Medieval History

Medieval History

Spiral staircases in medieval castles ran clockwise so that attacking knights climbing the stairs couldn't use their right hands -their sword hands- while the defending knights coming down could. Left-handed men, believed to descend from the devil, couldn't become knights.

In medieval England, beer was often served with breakfast.

In the Middle Ages, chicken soup was believed to be an aphrodisiac.

PAGE CONTENTS:

Map of the Known World of the 5th Century

Defining the Middle Ages

Education In the Middle Ages

Debunking Modern Myths About the Middle Ages

How Tall Were Our Medieval Ancestors?

Medieval Christmas Traditions

The Crusades

Alessandra Giliani

Map of the Known World of the 5th Century

The above map was created by Melissa Snell and is copyright © 2007 Melissa Snell. The geographic structure was taken from a public-domain blank outline world map. Historical data was derived from The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History by Colin McEvedy and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

This simple map depicts what 5th century European scholars, leaders and traders understood the extent of their world to be. The shape of the lands in the map is, generally speaking, geographically accurate, but people of the times did not have a clear understanding of this. For example, although they knew where India was, they did not have any knowledge of its shape. And although they knew that China lay to the east, they had no grasp of its size; nor did they comprehend the extent of Russia beyond the Steppes.

As the map indicates, Europeans were familiar with northern Africa. Arabic traders had visited as far south as Zanzibar, but if there were any explorations inland, their findings were not recorded. Similarly, no Europeans had knowledge of the shape or extent of the African continent, as no known explorations were made down the west coast or further south than Zanzibar. Madagascar had not yet been encountered.

In the north, not only had Iceland yet to be discovered, but no one knew whether or not Scandinavia was attached to the continent (Ptolemy had theorized it was an island).

This map was designed to offer a general understanding of known territory in the 5th century. No guarantee is made as to the complete accuracy of this geographic rendering.

You may download or print this map for personal or school use, as long as the copyright notice remains intact.

Defining the Middle Ages

by Melissa Snell

One of the most frequently asked questions about medieval history is, "When did the Middle Ages start and end?" The answer to this simple question is more complicated than you might think.

There is currently no true consensus among historians, authors, and educators for the precise dates -- or even the general dates -- that mark the beginning and end of the medieval era. The most common time frame is approximately 500-1500 C.E., but you will often see different dates of significance marking the era's parameters.

The reasons for this imprecision become a little more clear when one considers that the Middle Ages as a period of study has evolved over centuries of scholarship.

Once a "Dark Age," then a romantic era and an "Age of Faith," medieval times were approached by historians in the 20th century as a complex, multifaceted era, and many scholars found new and intriguing topics to pursue. Every view of the Middle Ages had its own defining characteristics, which in turn had its own turning points and associated dates.

This state of affairs offers the scholar or enthusiast the opportunity to define the Middle Ages in the manner that best suits his own personal approach to the era. Unfortunately, it also leaves the newcomer to medieval studies with a certain amount of confusion.

In this feature I will discuss some of the ways the medieval era has and can be delineated, and leave it to you to decide how you wish to define the Middle Ages.

Students of art, literature, sociology, militaria, and any number of subjects will each find specific turning points pertinent to their topic of interest.

The comment has been made that all historical eras are arbitrary definitions and, therefore, how the Middle Ages is defined really has no significance. I believe that the true historian will find something lacking in this approach. Defining historical eras not only makes each era more accessible to the newcomer, it helps the serious student identify interrelated events, recognize patterns of cause and effect, understand the influence of a period's culture on those who lived within it and, ultimately, find a deeper meaning in the story of our past.

Education in the Middle Ages

Back to school--time to hit the books and get some new learnin'. Today, back to school is a yearly ritual. In the Middle Ages, it was a change in thinking over the course of centuries, when European schoolmen rediscovered the classics and opened new worlds of knowledge for the West.

In Europe before the 12th century, education was mostly a church matter, and most schools were attached to monasteries or cathedrals. Most students were bound to be priests or monks, who needed to be able to read the Bible, copy manuscripts, and sing in the choir. Nobles' sons sat in on classes, but the school system was Catholic all the way.

Modern "universities," which began to develop in the 12th century, grew out of the cathedral schools. Two in particular served as models: the University of Bologna, renowned as the preeminent place to study law, and the University of Paris, which pumped out popes and theologians.

Welcoming churchmen and rich men alike, the new universities lived or died by their faculty's reputation. Famous teachers attracted thousands of students to their lectures and disputations--rhetorical showdowns in which one schoolman would "prove" a thesis, then answer objections put to him by another. All the arguments were in Latin, as was pretty much everything else. The students read Latin texts, listened to Latin lectures, and even chatted about the last night's (or knight's) adventures in Latin.

Students generally started when they were 15 or 16. After arranging for lodging--there were no dormitories--freshmen had to find masters to study with. Education was like an apprenticeship. Students would attach themselves to a teacher, who often lectured out of his home. The students' fees paid the teacher's expenses.

The apprenticeship focused on the liberal arts. First came the "trivium" of grammar (including Latin literature), rhetoric (with an emphasis on letter writing), and dialectic (logic and reasoning). Then came the "quadrivium" of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy (mixed with astrology), and music.

After four or five years, a student could take oral exams to become a bachelor (Latin baccalaureus), or "novice." At this point, he was qualified to teach at one of the smaller schools. A doctorate could take several more years--10 in the case of theology, Paris's most difficult doctoral program.

The course of study could be arduous. The first lecture of the day was often at 5:00 a.m., and the last wouldn't end until 12 or 13 hours later. A number of students evidently grew impatient toward the end of the day. A law on the books in Padua prohibited students from pounding on their desks to force the teacher to dismiss class early.

Despite the rigors, thousands of students flocked to the new universities. Education was exciting, thanks partly to the recent recovery of texts by Greek greats like Galen, Hippocrates, and--especially--Aristotle (preserved by Islamic scholars). This classical influx transformed European philosophy and theology, planting seeds that flourished in the centuries to come as the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. The western world went back to school.

Mark Diller
Updated August 28, 2006

Debunking Modern Myths About the Middle Ages

by Melissa Snell

You've probably seen the email that's circulating around the web, purporting to provide facts about the Middle Ages. In humorous terms it connects the origins of some modern phrases and customs with life in sixteenth-century England. The most recent version I've seen has the subject heading "The Bad Old Days."

Just in case you didn't already know, let me make this perfectly clear: This is a hoax. It has virtually no basis in fact, and if any of its contents happens to strike near the real origin of an actual custom or phrase, it would be an astonishing coincidence.

Weddings and Hygeine (From the Hoax):

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

The Facts:

In the agricultural communities of medieval England, the most popular months for weddings were January, November and October,¹ when harvest was past and the time for planting had not yet arrived. Late autumn and winter were also when animals were usually slaughtered for food, so freshly butchered beef, pork, mutton and similar meats would be available for the wedding feast, which often coincided with annual festivals. Summer weddings, which might also coincide with annual festivals, enjoyed some popularity, as well.

As for "yearly baths," the idea that medieval people rarely bathed is a persistent but false one. Most people washed themselves on a regular basis. Going without washing was considered a penance even in the early Middle Ages. Soap, possibly invented by the Gauls sometime before Christ, was in widespread use throughout Europe by the end of the ninth century, and made its first appearance in cake form in the twelfth century. Public bathhouses were not uncommon, although their ostensible purpose was often secondary to their clandestine use by prosititutes.

In short, there were numerous opportunities for medieval people to cleanse their bodies. Thus, the prospect of going a full month without washing, and then appearing at her wedding with a bouquet of flowers to hide her stench, is not something a medieval bride was likely to consider any more than a modern bride would.

