LECTURE 5: HIGH MIDDLE AGES: SCHOLASTIC AND VERNACULAR
Scholastic. Its a catchall term for the intellectual life of high medieval europe.
what was it? was there a latin culture that was NOT scholastic? yes,
abelard's letters and other letters. thousands of papal and gov't
documents. there were mystical writings like the great cistercian
chamption st. bernard. he and others were opposed to the dilectical
reasoning of scholasticism. these were based on the validity of
immediate divine inspiration. Satire too, was back. "Gospel According
to the Silver Marks" was a satire on priestly greed.
Poetry: the Goliard Poems, were about student life... like this one:
in the public house to die is my resolution
let wine to mine lips be nye at life's disallusion
that will make the angels cry with glad elocution
grant this drunkard, god on high, grace and absolution
Or Pierre Abelard. A philosopher and poet, such as David's Lament for
Jonathan, which reflects the Biblical theme and also his own
disillusion with his fate without Heloise.
All this was non-scholastic.
ARAB SCHOLARS
Crusader states created encounters with arab and jewish worlds, with
renewed aquaintence with greek works too. Around 800, way off in
Persia, Christian translators put almost all the known aristotle into
arabic. Islamic thinkers were inspired by this, avisenna for example,
asks: what exists in the world vs. only in the mind? Averoise tried to
find the truths that could be acquired by human reason vs. what had to
be given from allah. can one know all through reason? how can
aristotle be reconciled with Islam?
JEWISH SCHOLARS
Avisibron tried to reconcile aristotle with judaism. Maimonides tried
to find ways to reconcile competing claims of faith and reason. Rashi
was a talmudic scholar who with his sons were consulted by christian
scholars on the old testament. they worked in france. unthinkable in
the middle ages, there were cultural contacts which stimulated.
FIRST GREAT CHANGE IN THE SCHOLASTIC WEST
Logic has its day. why? writers used it to deal with and understand
issues. Archbishop Llanfrank of Canterbury during 11C used logic to
refute Beringard, who challenged the doctrine of the true preasence in
the Eucharist. Archbishop used the dialectic and logic to say it was
NOT symbolic. Big deal? Yes... usually one heaped up authorities who
"said this or that" and see! that proves I'm right! The pope says it
here and here and here, the council of this and that says it too.
Well, A of Canterbury used dialectical reasoning instead. It really IS
the body and blood of the actual Christ.
Anselm of Canterbury who was archbishop in early 12C, was a gifted
logician too. extremely so. Anselm made an ingenious proof for the
existence of God: There is a fool in the pslams who says there is no
God. Is it possible to have something in the mind that does not exist
in the world? Perhaps a leprechon or unicorn, i could have that in my
mind. But, God, is that which nothing greater can be conceived. it
would be absurd to imagine something greater than God, so there must
be a being that is greater than all other beings, and therefore
something that exists in the mind must also exist in reality.
that is called ontological reasoning. a leap of faith? no, a leap of reason!
Abelard then, used dialectical reasoning to find that in 100 or more
cases seeming contradiction of the bible or church fathers are,
through delicate reason, not contradictions at all. Logical reasoning
was beginning to be seen as superior to raw authority. heaps of
authority. so, there is a sphere for faith and a sphere for reason.
Christian thinkers explored this complex subject.
SCHOLASTICISM
Some, like St. Bernard, or the Victor school in Paris, did not like
it, it was like playing God. Arrogant. They preferred immediate divine
inspiration through biblical study.
Teaching was updated for this enhanced logic. And it drove the rise to
scholasticism. What is it? A name for the 12 and 13C when things were
explored with reasoning. For the great logicians though were NOT
rationalists in our sense. reason was a means to an end, not an end in
itself. Anslem's motto was "faith seeking understanding." he began by
believing, then sought to understand.
Scholasticism = School-ism. Education from monastic schools to
cathedral schools (paris, chartres) and intellectual culture emerged.
International. People came to see Pierre Abelard. How did it go? It
was the reading of set texts. Close reading, with commentaries on
them. Teacher would read out a passage of aristotle, then explain the
hard words, then read the commentaries on them, then give his own
opinion on it, perhaps wrap up any problems, then repeat with a new
passage.
