Medieval Conflict Faith and Reason   corrolates with chapters 5 and 6

476 AD. The Roman Empire in the West is in collapse. Two men will have

effect on how Knowledge is preserved and used in the years after the fall of

the empire. A Roman lawyer Martianuis Capela in the territory of Cartage

will collect the seven main subjects of Roman education into one volume. He

will call it The Seven Liberal Arts, The book will become all the knowledge

there is for the next seven hundred years.

The other man is a reformed night clubber and teacher named Augustine. (pp.100 – 102)

He will put Christian thinking into a drop out mode by maintaining that

worldly matters are of little worth and that the Hereafter is more important.

Augustine said all this fancy architecture and high living, a load of rubbish, perishable goods.

 

The dark ages ensue.  Europe will consist of small tribes living in a (pp.124 -126)

barbarian lifestyle.  They were a dangerous bunch of barbarian louts, especially if you got in their way.

Vandals, Anglo- Saxons, and Jutes were some of the tribes.

 that turned Europe back in time. There was nothing to do but get drunk and wait for the odd passersby.

 

High in the mountains well away from trouble, knowledge is kept alive in the (pp.100)

monasteries.  The way they view the world is filtered through religion. They

look at nature for religious symbols. They lived self-contained lives with a

detailed schedule for everything from electing an abbot to how much wine

to drink at supper. They lived a mystic experience. Everything they knew looked

back to an age that was gone forever. Everything they knew was old. Books

consisted of compilations,  selections and bits that were copied over the centuries.  They turned

learning into pictures with a cartoon view were no one moved and was full of symbols

and double meanings.

In 768ad things take a turn for the better. Charlemagne  a twenty - six year- old womanizing whiz kid (pp.127-130)

will set up his kingdom in Aachen, Germany. The pope will crown Charlemagne

Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas day in 800 c.e. He will collect the great

scholars of the time, such as Alcuin of York to get a handle on penmanship.

The revival of learning is called Carolingian Renaissance. They will

standardize writing and spelling with the invention of Carolingian

Minuscule. Carolingian comes from the Latin pronunciation of

Charlemagne; Carolus Magnus. Charlemagne will start free schools in

monasteries and churches.

They will use the seven liberal arts of Capela as the main subjects. Will

divide the subjects into two categories.

The facts you need to know           How to use facts

Astronomy                                            Grammar

Arithmetic                                              logic

Geometry                                              rhetoric

Music theory

Charlemagne will die in 814 ad and the Viking invasions end the brief

Renaissance. (p.132)

950 ad Europe recovers.  Small marketplaces spring up. Trade expands,

the food supply increases, and police are formed to keep order. (Rise of Towns pp.151 )

Lives of Medieval peasants pp.133)

1050 ad, Italy recovers faster because of its traditions. The city of

Bologna is a trade center. The problem in the city is that four distinct

groups wish to run things. Lives were complex, but their law was

insufficient. That is until a monk named Ignarius finds the great collection

of Roman law complied under Justinian.  (p.106) Ignarius will explain codified law

through the use of Glossing. Glossing is explanations in the margins.

 

Europeans basic knowledge was zero until the Crusades (pp.136 -137)

The Crusades gave Europeans somewhere to plunder other than home.

 

Arab Spain is advanced beyond Europe. (pp.114 -115) The Spanish capital of Cordoba,

had Paved streets, street lighting public baths, 100,000 thousand houses and

a population of one million. In one of their libraries there were' 440,000 books

more than in all of France. There were sixty - nine other libraries in the town: Arabs

had paper for over 200 years, while Europeans scratched on animal skins.

From Spain they exported silk, marble, gold, and silver. They had advanced

irrigation and engineering, created water gardens, and introduced these crops to

Europe: artichokes, pomegranates, rice, ubergenes, peaches, apricots and sugar.

They gave civilization paper, rhyming poetry, rhythmic, music, dressing for

seasons, different courses at meals, dessert after dinner and table setting.

 

Toledo was a treasure house of knowledge. The knowledge found in the

Arab books would transform the world. The translation of the Arab books

would take 150 years. Toledo Jews were employed to help. In many cases

terms were used that Christian scholars had never heard of. Algebra, zenith, and zero were

new mathematical terms no one had heard of. They brought back many subjects, such as botany, pharmacology,

medicine, zoology and architecture.

Aristotle (p.157) explained how to use new Knowledge. He divided all knowledge

into categories: Practical, productive, and theoretical.

He invented logic. Logic consisted of the remarks a person can make:

everything -positive or negative and  something -positive or negative.

Syllogism was a three stage argument for thinking things through. Two things

you know leads to a third thing you didn't know.

Late in the 12th century, translations arrive. Bologna had a thriving law

school, it will now become one of the world's most important institutions.

The University. (p. 155 - 156) Students will lead organization of the university. They will group themselves by

nationality, set up student councils that will hire and pay teachers, set rates

for room and board and renting books. Divide the school year into three

terms a year and three lectures per day. After six years you were tested on a

set text and had a public ceremony for receiving your degree.

The University changed thinking. Men became more practical. People

Began to question and use reason. Some scholars openly challenged the

church. Peter Albelard (p. 157) wrote a book of 168 quotes from church leaders that

contradicted each other. He Said “If you don't understand it, don't believe

It.”   William and Thierry took the bible apart saying the earth couldn't have

been created in six days, because that wasn't natural and that Eve wasn't made

from Adam's rib because that wasn't how people were made.

Church becomes concerned when people began to doubt the transmutation

of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The bishops were

told to crack down on anyone asking questions.

New cathedrals used new Arab building techniques. Such as the pointed

arch. Introduces the flying buttress and vaulted ceilings. (p.165)There are 186 stained glass

windows at Chartes. (pp.165)  Over its west portal were figures of the great scholars

and the seven liberal arts of Capela.

1200, Paris University is started to teach theology students. In 1210 the

Pope bans the teaching of Aristotle. (p.157) Students will go on strike for six years.

Domeninican monks are in to restore order. Many students attend bootleg Aristotle courses

taught by Cigar of Brabbard. The Church comprises, and states that there will be two types of truth:

Everyday truth that you get from learning and revealed truth that you get from faith and the church.

 

Theodric of Frieburg takes on the rainbows, producing a manuscript that explains reflection and refraction in the producing of the colors.

The effect of the growth of knowledge is the world today. People will become forward looking. Change will welcomed. Augustine said believe and you will understand. Today it is give me the facts and I will think about it.