LOOK AT THESE CONTEMPORARY DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIOUS MEDIEVAL CITIZENS, AND COMPARE WHAT YOU READ WITH WHAT CHAUCER WROTE IN THE ‘CANTERBURY TALES.’

Sources:

Barnes, D. For Court Manor and Church. Minneapolis: Burgress Publishing Co., 1971.

Grun, B. The Timetables of History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

Hall, W. A History of England and the Empire Commonwealth. Waltham, Mass.: Blaisdell Publ., 1965.

Ross, J. and M. McLaughlin. The Portable Medieval Reader. NY; Penguin, 1977.

Singman, J. and Will McLean. Daily Life in Chaucer's England. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

REMEMBER THAT THE REALIST VIEW IS LOOKING UP ON THE CHAIN, OR TOWARD THE IDEALS OF DIVINE PERFECTION, AND LOOKING DOWN ON THE CHAIN TOWARD MATTER IS SIN, ONE THEREFORE BEING FURTHER REMOVED FROM GOD....

A brief chronology:

1200--rise of the Monastic orders
1267--trade guilds (goldsmiths and tailors) riot in the streets
1278--278 Jews hanged in London for “financial exploitation” Christians guilty of the same offenses fined
1280--In Flanders, the textile workers revolted against their employers
1308--In France, the first indoor tennis court built by King Philip IV
1327--a fire destroys Munich
1332--the plague begins in India
1347--the plague destroys much of Europe
1349--one third of the population of England dies of the plague (total death will be 75 million people)
1370--the crossbow is invented as a weapon of war
1372--Oxford university flourishes--center of Philosophy and scholasticism
1381--the peasants’ revolt in England
1407--”Bedlam” is founded in London as an insane asylum
1454--Indulgences printed

Click here for an excellent link providing background on Courtly Love and the Code of Chivalry. Compare the "theory" therein with what Chaucer writes in The Canterbury Tales.

SOME DETAILS...

THE KNIGHT: WHAT DID CHAUCER KNOW ABOUT KNIGHTS IN THE “REAL” WORLD?

REALISM:

MAKE OBEDIENCE TO YOUR LORD ALWAYS...IF YOU SEE YOUR LORD DRINKING, KEEP SILENCE, WITHOUT LOUD LAUGHTER, CHATTERING...OR INSOLENCE...TELL NO DISHONEST TALE...BE HUMBLE AND MERRY...NOT CHIDING AS IF YOU READY FOR A FIGHT...ATTEND MASS DEVOUTLY AND ACCEPT THE TEACHINGS OF THE PRIESTS...THE KNIGHT MUST DEFEND THE CHURCH, TO ASSAIL INFIDELITY, TO VENERATE THE PRIESTHOOD, TO PROTECT THE POOR FROM INJURIES, TO POUR OUT THEIR BLOOD FOR THE BROTHERS...THE HIGH PRAISES OF GOD ARE IN THEIR THROATS, AND TWO EDGED-SWORDS ARE IN THEIR HANDS.

NOMINALISM:

AN ACT OF INFIDELITY WAS NO DISGRACE, ALWAYS PROVIDED THAT ONE PRESERVED THE FORM OF POLITE SOCIETY...ANY KNIGHT WHO CONTENTED HIMSELF WITH WEDDING A VIRGIN BEFORE HIMSELF HAVING GROWN PRACTICED IN ADULTERY AND CARRIED OFF SEVERAL TROPHIES OF THE CHASE WAS UNWORTHY OF HIS SPURS. ADULTERY WAS A SOCIAL DIVERSION FOR THE UPPER CLASSES. A KNIGHT HAD TO HAVE A LADY WHOM HE WORSHIPED...CHURCH AND STATE TOLERATED THE ADULTEROUS RELATIONSHIP...IT WAS THE THING TO CHOOSE A CELESTIAL PATRONESS, AND THE USUAL PRACTICE WAS TO INVOKE THE VIRGIN MARY...

BLOODSHED WAS MADE HONORABLE BY THE INSTITUTION OF CHIVALRY WHICH RITUALIZED VIOLENCE. THE GENUINE KNIGHTLY VIRTUES OF COURAGE AND FIDELITY WERE INFLUENCED WITH CHRISTIAN IDEAS...THE KNIGHT BECAME SIR GALAHAD OR A SQUIRE OF THE VIRGIN MARY...NEVERTHELESS THE KNIGHT REMAINED AT HEART A RUDE WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CHIEFLY FOR THE LOVE OF FIGHTING...REPORTS ARE FILLED WITH EXAMPLES OF LUST AND GREED AND HIS HABIT OF PILLAGING OR SLAUGHTERING THE PEASANTRY...

