Below are the supplementary readings for each class, divided by week. These readings serve as the basis for the 'course journals', which are designed to allow you to familiarize yourself with some of the historiography of a topic that interests you. You will write three of these over the course of the semester, though only your two highest scores will count toward your grade. Further instructions are given in the course description

As with the mandatory readings, the prefixed '1' or '2' indicates whether the text is to be read for the Thursday or the Tuesday of that week. Note also that in certain cases, particularly when dealing with a collection of essays, a list of a bunch of different segments from the same book means you only need to choose one for the assignment. If there are several possibilities for any one class (i.e., there are two '1's for week three), you only need to read one of them, not all of them. A .pdf version of this list is available here.

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

Finally, I of course encourage you to all read the texts listed below if you are so inclined—or indeed to make use of them for your term papers.

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

Week One:

The law and laws of early medieval Europe • The development of Christian monasticism


Supplementary Readings:
1.  M. Bellomo, The Common Legal Past of Europe, 1000-1800 (Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 34–54 — KJ 147 B4513 1995 SCOTT; KJ 147 B4513 1995 LAW
1.  P. Stein, Roman Law in European History (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 1–37 — KJA 147 S744 1999 LAW
2.  C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism (London, 2001), pp. 1–65 — BX 2470 L39 2001 FROST & SCOTT

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


Supplementary Readings:
1.  H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Harmondsworth, 1967), pp. 116–132, 160–173, 237–246 — BR 165 C48 FROST & SCOTT (often reprinted)
2.  G. Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy (tr. H. B. Clarke, Ithaca, 1974), pp. 75–111 — HC 240 D7813 1974 SCOTT; HC 240 D7813 1974B FROST
2.  M. M. Postan, The Medieval Economy & Society (Harmondsworth, 1972), pp. 81–122 — HC 254 P68 FROST & SCOTT



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

Supplementary Readings:
1.  M. Bloch, Feudal Society, trans. L. A. Manyon (Chicago, 1965), pp. 145–176, 190–255 — D 131 B53 1961 SCOTT; D 131 B53 FROST
1.  R. H. Hilton, Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism, Rev. ed. (London, 1990), pp. 1–12 195–221 [pick one essay] — HD 604 H48 1990 (beware of the 1985 printing: make sure the essays correspond)
* 1.  S. Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (Oxford, 1994), pp. 1–15 — D 117 R49 1994 SCOTT (also online)
2.  G. Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy (Ithaca, 1978), pp. 157–180 — HC 240 D7813 1974 SCOTT; HC 240 D7813 1974B FROST


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

Supplementary Readings:
*1.  R. S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350 (Cambridge, 1976), 1–84 — HF 395 L64 1976 SCOTT; HF 395 L64 SCOTT (also online)
2.  J. Nelson, `Kingship and Empire', in The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought, c. 350–1450, ed. by J. H. Burns (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 211–251 — JA 82 C27 1988 FROST & SCOTT
2.  I. S. Robinson, `Church and Papacy', The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought, c. 350–1450, ed. by J. H. Burns (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 252–305 — JA 82 C27 1988 FROST & SCOTT


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

Supplementary Readings:
1.  M. Bellomo, The Common Legal Past of Europe, 1000-1800 (Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 112–148 — KJ 147 B4513 1995 SCOTT; KJ 147 B4513 1995 LAW
1.  H. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1983), pp. 120–164 — K 150 B47 1983 LAW & SCOTT


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

Supplementary Readings:
1.  H. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1983), pp. 199–224 — K 150 B47 1983 LAW & SCOTT
2.  L. K. Little, Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (London, 1978), pp. 1–57 — BV 4647 P6 L57 FROST & SCOTT


Week Seven:
The crusades • Hermits, monks, and the new poverty


Supplementary Readings:
1.  J. Riley-Smith, What Were the Crusades? (3 ed., New York, 2002) — D 157 R54 1977 FROST & SCOTT
1.  J. A. Watt, `The Crusades and the Persecution of the Jews', in The Medieval World ed. by P. Linehan and J. R. Nelson (London, 2001), pp. 146—162 — CB 351 M43 2003 or D 117 M43 2001 SCOTT
2.  L. K. Little, Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (London, 1978), pp. 59–96 — BV 4647 P6 L57 FROST & SCOTT



Week Eight:

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

Supplementary Readings:
*1.  L. F. Kaelber, 'Other- and Inner-Worldly Asceticism in Medieval Waldensianism: A Weberian Analysis', Sociology of Religion 56 (1995): 91–119
1.  G. Olsen, 'The Idea of the Ecclesia Primitiva in the Writings of the Twelfth-century Canonists', Traditio 25 (1969): 61–86 — D 111 T7 V.25
1.  J. B. Russell, 'Interpretations of the Origins of Medieval Heresy', Mediaeval Studies 25 (1963): 26–53 — D 111 M44 V.25
2.  J. Goering, 'The Internal Forum and the Literature of Penance and Confession', Traditio 59 (2004): 175–227 — D 111 T7 V.59 FROST & SCOTT
2.  A. Murray, 'Confession as a Historical Source in the Thirteenth Century', in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages. Essays Present to Richard William Southern, ed. by R. H. C. Davis and J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (Oxford, 1981), pp. 275–322 — D 13 W73 SCOTT


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

Supplementary Readings:
*1.  K. Froehlich, 'St. Peter, Papal Primacy, and the Exegetical Tradition, 1150–1300', in The Religious Roles of the Papacy: Ideals and Realities, 1150–1300 ed. by C. Ryan (Toronto, 1989), pp. 4–44 — BX 1805 R45 1989 (and online)
*1.  G. Silano, 'Of Sleep and Sleeplessness: The Papacy and Law, 1150–1300', in The Religious Roles of the Papacy: Ideals and Realities, 1150–1300 ed. by C. Ryan (Toronto, 1989), pp. 343–361 — BX 1805 R45 1989 (and online)
2.  H. Grundmann, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages (tr. S. Rowan, Notre Dame, 1995), pp. 1–74 BR 270 G713 1995 SCOTT
*2.  B. H. Rosenwein and L. K. Little, 'Social Meaning in the Monastic and Mendicant Spiritualities', Past and Present 63 (1974): 4–32


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

Supplementary Readings:
1.  G. Post, 'Alexander III, the Licentia docendi, and the Rise of the Universities', in Anniversary Essays in Medieval History by Students of Charles Homer Haskins, Presented on his Completion of Forty Years of Teaching (Freeport, 1967), pp. 255–277 — D 113.5 A6 1967 SCOTT
*1.  G. Post, 'Parisian Masters as a Corporation, 1200–1246' Speculum 9.4 (1934): 421–445.
2.  J. Le Goff, Your Money or your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages (tr. P. Ranum, New York, 1988) — HC 41 L43 1988 SCOTT


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

Supplementary Readings:
1.  J. Canning, A History of Medieval Political Thought, 300–1450 (London, 1996), pp. 135–187 — JC 111 C33 1996 FROST & SCOTT
1.  J. Coleman, A History of Political Thought (Oxford, 2000), pp. 118–133, 134–168, 169–198 [pick one chapter] — JA 81 C63 2000 FROST & SCOTT
2.  S. K. Cohn, Jr., Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social Revolt in Medieval Europe, 1200-1425 (Cambridge, MA, 2006), pp. 1–107 — HN 373 C73 2006 SCOTT
2.  R. H. Hilton, and T. H. Aston, eds., The English Rising of 1381, pp. 9–42, 74–83, 84–111, 112–142, 143–164, 194–212 [pick one essay] — DA 235 E54 1984 FROST & SCOTT