The history of the Middle Ages in Europe covers the period from the 5th to the mid-17th centuries. Within the period, the following stages can be distinguished: a) early Middle Ages: V - XI centuries; b) developed Middle Ages: XI - XV centuries; c) late Middle Ages: XVI - mid-XVII centuries. The term “Middle Ages” (lat. medium aevum - hence the name of the science that studies the Middle Ages, medieval studies) arose in Italy during the Renaissance among humanists who believed that this time was a period of cultural decline, as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in the modern time.
The Middle Ages were a time of feudalism, when humanity made significant progress in the development of material and spiritual culture, and the area of civilization expanded.
Feudal society is characterized by: 1) the dominance of large land ownership; 2) a combination of large land ownership with small individual farming of direct producers - peasants who were only land holders, and not owners; 3) non-economic coercion in various forms: from serfdom to class inferiority.
Feudal property (Latin - feodum) is hereditary land property associated with compulsory military service. In medieval society, a hierarchy emerged with a large role for personal vassal-feudal connections.
The state went through different stages: the early feudal period was characterized by large but loose empires; for the developed Middle Ages - small entities, class monarchies; for the late Middle Ages - absolute monarchies.
Feudal law protected the monopoly of land ownership of feudal lords, their rights to the personality of peasants, to judicial and political power above them.
Religious ideology and the church played a huge role in society.
Thus, the features of feudal production gave rise to specific features of the social structure, political, legal and ideological systems.
Main features medieval culture are: 1) the dominance of religion, a God-centric worldview; 2) rejection of the ancient cultural tradition; 3) denial of hedonism; 4) asceticism; 5) increased attention to the inner world of a person, his spirituality; c) conservatism, commitment to antiquity, a tendency to stereotypes in material and spiritual life; 7) elements of dual faith (Christianity and paganism) in the popular consciousness; 8) fetishization of works of art; 9) internal inconsistency of culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the opposition to scientific and folk culture, relations between secular and spiritual, church authorities, duality value orientations(spirituality and physicality, good and evil, fear of sin and sin); 10) hierarchical culture, in which one can distinguish the culture of the clergy, knightly culture, urban culture, folk, mainly rural culture; 11) corporatism: the dissolution of a person’s personal beginning in a social group, for example, an estate.
Medieval European culture developed on the ruins of the Roman Empire. In the early Middle Ages, the decline of culture, which had already taken place in late Rome, deepened. The barbarians destroyed cities that were the concentration of cultural life, roads, irrigation structures, monuments of ancient art, libraries, agrarianization of society took place with the dominance of a natural economy, commodity-money relations were undeveloped.
The Church established a monopoly on education and intellectual activity for many centuries. All areas of knowledge were subordinated to church-feudal ideology. Possessing a strong organization and established doctrine during the time of political decentralization, the church also had powerful means of propaganda.
The essence of the church worldview was the recognition of earthly life as temporary, “sinful”; material life, human nature were opposed to “eternal” existence. As an ideal of behavior that ensures afterlife bliss, the church preached humility, asceticism, strict observance of church rituals, submission to masters, and faith in miracles. Reason, science, and philosophy were despised, which were opposed to faith, although individual elements of philosophical and secular knowledge were borrowed from the ancient heritage. The education system: the so-called “seven liberal arts of antiquity” was divided into the lower - “trivium” (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the highest - “quadrivium” (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music parts). The works of ancient authors were used: Aristotle, Cicero, Pythagoras, Euclid, but to a limited extent. The authority of the Holy Scriptures was placed above all sciences. In general, the knowledge system of the Middle Ages was characterized by the following features: 1) universalism; 2) encyclopedism; 3) allegorism; 4) exegesis (Greek interpretation) - the ability to interpret and give a religious explanation of the Bible.
The universe (space) was viewed as a creation of God, doomed to destruction. A geocentric system prevailed with different spheres, hell and the seat of God. Each material object was considered as a symbol of the hidden and ideal world, and the task of science is to reveal these symbols. Hence the refusal to study the true connections of things with the help of experience. Symbolism left its mark on the entire medieval culture. Words were believed to explain the nature of things. The direct realistic perception of the world in art and literature was often clothed in the form of symbols and allegories.
Feudal-church culture was opposed by folk culture. It was rooted in pre-feudal antiquity and associated with barbarian cultural heritage, pagan myths, beliefs, legends, holidays. These traditions, preserved among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages, were permeated with pagan religious ideas, alien to the dark asceticism of Christianity, its distrust of living nature: it was seen not only as a formidable force, but also as a source of life’s blessings and earthly joys. The people's worldview was characterized by naive realism. Forms folk art varied: fairy tales, legends, songs. Folk tales formed the basis of the epic (the Irish epic about the hero Cuchulainn, the Icelandic epic - the "Elder Edda", the Anglo-Saxon epic - the poem "Beowulf"). The exponents and bearers of the musical and poetic creativity of the people were mimes and histrions, and from the 11th century. jugglers - in France, houglars - in Spain, spilmans - in Germany, wandering throughout Europe.
The art of the early Middle Ages lost many of the achievements of antiquity: sculpture and the image of man in general disappeared almost completely; stone processing skills were forgotten; in architecture, wooden architecture. The art of this period is characterized by: barbarization of taste and attitude; cult physical strength; display of wealth; at the same time, he was characterized by a living, direct sense of material, especially manifested in jewelry and bookmaking, where complex ornamentation and “animal” style dominated. Under primitivism, barbarian art was dynamic, its main means of representation was color. Bright objects created a sense of materiality, corresponding to a barbaric sensual vision and perception of the world, far from Christian church asceticism.
In the early Middle Ages VII - IX centuries. there was a certain rise in feudal-ecclesiastical culture at the court of Charlemagne (768 - 814) - the so-called “Carolingian Renaissance”, caused by the need for literate people to manage the empire. Schools were opened at monasteries and for the laity, educated people from other countries were invited, ancient manuscripts were collected, stone construction began, but this rise in culture was fragile and short-lived.
The advanced Middle Ages were marked by significant urban growth and the emergence of universities.
The emergence of cities as centers of craft and trade meant a new stage in the development of medieval culture. The prerequisites for the growth of cities were the intensive development of commodity production and money circulation on the basis of private property. There was a need for literate people; production gave rise to interest in experimental knowledge and its accumulation; The townspeople are characterized by an active perception of life, sober calculation, and efficiency, which contributed to the development of a rationalistic type of thinking; mental demands and interests grew and, accordingly, the craving for secular education. The monopoly of the church on education was broken, although the church dominated ideology. City schools successfully competed with monastery schools.
Cities grew due to the influx of peasants who fled from their masters or were released on quitrent. In terms of population, medieval cities were small; in the XIV-XV centuries. those of them with a population of 20 thousand people were considered large. The population of the cities actively fought for their independence from the feudal lords: the cities were either bought off or gained independence through armed struggle. Many cities became communes, i.e. they had the right to conduct an independent foreign policy, have their own self-government, mint coins, all townspeople were free from serfdom. In essence, they were city-states reminiscent of an ancient polis. The urban population, or the “third estate,” became the spiritual leader and the predominant bearer of culture.
With the development of urban culture, secular education appears and universities emerge (from the Latin universitas - association, community). In 1088, on the basis of the Bologna Law School, the University of Bologna was opened, in 1167 the University of Oxford began to operate in England, in 1209 - the University of Cambridge, in France in 1160 the University of Paris was opened. In total, by the end of the fifteenth century. in Europe there were 65 universities (in addition to Italy, France, England, universities appeared in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland). Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin, which became the European language of culture. Mutual language and religion created a certain cultural unity in Europe, despite feudal fragmentation and political conflicts. The main faculties (from the Latin facultas - opportunity) were the junior faculties, where they studied the “seven liberal arts of antiquity,” and the senior faculties, where they studied theology, law, and medicine.
In its refined form, spiritual culture was expressed in philosophy. In the course of philosophical debates, the main directions of medieval scholasticism (from the Latin schola - school) emerged. Two main directions arose: “nominalism” (from the Latin nomina - name), which believed that objectively there are only isolated things that are accessible human sensations, A general concepts- “universals” do not really exist, nominalism was the embryo of materialism; "realism", which believed that only general concepts - "universals" - really exist; individual things were considered only as a generation and imperfect reflection of these concepts. The main question of scholasticism was the question of the relationship of knowledge to faith. The problem of the relationship between faith and reason is embodied in literature, fine art, and music. The religious worldview, as the core of spiritual culture, and the Christian God, as the basis of the moral world of medieval man, determined the subordinate role of philosophy in relation to religion.
Thomas Aquinas (1225/26 - 1274), the greatest scholastic philosopher, argued that philosophy and science are the handmaidens of theology, since faith surpasses reason in human existence. He argued this by the fact that, firstly, the human mind continually makes mistakes, while faith is based on the absolute truthfulness of God, and, secondly, faith is given to every person, and the possession of scientific and philosophical knowledge, which requires intense mental activity, is available not everyone.