A NOTE ON THE CRUSADES:

Chaucer's Knight of course, fought in most (all?) of the major theological (economic) conflicts history defines as the crusades. Chaucer the pilgirm, contrasting the alleged noble motives of the Knight with what the court poet knew as the historical realities, sets the tone for subtle irony.

The following observations on the crusades may be of use:

Sources:

Curry, Andrew. "The First Holy War." US News and World Report. Volume 132. April 8, 2002, p. 36 ff.
(This interesting and richly illustrated article has much irony in it own right, placing in juxtaposition, our current Middle East policy with events of the past...)

Smart, Terry (et. al.). World History: A Story of Progress. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1987.

Stipp, John (et.al.). The Rise and Development of Western Civilization. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1867.

HEADNOTE:

URBAN II WANTED TO DEFEND CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. IN LAUNCHING THE FIRST CRUSADE, URBAN SAID: “YOU MUST CARRY AID TO YOUR BROTHERS DWELLING IN THE EAST...THE TURKS HAVE ATTACKED THEM...THEY HAVE DESTROYED CHURCHES...” IN ROUTE TO THE HOLY LAND, CRUSADING MOBS DESTROYED JEWISH COMMUNITIES RAPING, PLUNDERING AND MURDERING. IN THE HOLY LAND NONCOMBATANTS, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE SLAUGHTERED.

OUTLINE:

1000--JERUSALEM UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE TURKS / MUSLIMS WHO WERE EXPANDING THEIR EMPIRE EASTWARD...CHRISTIANS CHARGED HEAVY TOLLS TO VISIT THE CITY.

1095--POPE URBAN II SAW THAT THE ENTIRE EASTERN EMPIRE WAS ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE

MOTIVES OF THE POPE: (REALISM OR NOMINALISM)

1ST-CRUSADE (1096)--(1099) STORMED THE JERUSALEM AND MASSACRED MOSLEM AND JEW ALIKE--JERUSALEM GOVERNED LIKE A MEDIEVAL KINGDOM:

Commentary:

The seeds at least of the knightly ideals of prowess, loyalty, and generosity existed in the cultural tradition of the noble class and needed only the nourishment provided by twelfth-century France to spring into full However, but another chivalric ideal, courtesy, seems to have grown directly out of the feudal environment. Now courtesy as used by medieval writers had a wide variety of meanings....Here our interest must be confined to courtesy as applied to the relations between noblemen. As the heritability of fiefs became firmly established in the tenth and eleventh centuries it led to the stabilization; of the feudal class and to the development of class consciousness. In time the idea appeared that nobles deserved special consideration from their fellows.

Bloodshed...was made honorable by the institution of chivalry, which ritualized violence. By origin a Germanic warrior. the medieval knight was given a Roman ancestry; poets discovered that Romulus was the founder of chivalry. The genuine knightly virtues of courage and fidelity were likewise bedecked with Christian and courtly ideals: the knight became Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot, (Squire of the Virgin,) while other poets made the Archangel Michael the father of chivalry. Nevertheless the knight remained at heart a rude warrior, who fought chiefly for the love of fighting, not of God or of ladies. and whose chivalrous code extended only to his peers. The medieval chronicles devoted to his valorous exploits are full of casual examples of his cruelty. lust. and greed, and his habit of pillaging or slaughtering the peasantry. In time he became a professional soldier or a simple mercenary. But from the outset war was commonly fought over trivial causes, involving personal animosities rather than principles. [Its absurdity was accentuated by the Truce of God, through which the Church sought to maintain peace at least on holy days and over week ends.

THE PRIESTHOOD: WHAT DID CHAUCER KNOW ABOUT THE CLERGY IN THE “REAL” WORLD?

REALISM {FROM THE RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE / BENEDICT}...

1.THE MAIN PURPOSE FOR YOUR HAVING COME TOGETHER IS TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY IN YOUR HOUSE, INTENT UPON GOD IN THE ONENESS OF MIND AND HEART.

2. SUBDUE THE FLESH AS FOR AS YOUR HEALTH PERMITS, BY FASTING AND ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD AND DRINK

3. THERE SHOULD BE NOTHING ABOUT YOUR CLOTHING TO ATTRACT ATTENTION.

4. ALTHOUGH YOUR EYES MAY CHANCE TO REST UPON SOME WOMAN OR OTHER, YOU MUST NOT FIX YOUR GAZE UPON ANY WOMAN...IT IS SINFUL TO DESIRE THEM OR TO
WISH THEM TO DESIRE YOU...LUSTFUL DESIRES ARISE.

