SECOND PAPER
The Second Paper should be four to five pages long (double-spaced, Times New Roman, font-
size 12), plus the title page at the beginning and a Works Cited page at the end. This is a formal paper, in
place of a final exam. It is based on materials from our entire course, and especially the
assigned primary sources. Please build on / reuse relevant parts of your First and Second
Group Projects, the First Paper, and your in-class work with primary sources. Feel free to refer
(briefly) to course materials such as the textbook (Madigan), the Module Introductions, Lectures,
Reading Guides, etc., but keep your focus on what you can discover in the primary sources.
Your paper will answer all three parts of this Big Historical Question:
In what specific ways were Catholic experience and thinking in High Medieval cities and
urban schools very different from the kinds of Catholic life and ideas that were typical in
monasteries during the 12th century? And how were they also similar in some ways–what
new perspectives on the goodness of God, the cosmos, the human person, and secular
society did Catholics share in both monastic and urban settings, in contrast with Late
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages? What historical causes related to political, social,
economic, ecclesiastical, and/or intellectual history might help explain your findings about
how monastic and urban Catholic experiences and cultures had changed in the High
Middle Ages, in contrast to what was more common in the earlier periods?
Focus your paper on examples and evidence related to the THEME assigned to your
small group (that is, monasticism, church leadership, love and gender, philosophers, the author’s
self portrayal, OR the human soul/body).
Base your answers to the Big Historical Question on the convincing analysis of these
SIX primary sources (the readings and translations assigned in our class):
– 1) St. Augustine’s Confessions (Late Antiquity, between 300AD and 500AD).
– 2) At least one textual document assigned in our Course and dating from the Early Middle
Ages (between 500AD and 1000AD: this could be St. Benedict’s “Rule,” Gregory the Great’s
Dialogues, St. John of Damascus, Rudolph’s “Life of St. Leoba,” etc.).
– 3) At least one High Medieval (1000-1300) Benedictine monastic source assigned in our
Course. You could write about St. Anselm; or you could write about St. Hildegard, Christina, or
St. Aelred—whichever author was assigned to your small group. Do not write on St. Francis of
Assisi for this part of the assignment, since Francis was not a Benedictine monk (he was a
Franciscan friar).
AND: These two High Medieval urban sources connected to Scholasticism (and
monasticism, since the authors were Benedictines at the time of writing):
– 4) Abelard’s Historia Calamitatum (1100s=12th century).
– 5) Heloise’s “First Letter” to Abelard (1100s=12th century). AND
– 6) At least one artwork dating from one or more of these same historical periods [from course
lectures, D2L pages, etc]: put this discussion of art in the paper wherever it fits chronologically.
Your paper should present and analyze evidence from these (at least six) different
primary sources in chronological order (in the order I gave you above). For each of these
sources, briefly explain its main themes and then: for each text, present strong evidence by
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quoting and explaining at least one short passage (5 to 30 words long); for the work of art,
describe and draw historical inferences from at least two relevant details.
Optional, for extra credit: In addition, you may also quote and analyze a short passage from
an assigned source concerning Cluny, the Gregorian Reform, the Investiture Controversy, the
Crusades, or St. Francis. Make sure this passage fits in some way the Theme assigned to you and
your group and helps you support your main points in answer to the Assignment’s big Question.
[You can add half a page to your paper’s length if you do this.]
As part of your evidence from each primary source text, everyone must quote and
analyze the short passage assigned to your small group by Augustine in Group Project #1,
and at least one of the two assigned short passage options by Abelard that were provided to
your group for Group Project #2. Incorporate relevant elements from your first paper and
the two small group projects. If you wish, you may quote and analyze the passage by Gregory
that was assigned to your group, or you may select other passages by Gregory, or you can decide
to work on another Early Medieval author. Otherwise, it is up to you to select and analyze
primary sources assigned in our class that help you support your conclusions: write about sources
that you thoroughly understand and that contain strong evidence about the history of Catholic
experience on your assigned theme. You are also responsible for selecting and analyzing the
short passages (each one 30 words maximum) that convey the best and most reliable historical
information about how your theme was typically viewed in each historical period. You will base
your paper’s main points on the content of those short passages, so choose them well.
To brainstorm, make sure you can accurately summarize each short passage, look closely
at its context in the work it comes from, and do a word-by-word analysis of each word. Then, in
the paper, incorporate a comment on at least two significant words or phrases from each
quotation into your analysis of each short passage. Analyze several details from the work of art.
Base your historical conclusions on the content of the short passages and the artwork.
Compare and contrast the information in these (at least) SIX sources. What, very specifically,
do you think changed over time between Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, and the High
Middle Ages? And: How do these sources reflect similarities and differences between monastic
and urban Catholicism in the High Middle Ages? Reflect also on why these various Catholic
cultures in different times and places were similar and different in these ways.
This is a formal paper. That means you should start with a short introduction that
presents the big issues and themes of the paper and identifies your (at least) SIX primary sources.
Then, in the body of the paper, present your evidence in well-structured paragraphs, organize
your primary sources in chronological order, quote and analyze your short passages, and
compare and contrast what you find so you can discuss what changed over time and how exactly
High Medieval urban and monastic Catholic experiences were similar and different. Finally,
write a strong conclusion that explores various options for why the Catholic experience was
different in monasteries and cities and why it changed over time.
Pay attention to organization, grammar, spelling, style, and word usage. Include short
parenthetical references for all your information,—include the short title or author of the
primary source, with page number, verse, or minute at the end of the relevant sentence. For
example:
“quote” (Confessions, p. 300). “quote” (Abelard, p. 300).
At the end of a sentence:… (Madigan, p. 300). … (Scott, “Introduction to Week 8, p. 5).
I have attached everything I believe you need please let me know if you need any more information, files or resources.
