HISTORY
101
DR. SCHUERMAN
FALL 2000
CLASS LECTURE NOTES (Set 3) ON MATERIAL NOT COVERED IN CLASS
(these
notes are to augment, not substitute for, the textbook and readings book)
Legacy
of the Middle Ages
A.
The modern world is linked to the Middle Ages in a number of ways:
1.
European cities, the middle
class, the national state system, English common law, and the
universities--all had their origin in the Middle Ages.
2.
Advances were made in
business practices during that period.
3. The modern mind could
never have evolved without the writings of th Greek and Arabic
thinkers that were preserved, translated,
and commented on by medieval scholars.
4.
There were numerous
connecting strands between the scholastics and early modern philosophers.
5.
During the Middle Ages,
Europeans began to take the lead over all other nations in the uses of
technology.
a.
Christianity was in part responsible for this by maintaining that
b. The belief that God was above nature, not within it, meant that Christians did not have to face the type of spiritual obstacles to exploiting nature that existed in other religions.
6.
Medieval philosophers, by
maintaining the superiority of God's law, provided the theoretical basis for
the belief that both ruler and ruled are bound by a higher law, which would
become a principal element of modern liberal thought.
7.
The Christian stress on the
sacred worth of the individual in the higher law of God has had a permanent
influence on western civilization. Social reform has been permeated with these
ideals of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
8.
The feudal aristocracy
continued to enjoy power and privileges for centuries.
a. Aristocratic
notions of duty, honor, loyalty, and romantic love have endured into the 20th
century.
9. Feudalism contributed
to the history of liberty.
a. Feudal theory
established limits on royal power and defended rights of the kings' vassals.
b.
The tradition gradually emerged in the Middle Ages that law should
resolve from the collaboration of the kings and his subjects.
c. Development
of representative institutions, notably British
Parliament, is related to this tradition.
B. Despite the numerous
elements of continuity, the characteristic outlook of the Middle Ages differed
greatly from that of the modern age.
1.
Religion was the
integrating feature of the Middle Ages, where science and secularism
determined the modern outlook.
2.
Medieval scholastics
believed that ultimately reason alone could not provide a unified view of
nature and society.
a. A
rationale soul had to be guided by divine light.
b.
The natural order depended on the supernatural order for its origin and
purpose.
3.
In the modern view, both nature and human intellect are
self-sufficient.
a. Nature operates
without divine intervention.
b. And
no divine assistance is necessary to comprehend either
4.
The medieval philosopher
arranged nature, society and knowledge in a higher archical order.
5.
The modern thinker regards the universe as one and nature as uniform.
6.
The modern west also broke
with the rigid division of medieval society into three classes in favor of a
stress on a quality of opportunity and equal treatment under the law.
7.
The modern west rejected
the personal and customary character of feudal society and gradually
established a system whereby law assumed an objective and impersonal
character.
8.
In the Middle Ages,
religion made the place of men and women in the universe intelligible and
purposeful. To many intellectuals today, the universe seems unresponsive to
human religious impulses, and the purpose of life is sought within the limits
of earthly existence.
C.
The modern era, with its concept
of rational and free society in which individuals could realize their
potential, would emerge in the period from the Renaissance to the l8th century
Age of Enlightenment.
1.
Economic and social thought
were freed of a religious frame of reference.
2.
Science became the great
hope of the future.
3.
Enlightenment thinkers
rejected the Christian idea of humanity's inherent
sinfulness and held that the individual was basically good but exposed
to the corrupting influence of faulty institutions, poor education, and bad
leadership.