The period of the Middle Ages covers a chronological framework. Folk culture
Regions of Medieval Philosophy.
Part II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MEDIEVAL AND THE RENAISSANCE
During the Middle Ages, the "geography" of philosophy changed significantly: philosophy not only continued to develop in the centers of its origin (India, China, Greece - Rome), but also went far beyond their limits.
Speaking about the philosophy of the Ancient World, one could unconditionally operate with the terms "western" (antique) and "eastern" (Indian, Chinese). But for the Middle Ages, the West-East opposition already creates some problems. They are associated primarily with the emergence and development of Muslim and Jewish 1 philosophy. Since the term "Western philosophy" has established itself as a synonym for "European philosophy", it would be incorrect to attribute them to the Western one. By referring them to the Eastern, we will commit an even greater mistake: firstly, Muslim and Jewish philosophy is much closer (in content and character) to European than to Indian, Chinese, etc .; and secondly, a number of centers of Muslim and Jewish philosophy were geographically located far to the west - on the Iberian Peninsula (for example, in Cordoba).
Since at this time the world religions had a significant influence on culture in general and philosophy in particular, it is conventionally more convenient to single out the following as the main regions where philosophy developed:
Buddhist world;
Christendom;
Muslim world.
The era of the Middle Ages is usually distinguished on the basis of events in European history (i.e., in the Christian world). Its conditional beginning is 476 - the date of the capture of Rome by the barbarians. However, if we talk about the milestone in the development of the actual ancient philosophy, then it will be more accurate to call 529 - the time
1 The main centers of Jewish philosophy were located in the territory of the domination of Islam.
the closure of the last pagan philosophical school (Academy in Athens). The end of the European Middle Ages and the beginning of the next era, i.e. the Renaissance - this is the middle of the XIV century. for Italy and the beginning of the 16th century. for Northern Europe.
But this Eurocentric (or rather, even Western Eurocentric) periodization does not fully correspond to the situation in other regions. So, strictly speaking, the Renaissance era replaced the Middle Ages not even for the entire Christian world, but only for its part - Western and Central Europe 1.
And for the Buddhist and Muslim world, the definition of both the beginning and the end of the Middle Ages presents significant difficulties. So, the end of the Middle Ages can only be associated with the emergence in these regions of the culture of the New Age, which happened no earlier than the second half of the 19th century. Similarly, the beginning of the Middle Ages in the Buddhist and Muslim world cannot be unconditionally associated with the 5th or 6th century. and even more so with the dates mentioned above. In general, one can speak about the history of the Muslim world only since the 7th century. (when Islam came into being). And for India and China, which are part of the Buddhist world, the conditional dates of the beginning of the Middle Ages fall for the period of the III-VI centuries, for Japan - this is the VI-VII centuries. etc.
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SECTION 5. CULTURE OF THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES
Chapter 1. Cultural genesis of the European Middle Ages as a historical civilization
1.1. The origin and meaning of the concept of "Middle Ages"
1.2. Chronological framework of the European Middle Ages
1.3. Factors that led to the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
1.4. Christianity as an axis of European cultural history
Chapter 2. Western Europe and Byzantium as local civilizations European Middle Ages
Chapter 3. Typological characteristics of the culture of the European Middle Ages
3.1. Agrarian-feudal nature of culture
3.2. The mental and value core of medieval culture
3.3. Typological characteristics of cultural practice
Chapter 4. Cultural practices of the Western European Middle Ages
Chapter 5. Cultural practices of Byzantium
Chapter 1
Cultural genesis of the European Middle Ages as a historical civilization
The origin and meaning of the concept of "Middle Ages"
The term "Middle Ages" first appeared in Italy during the Renaissance. For the Italian humanists of the 16th century, it was important to contrast their epoch, “modern times,” with the thousand-year period that lay between them and the ancient world. "Middle Ages" (medium aevum from lat. Literally: " middle age") - this is the time, or rather" timelessness ", during which the great ancient culture was outlived. This meaning of the concept of "Middle Ages" is largely preserved to this day.
Along with this understanding, the idea of the Middle Ages as a time of cultural decline, a time of ignorance, darkness and obscurantism, the dominance of religious dogmas and doctrines has been established in history for several centuries. Until the 19th century, the Middle Ages, even among educated people, evoked rather gloomy associations with a "failure" in the history of culture. AND I. Gurevich notes in his research that even in the second half of the 19th century. in the "General Dictionary of Literature", published in France, the Middle Ages were spoken of as "ten centuries of darkness" that separated Antiquity from the Renaissance.
Such an interpretation had a certain justification, since the world of the new European culture was created in a sharp polemic with the old, and all those negative signs were attributed to the Middle Ages, from which, as it seemed then, the emerging era was free. New European culture, which began with the Renaissance, would like to count itself among the descendants not so much of the Middle Ages as of Antiquity, and this gave rise to a special attitude, aptly characterized by Yu.M. Lotman (albeit for a slightly different reason) as follows: “... ancestors admire - parents condemn; ignorance of ancestors is compensated by imagination and romantic worldview, parents and grandfathers are remembered too well to understand. All the good in themselves is attributed to the ancestors, all the bad - to the parents. "
Another, and polar, interpretation of the concept of "Middle Ages" is associated with the spread at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. romantic world outlook in European culture, from the standpoint of which the Middle Ages were perceived as the "golden age" of culture, the time of the highest spirituality and comprehension of the highest divine meaning being. Thus, the romantic age, as noted by J. Le Goff, tried to replace the “black legend” with the “golden” one.
In the XX century. researchers began to avoid such unambiguous assessments of the Middle Ages, realizing the task of an unbiased and adequate description of it. Now, thanks to their efforts, it became clear that the role of the Middle Ages for the entire subsequent history of European civilization can hardly be overestimated. After all, it was then that modern European languages and nations were formed, the European states known today were formed, and finally, many values of today's European culture go back to the Middle Ages. And this is just a quick overview of the medieval heritage!
Chronological framework of the civilization of the European Middle Ages
They are determined by specialists in different ways, depending on economic, sociocultural, political, legal and other criteria. However, you can see that during the IV-VI centuries. the transition is clearly underway from one type of civilization - the Ancient, to a new - Medieval. Undoubtedly, this is a transitional period, a time of "fermentation", the disintegration of one quality and the emergence of another (S. S. Averintsev calls this time interval a "time gap" between the Ancient and Medieval types of culture). The emergence of the contours of Medieval civilization, therefore, is often attributed no earlier than the 7th - 8th centuries. - the time when two "local" civilizations of the European Middle Ages received their civilizational status: Western Europe and Byzantium.
As for the chronological end of the medieval era, it also does not have an unambiguous absolute expression, and we can only talk about relative chronology.
In its most general form, the Middle Ages in Western Europe ends as the signs of a new historical and civilizational type - Modernity - are asserted. The relativity of the lower time limit of the Middle Ages therefore fluctuates for different European countries within 2-3 centuries, i.e. between the XIV and XVII centuries.
The end of the Byzantine Middle Ages is usually associated with the fall of Constantinople (its capture by the Seljuk Turks) in 1453. F. Engels wrote: “Along with the rise of Constantinople and the fall of Rome, antiquity comes to an end. The end of the Middle Ages is inextricably linked with the fall of Constantinople. The new era begins with a return to the Greeks. "
Factors that led to the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Chapter 2
Western Europe and Byzantium as Local Civilizations of the European Middle Ages
The medieval type of civilization and culture is represented by two varieties: Latin (Catholic) West (Western Europe) and Greek (Orthodox) Byzantium. Thus, as in Antiquity, a single stream of European culture “bifurcates” into two channels, but this process now has other grounds. The relationship between the Byzantine and Western European civilizations of the Middle Ages was different.
CHAPTER 3
Typological characteristics of the culture of the European Middle Ages
Agrarian-feudal nature of culture
The Middle Ages inherited from Antiquity agricultural type culture. Agricultural labor is the main economic pivot of this culture. It is only at the end of an era that the prerequisites for the industrial revolution mature. Moreover, medieval culture is even more rural than its predecessor. The development of cities and related handicraft production is noted in most European countries only at the end of the Middle Ages. And yourself medieval towns play a fundamentally different role than city-states. The old ancient cities were bled, the craft in them was destroyed, the trade fell into decay.
Changes in agrarian cultures concern feudal relations property. Feudalism (from the Latin feodum or feudum - land, position, income, granted by the lord to his vassal in hereditary possession under the condition of performing military service, assistance in managing the estate, participating in court and paying custom payments) is based on large noble land tenure in combination with peasant (allotment) land use, the attachment of direct producers to the land, their class inferiority and personal dependence on the feudal lords. Thus, in this society, there are two types of relations: economic and personal contractual ties.
The cultural picture of the world.
The contours of the medieval Christian mentality emerge already in the transitional era, while its roots go back to the late antique culture.
The starting point for building a new cultural model was the ancient concept of space as the basis of the world order. If paganism in its mythological, and then in philosophical manifestations, deified the cosmos itself, without thus separating the source of the world order from matter, the consciousness of the early Middle Ages strengthened the idea of an all-embracing and meaningful ordering of things, alienating its source from existence itself and embodying the latter into the idea of the absolute. , non-worldly (transcendental) and sovereign God.
The cosmos itself is in relation to God in a relationship of obedience, monastic obedience. Such a parallel between the world celestial bodies and the world of society meant becoming creationism- teachings about the same God as the creator of the elements and as the legislator of people
Most of all, those directions of ancient idealism gravitated towards this understanding of being, which were carried away by the ideas of "harmony of spheres", "star order" - Pythagoreanism and Platonism. The next step in this direction was made by Philo of Alexandria (late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD) - "the real father of Christianity" (F. Engels). This thinker developed the doctrine of God as the highest spiritual abstract principle, which is outside the world he created, about the Son of God, sent to earth to atone for human sinfulness. This is how the synthesis of idealistic ancient thinking and the Eastern (Judaic) mythological worldview with its characteristic pronounced monotheism, eschatologism and messianism, so important for Christianity and Christian culture, was realized.
So, in the center of being, the emerging medieval consciousness placed God as the Creator of all that exists and as an absolute spiritual substance that reigns supreme in the world.
