CHAPTER XV

CHARACTERISTICS AND CONDITIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

=Comparison of the Hellenic-Roman Period and the Middle Ages.= The Middle Ages can be conveniently remembered as approximately the 1000 years between the fall of old Rome, in 476, and the fall of new Rome (Constantinople) in 1453. Together these two periods make a long and a philosophically unproductive stretch of 1800 years. The intellectual materials which the two periods possessed, differ but little, although during the first half of the Middle Ages such materials were very few. There is, however, a decided difference in the way the two periods look at things. The ancient had started with Aristotle’s interest in knowledge for its own sake; the ancient had passed from that to the need of knowledge in ethical conduct; he had finally made use of knowledge only in formulating religion. On the other hand, the history of thought in the Middle Ages was exactly the reverse. The mediæval man starts satisfied with religion as thus formulated by the preceding period, and seeks to regain pure knowledge. The perspective in the two periods is therefore different. Hellenic thought began in freedom and ended in tradition; mediæval thought begins in tradition and, borne by the youthful German, who brings with him few original ideas, pushes forward toward freedom. No doubt one can discover in mediæval times many fresh transformations of ancient thought and a new Latin terminology, but, on the whole, all the problems of the Middle Ages, as well as their solutions, can be found in antiquity. One may find, too, the germs of modern thought in the Middle Ages, but they come from mediæval pupils and not from mediæval masters. In the Middle Ages humanity is again at school; its problems appear in succession, but they always are expressed in the conceptions of the ancients.

=The Mediæval Man.= Antiquity had brought together three civilizations,――those of Greece, of Rome, and of Christianity. Greek civilization in the form of an intellectual culture, called Hellenism, had been superimposed upon Roman political society. The result was a society with a twofold stratum, and in such a society the Christian church had grown as an organization of controlling cultural and political influence. It was into this society that the German barbarians, by a series of invasions, entered during the first three centuries of the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages began and antiquity ended when these German tribes finally broke down the barriers of the Roman empire. It was a new period; for a new race had taken upon itself the responsibility of bearing the burden of the future of western Europe. The German was of course unconscious of the magnitude of his self-imposed burden, for the German was young, vigorous, and moved by primitive instincts. He had leaped into the world’s fields as a conqueror; he remained as a laborer.

At the beginning the German seemed likely to destroy the entire product which antiquity had bequeathed. He was quite unprepared to assimilate the rich fruits of that ancient civilization. He had, indeed, less mind for the elaborate forms of Greek philosophy than for the lighter forms of Greek art. In his first contact he could understand neither. Moreover ancient society was so weak that it could not educate him, who was its conqueror, into its culture. Nevertheless, there was one element in that ancient society that did appeal to the German. That was the spiritual power of the Christian church. Alone amid the ruins of antiquity the power of the church had grown so strong that the men of the north bowed before it, and religion accomplished through the emotions of the Germans what art, philosophy, and statecraft failed to achieve. The preaching of the Gospel laid hold of the feelings of these primitive people, for the church in its pretensions, and sometimes in fact, represented the old Roman political unity. Moreover the church was also the repository of what was left of Greek science. The church expressed for the German his own ideal of the personal inner life. The Germans became the supporters of the church, and in this way the protectors of ancient culture. Mediæval history in western Europe is therefore the record of the development of the Germans under the influence of the Christian church. In contrast with the development of the Eastern church, which was the development of a state church, the Western church was the development of an ecclesiastical state. The Western church, and not the later empire, was the true successor of the Roman empire. Thus the early beginnings of the Middle Ages rested with the church, but the later development of the Middle Ages rested with the German people.

=How the Universe appeared to the Mediæval Man.= The mediæval man had very indistinct ideas about the world around him, since his interest did not lie in the earthly realm, but in the spirit that controlled it. He was content in his sciences with conclusions without their demonstrations. Although it is said that relations of space and number are never indistinct in the mind of the civilized man, the man of the Middle Ages certainly did not possess such conceptions in so vigorous a manner as to enable him to discover new truths. We must, furthermore, make a sharper distinction between mediæval popular opinion and mediæval scientific opinion than we should about popular and scientific opinion of modern times; for the results of science did not reach the people then as now. To the ordinary mediæval man the world in which he lived was what it appeared to be to his eye. The earth was flat; the sky was a material dome, which sustained the waters of the world above it. Through this sky-floor the water sometimes breaks and the earth receives showers of rain. These popular notions sometimes appeared in the verse of the time.

