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`e Way of Life at the Las MillenniumCraig Ruf, Public Sector Consultants, Inc.
Copyright 1999. Please do not reproduce without permission. For additional copies, please contactPublic Sector Consultants, Inc., 600 West St. Joseph Street, Suite 10, Lansing, Michigan 48933;517/484-4954; cruff@pscinc.com.
Religion and War on the Cusp of 1000 A.D.
Europe and the Mediterranean 1190 A.D. Reprinted with kind permission of Lixle, Brown and Company. ankind sands at a crossroad. One pathleads to depair and uxer hopelessness; theother, to total extinction. Let us pray that wehave the wisdom to choose correctly.
puter problem. Inasmuch ashumans are the only species that
A number of ideas are circulating,though no consensus has emerged.
called similarly the aughties. An-
the ’00s, pronounced ohs. Soon we
may be forecasting the aught-two or
consistency’s sake, we should refer
The millennial marking of the year 2000 A.D.
we might examine the state of Western civiliza-
results from the Christian dating of time from
tion in the year 1000—the previous millen-
the birth of Christ. Religion contributes the
nium—as a means of measuring this progress.
marking of time in most other major civiliza-
This entails picturing a world in which words
tions as well. As in so many other areas, the
such as “newspaper,” “mail,” “concrete,”
various religions do not bother with cross-
“fork,” “spoon,” “sewer,” “clock,” “button,”
cultural consistency. Counting from the year of
“cotton,” “windmill,” “compass,” and “dictio-
nary” have no meaning. The task is not an easy
Christian calendar’s second millennium as the
year 5760, a number which lips to 5761 onRosh Hashanah. Islam’s calendar begins in 622
I have learned much from and been greatly
[T]he end of the century and the new millennium is an appropriate point to consider how far we have advanced as a civilization. To do so, we might examine the state of Wesern civilization in the year 1000—the previous millennium . . .
munists in the late 1940s permitted use of both
continent and sparsely populated North and
South American and Australian continents.
But for those using the Christian-based calen-
The lack of information in the West on every-
dar, the end of the century and the new millen-
day life in the many cultures outside Europe in
nium is an appropriate point to consider how
the period is particularly vexing because the
far we have advanced as a civilization. To do so,
Chinese, Mayan, Aztec, Ghanaian, Byzantine,and Islamic cultures of 1000 A.D. were indis-putably more advanced than the cultures ofEurope (at least of Western Europe). Many of
1 So far, the dating of the earliest known living thing on Earthtakes us back at least 4 billion years. If anyone strictly adhered
the intellectually and economically wealthy of
to the march of time, the year in which we happen to live
the eleventh century were the artists, artisans,
(counted from the years since creation) would be at least ten
politicians, inventors, scientists, scholars,
traders, and educators living in parts of the
Manchester’s account of the period, A World Lit
globe we now condescendingly describe as the
Only by Fire; yet the Domesday Book, an early
“third world.” China’s industrial technolon
propery census, recorded only 275,000 heads
surpassed Europe’s even into the 0fteenth
of household in 1100, just a century later,
suggesting a total population of only 1.5 mil-
things utterly foreign to most Europeans in
lion to 2 million. Qualitative descriptions, too,
1000: cast iron, fans, umbrellas, rich clothing,
are plagued with ambiguiy and dissonance. For
lanterns, napkins, playing cards, money, and
example, scholars debate whether most Euro-
pean villages had names. As historians Will andAriel Durant wrote, “History is mostly guess-
This is not to sumest that there is an excess of
information on European culture in this period. It is not easy for scholars to research andreconstruct a period of time in which virtually
nothing was written down. Original writings
All things considered, in the history of the
and sources from this period are quite rare.
planet, a millennium is a dot on the timeline.
Here and there, we have a person’s will. The
epic poem Beowulf and Icelandic sagas are useful
tinuum of geologic time would represent far
less than a mile of a trip around the entire
Danziger explain in The Year 1000, the transla-
world. The earliest life on Earth dates back at
tion of everything written between 500 and
least 4 billion years. The earliest discovered
1000 A.D. would not 0ll one carton, whereas
remains of human ancestors date back 4 mil-
the Starr investigation produced thiry-six
lion to 6 million years. The species Homo sapiens
appears to date back as far as 250,000 years. People—as we now recognize them—go back
11,000 years. The agricultural innovation of
various scholars, hordes of inconsistencies
plowing was developed just 5,000 years ago. It
is sobering to think that many geologists view
Europe’s largest ciy in 1000, but its popula-
these past 11,000 years as the single longest
tion could have been anywhere from 250,000
stretch of human-compatible weather on most
to 750,000, depending on the source of the
reaches of the planet. Humans have overstayed
information. England’s population was 4.5
the Earth’s welcome by about the same 1,000
years that we currently commemorate.
waterwheel. Such cultures also contributedknowledge: for example, the alphabet andwriting; navigation and boats; and considerable
Dis is a bad place for an innocent man.
observations in astronomy, mathematics, andengineering. Europeans contributed virtually
nothing else to these inherited tools, skills, andbodies of knowledge during the course of 500years (400–900 A.D.) and precious little in the
The historian William Manchester points out
that for about 1,000 years (400–1400 A.D.),just about nothing constructive happened in
The shock of pondering 500 years of European
the Western world. In fact, this period did not
The shock of pondering 500 years of European inertia becomes more vivid if you picture life today absent of anything invented since
traordinary and exponential gains in knowledge
buildings were constructed during those years.
realized in just the past tweny years. Almostsurely, some number of us would be living on
Virtually everything that made European life
remotely palatable in 1000 A.D. had beeninvented by the ancient Enptians, Sumerians,
Blame a lot of Europe’s troubles during this
Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese, Greeks, or
period on the Chinese. They built the Great
Wall and it worked. The Hsiung-nu—a nomadic
concrete and tools of stone, wood, bronze,
and bloodthirsy group of Mongolians—could
iron, and bone; blowing glass; spinning 0bers
not crack it. They revved up their horses and
into clothes; weaving; and drying, salting, and
headed west in lieu of south. They drove the
smoking food. These civilizations also brought
equally bloodthirsy but less adept Goths deep
fermentation; the wheel and axle; plow; sickle;
into the territory of Rome. The Huns, as the
ax; mortar and pestle; potter’s wheel; and
Reprinted with kind permission of Martie Holmer.
