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I just finished reading The Medieval Underworld by Andrew McCall. While not terribly in-depth the book was an informative and general look at the more disreputable parts of the middle ages. He did a wondeful job of de-romanticising the middle ages, painting it as a place or time, no one in their right mind would wish to live. McCall did a very good job of showing how things progressed throughout the middle ages, the reasons for what was happening, as well as showing differences between different countries, and the different roman, Christian and barbarian traditions. The book also had a ton of gorgeous medieval illustrations.
The first chapter was a brief overview of the middle ages, the main themes facing Europe at that time, crusades, plagues, threats from outside it's borders, and the rise of feudalism. The rest of the book looked separately at different groups that for a variety of reasons often found themselves outside of medieval law or convention. These chapters were, Church state and Sin, covering the rise of the catholic church in Europe. Crime and Punishment, looking at the ecclesiastical and secular courts and the roles of each. Bandits, Freebooters and Outlaws, how bands of these would terrorize the countryside. I must confess to getting a little bored during this chapter and at one point I found myself picturing the outlaws in medieval Chinese garb to make them more interesting. Richman, poorman, Beggarman, Thieves, which included an interesting look at the treatment of lepers. The chapter on Prostitution looked at the various laws were passed often trying to protect the women prostitutes which I found quite interesting, though the idea of making it illegal failed time and again. This was one of my favorite chapters and I wished it had been longer. There was a lovely bit when one of the Arab writers had been writing about the horrid prostitutes from France that had been throwing themselves at the crusaders and in his poetic prose came up with about 15 different euphemisms for sexual acts. The chapter on homosexuality was also quite good, depressing as it was to read about such prejudices, it was very interesting to see that it was a crime that was rarely persecuted. And there was a lovely part where an early monk was warning against the temptations of lust against other good looking young men. The chapter on Heretics was also interesting, looking at the different groups and movements, rather than individual cases. Sorcerers and Witches contained no real new information for me having studied the subject a bit. The last chapter on Jews was rather shocking at the horrendous prejudice, and in some cases genocide that was carried out against them in the middle ages. The last chapter was a look at Dante's hell. And showed the ultimate fate of everyone you had just been reading about, it was a very nice touch and almost upsetting.
The book used a lot of laws to illustrate it's points. But there were also plenty of stories and anecdotes, all documented from original sources, that were often very amusing.
The first chapter was a brief overview of the middle ages, the main themes facing Europe at that time, crusades, plagues, threats from outside it's borders, and the rise of feudalism. The rest of the book looked separately at different groups that for a variety of reasons often found themselves outside of medieval law or convention. These chapters were, Church state and Sin, covering the rise of the catholic church in Europe. Crime and Punishment, looking at the ecclesiastical and secular courts and the roles of each. Bandits, Freebooters and Outlaws, how bands of these would terrorize the countryside. I must confess to getting a little bored during this chapter and at one point I found myself picturing the outlaws in medieval Chinese garb to make them more interesting. Richman, poorman, Beggarman, Thieves, which included an interesting look at the treatment of lepers. The chapter on Prostitution looked at the various laws were passed often trying to protect the women prostitutes which I found quite interesting, though the idea of making it illegal failed time and again. This was one of my favorite chapters and I wished it had been longer. There was a lovely bit when one of the Arab writers had been writing about the horrid prostitutes from France that had been throwing themselves at the crusaders and in his poetic prose came up with about 15 different euphemisms for sexual acts. The chapter on homosexuality was also quite good, depressing as it was to read about such prejudices, it was very interesting to see that it was a crime that was rarely persecuted. And there was a lovely part where an early monk was warning against the temptations of lust against other good looking young men. The chapter on Heretics was also interesting, looking at the different groups and movements, rather than individual cases. Sorcerers and Witches contained no real new information for me having studied the subject a bit. The last chapter on Jews was rather shocking at the horrendous prejudice, and in some cases genocide that was carried out against them in the middle ages. The last chapter was a look at Dante's hell. And showed the ultimate fate of everyone you had just been reading about, it was a very nice touch and almost upsetting.
The book used a lot of laws to illustrate it's points. But there were also plenty of stories and anecdotes, all documented from original sources, that were often very amusing.