The death of the Western Roman Empire (5th - 7th centuries) led to cultural decline. But this was a temporary phenomenon. A new European culture is gradually being formed, which differs from the culture of the ancient era. It arose through the merging of many cultures created by the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans and other peoples. The unification of cultures was facilitated by Christianity, which itself became a unique culture.
The revival of culture was facilitated by the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. By a special decree, he ordered the opening of schools for children and clergy at the monasteries, ordered the development of a single text of the Bible, as well as a special beautiful font for correspondence. Church handwritten books were prepared in the form of luxurious folios, with covers decorated with gold, ivory and precious stones. The pages of these books were decorated with beautiful miniatures. Charlemagne also cared about the development of architecture, especially church architecture. His masters built more than three hundred palaces, cathedrals and monasteries.
The worldview of medieval man was religious: the world was perceived through religious images and concepts. Thus, scholasticism became widespread in the middle ages. The scholastics debated the question of how to understand the world—by faith or by mind? Opinions varied.
Pierre Abelard (1079-1142) believed that the basis of knowledge should only be reason. If you do not apply your mind to faith, then numerous absurdities and contradictions will remain in the works of theologians. Mine life path Abelard described it in his autobiography, “The History of My Disasters.”
Bernard of Clermont (1090-1153) was an implacable enemy of Abelard. Meaning human life saw in the knowledge of God.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) believed that if the conclusions of reason contradict faith, then this only indicates an illogical course of reasoning.
In the Middle Ages there were both church and secular schools. The schools taught the so-called seven liberal sciences: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. In schools, adults studied together with children. We learned to read from church books. At the end of XII - early XIII V. Universities began to appear (the first in the city of Bologna, Italy). Teachers created associations by subject - faculties, headed by deans. The head of the university - the rector - was elected by teachers and students.
Economic life required not only knowledge of the Bible, but also applied knowledge. In the 13th century the first experimental knowledge in mathematics, mechanics, astrology, and chemistry appeared. Medicine has made great strides; during the times crusades knowledge of geography has expanded. In the 13th century The Merchant of Venice Marco Polo visited China and Central Asia.
Heroic epic - common name folklore works of various genres (songs, legends, traditions) that glorified ancient kings and heroes, their struggle for the victory of Christianity. It is closely intertwined historical truth and fantasy. An example of a heroic epic is “The Tale of Beowulf”, “Song of Roland”, “Song of Cid”, “Song of the Nibelugins”.
Medieval chivalry contributed to history European culture. In the 12th century. chivalric novels arose: the legends of King Arthur and knights Round table; novel "Tristan and Isolde". The knight-poets of France (troubadours and trouvères) sang feminine beauty and his respectful attitude towards women.
In medium-sized cities they become cultural centers. Urban literature - poetic short stories, fables - ridiculed greed, ignorance of the clergy, and other shortcomings of society (an example is “The Roman of the Fox”). The urban is born performing arts. The performances were performed by jugglers - traveling artists. The poor students (vagantas) composed a cheerful hymn “Gaudeamus” (“Let us rejoice!”), which is still performed by all students in the world. The most vagant is Francois Villon.
In medieval Europe, architecture and art underwent significant church influence. By the 11th century. The Romanesque style dominated. It developed on the basis of Roman basilicas - massive, squat churches in which noble dead were buried. Therefore, this style was called Romanesque, i.e. Roman. The church building had the shape of a cross, thick walls, slits instead of windows, a semicircular arch, and massive columns. The walls of the Romanesque church were painted by painters. In the middle of the XII-XVI centuries. The Gothic style becomes widespread. Gothic cathedrals appear light and transparent thanks to their huge windows. The cathedrals had steep roofs, pointed arches, tall towers with a thin spire, were decorated with stone carvings and sculptural decorations.
Period cultural development Western and Central Europe, transitional from medieval culture to the culture of modern times, was called the Renaissance. During the Middle Ages there were two stages of the Renaissance period: Proto-Renaissance (XIII - early XIV centuries) Early Renaissance (XIV-XV centuries). Features of Renaissance art: deep humanism, revival cultural heritage antiquity, interest in nature.
General characteristics of the Western European Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
Classical Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
Term "middle Ages" was first used by Italian humanists in the 15th century. to denote the period between classical antiquity and their time. In Russian historiography, the lower boundary of the Middle Ages is also traditionally considered to be the 5th century. AD - the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the upper one - the 17th century, when the bourgeois revolution took place in England.
The Middle Ages period is extremely important for Western European civilization: the processes and events of that time still often determine the nature of the political, economic, and cultural development of the countries of Western Europe. Thus, it was during this period that the religious community of Europe was formed and a new direction in Christianity emerged, which contributed most to the formation of bourgeois relations, Protestantism, an urban culture is emerging, which largely determined modern mass Western European culture; the first parliaments arise and the principle of separation of powers receives practical implementation; the foundations are being laid modern science and education systems; The ground is being prepared for the industrial revolution and the transition to an industrial society.
Three stages can be distinguished in the development of Western European medieval society:
Early Middle Ages (V-X centuries) – the process of formation of the main structures characteristic of the Middle Ages is underway;
Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries) - time maximum development medieval feudal institutions;
Late Middle Ages (XV-XVII centuries) - a new capitalist society begins to form. This division is largely arbitrary, although generally accepted; Depending on the stage, the main characteristics of Western European society change. Before considering the features of each stage, we will highlight the most important features inherent in the entire period of the Middle Ages.
General characteristics of the Western European Middle Ages (V-XVII centuries)
Medieval society in Western Europe was agrarian. The basis of the economy is agriculture, and the vast majority of the population was employed in this area. Labor in agriculture, as in other branches of production, was manual, which predetermined its low efficiency and generally slow pace of technical and economic evolution.
The vast majority of the population of Western Europe lived outside the city throughout the Middle Ages. If for ancient Europe cities were very important - they were independent centers of life, the nature of which was predominantly municipal, and a person’s belonging to a city determined his civil rights, then in Medieval Europe, especially in the first seven centuries, the role of cities was insignificant, although over time Over time, the influence of cities is increasing.
The Western European Middle Ages was a period of dominance of subsistence farming and weak development of commodity-money relations. The insignificant level of regional specialization associated with this type of economy determined the development of mainly long-distance (external) rather than short-range (internal) trade. Long-distance trade was aimed mainly at the upper strata of society. Industry during this period existed in the form of crafts and manufacturing.
The Middle Ages is characterized by an exceptionally strong role of the church and a high degree of ideologization of society.
If in Ancient world Each nation had its own religion, which reflected its national characteristics, history, temperament, way of thinking, then in Medieval Europe there was one religion for all peoples - Christianity, which became the basis for uniting Europeans into one family, the formation of a single European civilization.
The process of pan-European integration was contradictory: along with rapprochement in the field of culture and religion, there is a desire for national isolation in terms of statehood development. The Middle Ages are the time of the formation of national states, which exist in the form of monarchies, both absolute and estate-representative. Features political power there was its fragmentation, as well as its connection with conditional ownership of land. If in ancient Europe the right to own land was determined for a free person by his nationality - the fact of his birth in a given polis and the resulting civil rights, then in medieval Europe the right to land depended on a person’s belonging to a certain class. Medieval society is class-based. There were three main classes: the nobility, the clergy and the people (peasants, artisans, and merchants were united under this concept). Estates had different rights and responsibilities, played different socio-political and economic roles.
Vassalage system. The most important characteristic of medieval Western European society was its hierarchical structure, vassalage system. At the head of the feudal hierarchy was king - the supreme overlord and at the same time often only the nominal head of state. This conditionality of the absolute power of the highest person in the states of Western Europe is also an essential feature of Western European society, in contrast to the truly absolute monarchies of the East. Even in Spain (where the power royalty was quite noticeable) when the king was installed, the grandees, in accordance with the established ritual, uttered the following words: “We, who are no worse than you, make you, who are no better than us, king, so that you respect and defend our rights. And if not, then no.” Thus, the king in medieval Europe was merely “first among equals,” and not an all-powerful despot. It is characteristic that the king, occupying the first step of the hierarchical ladder in his state, could well be a vassal of another king or the Pope.
On the second rung of the feudal ladder were the king's direct vassals. These were large feudal lords - dukes, counts; archbishops, bishops, abbots. By immunity certificate, received from the king, they had various types of immunity (from the Latin - inviolability). The most common types of immunity were tax, judicial and administrative, i.e. the owners of the immunity certificates themselves collected taxes from their peasants and townspeople, held court, and made administrative decisions. Feudal lords of this level could mint their own coins, which often circulated not only within a given estate, but also outside it. The submission of such feudal lords to the king was often simply formal.
On the third rung of the feudal ladder stood the vassals of dukes, counts, bishops - barons. They enjoyed virtual immunity on their estates. Even lower were the vassals of the barons - knights. Some of them could also have their own vassals, even smaller knights, while others had only peasants subordinate to them, who, however, stood outside the feudal ladder.
The vassalage system was based on the practice of land grants. The person who received the land became vassal the one who gave it - senor. Land was given under certain conditions, the most important of which was service as a seigneur, which, according to feudal custom, was usually 40 days a year. The most important duties of a vassal in relation to his lord were participation in the lord's army, protection of his possessions, honor, dignity, and participation in his council. If necessary, the vassals ransomed the lord from captivity.
When receiving land, the vassal swore an oath of allegiance to his master. If the vassal did not fulfill his obligations, the lord could take the land from him, but this was not so easy to do, since the vassal feudal lord was inclined to defend his recent property with arms in hand. In general, despite the seemingly clear order described by the well-known formula: “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal,” the vassalage system was quite confusing, and a vassal could have several lords at the same time.
Manners, customs. Another fundamental characteristic of Western European medieval society, and perhaps the most important, was a certain mentality of people, the nature of the social worldview, and the everyday way of life strictly connected with it. The most significant features of medieval culture were the constant and sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty, noble birth and rootlessness - everything was put on display. The society was visual in its everyday life, it was convenient to navigate: for example, even by clothing, it was easy to determine the belonging of any person to class, rank and professional circle. A feature of that society was a great many restrictions and conventions, but those who could “read” them knew their code and received important additional information about the reality around them. Thus, each color in clothing had its own purpose: blue was interpreted as the color of fidelity, green as the color of new love, yellow as the color of hostility. At that time, color combinations seemed exceptionally informative to Western Europeans, which, like the styles of hats, caps, and dresses, conveyed a person’s inner mood and attitude to the world. So, symbolism is an important characteristic of the culture of Western European medieval society.
The emotional life of society was also contrasting, since, as contemporaries themselves testified, the soul of a medieval resident of Western Europe was unbridled and passionate. The parishioners in the church could pray with tears for hours, then they got tired of it, and they started dancing right there in the church, saying to the saint, in front of whose image they had just knelt: “Now you pray for us, and we will dance.”
This society was often cruel to many. Business as usual there were executions, and in relation to criminals there was no middle ground - they were either executed or forgiven completely. The idea that criminals could be re-educated was not allowed. Executions were always organized as a special moral spectacle for the public, and terrible and painful punishments were invented for terrible atrocities. For many ordinary people, executions served as entertainment, and medieval authors noted that the people, as a rule, tried to delay the ending, enjoying the spectacle of torture; The usual thing in such cases was “the animalistic, stupid joy of the crowd.”
Other common character traits of medieval Western Europeans were hot temper, selfishness, quarrelsomeness, and vindictiveness. These qualities were combined with a constant readiness for tears: sobs were considered noble and beautiful, and elevating everyone - children, adults, men and women.
The Middle Ages were the time of preachers who preached, moving from place to place, exciting people with their eloquence, greatly influencing public sentiment. Thus, brother Richard, who lived in France at the beginning of the 15th century, enjoyed enormous popularity and love. Once he preached in Paris at the cemetery of innocent children for 10 days from 5 am to 11 pm. Huge crowds of people listened to him, the impact of his speeches was powerful and quick: many immediately threw themselves on the ground and repented of their sins, many made vows to begin new life. When Richard announced that he was finishing his last sermon and had to move on, many people, leaving their homes and families, followed him.
The preachers certainly contributed to the creation of a unified European society.
An important characteristic of society was the general state of collective morals, the social mood: this was expressed in the fatigue of society, fear of life, and a feeling of fear of fate. Indicative was the lack of strong will and desire in society to change the world for the better. Fear of life will give way to hope, courage and optimism only in the 17th-18th centuries. - and it is no coincidence that from this time a new period will begin in human history, an essential feature of which will be the desire of Western Europeans to positively transform the world. The praise of life and an active attitude towards it did not appear suddenly and not out of nowhere: the possibility of these changes would gradually mature within the framework of feudal society throughout the entire period of the Middle Ages. From stage to stage, Western European society will become more energetic and enterprising; slowly but steadily the entire system of social institutions, economic, political, social, cultural, and psychological, will change. Let us trace the features of this process by period.
Early Middle Ages (V – X centuries)
The formation of feudal relations. During the early Middle Ages, the formation of medieval society began - the territory in which education took place expanded significantly Western European civilization: if the basis ancient civilization were Ancient Greece and Rome, then medieval civilization covers almost all of Europe.
The most important process in the early Middle Ages in the socio-economic sphere was the formation of feudal relations, the core of which was the formation of feudal ownership of land. This happened in two ways. The first way is through peasant community. The plot of land owned by a peasant family was inherited from father to son (and from the 6th century to daughter) and was their property. So it gradually took shape allod – freely alienable land property of communal peasants. Allod accelerated the stratification of property among free peasants: lands began to be concentrated in the hands of the communal elite, which was already acting as part of the feudal class. Thus, this was the way of forming the patrimonial-allodial form of feudal ownership of land, especially characteristic of the Germanic tribes.
The second way of the formation of feudal land ownership and, consequently, the entire feudal system is the practice of land grants by the king or other large landowners-feudal lords to their confidants. First a piece of land (benefits) was given to the vassal only on condition of service and for the duration of his service, and the lord retained the supreme rights to benefices. Gradually, the vassals' rights to the lands granted to them expanded, as the sons of many vassals continued to serve their father's lord. In addition, purely psychological reasons were also important: the nature of the relationship developing between the lord and the vassal. As contemporaries testify, vassals, as a rule, were faithful and devoted to their master.
Loyalty was valued dearly, and benefices increasingly became the almost complete property of vassals, passing from father to son. The land that was passed down by inheritance was called linen, or fief, fief owner - feudal lord, and the entire system of these socio-economic relations is feudalism.
The beneficiary became a fief by the 21st century. This path to the formation of feudal relations is clearly visible in the example of the Frankish state, which took shape already in the 6th century.
Classes of early feudal society. In the Middle Ages, two main classes of feudal society were also formed: feudal lords, spiritual and secular - land owners and peasants - land holders. Among the peasants there were two groups, differing in their economic and social status. Personally free peasants could, at will, leave the owner, give up their land holdings: rent them out or sell them to another peasant. Having freedom of movement, they often moved to cities or new places. They paid fixed taxes in kind and in cash and performed certain work on their master's farm. Another group - personally dependent peasants. Their responsibilities were broader, in addition (and this is the most important difference) they were not fixed, so that personally dependent peasants were subject to arbitrary taxation. They also bore a number of specific taxes: posthumous taxes - upon entering into an inheritance, marriage taxes - redemption of the right of the first night, etc. These peasants did not enjoy freedom of movement. By the end of the first period of the Middle Ages, all peasants (both personally dependent and personally free) had an owner; feudal law did not recognize simply free people independent of anyone, trying to build public relations according to the principle: “There is no man without a master.”
State economy. During the formation of medieval society, the pace of development was slow. Although three-field farming had already become fully established in agriculture instead of two-field farming, the yield was low: on average - 3. They kept mainly small livestock - goats, sheep, pigs, and there were few horses and cows. The level of specialization in agriculture was low. Each estate had almost all vital sectors of the economy from the point of view of Western Europeans: field cultivation, cattle breeding, various crafts. The economy was subsistence, and agricultural products were not produced specifically for the market; the craft also existed in the form of custom work. The domestic market was thus very limited.
Ethnic processes and feudal fragmentation. IN This period saw the settlement of Germanic tribes across the territory of Western Europe: the cultural, economic, religious, and subsequently political community of Western Europe will be based largely on the ethnic community of Western European peoples. So, as a result of the successful conquests of the leader of the Franks Charlemagne in 800 a vast empire was created - the Frankish state. However, large territorial formations were not stable at that time and soon after the death of Charles, his empire collapsed.
By the X-XI centuries. Feudal fragmentation is establishing itself in Western Europe. Kings retained real power only within their domains. Formally, the king's vassals were obliged to bear military service, pay him a cash contribution upon entering into an inheritance, and also obey the decisions of the king as the supreme arbiter in interfeudal disputes. In fact, the fulfillment of all these obligations in the 9th-10th centuries. almost entirely depended on the will of powerful feudal lords. The strengthening of their power led to feudal civil strife.
Christianity. Despite the fact that the process of creating nation states began in Europe, their borders were constantly changing; states either merged into larger state associations or were split into smaller ones. This political mobility also contributed to the formation of a pan-European civilization.
The most important factor in creating united Europe was Christianity, which gradually spread throughout European countries ah, becoming the state religion.
Christianity determined cultural life early medieval Europe, influencing the system, nature and quality of education and upbringing. The quality of education affected the level of economic development. During this period, the level of economic development was highest in Italy. Here, earlier than in other countries, medieval cities - Venice, Genoa, Florence, Milan - developed as centers of crafts and trade, and not strong points nobility Foreign trade relations are growing faster here, domestic trade is developing, and regular fairs are appearing. The volume of credit transactions is increasing. Crafts, in particular weaving and jewelry making, as well as construction, reach a significant level. Still, as in antiquity, the citizens of Italian cities were politically active, and this also contributed to their rapid economic and cultural progress. In other countries of Western Europe, the influence of ancient civilization was also felt, but to a lesser extent than in Italy.
Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries)
At the second stage of the development of feudalism, the process of formation of feudal relations is completed and all structures of feudal society reach their fullest flowering.
Creation of centralized states. Public administration. At this time, centralized power was strengthened in most Western European countries, national states began to form and strengthen (England, France, Germany), etc. Large feudal lords all to a greater extent depend on the king. However, the king's power is still not truly absolute. The era of class-representative monarchies is coming. It was during this period that the practical implementation of the principle of separation of powers began and the first parliaments – estate-representative bodies that significantly limit the power of the king. The earliest such parliament-Cortes appeared in Spain (late 12th – early 12th centuries). In 1265, parliament appears in England. In the XIV century. parliaments had already been created in most Western European countries. At first, the work of parliaments was not regulated in any way; neither the timing of meetings nor the order of their holding were determined - all this was decided by the king, depending on the specific situation. However, even then the most important and constant question that parliamentarians considered was: taxes.
Parliaments could act as an advisory, legislative, and judicial body. Gradually, legislative functions were assigned to parliament and a certain confrontation between parliament and the king was outlined. Thus, the king could not introduce additional taxes without the sanction of parliament, although formally the king was much higher than parliament, and it was the king who convened and dissolved parliament and proposed issues for discussion.
Parliaments were not the only political innovation of the classical Middle Ages. Another important new component of social life was political parties, which first began to take shape in the 13th century. in Italy, and then (in the 14th century) in France. Political parties fiercely opposed each other, but the reason for their confrontation was then more likely to be psychological than economic.
Almost all countries of Western Europe during this period went through the horrors of bloody strife and war. An example could be war of the scarlet and white roses England in the 15th century. As a result of this war, England lost a quarter of its population.
Peasant uprisings. The Classical Middle Ages is also a time peasant uprisings, unrest and riots. An example would be an uprising led by WhoaTyler And John Ball's England in 1381
The uprising began as a mass protest of peasants against a new threefold increase in the head tax. The rebels demanded that the king not only reduce taxes, but also replace all natural duties with low cash payments, eliminate the personal dependence of the peasants and allow free trade throughout England. King Richard II (1367-1400) was forced to meet with the peasant leaders and agree to their demands. However, part of the peasants (especially poor peasants predominated among them) was not satisfied with these results and put forward new conditions, in particular, to take away the land from bishops, monasteries and other rich landowners and divide it among the peasants, to abolish all classes and class privileges. These demands were already completely unacceptable for the ruling strata, as well as for the majority of English society, because then property was already considered sacred and inviolable. The rebels were called robbers, and the uprising was brutally suppressed.
However, in the next century, in the 15th century, many of the slogans of this uprising received real embodiment: for example, almost all peasants actually became personally free and were transferred to cash payments, and their duties were no longer as heavy as before.
Economy. Agriculture. The main branch of the economy of Western European countries during the classical Middle Ages, as before, was agriculture. The main characteristics of the development of the agricultural sector as a whole were the process of rapid development of new lands, known in history as process of internal colonization. It contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the economy, but also to serious qualitative progress, since the duties imposed on peasants on the new lands were predominantly monetary rather than in kind. The process of replacing natural duties with monetary ones, known in the scientific literature as rent commutation, contributed to the growth of economic independence and enterprise of peasants, increasing the productivity of their labor. The cultivation of oilseeds and industrial crops is expanding, oil production and winemaking are developing.
Grain productivity reaches the level of sam-4 and sam-5. The growth of peasant activity and the expansion of peasant farming led to a reduction in the feudal lord's economy, which in the new conditions turned out to be less profitable.
Progress in agriculture was also facilitated by the liberation of peasants from personal dependence. The decision about this was made by the city near which the peasants lived and with which they were connected socially and economically, or by their feudal lord, on whose land they lived. The rights of peasants to land plots were strengthened. They could increasingly freely transfer land by inheritance, bequeath and mortgage it, lease it, donate it and sell it. This is how it gradually forms and becomes wider. land market. Commodity-money relations are developing.
Medieval cities. The most important characteristic of this period was the growth of cities and urban crafts. In the classical Middle Ages, old cities grew rapidly and new ones emerged - near castles, fortresses, monasteries, bridges, and river crossings. Cities with a population of 4-6 thousand inhabitants were considered average. There were very large cities, such as Paris, Milan, Florence, where 80 thousand people lived. Life in a medieval city was difficult and dangerous - frequent epidemics claimed the lives of more than half of the townspeople, as happened, for example, during the “Black Death” - a plague epidemic in mid-XIII V. Fires were also frequent. However, they still wanted to go to the cities, because, as the saying testified, “city air made a dependent person free” - to do this, one had to live in the city for one year and one day.
Cities arose on the lands of the king or large feudal lords and were beneficial to them, bringing in income in the form of taxes on crafts and trade.
At the beginning of this period, most cities were dependent on their lords. The townspeople fought to gain independence, i.e. for turning into a free city. The authorities of independent cities were elected and had the right to collect taxes, pay the treasury, manage city finances at their own discretion, have their own courts, mint their own coins, and even declare war and make peace. The means of struggle of the urban population for their rights were urban uprisings - communal revolutions, as well as the purchase of their rights from the lord. Only the richest cities, such as London and Paris, could afford such a ransom. However, many other Western European cities were also rich enough to gain independence for money. So, in the 13th century. About half of all cities in England - 200 cities - gained independence in collecting taxes.
The wealth of cities was based on the wealth of their citizens. Among the richest were moneylenders And money changers. They determined the quality and usefulness of the coin, and this was extremely important in the conditions of constantly practiced mercantilist governments deface coins; exchanged money and transferred it from one city to another; They took available capital for safekeeping and provided loans.
At the beginning of the classical Middle Ages, banking activity developed most actively in Northern Italy. There, as indeed throughout Europe, this activity was concentrated primarily in the hands of Jews, since Christianity officially prohibited believers from engaging in usury. The activities of moneylenders and money changers could be extremely profitable, but sometimes (if large feudal lords and kings refused to repay large loans) they also became bankrupt.
Medieval craft. An important and ever-increasing segment of the urban population were artisans. From VII-XIII centuries. Due to the increase in the purchasing power of the population and the growth of consumer demand, there is an increase in urban crafts. Craftsmen are moving from working to order to working for the market. The craft becomes a respected occupation that brings good income. People in construction specialties – masons, carpenters, plasterers – were especially respected. Architecture was then carried out by the most gifted people, with a high level of professional training. During this period, the specialization of crafts deepened, the range of products expanded, and craft techniques were improved, remaining, as before, manual. They become more complex and efficient technologies in metallurgy, in the manufacture of cloth fabrics, and in Europe they begin to wear woolen clothes instead of fur and linen. In the 12th century. were manufactured in Europe mechanical watches, in the 13th century. - large tower clock, in the 15th century. - pocket watch. Watchmaking became the school in which precision engineering techniques were developed, which played a significant role in the development of the productive forces of Western society.
Craftsmen united in workshops, who protected their members from competition from “wild” artisans. In cities there could be tens and hundreds of workshops of various economic orientations - after all, the specialization of production took place not within a workshop, but between workshops. So, in Paris there were more than 350 workshops. The most important safety of the workshops was also a certain regulation of production in order to prevent overproduction, maintain prices at sufficient high level; shop authorities, taking into account the volume of the potential market, determined the quantity of products produced.
