Charlemagne to 14th-Century Crisis: Medieval Europe
Lesson 11: The Start of European Civilization
The Age of Charlemagne
The fragmentary state that Europe had been reduced to after the invasion of the Germanic peoples underwent a radical transformation in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Because of the continuing victories of the Frankish king Charlemagne (768-814) over the surrounding villages, for a moment, people believed he held the coveted dream of restoring the Roman Empire. The illusion might have seemed complete when he received the title of Emperor from the Pope.
No barbarian king was so great, and people began to think that the title of King was not powerful enough for this Prince. There had been no Emperor in the West since 476, and in view of this, on Christmas Day 800, in the Church of St. Peter, the Pope bestowed the imperial crown. In the concept of the Middle Ages, this had an idea of supreme sovereignty over all Christian princes and peoples. Charlemagne was considered, since then, as the temporal head of Christendom, born protector of the Vicar of Christ, its spiritual head. Christian society of the Middle Ages was united on the harmony of both powers, symbolized by the two swords. The Emperor protected Religion and the Church with their weapons, and the Pope ensured, with spiritual penalties, the loyalty of the people to the Emperor. Unfortunately, the following emperors broke this bond between the two powers, wanting to claim the right to appoint and confirm the election of the popes. This gave rise to conflicts that disrupted the lives of medieval society.
Organization of the Carolingian Empire
Geographically, the Carolingian Empire extended as follows:
Domains that Charlemagne already possessed were almost all of present-day France and Belgium, part of the Netherlands, and Southern Germany.
He extended this territory through a series of conquests, adding Friesland and Saxony in northern Germany; in the Eastern Alps, Carinthia, Friuli, Lombardy, and Spoleto in northern Italy. To protect this great set, he occupied and established a number of boundary markers, the basis for future medieval states: the Hispanic March against the Arabs, the Danish March against the Danes, the Sorbian March against the Slavs, and the Eastern and Pannonian Marches in the Danube against the Avars.
There were other areas, such as the Papal States, with some dependence on the empire but retained their autonomy.
At the start of the peak of his power, Charlemagne was surrounded by a very large procession, which was called the Court (the house). According to the custom of the Franks, the king’s servants were the main characters: the waiter took care of the treasure, the steward ran the kitchen and table, the butler the wine cellar, and the constable the horses. These were the four officers, and under their orders were a number of smaller servers, such as the falconers, grooms, and cooks. To this, add the escort of the royal guards and the group of priests or chaplains who followed the Emperor on his expeditions.
To organize his empire, Charlemagne had a Council of State, divided into two sections: one for ecclesiastical affairs, under the chairmanship of the apocrisario (arch-chaplain), and one for law and justice administration, headed by the Count Palatine.
In autumn, he attracted major magnates and prelates to the assemblies called Placita. They were in charge of preparing the law, also separating the secular and ecclesiastical, which, once approved by the Emperor, were called Chapters. These Chapters constituted the imperial law over national law. Its implementation was the responsibility of ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries, and its audit, the missi dominici. There were two (a priest and a layman) for each district. They held meetings in each region, heard the complaints of the people, and judged the conduct of the authorities.
Regarding the army, it was customary among the Franks that all free men were armed when the King summoned them by name. But as the guns and food for three months that each should bear cost more money than smallholders could afford, Charlemagne eventually limited this obligation to those who had some income. The chiefs were the earls, and in the Marches, the marquises, each leading a band of warriors, armed to the coast. The infantry eventually disappeared, the army consisting only of cavalry and the enormous baggage car where they carried provisions.
The counts, as tax officials of the Emperor, were responsible for general administration, roads, bridges, and public health, under the supervision of the king’s. To do this, people paid county taxes and provided their vehicle and accommodation. The earls also received part of the fines imposed for offenses, and there were cases in which they abused those powers.
With regard to intellectual culture, it was heavily favored by Charlemagne, who, despite having little education, was a great admirer of the educated. He sought to promote education by helping the bishops establish schools for the future church and creating new ones in his court (63). He founded bishoprics, called for teachers from Italy, built the church of Santa Maria in Aachen, and the palaces of Ingelheim, Aachen, and Nijmegen. He collected ancient heroic songs of the Germans in their native language and is said to have started writing a German grammar.
What better shows his love of culture is the quality of scholars he attracted to his court, forming a true Academy, whose soul and direction was Alcuin of York. With him, Paul the Deacon and Peter of Pisa developed the art of transcribing manuscripts and the formation of libraries, whose riches have come down to us.
One impetus for teaching and excellent teachers trained by Alcuin were the heyday of the abbey and cathedral schools, which is seen in this century until it returned to abate with the Norman invasion.
Feudal Civilization
Birth of the Feudal System
Feudalism is the social and political system prevailing in the central centuries of the Middle Ages. Although its origins lie in the decline of the Roman Empire and its consequences extend to the modern age, feudal ages typically ranged from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Feudalism was characterized originally in politics by the decline of royal power and the increasing authority of the lords. In economics, it was characterized by the weakening of the sense of ownership and the scarcity of money, forcing the exchange of some goods and services for land grants.