5. NO ONE SHALL PERFORM ANY TASK FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT BUT ALL YOUR WORK SHALL BE DONE FOR THE COMMON GOOD FOR CHARITY IS NOT SELF SEEKING:

Commentary:

From the start, the holy abbot (St. Benedict) insisted upon two main pursuits: the daily chanting of the Psalms by the monks in common and at regular periods throughout the day and night; and manual labor by each individual in the field or workshop. In all activities there should be inner concentration upon the praise of God.

Near the middle of the thirteenth century, Matthew Paris prayed tribute to the Franciscans, or Friars Minors:

At about this time 1206, the preachers who are called Minors... suddenly emerged and filled the earth. Dwelling...in cities and in towns, owning nothing whatever, living according to the Gospel, preferring the utmost poverty in food and clothing, walking unshod, they showed the greatest example of humility to all men... The Minors were discovered to be as much the more clear-sighted in their contemplation of heavenly matters as they were alien to earthly matters and to carnal pleasures. They keep no kind of food in reserve for themselves, in order that the spiritual poverty which thrives in their minds may be made known to all through their deeds and their way of life.

Francis's evangelical love of poverty involved a ruthless rejection of money. He had an almost physical revulsion against this thing which most men are so desperately eager to possess. Money, he felt, was of the Devil, and he therefore hated it with all of the power in his love filled soul, and even went so far as to curse it. He taught his brethren to have equal regard for money and for dung, and when one of them had merely touched money, Francis sharply reproved him and bade him lift the money from the window with his mouth, and convey it without the hedge of the dwelling, and put it with his own mouth on the dung of an ass."

NOMINALISM:

WHERE IS THE ROAD OR THE VILLAGE IN WHICH ONE DOES NOT SEE THE MONK ON HORSEBACK?...IS THERE A FEAST, A FAIR OR A MARKETPLACE WHERE MONKS DO NOT APPEAR? THERE ARE TO BE SEEN IN ALL ASSEMBLIES, IN ALL BATTLES...MONKS SWARM EVERYWHERE THAT KINGS ASSEMBLE...

LANDOWNERS: WHAT DID CHAUCER KNOW ABOUT LANDOWNERS / MANGERS IN THE REAL WORLD?:

The bailiff ought to rise every morning and survey the woods, corn, meadows, and pastures, and see what damage may have been done. And he ought to see that the plows are yoked in the morning, and unyoked at the right time, so that they may do their proper plowing every day. as much as they can and ought to do by the measured perch. And he must cause the land to be marled, folded, manured, improved, and amended as his knowledge may approve, for the good and bettering of the manor.

The bailiff must see that there be good watch at the granges over the threshers, and that the corn be well and cleanly threshed, and that the straw be well saved in good stacks or cocks well covered, and that no forage be sold from the manor, but let the weeds, if there be any, be thrown in marshy ground or in roads to make manure. And no stubble should be sold from the manor, but let as much as shall be wanted for thatching be gathered together, and the rest remain on the ground and be ploughed with the ploughs.

The lord ought to love truth and, and he ought to hate sin and injustice, and evil-doing. The lord ought not to take counsel with young men full of young blood, and ready courage, who know little or nothing of business, nor of any juggler: flatterer, or idle talker, nor of such as bear witness by present, but he ought to take counsel with worthy and faithful men, ripe in years. who have seen much, and know much, and who are known to be of good fame, and who never were caught or convicted for treachery or any wrong-doing

The lord ought to command and ordain that the accounts be heard every year, but not in one place but on all the manors, for so can one quickly know everything, and understand the profit and loss. The lord ought to inquire by his own men and others on his manors as many as there are, about his seneschal and his doings, and the approvements he has made since his coming; in the same way he ought to inquire about profits and losses from the bailiff and provost and how much he will have to seek from both. He ought to ask for his auditors and rolls of account, then he ought to see who has done well and who not, and who has made improvement and who not, and who has made profit and who not.

The ploughmen ought to be men of intelligence, and ought to know how to sow, and how to repair and mend broken ploughs and harrows, and to till the land well, and crop it rightly; and they ought to know also how to yoke and drive the oxen, without beating or hurting them, and they ought to forage them well, and look well after the forage that it be not stolen nor carried of; and they ought to keep them safely in meadows and several pastures, and other beasts which are found therein they ought to impound. And they and the keepers must make ditches and build and remove the earth, and ditch it so that the ground may dry and the water be drained. And they must not Hay any beast until some one has inspected it, and
inquired by what default it died.