Baths (From the Hoax):

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

The Facts:

Most peasant folk could not afford a bathtub and used a barrel with the top removed.¹ The time and energy required to draw enough water from the well to fill a barrel was prohibitive enough to make a full-body bath a rare occasion. However, it wasn't necessary to immerse oneself completely to get clean. Think of what you can do with some cloths, soap, and a bucket of water.

There is no evidence to confirm that peasant families bathed serially in the same bathwater, but they may have occasionally done so to save the extra labor. Contrary to popular belief, medieval people were not entirely oblivious to matters of hygiene, and are unlikely to have blithely plunged themselves into filthy water "to get clean."

For the most part, children were treated with the special care with which they have been treated since the beginning of time. Rather than being submerged in a barrel full of water (filthy or otherwise), an infant would be bathed in a smaller vessel like a basin. There is no reason to believe that the relatively small amount of water needed would not be freshly drawn from the well or mildly heated over the fire in a kettle. There are no known instances of a child being "thrown out" when his bathwater was disposed of.

The expression "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" is German in origin and can be traced to the fifteenth century satire NarrenbeschwЖrung by Thomas Murner.

Thatched Roofs (From the Hoax):

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof-hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

The Facts:

Most peasant cottages and many town buildings had thatched roofs -- which, rather than being simply "thick straw-piled high," were constructed of carefully, tightly woven straw, brom, heather, reeds or rushes.¹ When properly devised, thatch was (and still is) very good at keeping out the elements, including rain, snow and hail.

Unfortunately, thatch could be an attractive abode for such uninvited guests as small rodents, insects and birds, it was subject to rot relatively quickly in wet weather, and in dry weather it posed a fire hazard.

On the other hand, it was cheap and easy to construct, so cottages could, and did, get a new thatch roof when the old one ceased to provide adequate shelter. Most peasant housing was fairly impermanent in any case, and cottages were usually completely rebuilt every generation or so.

While it is quite possible that a cat would jump up on the roof to hunt vermin, he would not "live" there, nor would dogs or other small animals. This is simply one of the sillier claims of the hoax.

Alas, the origin of the phrase "raining cats and dogs" is currently unknown. Its first known use in print was in the seventeenth century, but it may go back a few hundred years before that.

Floors (From the Hoax):

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway-hence, a "thresh hold."

The Facts:

Most peasant cottages did indeed have dirt floors. Some peasants lived in homes that sheltered animals as well as themselves. When livestock was enclosed in a peasant home, it was usually partitioned off in a separate room, sometimes at right angles to the family's living space.

Yet animals could still occasionally find their way into the house proper. For this reason, an earthen floor was a practical choice.

However, there is no evidence that the term "dirt poor" was used in any context before the 20th century. One theory suggests that its origins lie in the "Dust Bowl" of 1930s Oklahoma, where drought and poverty combined to create some of the most horrific living conditions in American history; but direct evidence is lacking.

In castles, the ground floor might be beaten earth, stone or plaster, but upper stories almost invariably had wooden floors, and the same pattern likely held true in town dwellings. Straw was not needed to keep people from slipping on wet slate, but it was used as a floor covering on all surfaces to provide a modicum of warmth and cushioning. Reeds or rushes were sometimes supplemented with aromatic herbs like lavender, and the entire floor would usually be swept clean and strewn with fresh straw and herbs on a regular basis. Old straw was not simply left down when fresh straw was added.

If such were indeed the case, it might be logical to think of the little raised strip in a doorway as an item intended to "hold" in "thresh," except for one significant detail. There's no such thing as "thresh."

The word "thresh" is a verb which, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means "to separate seed" or "to strike repeatedly." It is not, and never has been, a noun used to designate floor rushes. The word "threshold," like "thresh," is Old English in origin and dates to before the twelfth century. Both OE words appear to relate to the movement of one's feet; thresh (OE threscan) meaning to stamp or trample and threshold (OE therscwold) being a place to step.

