Renaissance of the 12 th Century

1. Renaissance of the 12th Century

2. Was it all darkness and ignorance? No!

3. Advances of the 12th Century • Trade • Hanseatic League • Venice (Silk Road) • Philosophy • Scholasticism • Made ancient philosophy compatible with Church doctrine • Late 12th century -- rediscovery of Aristotle

4. Advances of the 12th Century • Science • Facts • Rediscovery of ancient knowledge • Technology • Gunpowder • Improved Ships • Navigational tools • Windmills

5. Scholasticism • Support church doctrine through study, reason, and logic. • Opposed mysticism. Not just good vs. evil. • Thomas Aquinas • Tabula rasa: the mind at birth is "blank slate.” Man can think and recognize ideas through a divine spark.

6. Thomas Aquinas • Summa Theologica • Summary of theology • Influential as Bible • "Five Ways": arguments for the existence of God. • Aristotelian reasoning = logical argument • The intricate design and order of existent things and natural processes implies a Great Designer must exist. Therefore, proof for the existence of God.

7. Important Points from Summa Theologica • Theology is the greatest and most certain of all the sciences, since its source is from God, who is all-knowing. • Unbelief is the greatest sin. • The contemplative life is greater than the active life. • If a person has a spell put on them to cause them to get married, that marriage is invalid. • Everyone is called to religious life: children, women, men. • Monks and Bishops live in a state of perfection.

8. 12th CenturyThe Arts and Architecture • Romanesque • Similar to Roman • Elongated, narrow and tall arches • Gothic • Nothing to do with Goths • Pointed arches • Gargoyles • Highly decorated with statues inside and out Romanesque

9. Romanesque

10. Early Gothic Notre Dame: 1163-1250

11. Gothic

12. Chartres Cathedral: built between 1145 - 1220

13. Venetian Gothic

15. Gothic Art • Main forms: • sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscript

17. The Church • Dominates all aspects of life • Membership not optional • Governs all life milestones: birth, marriage, death • Sin = penance • Even cooking instructions used references such as “boiling an egg during the length of time wherein you say a Miserere."

18. Problems within the Church • Avignon Papacy • Background: French king vs. HRE • 1309-1377 Popes from France, not “Roman”. Popes reside in France. • 1377 Popes move back to Rome, but rival faction stays in France

21. Rome Grieving the Loss of the Papacy

22. The Pope Returning to Rome in 1377

23. French Popes and Persecution • Cathars • Physical world is evil • Renounce anything associated with authority • Enemies of French King and Pope • Pope begins systematic persecution

26. More Problems • Great Schism • 1378-1417, Two rival Popes • Council of Constance 1412 • Limits Pope’s authority • No Pope may oppose council dictates • Conciliar Movement • Reform, 14th/15th Centuries • Church is ultimate authority, not a secular leader • Result? Church loses influence

28. Man becomes more “human” • Feudalism: Being Christian = EVERYTHING • City of God vs. City of Man • End of the Middle Ages: less Christian and more human (individualism). • Humanism • People began to doubt that all men were born sinful and doomed to damnation • Still deeply religious. • Personal and intense religious experience. • The Age of Faith

29. Church vs. Civil Justice • Before: Christian beliefs • Will of God, Fate • Guilt crosses generations • Only church can absolve sin • 12th century: real-world politics = secular law • Revival of Roman law • Review of church law • Witnesses and juries • Precedent (Common Law)

30. Desire for Knowledge • Only men are “educated” • Love of knowledge for the sake of learning – not for the Church or for the study of Law • Universities increase • Oxford, Paris, Bologna

32. 12th Century Scholars • Read Latin classics • Analyzed Roman law • Read and commented on Church texts • Traveled to Spain to learn from Muslim scholars • Traveled to Constantinople to read “lost” Greek texts • Revived science, philosophy, math, and medicine • Result: More thought, discussion about problems

33. The Liberal Arts • Trivium = “The Foundation” • Grammar, logic, rhetoric • Quadrivium = “Fine-tuning” • Arithmetic AND Geometry, Music, Astronomy • “Classical Education” – not possible without recovery from Islamic and Byzantine scholars • Post-graduate work = philosophy and theology

34. Ambition and Social Class • Merchants motivated by profit. • Increased trade = increased profit • Merchants worked cooperatively to share the risk and the profit (Hanseatic League) • Peasants motivated by status • Want status and wealth • Crusades are a way to increase status • Plague causes rigid social structure to break down

35. Ambition: the Upper Classes • Sons of nobility entered monasteries to bring entire family closer to God • University = increase in status. Knowledge = Power • For the wealthy, wealth was less important than personal freedom, titles, high office.

36. So, how does the 12th Century compare to the later Renaissance? The Middle Ages were not all about superstition and ignorance The 12th Century paved the way for the later renaissance of the 15th/16th centuries. There are more similarities than differences when comparing the Renaissance of the 12th Century with that of the 15th Century

37. Summary of the 12th Century • Original thinking • Energetic pursuit of knowledge and wealth • Study of Latin to improve writing and speaking • Study of Logic to create clear thinking and reasoning • Study of Aristotle – master of logic