Life at a Medieval University

did not stand with the church were not looked at as ethical people. In the sense that they could not

The significance of religious leaders during this era is evident by the fact that the writer of this poem places the bishop at the beginning of the table. Due to the fact that the “medieval society was a religious society” and that these religious leaders held a special relationship with God, it is no surprise that these individuals held the second highest social class position in the medieval time period (Feudalism and the Three Orders (Overview) 2).

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

The Black Death had arrived in Europe and would kill more than half of the population. This one event spawned economic depression, revolts, and started power struggles between the elite and lower classes, and would lead to a new way of thinking that would spark changes that are still felt today in modern times. Humanism was born and instead of the Bible and religious issues being the only resource to look to, worldly issues and the thought that the individual had importance, became the new way of thinking. Before the renaissance the church controlled art, science, and even how one learned. Any discovery that went against the churches teachings was considered heresy and anyone participating in these acts could expect excommunication or death. Many great artists come from this time, some like Michangllo were able to still thrive under the church’s rule but others like Johann Kepler and Galileo did not fare so well. In the Catholic institution, only the members of the clergy had the power to interpret scripture, and in this new age of learning, these men did not think the bible had all the

The church establishment of the early fourteenth century got its power mostly from religious authority over the masses. Relying on the poor and uneducated to need the church for guidance and salvation. Meister Eckhart’s teachings were a direct affront to that authority (document 1). He asserted that the church was not necessary to worship or even find God, claiming “if the soul is to know God, it must know him outside time and place, since God is neither in this or that, but One and above them” (book 342). He went a step further claiming that the well-established Christian ideology of performing good deeds in hopes of receiving religious favor was in fact all wrong and a waste of time. Eckhart’s views threatened to dramatically undermine everything the church depended on.

To begin with, religion and the church was an extremely important factor in people's lives in the middle ages. For example, the text states, “...he

In the course of human events, it becomes necessary to have certain expectations for oneself and community, that time is especially true now. There are few moments in life in which students feel this much pressure, but have such high expectations. At a Christian University, the academic and social expectations are expanded to even include spiritual standards.

The lecture has been presented by Michael Galligan-Stierle who is the President of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. The lecture has been able to cover various issues that are significant to the university and also to the students. The various issues that have been covered have been divided into two parts with each having sub-topics of discussion.

In the 1400s, Europe had been left in devastation from the aftermath of the black plague. This had left Europe in major religious, social and economic upheavals. Orphans, theft, intoxication, prostitution, brutality and misuse of powerful by important figures were very common. Education was unavailable to anyone without enough money to pay for it, creating an extremely large gap and social division between the classes. Church services and the bible were spoken and written in Latin, resulting in the majority of the common people being unable to understand the true meaning behind the words. As People were unable to read the bible, the only way to connect with God was through church services. Priests and Monks had several different jobs and often refused to help peasants when they asked for it, generating mistrust between the clergy and lay people.

The renaissance was a time of learning, but it wasn’t a time of schools as we know them today. Public schools for everyone were still a long off. In Renaissance Europe, schooling was for those who could afford it. Some people were well educated, while others never attended school. Boys-education for Renaissance boys was of two sorts .There was classical education based on the Latin language for boys who planned to go on to a university. There was also education through apprenticeships for boys who planned to pursue a trade.

The rise of literacy towards the end of the Middle Ages brought with it a torrent of individuals ready to think fro themselves and formulate their own theories and ideas regarding God and the Christian faith. For a long time, the church held a near monopoly on literacy and used this to maintain control over people’s lives and beliefs. While some of these new intellectuals created ideas that would forever change the way people envision themselves and their relation to God and the universe, some simply patched together tidbits of ideas that were not born out of deep philosophical inquiry, but had more of an instinctive type of logical grounding. This was the line of thinking that made up Domenico

He reaches his final solution about how the relationship between a pluralistic society and a Catholic institution should behave. He explains that this parable can be used in three different areas. First, faith in academic subjects should respect the fact that ideas are constantly changing, and the academics being taught should evolve as ideas change. Secondly, faculty don’t have to be Catholic, but they should respect the religion in view of the fact that they teach at a Catholic institution, and therefore should represent the character of the institution. Third, as it pertains to students, the institution should continue to spread its influence through classes, but no student should have it forced upon them. Lastly, he relates it to cosmology in saying that as more abstract ideas come into the world of science, the Catholic church needs to absorb these ideas instead of renouncing them. Overall, Ong summarizes the idea of not only accepting, but celebrating differences that the Catholic community finds itself in (Ong 5-6).

During the 16th and 17 century an incompatibility between science and religion was significantly apparent as there were fears of possible contradictions against the teachings of the Bible that were to be spread by heretics (Leveillee 2011). Consequently, scientists who spread such theories, opinions and teachings contrary to the beliefs of the Catholic Church were persecuted and people were forbidden from reading such teachings (Leveillee 2011).

They promoted equality among people, administered charity, fed the hungry, cared for those who are sick and dying, and even entertained the travelers. In most times, they defended the slaves against being mistreated by the noble. The Society entrusted their lives to the monks because they were very holy and people were so happy with how they conducted themselves. The medieval monasteries kept alive the ideas of democracy, though their organization. From their ranks emerged the best statement in the various government posts in the European government. The monks also participated actively in the local

Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts.