DBQ: The Middle Ages - Analyzing Historical Labels, Summaries of History

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DBQ Middle Ages

Study each document 1-11, and answer the individual questions for each in complete sentences. Then in a short essay, answer the following question: Which labels for the Middle Ages best describe the era between 500 and 1400 in Europe: The Dark Ages, the Age of Feudalism, the Age of Faith, or the Golden Age of Europe? In your opinion, which two labels are the best? Discuss and give direct document support for each of your choices – actually using quotes.

Document 1 Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king. In return, the nobles agreed to give their loyalty and military services to the king. The peasants, or serfs, worked the land for the knights and the higher nobles and in return they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families. The image shows the structure of feudal society – a social, political, and economic hierarchy.

1. How did feudalism provide for the security of the people of medieval Europe?

The role of the Church was very large in Medieval Europe. More than any institution, it unified, brought together, Europeans and gave every person a sense of how the world worked. Since political leaders only had local power, the Church was the most powerful institution. This secondary source describes the multiple roles the Church played in the Middle Ages. Source: http://mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/church.html

1. What is the role of the Church during the Middle Ages?
2. Why would the Church and religious life have had such a great appeal at this point in history?

In a time of great political chaos, the Roman Catholic Church was the single, largest unifying structure in medieval Europe. It touched everyone’s life, no matter what their rank or class or where they lived. With the exception of a small number of Jews, everyone in Europe was a Christian during the Middle Ages from the richest king to the lowest serf.

From the moment of its baptism a few days after birth, a child entered into a life of service to God and God’s Church. As a child grew, it would be taught basic prayers, would go to church every week barring illness, and would learn of its responsibilities to the Church. Every person was required to live by the Church laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church. In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard.

In addition to collecting taxes, the Church also accepted gifts of all kinds from individuals who wanted special favors or wanted to be certain of a place in heaven. These gifts included land, flocks, crops, and even serfs. This allowed the Church to become very powerful, and it often used this power to influence kings to do as it wanted.

In 1095, Pope Urban II issued a call for a holy crusade – a war to recapture the Holy Land. European Christians were called to travel and fight in the Middle East in order to gain back the land conquered by the Muslims.

1. How does this call for a crusade demonstrate the influence of the Pope and the Catholic Church?

… Your brethren who live in the [Middle] east are in urgent need of your help….For, as most of you have heard, the Turks and the Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Byzantine Empire (old Eastern Roman Empire)]….They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians….All who die by the way, whether by land or sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins.

Medieval Physicians wore outfits made of cloth or leather to protect themselves from the Bubonic Plague. The bird-like beak contained spices and vinegar-soaked cloth to mask the stench of death and decay.

1. Why did the doctors wear costumes such as this one?

Document 7 This excerpt describes Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries.

1. According to the author, what were conditions like in Europe during the 800s?

Document 8 Below in an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which tells of invasions of England during the 800s.

1. According to this Chronicle, what is happening at this time?

The barbarians have broken through the ramparts [defensive wall]. The Saracen [Moors] invasions have spread in successive waves over the South. The Hungarians [Magyars] swarm over the Eastern provinces….they sacked town and village, and laid waste in the fields. They burned the churches and then departed with a crowd of captives….There is no longer any trade, only unceasing terror….The peasant has abandoned his ravaged fields to avoid the violence of anarchy. The people have gone to cower [crouch down in fear] in the depths of the forests or in inaccessible regions, or have taken refuge in the high mountains….Society has no longer any government. Source: The Middle Ages, Frantz Funck-Beinemann,

Year 842 – In this year there was a great slaughter in London and Quentavic and in Rochester Year 846 – According to their custom the Northmen plundered….and burned the town of Dordrecht…the Northmen, with their boats filled with immense booty [treasure], including both men and goods, returned to their own country…

Examine these images of a Gothic cathedral built during the Middle Ages.

1. How do these illustrate the power of the Church during the Middle Ages?