A Viking/Norman
fortress on the NW coast of France.
Medieval Culture. Our
Problem: The medieval culture was well rooted in the classical,
Christian and Germanic traditions. During the early and high middle ages,
the Christian element predominated. In the high middle ages (after 1100)
we begin to find a evidence of new secular culture. This new culture will
eventually be described as the Renaissance.
- Early middle ages
- Decline of classical
culture; of literary, of knowledge of Greek and Latin.
- What survives?
- Application of
methods of intellectual revolution to study of old testament and nature
of god; especially important for dealing with heretics.
- Translation
Bible into Latin (the Vulgate of Jerome).
Unlike other religions, Christianity embraced Greek philosophical
methods to elucidate its content. Note: Christianity did not have
a distinctive literary culture, so it adopted that of the of the Old Testament and of Greco Roman world --but
in both cases with reservations.
- Lives of the saints.
- Germanic contribution:
Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Scandinavian. Beowulf and a variant. Describes society of
warrior bands. Superficially Christian; but life determined by natural
and supernatural forces beyond human control.
- Chansons
de geste (songs of great deeds). Tragic, but in a historical setting (that is supernatural forces do not intrude). Even enemies can be heroes:
Says Roland of a defeated Muslim enemy: “such a good warrior; too
bad he was not a Christian.” Basic feudal virtues of loyalty, courage and loyalty
are glorified around remarkable deeds.
- The Carolinian Renaissance
(almost too short, ca. AD 850) then into the high middle ages beginning in about 1000. Beowulf, chansons and
others put into writing --into the vernacular (not Latin!)
- The high middle ages
- troubadour ('inventors').
- To the Christian
values of charity and service to the Church and the Germanic of
courage and loyalty, now is added courtoisie: gallantry,
gentility, generosity, and courtesy. All characterized by a respect
for others --where culture assists the civilizing of a society of warriors.
- encouraged
by women. Note their status (forced marriage, low esteem except to
breed children, love not something shared with husband).
- Significance
as secular culture (but courtly, i.e., based on castle life) and literature, not urban; reflects a more stable political, economic and social system.
An elite that may not be well educated, but whose living standard is far higher than any Europe had seen since the fall of the Roman
empire. Plaisir d'amour
- Samples: of the rules...note the secular character and the implicit challenge to the teachings of Church
- "Marriage is not a legitimate excuse for not loving."
- "Love must always increase or diminish";
- "The genuine lover is always timid."
- Samples of issues discussed :
- Which is the greater, the joys or sufferings of love?
- A husband is aware that his wife has a lover. The lady and her lover are acquainted with the fact. Which of the three is in the most difficult position?
- Revival of academic
learning after 1100
- Basis was establishment
of medieval Latin as common language of learning and of a curriculum
[DWP 7, docc 2, 5, 6, 7]
- Philosophical
discussions are essentially theological. Application of Reason
to Old Testament. Abelard and "Sic et non". How to make
sense of the contradictions in the OT? The story of Abelard and more recently: Abelard
and Eloise ;
and their final embrace. The movie:
Stealing Heaven. Also, Abelard's "history
of my calamities".(on Abelard's teaching, see DWP 7, doc 5)
- Driven by the demand from secular
authorities for trained, literate administrators, judges.
- Education
- Since the collapse
of the western RE, education in the monasteries,
esp Bec in Normandy, Monte Cassino
in Italy and Cluny in France. Limited by definition of opus Dei (doing
God's work). A monastic library
at St. Gallen.
- Cathedral schools:
Chartres important by 1025. Also concerned with authority of church and
role of revelation, took a more liberal attitude toward classical literature
and law. Strong interest in latter, and awareness of inferiority of present
when compared to past. Located in the largest and wealthiest cities were
also more open to outside influences.
- The Italian model
of university: grows around proposition that the secular authorities
needed educated officials to sustain their social, judicial and administrative
needs.
- Salerno and
the study of medicine
drawing on Greek and Arab sources (note location).
- Bologna,
the first systematic study of Roman law (corpus iuris civilis)
begins in ca. 1100 --critical for development of secular institutions.
- The corporation
or Universitas [a kind of guild] applied to the more
older and advanced students who came to Bologna to study law.
To protect the students from exploitation by town and to assure
quality of education (that the fees were worth it).
- Professors
income derived from students' fees. A lecture
room.
- Colleges: the
faculty. admitted new professors by examination. Award of degree:
licentia docendi.
- Other models …and
the trend is increasingly toward secular learning especially of law and
medicine:
- University
of Paris grew out of four regional colleges around the cathedral school.
Eventually given a
royal charter (1220) with rights and privileges.
- Oxford and
Cambridge in 13th century; Heidelberg in 1386 founded specifically
on the Paris model. European universities.
- Summary and Cultural
revival of high middle ages.
- With an educational
structure in place, rising urban prosperity and commercial contacts
throughout the European and Mediterranean world and centralization
of at least some states, the prerequisites for cultural
growth in place.
- Critical was the
combination of
- rediscovery
of the lost world of classical antiquity often through Arab intermediaries
(astronomy of Claudius Ptolemy, medicine of Galen); Roman law,
algebra, and
- the secular Germanic interests of medieval kings and princes.
