THE MIDDLE AGES

1. THE MIDDLE AGES WORLD LITERATURE I CENTURIES OF CHANGE BY RALPH MONDAY

2. The Middle Ages occurred approximately from 500 to 1500 C.E. This thousand year period saw the classical civilization of Greece and Rome transformed by three extremely different cultures: The invading Germanic tribal culture that by the fifth century had effectively conquered the western half of the Roman Empire. The second was Christianity that began in Palestine and rapidly spread until almost all of Western Europe was Christianized by the eleventh century. MEDIEVAL INFLUENCES

3. The third influence—less pronounced but still important– was Islam, a monotheistic religion which arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. Islam rapidly spread throughout North Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula. In these areas, Islam remained a powerful force until The fifteenth century.

4. THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

5. The late Roman Empire And the First Barbarian Kingdoms— 285-451 C.E.

6. The Sky God of The ancient Germanic Peoples. Odin, Hanging From the Yggdrasil Tree in order To bring the Knowledge Of the Runes To his people.

7. The Islamic Conquest 632-656.

8. This emerging European culture was an amalgam of vastly different forces. Medieval Europe displayed a wide range of values, ideas, and social forms. Despite all this variety a recognizable culture emerged at the end of the process. In the year 500 the West could hardly be characterized either politically or culturally. By 1500 the map of Europe looked much as it does today. Many ideas that we think of as Western: individualism, consensual government, a recognition of religious differences

9. Even the idea of Europe itself, had emerged. Also, the great national literatures of Europe took form during the Middle Ages, and here we Find both individual literary masterpieces and traditions of writing that have Continued to define what counts as literature. This period of time is a great watershed for literary classics That continue to influence thought to this day.

10. The middle of What? The period was named by the people who came immediately after it. They called their own age the Renaissance because they saw it As the time in which the cultural Achievements of antiquity were being reborn. For this age the preceding age was a time of middleness, A space of cultural emptiness that separated them from the classical past they so admired. HOW DID THE MIDDLE AGES GETS ITS NAME?

11. The common notion is that the period was homogeneous, a time in which all men and women thought and felt more or less the same things and behaved the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth. This period contains not one but many different types of people with different cultures. These cultures were oral and literate: Germanic and Latin; Arabic, Jewish, and Christian; secular and religious; tolerant and repressive. Vernacular and learned; rural and urban; skeptical and pious. Popular and aristocratic. A TREMENDOUS DIVERSITY OF CULTURE

12. For example, The Song of Roland, composed in the eleventh century, promotes enthusiastically the superiority of Christianity over Islam. However, in the ninth century Islamic scholars had Translated much of Greek science and philosophy into Arabic, preserving and enriching the Tradition at the time that it was in decline in Western Europe Beginning in the twelfth century, Muslim centers of learning in Spain,

13. Sicily,and southern Italy make it possible for European scholars to regain access to these Greek originals and to study their Muslim commentators. The world owes a great debt to this achievement. Without it, the ancient past might be lost in the dim recesses of foggy antiquity.

14. The most familiar description of the Middle Ages is as “an age of faith.” This meant that the medieval people shared a uniform commitment to Catholic Christianity. The Roman Empire had provided a political unity, law, and order. Beyond that it had pretty much left moral And spiritual issues to be handled by the individual, either Singly or in voluntary ethnic groups. Gradually the Church extended its spiritual and institutional authority across most of Europe. By 1200, with the exception of Jewish communities, the Iberian peninsula under Muslim control, and Frontier lands in the Slavic east, Europe had been Christianized. AN AGE OF FAITH

15. THE SYMBOL OF FAITH

16. CHRIST ON THE CROSS

17. THE CRUCIFIXION AND SACRIFICE, OF COURSE, WAS THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE AND THE DEFEAT OF DEATH. THE CHURCH HAS CONTINUALLY REINFORCED THIS ARCHETYPE.

18. About 450 a Christian writer said that the Catholic faith was believed “everywhere, all the time, by everyone.” This defines Catholicism, a religious tradition that takes its name from a Greek word meaning “Universal.” The Catholic church emerged from a Roman world steeped in ideas of universality. The most deeply held tenet of Roman ideology maintained that Rome’s mission was to civilize the entire world and bend it to Roman ways. THE TRUE CHURCH: COMPETING VISIONS WE HAVE INHEIRITED THIS TRADITION TODAY.

19. There are four periods of political and cultural history within the Middle Ages: The Dark Ages, from the fifth century to the late eighth or early ninth. Feudalism, from about 800 to 1100. The High Middle Ages, from 1100 to about 1300. A period of transition beginning at different times in various locations that spread through the majority of Europe in the fourteenth century. THE FOUR PERIODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

20. The Western Roman Empire began to fall apart during the third century. Roman people turned to a variety of mystery religions for spiritual comfort and guidance. Some of the more prominent cults that emerged were: The god Mithras from Persia. From Egypt the goddess Isis. A panoply of various manifestations of the Earth Mother from Asia Minor. THE DARK AGES

21. This was the last Pagan religion of The late Roman Empire. MITHRAS Mithras was born of A virgin on Dec. 25, Had disciples and Resurrected. Followers performed The rite of drinking Wine and eating Bread that symbolized The blood and flesh Of the god.