Hsiung-nu were called, eventually teamed up
in so many ways because they share Celtic roots.
with the Goths in one of history’s early part-
By 450 A.D., non-Celtic tribes from northern
nerships and in 410 A.D. sacked Rome, and
with it, Western civilization. As these maraud-
North Sea. These Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and
ing forces created chaos throughout Europe,
Gauls drove the Celts and Britons of England
civilization retreated into darkness. By our
standards, these were heady times for the
Wales. This is why these areas today feel the Celtic
ignorant, brutal, and brutish. With validiy, you
inluence so much more strongly than do central
could argue that the Great Wall held back the
and eastern England. In turn, many Cornish and
Western world’s progress for a full millennium.
Welsh residents resettled in Brittany (France) toescape the invading Germanic tribes.
The largest pre-Roman culture in westernEurope was the Celtic civilization. The Goths’
and Huns’ ransacking tour of Europe in the
multiple gods) were playing for high stakes in
0fth century drove the Celts out of central
the year 1000. Following Rome’s fall, the
Europe. Some Celts led for safey to England
and others to France and Iberia (modern Spain
Eastern (Constantinople) orientations. The
and Portugal). Iberian Celts later migrated toIreland and, in smaller numbers, Scotland.
These Celts developed a culture and language
A linguistic irony, the word pagan is rooted in the Latin pagus,
which meant an uncultured countryside, and pagani, which
distinctly diferent than the Celts who made it
described the rubes and country bumpkins who lived in such
to England by northern routes. Even so, it is
areas. Romans looked down their considerable noses at pagani.
ironic that the Irish and English are at variance
Over time, pagan became the word used to describe the verypeople who, like the Romans, believed in multiple gods.
If the Church was the single most powerful
Carolingian Empire, the most prominent and
organizing force of Europe in 1000 A.D., the
successful leader of which was Charlemagne
Vikings were Europe’s most powerful disorga-
(768–814 A.D.). The Eastern Church staked its
nizing force. Over the last 300 years of the 0rst
future with the Byzantine Empire. The two
millennium, the Vikings—who hailed largely
churches formally split in 1054 A.D., but there
had been little conversation and not much love
lost between them for centuries before.
setbacks, they conquered at will much of theBritish Isles, Russia, Iceland, Greenland,
Normandy, Paris, the Bordeaux, Lisbon, Italy,
Christianiy slowly gained ascendancy in Eu-
Greece, the Balkans, and Turkey. Their invin-
rope between the fall of Rome and 1000 A.D.;
cibiliy stemmed from the size and speed of
thus James Reston, Jr. argues in The Last Apoca-
their boats, the qualiy of their arms, and their
lypse that the magical, millennial year truly was a
0ghting ardor. Lute0sk (the native Norwegian
dish of dried cod soaked in water and lye) mayhave had something to do with it, too.
Modern meteorologists explain the Vikings’prowess as a result of a much warmer-than-
normal weather cycle in northern Europe at thetime (“Little Optimum,” they call it). Londonhad a climate roughly equivalent to that of the
If men recognize no law superior to their
Loire Valley in France. Virtually everyplace in
Europe was two to four degrees warmer than
desires, then they must 0ght when their
today’s climate. The arctic ice was in retreat,
which explains in part the abiliy of LeifEriccson (or Ericson) to traverse the North
R. H. Tawney Atlantic in 1000 A.D. and discover Newfound-
land. Not only did the warmth grease the way
Reston credits events of the year 1000 as
for easier navigation on the northern seas, but
resolving—through countless military and
it also contributed mightily to the population
political strumles—the question of religious
Europe. Crops lourished that otherwise either
struggles determined that paganism, repre-
would not have grown or would have produced
sented by the Vikings and Manars of Hungary,
and the Islamic faith, represented by theMoors, either were fended of by or absorbed
One of Europe’s most regular victims of Viking
into Christian societies. In the early tenth
raids was England, ruled between 978 and 1016
century, Christian communities largely domi-
nated England, northern Italy, France, north-
Unred, (or “Unready.”) Ethelred could not
0gure out how to block persistent raids uponthe southern, eastern, and northern coasts of
Saxon population. The Norman Duke William,
incompetent leadership, lost one skirmish after
who defeated the English at the Battle of
another, sued for surrender, and paid of the
Hastings in 1066, is just one example of these
Vikings with substantial sums of silver. As a
result, the Vikings cleaned up in Englandwithout working terribly hard at it.
The Vikings were not the only threat to theChristian way of life. In Hungary, a tribe of
By 1000 A.D., some Viking leaders had turned
nomadic horsemen called Manars (the 40,000
to Christianiy as a way of being neighborly.
horsemen of the Apocalypse) felt yeasy enough
Souring on the endless sea travel, they encour-
to trash Constantinople, much of Greece, all of
aged their people to settle in places like En-
Italy, Burgundy, Bavaria, and northern Ger-
gland and Normandy. It was easier, of course,
many, to boot. Originally, they hailed from
to raise a family, marry of kids, and join in the
central Asia’s steppes. Shortly before the
communiy’s recreational oferings if you gave
German Prince Otto met the Manars en masse
various saints. Viking genes were hardy, and the
and obliterated them. In Rome, the Pope was
Vikings made their presence felt in the Anglo-
overjoyed and subsequently established theHoly Roman Empire in honor of Otto. Restonironically points out that the said Holy RomanEmpire was none of those things: It was Ger-man, not Roman, and it was a weak confedera-tion of small principalities, hardly an empire.
(That it was not holy in the tenth century goeswithout saying.) Shrewdly, the Pope namedOtto its 0rst emperor.
The third threat to European Christianiy wasthe Moors of southern Spain, or Al Andalus, asthe Moors called the region. Tracing theirorigins to early Islamic caliphs who governednorthern Africa and southern Spain (at onepoint, their troops reached Tours, France), theMoors united under a strong leader, Al Mansour(also spelled Almanzor). During the tenth cen-tury, Al Mansour brought all of central andsouthern Spain into his empire. Slowly migrat-ing south from northern mountain retreats,Christian armies marched on the Moors. AfterAl Mansour’s death in 1002, Moorish uniycrumbled. By 1085, Toledo (south of Madrid)had fallen into Christian hands, although it wasnot until 1492 that the Christian kingdoms of
Reprinted with kind permission of Martie Holmer.