An outstanding scholastic was Pierre Abelard (1079 - 1142) - a French philosopher, theologian and poet, a bright exponent of freethinking who opposed extreme forms of both nominalism and realism. His freethinking was based on the priority of reason over faith: “understanding in order to believe.” He was declared a heretic and banned from teaching and writing.
Along with scholasticism, in the Middle Ages there were other directions of philosophy and theology, in particular mysticism. Mystics rejected the need to study Aristotle and use logical proofs of faith. They believed that religious doctrines were learned not through reason and science, but through intuition, insight or “contemplation,” prayer and vigils. Denying the role of reason in knowledge of the world and God, the mystics were more reactionary than the scholastics. But democratic sentiments were strong among them: mystical sects were critical of the feudal system and preached the need to establish the “kingdom of God on earth” without private property, inequality, and exploitation. Among the mystics one can single out Bernard of Clairvaux, Johannes Tauler, and Thomas à Kempis.
In medieval Europe, although slowly, science and technology developed. Thus, Oxford professor Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294), based on the fact that experience is the basis of knowledge, created the “Great Work” - an encyclopedia of that time. In medieval science, alchemy developed, which expressed the connection between crafts, religion, mysticism, magic, and the occult. Alchemy preceded the emergence of experimental natural science.
The Arab-Islamic civilization, in particular, the works of Al-Biruni (980 - 1048), Ibn Sina (980 - 1037), had a significant influence on European philosophy and science.
In the Middle Ages, inventions were made that influenced the entire subsequent life of society: the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, glasses, and a compass. Of particular importance was printing, which was started in Europe by Johannes Guttenberg (1400 - 1468), which contributed to the development of national literatures, the unification of spelling and, accordingly, education, science, and culture.
In the XII - XIII centuries. Latin-language literature flourishes, in particular, the poetry of vagantes (from Latin vagary - to wander). Developing national literature, in particular, an epic is written down: French - “The Song of Roland”, Spanish - “The Song of Cid”, German - “The Song of the Nibelungs”. Knightly literature is being formed: secular lyrical poetry of the troubadours, glorifying “courtly love” (from the Old French - courtier), chivalric novels. There is an interest in the person’s personality and his feelings. Urban literature is developing in national languages: for example, “The Novel about the Fox” and “The Novel about the Rose” were created in French; the forerunner of the Renaissance in France was François Villon (1431 - 1461). Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400) is considered the father of English literature, who created a collection of poems in English in native language"The Canterbury Tales".
In medieval Europe, the place of art was controversial. Art was seen as the Bible for the illiterate. The main task of art is to strengthen religious feelings, to reveal the images of the Holy Scriptures; works, as a rule, are anonymous. What is required from the artist is not realism, but the disclosure of ideas of divine holiness. The transition from the space of the outer world to the inner space of the human spirit is the main goal of art. It is expressed famous phrase Augustine: “Do not wander outside, but go inside yourself.” Christian ideology rejected the ideals that inspired ancient artists: the joy of being, sensuality, physicality, truthfulness, the glorification of man, aware of himself as a beautiful element of the cosmos - it destroyed the ancient harmony of body and spirit, man and the earthly world.
Architecture became the most important form of art, embodied in two styles: Romanesque and Gothic. Romanesque architecture is distinguished by its massiveness and squatness, its task is the humility of man, his suppression against the backdrop of the monumental grandeur of the universe, of God. From the 12th century A Gothic style emerges, the features of which are upward direction, pointed arches, stained glass windows. V. Hugo called Gothic “a symphony in stone.” Unlike the harsh, monolithic, imposing Romanesque temples, Gothic cathedrals are decorated with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed towards the sky, their towers rose up to 150 m. The ancient temple was considered the place of life of God, religious ceremonies took place outside, and the medieval the temple was perceived as a place of communication for the religious community and special attention was paid to the interior decoration.
In painting, the main genre was iconography. Painting acted as a silent sermon, “speculation in colors.” Icons were seen as an emotional connection with God, accessible to the illiterate, and they are deeply symbolic. Images are often deliberately deformed, conventional, there is an effect of so-called reverse perspective for a greater impact on the viewer. In addition to icons, the fine art of the Middle Ages is also represented by paintings, mosaics, miniatures, and stained glass.
The basis of musical culture was liturgical singing, praising God in melodies, and then hymns, combining poetic text with a song melody. Canonized music - Gregorian chant - also included chants intended for all services of the church calendar. Another layer of music is associated with the ideology of chivalry (the courtly lyrics of troubadours) and the work of professional minstrel musicians.
In the developed Middle Ages, applied art achieved significant success: carpet making, bronze casting, enamel, book miniatures.
In general, medieval art is characterized by: sincere veneration of the Divine, typification, the absolute opposition of good and evil, deep symbolism, subordination of art to extra-aesthetic, religious ideals, hierarchy, traditionalism, underdevelopment of the personal principle - at the same time, medieval culture expresses the unfrozen forever the state of man and his world, but a living movement. Dynamics cultural development largely determines the interaction and competition between official and popular cultures. In general, medieval culture had integrity; there was an authoritarian value system; dogmatism reigned; she was characterized by a craving for All-Unity (“the city of God on earth”) through the existing fragmentation of existence; Christian universality of man opposed national class limitations; Along with renunciation of the world, there was a desire for a violent worldwide transformation of the world. Man began to turn to himself, and not just to God, but in full this greatest progressive revolution in the history of mankind occurred during the Renaissance, prepared by the Middle Ages.
Byzantium occupied a special place in medieval Europe. At the dawn of the Middle Ages, she remained the only custodian of Hellenistic cultural traditions. But Byzantium significantly transformed the legacy of late antiquity, creating art style, already entirely belonging to the spirit and letter of the Middle Ages.
Moreover, of all medieval European art, it was Byzantine that was most orthodox Christian. In Byzantine artistic culture, two principles are fused: magnificent showmanship and refined spiritualism. The East had a significant influence on the culture of Byzantium. In turn, Byzantium significantly influenced the culture of Southern and of Eastern Europe, especially Russia.
The term “Middle Ages” was introduced by humanists around 1500. This is how they designated the millennium that separated them from the “golden age” of antiquity.
Medieval culture is divided into periods:
1.V century AD - XI century n. e. - early Middle Ages.
2.End of the 8th century. AD - beginning of the 9th century AD - Carolingian revival.
Z.XI - XIII centuries. – culture of the mature Middle Ages.
4.XIV-XV centuries. - culture of the late Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages is a period whose beginning coincided with the extinction ancient culture, and the end - with its revival in modern times. The early Middle Ages include two outstanding cultures - the culture of the Carolingian Renaissance and Byzantium. They gave rise to two great cultures - Catholic (Western Christian) and Orthodox (Eastern Christian). Medieval culture spans more than a millennium and, in socio-economic terms, corresponds to the origin, development and decay of feudalism. In this historically long socio-cultural process of development of feudal society, a unique type of human relationship to the world was developed, qualitatively distinguishing it both from the culture of ancient society and from the subsequent culture of modern times.
The term "Carolingian Renaissance" describes the cultural upsurge in the empire of Charlemagne and the kingdoms of the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th–9th centuries. (mainly in France and Germany). He expressed himself in the organization of schools, the attraction of educated figures to the royal court, and the development of literature, fine arts, and architecture. The dominant direction of medieval philosophy was scholasticism(“school theology”).
Should identify the origins of medieval culture:
The culture of the “barbarian” peoples of Western Europe (the so-called German origin);
Cultural traditions of the Western Roman Empire (Romanesque beginning: powerful statehood, law, science and art);
Christianity.
The culture of Rome was assimilated during its conquest by the “barbarians” and interacted with the traditional pagan tribal culture of the peoples of Northwestern Europe. The interaction of these principles gave impetus to the formation of Western European culture.
The conditions for the formation of medieval culture were as follows:
Feudal form of ownership, based on the personal and land dependence of peasants on vassal landowners;
Estate-hierarchical structure of society (vassal service to the overlord);
The process of endless wars that carried a sense of tragedy human life;
The spiritual atmosphere of the era, where the traditions of the “lost” ancient culture, Christianity and the spiritual culture of barbarian tribes (heroic epic) were peculiarly intertwined.
Medieval culture was formed under the dominance of a subsistence economy in the closed world of a rural estate and the underdevelopment of commodity-money relations. Subsequently, the urban environment, burghers, craft production, and trade increasingly became the social basis of culture. The process of technical development was also underway: the use of water and windmills, lifts for the construction of temples, etc. Machines became increasingly widespread, preparing the emergence of a “new” Europe.
A characteristic feature of the Middle Ages is the idea of class division of society. The concept of “estate” is given a special meaning and value, because behind this term there is the thought of a divinely established order. In the medieval picture of the world, a central place was occupied by social groups, which were a reflection of the heavenly throne, where angelic beings formed a hierarchy of “nine ranks of angels” grouped into a triad. The earthly order corresponded to this - the three main classes of feudal society : clergy, knighthood, people.
