The universe was created by God. Its design and
history had been determined by divine plan (ala Aristotle), from the
creation to the Last Judgment. Nothing simply happens. God created the
cosmos in the form of a giant ladder of ascending quality in which
everything in the universe possesses its purpose and place; in the
heavens above exists the realm of grace and spirit, below resides the
earthly realm of base matter, and just below that realm is Hell. From
God and the angels, the great chain of being descends through the
heavenly bodies to the earth. On earth, humans are at the apex, next
the animals, below them plants, and then inanimate matter. Each
element's appropriate place is peculiar to its specific nature. God's
revelation extends down to humanity through this hierarchical order.
From Aristotle and Ptolemy, medieval thinkers
inherited the theory of an earth-centered universe which they then
imbued with Christian symbolism. (see Britannica
animation; animation)
The firmament of stars enclose seven spheres; each sphere holds one of
the planets; three heavenly spheres range above the firmament with the
Empyrean, the realm of God and the heavenly angels, at the outermost.
Humans are located at the center of everything, indicating God's focus
upon his most beloved creation. Although located near the bottom of the
hierarchy, only humans, of all the creatures, can ascend to heaven.
Aristotle made a sharp distinction between the world above and below
the moon. In the ethereal region above, celestial laws hold, while
below earthly bodies are subject to mutability, the force of time. All
matter seeks its proper place in the divine hierarchy: heavy bodies
fall; light bodies rise.
The Great Chain of Being:
Greek philosophers elaborated on the four level
structure of the macrocosm and microcosm, correlating the four elements
of the world to the four temperaments of man, the four seasons of the
year to the four ages of man.
Element
Temperament
Fluid
Quality
Planet
Season
Age
Family
Air
Sanguine
Water
Hot/ Wet
Jupiter
Spring
Childhood
Father
Fire
Choleric
Yellow Bile
Hot/ Dry
Mars
Summer
Youth
Son
Earth
Melancholic
Black Bile
Cold/ Dry
Saturn
Autumn
Maturity
Mother
Water
Phlegmatic
Phlegm
Cold/ Wet
Moon/ Venus
Winter
Old Age
Daughter
Ptolomaic Cosmology/ Christian Theology/ Social
Hierarchy
Cosmos
Elements
Humours
Body
God
(pure
Reason)
Fire
head
King
Angels
(Emotions,
Reason)
Air
(choler)
heart
clergy
Humans
(Appetite,
Emotions, Reason)
nobility
Animals
(Appetite,
Emotions)
Water
(phlegm)
serfs
Plants
(pure
Appetite)
Earth
(black
bile)
liver
About the time of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), medieval scholastics
tried to reconcile ancient science with church belief by adding Angels
to the divine hierarchy. That choice conveniently puts men in the
middle of the universe. Everything is ordered according to this type of
hierarchy. The king is at the apex of the human order. Being centered!
Heaven is up and hell is beneath the Earth.
Artists of the Renaissance would diagram the four
part structure of the macrocosm into their art and architecture:
Oronce Finé includes a very similar diagram
in his Protomathesis, published in 1532
Renaissance architecture. For example,
Bramante's plan for St. Peter's in the early 1500’s
The most famous buildings of the Medieval era were
cathedrals.
.
The church with its towers rest on the top of the
gargoyles, demons being pushed back down; the top half of the building
leaps towards the sky. The bottom half falls back. And humans are at
the center.
St. Denis Cathedral
(finished 1144 AD)
Social Hierarchy of Feudalism:
God arranged society in a hierarchical order: the
king the clergy the nobility the serfs. Every person's duties are
defined by his or her divinely appointed place. These places are fixed.
Society functions smoothly when each person accepts their status and
performs their proper role. Inferiors obey superiors, and superiors
lead society in accordance with divine teaching. Despite this hierarchy
God has granted all the potential for grace. (See St.
Augustine on the Problem of Evil)
Even so, this hierarchical system held in place a
terribly unbalanced social order:
-
2.5% elite educated
- 97.5% poor, illiterate, chronically ill, bound to the land, with a
life expectancy of 29.6 years
Between the time of Copernicus (mid 16th c.) and
Galileo (early 17th c.), this whole grand scheme would fall to pieces.
When Copernicus and Galileo started looking scientifically at the
universe, the church's ideology started to crack. This destruction of
the divine hierarchy and the church's domination of European thought
happened very slowly. But you can see the beginnings of the Renaissance
in motion by the 12th century, and the rise of a new society had begun
to take shape by the time that Chaucer wrote The Canterbury
Tales near the end of the 14th century. We'll be studying the
composition of this society in Chaucer's great poem.
Geofferey Chaucer
(1340-1400)
The Life of Chaucer: Chaucer's
father was a wheeler and dealer of wine who earned a fortune despite
being born in the peasant class. He was one of the people who typified
the rise of the middle class during the late Middle Ages. He moved off
the farm, into the city, and made an enormous amount of money in a
short time. Their son became closely connected to the king and spent
his whole life working at court. Yet Chaucer's grandfather had been a
peasant. Chaucer served under three kings, and he managed to keep
himself out of trouble even though his beliefs were often at odds with
the king. The language he wrote in was one which every Englishman from
peasant to king would have understood. He chose to write in Middle
English because he knew that then his poem would reach every literate
Englishman.
"The Prologue" to The
Canterbury Tales:
Thirty pilgrims have gathered in the south London
neighborhood of Southwark at Harry Bailey's 'Taberd Inn'. They are
about to embark upon a journey from London to St. Thomas Becket's tomb
at the cathedral in Canterbury, a hundred miles to the east, at the
mouth of the Thames River. The Prologue gives you an excellent portrait
of each pilgrim. They range across the social hierarchy from noble to
clergy to commoner. To pass the time en route to Canterbury, Harry
Bailey sets a contest for the various pilgrims: whoever tells the best
story on the trip wins a free dinner when they return home. Chaucer
wrote twenty-four tales. Tonight you will be starting to read the frame
story:
