The Middle Ages

Do you know the chivalry of the knight? Do you know the famous Notre Dame de Paris? And do you know the martyr Giordano Bruno? I believe many of us at least have heard something about these. And they all share an identical time label. That is the Middle Ages.

And today, I will introduce the Middle Ages in 4 parts: its history, religion, culture and economy.

First is about the history. The Middle Ages is the second stage of the European history in a traditional division which divided the European history into 3 ages, namely the Classical Civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Period. The Middle Ages lasted for roughly a millennium from the year of 476 to 1453, commonly dating from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century. During that time, the ruling regime was the feudalization which comes from the legal and martial liability of the noblesse. The 3 main features about it are seignior homager and land. The seigniors are the noblesse who have land. And the homagers fighting for them will get land as rewards. There were many seigniors who have homagers and knights fighting for them, leading to mass wars and armed conflicts. Since it was under the time of cold arms, the soldiers had to fight with bow and arrow, sword and for the knights, lances and pikes under the protection of Armor and shield. In these endless wars, there were several relative small empires and dynasties appeared like the Kingdom of Anglo Saxon, the Kingdom of Frank, England, France and Holy Roman Empire.

Second is about the religion. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the only church in Europe which had its own laws and large coffers. Church leaders such as bishops and archbishops sat on the king's council and played leading roles in government. Bishops were often from wealthy noble families and ruled over groups of parishes called "diocese." Parish priests, on the contrary, came from underclass and often had little education. They lived a sick and indigent life, teaching Latin and the Bible to the youth of the village. Besides that, there were also monks and nuns who lived in monasteries and convents who took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to their leaders. They were required to do manual labor and were forbidden to own property, leave the monastery, or take part in social activities. All they could do were gonging to the church 8 times a day as a routine of worship and in the rest of the time, read and copy religious tests. So they were usually educated and devoted themselves in learning. That’s why there are several monks who are famous for their great works on religion and science. And for the religious life in Middle Ages, it’s no doubt that the Pilgrimages were an important part. Many people took journeys to visit holy shrines to express their godliness towards the God.

Third is about the culture. It is the Christian Culture that played a leading role in the culture of the Middle Ages. And its representativeness was showed in 3 things, namely the Illuminated manuscript, Gregorian chant and Gothic architecture. Illuminated manuscripts are books which have magnificent decoration of the cover, decorated bigger initial on every page, religious tales with beautiful illustration in it and are always colorful. Its coming into being is the result of an extreme worship to the God. And so it is with the Gregorian chant which came into being in ninth and tenth century. It is an 8-mode singing honoring and praying to the God in Roman Catholic. Traditionally, it is sung by choir in the church. And for the Gothic architecture which was mainly used in cathedrals, it first appeared in France in 1140 and later became popular from 12th century to 15th century. Actually, it had nothing to do with the Goth. The name only came because of its difference from the so-called traditional roman architecture and was thought to be as rude as the Goth. The characteristics of this kind of architecture are its pointed arch, flying buttress, stained glass, crossing plane, tiered-up door and beam-column. All these features were making the cathedral grander and holier, serving for the Catholic Church. That’s why Engels had marked the Gothic Cathedrals to be “the sacred selflessness”. During the time, there were some famous masterpieces of cathedrals like Cologne Cathedral, Saint Denis Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris and Amiens Cathedral whose beauty we can still have a taste of today.

Though the middle Ages is a mental comfortless time with the control of Church, there still emerged a large number of famous pioneers who were fighting for freedom and truth. Many of them were suppressed by the Church cruelly. But as Castellio said that to seek truth and to speak up that their faith is the truth can never be a crime. They were so brave that they sacrificed themselves to their belief of freedom and truth like Giordano Bruno who had always said that “To struggle for truth is the greatest pleasure in my life”. In addition, many litterateurs, artists and philosophers started their great career at the Middle Ages including Shakespeare, Dante, Raphael and Francis Bacon. They left a great deal of Cultural Property to the later generations.

Forth is about the economy. In the Middle Ages, the transformation from Manor-Styled Natural Economics to Manufacture and then to Capitalism took place, accompanied with the rise of commercial cities like Paris and Venice. And the development of manufacturing contributed to the specialization which promoted the Capitalism.

So by and large, though the Middle Ages was once be called as the Dark time due to the endless wars and cruel rule of Catholic Church, it’s still an important and remarkable period in the history of European. That’s partly what makes the Europe Europe today.

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