Scholasticism( 经院哲学 ) & Urban Intellectual life

The medieval university: the combination of population

growth, improved agricultural productivity, political stability and
educational interest culminated in the renaissance of 12 th century.
Bologna and Paris ； universitas
Peter Abelard: the greatest and most original intellect of the
12th century. His method combined the tools of legal analysis with
Aristotelian logic and laid the foundation of the Scholastic method.
The intellectual life of the universities through the 13 th ---14th
centuries was dominated by Aristotelian thought.
Scholasticism attempted to bridge the gap (two kinds of truth,
one knowable through divine revelation and the other through
human reason)by using reason to deepen one’s understanding of
that which is accepted on faith.
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Thomas Aquinas [əˈkwaɪnəs] : the most brilliant intellect of the
High Middle Ages.
Summa Against the Gentiles 《》
Summa of Theology 《》
◦He sought to defend the integrity of human reason and to
reconcile it with divine revelation. Properly applied, the
principles of Aristotelian philosophy could not lead to error.
◦Human reason unaided by revelation could not always lead to
certain conclusions.
◦Aquinas recast Christian doctrine and philosophy, replacing their
Neoplatonic foundation with an Aristotelian base.

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Dominicans (/doʊˈmɪn.ɪ.kən/ 圣多明我 )& Franciscans( 圣方济各会 )
appeared in response to the social and cultural needs of the new
urbanized, monetized European culture.
◦Reformers called for a return to the life of the primitive church, one
that emphasized both individual and collective poverty.
Francis of Assisi
an Italian and the Roman Catholic monk who founded the Franciscan.
Strict poverty.
Saint Dominic, 1170-1221
a Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order.
strict poverty but their focus was on preaching, highly educated

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9.3 The invention of the state
The medieval empire
The disintegration of the Carolingian Empire in the 10th century left
political power fragmented among a variety of political entities.
 the papacy and the empire, elective traditional structures that
claimed universal sovereignty over the Christian world;
limited kingdoms, largely hereditary.

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The Universal States: Empire and
Papacy
The eastern Frankish kingdom, a loose confederacy of five
duchies, had preserved much of the Carolingian religious,
cultural, and institutional traditions.
The Medieval Empire:
In 962 Otto was crowned emperor.
Otto had established the main outlines of German imperial policy
for the next 300 years. This policy included conflict with the
German aristocracy, reliance on bishops and abbots as imperial
agents, and preoccupation with Italy.
His successors continued this tradition.

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◦It was the goal of every great aristocratic family to extend its
own independent lordship.
◦To counter such aristocratic power, emperors looked to the
Church both for the development of the religious cult of the
emperor and as a source of military and political support.
◦Imperial church was the cornerstone of the empire.

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◦Investiture( 主教授职权 ) & Reform.
Reformers began to advocate a renewal of the Christian world:
 to reform the morals of the clergy and in particular to eliminate
married priests;
to free churches and monasteries from lay control;
condemned lay investiture (the practice by which kings and
emperors appointed bishops and invested them with the symbols
of their office);
the pope was the supreme representative of God on earth and
had the right to exercise a universal sovereignty.

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The conflict ended only in 1122, when Emperor Henry V and Pope
Calixtus II reached an agreement (the Concordat of Worms), which
differentiated between royal and spiritual spheres of authority; allowed
the emperors a limited role in episcopal election and investiture.
◦This compromise changed the nature of royal rule in the empire,
weakening the emperors and contributing to the long-term decline of
royal government in Germany.
• 13th ---19th centuries, these princes ruled their territories as
independent states, leaving the office of emperor a hollow title.

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The investiture controversy ultimately compromised
the authority of the pope as well as that of the emperor.
a) established the Western idea of separate spheres of
authority for secular and religious government.
b) popes were increasingly unable to make good their
claims to absolute authority from the 13 th century .