In recent times of the Roman Empire, the great landowners had almost feudal authority over their servants and settlers. The march towards feudalism accelerated with the Germanic invasion. For the Germans, who had no clear idea of the state, there were only the relations of man to man, vassal to lord. Charlemagne restored the royal authority, but at the same time also gave an extensive role to the Lords. His successors lacked the necessary authority and prestige. The West was again invaded from all sides: from the south, the Arabs invaded and pirated; on the east, it was exposed to the incursions of the Hungarians; and on the Atlantic coast, and sometimes by the Mediterranean, the Normans, that is, people still pagan from Scandinavia, appeared with their long, narrow boats and penetrated by navigable rivers, looting and burning everything in their path.
This was the situation in Western Europe in the tenth century. There was no security for anyone, and people, seeing that kings were unable to protect them, sought shelter in the nearest men who had power: sometimes it was the bishop of the city, others the count or duke, sometimes a rich landowner. Provided that the defendants were willing to lend their services, they gladly helped them to build their castles because they would find shelter in case of danger.
Feudalism as a Political and Social System
In the feudal system, the monarchy did not disappear, but the king was just a piece within a larger set. Society formed a pyramid: at the bottom were the peasants and craftsmen; above them were the young lords (knights, barons); above them, the most powerful lords (dukes, counts, marquises); and on top, the king. The king’s power was not directly on the people, but on the lords, who only recognized him with limited power. France and Germany were the countries where the feudal system developed the most, while in the Spanish kingdoms and England, the king retained considerable authority.
The land that a man gave to a vassal in exchange for their services was called a fief. At first, it was given the name of benefit. Sometimes it was a donation made by the vassal seeking the protection of the Lord, who reinstated it as a fief. The concession was made by the homage ceremony, which involved the vassal, kneeling, placing his hands between his lord’s and swearing loyalty. At first, the fief was not hereditary, but soon it became the practice. The contract of vassalage was broken when one of the two parts failed to comply with the stipulations; the one who failed in his obligations committed an act of treachery.
Some men lived in cities, but most lived in their castles, solid stone buildings without any form of comfort. War, hunting, tournaments, and feasts were the occupations of the nobles. Many of them were fair and beneficial, but most left bad memories for their violence and arbitrariness. The lower classes and inhabitants of the cities saw with pleasure the restoration of royal power, which, since the thirteenth century, began to limit feudal despotism. However, though more moderate, the manorial system continued to weigh on the peasants long after feudalism had disappeared.
The Economy in Feudal Times
During the early days of feudalism, the economy continued in a similar way to the centuries of settlement of the Germanic peoples. Industry was almost nonexistent, and there were only small workshops where craftsmen produced items most needed for life. Trade was very scarce due to the insecurity of the roads; each district had to produce enough for subsistence. The cities were few and small. As the land was almost the only source of wealth, the vast majority of the population consisted of peasants. These could be free or serfs, that is, forced to remain on the land they cultivated. The lord was entitled to expect of his servants all kinds of services, but not to expel them from the land they cultivated.
This situation began to change during the eleventh century. There was a population increase that allowed the cultivation of new lands and caused the beginning of urban development. At the same time, the nobles and monarchs made their territories more secure and launched a counteroffensive against external enemies, which led to a resumption of trade and a nascent industry. The biggest changes were in the rural world, where a series of technical advances (iron plow, horse collar for draft animals, water mill), along with the new farmland, provided food to more numerous towns. In commerce, the increase in trade was due to an expansion in the circulation of currency and the emergence of new trading techniques (credit, the beginnings of banking, merchant companies). This continued progress will mark the thirteenth century, and, as we shall see, the principles of a new era.
The Church and the Feudal Era
Two aspects need to be separated when studying the relations between the Church and feudalism: the feudalization of the Church and what we might call the work of pacification.
Feudalization of the Church
The Church in the early centuries of the Middle Ages not only became the owner of large tracts of land by the donations of the faithful, so prevalent in an age so religious, but also kings and lords ceded many important fiefs. Therefore, the bishops and abbots became lords of vassals and acquired considerable economic and political power. This power obviously hurt the Church’s spiritual role, as many individuals entered the ecclesiastical career attracted solely by the ability to thrive and reach high positions in the society of the time. On the other hand, attempts to influence the appointment of ecclesiastical dignities by the civil authority increased at an alarming rate for the independence of the Church. In these circumstances, cases of simony occurred with some frequency, and the institution of the papacy itself was embroiled in murky political machinations of the great Roman families that did not stop even before murder to elevate their candidate to the papal throne.
This state of things sought to end when a Cluniac monk became Pope in 1073: Gregory VII. He came into conflict with the German emperor Henry IV over the issue of investitures, that is, the right to appoint bishops and abbots. Although he died in exile, apparently defeated, he started the regeneration of the Church.
Peace-Keeping
One of the characteristics of the feudal era was violence. The Church, trying to moderate the calamities and ravages of the ongoing struggles, used its prestige and moral power and instituted the Peace of God, which forbade attacking the camps, churches, and, in general, all people who were not armed, and the Truce of God, which forbade the practice of war in the days of the week commemorating the Passion. The results, however, were not very satisfactory. Greater success was to give a religious character to the Cavalry, as the gentleman became a pious hero with a high sense of justice and protector of the weak.
Monasticism
Monasticism was born in the countries of the Middle East, where in the fourth century there were many Christians who were withdrawing from the world, either to live alone in the wilderness (hermits) or forming communities. This way of life went to the West in the early Middle Ages and was driven by the devastation caused by the great invasions and disturbances that followed. In the sixth century, the Italian St. Benedict founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino and gave his monks a rule based on prayer and work (ora et labora). The Benedictine rule spread rapidly, and the West was covered with monasteries. The kings favored them with large territories, and the monks cultivated and populated them.
