institutions of commerce and religion with those of the vast Mongol empire to their
east. In many ways medieval Europe reached the zenith of its prosperity, certainly of
its population, during the century bisected by 1300. The cities became the centers of
culture and wealth. Universities took wing, producing scholasticism, a “scientific
revolution” in logical and systematic thought. The friars, among the most prominent
of the scholastics, and ministering to an attentive, prosperous, increasingly literate
laity, installed themselves right in the center of towns.
Harmony was often achieved through clashes. The synthesis of a scholastic
summa was possible only when opposite ideas were faced and sorted out. The
growth of representative institutions nearly always entailed accommodating the
demands of the discontented with the enlightened self-interest of rulers. The great
artistic innovations of the day involved reconciling classical with Gothic styles. Poems
and musical compositions worked to assimilate the secular order with the divine.
The harmonies were not always sweet, but sweetness need not be a value, in
music or in life. More ominous were the attempts to sound single notes: to suppress
the voices of the Jews and the heretics, to silence the bells of the lepers. Cities tried
to close their gates to beggars. In the next century terrible calamities would construct
new arenas for discord and creativity.
Chapter Seven Key Events
1188 King Alfonso IX (r.1188–1230) summons townsmen to the
cortes
1222 Popolo at Piacenza wins role in government
c.1225–1274 Thomas Aquinas
1226–1270 King Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France
1230s Mongols conquer Rus’
1252 Genoa and Florence begin minting gold coins
1265 Commons included in English Parliament
1266/1267–1337 Giotto
1279 Mongols conquer China
1284 Gold ducats first minted at Venice
1290 Jews expelled from England
1291 End of the Crusader States
1309–1377 Avignon Papacy (so-called Babylonian Captivity)