These ideas were developed in the works of Christian thinkers of the 4th - 5th centuries: Ambrose of Mediolansky (334 or 340-397), Safonius Euseevius Jerome (347-420) and especially Aurelius Augustine (354-430). G.). In his treatises "On the City of God", "On the Christian Teaching" and others, as well as in his famous "Confession", Augustine put forward two major problems left in neglect by ancient thought. One of them is the problem of the formation of the human personality with its crises and fractures, the other is the dynamics of universal human history with its internal inconsistency.
The basis of the worldview system, created by Augustine, is the idea of the existence of two states, "cities", hypostases of being: the city of divine, heavenly (civitas Dei) and the city of the earth (civitas terrena). The first is inhabited by the righteous, true Christians, angels - i.e. beings who are faithful to God, who love him with true love, in which they come to contempt for themselves; the second - the wicked and sinners, which are the majority of people and in whom true love is suppressed by love for oneself, driven to contempt for God. Both of these worlds are so closely intertwined that one and the same person can simultaneously carry them in himself. The eternal struggle of these principles constitutes, according to Augustine, the leading collision of world history.
The founder of the earthly city was the fratricide Cain. Romulus was also a fratricide, who built the city of Rome on the blood of his brother Remus. The human world, therefore, and Rome, as its visible embodiment, initially carry crime and evil. He triumphs, but only for the time being. The heavenly city, like the innocent but suffering Abel, is persecuted until, thanks to the coming of the Christian church, life "according to the spirit" and not "according to the flesh" triumphs. Those who fail to overcome the shackles of the earthly city will be doomed to eternal torment. In what dimension are both cities? The city of the earth develops historically, the city of God abides in eternity. Hence, Augustine's natural attention to time problem.
There was no time before the creation of the world. Only the appearance of the objective world caused a certain movement. It is the changes in the created world that form time. After much thought, Augustine comes to the conclusion that time has no ontological status and is contained only in the soul of the subject. Only here, in the personal-psychological dimension, there is the reality of the past (memory) and the potential reality of the future (expectation). Thus, time is derived from the created world; this is the lot of human life and history. The movement of the world from creation to the end of the world is measured by uniformly flowing time, and only on this path is it possible to achieve communion with the true city and eternity. The leading characteristics of time are linearity and limb.
The beginning and the end turn out to be significant moments in the history of the earthly city. And in the very concept of earthly history, they come to the fore teleologism and providentialism. The first means that the goal is determined from above, to which mankind goes and will come at the end of its history, which, despite all the zigzags and backward movements, acquires a form of progressive development - ascent to the "kingdom of God." The second captures the idea that these paths themselves are known to divine providence. Moreover, medieval thinking develops the concept predestinations, sharply different from the ancient ideas about the fatality of the cosmos. According to this concept, God originally ordained a certain and finite number of people to eternal blissful life. The "elect" by the grace of God, regardless of their merits and sins, will be able to enter the heavenly kingdom. All the rest, also regardless of their earthly way of life, are doomed to eternal destruction.
So, the following is presented to the view of a cultural historian. picture of the world, characteristic of medieval cultural consciousness. Being is built as a whole, ordered and organized system in a certain way. At its center is God, understood as a transcendental, superintelligent, supersensible, infinite, omnipresent, immaterial and perfect principle. All other representations and ideas, values and ideals of medieval man are grouped around this semantic core. . On the whole, being is structured in two ways. Really existing is recognized as a higher, sacred, perfect and essential being - the being of God (heavenly reality) - and carnal, sinful, worldly (earthly reality). The second reality is derived from the first and subordinated to it.
Thus, medieval cultural consciousness is primarily characterized by dualism and hierarchism, which left an imprint on all the semantic categories of this culture. Dualism means the consistent and absolute opposition of God to the entire created world, hierarchism means the establishment of relations of subordination between the members of such a dichotomy. Medieval consciousness knows various variants of semantic oppositions that correlate with each other and with the mentioned "central" dichotomy: celestial / earthly, sacred (holy) / sinful, spiritual / carnal (bodily), high / low, good / evil, pure / impure, etc. .d.
However, not only mutually exclusive categories (opposites) enter into opposition, but also meanings close to each other. “Therefore, - S.S. Averintsev, - the opposition "sacred - most sacred" enters into action. This opposition is expressed in the dual unity of the Christian canon of the Bible: the Old Testament is holy, but the New Testament more holy [emphasis added] ... It is expressed in the architecture of the church: the whole temple is a sacred place, but the altar is the most sacred. It is expressed in the routine of the church: every service is a sacred act, but the liturgy belongs to more high level sacredness ".
Dualism and hierarchism are also manifested in ideas about space and time... The heavenly space is sovereign and inhabited by spiritual beings, the earthly space is dependent and inhabited by people, "creatures", filled with material objects. The heavenly is lined up vertically (opposition "up / down"), the earthly - horizontally (opposition "own / alien").
The model of a vertically organized space is a microcosm: a temple, human body, - where the upper parts symbolize belonging to a higher being, and the lower parts - more low degree sacredness or even sinfulness.
On earth, space is hostile to man; beyond the boundaries of man-made territory there is an unknown and threatening world. For a medieval (especially Western) person, the outside world is either a wild dense forest, an impenetrable thicket, or a deserted desert. Resettlement to such a world (for example, desert habitation) signified in the context of medieval culture “withdrawal from the world,” which means a test and at the same time - the subordination of one's life not to the worldly, but to the divine principle (monasticism).
