HST 329: The Early Middle Ages - fall

Course not open to Freshmen

General Education requirement: Cult & Art Literacy/Global

History of Europe from the waning days of the Roman Empire through the year 1000. Europeans in this period drew on the resources of three inherited cultural traditions to build and to understand their world - Romanitas (Roman traditions), and Germanitas (German traditions), and Christianitas (Christian traditions). The fusion of these three traditions - and their interactions with Judaism and Islam - gave rise to the rich and diverse civilization of Later Medieval Europe. Themes include the slow evolution of temporal power and ecclesiastical power; the complex interplay between official and popular religion; the changing understandings of nobility; the transformation of the economy; and the place of minorities in a sometimes hostile world. This course is the first in a two-semester sequence in medieval history.