I enjoyed reading the 12th century Renaissance. It seemed that in this century people of all classes started to be more concerned about there human side and began to care about growing in every way. If we analyze what was going on at that time, we will be able to see how the changes in the government, education and religion influenced each other.
“Christianity was the matrix of medieval time” (Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History). Every single aspect of everyday life was influenced by the religion. And in the 12th century Christianity was more oriented towards men, it became more human. I believe that one of the reasons why religion became more human was because people became more intellectual and instead of just believing what they were told to believe they started to analyze their beliefs. For this reason they became more optimistic towards their way of experiencing religion and wouldn’t believe or accept that half of the world would be damned forever. People were ready to have a more personal and intense religion experience.
The government had significant changes as well. People began to be concerned about justice. Before they would trust mainly in divine justice and rule society by God’s laws. The change in religion influenced people to believe that there should be a more efficient justice system. People started to be more concerned about safety and the solution of legal issues. There was also a growing desire for learning. Thousands of men and women were eager to expand their knowledge, which didn’t make the Church very happy. But the Church couldn’t do anything about it and there were a constantly increasing number of students. Because the old monastic and cathedral schools couldn’t absorb all of them, the students move to different places to find education. This is how the universities of Oxford, Paris and Bologna were founded.
In the 12th century people were very interested in bettering themselves. The most interesting part is that material riches weren’t their main goal, it was the spiritual and intellectual enrichment that mattered.
1 comment:
I think it is important to remember that the move towards education was started by the church in their decrees to open schools. It is only natural that as schools were openned and learning took place that more people felt the need to learn. Before learning had only been for the limited few in many areas. Because the church pushed the need for education more students came forward seeking education. The influence and push towards men was because schools were not open to women we see for the first time that shut out of women from any sort of education. In greece and even rome the girls received some forms of education even if not equal to the men. But with the push of the church to increase access to education women and girls were shut out of this process. So the link of humanity coming from the transition of men is not really the key. Just more people became educated through the push of the church and that in turn lead to the universities and the questions and changes of the time.
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