In the Middle Ages, the transition began from a slave society to a feudal hierarchy of lords and vassals, from the ethics of statehood to the ethics of personal service. A significant difference in medieval society was the lack of personal freedom. IN early periods In the Middle Ages, each person was doomed to conform to his role prescribed by the social order. There was no social mobility, since there was no way for a person to move up the social ladder from one class to another, and, moreover, it was practically impossible to move from one city to another, from one country to another. A person had to stay where he was born. Often he could not even dress the way he liked. At the same time, since the social system was considered as a natural order, a person, being a certain part of this order, had confidence in his safety. There was relatively little competition. At birth, a person found himself in an established environment, which guaranteed him a certain standard of living that had already become traditional.
The uniqueness of medieval culture was most clearly manifested in folk festivals, including carnivals, from which the culture of laughter was born. This cultural and psychological phenomenon was associated with the fact that people had a natural need for psychological relief, for carefree fun after hard work, which resulted in parodic ridicule of the vices of Christian culture. The presence of folk culture represents ideological opposition to orthodox Christianity.
You can select the main features of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages:
The dominance of the Christian religion;
Traditionalism, retrospectiveness - the main tendency is “the more ancient, the more authentic”, “innovation is a manifestation of pride”;
Symbolism - the text of the Bible was the object of reflection and interpretation;
Didacticism - figures of medieval culture, primarily preachers and teachers of theology;
universality, encyclopedic knowledge - the main advantage of a thinker is erudition (creation of “sums”);
Reflexivity, self-absorption - confession plays a big role;
Hierarchy of the spiritual sphere (the relationship between faith and reason); As experimental knowledge accumulated, Augustine’s credo “I believe in order to understand” was supplanted by P. Abelard’s principle “I understand in order to believe,” which significantly prepared the ground for the development of the natural sciences.
In the XI-XIII centuries. There has been a certain economic and cultural upswing in Europe. It was at this time that those processes began to mature (primarily the growth of urban culture) that made it a leader in global development in the future. The culture of the mature Middle Ages is the flowering of the Western Christian, Catholic cultural tradition, the “medieval classics.”
The structure of the culture of the mature Middle Ages was a complex system made up of four subcultures:
- "temple and monastery culture"
- "the culture of the castle and palace",
- "village culture"
- "culture of a medieval city."
The culture of the mature, “high” Middle Ages was characterized by secularization of culture- strengthening the non-religious, secular nature of culture.
At the same time, there was a process of accumulation of practical knowledge: XI-XIII centuries. - the era of the highest flowering of the Middle Ages, the discovery of stable forms of social organization, new state formations, organically born with the awakening of national self-awareness. Young Europe found in this era a synthesis of trends, borrowings and traditions that, without merging with each other, influenced the worldview of medieval man. This is how it appeared Roman style- the first pan-European artistic style.
The essence of the synthesis found is in the combination of figurative expressiveness and patterned geometricity, simple-minded spontaneity and purely conventionality with sophisticated ornamentation and massive, sometimes crude monumentality. The term "Romanesque style" introduced by analogy with the term “Romance languages” and conditionally indicates continuity from Rome, covering the art of Western and Central Europe of the 11th-12th centuries. Architecture became a leading art during the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the truly grandiose construction of that time. The main creations of the Romanesque style that meet the needs of self-defense are the castle-fortress and the temple-fortress. Feudal castles were powerful structures with high stone walls, gate, high tower - donjon.
The temple usually had the shape of an oblong cross with narrow sparse windows. Romanesque style temple architecture was based on roman basilica. Christian architecture, continuing the ancient tradition, used the structure of precisely such structures, as they were quite suitable for a temple designed to accommodate as many worshipers as possible in front of the altar. Buildings often looked harsh, simple and ponderous. The Romanesque style was sometimes endowed with such epithets as “common people”, “peasant”, and the Arabs considered it primitive. But it was precisely with this style that medieval Europe first said its true word in art, thereby asserting its historical identity and at the same time the organic continuity of the artistic heritage of antiquity.
The church and monasteries increasingly turned into profitable enterprises for the sale of positions, indulgences, sacred relics, etc. All this gave rise to criticism of the church, demands for its spiritual purification, which was expressed in the emergence of numerous movements that the Catholic Church hastened to declare heretical and exterminate. In the fight against them, a type of monasticism was born - Dominican Order, he was granted extraordinary powers by the Pope to eradicate heresy. In the XII-XIII centuries, when social contradictions reached particular severity, the “bright” Christian ideal was replaced by the image of a militant Christian, a fierce persecutor of all dissent, which was expressed in the activities of the Inquisition, in the organization of crusades not only against infidels, but also Christians, in which a monk, with a cross and a sword, participated together with the crusader knight.
In the XI-XIII centuries. an image of the ideal appears knight with a kind of “code of honor”, reflected in heroic epics, chivalric novels, historical chronicles, and recorded in the eight-pointed knight’s cross and the coat of arms of spiritual knightly orders. The knight, as a rule, came from ancient family, but they were also knighted for military exploits. The knight required strength and courage. He had to constantly care about glory, which required tireless confirmation of his military qualities, and, consequently, new tests and exploits. The "knight errant" becomes a familiar element of medieval life. Crusades XI-XIII centuries. turned out to be in tune with knightly morality. The most important knightly virtue was loyalty - to God, the overlord, the word, which gave rise to vows and oaths until the “set goal was achieved.” The knight had to be distinguished by the unique beauty of an athlete, which, along with the beauty of his costume, armor, horse decoration, etc. corresponded to his social status. The immutable quality of a knight should have been generosity towards his equal. Stinginess led to loss of honor and position in society. It was not so much victory that brought glory to the knight, but noble behavior in battle. A mandatory attribute of the code of honor was service to the “Beautiful Lady.” “Fight and love” is the motto of the knight. With the aim of ennobling morals, elevating the soul, it develops code of courtly love. At the center of this model of “refined love” is a married woman - the Lady. In her honor, the knight had to perform feats, win tournaments, remain faithful during long separations, and clothe his feelings in aesthetic forms of courtship. Formed courtly culture- the aristocratic cult of the beautiful lady.
Courtly love, condemned by the church, grew out of the Christian postulate of love as suffering. She responded to the needs of her time - to rehabilitate earthly love, which the church considered base and sinful. However, under the superficial courtly gloss often lurked wild morals, a fundamentally rough knightly life, full of violence, cruelty and treachery.
The most important element of medieval culture was literature. Medieval literature is religious in nature, the predominant works are built on biblical myths, dedicated to God, and the lives of saints; they are written in Latin. Secular literature is the embodiment of ideal ideas about man. The main genres are epics, lyrics, novels. The so-called chivalric literature, glorifying the spirit of war, vassal structure, worship of a beautiful lady.
The idealized, elevated image of the knight remained largely unclaimed in real life, but at the same time had a great influence on the formation of knightly literature of the Middle Ages, which was usually built on secular motives, alien to official church morality, and is closely connected with the traditions of oral folk art. This is clearly visible in the knightly heroic epic - the Spanish "Song of Cid", the French "Song of Roland", the German "Song of the Nibelungs". These later versions folk legends , which arose in the early Middle Ages, widely introduce themes of impeccable courtly love, the struggle for faith, and the fulfillment of vassal duty, where reality is fancifully combined with a fairy-tale flavor. The same motives permeate knightly "novels" stories told in poetry and prose about the legendary King Arthur and his companions, about the brave and gallant knight Lancelot , about the unfortunate lovers Tristan and Isolde , about virtues, adventures and fights. Romance - the leading literary genre of the mature Middle Ages. The mental model of the Middle Ages, embedded in these works, simultaneously embraced the vision of the world characteristic of warriors, and at the same time assumed a simplified dualism, the opposition of two opposites. The entire spiritual life of people of that time was concentrated around the confrontation between good and evil, virtues and vices of soul and body. This storyline had extraordinary success in the Middle Ages: virtues turned into romantic works
With all the diversity and contradictory themes of knightly literature, its class limitations, deep humanity often emerges in it, which contributed to the creation of enduring artistic values. This is poetry of the troubadours(from French to invent, to compose), which reflected the economic and cultural rise of Southern France (Provence and Languedoc) in the 12th century. Among the troubadours there were representatives of different classes, but most often - knights . Troubadours are poets and singers of courtly culture. At the center of Provençal poetry - love passion, awakening bright feelings, harmony of life and joy, but war was not alien to it. At the same time, the militant knightly lyrics did not hide their contemptuous attitude towards the people.
The poetry of the troubadours resonated in the 13th century. in the north of France in creativity Trouvères(French: find, invent) and especially in Germany, in Minnesingers(German singer of love). In their poetry, the idea of combining the knightly-Christian ideal and secular worldview was further developed, and an attempt was even made to go beyond the boundaries of courtly knighthood. Since the 15th century courtly literature is in decline: the time of chivalry is over, and after another two centuries, chivalric novels will become the target of caustic ridicule by humanists.
Folk culture The Middle Ages was a carnival and laughter culture. Folk holidays resulted in carnival processions, “feasts of fools”, etc., where pagan traditions were traced and a grotesque attitude towards the surrounding world was manifested. During the Middle Ages, theatrical performances were an integral part of folk fair culture or an addition to church services. First appeared liturgical drama- short dramatizations on the theme of the birth and Resurrection of Christ, shown in the church during festive services - liturgies. In the XIII-XIV centuries. arose miracle- a genre of religious plays about miracles. The pinnacle of medieval theater is considered to be mystery- a medieval theatrical performance, a spiritual drama that took plots from the Holy Scriptures.
The history of the Middle Ages in Europe covers the period from the 5th to the middle of the 17th century, within the period the following stages can be distinguished: a) early Middle Ages: V - 11th centuries; b) developed Middle Ages: XI - XV centuries; c) late Middle Ages: XVI - mid-XVII centuries.
The term “Middle Ages” (from the Latin medium aevum - hence the name of the science that studies the Middle Ages, medieval studies) arose in Italy during the Renaissance among humanists who believed that this time was a period of cultural decline, as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in new time.
The Middle Ages were a time of feudalism, when humanity made significant progress in the development of material and spiritual culture, and the area of civilization expanded.
Feudal society is characterized by: 1) the dominance of large land ownership; 2) a combination of large land ownership with small individual farming of direct producers - peasants who were only land holders, and not owners; 3) non-economic coercion in various forms: from serfdom to class inferiority.
Feudal property (from Latin - feodum) is hereditary land property associated with compulsory military service. In medieval society, a hierarchy emerged with a large role for personal vassal-feudal connections.
The state went through different stages: the early feudal period was characterized by large but loose empires; for the developed Middle Ages - small entities, class monarchies; for the late Middle Ages - absolute monarchies.
Feudal law protected the monopoly of land ownership of feudal lords, their rights to the personality of peasants, to judicial and political power over them.
Religious ideology and the church played a huge role in society.
Thus, the features of feudal production gave rise to specific features of the social structure, political, legal and ideological systems.
The main features of medieval culture are: 1) the dominance of religion, a God-centric worldview; 2) rejection of the ancient cultural tradition; 3) denial of hedonism; 4) asceticism; 5)
increased attention to the inner world of a person, his spirituality; c) conservatism, commitment to antiquity, a tendency to stereotypes in material and spiritual life; 7) elements of dual faith (Christianity and paganism) in the popular consciousness; 8) fetishization of works of art; 9) internal inconsistency of culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the opposition between scientific and folk culture, the relationship between secular and spiritual, church authorities, the duality of value orientations (spirituality and physicality, good and evil, fear of sin and sin); 10) hierarchical culture, in which one can distinguish the culture of the clergy, knightly culture, urban culture, folk, mainly rural culture; 11) corporatism: the dissolution of a person’s personal beginning in a social group, for example, an estate.
Medieval European culture developed on the ruins of the Roman Empire. In the early Middle Ages, the decline of culture, which had already taken place in late Rome, deepened. The barbarians destroyed cities that were the concentration of cultural life, roads, irrigation structures, monuments of ancient art, libraries, agrarianization of society took place with the dominance of a natural economy, commodity-money relations were undeveloped.
The Church established a monopoly on education and intellectual activity for many centuries. All areas of knowledge were subordinated to church-feudal ideology. Possessing a strong organization and established doctrine during the time of political decentralization, the church also had powerful means of propaganda.
The essence of the church worldview was the recognition of earthly life as temporary, “sinful”; material life, human nature were opposed to “eternal” existence. As an ideal of behavior that ensures afterlife bliss, the church preached humility, asceticism, strict observance of church rituals, submission to masters, and faith in miracles. Reason, science, and philosophy were despised, which were opposed to faith, although individual elements of philosophical and secular knowledge were borrowed from the ancient heritage. The education system: the so-called “seven liberal arts of antiquity” was divided into the lower - “trivium” (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the highest - “quadrivium” (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music parts). The works of ancient authors were used: Aristotle, Cicero, Pythagoras, Euclid, but to a limited extent. The authority of the Holy Scriptures was placed above all sciences. In general, the knowledge system of the Middle Ages was characterized by the following features: 1) universalism; 2) encyclopedism; 3) allegorism; 4) exegesis (Greek interpretation) - the ability to interpret and give a religious explanation of the Bible.
The universe (space) was viewed as a creation of God, doomed to destruction. A geocentric system prevailed with different spheres, hell and the seat of God. Each material object was considered as a symbol of the hidden and ideal world, and the task of science is to reveal these symbols. Hence the refusal to study the true connections of things with the help of experience. Symbolism left its mark on the entire medieval culture. Words were believed to explain the nature of things. The direct realistic perception of the world in art and literature was often clothed in the form of symbols and allegories.
Feudal-church culture was opposed by folk culture. It was rooted in pre-feudal antiquity and is associated with barbaric cultural heritage, pagan myths, beliefs, legends, and holidays. These traditions, preserved among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages, were permeated with pagan religious ideas, alien to the dark asceticism of Christianity, its distrust of living nature: it was seen not only as a formidable force, but also as a source of life’s blessings and earthly joys. The people's worldview was characterized by naive realism. The forms of folk art are varied: fairy tales, legends, songs. Folk tales formed the basis of the epic (the Irish epic about the hero Cuchulainn, the Icelandic epic - the "Elder Edda", the Anglo-Saxon epic - the poem "Beowulf"). The exponents and bearers of the musical and poetic creativity of the people were mimes and histrions, and from the 11th century, jugglers in France, huglars in Spain, shpilmans in Germany, wandering throughout Europe.
The art of the early Middle Ages lost many of the achievements of antiquity: sculpture and the image of man in general disappeared almost completely; Stone processing skills were forgotten; in architecture, wooden architecture predominated. The art of this period is characterized by: barbarization of taste and attitude; cult of physical strength; display of wealth; at the same time, he is characterized by a living, direct sense of material, especially manifested in jewelry and bookmaking, where complex ornamentation and “animal” style dominated. Under primitivism, barbarian art was dynamic, its main means of representation was color. Bright objects created a sense of materiality, corresponding to a barbaric sensual vision and perception of the world, far from Christian church asceticism.
In the early Middle Ages in the 7th - 9th centuries, there was a certain rise in feudal-ecclesiastical culture at the court of Charlemagne (768 - 814) - the so-called “Carolingian Renaissance”, caused by the need for literate people to manage the empire. Schools were opened at monasteries and for the laity, educated people from other countries were invited, ancient manuscripts were collected, stone construction began, but this rise in culture was fragile and short-lived.
The advanced Middle Ages were marked by significant urban growth and the emergence of universities.
The emergence of cities as centers of craft and trade meant a new stage in the development of medieval culture. The prerequisites for the growth of cities were the intensive development of commodity production and money circulation on the basis of private property. There was a need for literate people; production gave rise to interest in experimental knowledge and its accumulation; The townspeople are characterized by an active perception of life, sober calculation, and efficiency, which contributed to the development of a rationalistic type of thinking; mental demands and interests grew and, accordingly, the craving for secular education. The monopoly of the church on education was broken, although the church dominated ideology. City schools successfully competed with monastery schools.
Cities grew due to the influx of peasants who fled from their masters or were released on quitrent. In terms of population, medieval cities were small; in the 14th - 15th centuries, those with a population of 20 thousand people were considered large. The population of the cities actively fought for their independence from the feudal lords: the cities were either bought off or gained independence through armed struggle. Many cities became communes, that is, they had the right to conduct an independent foreign policy, have their own self-government, mint coins, and all citizens were free from serfdom. In essence, they were city-states reminiscent of an ancient polis. The urban population, or the “third estate,” became the spiritual leader and the predominant bearer of culture.
With the development of urban culture, secular education appears, universities arise (from the Latin universitas - association, community). In 1088, on the basis of the Bologna Law School, the University of Bologna was opened, in 1167 the University of Oxford began to operate in England, in 1209 - the University of Cambridge, in France in 1160 the University of Paris was opened.
In total, by the end of the 15th century there were 65 universities in Europe (besides Italy, France, England, universities appeared in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland). Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin, which became the European language of culture. A common language and religion created a certain cultural unity in Europe, despite feudal fragmentation and political conflicts. The main faculties (from the Latin facultas - opportunity) were the junior faculties, where they studied the “seven liberal arts of antiquity,” and the senior faculties, where they studied theology, law, and medicine.
In its refined form, spiritual culture was expressed in philosophy. In the course of philosophical debates, the main directions of medieval scholasticism (from the Latin schola - school) emerged. Two main directions arose: “nominalism” (from the Latin nomina - name), which believed that only individual things objectively exist, accessible to human sensations, and general concepts - “universals” - do not really exist, nominalism was the embryo of materialism; "realism", which believed that only general concepts - "universals" - really exist; individual things were considered only as a generation and imperfect reflection of these concepts. The main question of scholasticism was the question of the relationship of knowledge to faith. The problem of the relationship between faith and reason is embodied in literature, fine art, and music. The religious worldview, as the core of spiritual culture, and the Christian God, as the basis of the moral world of medieval man, determined the subordinate role of philosophy in relation to religion.
