Medieval history

The Crusades were a development of the High Middle Ages that connected Europe with Islamic civilization, and began weakening European feudalism throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The first of these Crusades were initiated by the papacy, as well as popular religious beliefs, and later had consequences for Europe. One...

The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, was a deadly pestilence that raged in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East from 1347-50, with several other occurrences in 1361, 1369, and 1374. The plague caused an incredible total of 75 to 200 million casualties, reducing the world’s population in the 14th...

In the article “Marking Religion on the Body: Saracens, Categorization, and The King of Tars,” Siobhain Bly Calkin rejects the opinion of other researchers that a Saracen sultan’s change of skin color from black to white after conversion to Christianity in The King of Tars reveals the text’s straightforwardness of...

Perhaps one of the best surviving examples of a liturgical gradual from the early 1500’s, The Geese Book, as it is commonly called, has been a shining star for historical scholars. Created for the Lutheran parish of St. Lorenz (St. Lawrence) in Nuremberg, Germany, the gradual was completed in 1510...

Beginning in 1378, the Great Schism threatened the political and ecclesiastical power of the Church at its very foundation when two, later three, Bishops claimed to be the true Pontiff (Pope) concurrently. Urban VI was elected first and held office in Rome, but dissatisfaction prompted the Cardinals to elect Clement...