The theme of this reading was to show feudalism and the companionship between the lords of the lands and the tenants. During this time, the lords were the ones who owned the land but the tenants were the people who actually held or took care of and watched the land. Bernard Atton and his family were considered tenants for a lord named Leo. In this reading he makes it known that he will take care of the lord's land.
Several things came to mind when I read this. I found that Bernard Atton was very loyal to the lord Leo. Throughout this reading he constantly talked about lord Leo and even mentioned how he would, and I quote, "swear upon these four gospels of God that I will always be a faithful vassal to thee and to thy successors and to St. Mary of Grasse in all things in which a vassal is required to be faithful to his lord, and all thy successors, and the said monastery and the monks present and to come and the castles and manors above described, in peace and in war, whenever they shall be claimed by thee or by thy successors." This quote alone goes to show how he takes great pride in this as well as a large commitment. It shows just how willing he is to practically give his life up to this man as a noble action.
After reading this I noticed the bond between the lord and the tenants and how it's almost like an agreement. Modern parallels to this would be like a renter and and owner. The owner owns the house but the renter takes care of it and lives there. Also kind of like a homeowner or landowner and a farmer. A farmer a lot of times farms land he does not own just merely farms and lives off of. Also, it is seen in to how the military works in today's society as well. In all of these scenarios one is more dependent on the other yet still receives benefits or some sort of accolade for it. They are supported as long as they do what is expected of them.
This reading relates to the text because in our text it talks about vassals and how the lords used them in the eighth century. The vassals are like Bernard Atton who was dependent on and highly loyal to lord Leo. I felt like this reading wasn't very hard to grasp this time and that the main thing to get out of this is loyalty and how Bernard Atton expressed his loyalty to lord Leo. You could almost relate this to how we as Christians are supposed to be loyal to our Lord and Savior and how we are dependent on HIM just like Bernard was practically giving up his life for the lord. Just like we are to give up our ways to follow Christ's. So, overall, what I got out of this reading was mostly about loyalty.
No comments:
Post a Comment