Portugal, Castile, and Aragon ended Moorish
Bede was not content merely to second-guess
inluence on Western art, architecture, mosa-
Julius Caesar, who commissioned the Julian
ics, and music continued. Certainly no culture
calendar. He also sought to pinpoint the year as a
in Europe in the tenth century could hold a
measurement of time since the birth of Christ.
candle to Al Andalus’s civilization.
(The Julian calendar, 0rst presented in 46 B.C.,was predicated on the founding of Rome in 755
In the tenth century, the Christian Church was
B.C.) Bede hit two major obstacles in his calcula-
busy consolidating its power in Europe. Just
tions. One resulted from the fact that Christ
after 1000, however, that consolidation became
could not have been born in the year 0. If this
were true, by the time he would have been thiry-
launching the 0rst of ten crusades—which
three, his biblical age at death, Herod would have
would span nearly a century—to make the Holy
been dead for three years; therefore, Christ’s year
of birth must have been 4 or 3 B.C. The secondproblem stemmed from a vexing problem with
Now that we have in mind the big picture—a
Roman numerals. The twelve months of the year
continent’s people furiously struggling between
0 never were accounted for because there was no
Christian and non-Christian forces—let’s move
Roman numeral for “0.”3 You might want to put
to everyday life ten hundred years ago.
this truth to the test by asking a Roman acquain-tance what the year before I is called.
Inasmuch as Arabic numerals were not yet invogue in Europe (they were 0rst introduced toEurope in Italy about 970 A.D.), the few people
`ere is no fence nor hedge round time
who could write in the year 999 A.D. wrote theyear as DCCCCLXXXXVIIIIJ (the “J” at the
that is gone. You can go back and have
end stands for Julian). Imagine the glee at the
what you like of it, if you can remember.
beginning of the new year, when they couldsimply write “M” on their checks.
In the end, Bede did what any efective politi-cian would do: He negotiated the facts and
In 730 A.D., the English monk Bede (“The
simply announced that the current year was 730
Venerable”) took on the job of double-check-
years from the birth of Christ. Nobody in
ing the Julian calendar. He proudly discovered
Christendom cared to argue. He wasn’t called
that the 365-and-one-quarter-day Julian year
“The Venerable” for nothing. Nevertheless, it
was eleven minutes and fourteen seconds too
was 800 years before Bede’s updated system
long (meaning that about every 128 years, one
day should be skipped). Eight hundred yearslater, someone paid attention, and the modern
Gregorian calendar (named for Pope Gregory
The anal-retentive millennium scholars know that the new
millennium and century really do not start until January 1,
XIII) came into being. The Pope lopped of ten
2001. While all others will celebrate the changeover this New
days in October of 1582, making up for lost or,
Year’s Eve, these scholars will find comfort, if not much
duced particularly innovative and original artand theolon. In the brief periods ofnonprayer, Irish monks copied the Bible and
You’re right. Maybe it’s bexer not to
ancient writings and put on paper usefulsermons and prayers for their peers. Irish
émigrés to Europe reintroduced classical
Church’s campaign against temporal knowledgethat it is miraculous that the writings of
the motion picture Curse of the Demon
Homer, Socrates, Plato, Euclid, Galen,Archimedes, Virgil, and Cicero survived. Much
When early cartographers reached the end of
of the work of Sophocles and Euripedes was
the known world, they scribbled the following
lost. Humans came very close to losing com-
warning: “Beware, dragons lurk beyond here.”
plete touch with culture before the Dark Ages.4
The system of knowledge in 1000 was organizedaround dragons, demons, saints, and maryrs,
Occasionally preserved were some temporal
0gures that inspired dread and uncritical awe.
works—such as the great Anglo-Saxon epic
The smallest things—something falling of the
Beowulf, Icelandic sagas, or German myths and
kitchen table—and the largest—comets and
fables—but as mentioned earlier, translations
earthquakes—were attributed to the goings-on
of all the European writings of this age would
of little people, elves, trolls, fairies, and the
0t into one carton. Hence, our knowledge even
devil. Magic was everywhere, as were shrines,
of the lack of knowledge in the period is limited.
relics of saints, and miracles. Saints were the
equivalent of modern-day celebrities likePrincess Di and Michael Jackson.
There existed little ambiguiy about right and
wrong. The Church was viciously anti-intellec-tual; it countenanced no other court of justice.
Nothing diferentiated ecclesia (the church) and
mundus (the world). Lovers of and searchers for
knowledge beyond the Church’s teachings were
in the motion picture `e Out-of-Towners
skeptics. When these heretics were not reducedto ashes at the stake, they were exiled.
Europe contained about 60 million people in1000
Knowledge was reserved for and preserved in
European population. In contrast, China had a
monasteries, and it was far from temporal. It is
population of about 100 million, and Japan
a bit of a reach for Thomas Cahill to argue that
had more than 4 million people. Europeans
the Irish saved civilization in his book How the
were sprinkled around in small villages. From
Irish Saved Civilization—a title that kills all thesuspense in reading the book—but not too
4 I understand that the term “Dark Ages” fails the political
much of an exameration. In part because of the
correctness test in some quarters, wherein “Early Middle Ages”
relative isolation of the island, the Irish pro-
the vantage of an airplane, Europe would have
of the village. According to Norman F. Cantor
looked like an archipelago of dink settlements,
in The Civilization of the Middle Ages, at least 80
surrounded not by water but by very dense
percent of the population never moved more
forest. In 1000, London probably accounted
than ten miles from their place of birth. This is
for 50,000 of the 1 million to 4.5 million
one reason why many villages had no names:
people living in England and Wales.5 Paris had
There was no need to call the only place you’d
about 20,000 people. Cordoba, Spain, was the
most populous European ciy in 1000, with nofewer than 250,000 and as many as 750,000
In A.D. 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse,
residents. Only the Spanish cities of Cordoba
Richard Erdoes vividly describes what was in
store for the folks who left the village:
world’s 0fteen bimestcities of 1000. According to Norman F.
avoid it did. Roads, wherethey existed, were atrocious,
Cantor in `e Civilization of the Middle Ages , at leas 80 percent of the population never moved more than ten miles rom their place of birth. `is is one reason why many villages had no names: `ere was no ned to call the only place you’d ever know anything but “here.”
