Page 249 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

and waste products from their animals into the river, while tanners threw in tannic acids, dried blood, fat, hair, and wastes.
Because of the pollution, cities were not inclined to use the rivers for drinking water but relied instead on wells. Some communities repaired the aqueducts left over from Roman times, and some even constructed new ones. Private and public baths also existed in me- dieval towns. Paris, for example, had thirty-two public baths for men and women. City laws prohibited lepers and people with “bad reputations” from using them, but such measures did not prevent the public baths from being known for permissiveness. One contempo- rary commented on what occurred in public bath- houses: “Shameful things. Men make a point of staying all night in the public baths and women at the break of day come in and through ‘ignorance’ find themselves in the men’s rooms.”4 Authorities came under increasing pressure to close the baths down, and the great plague of the fourteenth century sealed their fate.
There were considerably more men than women in medieval cities. Married women, in addition to super- vising the household, purchasing food and preparing meals, washing clothes, managing the family finances, and bearing and taking care of children, were also often expected to help their husbands in their trades. While men produced goods at home, their wives often peddled them at markets or fairs.
Single women and widows had little alternative but to become involved in activities to generate income in order to provide for themselves financially. Some women earned money by practicing a trade, such as brewing ale, manufacturing glass, or making hats and cloth. Other women became midwives, innkeepers, or prostitutes. A widow often carried on her husband’s trade. Some women in medieval towns were thus able to lead lives of considerable independence and made important contributions to the market economy.
Industry in Medieval Cities
The revival of trade enabled cities and towns to become important centers for manufacturing a wide range of products, such as cloth, metalwork, shoes, and leather goods. A host of crafts were carried on in houses along the narrow streets of the medieval cities. From the twelfth century on, artisans began to organize them- selves into guilds, which came to play a leading role in the economic life of the cities.
By the thirteenth century, virtually every group of craftworkers, including tanners, carpenters, and bakers,
had its own guild, and specialized groups of merchants, such as dealers in silk, spices, wool, or banking, had guilds as well. Craft guilds directed almost every aspect of the production process. They set standards for the articles produced, specified the methods of production to be used, and fixed the price at which the finished goods could be sold. Guilds also determined the num- ber of men who could enter a specific trade and the procedure they must follow to do so.
A person who wanted to learn a trade first became an apprentice to a master craftsman, usually at around the age of ten. After five to seven years of service, in which they learned their craft, apprentices became jour- neymen (or journeywomen, although most were male), who then worked for wages for other masters. Journey- men aspired to become masters as well. To do so, they were expected to produce a “masterpiece,” a finished piece in their craft that allowed the master craftsmen of the guild to judge whether the journeymen were quali- fied to become masters and join the guild.
The Intellectual and Artistic World of the High Middle Ages
Q FOCUS QUESTION: What were the major intellectual and cultural achievements of European civilization in the High Middle Ages?
The High Middle Ages was a time of tremendous intel- lectual and artistic vitality. The period witnessed the growth of educational institutions, a rebirth of interest in ancient culture, a quickening of theological thought, the development of a vernacular literature, and a burst of activity in architecture. Although monks continued to play an important role in intellectual activity, the secular clergy, cities, and courts, whether of kings, prin- ces, or high church officials, began to exert a newfound influence. Especially significant were the new cultural expressions that emerged in towns and cities.
The Rise of Universities
The university as we know it—with faculty, students, and degrees—was a product of the High Middle Ages. The word university is derived from the Latin word uni- versitas (yoo-nee-VAYR-see-tahss), meaning a corpora- tion or guild, and referred to either a guild of teachers or a guild of students. Medieval universities were edu- cational guilds or corporations that produced educated and trained individuals.
The Intellectual and Artistic World of the High Middle Ages 211
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.