The world of settlements, mastered by medieval man, is a world of vast spots and glades reclaimed from the wild. Their semantics - "refuge", "protection" - also captures dualism in the understanding of earthly space. The border between the settlement and the outside world is always marked - these are defensive fortifications (powerful, sometimes 2-3 belts walls, deep ditches, sentinel posts and towers), and used as such features of the natural landscape (a hill, a river, in the bend of which it was often placed settlement, etc.). A special semantic load is borne by those elements of the "border" that perform the function of connecting the internal and external space - bridges, gates.
Despite their antagonism, the heavenly and earthly realities are strangely united in the medieval consciousness into a single whole, because “God is“ blessing and sanctifying all[Emphasis on the author] ". The face of God "appears" through objects and phenomena of earthly reality, which acquire a character characters, transmitting essential, transcendental content in a tangible, sensual form. Thus, the gap between the two realities is eliminated, and they constitute different hypostases that is, an important place in the medieval system of culture is occupied by symbolism.
It is important to note that the symbolic understanding of being fettered the freedom of human will and prevented it from touching even the building of earthly society, since its loosening automatically meant an attempt on the life of heavenly society. Therefore, it should not seem strange and such a biased attitude of a person of this era to form (writing letters, iconographic canons in painting, church rituals, etc.), since every form is sanctioned from above.
Only the earthly hypostasis of being has a temporary extent; at the same time, time is a moment of eternity, therefore it can belong only to God alone. Using time, taking advantage of it, was considered a sin.
Spatial continuity, intricately connecting and intertwining heaven and earth, corresponded understanding time as continuous and linear... The idea of a renewed temporary cycle, which in Antiquity quite coexisted with the idea of temporary irreversibility, is, on the whole, alien to the medieval mentality. Time inexorably moves the history of the human race from the moment of creation to the end of the world, the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment. This is where earthly history ends, and the triumph of the kingdom of heaven begins. Between the Beginning and the End, these two significant milestones, a story unfolds, the intrinsic meaning of which is ultimately recognized as unimportant. The “extreme”, polar points of the process are important: the initial, without which there would be no history itself, and the final, which, like a magnet, forms its vector orientation, is the motive of movement.
Human itself history divides into sacred (sacred) and secular. The value of the first is immeasurably higher, since during its course the events unfolding that prepared the coming of the Savior to earth. The first is rooted in Sacred history, which begins with such a primary event as the act of creation, and ends with the temptation of Adam and Eve and original sin. Then, already on earth, the sacred Old Testament and New Testament story unfolds, and the first anticipates the second. This foreshadowing, in fact, constitutes the main sacred theme. Linear time is cut into two parts in connection with the incarnation of the Lord. The entire medieval chronology is based on this fact, keeping its own account of time "on both sides" of this significant event... “Before” (Nativity of Christ) ”is the time with the“ - ”sign,“ after ”is the time with the“ + ”sign. Nevertheless, compared with modern people, medieval man was much more indifferent to the exact (absolute) dating of events. The exact indication of the time interested him only in connection with the events of the sacred history. Here the chronology was surprisingly strict. Thus, the creation of the world (exactly six days), the history of the Fall, the earthly existence of Christ are described in the most detailed way. All these dates and dates acquire a symbolic meaning, and according to them, the clocks of all human history are “synchronized”. As for the methods of measuring time, the Middle Ages practically did not bring anything new after Antiquity. It still did not know how to divide time into equal lengths. In fact, the entire chronological toolkit (sundial, hourglass and water clocks and some other devices) remained unchanged.
The basis for the practical counting of time throughout the Middle Ages is agrarian, rural time, guided, as befits an agrarian culture, on the natural cycles and milestones of the main agricultural work. Of all the events, medieval chroniclers singled out those that were associated with unusual or threatening natural and weather phenomena - crop failure, pestilence, bad weather, eclipses. However, agrarian time was closely intertwined with time. religious.
The agricultural year was at the same time a liturgical year: it was filled with events and holidays associated with the life of Christ, the Mother of God and the holy martyrs. The liturgical year was coordinated with the rhythm of agricultural work, in which the old pagan traditions were manifested. So, summer and part of autumn were almost free from major church dates and holidays, because coincided with the most intense labor period (the exception here is Trinity). The most eventful period of the religious year was the winter time until the beginning of the spring field work, to which such major church dates as Christmas, Annunciation, Easter, and Ascension were timed.
Leading theme worldly history becomes a transition, a transfer of power from one world center to another. It proceeds from the idea that at all times and epochs the world lives subject to only one center, which governs the entire earthly rhythm. As in the archaic era, power is attributed to a sacred character, it is from God. There is a continuity of power and civilization in the world, and with each such transfer, the correspondence of the power of earthly power to heavenly power increases, since power passes into more and more worthy hands. So, the power of the Babylonians through the Medes and Persians passed to the Macedonians, and then to the Romans. The fall of Rome was explained by the fact that it turned into a "Babylonian harlot", contributed to the prosperity of vice and moral decay. The Byzantines became the legal successors of the Romans, and further ways of power were interpreted differently in the West and in Byzantium: the West ascribed the role of the “third Rome” to itself (either the Carolingian Empire, or the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation), and the Orthodox world (especially in Russia, in period of the Muscovy) - to yourself. Thus, the Middle Ages were characterized by fierce debates around the theme of the "third Rome", and this is not accidental.