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◦The Nation-States: France and England
Between the 10th and 14th centuries, some monarchies developed
into powerful, centralized kingdoms. In the process they gave birth
to what has become the modern state.
◦France: Biology, Bureaucracy, and Sanctity.
Under Hugh·Capet's successors, the kingdom of France became
the most powerful monarchy in Europe and the center of European
learning, architecture, and art.
The medieval French monarchy owed its creation in large part to
biology and bureaucracy.

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Philip II set up administrative officials (baillis and
seneschals),nonfeudal salaried agents who collected his
revenues and represented his interests.
Philip’s victory in 1214 sealed the English loss of
Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Poitou and Touraine.
• As the power and wealth of the French kings
increased, the ability of the nobles to maintain their
independence decreased.
• In the 13th century the nobility began to lose some of
its independence to the state.

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England: Conquest, Accounting &
Cooperation.
◦William and his successors developed the royal court into an efficient
system of fiscal and administrative supervision. The most important
innovation was the use of a large checkerboard, the first continuous
accounting system in Europe.
◦In the first half of 12th century, Henry II reestablished central power
by reasserting his authority over the nobility and royal authority over
the English.
◦Henry's program to assert royal courts over local and feudal ones was
more successful, laying the foundation for a system of uniform
judicial procedures throughout the kingdom: the common law.
(expanding the jurisdiction of royal courts).
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◦Henry's son John was forced to accept the "great
charter of liberties," or Magna Carta in 1215,
demanding that he respect the rights of his vassals and
of the burghers of London.
◦The great significance of the document was its
acknowledgment that the king was not above the law.
◦By 1300, France, with its powerful royal bureaucracy,
and England, with its courts and accountants, were the
most powerful states in the West.

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Chapter 10 The Later Middle Ages,1300-
1500

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10.1 Politics as a family affair
The struggle for central Europe
Central European Kingdoms
Poland, Hungary, Bohemia. Marriage alliances.
Charles Ⅳ, ( 查理四世 cultural policies)
During Sigismund’s reign, Czech religious and political reformers came
into open conflict with German-speaking minority. This reform
movement challenged the authority of the Roman church and became
the direct predecessor of the great Reformation of the 16th century.
In 1356, Golden Bull( 黄金诏书 ) , (autonomy of various German princes
and kings; procedure by which future emperor would be elected)

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A hundred Years of War 百年战争
Why the war?
Territorial and dynastic rivalries(triggers); chivalry (deeper cause)
By the late 13th century, the growth of royal power in France and
England left little room for private vengeance.
Edward III of England; Philip VI of France;1452
English Successes
Joan of Arc ( 圣女贞德 ) &the salvation of France
The English wars of roses 1455-1485
house of York (white rose) VS house of Lancaster(red rose)
Henry Tudor of the Lancaster defeated his opponents and became the
first king of the Tudor dynasty.
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10.2 1300-1450, Europe’s population fell by more than 30%.
1315-1317, the first great famine of the 14th century
1347-1352. Black Death
Insurrection
French Jacquerie( 扎克雷起义 ), a spontaneous outburst directed
against the nobility, strongly anticlerical.
merchants uprising in Paris, to take control of royal finances and
force fiscal reforms
English peasants’ revolt in 1381
Spanish peasants’ revolt in 1395
Germany the great Peasants’ Revolt of 1524
revolts of townspeople in the second half the 14th century, to break
the control of the powerful guilds.
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10.3 The sprit of the later Middle Ages
Europeans celebrated life with vigor, creativity and a growing sense
of individuality and independence.
Universal empire and universal Church both declined.
(many Christians developed independent lifestyles that were
intended to bring them closer to God without reliance on the Church).
Increasing pluralism of European culture gave rise to new literary
traditions.

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The crisis of the Papacy 教皇制危机
Avignon Papacy （阿维农教皇） Pope Clement Ⅴ
sale of indulgences( 赎罪券 ) ； sale of church offices
The Great Schism( 大分裂 )
• Italian Pope Urban Ⅵ,
• French pope Clement VII
The Church had two heads with reasonable claims to the offices.
◦1408 General council. deposed both, elected a new pope
◦1414, Council of Constance. Martin Ⅴ, ended the schism
The prestige of the papacy had been permanently compromised.

John Wycliffe [´waɪklɪf] & Jan Hus

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◦Indulgences ：
The Church had long taught that sinners who repented might
be absolved of their sins and escape the fires of hell. However,
they still had to suffer temporal punishment. This punishment,
called penance, could take the form of fasting, prayer, or
performance of some good deed.
However, since the saints had established a treasury of merit, a
sort of spiritual bank account. The pope was the banker and
could transfer some of this positive balance to sinners in return
for some pious act such as contributing money to build a new
church. These so-called indulgences could be purchased for
one's own use or to assist the souls of family members.

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◦William of Ockham and the Spirit of
Truth
◦The delicate balance between faith and reason taught by
Aquinas and other intellectuals in the 13th century disintegrated
in the 14th.

◦Imperial power derived not from the pope but from the people.
people should be free to determine their own form of
government and to elect rulers. They should be able to make
their choice directly, and government should be entirely secular.
He denied the absolute authority of the pope, even in spiritual
matters.

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Aquinas: people could reach general truths by abstracting
universals from particular, individual cases. The Christian
Aristotelianism that developed in the 13th century had depended
on the validity of general concepts (universals), which could be
analyzed through the use of logic.
Ockham: universals were merely names, universals had no
connection with reality and could not be used to reason from
particular observations to general truths. Philosophical speculation
was essentially a logical, linguistic exercise, not a way to certain
knowledge. Nominalism( 唯 名 论 ) denied that human reason could
aspire to certain truth.
Result ： a decline in abstract speculation and a greater interest in
scientific observation of individual phenomena.
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Vernacular Literature
Authors reviewed the traditional values of society with a critical eye,
reworking and transforming traditional literary genres into statements both
personal and profound.
Italy: made Italian a literary language
Petrarch, Father of Humanism
Dante. Divine Comedy
Boccaccio. [boˈkɑtʃiˌo]
England:
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales [ˈdʒɛfri ˈtʃɔsər]
Willian Langland Piers Plowman 《》
France:
Christine de Pisan. Hymn to Joan of Arc 《》 fought the stereotypical medieval
image of women and saw women as virtuous
Francois Villon. the greatest realist poet of the Middle Ages. 23
神曲 (Divine Comedy) ，意大利诗人但丁 (Dante Alighieri, 公元
1265- 公元 1321) 的长诗。写于 1307 年至 1321 年，这部作品通过作者与
地狱、炼狱及天国中各种著名人物的对话，反映出中古文化领域的成就和一些重大的问
题，带有“百科全书”性质，从中也可隐约窥见文艺复兴时期人文主义思想的曙光。在
这部长达一万四千余行的史诗中，但丁坚决反对中世纪的蒙昧主义，表达了执着地追求
真理的思想，对欧洲后世的诗歌创作有极其深远的影响。
《地狱》 (Hell) 、《炼狱》 (Purgatory) 和《天堂》 (Paradise) ，谴责
教会的统治，但仍然未摆脱基督教神学的观点。
 Geoffrey Chaucer （乔叟）
Father of English Poetry

 The first English

short story teller
 The first modern poet
 Introducer of
Alliterative ( 头韵 )Verse
The Canterbury Tales
Chapter 11 the Italian
Renaissance

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11.1Renaissance Society
What was the Renaissance? 1350-1550
a French word for an Italian phenomenon, “rebirth”
emphasis on humanity that characterized Renaissance thinking,
renewed fascination with the classical world.
 the spirit of self-awareness
an age rather than an event: an era of rapid transitions.
Three distinct phases:
① 1350-1400. characterized by a declining population, the uncovering
of classical texts, experimentation in a variety of art forms.
② 1400-1500. creation of a set of cultural values and artistic and
literary achievements that defined Renaissance style.
③ 1500-1550. ideas and techniques of Italian writers radiated to all
points of the Continent. 28
Renaissance, in essence, was a historical
period in which the European humanist
thinkers and scholars:

 1. made attempts to get rid of

conservatism ( 保守主义思想 ) in feudalist Europe
;

 2. to introduce new ideas that expressed

the interests of the rising bourgeoisie ;

 3. to lift the restrictions in all areas

placed by the Roman church authorities.
Why does the Renaissance take
place first in Italy?
1. Revival of Commerce and town
building was more intense in Italy;
2. Feudalism had less of a grip on Italy;
Unity in Politics; city-states loosely
ruled by Pope
3. Presence of antiquity was stronger in
Italy than elsewhere in Europe;
……
11.1 Renaissance Society
Cities & Countryside
By 1500, seven of the ten largest cities in the west were in Italy
(Naples, Venice, Milan, Florence)
 urban character: cities dominated their regions economically,
politically, culturally and served as centers of judicial and ecclesiastical
power.
Urban populations were organized differently than rural population ?

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◦For cities:
occupation(social position &wealth) population
distinctions
guild structure:
important manufacturing groups;
bankers, merchants, administrators of civic and church
holdings;
grocers, masons, other skilled workers.
The disparities between rich and poor were
overwhelming. the concentration of wealth in the hands
of an ever-narrowing group of families and favored
guilds characterized every large city.
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◦For countryside:
Ownership of land  population distinctions
Some farmers owned estates; Others were in a sharecropping
system.

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Production & Consumption
The concentration of wealth and the way in which it was used
defined the Renaissance economy.
Agriculture predominated in late medieval economy and in Italy.
Population change was the defining feature of early Renaissance
economy: reduction in population depressed economic growth,
and the general economy did not revive until the sustained
population increase toward the end of 15th century.
Production & consumption of luxuries soared.

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The Quality of Life
life expectancy increased  relative surplus of grain and wider
variety of foods consumed throughout the 15th century.
Health improved on the most basic level.
A new sense of social and political cohesiveness in towns
&cities.
church remained the spatial, spiritual and social center of
people’s lives. No separation between faith and reason.
A growing sense of civic pride and individual accomplishment
were underlying characteristics of the Italian Renaissance.
The development of social cohesion and community solidarity.

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11.2 Renaissance Art
Relationship between artist and social context was especially
important when artists were closely tied to the crafts and trades of
urban society & to the demands of clients.
Architecture, sculpture and painting: dominant artistic discipline
Brunelleschi: challenged the principles of Gothic architecture by
recombining its basic elements with those of classical structures.
The first Renaissance artist to have understood and made use of
perspective.( 透视法 )
geometric principles; planes &spheres as dominant motifs.
Dome on the cathedral in Florence.

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Architecture: Brunelleschi 1377-1446 [ˌbrunəˈlɛski]
first great architect of the Italian Renaissance

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◦Donatello: [dəʊnə'teləʊ]
bold &muscular classical styles  more naturalistic forms;
Revive the free-standing statue;
Revival of equestrian statue
Use of linear perspective( 直线透视法 )
Judith Slaying Holofernes 《》

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Gattamelat
a
Equestrian
Statue
格太梅拉达骑马像
◦Masaccio: [mɑ:'sɑ:ttʃɔ:]
Shading of light and shadow;
Brilliant use of linear perspective to create the illusion
of three dimensions on a flat surface.
Holy Trinity ; Expulsion of Adam and Eve

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The Expulsion from the Garden of

Eden, before and after restoration 41

◦Renaissance Style
Leon Battista Alberti: architect [bəˈtistə ɑlˈbɛrti]
On Building 《》 the most influential work on architecture until the
18th century.
Piero della Francesca: broke new ground in the visual unity of his
paintings. The Resurrection [dɛlə frænˈtʃɛskə]
Sandro Botticelli: classical themes, sensitive portraits, bright colors.
Birth of Venus; Spring [bɑtɪˈtʃɛli]
Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa

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Sandro Bottocelli 1445-1510 Birth of Venus

Gods of the winds, Zephyr and Aura, who, elevated this shell
43
Grace, one of three sisters who were the givers of beauty
Primavera [primaˈveːra], also known as Allegory of Spring

