Ages of Gold

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
European Context ◽  
High Middle Ages

One way to appreciate the potential role of climate in human affairs is to observe what happens when—at least from a human-centric perspective—matters are going very well and the heavens appear to be smiling. Despite the occasional emphasis on eras of climate-driven disaster and deprivation, some historical epochs were wonderfully benevolent, times when the Sun’s warmth evidently manifested God’s bounty. One such era was the High Middle Ages, which coincided with a period of warming over large parts of the globe. Trade and commerce flourished, abundant harvests produced generous food supplies, and prosperity was conspicuously manifested in religious experiment and innovation. Such eras are often recalled through legendary and even exalted figures, such as St. Francis or Thomas Aquinas in the medieval European context. Whatever we term them, cultural golden ages have existed, and they have their foundations in climate conditions.

The Enduring Interim

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the basic economic life in the Middle Ages, noting the absence of trade or a market during the period. It first considers the legacy of the Romans with respect to economic and political life, including their commitment to the sanctity of private property and Christianity. In particular, it describes Christian attitudes toward wealth and the link between morality and the market. It also examines the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Nicole Oresme before turning to the role of markets in the Middle Ages, along with their special characteristics. Finally, it looks at other aspects of economic life during the medieval period, such as the intrusion of ethics on economics—the fairness or justice of the relationship between master and slave, lord and serf, landlord and sharecropper.

The Military Orders

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jochen Burgtorf
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Church Reform ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Military Orders ◽  
The Military ◽  
Order State

The chapter discusses the two major international military orders of the high Middle Ages, the Templars and the Hospitallers. It outlines their origins in the twelfth-century Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, as well as the factors that contributed to their emergence, such as pilgrimage, the eleventh-century Church reform, knighthood and chivalry, the Crusades, and the role of the papacy. It then considers the comparative historiography of Templars and Hospitallers, including the scholarly debate on the Templars’ suppression and the Hospitallers’ survival. The chapter goes on to address the question of the military orders’ identity by examining the extent of the Templars’ charity and hospitality, the question of the Hospitallers’ militarization, and the genesis of the concept of an ‘order state’. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals Bringing the Church Back In: Ecclesiastical Influences on the Rise of Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 213-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jørgen Møller
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Multistate System ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
European Development ◽  
Bureaucratic Institutions ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Church

AbstractRecently, political scientists and economists have redoubled their attempts to understand the “Rise of Europe.” However, the role of the Catholic Church has been curiously ignored in most of this new research. The medieval West was shot through with Catholic values and institutions, and only by factoring in the Church can we understand the peculiar European development from the high Middle Ages onward. More particularly, the 11th century “crisis of church and state” set in train a series of developments that were crucial for the Rise of Europe. The Church was the main locale in which the development of representation, consent, and early bureaucratic institutions took place, and it contributed to creating, integrating, and maintaining the European multistate system. This note demonstrates that current scholarship has failed to factor in ecclesiastical influences and it shows how these gaps can be filled by a more careful reading of prior historical scholarship.

On the Christian Idea of Man

1949 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Pieper
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Fundamental Conception ◽  
Conception Of Man ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
God's Image

The second partof the Summa Theologica of the “Universal Doctor,” Thomas Aquinas, begins with the following sentence: Because man has been created in God's image, now after having spoken of God, the archetype, we must still deal with His image which is man. (Summa Theologica I, II, Prologus.) There is something peculiar about this sentence; its meaning must not be misunderstood. It is stated as a matter of fact but its meaning is not to be taken for granted. This first sentence of Moral Theology expresses a fact which has almost entirely disappeared from the knowledge of Christians of today; namely, die fact that moral doctrine is primarily and above all a doctrine about man; that moral doctrine must plainly reveal the conception of man, and that, therefore, the doctrine of Christian morals must concern the Christian model of man. This fact was a matter of course in' the Christianity of the high Middle Ages. This fundamental conception—which, to be sure, was not definitely taken for granted as the polemical wording shows—compelled Eckhart to say two generations after St. Thomas: people should not think about what they ought to do, they should rather think about what they ought to be.

