Christianity, Monks and Monasteries

Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the first lecture and tutorial. Having moved *very* briskly through the Late Roman Empire, this week we're going to be thinking about the ways that Christianity structured life - at least for some people - in the Early Medieval World.

This image shows a plan of a monastery drawn up in a place called Reichenau sometime in the early 9th century (about 819-826 A.D.). It's known as the St Gall Monastery Plan, because it's been stored in the library of St Gall monastery, almost since it was made. The actual artefact is massive; it's made of five pieces of parchment sewn together, and measures 112 cm x 77.5 cm. I've chosen this image to stimulate your thoughts this week because scholars think that this plan isn't a plan at all... In other words, it's not like an architect's drawing to help builders to construct a monastery, or even a drawing of what the floorplan of an actual set of buildings looked like. Instead, they think it might be a kind of map of the ideal organisation of a monastery, and maybe therefore a visual metaphor for the ideal organisation of Christian life. 

So when you're reading and preparing for this week, it might be useful to think about what kinds of ideal Christian organisation the readings are discussing. What are they saying about how monks should live? Or about other Christians? What did this organisation represent; what was it for? Or perhaps you have other responses...!

If you have 'time', you might also want to think about how differently from us medieval people thought about time itself. How does the Benedictine Rule structure the hours of the day?

Post your thoughts, comments, ideas, questions or uncertainties below, and we'll discuss further when we meet on Monday.


Have a great week!
Kathleen


P.S. You can read more about the St Gall Plan and zoom in to see the amazing detail here: http://www.stgallplan.org/en/
P.P.S. You can find out more about medieval concepts of dates and times here: http://www.gardenhistoryinfo.com/medieval/medtime.html

It's official - we are too popular!

Apparently the book shop has run out of course guides for ATS 1316.

Fear not! More have been ordered, and the readings for next week can all be accessed online.

You should prepare the essential readings labelled "Week 2" (in the Unit Guide, or in your purple book) for next Monday. These are:

1. The Benedictine Rule (http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/rul-benedict.asp)
2. A Chapter in the book called "Medieval Worlds" by Moran Cruz and Gerberding entitled "The Early Medieval Church and the West, 500-800". (Available as a digital copy by following the relevant links on the Library Readings List to be found on the right hand panel.)

The Week 2 tute blog will go up tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to Medieval Europe Tutorial 2

Hi everyone, and welcome to Medieval Europe. I'm Kathleen, and I'll be your tutor this semester.

To get you in the spirit here's a shot I took of some of the actors in one of the York Mystery Plays a couple of years ago in England. Medieval mystery plays were a kind of outdoor mass entertainment, a way to teach religious stories to people outside the church itself, and a kind of advertisement for the local tradesmen (who sponsored the plays through groups called guilds).

Medieval actors at York Minster

The York plays are still performed based on a medieval text. The earliest surviving version comes from 1376. The actors move around the city and perform each scene or story in a different location. The actors in this photo have just finished the scene "The Road to Calvary" outside York Minster, one of the most beautifully preserved late medieval churches in England (http://www.yorkminster.org/).

If you're interested in drama or medieval literature you might want to look up some of these plays in the Penguin edition, English Mystery Plays, which is available in the library.