Course Information

Medieval World

HN202-01S | Spring 2026

01S TTH 9:25-10:40; Humanities Center, 232

01S Enrichment Hour F 1:00pm-1:50pm; Humanities Center, 232

Plenary Seminar 3-3:50pm; Thea Bowman Hall, 230

Dr. Jeffrey C. Witt | jcwitt [at] loyola [dot] edu | ext. 2947

Philosophy Department 050M

Office Hours: T/TH 1:30-2:30, 4:30-5:00pm; W: 12:30-3:30pm (Please use "Bookings Calendar" to book appointments)

Course Description:

This seminar course will examine the period of history spanning from 400 to 1500 C.E., often referred to as the Middle Ages. We will examine this period from multiple dimensions, looking at the historical development of social ideas, theology, philosophy, and literature. As we will see, it is an extremely diverse period, and the seminar format will provide us with significant time to reflect and debate the ways in which this period does and does not represent a unified whole. Further, in keeping with our Messina theme, "Self and Other," this course will consider the ways different thinkers, writers, and political actors have thought about the individual and the pursuit of happiness in the context of society and the outsider. Finally, the course aims to provide space to reflect on the ways in which the Middle Ages influence and challenge our own assumptions about ourselves and our place in society.

Course Learning Aims and Expected Outcomes

Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of principle actors, historical developments, and foundational texts from the period 400-1500 C.E.

Students will be able to examine and articulate connections between developments in medieval history, literature, philosophy, and theology.

Students will be able to converse cogently about the Middle Ages as an idea and as a historical reality.

Course Readings

Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (SHMA), 6th ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023)

Rule of St. Benedict (RSB) (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1982)

Two Lives of Charlemagne (TLC), trans. David Ganz (New York: Penguin, 2008)

The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Material (TFC), ed. Edward Peeters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)

Beowulf (B), trans. Seamus Heaney (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002)

Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (AR), trans. William Kibler (New York: Penguin, 2004)

Dante, Purgatorio (P), trans. Robert Durling (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Course Requirements

Participation (2.5%)

Class involvement means, first of all, coming to class. Secondly, it means coming to class prepared. This primarily means both having read the assigned text and having the day's reading out and ready to be marked. Thirdly, it means being an active participant in the classroom. Finally, participation includes attendance and engagement during Messina EH, Messina events (and post event discussions), and plenary lectures. Lack of participation in these areas will negatively affect your overall participation grade. After 3 missed classes, participation grade will be reduced by 3% per missed class. (Missing more than 75% scheduled classes is grounds for not passing the course.)

Plenary Reflections (5%)

We will have plenary lectures through the semester. Using the Moodle "Diary" Module, I will ask you to provide a reflection response to 7 of the approximately 10 or 11 plenary lectures.

Papers (50%)

Paper 1 (20%) (4-5 pages)

Paper 2 (10%) (4-5 pages)

Paper 3 (20%) (4-5 pages)

Exams (42.5%)

Mid Term Exam (20%)

Cumulative Final Exam (22.5%)

Final Grade Distribution

93% A, 90% A-, 88% B+, 83% B, 80 B-, 78% C+, 73% C, 70% C-, 68% D+, 60% D

University Policies

Honor Code and Plagiarism: Students are expected to follow the university's honor code: "The Honor Code states that all students of the Loyola community have been equally entrusted by their peers to conduct themselves honestly on all academic assignments. Our goal is to foster a trusting atmosphere that is ideal for learning. In order to achieve this goal, every student must be actively committed to this pursuit and its responsibilities, and is therefore called to be active in the governing of the community’s standards. Thus, all students have the right, as well as the duty, to expect honest work from their colleagues. From this, we students will benefit and learn from the caring relationships that our community trustfully embodies. The students of this University understand that accepting collective and individual responsibility for the ethical welfare of their peers exemplifies a commitment to the community. Students who submit materials that are the products of their own mind demonstrate respect for themselves and the community in which they study. These students possess a strong sense of honor, reverence for truth, and a commitment to Jesuit education. Accordingly, students found violating the Honor Code will be reprimanded appropriately in the belief that they will, with the support of their peers, learn from the mistake. This Code not only requires students to understand the ideals of truth and personal care as the two strongest educational factors expressed in cura personalis, but also calls them to demonstrate a general concern for the welfare of their colleagues and for the University." See the honor code for further information. https://www.loyola.edu/academics/honor-code. Further, honors students are also expected to adhere to the honors program integrity statement (posted on moodle).

Title IX Loyola University Maryland is committed to a learning and working environment free from sexual and gender-based misconduct, including sexual harassment, sexual verbal abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual exploitation. Reports of such offenses are taken seriously, and Loyola encourages students experiencing sexual misconduct to report the incident in accordance with the University’s policy on Reporting Misconduct (PDF) (pages 36-37). Loyola is also committed to an environment free of other forms of harassment and discrimination. For information about policies and reporting resources, please visit harassment and discrimination policy (PDF).

