Read the questions carefully. Think about what is being asked. Be original! DO USE ALL THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THE COURSE: PRIMARY SOURCES, TEXT BOOKS, LECTURE NOTES, AND SESSION DISCUSSIONS. DO NOT USE WEB SITES UNLESS IT IS FOR THE DOCUMENTS. YOU MUST MAKE REFERENCE TO THE PRIMARY SOURCES ASSIGNED FOR THE COURSE AND TO THE ARGUMENTS MADE IN YOUR SECONDARY TEXTS.
It may be useful to provide some chronological reference, i.e., the trial of Urbain Grandier took place towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the Malleus Maleficarum was written in the late fifteenth, etc. Provide examples from your readings. Refer to specific texts in the course reader. Please do well! We want you to do as well as possible. Use page number. 12 Font Times Roman, double spaced. 1 inch margins throughout. Write the question you are answering on the text (single space).
In your take home final exam, your answers should not exceed a total of eight typewritten pages (double spaced), THAT IS EIGHT PAGES FOR A COMBINED BOTH questions. It can certainly be shorter than that (but not too short). The exam is due on Monday 10 June through Turn It In. The system closes at 6 PM and submissions cannot be uploaded after that time. If many of you submit around 6 PM, the system will crash. PLEASE DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. You may submit your exam before if you finish it earlier.
Part I: Choose One
- After reading Natalie Z. Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre, seeing the movie, and reading the original account of Jean de Coras what can you say about the lives and beliefs of French peasants in a specific part of France in the sixteenth century? What was their work like? What were their beliefs? What was the nature of peasant popular culture? How does the book compare to the movie and to the original account? What is different in the book? How different and why?
- In either of Carlo Ginzburg’s great two books (optional for this class), Night Battles, and The Cheese and the Worms, we see the encounter between ancient peasant beliefs, peculiar ideas, and inquisitors. Select one of these two books: What is the book all about? What are Ginzburg’s main points? What do you think of the book and why?
- The Italian Renaissance ushered a revival of classical culture, humanism, and extraordinary artistic production. It also led to the reception of ancient mysteries and esoteric doctrines. What was the nature of this knowledge? Why was that type of knowledge and what was its impact on the development of later European civilization? You may focus on one city. This question requires outside research from the books assigned in class or lectures. One good way to begin is Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance, Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, or/and Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Do not tackle this question unless you know what you are doing. This question will receive additional credit.
- Walter Benjamin in one of the opening excerpts on the website states that “there is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Considering the themes of this course, the documents you have read, and the lectures you have heard, do you agree or disagree? Provide evidence for your answer from the sources.
- Reflecting on the assigned readings and on the course lectures, discuss the development of the construction of the “Other” in late medieval Europe. How was this “Other” defined? Who fell into this category? What social, economic, political, and cultural forces contributed to this construction? What purposes did such construction serve? How did this play out in historical events? Be sure to provide specific examples from the assigned readings to support your argument. This “Other” here means old women, Jews, lepers, Muslims, and other religious, ethnic minorities, ill or older people who became scapegoats in the transition from late medieval to early modern.
- Reflect on the performative aspects of inquisition trials, thinking in particular about the witchcraft cases on the website. To what extent can they be seen as performances? How might this affect the way you use inquisition records as historical documents?
- What is the millennium? Discuss Norman Cohn’s description of millenarian movements in general and examine one of the movements he describes in his book in close detail.
Part II. Choose one
We are doing something different and adding a question to part II with a focus on the events of the last few weeks. You could choose this question instead of one of those listed for Part II. Rather than a partisan statement, we invite you to reflect on what happened (it could be personal) and to link it to what you have learned about Western European society in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. Here is the question:
You are a historian, writing and analyzing the events at UCLA and other universities (as well as conflicts elsewhere), twenty years into the future. Is there anything in this dark period of European history we have studied that teaches us anything about the world in which we live? About the uses and misuses of power? About the representations of “others”? About the contradictory nature of those sharing in high culture while practitioners of violence? Does knowledge of the past help you locate the violence we experienced on campus and the turmoil within a larger historicalframework? It could be personal and a diary of your experiences and response(s).
Other questions:
1. Choose one of the witch trial discussed in your course reader/web site. In light of Levack’s book and the lectures, what do these documents tell you about the witch craze. Please note the nature of authorship. Who is telling the story? Why? For which audience?
- Outline briefly the main characteristics of witchcraft and in detail the development and history of the European witch craze. What are the explanations provided by Levack and in class? Do you agree or disagree? You must offer evidence taken from the documents in the Course Reader to discuss the nature of witchcraft and its evolution from the central Middle Ages to the early modern period. References to the Malleus Maleficarum must be included prominently.
- You are a sixty-five year old woman/man from a small rural village in late sixteenth-century southern France. Under torture, you have just confessed to the local Dominican inquisitor your acts of necromancy and witchcraft. Tomorrow, since you are a relapsed witch/wizard you will be burned. In these last moments, what would you say about the society that has condemned you? About your own life? Give specific examples. Cite documents. Do not —- —-!
4. When heresy trials died down, witch hunts increased. Keeping in mind the social, cultural, economic, and especially religious changes in Europe, discuss why this was the case. Provide specific references to your readings
.
- Discuss the beginning of anti-witchcraft, anti-magic discourses, and discussions of the devil from Thomas Aquinas to the writing of Guazo’s Compendium Maleficarum, emphasizing the height, and decline of the witch craze. How did these phases differ geographically? Drawing from the documents and from Levack, make sure to give time periods and specific characteristics for each phase, and connect them to events occurring in the larger historical context of Europe.