The mediæval scientific opinion was based on the theory of Ptolemy and his school of Alexandrian astronomers, who lived in the second century A. D., some details to the theory having been added by the Arabians. Ptolemy says, “The world is divided into two vast regions; the one ethereal, the other elementary. The ethereal region begins with the first mover, which accomplishes its journey from east to west in twenty-four hours; ten skies participate in this motion, and their totality comprises the double crystalline heaven, the firmament and the seven planets.” (See diagram.) The mediæval man of science thought that, inasmuch as he was upon the earth, he was therefore standing at the centre of things. Directly above him was the cavity of the sky, ruled by the moon; and below the moon were the four elements,――fire, air, water, and earth. This region was the realm of imperfection. But above the moon the scientist saw a series of nine other heavens, each with an orderly revolution of its own; and beyond all is God. The universe was therefore to Ptolemy a great but a limited sphere, consisting of ten spheres one inside another (like the rings of an onion). Each planet moved with the motion of its own heaven (or sphere), which was sometimes called “crystalline” because it was transparent. The movements of the heavenly bodies, each in its own revolving heaven, were contained in the whole sphere, which revolved with a motion of its own. By ascribing other movements to the planets within their respective heavens, the mediæval astronomers were able to predict every conjunction and eclipse to the minute. These separate movements of the planets were called epicycles, the form of which is shown in the diagram on the opposite page.

Illustration: PTOLEMAIC COSMOGRAPHY

A diagram showing the division of the universe into the ten spheres or heavens

(From the private library of Professor R. W. Willson of Harvard University)

Such a scientific astronomy would easily lend itself to the theological conceptions of the time. The realm of perfection above the moon was supposed to be under the direct supervision of God and to be inhabited by spirits. Thus the conjunction and relation of the heavenly bodies were thought to have influence upon human life, and they furnished the basis of the astrology, necromancy, and spiritism so common in the Middle Ages. The ninth heaven embraced all the others. It swept around them all, without interfering with their own special motions, and completed its revolution in twenty-four hours. The ninth heaven was both the source and the limit of all motion and all change. Beyond it lies the eternal peace of God, which the Christian astronomer regarded as “the abode of the blessed.” This was called the tenth heaven or the Empyrean. This, in Dante’s words, is “the heaven that is pure light; light intellectual full of love, love of the good full of joy, joy that transcends all sweetness.” The tenth heaven is Paradise and is within the life of God. It is important to note that the Ptolemaic conception of the universe is the background upon which Dante constructs his _Divine Comedy_ (see diagram, p. 376),[48] and appears in part at least as the cosmological basis of the _Paradise Lost_ of Milton. For thirteen centuries――from 200 to 1500――conviction remained unshaken in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy as an adequate explanation of the universe.

Illustration: PTOLEMAIC COSMOGRAPHY

(Showing the Epicyclic Movements of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in respect to the Earth)

=The Mediæval Man at School.= In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there was a revival in intellectual interests that was deep and broad, and the characteristics of this revival will be discussed subsequently (see Transitional Period, p. 329). Our curiosity, however, is aroused upon our entrance into the Middle Ages, as to what the man of the early Middle Ages studied and how much he learned. We must remind ourselves at the outset of the oft-repeated fact that, on the whole, in western Europe, for the first five hundred years of the Middle Ages, the only people who had any book-learning were the churchmen. Furthermore, with them the learning was very meagre. Their purpose in study will show this, for it was to enable them “to understand and expound the Canonical Scriptures, the Fathers, and other ecclesiastical writings.” The training was as follows:――

1. Theological. Elementary instruction in the Psalms and church music, but no systematic training in theology,――just enough training to enable the priest to understand the Bible and the Church Fathers.

2. Secular training. Knowledge in the “Seven Liberal Arts,” _i. e._ the _trivium_――grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic; and the more advanced _quadrivium_,――music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. These names are suggestive of a vast amount of knowledge, while, in truth, very little was known or taught in these subjects. Astronomy and arithmetic were employed to find the time of Easter. Geometry included some propositions of Euclid without demonstrations. Music included plain song and a mystic doctrine of number. More was made of grammar, the study of rhetoric from Latin classics, and dialectics. Dialectics was logic in the Middle Ages, and its mysteries fascinated the mediæval man. But even in logic there were only some remnants of the Aristotelian logic known.

=A Mediæval Library.= Here again is an interesting question: What did this mediæval churchman read? But we must make a distinction between books most commonly read, books that the scholars might use, and books most influential upon thought.

=1. Books most commonly read.= These would be the text-books used in instruction. They are as follows:――

The _Psalms_.

The _Grammar_ of Donatus.

The Christian poets: Prudentius, _Psychomachia_; Juvencus, _Gospels in Verse_; Sedulius, _Easter Hymn_.

Dionysius Cato, _Disticha de Moribus_, a collection of proverbs (moral maxims) in rhyming couplets.

Virgil, Ovid, and the rhetorical works of Cicero.

Æsop’s _Fables_ (in Latin).

=2. Books that the scholars might use.= It is difficult to say what any particular scholar actually did read, for the libraries of monasteries differed enormously in the character and number of their books; some monasteries had several hundred books, some none at all. Some libraries were composed almost entirely of works of the Fathers; some possessed a good many works of ancient classical writers. One _might_ expect to find any one or more of the following works in a scholar’s library:――

Aristotle, _De Interpretatione_ and the _Categories_ in Boëthius’ translation.

This explains why the logical problems occupied the almost exclusive attention of the first schoolmen.

Plato, the _Timæus_.

This was known to the Irish monks perhaps in Greek, but on the continent in a translation by Chalcidius. The only other sources of knowledge of Plato were in the works of Augustine and the neo-Platonists.

Commentaries on Aristotle,――The _Isagoge_ by Porphyry, in a translation into Latin by Boëthius, and some commentaries by Boëthius himself on Aristotle’s _De Interpretatione_ and _Categories_.

Cicero, the rhetorical and dialectical treatises, such as the _Topica_, _De Officiis_.

Seneca, _De Beneficiis_.

Lucretius, _De Rerum Natura_.

Augustine’s works and some pseudo-Augustinian writings.

The works of the Church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.

The _Pseudo-Dionysius_, translated from the Greek by Erigena.

The encyclopedic collections of some of the last of the scholars of antiquity, like Cassiodorus, Capella, Boëthius, and the _Etymologies_ of Isidore of Seville.

=3. The Books most influential philosophically upon the time.= These were not necessarily the books most widely read, but the epoch-making books, so to speak. They were as follows:――

Augustine, _City of God_.

Boëthius, _Consolation of Philosophy_.

Aristotle, _De Interpretatione_ and the _Categories_ in translation by Boëthius.

_Pseudo-Dionysius_, translated by Erigena.

Porphyry, _Isagoge_ translated by Boëthius, an introduction to Aristotle’s _Categories_.

=The Three Periods of the Middle Ages.=

1. Early Period, 476–1000.

2. Transitional Period, 1000–1200.

3. Period of Classic Scholasticism, 1200–1453.

There is one great natural division line of the Middle Ages, the year 1200. At this time the surging of the western peoples eastward in the Crusades was at its height, and the works of Aristotle were coming into western Europe from the East. These events mark a change in the political and intellectual situation in Europe. But this change did not take place suddenly. There are intervening two centuries that are indeed transitional, but at the same time are animated by a distinct and independent philosophical motive. These two centuries may be set apart as a period, different from the earlier and the later periods. We shall call these three periods the Early Period, the Transitional Period, and the Period of Classic Scholasticism.

The Early Period takes us from the fall of old Rome (476) to the birth of modern political Europe (1000). It is a period of religious faith governed by the theology of Augustine. Mysticism has no independent following, but on the contrary rules within the church. The Christian principle of individual personality and the Greek Platonic conception of universal realities are not fused, but they are held without arousing controversy. This is because the human reason has no standard code, nor does it yet feel the need of one. The only two philosophers, Augustine and Erigena, of the period are animated by neo-Platonism.