^{Tomatoes (From the Hoax):}

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

The Facts:

Pewter was used for plates, drinking vessels and other tableware in the Middle Ages, but not exclusively. Wealthier folk used silver or gold for special occasions, and wooden plates evolved in the later Middle Ages. It was quite true that the lead content (about 30% at most¹) of pewter plates would leach out upon contact with acidic foods. However, lead poisoning is not a quick process, but is a slow accumulation of toxins over time,² and its effects would not have been associated with any one particular food.

Furthermore, the tomato -- which originated in South America and was evidently cultivated in Mexico long before the arrival of Europeans -- did not make an appearance in any European cuisine until it came to Spain in the early 16th century.

The Spanish and Italian peoples adopted it wholeheartedly into many recipies, and there are no known instances of any claims in either region that the fruit was poisonous.

However, in northern Europe, tomato plants remained purely decorative, and they were rarely seen in Britain at all in the sixteenth century. There was indeed a belief that the plant was poisonous, due in part to its resemblance to belladonna and deadly nightshade. As a member of the nightshade family, the tomato plant's roots and leaves contain the neurotoxin solanine, and thus are indeed poisonous. This may explain the northern Europeans' reluctance to use its fruit, as well as the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the English to experiment with it.

Porridge (From the Hoax):

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while -hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

The Facts:

In peasant cottages there was no kitchen in which to cook. The poorest families had only one room where they cooked, ate, worked and slept. It is also possible that most of these extremely poor families owned only one kettle.

Poor town-dwellers usually didn't even have that, and obtained most of their meals ready-made from shops and street vendors in the Medieval version of "fast-food."

Those who lived on the edge of starvation had to make use of every edible item they could find, and just about everything could go into the pot (often a footed kettle that rested in the fire rather than over it) for the evening meal. This included beans, grains, vegetables and sometimes meat -- often bacon. Using a little meat in this manner would make it go farther as sustenance.

The resulting stew was called "pottage," and it was the basic element of the peasant diet. And yes, sometimes the remains of one day's cooking would be used in the next day's fare. (This is true in some modern "peasant stew" recipes.) But it was not common for food to remain there for nine days -- or for more than two or three days, for that matter. People living on the edge of starvation were not likely to leave food on their plates or in the pot.

Contaminating the carefully-gathered ingredients of a night's supper with rotting nine-day-old remains, thus risking illness, is even more unlikely.

What is likely is that leftovers from the evening meal were incorporated into a breakfast that would sustain the hard-working peasant family for much of the day.

The word "porridge" did not come into use until the 17th century.

Pork (From the Hoax):

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

The Facts:

Meat was indeed scarce for the poorest peasants, but the one type of meat they were most likely to have was meat they could preserve for an extended period. This was done by smoking, curing or salting. In medieval Europe, the most popular meat for smoking was pork. Smoked and cured ham or bacon would be edible far longer than any other type of meat, and thus was a thrifty choice for a peasant on the edge of starvation.

Bacon was therefore no status symbol. Freshly-slaughtered meat was more of a special treat among peasants.

Bacon (and just about every other foodstuff that was stored indoors) was indeed hung from the rafters, but not for display. It was done simply to keep it off the floor, away from rats and other vermin.

The food situation was much different in the homes of well-to-do townfolk and castle-dwellers. The amount of food prepared on a daily basis in a castle kitchen was staggering, and included such items as ale, wine, bread, orchard fruits, wild fruits, wild nuts, onions, peas, beans, garden vegetables, fresh fish, dried fish, shellfish, beef, mutton, goose, wild game and -- yes! -- pork. This doesn't include the delicacies served on special occasions or to very great lords, such as lamb, veal, suckling pig, hedgehog or swan, or imported items like almonds, dates, oranges, raisins, figs, and pomegranates.

