EUROPEANS ACQUIRE “ NEW” LEARNING



Middle Ages Homework 2

Answer the following questions on your own paper.

Europeans Acquire ‘New’ Learning

1. From where did the so-called ‘new’ ideas come from? What civilization kept these ideas alive and actually introduced them into Europe?

2. How did new knowledge pose a challenge to Christian scholars?

3. What two thinkers did European scholars study in order to solve the conflict between faith and reason?

4. Did Thomas Aquinas believe that religion and logical thinking could work together or that a religious man would have to choose one over the other?

5. Where did scientific studies/ideas come from that influenced Europe? Did Europeans accept these new ideas in science or stick to their traditional religious views?

The Medieval Church

6. Why did most people in Europe not understand the church rituals they followed in their lives?

7. Who created the monastery that became the model for all monasteries and what were his three main rules for the lives of his monks?

8. How did monks and nuns contribute to learning during the Middle Ages?

9. What crime was considered as bad as the crime of treason today?

10. If someone brought before the Inquisition did not ‘confess’ his sin of heresy, how might the ‘court’ try to get a confession out of him. How were these people punished?

11. How was Christian belief/doctrine interpreted in relationship to the Jewish people?

12. As anti-Semitism spread, what were 3 ways in which Jews were persecuted?

Define or identify the following things or people

1. Aristotle (and what did he teach) 2. Scholastics

3. Summa Theologica 4. Sacraments

5. Abbot 6. Heresy

7. The Inquisition 8. Anti-Semitism

❖ EUROPEANS ACQUIRE “ NEW” LEARNING

An explosion in knowledge reached Europe in the Middle Ages. Many of the ‘new’ ideas had originated in ancient Greece but had been lost to Western Europeans after the fall of Rome.

In the Middle East, Muslim scholars had translated the works of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers into Arabic, and their texts had spread across the Muslim world. In Muslim Spain, Jewish scholars translated these works into Latin, the language of Christian European scholars.

The Challenge of Aristotle. By the 1100’s, these new translations were seeping into Western Europe. There they set off a revolution in the world of learning. The writings of the ancient Greeks posed a challenge to Christian scholars. Aristotle taught that people should use reason to discover basic truths. Christians, however, accepted many ideas on faith. They believed that the Church was the final authority on all questions. How could they use the logic of Aristotle without undermining their Christian faith?

Christian scholars, known as scholastics, tried to resolve the conflict between faith and reason. Their method, known as scholasticism, used reason to support Christian beliefs. Scholastics studied the works of the Muslim philosopher Averroes (ah VEHr oh eez) and the Jewish rabbi Maimonides (mi MAHN uh deez). These thinkers, too, used logic to resolve the conflict between faith and reason.

Thomas Aquinas. The writings of these thinkers influenced the scholastic Thomas Aquinas (uh KWI nuhs). In a monumental work, Summa Theologica, Aquinas examined Christian teachings in the light of reason. Faith and reason, he concluded, existed in harmony. Both led to the same truth, that God ruled over an orderly universe. He thus brought together Christian faith and classical Greek philosophy.

Science and mathematics. Works of science, translated from Arabic and Greek, also reached Europe from Spain and the Byzantine empire, Christian scholars studied Hippocrates on medicine and Euclid on geometry, along with works by Arab scientists. They saw, too, how Aristotle had used observation and experimentation to study the physical world.

Yet science made little real progress in the Middle Ages because most scholars still believed that all true knowledge must fit with Church teachings. It would take many centuries before Christian thinkers changed the way they viewed the physical world.

In mathematics, as we have seen, Europeans adopted Hindu-Arabic numerals. This system was much easier to use than the cumbersome system if Roman numerals that had been traditional throughout Europe for centuries. In time, Arabic numerals allowed both scientists and mathematicians to make extra-ordinary advances in their fields.

❖ THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

The center of most people’s lives during the Middle Ages was the Catholic

Church. With the decline of Rome in the A.D. 400’s, the Catholic Church took on many political and social tasks. The pope became the strongest political leader in Western Europe. The Catholic Church taught that all people were sinners and that they depended on God’s grace, or favor. The way to get God’s grace came through the sacraments, or church rituals. The sacraments are baptism, penance, eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, anointing of the sick, and holy orders.

Most people during the Middle Ages had little understanding of church

rituals. Most church rituals were said in Latin, a language few people understood. Priests were not educated, and so generally did not preach very well. In addition, few worshippers could read or write. Most average people learned about the Christian faith from the statues and paintings that were found in most medieval churches.

Monastic Life. In A.D. 529, a Roman official named Benedict founded

a monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy. It became a model for other monasteries. Benedict drew up a list of rules for the monks in the monastery. They rules made the life of a monk one of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the directives of the abbot, or monastery head.

Monks dressed in simple robes, tied at the waist by a cord. They ate one

or two plain meals each day. Most monasteries had a rule of silence. Women took part in monastic life by living in a convent under the direction of an abbess. These women were known as nuns. They alternated prayer with spinning, weaving, and embroidering items.

Although monks and nuns lived apart from society, they were not

completely isolated. They were important in preserving ancient religious works and the classical writings by copying books by hand. Many books included illuminated manuscripts. Monasteries and convents provided schools for young people, hospitals, food for the needy, and guesthouses for travelers. Some monks and nuns became missionaries, who spread Christian teachings to non-Christians.

Power of the Church. The medieval church helped govern western

Europe. It had its own laws and courts and dealt with cases that had to do with clergy, marriage, and morals. The Church imposed severe penalties on those who disobeyed its laws. One pope called a council that laid down strict rules for stopping the spread of heresy, or the denial of basic church teachings. In the Middle Ages, heresy was regarded to be as serious as the crime of treason is today. To seek and punish heretics, the Church set up a court in A.D. 1232 known as the Inquisition. Those brought before the court were to confess their heresy and ask forgiveness. Often, however, Inquisition officials accused people without enough proof. Sometimes they even tortured them to force a confession. Those who did not confess and ask for forgiveness were punished, sometimes by death.

The Jews. Jews and Christians had lived together peacefully in Europe

during the early Middle Ages. However, by the 1000s many Christians saw the Jews as outsiders and a threat to society. They unfairly blamed the Jews for a variety of social problems. Sometimes these accusations led to attacks on Jews.

The most powerful source of anti-Semitism, or hatred of the Jews, came

from the way that Christian doctrine was interpreted. Many church leaders and other people blamed the Jews for Jesus’ death. The resented the Jews for refusing to become Christians. Political leaders in some places made Jews wear special clothes that identified them as Jews or they made them live in separate communities. Jews also lost the right to own land or to practice certain trades. As a result, many Jews became peddlers or moneylenders. These were jobs that were hated by medieval Christians. Some nations in central Europe in the late 1200s even began forcing the Jewish people out of their countries. Many of these Jews settled in Eastern Europe, where they received protection. They developed their own communities based on their religious traditions.

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