Middle Ages Part I

Middle Ages, abbreviation MA., Latin Media Aetas, Medium Aevum, in European history term for the period between antiquity and modern times. Medieval studies is dedicated to his research.

Conceptual content

The idea of ​​a middle age between antiquity and modern times emerged in humanism (end of the 15th / beginning of the 16th century), which was programmatically based on the ancient image of man. The Middle Ages were understood as a “dark” era following on from antiquity, shaped by the general decline of the Latin language and education within the Catholic West, which gave way to a new, “bright” era of the rebirth of ancient scholarship (Renaissance). The negative assessment echoed here was increasingly taken up by the Enlightenment (18th century) (»dark Middle Ages«). The Leiden historian Georg Horn (* 1620, † 1670) divided the church history (1666), the Halle historian Christoph Cellarius (* 1638, † 1707; “Historia tripartita”, 1688) the general history according to the scheme of antiquity – the Middle Ages – modern times.

Despite fundamental reservations (from a universal historical point of view) against this triple division of history, which is becoming common, the term Middle Ages has – at least for European history – asserted itself as an epoch designation, especially since the earlier v. a. The alternative term “feudal age” suggested by Marxist research did not take sufficient account of essential phenomena of the epoch to be described, such as the development of the church and urban life.

Both the character of the epoch and the beginning and end of the Middle Ages as well as the periodization within the Middle Ages into the early, high and late Middle Ages are controversial, since the essential developments in the areas of political history, constitutional, economic, social, cultural and Intellectual history as well as in the individual countries did not always run synchronously.

According to Ask4beauty, the problem is particularly evident in the delimitation of the early Middle Ages from antiquity, where one encounters an abundance of proposals that cover a period of almost half a millennium – from the crisis of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century to the imperial coronation of Charlemagne (800) – extended and were mainly based on the history of political events. There is, however, a certain consensus that epoch boundaries cannot be determined selectively, but rather presuppose the assumption of a longer transition period. As such, it became the Age of Great Migration (4th – 6th centuries). Even if the foundations of the early medieval world were created in the encounter between antiquity, Germanic peoples and Christianity, this temporal approach is not undisputed either. Although the older “catastrophe theory” made the Teutons’ invasion of the Roman Empire responsible for the downfall of the ancient Roman cultural world, the Teutons initially strived to participate in the empire, albeit under their own kings (Goths), but also forced the conquest, when it was denied them (vandals), and finally appeared as conquerors who established independent state structures (Franks, Lombards). The history of the Church and Christianity in these centuries (expansion into the Germanic and Celtic areas, transmission of ancient cultural assets, The heyday of patristicism, which was crucial for the spiritual and religious development of the Middle Ages, also contradicts the thesis of absolute decay. However, the antithesis of the »theory of continuity«, which was essentially conceived from the point of view of economic and social history, can be challenged, even if it is not to be doubted that v. a. In the field of institutions, administration and cultural facilities (city) there has been a profound difference for a very long time between the landscapes that have been shaped for centuries by Roman rule and those that never belonged to the Roman Empire. However, the antithesis of the »theory of continuity«, which was essentially conceived from the point of view of economic and social history, can be challenged, even if it is not to be doubted that v. a. In the field of institutions, administration and cultural facilities (city) there has been a profound difference for a very long time between the landscapes that have been shaped for centuries by Roman rule and those that never belonged to the Roman Empire. However, the antithesis of the »theory of continuity«, which was essentially conceived from the point of view of economic and social history, can be challenged, even if it is not to be doubted that v. a. In the field of institutions, administration and cultural facilities (city) there has been a profound difference for a very long time between the landscapes that have been shaped for centuries by Roman rule and those that never belonged to the Roman Empire.