Terrestrial linear history was seen by the mature medieval consciousness not ascending, as at the dawn of this era (see above), but downward. The favorite thought of medieval authors was the idea of aging, decline and crushing of the human race, damage and destruction of the world. The words of Bernard of Chartres are significant: "We are just dwarfs, standing on the shoulders of giants." In the practice of medieval education, one can find serious reasoning that ancient people were taller than the present, and in the future people will decrease even more in size. In this sense, medieval consciousness is really catastrophic, imbued with a kind of funeral ring. Humanity, as it were, was preparing itself for the acceptance of inevitable punishment and the Last Judgment.
It should be noted that linear and irreversible time is more consistently maintained in the Western European mentality. Byzantine cultural consciousness held the idea of circular, renewed motion... Many researchers see confirmation of this in the different structure of religious buildings, which displayed differently and simulated the medieval universe. In the West, the basilical type of temple was developed, where horizontal linearity dominated - elongation along the west-east axis, from the entrance to the altar. In Byzantium, however, the cross-domed type of temple building was established with its inherent circular organization of the under-dome space, where the main liturgical action was carried out.
Various events and images of sacred history received different understanding in the context of Western and Eastern Christianity. Thus, the Catholic consciousness focuses on the starting point of the life of Christ - His coming to earth, the Nativity of Christ. The main holiday of the Orthodox is Easter - the bright Resurrection of Christ, the moment of the triumph of His saving faith. The image of Mary is perceived differently in the Western and Eastern European consciousness. The first treats him primarily as the image of a pure and immaculate young Virgin; second, he sees in him the idea of motherhood, consolation and intercession.
Human Model
Christianity contributed to the growing understanding of the importance of the individual, his value-based emphasis. It is no coincidence that medievalists write about "a catastrophic explosion of personal consciousness in the very depths of the Middle Ages."
At the same time, the culture of the Middle Ages is not yet characterized by the understanding of an individual (= isolated) person as a person, as a self-valuable individuality, the meaning of which lies in the fact that it is not like others, different from others. “For medieval minds, the detached-individual is an accident, that is, something secondary, particular, accidental, perishable and painful in a person; paramount, on the contrary, is everything that communes with the conciliar and the eternal ”. Even on the sacred plane, discrimination is a way of representing the general. “The fact that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are different, because they are simultaneously one, so that differences are unity, and unity is differences ... To think of even Christ as original would be heresy .. . ". To think of one's “I” as something exclusive and sovereign would be, in the eyes of a subject of medieval culture, a grave sin, an expression of pride and criminal self-will. “Everything is in God's hands”, “God's will for everything” - this is his credo. The man of the Middle Ages interpreted his individuality primarily through an example, imitation of indisputable authorities, realizing himself in the forms of archetypal models known to him, identifying himself with them. He paradoxically asserts his "personality" by denying its originality, pointing to the universal and general, which manifests itself in the particular and the individual. So, according to A.Ya. Gurevich, such medieval authors as Guibert Nozhansky or Pierre Abelard, in their autobiographical writings, strive to imitate, respectively, the "Confessions" of Augustine and the life of St. Jerome. Thus, "the personality of the medieval era was generally able to" collect "himself only from fragments of other personalities given to her in literary texts" , she thought of herself “centrifugally,” as opposed to the “centripetal” character of modernity.
Axiological system.
The value dominant of medieval culture is the idea of God.“That was,” notes A. Gurevich, “for the people of the Middle Ages, the highest truth, ... with which their cultural and social values were correlated, the final regulatory principle of the whole world picture of the era”.
In his intentions to achieve consistency with the world of existential and spiritual absolutes, the man of the Middle Ages adhered to ministry concepts, what he saw as the embodiment of man's only destiny. In this connection, the interpretation of faith (in God) as "faithfulness" to him seems interesting. “Faith” and “fidelity” are one and the same (Hebrew “aemunah”, Greek “pistis”, Latin “fides” mean both of these concepts, ”S. S. Averintsev points out.
The "earthly" correlate of service to God was recognized as a variety of forms of social functioning of the individual, within the framework of social stratification and hierarchization: vassal-feudal and "state" subordination were considered as a way of the individual's implementation of his earthly mission. Personal loyalty and devotion to the lord (Western Europe) or the emperor (Byzantium) - different manifestations essentially the same value orientation, based on the idea that any earthly power is the hypostasis of heavenly power. In turn, ministry involved overcoming self-will, interpreted as pride - one of the most serious "mortal sins". "All the will of God", "all - from God" - these are the leading behavioral imperatives that governed the man of this era.
The Middle Ages recognize as the main form of service work, for the first time in history, emerged from the "shadow" of culture. It was in the Middle Ages that work receives an ethical justification: it is important to work, moreover, work in accordance with your earthly destiny. Labor is the main lot of a person, determined by the Lord, and for this alone, every labor is sacred. However, here, too, a certain hierarchization can be seen, dictated by the universal laws of life: the work of a priest and especially a monk is "more valuable" than the work of an ordinary layman, for such work is the lot of God's chosen ones, ascetics higher form ministries- direct service to the Creator.