For these prosperous people and their households, "chewing the fat" was not a common pastime. Nor was it a phrase used in the sixteenth century. Informal sources indicate that both "bringing home the bacon" and "chewing the fat" originated in 19th-century North America, but currently I have no confirmation.

Bread (From the Hoax):

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

The Facts:

This singularly ridiculous assertion appears to refer to households such as castles or manor houses where workers, families and guests must all be provided for, as opposed to single-family peasant dwellings or poor townfolk households. I wonder, but cannot discover, how large a loaf would have to be to feed dozens or even hundreds of people. And how much time would the serving staff waste cutting it up "according to status"?

The fact is that in castles and manor houses, bread was baked in manageable loaves and the individual loaves were distributed among the tables.

Generally, two kinds of bread were baked in the castle ovens: white bread used with meals, and coarser bread used for trenchers. Workers ate in a separate area of the dining hall from the lord and his family, and they may have received coarser bread than the finer variety provided to the nobles, or they too may have had white bread with their meals.

Peasants, who didn't have ovens in their homes, didn't always have bread with meals, but they could bring the loaves they had prepared to the village's communal oven. There the baker would bake it for a fee, part of which would go to the lord. Peasant bread was usually coarse and brown. In towns, baking was an industry with guildmembers, shops, and varieties of breads at various prices.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "upper crust" dates to the year 1836.

In conclusion, and that's the truth... (and whoever said that history was boring)

Life in the 1500s is far more complex and fascinating, and far less ridiculous, than the hoax suggests. The world was a very different place back then, but people -- foolish and sensible, filthy and clean, cruel and kind -- were in some ways quite like we are today.

How Tall Were Our Medieval Ancestors?

by CHRIS BROOKE

A common misconception about the average height of societies is that everyone was much shorter in the past, and that average height increased steadily as the centuries went on.

In fact, average height depends on the general health of a community, how well they ate and similar factors, and therefore varies greatly from century to century and region to region.

A new study determined that medieval adults in England were not much shorter than we are today. The study focused on 3,000 skeletons from St. Peter's Church in Barton upon Humber, North East Lincolnshire.

Judged by the height of the doorframes he built, medieval man was assumed to be vertically challenged.

But after examining the bones of those who lived in the Middle Ages, scientists have discovered a much bigger truth.

Evidence gathered from 3,000 skeletons reveals that human height has varied little over the past 1,000 years.

From the 10th century through to the 19th, the average height of adult men was 5ft 7in or 170cm - just 2inches below today's average.

Women were an average of 5ft 2in or 158cm - just over an inch shorter than today.

All the bones in the study came from the medieval St Peter's Church in Barton upon Humber, North East Lincolnshire.

Researchers from Bristol Royal Infirmary studied every skeleton in an attempt to identify its sex, age and size and analysed bones for evidence of disease, injury, and diet.

Sebastian Payne, chief scientist for English Heritage, said evidence from the remains and those from other cemeteries showed the heights of adults has remained "very stable" across the centuries.

"The idea that people were dwarflike is just not true," he said. "The perception comes partly from buildings having low doorways and partly from things like small bits of armour.

"The reason why you get small pieces of armour is they are the ones made for rich small kids which didn't get heavily used and so survived.

"Small doorways are more to do with heating efficiency than anything else."

Some differences did emerge in the Barton bones when scientists examined the skeletons of children.

Ten-year-olds measured on average 18cm or 7inches shorter than today.

Puberty was delayed beyond 15 and they continued to grow later than today's teenagers.

As well as being of similar height, our predecessors suffered similar physical ailments to ours today, such as back and joint problems.

Researchers were astonished that only two skeletons had evidence of tuberculosis and there were just four cases of polio.

Among the earliest remains is the skeleton of a man aged around 50, probably born during the reign of King Canute (1016-1035).

He lived during the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the subsequent "Harrying of the North" by William the Conqueror.

