Chapter 9: The High Middle Ages: Religious and Intellectual Developments
Chapter Summary
In the early 13th century, Peter Abelard wrote that "It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth." It is a very modern statement because we easily recognize its spirit, the spirit of doubting and investigating. But the fact that it was written in the 13th century, in midst of the Age of Faith, must strike us as odd. But not really. What Abelard had done was to argue, as would Aquinas, that reason and faith are two roads to a single truth. Such was the essence of medieval Scholasticism. New ideas appeared in new contexts as Europe left behind the uncertainties of barbarian invasions. In terms of intellectual might and cultural growth, Europe seemed to be moving forward.
But these profound intellectual and cultural changes did not proceed without conflict. The Church faced its first direct assault. Holy Roman emperors and popes alike engaged in a violent battle for supremacy. Who ought to control the clergy? Pope or King? The solution was found in compromise at the Concordat of Worms (1122) where a conceptual distinction was made between religion and politics. While the Church gained a temporary (temporal?) victory at Worms, the laity began to wonder if the clergy were really living up to their ideals. Most people yearned for something more from their faith, and the clergy seemed to be delivering much less. Such an awareness, made more visible thanks to urbanization, gave rise to spiritualism on the one hand, and heresy on the other. The Church reacted against the latter by calling on the services of the Dominicans, instituting the Inquisition and by calling a crusade. In the case of spiritualism, there was monastic reform and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. The Church used all of this to its advantage to contain heresy, but something else was at work which made the work of the Church even more difficult.
It was during the High Middle Ages that the university made its appearance in order to move beyond the limited capacities of the cathedral schools. These universities -- Bologna and Paris were the earliest -- were fashioned as corporations or guilds. Our conception of the liberal arts as well as our degree system (B.A., M.A. and Ph.D.) had their origins in the medieval university. Student life was difficult since there were no real textbooks to speak of and "education" required abstract analysis and disputation. What made matters worse was that the students were nearly always strangers in university towns. One thing that really changed the focus of the medieval university was the rediscovery of the texts of Aristotle, as Aquinas would remind us.
The 12th century was perhaps the most important in terms of intellectual change, so much that historians often speak of the Renaissance of the 12th century. John of Salisbury was aware of that when he mentioned Bernard's claim that 'we are standing on the shoulders of giants.'
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