During this entire period, the guilds fought with the city's top brass for access to management. City leaders, called patrician, united representatives of the landed aristocracy, wealthy merchants, and moneylenders. Often the actions of influential artisans were successful, and they were included in the city authorities.
The guild organization of handicraft production had both obvious disadvantages and advantages, one of which was a well-established apprenticeship system. The official training period in different workshops ranged from 2 to 14 years; it was assumed that during this time a craftsman should go from student and journeyman to master.
The workshops developed strict requirements for the material from which the goods were made, for tools, and production technology. All this ensured stable operation and guaranteed excellent product quality. The high level of medieval Western European craft is evidenced by the fact that an apprentice who wanted to receive the title of master was required to complete a final work, which was called a “masterpiece” (the modern meaning of the word speaks for itself).
The workshops also created conditions for the transfer of accumulated experience, ensuring the continuity of craft generations. In addition, artisans participated in the formation of a united Europe: apprentices during the training process could roam around different countries; masters, if there were more of them in the city than required, easily moved to new places.
On the other hand, towards the end of the classical Middle Ages, in the 14th-15th centuries, the guild organization of industrial production increasingly began to act as an inhibitory factor. The workshops are increasingly isolated and stop developing. In particular, it was almost impossible for many to become a master: only the son of a master or his son-in-law could actually obtain the status of a master. This has led to a large layer of “eternal apprentices” appearing in cities. In addition, strict regulation of crafts begins to hinder the introduction of technological innovations, without which progress in the sphere of material production is unthinkable. Therefore, the guilds are gradually exhausting themselves, and by the end of the classical Middle Ages there appears new form organizations of industrial production - manufactory.
Development of manufacture. Manufacture implied the specialization of labor between workers when making any product, which significantly increased the productivity of labor, which, as before, remained manual. The factories of Western Europe employed hired workers. Manufacture became most widespread in the following period of the Middle Ages.
Trade and merchants. An important segment of the urban population were merchants, played a major role in domestic and foreign trade. They constantly traveled around the cities with goods. Merchants, as a rule, were literate and could speak the languages of the countries through which they passed. Foreign trade during this period was apparently still more developed than domestic trade. The centers of foreign trade in Western Europe at that time were the Northern, Baltic and Mediterranean Sea. Cloth, wine, metal products, honey, timber, fur, and resin were exported from Western Europe. Mostly luxury goods were brought from the East to the West: colored fabrics, silk, brocade, precious stones, ivory, wine, fruits, spices, carpets. Imports into Europe generally exceeded exports. The largest participants in the foreign trade of Western Europe were the Hanseatic cities1. There were about 80 of them, and the largest of them were Hamburg, Bremen, Gdansk, and Cologne.
Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, which flourished in the 13th-14th centuries, gradually lost its political and economic power and was supplanted by the English company merchant adventurers, engaged in intensive overseas trade.
The development of domestic trade was significantly hampered by the lack of a unified monetary system, numerous internal customs and customs duties, the lack of a good transport network, and constant robbery on the roads. Many people traded in robbery, both ordinary people and noble people. Among them were small knights who could not find a place for themselves in creative economic life, since only the eldest son could inherit his father’s property - “the crown and possessions” - and the rest became the lot of war, campaigns, robbery, and knightly entertainment. The knights robbed the city merchants, and the townspeople, without bothering themselves with a trial, hanged the knights they had captured on the city towers. This system of relationships hampered the development of society. However, despite the existence of numerous dangers on the roads, medieval society was very dynamic and mobile: there was intense demographic exchange between regions and countries, contributing to the formation of a united Europe.
There were also people of clergy constantly on the move - bishops, abbots, monks, who had to attend church councils and travel with reports to Rome. It was they who actually carried out the intervention of the church in the affairs of national states, which was manifested not only in ideological and cultural life, but also quite noticeably financially - a huge amount of money went from each state to Rome.
Medieval universities. Another part of Western European medieval society was also mobile - students and masters. The first universities in Western Europe appeared precisely in the classical Middle Ages. So, at the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. Universities were opened in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and other European cities. Universities were then the most important and often the only source of information. The power of universities and university science was exceptionally strong. In this regard, in the XIV-XV centuries. The University of Paris stood out in particular. It is significant that among his students (and there were more than 30 thousand people in total) there were adults and even old people: everyone came to exchange opinions and get acquainted with new ideas.
University Science – scholasticism – formed in the 11th century. Its most important feature was boundless faith in the power of reason in the process of understanding the world. Over time, however, scholasticism increasingly becomes a dogma. Its provisions are considered infallible and final. In the XIV-XV centuries. scholasticism, which used only logic and denied experiments, became an obvious obstacle to the development of natural scientific thought in Western Europe. Almost all departments in European universities were then occupied by monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and the usual topics of debate and scientific works were like this: “Why did Adam eat an apple and not a pear in paradise? and “How many angels can fit on the head of a needle?”
The entire university education system has been very helpful strong influence on the formation of Western European civilization. Universities contributed to progress in scientific thought, the growth of social consciousness and the growth of individual freedom. Masters and students, moving from city to city, from university to university, which was a constant practice, carried out cultural exchange between countries. National achievements immediately became known in other European countries. So, "Decameron" Italian Giavanni Boccaccio(1313-1375) was quickly translated into all European languages, it was read and known everywhere. The formation of Western European culture was also facilitated by the beginning in 1453. book printing. Considered the first printer Johannes Gutenberg (between 1394-1399 or in 1406-1468), who lived in Germany.
Features of the historical development of leading European countries. Germany, despite its generally successful development, was nevertheless not a leading country in the field of culture or economy. In the XIV-XV centuries. Italy was still the most educated and prosperous country in Europe, although politically it was a multitude of states, often openly hostile to each other. The community of Italians was expressed mainly in a single language and national culture. France succeeded most in state building, where the processes of centralization began earlier than in other countries. In the XIV-XV centuries. In France, permanent state taxes have already been introduced, a unified monetary system and a unified postal service have been established.
From a human rights and personal protection perspective greatest success England achieved, where the rights of the people, obtained by them in confrontation with the king, were most clearly formulated as law: thus, the king did not have the right to impose new taxes and issue new laws without the consent of parliament; in his specific activities he had to comply with existing laws .
Another feature of the development of England was the increased growth of commodity-money relations, the widespread use of hired labor in all spheres of the economy, and active foreign trade activity. A distinctive feature of English society was also the presence in it of the spirit of entrepreneurship, without which rapid economic evolution is unthinkable. This psychological attitude was greatly facilitated by the absence of a rigid class system in English society. So, back in 1278, a law was passed according to which personally free peasants with an annual income of more than 20 pounds sterling received the title of nobility. This is how the “new nobility” was formed - a layer of economically active people who objectively contributed to the rapid rise of England in the next period.
General characteristics of the period. The era of the Middle Ages is usually understood as a historical period that includes the origin and formation of European medieval civilization. Modern researchers tend to spend time with mid-16th century to the beginning of the 17th century. as an independent era of early modern times and limit it to the eve of the history of the Middle Ages proper. It was during this period that the European world was formed within its modern boundaries and ethnic boundaries, a period of geographical and scientific discoveries began, and the first rudiments of modern civilization appeared.
Domestic medieval studies, having today abandoned the interpretation of the Middle Ages only as a period of “dark ages” and “obscurantism”, strives to objectively illuminate the events and phenomena that turned Europe into a qualitatively new civilization. In the latest research, the Middle Ages appears to us as an era with its own special social relations and special culture. The social class structure of medieval European society was determined by the feudal mode of production, its main classes being land owners (feudal lords) and peasants. An important social stratum of the period of mature feudalism was also formed by townspeople. A characteristic feature of the feudal society of the Middle Ages was its estate-corporate structure. For both peasants and feudal lords, it was important not so much to increase material wealth as to preserve social status. Neither the monasteries showed a desire for a continuous increase in income during this period; neither large landowners, nor the peasants themselves. The rights of individual estate groups were secured legally. The corporatism of feudal European society was also manifested in the fact that big role they played in it various kinds unions: rural and urban communities, brotherhood, craft guilds and merchant guilds in cities, knightly and monastic orders.
Religion and the church filled the entire life of a person in the medieval era from birth to death. The church claimed to govern society and performed many functions that later began to belong to the state. Having monopolized culture, science, and literacy in society, the church had enormous resources that subordinated the man of the feudal era to it. According to the modern historian Bishok, the church "was more than the basis of medieval culture, it was the medieval culture itself." Christianity became the most important factor in the European cultural community; it was in the Middle Ages that it turned into one of the world religions. Christian civilization was established not just on the ruins of ancient civilization, but also on its basis; it not only denied previous values, but also rethought them. The Christian Church, its centralization, hierarchy and wealth, its worldview, law, ethics and morality - created a single feudal ideology. Christianity largely determined the difference between European medieval civilization and the civilizations of other continents of the same era.
In the final period of the Middle Ages, under the influence of the development of exchange, commodity production and monetary relations, the evolution of society accelerated noticeably. The medieval city plays an increasingly important role. It is with the development of cities that the emergence of the political and legal system of the New Time is associated. It was in the cities that those elements of legal consciousness that are commonly called democratic took shape. However, according to modern historians, it would be wrong to look for the origins of modern legal ideas only in the urban environment. Representatives of other classes also played a major role in the formation of legal consciousness in the late Middle Ages. For example, the formation of ideas about the dignity of the individual occurred mainly in the class consciousness of feudal lords and was initially of an aristocratic nature. Consequently, democratic freedoms also grew out of aristocratic love of freedom. In acute and social struggle between the peasantry and the feudal lords, between the cities and the lords, between various groupings within the feudal class itself, between the supporters of separatism and the adherents of centralization, the Middle Ages gradually came to an end.
Many phenomena in life modern peoples and states are rooted in the medieval past: the formation of the social structure of society, the formation of nations and national cultures, etc. In many countries, medieval traditions are still alive to this day; most of the currently existing states were formed in the Middle Ages. During this era, many ancient cities were revived and new ones emerged. Culture became more accessible to the masses thanks to the invention of the printing press, the opening of universities and many schools. Since the Middle Ages, people began to use porcelain dishes, mirrors, forks, soap, glasses, buttons, mechanical watch and many other things without which everyday life today is unthinkable. For the development of military affairs, the transition to firearms was crucial. Significant changes have occurred in People's understanding of the universe. Wonderful works of art of the Middle Ages still remain unsurpassed masterpieces and stimulate the human spirit to new creative quests.
The Roman Empire, with its achievements, exhausted its internal potential and entered a period of collapse. The period of the late Roman Empire was the time of the formation of new proto-feudal relations, which took the form of attaching different groups of the population to their place of residence and their occupations. The state in the late Empire absorbed and subjugated society; A feature of the socio-political situation was the general dissatisfaction of the population with imperial statehood, the strengthening of independence and the growing authority in society of the Christian Church. The unified Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire could no longer resist internal disintegration and the pressure of barbarians on its borders.
The Middle Ages began with the Great Migration of Peoples. From the end of the 4th century. Whole tribes of Germans moved from their homes and invaded the Western Roman Empire. On the occupied lands, Germanic tribes created their own states: the Vandals - in North Africa, Visigoths (Western Goths) - in Spain, Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) - in Italy, Angles and Saxons - on the island of Britain, Franks - in Gaul. The kings who headed them were, first of all, tribal leaders (kings), leaders of military squads. There were no uniform laws in the kingdoms, local population continued to live according to Roman laws, and the Germans were judged on the basis of their own ancient customs. The only organization to survive the conquest was Christian church, whose bishops enjoyed great influence over the population. The Germans gradually adopted the Christian religion. For the needs of church services, writing chronicles, royal decrees and other documents, Latin writing was used; schools were opened at churches and monasteries in which priests were trained.
Cities on the territory of the Western Roman Empire fell into decay in the last centuries of its existence, many of them were devastated by barbarians. They have survived only in Italy, Spain, and on the Mediterranean coast of France; in other regions and countries until the 10th century. the cities were few and small in size.
Political development of Europe inV-XIcenturies. The largest in Europe was the one that arose at the end of the 5th century. State of the Franks. Its creator was the leader of one of the tribes - Clovis from the Merovei family. Descendants of Clovis who ruled Frankish state until the middle of the 8th century, are called Merovingians. Having united the Franks under his rule, Clovis defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Soissons (486) and subjugated Northern Gaul. Gradually there was a rapprochement between the two peoples, the Franks and local residents (descendants of the Gauls and Romans). The entire population of the Frankish state began to speak one dialect, in which Latin was mixed with Germanic words. This adverb later formed the basis French. However, only the Latin language was used in the letter; in it, under Clovis, the first recording of the judicial customs of the Franks was made (the so-called Salic law / The appearance of written laws, binding on the entire territory of the Frankish state, contributed to its strengthening. However, internal strife undermined the power of the kingdom The heirs of Clovis waged a long struggle for power, as a result of which the power of the Merovingian kings became insignificant.
The majordomo, the highest official in the state, whose power was inherited, began to have a great influence on the affairs of the state. Mayor Karl Martell ruled the country without regard for the king. At this time, an army of Muslim Arabs invaded Gaul from Spain, but was defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers (732). The threat of Arab conquest pushed Charles Martel to create a strong cavalry army. The Franks who wished to serve in it received from the majordomo lands with peasants living on them. With the income from these lands, their owner purchased expensive weapons and horses. The lands were not given to the soldiers as full ownership, but only for life and on the condition that the owner would perform mounted military service, to which he swore an oath to the mayordomo. Later, land holdings on the same condition began to be inherited from father to son. The successors of Charles Martel, with the support of the popes, removed the Merovingians from power and laid the foundation for a new Carolingian dynasty.
In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne with the imperial crown. The emperor became a symbol of the unity of German traditions, the Roman imperial past and Christian principles. The idea of uniting the Christian world became decisive for several generations of Europeans. Charlemagne managed to create a huge power, which, in addition to Gaul, included part of the territory of Spain, Northern and Central Italy, the territories of Bavaria and Saxony, Pannonia (Hungary). The period of existence of the Carolingian state (mid-8th - early 10th centuries) was the time of the formation of a number of social institutions and the main features of the cultural and historical type inherent in medieval European civilization. In 843, the empire was divided among the descendants of Charlemagne into three kingdoms, which became the basis of the future France, Germany and Italy. The imperial idea remained attractive in Europe. King Otto I of Germany captures Italy and in 962 proclaims himself emperor. On political map Europe appears Holy Roman Empire, the center of which was Germany, which embodied the European imperial idea until the end of the Middle Ages.
The military reform of Charles Martel marked the beginning of the formation of a new social system in Europe - feudalism. An important role in the formation of feudalism was played by the wave of invasions of Normans and nomads into Western Europe in the 9th-11th centuries. Normans - this is how in Western Europe they called participants in predatory campaigns - people from Northern Europe(Norwegians, Danes and Swedes), who sailed to the shores of France, England, Germany, and ascended the rivers into the interior of these countries. They robbed, killed, burned, took prisoners into slavery, and sometimes captured entire regions. People from Southern Urals, nomadic pastoralists Magyars, or Hungarians, invaded Europe and raided as far as Paris and Atlantic Ocean. The population of Europe felt defenseless against attacks by the Normans and Hungarians. The inhabitants of Europe began to build stone castles, former fortresses and the dwellings of feudal lords: during an enemy attack, the surrounding population hid in such a castle. In European countries, equestrian troops developed everywhere - knighthood, which replaced the militias of the Germans. Knight (from the German word “ritter”, i.e. horseman) had a helmet with a visor, chain mail - later it was replaced by forged armor - a shield, a long heavy spear and a sword. Only feudal lords fought on horseback; all of them, starting with the king himself, were horsemen, or knights. However, there is another, narrower meaning of the word knight: a petty feudal lord who does not have a hereditary title (baron, count, etc.), as well as his vassals, but has sufficient funds to serve in the cavalry army.
Feudalism and feudal fragmentation. Feudalism refer to the social system, the name of which comes from the word “feud”. Feud - This is a land estate inhabited by peasants, granted by a lord - seigneur (in Latin - “senior”) to his vassal - a subordinate person who undertakes to carry out military service for the ownership of the fief. The vassal swore an oath of allegiance to the lord. In some countries, the relationship between the owners of feuds - feudal lords - can be imagined in the form of a ladder (the so-called feudal ladder). At the very top of it stood the king - the supreme owner of all the land in the state; ~ it was believed that he received his power from God, who was his lord. One step below were the king's direct vassals. They transferred part of the possessions granted to them to their own vassals, standing one step lower. And they, in turn, allocated lands from the resulting fief for their vassals. It turned out that almost every feudal lord (except those who were on the lower rung of the ladder) was both a vassal and a seigneur at the same time. Although another, higher-ranking lord dominated the feudal lord, he had no right to interfere in his relations with his vassals. Thus, in France the rule “my vassal’s vassal is not mine” vassal." This meant that even the king was deprived of the opportunity to give orders to their vassals through the heads of his vassals - counts and dukes.
During the establishment of feudalism in Western Europe, the possession of a large feudal lord resembled an independent state. Such a feudal lord collected taxes from the population, had the right to judge, could declare war on other feudal lords and make peace with them. It was as if an agreement was concluded between the lord and the vassal. The vassal pledged to serve his master faithfully, and the lord promised the vassal support and protection. However, the agreement was often violated. The vassals attacked each other, the possessions of their lord. There were continuous internecine wars. Their goal was to seize lands inhabited by peasants, or a noble neighbor, from whom they demanded a ransom for liberation, the seizure of booty (robbery of other peasants, churches, etc.). From internecine wars The peasants suffered the most. They did not have fortified dwellings where they could hide from attack.
The church fought to end internecine wars, robberies and outrages. They called for the establishment of God's peace. Violators of God's peace faced church punishment. The church could not completely stop internecine wars, but its struggle for God’s peace contributed to the penetration of Christian morality (mercy, condemnation of violence) into the consciousness of the feudal lords. The kings tried to limit the cruelty of military actions by their decrees. However, these attempts were in most cases unsuccessful. The era characterized by the disintegration of European states into separate feudal estates, accompanied by a weakening of the power of kings and the transfer of part of their rights to large landowners, is called feudal fragmentation.
Social structure of medieval society. The vast majority of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages were peasants. All categories of feudal lords lived at their expense - church (bishops, abbots of monasteries - abbots, etc.) and secular (dukes, counts, barons, etc.). Most of lands on which peasants worked, by the 11th century. belonged to the feudal lords. During continuous internecine wars, peasants sought protection from a neighboring lord or monastery. Having found a powerful patron, the peasant was forced to admit his dependence on him and transfer his land plot to him. The dependent peasant continued to farm on his previous plot, but for the use of it the master demanded the fulfillment of corvee labor and the payment of dues. corvée name all the work of peasants in the feudal lord's household (processing the master's arable land, building houses and sheds, erecting defensive structures, fishing, collecting firewood, etc.). Quite is the payment of peasants to the owner of the land - products (grain, livestock, poultry, vegetables) and products of their farm (linen, leather). The power of the feudal lord over the peasant was manifested not only in the fact that he worked as a corvee and paid quitrent (land dependence), the peasant was personally subject to the feudal lord (personal dependence), the landowner tried him in his court, the peasant had no right to move without the permission of his master to another area.
However, despite the land and personal dependence on the feudal lord, the peasant was not completely powerless. The lord could not execute him, drive him away from his allotment (if he fulfilled his duties), sell or exchange him without land and separately from his family. Played a huge role in the life of medieval people custom, which was observed by both peasants and lords. The size of the quitrent, the types and duration of corvee work did not change from generation to generation. What was established once and for all was considered reasonable and fair. The lords could not voluntarily increase peasant duties. The lords and peasants needed each other: some were “universal breadwinners”; from others, working people expected protection and patronage.
In the Middle Ages, there was a widespread doctrine according to which the entire population of Europe, in accordance with God's will is divided into three groups - three estates (people included in these estates have different rights and responsibilities). The ministers of the church (priests and monks) constituted a special layer of the population - the clergy, who were believed to guide the spiritual life of people - to take care of the salvation of the souls of Christians; knights protect the country from foreigners; peasants and townspeople are engaged agriculture and craft.
The fact that the clergy came first is not at all accidental, because the main thing for a medieval European was his relationship with God, the need to save his soul after the end of earthly life. Church servants in general were more educated than knights and, especially, peasants. Almost all scientists, writers and poets, artists and musicians of that era were clergy; they often occupied the highest government positions, influencing their kings. The clergy was divided into white and black, or monasticism. The first monasteries - communities of monks - appeared in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire. Monks were mostly deeply religious Christians who wanted to devote their lives exclusively to serving God. They made vows (promises): to renounce the family, not to get married; give up property, live in poverty; unquestioningly obey the abbot of the monastery (in convents- Abbess^, pray and work. Many monasteries owned vast lands, which were cultivated by dependent peasants. Schools, book copying workshops, and libraries often appeared at monasteries; monks created historical chronicles (chronicles). In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education and culture.
The second estate consisted of secular feudal lords, or knighthood. The most important activities of knights were war and participation in military competitions - tournaments; The knights spent their leisure time hunting and at feasts. Teaching writing, reading and mathematics was not compulsory. Medieval literature describes the rules of worthy behavior that every knight had to follow: to be selflessly devoted to God, to faithfully serve his lord, to take care of the weak and defenseless; comply with all obligations and oaths. In reality, knights did not always follow the rules of honor. During wars, they often committed all sorts of outrages. The feudal lords lived in strong stone castles (there were about 40 thousand of them in France alone). The castle was surrounded by a deep moat; it was possible to get inside only with the drawbridge lowered. Defensive towers rose above the castle walls; the main one, the donjon, consisted of several floors. The donjon contained the feudal lord's dwelling, a feast hall, a kitchen, and a room where supplies were stored in case of a long siege. In addition to the feudal lord, his family, warriors and servants lived in the castle. The bulk of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages was the peasantry, living in small villages of 10-15 households each. Peasant houses were built of wood, and in those places where there were few forests, of stone. The roofs were covered with straw, which served as food for livestock in times of famine. Small windows were covered with wooden shutters, leather, and bull's bladder. The open fireplace had no chimney; the chimney was replaced by a gaping hole in the ceiling. When the house was heated, smoke filled the room and soot settled on the walls. In cold weather, the cow and other livestock (if there were any) were transferred from the barn to a heated house, where the animals spent the winter with the peasant family.
From political fragmentation to nation states. The most important stage in the development of European medieval civilization in the X - XIII centuries. became the formation of modern states. National states in Europe began to take shape at the end of the 11th - 13th centuries, and in a number of cases were finally formed in modern times. Simultaneously with national states, community-representative institutions also emerge. Thus, in England in 1215 the first constitution was adopted - the Magna Carta, and in 1265 a parliament appeared. In France, under Philip the Fair (1285 - 1314), the Estates General, endowed with legislative functions, were first convened, in Germany under Maximilian I in the 15th century. The Imperial Diet - Reichstag was created.
In the 11th century France was divided into a number of large feudal estates - Normandy, Burgundy, Brittany, Aquitaine, etc. Although the dukes and counts were vassals of the king, in fact they were not subordinate to him. The king's personal possessions (domain), located around the cities of Paris and Orleans, were inferior in size to many duchies and counties in terms of territory and population. Part of the country's territory belonged to the English kings. Since the 12th century. kings increased their domain in different ways: through conquest, profitable marriage, obtaining those possessions whose lords died without heirs; It happened that kings took away the lands of a vassal if he violated the oath. The king's main allies in the fight against the large feudal lords were the townspeople, who hoped that strong royal power would put an end to the tyranny of the feudal lords, abolish countless duties that impede trade, and establish a single coin and measures of weight and length. The royal power was also supported by small impoverished knights, who hoped to improve their position by receiving a position at court or a plot of land.
King Philip II Augustus (1180-1223) managed to conquer almost all of their possessions in France from the English kings and include them in his domain: Normandy, Anjou, most of Aquitaine. Further strengthening of royal power occurred under the grandson of Philip II Augustus - Louis IX the Saint (1226 - 1270). He ensured that only the royal court, and not the courts of lords, decided the fate of people who had committed serious crimes (murder, robbery, robbery). Under him, internecine feudal wars were prohibited in the royal domain. The grandson of Louis IX, Philip IV the Fair (1285-1314), felt so powerful that he imposed taxes on church lands. Having learned about the pope's sharp discontent, Philip IV decided to turn to his subjects for support. In 1302 he convened the Estates General. This assembly consisted of three chambers, one included deputies from the clergy, the other from the nobility (that is, non-church feudal lords), and the third from the third estate (that is, from the rest of the country's population). The Estates General supported the king in his dispute with the pope. Subsequently, the kings of France coordinated their actions to introduce new taxes with the Estates General. When approving the tax, disputes arose between representatives of the estates. Since each of the chambers had one vote, and the clergy and nobility were often at the same time, representatives of the third estate (wealthy townspeople) in most cases had to give in.