At 5ft 2in, he was short by the standards of his day, but had strong shoulder muscles.

His remains survived because he was buried in an oak coffin in unusual ground conditions which aided preservation.

Medieval Christmas Traditions

by Melissa Snell

Among the Pagan traditions that have become part of Christmas is burning the yule log. This custom springs from many different cultures, but in all of them its significance seems to lie in the iul or "wheel" of the year. The Druids would bless a log and keep it burning for 12 days during the winter solstice; part of the log was kept for the following year, when it would be used to light the new yule log. For the Vikings, the yule log was an integral part of their celebration of the solstice, the julfest; on the log they would carve runes representing unwanted traits (such as ill fortune or poor honor) that they wanted the gods to take from them.

Wassail comes from the Old English words waes hael, which means "be well," "be hale," or "good health." A strong, hot drink (usually a mixture of ale, honey, and spices) would be put in a large bowl, and the host would lift it and greet his companions with "waes hael," to which they would reply "drinc hael," which meant "drink and be well." Over the centuries some non-alcoholic versions of wassail evolved.

Other customs developed as part of Christian belief. For example, Mince Pies (so called because they contained shredded or minced meat) were baked in oblong casings to represent Jesus' crib, and it was important to add three spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) for the three gifts given to the Christ child by the Magi. The pies were not very large, and it was thought lucky to eat one mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas (ending with Epiphany, the 6th of January).

Food

The ever-present threat of hunger was triumphantly overcome with a feast, and in addition to the significant fare mentioned above, all manner of food would be served at Christmas. The most popular main course was goose, but many other meats were also served. Around 1520 turkey was first brought to Europe from the Americas, and because it was inexpensive and quick to fatten, it rose in popularity as a Christmas feast food.

Humble (or 'umble) pie was made from the "humbles" of a deer -- the heart, liver, brains and so forth. While the lords and ladies ate the choice cuts, the servants baked the humbles into a pie (which of course made them go further as a source of food). This appears to be the origin of the phrase, "to eat humble pie." By the seventeenth century Humble Pie had become a trademark Christmas food, as evidenced when it was outlawed along with other Christmas traditions by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan government.

The Christmas pudding of Victorian and modern times evolved from the medieval dish of frumenty -- a spicy, wheat-based dessert. Many other desserts were made as welcome treats for children and adults alike.

Christmas Trees and Plants

The tree was an important symbol to every Pagan culture. The oak in particular was venerated by the Druids. Evergreens, which in ancient Rome were thought to have special powers and were used for decoration, symbolized the promised return of life in the spring and came to symbolize eternal life for Christians. The Vikings hung fir and ash trees with war trophies for good luck.

In the middle ages, the Church would decorate trees with apples on Christmas Eve, which they called "Adam and Eve Day." However, the trees remained outdoors. In sixteenth-century Germany, it was the custom for a fir tree decorated with paper flowers to be carried though the streets on Christmas Eve to the town square, where, after a great feast and celebration that included dancing around the tree, it would be ceremonially burned.

Holly, ivy, and mistletoe were all important plants to the Druids. It was believed that good spirits lived in the branches of holly. Christians believed that the berries had been white before they were turned red by Christ's blood when He was made to wear the crown of thorns. Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages, when a superstition that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague arose.

Entertainment

Christmas may owe its popularity in medieval times to liturgical dramas and mysteries presented in the church. The most popular subject for such dramas and trp[es was the Holy Family, particularly the Nativity. As interest in the Nativity grew, so did Christmas as a holiday.

Carols, though very popular in the later middle ages, were at first frowned on by the Church. But, as with most popular entertainment, they eventually evolved to a suitable format, and the Church relented.

The Twelve Days of Christmas may have been a game set to music. One person would sing a stanza, and another would add his own lines to the song, repeating the first person's verse. Another version states it was a Catholic "catechism memory song" that helped oppressed Catholics in England during the Reformation remember facts about God and Jesus at a time when practicing their faith could get them killed.

