Outline Lecture Eighteen— The Revival of Europe and Medieval Scholasticism
Key Focus of lecture:
1) Changing social landscape in late medieval Europe
2) Trace the intellectual development of this period—from universities to the Medieval
Synthesis (Scholasticism)
I) Economic and Social Shifts in Late Medieval Europe
a) Economic Landscape Prior to 12th Century
i) Feudal life pervasive and precarious
b) Rise of Towns and Guilds
i) 13th and 14th century urban expansion
ii) “Town air brings more freedom”
(1) Burghers and guild-masters rose in status vis-à-vis the nobility
c) Rise of National Principalities
i) German principalities’ challenge to the Papacy and the Habsburgs
ii) Contest over legal jurisdiction
(1) Competition between ecclesiastical and secular courts
(2) Traditional role of the Church as the “channel of grace”
(a) Monopoly over the major rites of passage
(3) National monarchies and principalities granting greater administrative
responsibility and autonomy to towns
(4) Charters for establishment of educational guilds to train administrators
II) The Advent of the “University”
a) Origin as a “union” or band of students
i) Bargaining power in numbers
ii) Collectively became the “university”
b) The Ivory-tower of Liberal Studies
i) Vergerius (1370-1444): “The New Education” (1400)
(1) Liberal education vs. studying a “trade”
(2) History, Moral Philosophy, and Rhetoric
ii) Legacy of the Liberal education rationale
iii) Freedom of the Mind
(1) An inquisitive habit of mind, a love for truth must be cultivated in youth
(2) Secret to true freedom?
c) Platonic vs. Real Life of a Medieval College Student
i) “College Life: Correspondences between Students and their Fathers”
III) Medieval Synthesis or Rational Scholasticism
a) Rebirth of the Classical Tradition
i) Writings of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, and works of other Greek physicians, and
Arab mathematicians
b) Tradition of Scholasticism
i) A scholar’s role is to organize, elucidate, and defend the inherited truth
ii) The slippery slope of commentary and new methodology
c) Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
i) Master of Students at University of Notre Dame
(1) Power of crucifixion
(2) Motive and intent made an act good or evil, not the act itself
ii) Application to his personal life?
d) Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
i) Dominican monk—taught at University of Paris
ii) Synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology
iii) “Summa Theological” as expression of Medieval Synthesis
(1) God as a Prime Mover
(2) Existence cannot emanate from non-existence
iv) Paving the path towards Humanism in the Renaissance