A medieval monastery was a complex organism. In addition to the church and monks’ cells, it consisted of buildings to house the servants working in their lands, and also had an oven, mill, warehouse, and everything you need for a separate farm. Often the monastery was lord of several towns and villages, in which it appointed authorities, administered justice, and collected taxes.
According to the Benedictine rule, the monks had to live poorly, but the accumulation of wealth attracted individuals to enter the monasteries seeking a stable life. This produced a relaxation against which emerged, in the late tenth century, the Cluniac reform, so called because its origin was in the monastery of Cluny (France). There he restored the observance of the Benedictine rule, and from there they set the foundations of many monasteries. There was a second reform in the late eleventh century: that of the Cistercians, whose main figure was St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Monasteries had great importance in the preservation of culture. In all of them, there was a library, consisting of a small number of volumes written on parchment. Both by the scarcity of this material and the work involved in writing them by hand, each book was worth a fortune. In order to increase funding for the library, next to it used to be a scriptorium where several monks were engaged in the arduous task of copying manuscripts with a fine point and, often, illustrated with miniatures. Although most of these works were of ecclesiastical literature, they also copied and kept the works of the Latin classics. The performance of these monks was learned to save the peak of the Middle Ages; to them, we owe the preservation of ancient cultural treasures.
The Crusades
Overview
The renewed religious fervor of Christian Europe was demonstrated in the Crusades, military expeditions led to rescue the Holy Places of Palestine, which were held by Muslims.
The historical cycle of the Crusades began in the late eleventh century (1095-1099) and lasted almost two centuries (until 1270, the Seventh Crusade). Other than the first one that was eminently triumphant, the others only served to prolong the difficult Christian presence in Palestine.
The Crusades were defensive wars, even though their character as shipments predisposes to think otherwise. One must know well the nature and history of Islam to understand. When Islam appeared in the 7th century, the borders of the Christianized world remained those reached by the Roman Empire. Well, of the fifteen major areas into which the empire was divided at the time of Constantine, almost half had been invaded by Muslims during the Crusades. Even without reference to later times, it is impossible not to note that in the late eleventh century, Christianity had suffered substantial and continuing aggression from Islam. Not only had Christians been taken from the particular places of devotion and historical significance (think of Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Antioch, Egypt, Africa), but the first Christian communities had been subjugated.
That the Crusades were defensive and not offensive is corroborated, apart from Muslim aggression, by other facts:
- They were not raised as an endless conquest of the known world (e.g., after the magnificent victory of the First Crusade, the operation’s success was limited to rounding the domains of Jerusalem).
- It is alleged that the Crusaders have been a first layer on a dominant Latino population without being followed. If nothing was done by the forced conversion of the subject, one can hardly argue that there was an attempt to extend religion by force.
- Each cross expedition was a reaction to a new Muslim offensive.
As a counter-proof that the Church did not appeal to the Crusades as a system of expansion are the missions that did not fail to develop simultaneously across those borders not blocked by the militancy of Islam. This is the case of Franciscan and Dominican missions, for the vast Tatar territories, worked in Persia and came to China during that same 13th century.
Three features of the religion of the Crusades worth mentioning:
- It is a religion that includes great reverence and mystery of the Incarnation: the following and imitation of the Incarnate Word made people assess the physical land where Jesus lived.
- It is a religious penitent. If pilgrimages already had that penitential sense, the much more difficult and risky pilgrimage that was the cross was seen as a way to atone for sins.
- And it is a religious solidarity. Solidarity with the sufferings of the Christians of the East and the adventures of the Crusaders, but also solidarity of all Christendom together.
Consequences of Cultural, Social, and Economic
The major movement produced by the Crusaders made them take part in major France, Italy, England, Germany, and the Greek Empire, that is, all the Christian nations of the time, except Spain, which held from the eighth century a struggle against Muslims. It is estimated that five or six million men were launched in Europe on Asia in the two centuries that the expeditions lasted. But what were the consequences of such a colossal effort?
The political effects could not be more insignificant. The First Crusade conquered Jerusalem and the fourth founded in Constantinople a Latin-Byzantine Empire, but both were lost at once; the Holy Land returned to the power of the infidels, and all was as it was before.
Despite all this, if one takes the matter to the cultural, social, or economic field, we find that the Crusades had lasting effects and immense importance for the life of mankind.
The consequences were incalculable in the social order:
Established a more intimate contact between the European nations. They were not yet imbued with an effective, up to now, we might call international relations. In Europe, relations had been based on enmity, war, and the mutual desire for conquest. The Crusades had a higher ideal, and before it, countries joined together, their kings and warriors met, and they all began to mix, to know each other, and to be considered as friends against the common enemy.
The social system that inspired feudalism suffered a blow with the Crusades. On the one hand, men were kept away from their strongholds, preventing them from pursuing their private feuds and oppression of their subjects; they left behind their businesses as they marched. Moreover, as the lords were equipped at their own expense, they had to incur substantial expenses, were forced into debt, weakened their economic power, and thereby facilitated the emancipation of municipalities and cities.
To all this, the Crusades, which were preached by the absolute power, the Papacy, gave the monarchy an opportunity to take command, to restore its authority, as being the kings who almost always directed, received both the military obedience and feudal obedience.