Some people lived intowns and walled cities,
large towns, twisting streets could barely ac-
killed, robbed, sold into slavery, or raped
commodate a man with a fory-inch waist. By
passersby. Had there been no amressive animals
far the greatest number of people lived in
of the two- or four-lemed variey, journeys still
villages of less than 100 people, small settle-
ments that were about 0fteen to tweny miles
Flanders (modern-day Belgium) to Rome would
woodlands or swampy bogs. For all but the mostadventuresome and those who had been exiled,
Ten centuries before the movie `e Blair Witch
an entire lifetime was spent within the con0nes
Project, the woods were already a source ofterror. Such bedtime stories as “Little Red
5 Manchester guesses the population at 4.5 million, a muchhigher number than the speculations of Gies and Gies (1.5
million), Erdoes (more than 1 million), and Cantor (1 million).
Riding Hood” need to be read with the context
To a modern audience, the story makes little
of the Dark Ages—and the very real terrors of
sense and may be read as a quaint tale appro-
the period—in mind. Ms. Hood lived with her
priate for children or an opportuniy to lam-
mother on the edge of a large wood. One day,
poon political correctness; however, for the
her mother asked her to take a basket of goodies
audience of the 0rst millennium, the tale was
probably as scary as anything Stephen King has
Garner parodies strident, intellectual liberal-
ever written, because these threats (forests,
ism in his version of the story, narrated in this
passage from Politically Correct Bedtime Stories:
Population varied according to the times. In
So Red Riding Hood set of with her basket
any given century, there might be a half-dozen
through the woods. Many people believe that
years of absolute famine. One of every three or
the forest was a foreboding and dangerous place
so years brought a degree of famine. In these
and never set foot in it. Red Riding Hood,
periods, an entire village might disappear, its
residents killed of by starvation. Gut-wrench-
budding sexualiy that such obvious Freudianimagery did not intimidate her.
ing stories of deprivation have been handeddown: Scores of villagers in England jumped
On the way to Grandma’s house, Red Riding
hand-in-hand over clifs to suicide rather than
Hood was accosted by a wolf, who asked her
face the inevitable sufering that comes with
what was in her basket. She replied: “Some
starvation; fathers legally sold into servitude
healthful snacks for my grandmother, who is
children under the age of seven; infanticide was
certainly capable of taking care of herself as a
The wolf said, “You know, my dear, it isn’t safe
On the positive side of things, plagues paled in
for a little girl to walk through these woods
comparison to the force they became in the late
Middle Ages because there was so little pesti-lence-by-tourism (people stayed in one place)
Red Riding Hood said, “I 0nd your sexist remark
and pestilence-by-trade (rats and disease were
ofensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it
not transported from one village to another
because of your traditional status as an outcastfrom sociey, the stress of which has caused you to
through mercantilism). Cities occasionally were
develop your own, entirely valid, worldview. Now,
hard hit by epidemics, but none saw anything
if you’ll excuse me, I must be on my way.”7
like the 50 percent death rate of the BlackDeath plague in the fourteenth century.
The drama unfolds with the wolf beating Ms. Hood to Grandma’s, eating the grandmother,dressing up in her nightclothes, and hostingthe girl, who is ba6ed over how big hergrandmother’s eyes, nose, and teeth havegrown. The wolf eventually coughs upGrandma, and ends up chopped into pieces bythe old lady.
In 1000, the rigid trappings of the caste systemof the High Middle Ages were ledgling, thoughthe Church was rigidly hierarchical. Among the
laiy, certain ambiguities and varying degrees ofworthiness muddied the waters. Sing whatever is well made,Scorn the sort now growing up
The kings of 1000 ruled relatively small swaths
of land. France’s “king” at the time, for ex-ample, is better described as the Duke of Paris,
`eir unremembering hearts and heads
since he would leave the ciy infrequently and
could never fully depend on loyaly or securiyoutside the ciy limits. William, who conquered
England in 1066, was not a French king but
Each kingdom had unclear boundaries. Within
Porter-drinkers’ randy laughter.
any one kingdom, inhabitants of the manyvillages, towns, and cities battled each other,
and numerous dialects further divided citizens. A king in 1000 resembled an owner of numer-ous plantations in the antebellum South.8Nonetheless, the monarch was expected to livean active life as sportsman, warrior, levier of
taxes, and source of social order. He was sur-rounded by a throng of sycophants, retainers,0ghters, and slaves, who all did their best tomake him feel powerful.
Below the king ranked other nobiliy—namely,princes, dukes, counts, and lords—thoughmany of these nobles held greater sway andwealth than kings in other lands. Wealth hingedon farmable acreage, number of slaves, and sizeof police protection.
Although lacking a title, a landowner of signi0-cant propery and multiple farms came next on
8 Strictly for trivia contests, the showcasing kings of 1000 wereas follows: England’s Ethelred II (The Unred), France’s RobertII (The Wise), the Holy Roman Empire and Saxony’s Otto III,Hungary’s Stephen I, Poland’s Boleslav I, Norway’s Olaf I, andRussia’s Vladimir. The Sung Dynasty ruled China. The Popewas Sylvester II. Reprinted with kind permission of Martie Holmer.
the Medieval Age’s list of who’s who. On large
estates, people were rank ordered (1) steward, or
devices; however, attention to the past and
day-to-day administrator, (2) miller, (3) smith,
future seems largely absent from human con-
sciousness in Europe’s Dark Ages. Christianiycomforted people with the promise that some-
The vast majoriy of people were peasants and
thing good came after the sufering of life, but
serfs. Peasants cobbled together a living by
to villagers, the words “yesterday” and “tomor-
farming small patches of land behind their
row” had little meaning or consequence. Life
village home. Serfs did likewise, but rented
was strictly about the needs of the present day:
land from the elite, paying taxes and sharing
0nding enough to eat, warding of invasion,
crops with the master. Unlike peasants, serfs
and simply surviving. Ergo, individuals con-
were not free. In England, they were called
ceived of the relevance of their own lives and
villeins. While serfs could plow and harvest crops
the lives of others much diferently than we do
from a small piece of land that they called their
today. Notions of self-awareness, identiy, and
sympathy were much more limited then than
master’s lands. Serfs toiled nearly as hard for
now. Psychotherapists would have had a tough
nobiliy as slaves did, but legally they had a
time building a market in the year 1000.
