MIDDLE AGES. 



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eges were highly unfavourable to poetry. The voice 

 of the minstrel was almost entirely silent in Ger- 

 many, France, and Spain, even in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury ; but Italy had now its Petrarch and Boccaccio, 

 and England its Chaucer. In the thirteenth century, 

 there was not a story in the cycles above-mentioned, 

 which was not eagerly sung by many poets ; and 

 more than 1400 love songs, by 136 poets of this cen- 

 tury, are contained in the Manesse collection alone 

 (see Manesse) ; but hardly a single poet appeared 

 among the knights, after the fourteenth century. 



The epic poems of former times gave place to prose 

 romances, in which their stories were diluted, and 

 the lyric poetry, in France and Germany, fell into 

 the rude hands of the Master-singers (q. v.), who, by 

 a studied observance of rules, preserved its formal 

 existence. So did it continue till the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, which, attentive only to the great events that 

 were in preparation, and the struggles which pre- 

 ceded them, and actuated by the spirit of reflection 

 from which they proceeded, was far removed from 

 that free flow of feeling which had given birth to the 

 poetry of the past time. It was not till the end of the 

 middle ages, when the early spirit of poetry lived only 

 in remembrance, that Ariosto took the stories of 

 Charlemagne's peers from the nursery, and gave them 

 new dignity. Spain and England received a new 

 national poetry from Cervantes and Shakspeare. 

 But how great is the difference between these crea- 

 tive geniuses, complete masters of their subjects, who 

 poured forth their whole souls in their poetry, so that 

 one knows not which most to admire, the feeling 

 which inspires, the fancy which adorns, or the under- 

 standing which regulates them, and whose humorous 

 (often ironical) tone proclaims them the offspring of 

 modern times, and those simple poets of the middle 

 ages, who took the world as it was, and were rather 

 the organs of the spirit of poetry in the people than 

 independent poets ! 



Among the arts of the middle ages, architecture 

 was distinguished by its peculiar character. In the 

 noblest buildings of antiquity, the form of the first 

 rude dwelling-houses is not to be mistaken ; they 

 appear only as the ornamented forms of abodes which 

 necessity created, and can only be called fine build- 

 ings; but the Gothic architecture of the middle age 

 was founded on a deep and great conception. This 

 conception, which appears in the union of the gran- 

 deur of great masses with the most finished delicacy 

 of parts, was the representation of the world. The 

 other arts, which, in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 

 turies, came from Greece into the Western world, 

 attained their greatest splendour, in the middle ages, 

 upon the Lower Rhine and in Italy. See German 

 Painting, and Italian Art. 



The weak side of the middle ages is the scientific. 

 The youthful spirit of the time, bent upon action, 

 could not devote itself to a sedentary life and contin- 

 ued study. The efforts of Charlemagne, to encour- 

 age science and instruct the people, liardly produced 

 any effect beyond his life ; for they were not in the 

 spirit of the time. Several centuries after him, the 

 German tribes considered no knowledge of use, but 

 that of managing the lance and the steed. The bar- 

 barism was so great, that most of the laity, even the 

 most distinguished, could scarcely read or write. He 

 who was instructed in these, was considered a distin- 

 guished scholar, and he who obtained more know- 

 ledge, particularly in mathematics or natural science, 

 exposed himself to the danger of being burned as a 

 sorcerer. But the monks, by their retired situation, 

 and the leisure which they enjoyed, as well as by the 

 necessity of some knowledge of the Latin language, 

 which the Roman Catholic ritual required, were 

 driven to a more literary employment, to which they 



were educated in the schools of the cathedrals and 

 convents. But their literary labours were confined 

 to the copying of the old writers, particularly the 

 fathers of the church, and to accounrs of the occur- 

 rences of the times in meagre chronicles. Neverthe- 

 less we are indebted to them. Through their activity 

 the valuable remains of ancient times, materials and 

 incitements to new improvements, have been, in a 

 great measure, preserved to us ; and from their 

 annals we gather our only knowledge of the events 

 and manners of that time. Moreover, the Latin lit- 

 erature, which was common to all the people of the 

 West, not merely in the affairs of the church, but in 

 science and public transactions, produced a certain 

 agreement in their general character, which contri- 

 buted much to promote intercourse and improve- 

 ment. 



The East has no middle age, like that of Europe; yet 

 the introduction of Mohammedanism and the Arabic 

 literature, make epochs there. But as the spirit of 

 man is hostile to a partial development, in the 

 eleventh century the need of thinking was again felt in 

 Europe ; the taste for knowledge awoke, here and 

 there, partly by means of the monasteries, but after- 

 wards through the arts and industry which prevailed 

 in the cities ; study was encouraged by Henry II. of 

 England, the Hohenstaufen, St Louis, the Alphonsos, 

 and other intellectual princes. From these times 

 (the periods of Lanfranc, Abelard, John of Salisbury, 

 and others), the middle ages produced distinguished 

 individuals, whom the coldness of their contempor- 

 aries in the cause of science only urged to a more 

 ardent pursuit of it. Meantime the necessity was 

 felt of defending the doctrines of the church against 

 unbelief and heresy. This led to the sharpening of 

 the intellect by dialectics ; hence the church dogma- 

 tics, or theology, was formed, from which philosophy 

 at length proceeded. As, in scholastic theology, the 

 dogmas of the church were early received as author- 

 ity ; so, in the domain of laws, the Roman code soon 

 obtained a complete ascendency ; and the juriscon- 

 sults of that time were never weary in studying it, 

 learning it by heart, and explaining it by glossaries 

 and illustrations. The students of philosophy pur- 

 suwi the same course with the subtle Aristotle, for 

 whom the middle ages, although acquainted with him 

 only through Arabic translations, or rifacimentos , 

 had an unbounded respect. Unfortunately, however, 

 for the progress of philosophy, these commentaries, 

 glosses and abridgments, occasioned the neglect of the 

 original. When the union of scholars, in particular 

 places, gave birth to universities, these received the 

 stamp of the time, both in the corporate character 

 which was given them, and the absorbing interest 

 which was taken in the study of dialectics. Only 

 jurisprudence, theology, and what was called philoso- 

 phy (which was, in fact, the art of disputing with sub- 

 tilty upon every subject), were taught ; and these 

 sciences, especially since the middle of the twelfth cen- 

 tury, had degenerated into a mere tinkling of scholas- 

 tic sophistry. Medicine, as regards any useful pur- 

 pose, was taught, at this time, only by some Arabs, 

 and students of Salerno who had been instructed by 

 them ; in other respects, it was a slave of astrology, 

 and an object of speculation to ignorant impostors, 

 principally of the Jewish nation. Philology flour- 

 ished in the time of Lanfranc and Abelard, but was 

 again forgotten in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 

 Notwithstanding the unprofitable character of what 

 was taught at this time, teachers stood in high esteem, 

 and the highest academic rank was considered equal 

 to knighthood. The universities, on their side, 

 showed themselves worthy such honour by their 

 independence of pope and prince. With all its 

 worthlessness, the disputatious spirit of the time had 



