Common aspects of medieval society

What do we mean by ‘medieval’?

The word ‘medieval’ refers to ‘the Middle Ages’, the period from c.500 to c.1500. This era lies between the achievements of the ancient classical world and the new ways of thinking which came with the Renaissance in Europe.

One church

The medieval era is also a period before the protestant Reformation. Since the sixteenth-century Reformation there have been various different types of Christianity co-existing and sometimes conflicting in the world. However, medieval Europe was a wide community of one catholic (universal) Church, referred to as Christendom.

There were many conflicts within the Church, most importantly during Chaucer’s lifetime in the reform movement inspired by John Wyclif. Contemporaries throughout Europe were also appalled by the spectacle of two rival popes (conflicts between factions in the Church had led to one Pope at Avignon and a rival in Rome).

However, the peoples of Europe still had a sense of being a unified community:

Religious life was relatively similar in France, Germany and Britain, since the Church’s organisation throughout Europe was structured around dioceses and parishes, with bishops, priests and monks, friars and nuns, shared doctrines and a shared Latin Mass
Secular rulers exercised power over their subjects, but always (in theory at least) under the higher rule of the Church and the pope
Latin, the language of the Church, was also the universal language of learning throughout Europe.

Modes of learning

Printing did not come to England till the second half of the fifteenth century. Since books had to be written by hand, they were less common and more expensive to produce, owned only by a few. Instead, people’s knowledge came much more from:

The spoken word, whether in sermons, plays, or from the oral performance of writings—including works like Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
The visual, such as paintings and drama. Most of the surfaces in churches were richly painted with scenes from the Bible and Christian doctrine.

Language

Until around 1300, learning and education was primarily under the control of the Church and conducted in Latin: most books were written in Latin and educated people often conversed or debated in Latin. Nevertheless, English was used for quite a range of texts from Anglo-Saxon times onwards and French (Norman French) was often the language for works of information or devotion designed for the laity, after the Norman Conquest.

However, from around 1300 onwards (the late medieval period), there developed increasing use of vernacular languages all over Europe—Italian, French, English, Spanish and so on—for literature and even for learned books. This increase in English books meant that speakers of ‘the common tongue’ could begin to enter areas of intellectual life previously dominated by educated clerics.

There developed a growing number of literate, usually upper-class, laymen and women, who became increasingly confident, expressing interest in religious issues. This went hand in hand with greater numbers of serious books in the vernacular on both religious and secular subjects.

Belonging to the Middle Ages.

The period of European history broadly between 1000AD-1500AD.

Renaissance is literally 're-birth'. The term describes the movement, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries originating from Italy, where new areas of art, poetry, scholarship and architecture emerged.

Christians whose faith and practice stems from the Reformation movement in the sixteenth century which resulted in new churches being created as an alternative to the Roman Catholic Church.

Term given to the movements of church reform which in the sixteenth century resulted in new Protestant churches being created as an alternative to the Roman Catholic Church.

The beliefs, doctrines and practices of Christians.

1. Sometimes used to denote all Christians 2. Used specifically of the Roman Catholic church.

1. Term for a worshipping community of Christians. 2. The building in which Christians traditionally meet for worship. 3. The worldwide community of Christian believers.

A collective name for countries primarily inhabited by those who accept the Christian faith; it is a term which, in medieval and early modern times, was applied largely to Europe.

(c. 1330-84). English philosopher, theologian and reformer. A group of his followers translated the Bible into English

The supreme governor of the Roman Catholic Church who has his headquarters in Rome, in Vatican City. In certain circumstances, his doctrinal utterances are deemed infallible.

The area overseen by an Anglican bishop from a central cathedral, subdivided into deaneries which are made up of groups of parishes. Another term for diocese is 'see'.

A parish is an area with its own church, served by a priest who has the spiritual care of all those living within it.

In certain Christian denominations leader of the Christian community within a geographical area.

A person whose role is to carry out religious functions.

Member of male religious community.

A man belonging to a Christian religious group who, instead of living within an enclosed religious house, travelled round teaching the Christian faith, and sustaining himself by begging for charity.

A woman who has chosen to enter a religious order for women, and taken the appropriate vows.

The teaching on the beliefs of a religion, usually taught by theologians or teachers appointed by their church.

A member of the clergy.

Commonly used of a religious believer or believers who are not clergy, that is, have not been ordained.

the language or idiom native to a particular country or area