In this less complex time, people used simple
At the bottom of the list were slaves, who were
names, such as “Eric” or “Maude,” and their
treated much as the enslaved were from Old
kids were known as “Eric’s son” or “Maude’s
Testament times through the American Civil
daughter.” Just as commonly, villagers were
War. Deemed and valued as propery, they were
named after their features, for example, “the
Fair,” “the Red,” “One-Eye,” or “Limp.”Royaly frequently linked the 0rst name to afeature; thus the Carolingians had Louis the
Pious, Louis the Stammerer, Charles theSimple, Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat, andLouis the Slumard; the Saxons had Henry the
Always remember, poliics are about
Fowler; and the Anglo-Saxons had Edwy theFair, Edgar the Peaceful, Edmund the Ironside,
and Harold the Harefoot. Last names were rare
and quite unnecessary. Surnames, at least in
England, did not come into vogue until themid-twelfth century.
The leaders of the Greek, Chinese, and Romanempires valued organized knowledge anddemonstrated an interest in the history of manand the planet. They planned for the future by
roof was thatched with straw, broom, orheather. It rotted easily and often caught 0re.
Stone was used only to erect castles and grandcathedrals, even though older Greek andRoman cultures widely used stone for a variey
of buildings. The home contained a hearth ofhot coals for cooking and heating and straw to
provide comfort for sleeping. Chairs were rare,
but the family might have a bench. Chests heldthe family’s few possessions, like bowls and jugs.
Sod, wood, and thatch sheltered people. If a
In the morning, odds were excellent that you
good storm came along, you’d have to rebuild.
would awaken next to one or more of the family
Sometimes, a budding architect would attempt
sheep, goats, dogs, chickens, or cats. The
to add a second story, usually with grim results.
notion of familia encompassed not just immedi-
By the thirteenth century, second stories had
ate and extended relatives but also slaves,
in the second story that the family’s animalswere sheltered, hence the expression “raining
Aside from the hearth’s 0re, there might be a
cats and dogs” is quite literal. The right torrent
beeswax or tallow (mutton fat) candle for light
of rain and wind indeed would cause the pets to
within the home. The tallow candle must have
added to the ripe aroma of the medieval house-hold. Lighting had limited bene0ts, anyway.
Storms were part of everyday life and attribut-
Nobody could read, and even if they could,
able to and predictive of astounding things.
there was nothing to read. Candlelight was used
primarily in the mornings and early evenings
In May, thunder presages a hungry year . . . In
Privacy is a 0xation of the modern age.
the month of July, thunder signi0es crops
Lovemaking, bathing, and toileting did not
turning out well, and livestock perishing . . . If
leave the stage of public viewing until the
it thunders on Sunday, this is considered to
seventeenth century or even later. The toilet of
presage an extensive mortaliy of monks and
the home of 1000 was just outside the back
nuns . . . Of thunder on Wednesday, there isno doubt that it presages the death of idle and
door. There, on the ground, would pile up
human and animal excrement, urine, and lastnight’s leftover bones. (In case you wonder,
The village home was one room with a dirt
moss was the preferred toilet paper of the day.)
loor and no windows. The medieval peasant’s
This was the golden age of lies. Some scholars
home measured about ten-by-tweny feet. The
have hypothesized that the human sense ofsmell must have changed over time. Certainlytoday we could not tolerate the odor of the
Peasants died with no more possessions than
their simple home and their clothes. Even
remedy. During the 900s, Bald’s Leechbook, a
noblemen left little inheritance. Erdoes cites
guide to the cures and remedies of the age,
the will of a Catalan baron whose propery at
death consisted of “all his furniture, to wit: one
Danziger’s description of it follows.
featherbed, three coverlets, two rugs—one offelt and one not of felt. Likewise all his money,
Its remedies were conveniently listed in de-
scending order from the head to the toe. Onecure for a headache involved binding the stalkof the herb crosswort to the head with a red
bandana, while chilblains were to be treated
with a mixture of ems, wine, and fennel root.
smok, it ofered only small advantages over the
Right in the middle of the remedies, along with
peasant’s shack. As the baron’s will makes clear,
other ministrations to the groin area, was listed
interior decoration was minimalist in the
the Viagra of the year 1000—the yellow-
lowered herb agrimony. Boiled in milk,agrimony was guaranteed to excite the man whowas “insu2ciently virile”—and if boiled in Welshale, it was described as having exactly the contrary
For a spider bite, you would fry, crush, and eat
`e art of medicine consiss of amusing
black snails. Smoke from smoldering goat’s
the patient while nature cures the
hair helped relieve lower back pain. If you
burned bees, you could make an ointment of
their ashes and retard baldness. When bleeding,
leeching, and herbal remedies did not work,you could try cautery. Sans TLC and little white
The practice of bleeding and the applying of
hats, your nursing staf would apply red-hot
leeches is not just an over-the-top conjecture
iron pokers to your body—acupuncture with an
of contemporary historians and physicians.
People bled and leeched to the hilt. Bleedingwas quite simply viewed as the purging of bad
Nobody knew what a germ was, but everyone
things—like demons—that had gotten into the
knew what an insect was. Because individuals
bloodstream. It may seem like folly today, but
customarily owned one set of clothes, the skin
bleeding retained its populariy (though cer-
came alive with little gnats, ticks, and lice.
tainly not its efectiveness) well into the nine-
Actually, most people in Europe went naked
teenth century. Of course, the results were
whenever the weather allowed, because nudiy
iatrogenic to the max. (In deference to the
was far better than dealing with insects. In years
squeamish, we will not discuss the medieval
of famine, it might have been necessary to
practice of trepanning, or drilling holes into the
exchange that one set of clothes, anyway, for
Bathing was almost unheard of in Christian
three-and-one-half inches today). Women of
Europe. Only in monasteries would soaping and
the period were not excluded from the world of
cleaning the body be undertaken, though ex-
tilling, hoeing, and other kinds of manual
tremely infrequently. One English monastery’s
labor. Lacey and Danziger conclude that people
log required that monks take 0ve baths every
started shrinking in size as the population
year, which Lacey and Danziger point out as
being fanaticism by Anglo-Saxon standards.
smallness was not reversed until the late nine-teenth century.