Thomas Aquinas (1225/26 - 1274), the greatest scholastic philosopher, argued that philosophy and science are the handmaidens of theology, since faith surpasses reason in human existence. He argued this by the fact that, firstly, the human mind continually makes mistakes, while faith is based on the absolute truthfulness of God, and, secondly, faith is given to every person, and the possession of scientific and philosophical knowledge, which requires intense mental activity, is available not everyone.
An outstanding scholastic was Pierre Abelard (1079 - 1142) - a French philosopher, theologian and poet, a bright exponent of freethinking who opposed extreme forms of both nominalism and realism. His freethinking was based on the priority of reason over faith: “understanding in order to believe.” He was declared a heretic and banned from teaching and writing.
Along with scholasticism, in the Middle Ages there were other directions of philosophy and theology, in particular mysticism. Mystics rejected the need to study Aristotle and use logical proofs of faith. They believed that religious doctrines were learned not through reason and science, but through intuition, insight or “contemplation,” prayer and vigils. Denying the role of reason in knowledge of the world and God, the mystics were more reactionary than the scholastics. But democratic sentiments were strong among them: mystical sects were critical of the feudal system and preached the need to establish the “kingdom of God on earth” without private property, inequality, and exploitation. Among the mystics one can single out Bernard of Clairvaux, Johannes Tauler, and Thomas à Kempis.
In medieval Europe, although slowly, science and technology developed. Thus, Oxford professor Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294), based on the fact that experience is the basis of knowledge, created the “Great Work” - an encyclopedia of that time. In medieval science, alchemy developed, which expressed the connection between crafts, religion, mysticism, magic, and the occult. Alchemy preceded the emergence of experimental natural science.
The Arab-Islamic civilization, in particular, the works of Al-Biruni (980 - 1048), Ibn Sina (980 - 1037), had a significant influence on European philosophy and science.
In the Middle Ages, inventions were made that influenced the entire subsequent life of society: the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, glasses, and a compass. Of particular importance was printing, which was started in Europe by Johannes Guttenberg (1400 - 1468), which contributed to the development of national literatures, the unification of spelling and, accordingly, education, science, and culture.
In the 12th - 13th centuries, Latin-language literature flourished, in particular, the poetry of vagantes (from Latin vagary - to wander). National literature is developing, in particular, an epic is being written down: French - “The Song of Roland”, Spanish - “Song of Cid”, German - “Song of the Nibelungs”. Knightly literature is being formed: secular lyrical poetry of the troubadours, glorifying “courtly love” (from the Old French - courtier), chivalric novels. There is an interest in the person’s personality and his feelings. Urban literature is developing in national languages: for example, “The Novel about the Fox” and “The Novel about the Rose” were created in French; the forerunner of the Renaissance in France was François Villon (1431 - 1461). Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400) is considered the father of English literature, who created a collection of poems in the English vernacular, The Canterbury Tales.
In medieval Europe, the place of art was controversial. Art was seen as the Bible for the illiterate. The main task of art is to strengthen religious feelings, to reveal the images of the Holy Scriptures; works, as a rule, are anonymous. What is required from the artist is not realism, but the disclosure of ideas of divine holiness. The transition from the space of the outer world to the inner space of the human spirit is the main goal of art. It is expressed by Augustine’s famous phrase: “do not wander outside, but go inside yourself.” Christian ideology rejected the ideals that inspired ancient artists: the joy of being, sensuality, physicality, truthfulness, the glorification of man, aware of himself as a beautiful element of the cosmos - it destroyed the ancient harmony of body and spirit, man and the earthly world.
Architecture became the most important form of art, embodied in two styles: Romanesque and Gothic. Romanesque architecture is distinguished by its massiveness and squatness, its task is the humility of man, his suppression against the backdrop of the monumental grandeur of the universe, of God. Since the 12th century, the Gothic style has emerged, the features of which are upward direction, pointed arches, and stained glass windows. V. Hugo called Gothic “a symphony in stone.” Unlike the harsh, monolithic, imposing Romanesque temples, Gothic cathedrals are decorated with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed towards the sky, their towers rose up to 150 m. The ancient temple was considered the place of life of God, religious ceremonies took place outside, and the medieval the temple was perceived as a place of communication for the religious community and special attention was paid to the interior decoration.
In painting, the main genre was iconography. Painting acted as a silent sermon, “speculation in colors.” Icons were seen as an emotional connection with God, accessible to the illiterate, and they are deeply symbolic. Images are often deliberately deformed, conventional, there is an effect of so-called reverse perspective for a greater impact on the viewer. In addition to icons, the fine art of the Middle Ages is also represented by paintings, mosaics, miniatures, and stained glass.
1 symbolic character;
2 hierarchies;
3 estate,
4 formation of a social institution of education;
5 the emergence of university science and the class of scientists.
Symbolism in the Middle Ages was distinguished by special characteristics that distinguished its essence from the symbolism of archaism and antiquity. In primitive culture, a symbol was identified with the object (object) that it designated (for example, a person and his name). In antiquity, a symbol played the role of a self-sufficient form worthy of contemplation, for example, the beautiful proportions of bodies in abstraction from personal characteristics the one to whom this body belongs.
In medieval symbolism, based on the religious principles of Christianity, all visible phenomena and objects were understood as symbols, signs, images of what is on the other side of this appearance. Reality was that which belongs and relates to pure divine existence. Appearance things was understood only as an image of invisible things. Thus, an icon depicting Christ is not Christ himself, but only a reflection of the prototype, but in it there is a reflection of divine light.
Symbolic thinking in the Middle Ages it became a way to bridge the gap between the material and spiritual world, between the natural and the supernatural. For medieval man, the entire reality surrounding him was symbolic: the sun is a symbol of God himself; stars are symbols of angels and righteous people; the stone is a symbol of Christ and firm faith; sand - weakness and inconstancy; gold means truth; tree - soul, etc.
Symbolism was one of the main characteristics medieval art. Associated with the detailed symbolism was religious cult. Main purpose philosophy also consisted in revealing the symbolic meaning of Holy Scripture. Symbolic actions accompanied by various political and legal events(coronation, oath of allegiance), at home a detailed system of symbols was used (color and cut of clothing of different classes, etc.).
Hierarchism. The complexity of medieval symbolism was based on a strict hierarchy: all things-symbols reflected divine reality to varying degrees. This ideological position was a reflection of the hierarchy of the natural world and social reality. The place of a phenomenon or object in the universal hierarchy was determined by the degree of closeness to God. The whole world is a hierarchy subordinate to God. Society was divided into classes, each of which included many layers, ranks, professions, ranks, which were connected in an eternal and unchanging hierarchy.
Estate. In the culture of the Middle Ages, class was expressed in the coexistence of various social types of culture, the main of which were religious, knightly and folk.
Religious (Christian) culture was official dominant culture Middle Ages. Its value system was concentrated around the absolute center - God. Man served God with every thought and deed. All actions were correlated with the idea of absolute salvation or absolute destruction. You can call on God and rely on him. Christian dogmas formed the basis of medieval ideology. Thus, society, like the Trinity, has been understood since the 9th century. as an indivisible unity of three social strata: clergy, soldiers, workers.
Knightly culture acted as a kind of marginal subculture of the Middle Ages. Chivalry was not an economic class and did not coincide with the feudal aristocracy. It was not an estate whose rights and obligations were legally secured. For a long time, knighthood remained a matter of purely personal choice, although this choice, associated with the acquisition of expensive equipment and a horse, could only be afforded by fairly wealthy people.
The main thing that distinguished the knightly culture of the Middle Ages was its intermediate nature, based on the interaction of individual value foundations of the dominant Christian culture, professional codes of military honor, as well as standards of behavior of the class aristocracy. The first was due to the fact that it was the church in the 9th century. began to develop the idea of a righteous Christian war and the image of a Christian warrior called to save the faith. Secondly, the formation of a special, professional in its content, knightly culture was due to the fact that by the 10th century. a special professional layer of warriors appeared. And thirdly, this layer was recruited from different classes, but, as a rule, from free and fairly wealthy people, whose life was regulated by the rules accepted among class aristocrats.
A single “way of life” distinguished knights from all other layers of medieval society, which makes it possible to talk about the formation in the X-XI centuries. knightly subculture, which was based on the spirit of soldierly brotherhood and camaraderie. Gradually, an ethical code of chivalry was formed, based on the ideal of a selfless, loyal, courageous and beautiful warrior; special knightly symbols were provided for: a special initiation ritual, a special cut of clothing, a solemn custom of presenting weapons, etc.
Folk culture with its funny, carnival character, it is also one of the main components of medieval culture, fulfilling the role of countercultural education. Carnival was a special way of existing and thinking, different from the serious official church and secular culture. The carnival carried with it the idea of special freedom, the opportunity to escape from the usual order of things into a special space where any transformations are possible, where one can live social roles, inaccessible in ordinary life.
