The High Middle Ages

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The High Middle Ages The Middle Age is a period that can be divided into three different spans of time: the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages. As Europe entered the period known as the High Middle Ages, the church became the universal and unifying institution. The High Middle Ages spanned from the 11th century to the 13th, and was characterized by the rapidly increasing population in Europe, which brought about significant social and political change. By the end of the 11th century, nearly every corner of Europe had become Christianized (with the notable exception of much of Spain), and the Papacy, long established as a political force, was in constant struggle with some secular governments and alliance with…show more content…
The university, like other medieval institutions, was organized as a guild. Universities had charters from the Church or King that gave students and scholars certain liberties. Two of the most famous medieval universities were at Bologna in northern Italy and at Paris. Due to the fame of Irnerius, who taught civil law, Bologna acquired a reputation as the leading center for the study of law. The university at Paris grew out of the cathedral school of Notre Dame, and specialized in liberal arts and theology. It became the influential core of intellectual…show more content…
In its essence, scholasticism held that God gave man the ability to understand the world both through Divine Revelation (aka, the almighty Bible), and through use of human reason and observation. A very important scholar was Thomas Aquinas, a Dominician priest who taught at the University of Paris. He was a key shaper of Christian theology, who argued that while God’s greatest axioms were in the Bible, Christians must additionally study nature, since nature too was the work of God. Aquinas blended philosophy and theology and his writings became fundamental texts for Catholic theology, and opened up Christianity to the methods of logic and science. Of course, to introduce and intertwine science with Christian doctrines was a very minute process; for it was key that God and the Bible remained the ultimate sources of truth and they were virtually untouchable. For example, another scholar, Peter Abelard, was charged with heresy for supposedly using logic to criticize the Church. Rather than using dastardly logic to defame the Bible, Abelard was actually attempting to use logic to prove the Bible’s infallibility and argued that the Bible should be studied using methods of classical logic, as there was no contrast between faith and
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