The Moors, in contrast, associated cleanlinesswith godliness and bathed regularly. A Muslim
Health was relative, as was life expectancy. Half
ambassador to the Slavs recorded the following
the people died before the age of thiry. If you
extended an AARP card. At0fy or older, you were
When bleding, leching, and herbal remedies did not work, you could try cautery. Sans TLC and lixle whie hats, your nursing staf would apply red- hot iron pokers to your body—acupuncture with an axiude.
girl carries the same bowlwith the same water to the
marriages, sending of the bride and groom to
The average height and weight of people at the
a fairly private place in the nearby woods. For
time is di2cult to assess. Manchester believes
the only time in their lives, they got a vacation—
that the average man stood 0ve feet and weighed
a full lunar month of R&R. Villagers provided
135 pounds. Lacey and Danziger 0nd evidence
them with a couple of quarts of mead, made of
that men in England were a bit shorter than
honey, along with the gruel du jour. The tradi-
they are today (0ve feet, eight inches compared
tional month after marriage was thus nick-
to 0ve feet, nine inches today) but that women
named the “honeymoon.” It is hardly surpris-
were about an inch taller (0ve feet, four-and-
ing that a good number of brides came home
ers. The shortage of chickens made this meal arare event. With dinner, you might eat a poundor more of bread. In a ypical day, a European
`is place certainly reks of hospialiy
of the clern or nobiliy ate more than threepounds of breads made of wheat or rye. Along
and good cher . . . or maybe it’s this
with apples, pears, and nuts, the peasants’ diet
advice to stick with a low-fat, high-0ber diet.
referring to Clark Gable’s character’s
manners in the motion picture Red Dust
broccoli, caulilower, or brussels sprouts. These foods were not imported until much
In good times (the unfamines) you ate two square
later. Worse for vegetarians and carnivores
meals a day. The morning meal was served shortly
alike, there was no such thing as cofee or tea,
after rising, or between 8:00 and 10:00 A.M.,
sugar, or chocolate. Honey was the only sweet-
and supper was served anywhere from 3:00 to
5:00 P.M. Meals were healthy compared to today’s
preferred cloves, mustard, caraway, and pepper.
fast food. They included lots of cereals andquite a few vegetables, with starch in the form
Meat was special. England and many other areas
of bread. Protein was harder to come by.
of the continent were crowded with wild boars,and pigs were domesticated, although not
Grain sustained life. Cooked whole, the gruel or
plentiful. You might occasionally get served a
cereal fed the peasant’s family. Ground by water
huge pork sausage (we’re talking the size of a
mill, it became oat, barley, wheat, or rye lour for
bread. Much progress in the area of processing
provided by goats and sheep, was far rarer, and
grain would be made in the years immediately
after 1000: In the year 1000 there were only 100
horses could be eaten, but cows were valued for
mills in all of England; however, the Domesday Book
milk and horses for plowing 0elds. The hunter
logs 5,624 mills by the year 1086, and that 0gure
who stumbled on a deer was one luck fellow, as
venison was worth its weight in gold. Swanswere in reasonable supply, as were cranes,
In villages, peasants ate a steady diet—twice-a-
crows, and herons. If you lived close to an
day, everyday—of gruel made from wheat,
inland river or lake or the sea, 0sh—particularly
barley, rye, or oats. The porridge simmered in
eel, trout, and herring—were plentiful and
a pot on a trivet over the hearth’s coals. If you
popular. In late fall, pork and herring were salted
lived in a larger town, ciy, monastery, or
and beef was dried and salted for the long winters.
castle, you might dine on several soup courses—one of cabbage, another of watercress, one of
The dry martini was nine centuries from being
em, and maybe another of carrots, peas, or
created, but wine and beer were abundant. On
beans. If you were really luck, you got cheese
the continent, where grapevines proliferated,
soup. If you were really, really luck, you got
wine was made and consumed in huge quantities.
chicken soup, which was known even in the year
Little was stored or left to age. In England, where
1000 as having soothing and restorative pow-
grapes were harder to grow, mead was a respect-
able substitute. Both there and in Germany, ale
see that poultry was not de0ned as meat. About
was popular. During the much later reigns of
one pint of wine daily rounded out the monk’s
Henry VII and Henry VIII (the sixteenth cen-
tury), the king set a per capita allowance of agallon of beer per day. Fortunately for moms anddads, per capita included kids. This gives some
sense of just how much alcohol was consumed inearlier times. And there was no aspirin.
Fasting was not so popular as eating but about
pounding, and I felt, I felt a funny
as common. Some years, as noted previously,were worse than others were, and famines led to
tingling all over y’know. I don’t know, I
mass starvation. Cannibalism was not unheard
was either in love or I had smallpox.
of. Families who could not aford anothermouth to feed might defy the church and
abandon their newborns to nearby woods.
motion picture Take the Money and Run
Some months, even in good years, were worsethan others were. July, for example, was a
In England, all human beings were called menn.
relatively barren month. It was late for the spring
One human being was called a mann. If you
goodies like dandelions, peas, and carrots, and it
wanted to distinguish the genders, males were
was early for root vegetables. Another terrible
called waepnedmenn (weaponed-menn) and
time of the year was late winter/early spring, the
females were called wifmenn (weaving-menn), a
period after things stored over the winter had
word which obviously is the source of the
been consumed but before spring shoots had
modern word “wife.” Technically, words such as
materialized. The custom of fasting during the
“chairman” or “mankind” or “man” (repre-
senting the human race) are very consistent
with Anglo-Saxon usage and show no partialiytoward either gender. I would not bother
Royaly ate better than the peasants (surprise,
surprise!) A monarch, duke, or count wouldentertain special friends at a long table. People
Peasants, as mentioned previously, had one set
would eat from common platters 0lled with
of clothes, full of vermin. In the village in
roasted pigs, apples, and beans. A cup of wine or
warm weather, many fashion plates went nude.
ale was passed from person to person and was
Men of the nobiliy wore knee-length tunics and
always replenished by the help. Jumlers and
cloaks, open on one side and fastened on the left
musicians might entertain during and after the
shoulder with clasps. They also wore undershirts
meal, which frequently would last hours.
and hose. Women always had their heads covered,in obedience to religious dogma.
In at least one monastery, the diary shows thatmonks ate 0sh two to four times weekly, along
Male servants and serfs wore their hair short,
with ample quantities of cheese and ems.
while landowners and the nobiliy wore it long.
Under Benedictine policy, monks could eat no
Women prided themselves in very long braids.
meat; however, the monks cleverly managed to
The Church frowned on sex, admonishing the
mal taxes and retainers you could collect. If you
clern to avoid it and urging the laiy not to
were a monk, you lived a peasant-like lifesyle
enjoy it, even within marriage. Most everyone,
of course, engaged in and presumably enjoyedit, including the clerics. The Catholic Church
Commerce between societies was quite limited
had not yet extended formally to clern the fringe
and nothing like the east-west, north-south
bene0t of celibacy. Many monks, bishops, and
trading and transportation dynamic of Roman
popes married freely. The wills of bishops and
times. Silk from the Middle and Far East seeped
priests before the last millennium regularly
into Europe’s royal circles and courts. The
dispersed propery to their wife and kids.