The ruling clerical classes were forced to take into account the folk culture, the values of which to a certain extent opposed the official Christian culture. Even church festivals were accompanied by fairs and public entertainment (performances by jesters, giants, and tamed animals). Jesters were an indispensable part and social life, which they filled with parodies of the serious actions of official culture.
Formation of a social institution of education. In the Middle Ages, there were few literate people, and books were rare. At the same time, in the Middle Ages the art of singing, including folk singing, was very widespread. Against this background, a literate person - a copyist of books - is located higher in the social hierarchy than a singer (in Antiquity - vice versa). The Holy Scripture as God's word made all the attributes of bookishness honorable, and the scribe of books became involved in the divine.
Literacy training was carried out in medieval schools. They had the character of an organized church form of education. These were monastic, episcopal (at cathedrals, mainly for initial training in reading, writing, general ideas about the Bible and liturgy) and courtiers (also of a religious orientation).
The origin of university science and the class of scientists.
Medieval universities (XI-XII centuries) were a product of the Middle Ages proper. This kind of free corporations of students and teachers with their privileges, established programs, diplomas, and titles did not exist either in Antiquity or in the East. And although universities served the needs of the state and church, they were characterized by high degree autonomy from local (including city) authorities and a special spirit of free brotherhood. The activities of universities had very important cultural consequences, the main of which was the birth professional class of scientists(priests and laity) to whom the church gave the right to teach the truths of Revelation. The medieval university was divided into the Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Faculty of Theology (the highest level of education). At the Faculty of Arts they studied grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and ethics. These sciences relied only on reason. It was here that the rediscovered works of ancient (Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, etc.) and Byzantine (Church Fathers) scientists and philosophers, as well as Arab-Muslim authors (Avicenna, Averroes, Al-Khorezmi, Al -Farabi, etc.). New ideas were born here.
In the Faculty of Theology, the main thing was the accurate study of the Bible through the interpretation of the text. However, students of the Faculty of Theology first had to graduate from the Faculty of Arts and become familiar with all the critically discussed ideas and problems of existence. Therefore, a rational principle was introduced into the interpretation of Scripture. Universities also gave birth to new forms of teaching: lectures and seminars, where discussions were constantly taking place, any topic was proposed in the form of a question. Although these methods did not exclude speculation, quotation, and reliance on authorities.
Over time, universities developed their own specialization - legal, medical, etc. The process of formation and systematic study of the humanities and natural sciences began, although for a long time they were subordinated to theology.
In the Middle Ages, technology was also considered only an auxiliary tool for a worker performing certain labor functions. However, in the XII-XIII centuries. gradually there is a turn towards realizing the significance of technical inventions in human life and society (“the wheel, water and windmills, mechanical watches, etc. are invented”). In the depths of feudal society, the process of the emergence of industrial production was underway.
The most important feature of the culture of the Middle Ages is the nature of the relationship that developed with ancient culture. Sometimes the idea is stated that the Middle Ages “inherits” the culture of antiquity, “preserves” its traditions and norms, etc. Let’s see if this is so.
We have already said in previous chapters that in terms of the type of production, Antiquity and the Middle Ages represent one, agricultural, culture. Although handicraft production was developed in both ancient Greece and Rome, it did not develop into an industrial culture. And the Middle Ages rested on agricultural production. But the technical equipment of labor, specialization and cooperation were not developed, soil cultivation techniques were primitive. Hence the systematically approaching “hungry” years until the period when already in the 16th-17th centuries. Potatoes were not brought from the New World. Grain yields also reached levels comparable to ancient civilization only by the 19th century. Thus, in terms of its productivity, medieval culture does not inherit the culture of antiquity.
But in other areas of culture there was a break with the ancient tradition: urban planning technology fell, the construction of aqueducts and roads stopped, literacy fell, etc. The decline of culture is observed everywhere: in the old civilizations of Greece and Rome, and in the new kingdoms of the Franks and Germans.
Usually they try to explain this gap in cultures by purely spiritual factors: they say, the barbarians “didn’t know how,” “didn’t know,” “didn’t appreciate,” “didn’t realize,” etc. culture of Antiquity. But what is hidden behind this state of consciousness of the barbarians?
By the end of the Roman Empire, yesterday’s barbarians, today’s “Roman citizens” who received citizenship for their services to the empire, worked in many government positions and in city government bodies. There were many areas of material culture where the civilized Romans were inferior to the barbarian peoples. For example, the Romans never mastered the production of high-quality iron and products made from it.
In Europe, the widespread distribution of iron began in the 8th century. BC e. The Celts, and from them the Germans, achieved the highest skill in processing it. By the 5th century The Celts made an epoch-making discovery - they learned not to completely burn carbon out of iron, which significantly improved the malleability and strength of products. Then they learned to get rid of “weak” iron by corrosion. Later they discovered the secret of steel making.
The Romans, who boasted of their valor, never mastered the production of steel. They purchased steel weapons from the barbarians they conquered. The Roman short piercing sword, the gladius, gave way to the barbarian long slashing sword, the spatha.
Medieval Europe developed the secret of a special method of making weapons, learning how to make steel using the damask method. Similar techniques for making steel weapons were discovered in three cultures: in the Arab East - “Damascus steel”, in Far East- “samurai sword” also in Medieval Europe (V-VII centuries AD).
The sword, made using the damask method, shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow! Its length reached 75-95 cm, width - 5-6 cm, with a thickness of no more than 5 mm. Its weight reached 700 g. This is the sword of the Merovingian culture. But it also cost up to 1000 gold denarii (1 din = 4.25 g of gold, that is, for such a sword you had to pay 4 kg 250 g of gold!).
The sword had a sacred character, they swore on it, they worshiped it. It had a proper name, just like its owner. Famous swords of the sagas: Gram - the sword of the epic hero Sigurd, Hruting - the sword of Beowulf, Excalibur - the sword of the mythical King Arthur. From the knightly epic we know the sword Durendal of Count Roland, and Joyeuse of King Charlemagne. But both the Russian epic epic and the fairy-tale world know the sword of heroes - Kladenets.
Why, despite the fact that barbarian Europe knew and knew a lot that Antiquity could not comprehend, did it reject much of ancient culture? The answer to this question lies in deeper areas of social life than the area of consciousness, spirit, and knowledge. The interaction of the culture of Antiquity and the Middle Ages is basically the contact of two hostile cultures, and hostile cultures are not inherited or borrowed. You can master someone else's culture to the extent that it is not hostile, transforming it partly into your own, and partly into a neutral one, and therefore redundant at a given point in time. But a hostile, “enemy” culture is not borrowed in principle. There are tragic pages in the history of culture when an alien culture was perceived as hostile and destroyed: competing religions, monuments of art, household utensils, etc. were destroyed. because of political, ideological hostility, hostility that embraces different peoples. Economic interests and political hostility were transferred to works of art, to poetry, to sculpture, although under other conditions they could have been preserved and passed on by inheritance.
The cultural world of Roman civilization and the culture of barbarians were divided by a thousand-year-old enmity. At the expense of the lands of the barbarians, Rome increased its territories in the North. Barbarian slaves built Roman aqueducts, baths, circuses, cities, and entertained the Romans in gladiatorial games. And when Rome weakened due to internal strife, all of barbarian Europe, and Asia as well, rushed to Rome - to take back what they had previously plundered by the Romans, and at the same time to grab someone else’s.
To this it should be added that both political and military hostility stemmed from socio-economic hostility. The barbarian culture was built on the labor of free community members, members of one clan, where the leader was chosen and replaced depending on the will of the majority. Roman power rested on the labor of “unfree” slaves. And slave labor and free labor are opposite forms of labor.
To the political, socio-economic opposition was added ideological and religious hostility. It is believed that the Romans were Christians and the barbarians were pagans. It's not really correct opinion. Formally, Rome was Christian before the arrival of the barbarians, but in reality its culture remained pagan: the very history of the city, in which the apostles Peter and Paul found their demise, where Christians were accused of setting the city on fire and were persecuted like animals, killed in circus arenas, squares and streets, was steeped in hostility of religious systems, pagan and Christian. All sculpture, architecture of the city, its aesthetics carried a pagan meaning.
And the barbarians for the most part were not pagans. Many of them were Christians, albeit of the Arian persuasion. And they perceived the culture of Rome in the light of the prophecies of the Apocalypse and destroyed it as pagan. Therefore, many of the city’s buildings, sculpture, and architecture were destroyed by barbarians, the city’s economy fell into disrepair, roads were overgrown with grass, bridges collapsed.
The words “vandal” and “barbarian” entered the history of culture with a negative meaning. They are used to characterize people who destroy culture and disdain the rules of law and communication.
There has been a long debate about the nature of the borrowing of the culture of antiquity by the Middle Ages. For many centuries, the prevailing belief was that the Middle Ages began with the destruction of the culture of Antiquity.
