Southern’s Middle Ages

Southerns in-between Ages In the novel, The Making of the Middle Ages, author, R. W. Southern, call(a)s attention to the events during the years of 972 and 1204, and how they formd the intellectual, religious and cultural traditions of our modern era. This period, lasting hygienic oer 200 years, is usually associated with waring knights and starving peasants rather than highly highly-developed intellect and coarse innovation.However, Southern explains that there were considerable academic and sociological advancework forcets made during this period, that go relatively unnoticed. He refers to these events as a closed book revolution and explains that, The signifi displacet events are often the obscure champions, and the significant utterances are often those of hands withdrawn from the world and speaking to a genuinely few. (Pg. 13) He reiterates this theme without the book, focusing primarily on Christianity, society, and thought.There can be no dispute that the prominenc e of Christianity, during the Middle Ages, has done more(prenominal) to shape the world, as it is today, than possibly any other religion. This is primarily because Christianity offered a unite, stabilizing force doneout Europe, where a bulk of field of honors had an incoherent disturb of laws and customs, challenging to adjust to each other and hard even to understand. The survivals of noncivilized codes of law jostled with varying mixtures of Roman law, local custom, and violence. pg 15) Christendom provided Europe with a unified identity in hunting expedition-in, government, and education. It is no great mystery that language plays an important role in the creation of personal relationships between individuals. So when applied on an international stage, language can mean the discrimination between war and peace. The church buildings use of Latin acted as a merging factor in areas where quite a little spoke in diverse and various dialects. As stated by Southern This gi gantic similarity of language from the lowlands of Scotland to Sicily was a real bond between men. (pg 17) The unifying quality of Latin not nevertheless bound men unitedly linguistically, that also allowed those from several(predicate) countries to move active freely with comminuted or no language barrier. The likenesses of language over this broad area were sufficiently pronounced to facilitate ease of movement both of men and of ideas it took relatively few alterations to make a Provencal song unadorned in England, and a member of the English baronage could, without uch difficulty, make himself at home in Italy (pg 20). As a side effect of the church world the one constant variable of the European continent, individual governments became subjugate to the strength of the church. Christendom had developed such a loyal following that the peoples of the European nations, including those in power, were dependent on the church for moral and semipolitical authority. In this way, Christianity helped to unify countries that would otherwise be at odds with each other.Through the coalition of these nations, the church grew to be the most commanding institution of Europe, enforcing that all salaried a form of tribute cognize as Peters Pence, which was the foundation of more or less determined claims to Papal overlordship and when Bohemia last became a kingdom, its newfangled status was guaranteed by a Papal stay (pg 27) The influence of the church was so great that all countries were reliant upon it, and were exclusively recognized as sovereign nations, when determined as so, with the expressed assay of the Pope.Above all though, the most distinguishing impact that Christianity had, was a result of the crusades. Southern states that, til now the Crusades only touched the fringe of this hostile world. But they had one great effect they opened mens minds to the size of the uncovered world. (70) These wars brought people to the edges of their culture and introduced to them to thier neighbors of the Muslim world where there was a literal shake up and infusion of new thought, which Southern calls The great period of acquisition. pg 68) At this sequence, the advancement in the Muslims refined scientific cognition and mathematic skills, which had been intensively cultivated by Moslem Scholars (65) were transferring and even being sought-after(a) after by those in academia. The Jewish culture was instrumental as closely in that they were effective in the translation of the two different languages. Maribel Dietz, author of Wandering Monks,Virgins and Pilgrims writes on the effects the journeys of the pilgrims had on not only the institutional church, but on society and thought.As stated in her novel In an environment of religious, political, and social change, movement itself was now open to a multiplicity of meanings, interpretations, and purposes. (pg 42) The crusades resulted in a surge of material and intellectual wealthines s coming back to Europe from the front lines. Southern discusses the transfer of Muslim knowledge during these wars, Throughout his novel Southern looks at society and the individual. He writes about the importance certain groups and individuals within a special(a) fellowship as well as the growth of society global scale.One feature group he writes about is women. Women, during this time period, were often given truly little recognition. However, the power they wielded during the middle ages was far greater than many drop been led to believe. Henry Chaucer often wrote on the guinea pig of