On the territory of modern England During the Great Migration, the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons created seven kingdoms at war with each other. In the 9th century. they united. However English kingdom was weak, since the feudal lords were at enmity with each other and with the king. In 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated the Anglo-Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. He entered London and was proclaimed king of England. The Norman conquest of England resulted in the strengthening of royal power. William the Conqueror took part of the lands from the Anglo-Saxon nobility and distributed them to the knights who came with him. All the feudal lords of England (including the Anglo-Saxon ones) were forced to take an oath of allegiance to William. All of them became vassals of the king (the rule “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal” did not apply in England). Wilhelm ordered a census of all feudal estates and the population living in them. During the census, everyone had to answer as truthfully as at the Last Judgment, so the book with the results of the census was called the “Book of the Last Judgment.” The situation of many peasants worsened - previously free, they were recorded as land-dependent and personally dependent.
William's great-grandson, Henry II Plantagenet (1154 - 1189), besides England, owned two-thirds of France. The lands in France came to him partly by inheritance, partly as a dowry upon his marriage to Alienor, Duchess of Aquitaine. The king established a royal court, to which every knight, townsman, even free peasant could appeal (the courts of large feudal lords were losing their importance); allowed his vassals to buy off military service with money; With this “shield money” the king hired knights to fight for pay.
After the death of Henry II, England was in turmoil. The new king, John the Landless, lost almost all of his possessions in France. The barons (as large feudal lords were called in England) rebelled against John, supported by knights and townspeople. In 1215, the king and his opponents came to an agreement: the Magna Carta was adopted (in Latin, “charter” means charter). According to the Magna Carta, fundamental laws could be issued by the king only with the approval of the High Council consisting of the nobility; the king had no right to demand any payments from his subjects without the consent of the High Council. Moreover, none free man couldn't be
arrested and imprisoned, or deprived of property, or expelled “except by the lawful verdict of his equals and by the law of the country,” the already existing liberties of the cities were confirmed. In 1265, a parliament was established. Parliament was an assembly that included large feudal lords (bishops, abbots, barons), as well as two knights from each region and two citizens from each city. Gradually parliament acquired great rights: No tax could be levied by the king without the consent of parliament, laws proposed by the king also had to receive the approval of parliament.
In XII - early XIV V. in many European countries a form of government has developed, which historians call estate-representative monarchy. Most European states were headed by monarchs (kings). Needing the support of the population, the kings began to coordinate their actions (primarily on the introduction of taxes, as well as the adoption of new laws) with elected representatives of different classes. In Castile, these representatives sat in the Cortes (since 1137), in England - in Parliament (since 1265), in France - in the Estates General (since 1302). The Cortes, Parliament, and the Estates General were bodies of class representation.
The strengthening of royal power in European countries led to the fact that the most powerful sovereigns ceased to take into account the will of the popes. The French king Philip IV the Fair forced the head of the Catholic Church to move from Rome (which was the seat of the popes for more than a thousand years) to the south of France to the city of Avignon. For almost 70 years the popes were unable to return to Rome. During these years (1309-1377), called the “captivity of Avignon,” popes were elected by order French kings and were their humble servants. During the Hundred Years' War, taking advantage of the weakening of France, Pope Gregory XI moved from Avignon to Rome (1377). However, after his death, two popes were elected at once: one in Rome, the other in Avignon. Both popes cursed each other and excommunicated their opponents. The church schism lasted for about 40 years. The Avignon captivity of the popes and the polypapacy undermined the respect of believers for the Catholic Church.
The Englishman John Wycliffe (1320-1384), a professor at Oxford University, one of the oldest in Europe, advocated the reconstruction of the church. Wycliffe believed that monasteries and bishops should abandon their accumulated wealth (primarily lands) and live on the voluntary donations of believers. Priests do not, as the church claims, have special miraculous power given to them by God; every believer can communicate with God without intermediaries, and in special cases perform rituals (baptism, etc.). Selling indulgences - absolution for money - is immoral and unacceptable; all people, despite the prohibition of the Catholic Church, have the right to read Holy Bible; Only Scripture (and not the interpretation of it by priests) is the source of true faith. To enable his compatriots to read the Bible in their native language, Wycliffe translated it into English. Wycliffe's teaching had a great influence on the large number of poor priests who took part in the peasant uprising Wat Tyler.
A Czech professor at the University of Prague, Jan Hus (1371-1415), became a follower of Wycliffe. Like Wycliffe, Hus condemned the wealth of the church and the sale of indulgences. He taught that believers in their actions should proceed only from what is said in the Bible, not guided by the decrees of popes and church councils. Jan Hus condemned the sale of church positions. He advocated the equality of clergy and other Christians in the performance of the most important rite - communion. In 1415, Jan Hus was summoned to a church council in the city of Konstanz (Southern Germany). The Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund gave Hus a safe conduct, promising him complete safety. The Council did not even want to listen to Huss, demanding that he renounce his teaching. When Hus refused to do this, the council declared him a heretic and sentenced him to death. Huss was burned at the stake (1415). At the same council, the teachings of the long-dead John Wycliffe were condemned, and he himself was declared a heretic; his remains were later removed from the grave and burned.
The execution of Hus caused nationwide outrage in the Czech Republic, contributing to the spread of his teachings. In 1419 in Prague
An uprising broke out, directed not only against the church, but also against the city authorities. Throughout the country, the Hussites (followers of Jan Hus) began to destroy monasteries, kill church ministers and rich people (many of them were Germans). Cultural values - books, statues, icons - perished, and along with them innocent people. The Pope and Emperor Sigismund organized five campaigns against the Hussites (1420-1431), but all of them ended in failure.
A crisisXIVcenturies in Europe. IN In the XIV - XV centuries, Europe entered the final period of the Middle Ages, accompanied by a crisis and transformation of the foundations of medieval European civilization. By the end of the 13th century, the internal and external expansion of European peoples and the development of new lands had ceased. With the fall of Acre in 1291 - last stronghold Crusaders in the East, the history of Christian states in Palestine ended. On the other hand, the invasions of nomads also stopped. Mongol invasions 1241 - 1243 left terrible traces in Poland and Hungary, but they were the last.
Along with these major events of a general nature, in the XIV - XV centuries. A number of phenomena were spreading, indicating that a crisis had begun. First of all, the practice of devaluing coins and damaging them is spreading almost everywhere in Europe. The thoughtless minting of gold coins undermined many industries. Due to the growth of cities and the development of trade, the lords needed more and more money. Therefore, they began to demand rent from the peasants not in food, but in money. To get this money* peasants often had to sell their crops at low prices, which led to the ruin of many of them. If previously the size of the food rent was determined by long-standing custom, now, breaking the custom, the lords constantly increased cash payments.
In the middle of the 14th century. A plague epidemic broke out in Europe, called "Black Death". The disease claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and the population of many countries decreased by more than a third. In Europe there were too few workers and too much uncultivated land... Despite the impoverishment of the peasants, the lords of the demand; and from them
new payments. The agrarian crisis was accompanied by a whole series of protests in the cities, riots, and uprisings against the feudal and urban nobility. The situation was aggravated by poor harvests in 1315 -1317 gg. inclement weather led to the destruction of part of the crops, rising prices, and famine. Struck by the crisis, feudalism resorted to war as a means of alleviating the situation of the ruling classes. The most significant example of this is Hundred Years' War 1337 - 1453 between France and England over the County of Flanders and English claims to the French throne.
During Hundred Years' War France sought to take away from the British their last possessions on the continent (the remnants of Aquitaine in the southwest and Normandy in the north), and the British wanted not only to preserve them, but also to return previously lost lands. The reason for the war was the claims of the English kings to the crown of France. The basis of the English army were infantrymen recruited from free peasants. The knightly cavalry received a salary from the royal treasury, and therefore unquestioningly carried out the orders of the king and military leaders. The basis of the French army was made up of mounted knightly detachments led by noble lords. In battle, knights did not obey commands well, acted independently, and tried to stand out with their personal valor. They despised the infantry, which consisted of foreign mercenaries. Thus, the English army had advantages - high military discipline, numerous combat-ready infantry, and the ability to coordinate the actions of infantry and cavalry in battle.
The beginning of the war was marked by French defeats. In 1346, the French were defeated in a battle near the village of Crecy (northern France), and in 1356, the French army was defeated at Poitiers. Despite their numerical superiority, the French were defeated and their king was captured. In 1360, a peace treaty was concluded, according to which a third of the lands of France came under the control of the British. IN 1369 hostilities resumed. Having won a number of victories on land and at sea, the French liberated a significant part of the lands captured by the British, but in 1415 at Agincourt french army suffered a crushing defeat and in 1420, under the terms of a peace that was humiliating for the French
According to the treaty, the king of England was declared the heir to the French throne/France and England were to become a single kingdom. However, contrary to the treaty, after the death of the king of France, his son fled to the south of the country and proclaimed himself King Charles VII (1422-1461). Hostilities resumed, the British besieged the city of Orleans (1428). His fall would open the way for them to the south of the country.
The year 1429 turned out to be a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. A young peasant woman named Joan of Arc appeared at the court of Charles VII. She claimed that she was destined by God to liberate Orleans and expel the English from France. Joan convinced Charles VII to provide her with a military detachment, at the head of which she arrived in Orleans. Nine days later the British were forced to lift the siege of this city. Maid of Orleans, sent by God to liberate France, spread throughout the country: townspeople and peasants began to flock to the army, arming themselves at their own expense. The royal army moved deep into the territory occupied by the British. Cities opened their gates without a fight. The fate of Joan of Arc herself turned out to be tragic: she was captured, after which the British held a trial and burned her alive at the stake in the city of Rouen (1431). Meanwhile, the French people's war of liberation continued: they won victory after victory. In 1453 The British were forced to finally leave French soil; they managed to retain only the port of Calais for another hundred years.
The wars did not solve the problems of feudal society, but created new ones. The king's alliance with the cities made it possible to form a permanent mercenary army, and the need for serving knighthood disappeared. And with the advent of firearms and artillery, knighthood finally lost its monopoly on military affairs. The events of the Hundred Years' War demonstrated the advantages mercenary troops, which undermined the authority of the entire class system. The Hundred Years' War brought disaster to the peoples of France and England. French peasants had to live for decades on lands where military operations took place. In England, where these actions were not carried out, the government introduced new taxes to support the army. In addition, thousands of peasants who formed the core of the army were forced to leave
to build their farms while going overseas. The consequence was massive popular outrage.
In 1381, a peasant uprising broke out in southeastern England. The reason for it was a new tax introduced to continue the war with France. The rebels killed the tax collectors (who, when extorting money, did not forget about own interests). Having obtained weapons, the rebels moved towards London. Their leader was a participant in the Hundred Years' War, a village roofer. Wat Tyler. Poor priests (John Ball and others) had a great influence on the peasants. They opposed church land ownership, expensive worship, and demanded equality of all before the law. The fighting slogan of the rebels became the saying: “When Adam plowed and Eve spun, who was the nobleman then?” The poor people of London opened the city's gates to the rebels. The peasants destroyed the houses of the royal confidants and killed the most hated ones. Innocent people died - everyone who wore a pen and inkwell on their belts was mistaken for judges, whom the rebels considered corrupt and mercilessly killed.
King Richard II was forced to meet with the rebels, who presented him with the following demands: abolish personal dependence and corvee (“no one should serve anyone except of his own free will”); For the use of land, only a small monetary payment should be given to its owner. The king promised to fulfill the demands and forgive all participants in the rebellion. Most of the rebels left London. But some of them, led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, remained. During negotiations with King Wat Tyler, he was treacherously killed. Having lost their leader, the peasants were at a loss. Detachments of knights and wealthy townspeople managed to oust them from London. After that royal troops carried out brutal reprisals against the rebels throughout the country.
In France, after the Battle of Poitiers, detachments of soldiers - both friendly and foreign - scattered throughout the country. They robbed peasants, killed those who resisted, and burned their houses. Defeats in the war and the disasters associated with them changed the attitude of the French peasants towards the knights. The belief that the knights, in accordance with God's will, protect home country and farmers. The peasants said “that the nobles” who were supposed to protect them had decided to completely take away all their property” and therefore “it would be a great blessing to destroy all the nobles.”
In 1358, an uprising broke out, covering a large part of Northern France. Up to one hundred thousand people took part in it. The peasant Guillaume Cal, familiar with military affairs, was elected leader of the rebels. The rebels destroyed and burned dozens of knightly castles. They killed everyone - the knights themselves, their wives and young children. At the same time, the rebels, destroying the knights, declared their loyalty to the king and placed the royal coat of arms on the banners. The urban poor joined the peasants, and many cities opened their gates to the rebels. The uprising was named Jacquerie. It comes from the popular name Jacques (Jacob), which the nobles used as a contemptuous nickname for a peasant - “Jacques the simpleton.” The French nobles united. In their army there were also detachments of Englishmen who were ready to help in the fight against the “Jacques”. Before the battle, the nobles summoned Guillaume Cal for negotiations, promising him safety. Believing the knight's word, he came to the enemy camp, but was captured and executed. The rebels left without a leader were defeated. After the defeat of the rebels, the nobles killed tens of thousands of peasants.
The uprisings frightened the lords of England and France. The situation of the peasants is gradually improving. The vast majority are freed from personal dependence (though not for free, but for a fee). Landowners no longer required corvee labor from them, replacing all duties with fixed cash payments for the use of land. Seniors usually did not dare to increase these payments. During the 14th century, almost all peasants in France, England, West Germany received personal freedom. Moreover, in many countries the liberation of peasants was preceded by powerful uprisings. The failures of the French at the first stage of the Hundred Years' War contributed to the rise of national consciousness, and the victory was a powerful stimulus for the development of the process of centralization of the French state under Charles VII and Louis XI.
The crisis in England caused by defeat in the war with France led to discord among the aristocracy (War of the Scarlet and White Roses 1455 - 1485). After the end of the Hundred Years' War, having been defeated and deprived of sources of enrichment, the English feudal lords returned to their homeland. Each baron maintained in his possessions a large detachment of warriors, always ready for robbery and robbery, and King Henry VI Lancaster (1422-1461) was not respected. Two powerful families, the Lancasters and the Yorks, fought for power; the enmity between their supporters grew into a long-term bloody feud, which was called the War of the Scarlet and White Roses. There were robberies and bloody massacres in the country, in which representatives of both groups took part. The war was extremely brutal and led to the physical extermination of most of the English nobility. As a result, a distant relative of the Lancasters, Henry Tudor, became king. Under him, royal power was strengthened: he forbade the feudal lords to maintain military detachments, ordered the destruction of the castles of the rebellious; He transferred the lands and titles of dukes and counts who died during the war to his supporters - the new feudal lords were completely dependent on the king. The knights and townspeople, tired of civil strife, also supported the new king.
In France, taking advantage of victories over the British, King Charles VII obtained from the States General the establishment of an annual tax for the maintenance of the army. Created standing army- cavalry and infantry, paid from the state treasury. As a result, the king's power increased. The unification of France was largely completed under Charles VII's son Louis XI (1461-1483). Having a permanent army and a regularly replenished treasury, the king no longer needed the support of the States General (he convened them only once). Louis XI brought under his jurisdiction the possessions seized by noble feudal lords during the Hundred Years' War. By the end of the 15th century. all of France was subordinated to a single central power - the power of the king.
Centralization processes also took place in other European countries. Royalty in Spain and Portugal
strengthened in the fight against the Arabs. Meanwhile, medieval Europe also provided examples of polycentrism: the Italian states, whose autonomy was a factor in their economic prosperity, and the German principalities, which were formally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but in fact were completely independent.
The consequence of centralization was the gradual formation in Europe absolute monarchies. Absolute, i.e. unlimited monarchy arose in European countries at approximately the same time (late 15th century): in France under Louis XI, in England under Henry VII Tudor, in Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. Under an absolute monarchy, all power belonged to the king. His word was law for the whole country. Its entire population, including previously independent dukes and counts, residents of commune cities, were considered subjects of the king. He managed the state treasury and army, appointed judges, military leaders, and tax collectors. Noble feudal lords entered the service of the king and became his courtiers. The bodies of class representation - parliament, the States General, the Cortes - became either obedient executors of the will of the king, or were not convened at all. The absolute monarchy developed gradually; its signs fully appeared in European countries only in modern times (xvii-xviii centuries).
Culture and art in the Middle Ages. The death of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages were accompanied by the decline of the culture created in antiquity. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were few educated or even simply literate people in European countries. Schools existed only in monasteries and large cathedrals. Gradually, as cities emerged, city schools also emerged. In addition, castle owners often invited teachers for their children, who were usually clergy. Education was conducted not in the native language, but in Latin. All schools taught the seven liberal arts. First, they taught three arts, or three sciences about words - grammar (the ability to read and write), rhetoric (the ability to coherently express one's thoughts), dialectics (the ability to reason and argue).
Then the student moved on to the study of the four arts, or sciences. These were the sciences of numbers - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and also music. Urban schools also taught the basics of natural science. There were no textbooks; education was based on memorizing the words of the teacher, passages from the Bible and other books revered by the church. At the same time, the student did not have to interpret and explain the memorized texts - this right belonged exclusively to the teacher. A school graduate could become a priest, or use his knowledge in the service of a noble lord, or continue his education at one of the universities.
At the end of the XI - XII centuries. The first higher schools arose in Europe. The name of such a school is university - taken from Latin, where the word “universitas” means “totality, community.” High school is a community of teachers and students. The universities studied theology (exposition and interpretation of Christian doctrine), law (the science of laws and their application), and medicine. Classes at all universities were conducted in Latin. Therefore, young men from different countries. Having learned Latin at school, they freely understood the speech of teachers. Students often moved from city to city, from country to country, and studied at one or another higher school, attracted by the fame of the scientists teaching there. Common forms of classes at universities were lectures (in Latin “leccio” - reading) - the teacher, called a professor or master, read excerpts from books and explained their content, and students wrote down the thoughts expressed to them by ear: this form of classes was explained by the fact that handwritten books were expensive and not all students had them; disputes (in Latin “disputa-re” - to reason, to argue) - verbal disputes on a pre-announced topic; the participants in the debate (they could be either teachers or students) defended their point of view, citing the Bible and the writings of church writers; the topics of the debates were often far from life (for example, “Was man created in heaven?”, “Can the devil give people the appearance of animals?”), but participation in them developed the ability of those disputing to prove their thoughts and use accumulated knowledge. In the 15th century there were more than 60 universities in Europe. The University of Bologna (Italy) was famous for teaching law, the University of Salerno (Italy) for medicine, and the University of Paris for theology. Universities in Oxford (England), Prague (Czech Republic), and Krakow (Poland) also gained fame.
Most of the inhabitants of medieval Europe were illiterate, so an important place in literary creativity were occupied by songs, fairy tales, and poetic stories about the exploits of heroes of legends passed down from mouth to mouth. Such works were usually performed by jugglers (traveling actors) who performed in castles, at knightly tournaments, at peasant weddings, and in city squares during festivities. The most beloved and famous works of oral folk art Over time they began to record. Among them is the French poem “The Song of Roland,” dedicated to the description of the heroic death of one of Charlemagne’s military leaders in the fight against the Spanish Arabs. The German poem “The Song of the Nibelungs” contains legends dating back to the time of the Great Migration and the creation of German kingdoms on the territory of the Western Roman Empire. In the XII-XIII centuries. Along with nameless jugglers, poets worked whose names were known at the courts of kings and noble lords of Europe: for example, poet-knights Bertrand de Born, Walter von der Vogelweide, Alienora, Ekena was also a poetess English king Henry II. They glorified the military exploits of knights in poetry, mourned the death of loved ones, and sang love. In France these poets were called troubadours, in Germany - minnesingers.
In the process of the emergence of cities, their inhabitants created their own literature: small poems, farces (plays), where rude knights, greedy monks, even kings and crown princes were ridiculed. The resourceful townspeople prevail over all of them. Works of urban literature include the poetic “Novel about the Fox,” in which a knight is brought out under the guise of a bloodthirsty Wolf, and under the guise of a Fox, a resourceful and intelligent townsman is brought out.
One of the most famous poets There was an Italian from the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). He created a poem he called “Comedy” (later “The Divine Ko-
media"). It describes Dante's imaginary journey to afterworld- hell, purgatory (where the souls of those who await the Lord’s decision about their fate are located) and heaven. Dante knew and loved ancient Roman literature; in the poem, the famous Roman poet of the 1st century is presented as his guide through hell and purgatory. BC e. Virgil. In hell, Dante places cruel rulers, misers, money-grubbers, and his personal enemies. The most terrible punishment in Dante’s description of hell is reserved for traitors (the killer of Caesar Brutus, who betrayed Christ to Judas and others) - they are gnawed by the Devil.
Until the 11th century. in medieval Western Europe there was almost no stone quarrying construction. In the XI-XII centuries. Stone castles, monasteries, and temples are being built everywhere. All these buildings have thick, smooth walls with small windows, massive columns supporting the ceiling, powerful towers, and semicircular arches. Not only castles, but temples and monasteries resembled fortresses and served as a refuge for the surrounding population during hostilities. In modern times, such buildings were called Romanesque (from the Latin word "Roma" - Rome). Indeed, medieval builders studied the ruins of ancient Roman structures and borrowed some construction techniques from the Romans (for example, the semicircular arch). Dozens of Romanesque buildings have survived to this day, for example: the Tower Castle in London, the Cathedral in Speyer - the burial place of the German emperors, the Saint-Lazare Cathedral in Autun (France), decorated with the famous relief depicting Last Judgment, and etc.
With the emergence and growth of cities, a new style in architecture - Gothic. The name arose during the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries), it came from the name of the German tribe - the Goths - and was derogatory in nature, Gothic - that is, barbaric, unlike the ancient buildings that seemed exemplary to the people of the Renaissance. We continue to use this name, although it is unfortunate, since the buildings were created not by the Goths, but by the French, Germans, English and other peoples of Europe. Gothic buildings are rightly considered wonderful works of medieval art. Gothic cathedrals,
for example, they were distinguished by thinner walls than in Romanesque buildings, topped with pointed turrets, large windows, and pointed arches. The Gothic cathedral was the tallest building in the city and its main decoration. It was built on a high place and can be seen from afar. The entire population of the city usually participated in the construction of the cathedral. The large windows of Gothic cathedrals were filled with stained glass windows - paintings on biblical themes, assembled from pieces of colored translucent glass. Among the most famous Gothic buildings are Notre Dame Cathedral, the cathedrals in Reims and Chartres (France); in Magdeburg and Naumburg (Germany); in Salisbury (England); town halls - in Stralsund (Germany), in Bruges (Belgium) and many others. Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals were decorated with sculptures depicting Jesus, Our Lady and saints. In some cathedrals, statues of kings and noble lords who made donations for the construction of the cathedral were placed.
Medieval theologians not only interpreted the Bible, but also expressed their own thoughts. The outstanding thinker Pierre Abelard (1079-1142) had his own school in Paris. Like other theologians, he believed that Holy Scripture lies at the basis of all wisdom. At the same time, Abelard believed that a person can obtain new knowledge with the help of reason. He taught that the thoughts and statements expressed by popes and famous theologians should be tested by logical reasoning. In his work “Yes and No,” Abelard collected contradictory statements from the most revered theologians of the Catholic Church (“Church Fathers”). With his book, Abelard argued that when assessing other people's thoughts and opinions, often contradictory, one should rely on one's own reason and ability to reason. To believe, he argued, you must understand what you believe. Abelard thus placed reason above blind faith. Many theologians and clergy spoke out against Abelard. His writings were condemned, and Abelard himself was forced to enter a monastery. Abelard's main opponent was another famous theologian, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). He did not believe that the weak human mind could comprehend the secret
we of the universe. People, in his opinion, can only pray and wait for God to give them insight and reveal a piece of these secrets. Bernard believed that “unreasoning” faith in God is above reason.
The largest and most revered thinker by the church was the son of the Italian count Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). His main work, “Summa Theology,” contains an exposition and generalization of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Church. Thomas argued that faith cannot contradict reason: if the conclusions that a person comes to through his own reasoning contradict the teachings of the church, then these reasonings are incorrect. According to Thomas, some provisions of the Christian religion can be understood by reason (for example, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul), while others are inaccessible to reason, you can only believe in them (for example, in the Trinity - that is, that God is one and at the same time exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). Thomas Aquinas studied the works of the ancient Greek scientist Aristotle. Following him, Thomas considered the monarchy to be the best form of government; like Aristotle, he believed that the people had the right to deprive a cruel and unjust monarch of power. According to Thomas, all earthly sovereigns must obey the Pope. Church leaders called Thomas Aquinas “the universal master.”
The disputes of learned theologians with each other were incomprehensible to ordinary believers. They were more influenced not by theologians, but by wandering monks who gave sermons in the squares of cities and villages. The most famous of them was a native of the Italian city of Assisi - Francis (1182-1226). He was the son of a wealthy merchant, but he left the family, renounced his wealth and began to live off alms. Francis preached in Italy, France, and Spain. He called for humility, renunciation of property, love for all God's creatures - people, animals, birds, plants. Francis's disciples and followers traveled throughout Europe, urging them to follow the commandments of Christ. Pope Innocent IH had a meeting with Francis of Assisi and gave him his blessing; he allowed the creation of an order (organization) of wandering monks - the Franciscans.