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46
Michelangelo:drew on the human body for inspiration
and created works on a vast scale. [maɪkəˈlændʒəˌloʊ]

Pietà
David (completed the union between classical and
Renaissance styles)
paintings of the Sistine Chapel
Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome

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the Pietà
Crucifixion

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DAVID
Sistine Chapel: f 西斯廷教堂
The Creation of Adam

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◦Renaissance Style
By reviving classical themes, geometric principles and a spirit
of human vitality, they broke from the dominant medieval
traditions. Art became a source of individual and collective
pride consumed by all.
Renaissance art served Renaissance society, reflecting both its
concrete achievements and its visionary ideals.
A synthesis of old and new, building on classical models,
adding newly discovered techniques and skills.
New emphasis on learning and knowledge, on the here and
now rather than the hereafter, on humanity and its capacity for
growth and perfection.

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11.3 Renaissance Ideals
Scholars and philosophers searched ancient works to
find the principles on which to build a better life.
One of the most important contributions of the
Renaissance intellectuals(humanists 人文主义者 ) ----
application of scholarly procedures for the collection
and collation of these texts.
Their interest in human achievement and potential must
be set beside their religious beliefs.
Humanism developed in reaction to an intellectual world
that was centered on the church and dominated by other-
worldly concerns. secular in outlook.
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 The characteristics of humanism
 1. assertion of the greatness of man
celebration of worldly achievements
( 以人性反抗神性， 肯定人的尊严，权力，价值等
人性既包括“自然属性” 也包括“认识自我和探索自然和社会的理性）

 2.Pleasure is very important vs. afterlife

( 肯定现实的享受，反对禁欲主义）
彼特拉克宣称，“我自己是凡人， 我只要凡人的幸福”
 3.Advocating scientific research and
opposing ignorance

 4. Advocating unity of the country and

opposing feudal division

 5. humanists created a demand for

learning and a hunger for knowledge.
Philology; rhetoric: new educational ideals-----the
importance of grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy &
history. (liberal arts 人文科学）
®Perfectibility of the individual ( 个人完美主义 )

The most important achievements of humanist scholars centered on

ancient texts. It was their goal to discover as much as had survived
from the ancient world and to provide texts of classical authors as full
and accurate as possible.

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◦Pico della Mirandola: people could perfect their existence
because God had endowed humans with the capacity to
determine their own fate.
Oration on the Dignity of Man 《》
◦Lorenzo Valla: philology
◦Leon Battista Alberti: civic humanism 市民人文主义
On the Family is a classic study of new urban values, especially
prudence and thrift. “the fatherland, the public good and the
benefit of all citizens”
Baldesar Catiglione: the Courtier 《论廷臣》
◦Machiavelli: The Prince ; The Discourses on Livy 《》

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◦Renaissance Science
Renaissance scientific inquiry was focused in two directions:
① text-based knowledge derived from recovered works
mainly from classical Greece;
② experiment-based knowledge achieved through
observation.
Texts dominated the life sciences, especially medicine and
biology; experimentation enriched the physical sciences.
both ways of knowing blended together.

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11.4 The politics of the Italian city-
states 城市国
the absence of a unifying central authority in Italy.
By the beginning of 15th century, the Italian city-states
were the center of power, wealth and culture in the
Christian world.
national identity.
Italy was neither a nation nor a people

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Five powers: 五霸主
◦The kingdom of Naples: the only city-state governed by a
hereditary monarchy.
◦Papal States. ( 教皇国 )
◦Florence: center of Renaissance culture.(banking& wool)
◦Milan
◦Venice: a seaborne empire

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The end of Italian Hegemony (1450-1527)
Christopher Columbus: crossed the Atlantic in the spirit of
Renaissance [kəˈlʌmbəs]
Ottoman Turks: master of all the territory that stretched from
Black Sea to the Aegean by 1450.
Wars of Italy: (1494--1529)
 began when Naples, Florence and the Papal States united
against Milan.
 a total European war for dynastic supremacy.
The final blow to Italian hegemony was the sack of Rome in
1527 by German mercenaries.

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