This tradition was confirmed in the statements of religious figures who asserted the “uselessness” of worldly knowledge for a Christian, in particular, this was the position of the founder of Western monasticism, Benedict of Nur (VI century) and Pope Gregory the Great. Humanists of the Renaissance, historians of the 19th and 20th centuries. were convinced that with the departure of the “last Romans” centuries-old intellectual stagnation began. In relation to the modern stage of development of cultural studies, this position also has its supporters, who believe that the transition to the Middle Ages is characterized by the loss of all the achievements of ancient civilization. A number of authors take the opposite point of view, arguing that the ancient heritage was the most important source of not only Byzantine, but also European culture in general.
We believe this is a simplified approach. The culture of medieval Europe has its own, “barbarian” basis and source. This own culture the peoples of Europe, which they defended from destruction by the Romans, preserved its original character, partly accepting the culture of antiquity, and partly rejecting it as unnecessary and hostile.
The Middle Ages, developing its historical cultural tradition, selectively refers to the culture of antiquity, including the culture of Roman civilization. Medieval European culture had many sources, but the most important of them were those springs that emerged from its own, still barbaric, soil. Moreover, the authors who defend the direct continuity of two cultures - antiquity and the Middle Ages, recognize the general decline of the culture of the Middle Ages. So, Z.V. Udaltsova writes that “against the background of the general decline of culture, the level of knowledge of Gregory the Great looked very impressive.” But further: “Gregory’s writings, of course, reveal a decline in linguistic, rhetorical, philosophical and even theological culture in comparison not only with the authors of “Classical” antiquity, but also with the fathers of the church.” I.S. Braginsky notes that the entire era of the Middle Ages “is undoubtedly characterized as a whole by a cultural decline,” but at the same time he admits that it is a mistake to interpret the Middle Ages as a continuous decline, a continuous reaction. He notes the presence of opposing tendencies in medieval culture - progressive, folk, and reactionary, church, as well as moments of uplift.
Just like the civilization of Rome, the culture of the Middle Ages civilization did not become technical. The culture of the Middle Ages rested on agricultural production, where the main figure was the farmer. But this is not a slave - the “talking instrument” of antiquity, displacing the free worker; this is not a free community member of the period of “military democracy”, barbarian campaigns. This is a feudal-dependent peasant, with his natural production and the product of labor.
French cultural researcher Jacques de Goff (Paris, 1965) noted that the consciousness of the Middle Ages was “anti-technical.” And the ruling class, chivalry, is to blame for this. Knighthood was interested in the development of military technology, and not in its productive application. But the working population was not interested in using technology. The surplus product produced by the farmer came at the complete disposal of the feudal lord, who was not interested in the equipment of labor. And the farmer did not have enough time or knowledge for the technical re-equipment of agricultural production. Therefore, the technical achievements of Rome in the field of agricultural labor were unclaimed.
The culture of the Middle Ages is the culture of civilization. And civilization is characterized by a split into opposites, in particular, into classes. IN ancient Rome this led to the emergence of a “culture of bread” - those who produce, and a “culture of spectacles” - those who rule and distribute this bread. In the culture of the Middle Ages there was also a split, differentiation into socially opposite species.
A characteristic feature of Medieval culture is its division into two types:
- 1. culture of the dominant minority and
- 2. culture of the “silent majority”.
The culture of the ruling minority is the culture of the ruling class of feudal lords, it is a courtly, knightly culture. It appears in two forms - secular, secular, and religious, clerical. These two forms of the dominant culture oppose each other as the world and the “clergy,” the state and the church.
The most striking type of culture is the culture of knights. Knightly culture is a military culture. The Middle Ages were established during continuous wars, first barbarian, against the Romans, then feudal. This left its mark on the culture of the ruling class - it is, first of all, a militarized, military culture.
The culture of knights is a culture of military affairs, “martial arts”. True, this circumstance is hidden from us by later phenomena in culture, when romanticism “ennobled” knightly culture, gave it a courtly character, and began to absolutize knightly ethics. Knights were a class of professional military men of the Middle Ages. Many of them are the top, they themselves were the largest feudal lords. They developed a unique way of life: tournaments, fishing, court receptions and balls and, from time to time, military campaigns. They were distinguished by a special professional ethics - loyalty to the lord, service to the “beautiful lady”. The presence of a certain “vow” - a promise that the knight is obliged to fulfill, etc.
Except cultural species activities intended for knights, where they played the first roles, a court culture was also emerging, where civilians were the main actors; A courtly culture was established: dancing, music, poetry - serving the inhabitants of the royal court or the castle of a large feudal lord. At court, a certain etiquette, ceremony, ritual develops - that is, the order of organizing life, the order of actions, speeches, events.
Etiquette included the ceremony of “rising of the king,” his dressing, toilet, meals, and receptions of courtiers and guests, and feasts and balls. Everything was subject to regulation and cultivation. This is how the medieval author imagined the culture of knights and their way of life:
“Soon the knights, having started a semblance of a battle, give themselves up to equestrian fun: the women, looking at her from the battlements of the fortress walls and captured by their favorite spectacle, are inflamed by a burning love flame. And the knights, without quarrels and good-naturedly, spend the rest of the day, competing with each other, some in battle with axes, some with spears, others in throwing heavy stones, others playing checkers, others in dice or indulging in all sorts of other amusements. Whoever wins the game with which he was having fun, Arthur rewards him with some generous gift after the first three days. festivals, on the last - fourth day - all those whom he has elevated and who are subordinate to him are convened, and he bestows on them all kinds of favors, that is, cities and castles, archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys, as well as various honorary appointments."
A certain type of feudal culture was religious culture). The church had long ago turned into the largest feudal lord and the leaders of the church were the richest people in Europe. Religion, and therefore the church, played an exceptional role in the Middle Ages: Christianity created a unified ideological basis for the culture of the Middle Ages and contributed to the creation of large, unified medieval states. But Christianity is also a certain worldview that forms the spiritual basis of culture. At the center of any religion is faith, the conviction in the existence of supernatural, that is, unnatural, phenomena. Sometimes these phenomena are personified, and then religion acts as theology - the doctrine of God. There may be different approaches to ideas about God. Theism is characterized by the idea of God as an infinite Divine Person (personification) who freely created the world (1); is outside the world (2); continues to operate in the world (3). Pantheism is characterized by the recognition of the identity of God and nature. Deism asserts that God created the world (1); is outside the world (2); does not interfere in the affairs of the world (3).
Theistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
Religion, in particular Christianity, was the dominant spiritual basis of culture in the Middle Ages, the core of its worldview.
Barbarian culture is characterized by genecentrism. Here a person is important only insofar as his clan stands behind him, and he is a representative of the clan. Hence, genealogy - the study of the gens - acquires great importance. The hero always has and knows his ancestors. The more ancestors he can name, the more “great” their deeds he can list, the more “noble” he himself becomes, which means the greater honors and glory he himself deserves. The Middle Ages asserts a different starting point; it is characterized by theocentrism: the personality of God is placed at the center, man is evaluated by him, man and all things are directed towards him, everywhere man looks for traces of God’s presence and actions. This leads to the emergence of “Vertical” thinking, “vertical culture”.
A.V. Mikhailov proposed calling the medieval “way of thinking” or “norm of seeing the world” essentially “vertical” thinking. This “verticality” means, firstly, that thinking constantly deals with up and down, as the boundaries of the world that set the measure for everything. Medieval thinking had little interest in finding the cause-and-effect relationships of things and phenomena throughout the earthly “horizontal” and was not fixed on them; things are perceived and comprehended not so much in their context, but in that vertical, which acts as meaning-generating and axiological. Secondly, it is the semantic beginnings and ends of the world that turn out to be truly close to the medieval consciousness; Thus, the creation and destruction of the world, birth and judgment are close - instead of the proximity of that everyday environment, which is so natural for the perception of the 19th-20th centuries, which all this surrounding is shrouded in the mists of the most intense emotional experience.
Many researchers define the culture of the Middle Ages as a “culture of text,” as a commentary culture in which the word is its beginning and end—its entire content. For the Middle Ages, the text is the Gospel, the Holy Scripture and Tradition, but it is also a ritual, a temple, and heaven. Medieval man sees everywhere and tries to recognize writings, letters of God. And the heavens are "a text read by an astrologer."
In a Christian culture based on the Holy Scriptures, the answer to the question: who said? The older the author, the more true he is, the closer he is to God. Christianity views the history of mankind as its history of separation from God: Adam was closest to God - in paradise. But he loses his intimacy. Therefore, the reference to authority is main characteristic medieval culture. In Greek “who said” = “said himself” = “autos epfa”, in Latin - “ipse dixi”. He said it himself - the teacher said it, the leader - the authority = Himself. Subsequently, in the culture of modern times, the principle of “authority” decreases, but does not completely disappear. In the Middle Ages it reaches the pinnacle of its development.
In Islam, the principle of isnad has developed - a way of affirming and transmitting knowledge from the Teacher to the student, from him to his student, etc. In this way, continuity was established. The ideological heritage is transmitted esoterically, personally, indicating the names of the transmitter and recipient: “A told me from the words of B, who heard D when he told what the prophet Muhammad said.”
Christianity turns over spiritual world barbarian culture. Gregory of Tours in “History of the Franks” defined the imperative of the new spirituality of Christianity, replacing paganism: “...honor what you burned, burn what you venerated.” And Christianity began to zealously destroy pagan culture, to eradicate it along with its carriers.