The beginning of the Renaissance* In the 14th century. In the cities of Italy, a new idea of man and the meaning of his existence began to take shape. If theologians taught that a person’s goal should be to achieve afterlife bliss, then many Italian thinkers of the XTV - XV centuries. advocated for the value of earthly life. They believed that a person, through his own efforts, can achieve everything he wants - happiness, success, wealth, fame. This attitude towards man and his capabilities was facilitated by the lifestyle of Italian townspeople of that time. Many of them went on long journeys for knowledge or profit, opened manufactories (large industrial enterprises based on manual labor wage workers) and banks conducted extensive trade. Thanks to his knowledge, ingenuity, initiative, ability to take risks, faith in own strength they often got rich. Kings and noble lords were forced to reckon with them, to whom they lent a lot of money. Educated people in Italy began to talk and write about the unlimited possibilities of the human personality, about the fact that man himself is the master of his own destiny. They looked to history to substantiate their views. Ancient Greece and Rome, in the works of ancient writers, the memory of which never disappeared. Ancient society seemed exemplary to them, and the Greeks and Romans, in their opinion, possessed physical and moral perfection. Italian thinkers believed that through their activities they were reviving ancient culture, sub-. the original Latin language, which was once spoken by Cicero, Caesar, and Virgil. Therefore, they began to call their time Revival. Since the center of interest of scientists and writers of the Renaissance was man and his affairs, they were called humanists (from the Latin word “humanus” - human).
The greatest humanists were the poet Petrarch (1304-1374), especially famous for his poems to his beloved Laura, the writer Boccaccio, the author of the collection of stories “The Decameron”, the scientist Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), who proclaimed in one of his works “ A great miracle is man! In the 15th century the ideas of Italian humanists spread throughout Europe. In Germany, France, and England, thinkers appeared who were familiar with their works and shared their views. The invention of printing played an important role in the widespread dissemination of these views. Around 1445, the German artisan Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books: he cast raised letters from metal, from which words and lines were composed. The letters were covered with paint and printed on paper (which appeared in Europe in the 13th century). From now on it became possible to print cheap books, accessible not only to those who had the means to purchase expensive manuscripts, but also to the majority of literate people.
The main features of feudal society were formed in the countries of Western Europe in the 9th-10th centuries.
Chief among them is the transformation of land into the main source of income and wealth. Who had more land, he was considered an omnipotent and influential person. Kings, aristocratic nobles and military leaders turned communal lands and conquered territories into their hereditary possessions.
Kings, nobles and military commanders-lords distributed extra lands to their workers and subordinates. Land plots distributed as rewards to each person were called “fiefs”, and their owners were called “feudal lords”. Based on the size of their land holdings, feudal lords were divided into rich, middle and poor. The feudal lords took advantage of hundreds and thousands of peasants living on it. They organized natural farming on their plots based on the labor of free peasants. Such farms were called feudal estates. The peasants in them were directly dependent on the owner of the land. Individual peasants had small independent farms. However, due to a lack of land, they eventually became dependent on the feudal lords.
The peasants carried out all economic activities on the estate using their own tools and means of labor. The lion's share The peasants gave the produced products to the owner - the feudal lord. However, the more he produced, the more he had left for himself. Therefore, the peasants were interested in the results of their labor. Thus, feudal system showed that, in comparison with primitive communal and slave systems, is a progressive system.
Next distinctive feature The feudal system was characterized by a natural, closed nature of economic management. All things, objects and products necessary for the life of the feudal lord and his family members were produced on his estate. The peasants on the estate spun yarn from animal wool, wove fabrics, sewed clothes from them, and made household items, tools and tools. Neither the feudal lords nor the peasants bought anything; they were content with what they produced themselves. Only in exchange for food and livestock did they acquire salt and iron.
In a subsistence economy, economic and political ties between individual feudal estates were very weak. Large feudal estates flourished, and coercive apparatuses were formed in them. On the basis of large feudal estates grew big cities, they were separate independent states. Large feudal lords independently resolved issues of war and peace with their neighbors. The most powerful of them considered themselves on an equal footing with the king and often did not recognize his authority. All this contributed to the IX-X centuries. feudal fragmentation of Western Europe.
Power and wealth individual regions, countries largely depended on the efficiency, organizational skills feudal masters and organizers of everyday labor activity peasants The feudal lords were not only economic organizers, but also military leaders. Feudal lords engaged in military craft, starting from the 10th century, began to be called knights. A candidate for the title of knight must have his own land plot, because he himself had to provide himself with a horse, harness, weapons, etc. everything necessary to participate in hostilities.
The main occupation of knights is war. Therefore, their entire lifestyle and behavior were subject to the laws and rules of war. The feudal knights highly valued physical strength, so they paid Special attention for your own physical hardening and physical education their children. They engaged in military physical exercises every day and held various competitions called knightly tournaments. IN free time The feudal lords were engaged in hunting. It was believed that a knight should be both strong and dexterous.
Discipline : Culturology.
on the topic of: general characteristics early
Middle Ages.
1. Introduction.
I chose the topic “General characteristics early Middle Ages" After looking through a huge list of topics, I immediately settled on this topic. My choice was not accidental. Today at educational literature and the media pays a lot of attention to the Renaissance, Ancient civilizations, modern culture, and the era of the early Middle Ages is practically not covered. I am especially interested in the development of Christianity and its influence on the subsequent life of European society.
The special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian Church the most important feature European medieval culture is. In the context of the general decline of culture immediately after the destruction of the Roman Empire, only the church for many centuries remained the only social institution, common to all European countries, tribes and states. The Church had a huge influence on the formation religious worldview, spreading the ideas of Christianity, preaching love, forgiveness and understandable norms of social coexistence, faith in universal happiness, equality, goodness. In the Middle Ages, the picture of the world was based mainly on images and interpretations of the Bible. The starting point for the explanation of the world was the complete, unconditional opposition of God and nature. Heaven and Earth, soul and body. In the minds of people of the Middle Ages, the world was seen as an arena of confrontation between good and evil, as a kind hierarchical system, in which there was a place for God, and angels, and people, and otherworldly forces of darkness. At the same time, the consciousness of a person in the Middle Ages was deeply magical. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths, and magic spells. The meaning of the written word and especially the spoken word was extremely great. The cultural history of the Middle Ages is the history of the struggle between church and state. The position and role of art was complex and contradictory. But, despite this, throughout the entire period of development of European medieval culture, there was a search for the semantic support of the spiritual community of people.
I also want to devote my attention to the Byzantine period, aesthetics, music, books, technology. I hope that at the end of this course work my knowledge of this period will expand significantly.
2. General characteristics of the early Middle Ages.
2.1. Cultural characteristics and features of the worldview of the early Middle Ages.
The era of the early Middle Ages should be understood as the culture of the period of early (V-XIII centuries) feudalism in the countries of Western Europe. From the end of the 4th century. The “great migration of peoples” began. Vandals, Goths, Huns and other nationalities invaded the Western Roman Empire, receiving the support of the oppressed local population. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, a number of short-lived states were formed on its territory. In Gaul and Western Germany - the Franks, in the north of Spain - the Visigoths, in Northern Italy - the Ostrogoths, in Britain - the Anglo-Saxons, mixing with the indigenous population, consisting mainly of Celts and the so-called Romans, formed a conglomerate of various nationalities, united by the concept of “Roman citizen” .
Wherever the rule of Rome took deeper roots, “Romanization” captured all areas of culture: the dominant language was Latin, the dominant law was Roman law, the dominant religion was Christianity. Barbarian peoples, who created their states on the ruins of the Roman Empire, found themselves either in a Roman or in a Romanized environment.
However, it should be noted that there is a cultural crisis ancient world during the period of the barbarian invasion, aggravated by the introduction of their naive mythological thinking and worship of the elemental forces of nature. All this was reflected in the cultural process of the early Middle Ages.
The transition from “barbarian empires” to the “Classical states of medieval Europe”, associated with the establishment of feudal relations, was a period of social and military upheaval. In the 9th-10th centuries. European peoples fought against the attacks of the Moors, Hungarians, and Normans. This time passed in feudal feuds, is characterized by a temporary decline and impoverishment of spiritual culture.
Peculiarities of worldview. Feudal society gave birth to new culture, different from the culture of ancient slave society.
Its main bearer was the church, the guardian and protector of the feudal class.
Medieval culture borrowed from the lost ancient world only Christianity and a few dilapidated cities. The entire culture of the early Middle Ages received a religious overtones. Ancient philosophy was replaced by theology, mathematical and natural science disciplines fell into decay, literature was reduced to the lives of saints, history - to monastic Chronicles. Education was completely monopolized by the church. She claimed school curriculum and selected the contingent of students, forming the church hierarchy. She rejected secular knowledge, falsified ancient authors, and jealously guarded ancient books in the depths of monastic libraries.
According to Tertullian (a ecclesiastical writer), the very concepts of “philosopher” and “Christian” are diametrically opposed. But instead of ancient philosophy, Christian theology arises, under the sign of which medieval culture develops.
Objects of cultural heritage. The Early Middle Ages in Europe is the period from the end of the 5th century. (counting from 476, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed) to the middle of the 11th century. In general, the early Middle Ages were a time of deep decline in European civilization compared to the ancient era. This decline was expressed in the dominance of subsistence farming, in the decline of handicraft production and, accordingly, urban life, in the destruction of ancient culture under the onslaught of the unliterate pagan world. The political map of Europe during this period was dominated by barbarian and early feudal kingdoms, and in ideology there was complete dominance of the Christian religion, which had a decisive influence on all aspects of social and personal life. This fully applies to works of material culture.
In the early Middle Ages, wooden architecture sharply predominated in Europe, the monuments of which could not survive to this day. However, fundamental stone buildings were also erected, some of which became clear examples of the architecture of that time. Almost all of them have a religious, church purpose.
For the southeastern part of Europe, which was part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) or was influenced by it, at first the most common form of buildings were basilicas (translated from Greek as “royal house”) - elongated buildings with a semicircular or faceted protrusion in the eastern parts - the altar (apse). Ex in Ancient Rome mainly public buildings, now they have turned into basilica churches. Then they started buying everything higher value buildings with a centric plan - cross-domed churches. In such churches, the dome, supported by four pillars, was located on the ceiling of the naves.
The new architectural forms also corresponded to the new interior decoration of churches, including mosaics, frescoes, and objects of worship, which overall constituted a certain artistic unity. Byzantine painting gradually acquired a symbolic character, elements of stylization and asceticism intensified, and the image technique itself was subject to strict rules.
The architecture of the central part of Europe was also influenced by ancient and Byzantine canons, but its own specificity also manifested itself. This applied to an even greater extent to the architecture of Northern Europe.
B List of objects World Heritage includes 17 monuments of the early Middle Ages, which are located in 12 countries.
2.2. Byzantine culture.
The formation of Byzantine aesthetic ideas occurs at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. In the 4th century. The Roman Empire splits into two independent parts - western and eastern. Constantine became the emperor of the eastern part; it withstood subsequent storms and survived after the fall of Rome as the Roman Empire. This empire, on the one hand, continued existing directions artistic creativity, on the other hand, it formed new ones that influenced the formation of new aesthetic orientations.
The initial stages of the development of Byzantine culture were marked by a confrontation between two approaches to understanding the role of artistic images in Christian culture. We are talking about supporters of iconoclasm and supporters of icon veneration. The positions of the iconoclasts were based primarily on biblical postulates that God is Spirit and no one has seen Him, as well as on the instruction: “Thou shalt not make for yourself an idol, nor any image of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on earth below, or that is in waters below the earth." This kind of pathos inspired, in particular, Emperor Constantine the Fifth, who belonged to the devout iconoclasts who proclaimed the Eucharistic bread and wine to be the only image of Christ. Constantine called for depicting virtues not in pictures, but cultivating them within ourselves as some kind of animated images. This specific understanding of the image was apparently based on the ancient Hebrew ideas about the identification of the name and essence of an object. All this was far from not only the ancient theory of the image, based on the principle of mimesis, but also from symbolic theory image that developed in early patristics. Among the active supporters of icon veneration was John of Damascus (675-749).
The iconoclast positions remained influential for just over a hundred years. The Ecumenical Council of 787, dedicated to the veneration of icons, came to the conclusion: “...what storytelling expresses in writing, painting expresses the same thing in paint.” And if books are accessible to few, then “picturesque images in the evening, and in the morning, and at noon - constantly narrate and preach to us about true events.” By the 8th century. V Byzantine Empire There were already many picturesque images of Christ. Summarizing the existing practice, the Ecumenical Council proceeded from two premises - dogmatic and psychological. New arguments defining the dogmatics of icons boiled down to the fact that if Christ truly became man, then along with his flesh he acquired a visible image, which can and should be depicted on an icon.
The psychological premise was based on the fact that images of the suffering and torment of Christ should evoke heartfelt contrition, tears of compassion and tenderness in the audience. The wishes that the Ecumenical Council developed for icon painters oriented them towards an illusory naturalistic depiction of all events Sacred history. It was assumed that when a painter not only gives a general image of suffering, but also pays great attention to the depiction of wounds and drops of blood, all these details have a great impact emotional impact: It is impossible to look at them without tears.
It was this type of image that seemed most suitable to the fathers of the Ecumenical Council for cult painting. However, Byzantine mosaics and painting acquired their value precisely because they did not follow this path. A special figurative language, far from illusory-naturalistic techniques. A significant role in frescoes, mosaics, and icons was played by what can be defined as the individual artistic flair of the author himself.
In general, discussing artistic features Byzantine icons, one cannot help but note their strict canonicity, which is revealed not only in the strict hierarchy of colors established in that period, but also in compositional techniques Images. Thus, the image of Christ was strictly regulated; it could only be frontal, while the image of the Mother of God and the apostles could be given in three-quarters; only depicted in profile negative images- images of Satan, hell. The canonicity of Byzantine art is distinguished by a special normativity, incommensurable with the system of regulation of artistic practice of the Western European Middle Ages.
Let's dwell on the symbolism of flowers. Each color, along with the word, acted as an important exponent of spiritual essences and expressed deep religious meaning. Highest place occupied by the color purple - the color of divine and imperial dignity. The next most important color is red, the color of fiery, fire (both punishing and cleansing) - this is the color of life-giving warmth and, therefore, a symbol of life. White was often opposed to red as a symbol divine color. Christ's robes in Byzantine painting are usually white. Since antiquity White color had the meaning of purity and holiness, detachment from everything worldly, i.e. colored. Next was the color black as the opposite of white, as a sign of the end, of death. Then - green color, which symbolized youth, flowering. And finally, blue and light blue, which were perceived in Byzantium as symbols of the transcendental world.
This is the symbolic interpretation of flowers, which has its origins in the Hellenistic culture. It is important to note that, in general, Byzantine icon painting is not characterized by psychologism; its main aesthetic features are generalization, conventionality, statics, self-absorption, etiquette, and canonicity.
One of the dominant searches of Byzantine aesthetics is a discussion of the problem of the image in the icon and its divine prototype. Byzantium strove for the stability of iconographic schemes - a trend that came mainly from the East, from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The author-painter should not have practiced the ability to adequately recreate images real world, but to follow a strictly regulated path, which was considered as a condition for ascent to the Absolute, the only way expressions of universally significant symbolism.
Like any restrictions, these canons “straightened” the creative concept and gave rise to dramatic contradictions among the authors. Indicative in this regard are the confessions of the early Middle Ages bishop Aurelius Augustine (354-430), who touched upon issues of aesthetics in a number of his works. In the “Confession” there is eloquent introspection: “Sometimes it seems to me that I give these sounds more honor than is due, I notice that with the same sacred words our souls are more ignited with the flame of piety when these words are sung this way and not otherwise.” Augustine is an artistically sensitive person, deeply sensitive to the nuances of melodic performance, but this is precisely what causes him embarrassment. “The pleasure of my flesh, which should not be given over to the mind, often deceives me. Instead of patiently following the meaning of the chants, it tries to break through and lead with itself that for the sake of which it had the right to exist. So I sin without realizing it, and I only realize it later.”
As we see, we're talking about that musical expressiveness itself - timbre, combination of voices, melodic pattern - exudes strong magic, awakens excitement, and this excitement, sometimes turning out to be the most important result of perception, to some extent stands as an obstacle to purely religious meditation. Such an assessment of artistic influence, which not so much immerses one in the world of scholasticism, but rather awakens the living, sensual nature of man, frightened many authors of the Middle Ages. Undoubtedly, those aesthetic institutions that appear as final, officially adapted, are the result of a great dramatic internal struggle.
It is significant that a number of icon painters, as soon as they had the opportunity, tried to leave Byzantium. Thus, Theophanes the Greek, born in Byzantium, actually emerged as an artist on Russian soil. There are other examples where a number of masters, doomed to the narrow blinders of Byzantine demands, were able to realize themselves in Western Europe, where the oppression of such strict canons was not felt.
From VI to X centuries. In Western Europe, the so-called period of “unsystematic development of art” is unfolding. Artistic monuments of this time, in particular the Carolingian era, bear the stamp of unsettled, unfinished searches; this art is transitional in nature
2.3. Church character of culture.
Medieval culture was distinguished by a pronounced church-religious character. This affected all areas of culture - science, literature, school, art. Catholic Church, inherited by the barbarians from the Roman Empire, dominated European countries for many centuries from the very beginning of the Middle Ages. The importance of the church in medieval society is very great. The Church was the largest landowner in every European country. Almost one-third of the lands in the various kingdoms belonged to church corporations. The church was big political force. The clergy singled out from among their ranks royal advisers, chancellors, secretaries of state, and officials who were widely represented in medieval class assemblies (states general, parliament, etc.). But the role of the church in ideological terms was especially significant. The Church sanctified the medieval feudal system with its authority and was the spiritual leader of feudal society.
Asceticism. One of characteristic features The medieval worldview in the spirit of which the masses were brought up was asceticism. According to asceticism, the human world was seen as the embodiment of sin and evil. The duty of a believer was to gradually free himself from earthly shackles in order to prepare for the transition to a better, afterlife, world. For this, the church recommended fasting, repentance, and mortification of the flesh. The highest feat was considered to be complete withdrawal from the world into a monastery. In practice, however, asceticism was carried out far from consistently. The violent and dissolute feudal lords, of course, did not even think of being ascetics. The clergy itself, especially in his person senior representatives, grossly violated his own ascetic precepts, essentially copying the lifestyle of secular feudal lords. The urban and peasant masses continued their working life “in the world” with all its sorrows and joys. It would be a mistake to imagine medieval society as a continuous monastery, where people only thought about repentance and the salvation of their souls. But nevertheless, asceticism was an official teaching, propagated from the church pulpit, taught to youth at school, and included as a necessary element in many types of medieval literature. A significant number of people belonging to different classes, to a greater or lesser extent paid tribute to him, sometimes trying to seriously carry out his instructions. Asceticism was a natural expression of the fact of the dominance of religion in the Middle Ages, when exact sciences were still in their infancy, human power over the forces of nature was extremely imperfect, and social relations, sharply antagonistic and authoritarian, based on serfdom, doomed the masses to constant patience, abstinence, and expectation of retribution and bliss in another world.
Scholasticism. Medieval university science was called scholasticism (from the same word Schola). Most bright expression scholasticism found in main science Middle Ages - theology. Its main feature was not the discovery of anything new, but only the interpretation and systematization of what was the content of the Christian faith. Scripture and sacred tradition- these main sources of Christian teaching - the scholastics sought to confirm with relevant passages from ancient philosophers, mainly Aristotle. From Aristotle, medieval teaching borrowed the very form of logical presentation in the form of various complex judgments and conclusions. The huge role of authority and a small share of practical experience was evident among medieval scientists not only when they dealt with theological and philosophical issues, but also when studying nature. In works on geography, for example, the authority of Aristotle and other authors in the Middle Ages was considered indisputable and not subject to any verification. A number of prejudices reigned in medicine, which stubbornly persisted, since in the Middle Ages they almost did not resort to such a necessary experiment as vivisection. Some anatomical knowledge was acquired from Arabic medical books. These books in Europe received the same indisputable authority as those few medical treatises of antiquity that reached the Middle Ages.
And yet scholasticism in early period of its development as a scientific movement that captured many European countries, had a certain positive value. First of all, the scholastics, after a long break, resumed the study of the ancient heritage (at least in the person of some representatives of ancient culture, for example Aristotle). Then, the scholastics of the 12th-13th centuries developed some of the most important problems of knowledge. IN XI-XII centuries In Europe there was a heated debate about the nature of universals, that is, general concepts. Some of the scholastics - nominalists - believed that general concepts do not really exist, but are only words, names (hence their name from the Latin potep - name). Others, their opponents - realists - believed, on the contrary, that general concepts exist in reality, really, independently of particular objects. The dispute between nominalists and realists renewed the old disputes between idealists (Plato and his school) and materialists (Lucretius and others) in ancient philosophy and prepared the further struggle of materialists with idealists in modern times. Finally, many of the scholastics were universal scientists who studied all the sciences available to them at that time, including natural science, although still in their rudimentary forms.
Medieval philosophy. In order to better understand its features, let's get acquainted with the philosophical and aesthetic views of such medieval thinkers as Augustine the Blessed (354-430), Boethius (480-524).
For Augustine, all history is a struggle between adherents of the Christian church, building the “city of God on earth,” and supporters of Satan, organizing a secular earthly state. He promotes the primacy of ecclesiastical authority over secular and world domination Catholicism. Aesthetic views Augustine, like Plato, are based on the affirmation of the beauty of the world, but unlike the ancient philosopher, the Neoplatonist of the Middle Ages asserts divine origin beauty and aesthetic value not of the work of art itself, but of the divine idea contained in it.
Boethius, Roman Neoplatonist philosopher, author of works on mathematics, music theory, statesman, had a great influence on medieval scholastic philosophy. According to Boethius, being and essence are not the same thing; they coincide only in God. Only that which is created by the divine will exists. Boethius wrote a treatise “On Music” in five books, which became the main source of knowledge of ancient musical theory.
2.4. The art of medieval Europe.
The art of the Western European Middle Ages is unequal in its artistic value and has its own specificity inherent in a certain historical period. According to traditional periodization, it distinguishes three periods. However, with all the diversity artistic means and stylistic features, the art of the Middle Ages has common characteristic features:
Religious character (the Christian Church is the only thing that united the disparate kingdoms of Western Europe throughout medieval history);
Synthesis various types art, where leading place was given to architecture;
Orientation artistic language on convention, symbolism and small realism associated with the worldview of the era in which sustainable priorities there was faith, spirituality, heavenly beauty;
Emotional beginning, psychologism, designed to convey the intensity of religious feeling, the drama of individual plots;
Nationality, because in the Middle Ages the people were creators and spectators: works of art were created by the hands of folk craftsmen, churches were erected in which numerous parishioners prayed. Used by the church for ideological purposes, religious art had to be accessible and understandable to all believers;
Ipersonality (according to the teachings of the church, the hand of the master is directed by the will of God, whose instrument was considered to be the architect, stone cutter, painter, jeweler, stained glass artist, etc., we practically do not know the names of the masters who left the world masterpieces of medieval art).
Let us consider in detail the art of the early Middle Ages, i.e. pre-Romanesque art.
The period of pre-Romanesque art, in turn, suggests a three-part division: early Christian art, the art of the barbarian kingdoms, the art of the Carolingian and Ottonian empires.
In the early Christian period, after the Edict of Milan on Toleration (313), Christianity became official religion, and religious buildings that were previously located in the catacombs become above ground. The first Christian churches appeared - basilicas, which have practically not survived to our time. Only individual buildings of the centric type (round, octagonal, cruciform in plan) have survived, most often these are the so-called baptisteries (baptisteries). Their interior decoration used mosaics and frescoes, which showed the main features of medieval painting:
Separation from reality (typical of the ancient tradition),
Symbolism,
Convention of the image,
The mysticism of images with the help of such formal elements as enlarged eyes, disembodied images, prayerful poses, gestures, the technique of different scales in the depiction of figures according to the spiritual hierarchy.
Goes even further away from ancient traditions art of barbarian kingdoms. The barbarian kingdoms emerged in the 4th-6th centuries. The barbarians immediately adopted Christianity, but their art was strongly influenced by paganism. The further north you go, the less Romanization left its mark on the art of these kingdoms, the more elements of paganism it contained. Christianity was most difficult to instill in the kingdoms of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Denmark. Until the 11th century. Religious architecture did not develop here. In the 9th-10th centuries. Stone crosses decorated with reliefs began to be erected at road intersections. Judging by the objects of decorative and applied art found in the tomb mounds, the decoration is dominated by animal-ribbon and geometric types of ornaments, and the images of animals and mythological monsters are flat and stylized, which is very typical of pagan art.