In the cultural sphere, the Crusades encouraged communication between East and West, hampered so far by domestic concerns of the West and the suspicious attitude of the Byzantines. The Crusades brought to the West, the most backward villages in material culture but more progressive, knowledge of Arts and Sciences. They imported new elements for the industry, such as dyes (saffron, indigo, red, turquoise) and spices from India (pepper, cinnamon), and brought to Sicily the cultivation of sugarcane. They also offered to the industry of the West Eastern models, then more advanced.
With respect to economic impact, the Crusades fostered trade in the Levant, which some have believed to see in it the main cause, forgetting that the Crusades were primarily a military and religious character, behind which the commercial spirit developed. The need for transport ships forced the Crusaders to seek the help of the Genoese and Venetian merchants, and of course, they obtained double benefits: by the ease that the power of the Christian arms gave to trade in the East, and for the privileges that the Crusaders were awarded in return for their aid. So frequent were their relations with Damascus, famous for its manufactures of silk (apricots) and steel weapons (damask); Baghdad, where converged the treasures of India, China, and Africa; Alexandria, the most active trade with the East; Cairo, the end of the caravans of Africa; Qayrawan and Fez, whose traders came to the banks of the Niger. The special placement of the Muslims was to serve as intermediaries between East and West, and they were the most favored by business aroused by the Crusades.
Another effect of the Crusades was the fondness for remote voyages and geographical discoveries. Such mobility facilitated the emergence in the thirteenth century of the great empire of the Tatars and Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, which, though filled with terror his contemporaries, was sympathetic to Christians, to the point that Pope Innocent IV sent ambassadors to him for his friendship and relationships with the legendary kingdom of Prester John, who was said then that he had a vast empire beyond the Mogul, and was powerful and wise as Solomon.
Religious legations continued trading companies, led by the Venetians Polo Nicholas and Matthew, who entered Asia in 1260 and came to China, where the Great Khan sent them with messages to the Pope. In 1271 they returned to depart, taking with them Marco Polo, the most illustrious of passengers in that time. They arrived back in the lands of the Great Khan, where they resided for nearly twenty years, and from Beijing visited Indochina, Java, and learned of Sumatra. They touched on the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, and Hormuz came to Persia to return to Europe. Marco Polo, taken prisoner by the Genoese, gave to Rusticiano Pisa wonderful memories of their trip, which was guided to the sixteenth century and were one of the sources used by Christopher Columbus.
Romanesque
From the eleventh century, population growth and favorable economic change were reflected in the art with the construction of many buildings, all within a new European style called Romanesque. Most of these were religious buildings: churches and monasteries, but numerous castles were also erected.
They are characterized by the use of semicircular arches; the capitals of many topics, the barrel vaults (semicylindrical), and thick walls, low-rise and with few gaps, so that the inside is dark.
Romanesque churches generally have a Latin cross, from one to three naves, terminated by apses. The semi-circular tower, entered from the East, became very slim. In cathedrals and monasteries, near the church, there is a square courtyard surrounded by galleries, called a cloister.
Outside of Spain are among the most remarkable monuments, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Angoulême and Poitiers in France, the cathedrals of Mainz and Worms in Germany, and the wonderful array of Pisa (Cathedral, Baptistery, and Leaning Tower) in Italy. In Spain, the Romanesque achieved singular importance, as one of the goals of the medieval Christian pilgrimage was found here: Santiago de Compostela.
The sculpture was an accessory to architecture, specifically employed for the decoration of the covers. His figures are technically imperfect, defective in anatomy, but impressed by their ingenuity and their deep religious sense. Worth quoting is the Portico at the Cathedral of Santiago.
Lesson 12: The Height of Medieval European Civilization
Demographic and Economic Expansion
Demographic and Economic Development
The overall progress of the West from the year 1000 was fastest in the thirteenth century. Agricultural advances continued, winning not only arable land to forests (land reclamation) but also to wastelands and marshes. Cultivated fields ceased to be the oasis of Europe before the eleventh century. The population continued to increase, and populations were founded; there was strong Germanic settlement in the lands east of the Elbe. Both the northern and southern Europe grew, and new cities emerged. Mediterranean trading republics intensified their relations with the East – this was one of the consequences of the Crusades – and traded in high-value products such as silk, spices, perfumes, and slaves. Refined marketing techniques previously encountered (banking, credit) followed.
Venice, Genoa, and Barcelona were the major Mediterranean mercantile cities, while others, like Milan and Florence, distinguished themselves more for their industrial products. Trade relations of these cities went so far that there were families, like the famous Venetian Marco Polo, who came into contact with the countries of the Far East.
The North Sea and Baltic Sea also developed a large business through the Germanic Hansa, a league of cities that supported each other to protect their trade and that was the source of the prosperity of Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Riga, and many other cities.
In the thirteenth century, then, the closed economy ended in a definite way in large parts of Europe.
Cities
Invasions and settlement of Germans in the West increased the process of decay of the cities, already apparent since the late Roman Empire. The recovery began in the eleventh century. The revival of trade dragged the industrial revival, and both the urban. Cities often arose from the establishment of craftsmen and merchants in the village outside (hence the name that came to be known, bourgeois) of a fortress or castle, that in times of danger could offer protection. Sometimes they were the same old cities that had become more important with a significant increase in population due to their location at a crossroads, on the bank of a river, or elsewhere favored by nature.