Back in the 6th century. The fight against paganism continued. Thus, in a conversation with Gregory of Tours, Deacon Wulfilaih said that near the city of Trier he found a statue of Diana, which local residents revered as a goddess. The deacon preached to them that Diana had no power, the statues meant nothing, and “the veneration they pay to them has no meaning.” With the help of the newly converted, Wulfilaih smashed the “huge statue” of Diana, “while I had already broken the other, lighter images myself.”
But sometimes Christianity tried to use paganism to strengthen its authority. Pope Gregory I wrote in 601 to missionaries in Britain:
"...the temples of idols in this country should not be destroyed at all, but be limited only to the destruction of idols alone; let them sprinkle such temples with holy water, build altars and place the relics: for if these temples are well built, then it is more useful to simply convert them from the service of demons to serving the true God; the people themselves, seeing their temples not destroyed and having removed errors from their hearts, will be all the more willing to flock to places to which they have long been accustomed, knowing and worshiping the true God, and since the pagans have the custom of sacrificing numerous bulls to demons. then they need to replace this with some kind of celebration: on the days of remembrance or the birth of the holy martyrs, whose relics are placed there, let the people build themselves huts from tree branches near the churches... and celebrate such days with a religious meal... when they are provided with material contentment, they will more easily accept spiritual joy..."
But it was not possible to completely eradicate paganism.
"In the newest scientific literature the point of view about the dominance of Christian ideology and the gospel in medieval Europe is assessed very skeptically" (the myth of the Christian Middle Ages). The "Christian Middle Ages" is a legend, and therefore discussions about the "de-Christianization" of Europe with the transition to modern times are also erroneous. "The world has never been Christian." The positions of paganism were especially strong in folk culture, the "culture of the silent majority." This leads to the eclecticism of the culture of the Middle Ages.
The eclecticism of the culture of the Middle Ages is its characteristic feature.
Here two cultures coexist, struggle, influence each other:
- 1. The dominant culture of the elite: church and secular nobility. This culture is Christian, biblical, it was mainly widespread in the church, monastic environment, and at the court of the king and in the castles of feudal lords. She used Latin.
- 2. Another culture - folk, lower society - pagan, preserved since barbarian times, using native language- an adverb of one or another people.
A striking example of eclecticism and mixing is the Franks casket (7th century). On it, the blacksmith Weland (Germanic pagan culture) and the image of the “Adoration of the Magi” (Christian culture) are placed side by side. On the other side of the casket there are images of Romulus and Remus (Roman antiquity), on the third - Titus from Jerusalem (Roman culture). On the roof of the casket - the defense of the building by a man shooting from a bow, his name is Egil (archery), this is - epic hero. Thus, the creator of the casket equally values the heroes of Roman antiquity, the German epic, and Christian shrines.
The first contemporary scientist who drew attention to the need to study folk carnival culture was M.M. Bakhtin ("The Work of Francois Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance", M., 1965, M., 1990). It was he who managed to reveal the half-forgotten language of certain carnival forms and symbols, to reveal the deep, sometimes pagan foundations of the culture of laughter. But M.M. Bakhtin sharply contrasted and separated the authoritarian culture of Catholicism with its one-sided serious tone and the culture of carnival with its utopia, the possibility of at least temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and alienation. In reality, as A. Ya. Gurevich noted, such a complete opposite did not exist - the “people” and the “church” not only differed in their culture, but also had common foundations for mutual understanding - humility, patience, salvation in Christ (the sovereign) .
Considering the problems of folk culture and court (elite) culture, it should be noted that the production of culture, spiritual culture, has already separated from material production, but has not acquired a clear enough place in society and has not yet been institutionalized.
In contrast to the culture of Rome, where the pursuit of art and literature turned into a source of income, were assigned to a person as his profession and, moreover, corresponding institutions were formed - theatre, hippodrome, stadium, etc., for example, the Colosseum, in the early In medieval Europe, the artist and poet did not have a permanent place of creativity and a permanent audience - court or popular. Therefore, jugglers, artists, buffoons, servant-poets, minstrels, musicians moved in geographical and social space. They did not have a fixed place in the social niche. They moved from city to city, from country to country (vagantes - wandering poets, singers) from one courtyard - the royal one, to another - the count's courtyard or the peasant's courtyard. But this means that in social terms they moved from serving one social stratum to another. Hence the nationality of this culture, its eclecticism (borrowing), enrichment with both elite and folk themes, symbiosis (that is, coexistence, mutual enrichment).
The differentiation was weak: “cultural front worker”, “cultural worker”, “kulturtregger” had to be a jack of all trades: and “a Swede, a reaper, and a pipe player,” that is, he had to be able to both sing and compose poetry, and music, etc. Thus, artists, writers, etc. were distinguished by universalism (encyclopedism, breadth of outlook). The fablio "Two Jugglers" (13th century) listed the artist's skills. The juggler had to:
- - be able to play wind and string instruments - sitol, viol, jig;
- - perform poems about heroic deeds - sirvents, pastorels, fablios, recite chivalric romances, tell stories in Latin and their native language,
- - know heraldic science and all the “beautiful games in the world” - demonstrate magic tricks, balance chairs and tables,
- - be a skilled acrobat, play with knives and walk on a tightrope.
They had to be able to move from the sublime to the base, from the serious to the joke, from the high to the obscene, from the epic to the lyrical, etc.
Actors and poets did not have permanent sources of income: they depended directly on the listener, viewer: on patrons, philanthropists, on the generosity of nobles and the court. As a rule, the royal court became the most stable source of income. Therefore, the royal court also attracted cultural creators. An enlightened, generous ruler is the ideal of an artist and poet. Later, not only the royal court, but also the estate and castle of the feudal lord began to compete with the state, royal service.
The church also began to attract musicians, poets, and artists to promote religious dogma and gain popularity among the people. Sometimes the clergy themselves tried to follow the path of art and poetry. To this the church at the Council of Salzburg (1310) declared:
“Immodest ministers of the church, in their positions, indulging in the craft of a juggler, goliard (magician) or buffoon and practicing for a year in these shameful games, if they do not repent, will, at least after the third warning, be deprived of all spiritual privileges.”
In I. Bosch's painting "Ship of Fools" a monk and a nun with a lute are an object of ridicule and a symbol of the sinfulness of the church.
- 1. Medieval symbolism is historical. In the process of its development, the meaning of the symbol changed: the same symbol on different historical stages portrayed different objects. For example, a fish is both a symbol of the universe and a symbol of early Christians. The cross is solar sign, a symbol of the sun, and a symbol of Christianity, as suffering, and unity (all baptized), and a symbol of the world tree in pagan mythology
- 2. Symbolism is a multi-level phenomenon: for some, the laymen, the symbol meant one thing, for others, the initiated, it meant something else.
- 3. The ambivalence of the symbol should be taken into account - depending on the context, it can personify both negative and positive properties. For example, a lion can symbolize:
Evangelist Mark,
Resurrection of the Believers
Satan, the devil.
Thus, when interpreting a symbol, historical and cultural context is important.
Culture is the various forms and methods of human self-expression. What features did the culture of the Middle Ages have, briefly outlined? The Middle Ages spanned a period of more than a thousand years. During this huge period of time, great changes took place in medieval Europe. Appeared feudal system. It was replaced by the bourgeois one. The Dark Ages gave way to the Renaissance. And in all the changes taking place in the medieval world, culture played a special role.
The role of the church in medieval culture
The Christian religion played an important role in the culture of the Middle Ages. The influence of the church in those days was enormous. In many ways, this determined the formation of culture. Among the completely illiterate population of Europe, ministers of the Christian religion represented a separate class of educated people. The church in the early Middle Ages played the role of a single center of culture. In the monastery workshops, the monks copied the works of ancient authors, and the first schools were opened there.
Medieval culture. Briefly about literature
In literature, the main directions were heroic epics, lives of saints, and chivalric romance. Later, the genre of ballads, courtly romance, and love lyrics appeared.
If we talk about the early Middle Ages, the level of cultural development was still extremely low. But starting from the 11th century, the situation began to change radically. After the first Crusades, their participants returned from eastern countries with new knowledge and habits. Then, thanks to the voyage of Marco Polo, Europeans gain another valuable experience of how other countries live. The worldview of medieval man undergoes serious changes.
Science of the Middle Ages
It was widely developed with the emergence of the first universities in the 11th century. Very interesting science The Middle Ages had alchemy. The transformation of metals into gold and the search for the philosopher's stone are its main tasks.
Architecture
It is represented in the Middle Ages by two directions - Romanesque and Gothic. The Romanesque style is massive and geometric, with thick walls and narrow windows. It is more suitable for defense structures. Gothic is lightness, significant height, wide windows and an abundance of sculptures. If in romanesque style They built mostly castles, but in the Gothic style they built beautiful temples.
During the Renaissance (Renaissance), the culture of the Middle Ages makes a powerful leap forward.