It was old and new. Application of dilectical reasoning was new. Old
too, cause scholars always took the bible and glossed it over with
views and comments. They started as glosses in the margins of great
works, then the notes in the margins were sold on their own as
commentaries.
Scholars began thinking in terms of whole field of knowledge. A monk
from Bologna named Gratian, in 1140 published a topical presentation
of the church's law, and it explained it systematically. Book of
Sentences by Pierre Lombard in 12C, what was a sentence? "All men are
mortal" "Socrates is a man" "Socrates is mortal." I must draw an valid
conclusion and arrange premises correctly and properly. This is a
sound syllogism.
A sentensio answers a questio. I can argue through a proposition and
pose a questio and engage in a disputsio (arguement) and draw a
sentensia (conclusion). Then i can open a new issue... socrates is
mortal. so what is mortality?
As i go through this stuff, I can argue through a case scholastically,
using my own arguements, those of others, and those of the past. Well,
taking it further, Lombard organized in 4 books all of christian
theology... trinity, creation and sin (the human condition),
incarnation and virtues, and last things. 1st total organization of
church knowledge and theology. Used as a text for centuries.
AQUINAS
Then come the summas. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest. Started at
Monte Cassino and moved to dominican order in 1244. Studied Aristotle
in Paris. To stand in front of his works in the library is to be
humbled. He did at 49. He was a master. Faith vs. reason. Faith is a
matter of the will. In consciously granting assent to something, i am
not committing an act contraverting reason, but nevertheless agree to
something not demonstratable by reason. On the other hand, thomas
spoke of natural vs. revealed truths. many things can be known through
reason, 2 plus 2 = 4. some religious things can be known through
reason, like existence of god (ansel) but some things are a matter of
faith only of revelation only, like the trinity. doctrine of
incarnation: god made man. or creation out of nothing. all a matter of
faith. Explore, find, seek, God's universe is a majestic place, our
place, to discover.
In 19C all this was given a name, Thomism and held in the church until
II Vatican Council in 1965.
Reflected on pagan knowledge in the summa cotagenteile, then the summa
theologica. systematic presentation of church doctrines.
THE UNIVERSITY
scholasticism and urbanization brought together people doing these
things, and formed the university. universitas is a legal status
conferred upon the scholars (like a guild) that made up the
institution. Paris, Cologne, Oxford, Cambridge- the masters banned
together and regulated admissions to their ranks, to set courses, to
set fees, to represent themselves to others. In the south, law and
medicine and student control was normal. Bologna.
4 Faculties: arts, theology, law and medicine. Paris is greatest of
theology. Law was civil (roman law) and church law. Medicine was the
study of galen and hippocrates. Salerno was a good one.
Students were always foreingers, preyed upon by unscrupulous
landlords, prostitutes, 4 years to 8, degrees awarded by public
examination. They fired questions at you and you answered them... no
accumulation of credits. no grades.
The university's birth is huge. A fundamental western mainstay.
So this world, the intellectual world of medieval high period, is a
place where cross currents are coming together. urbanized world,
wealth, resources, ideas are going around and universities are
burgeoning. great intellectual traditions are seriously indebted to
the scholastic tradition, born of medieval europe.
VERNACULAR CULTURE
While the Latin scholars were developing scholasticism, the song of
roland and beowulf were also. But not in Latin. Why did they use the
vernacular? Well, why did they keep using Latin, a foreign language?
Church of course. Most people spoke their own native languages.
Educated people and nobles knew both languages. Latin is old and rich,
and a long developed form. Vernaculars were not as well equipped yet
to be as good for literature. German just didn't have the literary
time... but would.
OLDEST VERNACULAR WRITINGS
The oldest paradoxically or not, occurred outside the old Roman
borders. British Isles, German lands, Scandinavia and Slavic lands.