Islamic caliphates exported silver and horses;India exported spices and gold. Vikings tradedfor these goods furs, honey, and weapons.
Economic Development International trade was just beginning to
expand again, most amressively in Flanders. Flemish merchants huddled for protection in
Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey,burghs, or fortresses owned by local royaly. As
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
the bourgeoisie grew in number, they built walls
Princes and lords may lourish, or may fade;
around themselves and began to resemble thedenizens of today’s gated, suburban communities. A breath can make them, as a breath has made;But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
By far the bimest, broadest, and most lucrative
When once desroy’d can never be supplied.
trade was in slaves.13 For most Americans,
A time there was, ere England’s griefs began,
slavery always will be associated with the forced
When every rood of ground maintain’d its man;
importation of Africans, but slavery was com-mon in ancient civilizations as well as in the
For him light labour pread her wholesome sore,Jus gave what life requir’d, but gave no more;His best companions, innocence and health;And his bes riches, ignorance of wealth.
The Romans had set the bar very high on slave-
based entrepreneurship, but the early medi-evalists were not exactly pikers. When you
conquered a village, you made of with anyresident sized up as slave material. Slaves
As Cantor diferentiates the classes of 1000,
possessed utterly no rights and could not own
propery or marry without permission. Slaves
fought), or prayed, according to their station
could be granted their freedom, in which case
in life. As a peasant, you grew your own food in
they might lead a more normal life. Ireland’s St.
a small plot behind your house, between the
Patrick, for example, was abducted from his
village and the big, bad woods beyond. You
English home while he was a young lad and sold
made your clothes from the wool of sheep. You
into slavery, but ultimately he was freed.
built your home out of scraps from the woods. Or, you were a king, prince, emperor, or a
factotum in their ranks and lived off the mini-
“Slave” comes from the word Slav, the Slavic people being a
particularly bountiful source of slaves in this era.
Actually, by the year 1000, slavery in Europe
So primitive were transactions that the simple
was starting to lose its edge and appeal. The
“plus” (+) and “minus” (–) signs did not appear
Church urged its faithful not to enslave a
in European culture until much later. Roman
person other than a Jew, Moor, or pagan. As
numbering left a lot to be desired. Try multi-
agricultural yields increased due to the intro-
plying the Roman numbers MCDVII and DIX.
duction of heavier plows and more e2cient use
Only much later did the abacus come along and
of horse collars, enslavement of people was
slowly loosing its economic incentive.
England and Moorish Spain had currency in
1000, but aside from a few noble families,currency simply did not circulate much in therest of Europe. The economy consisted of
I don’t fel that I have to wue everybody
bartering and the exchange of goods within a
out, Tom. Jus my enemies. `at’s all.
single village. Intracontinental trading mightinvolve transporting English woolens to France.
motion picture `e Godfather Part II
England’s silver coins gave rise to an intriguingway of taxing people. Every two or three years,
Crimes of the eleventh century are fairly
all the coins of the realm were declared void.
indistinguishable from crimes of our time.
People raced down to their nearest mint, about
seveny of which were sprinkled around the
country, and exchanged the old coins for new
teachings. But how perpetrators were handled,
ones. For every ten coins brought in, the
judged, and penalized was radically diferent
redeemer got eight or nine back. Some of the
diference compensated the minter for all hisbother and some was sent to London as tax. In
The elite—which included noblemen, land-
unstable budgetary times, one presumes that
owners, knights, and clern—regularly escaped
the king shortened the shelf life of the coinage.
conviction for crimes. They were held to a
If he was running up a big surplus, he might
lower standard than peasants, serfs, and slaves.
pleasantly surprise his constituents by stretch-
Even when judged guily, the elite received
ing their use. By the way, if in your coin collec-
diferent penalties than did the ri7af. Mur-
tion you 0nd an English coin dated 997 or
der was far from a clear-cut matter. Perhaps a
1001 A.D., recall that Arabic numerals were not
duke stabbed to death one of his slaves. As
rationale, he might have argued that the slavefailed to meet job expectations. The bene0t of
Other ingenious forms of taxation included
doubt would go to the duke, hence no convic-
pontage (charging anyone for the privilege of
tion. The opposite would be true had the slave
using a bridge), rivage (a toll for wading across a
stream), and péage (a foot tax for walking acrosssomebody’s land).
A lord might take the life of a peasant and be
judged guily without reason. The lord’s penalymight have been payment of a 0ne—a grieffund—to the peasant’s family, whereas a peasant
I am always sorry when any language is
murderer might get hanged. If a nobleman was
lost, because languages are the pedigree
convicted of an unreasonable and particularlyegregious ofense, he might get the death
penaly, but it would be carried out in the
humane manner of beheading by axe, as op-
Life of Boswell: Tour to the Hebrides
posed to the mode of executing peasants:burning ofenders at the stake or subjecting
Because of the limied opportunities for travel, many isolated villagers formed dialecs indecipherable in villages as close as weny miles away.
have at hand, mostlywritten by monks, no such
were adjudicated throughvendetta. Families simply
justice to those who harmed them. In Living in the
Europe. This original language gave rise to the
Tenth Century, Heinrich Fichtenau recounts such
Romance languages of Spanish, French, and
an example from the seventh century, wherein
Italian, the variances of which keep American
Bishop Landibert of Liège was upset that two
visitors on their toes. Because of the limited
brothers had harmed his servants. The bishop’s
opportunities for travel, many isolated villagers
dependents and kin killed the brothers. The
formed dialects indecipherable in villages as
next of kin of the brothers subsequently had to
kill the bishop. Vengeance upheld honor, the
England’s multiple personalities of Gaelic,
criminal justice system got a pass, and justice
Celt, Breton, Greek, Roman, Anglo, Saxon,
Jute, and Norse (or Viking) melded and pro-duced the rich tongue of Englisc (Angle-ish). The many original tongues produced a slew of
synonyms for words within the English lan-
was miserable, and to wage war in this season
guage. Historically, if you wanted to bring up a
required expensive clothing. Spring was re-
child, you reared him in English or raised her in
served for planting, which left late fall as the
Norse; both words eventually were incorpo-
best time to pick a 0ght. You not only had
able-bodied men with fewer constructive things
diferent grammars and word endings denoting
to do, but you could count on raiding silos full
tense and gender, English-speakers simpli0ed
words by removing the clumsy endings thatendure in German, Slavic, and Romance
“Wars were self-perpetuating,”14 David Fromkin
languages. It is no accident that English is the
writes in The Way of the World. Feudal leaders
attracted to their service the best-skilled war-
relative simpliciy of the grammar and the
riors. In a tight labor market, the leaders had to
explicit meanings make it a logical choice (that
recruitment, these leaders had to constantly
and the fact that Americans and Brits intransi-
acquire new land and booy to pay the warriors,
gently resist learning any other language).