Email Policy

Remember that while you have five teachers, I have more than 70 students. Thus, while I'm eager to connect with you, I can do this best by enforcing a few procedures.

For questions about the course, both content and procedure questions, please use our moodle help discussion board. Using this system will help ensure that I see and respond to your email. It will additionally ensure that others who have similar questions can also receive an answer. So, if you send me a direct email about course content and procedure, I will politely ask you to ask it again via our moodle "help" discussion board and I will be eager and glad to respond.

For other issues, I will be glad to discuss these with you. But I would ask that you use our office hours booking service and reserve a time slot to discuss it with me. We can generally always communicate better when we speak in person and this is an opportunity for me to get to know you better. This also helps me manage my time and provide you with the best response I can. So again, if you send me a direct email, I'll will be glad to discuss it with you, but I will often direct you to the booking system so that we can schedule a chance to talk about the issue.

Course Schedule

**This is a tentative schedule, subject to revision depending on our progress and extenuating circumstances**

Week 1

Tue Jan 13 (Class 1) - Intro and Welcome; "Introduction" to City of God, ix-lvii (Moodle).

Thu Jan 15 (Class 2) - Augustine, City of God (COG), Book 2, pp. 40-73 (Moodle).

Week 2

Tue Jan 20 (Class 3) - Augustine, City of God (COG), Book 19, pp. 669-709 (Moodle).

Thu Jan 22 (Class 4) - "Introduction to the Rule of St. Benedict" (RSB); Rule of St. Benedict (RSB).

Week 3

Tue Jan 27 (Class 5) - "The Siege of Constantinople: Easter Chronicle", pp. 55-59 (Moodle); "The Quinisext Council", pp. 60-62 (Moodle); "The iconoclastic argument: The Synod of 754", pp. 62-66 (Moodle).

Thu Jan 29 (Class 6) - Malise Ruthven, Islam in the World, "Muhammad the Model," pp. 26-79 (Moodle).

Week 4

Tue Feb 3 (Class 7) - "Muhammad's words in the Hadith: Al-bukhari, On Fasting," pp. 147-151 (Moodle).

Thu Feb 5 (Class 8) - The Life of Charlemagne (TLC), "General Introduction," pp. ix-xx and “Introduction,” pp. 3-13; Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne (TLC), pp. 15-44.

Week 5

Tue Feb 10 (Class 9) - Anglo-Saxon History; Beowulf Background; Beowulf (B), "Introduction"; Make progress on Beowulf reading for Thursday.

Thu Feb 12 (Class 10) - Beowulf (B), pp. 3-78.

Week 6

Tue Feb 17 (Class 11) - The First Crusade (TFC), "Introduction," pp. 1-24 and Part I, "Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont," pp. 25-46.

Thu Feb 19 (Class 12) - The First Crusade (TFC), Part II, "The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres, Book I," pp. 47-101.

Week 7

Tue Feb 24 (Class 13) - The First Crusade (TFC), Part III.1-6, "Peter the Hermit and the 'Crusade of the People'," pp. 102-150.

Thu Feb 26 (Class 14) - Midterm Exam. (Due: Paper 1 (Due Friday 2/27))

Week 8

Tue Mar 10 (Class 15) - Court life in the 12th Century; Chretien de Troyes Background; Make progress on Chretien de Troyes reading for Thursday

Thu Mar 12 (Class 16) - Chretien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (AR), "The Knight of the Cart" (AR), pp. 207-294.

Week 9

Tue Mar 17 (Class 17) - Philipp Rosemann, "From Story to System" in Peter Lombard, 8-33 (Moodle).

Thu Mar 19 (Class 18) - [Async Class] Aquinas, Treatise on Happiness, Questions 1 and 5 (Moodle); Dante, De Monarchia III.16, pp. 91-94 (Moodle).

Week 10

Tue Mar 24 (Class 19) - Presentations on a scholastic question.

Thu Mar 26 (Class 20) - Introduction to Dante's Purgatory; Aristotle's Ethics in the Christian Context; Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 (Moodle); Dante, Inferno, Canto 2 (Moodle). (Due: Paper 2 (Due Friday 3/27))

Week 11

Tue Mar 31 (Class 21) - Dante, Purgatorio (P), Cantos 1-15;

Week 12

Tue Apr 7 (Class 22) - Dante, Purgatorio (P), Cantos 15-33.

Thu Apr 9 (Class 23) - John Kelly, The Great Mortality, c. 3, pp. 53-77 (Moodle).

Week 13

Tue Apr 14 (Class 24) - Augustine, Confessions, II; Anselm, Why God Became Man, selections (Moodle).

Week 14

Tue Apr 21 (Class 25) - Julian of Norwich, Showings, Revelation XIV, pp. 248-304 (Moodle).

Thu Apr 23 (Class 26) - Review Session. (Due: Paper 3 (Due Friday 4/24))

Monday May 4th, 9:00am Final Exam