The priest in the pilgrimage group had contempt for summoners and equated them with the devil, even claiming that the summoner had sworn an oath to the devil and that he was evil. Furthermore, the summoner used prostitutes to inform on his clients, and took advantage of old widows and impoverished people. Chaucer painted the priest as honest and wrote that he also believed that summoners were evil, because if you swear an oath to something, you are bound to it.
A woman in the group told a story about another woman who intervened to save a rapist and had mercy on him. Subsequently, the women in the pilgrimage then said that they wished women were in authority in society. Clamoring for more autonomy, the women said they wanted more freedom from their husbands and that men should let women make their own decisions.
Chaucer next told a familiar tale about God’s knowledge and man’s free will. After the last story about how women should have more power, Chaucer warned men about listening to their wives. He stated that all men have free will, but should still obey God’s will over everything else.
In another story, a powerful judge lusted towards a girl and wished to defile her. She had virtue though, and refused his advances. The girl decided to risk her death to remain chaste. Sadly, her father was wrongfully convicted of the murder by the judge, then exiled. This story is presented as a lesson of virtue. Chaucer told the audience to forsake sin before it forsakes you.
A page from the “Canterbury Tales” written in Old English.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) wrote the “Canterbury Tales” in old English instead of Latin, because he wanted to reach a wider audience and have more influence. This famous work is a collection of stories about a group of people making a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. It was a part of Renaissance literature and included poetry in the stories as well.
Even though Chaucer’s tales were in English, his audience consisted mainly of the upper class. Chaucer wrote about the evil of usury and called the practice satanic. He described the Jews as evil. In one story, an innocent boy was killed by Jews. In a vision, Jesus appeared to the boy’s mother, telling her about the incident. Subsequently, she reported this crime to the magistrate, who had the Jews ripped apart by wild horses.
During the pilgrimage, a monk spoke about the Bible, and blamed Adam and Eve for the downfall of humanity. He explained that fortune had taken down many powerful rulers, like King Nebuchadnezzar and Emperor Nero. Continuing, the friar told them to not trust earthly rulers over God. He quoted scripture, telling them to not put their trust in princes or sons of men, but to trust in God and God alone.
Another story stated that three men made a vow that they would try to kill death itself. They met an old man who claimed that he could not die. So, they asked the man where death was and he pointed them to a nearby tree. Instead of finding what they were looking for, then men came across a large pot of gold. Although they decided to split the gold evenly, secretly they all plotted to kill each other and take it for themselves. They all had wine, but each selfish person poisoned the other’s drink, so they all died. In the end, they all found death.
In the “Canterbury Tales”, most of the stories are told by the serious monk. The stories he tells are not believable, and so are likely metaphors or parables. The monk is not light-hearted and is very serious when he talks to the group.
Electors of the Holy Roman Empire decided on the next ruler (1340).
Representatives from across the Holy Roman Empire would gather at the Reichstag, where these politicians would choose the next king who would be declared emperor only after he was crowned by the Pope. The emperors depended on the Reichstag to supply him money for war and other activities. In 1314, there was a disagreement between two factions on whether Louis of Bavaria or Frederick of Austria should be crowned king. Pope John XXII didn’t recognize either as emperor, so they went to war.
In 1322, Louis defeated Frederick, but refused to appear at the Papal court so the Pope excommunicated him. Incensed, Louis proceeded to call Pope John a heretic and marched with his army to Rome. Once in Rome, Louis declared Nicholas V the new Pope, causing Romans to riot against Louis. Further outrage ensued after German soldiers stole bread from the market, resulting in rioting. This caused Louis to be forced to return to Germany and Pope John was able to take control of the papacy again.
Pope John XXII.
After this incident, support of Louis dissolved, so he tried desperately to apologize to the Pope, but this failed. Instead, Charles IV was crowned Holy Roman Emperor instead and governed respectably, lowering taxes and managing the realm adeptly. Emperor Frederick III (r. 1440-1493) lost many lands to Hungary during his long reign, but these territories would be taken back during the reign of Maximilian I (r. 1508-1519).
In 1469, the Iberian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were brought together when Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon married. This alliance unified Spain as a singular nation and consolidated it into a strong, centralized government. Unlike other European nations, Spain did not pay much attention to the Pope, and enjoyed broad tax exemptions, independent court systems, and kings that were able to choose their own bishops. From 1482-1492, the Spanish conquered Grenada, which was the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula. This completed the Reconquista, an era lasting from 718 to 1492.
Sultan Muhammad XII of Granada surrendering to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain on January 2, 1492.
Previously, the Emirate of Granada paid tribute to Spain, but in 1466, this practice stopped. After a 10 year war, the Spanish sieged out Granada, which fell in 1492. The Spanish allowed Muslims keep their religion and let them be governed by their own rulers, that is, until the Spanish Inquisition. During this famous period, Spain sought to cleanse the country of all non-Christians, so they forcibly converted or deported hundreds of thousands of Muslims, making Spain a fully Catholic nation. In 1492, King Ferderinad also issued a decree which exiled all Jews from Spain, sending 200,000 of them to North Africa.
After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453, the Ottomans blocked the Silk Road to Europe in order to prevent Europeans from trading with India and China. The Silk Road had been used all throughout the late middle ages, and supplied Europe with valuable goods like gunpowder and silk. Therefore Europeans looked for a different route to Asia, preferably by sea.
Portuguese explorer Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460).
A Portuguese explorer named Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) tried to sail around the horn of Africa to get to India. Although he never made it to his destination, Henry established trading outposts in Western Africa and traded with sub-Saharan Africans, eventually buying slaves from them and bringing them to Europe for the first time. In 1488, another Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and made it to the Indian Ocean multiple times to trade with the locals in India.
Vasco Da Gama (1460-1524) took four ships to Africa and India in 1497 and was the first European to successfully sail to India by sea. The Portuguese occupied Eastern India and Macao in Southern China, and started trading spices with the locals. Since Portugal dominated the eastern sphere, Spain decided to find a sea route in the West.
Columbus and his crew landing on the island of San Salvador, October 12, 1492.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian merchant who was assigned by the Spanish crown the task of sailing westward through the Atlantic. On the 12th of October, 1492, Columbus and his crew landed on the Island of San Salvador, in the Bahamas, marking (possibly) the first discovery of the Americas by Europeans. Columbus later discovered the island of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), where he established trading outposts and brought West African slaves to the Caribbean since the Spanish had outlawed enslaving the natives.