One of the important activities of many of these clusters were fairs, regular merchant meetings on specific dates in advance to have contact with each other and with potential buyers in the region. We can use as an example the case of Medina del Campo, which, thanks to its fairs, became, during the 15th century, the biggest commercial center of Castile.
A singular role was played in the cities of the Middle Ages by guilds, groups of artisans (sometimes also merchants) of the same office for the protection and defense of professional interests. They came to strictly regulate, not allowing the establishment in the city of non-union members. The guild was the sole authority to establish different categories in the trades (apprentice, journeyman, and master), for which it required evidence of great difficulty.
Although at first the bourgeoisie were generally under the dominion of a lord, they soon joined for freedom that was standard to record in a letter. It was a continual struggle waged by the bourgeoisie, which allowed them to achieve greater independence. In fact, very soon, the inhabitants of the strongest cities were outside the feudal system, forming independent republics or supporting the kings to not depend on the feudal lords. Of course, not all citizens were equal; the bourgeoisie (merchants and industrialists) were the most favored, and, among them, the most powerful, the holders of economic power, were the real masters of their respective cities, which thus became the domain of small oligarchies.
These cities were not as large as the present ones; most were no more than 50,000 inhabitants, and very few, like Paris, Venice, and Palermo, passed 100,000. They also left much to be desired in the urban aspect. However, with all their shortcomings, the cities were in Europe the seeds of prosperity and the future, especially their ruling class, the bourgeoisie, of recent origin and of great vitality, that climbed quickly towards heights of political power.
Constitution of the Territorial Monarchies
While the feudal world was dissolving and the authority of kings was consolidating, the multitude of small sovereignties that divided Europe were integrated into larger states, territorial monarchies. Europe was more divided than at present, but in another sense more united, because even the appearance of Protestantism had divided Christians in the West. Besides, Latin, as we know, served as a universal language of culture; it was the language spoken at universities and in which scientific works were written.
The formation of territorial monarchies followed a very different place, not realizing at the same rate everywhere.
In the West, is where the phenomenon is clearer: Spain, Portugal, France, and England moved rapidly towards the establishment of modern states ruled by monarchs endowed with great authority. On the other hand, Italy was divided into many small states, and the dispersion was even greater in the German Empire. But the little Italian and German sovereigns performed within their limited territory the ideal of the authoritarian state.
Not so in Eastern Europe. In Poland, the nobility imposed on kings, held the elective principle, strengthened its hold on the peasants, and impeded progress towards a state of the modern type. Much more delayed was the situation in Russia, then isolated from the rest of the continent.
Within this mixed system, the strengthening of royal authority walked similar paths everywhere. The sovereigns worked for the creation of authoritarian, centralized, unified monarchies, in which the king had great power, but still helped to govern, at least in theory, certain agencies, parliaments, municipalities, etc. In this task, they had to turn to the people who depended directly on the king, preferring them better than the rulers. They, braking his ambition, were converted into employees of the monarchy, being conferred high government positions. However, the instruments used by the kings to establish their authority were:
The bureaucracy, consisting of a set of public officials, chosen among the most important lawyers, or men of law, trained in the study of Roman law, favorable to those who defended the state concepts of royal absolutism.
And the standing army.
To complete their work, the sovereigns exercised a growing influence in the churches of their respective countries due to their enormous wealth and social influence.
Heyday of Medieval Culture
Universities
At the end of the tenth century and go through it the peak of the Middle Ages represented by new invasions, the culture, which had been reduced to the quiet work of the monastic orders, emerges gradually, and is expanding its centers of civilization they had to reach its apogee in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with the emergence of the universities. Was unfavorable environment for the development of education, superstition is everywhere without respect and the most sacred, add to that the rudeness of manners, complete ignorance of the clergy and laity, their immorality, the inordinate desire for pleasure and wealth, which so well reflected in the sermons, legends and romances of the era, and have sketched a picture of a society that had to be shaken hard by the meritorious work of the first teachers.
These were, in principle, the clergy, especially the clergy who had not been contaminated from the mistakes of the century and continued, with the severity of a rule, the obligation of work and teaching. Most of the monasteries had attached a school, which stood between them, scolae minores of small monasteries, which taught only the basics, and scolae maiores, in the great monasteries, which tended to higher learning and . Like the monastic schools, the bishops tried to open schools cathedrals, first to instruct the clergy of the diocese, then for everyone else.
The teaching of monastic and episcopal schools continued to top the system that had brought the old, ie of the Seven Liberal Arts are divided into two groups:
the Trivium for the Arts (Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectics)
and Quadrivium or section of Science (Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music).
These seven arts joined the teaching of theology, and when there were great teachers also taught philosophy and law, ie the elements that had to be the essence of the universities.
At the end of the eleventh century there were schools, subject teachers, certified teachers and enthusiastic students, just had to apply to these factors that spirit typical of the Middle Ages, than to bring together in associations to people of the same class or occupation, and thus arise Universitas of teachers and students of higher education, the phenomenon occurred in the twelfth century, showing a great similarity with the unions, in a grouping (School) met the teachers and other students, as well as unions Society had teachers and officers.
