Concerns of Medieval Europe

During the 18th Century, the church has had predominant power in European countries. In the book Candide Voltaire has criticized many part of society, one of the main criticism in Candide is the Church. He does this by creating characters that are corrupt and greedy. Voltaire also exposes the hierocracy of the church and its purity. For example the old lady’s story on how much wealth that she had as a child and the corrupt catholic clergy.

In the 1300's an Italian scholar named Petrarch came up with the name "Dark Age" to describe the time Europe was going through during the Middle Ages in 500AD-1500AD. Throughout the Middle Ages Europe was going through some rough times, but there were also moments of growth. For example the Black Death was a time of darkness but there were positive times like when universities were built. Although the dark ages were looked at as a negative occurrence, more events show a sign of growth.

The late seventeenth century, when the enlightenment began, was a period of great turmoil, which persisted at intervals throughout the succeeding century. Reason had led many thinkers to the conclusions that kings and queens were ordinary mortals, and that conclusion implied new kinds of uncertainty. Society in this period worked by the means of well-defined codes of behavior. Religion during this period was still very important to many people. Moliere’s “Tartuffe” is a great illustration on how religion affected people at that time. Moliere was very brave to write this story based on how the Catholic Church was influencing and blinding people. Women also played a huge part of the enlightenment period and society during this time. Women of the upper classes occupied an important place in the Enlightenment society, presiding over “Salons,” gatherings whose participants engaged in intellectual as well as frivolous conversation (Puchner 7). In the literature that we have read, society overlook women capabilities and their logic thinking. The story that was a great example of this is “Tartuffe “and “The Love Suicides At Amijima”. Throughout these two text you can easily point out the difference between a man and a woman role in society. In this essay, I will dive into how society played a factor in “Tartuffe” and “The Love Suicides at Amijima”.

In the High Middle ages (after 1000 A.D) and beyond there were major political, economic and intellectual changes that happed across Europe. The changes helped bring about new eras to the European landscape. As Europe was brought into these new eras, it thus brought upon the end of the Dark Ages.

A Comparative Study of Voltaire 's and Molière’s Views on Religion in Candide and Tartuffe Literary works often reveal their authors ' views on particular social issues. Tartuffe (1669), a play by Molière, and Candide (1759), a philosophical tale by Voltaire, both deal with the question of religion in society. Tartuffe is a satire on the attitudes of the bourgeoisie toward religion in seventeenth-century France. Molière firmly believes in religious moderation and condemns religious hypocrisy and fanaticism. Published almost a century later, Voltaire 's Candide satirizes eighteenth-century European society by criticizing the hypocrisy of the clergy. As an Enlightenment thinker, Voltaire advocates the importance of free thinking and scientific reasoning. Although he believes in the existence of God, Voltaire is severely critical of revealed religion as well as of religious optimism and fanaticism. Tartuffe is a critique of religious hypocrisy as embodied in Tartuffe. Molière’s Tartuffe is an imposter, who has no morals and merely uses religion as a cover-up for his vices and crimes. He pretends to be extremely pious, but his actions go completely against the moral codes of his religion.

During the High Middle Ages, there was no strong, central government that was politically organized enough to meet common needs of the people in Europe. After the fall of Charlemagne’s empire, invasions and anarchy became the societal norm. If they wanted to survive, they had to meet particular needs. The people of the High Middle Ages met their needs of political organization, economic provision, and social aspects through Feudalism, Manorialism, and through the Church.

The periods during the Reformation, Industrial Revolution, and the World at War all experienced religious and church conflicts. During the Renaissance and Reformation (1330 – 1650), the fundamental practices of the church came under fire. The church at this time was the largest and most political body. The pope, himself, was the most recognizable political figure. It was due to this authority that the church and its pope were more interested in political issues and less with the spiritual needs of the people (McGraw-Hill, p. 76). Many of the Roman Catholic Church’s high priests had bought their way into position and had very little religious experience. Often the only members of the community that were literate were the clergy thus

As the middle ages came to a close, political theologians set forth a series of political ideologies that would help shape modern day democracy. The Black Death greatly affected the beliefs of the power in Catholic Church. With seemingly randomly mass death of the young and old, the peasant class began to revolt. While unrest occurred throughout Western Europe events like the conciliar movement called into question the emerging conceptions of limitations on rulers’ power. Theologian including John Wycliffe, William of Ockham, and Christine de Pizan all captured the number political ideas of the time. The events that defined this period in history helped shape what we have come to know and trust in our government.

The Roman Catholic Church is presented as an institution of knowledge and power, influencing the lives of the people. The clear boundaries in catholic society are presented here, by the “right and wrong”, indicating that there was little variation in beliefs and practice in those following Catholicism. However, even though religion is presented as an important part of life, determining people’s decisions and behaviour, it is also presented as something which is taught, rather than followed willingly, indicating that while children, such as Frank, may have no wish to become “good Catholics”, they were forced to do so by society; their parents and teachers. Frank presents the attitude towards religion in school through the following quote, telling the children to: “Know and remember all the questions and answers in catechism, became good Catholics, to know the difference between right and wrong, to die for the Faith if called on”

The Christian religions rise to supremacy in the middle ages was the result of several factors. Christians had long been persecuted by the Roman Empire because the Romans felt that Christianity challenged and offended the Greco-Roman Gods and the Christians were prone to revolt against Roman rule. Christianity survived because it had many teachings that appealed to the downtrodden in Roman society, these teachings being that even though they were suffering they would gain equality and possibly superiority in the next life, Christianity gave them hope.

At the beginning of the 16th Century, Europe was dominantly Catholic. The Catholic Church not only controlled vast economic resources, but wielded enormous political and social power. Reformers believed that the Catholic church had overstepped their jurisdiction in overseeing people’s faith, for example by limiting the printing of bibles to languages that only priests could read, and that the Church had become corrupted by practices such as the sale of indulgences.

Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Moliere, is one of the most studied and renowned literary authors in history. Moliere was proficient in the art of satire and many of his plays used this element as the forefront of the plots to get across to the audience what it was Moliere wanted to get across. Moliere’s time period allows him to exploit the hypocrisy of his time through the use of his most powerful tool, his characters. During the time of Moliere, France was becoming the major power in Europe.

The Medieval times were not about the knight in shining armor slaying a dragon and rescuing the princess, instead it’s about how Christianity was spread throughout the Roman Empire during the 1st- 4th centuries, or how the Black Death spread across Europe around the 13th century and killed over half the population. Don’t you worry; I’ll go into details about the Black Death later. Now that you know a little bit about the medieval times, I think it is time to introduce myself.

In Medieval Europe Kingdoms there were many changes. Most of the changes were good for the world. The changes in medieval times can be drawn comparison to todays world. The changes focused on will be political, social, and economic. These changes will help people understand a small part of the worlds history.

At the turn of the 15th century, the conditions in Europe went from plague, a smaller population, a lack of knowledge, and provincial learning to economic prosperity, enlightenment, and centralized power that was brought about by the renaissance and the new monarchs. The first condition in Europe that led to exploration was the Renaissance. The Renaissance was the revival of classical art and studies of Ancient Greece and Rome. What began first in Italy spread throughout Europe, and inspired creative thinking. This was a push factor because the maps of ancient geographers and work of Arab scholars motivated Europeans to learn more about the world and lands that existed besides Europe.