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Chinh C. Trinh

Dr. Patricia Turning

Three steps toward chaos, division: within a family, within a country, and within a world. There is a story in the far-east about a dying father who gather up his three sons and challenge them to break a bundle consists of twelve chopsticks. Despite being muscular, the three sons were unable to break the bundle. The father then explains that the chopsticks are, like you siblings, unbreakable if sticking together. This short story explained the concept of selfdestruction in any system: be it a family, social institution, or a country. Many powerful empires have fallen due to conquests of other stronger empire; many powerful empires also have fallen due to self-destruction in the form of revolutions where the empire was divided into different parts, with each holding its own beliefs. During the fourteenth century, the Roman Empire were no longer one united super power, instead, the Roman Empire overall size were reduced and divided into new sovereign states such as: England, France, Hungary, Lithuania, et cetera. Even though rulers did announced sovereignty over certain states, it did not symbolized stability and peace. In-fact when France was established after countless Frankish invasions during the eighth and ninth century, the cities within France were still in a tense situation during the fourteenth century. This situation included a variety of separation between the people caused by the conflicts over factors included: political, economic, and social. The people living in Rodez were the victims of these political, economic, and socialinfluences that are created by the two main forces: the bishop and the count. In the case of Marques and his pot of gold, the partitioned town of Rodez was deeply in chaos which result in countless restrictions that Canac have to consider when he tried to make the gold pot become his.

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Like most other towns in France, Rodez were divided into two parts: City which was ruled by the bishop, and the Bourge which was ruled by the count. The people in Rodez see this division as the separation between two powerful influences: spiritual versus commercial. To make the division even more clearly, the bishop and the count of Rodez physically separated the territories. In Rodez, del Cayro and his colleagues were also building and repairing walls that ran through the middle of town, severing one half from the other (Wroe, 29). In Rodez, the City part of the town controlled by the bishop was located on the upper part of the hill where the river flows downward into the Bourge. The City has proper constructions of bridge, entrance, road, etc.; meanwhile, the Bourge has nothing that can be compared to the architectural constructions of the City. The population in the City was primarily filled by the academic lots such as priests, lawyers, students, etc. Meanwhile, the Bourge was filled with specialized artisans, merchants, and laborers who ranged from painters, gilders, to scabbard-makers. By looking at the people and their occupation, we can see that people were segregated based on their state of mind: intellectual and spiritual minded individuals live in the City where atmospheric environment are offered to enhance creativity as well as imagination; money mined individuals live in the Bourge to change their life by becoming richer through labor or trade. Due to such a strong segregation between the people in the City and the people in the Bourge, each partition created their own rules and laws. This is where Ann Wroe, the author of A fool and his money Life in a partitioned town in fourteenth century France, showed how the laws created by the bishop and count controlled Canac and his decisions over the gold pot. Canac was in a choke point between deciding to either report the gold to the bishop of the City or the count in the Bourge. Canac came from the family of lawyers, hence he know very well what will happened to his gold pot when he will or will not reported to the count. At the same time he also

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know that if he reports the gold to the church, the church will take it all, and spread it to the poor if no-one claimed object they went to the poor(Wroe, 102). Knowing that he possessed a pot of gold that is not his, Canac received even more pressure when he starts thinking about the punishments from stealing. Stealing was not a crime punishable by death. However, people can still be executed for stealing under certain circumstances Yet the chalice-stealer had been hanged (Wroe, 108). Canac knows that his crime will not result in death; he also know that the Bourge tolerate criminal a little more, hence he decided to look for helps from lawyers So the Bourg tolerated criminals, and made them welcome (Wroe, 122). By asking lawyers for help, Canac tried to avoid facing the jurisdictions from the City as much as he can; however, it was impossible for him not to have anything to do with the church. In the defense by Canacs lawyers, the statement mentioned that Peyre Marques was pauper, not much good at providing for his family, careless with his property, excommunicated for years at a time (Wroe, 140). Religion, primarily Christianity, was a huge part of any person living in Rodez during the fourteenth century. Hence, excommunication from the church was a very serious matter. As we know, half of Rodez was controlled by the Bishop. Even though people barely see the Bishop around town, it was possible to live ones whole life in Rodez and see neither count nor bishop (Wroe, 79), his power was the real deal. The bishop in Rodez was more than just a simple spiritual leader who offers guidance; he was also the big political figure in Rodez. The bishop was known to constantly clash against the count to fight over territories. These arguments over the territories were not limited to just verbal and physical harassment, but even People had been killed, and a house has been burned down (Wroe, 112). This definitely showed us that the bishop of Rodez was not a leader that subjects to others ideas and opinions.

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Canac, Pyers, and Alumbors were only some of many people who got pulled into the conflicts between the bishop and the count. Canac, Pyers, and Alumbors were also only some of many people who got caught between the greater conflict between France and England; also known as the Hundred Years War. Adding more chaos into chaos will only result with massive confusion and isolation between people-to-people trust. Distrust was the word to be use when describing Rodez in the fourteenth century. Due to the conflict with the England, watchmen who supposedly brother-in-armdid not really trust one another Each watchman still stood on his own turf because he did not quite knowor trustthe man at his own shoulder (Wroe, 46). In matter of fact, people cannot even walk around town freely. Not only that, people was also separated base on social description Better people come to the City, dont they (Wroe, 53). Clearly, people in the Rodez were divided by the war, physically and mentally. Ann Wroe did a great job using Marquess pot of gold case as form of calibration when comparing to other higher-magnitude of partition between people. The Marquess case was basically the lowest measurement on the parameter of separation between the people lived in France during the fourteenth century. First is the smallest division: the division within family. For money, family bond was easily broken between Canac and his father-in-law, Pyers Marques. Moving up the ladder we have the division between the people within the city of Rodez: the bishops faction against the counts faction. This specific division separates the people of Rodez into 2 groups with each having different occupation, laws, environment, beliefs, leader, etc. Lastly we have the great division between the two nations of France and England. This separation caused the people in Rodez to stop trusting each other due to the possible threat of spies.

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All in all, the social, economic, and politicalof the fourteenth century Rodez tell us how people in the Middle Ages were very dependent on their leaders for guidance. Since no leader wanted to lose their followers, they eventually clash with other leaders, causing people to split up into different groups and potentially crumble as a whole. Hence, people at the end of the Middle Ages refer to be governed by a leader with the power to organize and reduce the chaos within the nation. Even in modern day, we still refer to be governed by a leader that can show the ability to reduce chaos and improve the overall living quality. Each human is like a piece of chopstick; the fragile and easy to break kind of chopstick that you can ask for at any Chinese restaurant. Each chopstick is nothing. However, when two, three, ten, twenty, thirty, fortyor whatever amount of chopsticks are bounded together, they become harder, and harder, and harder to break. Three steps toward peace, the bonds within: a family, a nation, and a world.

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Cited list. Wroe, Ann. A Fool and His Money: Life in a Partitioned Town in Fourteenth-century France. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996. Print.