The example of the college building are Italy and France. There arose almost spontaneously, communities of teachers and pupils, who met in a population to give and receive instruction in the subjects who were then in vogue: Roman law, canon law, theology and philosophy. Given the lack of high schools and the shortage of skilled men, as one stood out or met several purposes of establishing chair, hungry people came to know and followed them without difficulty if verified change of residence. When teachers set the residence or beat it by itself, and by the crush of students or the importance of the city, and the habit of going to it, easy to do, or any other cause, the studies were organized, received the protection of kings and popes and regulations and for their internal constitutions formulated by the same teachers and students that created the study or university. Encouraged by the success of these early creations, where the teacher did not appear prominent or the mass of students, the University came to actual creation or the generosity of the great nobles (nobles or bishops), hoping in this way, and sometimes successfully that the center would attract the human element, because it had not created it.
Major universities:
Late twelfth century. The Paris, Bologna and Oxford. By the year 1200, the Modena, Montpellier and Cambridge.
Thirteenth century, Vicenza (1204), Palencia (h.1212), Salamanca (1220), Padua (1222), Roman Curia (1244), etc.
The main privileges of the universities were docendi license or right to be recognized for their graduates to teach in any country of Christianity (hence the Pope granted), the immunity from charges that he granted the kings and the charter of its own students, which could not be judged only by the academic authorities. As a necessary complement of the medieval universities found the so-called schools, which at first were only hospices or hospices to house and keep the poor students, but then had their own repeaters and teachers.
Like other associations in the Middle Ages, having started the universities by the spirit of cooperation, it soon became exclusivist agencies and unions as well as banning people not belonging to them the exercise of the profession concerned and the introduction and sale of foreign products, the universities wanted to monopolize the license docendi they had received from kings or popes. This was a source of disputes and disturbances, which, together with the bickering that appeared among the students and the rivalries between them and the item is not school, filled with conflicts and dangers the early centuries of university life.
Scholasticism
In the centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire remained completely philosophical studies detained. But it appears Charlemagne building their empire, protecting the lyrics, creating schools, and that’s when it awakens the desire to show that, as we have seen, first exercised in cathedrals and monasteries and then at the universities. Well, at one and the other was taught a philosophy which, being given in schools and for school, called Scholastic.
Philosophy as the spiritual life of the Middle Ages, in general, remained for a long time in a purely receptive attitude against high culture of antiquity and patristic era (from the Fathers of the Church) bowed the authority of the ancient thinkers and simply transmit a wealth of truths already known, namely that philosophy is taught and learned, but not philosophize, the philosophical thought:
Served more for exposure and foundation of ancient truths found that the discovery of new truths.
There was also concern to resolve, if possible, the contradictions between the authorities complied
and, above all, to reconcile faith and science, theology and philosophy.
In his first season (ninth to twelfth centuries) Scholastic encountered a problem passionate spirits, awakens in them an extraordinary scientific ardor, such was the question of universals, ie the nature of abstract concepts and general form of science and its relationship to the reality of individual objects (Are there really universal or species that do not relate to, or particular individual but can be applied to many?). This problem had solved a different way Plato, Aristotle and other philosophical schools of antiquity.
The dispute arose two extreme solutions:
Absolute realism “advocated by Professor William of Champeaux Paris and St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, believes that universals exist outside the mind and out of things with a substantial reality, insulated, concrete, things like of this world.
nominalism, whose representative was the canon of Compiegne Roscellinus-argues that there are universals in any way, the concepts are simple names, empty words that designate a set of things that resemble each other
Later, Peter Abelard, the University of Paris offers conceptualism (the universal is a concept applicable in their own right to the plurality of objects that perform the same essence) that is preparing the full response shall state Sto.Tomás Aristotelian line of Aquino.
In the thirteenth century scholasticism reached its maximum level of development thanks to the total appropriation of the Aristotelian system. This required that the scholastics knew all the writings of Aristotle through the Arab philosophical school founded in Spain, where Averroes and Maimonides formed a school that sent the West Hellenic philosophy.
Like the Scholastics only knew the works of Aristotle and the Arabic translations of Muslim scholars, it was necessary to correct any errors that may have crept into the translation and debug the Aristotelian philosophy by going directly to the Greek text, such was the work of Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274), a Dominican, who organized the whole Christian doctrine in a harmonic system that presented in his great work Summa Theologica. The Summa comprises three parts:
The first is the Triune God;
the second from last weekend and human acts
the third, redemption and the sacraments.
St. Thomas was able to resolve, wisdom and open-mindedness, the difficult task of accommodating the Christian ideas into a stranger as the Aristotelian system.
According to him, the philosophical doctrines of reason and supra-rational teachings of the faith can never be in contradiction, because both come from the same source of divine wisdom, based on equitable principles and following them, the reason can not reach never to results that contradict the faith. It is clear that there are truths of faith certainly can not be proved by reason, as the Trinity, transubstantiation in the Eucharist, the resurrection of the flesh, etc., But it is approximated by comparisons to a certain extent, his intelligence and can be rebutted the objections made against them.
On the other hand, gives the reason the task of demonstrating the natural basis, ie rational assumptions of faith, as the existence of a personal God creating the world because of him, etc., And also the responsibility of the reason to examine the evidence for the divinity of the revelation, such as miracles and prophecies of making disclosure, but for Aquinas all these shows sound only serve to make it appear as rational faith but has no power to compel abide logically, for it is necessary, regardless of the cooperation of divine grace, an act of will. But this faith in any violent way to reason, but that elevates and perfects, which is why religion and theology should not depart from nature and human culture, but to penetrate, by transmitting and a higher dignity.