22. ISIS A prototype of the Great Goddess, Wife and sister of Osiris, Osiris was Another dying and resurrected god.

23. EARTH MOTHER WORSHIP OF THE EARTH AS A FEMALE DEITY FROM WHICH ALL LIFE EMERGES. EXTREMELY OLD BELIEF— SHE WAS CALLED GAIA BY THE ANCIENT GREEKS.

24. Tellus or Terra Mater (detail from the Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome)

25. Christianity expanded its popularity as Roman authority waned. About 300 C.E. the Emperor Diocletian’s final attempt to wipe out the religion failed. In 313 the Emperor Constantine granted the Christian church official protection. In 325 the Council of Nicea paved the way to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. The West would never be the same. THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY: TWILIGHT OF THE OLD GODS

26. The way was now open for Christianity to grow enormously in power and influence. As the old gods died, The new Christian god ascended to the forefront of Western life. But first, the Graeco-Roman and Christian tradition had to be reconciled. Three great leaders of the Church accomplished this feat by admitting classical learning into the world of Christian faith: St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine. BLENDING OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

27. ST. JEROME In addition to his Many theological Writings, Jerome Translated the Old Testament From the Original Hebrew. 340-2--420

28. ST. AMBROSE Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397; born probably 340. Died 4 April, 397. Ambrose was the Bishop of Milan, Extremely popular, He finally put down The Arian controversy.

29. ST. AUGUSTINE Augustine was born at Tagaste on 13 November, 354. He was hugely Instrumental In creating much Of the Catholic Church’s canon. Died 28 August, 430.

30. During this time frame the European continent was slowly emerging from Roman authority. Shortly after Augustine the Arabic world began a similar transformation led by religious zeal. In the early seventh century, the prophet Muhammad, born at Mecca in 571 C.E. Driven out of his city in 622, converted the citizens of Medina to the newly born Islam. He conquered Mecca in 630 and other small Arabic states until his death in 632. The third branch of the Judeo-Christian tradition would forever alter the world balance.

31. Europe developed a feudal system in the ninth and tenth centuries. This system was established so that baronial estates could defend themselves against raids and poor economic conditions. In the feudal enclave a landed class of knights, along with their vassals and serfs, vowed to defend the lord of the manor. These baronial ties stressed knightly virtues, conceived as service to the lord and faith in god, always to be maintained even in the fiercest battles. FEUDALISM

32. The medieval Knight was this Great protector, And the beginning Of the Age of Chivalry to come.

33. The new warfare between Christians and Muslims began early in the eleventh century when Muslim control of The Iberian Peninsula began to weaken. Christian forces in Spain began recapturing the cities, an effort that would take well over a hundred years. The first Crusade came about when Muslim forces in Asia Minor interfered with Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem. The ruler of Constantinople asked for western aid. THE CRUSADES

34. Pope Urban II gave a fiery sermon denouncing the actions. As a result, in 1095 the First Crusade was launched to occupy the Holy Land. In 1099 followed one of the worst massacres in human history. Jerusalem was captured from the Muslims in that year. Historic commentators reported that for days the streets of the city ran with Muslim blood. There is still no peace in the region.

35. The power of the Church began to decline. Pope Clement V, inaugurated in 1305, is the starting point. Under attack from heads of state he moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon in the south of France. The Papacy would remain there until 1376. In this time frame Dante Alighieri completed The Divine Comedy early in the 14th century. He was concerned with the decline of the Church. THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

36. Dante’s visionary poem describes a visit to hell by a living person, (Dante) Purgatory and Heaven. • The poem is greatly critical of the secular world, and this is his own personal vision of where sinners will be punished in Hell. • Political and personal, great lords, popes, and citizens of Florence inhabit Dante’s Hell where they are horrifically punished. • This vision of Hell is grounded solidly in the Christian world view of the Middle Ages, although it is written near the end of the medieval period.

37. Life in the 13th and early 14th centuries saw great change and turmoil. The power of the Pope and of the Church was diminished. Social problems such as religious fanaticism, epidemics, and political unrest Engendered a new way of thinking about society. The Black Death of 1348-1349 was the ultimate disaster when a third of Europe’s population died. Emerging writer’s such as Geoffrey Chaucer END OF AN ERA: THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

38. Increasingly wrote about secular subjects and enjoyed immense success. Such individuals as Chaucer were expressing themselves not merely as witnesses to divine truth, nor because they were supported by courts or religious institutions. Instead, they wrote partly out of personal motivation. They were still Christians, but not in the same way that earlier writers were. Importantly, they possessed a new perspective on the passing of a millennium: a period when the City of God had taken precedence over the City of Man. THEY ALREADY HAD ONE FOOT IN THE COMING RENAISSANCE.