The Peace of God

2021 ◽  
pp. 104346312110657
Author(s):  
Andrew Young
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Clear Delineation ◽  
Residual Claimants

Scholars have argued that the politically fractured landscape of medieval Western Europe was foundational to the evolution of constitutionalism and rule of law. In making this argument, Salter and Young (2019) have recently emphasized that the constellation of political property rights in the High Middle Ages was polycentric and hierarchical; holders of those rights were residual claimants to the returns on their governance and sovereign. The latter characteristics—residual claimancy and sovereignty—imply a clear delineation of jurisdictional boundaries and their integrity. However, historians’ description of the “feudal anarchy” that followed the tenth-century disintegration of the Carolingian Empire does not suggest clearly delineated and stable boundaries. In this paper, I highlight the role of the Peace of God movement in the 11th and 12th centuries in delineating and stabilizing the structure of political property rights. In terms of historical political economy, the Peace of God movement provides an important link between the early medieval era and the constitutional arrangements of the High Middle Ages.

Excommunication and Territorial Politics in High Medieval Trier

1991 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian A. Pavlac
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
German History ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
The Church

In medieval German history excommunication, when considered at all, is usually examined from the perspective of the conflicts between empire and papacy, such as that between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV. Like the pope, the bishops of the German Empire were armed with the power to excommunicate. Excommunication therefore figured in local, regional politics, especially in the creation of territorial principalities within the German Empire. Territorial principalities formed during the High Middle Ages when the kingship weakened, and various powerful lords, secular and spiritual, began to build states which eventually gained near-autonomous status within the empire. When a secular dynastic lord struggled to expand his dominion over land and people, he often encroached upon church lands. To defend their churches bishops could and often did excommunicate their perceived oppressors. These regional conflicts were complicated by the dual role of prince-bishops: spiritual princes of the church and secular princes of empire. In competition with the lay nobility, prince-bishops were expanding their own secular dominions.

scholarly journals Religious Doctrines Versus Economics in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Wójcicki
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Ethical Attitudes ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ethical Norms ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
Social Persuasion

Abstract Summary Subject and purpose of work: The work presents the participation of religious ideas in shaping ethical attitudes in business. Its purpose is to indicate the need to consolidate ethical principles in economics with the use of various possibilities of social persuasion. Materials and methods: The research was based on literature studies, including religious, philosophical and historical literature. In particular, the method of induction was employed - from rules to conclusions. Attention was paid to the considerations of the method itself. Results: The development of research on the method required the recognition of the role of reason - autonomous with respect to faith. Findings of St. Thomas Aquinas (distinction between act and possibility, forms and matter, recognition of the causal linkage between events, negation of the dual truth about the same event) and W. Ockham (entities are not to be multiplied without necessity) are still valid today. Conclusions: Religious ideas support economic activity by propagating ethical norms of behaviour. This, in turn, evokes the view of J.M. Keynes about the important role of ideas as such. The significance of the Bible goes far beyond religious aspects.

Maimonides and Zhu Xi on the Role of Classical Norms in the Pursuit of Human Perfection

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 190-206
Author(s):  
Dong Xiuyuan
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Zhu Xi ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
The Law

Confronted with the cultural and political crises of the 12th century, Maimonides and Zhu Xi both focused on classical norms, restoring the systems, respectively, of the Law and the Propriety to reconstruct an ideal order of social and individual life. Both thinkers treat classical norms as an irreplaceable path to the fulfillment of human nature, and their codifications of the systems mentioned share a set of intellectualistic motifs and features. Comparing the approaches of Maimonides and Zhu Xi to classical norms, we reach an understanding of the convergence and divergence of these two great philosophers of the High Middle Ages within their own historical contexts.

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