On the question of universals, Sto. Thomas proposed the so-called moderate realism: the concept is universal and exists only in the mind but on the basis of the thing. The universal reality is threefold:
Ante rem (before anything) in the divine mind as a pattern or archetype according to which God created (= online Augustinian idea).
In re (the thing) as a form of it.
Post rem (after the thing): in the mind of knowing that the abstracts of the things themselves.
Thomistic thought is not merely an adaptation of Aristotle to the Christian faith. Can be considered rather an extension and an application to a thousand orders and new aspects of the overall design of the master Greek. In this philosophical core element (Aristotelianism), joined in perfect synthesis the most valuable elements of Christian thought, particularly from Augustinian. Thomism has gone down in history as the most comprehensive systematic, original and solid Christian philosophy.
Jurisprudence
The codification of Roman law was verified by Justinian in the West eclipsed by the effect of the barbarian invasions. The Church, meanwhile, its universal and provincial councils and by the authority of popes and prelates eminent, was giving laws, which are then gathered into collections by eminent men (San Isidoro, Ivo of Chartres). But until the thirteenth century did not acquire scientific cultivation of jurisprudence, civil and canonical.
It is said that a copy of the Digest of Justinian, found in Amalfi, was the germ of the revival of legal studies, who cultivated mainly in Bologna’s commentators were called, because the laws added glosses or statements. Camaldolensian monk Gratian, who taught law at Bologna, published his work called Decree (1140), which is a collection of the canonical, in the order of Roman law and trying to match each discordant canons. A century later, in 1230, Pope Gregory IX instructed the Spanish San Raimundo de Peñafort a new revision of the canonical collections, eliminating the unusual and harmonize the contradictory, so they formed the famous decretal imposed as a rule of law and didactic text ( Universities of Bologna and Paris.
The civil law was at this time the best monument in Spain, through the work of Alfonso the Wise, who, in their seven games, but served more legal ideal that needs practice time, infiltrated the Roman law, which took as basis a Christian spirit was not codified by Justinian.
Science
From the twelfth century taught at the University of ParisMedicine, which had been cultivated in the schools of Salerno and Montpellier, their methods were the same as those of theology and law, namely, the exegesis of the texts received from antiquity, especially Hippocrates and Galen, known through Arabs and provided by glosses or comments. The monks sometimes brought medicine, but in general, this science was monopolized by Jews and Arabs, also Fraternities and hospital orders, with its special mission, were taken to the practice of this science. From the twelfth century taught at the universities, is an option that flourished in Montpellier, Paris and many Italian schools.
Completed the knowledge of medicine to study natural sciences, taking horn teacher looking Pliny and especially the knowledge and application of medicinal herbs. The Oxford Franciscan Roger Bacon (1214-1994), who initiated the true path of these studies, basing on observation and experimentation.
Chemistry was cultivated in the Middle Ages by Muslims, especially in Baghdad, where Geber (whose name comes on the Algebra) found the red oxide and mercuric chloride, nitric acid, silver nitrate, and studied fusion, purification and malleability of metals. Among Christians, Arnaldo de Vilanova discovered sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, and took out the alcohol in wine. Unfortunately, the chemistry back to the category of occult science (which had been among the Egyptians) by the work of the alchemists, who sought the philosopher’s stone, and doctors, who were after the panacea (cure-all) and the elixir of long life.
Reached the flowering Mathematics shining in Architecture, and walked allied Cosmogres Astronomy and trust, highly cultivated by the Eastern Arabs, who translated the astronomical tables of the Indians and communicated their knowledge to the Spanish Jews and Muslims, also ended to be diverted from the fantasies of Kabbalah and Astrology.
Geography was studied at the Greek authors, especially the Almagest, Ptolemy, and disseminated through the Arabs, they knew the meridians and parallels, measured the degree land and brought to the West the compass, invented by the Chinese. The Crusades revived the drive for these studies, which were widely cultivated in the monasteries, especially in the Monte Casino, where news stories contributed countless pilgrims.
Lyrics
All teaching and current disputes in medieval schools were in Latin, very far from the classical purity and full of neologisms or technical voices, invented to describe the concepts then in use. This use of written and spoken Latin greatly influenced the formation of modern languages, not just the neo-Latin (Italian, French, Spanish), but even in the setting of the Germanic languages (English, German, etc.). Thus, although this time not studied these languages grammatically nor were the subject of education, I can deal quickly and reached their final grammar.
Gothic
Romanesque art was, for progressive evolution of its elements, Gothic, name given to the Renaissance in derogatory sense, although it has nothing to do with the Goths or any other Germanic people. This evolution began in the late twelfth century and reached its perfection in northern France, where the purest style monuments. Great importance in the transition period from Romanesque to the new style were the Cistercians, who disregard the sumptuous wealth had accumulated in churches throughout the eleventh century, advocated a pure architectural style, in which building elements were devoid of any superfluous decoration.However, this monastic style became almost completely when it became essentially an urban art, as the triumphant new way of life and religion they imposed.
Romanesque architecture, to support the weight of the great vaults of stone, no other procedure known to thick walls with small openings. Monuments were heavy and dark interior. Gothic architecture solved this problem by distinguishing active and passive elements first form a framework composed of beams of stone ribs, which cross in the vaults are rib vaults or warheads, giving the true technical name new style (pointed). The arches are semicircular, but pointed, also called pointed. The strength of this structure increases with the flying buttresses, arches that collect outside of the pressure of the vaults of the nave, jumping over the side, and the buttresses, which also help support the weight of the covers. The holes are filled with thin walls or windows, since it does not say anything. This innovation allowed to build spacious and towering buildings, whose walls are pierced by large windows and ceiling.