The world of values of the Middle Ages included the category authority. According to J. Le Goff, they controlled the spiritual life of society. The feeling of their own lack of independence gave rise to a feeling of insecurity in people and the need to rely on the past, on the experience of predecessors. The axiological system of medieval culture presents us with a certain hierarchy of authorities... The first place here is undoubtedly given to the life and deeds of the "exemplary person" - Jesus Christ, then the Mother of God and the apostles, saints and church fathers follow. Following these examples from the past is the guarantee of a virtuous life for today's people. In the most consistent form, the practice of references found expression in theology: here the authority of "personalities" extended to the textual hierarchy. The highest authority was the Holy Scriptures (especially the New Testament), then Holy Tradition (decrees of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church that consolidated the dogmatic foundations of the Christian faith), patristics (the works of the church fathers), hagiographic texts (the lives of the saints). At the same time, the Latin West and the Byzantine East envisioned a circle of leading authorities in different ways, which was consistent with Catholic or Orthodox church dogma.
Despite the unity of the fundamental value orientations, the culture of the Middle Ages developed two value-semantic paradigms corresponding to the two "worlds" of European culture - western and eastern. There is no doubt that the main system-forming factor in the formation of these paradigms was Christianity in its eastern and western versions (Orthodox and Catholic, respectively). Without taking into account how the formation of these two movements went within the once united Christianity (which, in turn, depended on many cultural and civilizational factors - see above), let us consider the main, in our opinion, discrepancies between the value systems named here.
Characteristic feature Western mentality is rationalism, which is expressed in the recognition as the leading principle of comprehending reality of a logical, rational toolkit, while the Byzantine-Orthodox mentality put forward as primacy irrational, intuitive-emotional, spiritual-mystical comprehension of the world on the basis of the virtuous fusion of the human soul with the world of divine essences. Thus, in Western (Catholic) theology, the line of rational knowledge of God is clearly traced (Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Thomas Aquinas, etc.), which ultimately supplanted the anti-intellectualist line (Augustine Aurelius, Bernard of Clairvaux). For the first, it is characteristic, in one way or another, to recognize the role of reason both for proving the existence of God and for introducing people to faith.
Orthodox theology interpreted the problem of correlation in a different way faith and reason: Faith is understood here not as a way to know the existence of God, but as a directly experienced connection with him, given by a sincere human need for the divine. Moreover, in the Russian theological (also Orthodox) tradition, the very attempt to seek evidence of the existence of God is seen as a doubt in the very foundations of the Christian faith, leading a person to fall away from the church (A.S. Khomyakov). So, the problem of cognition, actual in Catholicism, is replaced in Orthodoxy by the problem of experiencing, feeling God.
A logical-theoretical approach to the deeds of God and practical activities a person, entrenched in the Catholic mentality, contributed to the understanding of being as a place for the application of forces and abilities, first of all, of the person himself, and therefore, the appearance in the value system of such an orientation as activism... Condemnation of the originality and self-will of a person, therefore, did not exclude the recognition of his activity, understood as improvement and the achievement of salvation, which depends not only on divine grace, but also on the efforts of the person himself. In this system of values, labor is sanctified and in the end, already in the New Age, it turns into the only and highest form of service to God (Protestantism).
Catholicism aspires to God from the world, while Orthodoxy - from God to the world. By virtue of this, the Orthodox axiological system means by activity not so much human activity aimed at transforming life, as activity aimed at justifying life. Therefore, the worldly activity of a person is not only not welcomed, but also perceived skeptically, and even condemned. This understanding by no means denies the value of work, which is considered a God-given purpose, but sets the limit of its capabilities, since the main decision remains not with a person, but with divine providence. Eastern Christian consciousness as a whole is contemplative, in which one can see the continuation of the ancient Greek paradigm of culture; the Western Christian is active, and this is the continuation of the Roman tradition.
The active and pragmatic principle in the Catholic intellectual system determined the great role of organizing and ordering principles both in the secular and in the clerical environment. In either case, the relations of people with each other are subject to a strict and rather rigid system of rules and regulations, where the limits of competence of each are clearly outlined, proceeding from once and for all assigned assignments, roles, functions of a person in this hierarchy. At the same time, as S.S. Averintsev, the regulation of relations in the West was somewhat compensated by the introduction and observance of the rules of politeness, thanks to which, at least outwardly, the feelings of the subject of culture were spared, forced to unquestioningly obey the attitudes acting on him from the outside. In this sense, Catholicism expects from a person in the first place discipline, while Orthodoxy - sincerity.
Differently in the Orthodox and Catholic minds it looks value understanding of property relations... Early Christianity, relying on biblical texts, condemned money-grubbing and wealth, however, over time
During the V century. in the western territory of the fallen Roman Empire, various tribes of barbarian Germans settled. They occupied the territory of modern Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands.
The barbarian states that emerged from the ruins of the Roman Empire were characterized by the Christian religion, which replaced the ancient pagan beliefs of the barbarians, and a new European culture that emerged in the sphere of religion.
The nature of all Medieval art is extremely contradictory. On the one hand, this is the propaganda of religious ideas and asceticism, on the other, it is a reflection of the enormous wealth of a person's inner life, his state of mind, and the beauty of work. And it was this second side of Medieval culture that prepared its extraordinary rise in the Renaissance.
