I love Kelley

My birthday was today and they sang but sounded like dying animals.  I had to wear the hat and it was horrible.  The we had to define the terms, Drew and Mikenzhie and I worked together and it went well.  It surprisingly was quick for us to get done.  Kelley saved us and now the test is on Tuesday, otherwise it would have been Wednesday, and we would've have no final exam review.

David and Maxwell

I wasn't there for the beginning few minutes but when I walked in Maxwell and David taught class today, all they did was review what we learned yesterday.  Kelley and Grace enacted everything they said out...it was ugly.

Feudalism

We went over a PowerPoint created by the book people, and I can’t even count how many times we looked at a stupid iron plow.  Anyways, the Roman Empire gone, but the Byzantine Empire was still there.  Feudalism is a term used by historians to describe the governmental system and the relationships between landowners and warrior.  Warriors, also known as knights, pledged his allegiance to a lord, who would in turn give that knight land.  Fief: Property Lord would grant fief to the knight, who would then become the lord's vassal: servant (more like a star baseball player on a team).  That was called a feudal compact.  A vassal must fight for the lord when he needs it and attend his court once a month.  A vassal was required to pay homage: special honor or respect shown publicly.  Men were apprenticed to older knights before they could become a full knight themselves.  When a knight died, his fief would revert to his son, though his lord would be protector of that son if he was underage, or if it was a daughter.  A rich person could have many knights.  Barons: lords of large territories who usually paid homage to a king.  Baron’s army could outnumber that of a king, it kept a check on the king’s power.  Order: king, baron, lord, knight, regular folk.  Lords live on the manorial estate.  There are 3 estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the common people.  Peasantry farmed on large plantations known as “manors” which were owned by a lord, or lady of the nobility (or member of the clergy).  Iron plows and water-powered grinding mills helped with agricultural production, but the yield was still miniscule by today’s standards.  The three field system was used were two fields were planted on in the fall and one in the spring.  One field was left to reconstitute its fertility—then they were rotated.  The lady of the house ran household operations, oversaw servants, entertain guest and ran the manor when the husband was away.  The men oversaw the fields.    Most peasants were serfs: they were bound to the land and to the lords for labor service a few days each week.  Servants would feed birds.  Most medieval towns and villages were surrounded by fortified walls because it was dangerous.  Their use was to keep people in and keep people out.  Suburbs: people who lived outside of the walls.  Towns were dominated by a main church and a central marketplace.  All of their churches were super dark because there were no windows.  Guilds: unions.  Townspeople were free, but there was still a hierarchy: Merchants at the top, then skilled craftsmen and artisans, then unskilled laborers and apprentices.  Merchants, craftsmen and artisans formed their own groups call guilds which regulated their trade and protected its members.  Craftsmen were classified as masters, journeymen, and apprentices.  Once became a master after spending years learning as an apprentice, working as a paid journeyman for a number of years, and completing his “masterpiece”.  I didn’t get everything but that’s it.  Oh, then Mr. Schick threw my eraser out the window.

Test Returned

We got our test back today and lots of us did really badly.  I got a 68% but with the 4 points added to it I technically didn't fail.  I did do really well on the essays though.  Front page was ugly.  We did the worst out of all our sections on the test but on the quiz we did the best, if I recall correctly.  We got yelled at again for our lack of focus and how we talk too much.

We had a pop quiz at first; after 20 minutes of talking.  Then I went to the potty so I missed some of the PowerPoint.  Anyway, the most powerful Germanic tribe was the Franks.  Roman Empire in the east especially became know as the Holy Roman Empire. Assimilated meant like a swap.  Byzantium was the city that became Eastantinople.  It was hard to decipher between a Christian leader and a government leader.  Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom.  It was the most glorious church of its time and is still standing.  Been build three times.  Almost 200 feet tall at the highest height.  In Istanbul/Turkey.

Rome Fades Away

Roman Republican Empire.  Diocletian rule from 284-303.  Cool to persecute Christians.  Constantine ruled from 306-337.  It's cool to be a Christian.  Peasants were most people, very few rich folk.  The rich ones put the peasants to work and paid their taxes, but it was kind 'of like slavery.  Peasants were barely paid anything.  Rome's power was decreasing and it was divided into more of two sections.  Eastern side was thriving and the western side was poor.  They wanted to divide it because they weren't as well off as the east.  Last emperor was a teenage boy in 475 by his father.  The Franks were Germanic tribes and were active in spreading Christianity.  They devoured most of Gaul.  Franks was a term also used for western Europeans; they were the rulers of most western Europe.  Came over in the 3rd century BC.

