Power Hungry?

The reading this week on the Papacy in Avignon brings up again the rivalry in powers between the king and the pope and then between popes. The part that interested me the most the was the Great Schism. It started with two rival popes, one Italian the other French. Each had their own college of cardinals, own curia and there were two religious governments. They each excommunicated each other. Thirty years later, we have the same problem, only now it has escalated to THREE popes, their colleges, and their curia. None of them willing to back down. Talk about some serious power hunger. No wonder a council was called again. The purpose was to fix the problem of three popes. The council disposed of all three popes but none of the seemed to want to let their power go. Especially Pope Benedict, retiring in Spain but still excommunicating everyone against him until he died( A sad way to go if you ask me). Even after this popes still ignored councils, side stepped them left and right and avoided them all together. I assume this was because they were afraid that a reform in the church would take away their power. It seemed they weren't even willing to talk about it at all, they just wanted to reassert and hold on to that power of being the pope. The sad thing was that Christians were now seeing the pope as a threat to the church. Ouch. Serious trouble in the church and all over having the power.

Status of Humanity

The article on 12th century Renaissance was pretty cool this week. Even though the church dominated almost everything, the people of this time were interested in rising to the occasion. People were looking for closer relationship the divine and a more personal religious experience, not only that but they were looking to better themselves as well. The church was trying to make Christianity more Human and more oriented to people which also led to this time period to also be named "The Age of Faith". It was interesting to learn that people wanted to obtain a higher status. I am not all surprised by this after the readings last week, who wouldn't want to take a chance at higher status. The cool thing was that for the most part people did it because they wanted more knowledge although there were those (town dwellers or bourgeois) who were in it mainly for the money. It seems though that eventually this love of knowledge and learning grew so much that it became independent of the church. I can see where this would upset the clergy but the population of people wanting to be students had grown so much that the monasteries and churches had no more room (Wow that many students in that time period). Thus we have the development of the University.

A View in Peasant Life

Once again, reading about how a culture or how a particular type of people live interests me. The essay on "Advances in Agriculture" that we read this week is the one that grabbed my attention. Granted, this essay focused on agriculture but it still reflects what life must have been like for these people and how they lived their lives on a daily basis. Between the years 800 and 1000 villages consisted small huts made of clay and grass, surrounded by two fields. The huts were small, only one or two rooms with a loft above for storage, one door and no windows. I can't imagine living with my family in one room with our animals. I mean, what would that be like, waking up with your pigs and cows laying down next to you? You would stay warm in the winter I guess. I imagine if you were lucky enough to have two rooms in your hut you could pen your animals in one and you could sleep in the other. Each hut had about 1/2 acres of land attached to it called a messuage that you used for your own use for a garden or a place to keep your animals outside. The two fields surrounding the village were also used by families. It was known as an open field system. Each family owned portions of each field but it seems that all were responsible for the whole field. Sixty percent of the harvest went to taxes and church tithes, leaving the village people with 40 percent for themselves which would be put towards things you couldn't grow or make yourself. It would take 35 bushels for one basic family to live, which equals out to about 30 or 40 acres of plowed field for each family assuming your growing year went well and there were no early rains to ruin your crops. I wouldn't want to live in such times when you had to hope that everything went well so you could survive the next year and you didn't have much to begin with.

Wiki #2

This Wikipedia article begins with Williams early life, who he was and how he came to be the Duke of Normandy. The article then goes on and discusses his conquests in England and how he eventually became King William I. We then move on to the details of Williams reign in England and the reforms he made. Towards the end of the article is the death of William the Conqueror and his succession. Lastly mentioned is the legacy he left behind after his death.

1. Article contains 3,665 words.
2. Search term used "William the Conqueror". Title of article "William I of England".
3. There is no disambiguation link.
4. Discussion page has a place where you can suggest improvements to article. Also, there is a long list of posts of things that other people have suggested to improve the article.
5. Over 500 revision, with earliest being August 30, 2005 and the last being October 14, 2008.
6. There are seven external links provided.
7. There are twenty references provided.
8. There five entries for further reading listed.

I would recommend this article if you are looking for just about anything on William the Conqueror although this article calls him mainly William I of England. There is a lot of material here for research including external links and links for further reading. There is quite a bit of detail on his endeavors in life and about him personally including his physical appearance.

Controversy of Powers

When Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III many questioned it. Some say the Pope did it for protection from enemies and some say that Charlemagne did it and his advisors noted that they wanted it for him. Obviously, this started a huge controversy on who had the power. The church already had land and power but the coronation of Charlemagne now united the church and state and also started the precedence of popes having the power to make or unmake emperors. We also see in the letter from Pope Gelasius to Emperor Anastasius, "Doctrine of the Two Powers" how the church views their power over the emperor. Pope Gelasius says that kings can rule humans but for anything concerning the divine a king will bow their head to the clergy. He also says that the hearts of the faithful will submit to priests and that people are more obidient becuase of their devotion to the church. It seems that church/pope feels that they should and do have the power over all, emperors and kings included.

The First Monks and Monasteries

It was interesting to learn how monks and monasteries came to be. Really the first monks were hermits or desert dwellers. They were people who lived a solitary life in the middle of the desert to gain a deeper knowledge of the universe. At first this sounded weird to me, but then I realized that it is really no different than someone going camping to commune with nature or the early Native Americans going through a rite of passage to find their spirit guide. After Anthony of Alexandria, who became the model of eremitical life, there was a flood of people living as hermits. So many people in fact that they couldn't really live alone anymore. This was hard for me to believe that there wasn't enough space for everyone. Eventually, Pachomius developed rules so that these people could live in small groups in huts. This eventually led to small established communities (monasteries) in which monks could live together under one roof following rules and rituals according the Abbot of their monastery.