...the Middle Ages were more tolerant in matters of sex-life than many earlier and later ages. No one except priests, monks and nuns who constituted, indeed, a considerable fraction of the population was required to repress his sexual impulses. They were not to be driven out, as the Fathers of the Church had wanted, only concealed subject to this condition, people could in practice, do as they liked. If it is permissible to characterize a period so long and so changeful with a simple phrase, we may say: the essential was dissimulation. This applied to politics. and also to sex-life. On the surface, everything centered round loyalty. The entire feudal system depended on the fidelity of the vassal to his liege lord, and family life on a marital fidelity which left no place for other relationships. But the elaboration of the conception of fidelity brought with it as its corollary the elevation of infidelity into a fine art.

An act of infidelity was no disgrace, always provided that one preserved the forms of polite society and was prepared to draw the sword and if necessary (this was not often the case) to die for one's heart's passion. The art of adultery used the same terminology as the official code of morals: honour, purity, virtue, loyalty were part of the popular vocabulary of the heroes who seduced other men's wives. Any knight who contented himself with wedding a maiden before having himself grown practiced in adultery and carried oft` several trophies of the chase was unworthy of his spurs.

Adultery was a social diversion among the upper classes. A knight had to have a "lady" whom he worshipped. to whom he devoted himself, and the lady had to be married, if possible to a husband of slightly higher rank than the lover, for in knightly love the eye was always turned upward.

Everything was pure and delicate. Church and State alike tolerated the adulterous relationship between the young knight and the baronial lady. A cavalier might even bring religion into his affairs of the heart. It was the thing to choose a celestial patroness, and the usual practice, incredible though it sounds, was to invoke the Virgin Mary to patronize the liaison and soften the lady's heart.

Prostitution:

The ports of embarkation themselves swarmed with women offering themselves to the Crusaders, and many went on board the ships. A calculation by the Templars (the Order which kept the accounts of the Crusades) noted that in one year thirteen thousand prostitutes had to be provided for.

When the Crusades ended, the problem of keeping the prostitutes under control became more urgent still. Many new towns had been founded. Women who formerly tramped the highways now...followed the trend of the age and were practicing their trade inside the town walls, or outside the gates. The citizens, even if they patronized the women, were scandalized.

The nuisance must be abated . It would be vain to attempt to eliminate prostitution altogether; this would do more harm than good. St. Augustine himself had said: "If you put down prostitution, license and pleasure will corrupt society." After long consideration, the authorities reverted to the methods of antiquity: putting the prostitutes into public houses, under police supervision, seemed the lesser evil. In many places the Church itself took control of the problem. In the papal city of Avignon a public house of ill-fame was established under the name of "Abbaye," Abbey, and the official patronage of Queen Joanna of Naples. The women employed there were required to keep the hours of prayer punctually and not to miss any service, for, depraved as their trade I was, they were to remain good Christians. In other towns the Church refrained from active participation in the business, but brothels were not infrequently established in houses which were owned by priests or Mothers Superior of convents. One Archbishop of Mainz, a highly educated man. was said to have as many prostitutes in his houses as books in his library. An English cardinal bought a house in which a brothel was situated with no intention of shutting it down.

It was, of course, a great advantage for a brothel-keeper if he could carry on his business on such premises, for he was then safeguarded against any slanderous accusation of commerce with the devil Even lacking such extraneous protection, however, the confession was not very dangerous. The inquisition paid small attention to brothels, unless for some special reason.

STUDENT LIFE AND BEHAVIOR:

The Battling Welsh Students at Oxford (1388-1389): Adam of Usk

In these days there happened at Oxford a grave misfortune. For, during two whole years there was great strife between the men of the south and the men of Wales on the one side and the northerners on the other, whence arose broils, quarrels, and oft times loss of life. In the first year the northerners were driven clean away from the university. And they laid their ex expulsion chiefly to my charge. But in the second year, in an evil hour, coming back to Oxford, they gathered by night, and denying us passage from quarters by force of arms, for two days they strove sorely against us, breaking and plundering some of the halls of our side and slaying certain of our men. Howbeit, on the third day our party, bravely strengthened by the help of Merton Hall, forced our adversaries shamefully to retreat from the public streets, which for the two days they had held as a camp, and to take refuge in their own quarters. In short, we could not be quieted before many of our number had been indicted for felonious riot; and amongst them I, who am now writing was indicted, as the chief leader and abettor of of the Welsh, and perhaps not unrighteously.

CONCLUSION:

Given what Chaucer knew, how did he create character in the Canterbury Tales?....