Below are the mandatory readings for each class, divided by week. It is of course expected that everyone will read the text before each class. A .pdf version of this list is available available here.

Please note that any reading preceded by an asterisk (*) is available online through York University libraries.

Note further that, due to the strike, the 'weeks' do not correspond correctly to calendar weeks; now the 'weeks' refer to the first, second, or third (and so on) Tuesday or Thursday that we meet. Thus, the '1' refers to the readings for the Thursday class, and the '2' to the readings for the Tuesday class.

This means that the Mid-Term falls on the fifth Tuesday that we meet; i.e., 7 April 2009. (Note the revised date!)
The essay is due 5 May 2009.


Week One   Week Two   Week Three   Week Four   Week Five   Week Six   Week Seven   Week Eight   Week Nine   Week Ten   Week Eleven  

Week One:
Introduction: The law and laws of early medieval Europe • The development of Christian monasticism


Readings:
2.  Augustine, The Rule of St Augustine [available here]
       Source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ruleaug.html
2.  St Benedict, Rule for Monasteries, [selections; available here]
      Source: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gregory/life_rule.iv.html

(Although I cannot promise that I shall be able to do this in a timely fashion every week, I hope to post some post-class reflections—hence the name pompous-sounding name retractationes (reconsiderations) I lifted from Augustine—that hit on some, not all(!), of the interesting points raised in the class. I hope these prove useful to you, but be aware that they are not a substitute for our lectures and discussions. Please email me any corrections or modifications you'd like to see.)

Retractationes 01.1 — law
Retractationes 01.2 — monasticism

Week Two:
The growth of the early papacy • Early economic exploitation: manors, fairs, and trade


Readings:
1.  Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule [selections; available here]
      Source: www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.iii.i.html
2.  D. Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City (London, 1997), pp. 1–53
      HT 115 N53 1997 SCOTT & FROST

Retractationes 02.1 — early papacy
Retractationes 02.2 — early medieval towns


Week Three:
'Feudalism' • More Economic exploitation: towns and (re-)urbanization


Readings:
*1.  E. A. R. Brown, 'The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe', American Historical Review 79 (1974): 1063–1088
*1.  C. Wickham, 'The Other Transition: From the Ancient World to Feudalism', Past and Present 103 (1984): 3–36
2.  M. Kowaleski, ed., Medieval Towns: A Reader (Peterborough, 2006), pp. 21–27, 37–67
      HT 115 M43 2006 FROST; SCOTT-RESV
2.  D. Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City (London, 1997), pp. 54–81
      HT 115 N53 1997 SCOTT & FROST


Retractationes 03.1 — ''feudalism''
Retractationes 03.2 — urban revival

Week Four:
AD 1000: a commercial 'revolution' • Church and Empire I: Church reforms and Church relations


Readings:
1.  R. S. Lopez and I. W. Raymond, eds., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents Translated with Introductions and Notes (New York, 1990 [1955]), pp. 51–153
      HF 395 L63 1990 FROST & SCOTT
2.  B. Tierney, ed., The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300 (Toronto, 1988), pp. 33–95
      BV 630.2 T5 FROST & SCOTT

Retractationes 04.1 — a commercial "revolution"
Retractationes 04.2 — Church & Empire

Week Five:
The rediscovery of Roman law • Mid-Term


Readings:
1.  P. Stein, Roman Law in European History (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 38–70
      KJA 147 S744 1999
1.  S. Kuttner, 'The Revival of Jurisprudence', in R. L. Benson and G. Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century (Toronto, 1999 [1982]), pp. 299–323
      D 201.8 R45 1982B FROST & SCOTT

Retractationes 05.1 — the rediscovery of Roman law


Week Six:
The systematization of canon law • Towns, guilds, and the new money


Readings:
1.  Raymond of Penyafort, Summa on Marriage (tr. P. Payer, Toronto, 2005), pp. 11–29
      (unavailable at York)
2.  R. Lopez and I. W. Raymond, eds., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York, 1990 [1955]), pp. 157–235
      HF 395 L63 1990 FROST & SCOTT

Retractationes 06.1 — the systematization of canon law
Retractationes 06.2 — guilds and communes

Week Seven:

