His Time and His Work
What is noteworthy and perhaps unique about Jean de Venette's work is that he had a great understanding and sympathy for the peasants. Most chroniclers wrote from the perspective of the nobles. There can be no doubt that his own humble beginnings afforded him a unique understanding of the hard life of these peasants. His work covers many important events of the fourteenth century including, The Black Plague, the The Hundred Years' War and The Peasant's War. He had a master in theology from the University of Paris and spent a great deal of his time promoting study among the younger members of the Carmelite Order, and he gathered information on the earlier history of the Carmelite Order going all the way back to Elijah, its Founder. Venette regarded ignorance as the cause of many of the problems of his time, including the Black Death and encouraged many of the Carmelites to learn to read and write.
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