requiring of course more warriors for suchconquests. As mentioned earlier, leaders didnot preside over nations so much as clusters of
villages and towns. There were probably acouple of hundred kings in northern Europealone. The fact that these monarchs could not
keep their hands of one another, lead to a stateof near-constant warring as well as an entire
class of nobiliy entirely occupied with support-
ing or plotting against the monarch du jour and
warring, enslaving, and collecting taxes on his
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
behalf. These pez cabals were a far cry fromthe more successful military-industrial empires
The absence of decent roads did not stand in
of China, Rome, Greece, and the Mayan world.
the way of barbaric and incessant warfare. Theage’s barbarism might make you cringe, but lest
In such a world, the bevy of brawn prevailed;
you feel holier-than-thou, consider the fact
the strong of brain were superluous. Erdoes
that in our modern times the combined efect
believes that people were roughly viewed as the
of two world wars and the despots Hitler and
equivalent of livestock. If you killed of the
Stalin caused more deaths than the entire
peasants and serfs in an enemy’s territory, you
hit him in the pocketbook. The strong robbed,killed, and despoiled the weak. Men and women
Battles were largely seasonal. You would not
were murdered, mutilated, castrated, and had
drag in from the 0elds of summer young men
limbs hacked of. General rules of war were
tilling, weeding, and watching over the crops
con0ned to refraining from (1) 0ghting on
that meant survival in the upcoming winter.
holy days and the Sabbath, (2) violating nuns
Even in the warmer-than-now climate, winter
and wounding unarmed clerics, (3) pestering
into battle stark naked. The latter certainly took
folks who sought sanctuary in a church, (4)
advantage of the element of surprise, but the
burning cloisters, (5) destroying crops, and (6)
former seems more pragmatic. In a compro-
cutting down olive trees. In some areas, it was
mise between the two wardrobes, the bravest of
also considered uncouth to rape and pillage
all Vikings were called Berserks, or “men who
villagers after dark, steal all the wax and honey
fought without shirts” (serks).
from a person’s beehives, or not leave a peasantone horse for plowing.15
Vikings and Manars, being utterly ruthless,subscribed to no rules. The blood curdled atthe prospect of an incursion by either group. As I undersand it, port is hard work for
particularly noxious Viking means of playinghardball was the “blood-eagle.” The victim’s
ribs were chopped of along the spine andspread apart like wings so that the quivering
As summer television ratings have proved,
humans 0nd great appeal in wrestling. Of all
through the open back. Prodding poisonous
village games and sports in 1000, nothing came
adders down the victim’s throat or through a
close to the populariy of the wrestling matches
hole carved into the stomach also made good
maneuvers carefully plotted is anyone’s guess.
The costumes of war ranged from the Vikings’
Chess was played here and there, and a variation
on tic-tac-toe provided fun for the whole family.
helmets to the Irish Celts’ custom of running
his is not the end. It is not even the begnning
Tof the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the
future. In this spirit, this essaycelebrates the coming millennium
(Are we paying attention to thebig picture or diverting our
mathematics, law, and thearts—people whose legacieshave greatly enriched our lives.
The efect of brain science research or the
We also might get into the habit of asking
home-delivered meal is much greater than we
ourselves not simply whether an innovation can
fully appreciate. Outstanding stewardship
create certain ends but the far more important
should be recognized and rewarded immedi-
question of whether we want those ends. For
ately, not 10 years later, and certainly not 100
example, do we wish for endless life through
science? Do we want humaniy to becomemachine-like and machines to become human-
prophesize the condition of the Earth in theyear 2100 (the subsequent turn of the century)
The past, present, and future all are worth
or at the next millennium (the year 3000). In
celebrating. We can best milk the millennium,
or put it to progressive use, if people unite inappraising and celebrating all three histories. 1 recognize that our full potential is unreal-
1 imagine where we would be had we not lost
1,000 years of progress and dedicateourselves to never again doing so; and
1 envision how those who are sufering (the
poor, sick, troubled, and undereducated)might be alleviated.
Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996.
Cantor, Norman F. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.,
Erdoes, Richard. A.D. 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse. Berkeley, California: Seastone, 1998.
Fichtenau, Heinrich. Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders. Chicago: Universiy of Chi-
Focillon, Henri. The Year 1000. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1969.
Fromkin, David. The Way of the World: From Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Tweny-First Century. New York:
Garner, James Finn. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. New York: Macmillan, 1994.
Gies, Frances and Joseph Gies. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995.
———. Life in a Medieval City. New York: Harper Perennial, 1981.
———. Life in a Medieval Village. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991.
Lacey, Robert and Danny Danziger. The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium: AnEnglishman’s World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1999.
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only By Fire. Boston: Back Bay/Little, Brown and Company, 1992.
McNeil, William H. Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1998.
Reston, James, Jr. The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000 A.D. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1998.
“The Year 1000: What Life Was Like in the Last Millennium,” U.S. News and World Report (August 16–
South of the Border Mr Attitude It takes longer to get to Drumahoe or Limavady than it does to get to Tolka Park, As Portadown’s title chase foundered with a whimper at Warden Street many Ports yet to hear the scribes and various knockers of the newly founded Setanta Cup you’d fans were left dumb struck by the lack of passion and responsibility shown by our think we were going t
MINISTERIO DE RELACIONES EXTERIORES GUÍA DE ESTUDIO TEMAS NACIONALES Y DE POLÍTICA EXTERIOR TEMAS NACIONALES I. HISTORIA DE PANAMÁ A. PERÍODO COLONIAL 1. Colonización y evangelización de América 2. Papel del istmo como vía de tránsito B. PERÍODO DE UNIÓN A LA GRAN COLOMBIA 1. Congreso Anfictiónico de Panamá de 1826 2. Intentos separatistas de Panamá de