1. The Traditional Orders of Society
   In theory, three orders made up medieval society, but townspeople, women, and Jews were poorly represented by this description.
   1. Those Who Pray: The Clergy
      Beginning with Cluny, monastic reform movements increased the prestige of monks and nuns, while the secular clergy often combined clerical and lay responsibilities.
   2. Those Who Fight: The Nobility
      Arrangements of vassalage and distribution of power varied throughout Europe but generally speaking nobles were office-holding, landholding warriors who received special legal privileges and were expected to follow a strict code of conduct (chivalry).
   3. Those Who Work: The Peasants
      Whether slaves, serfs, or well-to-do freemen, peasant laborers shared a common rural lifestyle and environment. Over time lords who needed cash tended to convert peasant labor obligations into cash dues.
   4. Those Left Out: Townspeople and Jews
      Excluded from the three orders, the rapidly growing towns offered new and more flexible ways of life and sheltered Jews, who had a precarious existence in Christian Europe.
2. Social and Religious Movements, ca. 1100-1300
   Both heretical and orthodox spirituality exploded in twelfth and thirteenth century popular culture.
   1. Heretics and Dissidents
      Condemnations, crusades, and inquisitions answered Waldensian and Albigensian threats to Christian unity.
   2. Reform from Within: The Mendicant Orders
      Harnessing the spiritual energy of the age, mendicants such as the Franciscans and Dominicans embraced poverty in their practice of charity and service.
   3. Communities of Women
      Segregated and cloistered, women had few options in a religious life until the foundation of the Beguines.
3. Latin Culture: From Schools to Universities
   Increase and innovation characterized the elite culture of the Latin-educated intellectuals of the High Middle Ages.
   1. The Carolingian Legacy
      After the Carolingian era, intellectual activity continued, but on a smaller scale.
   2. The Study of Law
      The revival and expansion of church, or canon law, was followed by expansions and innovations in secular law.
   3. Greek, Arab, and Jewish Contributions
      Greek Christians translated the works of Aristotle into Arabic from 750 to 900 A.D., and Islamic and Jewish scholars struggled to reconcile this ancient philosopher with religious faith. Around 1100 A.D. Latin Christian scholars began working with the Arabic translations of Aristotle, beginning their rediscovery of the ancient philosopher.
   4. The Development of Western Theology
      Aristotelian logic came to play a greater and greater role in Western theological writing, leading to a new intellectual approach called "Scholasticism."
   5. The University
      With the church's supervision of curriculum and subjects, guilds of masters or students gave birth to the medieval university.
4. The Vernacular Achievement
   Beyond the church-dominated, Latinate intellectual world, increase and innovation marked the development of vernacular literature and architecture as well.
   1. Literatures and Languages
      Medieval vernacular literature mostly expressed the views of the elite, from heroic and epic poems to courtly love to Dante's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.
   2. Innovations in Architecture
      Romanesque architecture and decoration gave way to the light and height of the engineering marvel of Gothic architecture.