History 288 Home | Schedule of Readings and Assignments

Readings:

Online sources: (1) Urban II, Speech at the Council of Clermont, 1095; (2) Reinarius Saccho, On the Sects of Modern Heretics, 1254,
(3) Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Canons 3, 67, 68, 69, 70.
Book of Margery Kempe, 33-135 = Book 1, Chapters 1-40, inclusive.

Basic Questions:

1. What passage(s) in the readings did you find particularly interesting? Why? What passage(s) did you not understand?

2. What do the readings reveal about what it meant to be a Christian?

3. What do the readings reveal about the nature of Christianity at the time in which they were produced?

Specific Questions:

4. To whom do you think Urban II addresses himself in the first part of his speech? Of what does the first part of the speech remind you? What, according to Urban II, is the rationale and benefit of a crusade?

5. How, according to Lateran IV, should the Church fight heresy?

6. Reinarius Saccho was an official of the inquisition. From reading his document we can ask several broad questions. What did heretics not like about the Church? If they could create their own Church, what would it look like? What Christian beliefs and practices are under attack, according to Saccho? N. B. A prebend (point 15) is the benefice of a cathedral canon. I explained what benefices and cathedral canons were in Week 7.

7. How does Lateran IV propose to deal with the Jews? What does Canon 68 tell you about Christian attitudes towards Jews?

8. To apply Question 3 to The Book of Margery Kempe, consider aspects of Margery's biography. Which of her actions seem religiously normative and are reflected in the actions or at least in the approval of others?

9. What elements of The Book of Margery Kempe are already familiar to you from other readings or from the lectures? Identify as many as you can. Does Chapter 25 ring any bells?

10. Prepare for your second essay by using this week's readings to help you answer one of the essay questions.

Clarifications re: The Book of Margery Kempe:

  • Check the endnotes of the Penguin edition for the meaning of passages and words.
  • You should already know what a cleric and a benefice are. I expect you to find what a breviary (p. 93) and an anchorite are. Get your hands on a good dictionary before class and look up these words.
  • Grey Friars (p. 109) = Friars Minor (p. 115) are Franciscan friars.
  • A Saracen (p. 110) is a Muslim.
  • A doctor of divinity is someone who holds a doctoral degree in theology.
  • The Confiteor (p. 117) is a prayer in which a Christian acknowledges his/her sinfulness before God and other Christians.
  • The pater noster (p. 125) is Latin for the Lord's Prayer, the "Our Father," the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples and that all Christians say. See Matthew 6: 9-13.
  • To be shriven means to be absolved of one's sins after confessing them to a priest.