Pantomimes and mumming were another form of popular Christmas entertainment, particularly in England. These casual plays without words usually involved dressing up as a member of the opposite gender and acting out comic stories.

The Crusades

by Denis Mueller

Christianity began in Palestine and by the 4th century, the entire Roman Empire was Christian. Its borders included the "Holy Lands" and most of what we call today the Middle East. The Jewish population was driven out after the anti-Roman revolts in 66-70 A.D. and the Christians controlled the area.

In the 7th century, the region came under the influence of the religion Islam. When Muhammad, who was the founder of Islam died in 632 A.D., Abu Bakr carried on his message. Only a century after Muhammad's death, the word of Allah spread across the Middle East, to North Africa and into Spain.

The Turks aggressively stretched their Empire. In 1071, they destroyed the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert. Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for help. Pope Urban saw this as an opportunity to assert the supremacy of Papal power over the Byzantine Empire, so he urged the knights of Europe to cease killing each other and join in a "Holy War" to free the sacred land from the Turkish infidels.

The Christian armies descended on Jerusalem on July 13, 1099. The attack came from several directions and what followed was whole-scale slaughter. The Christians killed everyone they met, regardless of age, sex or religion. The killing went on through the night until the Arabs, and the remaining Jews, were kicked out of Jerusalem. The streets were filled with blood and the Arabs now viewed the Europeans as ferocious barbarians.

The Arab's knowledge spread across the areas they had conquered. Europe was, at the time, in the midst of the dark ages but the Arab nations excelled in mathematics, medicine and medical science. However, by the 11th century, the Turks, a nomadic tribe from central Asia, had replaced the Arabs as rulers of the Middle East. The Turks had converted to Islam but they destroyed the social structure of the area and while the Arabs had been tolerant of Christian interests, the Turks were not.

The Moslems never forgot the sacking of Jerusalem. The city was a sacred place for them for it was here where Mohammad was said to ascend to heaven. The victorious Crusaders established four colonies along the Eastern Mediterranean and when one of the colonies was captured, the Christians set out to reclaim it.

The Moslem general Saladin, who was a Kurd, defeated the Christians and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. This caused the Christians to launch another crusade, which included King Richard "the Lion-Hearted" of England. However, they were defeated as well.

The two sides finally agreed to a truce but the returning soldiers of the Crusades spoke of fantastic things they had seen. They had been introduced to spices, that made their food taste better, silks that were much nicer than the clothing they had. Europe would never be the same. The Crusades also encouraged the Europeans to leave their homes and to seek out the rest of the world. The explorers came out of the Crusades and the Renaissance was influenced by it as well. The "Dark Ages" were finally ending.

Sources: Paul Crawford The History of Western Civilization, Boise State University

Alessandra Giliani

1307 - March 26, 1326

by Jone Johnson Lewis

Occupation: surgeon's assistant, anatomist

Known for: reputedly the first to use the injection of colored fluids to trace blood vessels; only known woman prosector in medieval Europe

You've probably never heard of Alessandra Giliani, though she was a pioneer in anatomy research. In the 14th century, when cadavers were dissected for research and educational purposes, she became known as a qualified prosector -- one who dissects cadavers for demonstration to university students -- working under the "father of anatomy" Mondino de Luzzi. She is also credited with inventing the method of injecting colored liquids into blood vessels in order to study the circulatory system.

Alessandra Giliani was an assistant to Mondino de Luzzi, who wrote an anatomy handbook in 1316. He was known as the "father of anatomy." She was his "valued dissector and assistant." While working with him, she specialized in dissections for demonstrations and research, and pioneered the technique of injecting colored liquids to trace the circulatory system.

Alessandra Giliani was honored by Otto Angenius, probably her fiance, with a plaque at the Church of San Pietro e Marcellino describing her work -- and their relationship.

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