England and Ireland of this period were only superficially Romanized. Their first Christian places of worship were generally devoid of decoration and extremely primitive. Focus artistic life In these countries, monasteries became established, with the construction of which the art of book miniatures became widespread. The Gospels were lavishly decorated, mainly with geometric patterns. The images of people and angels, made in a primitive manner, were also geometric.
The architecture of the Ostrogothic and Lombard kingdoms shows a more clear connection with antiquity, but it contains strong elements of barbarian architecture. Temples and baptisteries of that period were round in shape, the dome was hollowed out of stone, roughly hewn. Tombstones with Christian themes appear, made using the flat relief technique. TO characteristic features The architecture of the barbarian kingdom should include crypts - basement and semi-basement rooms under basilicas.
In the Frankish kingdom, the art of book miniatures was developing, which was decorated with isomorphic headbands made of stylized animal figures. The art of the barbarians played its part positive role in the development of a new artistic language, freed from the shackles of antiquity, and, above all, in the development of the ornamental and decorative direction, which later entered as component artistic creativity of the classical Middle Ages.
In the art of the Carolingian and Ottonian empires, a distinctive feature is a peculiar fusion of ancient, early Christian, barbarian and Byzantine traditions, especially manifested in ornamentation. The architecture of these kingdoms is based on Roman models. These are basilicas, centric temples, made in stone, wood or mixed techniques. The interior decor consists of mosaics and frescoes.
The defensive nature of the temples gradually increases (towers appear on the temples). An architectural monument of that period is the Charlemagne Chapel in Aachen (circa 800). The building has a stern and majestic appearance. Monastery construction is developing. In the Carolingian Empire, 400 new monasteries were built and 800 existing monasteries were expanded. They have a complex and precise layout (the monastery of Saint-Galen in Switzerland). IN imperial residences prototypes of future feudal castles, the first examples of secular construction, appear in Aachen and Nimwegen.
The Carolingian era left us wonderful monuments of book miniatures. Christian and ancient texts with religious and secular content were copied, illustrated and stored in monastery scriptors and libraries. The books were beautifully decorated, miniatures, and made using the gouache technique using gold. From book monuments The most famous of that time are the “Gospel of Charlemagne” (before 800), the “Aachen Gospel” (beginning of the 9th century), and the “Utrecht Psalter” (about 820), in which illustrations were made with pen and ink in a clear graphic manner on biblical topics.
The art of the Ottonian Empire, which was headed by the royal house of Otton in 962, can be called the forerunner of the Romanesque style or pre-Romanesque art. Only monuments of religious construction have survived. Secular architectural structures (palatine estates) were only mentioned in the literature. The basilica type predominates in church architecture, the interior decor of churches becomes simpler, mosaics are replaced by frescoes, sometimes imitating carpets. In book miniatures, a Romanesque style with a linear-plastic interpretation of form finally takes shape. A characteristic monument of book miniatures of that time is the “Gospel of Otto III”.
2.5. Book in the culture of the Middle Ages.
Materials, writing instruments and writing signs used by people of the past are studied by the science of paleography (Greek grapho - “writing”, paleo - “ancient”).
In the Middle Ages, only merchants and priests had to be literate. But trade deals are purely earthly matters. Merchants' notes did not require strong, durable writing material. And that’s why they almost didn’t reach us. However, many trade and personal notes scribbled on birch bark were found during excavations in Novgorod. The scriptures are another matter. Over the production of each manuscript with sacred text worked long and carefully. The material chosen for them was durable. It is from such sacred handwritten books that we today study the culture of medieval writing.
Instead of the ancient papyrus scroll, a parchment codex appears at this time. The Roman historian Pliny says that due to rivalry with Library of Alexandria The kings of Pergamum began to make books from donkey skin. Over time, such finely tanned donkey (or calf) skin began to be called parchment. Since the first parchment sheets were intended for the royal library in Pergamon, they did not save material and made them large (about four times larger than a modern book sheet).
However, they soon realized that such large sheets were inconvenient and began to fold them in half. Such sheets of parchment folded in half were called diplomas (Greek diploma - “folded in half”). When there were a lot of diplomas, they were stitched together into a codex (Latin codex - “trunk, stump, book”). So gradually the ancient library in the form of baskets with papyrus scrolls disappeared, and shelves with books began to appear.
The ease of opening the parchment codex anywhere contributed to widespread quoting scripture, comparative study of sciences and arts. True, at the same time, the need to look through, slowly, the entire text, until you rewind the scroll to the right place. So epicness was replaced by fragmentation.
In his classic look The parchment codex existed from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. Often the text, considered outdated and unnecessary, was cleaned from the sheets of parchment. There were even entire workshops of palimpsests (Greek: “re-scraped”), in which skilled artisans washed off old manuscripts with a sponge, scratched them with a knife, and wiped them with pumice.
The codices varied in size. Large codices - they were called in folio (Italian - “in a sheet”) - were 50 x 30 cm in size. More often, for general use, codices were made from quarter paper large sheet, and therefore they were called m quatro (Italian - “a quarter”). However, there are also tiny codices (4 x 2.5 cm), which were jokingly called “a little boy.” The figures on the miniatures of such codes were the size of a pinhead.
In the Middle Ages, there were three types of writing implements. The “style” (lat. stilus), preserved from the ancient era, was a metal stick pointed at one end for writing on waxed tablets. The other, blunt end was used to erase what was written. So modern question: "What style is it written in?" in ancient times it assumed, first of all, the sharpness of the sharpening style. To write in ink, Europeans borrowed from the east “kalam” (Latin calamus) - a pointed reed. Finally, the most convenient tool for writing was a bird feather (lat. penna avis) - goose, swan or pavier.
Black ink was most often used (this is preserved in the name itself) and was called differently in different countries. On Greek they were called melan, in Latin - atramentam, in ancient non-Germanic - black. For easily washable inscriptions, they were prepared using mixtures of soot and gum (the thick resin of some trees). And for durable inscriptions - from inky oak nuts with the same gum. Colored ink was used quite rarely. Red ink has been used since antiquity.
Already in the early Middle Ages, gold and silver paints became more widely used. Usually they used to write “sacred names”. However, there were also entire codes written in gold (Latin: codex aurei), silver (Latin: codex argenti), or red paint (Latin: codex purpureus). Naturally, such books were especially highly valued.
New thoughts in the text were always highlighted in red (hence our “red line”). In the Middle Ages, the entire first (sometimes the second) line of a paragraph was made red and called “rubrika” (Latin rubrica - “red clay”).
But the manuscript was even more decorated with the initial - big capital letter(Latin initium - “I begin”). It was richly painted with plant, grass and other ornaments. Often the ornament went beyond the initial and took over the entire page, artistically framing it.
Double sheets of the codex were sewn together, making books out of them, with parchment ribbons and covered with two wooden planks covered with leather. The bindings of especially important books were often decorated with gold, silver and precious stones.
The scribes who produced handwritten books not only worked in solitude, but also lived separately. As a rule, they were divided into two workshops. Scriptors or librarians copied ordinary books, and notaries copied diplomatic ones. These were the people of the prince or the church (monks). Scriptoriums (lat. scriptorium) were then called special rooms in monasteries, where books were copied under the supervision of a librarian.
2.6. Music of the Western European Middle Ages.
Early Christianity was in highest degree ascetic. It was then that almost all the principles of ascetic practice were developed, which are successfully applied today. The ascetic character was perfectly matched by the extremely simple melodies. It is the principle of simplicity that is fundamental in psalmody.
Music historians believe that early Christians learned psalmody from ancient Jewish ritual singing. Widely sung early Christian melodies bear a clear imprint of the influence of the music of Syria, Egypt, and Armenia. For example, the antiphon and responsory became the main performing traditions of ancient Christians very early on. And it is known that the antiphon, that is, the alternation of singing of two choral groups, was widespread in Syria and Palestine. Responsory (alternating singing between a choir and a soloist) was almost the main type of singing in the East long before the new era.
From the first steps, Christians closely linked prayerful singing with ascetic practice. Therefore, psalmody, like any ascetic practice, is built on strict restrictions. Basically, this is recitation (half-singing, half-talking) on one sound and small melodic phrases at the beginning and end of the construction. And indeed, such melody is found in almost all Christian countries for a long time was perceived as purely ascetic. For example, Russian Old Believers still cannot forgive the official Orthodox Church, among other “sins”, the liberation of melodics, considering it a clear violation of ascetic traditions, hallowed by time. It is clear that such a performance gravitates more towards the word, which in this moment pronounced than to its melodic design. At the same time, supporters of strict psalmody also refer to the words of the Evangelical Apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” How can you give preference to music!? - they ask.
The development of psalmodic singing naturally proceeds in two directions that argue with each other: the liberation of music from the influence of the word and the strict canonization of liturgical texts. Under the influence of folk singing, the psalmody becomes more and more melodically free. Spiritual hymns appear with clearly song-like melodies. By the 4th century AD. the largest creators of hymns are already known, whom they are trying to imitate. These are Arius in Alexandria, Ephraim of Syria in Syria, Hilary of Poitiers in Gaul, and Bishop Ambrose in Milan. Aria, in particular, was reproached for the fact that his tunes were too common in nature.
Among the early Christians, the entire community participated in liturgical singing. But already in 364, at the Council of Laodicea, only specially trained singers were allowed to sing in church. The rest of the flock can join them only at strictly established moments. This almost immediately led to the creation of church singing schools. And already at the end of the 4th century, hymn schools appeared in Bologna, Cremona, near Milan, Ravenna, Naples, and a little later in Gaul and Ireland. At the same time, Ambrosian singing flourishes in Milan, Gallican singing flourishes in Lyon, and Mozarabic singing flourishes in Toledo, which, along with the Orthodox, has absorbed the traditions of Arabic singing.
And here, at the very end of the 4th century, there was an official division of the church into Western and Eastern, each of which considered itself “correct”. It is no coincidence that both churches have such “telling” names: Catholic (from the Greek katholikos - “universal, universal”) and Orthodox. Moreover, if the Western Church at this time was experiencing a clear decline, then the Eastern Church was clearly flourishing. But Eastern Church is in close contact with the lush musical traditions of the Middle East, borrowing a lot from them. And therefore, church Orthodox music is very actively beginning to absorb secular traditions, especially since secular power in Orthodoxy, although it was sanctified by the church, it was always revered in the state above the purely ecclesiastical one (“the emperor is higher than the patriarch”).
It was here, in Byzantium, earlier than other countries, that a new musical system emerged, perfectly adapted to Orthodox worship. In Byzantium of the 4th-6th centuries there were two, weakly connected and even fighting musical cultures- religious (canonical) and folk (breaking the canon). At the turn of the 5th-6th centuries, the church launched a fierce struggle against ligism. This is “an effeminate song, accompanied by affectation, depicting the debauchery of the mob: spinning, skillfully dancing and breaking, straining the melodies and voice... This song is called “lygos”. Lygos is a belt-shaped plant... Passionate singing is also called lygos,” - wrote Gregory of Nazianzus in an angry speech. Another, purely Byzantine folk chant was teretisms - vocal improvisations without words, imitating the singing of cicadas. It is clear that it was precisely the earthly passion of singing that caused resistance from the church.
The Church fought against such song-making in two ways - it prohibited them and created its own chants to counter them. And here, in a fierce struggle against someone else’s, one’s own gradually became clear. Thus, the 75th canon of the 6th Ecumenical Council reads: “We wish that those present in the church do not use meaningless cries, do not force nature to scream, do not add sounds that are not appropriate and not characteristic of the church; but offer psalmody with great attention and piety ..." And the 16th canon of the Council of Carthage forbade singers to bow after singing chants. But all these prohibitions meant that even in V-VI centuries in Byzantine churches, choristers felt like actors, and not “divine voices.”
Church chants in Byzantium were created rapidly. This is the time of the active formation of a strict system of Orthodox worship (liturgy), which finally took shape in Rus'. Hymns (songs of praise) are especially abundantly composed. There are so many authors that it seems as if all church and secular figures from the emperor and empress to monks and nuns write hymns.
But the main event in the music of Orthodox Byzantium should be considered the creation and canonization of the musical system of octoechos (osmoglasiya). In this system, a number of canonical melodic turns were developed. These turns were called ichos (voices). Every ihos was supposed to sing certain time, most often a week, after which they move on to the next ichos. In total, eight groups of such melodies were created in Byzantium. Byzantine tradition credits the creation of the Octoechos system famous poet, musician and scientist John of Damascus.
Gradually, a system of various genres developed in Byzantium. First of all, this is a collection of psalms, according to legend, composed by King David and consisting of 150 chants. In Byzantium, the Psalter was divided into 20 sections (kathisma), each of which has another 3 stasis. They were ordered to be carried out strictly in a certain order and a strictly defined time.
Since the 7th century, the canon has become the most popular genre. This is a musical and poetic composition performed during the morning service. Most often, the canon consisted of 9 sections - odes in which the events of the Old and New Testaments were retold. By the 9th century, so many canons had already appeared that the church prohibited the creation of new ones and canonized the most valuable of the old ones.
The troparion became an equally popular genre in Byzantium. Initially, this was the name given to a short prayer following a psalm and reflecting the feature of a given day. So the troparion became an essay on certain events. Troparions began to be written abundantly for all holidays, and soon psalm verses were included in the troparion composition. Psalms 116, 129 and 141 were especially often and willingly included in such compositions. Between them, troparia were sounded, appropriate to the occasion. Such compositions were called stichera.
The performance of spiritual chants in Byzantium was antiphonal. Moreover, the singers did not stand still during the performance, but moved around the choirs, changed places, or even walked around the church. From this it is clear that the choirs were still equal in capabilities and quality of performance. The Connonarch led the singers. “With blows of a stick, en called the brethren to sing and suggested the main tone of the ihos and text.” The most trained singers (domestiki) helped the canyonarch train the singers. They also performed the roles of soloists. Much later, a regent (Latin regens - “ruling”) and a singer appeared. Learning to sing was long and difficult. The students had to memorize all the chants performed. And for an incorrectly sung tune (ichos) severe punishment was imposed. Thus, for one canon not sung, a hundred bows were supposed to be made.
Soon the Western Church, becoming more and more powerful and striving to revive (or preserve) ancient ascetic singing, just like the Eastern Church, begins an intensified struggle against secular influences. Big reform Church music was taken in this direction at the beginning of the 7th century by Pope Gregory I the Great. While still a deacon, he lives in Constantinople as a permanent representative of the apostolic capital, vividly perceiving the flourishing of Byzantine culture. Having sat on the papal throne, Gregory established close religious and cultural ties with many European countries. Having gone through the school of asceticism in his youth, he papal throne tries to promote an ascetic lifestyle. Naturally, one of his main aspirations is to cleanse cult music from the secular liberties that have managed to layer on it. Thus, under his leadership, and partly by himself, the “Gregorian Antiphonary” was created - a collection of canonical cult chants, which soon received the stylistic name of “Gregorian chant”.
However, in addition to the structure of the psalmody melody, during the Romanesque period of the development of medieval European music, a musical “alphabet” was also determined. By the verbal alphabet we mean a certain set of letters from which words and phrases are composed. Also in music, each given work is written using completely a certain set sounds. Moreover, each individual culture or musical style develops its own characteristic set of sounds. Such a musical alphabet is called a fret, thereby emphasizing the coherence of the system of sounds. The scale is usually written as a sequence of sounds from the lowest to the highest or vice versa (scale). In the Early Middle Ages, eight stable modes developed, that is, eight sets of sounds characteristic of a particular music. Their names, and partly their structure, were adopted by medieval music theorists from ancient Greek musicians. Each of these modes, expressing certain moods, also assumed characteristic melodic turns. Of the eight medieval modes, only the Aeolian (today called minor) and Ionian (major) have “survived” in mass professional music.
Except musical language and notation in the Early Middle Ages, the order of the Catholic service also underwent codification. Hymns and chants were carefully selected to correspond to each part of the service. Gradually a Catholic Mass takes shape, corresponding Orthodox liturgy, the main event of which is the communion of believers. The Late Latin word missa itself comes from the Latin mitto (“I release, I send”), which in itself already speaks of the rite of absolution during the Mass. The prototype of the mass was the Gospel episode of the Last Supper. The text of the mass is usually sung (Missa solemnis - "High Mass"), but sometimes simply read (Missa bassa - "Low Mass"). In addition, special varieties of the Mass gradually developed, the most important of which are the “Requiem Mass” (Requiem) and the “Short Mass” (Missa brevis), which is accepted in the German Protestant Church and consists of only two sections: Kyrie and Gloria. Of the Proprian chants, the most repeated ones are the Alleluia (from the Hebrew “halleluia” - “praise of Yahweh”, traditional translation - “Praise the Lord!”) - a choral chorus after the performance of psalm verses and Dies irae (Latin for “day of wrath”) - a sequence that makes up the second part of the traditional Requiem.
Already in the Gregorian chant, the main feature of early medieval cult music was clearly defined - its fundamental monophony. This monophony is very different from the heterophony that preceded it, where variants of one tune were heard simultaneously. In heterophony, each participant in the singing considered himself still independent and having the right to make amendments and changes to the overall sound.
Particularly popular was the long chanting of the word Alleluia. In addition, such a huge number of “Hallelujah melodies” soon accumulated that a serious problem their memorization by singers. And so in the 9th century, the monk Notker Balbulus (Stutterer), who worked with boy singers, began to subtext each note of the anniversaries in Hallelujah with a separate syllable, thus turning the melismatic melody into a syllabic one. This method took root so well that it soon appeared special type independent essays, included in the Gregorian chant and entirely based on the principle of subtext of a pre-given detailed melody. Such compositions began to be called sequences (from the Latin sequor - “I follow, I follow”). Sequences were composed until the 13th century, acquiring greater severity and becoming closer to hymns. Later in XIII-XIV centuries The composition of instrumental pieces - estampis - will be based on the same principle.
2.7. Technology of the early Middle Ages.
In 476, the leader of the German mercenaries in Rome, Odoacer, deposed last emperor Romulus Augustulus and proclaimed himself king of Italy. The powerful Roman Empire ceased to exist. This historical event is considered to be the beginning of the Middle Ages.
The tribes that defeated the Roman Empire were, in fact, at a prehistoric level of development: they did not know writing, they dressed in skins instead of clothes made of wool and linen. But the barbarians showed a remarkable ability to quickly adopt and improve other people's technical and cultural achievements. As centuries passed, their descendants learned to understand and appreciate the monuments of destroyed ancient culture that remained in Italy, Byzantium, and some countries of the Near and Middle East. Without mastering the heritage of the ancients, without communicating and exchanging achievements with other civilizations and cultures - Arab, Byzantine, Indian, Chinese - modern European technical civilization would simply be impossible. Of course, the absence good roads and the difficulties associated with navigation slowed down these processes for a long time. At the same time, there were areas where the cultures of the East and West came into direct contact.
In the 7th century Arab tribes captured vast areas beyond Arabian Peninsula. By 715 they reached Gibraltar and gradually began to spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Arabic Muslim states- caliphates - existed here until the 15th century. All this time, Europeans had the opportunity to directly become acquainted with their high culture at that time, which adopted many of the achievements of antiquity. It is known that the head of the Catholic world, Sylvester II, while still a simple monk Herbert, visited the Cordoba Caliphate, where he borrowed, for example, Arabic numerals and the design of an ancient celestial globe.
The period after the fall of the Roman Empire and until the 10th century. sometimes called the Dark Ages. This emphasizes both the scarcity of written evidence about that era and a certain regression in culture. And yet, it was then that the familiar mousetrap, glasses, paper, gunpowder, steel, horse shoe, harness and stirrups, silk, soap, wind and water mills, heavy plow, wine press, were invented or significantly improved and became firmly established in everyday use. wheel spindle, etc. The history of many inventions is almost completely hidden from us in the depths of time. Not only the names of the inventors are unknown, but also in what country and in what century this or that discovery occurred.
Compass. No other device had such a great influence on the subsequent development of navigation as magnetic compass(from Latin compasso - “I measure”). The principle of its operation is simple: a piece of magnet that is not constrained in movement always turns so that it points with one point at magnetic pole Earth. And since the magnetic pole is located close to the geographic north pole, the compass began to be used to determine the direction north. The first compass was made in China 1000 BC. e. The magnetic needle was attached to a piece of cork that floated freely in the water. This simple device helped to navigate the desert area.
Wheel plow. The earliest mentions of a wheeled plow, which was used in Asia Minor, date back to the 1st century. They were left by the Roman writer and scientist Pliny the Elder (23 or 24-79). In Europe, the plow appeared in the Rhine Valley no later than the 8th century. There are, however, indications that the Slavs used this device already in the 5th century. From them it could have gotten through Northern Italy and on the Rhine.
The wheeled plow brought major changes to Northern European agriculture. Instead of a two-field land use system, a three-field system was established: one third of the plot was sown with spring crops, the other with winter grain crops, and the latter was left fallow, thanks to which the soil structure was restored. The sites changed every year. This maintained high soil fertility during deep plowing. Then they began to harness a horse to the plow, rather than an ox, when a harness with a rigid collar and side straps was invented.
All this led to the formation of food surpluses, which, in turn, contributed to the emergence of new cities and the growth of old cities, which gradually merged with the suburbs. As a result, trade in agricultural products and rapidly developing handicraft production revived. Increasing economic growth ultimately caused the flowering of culture that Europe experienced at the beginning of the 11th century.
Mills in the Middle Ages. Water mills, inherited from the Ancient era, were first used in the Middle Ages only for grinding grain. They appeared in Britain in 340, in Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 718, and in France in the 9th century. The materials of the land census conducted in 1086 in England have survived to this day. They already mention 5624 water mills and indicate their locations.
Mills of another type - windmills - have been known since the middle of the 7th century, when they first began to be built on the territory of Persia. In the Netherlands, where from ancient times they fought with the sea for every piece of land suitable for agriculture, it was with the help of windmills from the 10th-11th centuries. drained large areas. First, earthen dams were erected to fence off the shallow part of the sea bay, and then mills with drainage wheels were built. They tirelessly, day and night - if only there was wind! - pumped out the water.
Around the same time, people realized that the mill engine could be used to do any job that required high costs muscular energy. Only special mechanisms were needed to ensure the transfer of forces from a shaft rotated by the blades of a windmill or a water wheel to another shaft. This shaft should have been positioned at an angle and connected to technical devices that transform rotational movement into the rectilinear and reciprocating motion of the working machine. And such mechanisms were invented. Water engines began to be used in the most different areas industry - in the production of cloth and gunpowder, for crushing ore, pumping water from mines and driving blacksmith bellows. Complex transmission mechanisms appeared, with the help of which two or more cars operated from one engine. Mills became the main type of engine in craft and manufacturing production, and this was so until the universal steam engine was created.
3. Conclusion.
I reviewed the topic “General characteristics of the early Middle Ages.” I think that I did absolutely the right thing by dwelling on this topic. I refreshed some moments in my memory, while others turned out to be completely new to me. But in general, I saw the origins of the emergence of world culture. Almost everything that we have today in the global treasury of culture, the basis of many cultural contributions and research, is the result of the life of medieval figures and thinkers.
The aesthetics of the Renaissance grew out of the aesthetics and art of the Middle Ages. The historical result of antiquity, its end and limit, was the Roman Empire. She summarized and generalized the spatial distribution of ancient culture, bringing together the lands of the Mediterranean into one whole. She did more: she summarized and generalized the ideological foundations of the “pagan” statehood of slave owners for an entire millennium.
The socio-ideological content of the vast era designated as the “early Middle Ages” was a long and contradictory transition from the ancient society of slave-owning citizens to the feudal hierarchy of lords and vassals, from the order of owners to the order of “holders”, from the ethics of statehood to the ethics of personal service and personal fidelity. It is clear that the specificity of Christian symbolism (and more broadly, biblical symbolism) as a symbol of personal fidelity facilitated its functioning as the core of the ideological “feudal synthesis.” At its inception, Christianity was extremely far from being a feudal ideology; but it has always been a religion of personal loyalty and “squad”, “military” service to God. This side of him was very vividly perceived in the era of the formation of feudalism.
Byzantine culture, a fusion of Jewish, Persian and Hellenic cultures, played a huge role in the formation of world culture. She is unique. In the history of world culture, Byzantine civilization occupies an outstanding place. It was a historical and logical continuation of Greco-Roman antiquity, it realized a unique synthesis of Western and Eastern spiritual principles, it had a huge influence on the civilizations of the South and of Eastern Europe(especially the last one). Byzantium is also a valuable type of culture, despite the influence it experienced from the Syrians, Arabs, Copts, Moors, Germans, Slavs, Turks, Armenians, Georgians, which is explained by the multinational nature of the Byzantine state.
Thus, medieval Byzantine aesthetics presents an original analysis of basic aesthetic concepts. A number of them are quite traditional (beauty, image), others, on the contrary, are original (for example, light). But no matter how different they may be, they are united by a deep connection with the theological tradition.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I have examined only a small part of the culture of the early Middle Ages, but this is enough to realize how great its role is in the history of world culture. I am deeply convinced that each of us should plunge as deeply as possible into the world of history in order to love and honor our culture even more.
