Norbert of Xanten, Saint 523rose to the rank of noble, while various statuses became
more elaborate and closely defined. But still a ruler
could elevate a commoner to the rank of noble. In the
BYZANTINEEMPIRE, the nobility was tied tightly to the
emperor.
QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAPPINGSTo be considered noble, one had to live nobly, participat-
ing in such activities as HUNTING, WARFARE, and court life
and having the leisure to do so. A noble was to live off an
income based on land supplemented by activities, such as
war plunder and lucrative service to a lord. The nobility
was often exempt from taxes but had to respond to a
lordly call to armed service. It was fundamental that one
be recognized as noble by fellow nobles and reciprocate
with solidarity. Succession was usually along the lines of
primogeniture, with adequate and strategic provision for
women but little for sons other than the eldest. The ille-
gitimate offspring of the male nobility were usually con-
sidered noble, regardless of the status of their mother. By
the end of the Middle Ages and for far longer, a male
noble was required to act honorably and loyally, with
magnanimity or generosity, courage, courtesy, and respect
for the values of Christianity and the church. Female
nobles were expected to act the same way, in addition to
remaining chaste to keep succession pure and protect the
honor of their husband. The nobility also tried to main-
tain a number of outward signs of its status to receive
respectful treatment and command appropriate deference.
ARAB-MUSLIM ARISTOCRACYFrom the founding of ARABcaliphate, the old tribal aris-
tocracy and military command of the seventh century
long made up a nobility or elite. From the eighth century,
non-Arabs, state officials, and wealthy land owner joined
this class. Military revolts, dynastic changes, and political
removals or assassinations contributed to a great deal of
mobility within this upper class, but its qualities were
much less specifically defined than in Christendom.
See also BARTOLO DASASSOFERRATO; CASTLES AND
FORTIFICATIONS; FEUDALISM; HERALDRY AND HERALDS;
KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTHOOD; MINISTERIALS; SOCIAL STATUS
AND STRUCTURE.
Further reading:Simon R. Doubleday, The Lara Fam-
ily: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain(Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2001); Anne J. Duggan, ed.,
Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe: Concepts, Origins,
Transformations(Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000); Tim-
othy Reuter, ed., The Medieval Nobility: Studies on the Rul-
ing Classes of France and Germany from the Sixth to the
Twelfth Century(Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1979); Joel
T. Rosenthal, Nobles and the Noble life, 1295–1500(Lon-
don: George Allen and Unwin, 1976); K. B. McFarlane,
The Nobility of Later Medieval England: The Ford Lectures
for 1953 and Related Studies(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1973).
nominalism Nominalism was one possible solution to
the medieval philosophical problem of universals. This
problem, in LOGICand dialectic studies, was, When we
attribute to a subject a universal predicate, genus, or
species, such as animal or man, does this make a thing,
the animalness, present in each individual subject? Or
was this simply a word, a name, a mental construct
formed by experience of various singular individuals?
For nominalists the coincidence of individual traits per-
mitted us to posit a universal concept. The first solution
was realist and the second, nominalist. The term nomi-
nalistwas applied to various philosophical or theological
positions referring to the primacy of the individual, the
rejection of the reification of forms of relationship
between substances. It emphasized instead the sense of
the contingence of the singular, and the constructed
nature of signs.
Peter ABÉLARDtried to refute realism. He accepted an
idea that singular individuals, instead belonging to a one
real essence, participated in a common nature. WILLIAM
of Ockham started from the epistemological presupposi-
tions similar to those of Abélard but extended them to
natural PHILOSOPHY, metaphysics, THEOLOGY, and ideas
about the nature of the church. His resulting idea of the
absolute power of GODled him to deny that theology
could be a SCIENCEand that a hierarchical church was
anything like a perfect institution. The opponents of tra-
ditional Aristotelianism and Thomism rallied to Ockham
and his via moderna.
See alsoBIEL, GABRIEL; BURIDAN, JOHN; IBNRUSHD;
UNIVERSALS.
Further reading:John L. Farthing, Thomas Aquinas
and Gabriel Biel: Interpretations of St. Thomas Aquinas in
German Nominalism on the Eve of the Reformation
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1988); Heiko A.
Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel
and Late Medieval Nominalism(Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1963).Norbert of Xanten, Saint (ca. 1080–1134)archbishop
of Magdeburg, founder of the Premonstratensian order of
canons
Norbert was born at Gennep in what is now HOLLAND,
between 1080 and 1085. His noble parents pledged him
as a boy to an ecclesiastical life in the comfortable chap-
ter of canons of Xanten. He accompanied as a chaplain
the emperor Henry V (r. 1105–25) to ROMEin 1110. The
emperor’s attitude toward the pope in the INVESTITURE
CONTROVERSYdistressed him. In 1115 Norbert under-
went a sudden conversion, returned home, and tried to
reform his fellow corrupt and wealthy canons. He gave
up and became an itinerant preacher. By 1118, he was
deemed suspicious because he was not a priest, nor
even a cleric of any kind. He also preached without any
clerical permission. He obtained that from Pope Gelasius