Peak Christianity of the 13th Century: Difference between revisions
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Peasants become richer but also more indebted, and a fraction succeeds in becoming owners. In general their feudal duties are diminished. The cities are in the tow of a demographic revolution and rich merchants take power in them. But the social system is very stratified, and there is much less mobility than in the two preceding centuries. It is the time when kings become independent, both from the papacy and from the Empire, but are also themselves subjected to the state, and eventually controlled by assemblies. | Peasants become richer but also more indebted, and a fraction succeeds in becoming owners. In general their feudal duties are diminished. The cities are in the tow of a demographic revolution and rich merchants take power in them. But the social system is very stratified, and there is much less mobility than in the two preceding centuries. It is the time when kings become independent, both from the papacy and from the Empire, but are also themselves subjected to the state, and eventually controlled by assemblies. | ||
The pope though, becomes himself a kind of monarch, with increasing powers and finances, though flanked with a Concilium, as a kind of Parliament. Very significant, an annual confession, i.e. self-examination, replaces the codes of sins and punishments ("qui bouleversent la psychologie et la vie sociale). New devotional cults of Mary (Ave Maria becomes a universal prayer in 1215) and the Rosarium (instituted by the Dominicans) arise. A multipilicity of 'congregations' organizes the believers, and saints proliferate. In the struggle against the Cathars (the Albigeois heresy in southern France), the Inquisition had been unleashed. | |||
Revision as of 04:40, 13 January 2021
* Book: Le XIIIieme Siecle. L'apogee de la chretiente. Jacques Le Goff.
URL =
Summary
Michel Bauwens, 2003:
Jacques Le Goff introduces the idea of a 'second axial age', characterized by a more interiorized religion.
Jacques Le Goff is a great historian of the medieval period, who has amended the previous view of the 'dark ages', a heritage of the Renaissance period.
The book starts with a description of technical progress in agriculture and commerce and industry, leading to a disappearance of the generalized famines (regional ones subsist), higher living conditions, and the rise of a commercial class. The tripartite social organization described by Dumezil and Duby (those who pray, fight, and work), by one of the nobles (both high nobility and lower knighthood). a middle class of freemen, and the indentured farmers; with the clergy now being considered as a separate order.
An ideology of the common good arises, and warlords are no longer commended. The ideal of the 'chevalier devot' is replaced by the ideal if the 'chevalier vertueux'; and the 'preux-homme' by the 'prud'homme', who is devoted to the common good.
Le Goff writes:
"Le pouvoir seigneurial s'affaiblit vis-à- vis du pouvoir public" (royaux ou urbains). Économiquement, les chevaliers s'appauvrissent, mais les grands seigneurs se renforcent, la noblesse de fait devient la noblesse de droit."
Peasants become richer but also more indebted, and a fraction succeeds in becoming owners. In general their feudal duties are diminished. The cities are in the tow of a demographic revolution and rich merchants take power in them. But the social system is very stratified, and there is much less mobility than in the two preceding centuries. It is the time when kings become independent, both from the papacy and from the Empire, but are also themselves subjected to the state, and eventually controlled by assemblies.
The pope though, becomes himself a kind of monarch, with increasing powers and finances, though flanked with a Concilium, as a kind of Parliament. Very significant, an annual confession, i.e. self-examination, replaces the codes of sins and punishments ("qui bouleversent la psychologie et la vie sociale). New devotional cults of Mary (Ave Maria becomes a universal prayer in 1215) and the Rosarium (instituted by the Dominicans) arise. A multipilicity of 'congregations' organizes the believers, and saints proliferate. In the struggle against the Cathars (the Albigeois heresy in southern France), the Inquisition had been unleashed.