Chapter 10    

High Middle Ages: The Search for Synthesis

 

10.1 The City, the Cathedral, and the University

 Goals

 Discuss the important role of the city in the development of medieval society.

Discuss the important role of the Church in the development of medieval society.

Discuss the important role of the university in the development of medieval society.

 

The High Middle Ages saw the growth of a number of institutions that stood in sharp contrast to those of the Carolingian period. Foremost was the rise of the city. Urbanization brought with it a lessening of the importance of monastic life as a cultural center and the emergence of the influence of the bishop and the cathedral school. The increased need for a “knowledge class” triggered an expansion in education that would eventually lead to the university of scholars. Urbanization also warred against the old feudal values. It fostered trade and commerce, and it made possible the growth of what today we would call a “middle class” who stood on the social ladder between the rural peasant/city worker and the landed royalty or hereditary aristocracy.

 


 

10.2 Intellectual and Architectural Advances

 Goals

Discuss the increased importance of intellectual pursuits.

Discuss the important contributions of Arabic sources to the development of Western awareness of classical scholarship.

Recognize developments in architecture during the Middle Ages.

Recognize developments in art during the Middle Ages.

Recognize developments in music during the Middle Ages.

 

The 12th and 13th Centuries were times of intense intellectual ferment and advance. New sources of knowledge came through Arabic sources either as original contributions (e.g., in medicine and science) or in the form of lost works of the classical past (e.g., the writings of Aristotle) that fueled the work of medieval scholars. Advances in technology as “spinoffs” from the ambitious plans of both Romanesque and Gothic architects had their impact. The growing prevalence of a money-based economy aided the growth of artistic and musical culture.

 


 

10.3 Philosophical Investigations

 Goals

 Discuss the architectural accomplishments evident in Chartres Cathedral.

Discuss the philosophical contributions of Thomas Aquinas.

Discuss the literary accomplishments of Dante Alighieri.

 

One conspicuous characteristic of medieval culture was its belief that everything knowable could be expressed in a manageable and rational whole. Whether it appeared in stone (Chartres) or technical prose (Thomas Aquinas) or in poetry (Dante), the medieval mind saw hierarchy, order, intelligibility, and, above all, God, in all of observable creation. This hierarchy expressed itself in an emphasis on advancing steps of understanding. The sculptural program of Chartres, for example, is a revelation of the Old Testament figures who point us to their proper fulfillment in the New Testament. In the theology of Aquinas, we move from the plane of natural reason to a fuller truth taught by revelation. In Dante, we progress from an awareness of our sinful nature to an intuition into the nature of God. In each of these cases, the emphasis is on harmony, on gradation, and on a final purpose of all knowledge, which is to become aware of God. In that sense, at least, much of medieval culture could be said to be oriented in an otherworldly manner.

 

 

Glossary

 

Chapter 10

 

canto

Literally, a “song”—used to describe part of the Commedia by Dante Alighieri.

cantus

Early term for singing as opposed to musica, which meant the ordering of tones and intervals.

cantus firmus

Latin for “fixed song,” a system of structuring a polyphonic composition around a preselected melody by adding new melodies above and/or below. The technique was used by medieval and Renaissance composers.

cathedra

The bishop’s throne. From that word comes the word cathedral, i.e., a church where a bishop officiates.

cathedral

The church of the bishop named for the seat or chair (cathedra) from which he preached and taught.

chancel

The part of a church that is east of the nave and includes the choir and sanctuary.

flying arch

External curved buttresses of a Gothic church characteristic of that style.

gargoyle

Extravagant animal carving, symbolizing the flight of demons, used on gothic churches to serve as drains.

goliardic verse

Term used to describe medieval student poetry and songs.

horarium

The daily schedule in a monastery or a church community; a term derived from the Latin word for an hour (hora).

lancet

A pointed window frame of a medieval Gothic cathedral.

legend

Stories meant to be read aloud; often used for stories about the saints in medieval literature.

motet

(1) Musical composition, developed in the thirteenth century, in which words (French “mots”) were added to fragments of Gregorian chant. (2) Sixteenth century composition: four- or five-voiced sacred work, generally based on a Latin text.

mullion

A slender divider of light panels on a window.

narthex

The porch or vestibule of a church.

nave

From the Latin meaning “ship.”The central space of a church.

pilgrimage church

A church designated as a pilgrimage destination as opposed to a church (e.g., Chartres) that was a pilgrimage destination but was also a cathedral.

relics

Parts of a body or material (clothing, personal objects) associated with a saint.

tercet

A three-line stanza of a poem.

troubadors

Aristocratic southern French musicians of the Middle Ages who composed secular songs with themes of love and chivalry; called trouvčres in northern France. Compare minnesingers.

universitas

A guild or cooperative body. The academic universitas is the ancestor of the present-day university.

 

Timeline

1121 Abelard, Sic et Non; birth of Scholasticism
 
1140 Abbot Suger begins rebuilding Abbey Church of Saint Denis; Gothic style evolves: use of pointed arch, flying buttress, and window tracery
 
c. 1163 Oxford University founded
 
1194 Chartres Cathedral destroyed by fire; rebuilding begins 1195 (ends 1260)
c. 1209 Cambridge University founded
 
1215 Magna Carta, limiting powers of the king, signed in England 
 
1220-1269 Cathedral of Amiens
 
c. 1220 Growth begins of mendicant friars; Franciscans, Dominicans
 
c. 1224-1226 Saint Francis of Assisi, "Canticle of Brother Sun" 
 
c. 1267-1273 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
 
1301-1321 Dante, Divine Comedy