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032 - 1 The Medieval Transition · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter one of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Part two The Medieval Church a d.
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  Speaker 1: Seven sixty eight to fifteen seventeen, Chapter one, The Medieval Transition.
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  Speaker 1: The significance of the Middle Ages lies in their transitional character.
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  Speaker 1: The ancient period was the time of the planting organization
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  Speaker 1: and doctrinal establishment of Christianity. The modern period was to
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  Speaker 1: witness the application of Christianity to the social, intellectual, and
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  Speaker 1: moral needs of the world. Between these two lay the
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  Speaker 1: Middle Ages. It was the far reaching mission of this
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  Speaker 1: remarkable period to test the power of Christianity for meeting
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  Speaker 1: the wants of new nations, to withstand the shock of
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  Speaker 1: philosophical schools, to sift and preserve the best that remained
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  Speaker 1: of the ancient world and pass it safely down for
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  Speaker 1: modern use. And above all, to prove the ultimate power
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  Speaker 1: of Christianity to rise above the infirmities of those who
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  Speaker 1: professed it, and to lay the foundations of a new
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  Speaker 1: spiritual life by a return to the pure apostolic example.
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  Speaker 1: The office of the medieval Church was to conduct man
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  Speaker 1: from the narrow limits of the pagan to the Protestant world,
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  Speaker 1: the scattered threads of the eighth century were caught up
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  Speaker 1: and combined into unity. Bowers says this whole period can
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  Speaker 1: only be regarded by the observer as one of transition,
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  Speaker 1: at the close of which the varied elements which appeared
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  Speaker 1: in different quarters concentrate into unity, and thus show forth
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  Speaker 1: the Church of the Middle Ages in the full significance
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  Speaker 1: of their universal grandeur. The first period of the Medieval
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  Speaker 1: Church extends from Charlemagne to the papacy of Gregory the
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  Speaker 1: Seventh a d. Seven sixty eight to ten seventy three.
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  Speaker 1: This was the time of the full appropriation and unification
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  Speaker 1: of the Germanic and other northern elements. Mohammedanism, lying at
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  Speaker 1: the borderline between the ancient and the medieval time, arose
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  Speaker 1: as a counter force to Christianity. Papal supremacy in church
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  Speaker 1: and state culminated. The second period extends from Gregory seventh
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  Speaker 1: to the removal of the papal c into France a. D.
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  Speaker 1: Ten seventy three to thirteen o five. Here, the absolutism
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  Speaker 1: of the papacy was broken and the freedom of the
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  Speaker 1: people donned. The monastic orders assumed larger proportions. Speculative science
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  Speaker 1: was introduced into theological inquiry. This was scholasticism. It perished
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  Speaker 1: in the same age which produced it. The Crusades were
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  Speaker 1: organized during this period. The Third period continued from the
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  Speaker 1: removal of the papal cea in Us to France to
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  Speaker 1: the Reformation a d. Thirteen o five to fifteen seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: The papal unity was shattered. Humanism arose, which reacted upon
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  Speaker 1: the old order and made possible the revival of vital
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  Speaker 1: Christianity and a momentous activity of mind. With the thorough
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  Speaker 1: breakup of the pagan conditions, there arose a new order.
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  Speaker 1: The introduction of Christianity among the rude nations of the
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  Speaker 1: North had the effect of increasing a new literary spirit.
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  Speaker 1: No department of thought was left in its old stagnation.
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  Speaker 1: The quickening was intense. With the beginning of the Middle Ages,
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  Speaker 1: there was a departure from the old modes of historical statement.
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  Speaker 1: The old Frankish chronicles had been monosyllabic, and the roughness
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  Speaker 1: continued in the successors of Tredegar. But with the ninth
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  Speaker 1: century there came a smoothness and beauty in which one
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  Speaker 1: can see the effect of the close and finished masterpieces
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  Speaker 1: of the Greek and Roman period. Scientific inquiries arose, in
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  Speaker 1: part original and in part derived from the introduction of
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  Speaker 1: Arabic science through the Moslem invasion of Spain. Monasticism preserved
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  Speaker 1: the great works of the fathers and saved to the
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  Speaker 1: world by patient copying the richest productions of the masters
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  Speaker 1: of Greek philosophy and the drama and Roman history and poetry.
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  Speaker 1: The knightly poetry of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries attained
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  Speaker 1: to beautiful forms and became the foundation and inspiration for
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  Speaker 1: much of the poetry of the most recent centuries. New
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  Speaker 1: and bolder types of architecture were applied to sacred buildings,
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  Speaker 1: and the most impressive edifices of modern times here took
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  Speaker 1: their origin. The plastic arts were developed for the first
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  Speaker 1: time in Christian directions. Dante, petrarch and Bocati Scio were
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  Speaker 1: at once children of medieval thought and prophets for all
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  Speaker 1: the future. The Italy of today is not less their
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  Speaker 1: creation than it is that of Giibaldi and Victory Manuel.
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  Speaker 1: Political solidification was in progress. The love of liberty and
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  Speaker 1: its certain possession by the world's numberless millions were born
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  Speaker 1: in the time which has passed by the name of
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  Speaker 1: the Dark Ages. Looked upon in retrospect, there is almost
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  Speaker 1: no priceless intellectual or political treasure of the nineteenth century
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  Speaker 1: whose precious seeds were not cast in the ready soil
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  Speaker 1: between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. End of Chapter one