The "Middle Ages" is a time that is in the middle between Antiquity and Modern Times and, for some incredible reason, does not have its own name. It covers over a thousand years of human history. It is usually divided into three main periods:
- 1. Early Middle Ages, V-X centuries;
- 2. High (Classical) Middle Ages, X-XIV centuries;
- 3. Late Middle Ages, XIV-XV centuries. [with. 116, 10]
In the early Middle Ages, the V-VIII centuries were distinguished as an independent period. - This era is called "Dark Ages" or "The Period of the Great Nations Migration".
The Middle Ages (Middle Ages) - the era of domination in Western and Central Europe of the feudal economic and political system and the Christian religious worldview, which came after the collapse of antiquity. Replaced by Renaissance. Covers the period from IV to XIV century. In some regions, it persisted at a much later time. The beginning of the Middle Ages is most often considered the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. However, some historians suggested that the Milanese edict of 313, which meant the end of the persecution of Christianity in the Roman Empire, was the beginning of the Middle Ages. Christianity became the defining cultural trend for the eastern part of the Roman Empire - Byzantium, and after several centuries it began to dominate in the states of the barbarian tribes that formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire.
Historians disagree about the end of the Middle Ages. It was proposed to consider as such: the fall of Constantinople (1453), the discovery of America (1492), the beginning of the Reformation (1517), the beginning of the English Revolution (1640) or the beginning of the Great French Revolution (1789).
The term "Middle Ages" (lat. medium? vum) was first introduced by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo in Decades of History, Starting from the Decline of the Roman Empire (1483). Before Biondo, the dominant term for the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance was the concept of "Dark Ages" introduced by Petrarch, which in modern historiography means a narrower period of time.
In the narrow sense of the word, the term "Middle Ages" is used only in relation to Western European Middle Ages... In this case, this term implies a number of specific features of religious, economic and political life: the feudal system of land use (feudal landowners and semi-dependent peasants), the system of vassalage (relations between feudal lords and vassal), the unconditional domination of the Church in religious life, the political power of the Church ( the inquisition, church courts, the existence of feudal bishops), the ideals of monasticism and chivalry (a combination of the spiritual practice of ascetic self-improvement and altruistic service to society), the flourishing of Medieval architecture - Romanic and Gothic.
Many modern states arose precisely in the Middle Ages: England, Spain, Poland, Russia, France, etc.
The term "middle ages"(more precisely, the "middle age" - from Lat. medium aevum) originated in Italy in the XV-XVI centuries. in humanist circles. At different stages in the development of historical science, different content was put into the concept of "Middle Ages". Historians of the 17th-18th centuries, who consolidated the division of history into ancient, middle and modern, considered the Middle Ages to be a period of deep cultural decline, as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in modern times. In the future, bourgeois historians were unable to put forward any unified scientific definition of the concept of "Middle Ages". In modern non-Marxist historiography, the prevailing opinion is that the terms "Middle Ages", " ancient world"," New time "are devoid of a certain content and are accepted only as traditional divisions of historical material.
Nevertheless, the concepts of "middle ages" and "feudalism" are not completely identical. On the one hand, during the Middle Ages, other socio-economic structures (patriarchal, slaveholding, then capitalist) coexisted with feudalism. Moreover, for a long time in the early Middle Ages in a number of regions of Europe (especially in Byzantium, the Scandinavian countries) the feudal mode of production was not dominant. On the other hand, the feudal system persisted in the economy of many
From this Latin term originates and the term "medieval studies), which is called the field of historical science that studies the history of the Middle Ages.
countries centuries after the medieval era. Therefore, only considering the formation in the dialectics of all stages of its development, we can say that in its essence the medieval era was feudal.
Almost all the peoples now inhabiting Europe and Asia, as well as many peoples of Africa and Latin America passed in their development the stage of the feudal formation and, therefore, survived their Middle Ages.
Periodization of the history of the Middle Ages.
The transition to feudalism among different peoples did not occur simultaneously. Therefore, the chronological framework of the medieval period is not the same for different continents and even individual countries. In the countries of Western Europe, at the origins of the Middle Ages, according to the periodization adopted in Soviet historiography, there is a collapse in the second half of the 5th century. The Western Roman Empire, which perished as a result of the crisis of the slave system, which made it defenseless against the barbarian invasions of the Germanic and Slavic tribes. These invasions led to the collapse of the empire and the gradual elimination of the slave system on its territory, and became the beginning of a deep social upheaval that separated the Middle Ages from ancient history. For the history of Byzantium, the beginning of the Middle Ages is considered the IV century, when the East Roman Empire took shape as an independent state.
The boundary between the Middle Ages and modern times in Soviet historiography is considered to be the first bourgeois revolution of general European significance, which marked the beginning of the domination of capitalism in Western Europe - the English revolution of 1640-1660, as well as the end of the first all-European - the Thirty Years War (1648).
