1. Unit 1: Chapter 1
Times of Change

2. Introduction
Guiding Question: In what ways can changing social structures affect a society’s worldview?
Has there been an event in your life that changed your way of thinking. (e.g. move to a new location, meeting someone who had different ideas, etc
Read story about Black Death p.17
If half the people in Canada suddenly died of a terrible disease, how do you think this would affect out society?
Put greater value on scientific and medical research
People may be cautious and suspicious
Spend more time with families and loved ones
Fewer wage earners, standard of living would go down

3. Less emphasis on materialism Greater concern for the environment
How does Orcagna’s art capture the mood of the people affected by the Black Death?
The mood is bleak and dark
People think, fearful
What change would you like to see in our society’s thinking today and what aspect of our way of thinking would you not want to see change?
Less emphasis on materialism
Greater concern for the environment
Wouldn’t want to lose our governmental system, technological advances

4. Section 1: A Changing Society
Guiding Question: In what ways can changing social structures affect a society’s worldview?
Feudalism – system of political organization during the middle ages. Lord owned the land and all other served him.
Hierarchy- social system where status is ranked. Power is concentrated in the higher ranks.

5. Knights – pledged allegiance to the king, promised to fight for him in exchange for rights to pieces of land (manor or fief)
Commoners (freeholders and serfs) – freemen – peasants who rented land from lord or worked for pay
serfs – peasants who worked the land for the lord, not allowed to leave the manor without the lord’s permission.

6. Feudalism Game
Do you think the serfs ever tried to revolt? Why or why not? (Reminder: serfs had very little power and no weapons.)
What would you do if you were a serf?
Have the students predict what might happen if the serfs refused to harvest the lord’s crops.
What motive (reason) did the serfs have for staying on the manor?
(protection from the lord)
How would the various positions in society influence a person’s worldview?
 Imagine living in Europe during this era.
How would they spend their time?
What would their hopes and dreams be?
What would their world view be?
Compare that life with life today.

7. Part II Read: Medieval Country Life p.18-19 and Town Life p. 22-23
peasants assigned strips of land
centers for farm communities
peasants worked together plowing, haying
castles, monastery (buildings, lands in which monks lived, carried out religious duties.)
peasant gave noble portion of produce
local goods available
build roads, clear forest
crowded, dirty
freedom, new opportunities
unskilled peasants could learn trades

8. Identify positive and negative aspects of both ways of life.
Where would you have liked to live and why?
BRAVEHEART

9. Part III
Who’s interests where best served by feudalism? What kinds of pressures many have caused feudalism to break down?
Challenges to the Feudal System
Revolts
1337, war between England and France
fighting devastated the countryside
peasants revolted because of high rents and taxes
 Black Death
millions died from a plague between 1346 – 1350

10. Do the Math Problem
After the Black Death sixty serfs died in the plague or left to work for higher wages elsewhere. Freeman now demand higher wages as well. You need to hire an additional 80 workers for 300 days/year at 3 pennies/day. What are your total expenses for one year?
pennies
Manors had to operate with fewer serfs. How might that have affected those still living on the manor?
labor shortages on manor, estates went bankrupt
nobles began to rent out land or sell it to the serfs. 
Before the Black Death there were 200 serfs living and working on your manor. Freeman are sometimes hired but wages are low. You want to hire 80 additional workers for 300 days a year and you pay a wage of 1 penny/day. What are your total expenses for one year?
pennies

11. Wealth in Society Marriage at Cana
Urban people now could move from one social level to another
Top
Church officials lords
Lords of large manors
Old noble families
Wealthy merchants
Middle class
merchants and business people
craftspeople
shopkeepers
bankers
priest and lower church officials
Lower class
peasants
rural laborers
urban laborers
servants
unemployed

12. New middle class emerged
Social position based on money, not on ownership of land
People became more focused on material possessions – clothing, furniture, etc
Sumptuary laws: laws that controlled the consumption or how people spent their money. Like the G.S.T
Men and women wore sumptuous clothes of silks, brocades, cut velvets and lace; precious stones and gold nets on their hair. Materials streamed with silver and gold were always vivid in color. Warm, flesh-tinted cosmetics were applied freely. Servents, pages, lackeys and ushers were clad gaudily, half red and half yellow, or half green and half white.
 Read page 24-27

13. Section 2: A Religious Society
Guiding question- In what ways do religious beliefs shape a society’s worldview?
Consider various religions from around the world. Do you think the world views in some societies are influenced more by religion than in other societies?
Read pages 29-30
Discuss: How did the power of the church influence the way people reacted to the Black Death?

14. The Church Community
Make a list of hierarchies you can identify in society today, what are some positive and negative affects these hierarchies have on people?
Read page 31
Draw in your notebooks the Church Hierarchy Diagram on pg 31
Read aloud “The Monastic Life on page 32 and “Learning and the Church” pg 33
To what extent does the church still play some of the same roles as in the Middle Ages?
Read page 34, and then make a list of how attitudes toward religion were changing, and what caused these changes.
Reflect and Respond-Homework
Review the past section we read and create a symbol that represents the Power of religion during the middle ages.