The Transitional Period extends from the birth of political Europe (1000) to the arrival of the works of Aristotle (about 1200). This epoch is one of logical controversy, in which the Christian and the Greek motives conflict. This controversy gives rise to the first group of great schoolmen, who discuss the reality of general ideas in their application to dogma. Mysticism still rules the churchman, but now in a modified form. Plato has become the standard of the reason in orthodox circles and Aristotle in those inclined to heresy, but as yet only fragments of the works of either are known.

The Period of Classic Scholasticism extends from 1200 to the end of the Middle Ages (1453). It is a period when a theological metaphysics arises by the side of the logical controversy and predominates over that controversy. The problem now concerns the respective scopes of the reason and faith. The period is Aristotelian, and Aristotle’s philosophy is made the standard code for the churchman for all time. Mysticism has now no place of authority in the church, but has an independence. The period contains the greatest schoolmen of the Middle Ages.

Summary of the Political and Educational Worlds of the Mediæval Man.

I. _Early Period_, 476–1000.

395 The Roman empire divided into (_Augustine_, 354–430) Eastern and Western empires.

476 Fall of the Western empire, 476–800 Disappearance of the Eastern empire lasting municipal and imperial about 1000 years longer. schools and rise of episcopal and monastic 375–600 Northern barbarians overrun schools. the Western empire in series of invasions. 525 Boëthius died, the last notable Roman scholar who knew Greek.

529 Closing of philosophical Schools at Athens; _founding of monastic school by St. Benedict_.

600 Roman power almost entirely in hands of barbarians.

622–732 Mohammedans conquer Arabia, Northern Africa, and Spain. 476–800 Dark Ages. 732 Mohammedans repulsed at the battle of Tours.

600–800 Fusion took place among German and Roman peoples.

800 Empire of Charlemagne founded. 800–1000 Benedictine Age: _only Civilization higher than the period in Western Europe German, lower than the Roman. when education is entirely in hands of monks_. The Palace school; episcopal, cathedral, and monastery schools. (_Erigena_, 810–880, _the forerunner of Scholasticism_.)

900–1000 Empire of Charlemagne 900–1000 Dark century with broken up. _Demoralization_. decline of learning. Invasions by Danes and Northmen from the north; Saracens IN THE EARLY PERIOD AND THE from south by sea; Slavs, TRANSITIONAL PERIOD LITTLE Hungarians, Russians, and Poles OF PLATO WAS KNOWN EXCEPT by land. The church demoralized, IN THE FORM OF NEO-PLATONISM Papacy temporarily disappears, AND LITTLE OF ARISTOTLE feudalism replaces empire. EXCEPT OF FRAGMENTS OF HIS LOGIC.

II. _Transitional Period_, 1000–1200.

1000 France and Germany get their _First Scholasticism._ first form as nations just (Anselm, 1033–1109) before this year; England just (Roscellinus, d. 1110) after. _Beginning of new birth (Abelard, 1079–1142) of Europe_, caused by conversions of northern nations, 1000 Passion for inquiry takes by enlightened rule of the the place of the old routine. Ottos, by regeneration of Papacy, by development of civic 1160–1200 Traces of the life. origination of the earliest _Beginning of political order, universities. ecclesiastical discipline, and social tranquillity._ 1150–1250 Translation into Revival of architecture Latin directly from Greek followed by renewal of art. The of the works of Aristotle, Romanesque appeared about 1000, previously unknown in Western the Gothic about 1150. Poetry Europe. of Trouvères in north and of Troubadours in south.

III. _Period of Classic Scholasticism_, 1200–1453.

1200 Crusades at their height. 1200 The Mendicant Friars. _Classic Scholasticism._ 1200–1453 Commerce of Europe with (Thomas Aquinas, 1224–1274.) Asia begins to grow to large (Duns Scotus, 1270–1308.) proportions in countries on the (William of Ockam, Mediterranean. The Third Estate 1280–1349.) grows in strength, national governments prevail over the 1300–1453 The period is well feudal system. supplied with schools.

1350–1453 Deterioration of Scholasticism.