BAD

We took the test today and he said yesterday that he never puts dates on there.  Also that he was going to have a column of Constantine and Diocletian and we would have to put them in the right spots.  Not at all.  I did SO bad, I can tell already.  The essays weren't bad at all though.  Hopefully that will bring it up for me.  On the front page, I can tell I failed it already.  He made a lot of face while reading them. Uh oh.  Then we just talked

What was the Christian's name who was tortured by the Romans for supposedly lighting fires?  Peter (The Romans didn't even know who lit the fire--never did)
Which man in power was in charge of the last major Christian persecutions?  Diocletian
What did the whole army do after Constantine saw the sign from God?  Painted a cross on their shields
What is an edict?  Official law or prosecution
What was the result of Constantine having all religions treated equally?  They grew and spread into millions
What religion was Constantine's mother?  Christian
How large was the army increased by when Diocletian came in power? 400,000
What god did the Christians have to give sacrifice to after the fires?  Jupiter
Where did Constantine see the sign from God? Milvian Bridge
How long did it take for emperors to loose their power?  Two and a half years
How many government officials were there under Diocletian's rule? 20,000
Who did Christianity appeal to?  The poor and disenfranchised
What did the edict of Milan do? Who declared it?  Constantine and it declared Christians as a Roman religion.

Grace and Kelley Teaching

Diocletian persecutions was last major persecutions in Rome.  Commanded churches to be raised off the ground.  The first edict persecution was on January.  Burned Christians had no rights.  Romans though
November 20, 303 third execution. Earlier in January of 303 was the second.  304 4 edict.  Constantine ended prosecutions by his father.  No matter what religion you were you were treated equally.  Promoted Christianity.  He had a vision of the cross above the sun saying "conquer by this this".  This is what made him convert.  Constantine's mother was a christian.  He prayed to God because the Roman gods were letting him down.  The army painted a cross on their shields.  Kelley and Grace did a good job, but Mr. Schick took over halfway through class.  A man named Peter was striped, whipped until he bled, salt and vinegar was poured in his wounds and then was slowly boiled over a fire.  Edict: official law or proclamation.

Rome's Struggles

Pax Roman 27-180.  3rd century AD there were many diseases and it spread quickly.  Emperors start to loose hold on power, and there was too many poor people.  Diocletian reformed Rome, increased army to 400,00 people.  That is 1/3 bigger than during Augustus' time.  He recruited people from the barbarians.  New government had 20,000 people.  10x bigger than when Augustus was in power.  300 AD: 60 million people in the Roman empire.  Several million of them were Christians.  Christians used to be a weird little cult.  Diocletian ruled from 284-305.  At first he left the Christians alone but then he persecuted them like crazy.  Constantine ruled as emperor from 306-337.  A large fire broke out in his palace destroying lots of things except for a Christian church, so they blamed it on the Christians.  Diocletian made Christians give sacrifice to Jupiter, those who didn't were to be tortured.  Constantine changed the Roman empire by his conversion to Christianity.  Constantine made Christianity officially a Roman religion.

Review of Test

We went over the test.  Then we talked about Christianity in the Pax Romana.  Christianity used to be really small and people though of it as a cult.  It began with Jesus.  Almost all of what is written about Jesus is in the gospels.  Gospel means good news.  Stories were told and retold, then written down.  Jesus said that you must strive for perfection because God is perfect.  He sought out the imperfect and tried to help them.  He made friends with prostitutes and those people.  It was believed he was both man and son of God, but that is what all of the pharaohs and kings also said.  They didn't like Jesus for the same reason the didn't like Tiberius Gracchus: Jesus was trying to empower the poor and common people.  Jesus was a threat.  Bible is the only historical we have of Jesus.  Paul killed Christians by giving them to the Romans so they could use them as entertainment (put them in with the lions).  Paul had a vision of Jesus on the third day he was feeling whacky.  Predestination: God chose who was to be saved and who was to be damned.

Christianity

After we turning in the essay and took the test I had no clue about we read.  Read about Christianity and religion and Jesus.  Gospel writers did most of their writing from either spoken words or earlier documents.  Jesus did most of his teaching around the year 70 AD.  Gospel writers wrote about him later.

Working on Essays

We worked on our essays in class today.  Savannah, my partner, and I got through the introductory paragraph and I think it's going to be really good.  We have to hand it to him first thing in the morning as soon as we walk in the door.  That's all we did all class (that and trying to ignore the others).

PowerPoint

We talked about the PowerPoint Mr. Schick made and explained in class today.  We talked a bunch about the other brother.  Gaius, Tiberius' brother was also killed as well as 3,000 of their supporters.  Proletarians were people who were practically dirt.  They had no value or voice.  Profiteers were people who bought farms and profited from it.  Julius Caesar was very cocky and confident.  He went across the river and there is a saying to it but I can't exactly remember what it is.  Also in order to not be able to point the finger at any one person for the murder of Julius Caesar they passed the knife around and all wiped their hands on his blood.  Literally, "blood on your hands".