The crusades • Hermits, monks, and the new poverty


Readings:
1.  E. O. Blake, 'The Formation of the "Crusade Idea" ', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 21 (1970): 11–31
1.  C. Tyerman, 'What the Crusades Meant to Europe', in P. Linehan and J. R. Nelson, eds., The Medieval World (London, 2001), pp. 131–146
      CB 351 M43 2003 SCOTT; D 117 M43 2001 SCOTT
2.  M.-D. Chenu, 'Monks, Canons, and Laymen in Search of the Apostolic Life', in Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century (ed. and tr. J. Taylor and L. K. Little, Toronto, 1997 [1968]), pp. 202–238
      BT 26 C513 SCOTT
*2.  L. K. Little, 'Pride Goes Before Avarice: Social Change and the Vices in Latin Christendom', American Historical Review 76.1 (1971): 16–49

Retractationes 07.1 — the crusades
Crusades chronology
Retractationes 07.2 — hermits, monks, and the new poverty


Week Eight:
Heretics and new views of the (old) Church • Sin, penance, and popular religion


Readings:
1.  P. Biller, 'Through a Glass Darkly: Seeing Medieval Heresy', in P. Linehan and J. R. Nelson, eds., The Medieval World, (London, 2001), pp. 308–326
      CB 351 M43 2003 SCOTT; D 117 M43 2001 SCOTT
1.  R. I. Moore, 'Literacy and the Making of Heresy', in ed. by P. Biller and A. Hudson, eds., Heresy and Literacy, 1000–1530, (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 19–37
      BT 1319 H47 1994 FROST
2.  Abelard, Ethics, in Peter Abelard, Ethical Writings (tr. P. V. Spade, Indianapolis, 1995), pp. 1–58
      B 765 A23 E82 1971 FROST & SCOTT (N.B.: this is a different edition; let me know if you use it)
2.  Peter Lombard, On Penance (Sentences 4 D. 14 cc. 74(1)–78(5))   [available here]

Retractationes 08.1 — Cathars & Waldensians
Retractationes 08.2 — Sin and Penance


Week Nine:
The growth of the papal 'monarchy' • Poverty institutionalized: the rise of the mendicants
Essay due: 5 May 2008


Readings:
1.  B. Tierney, ed., The Crisis of Church and State, (Toronto, 1988), pp. 97–150
      BV 630.2 T5 FROST & SCOTT
2.  Francis of Assisi, Rule, in R. J. Armstrong, J. A. W. Hellmann, and W. J. Short, eds., Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1: The Saint, (New York, 1999), pp. 99–106
2.  Francis of Assisi, Testament, in R. J. Armstrong, J. A. W. Hellmann, and W. J. Short, eds., Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1: The Saint, (New York, 1999), pp. 124–127
2.  The Sacred Exchange between Lady Poverty and St Francis, in R. J. Armstrong, J. A. W. Hellmann, and W. J. Short, eds., Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1: The Saint, (New York, 1999), pp. 539–554
      (unavailable at York; you may use St. Francis of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies. An English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, edited by Marion A. Habig. (BX 4700 F6 H27 1973 FROST) instead)

Retractationes 09.1 — Papal monarchy
Retractationes 09.2 — The rise of the mendicants


Week Ten:
The rise of the universities • Wealth legitimized: mendicant economics

Readings:
1.  O. Pedersen, The First Universities: Studium generale and the Origins of University Education in Europe (tr. R. North, Cambridge, 1997), pp. 122–188
      LA 628 P43 1997 SCOTT
2.  Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle's Politics (tr. R. J. Regan, Indianapolis, 2007), pp. 42–66, 86–101
      JC 71 A7 T46 2007 SCOTT

Retractationes 10.1 — The origins of universities
University timeline
Retractationes 10.2 — Mendicant economics
University career / form of a medieval quaestio

Week Eleven:
Church and Empire II: fourteenth-century views • Late medieval calamity, social unrest, and `peasant' uprisings


Readings:
1.  William of Ockham, Whether a Prince Can Receive the Goods of the Church for His Own Needs, Namely, in Case of War, Even Against the Wishes of the Pope, in Political thought in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham, tr. C. Nederman (Tempe, 2002), pp. 153–197
      (unavailable at York)
2.  M. Kowaleski, ed., Medieval Towns: A Reader (Peterborough, 2007), pp. 316–347
      HT 115 M43 2006 FROST; SCOTT-RESV

Retractationes 11.1 — Church & State in the Fourteenth Century