Essays on Middle Ages

The idea of supernatural beings with inexplicable powers and the infinite yet uncontrollable realm of magic was a taboo subject that caused multiple social outbursts during the Middle Ages. Maleficium, otherwise known as witchcraft, sorcery and magic, was often practiced by men in the Middle...

The Black Death (1347-1352) was the Medieval black plague that ravaged Europe and killed a third of its population. It was due to the plague which is caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis) transmitted to humans from infected rats by the oriental rat flea. There...

During Medieval Europe, noblemen took mistresses and bore children with them without the Church’s blessing. This meant that the Church did not have power to punish a nobleman for having a mistress. For this reason, infidelity was common and the norm during this era; not...

Population on earth grows more and more everyday. In the medieval ages, the population in the world was estimated at about 500 millions people while today’s population is estimated at 7. 7 billions people. The amount of people increased significantly over the time but the...

Apocalyptic thought was an important part of religious reform among Christians in early medieval times. Apocalypse in the Middle Ages made a distinctive impact of ideas about time, power, and evil in church and society. Radical preaching, crusading, and prophetic traditions expressed apocalyptic ideas through...

It is important to understand that the knowledge of this period is one which has been presented through clerics and monks like Bede. Bede himself was literate and so much of his work can be understood to present the process of Christianization within Northumbria. This...

Many interesting theories are brought up in Kiilerich’s “Antiquus et modernus: Spolia in Medieval Art, Western, Byzantine, and Islamic” when it comes to the reuse of materials in Medieval architecture period. The author clarifies why someone would have made use of materials that had been...