Three Patterns of Social Mobility in Medieval History

Bibliographic Data

ID4009872
AuthorsDavid Herlihy (0009-0006-1066-6780, corresponding author)
Year1973
Volume3
Issue4
Pages623
Publication date1973-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/202686
OpenAlexW2333632909
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Three Patterns of Social Mobility in Medieval History Medieval rulers philosophers repeatedly affirmed that the divine will had established social inequality, that the good Christian should be content with his station in life. Let everyone, Charlemagne instructed his subjects in the early 8oos, serve God faithfully in that order in which he is placed.' In an oft-quoted poem written about the year I000, Adalbero, Bishop of Laon, described the Christian community, which appeared to be one, as divided into those who prayed, those who fought, those who labored; all functional groups had to fulfill their lawful duties, to assure for the people peace, justice, salvation.2 dispensation of divine providence, Pope Gregory VII declared in I079, ordered that there should be distinct grades orders.3 went on to state that the community could not exist without a diversity of social ranks, without the subordination of the lesser orders to the greater. In I302 Pope Boniface VIII reiterated: According to the law of the universe, all things are not reduced to order equally immediately; but the lowest through the intermediate the intermediate through the superior.4 The members of each order should not aspire to the prerogatives honors allotted to those in other social positions. Nor should Christians seek to surpass their peers in wealth or dignity. He who has enough to satisfy his wants, the scholastic philosopher Henry of Langenstein concluded in the fourteenth century, and nevertheless ceaselessly labors to acquire riches, either in order to obtain a higher social position or that subsequently he may have

Social history (medicine) · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Medicine

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