LANDMARKS
IN HUMANITIES
Chapter 6
Christendom: Europe in the Age of Faith
ca. 1000–1300
The Medieval Church
2

The Medieval Church
 Roman
Catholic Church held political power
 College

of Cardinals
Elected the pope
 Curia

Papal council; highest church court
 Camera

Papal treasury
 Church
wealthy; largest landowner in Western
Europe
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The Medieval Church
3
 Church
enforced religious conformity
 Excommunication
 Interdict
 Heresy
grew in response to worldliness of Church
 Antiheretical
crusades
 Inquisition
 Church

also acted as civilizing agent
Church and State
 Rivalry
for supreme authority
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The Medieval Church
4

Sin and Salvation
 Christian
sacraments assured soul’s redemption
and eternal life
 Baptism
 Confirmation
 Ordination
 Matrimony
 Penance
 Eucharist
 Extreme
unction
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The Medieval Church
5
 Clergy
held “monopoly” on personal salvation
 Remission


from sin
Purgatory
The Literature of Mysticism
 Didactic
 Record
of an intuitive knowledge of God
 Autobiographical
 Hildegard of Bingen
 Ordo
virtutum
 Scivias
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The Medieval Church
6

Saint Francis: Medieval Humanist
 Renounced
wealth; practiced absolute poverty
 Dedicated himself to preaching and serving
the poor
 Rejuvenated idealism of early Christianity
 Became known as missionary to all God’s
creatures
 Regarded
as a mystic
 Canonized in 1228
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Medieval Towns
7

Medieval Towns
 Rise
of towns driven by increased agricultural
production and reopening of trade routes
 Trade market grew into urban communities
 Growth

of the middle class
Profit through commercial exchange
 Guilds
established
 Municipal governments formed to regulate
economic activity
 Stone walls, cathedrals, guildhalls built
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Medieval Towns
8

Medieval Drama
 Enactment
 Roots
 Plays
of Christian history and legend
in religious performance
moved from Church to town square
 Pageants
 Didactic
entertainment
 Mystery
play
 Miracle play
 Morality play


Ordo virtutum
Everyman
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Medieval Towns
9

Dante’s Divine Comedy
 Epic
poem written on both literal and allegorical
level
 Journey
through realm of the dead
 Spiritual pilgrimage from sin, through purification,
to salvation
 Highly
symbolic
 Sacred
numerology
 Inferno
 Hell
with a moral hierarchy and graded system
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Medieval Towns
10

The Medieval University
 Shift
from monastic to cathedral schools in urban
centers
 Guilds
of students and teachers for higher learning
formed (universitas)
 Basic
liberal arts curriculum
 Trivium
 Quadrivium
 Women
excluded
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Medieval Towns
11

Medieval Scholasticism
 Sought
to reconcile two primary modes of
knowledge: faith and reason
 Synthesis
 Sic
of Christian and Classical learning
et Non, Peter Abelard
 Balancing
 Summa
of opposite points of view
Theologica, Aquinas
 Compendium
of all major theological issues
 Reason compatible with revelation
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The Pilgrimage Church
12

The Pilgrimage Church
 Benedictine
abbey of Cluny spearheaded church
construction and monastic reform
 Many new churches enshrined relics
 Attracted

Four major routes led to cathedral of Santiago de
Compostela
 New churches built along routes
 Needed

pilgrims
larger interiors for reliquary chapels
Use of cut stone for vaulting initiated the Romanesque
style
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The Pilgrimage Church
13
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The Pilgrimage Church
14

Romanesque Architecture
 Round
arches with stone vaults in upper zones of
nave and side-aisles
 Latin cross plan on grander scale
 Church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse

Romanesque Sculpture
 Revival
 Scene

of monumental stone sculpture
from Bible on entrance portals
Symbolic journey from sin (west) to salvation (east)
 Church
of Saint Lazarus at Autun, France
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The Pilgrimage Church
15
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The Pilgrimage Church
16
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The Gothic Cathedral
17

The Gothic Cathedral
 Architects
developed new ways for sanctuaries to
soar upward
 Served many purposes
 Celebration
of Mass
 Administrative seat of a bishop
 Educational center
 Municipal center; focal point for urban community
 Honored
saints, especially Virgin Mary
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The Gothic Cathedral
18

The Gothic Style
 From
northern France, spread throughout
medieval Europe
 Monastic church of Saint-Denis
 Abbot




Suger’s design
Pointed arch
Rib vault
“Flying” buttresses
Stained glass window
 Filtered the light of divine truth (lux nova)
 Latin
cross floor plan
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The Gothic Cathedral
19
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The Gothic Cathedral
20

Chartres Cathedral: Gothic Landmark
 Characteristic
 Architecture,
 Became
Gothic style
sculpture, stained glass
one of Christendom’s most beloved
shrines
 Tunic
of the Virgin Mary survived fire
 Sculptural
 Virgin
Mary dominated iconographic program
 Landmark
 Notre
program of Old and New Testament
in the art of stained glass
Dame de la Belle Verrière
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The Gothic Cathedral
21
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The Gothic Cathedral
22
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The Gothic Cathedral
23

Medieval Painting: The Gothic Altarpiece
 Gothic
architecture spurred creation of painted
altarpieces
 Usually

many panels, elevated behind altar
Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned
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Medieval Music
24

Medieval Musical Notation
 Invented
in monasteries
 Arranged tones of scale in progress; developed
formal system of notating pitch
 Benedictine Guido of Arezzo
 Staff
of colored lines; neumes
 System established precise means of indicating shifts
in pitch
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Medieval Music
25

Medieval Polyphony
 Northern
 Several
France center of polyphonic composition
lines of melody arranged in counterpoised
rhythms
 Pérotin,

three- and four-part Mass
The “Dies Irae”
 Reflected
new spirit of dramatic expression
 Added to requiem; became standard part of
Christian funeral service
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Medieval Music
26

The Motet
 Religious
musical genre
 Short,
polyphonic choral composition based on a
sacred text
 Juxtaposed
two or more uncomplicated themes
 Polytextual, polyphonic, polyrhythmic

Instrumental Music
 Medieval
music depended on timbre; instruments
produced gentle and thin sounds
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Beyond the West:
India and China
27

Religious Icons
 India:
Hindu icon, Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the
Dance
 Venerated
as god of destruction and creation
 Embodies rhythms of the universe
 China
and Buddhist East Asia: Buddhist icon,
bodhisattva Guanyin
 Venerated
as figure of compassion and mercy
(like Virgin Mary)
 Protects against the calamities of nature
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