4. Literature.
1. Averintsev S.S. Poetics of early Byzantine literature. - M., 1977.
2. Belik A.A. Culturology. Anthropological theories crops - M., 1998.
3. Bitsilli A. Elements of medieval culture. - M., 1995.
4. Brunov N.I. Architecture of Byzantium. / General history architecture. - L.-M., 1966, vol. 3
5. Bychkov V.V. Byzantine aesthetics. - M., 1977.
6. City in the Medieval civilization of Western Europe. T.1. - M., 1999.
7. Gurevich A. Ya. Culture and society of medieval Europe through the eyes of contemporaries. - M., 1989.
8. Gurevich A. Ya. Medieval world. - M., 1990.
9. Darkevich V. P. Folk culture Middle Ages. - M., 1988.
10. Culturology / Ed. Bagdasaryan: Proc. manual for universities. - M., 1999.
11. Culturology: History of world culture: Textbook. for universities /F.O. Aisina, I.A. Andreeva, S.D. Borodina and others; Ed. A.N. Markova. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Culture and Sports: UNITY, 1998: UNITY. - 576 p., l. ill.
12. Culturology: Encyclopedia: in 2 hours - St. Petersburg, 1998.
13. Nemiroeskaya L. 3. Culturology. History and theory of culture. - M., 1992.
14. Nesselstrauss Ts.G. Art of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. - L.-M., 1964.
General characteristics of the Western European Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
Classical Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
Term "middle Ages" was first used by Italian humanists in the 15th century. to denote the period between classical antiquity and their time. In Russian historiography, the lower boundary of the Middle Ages is also traditionally considered to be the 5th century. AD - the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the upper one - the 17th century, when the bourgeois revolution took place in England.
The Middle Ages period is extremely important for Western European civilization: the processes and events of that time still often determine the nature of the political, economic, and cultural development of the countries of Western Europe. Thus, it was during this period that the religious community of Europe was formed and a new direction in Christianity emerged, which contributed most to the formation of bourgeois relations, Protestantism, an urban culture is emerging, which largely determined modern mass Western European culture; the first parliaments arise and the principle of separation of powers receives practical implementation; the foundations of modern science and the education system are laid; The ground is being prepared for the industrial revolution and the transition to an industrial society.
Three stages can be distinguished in the development of Western European medieval society:
Early Middle Ages (V-X centuries) – the process of formation of the main structures characteristic of the Middle Ages is underway;
The Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries) – the time of maximum development of medieval feudal institutions;
Late Middle Ages (XV-XVII centuries) - a new capitalist society begins to form. This division is largely arbitrary, although generally accepted; Depending on the stage, the main characteristics of Western European society change. Before considering the features of each stage, we will highlight the most important features inherent in the entire period of the Middle Ages.
General characteristics of the Western European Middle Ages (V-XVII centuries)
Medieval society in Western Europe was agrarian. The basis of the economy is agriculture, and the vast majority of the population was employed in this area. Labor in agriculture, as in other branches of production, was manual, which predetermined its low efficiency and generally slow pace of technical and economic evolution.
The vast majority of the population of Western Europe lived outside the city throughout the Middle Ages. If for ancient Europe cities were very important - they were independent centers of life, the nature of which was predominantly municipal, and a person’s belonging to a city determined his civil rights, then in Medieval Europe, especially in the first seven centuries, the role of cities was insignificant, although over time Over time, the influence of cities is increasing.
The Western European Middle Ages was a period of dominance of subsistence farming and weak development of commodity-money relations. The insignificant level of regional specialization associated with this type of economy determined the development of mainly long-distance (external) rather than short-range (internal) trade. Long-distance trade was aimed mainly at the upper strata of society. Industry during this period existed in the form of crafts and manufacturing.
The Middle Ages is characterized by an exceptionally strong role of the church and a high degree of ideologization of society.
If in the Ancient world each nation had its own religion, which reflected its national characteristics, history, temperament, way of thinking, then in Medieval Europe there was one religion for all peoples - Christianity, which became the basis for uniting Europeans into one family, the formation of a single European civilization.
The process of pan-European integration was contradictory: along with rapprochement in the field of culture and religion, there is a desire for national isolation in terms of statehood development. The Middle Ages are the time of the formation of national states, which exist in the form of monarchies, both absolute and estate-representative. The peculiarities of political power were its fragmentation, as well as its connection with conditional ownership of land. If in ancient Europe the right to own land was determined for a free person by his nationality - the fact of his birth in a given polis and the resulting civil rights, then in medieval Europe the right to land depended on a person’s belonging to a certain class. Medieval society is class-based. There were three main classes: the nobility, the clergy and the people (peasants, artisans, and merchants were united under this concept). Estates had different rights and responsibilities and played different socio-political and economic roles.
Vassalage system. The most important characteristic of medieval Western European society was its hierarchical structure, vassalage system. At the head of the feudal hierarchy was king - the supreme overlord and at the same time often only the nominal head of state. This conditionality of the absolute power of the highest person in the states of Western Europe is also an essential feature of Western European society, in contrast to the truly absolute monarchies of the East. Even in Spain (where the power of royal power was quite noticeable), when the king was installed in the office, the grandees, in accordance with the established ritual, uttered the following words: “We, who are no worse than you, make you, who are no better than us, king, in order to you respected and defended our rights. And if not, then no.” Thus, the king in medieval Europe was merely “first among equals,” and not an all-powerful despot. It is characteristic that the king, occupying the first step of the hierarchical ladder in his state, could well be a vassal of another king or the Pope.
On the second rung of the feudal ladder were the king's direct vassals. These were large feudal lords - dukes, counts; archbishops, bishops, abbots. By immunity certificate, received from the king, they had various types of immunity (from the Latin - inviolability). The most common types of immunity were tax, judicial and administrative, i.e. the owners of the immunity certificates themselves collected taxes from their peasants and townspeople, held court, and made administrative decisions. Feudal lords of this level could mint their own coins, which often circulated not only within a given estate, but also outside it. The submission of such feudal lords to the king was often simply formal.
On the third rung of the feudal ladder stood the vassals of dukes, counts, bishops - barons. They enjoyed virtual immunity on their estates. Even lower were the vassals of the barons - knights. Some of them could also have their own vassals, even smaller knights, while others had only peasants subordinate to them, who, however, stood outside the feudal ladder.
The vassalage system was based on the practice of land grants. The person who received the land became vassal the one who gave it - senor. Land was given under certain conditions, the most important of which was service as a seigneur, which, according to feudal custom, was usually 40 days a year. The most important duties of a vassal in relation to his lord were participation in the lord's army, protection of his possessions, honor, dignity, and participation in his council. If necessary, the vassals ransomed the lord from captivity.
When receiving land, the vassal swore an oath of allegiance to his master. If the vassal did not fulfill his obligations, the lord could take the land from him, but this was not so easy to do, since the vassal feudal lord was inclined to defend his recent property with arms in hand. In general, despite the seemingly clear order described by the well-known formula: “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal,” the vassalage system was quite confusing, and a vassal could have several lords at the same time.
Manners, customs. Another fundamental characteristic of Western European medieval society, and perhaps the most important, was a certain mentality of people, the nature of the social worldview, and the everyday way of life strictly connected with it. The most significant features of medieval culture were the constant and sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty, noble birth and rootlessness - everything was put on display. Society was visual in its everyday life, it was convenient to navigate: thus, even by clothing, it was easy to determine the belonging of any person to class, rank and professional circle. A feature of that society was a great many restrictions and conventions, but those who could “read” them knew their code and received important additional information about the reality around them. Thus, each color in clothing had its own purpose: blue was interpreted as the color of fidelity, green as the color of new love, yellow as the color of hostility. At that time, color combinations seemed exceptionally informative to Western Europeans, which, like the styles of hats, caps, and dresses, conveyed a person’s inner mood and attitude to the world. So, symbolism is an important characteristic of the culture of Western European medieval society.
The emotional life of society was also contrasting, since, as contemporaries themselves testified, the soul of a medieval resident of Western Europe was unbridled and passionate. The parishioners in the church could pray with tears for hours, then they got tired of it, and they started dancing right there in the church, saying to the saint, in front of whose image they had just knelt: “Now you pray for us, and we will dance.”
This society was often cruel to many. Executions were commonplace, and there was no middle ground in relation to criminals - they were either executed or forgiven completely. The idea that criminals could be re-educated was not allowed. Executions were always organized as a special moral spectacle for the public, and terrible and painful punishments were invented for terrible atrocities. For many ordinary people, executions served as entertainment, and medieval authors noted that the people, as a rule, tried to delay the ending, enjoying the spectacle of torture; The usual thing in such cases was “the animalistic, stupid joy of the crowd.”
Other common character traits of medieval Western Europeans were hot temper, selfishness, quarrelsomeness, and vindictiveness. These qualities were combined with a constant readiness for tears: sobs were considered noble and beautiful, and elevating everyone - children, adults, men and women.
The Middle Ages were the time of preachers who preached, moving from place to place, exciting people with their eloquence, greatly influencing public sentiment. Thus, brother Richard, who lived in France at the beginning of the 15th century, enjoyed enormous popularity and love. Once he preached in Paris at the cemetery of innocent children for 10 days from 5 am to 11 pm. Huge crowds of people listened to him, the impact of his speeches was powerful and quick: many immediately threw themselves on the ground and repented of their sins, many made vows to start a new life. When Richard announced that he was finishing his last sermon and had to move on, many people, leaving their homes and families, followed him.
The preachers certainly contributed to the creation of a unified European society.
An important characteristic of society was the general state of collective morals, the social mood: this was expressed in the fatigue of society, fear of life, and a feeling of fear of fate. Indicative was the lack of strong will and desire in society to change the world for the better. Fear of life will give way to hope, courage and optimism only in the 17th-18th centuries. – and it is no coincidence that from this time a new period in human history will begin, an essential feature of which will be the desire of Western Europeans to positively transform the world. The praise of life and an active attitude towards it did not appear suddenly and not out of nowhere: the possibility of these changes would gradually mature within the framework of feudal society throughout the entire period of the Middle Ages. From stage to stage, Western European society will become more energetic and enterprising; slowly but steadily the entire system of social institutions, economic, political, social, cultural, and psychological, will change. Let us trace the features of this process by period.
Early Middle Ages (V – X centuries)
The formation of feudal relations. During the early Middle Ages, the formation of medieval society began - the territory in which education took place expanded significantly Western European civilization: If the basis of ancient civilization was Ancient Greece and Rome, then medieval civilization already covers almost all of Europe.
The most important process in the early Middle Ages in the socio-economic sphere was the formation of feudal relations, the core of which was the formation of feudal ownership of land. This happened in two ways. The first way is through the peasant community. The plot of land owned by a peasant family was inherited from father to son (and from the 6th century to daughter) and was their property. So it gradually took shape allod – freely alienable land property of communal peasants. Allod accelerated the stratification of property among free peasants: lands began to be concentrated in the hands of the communal elite, which was already acting as part of the feudal class. Thus, this was the way of forming the patrimonial-allodial form of feudal ownership of land, especially characteristic of the Germanic tribes.
The second way of the formation of feudal land ownership and, consequently, the entire feudal system is the practice of land grants by the king or other large landowners-feudal lords to their confidants. First a piece of land (benefits) was given to the vassal only on condition of service and for the duration of his service, and the lord retained the supreme rights to benefices. Gradually, the vassals' rights to the lands granted to them expanded, as the sons of many vassals continued to serve their father's lord. In addition, purely psychological reasons were also important: the nature of the relationship developing between the lord and the vassal. As contemporaries testify, vassals, as a rule, were faithful and devoted to their master.
Loyalty was valued dearly, and benefices increasingly became the almost complete property of vassals, passing from father to son. The land that was passed down by inheritance was called linen, or fief, fief owner - feudal lord, and the entire system of these socio-economic relations is feudalism.
The beneficiary became a fief by the 21st century. This path to the formation of feudal relations is clearly visible in the example of the Frankish state, which took shape already in the 6th century.
Classes of early feudal society. In the Middle Ages, two main classes of feudal society were also formed: feudal lords, spiritual and secular - land owners and peasants - land holders. Among the peasants there were two groups, differing in their economic and social status. Personally free peasants could, at will, leave the owner, give up their land holdings: rent them out or sell them to another peasant. Having freedom of movement, they often moved to cities or new places. They paid fixed taxes in kind and in cash and performed certain work on their master's farm. Another group - personally dependent peasants. Their responsibilities were broader, in addition (and this is the most important difference) they were not fixed, so that personally dependent peasants were subject to arbitrary taxation. They also bore a number of specific taxes: posthumous taxes - upon entering into an inheritance, marriage taxes - redemption of the right of the first night, etc. These peasants did not enjoy freedom of movement. By the end of the first period of the Middle Ages, all peasants (both personally dependent and personally free) had a master; feudal law did not recognize simply free people independent of anyone, trying to build social relations according to the principle: “There is no man without a master.”
State economy. During the formation of medieval society, the pace of development was slow. Although three-field farming had already become fully established in agriculture instead of two-field farming, the yield was low: on average - 3. They kept mainly small livestock - goats, sheep, pigs, and there were few horses and cows. The level of specialization in agriculture was low. Each estate had almost all vital sectors of the economy from the point of view of Western Europeans: field cultivation, cattle breeding, various crafts. The economy was subsistence, and agricultural products were not produced specifically for the market; the craft also existed in the form of custom work. The domestic market was thus very limited.
Ethnic processes and feudal fragmentation. IN This period saw the settlement of Germanic tribes across the territory of Western Europe: the cultural, economic, religious, and subsequently political community of Western Europe will be based largely on the ethnic community of Western European peoples. So, as a result of the successful conquests of the leader of the Franks Charlemagne in 800 a vast empire was created - the Frankish state. However, large territorial formations were not stable at that time and soon after the death of Charles, his empire collapsed.
By the X-XI centuries. Feudal fragmentation is establishing itself in Western Europe. Kings retained real power only within their domains. Formally, the king's vassals were obliged to perform military service, pay him a monetary contribution upon entering into inheritance, and also obey the decisions of the king as the supreme arbiter in inter-feudal disputes. In fact, the fulfillment of all these obligations in the 9th-10th centuries. almost entirely depended on the will of powerful feudal lords. The strengthening of their power led to feudal civil strife.
Christianity. Despite the fact that the process of creating nation states began in Europe, their borders were constantly changing; states either merged into larger state associations or were split into smaller ones. This political mobility also contributed to the formation of a pan-European civilization.
The most important factor in creating a united Europe was Christianity, which gradually spread throughout all European countries, becoming the state religion.
Christianity determined the cultural life of early medieval Europe, influencing the system, nature and quality of education and upbringing. The quality of education affected the level of economic development. During this period, the level of economic development was highest in Italy. Here, earlier than in other countries, medieval cities - Venice, Genoa, Florence, Milan - developed as centers of craft and trade, and not strongholds of the nobility. Foreign trade relations are growing faster here, domestic trade is developing, and regular fairs are appearing. The volume of credit transactions is increasing. Crafts, in particular weaving and jewelry making, as well as construction, reach a significant level. Still, as in antiquity, the citizens of Italian cities were politically active, and this also contributed to their rapid economic and cultural progress. In other countries of Western Europe, the influence of ancient civilization was also felt, but to a lesser extent than in Italy.
Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries)
At the second stage of the development of feudalism, the process of formation of feudal relations is completed and all structures of feudal society reach their fullest flowering.
Creation of centralized states. Public administration. At this time, centralized power was strengthened in most Western European countries, national states began to form and strengthen (England, France, Germany), etc. Large feudal lords were increasingly dependent on the king. However, the king's power is still not truly absolute. The era of class-representative monarchies is coming. It was during this period that the practical implementation of the principle of separation of powers began and the first parliaments – estate-representative bodies that significantly limit the power of the king. The earliest such parliament-Cortes appeared in Spain (late 12th – early 12th centuries). In 1265, parliament appears in England. In the XIV century. parliaments had already been created in most Western European countries. At first, the work of parliaments was not regulated in any way; neither the timing of meetings nor the order of their holding were determined - all this was decided by the king, depending on the specific situation. However, even then the most important and constant question that parliamentarians considered was: taxes.
Parliaments could act as an advisory, legislative, and judicial body. Gradually, legislative functions were assigned to parliament and a certain confrontation between parliament and the king was outlined. Thus, the king could not introduce additional taxes without the sanction of parliament, although formally the king was much higher than parliament, and it was the king who convened and dissolved parliament and proposed issues for discussion.
Parliaments were not the only political innovation of the classical Middle Ages. Another important new component of social life was political parties, which first began to take shape in the 13th century. in Italy, and then (in the 14th century) in France. Political parties fiercely opposed each other, but the reason for their confrontation was then more likely to be psychological than economic.
Almost all countries of Western Europe during this period went through the horrors of bloody strife and war. An example could be war of the scarlet and white roses England in the 15th century. As a result of this war, England lost a quarter of its population.
Peasant uprisings. The Classical Middle Ages is also a time peasant uprisings, unrest and riots. An example would be an uprising led by WhoaTyler And John Ball's England in 1381
The uprising began as a mass protest of peasants against a new threefold increase in the head tax. The rebels demanded that the king not only reduce taxes, but also replace all natural duties with low cash payments, eliminate the personal dependence of the peasants and allow free trade throughout England. King Richard II (1367-1400) was forced to meet with the peasant leaders and agree to their demands. However, part of the peasants (especially poor peasants predominated among them) was not satisfied with these results and put forward new conditions, in particular, to take away the land from bishops, monasteries and other rich landowners and divide it among the peasants, to abolish all classes and class privileges. These demands were already completely unacceptable for the ruling strata, as well as for the majority of English society, because then property was already considered sacred and inviolable. The rebels were called robbers, and the uprising was brutally suppressed.
However, in the next century, in the 15th century, many of the slogans of this uprising received real embodiment: for example, almost all peasants actually became personally free and were transferred to cash payments, and their duties were no longer as heavy as before.
Economy. Agriculture. The main branch of the economy of Western European countries during the classical Middle Ages, as before, was agriculture. The main characteristics of the development of the agricultural sector as a whole were the process of rapid development of new lands, known in history as process of internal colonization. It contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the economy, but also to serious qualitative progress, since the duties imposed on peasants on the new lands were predominantly monetary rather than in kind. The process of replacing natural duties with monetary ones, known in the scientific literature as rent commutation, contributed to the growth of economic independence and enterprise of peasants, increasing the productivity of their labor. The cultivation of oilseeds and industrial crops is expanding, oil production and winemaking are developing.
Grain productivity reaches the level of sam-4 and sam-5. The growth of peasant activity and the expansion of peasant farming led to a reduction in the feudal lord's economy, which in the new conditions turned out to be less profitable.
Progress in agriculture was also facilitated by the liberation of peasants from personal dependence. The decision about this was made by the city near which the peasants lived and with which they were connected socially and economically, or by their feudal lord, on whose land they lived. The rights of peasants to land plots were strengthened. They could increasingly freely transfer land by inheritance, bequeath and mortgage it, lease it, donate it and sell it. This is how it gradually forms and becomes wider. land market. Commodity-money relations are developing.
Medieval cities. The most important characteristic of this period was the growth of cities and urban crafts. In the classical Middle Ages, old cities grew rapidly and new ones emerged - near castles, fortresses, monasteries, bridges, and river crossings. Cities with a population of 4-6 thousand inhabitants were considered average. There were very large cities, such as Paris, Milan, Florence, where 80 thousand people lived. Life in a medieval city was difficult and dangerous - frequent epidemics claimed the lives of more than half of the townspeople, as happened, for example, during the “Black Death” - a plague epidemic in the mid-13th century. Fires were also frequent. However, they still wanted to go to the cities, because, as the saying testified, “city air made a dependent person free” - to do this, one had to live in the city for one year and one day.
Cities arose on the lands of the king or large feudal lords and were beneficial to them, bringing in income in the form of taxes on crafts and trade.
At the beginning of this period, most cities were dependent on their lords. The townspeople fought to gain independence, i.e. for turning into a free city. The authorities of independent cities were elected and had the right to collect taxes, pay the treasury, manage city finances at their own discretion, have their own courts, mint their own coins, and even declare war and make peace. The means of struggle of the urban population for their rights were urban uprisings - communal revolutions, as well as the purchase of their rights from the lord. Only the richest cities, such as London and Paris, could afford such a ransom. However, many other Western European cities were also rich enough to gain independence for money. So, in the 13th century. About half of all cities in England - 200 cities - gained independence in collecting taxes.
The wealth of cities was based on the wealth of their citizens. Among the richest were moneylenders And money changers. They determined the quality and usefulness of the coin, and this was extremely important in the conditions of constantly practiced mercantilist governments deface coins; exchanged money and transferred it from one city to another; They took available capital for safekeeping and provided loans.
At the beginning of the classical Middle Ages, banking activity developed most actively in Northern Italy. There, as indeed throughout Europe, this activity was concentrated primarily in the hands of Jews, since Christianity officially prohibited believers from engaging in usury. The activities of moneylenders and money changers could be extremely profitable, but sometimes (if large feudal lords and kings refused to repay large loans) they also became bankrupt.
Medieval craft. An important and ever-increasing segment of the urban population were artisans. From VII-XIII centuries. Due to the increase in the purchasing power of the population and the growth of consumer demand, there is an increase in urban crafts. Craftsmen are moving from working to order to working for the market. The craft becomes a respected occupation that brings good income. People in construction specialties – masons, carpenters, plasterers – were especially respected. Architecture was then carried out by the most gifted people, with a high level of professional training. During this period, the specialization of crafts deepened, the range of products expanded, and craft techniques were improved, remaining, as before, manual. Technologies in metallurgy and in the production of cloth fabrics become more complex and more efficient, and in Europe they begin to wear woolen clothes instead of fur and linen. In the 12th century. Mechanical watches were made in Europe in the 13th century. - large tower clock, in the 15th century. - pocket watch. Watchmaking became the school in which precision engineering techniques were developed, which played a significant role in the development of the productive forces of Western society.
Craftsmen united in workshops, who protected their members from competition from “wild” artisans. In cities there could be tens and hundreds of workshops of various economic orientations - after all, the specialization of production took place not within a workshop, but between workshops. So, in Paris there were more than 350 workshops. The most important safety of the workshops was also a certain regulation of production in order to prevent overproduction and maintain prices at a sufficiently high level; shop authorities, taking into account the volume of the potential market, determined the quantity of products produced.
During this entire period, the guilds fought with the city's top brass for access to management. City leaders, called patrician, united representatives of the landed aristocracy, wealthy merchants, and moneylenders. Often the actions of influential artisans were successful, and they were included in the city authorities.
The guild organization of handicraft production had both obvious disadvantages and advantages, one of which was a well-established apprenticeship system. The official training period in different workshops ranged from 2 to 14 years; it was assumed that during this time a craftsman should go from student and journeyman to master.
The workshops developed strict requirements for the material from which the goods were made, for tools, and production technology. All this ensured stable operation and guaranteed excellent product quality. The high level of medieval Western European craft is evidenced by the fact that an apprentice who wanted to receive the title of master was required to complete a final work, which was called a “masterpiece” (the modern meaning of the word speaks for itself).
The workshops also created conditions for the transfer of accumulated experience, ensuring the continuity of craft generations. In addition, artisans participated in the formation of a united Europe: apprentices during the training process could roam around different countries; masters, if there were more of them in the city than required, easily moved to new places.
On the other hand, towards the end of the classical Middle Ages, in the 14th-15th centuries, the guild organization of industrial production increasingly began to act as an inhibitory factor. The workshops are increasingly isolated and stop developing. In particular, it was almost impossible for many to become a master: only the son of a master or his son-in-law could actually obtain the status of a master. This has led to a large layer of “eternal apprentices” appearing in cities. In addition, strict regulation of crafts begins to hinder the introduction of technological innovations, without which progress in the sphere of material production is unthinkable. Therefore, the workshops gradually exhausted themselves, and by the end of the classical Middle Ages, a new form of organization of industrial production appeared - manufactory.
Development of manufacture. Manufacture implied the specialization of labor between workers when making any product, which significantly increased the productivity of labor, which, as before, remained manual. The factories of Western Europe employed hired workers. Manufacture became most widespread in the following period of the Middle Ages.
Trade and merchants. An important segment of the urban population were merchants, played a major role in domestic and foreign trade. They constantly traveled around the cities with goods. Merchants, as a rule, were literate and could speak the languages of the countries through which they passed. Foreign trade during this period was apparently still more developed than domestic trade. The centers of foreign trade in Western Europe at that time were the North, Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Cloth, wine, metal products, honey, timber, fur, and resin were exported from Western Europe. Mostly luxury goods were brought from the East to the West: colored fabrics, silk, brocade, precious stones, ivory, wine, fruits, spices, carpets. Imports into Europe generally exceeded exports. The largest participants in the foreign trade of Western Europe were the Hanseatic cities1. There were about 80 of them, and the largest of them were Hamburg, Bremen, Gdansk, and Cologne.
Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, which flourished in the 13th-14th centuries, gradually lost its political and economic power and was supplanted by the English company merchant adventurers, engaged in intensive overseas trade.
The development of domestic trade was significantly hampered by the lack of a unified monetary system, numerous internal customs and customs duties, the lack of a good transport network, and constant robbery on the roads. Many people traded in robbery, both ordinary people and noble people. Among them were small knights who could not find a place for themselves in creative economic life, since only the eldest son could inherit his father’s property - “the crown and possessions” - and the rest became the lot of war, campaigns, robbery, and knightly entertainment. The knights robbed the city merchants, and the townspeople, without bothering themselves with a trial, hanged the knights they had captured on the city towers. This system of relationships hampered the development of society. However, despite the existence of numerous dangers on the roads, medieval society was very dynamic and mobile: there was intense demographic exchange between regions and countries, contributing to the formation of a united Europe.
There were also people of clergy constantly on the move - bishops, abbots, monks, who had to attend church councils and travel with reports to Rome. It was they who actually carried out the intervention of the church in the affairs of national states, which was manifested not only in ideological and cultural life, but also quite noticeably in financial life - a huge amount of money went from each state to Rome.
Medieval universities. Another part of Western European medieval society was also mobile - students and masters. The first universities in Western Europe appeared precisely in the classical Middle Ages. So, at the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. Universities were opened in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and other European cities. Universities were then the most important and often the only source of information. The power of universities and university science was exceptionally strong. In this regard, in the XIV-XV centuries. The University of Paris stood out in particular. It is significant that among his students (and there were more than 30 thousand people in total) there were adults and even old people: everyone came to exchange opinions and get acquainted with new ideas.
University Science – scholasticism – formed in the 11th century. Its most important feature was boundless faith in the power of reason in the process of understanding the world. Over time, however, scholasticism increasingly becomes a dogma. Its provisions are considered infallible and final. In the XIV-XV centuries. scholasticism, which used only logic and denied experiments, became an obvious obstacle to the development of natural scientific thought in Western Europe. Almost all departments in European universities were then occupied by monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and the usual topics of debates and scientific papers were: “Why did Adam eat an apple and not a pear in paradise? and “How many angels can fit on the head of a needle?”
The entire system of university education had a very strong influence on the formation of Western European civilization. Universities contributed to progress in scientific thought, the growth of social consciousness and the growth of individual freedom. Masters and students, moving from city to city, from university to university, which was a constant practice, carried out cultural exchange between countries. National achievements immediately became known in other European countries. So, "Decameron" Italian Giavanni Boccaccio(1313-1375) was quickly translated into all European languages, it was read and known everywhere. The formation of Western European culture was also facilitated by the beginning in 1453. book printing. Considered the first printer Johannes Gutenberg (between 1394-1399 or in 1406-1468), who lived in Germany.
Features of the historical development of leading European countries. Germany, despite its generally successful development, was nevertheless not a leading country in the field of culture or economy. In the XIV-XV centuries. Italy was still the most educated and prosperous country in Europe, although politically it was a multitude of states, often openly hostile to each other. The commonality of Italians was expressed mainly in a common language and national culture. France succeeded most in state building, where the processes of centralization began earlier than in other countries. In the XIV-XV centuries. In France, permanent state taxes have already been introduced, a unified monetary system and a unified postal service have been established.
From the point of view of human rights and the protection of the individual, England achieved the greatest success, where the rights of the people, obtained by them in confrontation with the king, were most clearly formulated as law: for example, the king did not have the right, without the consent of parliament, to impose new taxes and issue new laws, in his own right. specific activities, it had to be consistent with existing laws.
Another feature of the development of England was the increased growth of commodity-money relations, the widespread use of hired labor in all spheres of the economy, and active foreign trade activity. A distinctive feature of English society was also the presence in it of the spirit of entrepreneurship, without which rapid economic evolution is unthinkable. This psychological attitude was greatly facilitated by the absence of a rigid class system in English society. So, back in 1278, a law was passed according to which personally free peasants with an annual income of more than 20 pounds sterling received the title of nobility. This is how the “new nobility” was formed - a layer of economically active people who objectively contributed to the rapid rise of England in the next period.
General characteristics of the period. The era of the Middle Ages is usually understood as a historical period that includes the origin and formation of European medieval civilization. Modern researchers tend to allocate time from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th centuries. as an independent era of early modern times and limit it to the eve of the history of the Middle Ages proper. It was during this period that the European world was formed within its modern boundaries and ethnic boundaries, a period of geographical and scientific discoveries began, and the first rudiments of modern civilization appeared.
Domestic medieval studies, having today abandoned the interpretation of the Middle Ages only as a period of “dark ages” and “obscurantism”, strives to objectively illuminate the events and phenomena that turned Europe into a qualitatively new civilization. In the latest research, the Middle Ages appears to us as an era with its own special social relations and special culture. The social class structure of medieval European society was determined by the feudal mode of production, its main classes being land owners (feudal lords) and peasants. An important social stratum of the period of mature feudalism was also formed by townspeople. A characteristic feature of the feudal society of the Middle Ages was its estate-corporate structure. For both peasants and feudal lords, it was important not so much to increase material wealth as to maintain social status. Neither the monasteries showed a desire for a continuous increase in income during this period; neither large landowners nor the peasants themselves. The rights of individual estate groups were secured legally. The corporatism of feudal European society was also manifested in the fact that various types of unions played a major role in it: rural and urban communities, brotherhood, craft guilds and merchant guilds in cities, knightly and monastic orders.
Religion and the church filled the entire life of a person in the medieval era from birth to death. The church claimed to govern society and performed many functions that later began to belong to the state. Having monopolized culture, science, and literacy in society, the church had enormous resources that subordinated the man of the feudal era to it. According to the modern historian Bishok, the church "was more than the basis of medieval culture, it was the medieval culture itself." Christianity became the most important factor in the European cultural community; it was in the Middle Ages that it turned into one of the world religions. Christian civilization was established not just on the ruins of ancient civilization, but also on its basis; it not only denied previous values, but also rethought them. The Christian Church, its centralization, hierarchy and wealth, its worldview, law, ethics and morality - created a single feudal ideology. Christianity largely determined the difference between European medieval civilization and the civilizations of other continents of the same era.
In the final period of the Middle Ages, under the influence of the development of exchange, commodity production and monetary relations, the evolution of society accelerated noticeably. The medieval city plays an increasingly important role. It is with the development of cities that the emergence of the political and legal system of the New Time is associated. It was in the cities that those elements of legal consciousness that are commonly called democratic took shape. However, according to modern historians, it would be wrong to look for the origins of modern legal ideas only in the urban environment. Representatives of other classes also played a major role in the formation of legal consciousness in the late Middle Ages. For example, the formation of ideas about the dignity of the individual occurred mainly in the class consciousness of feudal lords and was initially of an aristocratic nature. Consequently, democratic freedoms also grew out of aristocratic love of freedom. In the acute and social struggle between the peasantry and the feudal lords, between the cities and the lords, between various factions within the feudal class itself, between the supporters of separatism and the adherents of centralization, the Middle Ages gradually came to an end.
Many phenomena in the life of modern peoples and states have their roots in the medieval past: the formation of the social structure of society, the formation of nations and national cultures, etc. In many countries, medieval traditions are still alive to this day; most of the currently existing states were formed in the Middle Ages. During this era, many ancient cities were revived and new ones emerged. Culture became more accessible to the masses thanks to the invention of the printing press, the opening of universities and many schools. Since the Middle Ages, people began to use porcelain dishes, mirrors, forks, soap, glasses, buttons, mechanical watches and many other things, without which everyday life today is unthinkable. For the development of military affairs, the transition to firearms was crucial. Significant changes have occurred in People's understanding of the universe. Wonderful works of art of the Middle Ages still remain unsurpassed masterpieces and stimulate the human spirit to new creative quests.
The Roman Empire, with its achievements, exhausted its internal potential and entered a period of collapse. The period of the late Roman Empire was the time of the formation of new proto-feudal relations, which took the form of attaching different groups of the population to their place of residence and their occupations. The state in the late Empire absorbed and subjugated society; A feature of the socio-political situation was the general dissatisfaction of the population with imperial statehood, the strengthening of independence and the growing authority in society of the Christian Church. The unified Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire could no longer resist internal disintegration and the pressure of barbarians on its borders.
The Middle Ages began with the Great Migration of Peoples. From the end of the 4th century. Whole tribes of Germans moved from their homes and invaded the Western Roman Empire. On the occupied lands, Germanic tribes created their own states: the Vandals - in North Africa, the Visigoths (Western Goths) - in Spain, the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) - in Italy, the Angles and Saxons - on the island of Britain, the Franks - in Gaul. The kings who headed them were, first of all, tribal leaders (kings), leaders of military squads. There were no uniform laws in the kingdoms, the local population continued to live according to Roman laws, and the Germans were judged on the basis of their own ancient customs. The only organization that survived the conquest was the Christian Church, whose bishops exercised great influence over the population. The Germans gradually adopted the Christian religion. For the needs of church services, writing chronicles, royal decrees and other documents, Latin writing was used; schools were opened at churches and monasteries in which priests were trained.
Cities on the territory of the Western Roman Empire fell into decay in the last centuries of its existence, many of them were devastated by barbarians. They have survived only in Italy, Spain, and on the Mediterranean coast of France; in other regions and countries until the 10th century. the cities were few and small in size.
Political development of Europe inV-XIcenturies. The largest in Europe was the one that arose at the end of the 5th century. State of the Franks. Its creator was the leader of one of the tribes - Clovis from the Merovei family. Descendants of Clovis who ruled Frankish state until the middle of the 8th century, are called Merovingians. Having united the Franks under his rule, Clovis defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Soissons (486) and subjugated Northern Gaul. Gradually there was a rapprochement between the two peoples, the Franks and local residents (descendants of the Gauls and Romans). The entire population of the Frankish state began to speak one dialect, in which Latin was mixed with Germanic words. This adverb later formed the basis of the French language. However, only the Latin language was used in the letter; in it, under Clovis, the first recording of the judicial customs of the Franks was made (the so-called Salic law / The appearance of written laws, binding on the entire territory of the Frankish state, contributed to its strengthening. However, internal strife undermined the power of the kingdom The heirs of Clovis waged a long struggle for power, as a result of which the power of the Merovingian kings became insignificant.
The majordomo, the highest official in the state, whose power was inherited, began to have a great influence on the affairs of the state. Mayor Karl Martell ruled the country without regard for the king. At this time, an army of Muslim Arabs invaded Gaul from Spain, but was defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers (732). The threat of Arab conquest pushed Charles Martel to create a strong cavalry army. The Franks who wished to serve in it received from the majordomo lands with peasants living on them. With the income from these lands, their owner purchased expensive weapons and horses. The lands were not given to the soldiers as full ownership, but only for life and on the condition that the owner would perform mounted military service, to which he swore an oath to the mayordomo. Later, land holdings on the same condition began to be inherited from father to son. The successors of Charles Martel, with the support of the popes, removed the Merovingians from power and laid the foundation for a new Carolingian dynasty.
In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne with the imperial crown. The emperor became a symbol of the unity of German traditions, the Roman imperial past and Christian principles. The idea of uniting the Christian world became decisive for several generations of Europeans. Charlemagne managed to create a huge power, which, in addition to Gaul, included part of the territory of Spain, Northern and Central Italy, the territories of Bavaria and Saxony, Pannonia (Hungary). The period of existence of the Carolingian state (mid-8th - early 10th centuries) was the time of the formation of a number of social institutions and the main features of the cultural and historical type inherent in medieval European civilization. In 843, the empire was divided among the descendants of Charlemagne into three kingdoms, which became the basis of the future France, Germany and Italy. The imperial idea remained attractive in Europe. King Otto I of Germany captures Italy and in 962 proclaims himself emperor. Appears on the political map of Europe Holy Roman Empire, the center of which was Germany, which embodied the European imperial idea until the end of the Middle Ages.
The military reform of Charles Martel marked the beginning of the formation of a new social system in Europe - feudalism. An important role in the formation of feudalism was played by the wave of invasions of Normans and nomads into Western Europe in the 9th-11th centuries. Normans - this is how in Western Europe they called participants in predatory campaigns - immigrants from Northern Europe (Norwegians, Danes and Swedes), who sailed to the shores of France, England, Germany, and climbed the rivers into the interior of these countries. They robbed, killed, burned, took prisoners into slavery, and sometimes captured entire regions. Immigrants from the Southern Urals, nomadic cattle breeders Magyars, or Hungarians, invaded Europe and raided as far as Paris and the Atlantic Ocean. The population of Europe felt defenseless against attacks by the Normans and Hungarians. Residents of Europe began to build stone castles, which were fortresses and dwellings of feudal lords: during an enemy attack, the surrounding population hid in such a castle. In European countries, equestrian troops developed everywhere - knighthood, which replaced the militias of the Germans. Knight (from the German word “ritter”, i.e. horseman) had a helmet with a visor, chain mail - later it was replaced by forged armor - a shield, a long heavy spear and a sword. Only feudal lords fought on horseback; all of them, starting with the king himself, were horsemen, or knights. However, there is another, narrower meaning of the word knight: a petty feudal lord who does not have a hereditary title (baron, count, etc.), as well as his vassals, but has sufficient funds to serve in the cavalry army.
Feudalism and feudal fragmentation. Feudalism refer to the social system, the name of which comes from the word “feud”. Feud - This is a land estate inhabited by peasants, granted by a lord - seigneur (in Latin - “senior”) to his vassal - a subordinate person who undertakes to carry out military service for the ownership of the fief. The vassal swore an oath of allegiance to the lord. In some countries, the relationship between the owners of feuds - feudal lords - can be imagined in the form of a ladder (the so-called feudal ladder). At the very top of it stood the king - the supreme owner of all the land in the state; ~ it was believed that he received his power from God, who was his lord. One step below were the king's direct vassals. They transferred part of the possessions granted to them to their own vassals, standing one step lower. And they, in turn, allocated lands from the resulting fief for their vassals. It turned out that almost every feudal lord (except those who were on the lower rung of the ladder) was both a vassal and a seigneur at the same time. Although another, higher-ranking lord dominated the feudal lord, he had no right to interfere in his relations with his vassals. Thus, in France the rule “my vassal’s vassal is not mine” vassal." This meant that even the king was deprived of the opportunity to give orders to their vassals through the heads of his vassals - counts and dukes.
During the establishment of feudalism in Western Europe, the possession of a large feudal lord resembled an independent state. Such a feudal lord collected taxes from the population, had the right to judge, could declare war on other feudal lords and make peace with them. It was as if an agreement was concluded between the lord and the vassal. The vassal pledged to serve his master faithfully, and the lord promised the vassal support and protection. However, the agreement was often violated. The vassals attacked each other, the possessions of their lord. There were continuous internecine wars. Their goal was to seize lands inhabited by peasants, or a noble neighbor, from whom they demanded a ransom for liberation, the seizure of booty (robbery of other peasants, churches, etc.). Peasants suffered the most from internecine wars. They did not have fortified dwellings where they could hide from attack.
The church fought to end internecine wars, robberies and outrages. They called for the establishment of God's peace. Violators of God's peace faced church punishment. The church could not completely stop internecine wars, but its struggle for God’s peace contributed to the penetration of Christian morality (mercy, condemnation of violence) into the consciousness of the feudal lords. The kings tried to limit the cruelty of military actions by their decrees. However, these attempts were in most cases unsuccessful. The era characterized by the disintegration of European states into separate feudal estates, accompanied by a weakening of the power of kings and the transfer of part of their rights to large landowners, is called feudal fragmentation.
Social structure of medieval society. The vast majority of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages were peasants. All categories of feudal lords lived at their expense - church (bishops, abbots of monasteries - abbots, etc.) and secular (dukes, counts, barons, etc.). Most of the lands on which peasants worked, by the 11th century. belonged to the feudal lords. During continuous internecine wars, peasants sought protection from a neighboring lord or monastery. Having found a powerful patron, the peasant was forced to admit his dependence on him and transfer his land plot to him. The dependent peasant continued to farm on his previous plot, but for the use of it the master demanded the fulfillment of corvee labor and the payment of dues. corvée name all the work of peasants in the feudal lord's household (processing the master's arable land, building houses and sheds, erecting defensive structures, fishing, collecting firewood, etc.). Quite is the payment of peasants to the owner of the land - products (grain, livestock, poultry, vegetables) and products of their farm (linen, leather). The power of the feudal lord over the peasant was manifested not only in the fact that he worked as a corvee and paid quitrent (land dependence), the peasant was personally subject to the feudal lord (personal dependence), the landowner tried him in his court, the peasant had no right to move without the permission of his master to another area.
However, despite the land and personal dependence on the feudal lord, the peasant was not completely powerless. The lord could not execute him, drive him away from his allotment (if he fulfilled his duties), sell or exchange him without land and separately from his family. Played a huge role in the life of medieval people custom, which was observed by both peasants and lords. The size of the quitrent, the types and duration of corvee work did not change from generation to generation. What was established once and for all was considered reasonable and fair. The lords could not voluntarily increase peasant duties. The lords and peasants needed each other: some were “universal breadwinners”; from others, working people expected protection and patronage.
In the Middle Ages, there was a widespread doctrine according to which the entire population of Europe, in accordance with God's will, is divided into three groups - three classes (people included in these classes have different rights and responsibilities). The ministers of the church (priests and monks) constituted a special layer of the population - the clergy, who were believed to guide the spiritual life of people - to take care of the salvation of the souls of Christians; knights protect the country from foreigners; Peasants and townspeople are engaged in agriculture and crafts.
The fact that the clergy came first is not at all accidental, because the main thing for a medieval European was his relationship with God, the need to save his soul after the end of earthly life. Church servants in general were more educated than knights and, especially, peasants. Almost all scientists, writers and poets, artists and musicians of that era were clergy; they often occupied the highest government positions, influencing their kings. The clergy was divided into white and black, or monasticism. The first monasteries - communities of monks - appeared in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire. Monks were mostly deeply religious Christians who wanted to devote their lives exclusively to serving God. They made vows (promises): to renounce the family, not to get married; give up property, live in poverty; unquestioningly obey the abbot of the monastery (in women's monasteries - the abbess^), pray and work. Many monasteries owned vast lands that were cultivated by dependent peasants. Schools, workshops for copying books, and libraries often arose at the monasteries; the monks created historical chronicles (chronicles). In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education and culture.
The second estate consisted of secular feudal lords, or knighthood. The most important activities of knights were war and participation in military competitions - tournaments; The knights spent their leisure time hunting and at feasts. Teaching writing, reading and mathematics was not compulsory. Medieval literature describes the rules of worthy behavior that every knight had to follow: to be selflessly devoted to God, to faithfully serve his lord, to take care of the weak and defenseless; comply with all obligations and oaths. In reality, knights did not always follow the rules of honor. During wars, they often committed all sorts of outrages. The feudal lords lived in strong stone castles (there were about 40 thousand of them in France alone). The castle was surrounded by a deep moat; it was possible to get inside only with the drawbridge lowered. Defensive towers rose above the castle walls; the main one, the donjon, consisted of several floors. The donjon contained the feudal lord's dwelling, a feast hall, a kitchen, and a room where supplies were stored in case of a long siege. In addition to the feudal lord, his family, warriors and servants lived in the castle. The bulk of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages was the peasantry, living in small villages of 10-15 households each. Peasant houses were built of wood, and in those places where there were few forests, of stone. The roofs were covered with straw, which served as food for livestock in times of famine. Small windows were covered with wooden shutters, leather, and bull's bladder. The open fireplace had no chimney; the chimney was replaced by a gaping hole in the ceiling. When the house was heated, smoke filled the room and soot settled on the walls. In cold weather, the cow and other livestock (if there were any) were transferred from the barn to a heated house, where the animals spent the winter with the peasant family.
From political fragmentation to nation states. The most important stage in the development of European medieval civilization in the X - XIII centuries. became the formation of modern states. National states in Europe began to take shape at the end of the 11th - 13th centuries, and in a number of cases were finally formed in modern times. Simultaneously with national states, community-representative institutions also emerge. Thus, in England in 1215 the first constitution was adopted - the Magna Carta, and in 1265 a parliament appeared. In France, under Philip the Fair (1285 - 1314), the Estates General, endowed with legislative functions, were first convened, in Germany under Maximilian I in the 15th century. The Imperial Diet - Reichstag was created.
In the 11th century France was divided into a number of large feudal estates - Normandy, Burgundy, Brittany, Aquitaine, etc. Although the dukes and counts were vassals of the king, in fact they were not subordinate to him. The king's personal possessions (domain), located around the cities of Paris and Orleans, were inferior in size to many duchies and counties in terms of territory and population. Part of the country's territory belonged to the English kings. Since the 12th century. kings increased their domain in different ways: through conquest, profitable marriage, obtaining those possessions whose lords died without heirs; It happened that kings took away the lands of a vassal if he violated the oath. The king's main allies in the fight against the large feudal lords were the townspeople, who hoped that strong royal power would put an end to the tyranny of the feudal lords, abolish countless duties that impede trade, and establish a single coin and measures of weight and length. The royal power was also supported by small impoverished knights, who hoped to improve their position by receiving a position at court or a plot of land.
King Philip II Augustus (1180-1223) managed to conquer almost all of their possessions in France from the English kings and include them in his domain: Normandy, Anjou, most of Aquitaine. Further strengthening of royal power occurred under the grandson of Philip II Augustus - Louis IX the Saint (1226 - 1270). He ensured that only the royal court, and not the courts of lords, decided the fate of people who had committed serious crimes (murder, robbery, robbery). Under him, internecine feudal wars were prohibited in the royal domain. The grandson of Louis IX, Philip IV the Fair (1285-1314), felt so powerful that he imposed taxes on church lands. Having learned about the pope's sharp discontent, Philip IV decided to turn to his subjects for support. In 1302 he convened the Estates General. This assembly consisted of three chambers, one included deputies from the clergy, the other from the nobility (that is, non-church feudal lords), and the third from the third estate (that is, from the rest of the country's population). The Estates General supported the king in his dispute with the pope. Subsequently, the kings of France coordinated their actions to introduce new taxes with the Estates General. When approving the tax, disputes arose between representatives of the estates. Since each of the chambers had one vote, and the clergy and nobility were often at the same time, representatives of the third estate (wealthy townspeople) in most cases had to give in.
On the territory of modern England During the Great Migration, the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons created seven kingdoms at war with each other. In the 9th century. they united. However, the Kingdom of England was weak, since the feudal lords were at enmity with each other and with the king. In 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated the Anglo-Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. He entered London and was proclaimed king of England. The Norman conquest of England resulted in the strengthening of royal power. William the Conqueror took part of the lands from the Anglo-Saxon nobility and distributed them to the knights who came with him. All the feudal lords of England (including the Anglo-Saxon ones) were forced to take an oath of allegiance to William. All of them became vassals of the king (the rule “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal” did not apply in England). Wilhelm ordered a census of all feudal estates and the population living in them. During the census, everyone had to answer as truthfully as at the Last Judgment, so the book with the results of the census was called the “Book of the Last Judgment.” The situation of many peasants worsened - previously free, they were recorded as land-dependent and personally dependent.
William's great-grandson, Henry II Plantagenet (1154 - 1189), besides England, owned two-thirds of France. The lands in France came to him partly by inheritance, partly as a dowry upon his marriage to Alienor, Duchess of Aquitaine. The king established a royal court, to which every knight, townsman, even free peasant could appeal (the courts of large feudal lords were losing their importance); allowed his vassals to buy off military service with money; With this “shield money” the king hired knights to fight for pay.
After the death of Henry II, England was in turmoil. The new king, John the Landless, lost almost all of his possessions in France. The barons (as large feudal lords were called in England) rebelled against John, supported by knights and townspeople. In 1215, the king and his opponents came to an agreement: the Magna Carta was adopted (in Latin, “charter” means charter). According to the Magna Carta, fundamental laws could be issued by the king only with the approval of the High Council consisting of the nobility; the king had no right to demand any payments from his subjects without the consent of the High Council. Moreover, no free person could be
arrested and imprisoned, or deprived of property, or expelled “except by the lawful verdict of his equals and by the law of the country,” the already existing liberties of the cities were confirmed. In 1265, a parliament was established. Parliament was an assembly that included large feudal lords (bishops, abbots, barons), as well as two knights from each region and two citizens from each city. Gradually, parliament acquired greater rights: no tax could be levied by the king without the consent of parliament, laws proposed by the king also had to receive the approval of parliament.
In the XII - early XIV centuries. in many European countries a form of government has developed, which historians call estate-representative monarchy. Most European states were headed by monarchs (kings). Needing the support of the population, the kings began to coordinate their actions (primarily on the introduction of taxes, as well as the adoption of new laws) with elected representatives of different classes. In Castile, these representatives sat in the Cortes (since 1137), in England - in Parliament (since 1265), in France - in the Estates General (since 1302). The Cortes, Parliament, and the Estates General were bodies of class representation.