ANGLO SAXON
Welsh: Anerin wrote Goravin in 600: about the battle of catarik, where
the Welsh were slaughtered by the Anglo Saxons:
wearing the brooch at the front of the rank,
bearing weapons in battle
a mighty man in the fight before his death day
a champion in the charge of the van of the armies
there fell 5 times 50 before his blades
of the men of dere and benetia
100 score fell and were destroyed in a single hour
he would sooner the wolves had his flesh
then go to his own wedding
he would rather be prey for the ravens
then go to the alter
he would sooner his blood flowed to the ground
then get due burial making return for his mead
with the hosts in the hall
Heved the Tall should be honored
as long as there is a minstral
The Anglo Saxons themselves prepared Cadman's Hymn in the 700s:
Now we must praise the guardian of heaven
the might of the lord and his purpose of mind
the work of the glorious father
for he god eternal
established each wonder
he holy creator
first fashioned heaven
as a roof o'er the sons of men
then the guardian of mankind
adorned this middle earth below
the world, for men
everlasting lord
almighty king
And finally, they produced in the 900s, an epic, Beowulf.
IRISH
In 800s the Irish were writing poems too, mostly about nature.
I have news for you
the stag bell winter winter snows
summer is gone
wind high and cold
the sun low- short it course
the sea running high
deep red the brak and its shape is lost
the wild goose has raised
its accustomed cry
cold has seized the birds wings
season of ice
this is my news
GERMAN
they produced poetry too, chronicles, legal material, and in the
1200s, a masterpiece. the nieblugenleid. a romantic telling of the
origins of the german people, were we find some actual people! atilla
the hun and theodoric the ostrogoth!
Before that, German trubadours called the minizangers 'love poem
singers' created poems. in 800s in saxony, the heliot is written: a
powerful retelling of the life of christ, a blending of the 4
gospels... but christian culture is mixed with nordic north culture!
jerusalem is a hill fort and jesus is the leader of a war band!
OLD SLAVONIC
Earliest slavic writings are from 800s, connected to missions of cyril
and methodius to Bohemia.
SCANDINAVIA
Oldest are the narrative accounts of the settlement of Iceland in late
800s. Then the sagas come in the 1100s, "Things said". blend of fact
and fantasy, where great figures from the past come to life.
FRANCE
the largest corpus of vernacular. the song of roland from 1100 is the
oldest, is a song of great deeds. deeds of charlemagne made to fit the
time of the crusades. honor and betrayal, chivalry. the themes that
appeal to men. women are invisible in it.
But women would appear in French literature, in the lay. short stories
of a woman and her lover, starting in 1170. romances were longer
works, have a women's point of view. narrate stories of relationships,
rich in emotions and conflicting loyalty.
Trobadours came in the 12C like the german minizanger. influenced by
Ovid's love poetry. unusual frankness and clarity:
Alas how much i knew of love
i thought
but so little know of it
for now i cannot check my love for her
who gives me little profit
she has my heart and all of me
herself and all the world
and nothing leaves to me
when thus she takes it
except desire and heartfelt longing
COURTLY LOVE
These romancers give rise to a set of expressions called Courtly Love.
This lit takes a certain view of love, unrequited usually, normally
from afar, almost platonic, a fine love, not the common lust.
Should we take it seriously? ironic?
ITALY
Dante and Shakespeare divided the world between them, there is no third.
-ts eliot
Comedia is just his last work, before that he wrote 31 love poems
woven together by prose. Also wrote a literary essay on the
suitability of the vernacular for composition.
But the Divine Comedy is the masterpiece. The tale of a journey where
the travelers are Dante himself, the reader, and the people in the
poem, and finally the whole human race. Begins in Hell, exploring the
punishment for those who fail. Morality and religion are explored, and
the roles they play in forming the human character. He's optimistic,
yet he shows us the people who fail, who fail to rise up to the
challenge of humanity's possible greatness. "Abandon hope, all ye who
enter here" on the gate of hell, is ironic.
Then we find the uplifting power of the love of one man for one woman,
beatrice.
Then the mountain of paradise, where the weary traveler finds the
glorious and mysterious love of God, by looking into the face of God.
VERNACULAR ACTIVITIES
Lay people had social movements too, usually, paradoxically,
religious. Call to apostolic life like Franciscans and Dominicans were
not lay, but some were. Some became heretical organizations. Cathars
in France 'pure' were people who embraced ancient dualism, zoroaster's
dark and light, pure and impure. Called albegensians cause they were
from town of alby. ruthlessly suppressed in a crusade by pope Innocent
III!
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