions. Although their itineraries are nowhere near as well known as those of the Crusaders, examples of these gyratory evangelists abound. In the late eleventh century Robert of Arbrissel traveled barefoot and in rags through central France, coming to a stop to establish a sanctioned order

and nunnery at Fontevrault. Valdes, founder of the preaching Valdenisians, prepared his followers for their travels barefoot in southern France and northern Italy with the instructions: “Ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him until you leave.” The Cathar leaders traveled throughout southern Europe to preach and debate with orthodox Christians.

Medieval Academics . Medieval academics were a third subgroup of travelers. Their experience was almost completely akin to that of the craft journeyman, except that most students from one region rarely found themselves singly representing their land of origin. A student from England might well travel to Paris only to find himself surrounded by many other English students as well as peers from Spain, Italy, and France. The impact of students, possibly as many as two to three thousand of different “nations” coming together to study a group of ideas was certainly felt in medieval Europe. However much the university gave young men the greatest opportunity to interact with peoples from different regions, the end product of the intermingling was more a distinct intellectual synthesis at each university, whether Paris, Orleans, Angers, Oxford, Cambridge, and so forth than an encounter with the particular university’s regional culture. Frequently, a student studied in more than one university setting, working in each under the renowned master there. During this time of exposure to different mentors a student who was to become an academic found himself also seeking out a new home. Students who traveled away to the university and became teaching masters rarely came home. While it was common in the era of the cathedral schools for teaching masters to adopt the name of their school, such as Thierry of Chartres (Cathedral), the names of some of the greatest medieval scholars reflect their origins as being far from the universities where they eventually taught; Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome (Roman Italy), Gregory of Rimini, and Henry of Friemar all became professors at the University of Paris.

Legal Statutes . Specific legal statutes, those of the monastery, manor, guild, and city, institutionalized most of the standard relationships within these various medieval social organizations. The jus palae, or “spade right,” created the right of inheritance lease {erbpachten) to the hörigen, or serfs, of the German peasantry. The rules of the tailors’ guild of Bologna stipulated the length of apprenticeships, at five years for “a little apprentice less than ten years of age” and three years for one above ten. The Grand Ordinance of King Jean II of February 1351 established notions of the just price in French markets with its ceiling limits, such as 6d for a pint of the best white wine. Most stipulations were the reflection of the general medieval social order with its hierarchical moral and occupational rankings.

Modifications . The regulations of medieval social organizations occasionally did more, however, than just reflect established roles. In many instances they also modified or ignored existing legal stipulations and altered formal institutional strictures to suit the needs of the current economic situation. The broad sweeping changes have long since been identified. Education and acculturation, undertaken by priests and monastic clergy within the monasteries of the early Middle Ages, became the task of universities throughout later medieval Europe. The keeping of records of births, deaths, and the sale of lands, universally maintained by the medieval clergy, was taken over by the early humanists, soon to be the learned men of the Renaissance, in the cities of northern Italy.

Social Regulations . Some modifications of social organization have had, however, a more defined moment of demarcation. In 1317 France officially banned inheriting the throne for women, at times crucial to smooth succession in France and England, under appeal to Frankish Salic Law. Specific periods of labor shortage, such as the one brought on by the Black Death (1347–1351), have been perhaps the most dramatic medieval cause of punctuated transformations in laws, statutes, and contracts. Regulations governing terms of service, entry fees for guild members, ages of entry into service, training, and property use restrictions were loosened or ignored altogether at such times. Serfs who would normally be required to serve a lord until death were allowed in hard labor times for landowners to increase their holdings and even build up a surplus with which they could buy their freedom. The lump sum “savings of a lifetime” came in handy to their lord who needed to pay for help to sow and harvest. Some landlords would offer serfs their freedom if they would agree to leave their village and to assart, or clear new land, for the lord to claim as his new territory. The ultimate indicator of flexibility in the structure of medieval social organizations was the generally recognized right of a serf, if he could escape and live for a year and a day in a town, to obtain thereby his freedom under protection of the town administrators.