The strengthening of royal power in European countries led to the fact that the most powerful sovereigns ceased to take into account the will of the popes. The French king Philip IV the Fair forced the head of the Catholic Church to move from Rome (which was the seat of the popes for more than a thousand years) to the south of France to the city of Avignon. For almost 70 years the popes were unable to return to Rome. During these years (1309-1377), called the “captivity of Avignon,” the popes were chosen at the behest of the French kings and were their obedient servants. During the Hundred Years' War, taking advantage of the weakening of France, Pope Gregory XI moved from Avignon to Rome (1377). However, after his death, two popes were elected at once: one in Rome, the other in Avignon. Both popes cursed each other and excommunicated their opponents. The church schism lasted for about 40 years. The Avignon captivity of the popes and the polypapacy undermined the respect of believers for the Catholic Church.
The Englishman John Wycliffe (1320-1384), a professor at Oxford University, one of the oldest in Europe, advocated the reconstruction of the church. Wycliffe believed that monasteries and bishops should abandon their accumulated wealth (primarily lands) and live on the voluntary donations of believers. Priests do not, as the church claims, have special miraculous power given to them by God; every believer can communicate with God without intermediaries, and in special cases perform rituals (baptism, etc.). Selling indulgences - absolution for money - is immoral and unacceptable; all people, despite the prohibition of the Catholic Church, have the right to read the Holy Scriptures; Only Scripture (and not the interpretation of it by priests) is the source of true faith. To enable his compatriots to read the Bible in their native language, Wycliffe translated it into English. Wycliffe's teachings had a huge influence on the large number of poor priests who took part in Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt.
A Czech professor at the University of Prague, Jan Hus (1371-1415), became a follower of Wycliffe. Like Wycliffe, Hus condemned the wealth of the church and the sale of indulgences. He taught that believers in their actions should proceed only from what is said in the Bible, not guided by the decrees of popes and church councils. Jan Hus condemned the sale of church positions. He advocated the equality of clergy and other Christians in the performance of the most important rite - communion. In 1415, Jan Hus was summoned to a church council in the city of Konstanz (Southern Germany). The Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund gave Hus a safe conduct, promising him complete safety. The Council did not even want to listen to Huss, demanding that he renounce his teaching. When Hus refused to do this, the council declared him a heretic and sentenced him to death. Huss was burned at the stake (1415). At the same council, the teachings of the long-dead John Wycliffe were condemned, and he himself was declared a heretic; his remains were later removed from the grave and burned.
The execution of Hus caused nationwide outrage in the Czech Republic, contributing to the spread of his teachings. In 1419 in Prague
An uprising broke out, directed not only against the church, but also against the city authorities. Throughout the country, the Hussites (followers of Jan Hus) began to destroy monasteries, kill church ministers and rich people (many of them were Germans). Cultural values - books, statues, icons - perished, and along with them innocent people. The Pope and Emperor Sigismund organized five campaigns against the Hussites (1420-1431), but all of them ended in failure.
A crisisXIVcenturies in Europe. IN In the XIV - XV centuries, Europe entered the final period of the Middle Ages, accompanied by a crisis and transformation of the foundations of medieval European civilization. By the end of the 13th century, the internal and external expansion of European peoples and the development of new lands had ceased. With the fall of Acre, the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the East, in 1291, the history of Christian states in Palestine ended. On the other hand, the invasions of nomads also stopped. Mongol invasions 1241 - 1243 left terrible traces in Poland and Hungary, but they were the last.
Along with these major events of a general nature, in the XIV - XV centuries. A number of phenomena were spreading, indicating that a crisis had begun. First of all, the practice of devaluing coins and damaging them is spreading almost everywhere in Europe. The thoughtless minting of gold coins undermined many industries. Due to the growth of cities and the development of trade, the lords needed more and more money. Therefore, they began to demand rent from the peasants not in food, but in money. To get this money*, peasants often had to sell their crops at low prices, which led to the ruin of many of them. If previously the size of the food rent was determined by long-standing custom, now, breaking the custom, the lords constantly increased cash payments.
In the middle of the 14th century. A plague epidemic broke out in Europe, called "Black Death". The disease claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and the population of many countries decreased by more than a third. In Europe there were too few workers and too much uncultivated land... Despite the impoverishment of the peasants, the lords of the demand; and from them
new payments. The agrarian crisis was accompanied by a whole series of protests in the cities, riots, and uprisings against the feudal and urban nobility. The situation was aggravated by poor harvests in 1315 -1317 gg. inclement weather led to the destruction of part of the crops, rising prices, and famine. Struck by the crisis, feudalism resorted to war as a means of alleviating the situation of the ruling classes. The most significant example of this is Hundred Years' War 1337 - 1453 between France and England over the County of Flanders and English claims to the French throne.
During the Hundred Years' War, France sought to take away from the British their last possessions on the continent (the remnants of Aquitaine in the southwest and Normandy in the north), and the British wanted not only to preserve them, but also to return previously lost lands. The reason for the war was the claims of the English kings to the crown of France. The basis of the English army were infantrymen recruited from free peasants. The knightly cavalry received a salary from the royal treasury, and therefore unquestioningly carried out the orders of the king and military leaders. The basis of the French army was made up of mounted knightly detachments led by noble lords. In battle, knights did not obey commands well, acted independently, and tried to stand out with their personal valor. They despised the infantry, which consisted of foreign mercenaries. Thus, the English army had advantages - high military discipline, numerous combat-ready infantry, and the ability to coordinate the actions of infantry and cavalry in battle.
The beginning of the war was marked by French defeats. In 1346, the French were defeated in a battle near the village of Crecy (northern France), and in 1356, the French army was defeated at Poitiers. Despite their numerical superiority, the French were defeated and their king was captured. In 1360, a peace treaty was concluded, according to which a third of the lands of France came under the control of the British. IN 1369 hostilities resumed. Having won a number of victories on land and at sea, the French liberated a significant part of the lands captured by the British, but in 1415 At Agincourt, the French army suffered a crushing defeat and in 1420, under the terms of a humiliating peace for the French
According to the treaty, the king of England was declared the heir to the French throne/France and England were to become a single kingdom. However, contrary to the treaty, after the death of the king of France, his son fled to the south of the country and proclaimed himself King Charles VII (1422-1461). Hostilities resumed, the British besieged the city of Orleans (1428). His fall would open the way for them to the south of the country.
The year 1429 turned out to be a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. A young peasant woman named Joan of Arc appeared at the court of Charles VII. She claimed that she was destined by God to liberate Orleans and expel the English from France. Joan convinced Charles VII to provide her with a military detachment, at the head of which she arrived in Orleans. Nine days later The British were forced to lift the siege of this city. The rumor about the Maid of Orleans, sent by God to liberate France, spread throughout the country: townspeople and peasants began to flock to the army, arming themselves at their own expense. The Royal Army moved deep into the territory occupied by the British. Cities opened gates without battle. The fate of Joan of Arc herself turned out to be tragic: she was captured, after which the British held a trial and burned her alive at the stake in the city of Rouen (1431). Meanwhile, the French people's war of liberation continued: they won victory after victory. In 1453, the British were forced to finally leave French soil; they managed to retain only the port of Calais for another hundred years.
The wars did not solve the problems of feudal society, but created new ones. The king's alliance with the cities made it possible to form a permanent mercenary army, and the need for serving knighthood disappeared. And with the advent of firearms and artillery, knighthood finally lost its monopoly on military affairs. The events of the Hundred Years' War demonstrated the advantages of mercenary troops, which undermined the authority of the entire class system. The Hundred Years' War brought disaster to the peoples of France and England. French peasants had to live for decades on lands where military operations took place. In England, where these actions were not carried out, the government introduced new taxes to support the army. In addition, thousands of peasants who formed the core of the army were forced to leave
to build their farms while going overseas. The consequence was massive popular outrage.
In 1381, a peasant uprising broke out in southeastern England. The reason for it was a new tax introduced to continue the war with France. The rebels killed the tax collectors (who did not forget about their own interests when extracting money). Having obtained weapons, the rebels moved towards London. Their leader was a participant in the Hundred Years' War, a village roofer. Wat Tyler. Poor priests (John Ball and others) had a great influence on the peasants. They opposed church land ownership, expensive worship, and demanded equality of all before the law. The fighting slogan of the rebels became the saying: “When Adam plowed and Eve spun, who was the nobleman then?” The poor people of London opened the city's gates to the rebels. The peasants destroyed the houses of the royal confidants and killed the most hated ones. Innocent people died - everyone who wore a pen and inkwell on their belts was mistaken for judges, whom the rebels considered corrupt and mercilessly killed.
King Richard II was forced to meet with the rebels, who presented him with the following demands: abolish personal dependence and corvee (“no one should serve anyone except of his own free will”); For the use of land, only a small monetary payment should be given to its owner. The king promised to fulfill the demands and forgive all participants in the rebellion. Most of the rebels left London. But some of them, led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, remained. During negotiations with King Wat Tyler, he was treacherously killed. Having lost their leader, the peasants were at a loss. Detachments of knights and wealthy townspeople managed to oust them from London. After this, the royal troops carried out brutal reprisals against the rebels throughout the country.
In France, after the Battle of Poitiers, detachments of soldiers - both friendly and foreign - scattered throughout the country. They robbed peasants, killed those who resisted, and burned their houses. Defeats in the war and the disasters associated with them changed the attitude of the French peasants towards the knights. The belief that the knights, in accordance with God's will, defended their native country and farmers was undermined. The peasants said “that the nobles” who were supposed to protect them had decided to completely take away all their property” and therefore “it would be a great blessing to destroy all the nobles.”
In 1358, an uprising broke out, covering a large part of Northern France. Up to one hundred thousand people took part in it. The peasant Guillaume Cal, familiar with military affairs, was elected leader of the rebels. The rebels destroyed and burned dozens of knightly castles. They killed everyone - the knights themselves, their wives and young children. At the same time, the rebels, destroying the knights, declared their loyalty to the king and placed the royal coat of arms on the banners. The urban poor joined the peasants, and many cities opened their gates to the rebels. The uprising was named Jacquerie. It comes from the popular name Jacques (Jacob), which the nobles used as a contemptuous nickname for a peasant - “Jacques the simpleton.” The French nobles united. In their army there were also detachments of Englishmen who were ready to help in the fight against the “Jacques”. Before the battle, the nobles summoned Guillaume Cal for negotiations, promising him safety. Believing the knight's word, he came to the enemy camp, but was captured and executed. The rebels left without a leader were defeated. After the defeat of the rebels, the nobles killed tens of thousands of peasants.
The uprisings frightened the lords of England and France. The situation of the peasants is gradually improving. The vast majority are freed from personal dependence (though not for free, but for a fee). Landowners no longer required corvee labor from them, replacing all duties with fixed cash payments for the use of land. Seniors usually did not dare to increase these payments. During the 14th century, almost all peasants in France, England, and West Germany received personal freedom. Moreover, in many countries the liberation of peasants was preceded by powerful uprisings. The failures of the French at the first stage of the Hundred Years' War contributed to the rise of national consciousness, and the victory was a powerful stimulus for the development of the process of centralization of the French state under Charles VII and Louis XI.
The crisis in England caused by defeat in the war with France led to discord among the aristocracy (War of the Scarlet and White Roses 1455 - 1485). After the end of the Hundred Years' War, having been defeated and deprived of sources of enrichment, the English feudal lords returned to their homeland. Each baron maintained in his possessions a large detachment of warriors, always ready for robbery and robbery, and King Henry VI Lancaster (1422-1461) was not respected. Two powerful families, the Lancasters and the Yorks, fought for power; the enmity between their supporters grew into a long-term bloody feud, which was called the War of the Scarlet and White Roses. There were robberies and bloody massacres in the country, in which representatives of both groups took part. The war was extremely brutal and led to the physical extermination of most of the English nobility. As a result, a distant relative of the Lancasters, Henry Tudor, became king. Under him, royal power was strengthened: he forbade the feudal lords to maintain military detachments, ordered the destruction of the castles of the rebellious; He transferred the lands and titles of dukes and counts who died during the war to his supporters - the new feudal lords were completely dependent on the king. The knights and townspeople, tired of civil strife, also supported the new king.
In France, taking advantage of victories over the British, King Charles VII obtained from the States General the establishment of an annual tax for the maintenance of the army. A permanent army is created - cavalry and infantry, paid from the state treasury. As a result, the king's power increased. The unification of France was largely completed under Charles VII's son Louis XI (1461-1483). Having a permanent army and a regularly replenished treasury, the king no longer needed the support of the States General (he convened them only once). Louis XI brought under his jurisdiction the possessions seized by noble feudal lords during the Hundred Years' War. By the end of the 15th century. all of France was subordinated to a single central power - the power of the king.
Centralization processes also took place in other European countries. Royalty in Spain and Portugal
strengthened in the fight against the Arabs. Meanwhile, medieval Europe also provided examples of polycentrism: the Italian states, whose autonomy was a factor in their economic prosperity, and the German principalities, which were formally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but in fact were completely independent.
The consequence of centralization was the gradual formation in Europe absolute monarchies. Absolute, i.e. unlimited monarchy arose in European countries at approximately the same time (late 15th century): in France under Louis XI, in England under Henry VII Tudor, in Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. Under an absolute monarchy, all power belonged to the king. His word was law for the whole country. Its entire population, including previously independent dukes and counts, residents of commune cities, were considered subjects of the king. He managed the state treasury and army, appointed judges, military leaders, and tax collectors. Noble feudal lords entered the service of the king and became his courtiers. The bodies of class representation - parliament, the States General, the Cortes - became either obedient executors of the will of the king, or were not convened at all. The absolute monarchy developed gradually; its signs fully appeared in European countries only in modern times (xvii-xviii centuries).
Culture and art in the Middle Ages. The death of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages were accompanied by the decline of the culture created in antiquity. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were few educated or even simply literate people in European countries. Schools existed only in monasteries and large cathedrals. Gradually, as cities emerged, city schools also emerged. In addition, castle owners often invited teachers for their children, who were usually clergy. Education was conducted not in the native language, but in Latin. All schools taught the seven liberal arts. First, they taught three arts, or three sciences about words - grammar (the ability to read and write), rhetoric (the ability to coherently express one's thoughts), dialectics (the ability to reason and argue).
Then the student moved on to the study of the four arts, or sciences. These were the sciences of numbers - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and also music. Urban schools also taught the basics of natural science. There were no textbooks; education was based on memorizing the words of the teacher, passages from the Bible and other books revered by the church. At the same time, the student did not have to interpret and explain the memorized texts - this right belonged exclusively to the teacher. A school graduate could become a priest, or use his knowledge in the service of a noble lord, or continue his education at one of the universities.
At the end of the XI - XII centuries. The first higher schools arose in Europe. The name of such a school is university - taken from Latin, where the word “universitas” means “totality, community.” High school is a community of teachers and students. The universities studied theology (exposition and interpretation of Christian doctrine), law (the science of laws and their application), and medicine. Classes at all universities were conducted in Latin. Therefore, young men from different countries could enter them. Having learned Latin at school, they freely understood the speech of teachers. Students often moved from city to city, from country to country, and studied at one or another higher school, attracted by the fame of the scientists teaching there. Common forms of classes at universities were lectures (in Latin “leccio” - reading) - the teacher, called a professor or master, read excerpts from books and explained their content, and students wrote down the thoughts expressed to them by ear: this form of classes was explained by the fact that handwritten books were expensive and not all students had them; disputes (in Latin “disputa-re” - to reason, to argue) - verbal disputes on a pre-announced topic; the participants in the debate (they could be either teachers or students) defended their point of view, citing the Bible and the writings of church writers; the topics of the debates were often far from life (for example, “Was man created in heaven?”, “Can the devil give people the appearance of animals?”), but participation in them developed the ability of those disputing to prove their thoughts and use accumulated knowledge. In the 15th century there were more than 60 universities in Europe. The University of Bologna (Italy) was famous for teaching law, the University of Salerno (Italy) for medicine, and the University of Paris for theology. Universities in Oxford (England), Prague (Czech Republic), and Krakow (Poland) also gained fame.
Most of the inhabitants of medieval Europe were illiterate, so an important place in literary creativity were occupied by songs, fairy tales, and poetic stories about the exploits of heroes of legends passed down from mouth to mouth. Such works were usually performed by jugglers (traveling actors) who performed in castles, at knightly tournaments, at peasant weddings, and in city squares during festivities. The most beloved and famous works of oral folk art began to be written down over time. Among them is the French poem “The Song of Roland,” dedicated to the description of the heroic death of one of Charlemagne’s military leaders in the fight against the Spanish Arabs. The German poem “The Song of the Nibelungs” contains legends dating back to the time of the Great Migration and the creation of German kingdoms on the territory of the Western Roman Empire. In the XII-XIII centuries. Along with nameless jugglers, there were poets whose names were known at the courts of kings and noble lords of Europe: for example, the poet-knights Bertrand de Born, Walter von der Vogelweide, and Alienora, eken of the English king Henry II, was also a poetess. They glorified the military exploits of knights in poetry, mourned the death of loved ones, and sang love. In France these poets were called troubadours, in Germany - minnesingers.
In the process of the emergence of cities, their inhabitants created their own literature: small poems, farces (plays), where rude knights, greedy monks, even kings and crown princes were ridiculed. The resourceful townspeople prevail over all of them. Works of urban literature include the poetic “Novel about the Fox,” in which a knight is brought out under the guise of a bloodthirsty Wolf, and under the guise of a Fox, a resourceful and intelligent townsman is brought out.
One of the most famous poets of the Middle Ages was the Italian Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). He created a poem he called “Comedy” (later “The Divine Ko-
media"). It describes Dante's imaginary journey to the afterlife - hell, purgatory (where the souls of those who await the Lord's decision about their fate are located) and heaven. Dante knew and loved ancient Roman literature; in the poem, the famous Roman poet of the 1st century is presented as his guide through hell and purgatory. BC e. Virgil. In hell, Dante places cruel rulers, misers, money-grubbers, and his personal enemies. The most terrible punishment in Dante’s description of hell is reserved for traitors (the killer of Caesar Brutus, who betrayed Christ to Judas and others) - they are gnawed by the Devil.
Until the 11th century. in medieval Western Europe there was almost no stone quarrying construction. In the XI-XII centuries. Stone castles, monasteries, and temples are being built everywhere. All these buildings have thick, smooth walls with small windows, massive columns supporting the ceiling, powerful towers, and semicircular arches. Not only castles, but temples and monasteries resembled fortresses and served as a refuge for the surrounding population during hostilities. In modern times, such buildings were called Romanesque (from the Latin word "Roma" - Rome). Indeed, medieval builders studied the ruins of ancient Roman structures and borrowed some construction techniques from the Romans (for example, the semicircular arch). Dozens of Romanesque buildings have survived to this day, for example: the Tower Castle in London, the cathedral in Speyer - the burial place of the German emperors, the Saint-Lazare Cathedral in Autun (France), decorated with the famous relief depicting the Last Judgment, etc.
With the emergence and growth of cities, a new style in architecture began to emerge - Gothic. The name arose during the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries), it came from the name of the German tribe - the Goths - and was derogatory in nature, Gothic - that is, barbaric, unlike the ancient buildings that seemed exemplary to the people of the Renaissance. We continue to use this name, although it is unfortunate, since the buildings were created not by the Goths, but by the French, Germans, English and other peoples of Europe. Gothic buildings are rightly considered wonderful works of medieval art. Gothic cathedrals,
for example, they were distinguished by thinner walls than in Romanesque buildings, topped with pointed turrets, large windows, and pointed arches. The Gothic cathedral was the tallest building in the city and its main decoration. It was built on a high place and can be seen from afar. The entire population of the city usually participated in the construction of the cathedral. The large windows of Gothic cathedrals were filled with stained glass windows - paintings on biblical themes, assembled from pieces of colored translucent glass. Among the most famous Gothic buildings are Notre Dame Cathedral, the cathedrals in Reims and Chartres (France); in Magdeburg and Naumburg (Germany); in Salisbury (England); town halls - in Stralsund (Germany), in Bruges (Belgium) and many others. Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals were decorated with sculptures depicting Jesus, Our Lady and saints. In some cathedrals, statues of kings and noble lords who made donations for the construction of the cathedral were placed.
Medieval theologians not only interpreted the Bible, but also expressed their own thoughts. The outstanding thinker Pierre Abelard (1079-1142) had his own school in Paris. Like other theologians, he believed that Holy Scripture lies at the basis of all wisdom. At the same time, Abelard believed that a person can obtain new knowledge with the help of reason. He taught that the thoughts and statements expressed by popes and famous theologians should be tested by logical reasoning. In his work “Yes and No,” Abelard collected contradictory statements from the most revered theologians of the Catholic Church (“Church Fathers”). With his book, Abelard argued that when assessing other people's thoughts and opinions, often contradictory, one should rely on one's own reason and ability to reason. To believe, he argued, you must understand what you believe. Abelard thus placed reason above blind faith. Many theologians and clergy spoke out against Abelard. His writings were condemned, and Abelard himself was forced to enter a monastery. Abelard's main opponent was another famous theologian, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). He did not believe that the weak human mind could comprehend the secret
we of the universe. People, in his opinion, can only pray and wait for God to give them insight and reveal a piece of these secrets. Bernard believed that “unreasoning” faith in God is above reason.
The largest and most revered thinker by the church was the son of the Italian count Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). His main work, “Summa Theology,” contains an exposition and generalization of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Church. Thomas argued that faith cannot contradict reason: if the conclusions that a person comes to through his own reasoning contradict the teachings of the church, then these reasonings are incorrect. According to Thomas, some provisions of the Christian religion can be understood by reason (for example, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul), while others are inaccessible to reason, you can only believe in them (for example, in the Trinity - that is, that God is one and at the same time exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). Thomas Aquinas studied the works of the ancient Greek scientist Aristotle. Following him, Thomas considered the monarchy to be the best form of government; like Aristotle, he believed that the people had the right to deprive a cruel and unjust monarch of power. According to Thomas, all earthly sovereigns must obey the Pope. Church leaders called Thomas Aquinas “the universal master.”
The disputes of learned theologians with each other were incomprehensible to ordinary believers. They were more influenced not by theologians, but by wandering monks who gave sermons in the squares of cities and villages. The most famous of them was a native of the Italian city of Assisi - Francis (1182-1226). He was the son of a wealthy merchant, but he left the family, renounced his wealth and began to live off alms. Francis preached in Italy, France, and Spain. He called for humility, renunciation of property, love for all God's creatures - people, animals, birds, plants. Francis's disciples and followers traveled throughout Europe, urging them to follow the commandments of Christ. Pope Innocent IH had a meeting with Francis of Assisi and gave him his blessing; he allowed the creation of an order (organization) of wandering monks - the Franciscans.
The beginning of the Renaissance* In the 14th century. In the cities of Italy, a new idea of man and the meaning of his existence began to take shape. If theologians taught that a person’s goal should be to achieve afterlife bliss, then many Italian thinkers of the XTV - XV centuries. advocated for the value of earthly life. They believed that a person, through his own efforts, can achieve everything he wants - happiness, success, wealth, fame. This attitude towards man and his capabilities was facilitated by the lifestyle of Italian townspeople of that time. Many of them went on long journeys for knowledge or profit, opened manufactories (large industrial enterprises based on the manual labor of hired workers) and banks, and conducted extensive trade. Thanks to their knowledge, ingenuity, initiative, ability to take risks, and faith in their own strengths, they often enriched themselves. Kings and noble lords were forced to reckon with them, to whom they lent a lot of money. Educated people in Italy began to talk and write about the unlimited possibilities of the human personality, about the fact that man himself is the master of his own destiny. They sought justification for their views in the history of Ancient Greece and Rome, in the works of ancient writers, the memory of which never disappeared. Ancient society seemed exemplary to them, and the Greeks and Romans, in their opinion, possessed physical and moral perfection. Italian thinkers believed that through their activities they were reviving ancient culture, sub-. the original Latin language, which was once spoken by Cicero, Caesar, and Virgil. Therefore, they began to call their time Revival. Since the center of interest of scientists and writers of the Renaissance was man and his affairs, they were called humanists (from the Latin word “humanus” - human).
The greatest humanists were the poet Petrarch (1304-1374), especially famous for his poems to his beloved Laura, the writer Boccaccio, the author of the collection of stories “The Decameron”, the scientist Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), who proclaimed in one of his works “ A great miracle is man! In the 15th century the ideas of Italian humanists spread throughout Europe. In Germany, France, and England, thinkers appeared who were familiar with their works and shared their views. The invention of printing played an important role in the widespread dissemination of these views. Around 1445, the German artisan Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books: he cast raised letters from metal, from which words and lines were composed. The letters were covered with paint and printed on paper (which appeared in Europe in the 13th century). From now on it became possible to print cheap books, accessible not only to those who had the means to purchase expensive manuscripts, but also to the majority of literate people.