women. In his storied poem The Canterbury Tales he gives an in depth look at the power that women held. In one particular section of the poem the wife of bath describes a great deal of her life, omitting very little detail.She describes herself as being a strong woman who makes a habit of manipulating her husbands. I impart have a husband who will be both my debtor and servant, and have hi s tribulation upon his flesh, while I am his wife. As abundant as I live I, and not he, have the power over his body. Regardless of the fact that history dooms men as having all the power, in reality women held a great deal of power often through the manipulation of men. While Southern does not address the manipulation of men by women as Chaucer does, he does address the natural covering nature of labor union.He states in one passage the way for this diffusion of rules of conduct and guides to statesmanship was alert by something less tangible than ideals it was prepared by the bond of marriage. During the time in which Southern is writing about, marriage was more that just an formula of love by two individuals. It was an event that could mean the literal deviance between life and death. The marriage of a couple was a binding of two families and often two nations if the individuals being wed were nobles. In particular he focuses on the influence women have in marriage.Wom en during this time were married to men for many reasons, each having some sociopolitical ramification. Often times they would leave-taking their home country as a result of a marriage which meant that they were immersed in a new culture, absorbing new ideas as well as spreading ideas from their own homeland. Southern makes a point of this by stating Women were less rooted in the soil than men they brought new influences from far parts and established bonds between men of little or no identity of purpose or of interest. This bonding of men from different cultures through women could and did have vast ramifications on society as a whole.One such example is that of Agnes of Aquitaine who was married the King of Germany, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry the 3rd. 13 years after their marriage in 1056 Agnes was left widowed and became regent(postnominal) for her infant son. Her reign lasted for 6 years at the end of which she was run out by an uprising. After her reign ended she bec ame well known for her religious devotion and was the chief ambassador between the Papal court of law and her son, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry the 4th. She was well known and had considerable influence in the political world. The case Agnes is just one of many that show the power women held during the this time period.Southern moves from the world of women and marriage into the world of men and the nuances of shed light on that men could hold. A common term used when talking about class in the middle ages is the term serf. A serf was a person who was essentially a volintary slave who worked for a lord or religious institution, often working the land and paying a piece of their harvest to their master. It was also possible to be born into serfdom if one was born to parents who were serfs or were promised by their parents to a lord or institution. bringing up during the middle ages is often liven as something that was essentially non-existant.While it is true that it was more diffi cult to learn, as a result of geographic restrictions, the enthusiatic pursuit of knowledge never ceased or deminished during this time period. St. Augustine wrote the De Doctrina Christiana, which Southern refers to as the most comprehensive computer programme of Christian Studies. (pg 170) Augustines book outlines the way that science is too be used to better understand the bible. It is at this time during the middle ages when science and religion not only go hand in hand, but are practically same from each other.And it is not until Boethius attempts to revive the ideas and school of thought of ancient Greece and Rome that this system began to change. Boethiuss dream to translate Greek science and philosophy into Latin, was the precurser to the renaissance and inspired others such as Gerbert, who bring back the art of rhetoric. It is at this point that one can begin to see the shift from Augustines combination of science and religion into a new era when the two begin to split . Southern calls itthe divorce between reverent and Secular learning (pg 173) .What started out as a way of spirit religion was becoming a secular endevoure. Southern, R. W. The Making of The Middle Ages. Fredericksburg, Virgina BookCrafters, Inc. , 1953. (accessed November 4, 2012). toatinthe Ancien primordial in the period covered by this novel scientific knowledge was something that went hand in hand with the search for biblical truth. St. Augustine was wrote on this subject stating that clergy should use science to better interpret the meaning of the bible, and theological studies where indistinguishable with scientific.This changed later on when (insert name here) began to draw a p The majority of the european continent consisted of a rural and uneducated society, with diverse political and religious practices, besieged by violent invaders. Conclusion Countries which , in 972, appeared so menacing had become by the end of our period an integral part, and to all appearances a permanent part, of Western Christendom (pg 27) education the popes kings and emperors united in antitank of the perceived threat of islam and roaming tribes