Gothic or Gothic architecture prevailed in the XIII, XIV and XV. It built many palaces, castles, auctions, councils and other civilian buildings, but the monks remained the most notable and numerous. Cite the example of Our Lady and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and in France, the cathedrals of Reims, Amiens and Chartres, the Cologne and Ulm in Germany, that of Milan in Italy and the Spanish authorities of Burgos, León, Toledo, Barcelona and Sevilla.
Gothic sculpture drew a lot of progress on the Romanesque, figures such as Reims Cathedral and announce the Renaissance for its perfection and beauty.
There was also a great progress in painting, but lost one of its most important manifestations, mural painting, which is replaced, most often, by the glass, which occur in the interior of the Gothic buildings effects wonderful light and color. They highlight those in the cathedral of Chartres and the Leon.
The fourteenth-century crisis
The Schism of the West and its consequences
The schism occurred as a result of the election as the successor of Gregory XI Urban VI (1378-1389), first Italian after seven French popes. His intemperance and authoritarianism did not favor an understanding with the French majority of the Sacred College, when the confrontation occurred, the cardinals who were the most abandoned Rome, on the basis that that election would have taken place under pressure, held a new election the person of a Frenchman, Clement VII (1378-1394), who established his headquarters in Avignon, a place famous for the presence there of the popes over the years. Each of them was supporting his views, his supporters, his reasons and interests and, for decades, Western Christendom will be divided by schism into two allegiances: Rome and Avignon. France, Spain, Cyprus, Scotland and Naples, joined Clement VII and other countries to Urban VI.
The issue is further complicated by a third election in Pisa (1409) and was not resolved until the election of Martin V in 1417 by the Council of Constance, whose legitimacy was recognized by the Pope of Rome.
The consequences of the Western Schism were very diverse:
Decline of papal authority.
The decline in authority and prestige of the Roman Papacy is a phenomenon evident during the XIV and XV. Once in Avignon was not a little diminished the authority of the popes by French particularism and understood that the veneration and respect than they had previously had of decline during the schism, when the Pope was not heeded and obeyed but a part of Christianity, following the other to her rival.
Conciliarism
The decline of papal authority was also expressed in the order of ideas, taking shape theoretically conciliarism doctrine (which put the supreme authority of the Church in the council or assembly of bishops with strong involvement of civil authority) that took flight due to the serious practice of the schism that had to be resolved.
Relaxation of customs
Was also a result of the schism, but only in part, the relaxation of customs during the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth abounds throughout the body social. Pope not possessing sufficient authority and influence to cut abuses and corruption vigorously and being all levels of the hierarchy is unsafe natural zeal for the discipline is muffled and neglected due vigilance. What most shocked was the immoral behavior of many churchmen, not excluding the higher prelates.
Visionaries seudoprofetas
And the proliferation of apocalyptic visions and prophecies about the fate of humanity is regular phenomenon at any time tormented by wars and cataclysms. In the circle of exalted spiritual and the Avignon exile visionaries and seudoprofetas rife, often confused with the supernatural gifts of the saints. The schism will accentuate this trend.
OCCAM’s intellectual storm
During the XIV and XV continued enthusiasm for the study, so characteristic of the XII and XIII. However, soon appeared some vestiges of sensible decline manifested as follows:
School issues. Instead of the dignified and serious speculation began to outweigh certain scholastic discussions were degenerating in the pure formalism.
Nominalism. Due to the acute exacerbation and scholastic issues, neglecting the fundamental issues of theology and was prevailing nominalism.
Scholastic barbarism. The same language so abundantly fills scholastic technicalities and barbarism, which promotes the reaction, too exaggerated, Humanists.
Along with the Thomistic schools and a new form Franciscan, founded by the Franciscan William of Occam († 1349) who came to renew and sharpen further the division, already in the twelfth century, between realistic and nominalistic regarding the issue of universals.
In all his philosophy comes through a true spirit of criticism and skepticism, which he denied the opportunity to demonstrate by means of reason any theological truth. They are indeed universals, according to his doctrine, mere figments of the mind, our concepts do not correspond to reality, from which follows the lack of conformity between the philosophical and theological truths.
So is delivering a real critique of fundamental Christian truths and consequences of Occam in theology were devastating. This new system was called Via modern nominalism whereas previous systems were called Old Way. The struggle between two tendencies full philosophical and theological discussions of this period and there is no denying that nominalism of Ockham led to skepticism and paved the way for the Protestant Reformation.
The economic and social crisis
From the fourteenth century this picture of continued economic and population we have described previously suffered a sudden change, especially in the fields, economic hardship and demographic disasters (famines, plagues and wars) caused political and social upheaval in some regions were caused great changes. Great importance in this economic downturn was called Black Death of 1348, which along different years snatched almost half of the population and became, without doubt, the main protagonist of the life of the time. Also began in the mid-fourteenth century the Hundred Years War, more violence and destruction than the previous because of the great potential reached by the warring monarchies.
The trade continued, albeit under different conditions, they were replaced 1ujo products and great value for more general consumer products such as wheat, wine, wool, cotton, fabrics. All this determined the end of the monopoly of the market towns of the Mediterranean and Hansa. One entered a world