Medieval World

Elizabeth Brown argues in this article that "feudalism" and "feudal system" are essentially modern intellectual constructs which we have chosen to apply to the Middle Ages, and that they have become barriers rather than avenues to our understanding of medieval life and institutions. Therefore, she argues, we should seek to abolish these allencompassing terms from our writing and thought about the medieval world.

Brown does not deny at all that there were relationships and institutions in the medieval world which should properly be called feudal. However, when we go on to talk about medieval society as a whole and characterize it as "feudalism" or a "feudal system," we immediately run into complications. Where, for example, was the purest feudalism to be found? In France? Germany? England? All fall short in one way or another. Medieval institutions varied from region to region and century to century. Is "feudalism" to be adopted as a convenient simplifying tag for the beginner or general student, to be abandoned in favor of a more sophisticated outlook at the graduate level? But then, aren't we teaching a deliberately misleading picture to students, a picture they will retain?

In her argument, Brown draws mainly on the writings of modern historians, and particularly on their

. . .
o for practical reasons were happy to see their priests freed of control by local magnates. Clerical celebacy played a central role in making the clergy, by the twelfth century, "a race apart" (p. 191). But the reform did not carry all before it, without resistance. The new enforcement of celebacy was deeply disruptive, of course, to the lives of individual married priests. Many protested, and some had the intellectual skills to raise powerful arguments in their defense  some of the same arguments which prevailed in the Eastern church, and which have been raised again in the current celebacy debate. Barstow quotes at some length from these arguments. She devotes particular attention to one writer, "The Norman Anonymous" a married priest who wrote in the decades around 1100. He played a part as well in other Clunaic debates; his defenses of theocratic kingship, probably written for Henry I of England, are "the most extreme statements of caesaropapism in the middle ages" (p. 171). His final writings show "fatalistic resignation to the cruelties of life" (p. 173)  testimony to the personal impact of the celebacy rule. Barstow does not pretend to a "balanced" view of the celebacy debate. She t
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Churches Protestant, Frederick II, Roman Emperors, Llewellyn Barstow, Germany Hohenstaufens, Germany England, EleventhCentury Debates, Mellen Press, University Wisconsin, Henry England, twelfth century, priestly celebacy, anne llewellyn, feudal system, feudalism feudal, feudalism feudal system, married priests, clunaic reforms, control local magnates, enforcement celebacy, medieval churchstate, priests reforming papacy, roman emperors, married priests reforming, medieval churchstate conflict,
Approximate Word count = 2123
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Medieval World