It is, however, neither unique nor indisputable. In foreign historiography of both capitalist and socialist countries, the line separating the Middle Ages from modern times is usually considered either the middle of the 15th century, or the end of the 15th - early 16th centuries. That is, the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks and the collapse of Byzantium, the end of the Hundred Years War (1453) or the beginning of the era of the Great geographical discoveries, especially Columbus's discovery of America. In particular, some Soviet researchers believe that the 16th century, the era of the first bourgeois revolutions, should be attributed to a special period of modern times. On the other hand, a number of historians adhere to the point of view that if we consider the Middle Ages as the period of dominance of the feudal formation, then it should include for Western Europe and the 18th century - before the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794. Thus, this question belongs to the discussion.
In Soviet historiography, the history of the Middle Ages is usually divided into three main periods: I. End of the 5th century. - the middle of the 11th century - the early Middle Ages (early feudal period), when feudalism was just taking shape as the dominant mode of production; II. Mid-11th century - late 15th century - the period of developed feudalism, when the feudal system reached its peak; III. XVI century - first half of the 17th century. - the period of decomposition of feudalism, when in the bowels of feudal society capitalist relations are born and begin to take shape.
Culturologists call the Middle Ages a long period in the history of Western Europe between Antiquity and Modern Times. This period covers more than a millennium from the 5th to the 15th centuries.
Within the millennial period of the Middle Ages, it is customary to distinguish at least three periods, these are:
- - Early Middle Ages, from the beginning of the era to 900 or 1000 years (up to X - XI centuries);
- - High (Classic) Middle Ages. X-XI centuries to about XIV century;
- - Late Middle Ages, XIV and XV centuries.
The early Middle Ages was a time when turbulent and very important processes took place in Europe. First of all, these are the invasions of the so-called barbarians (from the Latin barba - beard), who, from the 2nd century AD, constantly attacked the Roman Empire and settled on the lands of its provinces. These invasions ended with the fall of Rome.
At the same time, the new Western Europeans, as a rule, adopted Christianity, which in Rome by the end of its existence was the state religion. Christianity in its various forms gradually supplanted pagan beliefs throughout the territory of the Roman Empire, and this process did not stop after the fall of the empire. This is the second most important historical process, defining the face of the early Middle Ages in Western Europe.
The third significant process was the formation of new state entities created by the same "barbarians". Numerous Frankish, Germanic, Gothic and other tribes were in fact not so wild. Most of them already had the beginnings of statehood, owned crafts, including agriculture and metallurgy, and were organized on the principles of military democracy. Tribal leaders began to proclaim themselves kings, dukes, etc., constantly at war with each other and subjugating weaker neighbors. On Christmas Day 800, King Charlemagne of the Franks was crowned Catholic in Rome and as emperor of the entire European west. Later (AD 900), the Holy Roman Empire split into countless duchies, counties, margraves, bishoprics, abbeys and other fiefdoms. Their rulers behaved like completely sovereign masters, not considering it necessary to obey any emperors or kings. However, the processes of formation of state formations continued in subsequent periods. A characteristic feature of life in the early Middle Ages was the constant plunder and devastation to which the inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire were subjected. And these robberies and raids significantly slowed down economic and cultural development.
During the period of the classical, or high Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome these difficulties and revive. Since the 10th century, cooperation according to the laws of feudalism has made it possible to create larger state structures and collect enough strong armies... Thanks to this, it was possible to stop the invasions, significantly limit the robberies, and then gradually go on the offensive. In 1024, the Crusaders took the Eastern Roman Empire from the Byzantines, and in 1099 captured the Holy Land from the Muslims. True, in 1291, both were lost again. However, the Moors were expelled from Spain forever. Eventually, Western Christians conquered dominion over the Mediterranean Sea and its islands. Numerous missionaries brought Christianity to the kingdoms of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, so that these states entered the orbit of Western culture.
The onset of relative stability provided the opportunity for a rapid rise in cities and the pan-European economy. Life in Western Europe changed greatly, society quickly lost its barbaric features, spiritual life flourished in the cities. In general, European society has become much richer and more civilized than during the ancient Roman Empire. An outstanding role in this was played by the Christian Church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization. Based on artistic traditions Ancient Rome and the former barbarian tribes, Romanesque and then brilliant Gothic art arose, and along with architecture and literature, all its other types developed - theater, music, sculpture, painting, literature. It was during this era that, for example, such masterpieces of literature as "The Song of Roland" and "The Novel of the Rose" were created. Of particular importance was the fact that during this period Western European scientists were able to read the works of ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, especially Aristotle. On this basis, the great philosophical system of the Middle Ages was born and grew - scholasticism.
The late Middle Ages continued the processes of the formation of European culture, which began in the period of the classics. However, their course was far from smooth. In the XIV-XV centuries, Western Europe repeatedly experienced a great famine. Numerous epidemics, especially the bubonic plague ("Black Death"), also brought inexhaustible human sacrifices. The development of culture was greatly slowed down by the Hundred Years War. However, in the end the cities were revived, handicrafts, agriculture and trade were established. People who survived the pestilence and war were given the opportunity to arrange their lives better than in previous eras. The feudal nobility, aristocrats, began to build magnificent palaces for themselves, both in their estates and in cities, instead of castles. The new rich from the "low" estates imitated them in this, creating everyday comfort and an appropriate lifestyle. Conditions arose for a new upsurge in spiritual life, science, philosophy, art, especially in Northern Italy. This rise inevitably led to the so-called Renaissance or Renaissance.
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