English Life in the Middle Ages - Taschenbuch

ENGLISH LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES By L. F. SALZMAN, M. A., F. S. A. Author of Medieval Byways English Industries of the Middle Ages c. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD I I I Festivities c. 1500 A boat going for a picnic, with their mini-flask hanging over the side. In the market square men are dancing. PREFACE THE objects of a text-book should be first to stimulate interest, secondly to satisfy that interest up to a certain point, and thirdly to indicate to those who wish to travel beyond that point by what paths they may attain to fuller knowledge. The two first of these objects I have endeavoured to keep before me while writing this book, and the third is partially fulfilled by my Bibliography. Bearing in mind the fact that the book is intended for schools and for students who are not already experts in the matters treated of, I have confined myself to the more important or characteristic features of each subject, and have striven to state them as simply and lucidly as possible. For the same reason, when I have quoted medieval English writers I have not hesitated to modernize the spelling or even to substitute a modern word for its obsolete equivalent when I considered that the original would be a stumbling-block in the way of the unwary. My quotations are important for their meaning, and it is more essential that the reader should grasp that meaning than that he should have the exact original before his eyes and be left to gape amazedly at unfamiliar combinations of vowels and consonants. But no one will be more pleased than myself if any readers are moved to turn to those originals and tackle them for themselves. The Social Life of the Middle Ages can only be properlyunderstood by the intimate study of the vast mass of confused and fragmentary remains which that life has left behind, and it is from no foolish modesty that I would point to the illustrations, taken from medieval sources, as in some ways the most valuable part of the whole book. The World of Good and Evil The inhabitants of the Heavenly City look out over the City of Human Life which is divided into seven sections, each representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins and the corresponding Virtue. In the centre Sloth and Industry to the right Avarice gambling and Generosity above this Gluttony and Temperance, Lechery and Chastity to the left of the centre Anger and Patience above this Envy and Courtesy, And and Humility. CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .... 21 II. COUNTRY LIFE .... 36 III. TOWN LIFE 63 IV. HOME LIFE 88 V. THE CHURCH AND RELIGION . 109 VI. EDUCATION 134 VII. LITERATURE 150 VIII. ART AND SCIENCE . . .171 IX. WARFARE 186 X. LAW AND ORDER . . . .215 XL INDUSTRY, TRADE, AND FINANCE 233 XII. WOMEN 249 XIII. WAYFARING 266 BIBLIOGRAPHY 283 INDEX 285 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS May Festivities. Victoria and Albert Museum early sixteenth century Book of-Hours ...... frontispiece The World of Good and Evil. Bibl. Ste-Genevteve, Pans, MS. fran. 246 reproduced by permission of Comte A. de la Borde from his MSS. de la Cite de Dieu facing Contents Country Dancing. British Museum, MS. Egert on 2125 . . 21 A May Day Riding Party. Musee Cond6, Chantilly reproduced by permission of MM. Plon-Nourrit et Cie, from Durrieu, Les ires riches Heures du due de Berry . . . . . .23 A Leper. Reproduced by permission from One Hundred MSS. of Henry Yates Thompson, MS. 75 . . . . . .27 Charity. Ibid., MS. 19 27 The SevenActs of Mercy. Bibl. Roy., Brussels, MS. 9296 reproduced by permission of MM. G. van Oest et Cie, from Durrieu, La Miniature flamande . . . . . . 30, 3 1 Seal of Bishop Hatfield of Durham. British Museum ... 35 Ploughing. British Museum, MS Egerton 1147 .... 36 Agriculture and the Apple Harvest. British Museum, Add. MS. I97 20 39 Building a Stockade. Reproduced by permission of E. Dicderichs Verlag, from Steinhausen, Der Kaufmann, 1 899 ... 40 A Saxon Ox-plough. Saxon Calendar . . . . .41 The Manor Farmyard. Reproduced by permission of MM...